The Ramblings of the Titanium Don
Explorations of Conscious Reality Creation, Mindfulness, and Other Matters
One of the places I find I am most lacking is patience. I’ve struggled for years to build more patience into my life. I struggled because, to be blunt, I’m bad at it. Sometimes this has served me well. Rather than simply awaiting a timely healing, when I was severely injured, I pushed. That push was borne from my impatience but wasn’t a lack of patience. It manifested instead into an unwillingness to accept anything but my vision of my
Being consciously aware makes you aware of many things. Living in a fear-based society is problematic on many levels. First, virtually everywhere you turn there’s something in place to make you fearful. The play on your emotions is often deeply subtle, sometimes even subversive, and always present. Advertising plays on fears of lack, scarcity, insufficiency, and missing out. Buy this item to be more lovable, sexier, and appear smarter and more refined – or suffer. Utilize that service to stay
This is an amazingly empowering realization. Life is unexpected and uncertain. No two days are alike. Similar, maybe, but not the same. Change is the only constant in the Universe. That’s because the Universe and everything in it is impermanent. Buddhism takes a deep look into the nature of impermanence. But outside the Buddhist way, it’s often disregarded, ignored outright, or denied. You strive to create things permanent and enduring, as does everyone. The reality is that nothing is permanent.
The only time that’s real, where you have any control at all, is now. Right now, this moment, is the only place in time that’s actually, factually, real. The past has come and gone. The future is yet to unfold. Only the now is real. Only this moment can be lived and experienced consciously. Lots of people try to go back to the past. They want to return to a time that they remember. Of course, their memory of that
When you recognize this, you gain more control and empower yourself. Fear is the ultimate drug. It’s more pervasive than anything illicit or prescription you can acquire. It’s everywhere you turn, and often so innocuous that it’s right in front of you but hidden in plain sight. Sometimes it’s made cutesy with phraseology like FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It’s often used to sell you anything and everything from beer to cars to services. Buy this, that, or the other
This is all about trauma, change, and the reality of what comfort zones are. Life is crazy. So much is happening out there, is it any wonder we’re all losing our minds? Here’s my personal dilemma. My therapist and I have seen numerous ways that I’ve improved my life. Overall, I’m in a really good place. Yet, for some reason, I feel stuck. The reason? Because somewhere in the back of my brain, I feel like I’m missing something. What
Mindfulness empowers you and me to care and make real change in the world. Big business. Government. Religion. Each of these entities, separately and combined, are the “they” of the world around you and me. Each uses money, fear, faux-power, influence, and the bully pulpit to sway you and me to their ideals, buy their products, elect their officials, accept their morality, and the like. This is both subtle and blatant. Big business tends to be blatant, utilizing advertising to
Communication styles vary in many ways. It’s never just the words you use. Even the written word can convey a degree of tone, intent, and attitude. Communication is a complex mechanism of expression employed to convey ideas. It’s how you and I can share notions, agree and disagree, and expand (or, frankly, shrink) our overall knowledge base. Communication can be both internal and external. When you are thinking about this, that, or the other thing, you’re communicating in your head.
Why are choices and decisions so powerful? You’re bombarded with frequent, loud, often overwhelming messages about conformity. Do this, be that, follow the herd, or get voted off this island Earth. Contribute as expected or be judged as lacking, wanting, and less-than. Formal schooling is all about learning how to learn for the first 6 years or so. Then you start applying that to the actual gaining of knowledge but to a lesser degree. Facts, figures, and things necessary to
Not unless you give up or choose to give in to suffering. Life is unpredictable in so many ways. One moment, everything can be dark, distressing, and deeply unpleasant. Then, the next moment, it can be brilliant, exciting, and deeply joyful. Most of the time life falls somewhere between these extremes. The modern world is obsessed with extremes. So many things are viewed as either/or, rather than the far vaster middle between them. It’s all black or white, never mind
