The Ramblings of the Titanium Don
Explorations of Conscious Reality Creation, Mindfulness, and Other Matters
Maybe normal and normalcy are what’s truly weird in the world. People are always bombarded by the idea of being “normal”. Like this concept is what makes the world go ‘round. I tried, in my 20s and 30s, to be normal. I took jobs from 9-5 in various industries that were considered normal and necessary. Each of which tended to crush my soul. Corporate America and I did not see eye to eye. My attempts to work a normal job
You can always win this competition. Everywhere you look, there’s competition. Every election, sport, game, and contest focuses on competing. Win the election, finish first, make the most impressive meal, and outperform the others so you can be the best, most recognized, ultimate winner. There are plenty of contests out there where it’s all about competing. Yet, aside from such intentional competitions, you’re not in competition with anyone else for anything. Let me repeat that for those in the cheap
It certainly feels bad, but all is not as it seems. It’s impossible not to recognize that things are bad in many ways for many people. On a big-picture level, there’s the awfulness of the current state of the Israel/Palestine dispute, the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a United States Supreme Court that cares more about the religious beliefs of a few over science, not to mention a candidate for President who should be in prison for a lot of
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
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,
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
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,
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
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,
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
