Giving it away

Posted on October 1, 2023 by positivelyjohn

There are many contradictions in this life, and situations known as dichotomies in which seemingly opposite conditions exist simultaneously and synchronically flow into each other symbiotically. Many of these affairs are tethered to our emotional, and spiritual experiences of wellbeing.  One such example would be the position of having to give something to keep it. You cannot truly feel love, if someone loves you and you do not love them back. Love is largely only felt, by giving it away.  The myriad of compatible other life narratives would be joy, happiness, peace of mind, wellbeing, compassion and togetherness. One will not have these experiences without sharing them or offering to give them away. The proverbial having of your cake and eating it too exists in this scenario. It cannot exist in many others.

A good lesson for life that I have learned is about where my focus lies, and my mind dwells and turns out to be the defining position of my current emotional state. There are also other means of achieving happiness (or so we have been told) through more selfish pursuits which would be goals, accomplishments, the acquisition of things, accumulation of wealth and the total satisfaction of desires. But the latter here, generally are akin to eating Chinese food, where we no sooner complete the meal, that we are hungry once again. The satisfaction of any self-benefiting pursuit ends up being empty calories, while self-forgetting, service-oriented undertakings tend to leave us satisfied and full.

 Many personal development and self-improvement programs and books are big on setting goals, following dreams, and acquiring all the things we desire without compromise. The result of such journeys is that we become enslaved to the result, miss the joy of the present moment pursuit and leverage our happiness to some future “end game” that never really arises, and once it does, we have already set a newer one.

 For those whose dreams, goals, pursuits and desires are selfless service to others, making an impact on life and have a real effect on the spread of joy, what they aim to share, is spread through them and thus offers the direct personal benefit without ever thinking of themselves at all. In short, by giving it we receive it. The flip side of life’s great dichotomy.

 I have personally experienced such contradiction in my life many times by receiving joy and fulfillment when I was only trying to lift or assist another and I found my true love and soulmate when I gave up looking for love and become a person that offered value to others.

 Not that I am one that’s should give any advice as God knows most of the time I am a mess, but I will say that chasing anything is a race we will not win, but giving everything will fill us up beyond our wildest dreams. The final contradiction is that the end resulting Joy is what we were looking for to begin with. Stop chasing Joy and you will catch it, give up pursuing dreams and they will unfold, forget about yourself and you will live your best life.  I believe St Frances of Assisi taught us to pray in such a manner:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

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The debilitating IMPACT of Waste

Posted on October 1, 2023 by positivelyjohn

 There are many of us these days that are very conscious of conservation. It is thought that resources of all kinds are in short supply and to wantonly squander anything is irresponsible and debilitating for society.  I recall many moons ago as a child my Mother telling me not to waste my food because there are children starving in Biafra (I still have no clue why there, and where it even is) that would be very happy to get my asparagus. I offered to send it to them, but got slapped for being a wise guy! We are always told not to leave the water running while brushing our teeth, close the windows when the heat or air conditioner is on to conserve energy, and donate our used clothes instead of throwing them out.  You get the picture. To waste anything is not recommended, we even recycle metals, plastics and paper. Nothing should be underutilized since there is a finite supply of all of it, and it is dwindling away before our eyes. Naturally I see value in the practice of conservation and wholly advocate that we all partake in being mindful with resources of every kind..

There is however one natural resource that most folk think nothing about and routinely wastes the majority of. This precious product has the largest effect on their lives and yet we mostly toss it out the window, or worse, use it to our own detriment.  I am speaking about our thoughts, our focus and our concentration. This resource is responsible for the entirety of the experiences we realize and the tone, flavor and quality of our lives yet we waste precious hours thinking of things that do not serve us well.

 Whether you understand, agree or have ever even heard before, the lives that unfold before us are the projections from our inner selves creating, attracting, designing, directing and producing the events experiences and every component of our life. Before anything occurs or materializes it was first born in our mind from some thought. Continued focus, energy and emotion behind the thought creates the frequency and vibration that manipulates the energy in our sphere of awareness and constructs the events of life that we become shrouded in. Thoughts become things. Whatsoever we focus on becomes ours whether we want it or not. By thinking of it, revisiting it, assigning a feeling to it, then allowing it to ruminate, even our fears become reality.

Imagine walking through a grocery store, and looking at all the food you despise and would never eat, then tossing it in your cart, paying for it, and then taking it home. Later on when you open your fridge and cabinets, then ask:” Why do I have all this crap here”? The answer is; because you bought it!

 When we think about, then focus on, either worry or just complaining rhetoric, about politics, society, rude people, bad weather etc, we are buying that condition as part of our experience. We could have been better stewards of our thoughts and only thought about situations, experiences and events we find empowering and uplifting but we choose to waste our most precious resource and are living with piles of crap wondering how and why.

 To be truly economical with this resource, conservation minded and not wasteful, make a practice of dismissing thoughts that do not empower, uplift or benefit many immediately so we are not wasting our creative juice designing a world that we want to run from.

Only buy what you will enjoy eating, only think about what you will enjoy living with and perhaps, the water, energy, plastic, metal and paper will take care of itself.

The Journey IS the Destination

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Inside Out!

Posted on September 12, 2023 by positivelyjohn

There are some things that we just can’t avoid. Many of us believe that the lives we experience have been thrust upon us. We are of a common mind, that life is mostly reactionary. However, the exact opposite is true. The daily conditions we face, situations we navigate through, opportunities and challenges that we face are not happenstance. Largely, everything we encounter has been crafted in our minds prior to appearing before us.

Just because something is painful or undesirable does not mean we did not create it. All events in the world of form and substance are born of energy in motion and directed by frequency. Our emotions, (or E- motions) caused the waves of energy in our awareness to become particles of matter that are synchronous with our thought and feeling. What that means is that negative thoughts paired with negative emotions will manifest like conditions and events. So if an individual is constantly focused on politics, crime, injustice, or the struggles in their own life, paired with strong feeling about them, it is only natural that more situations but our similar will continue to appear. In other words, “where our attention goes our energy flows”, or, we get what we think about all day long.

So while many of us believe that life has dealt us a poor hand, or perhaps a great hand, and we have taken advantage of it or struggled with it, the opposite is true. It is how we feel on the inside that has dealt the hand to life. The outer conditions and trappings of life do not dictate our experience. There may be situations that we encounter that have absolutely nothing to do with our current thought processes but once we begin to think about them and assign feelings and energy to them they either stick around or move on. So even if we did not attract them, we fed them and gave them life from our innermost perspectives.

So one immutable truth of life is that the inside dictates what the outside will be. If we can manage to remain focused on events that bring us pleasure in situations that benefit us and others while feeling joy and optimism about them than those of the types of situations that will appear in our experience. We may feel like we need to blame governments, institutions, our family, friends or society for our troubles our trials or are opportunities and successes but that is not so. There is no one to blame.

One that is focused on negative thoughts ans situations will ultimately live such a life and vice versa. The inner most feelings and expectations of a person is the foundation for the quality of their life.

The Inside is the outside, clean house and you will start living the life you previously could not even imagine.

The Journey IS the Destination

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It’s All About The Lens!

Posted on July 10, 2023 by positivelyjohn

The very same motorcycle looks different to each person. A custom car can be beautiful for one enthusiast and appear as a pile of tin scrap to another. Likewise some people will see beautiful flowers, roses and lilies, while another we see the catalyst for sneezing, itchy eyes and the pain of being stuck with razor sharp thorns.

You would think that someone is right and someone is wrong, wouldn’t you? Well that is just not the case when it comes to perspective, and opinion. We all have different view points on everything based upon our perspective. If we perceive a rosebush to be a threat, our perspective of them is that they are dangerous. Perspective, perception, opinion, and view point, are all void of judgment. None of these views are right or wrong just our world view. The lens through which we view something give us perspective and define our relationship to it.

The thing we need to be careful about is that our perspective tends to be overreaching. The lens that we are peering through to judge the world around us will color everything in its wake.

 For those of us that perceive our challenges to be burdens and punishments, we see the world as a place we need to defend ourselves against and everything that approaches is regarded as an attack. Now those that welcome such things, we see opportunity everywhere.

If we go to work begrudgingly because we feel we need to suffer and struggle to meet our basic needs, work will be torture. If we address our occupation as a chance to use our skills to make a contribution to the world and in turn receive like remuneration for our efforts, than we tend to thrive and grow through employments rather than lament over the burden and moan and groan.

The fact to remember is that everything we encounter is meaningless until we take out our lens with meaning programmed in. Two people can live in the same town, work the same job, have similar houses and be in similar health as one feels like he is hell and the other is living the dream. It is not the world that is going to hell in a hand basket; it is the lens you are looking through. Just like a filthy windshield can ruin a leisurely drive on a sunny day, our perspective will determine the tone the life we experience.

 So many of us feel like we need to change the world. That is certainly a daunting task. It is way easier to just clean your lens, or change it.

 Change the way you see the world, and your world will change for you. Look through the lens of acceptance, forgiveness, love and peace with gratitude and joy, and that will be the world you live in. You will never have to change anything else.

The Journey IS The Destination

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Love the Problems

Posted on June 4, 2023 by positivelyjohn

The purpose of life is the Divine Endeavor to experience challenge and creativity.
Through us, God is creating opportunities to experience Joy through accomplishment. The whole point of life is to create. We are only inspired to create when exposed to discomfort. This why the contrast MUST exist. Without the challenge, life is like spoiled children of privilege; nothing is appreciated or valued. We cannot enjoy HEAVEN until we know otherwise.

Do not lament and complain about life’s challenges; EMBRACE THEM! Address discomforts as the challenge in a game, like the fast ball coming at you! Without the fast moving projectile there would be no opportunity for a home run.
With no goalie trying to prevent us from getting the puck in the net there would be no point hitting it.

The FUN behind any sport or game, even board games,is to overcome a challenge and/or get past opposition.We get paid for work when we fix problems.The spice that gjves life flavor is the challenges

The Story of ADAM & EVE tells us how humanity left the beauty of perfection for the uncertainty of life with Good/Evil, Pain/Peace, Love/Hate because living in perpetual perfection does not offer the contrast to allow us to appreciatethe perfection

SO WHY DO WE COMPLAIN?


Adopting the proper perspective on our challenges can allow us to approach them with gratitude instead of annoyance. This mindset will surely produce much more favorable outcomes.

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Circumvent Circumstances

Posted on May 7, 2023 by positivelyjohn

It’s a big world out there. From all appearances there is a lot going on. I can’t begin to list even the categories, or topics in which things are going on there are so many, let alone the happenings in each. We have politics, finances, social justice, law, science, medicine, business, sex, sports, new, crime, commerce, geopolitics, relationship, eco & climate, history, psychology, and religion, just to start. The odds are very high that one can just casually engage in any of these topics and could find reason to be disappointed, sad, angry, indignant, furious outraged or homicidal/suicidal if the passion behind it is strong enough. I have one question about this. WHY?

I am willing to bet only a small fraction of what each of us is passionately disturbed about has any significance on the quality of our lives. Even the ones that do, the majority of that impact is manageable. So many are so angry about so much and it does not have to be that way. Could it be the old “Bandwagon Paradigm”, or do we just want to feel included? Are we so bored that we would rather focus our energy and attention on circumstances that either have no impact on us, or at best a negligible effect, knowing it will cause us anger and is largely out of our control. Perhaps it’s not boredom, maybe we like to be angry! It may be wiser to take an alternate route

Choose wisely. Follow your heart.

Regardless the impetus, the fact remains we cannot feel joy and anger at the same time, and we will not know peace while we surround our mind with chaos. Another fact is that what we focus our attention on, (PAY ATTENTION), is taking our most precious resource, (time) and squandering it on matters that do not make us happy. That would be like having your last few dollars, haven’t eaten in a few days, go to the store and spend your money on magazines. Again, I ask WHY?  We each create the circumstances that are in our lives. Our mind is like a vending machine. You look around at the choices, press the right button and get what you asked for. Each machine has an abundance of goods we like, as well as a plethora of things we don’t, and even a few we know nothing about. If we each choose the items that empower us we will individually have pleasant experiences. When many of us do the same, we collectively have great experiences. When the vending machine is stacked with mostly great things, we have a pretty decent world.

 None of us can, or should choose for another so I dare not make suggestions other than; If you focus on joy, you will see more joy, feel more joyful, and share joy. Don’t be a victim of the awful circumstances you see, circumvent the angst and choose better feeling thoughts. While the world at large may not change musc, the world you live in will.

THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

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The Tenant.

Posted on February 7, 2023 by positivelyjohn

We are the leading edge of Gods creative process. The entirety of the world in form is the physical unfolding of Divine Awareness experiencing Itself. All negative conditions exist to give meaning to positive results.
All individuals have different perspectives to ensure the maximum variety of experience.
Thought, focus and emotion causes the vibration of energy in our sphere of awareness that manipulated matter and attracts conditions that match our level of development and our life reflects that.
Joy, gratitude, love, confidence, compassion all create positive conditions. Anger, disappointment, discouragement, pessimism, cynicism, jealousy, hate and hopelessness attract unpleasant conditions. Our thoughts and emotions are those decisions.
LIVE AS THOUGH GOD IS YOUR TENANT BECAUSE HE IS.

We were designed as divisions or alternate personalities of THE ONE LIFE in order to create an unlimited combination of conditions do that Divine Awareness would have a never ending change with total diversity and exponential unfolding of conditions to encounter. The negative stimuli causes uncomfortable life while the positive situations allow for pleasant journeys.

We perceive that we are separated from each other, from Source, from Eternity so our illusory isolation would stimulate the desire to search for connection, meaning and purpose. The truth is that all that is, is all one thing: GOD! Our journey of life is the act of self discovery.

Our friends family coworkers and neighbors are support, while our advisories, enemies, competitors and those we deem undesirable elements are our catalyst for growth and opportunity to learn. Every negative situation brings with it an exciting chance to transcend difficulty while positive encounters validate the pleasant aspect of unity.

We are all connected as one and every divisive action, regardless how well meaning, causes discomfort while unifying situations usher in satisfaction. We are meant to travel into darkness, struggle and see fear, pain and evil in order to conclude that the opposite is the desired condition, the HOLY GRAIL!

This being the plan, all negative conditions serve a purpose. We need to realize pain in order to choose what serves, and that end is LOVE. LOVE is the goal as it is the single most unifying emotion or condition we can realize. Not unlike the Prodigal Son, without leaving the veritable nest of compassion we will not know the comfort of ONENESS.

From this perspective all of life makes sense. We all choose the experience that our extension of God will unfold based upon the unique set of variables that our encounters have compiled. We were created and tasked with making this thing called life as spectacular and magnificent as possible. Our potential is unlimited for good as well as evil. The more we realize our divinity, the more delicious our experiences can be. Ours is a wonderful journey of co-creation, discovery and Self awareness.

ENJOY. ITS ALL GOOD, ITS ALL THE PLAN!

NAMASTE’

The Journey IS the Destination.

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The Blame Game

Posted on February 5, 2023 by positivelyjohn

Most mature, responsible adults are sensible enough to know that have we the ability to choose the actions we take, and will readily admit having made such choices. For example; if I was attending a car show, it is unlikely I would claim I was there because there was construction on the highway and the sun was strong in the morning, would I? No, I was there because I wanted to go, and it was my choice. Another example would be that if I painted a racing stripe down the middle of my 69 Camaro, I would never claim it happened because a squirrel ran across my lawn the day before and I was my tax accounted was on vacation since that would be ridiculous. I would proudly own up to being the mastermind of the plan, even if there were others that suggested it, being my car, it would not have happened without my complete approval.

With this being said, it is safe to conclude that most of us realize we are master of our own actions, and director of our personal show we call life. That is why it is so puzzling that close to 90 percent of us are not living the lives we would desire and also 90 percent of those in such a position truly believe it is not their fault.

 An alarming amount of so-called responsible, pragmatic adults, not prone to delusion or fantasy, seriously feel that the circumstances of their life occurred without their permission and with no control on their part. How can that be? How can so many millions of people show up a car show that they had no interest in going to, or paint their car without consent? Baffling, don’t you think?

 If you ask the average person what they would be doing if they could do anything they wanted, what they tell you will be light years from what they are actually doing. If the follow up was: why? The finger pointing will ensue.

 Born in a poor neighborhood, or wrong ethnicity; perhaps, you will hear that they had a bad childhood, or even lacked opportunity, but rarely will anyone claim they made bad choices, or were too lazy to follow their own desires. Assigning blame is easier than facing the fact they we were responsible. Pointing fingers seems to be the veritable “pass” we need to save face or project a modicum of pride.

There is solace in assuring ourselves that we did not betray our inner child and relent to evolve into the person we always thought we could be, but it is still tough pill to swallow. We generally know the truth deep down inside and bury it under layers of blame so we can look ourselves in the mirror.

 There is one big problem with this philosophy though. If we “blame” the conditions of our lives; success, finances, relationships, career, health, happiness & joy, on forces beyond our control, we then are convinced that we have no control to undo things. “THEY”, hold our fate in their hands, and barring some societal benevolence surge, we are doomed to be miserable forever.  I fear we will be waiting a long time. Millions of individuals will leave this earth with their song still in them, having lived lives of quiet desperation having spent their days “Waiting for Godot”.

 We all need to accept that every aspect “EVERY SINGLE ONE” of our lives is born of a choice or decision we made. At times that decision may have been to not even decide on something, or to abstain from dealing with things that require decision making, but regardless, we made a choice. Each choice opened or closed a door. The place we now stand has been the culmination of the road we chose to travel, and the turns we decided to take.

 The ONLY WAY to accomplish growth of any kind and reverse negative trends we are experiencing is to own the place we are so we can recover the control to change it. The fantastic news is that every day, every moment has within it the seed for change and fertile soil of opportunity. A new day presents itself without a care for the past. We can change today, now, this minute by DECIDING to take control, and make choices that are aligned with our highest good. Our focused thoughts and point of attention will be the groundwork for future experiences to unfold. We can choose to remain fixated on where we are, keeping us tethered to the spot we blame the world for putting us, or training our minds to only entertain thoughts, images, conversations and actions that are synchronous with our preferred life.  Turn that pointing finger back at ourselves, and we can make the world our playground. Keep pointing outward and we will be waiting for Godot forever.

THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

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OWN IT!

Posted on January 29, 2023 by positivelyjohn

” If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize, your mind is complicit in provocation”
~Epictetus~

No person or event outside of our mind has control over our emotions, perceptions and judgements. A mind at peace with love in the heart is not affected by the words and deeds it is exposed to. We can only get worked up, angry, insulted or hurt by design of our own thinking and how we choose to process the events we encounter.

WE OWN OUR DEAMOR, REACTIONS, AND
PRESENTATION TO THE WORLD. REFRAIN FROM BLAMING WE ARE IN CONTROL.

Only by allowing ourselves to internally feel the emotions of thoughts we choose that are aligned with our design for life, will our feelings and attitude be genuine. When we allow the behaviors of any external situation to impact our intentions, we are creating the desired reality of another and compromising the quality of our own.

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Placebo-Nocebo- The Mind

Posted on January 28, 2023 by positivelyjohn
We have the POWER

The placebo effect is proof that the true healing engine is our mind.
When we believe in a substance or treatment it generally works, those that fear it will not, or think it is useless generally do not have positive results.

The flip side of this is the NOCEBO EFFECT. All the companies, media, and societal banter about what is bad for our health, fitness sand well being can convince us that we are sick.

They plant media blitz’s to inform us that there is something that puts us at high risk for some ailment we never heard of and suddenly millions of people are diagnosed with it. No mention of the past 100 years hardly anyone ever got it.
They plant a NOCEBO, then sell a PLACEBO.
ALL A MIND GAME.

THE GOOD NEWS IS:
We heal ourselves OR make ourselves sick with our own mind. We are as healthy as we believe we are.
We can choose to believe that bacon will hurt our heart or we can ignore that.
We can choose to believe medicine heals us and take it, or believe that our natural state is health.

ALL ILLNESS OR WELLNESS IS THE PRODUCT OF OUR MIND.

CHOOSE HEALTH
IGNORE THE NOCEBOS

#powerofthemind

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