Emotional Based Living: All the RAGE!

Greetings my gentle readers to another week's installment of the "Be Yourself, Often" blog… that time in the week which hopefully you look forward to in order to try to filter through and make some sense of the week that was. Even more so, perhaps the impact and components of YOU in the week filtered through healing and HOPE. Hopefully, you bring with you some questions that are left un-answered through simply living the week. Not enduring the week, but rather embracing it! For really, are we not students in this life? Are we not always eager to advance our learnings?

As we discussed last week, the evidence informed life is one that we have an understanding of our built in thoughts and biases. There is an appreciation of the subtleties of the moment and the impact that we have in these events having transpired as well as what we subsequently do with these events moving forward. We now also realize this concept can advance our spiritual karmic battery charges and leverage us even better for our future through active involvement. Sorry folks, passivity or entitlement will not work here. It is an active process.

Indeed, it is not about simply living this life but since we are spiritual beings having a human existence, then it stands as a logical extension of this concept that we will impact future lives as this spirit returns in whatever form.

That is belief. It is a factor based in hope, faith and belief that as individuals we have this opportunity to live in this sort of way. However, how many people truly believe that they have this opportunity in the future. Our individuals truly squandering the moment in life in order to achieve short-term outcomes question per wit, are our earthly hormones and desires driving us.

An emotional-based life is one where despite all evidence an individual will progress down a maladaptive pattern of use. In fact, we can go one step further and say it is a maladaptive pattern of miss use of a normal resource available to us, which is life. We KNOW value and we know what the artifically ascribed associations mean to us, which are susequently sold in marketing ploys (Platinum card, King-sized bed etc). SO sad.

I do believe it is possible to become addicted to the excesses of a Western driven culture. Much I can to an addict, and individual rooted in emotions [including negative emotions such as the demise Asian] loves the effect of the neurotransmitter dopamine. Dopamine in the brain the keyless acumen's is associated with drive and pleasure. This is the root cause of addiction. As stated, addiction is basically a maladaptive pattern of use. I mean really, how is the way some people live their life really any different?

How much in the way of excesses does a person actually need? Gandhi stated there is enough for everyone on this earth in need, but not in greed. Thus if we take a look at individuals who are in the top 5% of earnings and can buy whatever they want those 5% of individuals own 90% of all the stuff.

There is a reason that Dante identified the seven deadly sins, of which one is. Really, and emotional-based life has a strong degree of interplay between these seven deadly sins. They include, but are not limited to: last, greed, sloth and gluttony to name a few.

If you want to embrace a emotional taste life then you sadly may have been sold a false bill of sale. For these emotions have been biased and altered through changes in brain chemistry. This opens up the concept that there are different stages of emotional-based living. Perhaps, we can integrate our positive emotions into our evidence-based and evidence informed living.

If we take the converse of gluttony, then we are looking/ and need to look at the individuals who are and have stripped away the excesses in order to really understand who they are and the impact of what they do in their lives. These are individuals who are at ease with the moment through mindfulness, meditation, prayer and positive play. The shackles of consumerism do not bind them

.

It is okay to ground, be a kid, not have everything designer, and not have 20 pairs of shoes, 30 skirts or 40 shirts or 60 pairs of socks. Can we express and share or why do we covet these things? Can we not ground and connect and love and live life? Perhaps, we can take a look at some of the humility that was identified by Buddha or Jesus Christ.  Individuals who looked to collect members and Disciples who were average individuals and laborers. But mindful people. 

Maybe, just maybe we can live in peace, patience, silence, humility and serenity. Perhaps, all of this plays in together through positive discourses.

What is the cost of this venture? How hard is it? What are the outcomes.

Well my gentle readers, the end outcome is to bind with the amorphic side of nature and beauty and be yourself, often

~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure   March 2013

The Stone Suitcase: A Time of Reflective Thanks

Greetings my gentle readers to this week’s installment  (albeit a wee bit late) of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. That wonderful point in the week and a chance to start the week fresh and when we can sit back with the weeds in the wheat and look to the shafts reaching up the sky that we are becoming. A time to reflect on the days done and the road of days that stretch ahead and never will be exactly the same again. The time of laughter, tears, miracles in the moments and challenges and successes intertwined in the tapestry of a life.

These are days of reflective thanks. Although the US has recently completed their Thanksgiving Day and the subsequent chaos that was Black Friday and today is Cyber Monday, there is still a chance to give thanks. In fact, let us go one step backwards and forwards, all in one felled swoop and give thanks today. For indeed, isnt any day potentially Thanksgiving Day? I alluded to this back in October, but why wait?

I believe the American model is one that allows us the reflective filter between two dichotomies to ascertain the insanity of the world even clearer. Seeing some of the news clips (while recognizing the inherent bias of the media) of the DAY OF SALES and the pushing and shoving makes one ponder. Also, the Native community has a plaque in Plymouth that states Thanksgiving in the USA to be a Day of Mourning. Again, such a dichotomous outcome within a 24hr stretch and span of time. Interesting and factual, with a hint of pathology thrown in, all in one.

But although it is easy to be an armchair clinician and look at the snippets of semi-factualism, there is truth of this dichotomy everywhere, in each and every day. In fact, allow me to go one step further and identify the insanity and challenges regarding the “all about me and my deals that were made for ME” is more common place than lying back in the grass and raising our hands to the golden shafts, feeling the wonderful crisp air and looking to the hues of blue in the sky, interspersed with the white fluffiness we call clouds. And we know from past blogs indeed that a good explanation doesn’t explain everything.

So how to capture the moments. Oh, for the ability to be able to take pictures with our eyes that we can readily retrieve. But in a way, we can… those are called memories and the film that we use is lodged in our brain and there are many ways that film gets clouded and fuzzy sadly. The most common ways are not being at one with the moment. There are many clinical ways and diseases that fog the film, but if our lens is flawed and the reflective mirror doesn’t portray a crisp picture onto the film, then the picture we take with our eyes does not resonate. And the “isms” of life tend to cloud that vision…. Mainly narcissism and consumerism… a deadly combination for clear and crisp pictures when combined together. We saw the impact on Friday and in fact, see it every day.

If you want a clear and crisp picture, one needs to polish the lens and be at one with the situation to capture a clean shot that is logged away in the picture album of our mind. That produces memories that will stay long term and may be retrieved with a smile whenever one wishes. The laughter, stories, events, sights, sounds, scents and tastes are all collected on this wonderful film of the mind.

So sad that we cant collect that, isnt it? Yet we can through mindfulness, reflection and gentle exercises that allow one to be more proficient at being here in the now. Realizing that exactly what we have and possess is exactly what we are meant to be and even better that this situation is a class and chance to evolve. For really, that is our choice. To remain static, evolve or devolve.

Doing more with less and being at one with the moment and the senses, perhaps in a way that is counter to the “norm” will titillate the senses and sharpen the hues of the picture. Sort of like being a healing child again. And to be that, touch that, smell that and embrace that is to be yourself, often.

~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure    November 2012

Dream Beyond the Expectations

Greetings my gentle readers to another week’s installment of the “Be Yourself, Often” blog. That time when we are able to step back, reflect, dissect and discuss the moments that have been what we called the week that was, all under the premises of advancing our humanity, spirit and power to learn in a way that begets more positives.

Along the way we should be aiming for a shoreline and a destination that we strongly believe in based in our own Belief structure.  We know well that our Beliefs will define our thoughts, which will impact our actions, which will change in a positive or negative way the outcomes that we receive. Certainly we know that not all outcomes are deserved, desired or what we had expected at the time, but it is balancing the concepts that everything is exactly as meant to be versus the human desires that we have.

Those human desires tend to be sold as a bill of sale as the expectations that we will be able to have in life. Even more, that illusion and challenge is becoming more robust as these fallacies often set us up for a fall… a major one. Why is that? We know that we cannot take it with us yet we hoard and express and demonstrate so many of Dante’s Deadly Sins. These sins all tend to root around the general concept of the self and greed.

Greed and the golden calf and the moneychangers at the table offer us a very valuable lesson. For we know what befell these civilizations and individuals. Yet, what of the individuals that was and is hurt along the way? What about them? As the divide becomes wider and the lines of reality become fuzzier, what eventually will transpire? One may hypothesize that the expectations and the world of stuff will become a non-issue. We move into worlds of karmic outcomes at this point and ultimately the actions of the individual…not the system will define their outcomes. Relying on the societal driven outcomes I worry may lead us to a form of group hysteria, or even worse if history is to educate us well.

It means that this is the time to help advance humanity at a critical point where there is risk of divide. There are those that are headed to evil acts behind the curtain and prosper and those that are wonderful friend who give and have gifts and talents that they share without remuneration and suffer. There is no set reason in this chaos theory, which reinforces the desire to come to a common ground of the bill of sale of the machine.

To dream beyond the expectations means that how would we act at the end days? What if we were actually in the proverbial foxhole and what would you do?  This should rule our actions in the here and now, even beyond a theological discussion and ties into basic kindness, humanities and ethics. For those that are able to look to that outcome, which will happen to all of us will obtain their desired goals. What do others think of you when you are gone? What sort of life are you living? Is it rooted in ego and you or rooted in humanity? How do you feel when you look at yourself in the mirror? Are you able to see the positives, or always denigrate others?

A goal I have is to give the incredible kindness and bounty of intelligent concern, love, kindness and positivity to others and advance the curve. The best curve on a person after all, is their smile.

Really, to dream beyond expectations means are you willing to hold the ladder to help others up, pull them out of the fire or do you push them in? We have the ability rich or poor to practice basic humanity for it costs little and to save the world and live the dream.  You can be positive or negative in approach and also feeding or dousing the fire… again, you drive your outcomes beyond the expectations offered in the now. Whatever you do, will return in aces and good or bad will define and become and be yourself, often.



                        ~~~ Rev. Dr. Joel Lamoure     September 2012