Be A Positive Force In This World

Written By Don Shetterly

My heart is sad when it comes to the events going on across our country and the world.  This is not about politics, and if you think it is, you're sorely mistaken.  If you know me at all, you know that I do not subscribe to what the masses say on any level.

I see people that are so angry and so hurt.  I see people that are asleep and numb and disconnected.  I see individuals who view others as the enemy, not as humans walking this same planet.  It pains me.  It hurts me.  I weep, and yet my tears do no good.

There is far too much hate and too little love.  There is far too much judgment and too little understanding.  We stand opposed, rather than united to journey through our lives to discover more about who we are.

I'm perplexed because everyone points the fingers at each other.  We exclaim that we know what is best and all others are stupid, dumb, or irrelevant.  We fail to listen to each other while we scream how worthless all others are.

We hold out to the world just how enlightened we are and righteous and good.  We hold out to the world that we are superior and we know all.  We hold out to the world we are peace loving and conscious.  Yet, our actions contradict our every word.

If We Do Not Find Peace Within...

If we do not find peace within ourselves, we will not find it throughout the world.  If we do not learn to accept ourselves, the world will never accept us.  If we see others as stupid or idiotic or misguided and wrong, the rest of the world will see us in that way.

It does not matter what the world proclaims.  It matters more what you feel and think and believe on the inside.  If you want peace, it must first begin within you.  If you want love throughout the world, it must first begin within you.  If you want others to accept you as a valid human, you must first accept others in the same way.

We're at a crossroads I believe in humanity and either we keep heading down into the darkness of the world where there is no peace, or we rise above it all.  It is solely up to each one of us, but it isn't just words.  It is action that backs up our words.  It is action that shows what truly is in our mind, body, soul, and heart.

Let us be a force for positive change by changing our lives in a way that shows what love and peace are to the world.  This blog post is about taking a hard look at who we are as individuals and seeing what role we truly play in the world.

I implore you.  I beg you as the reader to help make a positive difference through taking stock of your own life.  I'm attempting to do the same.  Together we will make it further in this harsh world, rather than divided where we will not stand.

Let's stop pointing the fingers.  Let's cease to be part of the cycle of hate.  Instead, let our lives show love so brightly that it will take over the darkness.

I love this video because I believe it says so much.  It is Matisyahu singing and performing "One Day."  The words speak volumes.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

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One Square Inch Of Silence

I believe I've written about this subject before as it is near and dear to my heart.  I believe we live in a world of noise and that noise harms us.  It keeps our nervous systems elevated, our ears at attention, and our minds actively searching for the origin of the noise.

We've got a lot going on in our lives, and without silence, it is hard to find peace (as in peace and quiet).  I don't even think we're aware of just how much noise is around us.  We have become so accustomed to it, that it is just commonplace.  Very sad, but true!

We need that moment of silence where we can stop and quiet our soul and mind.  It is so needed for us to help find rest in our life, and repair the things that have hurt our physical body and mind.

Not long ago, I was trying to record a little brook of water.  The sound was beautiful.  So as I hooked my special little recorder up near it, I thought it was pretty silent around where we were at.  I wasn't consciously aware of noise.

When I got it back home and listened to the recording, I kept hearing sounds that I didn't hear while I was there.  Most of them were planes flying high above us that we did not even notice.  Some of the other noises were of cars on far off highways, and people playing hundreds of yards away.  I was shocked at just how much noise there was that I didn't hear.

When I went to the ocean and recorded my Ocean Sounds CD, it was a battle to find a quiet place.  I was in a remote area, almost a wilderness part here in Florida.  Yet distant sounds carried through the air and would interrupt what I was recording.

Nowadays we have to have music and noises, blips and sounds playing constantly. Our phones constantly alert us.  The noise of the traffic never seems to die down.  The hums from the houses and the computers that continuously run leave us hardly any silence.

I'm so happy someone is drawing attention to this through their work, One Square Inch Of Silence.  May we not let silence become extinct, because it may be too late to know what true silence is.  Our mind and body need silence badly.  We need that down time and without silence in our world, we will stay at an elevated vibration which is not helpful to our survival.

Read more about this story on CNN, One Square Inch Of Silence.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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Cultivating Your Mind And Body

We're living in a day of disconnect and numbing.  While we can do the new age speak and say words like the mind body, we understand far less than we think we do.  The mind body connection is much deeper than we truly go.

Just like planting a garden and growing seed, if you don't make a fertile place for things to grow, you will never harvest what you plant.  It will be as if you're going through the motions but doing things that truly will not help.

Cultivating your mind and body is how you go in and prepare your day for a day that can be productive and helpful in your growth.  It involves identifying the weeds and other harmful things to your life, where you can work to remove them.  It involves feeding and watering your mind body so that you give yourself optimal conditions to grow.

We fail to see the whole picture...

Too often, we give the soil of our thoughts the opportunity to grow, but we fail to fertilize and water our thoughts by connecting to the body.  We fail to see the whole picture of what we are doing, rather than just the plant that may be emerging from the ground.

Our mind body balance is critical to our overall health and outlook on life.  It can either help us find wholeness and wellness or it can be a source of deep pain.  Our mind body is where it all happens, but if we only focus on the mind and ignore the body, we're only halfway to the place we need to be.

The mind body connection means going into the cells and allowing us to feel and sense what is there.  It is not about creating a story from those moments, but just observing and being one with our mind body to notice what is in that moment.  The more we notice, the more aware we become.  The more aware we become, the more conscious we are.

It must come from deep within...

Awareness and consciousness that stand the test of time do not only come from the mind like many think they do.  Yes, you might have awareness or a conscious thought, but if you truly want it to be grounded to stand the test of time, it must come from deep within the body connected to the mind.

The body is such an important part of the mind body connection and it often gets missed.  We stay numb and disconnected because often times, there is far too much pain that we attempt to hide.  By hiding this pain, we are numbing our entire mind body connection and robbing ourselves of peace, joy, and true growth.

Once you realize that cultivating both the mind and the body is essential for wellness, you will see much more power in healing your own life.  You will experience a deeper world around you apart from the fears that are overblown each and every day.

If you want to know more, here are some good resources to check out because these people truly understand much more about the mind body connection and how it impacts every part of your life.  Do yourself a favor and learn to cultivate not only your mind, but your body.  The rewards it pays out will far surpass the fears that try to hold you back.

Resources

1. Breaking The Habit Of Being Yourself
2. Waking The Tiger
3. The Body Bears The Burden
4. Unified Therapy - Dr. Paul Canali

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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We Are What We Take In

It seems like far too many humans go on autopilot these days.  I don't think they mean too, but they just do it.  It seems to be more of an unconscious action to me from what I observe.   When we do this, it keeps us from fully realizing what we take in and what we are.

We all seem to know that what we take in, we become.  It is like the old proverbial saying, "Garbage In - Garbage Out".

In fact, I remember learning that saying in a computer class where if you put garbage numbers in, don't expect something good to come out of it.

Healthy Body...

If you want a healthy body, but you put bad food in constantly and plenty of it, more than likely you're not going to get a healthy body.  If you don't read the labels and know what you're putting into your body, it is impossible to expect a healthy one.


Healthy Mind...

If you want a healthy mind, but you take in all the latest sensationalized headlines of the day, the latest bombastic political headline and all the fear that is propagated each day, the mind will definitely struggle.  You might be a little oblivious to how much it impacts you, but from observing others, I think it is pretty easy to see.


Healed Life...

If you want a healed life, but you fixate upon the horrors only, it will make it difficult.  No, I'm not saying ignore them because when you've been through trauma, ignoring it will not make it go away.  I know it isn't easy to reverse the impact of trauma on your life, but to have a healed life, you have to go in and take that control back, pushing past into and past the fear.


Peace...

If you want to have peace, but you constantly engage in the hateful rhetoric of the day, most likely you're not going to find peace.  There is far too much unconscious hate that is being spewed these days online and if you don't limit it, it will overwhelm you and take you as far away from peace as is possible.


Expanding Mind...

If you want to have an ever expanding mind, approaching life with excuses or reasons why something won't work, will keep your mind limited.  Far too often we approach new ideas and new ways of looking at things as foreign objects that are our enemies, rather than potential friends.  Yes, not every idea out there is a good one for us to explore, but if we automatically decry anything new, we're holding our mind back.


More Of A Human...

If you want to be more of a human, than it is best to learn what being a human means.  It involves respect and compassion for one another.  It involves seeing others through the eyes of love, not the darkness of hatred and fear.  Being human is more of an endeavor to realize that we are all on this planet to succeed and by working together in common bonds, we will be better than we are today.


We Are What We Take In...

We are what we take in to our body, mind, spirit, and overall existence in this world.  Even if we are unconscious of what we do every day in this regard, it is still part of us and still activity that we embrace.

It requires a conscious effort to be aware of all that we are in the mind and body, not just what we think we are.  Consciousness is born out of awareness and the more aware we become, the more fully our life shows up

In my view, it is part of the human existence to become more aware and more conscious of who we are.  It is part of our overall growth and experience.

Each day, we get the opportunity to discover a little more about the world we live in and who we are as humans.  May that process never stop and may we challenge ourselves to be more today than we were yesterday.

#Conscious

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Living Life Without Obsessing About Life

A struggle I've been having in life, trying to live in life without being overtaken by it.  I see many obsessing with the news of the day and while that is of importance to my life, I am so burnt out on it.  I can't take it most days.  I can't deal with it most days.

In my mind, I keep asking myself, how do I go on living life without obsessing about life.  To me, there has to be more than just the latest news story of the day.  There has to be!

I no longer watch TV news of any type.  We gave that up years ago and I am so happy that we did.  There is a much greater peace of mind without seeing the screaming pundits talk about one subject after another.  And no - I'm not taking sides here because all sides do this.

Yet, if I log on to twitter or go online, I have the news shoved in my face.  I have obsession with the news shoved in my face.  It is almost like there is nothing else that matters in this world than the latest news story of the day.

It often makes me want to puke.  I scream out in my house, but what does that get me - cats that run and neighbors that probably wonder.  I just can't deal with the news stuff and seeing it at every turn in life, is more than I can take.

Overtaken our lives...

I wonder though if the obsession that most seem to have is a good thing.  It truly feels like to me that it has overtaken our lives and left us reduced down to a single focused entity.  It doesn't feel healthy to me in the least.

I see people screaming all day and I see many not listening.  I see people just telling everyone how they should think and believe, but no one is listening to the other.  Yes, I've written about this subject before, but it just seems to wipe out the enjoyment of life.

Am I saying we should go hide in a closet?  No!  Am I saying we shouldn't engage on issues that we care about?  No!  Am I saying we should just all get along in a peaceful world with no conflict?  Probably not!  That may just be wishful thinking.

Reach out with our hearts...

Yet, I think there is much we can do to help this world along by listening and trying to reach out with our hearts.  I think there is a lot we can impact by not being so obsessed with the latest news story of the day.

Heck, most of these news stories, regardless of the source, are biased and presented as fact, but are the opinion of the news delivery service.  None are better than the other because they ALL do it!

I don't know.  I don't have the answers either.  I just see people being so obsessed with some of the things in life rather than living life.  It is robbing us of joy.  It is robbing us of peace.  Is there a way we can engage without obsessing?  I'm not sure.

The thing I do know is if we are all screaming at the top of our lungs at one another, we're probably not going to get anywhere.  Some things are as they are for whatever reason we may not understand in this moment.  If we let them rule our day, then we've lost our life.  If we don't keep focus and balance, then we will become too weak to stand.

My hope is that we all learn how to use our hearts to listen more and scream less.  My hope is that we begin to see each other (and that means everyone) as human, not as enemies.  We're all on this planet earth and if we don't learn to work together, it may get to a point one day where it will be too late.

#Balance

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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Is Anxiety Impacting How You Think?

(by Survive, Thrive And Conquer, Matt)

Every Sunday morning, I do a weekly reading on my Periscope channel. We interactively read through a book, and discuss how we can relate it to our lives. These are of course books to help us in everyday life, whether we are an abuse survivor or not.

I thought I might take this column here that Don has so graciously given me on his blog, and start a monthly series on a topic that millions of us struggle with. Anxiety!

Just the thought of Anxiety can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, send shivers down your spine, and pretty much make us as uncomfortable as possible. Which is precisely what Anxiety lives for, making us uncomfortable and being stuck.

Let’s chat for a bit about Black and White thinking, or in other words, thinking in extremes.  Is anxiety impacting how you think?

Anxiety loves it when we live in these extreme thoughts. Everything is either completely one way or completely the other way. This is just the type of mindset that promotes self-shame, and keeps us from loving ourselves, and embracing all the good that we are.

Healing happens in the gray area...

There’s a concept that is important to embrace as abuse survivors, “healing happens in the scary middle”, the gray area. That’s where loving ourselves happens too. That middle or gray area where we accept ourselves, flaws and all, and stop trying to figure everything and everybody else, out.

• Stop beating ourselves up because we didn’t get that promotion.
• Stop thinking that we are doomed to a life of solitude and misery because we went through a divorce.
• Don’t beat ourselves up because somebody was rude to us, and it must be our fault. We must have done something wrong.
• If our children make a poor decision as a teenager, it doesn’t mean that we are a terrible parent.

I’m sure you can think of countless situations in life, recent or past, where you blamed yourself for something that wasn’t your fault. That extreme thinking of, “there’s no logical explanation other than I must have done something wrong”, is unbelievably toxic to our self-esteem.

Anxiety loves this, because Anxiety itself is toxic. It uses every trick in the book to make us feel like we have to be at fault, we are broken, we make all the wrong decisions, we are unlovable, etc. Then it feeds on that and just keeps growing and growing until we finally say, enough is enough.

There’s a thousand and one reasons why people are the way that they are, and every day circumstances can change how we react to a given situation. Life is fluid, it’s always changing. Think of this example:

Your coworker, who is normally easy going, talkative, friendly, and helpful suddenly snaps at you out of the blue.  You’ve never known them to act this way, but for some reason today they jumped down your throat when you came to ask them a work-related question.

Many times, our default reaction is, “well I must have done something to them”. Then we start to worry about what we did, why we did it, and how we can fix it…and we don’t even know what “it” is, but it must our fault.

Anxiety is just loving life at that moment, because we spend the rest of the day questioning ourselves and beating ourselves up for something we can’t control.

Once again, there are countless reasons why your co-worker snapped and very few, if any, have anything to do with you. Yet we are so used to blaming ourselves, that it’s just a default response.

Living in extremes, thinking we must be to blame and that we are always the reason for someone’s else’s actions is so self-defeating and just continues to give Anxiety power.

If there’s one lesson that can be very hard to learn, but so yet so important, is that we can’t control anyone else’s actions. You’ll never be at peace by trying to please someone else or fix something. Nor will you be at peace in trying to figure out someone else’s intentions.

All you end up doing is blaming yourself, shaming yourself, and living in the extreme world of you being all wrong, all the time.

That my friends, is no way to live.

I encourage you, to step back, look at a situation from a high level, rational mind point of view. Doing that gives you perspective on what is really going on, not what Anxiety tries to make you think is going on.

If you would like to join Matt on this chat, just watch for his announcement around 10:30am on Sunday mornings.  @SurvivingMyPast

-Matt (SurvivingMyPast.net)



 

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Matt is a regular columnist on Mind Body Thoughts.  He writes Survive, Thrive and Conquer monthly column.  This article is written by Matt.

To learn more about him and see all his other articles, go to Matt's Page, Survive, Thrive And Conquer.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly and Matt

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
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Does Peace Start Within You

Let it ring through the season.  Let peace fill our hearts.  Let peace reign over the earth.

We all want peace for the world and our lives.  We all want there to be less strife and war and all the screaming and yelling we see happen every day.

Yet, it seems like we do everything but what is required for peace.

I need to ask the question, Does Peace Start Within You? 

We can look for peace in all the places we look for it.  We can expect others to be at peace.  We can hold our leaders to the precipice where peace reigns, but aren't we forgetting about ourselves?

You see, its so easy to expect everyone to live a life of peace and therefore make our lives peaceful.  It's easy to expect others to live the way we think they should because if we focus upon this thought, we deflect what is going on within our own life.

Why not in the celebration of peace this year, we seek to find peace within our own life?  Let us search deep within and come to know our own peace, so that it radiates out to the rest of the world.  For peace that does not start within us has a foundation as shaky as sand on the ocean shore.

Peace needs to start within you and me and everyone individually.  It is when we do what we need to do, rather than pointing the fingers, that we find there is more peace in this world than we imagined.  It is not up to others to do this for us.

It is up to each and everyone of us to play a critical starring role in bringing peace to the world.  First, it must start within each one of us before we can spread it to the world.

#Peace

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Trauma Keeps Peace Away

I know other people have written much more in-depth about this subject and one of them that comes to my mind is Peter Levine in his book, "Waking The Tiger".  One of the most horrible things that trauma does long term to a person is it keeps the peace away.

Yes, we can begin to find peace, but trauma keeps the body revved up.  It keeps the moments of when the trauma happened in the forefront of our brain as if they are still happening.  Because of the impact of these moments, it keeps our nervous system on edge and our brain from slowing down.

If you read the book, "Waking The Tiger", you'll see a very good and healthy explanation of what trauma does to the body and the mind.  It is the basis for much of what I have learned along with what has physically been demonstrated to me in my own body through healing with Dr. Paul Canali of Unified Therapy.

You can compare trauma to walking through the jungle.  There are predators out there and if you don't watch out, you'll become lunch for an animal in the jungle.  Let's use being hunted by a Tiger as Dr. Peter Levine discusses.

Your body is revved up...

In trauma, the Tiger pounces and attacks just like walking through the jungle.  Even if you somehow escape the Tiger or the trauma, your body is still revved up like the event is happening.  We've all had those moments that shocks or frightens us and it takes a while to come down.  Trauma does the same thing, but to a much greater degree.  Trauma keeps us in that revved up state.  The long term impacts of it can be felt and see in the mind and body for years after it stopped. 

Even long after the trauma has passed, it is as if we are still experiencing it.  This is why reaching out to support groups, therapists and other body-centered trauma healing is essential.  It isn't about being weak, but learning and discovering how to let go of the residual impacts from the trauma.  It is about finding ways to heal from our inner core.  It is about reclaiming all that we are and learning how to show trauma the door.

As if things never ended...

I went through intense torture and childhood sexual abuse.  It shaped me in so many ways.  While I've done extensive deep body healing from the trauma with Dr. Paul Canali, there are moments that the triggers act as if the Tiger is still chasing me.  Of course, I know that the events have stopped, but in my mind and neural pathways, they are still acting as if things never ended.  Trauma keeps us in that state.

The body needs to be a central part of continued healing because even though we try to disconnect, forget and numb, the cells, muscles, nervous system and the brain still remember.  They don't forget.  Unless these parts of our bodies are healed deeply, they will continue to rev up the nervous system from the trauma and keep peace away.

Deep peace is difficult after Trauma...

If your body is on full alert because it believes there is a Tiger waiting to pounce, most likely you are not going to be able to lay down and take a nice restful nap.  It is the same with trauma.  As long as the trauma remains within us, true and deep peace will be difficult to grasp.

One of the things that I so love about Unified Therapy with Dr. Paul Canali is that after you've gone through a moment of deep release, the peace that ensues is unlike anything we have ever felt.  It is such a deep peace that you beg him to just leave you in that place, not wanting to come out from it.  It is hard to describe it, but in the process of healing through this work, when you do feel what I'm talking about, it will blow your mind!

In healing, we have to learn how to understand that the Tiger is no longer chasing us.  Our minds will make us believe that it is while keeping it from our conscious thought.  Our minds try so hard to protect us that we often stay in numbing and disconnectedness.  It is in reconciling these things that we will find further healing into a life that is truly ours.  It is in these moments of healing that we will discover more of who we are and that is a beautiful thing.  It is a place of peace.

Trauma may try to keep the peace away, but the more we work to heal, the more we will discover it.  Healing is about taking our life back from those things that stole it.  It is about finding that awareness which leads us to a greater peace than we've ever known. 

#HealTrauma

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Fears And Conspiracy Theories

I've never seen this quite so bad as I'm seeing it now.  Almost every day there is a new fear or conspiracy theory about someone or something floating on the internet.  While most of it cannot be fully backed up with hard evidence, there are always the pieces that give just enough spark to the fire.

I'm not here to debate if all these theories are true or not.  I doubt that even if we spent the next year discussing many of them, we would still not be at the outcome which is provable beyond a shadow of a doubt.  Some of these things are pointless in my humble opinion because of that statement.

What bothers me more though, is that we are succumbing to our own fears and projecting that on to things that are totally unrelated.  We don't realize how much we are doing this, but an open eye can see it quickly and without much effort.  Fear is driving us.  Fear is controlling us.  Fear is making us believe things that are just not necessarily true.

It is okay to question and observe and learn.  There is no doubt in my mind that these are good things for all of us.  However, when we do them without being grounded, we lose so much of our self, our truth, and we chip away at what little of humanity is left.

We need to find balance...

We need to find balance, rather than chasing our fears.  We need to stop and notice what it is that we are feeding our own fears, rather than pointing the finger of alarm at all those we can get to listen to us.

Yesterday I started watching and reading some stuff on a website and it was rather disturbing to say the least.  Not that it was disturbing and frightening to me, but that it felt like the conversation and words were very dark and fear-based.  They were of a lower vibration.  In fact, it was more than annoying to try and continue to read and watch the various videos.

Fear is being propagated...

I know there is dark and scary stuff out there in the world.  I know there is fear that is being propagated at every turn in our day.  I know that we as a human civilization swallow up all the fear-based news of the day, chomping on it as if it is the last morsel of nutrition for our life.

There will always be things that take us away from our peace and safety.  It is a sad fact of life and the universe from what I have grown to understand.  However, if we allow the dark and scary stuff to latch on to the fears we have in our own life, we are only holding back ourselves and the collective consciousness of the world.

When we walk in fear, we destroy the universe and all the inhabitants.  When we walk in the darkness that permeates civilizations, we will not find peace.  It is only when we go deep within and clean out our own closets, that we will have taken fear by the hand and kicked it out the door.

May we all rise to greater heights and instead of chasing fears and conspiracy theories, let us find the good in one another, the peace deep within our own mind and body and the love that connects us as humans.  May we all rise to meet the challenges of the days, not wallow in the mud pits of fear, darkness, and things that ultimately will bring us down.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing

Connecting is not as difficult as it sounds, but in many ways it is difficult.  In fact, most of our lives, we have been living a disconnected life and our subconscious mind is now a foreigner within us.

Yes, there are certain activities that help take us out of being disconnected, but often we have not passed the threshold we need to obtain and so even with these activities, we stay disconnected.  The fullness of our life is hidden and silent.  We get to the point that our subconscious mind is anything but something we are connected to in our life.

I say it is difficult to connect because we all have lived a life of numbing and avoidance.  Many of the experiences we had early on in life were more than our young minds could handle and so numbing and avoidance became the norm.  Even the daily build up of stress acts in much the same way as traumatic events upon the body.  Traumatic scenes and images we view can also bring on the numbing and avoidance.

Numbing and Avoiding...

When we numb and avoid, we are not feeling.  We are not connected to our body or our mind.  We are not present in life to the degree we may think we are.  In fact, most of the time when you are numbing and avoiding, you're not even aware that you are doing it.  If someone tried to convince you otherwise, you would have great difficulty comprehending what they were saying and questioning strongly how it applies to you and your life.

Numbing and avoiding can be in so many ways.  It can be as simple as using food and alcohol or as complex as using drugs and sex.  Numbing and avoidance can show up through religious practices, constantly buying stuff you don't need, living in fantasy more than in reality or just keeping yourself constantly busy.  There are many ways of numbing and these are just a few, but if you want to read a more exhaustive list that I've put together, check this page out, The Ways We Numb The Body.

We are not feeling everything...

When we are numb, we aren't feeling the full breadth of our physical body.  We may not be and most likely are not aware that we are not feeling everything.  If you are trying to get 100 tasks completed by the end of the day that the boss is demanding you finish, do you think that you would feel all the pains in your body or how the stress is impacting you?  More likely than not, you would not feel these things.  They would get in the way of you performing the tasks you need to complete.  You would be numb to the subconscious mind.

Sometimes we need to numb our body to handle the current moments, but it is when we don't shut off the numbing in our subconscious mind that it becomes a problem  Temporary numbing is one thing, but long term causes great damage to our mind and body.  The more we numb, the more long term damage we do and the harder it is to recover.
 

If we can just begin to understand how much we numb and avoid the hard parts of our life, we will be on the uphill climb to a much greater awareness filled with peace beyond comprehension.  Numbing and avoidance take us away from the subconscious mind where we are empowered and filled with all that we need to take on the challenges of our lives.

We must first begin to understand that numbness and avoidance are two of our greatest enemies in our life.  For the more we choose to not see how we numb and avoid, the more we are robbing ourselves of all the potential for our life.  Numbing and avoidance are negative pleasures.  They help us disconnect, but at the same time, they rob us of our energy and essence of life.  Numbing and avoidance keep us from the deep peace within our lives.

Further Reading:

1. When A Subconscious Mind Is Exposed (Sep 13, 2016)
2. Subconscious Mind Impacted By Past Experiences (Sep 14, 2016)
3. Subconscious Disconnected By Numbing (Sep 15, 2016)
4. Connect To The Subconscious Mind (Sep 16, 2016)

The Destruction Of TV Programming

Yesterday while waiting on some work to be done on my car, I was in the waiting area of the shop.  The TV was playing all kinds of programs that I would not normally see.  It was playing loudly which to me was annoying enough.

It is important to note that we don't have cable in our house as we quit that a few years ago.  I was tired of paying a lot of money each month for something that offered little value in return.  I've never watched TV in the morning hours anyway.

As this morning program played, it was obvious that the people on there were talking a mile a minute.  I don't think they were hardly breathing or attempting to stop to breathe.  The incessant chatter was annoying.  It was a vibration that anything but one being connected and at peace with themselves.

Throughout the programming, there were at least a dozen political ads, if not more.  I lost count trying to keep up with them.  Most of the political ads were blaming the other person for something they claimed they were doing right.  It was ridiculousness at its best.  I know, negative ads work in elections, but to me, I try to avoid them.

Back to the point of this post before I get sidetracked too far.  If I listened to the TV stuff every day and watched this programming, I'd be like a cat with claws out going down a chalk board.  I don't see the value to this.  I don't even see it being entertainment.  It is anything but that in my mind.

Apparently, many people must watch it or I would guess it would not be on the air.  People must be moved by these political ads, or they would not do them year after year.  People may complain about all of this, but they are watching.

All of this comes at a cost.  It comes at a personal price for every human that consumes this stuff.  You can't expect your body to be at peace and connected when all you fill it with is things like this that are the opposite of peace and being connected.  Sorry, if you like this programming, but it does not do a body good!

I was doing all I could to get away from the TV noise because it was becoming a very agitating experience.  I'm not against entertainment, but I think we as a society need to at least engage a few brain cells.  If we just consume all that is fed to us, how is that thinking for ourselves or being real and at peace.

How can we expect peace from the world and engage in these behaviors and practices?  When we canceled our cable, it was one of the best things that we did.  Yes, we still watch some things on Netflix, but I don't miss the news.  Ok, I use news in the silliest of terms because there is no news that is truly information.  It is all a bunch of bias and screaming one view or another.  All of it!

Sometimes I think I'm missing out by not being consumed by all this programming, but days like today show me clearly that I'm not missing a thing.  I can still find out enough of what is going on without it taking over my day.

In my view, we should all do things that help build each other up, including our own self.  We should do things that bring about peace and stability, not pit one person or group against the other.  Social media often destroys more than it builds up, but with programming on TV that has become such a standard part of our life, we don't even notice this most days.

It is up to each one of us how we participate in life and whether we build up the world together or we join with others tearing it apart.  No one can dictate that to you, but as you become more connected to your mind and body, the more you will no longer have a desire for what we think is essential for making it through our day.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Thrown Into the Fire

Sometimes when you're in the middle of something that is difficult, it isn't easy to see any way forward.  It is not easy to understand that it might be the most helpful thing for you.  In fact, sometimes it is just too much too bear, that the last thing you want to think about is how helpful it may be.

In the past several months, I've had extremely difficult moments to deal with in life.  It isn't the first time this has happened and most likely won't be the last.  I was thrown into the fire like no other time I have easily seen.

If you would have told me that what I was going through was good, I would have most likely slapped ya up-side the head.  I would not have believed you.  I would not have listened to you at that moment.

It just kept howling at me...

Yet, as I think back and see all the stuff that was piling on, I'm beginning to see just why it did what it did.  One event would have been an annoyance, but event after event after experience piled on like snow drifting in a snowstorm.  It didn't stop!  It just kept howling at me at every turn.

At one point, I was ready to give up.  In fact, after one experience, I cried so hard that I could barely stop.  The pain hurt deeply.  The wound that was inflicted cut all the way through me.  I took off for the mountains to get away and find a break from it all.

I had felt so abandoned and alone, hurt and abused, and wondering where in the heck my life was going.  The mountains and the trees were my only refuge at that point.  I took off, wondering if I would even want to come back.  I took off, not caring if I really stayed alive another day.  The pain was so great, I could barely handle it.  I was thrown into the fire.

I could barely function...

As the fire raged on in my life, there was one thing after another.  It didn't stop and there were physical issues that showed up from being so exhausted where I could barely function in a day, to having to deal with a horrible rash in one of the worst places it could end up.

It felt like my life was falling apart.  It felt like there was no tomorrow. I could not get a handle on anything.  I could not get a break.  It just kept going, one experience and event after another.  I tried to hang on, but even that was exhausting.

I finally started thinking - OK - life, just have your way.  I can't control this anyway, so you might as well do whatever it is you're going to do.  I started working on surrendering to the horrible part of being thrown into the fire, even though that was far more difficult than it is to write these words.

I had no clue how to proceed...

I tried to focus as I was being thrown into the fire, but that was more difficult than breathing.  My mind was anywhere but on how to proceed.  I had no clue how to proceed or deal with any of this that was happening.

As the days went, I began to piece things together.  I began to see things a little more clearly each day.  No, it was not like everything came into view all at once.  If I sat here and said that I see the whole picture at this moment, I would be lying.  Each day, a little more shows up.  Each day I see just a little more.

The one thing that I notice is my life is changing.  I'm beginning to drop some of the long held anger in my life.  Granted, from being abused and tortured, I have a right to be as angry as I am.  It is hard to let go of that anger.  It is more than just thinking I am letting go or saying the words "I am letting go".  Maybe that works for some, but this is the cellular level of consciousness that I'm working through.

It was burning up the stuff deep inside...

The fire is all the events that were happening.  The one event after another that was consuming me.  While I thought it was consuming me (the person), I realize now that it was burning up so much of this stuff deep within me that I struggled to release and get rid of in my life.

If you burn wet and soft wood in a fireplace, the soot will build up.  If it builds up, the chimney needs to be cleaned.  You can do this a number of ways, but if you light a hot fire or a brief one in the chimney, it goes a long ways to cleaning the soot out.  (This is merely an example, not something you should try at home).

Sometimes in our life, the only way to get rid of the soot in the chimney is to burn it out.  When we are in the fire, it is then that we are attempting to get rid of that which is not helping us.  We may not see it in the moment.  It may feel like an overwhelming experience that you cannot even begin to understand this point I'm writing about.  Hey, that's okay.  I understand because I have walked through these hot stones.

The more I began to find peace...

The more I allowed the stuff that had caused me great pain to be consumed by the fire I was in, the more I began to find peace.  If I tried to hold on to the pain of those moments, I continued to stoke the fire.  No, it was not easy.  It was much more difficult than I'm writing.

I had to be patient with myself and let go of all that stuff that happened.  It was a collection of many experiences and triggers in life from years gone by, showing up as every day moments.  These were traces of things that I had worked on, but by them coming at me all at once, it ignited the fire in the furnace so much, that it ended up consuming them.

Now they are nothing more than ashes in my life that I can sweep out and make room for things that are much better and more beneficial for me.  I'm sure, there are other things that I will find as I go deeper into my own consciousness, but I know that the fire helped me.  It helped me let go of things that I've struggled with every day.

Life isn't perfect, but I can see some of those issues drastically better than they were.  I can feel like I'm more in control of them than I was and that helps boost my peace and self confidence to take on bigger tasks ahead.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Glued To The News Of A Tragedy

Lately, we are overloaded as a people.  Our nervous systems are designed to handle a great deal and so is our brain.  Yet, when we see events of the past few weeks unfolding every day, we push the limits of all that we can endure.

If we are glued to the news of a tragedy, it can be just as harmful in my view as if we were right there involved in the tragedy.  I say this because I can see it in myself.  When we watch the images that are repeated over and over, its like we are re-traumatizing ourselves.  It imprints into our brain and wires us with emotion to make this a very strong neural pathway.

Even if we hover over every news article and tweet or Facebook posting, we are allowing ourselves to be glued to the news of a tragedy.  It is not healthy for us.  It keeps our body revved up as if the events are happening and continuing to happen.

It keeps fear alive inside of us...

It keeps fear alive inside of us because when we see these things unfold, it connects with that part within our mind and body that says, "it is not safe".  When we connect with the unsafe part, it recalls all those memories where we did not feel safe.  It re-traumatizes us as if not only this current event is happening, but that there is a strong basis for past events to have happened.

When we keep our body and our mind ramped up in fear, we are not taking care of ourselves.  We are not allowing our nervous system to calm down.  We are not feeling in our body, because the last thing that fear does is allow you to feel anything in your body.  The less we feel, the more we set ourselves up for illness and health conditions that will have an environment to grow.

Our nervous systems are overloaded...

Our nervous systems are already overloaded in this world.  We have pushed ourselves far beyond the normal limits of healthy behavior.  Events like we've seen unfold lately only push those limits into the upper ends of the danger zones for our mind and body.

It is up to each one of us to limit how much we take in during these tragedies of life.  Being glued to the news is not something that is helpful.  I'm not telling you to stick your head in the sand, but limit your intake of this harmful and toxic news that is replayed hour upon hour.

The media's goal is to keep you hooked into their programming so they make money.  They are not here for our evolution or awareness or consciousness.  If they limit what they show, you'll turn to those that don't.  If you truly want to take care of yourself, then don't glue yourself to the news of a tragedy.  It will only harm you, not help you.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2016 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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A Peaceful Place To Refocus

Life has been quite challenging lately for me.  I've felt like all was slipping away from me and it was tough to hang on.  I really needed to step back and refocus.

Finally after trying to stay strong and keep going, I traveled to a peaceful place to refocus.  In this case, it is Pipestem State Park in West Virginia.  I've used this place in the past to help me make it through difficult times.

Years ago when I was first dealing with the abuse and torture I had been through in my life, I would come here on the holidays and escape a world that was painful.  This park is so beautiful and so peaceful.

It is a place that is magical to me and one that I can just escape and disconnect from everything.  It is secluded enough that I can step out of life and find that peace as I refocus.

Today, I hiked all over the place but then I just stopped and recognized the peaceful place I was in.  It was quiet and the peace was so inviting and invigorating.  It was a beautiful moment.

My hope for the trip is that I can refocus and find myself once again.  I want to reconnect with life, rather than wanting to hide in my little cave.

These challenging times are not easy, but hopefully when I leave, I will be more empowered to find my way through, rather then feeling like I was at the end of my rope.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 2/6/16 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Source Of Worry and Contentment

Being content is essential for finding your way forward in life.  When you worry, you disconnect yourself from the source.  Worry takes you out of the flow.  It lowers your energetic vibration and brings you down into the vibration level of lack and not having enough.

Do not only focus on worry in your life.  While it is important not to worry, you must heal yourself from the core.  Uncovering the source of worry will then allow you through consciousness to choose a different course of action in your life.  Going to the root of the issue, allows you to remove the power source.  It is when you do this, that your energetic vibration will increase.

Being content in life is a surrender into who you are as an individual.  It is allowing yourself to touch your own soul, rather than engaging your ego.  Your ego loves worry and misery, but your soul loves contentment and peace.  Your mind only engages that which you feed it.

It is all up to you to choose what you will do or the changes you will make in your life.  It becomes a journey within, discovering all of who you are, not what you have been in the past.  Being content gives you the option of seeing possibility in life and empowering greatness.

Allow possibility to build and flow from within your core existence.  As you connect within, so too will you find an unstoppable power for your life.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 1/19/13 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Let Peace Begin With Me

On this day, let it not just be a celebration of all the gifts we have received.  All too often, we spend so much money to find that perfect gift, when the day is really about so much more.  It is too easy to lose site of this day.

Instead, maybe we can focus for a moment on a thought about Christmas.  Let peace begin with me.  I don't mean we should ask others to have peace or expect them to be peaceful.  I don't mean we should think that if others are peaceful, then we can be peaceful.  I am saying this to each one of us individually.

Let peace begin with me.  Let it begin within each one of us so that by all of us focusing on peace in our lives, we will impact the planet in big ways.  These days more than ever, we need to have peace within our life so that we can share it with others.

We won't find peace in the presents or the gifts we receive.  We won't find peace in the moments where we are wrapped up in the political news storm of the day.  We won't find peace when we look for it in moments that do not offer it.  We won't find peace in listening to those that constantly scream at the top of their lungs for attention in our world.

Peace must begin within each one of us if we are to offer peace to the world.  It is something that we need to develop in ourselves and then see if we can put more peace in our lives.

Our actions individually impact the world in great ways.  So on Christmas Day, in the moment you are reading this, reflect upon how you can let peace begin with you or me or whoever you are.  By doing this, we may just be impacting the entire world.  If you feel you have already reached this point, then I adamantly urge you to go further!  The world needs it.

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Blog Post And Images (c) 12/15/15 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

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Peace On Earth Begins With Me

There have been many tragedies around the world and I don't see where they will let up anytime soon.  They seem to be increasing.  Some of them are natural disasters and some of them come from one enemy fighting another enemy.

As I have seen a discussion in the past few days turn from pure hatred towards those that killed innocent people to blaming politicians or guns or whatever the reason is just plain sad.  People love to boil everything down into one short and simple soundbite that is the sole reason of why things are happening that everyone can't stand.

The media loves to put a soundbite to a tragedy because then they can hook people into following their newscast.  The more people that follow, the more viewers they have and the more money they can make.  I get it.  Its an entertainment business and if you don't entertain people, they switch the channel.  It is one reason, we shut off cable.

Everyone wants to believe that peace on earth begins with other people.  Unfortunately that is not the case.  We are all adding to the problems of the world whether you believe it or not.

On Guard

To be or not to be I say!  What do you mean?  To be on guard is the body's natural state.  I was reading about this in the book The Body Keeps The Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk.  It is an interesting concept because I know I've had to struggle with the amped up version of being on guard in my own life.

According to this book, our natural state in mammals is to be somewhat on guard.  While this is good if you're walking through the tall grass or the jungles, it makes for difficult intimate relationships.  It keeps us shut down or immobilized.  It keeps us distant and not as connected with other humans.  As Dr Van Der Kolk says, "in order to play, mate, and nurture our young, the brain needs to turn off its natural vigilance."

While this all sounds fine and dandy, many traumatized people are so hypervigilant that they cannot enjoy the ordinary pleasures in the day.  Yes, they are in relationships, but without overstimulation, it becomes a mundane and routine relationship with only part of the feelings and emotions that one could potentially experience.

Celebrate The Magical

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, let this be a day where we have that child-like innocence about life.  Let us celebrate the magical, the unseen, and the possible in our life.

Let today be more than gifts and holiday stress.  Let today be more than just what happened in this moment.  See the world through the eyes of a child with wonder and awe that has not been tarnished by time and a world who suppresses it.

Let today be about the magical nature of human good and kindness.  See the world through the eyes of peace and goodwill to others, not only this day, but every day of the year.  We are all human.  We are all born in the same way.  Let us celebrate the wonders of being human.

Let me leave you with my musical version of this.  Its a video I did on YouTube several years ago, but is still as relevant today as it was back then.  The title of the video is Christmas Piano Music by Don Shetterly.

Our Actions Impact All Mankind

Some days my mind never stops thinking or reaching or striving for more.  I continue to see things that make me sometimes weep and cause pain as I look at them taking place.  We all are part of a continuum in life where what we do unto others is connected to all of mankind.  I'm more convinced of this now then I ever was.

It is the little things that we do in our day that have much impact upon the world, even if we don't see it.  How we speak to others and how we come across to them is more than just a momentary string of words or actions.  It impacts not only their day, but it strongly impacts our day.

As we read the news stories online or share social networking posts, do we ever truly stop and question ourselves about the comments we leave or things we share?  Are we just another sprocket in the sharing of news that may or may not be the best to disseminate to the world?  This goes for the constant barrage of "feel good" posts to the angry critical displays of madness we all see and often partake in.