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Hub of a Wheel
Do you feel like life runs you over? Do daily activities make you feel like a chipmunk in a cage, going round and round?
Can this be changed? Absolutely! It takes effort on your part and a change of thinking, which is the hardest of all. We all get stuck in our ruts of what happened before. No matter how miserable, lonely, or hurting we are, change is often so frightening that we never look for a different way to live.
The circumference of a wheel has a lot of motion and activity. Only the hub is quiet and still because it is in the center. This is a key for one to begin to change thoughts and emotions, thereby changing our reaction to the experiences that happen every single day.
How does one find center amid chaos? The drums beat so loudly! Surely the tempo must be maintained!
The awareness of a needed change is the beginning. There are so many avenues that are possible. Meditation, yoga, natural settings where one can find the peace that is sought so desperately, music that speaks to you that quiets your being, taking a class on mindfulness or any subject as you seek your answer. Each person’s answer is different, particular to the uniqueness of each spirit.
Five minutes of quiet breathing and just listening to the sounds around you can serve you well. Perhaps there is a cacophony of dissonant notes, or perhaps it is an awareness of natural sounds. Each one seeks in a different way for the answer. There is always an answer.
Some find it in a church or music; others find it when with loved ones, feeling their presence calming down the vicissitudes of a particularly difficult day. The point is that, in each person looking for an answer, one always appears. ALWAYS. It is the willingness to find a way to the inner hub of one’s being.
If you have a “monkey mind” that is never still, it is particularly difficult to move from the circumference to the HUB. You can do it if you persist. It takes the effort to learn to breathe slowly. (Do you know that when one is stressed out, the breathing immediately goes to the upper chest and can even proceed to hyperventilating! The cure? Take a deep breath and hold it, then let it out slowly. Become aware of your abdomen and force it outward as you breathe in, then collapse it as you force breath out. Continue breathing deeply. Oxygen will increase in your body and brain. You will find a place where the thoughts stop tumbling like water in a storm, slowly the swells lessen until the surface of the water is reflective and serene.) When you arrive at the quietness, you will learn how the HUB feels. If others try to return you to the frantically churning water, in your HUB you can choose not to go there. It is always a CHOICE. Use it wisely. Let no one take that power away from you. Never surrender to outside circumstances.
Life can sometimes hand you a bummer. It has been said by wise men: It is not the circumstances that happen in your life that cause a calamity to become worse–it is your personal reaction to those circumstances, thoughts, and feelings engendered. Are you the captain of your ship, choosing how and where to sail, or not? The choice will always be yours, without regard to any other fact.
God’s blessings on your journey!
Emotions Play a Vital Part in Prayer
Before words come thoughts. These evolve and involve emotions. Thoughts are the engine, and emotions are the gasoline that drives it. So, emotions do, indeed, play a vital part in prayers.
Prayers are more than supplications to a higher Being. They are building blocks towards a better life for ourselves and others. They form the light that guides us on our way each and every day. It is that light and awareness that we share with others who touch our lives, possibly for a moment and maybe a lifetime. It forms the basis of who we really are…before we open our mouths to communicate.
If this premise is true (and I believe and know that it is), it should commend the idea of examining our thoughts and emotions before, during, and after we pray. What is it that you are feeling and thinking right now? These will generate joy instead of sadness, peace of mind vs. experiencing harried, hectic, and unhappy situations.
It is all up to you. Do you choose to throw gas on a fire which is already consuming you or pour water over it, calming reactions and your spirit?
It is within your power every day to choose which ones that will help or hurt you. Words, thoughts, and emotions bring so much power into your life, for good or ill.
It is up to you. Are you willing to look at that idea?
God’s blessing upon your journey.
Do Feelings Pray?
The question arises: “Do Feelings Pray?”
Some would reply, “What an absurd thought!” Some would think, “How could this be true?” Others would agree wholeheartedly. How about you? What reaction do you have to those three words?
That is the telling tale in how you live your life.
If you would be the first one (“What an absurd thought!”), your reality is based on what you can see with your eyes, hear with your ears, taste with your taste buds, touch with your hands, etc. Is that all there is? Nope! In fact, so much of our reality is just our perception of things, not the real hard facts about things. There is so much more to life than this.
If you are the second response (How could this be true?), you want a bona fide answer to all of life’s myriad questions. Some would say, “You are from Missouri – Show me, Prove it, etc.” Unfortunately, taking something on faith is not within your possibilities. The quandaries your mind must go through are endless.
If you are of the third type who would agree wholeheartedly, you have been able to work through some of life’s most troubling problems successfully.
Why? Because feelings begin in the unseen world of thoughts, rising up from that well deep within your being. Your Spirit resides here. Your Consciousness lives here.
Most people think that outer situations command a response – be it anger, bitterness, love, laughter, etc. Yes, there are messy situations outside of us. There are people on this planet whose main goal in life is to make others miserable. Yet there are others who are working for the highest good of all. There are so many in between these two extremes.
As for you: Have you laughed lately? Have you smiled? Are you “down in the dumps, thinking that life sucks without end!”
Have you given your power away to someone else who may be bent on making you incredibly sad? What do I mean when I say, “given your power away?” Just precisely that. Your interaction level with that person is solely within their control because you let it happen. If you want something badly enough from that person, he/she can manipulate you at will. Is it worth it? Only you can answer that question.
Feelings are precious. They are the seed of your tomorrows. If you plant feelings of sheer misery, how can you hope to grow plants of laughter and good things coming to you?
One must be always aware of what you are emotionalizing about because those emotions then quantify, multiply, and bring more. If it is good stuff, great! If not, guess what kind of crop you will receive? You got it. In other words, if you emotionalize over what you DO NOT WANT, you are sure to get exactly that! Is that really what you want? Doubt it. That can never change unless you do.
Outer situations cannot control you unless you let them. The difference is between ACT and REACT.
When you REACT to a situation, you are giving your power away. When you look at what is going on, analyze it, and think about how you want to ACT in response to it, you maintain your sense of awareness. You actually DECIDE on an appropriate action in lieu of getting angry, saying mean things (which you cannot take back), or getting physical. Even SILENCE maintains a powerful influence on the outcome of events, especially if you cannot decide what to say or do in this instance.
It is OUTER vs. INNER. Some people would pray about it first before responding. Others would rather scream and yell. It leads to no good end, but so many use this response, it does make you wonder.
How about you? If you are pondering some of life’s events, both good and bad, where is the balance of your emotions? Are you feeling PEACE, GRATITUDE and THANKFULNESS for the good you still have, or is your heart bitter, complaining over all you have lost? Until you can release the latter, you will be unable to see the former. It is as far from you as the East is from the West. In other words, you cannot get there from here.
If you think about the possibility that FEELINGS DO PRAY, you can begin to change your life for the better. It simplifies a complicated process of personal growth, of which AWARENESS is the Beginning of Change.
It is all up to you, after all. Do you want the sadness of your yesterdays to continue to rule your life now, or is it time to let it all go, turn your attention to this very moment of today, and look for something to be pleased about? Do you want to keep moping around, or do you want to begin to REALLY LIVE your life?
God’s blessings upon your journey!
Seedlings
Orchids
Maui Sunrise with Rainbow (Promise of Peace)
Freedom
Freedom comes in many forms. There is the patriotic kind which can affect nations. There is the personal kind which alters lives.
There are also many meanings of the word, depending upon your perspective. There is seeming freedom which belong to royalty, who are bound by protocol. There is the freedom exercised by despots throughout the world, until they meet their end, usually a bad one.
Somehow, freedom has gotten confused some of the time with power, from personal on up the line to the top of the political chain.
It is a well-known fact that Lord Acton stated: “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!” All you have to do is look at the current state of world affairs to see this truth clearly demonstrated.
Freedom has many connotations: “The state or quality of being free; esp., liberation from the control of some other person or some arbitrary power; liberty; independence; immunity from a specified obligation; release from imprisonment; being able to act, move, use, etc. without hindrance or restraint; being able of itself to choose or determine action freely; ease of movement or performance.”
I remember a story of an election in Africa, where some women carried an old woman for days to the polling place so she could vote for the first time. It was that important. Yet I look around at all the politicizing going on already in the United States, with the spin doctors beginning their song, and I wonder how it all got turned around so badly. I personally do not want to hear another promise from any of them because they say whatever they think the people will want to hear on the campaign trail to get elected and then turn around and do as they please the rest of the time. It is a sad story, to be sure. I have the freedom to vote, which many people in this world do not have and will never see, yet I would like to have someone to vote for instead of against or the best option of two poor choices. The United States has many wonderful options for others to vote for — yet they do not step forward because they will not become involved in the political arena. It makes one wonder about that.
As one looks at all of the stories that come out of each and every country in this world, one sees similar stories playing out. There are the poor and disenfranchised, the person trying to make his/her daily bread however he/she can, the few at the top who enjoy enormous riches, and the rest are somewhere in between. Regardless of politics, there are the fathers and mothers everywhere who are loving their families and trying to survive. Each one may have their own definition of freedom, but we are not as different as political miscreants would have us believe.
Love is still a human quality that we all may share. Each morning, each of us, no matter where we are in the world, can commit to trying to make our little corner of the world a better place. Not all of us are meant to be Mother Theresa. But we can offer a smile to a sales clerk when we see someone else being rude to her for no ascertainable reason; we can pick up a piece of trash in the street and put it in a trash can; we can hold the door open for another, be it a man or woman; or many other ACTS OF RANDOM KINDNESS (ARK). Every single act you choose to do could multiply many times, as in the movie, “Pay It Forward!”
Personal freedom is the same as LOVE, for each one of us could help improve the conditions in our world. How are you choosing? Are you willing to help make a difference and change the world? It is in your power, you know, for it is based totally in your use of your choices.
Life unfolds for each of us very differently. Some of us choose poorly, and then watch as bad situations become even worse. Some of us choose to ignore the fact that we can change, so they sit and whine about their conditions while they do nothing to change that. We all know somebody like that. Some are putting forth super efforts to make global changes while they ignore their daily lives and small acts that could make a big difference. It all depends on how vested we are in living our lives the very best we can.
Freedom carries with it the idea of personal responsibility, as consequences of our choices make themselves manifest. One can be “free,” but I learned as a child that my freedom ends where somebody else’s nose begins. In lieu of being combative and controlling, one can choose to offer respect to everyone we meet. Friendliness opens doors that are shut by negative emotions like anger and fear. Our world would be a lot better off if everyone practiced these ideas. Utopian? Nope! Just putting into daily practice thoughts and ideas that can truly change our personal realities.
Freedom is a precious thing to be cherished in whatever way we deem appropriate. It is not to be taken for granted or used for deleterious reasons. It is not meant to be manipulated or controlled. It is a God-given right for every soul, no matter what the religious belief is. For too long, we have languished through a lack of understanding. WAKE UP! Become the person you were meant to be, no matter where you are in the world. Begin to make a difference. Reach out across the miles to other souls who are also doing that. Connect. Whatever you can do, begin it. Are you willing?
God’s blessings upon your journey.
upliftingthoughts4u 