This word causes so much trouble in this life and world. How can there possibly exist so many truths that lead to so many contradictions?

The Truth is in one place only. It is in each and every precious moment.

• How will you act?
• How will you love?
• How will you forgive?
• How will you live?
• How will you risk?
• How will you give?
• How will you be?

The Truth is in this precious moment. Are you being grateful?

• You cannot expect anything from anyone, only of yourself.
• Forgiveness gives you freedom. Freedom gives you choice.
• Love takes care of Self first to prevent self-destruction.
• Make your right choices, not my right choices.

The Truth is in this precious moment. Its Life is in you.

Who can beat belief? There are moments, ever-so-brief, that express a level of certainty. Not only is the thought clear in the mind, the thought was precipitated with a strong physical sense expressing certainty of what was to come. As the feeling is noticed, the awesome feeling is felt fully, wondered at, and recognized to the moment, the thought, and the rightness of it all.

I’ve had a few of those beautiful moments in my life. Ironically, today I saw a video of a speech-spinner making a valid statement that psychopaths can cheat people easily simply through the overwhelming belief they have in themselves. It’s not even personal with them, it is simply belief in themselves.

Yesterday I had another of those beautiful moments. I stopped and wondered with awe, “Wow!” I thought. This was a pretty powerful and energized feeling. And I knew – just knew – what it was about, and more importantly, what it meant. We control the outcome more than we realize with our own belief, and it isn’t as simple as a mind trick.

Making it happen in the body, in the flow of energy that is life, is the important part of the key. Continually focusing on those positive thoughts, disciplining the mind, no matter the fatigue, and it starts to happen again in the body. As you may have noticed from my recent entries, I’m working these muscles and rediscovering the magic myself. Work those muscles!

Hi, can you tell me how to be more positive? I am finding my self not to be positive about a lot of things.

I sure can’t cast any stones for getting caught in that vice-grip. To change… wow… to change. It can be a journey, or it can be a decision. This is most likely the most accurate truth that can be offered.

The Journey

Not believing anything that your experience is teaching you, or what other wizened travellers may have to share with you, you must embark upon your own trail blazing the countryside with curiosity, love, wonder, as well as times of anger, hurt, sadness, victimization, etc. Call it what you want, you can take your time and make some bad choices, or you can really start to ‘listen’ and make some good choices.

The Decision

Choices are the reason anything happens in life. They may not even be our choices that directly impacts us at any given moment, and yet, choices are what brought us to this stage in our life. And most importantly, the most powerful choice, the most empowering choice, and therefore the most liberating choice, is the choice of your attitude.

The Choices

The Journey to Pain is not one that took place by accident. After enough time has passed, the observant and truthful eye can see the slippery slope of some poor choices until the landslide took them the rest of the way to the bottom. Been there, done that. Getting out wasn’t easy.

Getting Out

The negative experiences are tremendously painful. The emotional trauma impacts the physical body intensely. Initial hits in the body create chemical reactions, thoughts get triggered, emotions get reinforced, and the storm carries you away. This is where I always run away from the overwhelming sense of drowning. I fight it. And yet, I was losing to it.

What was Missing?

Those landslides can become suffocating. It’s the best metaphorical description I can muster to come close to the sensation, effect, and affect of a series of landslides in a personal and professional life. Without people, without love, without that social engagement that penetrates the cold, a numbness sets in. You may see everything, you may know everything, but you cannot act upon it, nor engage it fully, and everything seems to always be just out of reach. The answer lies in your heart.

Releasing the Heart

My own recent experience of transformation entails a deeply personal story that I am not able to tell or retell at this point. Suffice to say, it involves the loss of a child. The sudden sensory experience of child-loss overwhelmed my physical body for a brief second or two Sunday evening with tremendous and painful force. A ripping outward from my kidneys were ice shards it seemed. The pain excruciating, the loss complete, as was the pain. Unbearable.

Just as forcefully, a power of what I can only describe as Love pushed forth through me from back-to-front through my chest (heart) and literally pushed the negative energy deep into the earth. How? I don’t know. Trauma, release, a series of coincidences as I simply wanted to reclaim what was mine to have: Joy. And I learn how much it is and always was a choice.

And I wonder at the magnificence and power of a mother who in fact lost her child. What courage, what love, what strength! Dare I continue to not claim my power of choice, and my choice of power? And your choice of power will also dictate a direction for your path. Your choices are very important.

To learn that took a whole lot more than I can tell right here. You’ll have to pay me to have that conversation.

The Secret, The Power of Intention, Think and Grow Rich, and a myriad of other top-selling spiritually-minded self-help books send off a vibe that life is easy. Well, they don’t say it directly, however, as an audience we hear all the promises for potential and miss a good number of the steps necessary to get to that state. Let me explain.

Earlier in my life, I recognized the hardships, endured, and grew strong. Leading into adulthood, this strength brought me through more challenging times of change that were lived more like an adventure. Somewhere in the mix, after about a decade, a series of painful life incidents saw a carefully crafted life and lifestyle begin to whittle away. This time, I did not recognize the hardships, I did not endure successfully, and I did not grow strong. Quite the opposite felt to be happening.

Fast-forward through nearly a decade of soul-searching, spiritual-seeking, attending religious gatherings, reading self-help voraciously, and desperately trying to make sense of these circumstances, situations, and reactions that I encountered. My perspective, my viewpoint, was clouded by the emotional fog that I was now creating. This is losing your mind.

You see, the mind is your most powerful weapon, and your awareness must harness that mind’s power. Otherwise, your emotions run amok with your mind, and your mind runs amok with your emotions. A vicious cycle begins. Once you notice it, focus it again to the task: challenges, problems, opportunities, and how to overcome.

If you’ve been struggling, don’t expect what ought to be natural will be easy. You will have to work for this. I am.

more on life, emotions, and harnessing the mind coming soon

From the archives August 13, 2005

When you realize that you really want to have an impact in this world, to make a difference, remember that it is in each moment that you are alive and in the present. When you are too busy worrying about what you don’t have, what you have to do, where you’ve been, and what you don’t have, you’re not in the present; you’re consumed by the past you can’t change and the future that has yet to happen. There is no impact in either place.

The impact is here and now. Stop, check in, and connect in relationship with those around you. Be present, make the impact with those you see in your life today. Your future will unfold more powerfully and profoundly than you could ever imagine when you focus on the right things; relationships, people, love and community.

In case you’re wondering, all these reposted archived items are being transitioned from an old website format, and brought into the RSS Web 2.0 world via this new site and blog. Not only does this offer easier content management, it will also ensure this content reaches a wider audience.