Category Archives: Life and Leisure

Life and Leisure, Thoughts and Expressions

A sense of Purpose

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Do you ever wonder what creates that urge or sensation of extreme restlessness in your life?  Do you wonder why it is that concentration and focus seems out of reach?  Instead of always questioning why, perhaps it is best that we work harder to not just hear our inner being talking to us, but to start listening to what it is trying to tell us.

Inside each and every one of us there is an inner purpose that can be ignored only so long before it creates an overwhelming mass of turmoil within.  This inner calling is a call to the Soul.   It is not as if a voice in our head that speaks to us, but more the questions we ask ourselves, where no one else can hear.

We may question what am I doing here and where am I going in my life?  Is there meaning out there for my existence?  Is this all there is in life for me?  It is not that we feel the lack of success, or that we have under achieved our worldly goals, but that having everything material in life and being a financial success does not always mean we have been successful  any more than being poor and living with the mere basics means we have not been.

Success is determined by how we utilize our full potential in life.  Everyone has a purpose and destiny.  Our destiny is determined by a power higher than all of our decisiveness.  We just need to pay attention to the inner timetable of our own awareness.  When it does, a spiritual alarm clock goes off, and it becomes almost impossible to ignore.  Many have a heightened awareness and perception in life.  At least 1 in 10 do possess good perception, and are considered gifted with knowledge and out of those millions, so few still understand the true Synchronicity and its interconnection to the universe, and their potential to utilize it for good.

Heightened awareness is a sense of basic synchronicity blended with common sense along with using and trusting your intuition.  We all have an interconnection with the Universe.  With this connection we have an invisible weave interlinking us between people and events; that together, in a way, bring what is meant to happen in our lives, into existence.  They are not based in a traditional comprehension of causality.  I am humored sometimes at how people determine sense verses sensible natural concept of probability.  That leads to misinterpretation of the message one senses.  It also is most likely a response to what one perceives as willed desire verses realistic concept.

There are many amazing situations that can happen in your life when your inner awareness changes.   This is also not to be confused with the grandiose sense of knowledge or feeling of knowing.  It is a true awareness of the simplistic inner you, flaws and all.  For acknowledging your weaknesses, they become new strengths to grow upon.   It will eventually guide you to where you will have energetic thoughts that revive your spirit within, bringing about a new sense of change; you may experience intents and direction of interests that take you where you would have never imagined yourself going and desires that will align with all the natural vibrations around you.  When this happens it will mingle together into a harmonious melody of existence.

This harmony does not mean there will be no struggles in your life, but it will give you a better sense of how to use your inner strengths to cope with whatever crosses your path.  Our beautiful universe is always willing and waiting to show us something wonderful.  Synchronicities bring to the forefront of your thoughts the information for your waking consciousness along with your subconscious state to gently guide and direct you to what is in alignment with your own personal growth.  It is whispering to your soul a hint, for you to watch and wait.

Listen carefully when your soul whispers for the lessons are sometimes very subtle. Life’s events are not always very transparent; however, this too becomes a lesson in intuition and strengthening your internal hearing.

There are also times when that inner voice happens through other events such as a thought that comes to you while reading a book, reading a blog, glancing at a phrase or seeing an image.  You get a feeling it is speaking to you and it probably is.  Be sure you do not make the most common mistake, and take an offensive stance.  Use it as a learning tool, because although what you see may not have been meant to be interpreted as such, but triggers the inner message within you, that something in your life need changing.  Life is always full of changes, and we as humans are flexible beings and adapt well to changes when we open out minds, listen to our souls, base much less of our lives on self gratification and awaken to more self awareness of our true potential in life.

My point is, what have you been hearing from within lately?  Are you listening with your soul and not the mixed messages based on basic human emotion driven by physical sense of comfort?  Work to find the best within yourself, by listening to what is within you, that you ignore so often.  Be who you are meant to be, no matter where it may lead you.

©Copyright protected 2014: JD, NWU Local 1981

©United Press International,   ©International Association of Press Photographers and Journalists   Press ID # 1007490467

Human Interest, Life and Leisure, Thoughts and Expressions

New Years Resolutions.. Quest or Quandry

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New Years Resolutions and How to Make Them an Adventure and Not An Unobtainable Quest

Have you ever wondered how in the world your clothes dryer could be so hungry that it eats your socks?  Why the lid on a pickle jar always seems to have been sealed by a ninja?   Why driving down a country road the smell of pig poop always seems to filter in the direction you’re traveling?  Life is full of questions, it is how we choose to seek out which need answering with the mind, by skill or by listening to our inner voice to find the answers we seek, and what we should just take as circumstance.

As the year draws to a close, we tend to reflect upon the past twelve months and prepare to welcome the new.  Sitting right in front of us are some of the most personal questions of all.  What will my new year’s resolution be?  What will I make as my new goal?  What will I plan to give up, plan to achieve, and hope to change?  These questions may seem simplistic, yet matter to us, or we would not have saved them until the socially acceptable time to place them into a resolution has arrived.

According to research done in 2012 by the University of Scranton, Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology,  almost 60% of Americans make new year’s resolutions yet less than 46% of us successfully follow through with at least one resolution beyond the first six months of the year and approximately 8% continue on beyond that. Of that percentile; the majority were resolutions and goals related to weight loss, healthier living, quitting smoking and other means of self improvement.

So if you’re going to be one of the 60%, make sure you choose realistic goals that you are willing to put some effort into following through with.  Many of us use the New Year as an opportunity to make our personal multi page “bucket list” of things we want to do or total personal or professional makeovers we hope achieve.

Although nice to aspire a drastic change, experts claim the average person has far too many competing priorities that this type of approach will be a set-up for failure.  If we try to aim our rocket of hope to high, and shoot for the moon, we might find ourselves ending up failing to even firing our engines off the launch pad on January 1st.

It is more sensible to set small, simple attainable goals throughout the whole year, rather than singular, overwhelming goals.  Remember to set goals that are tangible.  Making resolutions that are ambiguous can be inspiring and entertaining to our psyche, but the difficulty in achieving them, means that excitement can rapidly give way to frustration.

Resolutions are more successful in follow through when they are bounded by rational, achievable metrics.  For example; if your goal is to lose weight, you may find it easier instead of staring at a scale every morning, and wondering why the numbers don’t drop, choose to make a short term goal, such as; for six weeks I will not eat potato chips and soda, or for two months I will not take second portions at suppertime, and the result may be better choices with a better sense of accomplishment, in return causing a positive result in taking off a few pounds as well.  Be specific and set yourself a clear ambition.  Instead of saying “I am going to get a gym membership in 2014”, sign up for yoga classes or getting on a treadmill two mornings a week.  “Vague goals begat vague resolutions, when you cannot measure some form of progress or success in completion”, Says John Norcross from University of Scranton.

In this age of social media and electronics, make your goals obvious.  Experts recommend charting your goals in some fashion.  Even though there is no universal strategic method for success, sometimes making a clearly defined to-do list is a good enough reminder for one to stay on track.  Try journaling, or creating a personal blog, to share with friends and family you trust and that support your goals, without judgment.  Share your goals with some Facebook or other social media friends as a means of accountability, which will tend to make you want to reach your goals, when you have a personal cheering squad and support system.

I had a friend, who decided she was going to try and curb her shopaholic tendencies and pay off her 24,000.00 in credit card debt.  She decided to make it her New Years resolution,  and knew it would be a hard battle to accomplish on her own, so she went public with it.  She created a blog, and invited all her friends to follow her as she made the effort to transform herself from a shopaholic to a spendthrift.  By sharing what she didn’t spend, and how much she saved by changing her habits publically, she was able to curb her budget and ended up paying off her debt within two years.  She claimed that sharing her resolution was her way of holding herself accountable.

Most importantly have faith.  Believe in yourself. By taking the first step and setting simple and realistic smaller goals, you raise your chances of achieving that goal significantly.  When goals are set too high or without specific means of measurement in progress, we tend to abandon them the moment we hit the first bump in the road.  More often than not, people who are not successful in keeping their resolutions blame their own lack of willpower.  If you’re not ready to stick to it and pursue your goal, or give up what you choose to forego, you will not succeed.  You have to be willing to put in the effort, and only when you’re ready and you’re doing for yourself and not others.

Many times we have heard people say they have no “willpower’.  After doing much research and several surveys on the subject of New Year’s resolutions, I found that most people felt that they lacked the willpower to follow through and that they could not complete their goals because they lost their “drive” to do so.  You have as much willpower as you THINK you have.  Which means; that on some personal level, your journey toward self-improvement through setting your New Year’s resolutions will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

©Copyright protected 2013: JD, NWU Local 1981

©United Press International,   ©International Association of Press Photographers and Journalists   Press ID # 1007490467