Going With The Flow

  
Hawaii is magical. I was washed over with an overwhelming amount of love, joy, and gratitude! I truly intend to hold onto these feelings and spread them into my life at home. 

I approached this experience with the intention of being present and going with the flow. I was not attached to having everything “go my way,” but instead to go whichever way it was supposed to go. I had a couple of challenging moments, which I tried to remember were there to teach me something, but all in all, this method worked perfectly! I was able to meet some amazing, generous, and kind people, who touched my heart. Big THANK YOU to all of them! They provided opportunities to see more and expand my understanding of life.
I didn’t have a single bad day! I think this was because I had no attachment to outcome. I just wanted to be there and absorb as much as possible. Without any specific plans in mind, I found my way to hiking volcanos, snorkeling, whale watching (55+ whales breaching before my eyes), watching the sunrise over the clouds on top of Haleakala, swimming with dolphins, sea turtles, incredible fish and even an octopus, viewing waterfalls, exploring caves, seeing mind blowing views, old friendships strengthened and new friendships being born.  
   

There’s something to be said for having different opinions, religious views, life goals, interests and viewpoints on life, than another person, and yet loving and appreciating them for being exactly who they are. Perfect and different. 

  

Thoughts About Life

Today I am in Hawaii! I spent some time sitting by the ocean alone, and started to ask and answer some questions. These are all my beliefs that are accumulated from the teaching of others in combination with my inner talk. They are not “the” answers, but they are good concepts to think about.

What is the purpose of being here on Earth? 

If we experience only greatness and joy, we’ll never have anything to compare it to, making it a concept that we don’t truly understand. In order to understand perfection, we must experience imperfection. The Earth in its current state embodies many dualities, if we can learn the difference between good and bad, positive and negative, then we can feel in our soul what resonates better with us. If we follow the feelings that make our souls feel the best, then we can grow.
This would mean that it doesn’t matter at all what you do for a living, how much money you make, whether or not life is easy or hard for you. All that matters is whether you chose to connect with the soul growing concepts.

Once you understand this idea, how do you incorporate that into your everyday life? 

First of all, become a watcher, pay attention to your body. See how your actions feel to you. When you connect to yourself and are in the present moment, you will be able to feel discomfort from a poor interaction or reaction. You will notice the times when you do something or say something that makes your body feel weird… In your heart, stomach, or gut. 

We are here to grow, and we can only experience life through the stage we currently reside. When you are happy and a challenge presents itself, you will choose to actively work through it and gain better understanding on how to deal with this challenge in the future. If you are not happy, the same experience will cause great frustration, sorrow, disappointment, resentment, or other difficult and negative feelings. 

Everything is perspective. If hundreds of people are watching the same event unfold. There will be hundreds of different experiences. No one person will feel identically to another. Every single perspective is based on where that one person is in their life, right at that moment. How special is that?! Every experience is yours and only yours!

How can I help my friends and family to grow?

First, it’s not your job. They can only be where they are ready to be, but you can provide a living example. If you are positive and happy, and are constantly growing and developing, they will be drawn to you. Their love for you, will make them more open to absorbing what you embody. You will probably begin to notice most people start moving in the direction that you are in. Those who don’t, may just be their to challenge you to learn something from them. Love everyone unconditionally no matter where they are at. 

A (+) Resolution

A couple months ago I listened to a speech about “negative thought.” She said that we have somewhere around 15,000-60,000 thoughts each day, and about 80% of those thoughts are negative. 80 PERCENT!!!! I of course immediately denied that I would fit into this statistic. Then I started paying more attention to what was going on in my head. Every time a negative thought popped in, I took note.

What I came to discover is that, if someone was able to hear my thoughts, they wouldn’t care for me much, and they would be terribly bored. Day after day, I think about specific events that upset me, like a broken record. The most common topic to come into my mind is the feeling of frustration, mostly by the actions of other people, or lack of actions. When I investigated this farther, I realized that these are almost always referring to specific situations that I’m too chicken to approach the person about. So, I get angrier and angrier that they wont change their behavior. The bottom line is that this anger is mine. The reason they won’t change their behavior is most frequently because I never asked them to! – So, I need to either let it go, or deal with it like a mature adult.

The other common negative thoughts are often fleeting, while driving, or waiting in line. Small miscellaneous actions other people have made, that simply annoy me. Sometimes they are shame related (i.e. I’m not good enough, will other people judge me if I do/say this? Etc)

I also find myself the most short-tempered at work, where I have the most stresses and with family, whom I’m most comfortable with.

The reason I’m sharing this is because I’m making it my New Years resolution to knock negativity down to 10% or less. Those who go through life with positive attitudes and aren’t secretly judging, are probably the most enlightened, they see that our thoughts are not who we are, and understand that every person is an important part of the collective. I can grasp these ideas, but will have to reprogram my brain in order to live them fully. Wish me luck!