Just Words - Part 5 - Living Within Bubbles

We all live within our own perspective bubbles. Our own little comfort zones.

My bubble is all I know. My entire existence (past, present, & future) has always been realized inside this bubble. How I have remembered & presently perceive life is within this bubble. My bubble is exactly how I want it, otherwise it'd be different. I like it here. It's cozy and set up precisely to my tastes. My favorite colors are on the walls & texture of carpet is below my feet. All of my habits, the way I react to situations, my routines, my priorities... everything that is me. Even if some aspects of my life are displeasing, obviously it's how I'd prefer; otherwise I would make different choices... choose different words to say, hear, and understand. Right?

Given not only the fact that the current world population is roughly seven billion people, but also the hopes that God has plans for not only me but some of you too, a willingness to exist among other bubbles is paramount.

You live inside of a bubble too. Your bubble is all you know. Your entire existence (past, present, & future) has always been realized inside your bubble. How you have remembered & presently perceive life is within your bubble. You like it there. It holds everything that is you. =)

Most of us aren't very comfortable outside of our perspective bubbles. We have all become very content acting on habit and routine to assure our bubbles stay warm and cozy. When we are forced outside of our bubbles we tend to get agitated, angry, or scared. We react with frustration, disappointment, & fear when others let us down or make us question, or break outside of our bubbles. Why? Your comfort zone is not in jeopardy! It is meant to conform and adapt. Remember, God intends a willingness to exist among others. I have come to realize that maybe it's not about breaking your bubble to change... but rather expanding it to grow.

I have lost many relationships throughout my life because of my stubbornness in not allowing my bubble to expand. In retrospect, when someone I cared about made a choice I didn't agree with or they didn't go along with what I wanted, I took it as my bubble breaking. I chose to let it hurt me & subsequently I reacted in ways that ultimately pushed them completely out of my life.

Growing into Faith

I am thankful to understand myself more everyday, in that my happiness, along with my comfort zone, is completely up to me. Hindsight is 20/20, and I am regretful. Some of those people lived within the best bubbles I have ever known. I wish I would have chosen not to react the way I did being hurt and try to empathize in the fact that they were only dealing with their own life and bubbles. I could have reacted outside my own bubble.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, huh?

Let's all continue to keep expanding our bubbles. Grow into Faith!

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Living Too Close To The Bone

In the western world, most of us choose to live close to the bone. Note that I stress "choose."

In my early twenties, I achieved very rapid success in my career, being promoted several times in less than five years. I went from slightly more than minimum wage to a salary that would, in today's dollars, be roughly $105,000 per year. My wife went from being a typical starving student to a registered nurse, earning (again, in today's dollars) roughly $75,000. I also started a new business, determined to make my fortune quickly.

From living in a rooming house, I acquired a new home, new truck, new car, new RV and new furniture. Along with all of that, we also acquired new debt. For every raise in pay, we increased our debt load, always making just enough to maintain our lifestyle. When divorce hit, so did the financial crisis. Our incomes, together, were barely sufficient. Now that we had two households, our outflow greatly exceeded our income. In short, we had lived our lives too close to the bone, with no reserve or safety outlet.

This is the way many of us live. We spend what we have, acquire more than we need, and suffer the consequences. There is no doubt that the tremendous stress under which we found ourselves contributed to our failed marriage. There is also no doubt that it was the choice to spend more than we needed to spend that caused most of our stress.

I have a relative that recently purchased a house. Smart move? He also had recently purchased a new truck. He loves to enjoy his weekends, and takes numerous trips. He makes a good wage, and felt that he could afford these indulgences. Six months after purchasing the house, he was forced to sell his truck. He was, like us, living too close to the bone.

There is a simple solution. So simple, in fact, that it seems to be unacceptable for a lot of us. Want less. Need less. Spend less. Save a little. If we, or this relative, had set aside a small reserve fund each month, we would have survived.

The reserve is like your bottle of Aspirin in the medicine cabinet. It doesn't have to be powerfully effective, or large. It needs to relieve some of the pressure.

Oddly, just knowing that you are not cutting your finances too closely alleviates almost all concerns.

Again, when I was in my twenties, I had begun experiencing tremendous chest pains, across the entire width of my chest. I was convinced that I was responding to stress. Nonetheless, I consulted my doctor, who prescribed nitro pills, to be held under the tongue if another attack occurred. This is the same medication used for heart patients, and I was only twenty-eight!

I purchased the pills. However, just having the pills available seemed to do the trick, and I never again had a chest pain. Stress remained, though, and within three months, I was enduring overwhelming backaches and headaches. Once my wife and I divorced and we resolved our debt situation, the headaches disappeared. Stress? Probably.

I recommended that you keep a small financial reserve to relieve stress. But, more importantly and more universally, keep a reserve of "want." Don't indulge every desire, and don't convert "wants" to "needs" in order to justify acquisition. Living too close to the bone will keep stress gnawing at you, until you are able to recognize that the pile of stuff or the pile of money mean little if you are sitting in the hospital, recovering from a health issue brought on by stress.

Among other interests, Robert Lee is a writer who focuses on ethical considerations in business and living life simply. He is the author of six books, including The Last Drop of Living, A Minimalist's Guide to Living The High Life On A Low Budget and Wild People I Have Known. His blogs include http://findingtheoasis.blogspot.com/, as well as blogs on minimal living, living in a yurt, harvesting wild plants and eco-innovations.

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YING and YANG LIVING Wisdom and Wellness: Changing Your Mind, Changing the World

"If you change your mind, you change the world." By Buddha

I was an Asian Studies major in college, and my first course on Buddhism was academic and dull. I never thought such ancient idealistic aphorisms would ever ring true in my life, let alone that I would practice them. Through all my years of struggling to find my passion and calling (I know, this sounds trite) and living through many depressing days (and still have them), I realized that I am my own worst enemy. How does changing your own mind can possibly change the world? It's not about changing the world, as it is about opening your mind to change. You have to change your thoughts in order to change your energy in order to change your behavior, which then organically transforms everything around you: your career, love relationships, friendships, etc. When we have negative thoughts like "that is too hard," then we make endless excuses not to do it. The lack of taking action prevents us from allowing luck to happen and seizing the amazing opportunities as they emerge.

I wanted to start my own company some years ago and had all the usual doubts and fears, distracting me from taking action for a long time. Struggling to start my own company, I coincidentally re-visited the Buddha quote, and a small light bulb lit internally: "If I change my mind, I can change my life" is how I translated it. Whenever doubtful thoughts came into my head, I tried hard, like salmon swimming up the river, to reverse them immediately by engaging in the cliché mantra: "I can do it, I can do it, I can do it... " With practice, I had enough confidence to jump off the bridge to found my own company without calculating the distance of the fall, the depth of the water, or the velocity of my falling speed-which all just amounts to excuses. I jumped-with tenuous faith--because I internally evolved that I would rather die trying than never having the courage to do so. While I am still struggling and far from where I want to be, the important thing is that I am doing it. A great commercial slogan Nike coined is: "Just Do it." I am pursuing my dreams no matter what the doubtful thoughts may be, and my faith in the process is slowly growing stronger every day. Obviously, I am human and negative thoughts will always creep up, but I make a conscious effort each time to spar them with good ones.

I realize that this may seem overwhelming to do at first, so let's discuss small first steps. Write down one negative quality you see in yourself, for example: "I'm not creative," and underneath this statement, make a list of all the things you have done in the past year where you were creative in your work, school, or relationships and made a difference-small or large. Each time you think "I'm not creative," replace it with something creative on your list. Repeat this process each and every time this negative thought rears its nasty head in your mind. While you will not see dramatic results at the beginning, the accumulative effect of this exercise will be transformative.

When you have positive thoughts, you take positive actions, which inspires people around you to be and do better-a viral effect that changes the world. So indeed: "If you change your mind, you will change the world," so "Just Do it."

Moon Cho is the Creator of Ying & Yang Living, a healthy lifestyle resource that provides Asian living tips in food, home, garden, health, fitness, fashion, beauty, and Asian wisdoms for your spiritual wellness. For all our free Asian living tips, visit our website at http://www.yingandyangliving.com/

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Living Too Close To The Bone

In the western world, most of us choose to live close to the bone. Note that I stress "choose."

In my early twenties, I achieved very rapid success in my career, being promoted several times in less than five years. I went from slightly more than minimum wage to a salary that would, in today's dollars, be roughly $105,000 per year. My wife went from being a typical starving student to a registered nurse, earning (again, in today's dollars) roughly $75,000. I also started a new business, determined to make my fortune quickly.

From living in a rooming house, I acquired a new home, new truck, new car, new RV and new furniture. Along with all of that, we also acquired new debt. For every raise in pay, we increased our debt load, always making just enough to maintain our lifestyle. When divorce hit, so did the financial crisis. Our incomes, together, were barely sufficient. Now that we had two households, our outflow greatly exceeded our income. In short, we had lived our lives too close to the bone, with no reserve or safety outlet.

This is the way many of us live. We spend what we have, acquire more than we need, and suffer the consequences. There is no doubt that the tremendous stress under which we found ourselves contributed to our failed marriage. There is also no doubt that it was the choice to spend more than we needed to spend that caused most of our stress.

I have a relative that recently purchased a house. Smart move? He also had recently purchased a new truck. He loves to enjoy his weekends, and takes numerous trips. He makes a good wage, and felt that he could afford these indulgences. Six months after purchasing the house, he was forced to sell his truck. He was, like us, living too close to the bone.

There is a simple solution. So simple, in fact, that it seems to be unacceptable for a lot of us. Want less. Need less. Spend less. Save a little. If we, or this relative, had set aside a small reserve fund each month, we would have survived.

The reserve is like your bottle of Aspirin in the medicine cabinet. It doesn't have to be powerfully effective, or large. It needs to relieve some of the pressure.

Oddly, just knowing that you are not cutting your finances too closely alleviates almost all concerns.

Again, when I was in my twenties, I had begun experiencing tremendous chest pains, across the entire width of my chest. I was convinced that I was responding to stress. Nonetheless, I consulted my doctor, who prescribed nitro pills, to be held under the tongue if another attack occurred. This is the same medication used for heart patients, and I was only twenty-eight!

I purchased the pills. However, just having the pills available seemed to do the trick, and I never again had a chest pain. Stress remained, though, and within three months, I was enduring overwhelming backaches and headaches. Once my wife and I divorced and we resolved our debt situation, the headaches disappeared. Stress? Probably.

I recommended that you keep a small financial reserve to relieve stress. But, more importantly and more universally, keep a reserve of "want." Don't indulge every desire, and don't convert "wants" to "needs" in order to justify acquisition. Living too close to the bone will keep stress gnawing at you, until you are able to recognize that the pile of stuff or the pile of money mean little if you are sitting in the hospital, recovering from a health issue brought on by stress.

Among other interests, Robert Lee is a writer who focuses on ethical considerations in business and living life simply. He is the author of six books, including The Last Drop of Living, A Minimalist's Guide to Living The High Life On A Low Budget and Wild People I Have Known. His blogs include http://findingtheoasis.blogspot.com/, as well as blogs on minimal living, living in a yurt, harvesting wild plants and eco-innovations.

View the original article here

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