Acceptance | Tracks In The Dust

Archive for the tag “Acceptance”

31 Jul 2012

Control of Your State Of Mind

Who has control of your state of mind? Doesn’t it really come down to you?

If we have anything to learn in our lives around how we live it, one that thing that truly seems to escape some people is “how one looks at their life and all that surrounds it.” There seems to be so many sad or angry people who are stuck in one place- looking through a single vision. Some people walk through life sharing their state of mind with anyone who crosses their path. “Would you like to get angry with me?” they seem to say. Or “I am sad- can I share my sadness with you-” wishing that perhaps you can be sad too. In fact if you share their mood they may even start to feel better about themselves.

But then don’t we all have control over our own view of the world around us? It is OUR view after all. Sure. We can choose to be the victim of the circumstances that have brought us to this particular point in time. We can ignore the opportunity to make things better, expelling the chance to change things perhaps because of the uncomfortable feeling that can come with change. Even in our deepest state of “blues” we relish the feeling, even as we lament about escaping it. No doubt it is great to experience to help put things in perspective.

Others may go searching for the more positive path ahead. But that can take time. I have met friends and family who say that “life is a journey” but they choose to travel that journey with little direction. They wander along “looking for themselves” – Change for change sake…can result chasing after something they may never find. “Finding themselves” can create a reason to not go forward, rather than working harder to “create yourself”. Searching can mean waiting for someone else to define who you are, it can create boundaries.

So what do I tell my kids? Regardless of today, the next direction is based on your a state-of-mind I think. It starts there. Don’t let the anger and sadness consume you, don’t let it send you to places that can smother the reasons to change. Your state of mind is yours to choose. Okay, so we all need to have the downs to better appreciate the up’s; but we cannot wallow in it. Take some time to have the blues/ but then take the time to change your direction and create that journey with a positive direction. Choose to deal with it and move forward.

“Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them.”
― Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Anger, choices, Emotion, Happiness, Postive Thinking, Reality Check, relationships, Sadness, Self-Awareness, Self-Help, Sprituality

24 Jul 2012

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Faith In Trust and Hope

Trust. There’s something so mystical about TRUST. Who you should trust, why should you trust them, and how do you continue to trust someone. There is a very fine line between love and hate, there is another one between trust and the lack of it.

I have noticed that for some people it is very easy for them to take that step over the line and start trusting. They have the ultimate faith in the world and humankind that most people have a purpose that is ultimately good for all. Everyone starts out trustworthy and then it is up to them to break that trust, it is a fragile thing indeed but it starts with the “glass half full” I suppose. Maybe even more than half perhaps. That kind of openness comes with a lot of risk for hurt and wounds that don’t heal very well in the emotional sense. It requires a lot of resilience and may mean some added hard work to maintain the proper frame of mind. But happiness is just in the next step just as much as the hurt, and we have to have faith.

There are others that seem to trust no one. It can be so drastic that is sad. Sort of like functional paranoia that everyone is out to get you and that anyone who wants to have a relationship of trust better damn well start earning it. It goes…those who want trust need to explain themselves, then show that they are what they say they are. It is a safer place for these people with lack of trust. After all, trust no one- then there is no chance of getting the injury from trusting someone and then having them let you down or even belay that trust with denial or worse. But that safe place comes with a price. The price can be loneliness, isolation, lack of connection with anyone on anything other than a surface level.

Sadly the world today seems to perpetuate the lack of trust. There are so many examples that get laid out in the news, politics, social networks, and even religion. People who cross that fine line of trust to become human monsters, trusted people who have taken a path of destruction and evil that make us want to run the other way. Stay locked away.

Make sure you have an understanding that even with all the evil and hate in the world, in all the immediate places that surround our lives each day there is hope. Hope is a partner with trust that allows us to make it through each day. We want to be at peace with ourselves, we need to be at peace with the trust in what we know to be right. Trust in the Lord. Don’t run away. Be mindful that there is a purpose to all things under heaven. You are part of it.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, choices, Emotion, emotional sense, Faith, God, Grace, Happiness, Hope, Love, Postive Thinking, Sprituality, Trust

14 Jul 2012

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Time Waits For No One

I have heard it said that “time waits for no one.” Time is ticking away and as far as we know we have no control over it ( we could argue time travel here i imagine). We try to hold on to the special moments in time. We have many yesterdays that we would work hard to hold on to because they are so unique; they signify something that is special that makes a place and time part of what we are. We would love to go back and experience them again, or change things that went askew, because they have seemed to go by so fast, but meant so much.

But time wont wait. Its time that we want to to remember but even time erodes the details of what made it so special. So we move along the linear thing that is what we call time. Holding on to yesterday with the best of intention, but yesterday is gone. It makes up the fabric of today, but it cannot be brought back to be relived again. It can’t be erased to make bad things go away, or reversed to correct a wrong. So that’s the way God planned it, that’s the way He meant it to be. And it becomes a treasure of a time we can cherish in our memory, or be that day or moment that changed everything after it for the rest of your life and perhaps even beyond that. Indelible, Unchangeable.

That is what we have to do with every day. Look at it as that self contained part of the building blocks that make up who you are today and who you will be tomorrow. But then let it go and look forward to what is next, because time waits for no one. No one but you can own that moment you have experienced behind your eyes. All those unrecorded seconds in time are yours alone. Share them with others, but they will never be as unique as your own experience. They are yours until your last breath. And even time has that one figured out as well. Eternity in the end will be what matters.

Posted in Doing Things That Will Change Your Life and tagged Acceptance, Change, cherish, Definitions, Happiness, Memories, People, Reality Check, Time, tracks in the dust

11 Jul 2012

The Everyday Miracles

Do miracles exist?

They are there in your life. There every day when you step from the curb, say hello to the check out clerk, take the hand of your child, smile at your coworker, so many things that we do each day involve the simple greatness of life. Each action and reaction can cause a chain reaction that you may more than likely never know. Like waves in the ocean, or the wind across the field of grass. We are so unconscious in our simple actions, that we are not paying attention to the motions around us. Do you see such miracles as they happen as we live our lives?

Take a deep breath in, take another one out. Enjoy the fact that you are living on the Earth and are fortunate to be here online in the world-wide web…communicating with each other in such a way that we can share ideas, share the amazement of life, reach across oceans and continents to communicate about all the world has to offer. And when we do, there is an opportunity for confirmation of what being a human-being on this Earth means.

It amazes me everyday how similar so many people are across the globe. Feeling the emotions of sadness, elation, anger and relief, love and kindness, compassion and understanding. It truly is the miracle that we have to experience every day.

We are not alone, we have each other. So much more can be done, and every movement can be a miracle. We are so fortunate that we can decide, when so many others in the world cannot. We can influence simple miracles that will make a difference for someone we have never met, or may never meet. Just like we can influence our neighbours, our family, or friends or the person passing us on the street. We can reach out beyond that and follow our mission while we are here on Earth. Putting our tracks in the dust will eventually blow away with time, but the next persons tracks will take over. And the line can go for eternity with just a simple choice.

There are miracles happening everyday. We all can participate in making them happen. Have faith, be aware of what you can do to affect human change, it seems like it is infinitely more than you are aware of.

Posted in Before and After Things Change, Learning Lessons Along the Journey Of Life and tagged Acceptance, being remembered, Eternity, Faith, God, Grace, life is precious, living on the earth, Miracle, moments, Religion and Spirituality, tracks in the dust

10 Jul 2012

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What Will Other People Think?

Growing up, I remember my adolescent days of wanting to be part of the “in group” – the group that was leading the trends, the people who were at the front of the room in school and popular. I thought if I pleased everyone, I too could be accepted into the popular groups. At that time it seemed like I was always preoccupied with the idea of what other people were thinking.

One of the things I have noticed lately is that even as we all grow up, what others think appears to be many adults preoccupation. So many of the professional people around me seem to want acceptance of others beyond all else. Even in my family there have been struggles over the years on being “people pleasing”. It causes them to twist and turn their lives into places that aren’t really who they genuinely are.

When you constantly worry about what other people think, you can easily get caught in an emotional trap. In reality, you don’t have to please everybody any more than your ability to please everybody allows. It’s that false sense of panic to think that in order to be happy, you must be loved and validated by everyone you meet. Inside you know it’s just not how it works, but you do it anyway.

If you feel controlled or manipulated, its likely that you’re allowing yourself to be controlled or manipulated. It’s good to stand up for what’s right, but no one can pressure you unless you allow them to. Perhaps you don’t see it, or you ignore it, but it can happen easily. Inside your head you want acceptance, and you may be willing to color things to feel like you are not being controlled, but it can happen anyway.

It’s OK to be strong and center yourself on who you really are. How often do we fool ourselves to think it is more spiritual centered to just be quiet and put up with it all. But God doesn’t expect you to be run over by everyone you meet, you are made to be strong and be yourself.

How often are there missed opportunities in our lives that we let pass by? Do we find ourselves burying our talents, our sensibility and throwing them aside in order to please others, to be accepted. Then ironically, we get angry at our circumstances and allow even more control to be sacrificed to others for the sake of being accepted. We wonder how we got where we are.

In the end, it’s good to be ourselves, let the “people pleasing” efforts come out as a result of being ourselves. Don’t let it rule your life. We can allow our spiritual life to guide us to the relationships that are around us, and we will be accepted. Centering yourself on being who you are and not what others want you to be. You will find your goals will change and what you want out of life will be refreshing and personal. You know what other people will think?… won’t you?