Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Grateful for Life

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Acceptance, Awareness, Grateful, Gratitude, Joy, reality, simplicity, spirituality

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege, it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love.” Marcus Aurelius

It is a privilege to be alive. I am thankful for each day and all the experiences that come with it. Each of us is here to gain experience and take one more step back to our true home–God. The lessons keep coming and we either learn or fail to recognize the lesson presented to us. The lessons keep coming.

I believe that everything is in its rightful place in the universes of God. It is not reality that is the problem. It is our inability to accept reality for what it is. Some things we can change or avoid, but who can avoid being sick, the death of a loved one, or the loss of a job? No one. These things happen. People get sick, they die, and in today’s business climate will lose work.

There is always a lesson to be learned in every problem we encounter. You can get emotional, you can throw a tantrum, you can ignore the problem, but the problem and the lesson remain. God is persistent. If you fail this time, God will give you ample opportunity to try again, and again, and again. God has all the time there is to help you grow and return to your home. It will happen sooner or later. Why not make it sooner?

I have had a good share of trouble in my life. I’ve filed bankruptcy twice, divorced twice, lost a home, surrendered a few vehicles, lost my job, and a whole host of other things. Did I learn anything? You bet. I realized that happiness has nothing to do with whom you have in your life, how healthy or sick you are, or if you have a soul mate. Happiness is a personal choice. If you want to be happy–be happy. It is that simple.

Find the joy in the moment. Savor that first cup of coffee. Listen to a loved one tell you about his or her day. Talk to your dog or cat and spend time with them. Enjoy every bite of that cheesecake. Happiness to me is all about paying attention to how great we all have it. I have enough food to eat; I have a roof over my head; I have projects that keep me busy; we have a nice dog, a nice home, a great backyard, and the technology we need to interact online, play games, and watch television shows.

For me happiness is recognizing the things I have, rather than thinking about what I do not have. It is literally taking into account all the things I am grateful for and savoring the thoughts that come from that place where all is well. I do this every morning and it is really a great thing to do. Simply write down all the things you are grateful for and keep adding to the list until you feel it–that feeling of comfort, love, and satisfaction, knowing all is right with your world. I do this in my gratitude journal and it is an awesome daily practice. Try it out. Start small and write down 3 things you are grateful for. That’s it. As you establish this habit, you’ll find that you will uncover more and more things you are grateful for. Be as specific as you want or as generalized as you want.

When you have established the habit of a gratitude journal, you’ll begin to notice a shift in your attitude. You will begin to realize that you really do have all you need. Things will rattle you less. Things will roll off of your back instead of sticking to you. When you realize you have all you need, life becomes a true joy to live.

Thank you, to all of my new followers this week. I really appreciate the growth. My goal this year is to get to 1000 followers. I am at 564 so far, so I have some more work to do to gain more. If you enjoy reading Daily Ramblings, send your friends here. I thank you in advance for any help you provide.

Two things I’d like you to keep in the back of your mind as you move forward with your life. All is in its rightful place in the universes of God and God will never give you a problem you cannot solve. These two points should give you great solace as you move forward. I wish you well.

Have a great Saturday everybody! See you on Monday!

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Wisdom Wednesday -How We React is What Matters

Tags

Awareness, Balance, Detachment, Filters, Internal Maps, Negativity, Positivity, Reaction, reality

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”—Epictetus

There are so many things that happen to us that are out of our control. We get sick. We suffer during national disasters. The people in our lives betray us.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on the mind and have learned a great deal. Each of us has an internal filter. This filter causes us to miss, alter, or even delete the inputs we receive from our environment. This filtering is both unconscious and automatic. If our filter is healthy, there are no problems. If our filter is unhealthy, there are all kinds of problems.

Some people can look at a situation and see the good in it, regardless of the circumstances. Others could look at the same situation and see the worst. All of us do this. We test our environments and make judgements. These judgements affect the way we interpret our lives.

Have you ever noticed how some people are always experiencing one disaster after another? Everything seems to go wrong. Their health is bad, their outlook is mainly negative, and they expect the worst. The people in their lives cause problems, their decisions cause problems. All of this occurs because of their internal wiring. Because their perceptions and filters are on automatic, they cannot change what they see. Their lives perpetuate a vicious cycle because that’s all they can see.

The opposite of this person is someone who walks through life in bliss. Everything they touch turns to gold. Anything they try to do yields results. Their relationships are healthy. They are healthy. Their outlook is positive. Like their counterpart above, they automatically look for the good and this is what they get.

Most of us fall in between these two individuals. Some things that happen to us we feel bad about while other things happen that we feel good about. All of us have that weakness or outlook that plague us.

Regardless of our internal filters or maps, we all deal with reality. Reality is. Things happen to us. Our reaction to this reality dictates our mood. Some will look at a bad situation and see the good in it. Some will look at a bad situation and only see the bad. Some will rail against this reality and try to change it. They fail, become frustrated, and continue to complain about reality, which will not change.

What’s the solution to this problem? Acceptance and detachment. If we accept reality for what it is, we adapt to it. Detachment eases suffering. We expect nothing; we accept everything as it is. We can still set goals, pursue our interests, and strive for what we want, but remain in a detached state about our results. This detachment allows us to continue to strive and accept the results we have attained. Then we adjust and push forward again. We don’t get pissed; we don’t get ecstatic. We accept things for what they are, make the changes we can, and live with the rest in peace. We are in peace because our detachment allows us to be happy with what we have without expectation.

If you react to something in an inefficient or unhelpful manner, stop. Examine your internal processes. What triggers your reaction? If you can sit back and observe yourself being triggered, you can locate how you create this feeling. Once you understand how you create these inefficient feelings, you can change them. In most cases, once you realize something inside you that does not serve you, it will fade away. Your awareness is key.

I hope all of you have a terrific day!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Daily Quote

Tags

Achievement, Action, ideas, reality, Scott Belsky

Today’s Quote:

“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.” – Scott Belsky

Another great quote emphasizing the importance of bringing an idea into the physical realm by taking action. You can have the best idea about a book, a business, or some goal you’ve been dreaming about. If you don’t take the actions necessary to write the book, build the business, or achieve your goal, it will NEVER happen.

Brainstorm, write down your ideas, make a plan to bring an idea to life, and BINGO! You did it!! Now go celebrate and get ready to tackle the next one.

All the best, readers!!

Happy Sunday!

Until next time…

Dave

 

Overwhelming…

Tags

facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Productivity, reality, social media, time-management, twitter, virtual

via Daily Prompt: Overwhelming

I enjoy these daily prompts, particularly on those days when I either have too many ideas or too few ideas about what I would like to write about. I write every day and will either post here, or work on one of the many book ideas I have. My primary project will deal with technical recruiting and provides me a way to give back to the profession that gave so much to me. The word overwhelming could be applied to so many things today. Social media is overwhelming, particularly if you are a member of more than one of these sites. I enjoy Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, and Facebook. When these media sites are at their peak during the day, it is amazing how many things are being discussed, posted, and reposted.

Like email, I limit myself to a few visits to these sites each day, this blog included. On days that I am absolutely bored and unmotivated, I’ll gravitate from one board to another, clicking like, retweet, etc. During these days the time flies because we become so mesmerized by the blur of activity, funny videos, pictures of our friends, and so on.

As a way to provide some value to my readers, I’ll get to my point. Social media is “virtual” life. It is not real. Sure it’s fun to have someone give you a like for a posting, just like it is a real treat to get likes on my postings here, but frankly, the people you consider your friends in these mediums barely scratch the surface of what true friendship and family are.

These sites are fun. They are interesting and allow us to connect with people that in the past we would have had no access to. I treat the people in my networks as pen pals. Pen pals were something I learned about in elementary school. Our teacher got us to sign up and we each had a friend from another country that we would write to and so forth. After a few years I lost track of my pen pal, but today I have thousands of them.

I’m in America and have friends in Indonesia, the Phillippines, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, India, and many other places. It is so interesting to see what other people find funny, sad, or even how they celebrate. You can see it all on social media. Now, it may not be an exact representation of what you would consider traditional, but it is so heartwarming to see a friend put up pictures of a newborn, or pictures of a far-away place they’ve visited.

Spend time with your family. Spend real time with your family away from the social media, the mobile phones, and really listen to them. Control the amount of time you spend on these sites. They will suck the life out of you and minimize your ability to do anything creatively, pursue your dreams, or accomplish your goals.

I treat them just like I do email. I review my email 4 times a day. I visit my email mid-morning after my morning ritual, I visit again after lunch, evening after dinner, and during my evening ritual. When I’m going through my email I’ll also check my sites, sometimes only for a few seconds if no one has responded to my postings, I have no new friend invites, and so on.

Social media is here to stay. It is fun, it is interesting, and it is definitely entertaining. It is not a substitute for life or real relationships with your friends, family, and loved ones. Now go hug your wife, your kids, your mother and father. That is where our time needs to be placed.

Until next time…