GOVERNMENT! AAAAAAHHHHHH! Here in the United States, it seems that the word "Government" has a major denotation! What is it that is so wrong with our government? Well, definitely, something is wrong. If you are doing your income taxes and you are a sole proprietor or a small business owner, then you are probably pretty pissed of at the amount of money you have to pay the goverment. Why does this anger someone? Well, people will gladly fork over their money as long as they see a significant return on investment for it. There are exceptions to that, of course, when it is obvious that money is going to a specific, beneficient cause.
What happened to our government that made people dislike it so much? Not more than a few lifespans ago, people would risk their lives and the lives of their children in order to live under our government. People freakin loved it! What has changed so much?
Apparently, we have the same Constitution as we did back then. But are we still using it? We can all use the famous Constitution to our benefits, but only if we exercise our rights. What happens when you don't exercise your body? It gets lame! That's pretty much what has happened in America, people (even people in the government) have all become LAME! Now, that's not a completely bad thing really. I'm not saying that everyone sucks. I feel pretty lame right now as I'm writing this actually, so don't take this commentary as an attack. The beautiful thing about this country is that we all agree that all men are created equal. And that's for damn sure!
First off, what is it anyway? What is the United States Government? What were we all taught in the fifth grade? The United States Government consists of 3 BRANCHES of government SEPARATE but EQUAL in power: the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judicial branch. What makes our government awesome is the checks and balances system where no one branch can overpower the other two. It is pretty obvious with the excessive military and government spending along with a consistent violation of citizen's "inalienable rights" has made it apparent that we need to get our checks and balances checked and balanced.
So, what can we balance as people? First of all, We should persue happiness. We as humans are creators, and we will not be happy unless we are happy with what we have created. We also have to be responsible in knowing that what we see before us is what we have created with the choices we have made or sometimes with our ignorance and lack of action. I'm not saying that you should become a schizophrenic control freak, but alot of us are wasting alot of time NOT making ourselves happy. We routinely do the things that bring us down. Many citizens, including myself many times in the past, do not stop and think and make the best choices and take the best actions for our own happiness. With more care and awareness, can have more control over what we see, what we get, and what we create.
Second, where the government is concerned, we can take more control where we can. We can educate each other on our rights, we can be more informed so that we can make better choices and keep our voices heard wherever it is needed. We can fight in court. Court is so systemized nowadays with so many laws and so many loopholes, and so much mystique and other-world type ambiance. The average citizen doesn't have the spirit to take an argument to court unless it is going to keep him out of jail and from ruining his financial and spiritual standing. We all want to make more money and to feel better about ourselves, right? Well, staying out of court would probably help that. But, we have to know when we should fight for our rights and we have to care for and support each other when we need it. Together, we stand; divided, we fall.
We are always so involved and informed my the news when there is a new scandal in Congress or in the White House, but we are ignorant to the fact that we are losing our rights slowly as the legislative and executive branches basically go unchecked. We need to read the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. They are 100 times shorter than the new healthcare bill! As soon as we do this, then we need to take the pains to exercise our rights, without exception. We need to pump up our governmental muscles. We are a goverment by the PEOPLE. We have a right to bear arms; we have a right to free speech; we have a right to persue happiness; we have a right to freedom! God bless the U.S.A.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Feed Your System: Music
Feed it! :) Just like you should balance your diet with many different types of foods with varying nutrients and flavors, you should balance your diet of music. I can really rock out to some Miles Davis or some Mozart.
Check out your local music scene. At many local shows, you will hear more than one local act and sometimes someone from out of town. The wonderful thing about going out to see live music is knowing that you are supporting the local economy. Artists need to eat, too, and they don't get paid unless you show up. Also, most music venues are owned and employed by people who live and spend their money within the community. Take a listen to your local music station, too. Here in Pittsburgh, 91.3FM WYEP plays a wide variety of music from some well-known artists and also some random artists that apparently everyone who knows music knows about except for me. If you like what you hear, then make a small donation. Free speech isn't free people.
One thing that I love about music is that it brings people together across barriers of ethnicity, economic status, or age. It makes everybody move and keeps the energy flowin'! Whatever you decide to listen to today, and for whatever purpose... cleaning, dancing, celebrating, thinking, laughing, reading, relaxing...there is music that will take you through it! It is so great that we have technology today where we can buy single tracks online, stream classical music from your computer, or hold amazing amounts of music on your iPod. Just be mindful of what you are listening to and know that you can always change it up and listen to whatever feels good, sounds good, and helps you grow as an appreciator of the art of organized sound.
Check out your local music scene. At many local shows, you will hear more than one local act and sometimes someone from out of town. The wonderful thing about going out to see live music is knowing that you are supporting the local economy. Artists need to eat, too, and they don't get paid unless you show up. Also, most music venues are owned and employed by people who live and spend their money within the community. Take a listen to your local music station, too. Here in Pittsburgh, 91.3FM WYEP plays a wide variety of music from some well-known artists and also some random artists that apparently everyone who knows music knows about except for me. If you like what you hear, then make a small donation. Free speech isn't free people.
One thing that I love about music is that it brings people together across barriers of ethnicity, economic status, or age. It makes everybody move and keeps the energy flowin'! Whatever you decide to listen to today, and for whatever purpose... cleaning, dancing, celebrating, thinking, laughing, reading, relaxing...there is music that will take you through it! It is so great that we have technology today where we can buy single tracks online, stream classical music from your computer, or hold amazing amounts of music on your iPod. Just be mindful of what you are listening to and know that you can always change it up and listen to whatever feels good, sounds good, and helps you grow as an appreciator of the art of organized sound.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Balancing Personal Growth with My Daily Obligations
I am still trying to figure this one out. First, what do you do in order to ensure that you are paying close attention to your own personal growth? Nobody wants to be stuck in a rut. We want to know we are going somewhere that we want to go and not just anywhere the wind blows us.
The only way that I can see myself balancing personal growth with my daily obligations is to always be writing things down. And then getting up! When I have an idea or something I appreciate, I take note of it. I grab my iPhone and write myself a Note. I stop and tweet about it. I put it on my calendar. I record it in a journal. I scribble on a piece of paper and file it in a folder or even just throw it in a pile (that I intend on sorting through on a regular basis, of course!) If it can be done right now, then I do it as soon as I think of it.
I try to take time to read a book. Sometimes this means marrying your reading to one of your obligations. For example, when the girls had dance class, I would make a point to have my mom watch the other one for just 90 minutes so that I could take that time to sit in the library or in the drivers seat of my car to read about something that I thought was important.
Take time to listen to yourself and listen to other people. Try to find ways to simplify your life when you become aware of what you spend most of your time communicating about. Think positive and talk positive to yourself and to other people. Your mindset will help you to stay active during the day and sleep with ease knowing that you did the best that you could and that you enjoyed it. To an optimistic person, when you have bad thoughts, you take the opportunity to learn and about yourself and visualize how you might take the next opportunity to apply what you have learned from your past in a positive way. Each new day is a new adventure in the journey towards finding yourself and finding balance in your life, making the most out of your challenges, opening to change, and stretching your abilities.
The only way that I can see myself balancing personal growth with my daily obligations is to always be writing things down. And then getting up! When I have an idea or something I appreciate, I take note of it. I grab my iPhone and write myself a Note. I stop and tweet about it. I put it on my calendar. I record it in a journal. I scribble on a piece of paper and file it in a folder or even just throw it in a pile (that I intend on sorting through on a regular basis, of course!) If it can be done right now, then I do it as soon as I think of it.
I try to take time to read a book. Sometimes this means marrying your reading to one of your obligations. For example, when the girls had dance class, I would make a point to have my mom watch the other one for just 90 minutes so that I could take that time to sit in the library or in the drivers seat of my car to read about something that I thought was important.
Take time to listen to yourself and listen to other people. Try to find ways to simplify your life when you become aware of what you spend most of your time communicating about. Think positive and talk positive to yourself and to other people. Your mindset will help you to stay active during the day and sleep with ease knowing that you did the best that you could and that you enjoyed it. To an optimistic person, when you have bad thoughts, you take the opportunity to learn and about yourself and visualize how you might take the next opportunity to apply what you have learned from your past in a positive way. Each new day is a new adventure in the journey towards finding yourself and finding balance in your life, making the most out of your challenges, opening to change, and stretching your abilities.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Feed Your System: Food
What you eat is a big part of who you are. When we are children, we have certain taste preferences, but over time, those change. I know I asked my 6-year-old what she wanted to have at her birthday party, and she said organic yogurt and celery. Imagine a teenager asking for that! So, what happens that makes us change the way we feel about food?
I think we get conditioned from what we learn and experience over time. What your parents repeatedly feed you, what your parents ate, what you ate at a friends house while visiting, what you ate at school, in college, at restaurants, what you saw people eating on TV or in magazines, the commercials you watch, the messages from "experts", and other unmentioned sources are all that we know about food.
There has come a point in my adult life where I realized that the things that I decided to eat had a big impact on my mental, physical, and spiritual health as well as a profound effect on my community. Everytime you spend a dollar towards what you are going to eat, you vote on how your food should be grown, packaged, and prepared. Making the right choices is a learning process, and every bit of progress is better than none at all. Food, Inc. is a great movie that may help shed some light on this tragically ignored crisis that is happening in America and around the world.
I think we get conditioned from what we learn and experience over time. What your parents repeatedly feed you, what your parents ate, what you ate at a friends house while visiting, what you ate at school, in college, at restaurants, what you saw people eating on TV or in magazines, the commercials you watch, the messages from "experts", and other unmentioned sources are all that we know about food.
There has come a point in my adult life where I realized that the things that I decided to eat had a big impact on my mental, physical, and spiritual health as well as a profound effect on my community. Everytime you spend a dollar towards what you are going to eat, you vote on how your food should be grown, packaged, and prepared. Making the right choices is a learning process, and every bit of progress is better than none at all. Food, Inc. is a great movie that may help shed some light on this tragically ignored crisis that is happening in America and around the world.
Feed Your System
So, I decided to create a new section of my blog that is about all of the other things out there. In my last post, I talked about the things that you let in. I will be starting a series of posts under the category, Feed Your System. In these posts, I will be talking about the things that you allow into your life. How do you feed your system so that you can perform in the best way that only you can? What food do you feed it? What books, movies, art, music? What kinds of people do you flock with? What systems are part of your system? Education, food, art, community: these are all things that feed our systems.
You don't want to live your life just so that you can fit into someone else's system. You want to create your own life. You want what you eat, how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and how you place your thoughts to benefit you in the greatest way. If my theory is correct, then we should be able to help more people by helping ourselves. My posts on Feed Your System will be about finding a healthy state of being by looking at what we are taking in and allowing to exist in our own lives. It could be scary if we are really honest with ourselves. Let's see what we can see!
You don't want to live your life just so that you can fit into someone else's system. You want to create your own life. You want what you eat, how you spend your time, how you spend your money, and how you place your thoughts to benefit you in the greatest way. If my theory is correct, then we should be able to help more people by helping ourselves. My posts on Feed Your System will be about finding a healthy state of being by looking at what we are taking in and allowing to exist in our own lives. It could be scary if we are really honest with ourselves. Let's see what we can see!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Productive!
"What could be more powerful than the intellectual capacity of the adult brain combined with a child's unawareness of limitation?" ~Roy McConnell
What does being productive mean to you? Does it mean that you do more of the things that people notice and mention to you afterwards? Does it mean that you make your quota and exceed that at work? To me, it means having an awareness of all of the things that are important to me and taking regular action on them. Taking some kind of action is not always productive, though.
For example, if I keep reading listings of apartments every single day, and I never take action in the other parts of my life to arrange my financial situation so that I have a down payment and first months rent, then my circumstances will never allow me to move. I will never make it to the desired outcome unless I have total awareness of the changes that need to be made in all areas of my life in order to make it possible.
Therefore, in order to truly be productive, we must have an outcome-based awareness and focus about the project or situation. That way, we can take every step necessary in between here and getting what we want with confidence that we are effectively getting closer and closer to our personal goals.
First, you have to know exactly what your REAL personal goals are in order to be productive without burning out. You must have a deep soul connection to what you are doing; you have to believe in your work on a spiritual level. You must visualize yourself crossing the finish line. What is that going to look like? How is that going to feel after all of your focused hard work and effort? It feels AMAZING!
My current career goals are to be regularly making more than enough money to support my family by writing and performing music, by helping other people, and by getting involved in projects that make the world a healthier place. So... That means I'm going to have to take action by doing the research and work necessary to see what's out there and to make my personal work and goals known to the rest of the world. This is a long and arduous process. It might take years. I've been working at it for 8 months now, and I'm already seeing a large return for my investment in myself. Soul-based work is coming my way now in ways that I would have never thought of myself.
Keep investing your time and energy into your personal goals. This might mean that you have to change your priorities and eliminate things from your life that are draining your time and energy outside of the spectrum of the desired outcomes that you want to see in your life. It may also mean that you have to quit investing time into relationships with people who keep you thinking smaller about your life than your inner child really wants you to. If the people in your life don't see you IN it, then they are never going to see you TO it.
Listen to your heart on this. You know who and what really puts the plug on your spring of creativity and energy. Start clearing obstacles one by one by first becoming an observer in your life. Try to notice what makes you excited and joyful about today and the future. Try to notice the language people are using around you and talk and interact more with the people who are naturally curious and equally excited about your big ideas and aspirations. Take full responsibility for what you let in, then it will be much easier to have full responsibility for what you put out.
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