Leaving Our Self-Created Box

Our environment constantly attempts to place us in the box that some call “I”. This box is a limiting box. The big box your self-created box is found within could be called your city, your town, your state, your country, even this planet. That box is one built upon ignorance of true reality.

Everything has always been here and will always be. It just looks so different; it just feels so different. The difference is simply our mind attempting to rationalize what we are from the rest of what is: a completely understandable approach. Embrace this approach, with a curiosity that, perhaps, it is mistaken.

This does not mean we ignore our reality, or our seeming separateness from others, or other things. It does mean that we honor our present understanding and open ourselves to a more whole understanding.

If we examine an organism, or even a simple object, we can see it with our own eyes, and also realize our eyes do not allow for complete understanding. We do not see the organs within, the blood that pulses through the heart, the nerves that lead up to the brain, sending signals to the rest of the body. Yet, these organs, this blood, those nerves exist.

We can look at a painting. A painting is a fabrication involving matters and energies placed on a canvas or in a space. It is meant to be a representation of some thing, some one, some of what we may not know how to describe in any other way but with matter and our energy. It gives the illusion of three-dimensional living and that those three-dimensions not actually exist within the painting itself. The mind expands the two-dimensions of the painting and allows it to expand into our three-dimensional understanding of our world and our life. Yet, the painting is inanimate, is nearly two-dimensional, yet we see depth, height, length where none actually exists in our reality.

Examine a photograph. A nearly perfect representation of a paused moment of time. There are so many aspects that are eclipsed in a photo. The camera. The picture-taker. The entire background and backdrop. A picture ignores all the moments, all the matter, all the energy that feeds into that one, paused moment of time. The picture is not perfect. Neither is our memory. A picture, like memory, ignores what’s outside the lines, or behind the lines.

Learning to leave our self-created box takes concerted effort, extreme patience and a never ending supply of attempting understanding. The box is an illusion that we believe is true. Simply, open your mind and awareness to other possibilities, to other potentials.

Unearthing the Inner Empowerment Zone

The complex world in which we live is woven by our finances, our jobs, our relationships and our families as well as by our home, our health and our wellness. At any given moment, some of these threads act to strengthen our life; at other moments, some of these threads can weaken us.

Learning how to strengthen these threads is difficult but essential in empowering our lives. If we wait for some external force to do the strengthening, we are waiting for added weakness.

Strength truly originates from how we use what we have and what is happening around us. We must begin to see what we have and what is happening as useful; we need only learn how best to wield what we have. Using a toothbrush as a hammer doesn’t work toward our success. Imagine using a hammer as a toothbrush.

We could inventory the weaves in our life basket, keeping score of what we have and what we do not have. Finances, never enough. Jobs, not good enough. Relationships, tough stuff. Home, a mess. Health, not the best. Wellness, certainly not.

Keeping a life inventory usually leads to superiority, frustration, anxiety, depression, even anger. It isn’t about enjoying any of what we do have. It does highlight what we desperately want to keep and what we most desire to have under our control. We may gain temporary relief by seeing what we have, but immediately the anxiety of losing it or having it taken away takes over our mind. This darkens our vision and limits our creative potential. What we need is to be empowered.

True empowerment starts inside of us. Empowerment is inside of us, right here, right now; it has always been there, and it will always be there. When we feel inspired by others, that feeling of empowerment is only being unearthed.

When we feel empowered, everything is useful, and we have all that we need.
When we feel empowered, we don’t see obstacles, we see opportunity.
When we feel empowered, we don’t let our lack of limit us.

When we feel empowered, we let go of what has happened and focus on what is happening.
When we feel empowered, we do.
When we feel empowered, we create.
When we feel empowered, we give.

Opportunity & Inspiration: The Return of Audacious Living

Daily living can become monotonous. Worse, our daily life can become debilitating, lacking sources of inspiration and clouding over the opportunities of living. Breaking from the monotony cycles is necessary, even daily. However, if our monotony cycle has been running steadily, we sometimes need a hard break to shake loose our mind and open up to inspiration and opportunity once again.

Returning from such a hard break can be jarring. Our energy is actively percolating, our mind is aware, our heart is open. We find ourselves fighting the monotony cycles of nearly everyone around us. Initially, we see the opportunities and the inspirations in each experience, in each human being. We wish to open these fellow beings to living life once again. Yet, often the response is non-existent; worse, the response is to shut us down.

Having patience and understanding for others is necessary. Recall how we, ourselves, had to be brought back to life by flying to the other coast or running into the woods.

We are now the open flame of the audacity of active being. We don’t have to open others up similarly, and we can certainly understand the veils draping across the life of others.

It is traumatic to have someone else lift that veil. Letting go of the opportunities and inspiration of others is difficult. It is necessary to keep our audacity flame alive in our daily life, and, keeping that flame lit is crucial for allowing others to lift their own monotony veil on their own terms, not ours.

Our audacity of living flame has always been lit.
The audacity of living flame is alive in everyone.
Conditions and people have no effect on the flame itself.
Only our own mind can obscure the brilliant, inspiring light of living.
Only our own mind can find the opportunity and the inspiration in everyone and everything.

The Power from the Seat of Frustration

“All the good that we’ve done can be wiped away by one angry word.”

Interacting with others, especially those we touch and that touch us personally in our daily lives, offers countless opportunities for frustration. Within these frustrated moments, we often respond with anger, criticism and discouragement. That anger, criticism and discouragement then gets transmitted to others and eventually back to ourselves. Finding the presence of mind to shut down that nearly automatic response system is extremely difficult but is absolutely possible.

We all affect people, through our words, through our actions, through our intentions. Having a more thorough understanding and appreciation of how these words, actions and intentions affect others is crucial. All that we say, do and think comes back to us eventually. Therefore, any attempts to affect our reactivity from the seat of frustration can have a dramatic, immediate impact on daily life.

Frustration is natural.

Frustration is created by our attachment to having it our way in a world that involves others wanting it their way. This creates a dynamic cycle that recirculates and intensifies frustration and our reaction to frustration continuously. If we alter our reaction from the seat of frustration, we can begin to shut down this cycle within us and others.

Frustration can be explored.

The best way to alter our reaction to our frustration is through thorough exploration of it. It is not imperative for us to act immediately to simple frustration. Instead, we can take a moment to be curious about how it was generated. If we focus our mind on it, we can more clearly see our role in our frustration and clarify the role of others as well. This clear seeing and clarification will aid in finding words of encouragement as opposed to discouragement.

Frustration is our own.

The way we think and feel is our own. Just because someone is doing something or we perceive is doing something to us, does not mean this someone is injecting this feeling of frustration into us. This does not mean that others have no role in shining a light on our frustration, but it does mean that it is our frustration to manage. Potentially, we can redirect this frustration in a more beneficial way as opposed to only detrimental.

Make that which you touch be the best in others.

How often has someone said an unkind or critical word to us that inspired us to be and do better? Remember that truth when interacting with the objects of our frustration. We need to inspire the best in others, not shut the best down. Inspiring the best in others involves having patience, generating compassion and finding understanding.

Make that which you touch in others be the common humanity we share.

We all are part of humanity. We all play a role in the lives of others. We all experience pain and suffering. We all can experience joy and happiness. No one arrived at today all on their own. So many people have affected us and will affect us moving forward. We will affect others today. If we consider how best to affect others, we will bring out the best in them and in our self.

Make our response not add to the pain and suffering of us all.

It is rare that people deliberately, maliciously upset others. If there is intention to upset, this person is hurt and damaged and needs compassion and understanding, not more pain, not more suffering. It is not easy when we feel hurt to not retaliate immediately. If we do, it is understandable.

It should be understandable that others will retaliate similarly. If one of your limbs becomes injured, you don’t chastise or punish the limb, you give it proper care and attention. The same should be given to the injured amongst us.

Frustration is truly fertile territory. People that expose our frustration have blessed us. It is from the seat of frustration that we either inspire others or we tear others down. It is from the seat of frustration that we can bring out the best in our self and in others.
Who is going to be the first person to do the better thing today?

The Blessings of Difficulties and Disappointments

Always look forward to the solutions, not to the problems those solutions intend to solve.

When we strive to achieve anything, difficulties and disappointments should be expected. If we do not believe difficulties and disappointments will arise on our path, we will be shocked and dismayed when they do. Also, if we simply believe something is happening to us or being done to us, we become a victim of our conditions. Laying down the mantle of the victim is the first step in getting back to achieving something with this life when conditions don’t follow the course of our design.

These difficulties and disappointments are designed to happen. We set in motion the events and situations that we experience. Certainly, others can create problems for us. Others can always do this, and it should always be expected. If we do not design our actions with others in mind, we are living in a bubble of our own creation that can be popped by our simple ignorance of others. If what we want in our life is all about our own self-interest, we still cannot live in a bubble indefinitely. If what we want is about others, we certainly cannot ignore others, we must account for them in our plans.

Inflexibility is why difficulties and disappointments can be so debilitating. Inflexibility, the inability to adapt on the spot, is in the way of discovering the purpose in each difficulty and in each disappointment. Discovering the purposefulness in these moments is crucial in continuing forward, to achieving anything, especially something greater than just our own self-interests.

Regardless of the difficulty or the disappointment, we, individually, have the superior role, and we are the superior source of that turmoil. This role and responsibility we hold may not be easy or comfortable to embrace initially. However, we can certainly agree the ultimate bearer of the difficulties and disappointments we experience is our own self. If we’re going to return to work, return to the role of achiever, we must at least embrace the role of the bearer as well.

It is important to realize the goals behind embracing this role. It is not about simple pain and suffering because we deserve it, because we do not. We are learning how to take care of our own self and our own path. Thorough exploration of the source of our life experiences, which is our own self, must start there as well.

Perhaps, our observations were mistaken or not complete.
Perhaps, our actions were not precise or thought through.
Perhaps, our feelings were ignored or were overwhelming.
Perhaps, our intentions were not clear or were not realistic.

This is where to begin that exploration. Be curious about life. This is how we learn, how we adapt and how we achieve better.

We must expect difficulty.
We must expect disappointment.
We must expand our awareness.
We must adapt and continue to strive to achieve.

It is possible to go further than just a simple expectation that conditions will not always follow our design. When we use our explorative mind in all moments, difficulties and disappointments can become fuel for our efforts. These are not negative aspects of living and doing. These are productive aspects of learning and adapting. These are blessings; we need only expand our awareness to see them as such.