A Brave New World

A Brave New World

Sometimes in life facing the new day takes a power & energy beyond what others in our life know. We stumble because we don't believe that we have the strength to go on, when truly that strength is always within us. 

We need to look at the new day as an opportunity, instead of a challenge and realize that with each new day we move beyond the fear that holds us back. For without releasing that fear and moving forward in our lives we become stuck and stagnate and never become who we are truly meant to be.

Yes, somedays it takes great bravery to move forward and let go of all the yesterdays that have piled up inside of us. But, truly the only path forward is in focusing on what is possible in this new day and being grateful for the opportunity to have a fresh start.

All those yesterdays can be a huge burden to carry with you and the ability to let them go is not an easy one. You are braver than you believe you are and the secret to letting those burdens go is set firmly inside of you.

If the past year has taught us anything it is to be resilient and it takes being brave to find that resiliency. Trust in our strength, even when it feels like it's fading, and believe that every morning is a new opportunity, a new chance to live the life you've always dreamt of.

Yes, we live in a challenging time right now and it feels sometimes that we are facing a brave new world because of the daily changes we face. Just remember that you have the power to change everything in your life and you have the strength to make it happen.

Start each morning with things you are grateful for. No matter how small they are, they will begin to change the world around you by bringing a change in your outlook to the new day. Then compliment yourself on the things you have accomplished in the past day or two. We to often are ready to give praise to everyone in our our lives but ourselves. This will give you strength and purpose because slowly you will start to believe in yourself.

You are amazing and there is no one as unique as you. You have the power of God/Universe within you, you can connect with that power anytime you allow yourself to feel it. We are all one, connected by spirit and the more we allow ourselves to feel that connection, that oneness, the more we can face this brave new world!

Till next time,

Bill

Quote of the day: "You are braver than you believe you are and you can discover that strength by reconnecting with spirit!"

Down the rabbit hole

How far down the rabbit hole of self discovery are you willing to go? In this day & age we rarely take the time we need to understand who we truly are. We are pressured by the people around us to "suck it" & move on. So, for most of us, no matter what we've been through, we bury the pain & move on. We move forward without ever looking at what's happened to us & often we are thrown back to the same feelings over & over again in our lives. We wonder why we aren't able to manifest the things we want in our life & our life is never as fulfilling as we'd like it to be.

Does this sound like you? This was me for many years. I have mentioned before that I grew up in a family of 5. I have 4 sisters so I'm the only boy. I went through some big crisis in my life when I was fairly young including a car crash that broke my younger sisters back. Because of the crisis I had to deal I was always regarded as someone who excelled in these situations. I seemed to think clear & quicker then most people in the crisis situations I had to deal with. This sounds wonderful but the downside of it was that I would bury how felt to get through the situation & most of time once the crisis was over the feelings were buried so deep that I never really looked back on them.

I struggled often in my younger life to find out what I really wanted in life. I was outwardly successful (having a good job, etc) but inside I was a mess. I was grasping for anything to give meaning to my life. Don't misunderstand I was still a very happy person & I had a pretty good life but once you got beyond the surface I didn't really know who I was or what I wanted. So I started to take time to get to know me & as I did this I realized that many of the things that happened to me in my life were based on the same feelings or in the same patterns. I discovered that in order to move forward in my life I needed to learn & grow from everything I'd been through. Part of this learning was acknowledging the feelings I had & trying to understand why I felt the way I felt.

This self discovery can be painful but through the process of feeling the emotions & understanding where the feelings come from you can move beyond the feelings & onto a better life. God/universe wants to help us learn & grow. God/universe wants us to become the person we truly can be. Because of this if we avoid the lessons God/universe sends us, those lessons will be sent back to us again & again. It is only through the process of self discovery that we able to move onto a better life.

Take time to look deep inside yourself, acknowledge all the feelings you've hidden away in smallest places of your heart & soul. Learn from these feelings & allow your life to grow into a more joyful life.

Till Tuesday, have a great holiday weekend.

Hugs,

Bill

I am still looking for guest bloggers. I would like to have Wednesday's be guest bloggers day on my blog, if you're interested contact me at Timberwolf12345@gmail.com

Quote of the day: "Take the time you need for true self discovery. Learn & grow through the things you've experienced & begin to lead a more joyful life."

Tearing down the walls

Do you put up walls? Do you compartmentalize your life? Do you decide what you'll allow others to see? I think from time to time we all hide behind the walls that we build in our lives. Why do we build them? Mostly for what we perceive is protection. We believe that by hiding things about ourselves we are protecting ourselves from the world. We've become so conditioned in our life that we're afraid to feel anything but especially pain. We scared to death about being hurt.

Fear is a deadly emotion it robs us from living the joyful life we want so desperately to live. We justify everything in our life by hiding behind fear & the truth is all the fear we create isn't real. Rarely do we ever experience the things we imagine but yet we justify our behavior because of what we imagine.

In our life we put up so many walls to hide behind because of the fear we have of being hurt. Now don't misunderstand, in the world today it's important to keep some information about yourself from the world especially on-line because their are people out their who will take advantaged of the information. But in our day to day life we don't need to hide from who we are. We are so concerned about what others think of us. That we're scared to be who we are.

This isn't the way to live your life. In order to discover more love & joy in your life you need to open yourself up. Sure sometimes you can get hurt but overall you'll discover more joy by being who you are. You'll learn that most of the fear you had is not justified & that people, overall, are loving & compassionate. In addition remember that the universe reflects back to us what we are. So if we come from a place of fear, we will be confronted by the fear more & more till we let it go. God/universe will always try to help us grow. It will continue to send us the messages we need to hear to move beyond who are & to become the loving being we all can be.

So what happens if you don't know who you are? The first step is always self discovery. You need to take time to get to know yourself. In the mean time be open & loving to everyone you meet. As you discover what's important in your life & who you are, be true to yourself.

Tear down the walls in your life. Open your heart, open your life & be true to yourself. The world is here to welcome you. Stop hiding & you will discover more joy.

Till Monday,

Bill

Quote of the day: Tear down the walls in your life. Open your heart to love & God/universe will send you more love! Be who you are, we're waiting to love you!"

Rebounding

In honor of the NCAA tournament that began this past week. I thought we'd discuss rebounding. Do you rebound from situations? Can you bounce back & go back up?

The truth about the word rebounding is there are good & bad meanings in the word. Like so many things in nature, we need the balance to understand the contrast. To begin we'll discuss the positive side of rebounding.

Often in life things don't go the way we planned them. Sometimes we're knocked down by others or by the circumstances of our life. It takes true resilience to pick yourself up & continue on when things don't go the way we want them to. As with rebounding in a basketball game, it takes strength, preparation & a strong base to be able to snag that rebound. In life we need to possess the ability to move beyond adversity. We need to have the strength to pick ourselves up & continue our journey forward. This strength comes from our strong base which is our connection to God/universe & therefore our connection to everything. Trust in this connection & no matter what happens you'll find the strength to continue on.

Life isn't always easy. The truth is even when we practice living in joy we can encounter difficulties in our life. These difficulties are often things we need to learn in our life to grow & move forward but it's extremely difficult to move past these times when we're in the middle of them. Trust in God/universe. Trust in your practice & trust in yourself!! You can do anything if you believe in it!

Don't bury the pain & hurt accept it, learn from it & move beyond it. I know sometimes this is easier said than done but I know you can do it!!

Now, the negative side of rebounding is often finding a replacement for what you've lost in your life. This is especially true in relationships. We have a break-up or we lose someone that we loved & cared about, instead of reflecting on this loss & learning from it. We move onto another relationship to replace the relationship we just lost. This can be a cycle that's very difficult to move beyond & the truth is that we're hiding from ourselves. We don't want to take the time to deal with the loss because we're afraid of what we might find in ourselves that caused this to happen.

We may simply be afraid of being by ourselves period. I can relate to this because for many years when I was younger I didn't like to be by myself. I always wanted others around to talk to, to play with or to have fun with. The problem with this thinking is that we are always looking to someone else to bring us joy! The truth, as we've discussed before, is that the joy you are looking for has to come from within not from without. No matter how much you love someone else in your life they can't bring you happiness & joy. They can only contribute to the joy & happiness you already have. Discovering yourself & the joy & love you have inside is the pathway to a more joyful life. Believe in yourself move beyond the feeling of lack & you can do anything you want in your life.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day:"The ability to rebound from difficulties in your life is very important. Learn from the obstacles in your life, grow beyond the troubles & discover the joy in every moment!"

The beginning of joy

Yesterday I left you looking in the mirror. I challenged you to move beyond the past & find your true life's purpose. Today I continue the journey that I took from a life that appeared to have everything but was never truly satisfying....sound familiar?

The journey that I embarked on may have taken longer than others on the same journey but the truth is that the work & journey have been very worthwhile. So back to my story. Many years ago when I had my epiphany that my life was hollow I began to try & figure out how to live a more fulfilling life. My problem growing up & still to some extent was over analyzing everything in my life. I have always been fairly intelligent & my mind always takes over whenever a problem presents itself.

I began to try & figure out how to change to live a more joyful, fulfilling life. A side note to anyone in this situation now, over thinking doesn't work!! I had just started going out with my wife Heidi & she gave me a book that began the change I always wanted. This book was "The Return of Merlin" by Deepak Chopra. I had never read any of his work before & Heidi knew I really liked Arthurian Legend so I believe she hoped that connection would get me to read the book. Well, that book changed my life. The lesson that Deepak imparted in the book was so interwoven with the story that I didn't realize that I was starting to understand what I needed to know to change my life. I would highly recommend this book if you haven't read it.

This book was the beginning of living a more fulfilling life. The journey I embarked on was a very personal journey that took me many years to get to where I am today. I discovered that most of my life was based on my EGO, I still battle with it some today & I found that the mind is a wonderful part of who we are, but it's not who we are. To truly discover yourself you need to move beyond the thoughts in your head & connect with your soul. I learned that the only way to move forward is to let go of the past & that the emotions connected to the past can be changed & rewired by accepting them & releasing them.

Finally I discovered the only way to truly life a more joyful, fulfilling life is to live in the present moment because it's truly all we ever have. I went through heartache & pain to discover these secrets. I continue everyday to try & learn more & become an example of what living a joyful life is all about. I hope you'll stay with me on this journey & I hope I've been able to help you begin to evaluate your life. The change you seek is possible, believe in yourself & know that every step forward is creating the life you want to live.

Till Tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day:"The journey to joy is something we can all discover. Begin today & find the life you've always wanted."

Mirror, Mirror

Who do you see when you look in the mirror? Are you the same person? Or are you a person who talks a good game but never lives what they say? I think we've all known people in our lives that always say the right thing & act just the right way but never really live the life they portray. Their life to a large extent is hollow & they never take the time to realize it. Do you know someone like that? Or could this person be you?

I know when I was younger that I not only knew people like this, I was one of them to large extent. I never truly wanted to look inside because I was afraid of what I might find. I really didn't like who I was because I never felt good enough. I walked through life pretending that everything was fine & that I was a great person. But when I looked in the mirror I knew the truth. I knew I was a hollow shell of a person. I knew that the way I dealt with things that happened in my life was to just bury it. The pain & hurt was hidden from view but would always come back to the surface. I stumbled through life, being very successful, but never feeling fulfilled and when something went wrong I would crash & burn. The spiral would drag me down quicker & the pain would be great. Not because of the event that just happened but because of everything that happened before.

I then decided that this way of life wasn't working for me anymore. I decided that the only way to live a fulfilling life was to look inside & deal with the pain of the past. I've written in the past about the process I went through. It wasn't easy but I learned that the past only has power over us, if we give it that power. If we're willing to let go of the pain, we can truly change our lives.

So who do you see when you look in the mirror? Know that you can be anyone you want to be. Know that nothing can hold you back, if you're willing to take the time for self discovery. We are all beautiful amazing people, stop pretending to be who you think you should be & become who you truly are!

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Cleaning Out & Restoring Yourself

Many of us think about doing a complete cleaning in the Spring. I personally look at cleaning in many different ways. Like many of you I try to do a complete cleaning in the spring & usually in the fall but I believe in the movement of things throughout your life. This movement of the stuff in our life can actually help us become more open & help our life, spirit or energy to move forward. Many of us get stuck in our old ways refusing to let go the things in our life that don't really work for us anymore. We become stubborn with everything in our lives & then we wonder why our life isn't moving forward the way we want it to.

The simple act of "cleaning out" can allow new things into your life. Sometimes this "cleaning out" isn't easy. I recently cleaned out my closet & donated many of my old clothes to Goodwill. Several of these old clothes had a very deep meaning to me & not unlike music when we see a piece of clothing it transports us back to the moment we acquired it or wore it. For me many of the clothes I let go of were from trips I've taken in my life or from shows I was in as an actor. Letting go of these "memories" can be difficult but the thing to remember is that the memories aren't in the "things". The "things" are just something to help us remember the memory & we hold onto it like it really matters. The truth is holding onto the past can keep us stuck in the past. Instead of holding onto a "thing" why not keep a book with the special memories. By letting go of "things" we can open our self up to new possibilities.

This of course if also true of thoughts & sometimes just the process of "cleaning out" things can actually change your thoughts & open you up to new possibilities. There's an amazing truth in the universe & that truth is that "Letting go of the past & allowing things to happen in the present moment will create more joy in your life then you can imagine." When you feel stuck try "cleaning out" something in your life & you may discover that by "cleaning out" you truly restore yourself to the beautiful person your are!

Till Tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day:"The simple act of cleaning out things in your life can open you up to new possibilities. Discover the possibilities today & lead a more joyful life!"

Grand Canyon

The awe & wonderment that fills you when you walk out to the edge of the Grand Canyon is indescribable. The beauty of the canyon walls with their variety of colors & the sheer magnitude of the size of the canyon is unbelievable. Pictures & video no matter good they are can never do justice to this amazing site. It truly is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen in my life. The time that I spent at this magnificent park is the closest I've ever felt to being truly connected to God/universe. A visit to Grand Canyon National Park will change your life forever if you allow it to.

So you're probably asking yourself, "If you love the Grand Canyon so much why wasn't it #1?" The answer to that is easy for me, Yellowstone offers so much diversity that it will always be my first choice. The difference between these parks is that simple to me. You can go to the Grand Canyon & be blown away or go to Yellowstone & experience everything from it's own Grand Canyon to geysers & paint pots, etc. One of the joys of my life is that I've been able to discover many different National Parks, they are all beautiful in their own way & they are also very different, so my choices may not be yours but the important thing to remember is to get out to the parks & reconnect with nature & that ancient connection to the land.

When visiting the Grand Canyon I strongly suggest staying at the Grand Canyon Village. There are several options available for accommodations there but it's the closest place to enjoy all the park has to offer. Several other cities that surround the Park are actually a long drive to get into the park & to the south rim. Most of the activities that take place are on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The south rim is where you can take the mule ride down the canyon or check out many different vistas. I enjoyed walking the rim trail where every turn is another amazing site.

The most amazing thing about the Grand Canyon is the change in light, either by the sun or the clouds, each of these changes in light reveals new colors & definition & sometimes these changes are very dramatic. Take time to discover this park & in turn take time to discover yourself.

I love to sit on the edge of the canyon & just take in the beauty around me. This beauty will touch your soul deeper then anything I've ever known & no matter how long you stay there, it will never feel like enough. When you feel you need to rediscover who you truly are, journey to the Grand Canyon & experience the joy of this beautiful place.

Till tomorrow,

Bill

Quote of the day:"The beauty of the Grand Canyon has to be experienced. Take in the beauty & rediscover yourself in the process."