What Do We Actually See

It is far too easy to fool ourselves at times.  What we think we see and what we actually see are often not in sync with one another.  Our mind and our body have a good way of getting us to believe what we see, even if it is not the truth.

Whether it is in the latest "belief" of what is true in our society or politics or spiritual practices, often we have our minds made up and we're not going to allow anyone to introduce anything different to us.  We have our paradigms locked away in our box and that is it.

Unfortunately, the more we do this, the more we limit ourselves to what really exists.  There's no one that can tell you what exists in your world.  Many do try to do this and many will listen as if it is the truth, but the thing is, only you know what exists in your mind and body.

We are usually oblivious to it...

Even though we know what exists in our own mind and body, we are usually oblivious to it.  We've put it in specially marked boxes that only filter how it will appear.  Yet we think that with our filters we apply, that is how it is - end of story, period!

I was raised with a strict adherence to one way of looking at things.  I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt now that most of what I was taught would not hold water.  It would be like trying to carry water in a bucket full of holes.  Yet, it took me forever to understand that and now that I have, I am glad I finally came to my senses.

In the physical body, we often think that a doctor or healing practitioner or some other person has the answers to issues, illness, and ailments we face.  We don't realize that we hold the key to our own healing.  We see one way of looking at it, but we fail to see the entire picture.  We have our filters fully engaged.

If we are challenged...

Often if we are challenged to see beyond what we see, we come back and strike at the person.  We show them just how stupid they are in our eyes.  We hurl insults as if they are the ones that need to be enlightened.  We fail to see that it isn't about them.  They are only acting as a mirror to the depths of our own life.

It is up to us to allow ourselves to see beyond what we think we see.  It is through our own awareness and growth, that we begin to allow this.  It is through awareness that we become more conscious.

If you think you see your life clearly, you are probably chasing a mirage.  We need people who desire to truly get to know themselves from the inside out.  We need people in this world that truly want to be human, fully connected to every part of themselves, not hiding behind the filters we put up.

For when we truly see all that is in us, it is then that we are on the path of self discovery, growth and awareness.  Surely, to be human means that we are here to find our true potential and possibility.  Surely, we are not meant to hide from getting to know ourselves in every way possible.

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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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I Am What I Am

I am what I am as a result of where I have traveled from, but still not all I will be, until my future moments unfold.

#Potential

#Possibility

#Awareness

#Consciousness

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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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Paradigms

This has been a subject near and dear to my heart for many years.  Way back in the late 1980's, I saw a video called "Paradigm".  In it, the discussion was about how people and companies that adapted moved on, while those that didn't often got lost in history.

Look at Kodak, a once major player that's been left in the dust by  digital cameras.  The paradigm shifted and I'm not so sure they kept up with the changing times.

If you're not too young, think back to the days of using carbon paper to make duplicates of something you needed to write.  I remember as a kid, that was some pretty fun stuff to play with.  Copiers were barely around at that time.  Printers and computers were nothing like we have today.  If someone would have said, "but carbon paper works just fine," that paradigm would have left them in history's dust.

That's a paradigm...

I heard a story about Thomas Edison wanting to "light" a town in Southwest Florida where he spent the winters.  The people were so scared of this new form of "lighting" that they would not have anything to do with it.  Of course, we look back and scoff at the thought that these light bulbs are so unsafe that we would never want them in our homes.  That's a paradigm!

At one time in the medical world, the paradigm was that washing hands was unnecessary. In fact, those that proposed the concept were laughed at.  Also in medical history, they thought that "blood" in the body or humors as they called it, was something you had to get out with the use of leaches.  We now know of course that blood is essential to our functioning.  It was a paradigm that fortunately went away.

Many things we believe...

There are many things that we believe as paradigms in our life.  While some of these beliefs can be helpful, all too often the paradigms get in the way of our discovery and awareness, thereby stopping our growth.  We get so entrenched with our paradigms and beliefs that we cannot see beyond where we are.

I see this in the world of religion, healing, and new age.  It is alive and well in the medical world.  We grasp on to that which has been regurgitated to us, but we don't go in and truly evaluate and challenge our beliefs and paradigms.  We end up holding ourselves back.  We end up holding others back that follow what we say.

Paradigms can be a good foundation to build on, but they should never be all that we see.  In order to survive among our own paradigms and beliefs, we have to challenge everything.  If it withstands the challenge through time, we have something solid to grasp.  If it does not, it means we need to look at our paradigms from another angle because we are most likely missing a key point.

Don't get locked into your paradigms.  They never serve you well.  Push yourself beyond what you think is true and right and all that there is.  Don't settle for what you've already come to understand.

Push yourself into the areas beyond that point.  This is what helps a human become all they can be and grow into a person that has much more potential.

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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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In The Middle Of The Storm

Imagine you're in a ship on middle of the high seas.  The winds are blowing and the waves are high.  Yet, for as far as you can see, that's what you see.  That is your experience.  It doesn't feel like there are any calm waters anywhere close to you.  It doesn't feel like there is an end in sight.

Your entire world revolves around the storm on the high seas.  You're in the middle of it.  You're in the thick of it, but yet it feels normal.  It feels like what life is supposed to be.  It feels like there is nothing else.

You could also view the storm as the emotions and difficulties and trials and struggles.  They are in great supply as if they are never ending.  You may be struggling to see the sun rise and set because of the storm clouds gathered around you.

This can often feel like what life is all about in our day.  Our mind thinks one thing, but our body disconnects and numbs.  Our body thinks one thing but our mind stays a million miles away.  Nothing seems normal or connected.  Nothing seems like there is peace and calm deep within.  There is this never ending sense of this is life.

There might be something different...

As we heal, we begin to get a thought or a glimpse that there might be something different.  While that may be extremely difficult at first, it may be nothing more than a hope that we long for in our life.  It may be the peaceful calm waters after the storm.

At times, the storm clouds rage on and we beg for mercy.  We pray that we will be spared and the storms will end.  We hope to find something beyond where we are at - a moment of solace - a moment of peace or just a moment of rest.

A greater glimpse...

Continuing through our healing, we begin to get a greater glimpse that where our life is heading is possible.  It isn't just a hope but something of a reality.  It is little moments of seeing the sun break through the clouds.  It is an moments of easing from the rough waves.

As we continue in healing, more and more comes into view.  More calm waters show up in periods of rest and recharge and renewal.  We begin to see there's so much more.  We can almost touch it, feel it and sense it.  It may seem a little beyond our grasp, but we know it is there beckoning to have the courage to keep going.

It is in that moment that we understand where the potential lies.

As difficult as the emotional stuff may be, nothing is more difficult than being stuck

Yes, while we know that the storm clouds are not fun, we do know they lead to calmer waters.  We had to pass through the storm to find them.  We had to realize that the storms would lessen and even the horrifying trip through it, there was nothing more difficult than being stuck there and not sailing on.

So keep sailing.  Sail through the storm.  Know that the difficult emotional stuff is temporary and it too will pass if we don't stop sailing along in our life.  It is up to us to keep our sails pointed forward and then let the winds of life help us find our way.  

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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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Dealing With Pain In Life

One of those subjects that we all experience whether we admit it or not, is most likely one we all want to be gone.  I'm talking about pain.  Pain is part of the human experience.  Pain is a part of life whether we want to believe it or not.

There are different kinds of pain from emotional to physical to chronic and then some that are the result of a physical accident or injury.  Each one takes its toll on us and drains our energy.  Sometimes the pain gets so unbearable that we do everything we can to avoid it, disconnect from it or believe that it doesn't exist.

As humans, we are pretty good at numbing ourselves from pain.  It is easy to do if we stay busy so we don't have to think about it or we have beliefs that help us hide from the pain.  It is easy to do if we just have gotten to a point where we ignore it because it is too much for us to deal with.  Numbing is a powerful human skill that we all possess and it is practiced routinely.

Chronic pain...

If you suffer from chronic pain, it seems like there is no end in sight.  It seems like there is nothing that will help.  There is no option but to deal with it in whatever form works for you.

Emotional pain...

If you suffer from emotional pain, tears will not always be enough to wipe it away.  Love is sometimes hard to let in to soothe it.  It is a loneliness that is felt clear to the bone when you suffer from emotional pain.

Physical pain...

Physical pain sends us running for help before we can blink an eye.  It is pain that we want to stop and have it stop quickly.  It is pain that is often hard to endure depending upon the severity of it.

Just hoping the pain will end...

Through all of this, our brain tells us something is wrong and either we know what that is, or sometimes it is just too complex for us to understand.  The more complex it is, the more we tend to suffer in silence apart from the world, just hoping that the pain will end.

Our bodies know how to numb us and try to protect us, but some days, that is not even enough.  Often we turn to all kinds of products, substances, and beverages.  Sometimes we turn to belief systems and medication all in an attempt to ease the pain.  Believe me, when the pain gets tough, I start looking for anything that will help, even if it isn't the best thing for me in the long term.

Pain is part of the human experience...

Pain is part of life.  It is part of the human experience.  Although I'm sure this isn't what most people want to hear, I know it to have truth from my own life and experiences I've been through.  I know it to be truth from what I have seen in others.

If you're experiencing pain, keep in mind, "this too shall pass".  If you're dealing with chronic pain, it isn't as simple as that thought.  If you're dealing with emotional pain, know that it isn't the end of the world.  Things will get better and they can get better.

I'm a firm believer in that whatever experience we are going through, things can change.  It may not change in the way we expect it to or in how we believe it should, but things can change.  I have overcome the odds of physical situations when the doctors told me I would never make it.  It is hard for me to accept that things cannot change.  I've seen a different world.

 
Whatever you do, try not to hide and disconnect or numb from the pain.  Try to keep yourself grounded with what you feel, but look for ways that physically take you out of the pain, not just mask it or hide it or make you believe it doesn't exist.

We all have far more potential within us to heal and deal with pain than we realize.  Yes, it gets hard to do.  Yes, it gets hard to endure.  I'm not saying it is easy or quick.  I am just saying, we have far more potential than we realize.  We have strength we know not of and I fully believe that for every inhabitant of this planet.

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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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Your Key To Life Is Learning New Things

I think I have done this from a little kid until now.  I always keep learning.  I read a tremendous amount of material online and often I have a book I'm reading.  There is so much out there to take in and sometimes it is overwhelming, but I do love to learn.

When I was traveling all the time for a job, I would save things to read for when I was sitting in airports or on an airplane.  Now that I'm not traveling, I'm not reading as much as I once did.  I still do read, but it is more online as I see it come up.

Learning is so vital to our experience as humans.  It is an important key to life.  It helps us explore worlds and create new words we have never traveled to.  There is nothing like the creation of some new exciting place from reading a book.  There is nothing like some new exciting thought that you create from being motivated by a book.

What truth have they discovered?

It isn't just reading that I use to learn.  I learn from other people.  When I find people who have a particular area of interest figured out, I try to see what it is that they know, that I don't.  What morsel of truth have they discovered?  What are they attempting to understand that maybe can spark something in my own mind.

Its easy to sit back and just be content with the status quo but I've never been one of those people.  I remember as a kid wanting to learn everything about every part of life.  Sometimes I was stomped on and not allowed to learn from all different sources, but it never quenched my desire.

Either use my mind or lose it...

For me, its either use my mind or lose it and at one point in my life I nearly lost access to my mind.  Maybe it is one of the reasons that keeps propelling me forward and learning more.  If we don't exercise learning new things, I think it tends to die off.

I think that learning is a wonderful part of being human.  It gives us so much more possibility and potential than we might know exists today.  It gives us a way to reach for the stars without the constraints of what others tell us is true or not true.  It gives us a personal connection from one moment to the next.

Learning gives us potential...

The more we learn, the more we discover.  The more we discover, the more we learn.  As we give into our desires to keep learning, it is then that we find more potential within our mind and body then we realized existed.

No matter what happens in life, keep learning.  Don't stop because you're getting in one of life's ruts.  Go out and push yourself into something you know nothing about and experience the wonder and high of learning something new.

Sometimes it is our fears that hold us back just as I wrote in a blog post, Believing Your Fears.

(click image to read) 

Don't let anything hold you back.  You can learn just about anything from any situation you are in.  Go for it with gusto.  Grab it with all the energy and power you hold within you.  Let it become your driving force forward in life and see where it takes you.

Your key to life is learning new things for when we stop, its when life loses its excitement.

Question Of The Day

What things are you learning in life that help you?  Please leave a comment below with your thoughts and answers.

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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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Being Free

Being free is not about subscribing to beliefs imposed by others, but by seeing life with all its potential and then discovering that there is much more beyond the point you are at.

Feeling The Brain's Potential

I'm always amazed at how much and how little we humans use our brain.  Its a major organ in our body and one that we can't do without, but yet so often we treat it as if it is nothing more than a collection of cells and tissues.  Of course, I'm sure one could insert all kinds of jokes here about how people use their brains, but that's not the point of this blog post.

I would like to have everyone reading this just take a moment and say hello to your brain.  OK, if that didn't feel awkward, then maybe you want to repeat that one again (or maybe you don't).  You see, most of us just aren't in touch with our brains, although we depend upon them to get through our day.

One of the ways we fail to connect with our brain is by not seeing the potential we have in our life.  We have so much power within the cells that make up our brain and we only tap into a very little part of it each day.  Most of the time this is because we are running too hard and too busy to stop a moment and connect with it.  If you ignore it, you won't grasp the full potential of it.

Computer Contestant On Jeopardy

Okay, if you're wondering what Jeopardy and a computer have to do with the mind body thoughts blog, please don't think I've lost my mind! Actually when I heard that Jeopardy was doing this experiment with IBM, I was intrigued. After all, watching science push the brain and the brain push science is extremely fascinating to me. In my mind, we have not yet begun to understand all the power that the brain holds and the ability we have to impact or influence our body, our spirit, our emotions and every cell or muscle.

That is why the computer contestant on Jeopardy, Watson, created by IBM and aired on 2/15/11, really caught my attention. To accomplish this, researchers had to go in and think about every possible piece of information that was needed to make this happen. They had to go in and design a computer network system that could handle all of this with lightening speed. Then, they had to bring this all together so it could receive communication and respond back with quick speed an in an appropriate manner. Just to think of all the parts of this that went in to develop and create this is mind boggling in itself. I have a computer background so I truly understand a lot of what had to happen here to make this thing work.

Here's a video clip on YouTube about this episode on Jeopardy that explains much more about it.

We as humans are said to only use 10% of our brains at most but in many ways, this is a myth. If we did not use parts of our brain, they would cease to function and die off from what I understand of the brain. The trick though in harnessing the brain is through our evolution and awareness of our consciousness. The more we are aware of intricate parts of our self and the more we understand about our consciousness, the more we harness our brain.

Most humans go through life only using logical nerve synapses to deduce what facts are presented to us in order to create a dictated reality. Hopefully I didn't lose anyone on that statement and if I did, just go back and reread that statement more carefully. To simplify what I am saying, here is another take on that. We often use the busy part of our brain that helps us take care of tasks in our day from appointments and reminders on our to do list, to analyzing data to make decisions, to taking care of business and just making our lives happen. However, we miss one important part of our life so often and it is the part that gives us our human qualities and takes us from just being a biological organism to an individual with unlimited possibilities.

That part of our life is consciousness. Consciousness is a result of discovery and travel into all areas of our life through questioning, challenge and acceptance. It is about becoming all we can become. Like Watson, the IBM computer contestant on Jeopardy, we have great potential but if we sit on a network rack with a power plug connected but we are not being developed, than we are nothing more than electrical impulses. We need to strive further to be more than a Watson and that is where the human brain and the mind/body connection play a significant role.

We have so much more potential within us to sense, feel and understand what is going on around us. There are higher brain functions that are developed in the prefrontal cortex as the consciousness of a human is developed and nurtured. When we work to discover these parts of our self, we offer ourselves so much more that the mundane daily activities will never be able to give us.

By connecting our mind and body together and connecting what we feel to what we are experiencing, we truly give ourselves much more than what Watson will ever begin to give himself. Consciousness does not come from some cerebral new age practice but it comes from connecting our mind and the felt sense in our body together. It is at that point that the synapse of so much more in life becomes visible. The more visible it becomes, the more aware the person is of unlimited possibility, potential and evolution.

Let us realize that this experiment with IBM and Jeopardy is a window into the potential of where we can go. Imagine many years ago when Jeopardy started in 1964, the personal computer was hardly even a dream. At that time, if you would have said that a computer contestant named Watson was going to be a contestant on Jeopardy, you probably would have gotten laughed out of the building. Yet, 47 years later, what was once considered unfathomable is now reality.

My question to everyone reading this and to myself is, how far will we be in the next 47 years? What do we consider impossible today that will be considered reality tomorrow? Let's tie that into our brain and ask where our civilization will be in 47 years? Will we look back at our current moments and view us as being primitive in how we think and view our mind, our body and the world around us? It is hard to sit here and write about what things will look like in another 50 or 100 years but if our past is any indication, I'm sure no one will be able to predict what lies ahead.

May we all continue to discover our true potential and our unlimited possibilities. May we continue to become more aware of all parts of ourselves and evolve into a greater consciousness, conquering our fears and truly learning what it means to be human and to live as a human in our body. Let us not stop when we think we found the edge of all that there is but let us travel beyond those moments and truly discover the unseen.

For Further Information:
1) Prefrontal Cortex Functions
2) Jeopardy, America's Favorite Quiz Show
3) IBM, Watson and Jeopardy
4) YouTube Jeopardy And IBM Watson Challenge




Blog Post & Images (c) 2/15/11 Don Shetterly - use by permission only
http://www.donshetterly.com

We Impose Limitations Upon Ourselves

Our fear of making mistakes, our belief that we have no talent, and our comparisons with others all keep us from engaging any creative activity, and they do so without our realizing that the terms of engagement are ours to impose. - On Becoming An Artist by Ellen Langer, Pg 210

How many times do we sit there and wish we could do something about our situation only to draw the conclusion that there are a hundred zillion reasons why this cannot happen? Have you ever done this? I'm sure if you are like most other humans, you probably have at some point in your life. Yet, do we even notice that we do this or has it just become common place for us?

When we were born, we were given all the tools we needed to do whatever it is that our lives were meant to do. With time and through the influence of our caregivers, we began to doubt many of these abilities. As we carried on in life, we began to let these limitations build up on one another, preventing us from living our full potential in life.

Many times we go through our day, not even aware that we are placing these limits on ourselves. It can be through self talk, or even the activities that we allow ourselves to participate in. It could be in the choices we make that keeps us extremely busy from morning to night so that we inadvertently limit our choices of what we really want to do. Sometimes these things that limit us are beyond our visible comprehension and even if someone points it out to us, we do not have the frame of reference to fully understand that which we cannot see.

My challenge to each person reading this and to myself is that we begin to become acquainted with all the limitations we put on ourselves. Once we become aware of them, than it is up to us to choose to let these limitations go and embrace something greater within ourselves.

Mistakes

Mistakes are something that I've always been pretty hard on myself throughout my entire life. There are plenty of reasons as I'm sure many others out there would attest to as well. I could delve into the details of all of these, but it most likely would not further this particular discussion. Of course, it is important to note that I am not saying you should not travel into these areas of your life. On the contrary, I feel it is important to go in and reclaim these misfires of communication in your mind that distort mistakes. Once you do, you offer your brain a different path to travel when these circumstances come up.

I am very creative but as I create, I get very critical of myself. This is especially true when it comes to creating music. Most of the music I play is songs that I create in the moment. They are not repeated from anyone or anything but totally what happens at the moment my hands rest on the keyboard. If you had the opportunity to be around me when I am creating, you would more than likely hear me say at some point as I was listening to a playback of the song, "there was a mistake". To the average person or even the talented musician, they would not hear the mistake. That is because what I call a mistake is how what I am hearing playback to me is not how my mind heard the music come together. And yet, I am realizing now that those little moments that I call mistakes have led to some wonderful moments in the songs I have created. It has given them a depth and dimension all to their own that without these "mistakes", they would not be all that they are.

One of my favorite authors, Ellen Langer in the book "On Becoming An Artist" writes about mistakes in the following quote on page 81

If we know just where we are going we can’t go anywhere new. Mistakes not only set the stage for a mindful approach to the work at hand but also reveal our individuality. When we all act according to the same plan, our final products are likely to look the same, just as machine-made rugs do. Our “errors,” by contrast, stand a chance to be both unique and interesting. The difference between a line drawn with a ruler and one drawn by hand is that, in the latter, the individual shines through.

So if we feel we really have to embrace that we make mistakes in life, why not try turning the tables on the thought process for a moment. If we see mistakes as an opportunity towards greater awareness or insight, than the person who makes many mistakes, has so many opportunities in life. Just imagine having all those opportunities.

Of course if we take the mindful approach to what we consider mistakes, than all that you are and all the potential you have, has the opportunity to shine as bright as the brightest star.

The Universe

What if you did have the power, the reach, and the glory?

What if you were given dominion over all things?

And what if eternity lay before you, brimming with love, friends, and laughter?

Yet still, one day, in all your radiance, bubbling over with giddy excitement, you tripped, fell, and got hurt - really hurt.

Would you give up on all of your dreams? Would you hate yourself? Would you forget life's magic and promise?

Or would you shrug it off, look ahead, and exclaim that it's "just a flesh wound"?

-- The Universe

A Thought To Ponder

Why is it that we can more readily see the good and the potential in someone else than we can see in our own selves? It is something to ponder.