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Philosophy: All things always happen for the best, especially when it’s impossible to see how that could possibly be true in the moment, but hindsight will make it all clear

2/25/2013

Reality is subjective. Perception is the lens through which we experience it and attitude is the tint in the lens. Some of the dark things that happen to us appear that way only because we’ve put a dark tint on the lens. We can make things brighter in just the same way we make things dark – by adjusting our attitudes. Here’s one of a multitude of practical applications.

Disappointments happen. But sometimes they lead to equivalent or greater opportunities. We’ve all seen this play out before. Because there’s no way to know it won’t happen the same way this time, why not embrace the possibility with a hopeful attitude?

Instead of letting disappointment about something gone wrong get you down consider it as the one necessary step backwards in order to take two or three steps forwards. Don’t let your mind rush to a negative judgment. Instead, allow some time to let the chain of cause and effect play out. In the meanwhile, if negative judgments keep popping into your mind, play devil’s advocate with them (which is more like “angel’s advocate” in this context) by observing that crisis breed opportunity.

Be mindful of the possibility that things going against you are happening just to turn you around so you're heading in the right direction, again.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Simplify the equation of life – add quality by subtracting the negative and pointless

2/11/2013

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We only have so much time; so why spend any of it on things that don’t provide much value in return? We squeeze more and more into our allotted time until we’re maxed out and eventually some important things get neglected. So more doesn’t necessarily equal better for us.

Consider Pareto’s Law or the 80/20 Rule: most of what makes your life wonderful comes from only a few uses of your time. What are those things? Your health, your peace of mind, your relationships, your accomplishments, your occupation? Identify the 20% of the things you spend time on that produce 80% of your life’s value, then start saying “No” to everything else more often.

As you become increasingly aware of how you spend your time you can also identify how well you spend it. Take advantage of the old saying "You don't know what you've got until it's gone" and start subtracting things from your life. If you don’t miss it once it’s gone then it wasn’t worth your time. Subtract and subtract and eventually you’ll have simplified the use of your time to only those things that add a lot of goodness to your life.

P.S. Would you like me to give you an assessment-type worksheet to download and use in incorporating these concepts? It's already on the agenda, but if you think it could be useful now, then I’ll get to it sooner than later. Just let me know.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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You become like the company (and environment) you keep – filter out all but the positive

2/8/2013

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There’s no doubt that we take on some of the characteristics of our environments. It’s actually an exchange; we influence and change our environments and our environments influence and change us. It pays to consider whether that’s always a good thing.

In a positive environment we thrive. In a negative environment we struggle. Usually, there’s a mix of positive and negative influences in our surroundings. Ideally, we’d do well to expand, imitate, and eventually embody the positive influences and ignore, avoid, and eliminate the negative influences. But we can’t do this effectively unless we selectively filter our environment to let in what serves us and block out what disturbs us.

Consider the places, spaces, and company you spend your time among: which aspects are most beneficial and which are a bother? After you identify these key influences, use your creativity and resourcefulness to create the ideal environment for your purposes out of whatever situation you find yourself in.

Your environmental filter will accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in your surroundings. You can minimize whatever negative influences manage to get through by consciously focusing your attention elsewhere. The result will be that you find yourself more often than not in surroundings that support your health and happiness.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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There’s no good or bad, it’s our thinking that makes it so – tell yourself nice lies

2/6/2013

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Shakespeare probably gets the most credit for these words, but many of us have experienced how true they really are.

Before we assign value to something by calling it “good” or “bad” all that exists is the "truth". Fundamentally, the truth is an impartial perception or idea; it’s not good or bad until we make it so.

When we put “good” and “bad” labels on the truth we create lies in the sense that we’ve altered the truth. As it would seem that we are always in the business of altering the truth, we can do ourselves a service by at least changing it in a way that’s self-supporting: by telling ourselves nice lies.

When Thomas Edison failed to invent the light bulb after hundreds of attempts he said that he didn’t necessarily see all those efforts as failures, but as ways of learning how not to make a light bulb. And it’s the same story for a lot of people who’ve succeeded in life despite adversity.

Looking at it from the other side of the coin, we can learn to stop changing the truth in ways that undermine our self-image or whatever endeavor we’re pursuing. For instance, sometimes when we perform an action that doesn’t go as well as we anticipated we assign it a "bad" value and call ourselves “no good” or “stupid” or “screw ups.” We've all been there. But a person’s behavior is not equal to the person. We all make mistakes and fail, but the truth is that none of us are mistakes or failures. When we change the truth by calling ourselves such untrue, negative things we’re changing the truth for our worse.

So if you’re in the habit of changing the truth for your worse then change it again, but this time in a way that supports you in whatever way you need. It’s good for your self-image and efforts to succeed if you learn to frame adversity in supportive ways. Or better still, learn to let things be as they are, make peace with the truth, and continue on your way.

"Good" and "bad" are just concepts, tools of the mind. And the mind accesses only part of reality. Later on I’ll show you what it means to get beyond your mind and experience life from that third, most subtle aspect of who you are.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Align what matters most with what you do the most

1/28/2013

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We've all heard it said; do what you love and you'll never work another day in your life. But for some of us, that's just not an option. There is a way to get closer to that ideal though, and it's by simply reflecting on our values. When what matters most to us aligns with what we spend our time on, the result is deep-seated satisfaction. Conversely, when that equation isn't balanced, the result is not just stress, but distress.

Everyone has values- the things that matter most- whether they’re aware of them or not. To create a satisfying life we first have to know what our values are so that we can make choices that are aligned with them. This goes for the big choices made in a whole lifetime and also for the countless small ones that are made on a day-to-day basis.

How we typically feel in the first and last moments of the day are indicators of how well we’re living and how happy we are. By paying attention to those quiet times and the insights they reveal we can have a greater understanding of what we value the most, and then implement those values to create our ideal lives.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Awareness is your greatest tool – developing it should be your #1 priority

1/27/2013

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When Socrates said, “Know thyself”, he was giving us some pretty important advice: to develop our awareness.

If life is a river then awareness resides up near the headwaters. It flows downstream touching everything in its path until it becomes apparent that its influence is everywhere. Well, the benefits seem pretty clear: in developing better awareness we increase the possibility of influencing our lives in positive ways.

Awareness is limited only by perception. There’s not much we can do to develop our perception. At best we can only slow the deterioration of our sensory perception organs.

However, awareness can be cultivated through practice. It’s easiest to begin strengthening physical awareness, by focusing physical effort in the body through an activity like choreographed dance, rock climbing, yoga etc. The list is endless, because there's no one exercise better than the other; the aim is just to find a physical activity and then stick with it.

Once physical awareness has been attained, its benefit can then be applied to the mind where the effects of increased awareness are truly revealed.

It’s impossible to consciously respond to or influence what we aren't even aware of. Before we are able to enact change in our lives we must first be able to identify what's in front of us and whether or not it is really what we want. Awareness is the tool with which we will create the lives and environments of our dreams.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Find your genius – there are many kinds and everyone has it

1/14/2013

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Everyone is a genius.

Every single baby lying in the newborn ward at the hospital has the potential to be absolutely amazing.

There are many different types of genius: musical, social, mathematical, athletic, spiritual, etc.

Do you know what your genius is?

If not, why not try to find out what it is? How's that for a raison d'être?

Once you know what your genius is -- and you'll know when you find it not so much in your head, intellectually, but more so in your heart, intuitively -- why not focus on trying to develop it?

Is there a more purposeful existence than expressing your genius, the unique gift you have been given?

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Stop shooting yourself in the foot – everyone is seeking joy and avoiding sorrow

1/14/2013

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If you make a list of all the things you don't love about your life you will see that you created them.

You will see that you were either the direct cause or at least a contributing cause of pretty much everything on your list. That was the inescapable conclusion I had to reach if I had any commitment to being honest with myself when I did this. I think you'll find the truth in it, as well.

If you could just stop creating problems for yourself your life would transform into a winning lottery ticket. That's because it's our nature to feel scintillating (I'll elaborate later).

Nature, God, or whatever word you want to use for events beyond our control account for almost none of the things we don't like about our lives. Just look at your list and you'll see.

The beautiful things about this realization is that it's empowering. We have almost total control over the lives we've created for ourselves and we can intelligently use that control (I'll show you how) to create the idea life we dream about . . . and even a life beyond our dreams.

P.S. This all applies equally well to the things we (humanity) don't like about the world, too, because the world is just a larger scale version of an individual.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Forward>>

Philosophy: All things always happen for the best, especially when it’s impossible to see how that could possibly be true in the moment, but hindsight will make it all clear

Simplify the equation of life – add quality by subtracting the negative and pointless

You become like the company (and environment) you keep – filter out all but the positive

There’s no good or bad, it’s our thinking that makes it so – tell yourself nice lies

Align what matters most with what you do the most

Awareness is your greatest tool – developing it should be your #1 priority

Find your genius – there are many kinds and everyone has it

Stop shooting yourself in the foot – everyone is seeking joy and avoiding sorrow

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