Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Earth is a Classroom

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Coincidence, Experience, Growth, Learning, Maya, Purpose, spirituality, Truth, Unfoldment

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

When I look back on my life, it is amazing to see how all the puzzle pieces come together. Each action, each decision resulted in my current circumstances. Perhaps it is because I like to find those pivot points—the points in my life that impacted my future life. I suppose all of our actions are pivot points, but the ones I think about are the points we arrive at that are forks in the road. If I went this way, I’d be here. If I went that way, I’d be there.

I believe this quote to the bone. We are exactly where we are supposed to be. The things that occur in our life are not a chance, bad luck, good luck, or mistakes. They just are.

It is sometimes surprising to see this in action. Why did I do that? So I could be doing this now. Why did I go there?  So I could be here now. I may not be explaining this right, but everything, and I mean everything has led to where I am.

All of us experience pain, suffering, hardships, and loss. We also experience love, success, joy, and pleasure. These are all realities in our lives. Our loved ones will pass away like we will someday. How do you deal with that? You live your life the best way you can, serve others, and realize that the physical shell you wear in this lifetime is just that–a shell. The real you is eternal. That you never dies. Nor do the real selves of your loved ones. We all continue.

When you realize this truth, there is no sorrow, pain, hardships or loss. There is only experience. This experience is what the real you needs to unfold and become more aware. The more you experience, the more you grow. The more you grow, the more service you can provide. Serving others without expectation of reward is the key. When you give of yourself selflessly, you gain more than you know.

The real you is on Earth to learn. Earth is a classroom. Nothing more, nothing less.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

 

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 – 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 – Spiritual Saturday – Something is Better than Nothing

Tags

Asking for Help, Do Something, mini-habits, Patterns, Spirit, Take Action

“Give your best effort each day, and leave the rest to Spirit.”

—Harold Klemp
The Language of Soul

Look at the picture I chose for this article–a guy with no legs running a race. When I look at this picture, I do not feel sorry for this individual. Instead, I am inspired. If a guy who lost his legs can go through months of rehabilitation, physical therapy, doubt, fear, and all the rest, I can sure as hell tackle the goals I have set for myself.

I have read a lot this year and have a bunch more to read before the end of the year. As I read through books, articles, and take classes, I pay attention to any patterns I see. One pattern I have found is the emphasis on doing something rather than nothing.

I took a hacking exercise course earlier this year. It discussed all the insights science has discovered about exercise. Two of the biggest insights is how little we need to do to benefit from the exercise we do. Doing something like a set of curls or getting on a treadmill for a few minutes is better than doing nothing.

I like reading Stephen Guise. He is the author of Mini Habits. His new book, called Elastic Habits, builds on his premise of mini-habits. I have not finished the book, yet so I’ll leave this aside for now, but in Mini Habits, the entire premise of the book is to take small actions each day. These small actions build as you execute them every day.

Taking action, even if it is a small step will get you to your goal. This is key to getting the things we need to get done.

Do you have things to do that you abhor? This is the perfect time to chip away at that project. If you are not on a deadline, start chipping away at that thing you dread. Even if it is only one miniscule action, you’ll feel better and begin making progress. Or, you can continue blowing it off and carrying that monkey on your back. Your mind won’t let you forget about it, it’ll just keep bugging and bugging and bugging.

Your brain is a powerhouse. It is also very efficient. It is efficient because your brain automates things. It automates things you do all the time, like getting dressed, putting your shoes on, or brushing your teeth. It also begins generating ideas to help you work on your current task(s). When you focus on things, your brain will seek everything to assist you.

I just finished writing the first draft of my recruiting book. Now that it is completed, I’m going to put that aside for a few months and let it rest. Now, I’m going to start working on my first fiction book. I have never written a novel and need to find out the best ways to complete it. So, I’ll take some time to take some courses, read books, and reach out to make some connections with other authors to learn the best practices, software, and techniques that will assist me with this task. You would be blown away by the number of ideas my brain gives me to accomplish this task. The same thing can happen for you, regardless of what you have set out to do.

What’s the point of this posting? Do something. Doing something is better than doing nothing. Whatever your goals are, do something to move it forward. You’ll feel great and your motivation to continue tomorrow will be greater than it was today.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – There is Always a Way

Tags

Be Patient, Belief, Dark Night f the Soul, Faith, God's Word, Listen, Open Your Mind, Surrender

There is always a way

You are stronger than anything standing in your way. Because you have a purpose that cannot be denied.

Often that purpose is difficult and inconvenient to follow. Yet it is never impossible to follow.

There is always a way. If the path you’re on is blocked, look for another route, because it is surely there.

You can be flexible, innovative, determined and persistent. You can imagine any possibility and then work to make that possibility real.

Every moment, every circumstance, every turn of events presents you with an opportunity to act. Take those opportunities, make those actions come to life, and express the purpose that is uniquely you.

Step up and embrace the responsibility for moving your life forward. Whatever may come, there is always a way.

— Ralph Marston

Read more at http://greatday.com/motivate/080929.html#prk6ZXlVeXED788d.99 

Ralph Marston provided the prompt for today’s Spiritual Saturday. A fellow blogger got some bad news yesterday and I hope this helps her in her current situation.

I think all of us can think of at least one time in our lives that were dark. These dark situations appear on the surface to be impossible with no way out. Yet, over time, they loosen their grip on our emotions. This moment is when we begin to think about potential solutions to our problem.

I can’t explain it, but the situation I found myself in late 2016, was one of these situations. Some have labeled this the “dark night of soul”, when we are suffering, scream out for help, and nothing comes. I won’t get into details, but over time, my answer to this problem was surrender. I surrendered to God. I told him that I was horrible running my life and that I would follow whatever guidance he sent me. Then, I let my problem go and lived my life. When you surrender to a higher power, the key to getting some answer you can work with is to be patient. Another requirement is to keep an open mind.

My patience and openness paid off. The solution presented itself. I followed it and everything worked out. Part of my solution was to drop my preconceived notions about what my life should be. Another part of my solution was to drop all of my reactions to the various social pressures I succumbed to throughout most of my life. This combination was exactly what I needed.

It is hard to explain the mindset I have now. I don’t relish toys anymore. I have what I need. I don’t relish making a lot of money anymore. I have enough. I could go on and on about this, but when you become secure in your faith for whatever your religious beliefs are, life smooths out. This doesn’t come free. You have to follow the disciplines required by your religious faith. You get nothing for nothing. Your faith and belief grows from these disciplines.

This was my solution. It may not be yours, but it was for me. The result from my dark night of the soul was a stronger faith-belief that was never available before. I surrendered. I pushed my ego out of the way and admitted that God could run my life better than I could. That was all it took. I continue this today. God knows what I need. God knows better than my limited human senses do.

Follow God’s guidance. It is always there. You just have to listen.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Creativity

Tags

Brainstorming, Calm, creativity, decisions, Emotions, Freakout, Mistakes, Planning

“Creative people who cherish the gift of life often slip into the secret chambers of the creative mind. Their solutions are well-rounded, more sensible than those of people who rely solely upon reason as their mainstay. Gratitude unseals fountains of creativity, because a grateful person is relaxed. This allows him to take stock of his circumstances with an objective mind. A creative person often gets three-dimensional answers to his problems.” – Harold Klemp – The Language of Soul

Have you ever tried to solve a problem when you were emotional?

The emotional states, lock up our ability to tap into our intellect and creativity. Anger, fear, sorrow, or any number of emotions will circumvent our creativity and ability to think through a problem to its successful conclusion.

How do you fix this? Patience. Emotions pass. Relax. Brainstorm possible solutions in a non-judging way. After you’ve calmed down a bit and your emotions have subsided, you can now evaluate these solutions and pick the one that makes the most sense. Then you’ll have to decide all the steps that get you from where you are to the final solution you decided upon. Then, you’ll put the steps in logical order and determine how long each step will take. Then it’s nothing more than working through the steps.

Trust me. I’ve been in situations when I’ve been emotional and made the mistake of jumping to a conclusion. This mistake leads to more decisions and the whole thing will spiral out of control. You literally create more problems than you started with–all because you didn’t take the time to calm down and plan with a clear head.

I hope all of you have a terrific Saturday! I’m stoked that it’s November. This is my favorite time of year.

 

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Selfless Service

Tags

Charity, Giving, Lending a hand, Selfless Service, Service, Serving, Spiritual, spirituality

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” ― John Bunyan

Courtesy Goodreads

Have you ever done something nice for someone without saying anything or expecting anything in return? The feeling you get when you do something like this is different than the feeling you get when someone knows you did them a service. It is a more complete feeling. It’s hard to explain.

Obviously, we all like being appreciated or thanked for our efforts, but doing something selflessly provides so much more. Here are some ideas for you to think about:

• Picking up someone’s trash can that has fallen over, while they’re at work
• Paying for someone’s coffee at your local coffee shop or paying for someone’s meal at a restaurant without them knowing
• Leaving a note on a colleague’s desk telling them they are awesome, loved, or terrific (I enjoyed leaving sticky notes on someone’s computer screen before they got to work)
• Picking up trash while on a hike or when you walk down your street
• Picking up something that has fallen off a shelf at your local department store
• Leaving a sticky note on someone’s car window wishing them a great day!

These are just a few examples of some things you can do that contribute. Here are some things you can do for people that can’t pay you back:

• Volunteer to work at a homeless shelter or Food Kitchen
• Volunteer to work at your local library
• Help someone when they’ve broken down along the side of the road
• Get some food for a homeless person
• Deliver a holiday basket to a military recruiting station, police station, or fire house

These are just examples of the service you can give to other people. You’ll feel terrific when you’ve done these things and the people on the receiving end will feel good too. I prefer to do things when people don’t know that I’ve done it. The feeling you get back when you do something out of pure love for people is a great thing. It really is.

I wish each of you a terrific Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Paying Attention

Tags

Color, Enjoying the Details, Fall, Getting out, Mindfulness, Paying attention, Smell, Sounds, Texture, Walking

I recently began a habit of getting out of the house away from my writing and other work to walk, go to the gym, get lunch somewhere, or run an errand. The purpose behind these excursions is to interact with people. We meet people all day. We meet with folks running a cash register. We meet people that are in the same place we are shopping or eating or getting their cup of coffee.

I smile at people or strike up a simple conversation about what they are eating or what they have in their cart. Simple conversations, but nice to smile and interact. I enjoy these little outings. It brings some variety to my day and allows me to serve others.

When I am out, I pay attention to things, like the hue of the store. I pay attention to the people that are walking about. I pay attention to the smells and sounds. When you really pay attention to what you are doing and where you are, the experience is dramatically different from walking through a store unconsciously merely to get our product and walk back out.

 

 

I started a regimen this week of walking after I eat a meal. I walk for about 10 minutes just to settle the stomach and think. Today, I saw the most beautiful colors in the trees. Two kids went by. One riding a bike; the other on a skateboard. I remembered when I was a kid in this neighborhood, playing hockey, baseball, hide and seek, all of it. There is something magical about growing up in a neighborhood like mine, particularly when the leaves start to turn.

Pay attention to the little things. The colors, sounds, smells, and textures. It makes a huge difference in all you do. I wish you a terrific Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Recapturing the Curiosity, Imagination, and Wonder of a Child

Tags

Childhood, creativity, Imagination, Innocence, Openness, Spiritual Saturday, Wonder

“If you can dream something, you can do it. As long as you do not align your actions with your dreams, you are not fulfilling your destiny.” — Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

All of us have aspirations to be something more. Why do so many people give up on them?

 

Some may think life’s responsibilities are more important. Others lose hope because they have had some bad luck. Still others feel like that life has passed them by.

Remember when you were a kid and nothing was impossible? I think that is what all of us need to recover the dreams of our youth. We need that childhood curiosity. We need to capture that wonder and imagination that made everything bright and wonderful.

All of us can achieve that state. Once you do, you’ll realize you still have so much to do, to give, and to learn.

I was at our local Sam’s club yesterday. I had lunch there after I finished shopping. Next to me was a grandma and her grandson. She was spooning some frozen yogurt to him. The look on his face when that cold treat hit his mouth was priceless. There was another group of two women who sat down in front of me. They had frozen yogurt too. I asked the lady if it was any good. She said it was and was pleased that she and her daughter were enjoying some frozen yogurt together.

 

I make it a habit to get out and about during the day. It’s nice to have these little interactions with people. I enjoy interacting with them and sharing part of their day. Sometimes opportunities do not present themselves for these types of interactions, so I take a few moments to get to know the cashier, waiter or waitress that is serving me. I joke with them or tell them how great their food or service is.

 

How does this relate to my original point? The childhood state of mind I’m talking about is about enjoying the small things. Remember when walking through a store, getting some ice cream, or going to a movie was the happiest moment in your life? Recapture that. That’s where the magic is. Capture that feeling of wonder and excitement.

When you can rekindle your childhood imagination, you’ll see things differently. You’ll redevelop that sense of wonder that made the mundane magical, the impossible possible, and open your mind to an infinite amount of possibilities. Without the fear of failure, because you could do it all when you were a kid right?

 

 

Try this out. Get out there and be present. If you are in the grocery store, enjoy the colorful packages, the smells, the textures. If you are in a mall, look at the people, engage with them. If you are at the movies, get yourself some popcorn and enjoy every kernel. Lose yourself in the film and enjoy the time you have with the person you are with.

Being present helps us enjoy the details and to relish everything with all of our senses. When you can perfect this state, you will reinvigorate your life. You’ll cultivate that childhood wonder when everything is brand new.

Use your imagination. Think of all the things you could do if you couldn’t fail. Imagine the possibilities.

I hope you try this out. It is a wonderful way to regain some of that innocence, joy, creativity, and openness we had as kids. It’s a great place to be.

Have a great Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Exercising the Brain

Tags

Brain Exercise, brain health, Calmness, Focus, Meditation, Relaxation, spirituality

Video provided by Happify and Dan Harris. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/131682712

I enjoy posting these videos. I find them entertaining and hope you do too! Today’s little video is a quick walk-through on meditation. I enjoy meditation because it helps me focus, and it is very relaxing. It is a great way to train the mind.

I hope you have a great Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave