Tag Archives: Kindness

22

Feel Better

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Many times, we all wish we could wave a magic wand and feel better, happier, and more engaged in life. Unfortunately, I don’t have a magic wand, but we all can change our mood from bad to good by making the correct action choices. I can’t guarantee these actions will lead to a better feeling, but they might make you a happier life.

It doesn’t take any specialized training or skill to do this, other than the ability to take the actions at the right time. None of these things are beyond you or me, and that is an excellent thing. So find your way to the enjoyment of life and happiness on the path and follow one of these simple steps. The satisfaction you gain is going to be your own. These are methods to create a definite bounce in your life.

You’ve Got To Move It.

Exercise is important. Not only for the length of your life but the quality

jogging

of living, you are experiencing. We are all given a body at birth, and that mechanism functions best when it has regular exercise. If exercise isn’t a part of your program, that is when many issues with your body crop up. There is a long list of these illnesses, from heart disease to obesity; all of them are going to diminish your quality and enjoyment of life. The sad part is that a simple walk three or four times a week could enhance your physical and mental experience.

The choice to exercise gives immediate and long-term benefits for your body and significant short-term benefits to your mind, mood, and feelings. When you exercise, your body releases endorphins into your system, which leads you to feel good in the short term. There have been studies done where exercise has been proven to decrease feelings of depression over the long run. Your body is a mechanism that was made to move, so move, and you will see your mood enhanced today and for the long-term as well. Any exercise will do, so choose what resonates with you. Biking, jogging, lifting weights, aerobics classes, yoga, martial arts, hiking, or any other physical activity that gets the heart pumping will work. Get active and get happy.

Take Actions Big and Small

This is simple advice, but how many of us do what we love as a mood enhancer. Each of us has things we love to do. For me, it is writing about the things I think about; for others, it may be painting, cooking, tinkering with engines, or anything you connect with. When you do this thing, time will most likely disappear and seem to fly by—feeling low? Take some time to find these activities to carry you through.

Sometimes simple activities can provide us with a sense of happiness as well. Doing chores like making the bed, doing the dishes, or folding laundry can provide people with a sense of satisfaction and even joy. There is peace in doing these activities, a chance to focus your conscious mind on a task. This direct focus allows your subconscious mind to work on and give you answers to issues in your life. So don’t avoid the chores. Use them to make you happier, because believe it or not, they will.

Practice Intentional Kindness

Being kind to others leads to an increase in a positive mood—no doubt about that. When you are not feeling overly optimistic, it is usually because you are trapped in your negative thoughts about life. Something didn’t go right, or that might go wrong, and how will that affect me? Will I experience suffering? When you purposely seek out opportunities to be kind, you move your focus from inside to outside yourself. This change in direction brings a natural evolution in mood and attitude.

A straightforward practice I have heard about is the five acts of kindness. That means that you choose a day and must find at least five specific compassion points for others on that day. You don’t have to make them enormous, grand activities, but simple acts of kindness that enhance the lives of another human being. That act by itself will increase the joy in your life and, of course, make the experience much more enjoyable to you.

Retrain Your Mind

It is estimated that it takes about 21 days to establish a new habit. If you are mentally straying to the negative and want a favorable bounce, then start to notice things to be grateful for. I have heard that seeing and charting just three new things every day to be thankful for will allow you to change the way you think. Your mind will naturally start to look for the positive things and let the negative slide. This bounce can be immediate but will also become that habit after 21 days.

Imagine changing your whole outlook in just 21 days and seeing the world from an overall different perspective. Each moment we have in life is precious, and it is totally up to us if we spend it in anger and misery or joy and happiness.

So there are a few of the positive bounce methods that I have used to improve my outlook and attitude daily. I hope that you can use some of these methods too. Look at your mood and thoughts, and if they continually land on the negative, then it is time to make some changes.

“I always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” — Walt Disney

“Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.” — William James

“I’m a very positive thinker, and I think that is what helps me the most in difficult moments.” — Roger Federer

22

To Give

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Giving and Gratitude- You must provide to receive.

One of the better-known but often forgotten forces in the universe is giving and gratitude. These are two separate things but work together to bring a lot of good into the world. The old is replaced by the new as a person lets go of something without reservation, allowing for something new to enter its place. You can only hold on to so much at a time. What if the things you are grasping onto are old, outdated, or heavy and cumbersome. The only way to move to something new is to give them away freely. Then when new things arrive in your life, practice a pure, honest feeling of gratitude for them. This simple process will help you live a more fulfilled life. Develop an attitude of giving and receiving that keeps the energy of life flowing around you.

Mentality of Giving

It is easy to say, “Give!” to someone else, but there are always issues when it comes to yourself. If you have had feelings of lack your whole life, those will have to be conquered. Scarcity is not just referring to finances, it can also be applied to love, caring, nurturing, or any other aspect of life. When we fear there isn’t enough for us, we develop a lack mentality. It is a catch 22 because there won’t be anymore if you hold onto what you have for fear. There probably won’t be anymore.

The mentality of giving is that you can give freely and without fear because there is no lack in the world of what you seek or desire. If you give freely and without a doubt, what you need will come back to you in all areas that you provide. It will also allow for new and exciting things to enter your life. This can be intimidating and scary because change is always a little unsettling. But to keep your positive energy flowing, giving is a must. Give with an open heart and mind and expect nothing in return. All you need will come to you.

Gratitude is the Thing

How often do you look at someone else and envy what they have? It is a waste of time looking outside and being envious or angry because someone else has something you would like. Look at your life, enjoy the things you have, and feel grateful for them. All of us have something to be thankful for. The basics, eyes to see, ears to hear, food to eat, a place to live, freedom, love, family, or anything else has come into our lives. If you don’t appreciate what you have, why would you attract more into your life? Learning to be appreciative is a skill that is not taught to many but needs to be determined.

Honest feelings of gratitude are essential to practice every day. Note a grateful sense in your mind for all the things you have that make your life better. If you do this consistently, you can’t help but be in a good mood. We all have something. The joy that gratitude can bring will make life a better experience and allow for more things to be grateful for coming into your life. It has been a tradition in many religious teachings to count your blessings because you will see what has already been created for you. Knowing all the things already coming your way allows more positive things to enter your life.

The Good of Giving

Many people think having a lot of money will make them great, or having a powerful job will give them respect, but the truth of the matter is that how much you give to the world is going to determine your value to it. Our view of life can get blocked by pursuing material goods and financial well-being. There is nothing wrong with having money, but giving is also essential for energies to flow.   Giving is also something that becomes contagious. Giving something to someone often sparks them to give to someone else.

Giving also makes all parties happy. It feels good to offer, and it feels good to receive. If you look at the act itself and perform it with a pure heart, then the benefits of giving will shine through. Joy and happiness are the results. The only way they can’t is if fear enters the picture. Either the person giving is afraid they will never receive anything back. Or the person receiving is worried about what the gift means. Either way, give because you want to accept someone did something beautiful for you and let the process spread the happiness it should.

Take some time today and think of ways that You can give. Compliments, caring, Kindness, understanding, or love are all excellent ways to provide that cost nothing at all but a bit of thought and consideration. Receive all of these things as best you can and know that they are given positively. Smile and spread positive feelings to those that you come in contact with. Giving is the first step in receiving, and gratitude is the doorway it walks through.

“The heart that gives, gathers.” Tao Te Ching

“Generosity is giving more than you can, and pride is taking less than you need.”- Khalil Gibran.

“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.”- Lao Tzu.

“Don’t wait for other people to be loving, giving, compassionate, grateful, forgiving, generous, or friendly, lead the way.” Steve Maraboli

 

22

What is Your Direction?

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trustprocessAll things are changing at all times. Absolutely nothing or nobody stays as they are right now. Either something is moving in a positive direction, or they are becoming less favorable, and your life is a reflection of the transformation you are currently experiencing.

Personal wealth, health, and relationships are developing each day, and your choices fuel that process one way or another. Fortunately, we are creators and can take charge of the transformation process. Here are six factors that lead to change in a positive direction. All of our lives are an exact replication of who we are on the inside. If you don’t like what you are experiencing, you have no one to blame but yourself. The optimistic view is that you will be able to make changes on the outside and in your experience by changing the way you think and the thoughts you entertain. That is totally up to you.

What you focus on grows.

If you are not where you want to be right now, your attitude is one of the first places to look for change. Often your focus will determine where you are in life. Focusing on what you don’t have or what is going wrong will invite more of that into your life. Concentrating on what you want in life will bring more of that into your life. Be grateful, loving, accepting, kind, and understanding, and avoid hateful, judgmental, transform-yourselfangry, or limiting thoughts, and you will see transformation occur in your life.

Where your focus is will lead to the flow of energy. If you live in fear of loss or worry consistently about what may happen, you will experience the worst side of life. Remember, focusing on the thoughts and things you want to happen in your life will allow you to develop your reality in a way you would like. You are either in control of your existence or reacting to the things that happen to you.

Always be Better

In life, transformation in a positive way is called Growth. Each of us has the opportunity to grow every day. Growth sometimes happens naturally in life, but we need to seek it more often. Seeking it can be as simple as spending time in nature or reading a book with crucial information you need.

Or it could come through watching a video in the instruction of something positive. The growth provides excitement, and as you expand into it, the transformation will be a positive thing in your life. Growing is the force that brings your dreams and goals into reality. Always strive to be a better version of yourself because it will lead you to find your talents and gifts in the world.

Develop Positive Beliefs

What we genuinely believe colors our reality and dictates what we can experience. If your life is not moving in a positive direction, then look at your beliefs. Many of our limiting beliefs have been developed through the conditioning of our youth. Parents, siblings, relatives, teachers, peers, and the media have given us the rules that our consciousness accepts as accurate.

It is vital to a positive transformation that we recognize the limits and understand that we can change them at any moment. Developing these positive beliefs and replacing limiting beliefs allow a person to experience a real and positive transformation regarding money, love, health, or anything else.

Practice Gratitude and Appreciation

Another factor in positive transformation is learning to practice gratitude and appreciation for the things you have in your life. Looking at the right things and being appreciative of them will allow more of those things to show up in your life. Be a consistent giver of gratitude, and your transformation will be moving in a positive direction almost effortlessly. It allows you to see better and making a daily list of these things gets you to look for something to be grateful for throughout your experience. The human mind can only entertain one thought at a time. When those thoughts are negative, focus on things that you appreciate right now. Appreciation will bring you to a positive level.

It allows you to see better and making a daily list of these things gets you to look for something you are grateful for throughout your experience. The human mind can only entertain one thought at a time when those thoughts are negative; your experience will follow. Focus on things that you appreciate right at this moment. Appreciation will bring you to a positive level. You can’t be both negative and positive at the same time, you can only choose one, and that choice is up to you.

Avoid Negative Influences

A simple method for positive transformation is to avoid negative influences in your life. It seems simplistic but looks at the people in your life and the activities you participate in and evaluate them honestly. If you have friends that are engaging you in gossip or negative talk about others, it will bring negativity into your life.

The activity which causes you to judge others is harmful to your existence. Avoid these negative influences and add more positive things to your life. Either change the conversation with a cynical friend or change your friends to those who are more optimistic. If you watch television, which focuses on negative thoughts and feelings, watch something else. Positive transformation is as simple as changing the channel.

Be Kind to Yourself and Others

Finally, being kind is a simple method to transform your life positively. Kindness is free; it feels right for everyone involved; it is fat-free and delicious. You can’t get or give too much of it. Judgments of others move us away from kindness, which drives us negatively. Look at someone who annoys you or bothers you and then send them service, and you will see your transformation take place.

Our judgments and anger toward others only hold us back. Practice kindness and send love toward others. That is also true in how you treat yourself. We are often our own worst critics and are not supportive at all. Look at the way you speak to yourself and temper it toward kindness. Being kind toward yourself will be an essential factor in your ultimate happiness. When you choose between compassion and something negative (judgment, anger, meanness, etc.) BE KIND!!!!

  

 

    

 

      

 

21

Good To Everyone

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We make decisions every day, and could anything be more simple than choosing to be kind to everyone we meet? On the surface, it would seem to treat others in a positive, thoughtful way that should be easy, and it is, but when you let thoughts and emotions focus on fear, that is where the problems start.

Focus your thoughts and actions on the love of any situation, and kindness will flow to everyone.  Others can feel desperate and approach you with fear and anger. Let them have their poison, and you don’t have to reciprocate or participate. Be kind to everyone. It is the most significant contribution to the world most of us can and will give.

Strength of Kindness

When people often seek their power, they look to the negative to find it.  Anger is one place many go to relay their displeasure with someone or a situation, and it becomes a knee-jerk reaction to all fearful situations. Anger is the face of fear, and it is a natural response to circumstances we are concerned our needs are not being met.  Focus on the issue that makes you fear your needs are being neglected rather than the people around you.  When people can’t express this fear appropriately, anger escalates to violence, and nothing good comes from violence.

Face your fears with kindness, look at a situation, and see where you can apply it.  Words are often difficult to find, but service is always an excellent salve for anger because it proves needs will be met, you matter, and the world cares. To be kind even when others mistreat you, insult you, or hurt you is difficult, but that is its strength. It takes effort and always has a reward, even if you don’t see it right away. You are either going to escalate and maintain a cycle of anger or start a new period of kindness.

You Never Know

If you flew in a plane and dropped a million seeds out over the landscape, there would be no way to know what plants resulted from your affirmative action. You can spread kindness precisely like that, and there is no right way to monitor the results. Faith that your efforts are all you will be able to go on. That being good to people is better than the alternative. It will bring up plants of positivity somewhere that wouldn’t have existed if not for your efforts.

There is also no way of knowing who needs your kindness today.  A person with a gloomy, cloudy disposition often can’t change without some hope to change their outlook. Understanding and just being kind to someone with no expectation of return can be the exact thing that turns someone’s entire vision around. Treating people positively, helpful, and adequately always matters and always brings positive results.  You will never know where your kindness goes and what it grows into and see that it matters.

Being Good, Feels Good

Being kind does not allow people to walk all over you because they are mean, and it is a different kind of response. First, someone else’s attitude and words can’t affect you negatively unless you let them.  Your reaction is different and more positive, and more importantly, it is the right thing to do.  How others act reflects who they are, and how you react is a reflection of who you are. All of your words and actions have the potential to affect others for the entirety of their lives.  What kind of influence do you want to be?

When you choose kindness, understanding, caring, and supportive thoughts, they turn into words, actions, and a philosophy that influences your existence. It is not easy to do this all the time, but if you get it started, it becomes a habit, and it always feels good.  Not only for all the people you come in contact with but also for yourself.

Do Your Best

So do your best to make the world a better place by being kind to others whenever the opportunity arises. It is one of the things you can always control. Even when dealing with negative people who may not have any scope of the world outside of themselves, that is the most critical time to be kind. You may have the most significant influence on others in those moments. You are being mean never solved any problem or made any situation better.  Without considerable effort by someone else, the contrary only leads to negative.  Be a positive force in your world, and be kind to those you see daily.

“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear, and the blind can see.” -Mark Twain

 “You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.” -George Sand

“A warm smile is the universal language of kindness.” -William Arthur Ward

 “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” -Albert Schweitzer

 

 

21

Love It or Fear It

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To fear or to love?

You May Disagree
You May Disagree

All situations in life can break down into simple choices. Will you think and act out of fear? Or will you believe and work out of love?

I believe EVERYTHING you think will make a difference in your life and come with emotions attached, which affect your decision-making. I believe this because of a lifetime of experience and entertaining the wrong types of thoughts. I lived much of my life under the influence of fear but have chosen to make a change and look at things with feelings of love. No small endeavor, but I encourage all others to attempt to do the same.

How You Think Leads to How You Live

This article is about the fundamental belief that I have developed in my game of life. If you are thinking judgmental, mean, sarcastic, or hateful thoughts about other people or groups of people, there is no doubt that you will experience those things in your own experience.

These are negative thoughts which lead to unhappy experiences
These are negative thoughts that lead to unhappy experiences

If you choose to focus on accepting, kind, and loving thoughts, then that will be the overall experience of your existence. How do I know? I used to think the former and now try to focus on the latter, and although I am the same person, the experience of life has been entirely different and much more positive and enjoyable in all ways.

Fear is the chief motivation of those who are critical. A person rejects any thought or action that will lead to change or be different from comfortable beliefs. Even if things are currently going poorly, people avoid change because they fear that changes might make things even worse.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing fear itself because fear gives you adrenaline and or motivation to act. Still, if you focus on and allow it to move your actions from day-to-day, your experience will suffer from negative energy. We all face fear every day, but it is how you deal with it that matters. Each moment comes down to this simple choice between fear and love, the one you choose will define your life and you as a person.

Change is Always Possible

change-thoughtsThe most daunting task for anyone to accomplish is to change the way that you think. We have spent a lifetime accumulating experiences that come along with mental programming, which has managed to keep us safe and alive. But it also can make us unhappy and not allow us to reach our capabilities.

Yet, at some point, even though we are safe and alive, the quality of our life needs value. Once you start to pursue happiness and caring, you notice what has been making you unhappy. What is it that makes you hang your head with worry? What makes you afraid to speak? What makes you hide your individuality? What makes you disappear who you are? Fear.

Fear that you won’t be accepted, or fear that someone will take something from you that you love. Fear that someone is going to harm you or those that you care about can hurt you. The mainstream media feed these fears to gain ratings and Madison Avenue to earn consumer dollars.

The reality is that fear is just a thought and an illusionary thought at that. What you are afraid of is not accurate, it is a thought, and that is it. What if? What should? What Might? Questions that provide these thoughts; are not real they don’t exist, yet they offer genuine suffering for people. Your thoughts about things are the cause of most of our issues. Change your thoughts, and many of our problems go away.

There are many dangers in the world, and those should be avoided because they can hurt you, but fear of them will only stop you from doing what you want and becoming the best you can be. Fear limits you and destroys dreams.

Getting Out of Fear

Beliefs are merely thoughts that you choose every day to add weight to.
Beliefs are merely thoughts that you choose every day to add weight to.

Getting rid of fear in your thoughts is simple, but it is not easy.

Stop thinking fearful things. Now that would be easy to control all of our thoughts, but you really can’t.

Thoughts pop into your mind at a rapid pace, representing your lifetime of experience. Bias, prejudice, hatred, fear are all a part of your knowledge, and they are all associated with others.

You can’t stop them from popping into your mind, but you can control how much you pay attention to them. Simply noticing the thoughts of fear as what they are fake surprisingly releases you from their power. All of their power over you comes from inside your head and the thoughts you choose to give power to. Let the negative go and replace them with something more positive. The human mind is only capable of entertaining one idea at a time. If your thought is positive, so will your mood, actions, and life.

Replace thoughts of fear with thoughts of love

enigmaOnce you recognize and admit your worries and let them go, it is incredible how easy the right ideas and feelings flow. It feels better to be happy, healthier to love, and more enjoyable to live without fear.

It takes time, and you have to be honest with yourself. Recognizing your weaknesses can be painful and challenging, but you have a simple choice here. Choose caring over callousness, kindness over being mean, understanding over judgment. Keep living your life in fear and be unhappy or admit to your negative thoughts and recognize that you can just let them go and think differently.

The choice is up to you! Nobody else can make it for you.

“Fear and love can never be experienced at the same time. It is always our choice as to which of these emotions we want.”-  Gerald Jampolsky

“Love and fear represent two different lenses through which to view the world. Which I choose to use will determine what I think I see.”-Marianne Williamson

“Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here.”-  Marianne Williamson

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”-  John Lennon

21

How You Treat Others Defines You

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I am as hard on myself as I am on anyone I know when it comes to this statement.  How you treat others defines you. I know because this is an area I have fallen short of many times in my life. I know I haven’t always been the best person when it comes to my treatment of other people.  I have a long list of situations where I have not treated others as well as they deserve or been the kind of person I would have liked to be.  That is why it is always so hard to see people you care about fall into the same selfish traps in the way they treat others in their life.  It takes so little to be decent in the world, and I guess sometimes that price is just too much for some to pay.  I try to adopt the hope in each new day that I will be able, at this moment, at least, to treat others with kindness, caring, empathy, understanding, and consideration. That is my hope.

Only In Control Of Me

The only thing in the world we are indeed in charge of entirely is how we control ourselves. Life can and will throw all kinds of situations at you, and it is up to you how you respond. Do you quit? Become disillusioned?  Respond with anger toward those who care about you? Blame everything and everyone else? Accept responsibility for ourselves and our situations?  The only honorable way to go is to accept responsibility for where you are right now.  Because you are the person who decides what thoughts are essential to you, and those thoughts will create the world around you.

You are the only one who can control the tenor of the thoughts you focus on. Where focus goes, energy flows. If you spend your time thinking only of yourself, you will be stuck in a cycle of selfishness with no real opportunity for growth because growth comes from the things you do for and share with others. The positive or negative actions we take in our lives each day will determine how our lives grow.  This idea is particularly true in our spirituality.  It is our responsibility to look for ways to improve as people in our life.  Regardless of the circumstances we face, we choose the impact our lives have on the people around us and us. Positive or negative, this is our choice, every second of every day.  You are the only one who can control you.

Noone Left to Blame

Today, our lives are the sole responsibility because we are the creators of the thoughts behind them. You can try to blame circumstances, other people, or just bad or good luck, but whatever experiences you have resulted from your choices and actions you have taken. If you have mistreated people, you can’t be surprised when you are treated poorly by someone else.   Too often, I have blamed others for the outcomes in my life that didn’t live up to my expectations.

I would have better spent my time accepting my thoughts, words, and actions and realizing that I needed to change my ways to bring different outcomes into my life. If I was going to be selfish and self-centered and only worried about how things would affect me, then I can’t be surprised when opportunities in life that rely on others pass me by.  Our lives are a direct reflection of what we think and what we do. There is no more significant measure of what we are as people than the shape of our lives right now.

Your Qualities Define You

Finally, when looking at your definition. What are the words you would like to have associated with yourself? Honestly, look at the way you treat others, and you will find the meaning of yourself. I know many people who would shy away from some of their adjectives, although they belong to the things they say and do. You can’t be mean to someone in one breath and then claim kindness in a general sense. Service is an attribute that accompanies you all the time, or it doesn’t at all. Mean and insensitive behavior can’t be erased by wishful thinking.

But it can be undone by a change in thought and recognizing our responsibility for our actions. Each day we have a chance to represent ourselves with behaviors we stand behind and envision as beacons of our best selves.  Falling for a time doesn’t define your life; it only establishes that part of your life. No story is over until the last page turns, and the best stories are always about redemption and comebacks.  You have to ask yourself, can I change? From negative to positive? Lousy behavior to good behavior? Unhealthy to healthy? Or whatever challenge you are facing because the only person who can choose what defines you is you.

“Our past may shape us, but it doesn’t define us.” ― Alyson Noel

“We cannot let the haters of this world define us. Or frighten us into no longer being ourselves.” ― Mary E. DeMuth

“Strong people define themselves; weak people allow others to define them.” ― Ken Poirot

“Define yourself—not by how much you are loved, but by how much you love others.” ― Connor Chalfant

“Never defend yourself, but define yourself with your imagination and actions.”― Debasish Mridha M.D.

 

 

21

Your True Measure

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Your actions define you to the world

It is natural for an individual to look at the world from the inside out. The only perspective we have had our whole life is from our own mind’s eye. Often we develop a significant concern for how others treat us in the world. The fear seeps into every interaction we have and pulls us into a more selfish existence, worrying about how people manage us? What is in this for me? What about me? Worrying about how others treat you is a narrow perspective and will limit what you can give to the world. It is far better to build a concern with how you are treating others in your life and the world around you. Being a positive force in the world involves doing positive things for people and encouraging others to be the best versions of themselves possible. It all begins with a conscious awareness of the thoughts you entertain each day—the words these thoughts lead you to utter to the world. And, of course, the actions you take display what your base thoughts are to the world. You will define yourself in thought, word, and work.

Building Your Definition

The job of our mind is to interpret the world we live in. Let’s face it; our brain tells all stories from our perspective. If there is a conflict, of course, the other party is unreasonable and demanding. We are always in the right to us. But are we? How you choose to treat others is a clear picture of who you are, and there is no hiding from it. If you spend your time judging others, then you are judgmental. If you gossip and spread rumors about others, those whispers behind people’s backs show who you are.

Conversely, your choices to be kind, accepting, and caring about the lives of others also define you. Your focus is the key to identifying you in the world. Not what you think you are, but what you are to the world. It is easy to dehumanize someone when you think of them in abstract terms, like demographics, heritage, or ethnicity. All stereotypes dehumanize people and, by your thought, degrade you. How you choose to treat the people who bother you most tells the most about you. We all make a choice each day to do these things.

Being Empathetic to Others

Our ability to practice empathy is one of the tools we have to maintain our humanity in life. Using our minds to project ourselves into another person’s situation allows us to walk around in their shoes. Once you indeed do this, you are much less likely to be harsh in your treatment of them. Understanding how someone else lives and why they do what they do doesn’t excuse poor behavior, but it can allow you to follow somebody. If you were placed in a different set of circumstances, then you might be making the same choices. Bad as they might be.

One action you can take is to be aware of other people and how your work will affect them. At least in a way that shows an awareness of the needs of another person. All people are living a story, and each one is different. You would be a modified version of yourself if you experienced an unusual childhood, growth experience, and moral influences. That is what other people are, a modified version of you. Treat them as such. Understanding, kindness, and acceptance are universally helpful, and treating people this way brings more of these things into your life.

Three Skills to Develop for Treating People well

First, learn to be an active and present listener. When someone is speaking to you, be present. Don’t let your mind wander into what you are doing tomorrow or think about the past. Focus and be there for whoever is speaking. Listening shows caring, respect and allows a person to know that they have an outlet for their thoughts. Be curious, ask questions, and let another speak.

Secondly, when you do speak, be honest in all you say. That is a simple thing but shows people that they can trust you. All of our words should have the stamp of truth on them and allow for confidence with all of those who are listening. Speak honestly and expect the same in return.

Thirdly, in all of our actions, we focus on operating with integrity. Integrity is doing the right things, even if you are the only one who knows it. Treating others with integrity makes all interactions honest and opportunities for growth. You will also be setting an example for all others to follow in their way.

Be Kind

Finally, If there is one thing to focus on in all kinds of relationships, practice kindness in your interactions with everyone. Your heart belongs to you, regardless of how someone else acts; being kind is your choice. Suppose someone else needs compassion to give it. If you don’t think they need it, give it anyways. Consideration is a gift you give to the world that it needs. How you treat others defines you and will determine your impact on the planet.

It will all begin with the primary thoughts you have in your head. The ones you choose to entertain will get the focus in your life. If you are worried about yourself, it will show in all that you do. If you are thinking about others, and their well-being, then that will show too. Also, the words you speak to others and about others will define you. Speak as if your words had magic in them because they do. Finally, your actions will be a clear picture of the world of the way you think and how you feel about things that are happening all around in everyday life. Focus on defining your contribution to the world as a positive one. Your Actions define you.

“Stop worrying yourself with how others are treating you. Just be concerned with how you are treating others.”

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”- Wayne Dyer

“Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick of your success will be how you treat other people – your family, friends, and coworkers, and even strangers you meet along the way.”- Barbara Bush

 

21

Karma,Karma

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Karma– the sum of a person’s actions in this existence, is viewed as deciding their future fate.

Karma
“Life is a boomerang. What you give, you get.” ~ Dale Carnegie

We are all in control of the energy we give to the world each day. It begins with the thoughts we decide to pay attention to in our minds. These become the words that we speak and the actions we perform. These things determine what we give to and get back from life. Like a boomerang the energy, you decide to send out will come back to you, always, inevitably, and usually with interest. That’s Karma. You control the power in your life by the thoughts you entertain, which lead to emotions, words, and actions. These things determine your karma. Are you conscious of them in your life today?

Give, and You will Receive

One of the fundamental paradoxes of life is that when you give, you receive in return. This fact can be a problem when you look at what you have and think that you need so many things for yourself. You don’t see a way that you can give, but it is there. Giving is the path to receiving and

karma
You are open to receiving

giving with an open heart when you provide, and giving spirit is critical. Try to develop the attitude of giving without worrying about what the return is. The performance will be high.

It is a positive energy to give and goes against the worry of lack that plagues most people. Fear that we will not have our needs met and will have to go without something. But what exactly are we going to go without? An extra coffee each day? It doesn’t even take a lot to get this energy working for you, give a little with no expectation of return and see what you get. Be conscious of your experience and what results from your choices. It will surprise you. Karma always will. Good or bad.

Kindness Also Comes Back

The same is valid for compassion. When you practice acts of kindness for others, then you will experience elephant kindnessgoodness in return. The act of practicing kindness will make you more aware of the good things around you. Service costs nothing and maybe the most valuable something you can produce. Giving it away is good karma.

The alternative is to act with selfishness, and to be self-centered is to attract negative things into your life. Again, when you contact people who are sending attitudes of lack, look at your thoughts and actions first before you condemn them. You may find the problem exists in your thoughts and consequent actions. It may just be your kindness that can help turn the lives of others around.

What You Give You Get

So this rule is valid for everything, and with everything, there is a choice for you to make. If you choose to

Try giving some of these
Try giving some of these

steal, you will be the victim of theft. So in effect, you are stealing from yourself, which makes no sense. If you lie, others will lie to you. If you take people for granted, then you will be, in turn, taken for granted. Whichever choices you make will be revisited in your life and usually with a more significant payback.

We are all energy at the core, and our actions determine the charge of power we produce, and the results come back into our life. Our energy controls what we attract. The truth of what you think and do is the living example your life will be. Look at your choices, look at the results, and see the relationship between your options and the experiences you are having. Look at your experiences and see that the thoughts you believe nobody else can know are being revisited on you.

You can experiment by practicing something specific in your life and then be aware of the results. I encourage you to start with a positive thought rather than a negative, but we all make our own choices and determine the overall tenor of our lives through them.

You consciously choose the energy you will experience in your life by the thoughts you entertain. Where focus goes, energy flows. The corresponding emotions those thoughts elicit, the words they bring from your mouth, and the actions you take because of them. You are driving your “karma train” today. What type of trip is it going to be?

“Life is a boomerang. What you give, you get.” ~ Dale Carnegie

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.” – Wayne Dyer

“The law is simple. Every experience is repeated or suffered until you experience it properly.” – Ben Okri

Karma: It’s Not About What We Do

Karma

The Theory of Karma

5 Ways Karma Affects Your Life

 

 

21

Trickster

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I once believed I was an intelligent individual. Life had given me many perceived answers as to how to live, the best patterns of thought to follow, and a philosophy of thinking to guide me. Yet, life is a miserable trickster sometimes, and I had forgotten this important fact. It gives you enough knowledge to build up a false sense of security in your actions and then pulls the foundation in your mind away, letting you fall hard on the unforgiving concrete of learning. Congratulations! You have just moved to a new level of understanding. If you survive the harrowing experience and manage to find a reason to continue with the game of life, then you have won. I once thought I was a relatively wise man, but much of what I believed to be the truth has been proven empty in the pale open light of reality.

I Am Nothing

Wisdom knows that I am nothing. This line is the beginning of a quote I love, and it always reminds me to put my thoughts, actions, and experiences into a proper perspective. No matter what I do in my life, it is all relatively insignificant to the world in the big scheme of things. Nobody cares if I am kind, loving, understanding or mean, hateful or judgmental. The world will continue, and in effect, all that I am is nothing. The world will keep turning without me. Billions of people will rise in the morning, whether I am here or not. Lives will continue, the world will go on, with or without my contribution.

Yet, a small part of the world may benefit from my decision to be caring, kind, accepting, and loving toward those in my life. All I can do is make my actions positively represent my best self and best efforts. The thought that I am nothing with no more influence than anyone else but no less either is Wisdom itself. I have long stopped judging myself and my philosophies as good or bad because they are things I think and experience. I know that I am nothing, and in that knowledge, I have the potential to make a difference.

I am Everything

Love teaches me that I am Everything. In my experience, the human heart is not well equipped to handle love. The emotions of our lives come to us in waves, love, lust, anger, hatred, jealousy, pain, anger, joy, attachment, kindness, meanness, loss, gain, and many more things are all wrapped up in the emotion we describe as love. There are so many things wound up into this experience nobody can take it all quickly. But in love, we can find our best selves and abilities to rise to the surface of who we are.

Inside of us is the constant battle of choice and love is at the forefront of this. It brings heightened experiences and magnifies all the choices we make around them. The more we love ourselves and others, the more our life has to contribute to the world. In being conscious of how our thoughts of love materialize in the world. The closer we are to being our best selves. Love knows I am Everything and in Everything, from nature to thoughts in my head. We are vital to the world because of our capacity to see the value in others and life. This view is often obscured by the painful needs of our false selves or ego. We can’t see our love’s value or capacity because we are too worried about our needs not being met. Remember, love knows you are Everything.

Life is In Between

So we look to Wisdom to know we are nothing and love to understand we are Everything, but then there is the experience of life. We have to be able to look at our experiences and quantify them in some way. It is tough for me because I am constantly moving between these two different realities, and the closer I am to Wisdom, the more lonely and sad I feel. So is it better to be less wise and more blissful in experiencing love each day? I think the phrase is, ignorance is bliss.

I do know that the only person who controls the amount of love I give to the world is me. Circumstances are what they are. The choices of others are theirs to make, and they define their lives. It seems very unwise to allow them to dictate how you feel about yourself. That seems silly and dangerous. A person could be mentally unbalanced, and letting their vacillations of thoughts and caring dictate your reality will make you mentally unstable. I hope I can choose to be wise and loving.

Being Wise and Loving

I hope that in the game of life, I can learn to practice the Wisdom of knowing I am not the center of the universe. Understanding the love I can contribute to the world can make a difference in some small way. By choosing to put the well-being of others and those, I affect in my life. Making positive choices each day and in each situation I face is the best decision I can make. I am choosing to be kind, not mean. To be honest and not lie. To be accepting of others and not judgmental. To be giving, not selfish. To be appreciative, not greedy.

There is only one way that I will find out: to live life and hope that I can navigate this minefield of emotions, thought, and action—turning my life into something that resembles value to others and myself. It must be a pleasant existence to float through things and not wonder about anything in any deep and contemplative way. But that is not my path. Is it one of Wisdom, one of love, or one that contains a balance within? Only in the end will the answer be revealed if it has all been false sense or not.

“Wisdom knows I am nothing,
Love knows I am Everything,
and between the two, my life moves.”

 

Personal Growth, Self Improvement, Positive Thinking