Tag: Analogies

Inner vs Outer Healing

Published on August 6, 2022

Surface level cuts might only require time to heal.

Deeper cuts will require more than that.

Ointment/ Prescription medications
Band aids/ Gauze/ Stitches
Surgery

As it is with inner healing.

Some surface level pains may only need time.

But, the deeper pains will require more active solutions.

Meditation / Time Away / Soul Searching
Prescriptive Reading / Introspective Writing
Group/Individual Therapy

Give your deep cuts only time to heal and they will likely become infected (and worsen).

By matching the proper prognosis to the severity of the (inner) pain, you’ll maximize your ability (and minimize the time it takes) to heal.

This starts by being completely honest with yourself or, better yet, getting an objective perspective about the severity of your inner pains; understanding the prognosis for each; and finding a way to take the proper actions in spite of the resistance you’re bound to face.

As hard as inner healing might be… it always beats infected inner wounds that you’re forced to face because of their un-ignorable severity. This is never a better route.

The Self-Belief Producing Business

Published on August 4, 2022

It’s hard to take action of any kind when you don’t believe in yourself.

Just like it’s hard to start a business of any kind when you don’t have the resources yourself.

One strategy that has helped countless people start their businesses, however, is borrowing resources from others (like a bank) and paying them back later.

We can do the same thing with belief.

We can borrow belief from others, like a loan of sorts, that gives us the boost we need to take the action; to get the results (and hopefully successes); to build the confidence; to start the self-belief generating process on our own.

The absolute key to doing this is to surround ourselves with people who believe in the human potential. Growth-minded individuals who know that with alignment, action, effort, guidance, and reflection—great things are possible (no matter how inept a person might seem). People who will be there for us in victory AND defeat—because defeat is inevitable on the journey upward and teaches us lessons that victory never could.

Find your people and use their belief in you (or the human spirit) until you’re able to create your own self-sustaining self-belief producing business.

Then, pay off your loan (with gratitude and belief back into others), continue on the path, and let your belief “profits” give you the inner resources you need to chase whole-heartedly your wildest dreams.

I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with one of my next cups of joe here. ☕️

Sunny/ Seventy Is The Way

Published on August 2, 2022

The ‘inner weather’ of our mind directly impacts how we get to travel in life.

A sunny/ seventy kind of mentality = full speed ahead.

An overcast/ foggy kind of mentality = which way is even forward?

In life, mental clarity is the sunny day that allows us to unleash our full energy and potential into the journey that lies ahead.

Mental cloudiness is what throttles all of our efforts to that creeping, hazard lights pace that makes the prospect of the journey seem so daunting, confusing, and un-accomplishable.

The good news with our “inner weather” vs the “outer weather” is that we can actually influence our inner weather.

Which is excellent news for the person who is driving 25mph forward on a road that they’re not even sure is correct.

How do we influence/ change our inner weather? By incorporating more of the tasks that lead to mental clarity and removing more of the tasks the lead to mental cloudiness.

Some tasks that lead to mental clarity:

Writing
Therapy
Meditation

Some tasks that lead to mental cloudiness:

Click-bait topics
Superficial Gossip
Busy, distraction-based work

Mental cloudiness is typically the byproduct of passive, modern day living. Click bait bombards you at every turn, superficial gossip is the comfortable/easy form of communication, and busy is essentially society’s status update.

Mental clarity is typically the byproduct of active, rebellious type living. Writing when click bait is buzzing… Therapy when superficial is literally calling your name… Meditation when busy is ingrained into your state of being…

If you want to unleash all of what’s inside, you need to rebel; you need to make space for clarity; you need to clear the fog that’s inside.

Utilizing The Self In Self-Worth

Published on July 11, 2022

Self-worth isn’t something you find in another person.

Self-worth is something you find in your-self.

You might find borrowed validation, temporary belonging, and fleeting feelings of encouragement from others.

But, once that fades or situations change, you’ll be left feeling unworthy and craving those external sources all over again—they become a crutch.

This isn’t to say that external sources of validation, encouragement, and belonging aren’t useful. They most certainly are—especially at the earliest stages of our development when we’re trying to figure out who we are and how to act.

But, there needs to be a point where we move from being dependent on them, to being independent and able to create our own feelings of validation, encouragement, and belonging.

And everlasting, self-sustaining sources of self-worth come from a careful, deliberate, internal watering of the seeds of our identity. It comes from the inner work where we confront the question of who we are (or who we are not) and all of the associated questions that piggyback with it.

And with the help of others, inner work, and enough time—our roots will eventually entrench themselves deep enough into our mind’s soil so that the trunk and branches of our identity will be able to reach freely towards the heavens without any need of crutches or support from anything else.

But, without the inner work—without the work we do our-self—we will be forever tied to the crutches that were only there for temporary support and those external sources of strength will become one of our biggest sources of inner weakness.

The Goldilocks Task

Published on July 2, 2022

The things you do daily shouldn’t be misery inducing.

They also shouldn’t be challenge-free and mind-numbing.

The things you do daily should be somewhere in the goldilocks middle.

Easy enough to show up for (even when you don’t want to); hard enough to keep you from atrophy or regression.

Get this balance wrong and you’ll either burn-out (and yo-yo) or blow out the flame of your potential.

Two consequences that are happening far too often in our society.

It’s time to level up your Goldilocks game, eh?

The Immortality Of Kindness

Published on July 1, 2022

Have you ever been the target of a random act of kindness?

Have you ever wondered how far back the inspiration for that act goes?

Maybe not far at all.

Maybe that stranger just spontaneously acted.

Or maybe it goes back centuries… back to a medieval time when a farmer gave a homeless fellow some crops for free—just because. And they paid it forward and so did the next fellow and so on.

Maybe kindness ripples through time like waves in a pond—temporarily elevating each water particle touched by the wave until gracefully returning them back to where they started.

Maybe it’s that temporary elevation that gives us the perspective we need to carry on with a lighter heart; a more caring heart; a more kind heart.

For it is only when we are elevated that we can more clearly see what was holding us back down below. And we gain an understanding that becomes a new guiding light for when we find ourselves back down—as we inevitably will in life.

But, we are not lowered to where we started—no.

We are lowered with new eyes. Eyes that have seen and felt an existence at a higher plane. And once we see what is up above, we can’t unsee it; once we feel what is up above, we can’t unfeel it.

And maybe this is the cause of perpetual kindness. People infectiously sharing what elevated them, onward and outward to the outer banks of society and for the duration of all time.

And maybe all we need to do to activate that sometimes seemingly dormant desire is remember that beautiful perspective we each once had.

The Cloud That Never Rained

Published on June 29, 2022

Imagine the cloud that always held on to its rain.

Imagine the weight; the effort; the burden.

Imagine the hardened soil, dehydrated plants, and barren landscape.

Now, image the person who always held on to their pain.

Imagine the weight; the effort; the burden.

Imagine the hardened interactions, dehydrated relationships, and barren lifestyle.

Maybe holding on to the pain isn’t the most beneficial thing to do (so that others don’t experience the pain you’re holding).

Maybe releasing the pain is the most beneficial thing you can do.

Maybe it’s the vulnerable release that’s needed for your gray clouds to clear away.

Maybe it’s the feeling of a more authentic human experience that the barren landscape of our lives are craving more of each day.

And maybe the best way to do this isn’t to release above the umbrella walkers who are seemingly allergic to getting wet—but to share the experience of feeling the rain with the people who jump in puddles and know that clothes dry.

P.s. Thank you to Belinda for the coffee. This post was fueled by your generosity. :)