Good morning, my friends.
We’ve all done it – compared ourselves to someone successful as a means of beating ourselves up. You want that life, that look, that luck.
The problem is, it’s empty calories and wasted time. It draws us no closer to our goals or our greatness.
Here are five ways to beat the comparison game and get back on your path.
Have a beautiful Wednesday!
Ray
Good Morning, my friends!
Are you a dreamer or entrepreneur or digital nomad following the dictates of your heart? You probably have goals you hope to achieve or dreams you want to experience.
This video offers six practical tips to get there faster, but also to stay empowered along the path. After these, the video ends with five powerful affirmations to keep you on track.
This video also marks the first entirely 4k video on my YouTube channel. I hope you find the video useful. I’d love your feedback either here or on YouTube. As always, a thumbs up and a subscription are greatly appreciated. I’m pushing hard to get my channel monetized.
Also, love to hear ideas on topics you’d like me to cover.
You’re awesome! Thanks for your support of this blog!
Ray
Good evening, my friends.
This affirmation helps you with one of the hardest things we humans face. We like a sure thing. Yet, much of our lives is filled with uncertainty. That’s where change can happen. That’s where the magic can happen. This affirmation helps you embrace this powerful state of being in the uncertainty.
We live in a universe of change. To survive and thrive, we must embrace it.
Wishing you all the best in your adventure of uncertainty.
Ray
Good evening, my friends.
One of my favorite spiritual texts is the Buddhist Dhammapada. Part Buddhist philosophy and part poetry, this text embodies the very heart of the Buddha’s teaching as it has come down to us.
The first chapter of the text – usually titled The Twin Verses – begins with a powerful verse. As the ancient Pali language does not always translate cleanly into English, there are a number of popular versions of this verse and some dispute among traditional Buddhist and personal development advocates on the Buddha’s meaning in the verse.
The dispute centers around the fact that some translations put the verse in very modern, western-lensed context where the Buddha’s words appear to apply to the individual and their thoughts.
A more classical interpretation, drawn the Buddhist concept of no-self, is that Buddha is speaking of mind in a more general way and saying that all phenomena begins with mind.
As someone who has studied both Buddhism and personal development for more than 30 years, I honestly don’t get the rub. This is a lot of nuance. Here’s my read. Even if the more traditional interpretation is followed, the phenomena created by Mind includes us. As we are here and also purveyors of mind through our thoughts and actions, we are creating our reality through the thoughts in our consciousness.
In this video, I share both traditional and contemporary translations and use the more modern version as a kind of mantra or affirmation reminding us that we are creators of our reality.
Wherever you are, know that you are amazing!
Ray
I keep seeing content on social media encouraging people to ditch positivity and “feel whatever you feel.” “It’s a matter of being authentic,” they say. This is advice that can quickly leave someone at dead end on their path.
As with most incomplete advice, there’s a grain of truth in it. Of course, you should never bottle up your feelings and try to put a happy smile on them. That’s not what true positivity is about anyway. However, not all feelings are created equal.
There definitely are feelings that support a healthy you and collectively a saner civilization. There are other feelings that may seem productive, even empowering in the short term that are ultimately corrosive and destructive to people and to cultures.
This idea that ‘I’m just an angry or sad or depressed person and that’s authentically who I am,’ is not a place to validate someone and leave them. Yes. We all feel those things sometimes. That’s human. However, those feelings, over the long-term, are not a place we should encourage anyone to remain out of homage to “you have a right to feel what you feel.”
Personal development, professional counseling, or other tools that help steer someone in more productive- dare I say it positive – directions become necessary when someone gets stuck in emotions that may be how they feel, but are not sustainable over time.
In short bursts, negative emotions can propel us forward. Long-term they’re toxic. Positive emotions should never be used to mask real pain, but they are superior mode of being to persistent negative feelings.
Getting back to a place where positive emotions can become the dominant emotions in a person’s life is a worthy aspiration and achievable one. If you’re going to encourage someone to “own those negative emotions,” please be sure to share the warning signs of when that’s no longer healthy and ways to find your way back to balance and well-being.
If you find yourself caught in a swirl of constant negativity, please be sure to seek help or start a journey of self-discovery that can open doors to a beer life for you.
Just in case no one else has reminded you today, you are amazing!
Ray
The Affirmation Spot Blog 
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