Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – The Law of Change

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God, inevitable, Law of Change, reality, Spiritual, Spiritual Saturday, Universe

Take a moment to think about your life. What do you notice?

One thing I notice when I look at my life is change. The Law of Change deals with this aspect of our universe. Nothing stays the same—nothing. Our bodies age, our friends change, our environment changes, our relationships change, and so on. Everything in this reality we live in is constantly changing.

Why does change occur? It occurs because our universe is built on three different forces. There is a positive force, a negative force, and a neutral force. These forces interact with one another and impact each of us in an infinite amount of ways. Since each of us is unique, we experience these fluctuations in these three forces uniquely. Our experiences with these fluctuations can be good, bad, or indifferent. Our experience is dictated by our reactions to them. If we perceive change as good, we accept it. If we perceive change as bad, we fight it. If we perceive a change as neutral, we don’t see the change, so it doesn’t affect us.

Realizing this, it should be apt that we embrace change, expect it. But do we do that? No. We fight it, we rail against it, we dislike it. This results in a pretty unhappy existence for most.

When things change around us, we have to change. For example, if you are working a good job and told one day that the company is going out of business, you have to adapt to that change. If your loved one tells you that he or she is no longer in love with you and is having an affair, you have to adapt to that. When you wake up and realize you’re sick, you have to adapt to that.

Change is inevitable. It is constant. It is ongoing. When things change, look for the positives. Embrace the change as necessary for your spiritual growth. When you do this, you’re going to begin enjoying changes in your life and realizing a fact: All is in its rightful place in the worlds of God – Harold Klemp. Nothing is left to chance here. There is no bad or good luck. All is in its rightful place. Our feeble human minds may not grasp the reason behind a change, but the change is going to come, and it is necessary for you, me, all of us.

I hope you have a terrific Saturday!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Happiness

Tags

Control, Happiness, Internal, Spiritual, spirituality, stoic, stoicism

Each of us fluctuates from being happy or sad or find ourselves in between these two opposites. I became interested in this a few years ago. I began a study of what made me happy and what made me sad. This led me to a philosophy called stoicism. A few of the famous stoics were Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. The core philosophy of stoicism is only worrying about what you control and let go of the rest. When you pursue this line of thought further, you realize that the only thing you have control over is your attitude about the circumstances or happenings in your life.

If someone does you wrong, a natural reaction is to get angry about it. This is one reaction. Another reaction could be gratitude. You could be grateful for learning about another person’s character. This knowledge can be used to avoid that person in the future, or at least to avoid expecting this person to do anything requiring trust.

There are many things outside of us that could affect our mood. The weather, what a government official says, what a person does or doesn’t do, and the list goes on and on. When you think about all the things that impact your mood, there are many. So what are you supposed to do?

The key to living a happy life is understanding that only you can decide to be happy. Happiness is within you. Happiness is an attitude that springs from your core. This doesn’t mean that you are happy all the time; it means that you are happy most of the time, with intermittent points of disappointment, anger, sadness, and all the other emotions. This requires you to look for the good in every situation. It requires that you look for the lessons that are there, just for you.

It is easy to react. Someone does something that upsets us–we get pissed off. You read a news article about some politician doing this or that, and we get pissed off. You lay some plan for an outing and it blows up and you again get pissed off or disappointed or a combination of the two.

Our emotions all spur from something outside of us in most cases. We are unhappy with our jobs, our partners, our friends, the weather, you name it. When you truly aspire to be happy, regardless of your circumstances, your life will change for the better. You learn that you are in control of your emotions, not the other way around. You are in control of how you react to outside circumstances. When you realize how much control you have, life gets a little easier.

Have a great Saturday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday –

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Consistency, Discipline, Learn, Persistence, Read, Social, Spiritual, Work Ethic, Write

Every day that you get up, you decide how hard you’ll work. You decide what you will do today. You decide how much you will put into every task at hand. You decide.

Enjoy the video, folks, and have a killer weak!

Here’s my daily schedule:

Read my books and articles

Learn coding, writing, history, sociology, and adult education

Exercise

Spiritual exercise, reading, journaling, reading

Write in my journals, my book, write my assignments

Post helpful and insightful articles, quotes, check in with friends and family on social media

Skim Google News, Flipboard, Pocket, The Epoch Daily, Daily Wire

Get in some video game play if I have time

Have a great week, folks.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Labor Day

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Consistency, Determination, Discipline, Exercise, Labor Day, motivation, Reading, Social, Spiritual, Writing

Today, I’m relaxing and enjoying Labor Day! So today’s posts will be shorter than normal. Here’s my week!

• Writing (Journaling, Book Writing, Blogging) daily
• Learning (History of Maths on Curiosity.com, Codecademy, Sociology on Study.com, Writing Class on Master Class) daily
• Exercise (20 minutes cardio, exercise bands) daily
• Spiritual (Reading Bible, Spiritual Exercise) daily
• Reading (Fiction, Non-fiction) daily
• Social (posting helpful quotes, connecting with friends, supporting people with pleasant things to say) daily

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Week of Aug 24, 2020.

Tags

Coding, Exercising, journaling, K.M. Allan, Learning, motivation, Reading, Spiritual, Writing

I hope everyone’s weekend was outstanding! I got my work done and took some time to watch a few Marvel movies. I re-watched Iron Man, Iron Man 2, and Iron Man 3. These are all great stories, and the special effects are over the top. I also got in some entertainment reading. I’m reading K.M. Allan’s second book in her Blackbirch series, which is really entertaining. I don’t read a lot of fiction, because non-fiction is more up my alley, but the Blackbirch series is awesome. I highly recommend you buy it, if you enjoy a good story. Here’s the link: https://amzn.to/2QlKrmR

Anyway, I hope all of you have a great week! Here’s my daily schedule:

Journaling daily (Personal, Dream, and Spiritual)

Coding daily (Data Science Path Codecademy)

Writing daily (Book, Blog, Classwork)

Exercise daily (See Workout Routine)

Reading daily (multiple books, articles)

Learning daily (Codecademy, Masterclass, Study.com)

Spiritual daily (Contemplation, Spiritual Reading)

That’s it folks! Have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Reciprocity

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Altruism, Ego, Giving, Leo Buscaglia, Reciprocity, Saturday, Selflessness, Spiritual

The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower, share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another’s, smile at someone and receive a smile in return, are to me continual spiritual exercises.

Leo Buscaglia

Giving, teaching, empathizing, sharing. These all involve doing something for someone else. Giving another person your time, even if it is to just listen to them. Share what you’ve learned, share your happiness, share something that is special to you. The pay back for these actions is contentment, happiness, and a warmth you can’t get from doing things for yourself.

This warmth is something that is hard to explain. It is like your heart gets warm. It permeates your whole body.

Doesn’t it feel great when you can help someone and that frown on their face turns to a smile? Maybe you’re a good listener and one of your friends needs to vent. Isn’t it great to just listen to someone vent and work things out for themselves?

Spirituality doesn’t have to be a formal religion. It doesn’t require a holy book or going to a service or meeting. It literally is nothing more than tapping into that inner part of yourself that knows what good is. It doesn’t concern itself with the petty and small ego. It gives. It gives without concern for anything in return. It gives because others need it. Nothing more.

When you give of yourself without expecting anything in return, the ego shrinks. You can’t live without an ego, but you can live with a shrunken one. Whenever you think about others more than you do yourself, the ego is put aside. This “putting aside” demonstrates that the ego is not all you. It is only a creation of you so you can survive.

I’ll stop there.

Have a great Saturday, folks!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Friends

Tags

Buddies, family, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Saturday, Spiritual

As I write this post, one of my Mother’s friends is visiting. It’s great to see her hang out with other women, because frankly, hanging out with two guys all the time (Dad and I) is boring. Guys don’t talk like women do, at least Dad and I don’t.

Friends are those folks who know us. They know who we are, how we tick. Friendship lasts a lifetime, or they fade when we move, and forget to stay in touch. Today, that seems impossible, but I imagine it happens, particularly when a friendship really wasn’t to begin with.

I don’t have many friends, but the ones I have are lifers. My best friend is my wife, but I also have a significant group of folks in AZ that I stay in touch with. Our society is very mobile today. I moved back home to help my folks. One friend moved to Boston, another to Las Vegas. Still another moved to AZ as I was leaving. Things change, people change, but friendship remains.

Friendship is the best, isn’t it?

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Spiritual Saturday – Love Yourself

Tags

Achievement, Goals, habits, Love Yourself, self-affirmation, self-care, Self-love, Spiritual

Don’t forget to love yourself.

Soren Kierkegaard

So many of us beat the living crap out of ourselves. I know I used to. I still do today, but less frequently. I typically get down on myself when I feel like I’m just “going through the motions” and not really putting my entire self into a project.

This happened recently.

I love an automated or ritualized day. I have the same recurring tasks each day and knock them down one by one. Blogging is one of them. I also read, code, learn, journal, interact on social media, exercise, and perform my daily spiritual tasks. It really works for me, but alas, these rituals drift from purposeful self-improvement to automaton-like actions very easily.

As I tackled this feeling, I realized that I should probably take my advice. There will be days where we just don’t feel the motivation and drive we normally do. We’re human. Can I say each workout I do in the gym is 100%? Heck no. This same phenomenon applies to everything else we do. So, I realized that I need to give myself a break.

This is self-love. This is taking care of yourself. This is giving yourself a break. Who wants to live with a micromanager and tyrant? I sure don’t. So, I closed my eyes a few days ago and pretended I was staring at my 7-year-old self. I told myself that you are OK. You will screw up. You’re still an honorable person. You will be lazy some days. On those days, continue to work, but take it a little easy. The days where you’re raring to get at it will be there too. Enjoy those days as well. The days you don’t feel it, enjoy them too and give yourself a break. Just keep doing your daily tasks and you’ll be fine.

That was all it took for me. What things do you do for yourself to recapture the passion you have for your daily tasks/goals? If you have some other ideas, post them in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Monday Motivation – Week of June 22, 2020.

Tags

Consistency, Discipline, Drive, Mental, motivation, Persistence, Physical, Social, Spiritual

Well, folks, Father’s Day was a success. Dad got some cards, a few books, multiple phone calls from my Brother, Sister, and the Niece and Nephew. Dad also had steak for dinner. Steak is his favorite. I hope all of you had a good Father’s Day!

This week, we’re back to it. Here’s my schedule:

Physical – Exercise Monday – Saturday (see Workout Routine)

Mental – Coding, Writing, Reading, Online Classes

Social – Post meaningful and positive quotes and articles to my social media feeds, Blog daily, Interact with family and friends whenever I can.

Spiritual – Discourse work, read the Bible, Spiritual Exercises, Gratitude and Dream Journaling

I hope all of you are have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday – Circle of Control

Tags

Consistency, Daily Rituals, Daily Tasks, Discipline, Mental, Motivation Monday, Persistence, Physical, Social, Spiritual

The late Stephen Covey wrote about the Circle of Control in his book: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The Circle of Control is what you control entirely. It is your attitude, your belief system, your values, and your actions. The Circle of Control does not depend on anyone or anything else.

What a lot of people worry about is what is called the Circle of Concern. They are concerned about the weather, what another person will do, or what event might happen. Do they have control of any of these things? No. This is why the Circle of Concern if focused on will actually shrink the Circle of Control. Focus on what you can control and you will grow your Circle of Control. Take this little piece of advice into the upcoming week. You’ll be less stressed and more productive.

Here’s my week folks (All tasks listed below are daily tasks (Monday – Saturday):

Physical: (See Workout Routine)

Mental: Reading Star Carrier Series Book 3, Reading my Bible, Computer Science Path on Codecademy, and working on my book, The Forever Soldier.

Spiritual: Reading my Bible, Gratitude and Dream Journaling, Working through my Spiritual discourses, doing my spiritual exercises

Social: Post uplifting quotes and poems, Blogging, staying in contact with my friends and family

Have a great week, folks!

Until next time…

Dave