You don’t NEED to go after your DREAM alone. Do you?
You may have seen this several times as I have, too. However, it doesn’t feel complete to me.
What if your dream and your employer’s dream is one and the same?
Then isn’t that the best?
The Winding Roads of Thoughts
They come into our minds and leave at their will
They form a complex and winding story
A story of unpaved and sometimes twisted roads, of hills and valleys and of steady paths
It is not always clear where they will lead, these visitors of the mind
Let them in and then let them out with ease, they are only visitors passing through
Some are unwelcome guests that stagnate, send these quickly on their way
Others will come in to inspire progress, sit with these a moment and then let them go
Some bring memories of yesterday, while others are looking to drive tomorrow
Treat these with care and make sure their visit is brief
Don’t allow them to rob you of this moment
Remember that this moment is all that we really have and all that we are guaranteed
Thank those passing visitors for stopping in, then gracefully and swiftly walk them out
Remember, the thoughts you give life to will create your reality
Pace yourself, choose them carefully and keep them positive
Blue Pill or Red Pill, Fear or Faith?Â
Blue pill or red pill, fear or faith? Inherently, we know fear is counterproductive, yet sometimes it makes it’s way through the cracks. Why do we fear and worry? Because we do not trust the flow, because we focus too keenly on people, events and circumstances, because we are imprisoned by our thoughts. Why do some people seem to flow through life with ease while others struggle so much? Could it be due to their upbringing and conditioning as children? What if you grew up with the conditioning that “too much joy and laughter is sure to be followed by sadness?” What if you subconsciously started to correlate events and eventually developed a fear of being too happy? Can this be unlearned? Can the mind be reprogrammed? Can the mind be set free? Yes it can, with practice. Walk through the door of freedom and don’t look back.
Growl… Food! I want food! Really?! Yes, really.
The teacher at the Meditation Center where I practice shared that he was happy/relieved to “get the signal” from his stomach cuing his hunger. He shared that he was waiting for it and he had noticed earlier that it had been awhile since he ate. Because I am on a health kick recently, in preparation for summer, I really reflected and processed that comment since that day. This morning especially!! It’s so easy to decide you’re hungry from emotions like boredom, excitement, or worry. Isn’t it great to have an actual SIGNAL? Your stomach growls! Thank you for that! So… I will wait for the signal. That’s my new motto in order to help reach my goal weight. If there is no signal, then I shouldn’t be eating. Right?
What if You Aren’t Who You Think You Are?
What if you aren’t who you think you are? Do we really know who we are or are we impostors?
“When you realize that you have you, then you realize that because of that everything starts and everything happens.”
Choi, Johwa. From Well-Being to Well-Dying: Harmony Meditation: A new way to completion
Do we realize that we have ourselves? What does that even mean? I have heard these things before but I like the way Johwa puts it in his book Harmony Meditation because it can lead the reader to an experience of this for themselves instead of just understanding it as a concept.
Examples of this are further alluded to in the book. We experience this everyday but it’s so normal to us we don’t even realize that we are expressing the fact that we are someone other than we believe ourselves to be. How often do we say, “I’m thinking about it.â€Â Or we might say, “I have a headacheâ€. We make clear distinctions between our thoughts and our “Selvesâ€. We say “I†am thinking. That “I†that is thinking, is not the thoughts and we clearly distinguish the two.
We also distinguish between our Self and our body. We say “I†have a headache. We see ourselves as our body and thoughts but at the same time we distinguish ourselves between them when we speak. Who is the “I†that has the headache? Yet we are still totally identified with ourselves as our thoughts, body, and emotions.
“You can be mad at yourself, too. What kind of emotion is that? In order to be mad at yourself you are treating yourself like there exists one, but there is another you, as well.”
From Well-Being to Well-Dying: Harmony Meditation: A new way to completion
Hmm that’s interesting. What is this other you? Is it for real? Can I imagine another me besides the me I have been my entire life? What are the implications of this? What good is it to me? Why should I bother investigating this at all?
I think those are really important questions. What’s in it for me? Why should I bother with this? Personally, I like big payoffs. I don’t gamble these days but if I do I want to win Big! To me it seems all people like to benefit themselves but we also enjoy helping others. We are social beings. In general we like the idea of “win/win†situations.
I am still discovering who I am, and often times feel like I am starting over from scratch, but I can’t resist myself because I love the payoffs I have received so far and I enjoy the social benefits as well. I also see huge potential in this endeavor for myself and everyone else. More than that, I believe that this is a subject of some urgency for resolving our personal as well as our social dilemmas. I hope to explore this more in upcoming posts. Please subscribe and comment below until then, Savor Who Am I? and it’s Power!
The Power of Breathing
I have always breathed. Â I’ve been breathing since I was born. It seems so simple, insignificant, and is usually completely out of mind.
I’ve breathed with other people doing all different kinds of “Mind / Body” trainings. It was still just breathing to me.
During  ZEN TaeGeukDo training it was introduced to me in a completely new way, with a completely new purpose, and utilizing a completely new method.
Now that I tasted what this can be and what this can do for me in my life I can never look at breath the same way. Â It’s still simple but way more valuable to me.
Sometimes I’m tempted to tell people about it because I want them to have a way to open new doors for themselves too. Â I have to stop myself because maybe how it’s delivered and who it’s delivered by matters a lot, as well as how they can receive it. Â Would you give a billion dollars to someone who thought money was toilet paper?
But imagine you had an endless supply of toilet paper, then one day realized each individual sheet was a hundred dollar bill! Â That’s how I feel about my experience with breathing through Harmony Meditation.
www.HarmonyMeditation.com
What’s your style of learning? – Yang of knowledge and Eum of wisdom
Do you know your style of learning? Better yet, what style of learning do you apply for solving problems and meeting challenges, be it professional or personal?
Applying the principles of harmony meditation I have come to a better understanding what my styles are and that in learning, just as in any other area of life, there are Eum and Yang (yin and yang) approaches to it.
For example, someone who excels in sciences may be struggling with humanities or languages. When I was in school, languages were taught mostly by brute repetition, and for a person with a Yang style of learning this won’t work as well as for a person with an Eum style of learning. One learns better by hearing, the other – by visualization, and these two functions are related to Eum and Yang.
Knowing yourself and your style of learning will save lots of hardship and disappointment. In some cases we need to apply the Yang style – think sharply and solve the problems quickly. More challenging problems require the Eum approach – thinking deeply for a prolonged period of time, getting immersed in the problem and having patience to endure the pressure.
Practice of meditation helps tremendously with the latter, especially for someone with a developed Yang style of learning. The Eum style may not bring fruits right away, but they are much sweeter and tastier.
When we grow patience and love towards ourselves, when we develop the ability to endure and observe our own thoughts and emotions, good or bad, new insights and wisdom emerges.
Most of all, proper practice of meditation should bring about tremendous benefits not only in stress release and personal well-being, but in learning and adopting valuable attitudes of consistent effort, openness, continuous improvement.
The question is – what is it I want to improve the most in your life? To me, the answer is clear. “Who am I?” is the only lifelong endeavor worthy of researching, developing, and sharing the fruits of with others.