Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Self-discipline

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Balance, Harold Klemp, Holy Spirit, Key Areas, Love, passion, Self-discipline, spirituality

Self-discipline is an absolute necessity if one is to have a productive spiritual life. Replace old tastes and preferences with new, better ones. But do it in the name of the Holy Spirit, with love and a sincere heart, or nothing will come of this experiment.

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Self-discipline is nothing more than doing what you agree to do. These agreements can be about your exercise routine, your diet, planning your day, and any other topic you can think of that requires effort. A person who can evaluate themselves and come up with a game plan to improve weaknesses or bolster their strengths are powerful people. They can do anything because they are willing to commit and stick with it.

Change is difficult. Evaluating yourself is difficult. Holding yourself to a new standard is also difficult. Self-discipline enables these and more.

So many people just ramble through life. They occupy their time with meaningless activities with no forethought. Think about all the people who literally live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, or Pinterest. What are they accomplishing?

Are you happy with your life? If so, change nothing. Keep doing what you are doing. It’s your life. If you’re happy and fulfilled, why change anything. This article is for the rest of us that are not happy with our current circumstances. We want to lose weight, get in better shape, eat better, and build skills that will garner us the ability to make an income throughout our lives.

Where do you start? This is probably the hardest thing to do—decide. We only have so many hours in the day. What will you spend your time on? Do you want to write a book, start a blog, or create poetry? Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to start an exercise program? Do you want to start a business? What other things can you do each day that will contribute and build?

I started my search online. I wanted to know what I could do to improve my life, make lasting change, and build skills that would provide me with an income as I pursue a third career. I chose specific areas of my life to look at. These areas are Physical (eating right, getting enough sleep, and exercise), Mental (reading and learning every day), Social (staying connected with friends and family and make new friends and connections), and Spiritual (daily meditation, religious readings, attending spiritual events and retreats).

The areas I want to learn are two-fold. Write books (nonfiction and fiction) and learn how to write computer programs. Once I began my investigation into these areas, I found all kinds of resources to help me on my quest. These are now daily habits that I dedicate my time to. I write every day for this blog and work on my books. I also code every day. I have made great strides in both areas because I do a little each day to add to my abilities.

I need a little discipline in these areas because I love both. I love writing and I love coding. They are closely related because a programming language has rules and a whole new language to learn to enable my code to work. Book writing is a combination of actual writing every day and learning the craft. I try to read a writing book daily and find courses online that can teach me the various aspects of writing whether these classes are on grammar, style, or the specifics of writing a book. There are books on plot development, world building, and character development. The learning never ceases.

What are your passions? What would you like to do with the rest of your life when you retire? Do you want to keep working? Do you want multiple streams of income? Take time on a weekend and think about some of these things. Once you have discovered what you’d like to do, add that to your day. Do a little on these areas each day. How long does exercise need to be to be a benefit? How much writing do you want to do each day? What can you fit into your schedule after your workday is done and you’ve attended to your home responsibilities?

When you start out, put in a half-hour or so to each thing you’d like to try. I would recommend grabbing one item you’d like to add to your day. Then, once you’ve solidified your newfound habit, add another and another, until you are hitting all the things you want to pursue. You’ll be amazed how many things you can do by chipping away a little at a time.

Well, folks. I hope you are having a great Saturday! Enjoy your weekend. If anyone is interested, comment on this thread. I am more than happy to give you some ideas to help you move forward.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday – Divine Spirit Steps In

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Assistance, Dao, Divine Spirit, God, Guidance, Harold Klemp, Help, The Universe

You do what you can to make your life right. And when you have done 100 percent of everything you can do, Divine Spirit steps in with the miracle.

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Have you ever had this happen? You work your tail off on something. It’s coming together but you need another person or another thing to come into place for your pet project to take off. Then, out of nowhere, you get exactly what you need.

I am a firm believer in persistence. I believe when we set ourselves to a project, we’ll get ideas for making it better. These ideas come from divine spirit, God, the universe, whatever you designate the higher power I believe exists. Our reality is about creation. When we create something, it aligns us with divine spirit, which is also a creator. This alignment opens us to divine spirit, which provides what we need, when we need it.

For some, this may be a little outlandish. For others, this is common knowledge. In my religion, we call divine spirit, the ECK. You may call this divine spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Dao, or many titles. The ECK is pervasive, eternal, and exists in matter, energy, space, and time and without these lower world phenomena. The ECK, like divine spirit is the communication medium used between God and Soul.

Like all things, the mind is our filter. We need the mind to live in this reality. Whatever your mind believes, you are right (Henry Ford, paraphrased). So, if you believe in God and divine spirit, you are right. If you do not believe in God or divine spirit you are also right. This posting is not designed to change your mind about these things, just my humble explanation of what I believe to be true.

Keep your eyes and ears open when you engage in something. You could be solving a problem, pursuing your dreams, or taking on a big project. Watch what happens when you really put yourself into these things. The right people will show up, the right ideas will reach you, and you’ll take the right actions to accomplish it. If you make a mistake, you’ll think about how to correct it, learn from it, and keep moving forward. Everything will fall into place. Just keep pushing forward. There will always be one more door to walk through, one more step to climb, or one more bit of polish to add. If you keep progressing, divine spirit will keep sending you ideas, options, and new avenues to take.

I hope all of you have a terrific Wednesday! I’ll be working on writing, reading, learning, programming, exercising, and meditating. See you at the finish line!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Doing Your Best

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Doing your Best, Effort, Harold Klemp, Love, Meaning, Purpose, wisdom

If you make a meal, put love into it instead of the frustrations of your day. Because whatever is put into the food is a reflection of what you have inside yourself, and it goes out to your family, it goes out to your friends. And it makes a very real difference.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

This quote advises us to put love into everything we do. Love builds. Love gives meaning.

I remember my first few years in the Army. I thought I had made a mistake, shortly after I arrived at my first duty station. I was going through the motions. I did what I had to do to avoid getting into trouble. I realized one night that this was not working for me. I put more of myself into the job. I read field manuals and regulations. I put extra effort into my uniform and appearance. I put in more time into exercise. My Army career changed for the better. Instead of biding my time, I embraced my career. This made all the difference.

Love what you do even if your current job is not a perfect one. You will find, like I did, that the more you put into the job, the more rewarding the job becomes. Your job will have more meaning. Love is active. Love is doing. Love requires you to give your best. What you give to the world returns to you.

Do the best you can in every situation. Take the time to do things right. Give everything your best effort. You will find what I have found—the more you give, the more you get.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Choose Laughter, Humor, and Happiness

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Happiness, Harold Klemp, Humor, Jumping the Gun, Laughter, Rush to Judgment, Spiritual

“This is how we work with Divine Spirit. We try to look at life and find the laughter wherever we can, whenever we can, because laughter is the healer.”

—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Happy Saturday, folks! It’s 16 degrees in Michigan this morning and I am enjoying some soothing music and a cup of coffee.

In today’s crazy world, it is so easy to get riled up and upset with what’s going on in any country. Scandals, crime, disaster, are all the talk of the day. If you go to Twitter, it comes at you lightning fast, spreading, in some cases, rumors that have no basis in reality. Take it easy. Relax. Wait for a story to unfold before jumping on the first tweet or online article that hits the wire. So many people in journalism jump the gun to get the scoop without the necessary fact checking and due diligence, then have to walk it back when the truth comes out.

The same actions can be taken with our lives. So many of us are blind-sided by things. We get bad news and we lose our minds over-reacting. We make assumptions and run with them without knowing the facts. We are all moving at such a fast pace that we forget to take the time to really think about what has occurred.

Take your time, evaluate, look at all of the things you can do to fix the problem or make your situation better. When you take the time to think through things, instead of quick reaction, you’ll start to feel better. Yes, there are real tragedies that hit our lives, there is no way to argue against that. Even these tragedies have a silver lining in most cases. Think. Evaluate. Plan. Execute.

When the reality of your situation is out of your control, you have a choice. You can be pissed off or you can find humor in it. It’s going to be there regardless, so why not be happy with your situation and move on? Laughter makes us feel better. Humor is the antidote to hard times. There will always be challenges in our lives, tragedies, and just outright bad luck. Life is not about what happens to us. It is about how we react to the things that happen to us. You have a choice. I choose happiness.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Harold Klemp, Mental Habits, Problems, Self-discipline, Surrender, The Language of Soul

Every problem contains a solution. The key is self-discipline and surrender of the mental habits to the Holy Spirit.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Do you remember any problems in your past that took a while to solve? What solved the issue? Did you change something? Did you realize that the “problem” wasn’t really a problem? Did the problem resolve itself or did you have to do something to solve it?

Problems come in all shapes and sizes. Some of our problems arise because of a mistake in our thinking. Some problems arise because of personal neglect. Some of our problems involve people. Some of our problems involve things.

We have problems with our health. We have problems at work. We have problems with the stuff we own. We have problems with other people. How do we solve these issues?

I have solved problems by changing my mindset. This is what Harold refers to with mental habits. Some of our problems are literally caused because we want our world to be a certain way. These problems tend to fade when we look at our life and world differently.

I used to have a lot of focus on money. When I realized that I had more than enough to survive and thrive, my money issues disappeared overnight. I have also had problems with people in my life. When I realized that other people’s problems were none of my business, they faded from view.

Self-discipline can eliminate a lot of problems in life. If you exercise, eat in accordance with your body’s needs, and get enough sleep, many of the ailments that we suffer from will disappear. When we detach ourselves from material things, outcomes, and our egos, many of our problems fade away. When you adopt the belief that everything is in its rightful place in the worlds of God, our expectations no longer cause us problems because we begin to accept things as they are.

People are a source of problems. You may have a disagreement with a loved one. We are all human and these problems will arise. When we realize that everyone has problems they need to work through and that these problems are theirs not ours, life smooths out quite a bit.

Problems can also cause a lot of worry, particularly those problems we do not see a solution for. When we realize that problems are given to us to solve and grow and learn from, they tend to evolve into lessons. There is a solution to every problem we face. What I have discovered is once we solve a problem or a set of related problems they tend to stay away.

We all have problems. They arise, we change, we take action, we adjust. Problems are a reality. None of us will exist without problems arising in our lives or the lives of our loved ones. Problems arise for us to solve. They are not done to us. Be confident that problems have a solution, they will go away just as easily as they arose, and that you will be a better person when they are gone.

Cherish the problems in your life. They are what make life interesting and exciting. Problems are not really problems in the end. They are merely communications from God to alter our way of thinking and doing. Nothing more. They are teaching us how to become more patient, loving, and spiritual.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Brainstorming, change, Contingency planning, Harold Klemp, Planning, The Language of Soul

“The cycle of creative action begins with the concept we carry in our minds of what we wish to do. The next step is to outline on paper some plan of how to accomplish this. The final step is action in carrying out the plan.”—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

What’s Holding You Back?

I have found that simplicity is in everything if we look for it. It is so easy to go overboard on the things we wish to accomplish. The trite expression “paralysis by analysis” comes to mind. We “overthink” what we want to accomplish and take more time thinking about doing something than doing it.

Some folks call this activity resisting change or just plain resistance. Where does this resistance come from? Much of the resistance we feel when we want to change something in our lives comes from us.

Our brains love routine. The neural pathways that are responsible for our habits, good and bad, are built out of repetition. The more you repeat something the more you reinforce the neural pathway that supports the action and so on.

I have found that just jumping in and taking one small step toward our goals works. Regardless of how minuscule the action is, just taking that step can be the one thing that gets us moving in a dramatic way. Take, for example, writing a book. A book is literally a collection of words oriented around a broad topic and organized into chapters, paragraphs, and sentences.

When I was at the peak of procrastination on starting my book, I glimpsed at the number of postings on my blog. This examination brought about an epiphany. This epiphany was simply this: “If I can write 200+ words per day on my blog, I can surely do the same thing with a book. Subsequently, I began the book and currently at a 10,000-word count. Is the book perfect? No. But it has the solid beginnings of a good rough draft that I’ll edit and edit and edit again until I get my words down in a way that satisfies me. Taking a big task and doing little pieces of work on this task each day is one way to begin to solidify the change in your life and move forward on a project that you may have been staring at for the longest time. We begin to form a neural pathway, we reinforce that neural pathway, and over time, that neural pathway becomes strong enough that our actions toward a project are internalized—they become automatic.

Taking the Time to Plan

Think about something you want to do. It can be anything. Maybe you want to clean out your closets or the garage, maybe you want to start an exercise routine, maybe you want to set up a budget, or start eating better. Regardless what the project is there are action steps you can take to get this thing moving along.

Think About It

Before creating an action plan it is important to think about what it is you want to do. Visualize in your mind what the end state is. Where do you want to be? What does the finished project look like? What must be satisfied before you can say you’ve completed it? Do you see the way that garage or basement will look when you’re done?

Write it Down

The next step is writing down all of the things that must be done to reach the end state you visualized. The best way to begin this type of work is to brainstorm or free write about the project. Just collect a whole list of things you need to do in order to get project A from start to end point. Some folks use mind mapping techniques to do this. Others simply write down as many ideas or steps they believe need to be accomplished to get the project done.

Organize

Once you have all of your ideas or action items to complete your project, you’ll need to organize these action steps. There will be obvious first actions, secondary actions, and still other actions that must be accomplished in some order that makes sense and will move you forward in a fluid manner. If you still have no idea where to start, you can work yourself backward from your visualized end state to the beginning of the project. I learned this “backward planning” technique while I served in the Army.

Backward planning is nothing more than looking at each of your items and placing them in a timeline that starts with the finished picture of where you’ll end up when you’re done with a project. That point that you know that you are completed and there is nothing left to do.

You could put your final step as “clean garage”. Then start organizing items on this timeline that work back from the clean garage to your initial step, which may be something like pull all items out of the garage. There may be other items on your list like give this away to charity, put aside for future garage sale, or throw this item away. You may even have tasks that involve getting some items from the local grocery store before you start. Maybe “buy garbage bags”, “buy a broom”, or “buy a leaf blower” are on your list.

Some tasks depend on other tasks to be completed before you can begin working on them. For example, you can’t clean the floor of the garage while your car, snow blower, or lawn mower are in the garage. Subsequently, these “dependent” tasks require that another task is completed prior to engaging them on your to-do list. Once you have all of your items on your list in the order they need to be accomplished you are ready for execution.

Scheduling the Time

Some projects you will tackle will be large enough to eat up a few days or months of work. These projects will have action items that will take a few minutes, while others may eat up an entire afternoon. Now it is time to decide where to start and how much time you have to accomplish the task. Since you may have only a limited time to dedicate toward a project, given your other responsibilities, you may need to break some of the items on your project list into even more discrete steps. If I only have an hour or two hours to get something done on this project, I’ll need to ensure that I only tackle action steps that allow me to get these things done in the allotted time.

Making Adjustments

Many of us will allot too much or too little time toward an action step. This is common. Plan for it. If you begin working through an action step, you may discover that you need another tool, or you need more time to get this thing done than originally planned. That’s ok. Look at your action items and either break that task down into smaller tasks or adjust your schedule to accommodate the work you know you’ll need to get it checked off your list.

Completion

If you keep knocking items off of your action list, you will finish the project at some point. When you finish the project, reward yourself for a job well-done. You did it! Now, you can begin work on your next project(s) using the same process above. These steps are listed out below for your convenience:

• Visualize
• Brainstorm
• Organize
• Schedule
• Adjust
• Complete

Well, I hope this helped some of you. Have a great Saturday everybody!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Achievement, Goal Setting, Harold Klemp, improvement, plus factor, Service

“One of the principles, or laws, of Divine Spirit is that there is always one more step. There is always one more heaven.” —Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

I believe in this quote. I think the universe would be boring if there was a place where no more improvement was possible. Think about that for a moment. I remember watching an episode of the Twilight Zone when I was a kid. This gangster was killed and went to “heaven”. As time passed, he started to become bored. Everything he did was perfect, he won at the gambling tables in heaven, he had all the good-looking girls, he had whatever he wanted. It finally dawned on him to ask the question: “This isn’t heaven is it?” and a man in a white suit, playing the part of the Devil, laughed insanely. The episode ended at that point. I think a heaven that existed, without any possibility of improving ourselves beyond what we achieve during our life, would be like this episode.

Improvement is gratifying. Improvement is motivating. Improvement shows us how we’ve grown through our own efforts. Without improvement, we stagnate. I don’t ever want to be in that position. I hope you don’t either.

Choose what you want to be good at. Set a goal. Set a date. Measure your progress. At some point, you’ll arrive. Then set another one.

Goals carry us forward and drive us to achieve things we didn’t think we could. This improvement also allows us to better support ourselves, help others, and build a skill. Achieving our goals is both challenging and rewarding. It is a self-perpetuating process, once you see even the smallest success. Whether you are in the gym, in your office, or at home, there is always one more thing we can improve for the better.

I hope all of you are having a terrific Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday

Tags

Blood Type Diet, Diet, Food, Harold Klemp, nutrition

Paying attention to foods can help you lead a better spiritual life. People ask me, “What is good food?” There is no good food or bad food for everyone. It depends upon the individual, upon his particular health condition. Who can best tell what’s right for you? You can, of course.—Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

Ah, food! My evolution with food is slow but sure. I have been reading a lot of books about nutrition. Some of it was absolute BS but there are some little nuggets of gold here and there.

For my current weight loss efforts, I am tracking my food intake daily and monitoring my carb, protein, and fat intake. One of the books I read explained how type O blood folks (that’s me) are really good at digesting fats and proteins. Our particular weakness is with carbohydrates, particularly those nasty ones in grains and dairy products. Unfortunately, there are no studies out there that verify that the blood type diet or any of the other diets out there do anything for your waistline, however, there were some items in the type O diet that I already knew I had a problem with.

My body loves protein but I discovered in the last few weeks when I began paying more attention to what I was eating, that Whey protein products are a no-go. I only drink about two protein shakes a day and they were causing some major issues with my digestion. I’m trying an egg white protein now and it appears to be ok with my physical makeup.

This is what Harold is talking about. What’s bad for me, may be good for you and vice versa. It’s really important to find this stuff out before you have a major allergic reaction or you screw up your digestive track. For me, it’s important to eat whole (non-boxed foods) and make sure I supplement properly to recover from my workouts.

So, folks, take some time to analyze your diet and identify those foods that might not be working for you. You can also visit your doctor and have him send you to a nutritionist if you have a major concern. These folks can make diet recommendations to get you started. Regardless, the food you eat, the supplements and vitamins you take, really are individual. Some supplements I have tried have ZERO effect, while others have been very helpful. Experiment, test things out. You’ll feel a lot better in the long-run.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesdays – Anger, Fear, Vanity

Tags

Anger, Emotions, Fear, Harold Klemp, Meditation, Prayer, The Language of Soul, Vanity

“When we reach the point in our unfoldment where we are treating others with love instead of fear, anger, or vanity, we’ve made a very important step back home to God.” —Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

How do we treat others with love? It is quite simple. We simply wish others well.

How many times have you reacted to someone else in anger or preached to someone from the pedestal of vanity? If you really think about it, both emotions are quite harmful and worthless in the end.

I tend to have the greatest weakness with vanity. When I am experiencing success with self-discipline, I tend to preach to others about how they are NOT. This is one version of vanity. Other types of vanity could be prejudice against another person, discriminating against someone, even the poor treatment of animals as if they were less important than we powerful humans.

Anger is a tough one because when someone does something to hurt us or violates our space after being asked politely to back off, we naturally get angry. I would never advocate turning a cheek in this respect. We all have a right to defend or stick up for ourselves.

In the end, each of us is simply Soul. If we can have compassion and understanding for other beings, treating them as Soul, our outlook can change a bit. There will always be someone to challenge you when you attempt to interact with them from “higher” ground.

What we are really talking about here is the ability to master the emotions. If we rise above them, they have no hold on us. This is hard, particularly when you are right in the thick of it. What I have found to work the best is to contemplate these emotions and really try to understand them. If you’re like me, you find that they are simply an illusion. When you get to the center of anger, fear, vanity, or jealousy, you find that nothing is there. It is just a way we REACT to the reality we are giving light to.

It is the REACTION to the things that are outside us that get us into trouble. One of the beauties of the human mind is our ability to replay these events in our mind and mock up different scenarios and situations that have invoked an emotion in the past. Once you experience this emotion, alter the environment or alter your way of reacting to it. You’ll find that you will become more centered and less likely to be thrown out of emotional balance. None of this is easy. You must want it. Experiment with this when you are meditating or praying. Play a situation that got the best of you repeatedly until it no longer affects you. Typically, once you master this situation, you will be better equipped to be in control and react less than you did before.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Today’s Quote – Harold Klemp

Tags

Following your Path, Harold Klemp, Helping Others to God

Today’s Quote:

“Sometimes you are called upon by the Holy Spirit to go out of your way to help another person toward the enlightenment of God.” —Harold Klemp The Language of Soul

For those of you who do not know, my religious path is Eckankar. Sri Harold Klemp is the spiritual leader of my path and I wanted to pass along a few quotes of his during the holidays. His quotes apply to any path.

Have you ever felt so good about the religious path you follow that you had to share it with others? This is a common feeling. We receive God’s love and we want to help others find this same feeling.

When I was growing up, I felt a little embarrassed by being an Eckist, because the town I grew up in was predominantly Christian. All of my friends went to Church and I didn’t. I felt strange and out of place when others could talk about going to Sunday School and the things they learned. I had nothing to share with my friends and when they asked I had to make something up to fit in.

I don’t feel bad about this. It is the nature of our existence here. Some of us are different and have to adapt to our differences. At the time, I chose conformity, making up a Church my family and I went to, to avoid the chastising I visualized receiving from my classmates had I admitted that I was not a Christian at all.

After following this path for 47 years, I have finally come to realize that this is just a phase that we must pass through. I imagine it is the same for any child who follows a path that is different from the mainstream in his school. Some may choose ridicule and “stick to their guns”, while folks like me took the easy way out and avoided the criticism by blending in.

Over the years I have matured in my beliefs and hope everyone has the opportunity to find a path that suits their needs. Whether their path is Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, or any other number of paths, each path is the right one for the individual who chooses it. They all lead the follower back to God.

Embrace your path. Follow its tenets. Study and follow the practices required by your holy books. The more you put in the more you get back.

Until next time…

Dave