FINDING YOUR TRUTH

Flexing Your Inner Strength

I’ve noticed that some of my closer friends are being more adversely affected by news of the daily antics in DC.; expressing lots of stress and worry now about the upheaval in government structures and personnel firings, etc.. To which I can only say that much of this fallout was inevitable once the die was cast on election day. I personally am only doing what was suggested to me—I am waiting and watching. No big emotion—no big reaction to anything done now, because sometimes NOT reacting is the very best thing you CAN do in situations beyond your control. My advice for most of us with no retaliatory political power: ‘Wait and watch’ and see how it actually shakes out. Hold your own energy frequency as high as possible for you. (I’ve previously listed here techniques to help in that regard.)

Sometimes deescalating a situation is the far better approach to peacefully resolving a conflict than is in-your-face resistance to it. Sometimes the ‘conflict creator’ wants you to adversely react or to OVER react to what is being threatened.

Sometimes it takes far more inner strength to NOT go nose to nose with a conflict instigator. Take it from a combative personality whose first instinct is to clench my fists and step forward toward the blustering bully trying to block my path. When your actions become too predictable, they’ve got you right where they want you. Better to step back, assess what is really happening, and then plan your way forward from there.

Will this whole situation get worse? … Oh heavens yes. No question there. ☺️

Can you endure it until it reaches a natural resolution through courts or future elections? Hopefully you can, but it will require your digging deep within you to hold your cool and then assess and plan your next step forward.

Peaceful resistance is the best option: unified marches, letters to representatives, active coalition building with similar thinking people all make positive statements of peaceful discontent with policies leveled on the masses; and use less of this passive-aggressive BS on social media. That just makes you a target for retaliation. This is not an US versus THEM situation no matter how much the chief chaos agent wants his followers to believe that it is.

This is about US—ALL of us. And right now is a bit too early to start moving to his proposed 51^st state in the frozen north. We’ll get through this. Just strengthen your inner resolve to do so and stay smart. Life will always be a challenge of some sort. This is just the latest one. You can handle this.

This could actually be an ‘evolution’ challenge in disguise for lawmakers and the courts to see who can ‘grow a backbone’ during the next four years. Wouldn’t that be something? Hopefully the Departments of Science and Health are still standing by then to document it.

The Play on Illusion

Now you see it, now you…wait, was it here at all?

One week in and it’s the ancient ‘pea under the walnut shell’ trick amid mass confusion.

Were you fooled this time? How about the next time he shuffles the shells around? Do you still think the pea is under one of them? Are you missing his sleight of hand? He’ll insert the pea wherever you think it isn’t, and then remove it again before the game restarts.

Why are you playing his game to begin with? Ignore him. Bet on yourself.

Another New Remote Control on Order

Now that January 20^th has arrived I should order another new remote control for my decade old TV.

I burned the MUTE button out of the first one a year ago and will likely do the same for the current one as well since my ‘preferred mutee’ is in charge of the nation starting today.

That first poor remote control never had a chance. By midyear of his first term it was going through batteries like crazy. This past year of political theater has been a challenge for the newer one also.

Might as well prepare myself for the inevitable—either pulling the plug on the TV or going back to Netflix. I’m already reading five big books a month before he even starts. Don’t want to burn out my eyes by next Christmas.

So for those of you who prefer solitude and silence to pompous, bloviating obfuscation, the MUTE button (or the OFF switch) is your friend.

We should start a new online group—‘the MUTERS.’

Presence and Transcendence

Say aloud: “I AM in the NOW.

My NOW may not be a preferred location, but it MY NOW.”

Breathe into that NOW and feel your lungs expand. Feel the air flowing in and then out.

Take another breath even slower than the first. Allow the extra oxygen to flood your body with precious life.

Say aloud: “I AM here. I AM NOW. I AM alive. ….

I live in LOVE. I live in LIGHT. I LIVE.”

That simple realization is transcendence.

All That You Are

“On the stroke of midnight tonight, you can resolve to be better, if you like…

to be fitter,

to eat cleaner,

to work harder.

On the stroke of midnight tonight,

you can resolve to become a whole new you,

if you so choose.

Or, you can take a moment to acknowledge

all you already are.

Because it’s a lot.

You’re a lot.

And you deserve to be commended.

On the stroke of midnight tonight, perhaps you could congratulate yourself, for coping.

For breaking, again,

and for rebuilding, again.

For catching the stones life has thrown at you,

and using them to build your castle that little bit stronger.

You have endured, my friend.

And I don’t see the need to resolve to become a whole new you,

when you are already so very much indeed.

Happy new year.

You made it.

Now let us face another 365 day-turn, arms wide,

accepting, embracing and ‘seeing’ each other,

for all we are..”

Donna Ashworth — Sacred Self Living

***

To Be Hopeful

“To BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places-and there are so many-where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”

Howard Zinn

Thank you John Ebrecht for sharing this pennings… Kindred Spirits

— Jugsuk Lee Art

Beyond Space and Time

“I exist as awareness beyond space and time.” Deepak Chopra

What Is TRUTH?

This is my latest attempt to confront TRUTH as a subject in itself. My first post was Feb 2020 titled “The Truth About TRUTH”. And a later attempt at defining TRUTH was my post from January 2021 called “Who Believes in TRUTH?”

So hopefully I won’t repeat myself in this one, but with such popular apps available now like Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) that visually and aurally manipulate what you do see and hear on media platforms making the ‘never really happened’ seems to have happened, it becomes hard to tell now what TRUTH actually is.

One media person this morning said, “If you see a lie often enough, it must be truth.” Well NO, a lie is still a lie, but the backers of the lie are betting on your limited resistance to over-saturated exposure to untrue propaganda. That’s why they keep pounding those lies into your brain’s neural network until you accept the lie as truth because the brain recognizes repetitions and is programmed to decipher patterns from perceived stimuli or inputted data. Repetitive lies eat away at your ‘sense-making’ apparatus until you start to question your own mind and your own knowing of ‘what is TRUTH?’ in general.

Why should this matter to you?

This entire blog is about “Finding Your Truth” so if you are reading it, it’s likely that you are interested in determining what TRUTH actually is; and likely more adamant about being able to differentiate the non-truth from it.

But let’s broaden our perspective a bit: A society is the union of random individuals into a cohesive group for the purposes of safety, sustenance, and efficient operation. (Wiki Definition: “the aggregate of people living together in a more or less ordered community”) And within that organized community there must be agreed upon rules of conduct—called LAWS, along with community members designated to enforce those laws, including those sent out to patrol the community to corral potential law-breakers.

Without a standard of recognized TRUTH upon which to base all legal decisions pertaining to law-breaking, there would be no determining factors as to the rightness or wrongness of individual and group actions within the community.

And without mutual or agreed upon TRUTH there would be NO cohesive society. So if all TRUTH were subjective and individually defined, there could be no determiners of rightness or wrongness to the actions of others.

For each of us, to ‘find your own truth’ means to understand yourself well enough to determine your own life path separate from the opinions of others. But for us as a society, we rely on mutual truths of not harming others, and not trying to destroy the inner workings of the community around us.

Our legal systems rely on TRUTH above all else; and if TRUTH is instead malleable and dependent on whoever can flood the media with personal falsehoods that might seem like truth if that’s what we WANT to believe, then there will be battles between those who want to believe one thing and those who want to believe something different.

There has to be ONE agreed upon TRUTH for any society to stand on to make important, life-changing decisions. That’s why every society has laws to govern it. That’s also why the United States has an established Constitution that defines the governance of the nation of individuals.

No one person is above the law. No one person can thwart the Constitution of the United States of America. We are a nation of laws and if those laws are violated, then the offender must be held to account for his actions.

THAT is the importance of TRUTH. Everyone is accountable to the society that they inhabit. Without those mutually agreed upon TRUTHs, there can be no stable society.

And without personal TRUTH there can be no determiner of right path and wrong path for each of us.

REALITY: The Mind-Bender

I think it’s nice to take a little break from all the world chaos and upheaval, and consider the nature of REALITY itself. Nothing stressful about that, is there?

Just ran across this tidbit post from Neil deGrasse Tyson (American astrophysicist, author, and science communicator) that shares the philosophies I’ve been slowly absorbing over the last decade: We create our reality as we go. And experiencing that mind-created reality is similar to our being a proxy avatar in a computer-generated game where we determine our own purposes, create our own goals and compete in contests to match our respective environments as we pit our knowledge and resourcefulness against unknown adversaries in ever-increasing challenges to grow our conscious awareness.

So what’s the prize for winning the ‘reality’ game? You no longer need to play it.

ENJOY! ***

“WARNING: …

Reality: A Mind-Bending Illusion You Never Knew Existed

Imagine if the world around you—the vibrant colors, the solid ground beneath your feet, the very reality you take for granted—was nothing more than a elaborate construction of your mind. What if the red of a rose, the blue of the sky, or the feeling of a warm touch were not objective facts, but dynamic creations emerging from consciousness itself?…

Cutting-edge research suggests that consciousness might not be a byproduct of our brain, but a fundamental force that literally constructs reality. Quantum physicists like Dean Radin and theorists such as Donald Hoffman are uncovering evidence that challenges our most basic assumptions: What if observation itself creates the world we experience?

High-strangeness phenomena—from near-death experiences to unexplained consciousness events—hint at a reality far more fluid and mysterious than our current scientific paradigms can explain. These aren’t mere anomalies, but potential windows into a deeper understanding of existence. …

We stand at a fascinating crossroads. Are we ready to expand our perception, to consider that reality might be a dynamic, consciousness-driven process rather than a fixed, objective landscape?

The invitation is clear: Question everything. The most profound discoveries await those willing to look beyond the familiar.

Thomas Dorman“

Interstellar inc @Neil deGrasse Tyson

***

Oh yes, and if you want a real hoot, read Jane Robert’s SETH series for background info into the ‘nature of reality.’ She goes into great depth on the subject. The image quote above came from that book set. It’s been around awhile.

“What Happens Next?”

Interesting news headline of “What happens next?” after France’s Prime Minister was just voted out by their parliament.

And that is a good question being voiced everywhere: ‘What happens next?’ for all of us as well—not just in France but throughout the world.

Things they are a changin’ and perhaps not in a good way; but that’s how LIFE goes. You don’t put chaos agents in charge of the world in general and then not expect chaos to ensue, right? Lots of unhappiness everywhere—lots of ‘what about me?’ in the general population. Wide-spread wars and growing famines, how can you not be concerned with the global state of inequity and mass dissatisfaction?

The inner message I was given last month was “Wait and watch. Expect the unexpected.” And we aren’t even to mid-December yet—well short of the time when our chief chaos agent takes charge in America. So I would guess this next year will be a tumultuous time with the world population’s biggest, angry pimple coming to a head for popping: Expect NATO members to quake and quiver in their respective corners trying to decide their own fates. Expect increasing disruption and political unrest to roll across most continents, including long-standing democratic bastions of power (South Korea? Seriously?).

‘Expect the unexpected.‘

And yet what does that mean to all of us?

‘Wait and watch.’ The upcoming changes world-wide may not be what you had hoped for, but it will likely be transformative in its scope and overall effect.

And then just like that Newtonian 3^rd law of motion: “For every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction,” or to simplify: any force exerted on an object will result in an equal and opposite force exerted back. THAT is the answer to the “What happens next?” question. But what IS the ‘equal and opposite force’ that reacts against the increasing chaos?

My guess: What do you want to happen since our ‘status quo’ just dissolved? I think that answer is left up to each of us. It’s your choice and mine. What do you choose to happen next since this is YOUR life experience?

A (Sort of) Survivor’s Guide

I wouldn’t really call this blog a “survival guide,” but my intent is to offer a bit of positive “coaching” along the lines of how to expand your life perspective—especially pertaining to your personal goals and explorations. That, and I focus on encouraging how to better navigate the challenging obstacles you will inevitably face throughout your life because those obstacles are often your more important personal growth opportunities, even if they don’t feel like opportunities at the time.

Check out the graphic above to better understand that “growth opportunities” concept. When you are sitting in the “Comfort Zone” you either feel safe doing whatever you are doing at the time and have no desire to change, or you are so laid back that you just allow life to flow on by you while you ride the waves of blissful apathy.

True, that current ‘comfort zone’ might feel good and safe at present, but it likely isn’t permanent nor is it personally expansive. So if you want to expand your horizons–that ‘be all you can be’ sort of thing—you have to leave your existing ‘Comfort Zone’ and enter the new ‘Learning Zone;’ but to get there you must first must pass through the ‘Fear Zone.’

Now some of us don’t linger long in the Fear Zone. We may pass through it in moments of serious discomfort—perhaps questioning ourselves and our abilities to achieve the desired goals ahead, but we don’t spend a lot of time and energy on FEAR because we learned long ago that fear gets you nowhere. FEAR is the La Brea Tar Pit of life. If you stand in fear long enough, it will suck you down and swallow you whole.

Those of us who have overcome our nagging fears have learned to continually move forward with our lives in whatever way that’s necessary to do so. We are never LIFE’s victims—we are the survivors of life’s challenges. And that’s what survivors learn to do ASAP: overcome your paralyzing fear and move forward into the challenge ahead.

FEAR can be like that snarling grizzly that suddenly steps in front of you and stops you in your tracks—leaving you shaking and frozen. I’ve been face to face with FEAR a few times and learned that whatever is making you fearful only holds power in your life if you ALLOW it to do so. That’s why when hiking the unknown of LIFE you learn to carry bear pepper-spray and pack a .45 Ruger on your hip. He may not know it yet, but the bear should actually fear you!

So don’t allow FEAR to take your power. Do what you need to do in your current life to get physically and mentally stronger so you feel more confident inside—more self-assured; and then push past your existing fear so you can learn to believe in yourself and your own ability to deal with whatever life throws your way. They should teach this in grade school, but it’s more of a beyond-school acquired skill. Most self-defense classes stress it. You must learn to stand up for yourself and learn how to protect yourself at all times. Don’t rely on others to do it for you.

Be willing to learn those new self-help skills or to challenge yourself in new and exciting ways because it feels so good to meet your intended goals. Learn how to push yourself out of that stagnant comfort zone and into something new and exciting, even if you feel uncomfortable doing so for awhile. Find a way to survive through the discomfort—get more physical—walk, workout, move your body to feel more alive.

Extra physical workouts burn off stress-induced adrenaline—or cortisol, the ‘fight or flight’ hormone. The extra body effort also provides more serotonin release—the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter—into your system, making you feel more at peace and more satisfied with your efforts. You benefit both ways.

So as you reach out to learn new skills and explore new options you may find yourself similar to the graphic above, where your COMFORT ZONE moves along with you into that new territory as you build your confidence and self-acceptance levels. Eventually you will feel comfortable doing new things and visiting new places that previously had only been your dreams of exploring.

My advice for what it’s worth: Aim for the GROWTH ZONE—that’s your best choice for personal happiness and inner peace.

“Let It Be”

“There will be an answer, LET IT BE.”

That old Beatles song “Let It Be” has been playing in my head the last few days. So I’m going to just go with it and agree. Here are a few of the lyrics:

“Let It Be” – (a song by The Beatles)

“When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom
Let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be

And when the brokenhearted people
Living in the world agree
There will be an answer
Let it be

For though they may be parted
There is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer
Let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Yeah, there will be an answer
Let it be

Let it be, let it be
Let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom
Let it be …”

***

Much of my life I’ve tried to understand whatever was occurring to me or around me; and sometimes I make a good stab at it, and other times I fail to comprehend why something is ‘what it is.’

I can’t even put a name to what I am feeling now after the latest US election results. ‘Shocked’ at first, came close; ‘disappointed’ was long, long ago. Now I’m feeling more morbidly curious, like “There’s something I’m not seeing at work behind the scenes here, and I can only wait and watch to see what that ‘something’ really is. No fear allowed here. Just keep an open mind, and watch it all play out.”

The words most prevalent in my head at present are: “Wait and watch. Expect the unexpected.”

So that’s my NEW cobbled philosophy: “Wait and watch; and let it be whatever it is going to be,” because I’m only in the observation booth for the duration of this game. Get some popcorn and a bottle of water and settle in for the show on the field. I’m not even sure who the teams are that are playing down there. That’s the really strange part. This may turn out to be a ‘Hunger Games’ sort of experience. Who will be left standing at the end? I have no predictions. Very strange.