Stop Taking Your Mind so Seriously

If you are suffering, realize it's most likely because you have fallen under the spell of your own mind. Often times, your own mind does not actually serve you, nor the happiness that you seek. It's as if your mind is actually serving to make you miserable, and is excellent at generating feelings of lack. This feeling that something is missing, and if only I got this thing, then I would be happy. Things like more success; more money; more travel; a romantic relationship with this type of person with more X, Y, Z; then I will be happy. And yet, we know the seeking still does not end. 

You are suffering because you have taken the workings of your mind, way too seriously. Specifically, the negative, imaginary aspect of your mind. The mind's machinations are to scheme, to plan, to find one or more paths to guaranteeing the getting of what you want; ie the happiness that you seek, a feeling of being whole, fulfilled. The mind wants to feel like it knows for sure, if I get this type of body, then I can get the relationship I want. If I am more successful, and have more money, then I can be free and figure out what I want. If I have this kind of relationship, then I can feel loved. It wants to feel whole and it wants to feel like it knows for sure that if i do x y or z, then this will happen. It wants security, it wants fulfillment. 

The Mind makes random associations between things, if I can get this, then that. In reality, these associations are not necessarily related nor is the getting of one thing, actually guaranteeing the feeling of wholeness or fulfillment. The truth is, the getting of one thing that you want, will only lead you to the wanting of something else, while also experiencing a new limitation of another form once you are there. Seeking fulfillment and security through the mind will never truly work. It is a form of delusion. 

Your mind is programmed this way because you are born and brainwashed into believing that you are this finite entity, and that you need to get your needs met, and to survive. This perspective that you lack, forces your mind to "figure out" how to get what it wants and needs. When you are suffering, your mind has built a prison for itself, a prison that it cannot find a way to get all that it wants. The mind is prone to creating prisons and traps for itself. Recognize that the mind has done this, and that the bars are IN FACT, imaginary. Realize that there are no bars there now or ever. You are free. Do not take your mind too seriously. There can be aspects of your mind that you can find pleasurable. But if you are suffering, you have fallen under the spell of the negative, imaginary mind, who's job is to scheme and by doing so, it has created a prison and trap for YOU. The bars are imaginary, there is no prison. You are free in this moment and always. Stop taking your mind so seriously. In some ways, treat it as a nagging, small child. Realize that your mind is prone to creating prisons and traps for itself, and catch your negative and imaginary mind when this happens, and say to it, "nice try, I'm not falling for that" and shoo it on it's way. That is how you live free, happy, and whole during your time in this finite body. 

This does not mean you cannot go for what you want, just know that getting what you want isn't going to be the holy grail that you currently think it will be. The holy grail is already here, right now, in the realization that the mind is a master at creating prisons for YOU and to not take the mind too seriously. 

drafted on 1/25/25 

What does it mean to be Authentic?

 -what does it mean to be authentic?

- to truly express yourself or not

- if you do not, nothing happens, no change, no inspiration, no uniqueness, just conformity

- sometimes you have to pretend, for safety or survival reasons

- being authentic applies to infinite realms

- key way of expressing who you are is through communication 

- authenticity is just expression of whatever desires you have: desire for peace, desire for connection, desire for love, desire to do art, desire to share a message, desire to share a story, desire to share happiness that you feel, desire to express joy from an opportunity to share a moment with someone, desire to create memories with others, desire to experience the beauty of the mountains or a sunset

- ultimately endless, there is desire for everything and anything, desire is love 

-authenticity is expression of love

- share that expression of love for something in whatever way (through verbal and nonverbal communication, through dance/body, through art, through writing, through any which way that can be shared and understood by another) 

- authenticity is sharing of love 

-authenticity is the expression and melding of love/desire of something from your inner world into the outer world

- what kind of things do you love? give you energy? 

- love for people, love to explore the worlds of others

- do you have love for others or are you disinterested in people? being shy is not the same 

- embrace your desires and share them with those you want 

drafted on 1/13/25 

exploring worlds outline

1. you are an adventurer, we are all adventurers 

2. no matter what you are trying to do, you are in the process of expanding your world 

3. expanding your sense of who you are through your identity/ego

4. expanding and yearning for new and different experiences

5. or exploring more in depth in experiences you currently already love 

6. maybe in the comfort of your own routine, you feel like you have stagnated, that you are not exploring and expanding yourself

7. the feeling of stagnation is just a sign that a yearning, even in the smallest ways is inviting you

8. maybe in actuality you yearn for the company of people who can understand you and are lonely, maybe you yearn to share your life with a significant other

9. maybe you don't know what you want to experience in life, so your soul is trying to tell you to try out new things. maybe not random you try out the things you do, you already have interests 

10. maybe you know exactly what you want, but it's not a path that is well paved. 

11. you owe it to yourself to stay true to that vision. the road you take to get there might change but sometimes when god says no to one thing, it truly is a blessing. Life is a force that has this grand intelligence, directing the flow of how things need to go  

12. Whether you have a vision or not, listen to your heart. What does your heart dream of in your private moments or as you close your eyes and drift off to sleep? 

13. you need to stay true to those visions, because life has put those visions in you specifically for a reason

14. it may not happen on the timeline or exact circumstances that your ego wants it to, but it is unfolding. There is a theme in life that everything comes full circle so trust that the vision that you have will come to completion 

15. and plus ignoring what your heart's visions and dreams are will not make them go away. You've only put them off to be completed at another time, but that's also ok, because sometimes that's how it was meant to play out. 

16. maybe your ego thought you were ready, but this grand intelligent force called life knew you were not quite there yet 

17. the energy of your vision, the passion of your heart's dreams is itself a life force that needs to be expressed and shared into the rest of the world. 

18. hence, you are expanding your world

19. thanks for being here right now to share this message with me. I'm Michael, and see you in the next one  

drafted on 1/11/25

10 seconds to destiny outline

1. when there is something you know you should do but you are encountering resistance, your mind will try to talk yourself out of it. when this happens, you have a 10 second window to do something about it and your action or lack of action in these 10 seconds will often determine what gets done

2. examples: sleepy and dance class 

3. brushing your teeth when you are tired: walking to the bathroom and filling your cup with water 

4. want to start a youtube channel: watch one video on how to make youtube videos with your smartphone

5. Break down your vision into steps small enough to where you can apply this: i want to be a great freestyle dancer --> expose myself to dance moves through classes --> don't feel like going to class? --> feeling tired? --> recognize mind putting up resistance? --> get up and go to the bathroom 

6. momentum: one small step within 10 seconds and then see how you feel

7. there are thoughts on different ways to do what you have to do: practice discipline where you execute your schedule and why it doesn't work

8. you cannot script day to day life 

9. what you can control is taking one super small step towards doing something when you don't feel like doing it and being consistent with that 

10. how have you applied or not applied this 10 sec hack recently?

10 Seconds to Destiny

So recently a relatively well known channel by the name of PsyHacks created by Dr Orion Taraban talked about this 10 second point in time where you have to battle for if you want things to change. If you have not seen it before, I am going to link it in the description box. But as a summary, here are the main points: 

this got me thinking about how I have applied and can apply this to my own life to help me reach my dreams. One of my interests is freestyle dancing. a form of spontaneous dancing that you do when you turn off your mind and express yourself from moment to moment and even second to second without thinking. It's essentially getting into a pure flow state and moving any which way, looking any which way, and just feeling the joy that comes from this. 

So today, I was signed up to go to this hip hop dance class this morning via classpass (which is a helpful app for trying new things if you have not tried it out btw). Something to know about me, is that I am not a morning person AND I happen to be a night owl. I am someone that wants my sleep and I tend to sleep late.

So needless to say, I had set my alarm the night before with the intention that I will just see what happens. In some ways, I was just allowing the flow of the universe to decide for me what happens, whether I go or not. When I first woke up and peeked my eyes open, my alarm was about to go off in 3 minutes, I was still groggy and first immediate reaction was to shut my eyes and go straight back to sleep, but in this moment, I happened to realize that moments like these largely define whether or not we remain trapped in the same routine, or if we take a small step towards achieving what we want out of life. During this 10 second time frame, I made the conscious decision, to take a step forward (in this case, a simple decision that I would get up and go to the bathroom) and then decide if I would want to quickly get ready, or go back to bed. From this simple step that I took within the 10 seconds of making or breaking the decision, I realized, I wanted to go to class and would actually regret if I did not go, thinking that I would waste a day that goes by that I could have used to take another step towards what I want to be. 

I think it's safe to say that dreams are not made of home run steps and plays. Dreams are achieved from the small, often seemingly inconsequential decisions that we make within 10 seconds of deciding if we want to keep living the life we have exactly or would like something greater (at least in the sense of our own egos)

It's been about 6-7 weeks of doing this hip hop class and I have not once regretted going or felt like I wasted my time. Maybe it's an indicator that at least for now, it is a passion. 

So what about you? Let me know about what you are interested in achieving for yourself and what you would love for your life. Would love to hear from you. Until next time, my name is Michael, and remember that who you authentically are matters to the world, so go for it. Peace and love, and until next time.