Daily Ramblings – Ted Talk Tuesday – The First Thanksgiving

Tags

Call of Duty, Contentment, Grateful, Gratitude, History, Holiday, Thanksgiving, Warzone

I found this video on YouTube liked it. I always try to pick short videos to respect your time. There were others that were an hour + if viewing. I like watching videos like this and so many others, depicting the first Thanksgiving. Obviously, there are a lot of perspectives on Thanksgiving nowadays.

I choose the perspective of giving thanks for what we have. Cherishing what we have is a terrific way to look at our lives. Think about the access to information, music, entertainment, and so many other things. In most cases these are free or inexpensively priced. I’m grateful for my health, my family, and for all the good in my life.

I am grateful for the ability to make friends with people all over the world. I have a friend who is an author in Australia. I have a blogger friend in South Carolina and another in Colorado. I met all of these people online and they are just terrific people that add value to my life, by exposing me to their stories, their point of view, and their talent.

So, as we get closer to Thanksgiving, take a few moments and count your blessings. Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be about what is described in the above video. It simply is a time to take account of what you have in your life that is good. When you concentrate on these things, you naturally feel better.

Well, that’s it for today, folks.

Here’s a shameless plug for Call of Duty MW2. The new Warzone 2 will be coming out tomorrow and it looks absolutely sick. Water mechanics are in, new vehicles, a huge map, and all kinds of new game play, including DMZ, which should be really cool to play. They’ve also added proximity chat, so that means you can communicate with opposing teams and even join them! HUGE!!

Well, now I’m done.

Have a great Tuesday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – Rediscovering Happiness

Tags

Contemplation, Contentment, Happiness, Joy, Love, Meditation, Prayer, spiritual discipline, Spiritual Exercises, Spiritual habits, Spiritual responsibilities

Regardless of your faith or religious path, each comes with certain disciplines that should be followed in order to attain the success the path offers. Meditation daily, prayer daily or multiple times, eating the right foods and avoiding those that are not allowed. All these should be practiced with love.

I mention quite a bit in my blog about my practice of a “do nothing day”. I wanted to correct that here. There are certain disciplines my religious path requires and even on my “do nothing day” these are done. I read from my bible, I study my discourses, I do my spiritual exercises, and I do my daily journaling. I perform these tasks with joy and detachment. Detachment means I do these things without expectation of a revelation, reward, or some other benefit. I do them out of love for God.

One of the quotes provided by the teachings I follow is that “All is in its rightful place in the worlds of God.” – Sri Harold Klemp. This statement if taken to heart provides a sense of contentment. I have all I need. I am happy. I am safe. I am content. How could I not be if “All is in its rightful place in the worlds of God”?

Many people are constantly looking for happiness. They look here and there, hoping they can find it. What is sad and funny is that happiness is within. It is sad for those who do not know this and are constantly looking for it somewhere else. Perhaps happiness can be found in making a lot of money. Perhaps I can get my happiness through another person. Perhaps I could get a better job, a better car, or a better set of clothes. It is funny because when we finally discover that happiness is within, we stop striving. We stop looking. We realize after all the time we spent suffering that we had happiness with us the whole time.

I wish everyone could experience the contentment I felt when I woke up this morning. I woke up, had my breakfast, did my journaling, my spiritual reading, and my religious studies. As I was doing these things a calmness came. Along with this calmness came contentment and happiness. Because I realized how great life is. The only way I can describe it is the feeling that arose with a scene in my mind about being a kid on Saturday morning with a box of cereal in his hand, watching cartoons with his brother. How we laughed.

We lose this simple happiness as we bear the mantle of life. Now there are bills. There are people to take care of. There are responsibilities. Those childhood memories fade away, as responsibility and worry take over. Then, one day, we reawaken those childhood memories. We realize that happiness has always been there, hidden under the clutter of our lives. A clutter, mind you, that we created because we wanted to recapture this happiness, but forgot where we put it.

Today, even if for a moment, think about a time in your life you were truly happy. Was it because someone else made you happy? Was it because of the things you had? Was it because of the way you looked? I think you’ll find that those moments of peak happiness were simple times. You were happy because you just were. I wish you every happiness in life. You already have it within you. Rediscover that.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Sunday – The Power of Gratitude

Tags

comfortable, Content, Contentment, Eckankar, Grateful, Gratitude, Happy, spirituality, Sunday

Happy Sunday!

Gratitude is one of the acts that can bring us huge rewards. Gratitude brings us to a place of contentment where we realize we have enough. We’re okay. We have enough clothes. We have enough food. We have a comfortable living space. We have a reliable way to get around.

Here’s another free e-booklet from ECKANKAR that discusses the spiritual aspects of Gratitude. Enjoy!

Click to access The-Power-of-Gratitude_ebooklet.pdf

#Free booklet

I hope you enjoy this one.

Have a great Sunday, everyone.

May the blessings be!

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Affirmations

Tags

15x Exercise, Affirmations, Contentment, Detachment, Discrimination, Forgiveness, Humility, tolerance

Hello, Monday!

I hope each of you has a terrific day, today!

I hope all of you are primed for the week and everything works out the way you want it.

One of the things I have used for years and years are positive affirmations. It’s something I write in my journal every day. Affirmations can be about any topic you wish. I chose five virtues.

Here is my short affirmation I write down each day: I am discriminating, tolerant, forgiving, content, detached, and humble.

Discriminating means making good choices. Tolerance and forgiveness are about letting people be who they are without judgment, and if they hurt your or cause you problems, forgiving them, regardless. Contentment is being happy regardless of my physical, mental, social, or spiritual situation. I keep this quote in the back of my mind: “All is in its rightful place in the worlds of God.” – Sri Harold Klemp. This means that whatever happens, it is exactly what is supposed to happen. Be happy and content, regardless. Detachment is doing the best you can with, with what you have, from where you are, without forcing any outcome. I do the best I can and whatever happens, is exactly what should have happened. This also relates to ideas, habits, everything. We must be willing to accept the changes that come and know they are for our benefit. Humility is the last one. Being humble is avoiding the grandstanding, bragging, and other things that have one purpose–elevating the ego. The ego is something we all need to survive in this reality, but the goal should be to minimize this as much as possible. The ego will get you into trouble, if you let it get out of hand.

Well, that’s all I got for today. You can create daily affirmations too. One great exercise, that I also do is a thing called the 15X exercise. Take any one thing you want to be, and write it down 15 times each day. Start the sentence with “I am…”. Overtime, the affirmations take hold, because the mind latches onto things that are repeated to it. When you believe something, things come together to help you achieve that thing.

Have a great Monday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Love Yourself

Tags

Contentment, Detachment, Giving, Humility, Love, receiving, Self Love, Selflessness

“You have to give love to get love” – Paul Twitchell

This is a simple equation, isn’t it? It’s the simplicity of these wise words that makes it difficult, right? The mind likes to complicate things–make them difficult. Easy things are hard to imagine, because we are so ready for the hard things.

Our minds are always on the lookout. The mind seeks out danger because it is wired to do so. It is fearful of the unknown. It is fearful of something new. It is also very hard on us.

When you begin something new, what does your mind tell you? Why are you doing this? You don’t know what you’re doing. You will mess up. You aren’t good enough? The mind is a terrible taskmaster for some of us.

When people speak of love, they typically mean loving someone or something else. When was the last time you loved yourself? When was the last time you cheered yourself on, patted yourself on the back, imagined a younger version of yourself and told that version that you were good, you were enough, and that you are loved? I bet it might have been a while–am I right?

You have to love yourself, before others will love you. You also have to be satisfied with being alone. When you love yourself and are happy by yourself, you won’t have any expectations of someone else. You won’t attach strings to the love you give them, because you are already satisfied with the love you are receiving–from yourself.

Take the time to really love–YOU! You know yourself better than anyone. You are the only person that can do this for you. Why be dependent on another person? Why yearn for love when you have more than enough to give yourself?

This isn’t selfish. You aren’t going to neglect the loved ones in your life, just take some time to love yourself. When you do so, you’ll find that the love you give is more selfless. You give love to just give it. You won’t expect anything in return.

I hope all of you have a terrific Saturday. I also want to thank all of you who stopped by to wish me a happy birthday. It was nice to hear from you. It was the icing on the cake, so to speak. A great day, followed by happy birthdays here and on my social media accounts. It was really nice.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – We are Spiritual Beings Having a Human Experience

Tags

Anger, Attachment, Contentment, Detachment, Discrimination, Forgiveness, Greed, Humility, Lust, Passions of the Mind, Soul, tolerance, Vanity, Virtues

“Remember, we are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” – Stephen Covey

Read more at: Brainy Quote

Have you ever wondered how you can think about thinking? What part of you is watching you? My religion is ECKANKAR and we call this you—soul. Soul is a spiritual being. It is the real you. It is that part of you that can watch what you are thinking, saying, and doing. Soul is what thinks about what the mind thinks and what the body does. Soul uses your body to experience this life.

I believe in reincarnation. To believe in reincarnation, there must be a something that outlives the body and takes a body when it is time to live another life. This is soul. Soul experiences. Soul learns. Soul needs a body to experience things here. It needs a body to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel. It needs to experience the mind’s memory, it’s intuition, and its subconscious, automatic processes.

Soul is the real you. It is a spark of God. God creates soul and soul exists because God loves it. Soul is forever. It never dies, it merely moves to another realm of existence when the human body dies. In this realm it interacts with other souls to continue its learning on another plane of existence. It can return here, it can go to other dimensions or planes, it will go where it needs to go to continue its spiritual journey.

I know this may be a little mind-blowing to some of you. I like using Saturdays to move away from the self-improvement chats and all the rest to dedicate one day a week to discuss my religion and some principles and insights it offers. I am not here to evangelize or push my beliefs down your throat. I merely want to educate. In ECKANKAR, we believe that each soul chooses the religious path it needs during this lifetime. Some souls select Islam, some Christianity, some Buddhism, some Judaism, or Hinduism. Regardless of the religion soul chooses, it is the perfect religion for that soul at the time. As an ECKIST, I believe this to be true. Your religion is yours and yours alone. It is exactly what you need in this lifetime to move ahead spiritually.

The viewpoint of soul is the highest. When you come to realize that soul is the real you, life gets a lot easier. Life isn’t scary anymore, when you realize that you have an infinite amount of lives left. Soul never dies. Soul is infinite. This life will come and go, but soul is forever. Soul takes all its experiences with it when this body finally goes to sleep for the last time. Soul needs these experiences to learn the lessons it needs to gain wisdom and progress spiritually.

Think about all the things you learn during a lifetime. You learn about love. You learn about work. You learn about loss and suffering. You learn about joy and ecstasy. You learn about horror and evil. Soul learns why the passions of the mind like lust, anger, greed, attachment, and vanity are dead ends. Over time, it learns that the virtues are ever-lasting. These are discrimination, tolerance/forgiveness, contentment, detachment, and humility.

When you are lustful, angry, greedy, attached to material things or ideas, or vain, there is a coinciding feeling, a pit in your stomach, an ache in your heart, or some other discomfort. When you are discriminating, tolerant and forgiving, content, detached, and humble, the feelings are lighter. You have a feeling that is long lasting. Things are just right. Soul needs to learn these things through millions of lives and even more experiences. It is the only way.

You are soul, a spiritual being, learning and experiencing through a human body, not the other way around. I wish all of you a Happy Easter tomorrow (for those that celebrate).

Baraka Bashad (May the blessings be).

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursday – Contentment

Tags

Content, Contentment, Grateful, satisfaction, Satisfied, Thankful, Thanks

When was the last time you looked at your life and said, “I’m satisfied?”

It is so easy to complain about our lives or compare it with the lives of others. Complaining focuses us on the lack in our lives—some deficiency that needs filled—something we need or some place we need to go. If only we had this or that we would finally be happy.

We all need ambition and need to survive, but endless worry and concern about what is missing in our lives is unhealthy. Instead, we should look for the things we are thankful for—the things that satisfy. When you combine ambition with the thought “I have enough”, life takes on a whole new meaning.

 

Earlier in life I found myself in a predicament. Disappointment and discontent overtook my life. I wanted more. I didn’t like my job; I didn’t like my living conditions, and I didn’t enjoy being single. I contemplated my life for a few days. Then the answer came. The answer was gratitude.

Gratitude gave me the opportunity to appreciate my job, my home, my life. It gave me the opportunity to be thankful for the little things. Little things like a sunny day, a warm breeze, a cup of coffee with a good book. When you can appreciate what you have, life is more satisfying. You can still have goals. You can still have aspirations. You can still have a desire for things you want. Your desire, however, changes. It evolves to a desire disconnected from feelings of discontent, jealousy, or unfairness. Your desire to achieve is more about the challenge, not what you will receive at the end of the race. Do you see the difference?

We could always live in a better place, drive a better car, have a better job, or lose weight. Set goals and aspire to these things. Do not let your current lot in life prevent your happiness. Look for things in your life that make you happy. Happiness is not out there, it is inside of you. It is so much easier to accomplish goals from a place that is happy rather than sad and deprived. When you have enough, anything that comes into your life is a bonus.

As always, thank you for following Daily Ramblings. We’ve added 24 followers over the last month. I appreciate your patronage. Don’t be a stranger. If you like something I’ve written or disagree with a posting, I’m all ears. Comment below.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Series Sunday – The Character Trait of Detachment

Tags

Attachment, Contentment, Detachment, Emotions, Letting go, pain, Suffering

“Everything is temporary; emotions, thoughts, people and scenery. Do not become attached, just flow with it.”—Anonymous

Detachment is the focus for this month. So, this month I’ll continue to work on discrimination, tolerance, forgiveness, and contentment. Each month I add one more character trait I want to work on, just like Benjamin Franklin did in his time.

Detachment relates to a practice of letting go. We live in a reality of constant change. Our health changes, our appearance changes, our situations change, and our relationships change. Tomorrow, you could lose everything. Detachment allows us to live a better life because it frees us from the emotional upheaval we experience when we lose something. Attachment in a constantly changing world is painful. Everyone around us will pass away at some point. Our pets will pass away. Our relatives and friends will pass away. We will pass away.

Detachment doesn’t mean we live an unfeeling life. Detachment means we live life to the fullest, appreciating what we have when we have it. It means to cherish what you have at the moment. Living a detached life allows us to be content with what we have and helps us avoid the lingering pain that occurs when we attach ourselves to something. Detached people, express pain for their loss and get on with their lives. It is not emotionless; it is realistic.

I hope all of you are having a great Sunday! Today is my do-nothing day. I’ll be relaxing, playing games, and doing what I want today. How about you?

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Thankful Thursdays – Gratitude Journals

Tags

Attitude, Contentment, Grateful, Gratitude Journaling, Gratitutde, Joy, Music, Thanks

“Gratitude is riches. Complaint is poverty.” – Doris Day

Read more at: Brainy Quotes

Thanks for all the new followers this week! I really appreciate it. I hope all of you new comers enjoy my daily quips of this and that. I strive to motivate, teach, inspire, and engage my audience daily. Am I always successful? No, but I do try my best.

When I first began my blog a few years ago, I had no idea how important this practice is. A blog to me is nothing more than a way to communicate my unique experience of this life. Some use their blogs to offer recipes, document their travels, discuss the news of the day, or even discuss the painful ailments they are suffering from. All these blogs become part of the tapestry that we all enjoy for one reason or another.

It is cold here in Michigan. It is not as cold in other states, like North Dakota or Minnesota but it is cold. We were asked yesterday to reduce our thermostats down to 65 degrees to conserve energy. I am grateful for my warm home and the warm cup of coffee I am enjoying right now. I hope those folks who are homeless have found a warm place to stay.

I purposely use a gratitude journal every morning. In it I express my thanks for all I have, my family, my friends, and whatever else comes to mind. When I began my gratitude journal a few years ago I did not realize how life-changing these few minutes in the morning have become. I think the primary benefit is the practice of focusing on what we are thankful for. It is the focus that counts. The more we are focused on what is right in our lives, the better our lives become. If you catch yourself complaining about things in your life, try to change this around by purposely focusing on what you are grateful for. It could be as simple as being grateful for your warm bed, a family member, or even the benefits you accrue from a job you have. There are so many things to be grateful for. Give gratitude journaling a try. It doesn’t take that long. Start out with writing down 2 or 3 things you are grateful for every morning. Over time you will begin to realize how important this practice is.

I normally accompany my journaling with calming music. I pay for a streaming service called Spotify. I really enjoy this service because it gives me access to so many musicians. Music is a great thing to have in your life. I use different types of music throughout the day. When I journal, I tend to stick with nature sounds and other pleasant instrumentals. When I am programming, I tend to gravitate toward trance or techno. When I read or study, I enjoy classical. When I exercise, heavy metal is my genre of choice. Each type of music feeds the activities I pursue. I tend to shy away from any vocal’s music, especially when I am reading or writing. This type of music tends to disrupt my thinking more than other types. If you have not tried to augment your daily routines with music, I highly recommend it. This is one life hack that has proven beneficial.

I am blessed. I had the ability to retire early and pursue the things I wanted to pursue. I have also been given the privilege of spending time with my folks in their senior years. My Dad has Dementia and at times, it is a sad time, particularly when you truly grasp that the Dad you knew is no longer the Dad you have now. Regardless, my circumstances have granted me the opportunity to enjoy my folks as they wind down their lives on this Earth. It is a great opportunity that I am grateful for every day.

I am also grateful for my Brother and Sister. They are both very different. My brother loves to travel and is my best friend. He and I have a lot of fun together and enjoy pretty much the same things. My sister is also my best friend. She has different interests from mine but brings a lot of things into my life that I would never have experienced had I not returned home. I am also grateful for my wife and stepdaughters. My wife is in Arizona teaching and my stepdaughters are pursuing their lives on their own (finally). My wife knew I had to come home to help my folks and she has been a great team player. Is it tough being away from your loved ones? Sure, but our relationship is strong, and we love each other very much.

Well, this is it for today. I appreciate you taking the time to read this and hope you can find all of those things in your life that you are grateful for. Looking at the world through grateful eyes is so much better than seeking out all the things that aren’t going so well. I send good thoughts to all my readers today and hope your life is the adventure mine is.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Post Christmas

Tags

Christmas, Contentment, Enjoyment, family, Friends, Joy, Love, Planning, reflection

Well, the family has gone home! It was a great two days, hanging out with my sister and her boyfriend. It was nice opening presents. It was awesome watching some movie favorites, like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I enjoyed the holiday season this year because it was so great to revisit Phoenix and reconnect with friends and family there. It was also nice to come home and enjoy family, my Mom’s roast duck and all of the goodies I enjoy eating during the holidays.

Now it’s time to continue the celebration as we approach the New Year. This week, like the previous week will result in altered postings because I want to focus on the holidays and worry about the schedule again at the commencement of 2019.

I hope all of you had a great time with your families and friends and are looking to create the best year yet in 2019. I hope all of you have a safe and joyous New Year’s celebration.

All the best to you and your families during this precious time of the year.

Until next time…

Dave