Tag: love

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Chillin Quotes In Person Using The Brain

It’s Beautiful When the Simple Things Make You Happy

Let me quote my mom and myself for a minute.

Yesterday my mom texted me: “I finally have an armoire to put my sheets in. Yay! So silly the things that make you happy when you get to my age. Have a wonderul day. Love you!!!” And I replied to her: “It’s beautiful when the simple things make you happy mom ❤️”

I have been struggling with gratitude recently. As I said to someone a few days ago:

“I feel like the practice of gratitude for me…I have to keep working on it….its like I get called / lured away from this gratitude, by these social cues / lures for things that I desire, not really material things but more ideas of a ‘better life’, like an amazing self-business or making so much $ from selling books, or having the whole family and everything with amazing job….but I look at people with fame, with $ and status, with great work, and I know they have sacrificed, probably things I dont want to sacrifice, things I truly value, like the people in my life, my loved ones. health, people, meaning and comfort. so this means that really, I think I have what I value the most, and I dont want to lose it soon, not before its natural time….I have to be grateful. and its this constant exercise of not only telling myself that this life is ok, but looking at it in its gorgeous illustrious beauty, because it is beautiful. gratitude really gives us beautiful lenses to see everything with.”

So, I think it is beautiful when we can appreciate the small, simple things. In fact I think appreciating the small simple things expands them in a way to be bigger and even more beautiful things. A key to happiness? Hmm….

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Chillin Life Is Yours Oetics

A Poem for Love for Me

I found this poem tonight. I had written it on 4/4/2013 at 1am. This was a poem I wrote to myself; I was realizing and learning how I needed to feel love, instead of just logically knowing that I was loved. At the time I was referring to romantic love. Now I can probably expand this beyond that:

A Poem for Love for Me

It is not enough for me to know I

am loved, I need to Feel it.

I need to feel I am loved.

A week ago I realized a baby portrait of

mine has had barbed wire attached to

it all these years, literally. I could

not hold the portrait tight. I could

not hold it right.

Then I realized, that baby needs to be

held, not looked at. Not put somewhere

to be looked at. He

needs to be held.

And that is me. And it is a daily occurrence,

daily need. I need to feel it

everyday. Anything else is not enough.

Because When I don’t, I shrivel up and recoil,

and get cold and bitter. I cant live like

that.

I need to grow and open my heart,

open up, and bloom. I’ve come too

far, I must

continue opening and growing

I May forget these details, but my heart

will not. My heart knows

that it needs Love it can feel.

My heart will not let me

stay with anything else.

-Dr. Orlando Fernandez

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Exponential Potential Interconnectivity Life Is Yours Quotes Using The Brain

The World Belongs to Optimists

The world belongs to optimists.
That’s all you have to say.
Just keep your eyes on those blue skies
And you will find the way…

To climb the mountain of success-
Now here’s the magic key:
That while you earn, you have to learn
To help humanity.

-Dr. Robert Kavesh (recently deceased)

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Chillin Interconnectivity Quotes In Person Reality

A Decision Can Change Your Life

“A Decision Can Change Your Life” – Janine Diaz

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Chillin Interconnectivity Life Is Yours Relationships

True Connection

Maybe the fact that we have flaws makes us a perfect human.

This is a beautiful video my cousin sent me. I must credit the creator, Verodigm, from Instagram. Here is the link to the video, and I am pasting the video below:

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Exponential Potential Hooraaaaaaaaay Inserts Reality

Passed My Dissertation Defense!!!!!!!!!!

Nice photo here, of me FINALLY passing my dissertation defense. Ed.D., here we come! Should be official by the end of September.

Included in this photo are my three faculty advisors, whom I appreciate very much. They strove to help me make the best, most professional, acceptable, stellar work possible.

I cannot quantify the hours, days, weeks, months, years of time, I put into this doctorate degree. Technically it was about 3.5 years. But the real time and effort is not quantifiable.

One interesting thing, is that during the process over these years, I could not let myself imagine this day, because it was too painful to imagine while I still had so much work to do. I had to stay Present in the work to keep my motivation. Essentially, not really lifting my head up, but keeping the head to the grindstone until the work was done. Otherwise I was afraid of becoming lazy and unmotivated with the weight of all the work that remained.

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Chillin Quotes

A Description of Humanization

“Humanization” is a word that describes the act of perceiving other people as human. This may sound like not a big deal, but it is the opposite of dehumanizing, which is lowering the value of a person to something less-than-human.

Below is an excerpt from Man’s Search for Meaning, a book written by Viktor Frankl, a Jewish survivor of the Nazi concentration camps:

“It is apparent that the mere knowledge that a man was either a camp guard or a prisoner tells us almost nothing. Human kindness can be found in all groups, even those which as a whole it would be easy to condemn. The boundaries between groups overlapped and we must not try to simplify matters by saying that these men were angels and those were devils. Certainly, it was a considerable achievement for a guard or foreman to be kind to the prisoners in spite of all the camp’s influences, and, on the other hand, the baseness of a prisoner who treated his own companions badly was exceptionally contemptible. Obviously the prisoners found the lack of character in such men especially upsetting, while they were profoundly moved by the smallest kindness received from any of the guards.“

Then the author provides an example of being humanized:

“I remember how one day a foreman secretly gave me a piece of bread which I knew he must have saved from his breakfast ration. It was far more than the small piece of bread which moved me to tears at that time. It was the human ‘something’ which this man also gave to me–the word and look which accompanied the gift.“

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Chillin Quotes

There is No Ultimate Arrival

“There is no ultimate arrival. Only continual reflection, failure, refinement, and re-commitment.”

-John Wineland, from his book “From the Core: A New Masculine Paradigm for Leading with Love, Living Your Truth & Healing the World”

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Chillin Interconnectivity

Finding Purpose and Meaning through Hopelessness and Suffering

Here is another quote from Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning.” The author was a researcher who survived the Nazi concentration camps. In this book he writes about these experiences, and how it impacted his awareness of how people find meaning:

“Another time we were at work in a trench. The dawn was grey around us; grey was the sky above; grey the snow in the pale light of dawn; grey the rags in which my fellow prisoners were clad, and grey their faces. I was again conversing silently with my wife, or perhaps I was struggling to find the reason for my sufferings, my slow dying. In a last violent protest against the hopelessness of imminent death, I sensed my spirit piercing through the enveloping gloom. I felt it transcend that hopeless, meaningless world, and from somewhere I heard a victorious “Yes” in answer to my question of the existence of an ultimate purpose. At that moment a light was lit in a distant farmhouse, which stood on the horizon as if painted there, in the midst of the miserable grey of a dawning morning in Bavaria. ‘Et lux in tenebris lucet’–and the light shineth in the darkness. For hours I stood hacking at the icy ground. The guard passed by, insulting me, and once again I communed with my beloved. More and more I felt that she was present, that she was with me; I had the feeling that I was able to touch her, able to stretch out my hand and grasp hers. The feeling was very strong: she was there. Then, at that very moment, a bird flew down silently and perched just in front of me, on the heap of soil which I had dug up from the ditch, and looked steadily at me.”

This quote struck me. I find it beautiful in many ways.

Right now, regardless of what we think about the bird in this excerpt, it is obvious it was profoundly meaningful for the author, for the bird to land in front of him and look steadily at him. I gather that this meant there was connection there: connection between him and his wife (who was deceased at this time), and connection with this bird. And I think the meaningfulness stems from and has something to do with this sense of connection.

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Chillin Exponential Potential Interconnectivity Life Is Yours Using The Brain

No Matter What, Know that Things Can Get Better

No matter what, know that things can get better.

No matter where you are. Or what is going on. Regardless of the impacts of the past, the future can be very unpredictable.

No matter what we think is going to happen, or how we believe things will turn out, we don’t consciously know it all. We don’t know the details. And so often, wild, crazy things have entered into Life to be a part of reality.

Keep positive. Keep open. And definitely, please, stay real.

Keeping positive doesn’t mean denying the truth of the moment. Positivity that can spark change is about accepting the truth of the moment, being a “Yes” to it, with humility, love, connection, and optimism. Imagine the number of people who have done the worst things, and then turned their lives around. Imagine the many miracles people have experienced with seemingly no rhyme or reason, but which have been saving graces in their lives?

Keep positive my friends. Real to your self, your core, your Soul. And yet, positive. Loving. Accepting. Forgiving. Loving. Loving. Loving.

Blessings to you and yours. And all. One Love.

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Reality

Inviting, Allowing a New Home

Since the chaos of my move has decreased a bit, I’ve been sad in my new apartment for the last few days. It hit me this morning that I wasn’t letting go of my concept of “home” which has always been in my heart my childhood home that I grew up in. Now that home belongs to another family, and my grandma who always provided that home has passed away a year ago.

I think I have to “invite” this new home to be my home in my heart. Or something. Here is a video with some thoughts on this.

Blessings.

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Oetics

What is the Answer

What is the Answer?

I don’t even know the question.

I know I’m constantly looking for something.

Whatever it is, it’s not going to be found outside.

Even if I’m looking for human interaction / connection, the answer undoubtedly lies in me, or should I say ‘truths’ in me.

In a way, that’s a good thing.

It’s always there. Even if lost, it’s still with me.

Part of it has to do with needing. Needing / feeding from someone…it’s ultimately the direction or path, is through yourself. But, not the ego / character, more so, that door is found inside.

Maybe the reflections on the outside, which is all reflection, helps point us to that door, that way. And by ‘way,’ I mean honor, focus, source.

I don’t think you, nor I, are exclusively the source, but if you are unsatisfied with the outside, consider looking inside.

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Quotes

Unable to Perceive the Shape of You

“Unable to perceive the shape of You,

I find You all around me.

Your Presence fills my eyes with your love.

It humbles my heart,

for You are everywhere.”

-from The Shape of Water movie

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Chillin Exponential Potential Spark the Flame - Short Vlog Using The Brain

I do not Seek. I Find.

Referring to Pablo Picasso’s quote “I do not seek. I find” – and how the concept helps me perceive and appreciate the beauty of what is already here, and trying to reduce the ‘chase’.

When I chase certain things, they can be like forms and shapes in a cloud far away – as I get nearer the form disappears and what I thought was there turns out to be an illusion. Instead of chasing / seeking, we can ‘find’ what is here right in front of us, or beside us and around us. Instead of pursuing far away, we can open our senses and experience what we have been brought together with that exist with us right here.

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Chillin Exponential Potential Life Is Yours Relationships

Loss and Connection

My uncle is about to pass away. He battled many things, one of which is addiction. I love him dearly.

My grandma passed away in late June. She raised me.

There was a challenging, yet beautiful connection between my grandma and my uncle (mom and son). I think they needed each other in some ways.

Love you both. I am glad my heart feels your loss…it will be a way to connect with you.

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Chillin Exponential Potential Life Is Yours

The Best Security We Have

The best security we have is in who we decide to be, who our relationships are, and our faith in the higher power.

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Chillin Using The Brain

A Bit on Nostalgia

This winter I realized that I was craving for some things from my past, like video games from my childhood. And I found a way to start playing some again, and it’s been great 🙂

I noticed once, in my very cold apartment, that thinking fondly of things from the past, from my warm past, actually made me feel warm physically and as if I was not alone. It was a beautiful moment and revelation.

Here is a brief online article about how nostalgia has been found to literally reduce mild pain: https://neurosciencenews.com/nostalgia-pain-20114/

And here is a New York Times piece on many benefits of nostalgia which I personally found very surprising: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/26/briefing/nostalgia-oscars-mardi-gras.html

If you don’t have access to the New York Times article you can look at the Wikipedia entry for nostalgia which mentions a lot of the psychological benefits I found surprising: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostalgia

Cheers to a warm past reaching out to give us comfort, security and hope in the Present.

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Chillin Life Is Yours

How About Some Sweetness for that Joy?

Right now, looks like I’m going through another identity shift or movement.

Im wondering whether I need to relax on myself, and my standards of discipline, a little, so that more joy enters my life.

I work really hard and diligently. My life is filled with beauty, love, blessings, and grace. Even with all these blessings, I have been missing a more consistent joy that I want. Even acknowledging that I want this joy, and having an idea of how to allow it (by relaxing more on my requirements and discipline), I feel better and more relaxed. Truly, I want to treat myself sweeter.💘💘

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Chillin Interconnectivity Quotes In Person

Our Health is Connected to Our Neighbor’s Health

Our health is connected to our neighbor’s health.

I heard this statement somewhere on the radio, some days ago.

It’s a reminder that we are all connected.

“Patience, understanding, and helping each other is the best thing we can do at this time” –Z, the landlord

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Life Is Yours Quotes

Belonging vs. Fitting In

“The opposite of belonging, from the research, is ‘fitting in.’ Fitting in is assessing, and acclimating. Here is what I should say, be. Here is what I shouldn’t say, here’s what I should avoid talking about. Here’s what I should dress like, look like. That’s fitting in.

Belonging, is belonging to yourself first. Speaking your truth, telling your story, and never betraying yourself for other people. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are. It requires you to be who you are. And that’s vulnerable.”

-Brené Brown

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Chillin Exponential Potential

What Do You Do When You Have Control?

What do you do when you have control?

You make the right choice.

In other words, act responsibly with the power you wield. This is your chance to perpetuate harmony, or to cause disharmony, in your life. Life will reciprocate to you harmony or disharmony, based on how you handle the power you wield.

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Quotes Relationships

Healthy Power of Human Relationships

A deep and beautiful talk on the healing, fulfilling, and transformative power of authentic human connections.

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Chillin Interconnectivity Quotes Spark the Flame - Short Vlog

Spark the Flame – Short Vlog 17 – Reading from ‘The Alchemist’ – Soul Mates

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Interconnectivity Quotes

Act as if What You Do Makes a Difference. It Does.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.

-William James

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Chillin Inserts Life Is Yours Trying To Not Drink

Straightedge – No Substances

Just wanted to share, that it seems like I will be required to be mostly straightedge. Maybe a little portion of a hookah every once in a blue might be ok, but even that I dont know.

  • I cannot smoke cigarettes because even one now will create in me a hacking coughing fit
  • I cannot drink alcohol because even one sip may cause me to binge where I become a danger to the lives of myself and others
  • I cannot smoke weed, because the last two times I broke my abstinence from marijuana I became extremely emotionally distraught, where I am at risk of wanting to leave this world.

Looks like this leaves me with tea and hot sauce 🙂

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Life Is Yours Spark the Flame - Long Podcast

Spark the Flame Podcast 27

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Life Is Yours Spark the Flame - Long Podcast

Spark the Flame Podcast 26

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Spark the Flame - Short Vlog Using The Brain

Spark the Flame Vlog 7 – How to meditate…for beginners

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Exponential Potential Life Is Yours Quotes

Four Pillars of a Meaningful Life

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Interconnectivity Spark the Flame - Long Podcast

Spark the Flame Podcast 11