Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Learning from Silence

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Awareness, Calm, Inner Peace, Quiet, silence, solitude, spirituality

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, Courtesy: Wisdom Quotes

Silence. Most of us have a hard time with it. When I began my spiritual practices, the mind went crazy. Thoughts arose and off I went running down one of many rabbit holes.

When we think of noise, we think of loud voices, music, or traffic. The thoughts in your mind are also a noise. How do you turn this noise off? You rise above it. You can do this in several ways. One way I use is to create a metaphor. My thoughts become a stream of water running by me at my feet. When you can direct your mind to create these types of pictures, it becomes busy with that and the real you can leave it behind, much like a fussy child who is given a toy to play with in a doctor’s office. As soon as they have this source of entertainment, they pipe right down. The real you is Soul.

When I achieve this silent state, my body is calm. It relaxes to a point of almost going to sleep—almost. The serenity of this state is like floating in a perfectly calm pool with a temperature perfect for you. You could stay there for hours. Time stops. Everything is clearer. Each time you achieve this clarity, your awareness grows. This awareness is like the difference between looking down from a tree and looking down from a skyscraper. The more you can see the better decisions you’ll make. You will see the patterns in life and how everything that you experience was exactly what you needed when you needed it.

Experiences are painful and pleasurable. We learn more when things are painful. We learn what not to do. We see how we caused a situation through our lack of awareness. When we learn from these painful episodes, we avoid doing things that cause these painful experiences. This is wisdom.

Well, that’s it for today.

I wish each of you a terrific weekend.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday

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Black Friday, Chuckle, Friday, Funny, Giggle, Joke, Laugh, Snicker, Weekend

Mr. and Mrs. Brown had two sons. One was named Mind Your Own Business & the other was named Trouble. One day the two boys decided to play hide and seek. Trouble hid while Mind Your Own Business counted to one hundred. Mind Your Own Business began looking for his brother behind garbage cans and bushes. Then he started looking in and under cars until a policeman approached him and asked, “What are you doing?” “Playing a game,” the boy replied. “What is your name?” the officer questioned. “Mind Your Own Business.” Furious the policeman inquired, “Are you looking for trouble?!” The boy replied, “Why, yes.” – Courtesy – Laughfactory.com

Daily Ramblings – Bonus Content – Thanksgiving Dinner

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Creamed Peas, family, Friends, Good times, Holiday, Mashed Potatoes, Stuffing, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Here’s a shot of my Dad (left), Mom, Sister, and her boyfriend. In the picture on the right is yours truly on the far left. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, creamed sweet peas, stuffing, and mom’s homemade cranberry sauce, which goes really well with breast meat.

Later we’ll dive into pumpkin pie.

For those of you that celebrate, I wish you and yours a great Thanksgiving!

Until next time..

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Happy Thanksgiving – Thank you Readers!

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Cakes, Cookies, Cranberry Sauce, Football, Holiday, Lincoln, Mashed Potatoes, Parades, Pies, Stuffing, Thanksgiving, Turkey

Well, it’s a day early, but I wanted to take the time to express my thanks for all of my readers. We have family coming up later today, and I won’t be posting until after the holiday.

For those of you outside the U.S., we celebrate Thanksgiving by giving thanks for all the blessings in our lives, like family, good fortune, and good health. Thanksgiving was a tradition brought to the United States by Europeans (Pilgrims and Puritans) and was declared a national holiday by President Lincoln in 1863 or thereabouts.

Although we call it Thanksgiving, there are many such holidays in most countries around the world. Each one celebrates the bounty of life and cherish one another.

So with that, I bid you a Happy Thanksgiving. Oh! And for those of you who are getting out there bright and early on Black Friday to take advantage of all the sales out there. Be safe. Thing tend to get crazy. I, for one, will take part in Cyber Monday. It’s much more safe and I get to sleep in.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – The Chemistry of Cookies

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Cakes, Chemistry, Cookies, Science, Stephanie Warren, Sweets, Ted Talk, TedEd

As we approach Thanksgiving in the United States, I begin to think about the cakes, pies, Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and everything else that will be served for our family dinner. What better TEDEd video than one on cookies!!

Enjoy this short little video that explains the science behind baking cookies.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Workout Routine – Week of Nov 24

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Cardio, Circuit Training, Exercise Bands, Gym workout, Home Workout, Machines, Weights

It’s a holiday week, but no matter. I’ve perfected a home workout routine that helps me hit my daily cardio goals and my strength training goals, so no break in the workout routine. I’ll be taking the day off on my other things on Wed and Thursday for Thanksgiving, but the rest of the week will be usual work days.

Here’s my routine for the week:

Mon – Saturday

Cardio 20 minutes (elliptical 1, elliptical 2, treadmill, bicycle, or stair stepper)

Full body weight machine circuit (legs, abs, lower back, obliques, back, chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders, and calves)

I’ll be using a new routine based on a book I just read called Elastic Habits. Whatever routine I use, will be dependent on energy levels, etc.

• basic routine 1 round of the circuit above | Home workout – same except using exercise bands
• plus routine 3 rounds of the circuit above | Same
• elite routine 5 rounds of the circuit above | Same

On Wednesday and Thursday, I’ll be doing home workouts with my exercise bands and do my HIIT training doing either Tabata training or stair stepping to get the heart pumping.

See you at the finish line!

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Getting Started

Tags

Baseline, Goals, habits, improvement, Mark Twain, Planning for 2020, Stretch Goals, Tracking

” The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

Courtesy: Brainy Quotes

We are getting close to that time of year when we begin looking ahead to the new year. What did we do? Did we achieve what we set out to do? Did we give up on some things?

Take the month of December and think about 3 or 4 things you want to do next year. I would recommend setting a goal physically (health), intellectually (learning), social (improving/establishing relationships), and spiritual (if you follow a religious path).

When you select a goal, be realistic, set milestones you believe you’ll hit every 90 days, and track your results digitally or on paper. I’ll let you know how I did this year before the end of 2019 and will share my goals for 2020.

Goals don’t have to be crazy. Maybe you’d like to read more. Good! Set a goal to read 12 books this year. Physical goals could be about nutrition, losing weight, exercising more consistently or something along these lines. Intellectually, you could set out to learn something (instrument, language, computer programing, digital art making, etc.). Socially, you could join a local meetup, a book club, volunteer for charity work, or spend more time with your family and friends. If you are religious, set yourself a religious goal. Maybe you could volunteer more or read/study more, or get more consistent with the practices your religion asks of you.

The key is to start and start early. The best place to start is to find out where you are right now, then set some goals that will stretch you in the areas you want to grow in. I picked these four areas, but you may have more to choose from. It’s up to you. Take some time doing this, write out your plans, set dates and times when you look to be at a certain level and you’ll do well.

Well, that’s it for now. Here’s my week:

Before I get started, this is a holiday week for Americans. I have family coming in on Wednesday to celebrate Thanksgiving at my home. These days will be mandatory do nothing days to hang out with my sister and family.

Mon-Tue (Work); Wed-Thu – off for Thanksgiving; Fri-Sun (Work)

• Exercise daily
• Meditate daily
• Work on my Fiction Book daily
• Blog daily
• Take my classes daily
• Code daily
• Journal daily
• Socialize in the community daily
• Read my bible and religious study daily
• Have some fun daily

Have a great week, everyone.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spread Your Wings Sunday – Weekly Challenges

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52 Small Things, Five Minute Journal, Push Yourself, Spread Your Wings, Stretch, Sunday, Weekly Challenges

Challenge #1: (Five-minute Journal) – Turn off all electronics at 9 pm. Use candles instead.

Challenge #2: (52 Small Things Weekly Challenge)If you decide to practice kindness, take this week to perform three acts of kindness: One for yourself, another for a stranger and the last for a loved one.

As always, if you finish one of these challenges, post your comments below.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Patience and Compassion

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Compassion, Difficulty, Failures, Fishing, Patience, Problems, Smiles, Tests, Wins

“The tests that are easy for us are difficult for others. This is the nature of life. And it means that we, as human beings, must learn patience and compassion. The wheel always turns.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

Fishing requires a lot of patience. People require patience too. Even you.

Have you ever found yourself becoming frustrated when you are having a difficulty? You try and try and try even harder and you still can’t get it right?

Compassion is trying to feel what the other person is feeling. Sometimes people are stumped by something you have mastered. It’s so easy to feel superior. It’s so easy to look down on others. It’s really easy to do this to yourself.

My wife is good at a lot of things I am not good at. I am good at some things she is not good at. We align perfectly in this respect. My wife’s discipline in the gym, puts me to shame. Her diet crushes mine. She motivates me to workout harder.

I am an academic. School comes easy to me. To my wife, not so much. I help her with her writing, show her how to study and learn new things, teach her how a consistent study habit is better than inconsistent studying. She learns that learning is easier when we are comfortable making mistakes.

We are all good at certain things and suck at others. It’s better to give ourselves a break when we are learning something new. When we learn something new, we fail. We fail frequently. When we fail, we can take it easy on ourselves. We can analyze why we failed, learn from it, and move forward. When we give ourselves the right to fail, failure becomes easier to deal with. Once this occurs, we learn more, because we are OK with ourselves when we fail.

People are like this too. Make it easy for them when they fail. Don’t look down on them. Don’t make snide comments. Tell them it’s OK. Help them see where they made a mistake and show them what they learned. Then help them start again.

You’ll be amazed how good it feels to help someone learn something or get a win for themselves. This is why my wife loves being a teacher. She gets to see her kids make little wins every day. She says, “When my students make a breakthrough, they smile from ear-to-ear. I never get tired of those smiles.” We are all kids in her classroom, looking for a patient teacher who will show us how to do something and keep working with us until we win.

I hope all you have a great Saturday! Here’s to patience and compassion for our friends, our loved ones, and ourselves.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Funny Friday

Tags

Chuckle, Friday, Funny, Giggle, Laughter, Smile, Weekend

“People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.” — A. A. Milne

Courtesy: https://www.keepinspiring.me/funny-quotes/

Another work week, says, “Bye Bye.” Have a great weekend, folks!

Until next time…

Dave