Appreciating What The People In Your Life Bring To The Table

wanted to get into a really important article, and while it may not come across as climatic, if the title has grabbed you on any level, i recommend you read it carefully all the way through.

maybe you know this stuff already, and in that case it is a reminder.

or maybe you have been walking through life without a map like this, and it is really what you need to hear.

i want to talk about a tendency today that i have watched friends and strangers alike use to destroy their own lives and happiness.

this the tendency of failing to appreciate (or perhaps better stated — to *forget*) what the people you surround yourself with are bringing to the table.

we are talking classic self-sabotage here.

Screw Your Life Up 101.

we all do it to various extents, it is just a matter of how much we are able to recognize and keep it in check.

i have seen it over and over, especially in situations where people’s lives are about to hit a “next level”.

here is my opinion of how and why this occurs.

basically, we all have a concept in our minds about how much success we are supposed to have in life.

most people think that success is a positive event that they would welcome.

that is not entirely true however — or at least, living does not tend to be that simple.

in reality, any time your quality of life starts to accelerate past your mind’s unconscious concept of where you are “supposed” to be, you are now leaving your comfort zone.

when this happens, you slam into what is known as a “success barrier”.

and what happens next?

the good old “RAS” (reticular activation system — the psychological mechanism that makes you FOCUS on certain events and SCREEN OUT others) kicks in and starts playing tricks on you.

rationalizations deluxe.

you start to focus on petty stuff, lose sight of the big picture, and forget just how far it is you have come.

(not to mention how far down you will fall when you return to your old situation).

oftentimes this comes in the form of allowing disputes to escalate with the people in your life who are most helping to move you forward.

why?

because it is those valuable relationships that your mind recognizes as being the easiest leverage-points to sabotage and bring you back down to your previous life.

“So-and-so doesn’t really appreciate me…“

“They have no idea what I’m bringing to the table, they’d be so lost without me…“

“The biggest source of stress in my life is so and so…I could be so much happier and do so much better on my own…“

etc, etc.

now sometimes this is actually true.

to be a winner in life, you need to recognize the people who are polluting your mental/spiritual space with negative influence and allow them to go their separate ways.

at the same time, the key to remember is that if you got involved with the person in the first place, then surely there WAS a good reason for it at one point.

moreover, the brutal reality is that oftentimes you need to look at YOURSELF.

because if you are failing to get along with one person then there is a decent chance that the same dysfunctional tendency will rear its head in your next relationship as well.

i can say personally that whenever i have had misunderstandings with family or friends, i have always had to take a pause and ask myself some hard questions like (and these sound easy — but they are a lot tougher than just letting your mind go off into its indignant default state):

“What’s causing this?“

“Even if it’s him/her/them, is this behaviour totally independent or is it a mirror of something I’m putting out there?“

“Realistically, if I ended the relationship, would I wind up in the same type of argument with my next relationships as well?“

being in a relationship when you are in the people business is not easy.

one thing you will notice about me is also that i have never spoken a negative word publically about anyone i have ever been involved with — in business and personally.

obviously that is because it is second-class behaviour and i expect more from myself.

but more importantly, it is also because i recognize if i have had a falling out with someone, that it is more important to focus on what i can learn from it than it is to run around trying to rally people towards my opinion so my ego can say: “Look!! Everyone agrees with me!! I must be right!!”

the way i see it is life is a learning-curve.

you always have the option to keep evolving to the next paradigm for as long as you are interested — which means becoming a better person and more fit to live in the world with every single year of your life.

for me, every relationship — whether with business or women or students or clients or friends or strangers — is an opportunity to become better at relating to people.

i know in my case, in the first few years of walking this path, i have allowed a lot of relationships to go sour.

in the following years, i learned from it and probably managed to cut that out of my life ten fold — where now even with over 100 times more clients and public relations who i come into contact with, i have learned to relate to people on a level that i know is Win/Win.

will that always be the case?

of course not. but it has continued to improve.

i know back in 2004 with Devra (AKA Chris) and myselfm, there are probably no two people who are more opposite on this earth.

that is both in terms of our personalities as well as our 180 degree different visions for our XanGo business.

we communicate differently, we think very differently, we look at the world ENTIRELY differently.

any day of the week, if you know us both, you can look at disGOvery as an organization and figure out which element was Dev’s decision and which one was mine.

but we work through it and we compromise — and that is why the organization has weathered adversity for all these years.

it reminds of a few years back reading the epic “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand.

instantly, i related to how the lead character, Dagny Taggert, had the brother who insisted she produce her usual stellar results despite that he was cutting her off of from the resources she needed to do so.

the brother would yell and scream to get what he wanted — thinking he could “shut his eyes to reality” and make enough of a stink that the world would just magically alter itself to accomodate his unrealistic ideals.

at the time, and as a guy a few years younger than i am now, i felt like that was Dev and i.

contained in my own personal myth was the idea of myself as the creative guy who produced the programs and events and marketing sluffs (not stuff, SLUFFS) that we were known for.

Dev was the guy who wanted me to keep creating more of these at the same high calibre — but at a faster rate because he had no concept of the time and effort that was involved.

with more experience, however, i began to grasp the old self help principle of “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.”

the more realistic perspective of the matter is that both Dev and i slipped back and forth between the various roles.

on one level, with only 18 waking hours in a day, Dev was not realistic to think i would produce the type of material disGOvery is known for at a faster rate.

at the same time, one thing i did not realize was that in many ways the person who was acting like Dagny Taggart’s brother from the story was ME.

in insisting that product/event quality match my vision to the most obnoxious extent (far beyond what 99% of people could even recognize or appreciate), i was ignoring the reality that Dev was being forced to pull nerve-wracking highwire acts to find the venture-capital to keep us afloat to do our vision.

disGOvery, much more XanGo, is an entity far larger than myself, and it is not my personal empire to make meet my every creative impulse any more than it is Dev’s to use as a personal piggybank.

my rigidity nearly bankrupted us several times over the years, and that put us and the whole team under a stress that i could never understand without having been in Dev shoes (handling our finances and etc).

it is very easy, for example, to say: “Forget and screw anyone who’s in it for the money.”

but there is also a reality to money, and unless you have been in the situation where you are forced to come up with it out of thin air like Dev and i, your opinion really does not mean a lick.

so see, in the same way i had read Atlas Shrugged and thought “If Dev read this, he’d instantly understand where I’m coming from” and if Dev were to read the same book (which incidentally he has but we haven’t talked about it) he would very likely think in reverse the same thing.

we are ALL the heroes and justified individuals in our own personal mythology.

we are in the right, God is on our side, and everyone who does not see that is just whacked.

but in reality, or at least as close to it as we can get, the people we surround ourselves with often bring more to the table than we can possibly realize unless we pause and take stock.

it is extremely easy to forget, and a very hard thing to focus on when we are feeling self-justified and looking to lay the blame.

(especially in the same neurotic detail that we focus on the other person’s bad sides when we are in a “mood”).

i mean really, how often do you stop to be appreciative for what you get out of your relationships in comparison to how much you spend thinking about the downsides and the bigger and better deal?

but that is unchecked human nature in all its glory.

our inflated delusional pride which seek to give us confidence that we do not need anybody — maybe serving the purpose of allowing us to put on a front so people will not think we need them too much — which causes us to make these bone-headed moves.

and you know, probably a good 50% of people reading this are engaged in a self-dialogue right now where they are saying: “This overly optimistic trash doesn’t apply to me, I don’t get into ‘moods’, blah blah blah.”

of course, it is not going to get them anywhere, but at least it will keep their belief systems temporarily intact.

in the meantime, i am trying to focus on what is good about the people in my life, and bringing more of that energy in my direction every single day.

ATS : The Pursuit Of Being Happy-ness

you wish you can feel good about yourself always.

no more doubts.
no more fear and insecurity.
no more unpleasant thoughts.
no more diets.
no more standing in front of the mirror naked and seeing nothing but flab and more flab on bad days.

you want to see yourself and be happy with who you were, who you are, and who you will be.

you do not know when this goal will be realized.
you even think this is probably a stupid goal anyway.

you do not know how to be comfortable with who you are.
but you keep telling yourself: “One day! One day, I will be.”

you are your own biggest critic and are trying to be easier on yourself.

you want to be happy with yourself, meaning be satisfied with who you are and not try to change yourself and all that. sometimes, you think you do this really well, when you recognize things that are unique about you that are kind of cool, that the world would be a lesser place without. other times, you are down on yourself for the things you see as flaws.

you wonder how many of us are unhapy with ourselves because:
1) we think we have messed up big time
2) we are always comparing ourselves to others
3) we are in the aftermath of a relationship gone wrong

for some reason you think a lot of our being unhappy with ourselves has to do with that last one. the relationship thing. which makes you wonder if maybe some of us were in a relationship in large part for the affirmation that someone else can give us.

all we want is happiness.
all you want is happiness.

and yes, rejection does not mean you are bad
and
you do not want to die each time you get rejected.

you do not even know where to start.

you hope that you have not lost your identity. you have sacrificed so much for others and you never seem to be the one to do something for yourself. does that make sense? you want to get busy and do things. to truly live. you want to start. you want that “Ah-Ha!” moment where you discover the truth and realize your purpose and start planning on how to achieve it.

but, when will that ever happen?

you finally accepted yourself for the imperfect, but perfectly acceptable person you are.

and you love yourself – every stretch mark, every bad hair day, your crazy family.

you love the fact that there is no pressure to have to put on a mask and to pretend to be happy when you are not.

it is all about believing in yourself.

you are with yourself completley and if you are in doubt, you always tell that doubt to shut up because it is not real!

you are fabulous!
you are.
and not really be lying when you say it or tell people that you are.

you guess that is the balance.

you do not want to be one of those people who are smug and think their opinion is the best and only one. you would like to be confident in yourself and your opinions, and not second guess yourself so much.

you would d like to be able to have the strength of your convictions, to learn that your opinion is just as important as everyone elses, to do something and think you have done well because you think you have done well, not because someone else has told you (that you have done good).

it would start with understanding what makes you happy, and not what makes “other” people happy.

enough waiting; you WANT to live.
you want to start enjoying the journey and stop waiting for each destination.

happiness is learning to accept.

once you realize what is important and what is not, which problems are life-shattering and which are correctable, and perhaps most importantly, knowing that worrying does not fix a darn thing — there is a freeing feeling, a lightness. it is not about ignoring things, not about being oblivious, not about pretending everything is perfect. it is about acceptance and picking battles and feeling great about who you are and where you are going.

as you imagine the possibilities for the blank sheet of paper that is your life at this time, you are becoming happier every day. every moment.

finding your sense of purpose – or really, rediscovering it is key to this.

you having been an uber achiever (sometimes you do not even believe the things that you have accomplished) makes this whole process even harder.

Sports Editor, Marketing Director, DJ, President of a Non-Profit, Church Elder, Staff Writer, National Sales Manager, on and on it goes.

being in positions where you had people reporting to you, and others pointing out your accomplishments, and even when work was more about work than accolades, there was being recognized as Elite Status by the airline which made business travel a real treat, and all the stuff that goes along with it.

there were expectations put on you by the organizations in which you participated. even if some of it was keeping up appearances, you did have a sense of purpose.

THAT is what will make you happy – a sense of purpose.

the thing about being happy is to be around people who are happy, too. and if you are not around people who are happy, then you can help each other become happy. being happy is not just you being happy. but it is the people around you and the people you love who are happy with you.

being happy is not about having more things. get that.

it is a state of mind.

being happy is having a good sense of pride in yourself.
that you are happy being yourself.

life is too short! be here right now!

when we are all too old to go out and enjoy life, we will look back and think to ourselves: “i wish i made the most of life when i was younger” and you will regret you did not do all the things you could be doing now instead of feeling down. so chin up! you only have one life to live. and it is up to you how you spend your life. be happy with yourself!

you think you should be happy with yourself, because if you are not happy with yourself how can you be with others?

be free.
be who you are.
believe in yourself.
enjoy the sun, the rain, the little things.
think of colorful things.
give love, speak gently, love much, laugh often.

they say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world. someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.

you have learned that God has blessed you and that every aspect of yourself is beautiful in His eyes, and you flaunt it because He made it just for you.

just as you are.

you may think that total happiness should be impossible.

but something happened yesterday. yesterday was your 29th birthday, and lying in bed, you thought a lot about death and what you would feel if you closed your eyes and never got to see your 29th year.

surprisingly, you felt you would be happy.

you have found love, companionship; you are appreciated and respected by those around you; you have found what you consider your calling and you have made positive progress in reaching it.

you are on the right path, in the right direction.

you are happy.

of course, you did not and do not want to die. as you went through a pretty plain and uneventful day, however, everything seemed to be right. not perfect, nor even ideal, but just the way it was.

in the time that you have been missing from writing, you have been doing a lot of reading and thinking. one thing that came from all this is that you think happiness actually has two meanings — mostly because we have used the word incorrectly.

in one sense, it means the opposite of sadness. we want to be happy so that we are not blue. on the other hand, happiness means peacefulness, harmony, and pleasant mindfulness of our being. this is the definition you and i think most people here are searching for.

but they are not synonymous. in fact, the first definition is inextricably tied to the things we dislike; we cannot be truly happy but that we experience sadness, and sadness itself is the thing that makes us want happiness. you cannot remove one without removing both.

here is where many may object: “Are you saying that we shouldn’t strive for happiness?” they would say. in a sense, yes. stop striving for things that will bring you a temporary “up” and force you to burn your energies in the impossible task of maintaining that high. this is akin to the addiction cycle of substance abusers; you are abusing happiness and it will only hurt you in the long run.

there is a bigger story.
we are in a bigger story.

instead, recognize and accept that you live as an imperfect person in an imperfect situation of an imperfect world. this guarantees your awareness that there will be things that are of varying degrees of good and bad in your life. rather than being influenced by them, exert influence: accept their existence and your committment to improving all things. learn to be at peace when things are gloomy and no one can take your joy when things are pleasant. the secret is that your true happiness comes from within, from the conquering of every moment by the will within your heart.

“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.” -Viktor E. Frankl.

that is how the professor of neurology and psychiatry has succinctly summed up on happiness. he goes on to say: “A human being is not one in pursuit of happiness but rather in search of a reason to become happy, last but not least, through actualizing the potential meaning inherent and dormant in a given situation.”

Essentially You

Blisse and i were having dinner.

caesar salad and spaghetti.
natural homemade food.

halfway through it, Blisse blurted out: ”We forgot the bits.”
bits - something like croutons or bacon bites.

so, she got it.

i remarked: ”it would be funny if we forgot the greens in the salad.”
“or the spaghetti noodles in the spaghetti.”

(chuckle here and there).

to which she replied: ”then it wouldn’t be spaghetti.”

to which we both agreed.

at that moment, i was telling Blisse that our life and who we are is somewhat like the salad and spaghetti on the table.

without the noodles, it would not be spaghetti.
no greens, not really a salad.

listen up.

same thing.

you can have your name, education, and the other external stuff, but without your [HEART] — DESIRE, PURPOSE, PASSION, that which makes you come alive, then you would not be you.

the salad is accompanied by the onions, eggs, tomatoes, croutons, and whatever else, BUT they are what enhances the salad and brings more flavor to it. BUT a salad ain’t a salad without the essential ingredient, the greens.

likewise, the essential piece of you is your [HEART] — who you really are. and who you really are stems naturally from your divine desires, passions, purpose — the blueprint which God created you in His image with you in mind.

you are who you are because God saw the image of you not only in Him, but OF Him, in you.

this is so important that no matter how many times i say this, it bears repeating.

here is the real deal: the secret of your life was written by God in your heart’s desire.

the heart is central to our lives.
and your heart, desires / passions / purpose(s), does matter.

do not be, do not ever be ashamed about your desires or passions and even your purpose, because without them, the you who essentially is the real you, is not you.

the externals: the job, the cash, the house, the symbols of success — they are all really an extension of your heart/life-difference (desire / passion / purpose). they are not you. they are a part of you, and they may represent you and your life, BUT they are NOT you.

your desires, your passions, your purpose – they ARE YOU.

bring it to light.

let your light shine.

live your difference.

just simply be YOU.
and celebrate it!

and for those who have a problem with that, do not bother a lick.
just let them feel the weight of who you are.

LYD : Perfection And Satisfaction

i have come to understand who i am (not what i am not) after walking my journeys and a lot of personal evaluation and thought. trying very hard not to compare myself with others, i was able to at least get a better picture of who i am individually, since it is this individual i want to be happy with.

i stumbled across an idea while doing this: how often are our perceptions of happiness based on perfect scenarios? we want to get a good job so that we can live comfortably and spend time with our hobbies —that whole timeline is contingent upon having a great job. so, does that mean that we cannot live comfortably or enjoy our passions unless we first obtain perfect employment? (not that having a job is something to shout about).

i would like to think that it does not. so, this: SATISFACTION DOES NOT HAVE TO WAIT FOR PERFECTION. they are not siamese twins. i can be satisfied with parts of my life as they are OR at their current point of progression.

i have a sneaking suspicion, too, that i could perfect something and still not be satisfied with it. perhaps it was the wrong thing to start with; now that fact would be perfectly clear.

Claudia’s email

To Jersey (MOOO!!!)

Don’t ever forget that you are unique. Be your best self and not an imitation of someone else.

Find your strengths and use them in a positive way.

Don’t listen to those who ridicule the choices you make.

Travel the road that you have chosen and don’t look back with regret.

You have to take chances to make your dreams happen.

Remember that there is plenty of time to travel another road — and still another — in your journey through life. Take the time to find the route that is right for you. You will learn something valuable from every trip you take, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

Tell yourself that you’re okay just the way you are.

Make friends who respect your true self.

Take the time to be alone, too, so you can know just how terrific your own company can be. Remember that being alone doesn’t always mean being lonely; it can be a beautiful experience of finding your creativity, your heartfelt feelings, and the calm and quiet peace deep inside you.

Please don’t ever forget that you are special and very much loved.

- Claudia

Keeping It Raw VS Catering To The Masses

so, i have been out here in the South for a couple months now and i have got a ton ideas that i have been living to share. it will go public after may. stay tuned. ;p

before i get to that though, i wanted to write a short note about what it means to study LIFE or OneLifeToLive (and all its LIVE Productions: ceLIVErity, LYD, reaLIVEty, IRD, WEALTHventurity, WELLNESSentials, IM’IJ, etc AND the topics and whatnot i love talking and teaching about).

i teach what i teach primarily out of my own interest in the topic.

when i write, i do not consider whether or not the “masses” will like it or even if they will fully understand it (although i do my best to break things down comprehensively).

primarily, my main goal is to congele and crystalize the ideas i am working on to “live more free, live more real, live more me” in my own head — because when i express myself in writing it makes the ideas *real* for me.

now as a result of this, what you learn from me and all my LIVE Productions tend to be authentic and raw and different.

the core difference between my personal ministry and probably most other self-development companies and church/religious ministries out there is that literally nothing that comes out of OLTL is for the purpose of “creating product” — but rather, it is the byproduct of my own interest in developing *myself*.

i do this for my own interest, and then pass the info along to you.

if you have gravitated towards OLTL [or any of my LIVE Productions] (and many people do not — but if you have) then that is probably the reason why.

at the same time, you also have to be aware of what this means.

i constantly like to cover new ground (new revelations, current journeys) — and that means “pros” and “cons”.

most self-development gurus rely on a steady flood of newbies and will regurgitate the same basic “marketable message” over and over — because newbies pay $$ whereas oldsters usually think too highly of themselves to seek out external advice.

now before you jump to criticize this, be aware that ANY organization’s survival relies on CASHFLOW which means that you have to market yourself effectively.

so, do not be a hater.

in my case, however, i am very blessed and graced to be in a situation where i do not need to rely on that because OLTL and every LIVE Productions is a relevant enough company that i can get away with it.

personally, i will RARELY go back over previous ground i have already thoroughly covered, for the purpose of getting more newbies on the OLTL bandwagon.

i just CANNOT do this.
it is too boring for me.

maybe i will do it once in a while, here and there, like in a presentation to a room who does not know much about what i am teaching and inviting people to.

but for the most part, when i am sitting there regurgitating the SAME OLD MATERIAL, i feel my chest constricting like my life is going “tick tick tick” and i am losing important time i could be using towards a creative legacy.

(even with the events and workshops and sessions, i usually teach a 30% skeleton of foundational material and then about 70% new material that i will customize to the individual).

now as a result of this, the people who are “celiverities” and “different” and “remnants” benefit and the newbies inevitably get befuddled.

if you have been with me for at least more than a year, or been through OLTL stuff and realities, you are probably very psyched that i am not rehashing the “same old thing” over and over.

at the same time, if you are a newbie whose sole source of info is OLTL, then you might be a bit confused.

for example, all this “NEW OLTL Heart&Soul” stuff might cause you to believe that you can IGNORE the [SOUL] “outer game” of life entirely because i emphasize that the [HEART] is the utmost important OR you may think that the [HEART] issues are really not essential to life, because i speak about the [SOUL] being your sattelite center to your life to the degree of you getting the results.

and see, even though it is NOT my responsibility to hold the entire church kingdom or different cultures or business world by the hand and remind everyone constantly “go back and look at the foundational back-to-the-basics” — i will acknowledge that i have a level of influence in setting the trends and standard.

so, i am saying right here, just because i do not speak or teach or write as much about something on a specific topic, it does not mean that the older topics are no longer still important.

educate yourself.
you will be the better for it.

you cannot please everybody in life.
(you were never meant to.)

i am evolving and transforming.
and i hope you are too.

IYF: Tough Questions Few Ever Ask

if i had my druthers, i would like to ask people who:
-people who already go to church
-people who pray
-people who do not go to church, but believe in God
-people who say ten Hail Mary’s before light outs
-people who proclaim to have much faith
-good christians
-people who are religious

these are my rhetorical questions to all those people:
(questions i secretly think about in relation to religious people who say they have faith)

A: HOW ARE YOUR FRUITS?
in other words, with the faith that you say you have and demonstrate, how is your life? with all the praying and the devout ritual of prayer, which He clearly scores in the Bible as nonsense, have you located happiness/joy/contentment and do you love what you do and is life a blast and if not — why not? were you not faithful?

B: SHOW ME YOUR RESULTS.
what do you have as evidence of your faith?

C: IF YOU SO “BELIEVE”, show us THE WRITTEN RELATIONSHIP you have and show me the documentation — the notes — you took as you LISTENED for the receipts of your prayers. i can show you mine and if you “so believe” in the God that you say you do, where is the physical proof that you even LISTEN back after you pray and if you do not write down and record ANSWERS to your prayers, why even bother praying?

D: most people spend sixty plus hours per week serving a tyrant they cannot stomach while not even giving ten minutes to exercising their faith outside rote ritual.

E: last question. is the work that you do your divine assignment (born to do) and if not, do you consider yourself a martyr and if so, why are you contradicting God and His Word?

Attitude

attitude is your thought life turned inside-out.

Word Up!

it is funny how a word can have opposite meanings, even to the point of it being a paradox in itself.

i often hear people talk about “life” being hard and unfair and whatnot. i hear them saying that the “truth” hurts. and yet, at the very same time, they turn their heads and say that “life” is a daring adventure, a journey, etc AND that the “truth” sets us free.

two things here:
(1) it is what it is.
(2) those abstract words CAN NOT have opposite meanings.

words are simply images communicated. and images (words — the way we communicate with others and more importantly, with ourselves) have a major bearing in shaping our lives and destiny. there is no getting around that. it is principle. law.

this is not morphology nor is this etymology.
this goes way deeper or higher than that.

so, people at times tend to look too much into a situation or words and label them according to what fits their experience and situation at that time. (yea, look at me now.)

BUT it is what it is.
words do not have life of their own unless we give them.
they are just a.l.p.h.a.b.e.t. l.e.t.t.e.r.s that make up a word that communicates an image or an idea.

truth is words do have immense power beyond the sticks and stones. but we are the ones who thrust them with powers. no “us”, words are virtually dead.

and what ever power we give them sets our reality to our experience.

as for words can NOT have opposite meanings, this is how i mean.

most people view life as either/or.
sometimes, it is on the good side. at others, it falls on the negative feel.

i decided long ago to stop using the word “problem” and substitute it with the word “challenge”. i noticed that the fear of a problem decreased if not vanished, because the concept i have of a challenge is that of a “Fear Factor” challenge. you have a go at it and you overcome it.

so, when i read in my bible that JESUS = LIFE. and yes, i know there are at least four different translations and meanings to the word life from the original text in hebrew and greek, i recognized that the least of them had to do about “existing”. meaning LIFE as being alive and breathing.

the rest of the “LIFE” words/translations all had to do with the quality of living and quality of life itself. and each one of them hints and points to good, beautiful, victorious, freedom, LIFE!

not hard. not unfair. not crazy. not any of those things that “they” use to describe or talk about life. if anything, they are talking about the “world”.

but LIFE? nope. never. could not be. wrong number. try again.

JESUS = LIFE.
FREEDOM = LIFE.
SALVATION = LIFE.
SHALOM = LIFE.
etc, etc, etc = LIFE.

my point is, you totally set your subconscious mind to “yes” what you believe a certain word gives you. and again, your subconscious (or HEART) is the satellite center of your life.

this is not a play on words.

you are either bounded and limited by your words (and the meaning you place on those words).
OR
you are building the foundation and shaping your current reality to a LIFE of FREEDOM.

and here is the kicker: regardless of what you believe or how you use your words, your words get to your future way before you do. and will operate and work the way you told them to.

ATS : Feel So Alive

so, everything you do, everything you have always done, has always been for someone else.

you learned at a young age that life was easier if you just pleased everyone, did everything you were told, and stayed quiet. you did not get hurt that way.

now that you are older, you feel as if you are not your own person.

what do you like?
what makes you happy?
what do you want to do?

you would think those were simple questions, but you are struggling with the answers. you feel hollow and empty. devoid of life, as if you lost it long ago.

truth is, you think you did loose it.

you stopped wanting to live when you were eight years old or when you turned twenty-one.

you are still not sure if you want to.

BUT you do not know if you have ever truly felt alive in the first place. can a soul die and the body keep on living? because you think that may have happened to you.

now, you would like to revive yourself. try to do things that make you feel alive and genuinely happy. you hope you can do that.

all you want is to feel alive. and you are going to do that even if it takes near death to feel it. you cannot wait to escape this. you are ready for something more.

you just happen to love the world. you think it is great that you are here and able to go through the things that take place in living.

it is amazing to live.

but you have lost interest in almost everything.
you so want to feel alive.
you just do not know how to.

we think feeling alive takes on many different forms and shapes for many different people.

to be alive and to feel alive requires that you be true to yourself and forget about all the things that you have become a slave to.

the freedom to live and to be alive is often a very strong and unique character trait, unfortunatley for those that possess this trait, it often becomes very easy to get disillusioned and caught up in the rigors of everyday life.

you must look deep inside of yourself and discover what it is that makes you tick. what makes you smile, and what makes you feel as if you are on the top of the world. explore the aspects of your life from the standpoint of heart, mind, body, and soul and find those things that make your heart sing. you may not be able to escape your bondage easily, however each small step you take will allow your soul to grow another feather on its journey to flight.

for most of our lives, we are able to feel alive or to feel the zest of living. for those times that we do not feel alive and feel as if we are a slave to our surroundings, we must remember to focus on the things that allow us to soar. it is a goal that must be constantly feed or your zest for life slowly dies.

we also find that the things that allow our souls to soar are those that are in their most simplest form; however the journey to be able to take joy in the simple things is often complex as you must first learn to escape that which binds you.

darn, we are taking this life way too seriously.
it is just life! nothing more, nothing less, nothing else!
it is just all you have got!

THIS IS YOUR LIFE
and it is ending one minute at a time.

LIVE IT!