The Ramblings of the Titanium Don

The Gratitude Of and From Giving

Tangible or intangible, giving powers positivity. About every 6 months or so, my wife and I purge our space. I come from a long line of pack rats. Not hoarders, nobody lives in piles of utterly useless junk. Pack rats. Both sides of my immediate family – my mom and stepdad and my dad and stepmom – have a lot of stuff. Some, of course, is useful stuff. Other stuff, however, is either sentimental, valuable but not useful, or a

Why the Language You Use Reflects Your Approach

Connecting mindfulness more clearly. Words matter. What you say often reflects your inner being and provides insight into your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and approach. Approach is a recent addition to my view toward active conscious awareness – i.e., mindfulness. Yet, on close examination, it holds up with the rest of the bits and pieces that go into it. Thought is where everything that makes you, you, begins. Not only that, but thought is how all things in the world today,

What’s So Positive About Getting Shit Done?

Getting shit done feels good. When you’ve given something you’re doing a ton of focus and energy, and then finish, how does that make you feel? Have you ever put a great deal of effort into a project, and after it was done, felt a sense of elation, relief, and/or completeness? There’s something to be said for the power of getting shit done. Yet it’s all too easy to get so caught up in the various acts of doing that

How Can Negativity Possibly Be Empowering?

Negativity is an unexpected teacher. Positivity, the opposite of negativity, is empowering. In a fear-based society, overloaded with fake lack, scarcity, and insufficiency, positivity is necessary. There is, however, a catch. You can’t have positivity without negativity. The mistake that toxic positivity makes is its utter denial of negativity. Toxic positivity tells you to blot out negativity, ignore it, put blinders on to it, avoid it, and disregard it. That is, however, impossible. Shit happens. No matter who you are,

How Can Anger Generate Positivity and Empowerment?

Recognize, acknowledge, choose, and do. Despite the many flaws and awful dialogue in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Yoda utters one extremely deep and useful nugget of wisdom. “Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” Just about everything you do is inadvertently checked by our fear-based society. The bombardment of messages telling you to fear this, fear that, be afraid of them, and on and on, quickly overwhelms you. Much of that fear targets your

Why Is Genuine Gratitude Always Positive?

Tangible or intangible, big or small, gratitude is always empowering. There is no such thing as negative gratitude. Sure, there’s false gratitude, but that’s not gratitude. Genuine, true, real gratitude is always positive.   Genuine gratitude is an expression of appreciation. Appreciation is a direct pathway to kindness, compassion, and empathy. Everyone, everywhere, desires kindness, compassion, and empathy (sometimes inappropriately jealously, which is how we get so many who want it but refuse to give it. But I digress). Kindness,

Why Should You Treat People How You Desire to Be Treated?

You get back whatever you put out to the world. When did it become acceptable to simply be rude to people? Seriously, when did it become acceptable to treat people with such disrespect? For example, it wasn’t all that long ago that when the President gave the State of the Union address, the other side got a rebuttal after it. Outright heckling? What are you, undisciplined grade school children? Name-calling, inappropriate gestures, and other disturbing behaviors have become increasingly normalized

Every Day You Get to Choose Your Life Approach

This is incredibly empowering for us all. Over the years, I’ve made some adjustments and alterations to how I define mindfulness. Specifically, what goes into it. Mindfulness, as I define it, is active conscious awareness. It’s the practice of being actively, consciously aware of your mindset/headspace/psyche self, here and now. In the present, the only time that’s really, truly, real. Initially, I quantified what went into practicing mindfulness as knowing what you’re thinking, how and what you’re feeling, and what

I Don’t Hate Myself, But Some Days I Don’t Like Myself

Kindness, compassion, and empathy are necessary for ourselves, too. Today I got really upset. Angry, mostly. At myself. Why? Because I’ve put on a bunch of weight, I have a bizarre nerve pinch in my left hand that’s causing recurrent pain depending on my grip, I’m a bit flustered trying to decide on a new editor for my book series, I feel like I’m letting people in my life down, I’m failing to live up to my potential, work as

How do I Release the Discomfort?

What steps go into centering and balancing? Depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses have common threads to them. They are comprised of elements of thought, feeling, and various blended and/or mixed emotions. Though I can’t and don’t know for certain, I believe that everyone feels their feelings in different parts of their body. Sometimes it manifests as a buzzing in the back of your head. Other times, it’s butterflies in your stomach. Maybe you experience a sensation like a weight