Explorations of Conscious Reality Creation, Mindfulness, and Other Matters
Reflecting on becoming my true, genuine self and expanding that going forward. When I turned 30 in 2002, I freaked out about it. I was (mostly) single, working a lame-ass job, and largely discontent with my lot in life. What’s more, I was much more prone to believing the messages about how my life was supposed to look. At 30, as far as I knew, I was supposed to be at least in a serious relationship, following a real career
How we age – and perceive aging – is a choice we get to make. Birthdays can be a mixed bag for most people. I’m going to generalize here – but most people have 1 of 3 responses to their birthday: Joy Dread Utter nonchalance I’ve seen all of the above among my friends and family. Hell, I’ve shifted between these myself. My 30th birthday freaked me out. But my 40th simply occurred. My 50th is upon me – and
We can choose to learn from pain and suffering. Everyone experiences pain. Everyone experiences suffering. Not just a few people – EVERYONE. Pain and suffering are a part of the life experience for everyone everywhere. Why? Because both are channels for growth. Pain and suffering almost always suck at the time of their occurrence. But afterward, they can teach us amazing and incredibly useful things about life, the Universe, and everything. Pain and suffering are two very different animals. Both
Everyone gets to choose to swim, flow, float, or sink in the river of life. More than a decade ago, I decided that I was not going to just let life live me. I had a desire to choose the direction of my life – and what I would do with it. When I started blogging regularly at the beginning of 2012, my Pathwalking philosophy was born. Over time it’s evolved. A lot. And though many of the original tenets
Positivity is less about how we feel than about how we choose to approach our lives. How easy is it to feel bad? To find negativity in the world? To see darkness, sadness, and hopelessness? Too easy. Surf the internet. Watch cable news. Shouldn’t take more than a minute or two to start down that path. Because it is so extremely easy to find the bad and the negative in our world today – they often become dominant. And if
Even unintentional hurt that we are made feel tends to linger. Someone that I care a great deal about hurt me. Let me be clear about several facts in this matter. First – I know it was not their intent to cause me hurt. They were in their own odd headspace, and it made them less receptive to the impact their actions had. Second – Given our history, this should not have come as the surprise that it did. Yet
Today is one-of-a-kind. What will you choose to do with that? I have just completed an annual vacation that was interrupted by the pandemic for two years. Every summer since 1996, I have spent 1-2 weeks at a massive medieval reenactment event called the Pennsic War. It tends to draw 10,000+ people to it for numerous medieval classes, combats, glamping, and socializing from all over the world. Due to COVID-19, the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. This year,
Pathwalking is for everyone because it is an open practice with almost infinite options. When I accepted the challenge to myself to write weekly, Pathwalking was born at the start of 2012. Over the years since then, it’s evolved into a much larger, richer, and deeper life philosophy. I like to think of Pathwalking as taking the best parts of other Universal life ideas and making them accessible to more people. I strive to do this with plain language, simplicity,
Because change is inevitable – and positivity coexists with negativity. We live in a world of opposites and extremes. But the important thing about this is that we exist within the opposites and extremes. Very few people exist at any given extreme. Near, perhaps – but seldom at. This is why comparing extremes and opposites via a coin misunderstands the breadth and depth of this reality. It’s not a coin, it’s a cylinder with vast space between the given extremes.
Because without the struggle we lack the impetus for growth and change. One of the hardest aspects of working to improve our lives is stepping out of our existing comfort zones. Why is it called a comfort zone? Because it’s comfortable. Though that’s not wholly accurate. More than being comfortable, our comfort zone is about familiarity. It’s what we know, are used to, and consider deep down to be the norm. Such that it is. This is why we often
