Showing posts with label Mindfulness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mindfulness. Show all posts

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

My Mind Movie and Videogames

Hello all! Happy New Year :D

It's been a while but today I'd like to share with you a double response to Matt's blog, in particular his two most recent posts (here and here) which I have really enjoyed mulling over and thinking about. Definitely check it out for daily awesomeness!

So the first blog post I'd like to respond to today talks about the Mind Movie that we all have going on in our minds. It's the childish mind which is separate from ourselves that likes to take us away from where we'd like to go with its wants and needs and complaints. So today, I'd like to give you guys an insight into my mind movie, what it tells me and how I counteract it because more often than not, it is wrong.

My mind movie often has me believing that staying up late is a very good idea and that isn't necessarily good because it means I can't always work at full potential the next day because my mind clouds. I feel like my expectations tend to become harder to tackle because it becomes much more clouded by my need to sleep and feel more well rested. It makes me believe that I don't have the energy or the mindset to do what I'd like to do and this frustrates me immensely because although I do feel better after having slept, I lose time and then it just becomes a vicious circle.

The main thing I'm struggling with is priorities. I have so many things I want to do, especially keeping good relations with friends and doing well in school. It makes it hard to make sure that I realise what I need to do to get where I get to now and not just what feels right in this moment. Because as I've said before, all we have is the present moment and if I can't do the right thing now for the future, what on earth will happen to me? How do I prioritise? Grrrr........

I also then struggle with is keeping my mind out of the movie when in routine and when doing things that I can do as if it's the first time but other times I just lose where I am and get lost in the depths of my imagination.

It loves to tell me that I'm doing enough but also that friends don't believe I matter. That I don't really matter in the peripheral but I know how to combat that thought, remembering that I'm always a contribution and seeing the good that I do and why I do it. Mattering is hard sometimes though because once I realise that I'm a good person, it's sometimes hard to believe why I should matter and why I should expect to matter. I think this comes from the investment of time but expecting something in return is where the problem then lies.

I think another of the things that I face is making sure I don't expect anything from strangers too. Just because you give kindness to the world, doesn't mean it doesn't have to give it to you back with that same person. It comes around for sure but it's so important to remember that you are not yourself to everyone. You are who they perceive you as through their world view and through what they value. You cannot control that. I think it's also important to not expect that from friends but how much of what you see of a person is who they are? Sure, their lack of presence could tell you something about them but does that tell you anything about who they are and who they want to be? Not necessarily.
That isn't to say that not looking deeply into the present can't be joyful but I would have to say your imagination can't provide you the joy that you can get in the reality of the moment. If you're truly present, you can't doubt what you experience because it's full of purpose. That's what matters.

Going onto the second blog post, seeing life as a video game and seeing that there are things you can control and cannot control is such an interesting analogy! Constantly not only accepting reality but seeing it as something that you can affect and not just as something that flies by. But that's only if you ground yourself in reality and you see the story as it happens. TOO COOL!

I think that's probably enough rambling for today ahaha, just making up for lost time, I hope you all have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and who knows, perhaps you'll see me around sometime soon!

Oooooh btw guys, I started youtubing. You might have missed that ahah, here's the channel :)

Monday, 22 June 2015

What Does It Mean To Be Human?

Hey guys! I hope that you're all well!

Today, I've been inspired to make time to blog from this video which I would thoroughly recommend you go and watch. It's ten minutes of mindfulness, KABOOMS, 'soul-stirring' stuff as a friend of mine left in the comments and in a different light, some well and truly beautiful editing.

John Green inspired this video with his video and talked about the fact that being human isn't really something we can define because often by trying to define what it means to be human, we cut off part of mankind like those who are less fortunate than us in different ways. If we say that communication is what makes us human, what about those of us who are unable to read and write? What about those of us who aren't blessed by the ability to hear or to see or to talk? Are they somehow less human than the rest of us?

The conclusion that John comes to which I find so beautiful is that we're human because of our empathy and our belief in each other's humanness and being. At the same time, this means that perhaps being human is something that we kind of have to aspire to because being that kind and empathetic towards those around us isn't always something that we do and therefore we should always try and become better.

So before I start on the video this post is therefore inspired by, I'd like to say to John, I agree with what you're saying! Quite often, we wouldn't know if we were right or wrong without someone else to help us to understand that and therefore we cannot quite become ourselves without learning from other people and that's incredible! Thank you for your video!

So onto the video this post is inspired by. This video talks about how being human isn't really something that should be defined because we're all so different and yet we're all still human. We don't somehow stop being human because we don't conform to society or to the expectations that we create by trying to describe what it's supposed to be like being human. Just by being, we form a part of humanity and what it means to be as a collective consciousness and just being part of creation in general and that is so powerful in itself.

We have the choice to be however we want to be, how we are human and how we express that being within us. We all have dark and light within us but we are able to shape how that expresses itself outside and how that makes us our version of human. The fact that we're aware of ourselves and the fact that we have that choice and that we can define ourselves from that choice and how we make it is mindblowing.

The other part of this that we all have to remember is the fact that we're never really not a part of creation and humanity because of this being that we share with one another. Because of the fact that we're all intrinsically valuable in the fact that we all have this choice and this opportunity to create meaning in our lives. We can all express ourselves differently, often depending on the society that we grow up in, the inspirations that we have in our lives from friends and family to more well known characters. We all are human and we all contribute to what it means to be human.

Pretty sure that the video is definitely a lot more eloquent than I am and covers a lot more bases which I'm sure that you guys can enjoy much like I've done. Definitely go and check it out here!

I hope that you guys all create wonderful meanings, whatever they are and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed :D

Wednesday, 22 April 2015

BEDA Day Twenty Two - Day Dreaming! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're well!

I've been thinking about day dreaming lately and whether, in terms of being present and living in the moment or even planning for the future, whether it holds value at all. What I found is, it generally doesn't which was rather thought provoking for me because it feels like I'm a compulsive day dreamer about situations that often have a very small likelihood of ever happening.

However, since I've come to the conclusion that day dreaming isn't really productive at all, I've realised that my life without daydreaming is so much better, simply because of the obvious. I now spend less time thinking about things that could and would've been and this means that it's easier for me to accept what is because I don't spend so much time thinking of all the other possibilities.

It also makes it easier for me in terms of the future because I don't spend so much time letting my imagination turn the normal people around me into horrific or terrific people just because I'm not present. I don't like how often we become inclined to begin labelling other people around us if we're exposed to their flaws. I know that I wouldn't want to be seen in a negative light by other people who I trust or don't know that well when they don't know me well enough to know the values I live by. Letting your ego make assumptions because you're not present isn't a good use of time at all.

Finally, even more evidently, I'm even more present and happier for it! I get to enjoy the moment in all its glory rather than letting the cloud of random unuseful thoughts surround me. It's so much more refreshing and joyful, especially when you're doing something simple to be able to just be joyful rather than allowing your ego to subconsciously swirl unfounded thoughts and feelings around. Enjoy the little, quieter moments because they're everywhere and are such blessings.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and are having the bestest days ever! I shall hopefully see you very soon indeed!

Thursday, 16 April 2015

BEDA Day Sixteen! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 4! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're all feeling mindful and wonderful :D

I'm so excited to be doing this series and I hope that you're enjoying it just as much as I am!
If you haven't read the others of this series, these few posts are inspired by this video by my good friend Matt which you should definitely watch if you've got some time on your hands!
It's all about mindfulness and the power of the ego and how we willingly allow it to affect our daily lives and the way that we view the world around us. Magic stuff!

I feel like today may be the last one so here goes!

Just a few points I want to add from yesterday about joy. Joy brings us to love everything that we encounter in varying degrees and a wonderful metaphor that love when you're mindful and joyful is like the light of the sun, which isn't conditional and selective, but touches everything everywhere on our planet. :) In the same way, the love of oneness with everything isn't conditional either. That connection and understanding and inherent goodness brings out joy. :D
By being present in the moment, you open up that portal to appreciate life around you and this just brings out the joy that is inherently inside you.

On a side note from the video itself, appreciating whatever you have is so important, especially as society advances and advances and advances. What you can achieve is often dependent on the tools that you have at hand and so many people in the world would never have ever dreamed of having what we have. It's so vitally important to take opportunities with both hands - you don't know how lucky you are to have been presented with them in the first place <2

Our final point to end on is inspired from a quote by Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now which I definitely want to read at some point where he says 'The challenges of life are supposed to make you more conscious, not more happy.' and I think that's so true because of the fact you become more and more aware of how life works as you face more challenges and as you come up against even more resistance from your ego. You become more and more mindful and more aware of the fundamental life truths. That's ultimately the most important thing because as we discussed yesterday, the ego loves to work on dualities to judge your days upon like happy and sad and good and bad whilst the central self, the being is the part which holds that joy within you which is unconditional.

You don't have to live with the perpetual discomfort that your ego will quite happily provide you with. You can step outside this calculating self of yours that loves to label and to condemn and to discriminate and separate and you can bring out that joy of being and interconnection with all that is. Once you find that, that is unshakeable.

I hope that you guys have enjoyed this series and I would love to hear anything that you've thought on the topic! Definitely go and watch the video if you get the chance and just appreciate the joy in the truths that are present :D I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I shall speak to you very, very soon indeed!


Tuesday, 14 April 2015

BEDA Day Fourteen! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 3! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you've all had the best weeks so far!

So, onwards we go on our appreciation of mindfulness and the biggest lie that our ego loves to tell us from this video here from my good friend Matt. Definitely worth a watch if you have fifteen minutes to spare!

The amazing thing about the ego is that it also creates the dualities we have in our daily life, most common happiness and sadness. If you think about it, these all depend on circumstance. But with joy, there is literally no need for you to have anything at all to feel the joy of being. And with that you get this unshakeable peace because you know that wherever you are, whatever your life situation, you don't need to be happy to be joyful. 

From there, you get this love for all that is. All that is, knowing that everything is connected, everything is full of energy and everything is full of joy of being. This means that with joyfulness, you can love all that is whether that be your enemies or your friends or anything around you in life. You just love everything to differing degrees and that's up to you I guess! Without the ego labelling everything, you can pretty much love everything however much you'd like! 

Loving your enemies knowing that they're unconscious and overcome by their ego is so powerful. It just means that you're so much more in control I guess in many ways. You're not driven by your ego, you don't need to survive or overcome them because you're equal and you're going to take whatever comes at you with as much understanding and comprehension as possible. You're going to feel your way into an action in contrast to feeling your way into an action. They only let you see the armour that they create for themselves, the false self rather than the true self. That true self loves everything and is joyful and equal amongst all creation and the part that you love. 


Enlightenment and salvation is much like success - it's a way of being rather than a destination. 


When you face crisis with your being rather than your ego, you open up doors that allow you to accept the facts of the situation that is presented in front of you. This is in contrast with resisting what's happening, sometimes being in a state of disbelief and frustration and anger - again survival being a key aim of the ego - but by accepting what's in front of you, you open that door to opportunity and that's really important. You can gain so much from crisis but only if you take anything and everything that's in front of you. You can't gain success by ignoring facts and by resisting.

To tie off today, you can see this in media! Isn't that awesome? :D
You can see it in video games and in movies because they either preach becoming  more mindful and more accepting or showing what happens when you close your mind to the truth in front of you. 
My favourite example from Matt's video was from How To Train Your Dragon - through realising that dragons have inherent value as well, Hiccup helps the Vikings become a mindful and accepting civilisation and this is much better than the society they started off with, full of war and anger and fear - an ego driven society.

I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! I really loved this video so please do go and check it out. I think I've probably got at least one or two more posts in me from this video - the topic is so large, especially with the amount Matt covers in the video! Have a wonderful time, whatever you're doing, being joyful and mindful and present and I'll see you here in another couple of days!

Friday, 10 April 2015

BEDA Day Twelve! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 2! :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're as well as can be!

So today we continue through the wonder that is my favourite video at this moment in time which is from Matt. You can check it out by looking at my previous blog post and following the links as I'm afraid I don't have linking capacity at the moment! Also perhaps read that first because I'm going through it chronologically so it'll make more sense if you start from there!

Now, onwards!

The ego loves to separate, as we Discussed before but the main problem we also face is the fact that we end up being separated from the world despite the fact we're intrinsically part of it. Madness. Jim Carrey makes the point in his commencement speech that our need to fit in in today's society makes our true selves practically invisible.We live a lot for building up this image of ourselves to show the world but in doing so neglect our true selves which is linked yo everything and has nothing to prove. It has no need to separate, it has no need to label because it simply accepts everything in the world because it's connected to it all.

Salvation isn't something to look for because it's something that you have within yourself and with that comes a joy with no opposite. Things around you can bring out the joy and increase it but it doesn't ever deplete inside you.

The joy comes from knowing that you don't have to resist the world and be afraid anymore. It comes from living in the possibility that everything is connected and everything is peaceful and joyful and full of energy. You don't need to struggle to survive and you don't need to be remembered because you're already valuable - you don't need to prove yourself to anyone.

You step outside the ego and into the present moment with your mind and soul and all is well.
I hope that you guys are enjoying these awesome ideas as much ad I am! Feel free to tell me what you think as well as Matt! I shall continue  In two days time but in the mean time, have a lovely weekend and I'll see you tomorrow on my side Tumblr blog!

BEDA Day Ten! The Ego's Greatest Lie - Part 1 :D

Hey guys! I hope that you're all having perfect days and whoo for the upcoming weekend!

So on Tuesday, my good friend Matt uploaded what is probably my favourite video of his to date - a 15 minute video about mindfulness and presence and joy from being, the inspiration and ideas from which I wanted to share with you today!

Before I start, if you do get the chance to sit down for 15 minutes and just experience the video first hand, I would highly encourage you to do so because it's brilliant and completely and utterly KABOOM inducing. If you don't have that much time and you'd like to hear what I took from the video too, please continue reading!

So the first amazing point that Matt raises in this video is all about interconnectedness and how whether you think about it scientifically or perhaps on a more spiritual level, we're connected to literally everything around us. We're connected to each other through the fact that we share the same genetic make up and we've all evolved from the same ancestors but we're also then connected to the beings all around us because we're all part of life and we've all come to live here on this planet after so many years. You can go back even further and then see how we're connected to the earth just through the fact that all of the world and life originated from the origin of the universe which we consider as the Big Bang and so we're all connected because we all came from that. The earth and all the life on it, all connected.

Then you have the less scientific explanation which is in many ways satisfying because we're all connected because we're all just living together on this planet and we're all aware to different degrees of the reality of life and being. We share our days together and though we may not all necessarily be similar and interact in the same way and all, we're all here together. Some people would then also attribute this to God and how diverse His creation is and how he's created us all from the same source and how humanity is just the most aware of His creation.

Believe what you will, in essence, we're not really separate from anything much at all.
We are everything.

Now what we do, the majority of us without even realising, is that we allow our egos, our minds, the  parts of us that we present to the world to make us believe that we're separate from everything. We love to label other people and other creatures and everything that we come across and we rate ourselves in comparison. We can put ourselves on pedestals because we think we're so much more superior because of all that we've achieved but we all come from the same place, the same origin and therefore we all have the same intrinsic value. We're all equal in creation. KABOOM!

I think I underestimated how much I'd be writing about this subject and therefore, if you want to go and watch the video, I would thoroughly recommend it because I've literally only covered the first two minutes today and I don't really want to take more of your time than 15 minutes would! I shall however, be continuing this discussion from now on here and going through the points in this video in the days to come so do look forward to that!

I absolutely love this subject, as does Matt so I hope that you guys can feel the same sort of joy and awe from these facts - or if you don't and you disagree, I'd love to hear what you think perhaps in the comments if you'd like!

Just to finish, a quote from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

'We are a part of the universe, we are in the universe, and perhaps more than both those facts, 
the universe is in us.'