Consider your Input

Posted on by kgoodman

consider-your-input-text

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes What You See

Oh Be Careful Little Ears What You Hear

For the father up above, is looking down with love

Oh Be Careful Little Eye What You See

 

These words came back to me this morning as I was considering my mental state.

 

When I was a child and sang this song, it always put a picture of a God much like Santa Claus in my mind. An overlord determined to catch every misstep and every mistake and write it down in a book for use in the future. Then, when the time of reckoning was upon you, Christmas or the Apocalypse, you would be called to account for your actions, or punished with fewer toys.

 

However, as these words came to me now, they are accompanied with higher wisdom.

 

“Consider your input.”

 

The benefits of the considering your mental diet is very important. With your food diet, if you put in healthy whole foods that haven’t been overly processed, covered with pesticides, genetically modified and denuded of nutrients, you benefit with improved health.

 

The more processed, contaminated, devoid of nutrients, a food is, the less good it will do for you and potentially even generate harm.

 

This is equally true with your information diet. By the time a story reaches us, through the news, it has been processed, spun, mangled, rewritten and usually has lost all truth and value. Stories can be spun to mesh with the goals of the storytellers or edited for short attention spans and sensationalism. Regardless of the reasons behind the alteration the results are identical, you’re consuming something that really isn’t good for you and may even be bad for you. We are being fed junk food information.

 

Consider your input.

 

I’ve been a little disheartened recently about the state of the world. There is a lot of negatives going on. Wars and posturing for wars.

 

People fighting over who gets the rights to destroy the planet, by ripping out the natural resources and selling them to the highest bidder.

 

Conflict over religions ideology.

 

People terrorized in their homes and schools and persecuted for their beliefs.

 

But I also see glimpses of hope.

 

More and more people are finding their own path to spirituality.

 

The sun keeps rising each morning (sometimes hidden in clouds, but it’s there).

 

People keep making a choice each day to help one another and make this world a better place, one person at a time.

 

The world is an amazing and beautiful place full of wonders and marvels.

 

Remember next time you’re fed, mass media wonder bread, that it’s not real food.

 

I don’t often quote the bible. But I do think, like all holy books, there are powerful nuggets of wisdom in there. This is one:

“…whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things” – Philippians 4:8

 

Consider your input. Be aware when it’s junk food. Focus on the good things to guide your path.

Namaste,

Kevin

Colorful fresh group of vegetables and fruits

Gratitude For All Things

Posted on by kgoodman

 

I was sick last week. In bed and unable to function for a few days beyond taking my vitamins and trying to drink fluids.

I have an 8 month pregnant wife, and a 3 year old. The 3 year old was also sick and through a blessing beyond measure my wife never got sick.

Needless to say, we were NOT abundant last week in time or energy. My pregnant wife could barely keep up with caring for us and I could barely keep up with blowing my nose and nursing my fever.

We were abundant in community.

So this makes my gratitude and appreciation for the outpouring of help from our friends and communities all the more powerful.

There are times when I feel isolated and alone. There are times when I feel out of touch and out of communication. Last week was not one of those times.

Through a few facebook posts my wife was able to ask for assistance and the offers and prayers came pouring in.

Today, one week later, my body is still on the mend, but my spirit is soaring. Thank you everyone that helped and thought of us last week. You give me courage.

As an individual reading this, know that in your own community you are priceless. Sometimes you are in need, and sometimes you are the caregiver. Embrace both rolls. For everything there is a season.

Namaste,

Kevin

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Comparative Reality

Posted on by kgoodman

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We live in a world obsessed with comparison. We are constantly contrasting every item that comes into focus, trying to determine if it is better or worse than the alternative.

 

Comparison shopping

 

Comparison of ideas

 

Employee evaluations

 

Rate your experience on a scale of 1-10

 

We learn comparison at a very early age and then start to apply it to everything around us. It can be very beneficial to compare things. However, comparison goes down a dark path when we start to apply it to ourselves and people around us.

 

There will be times when you start to compare yourself to those around you.

 

“I’m taller than him.”

 

“I’m not as smart as that girl.”

 

“He’s better looking than me.”

 

The voice of comparison is strong and constant. It is a fundamental construct of our thinking process. It operates in the background on everything we look at.

 

There are times when you start comparing yourself to yourself.

 

“I used to be a faster runner.”

 

“I think I’ve lost weight”

 

“I can’t believe I used to believe that!”

 

There is a time and a place for review and reflection, but it is ALWAYS the right time for acceptance.

 

A vital skill in this world is acceptance.

 

Accept yourself as you are.

 

Accept others as they are.

 

Unconditionally embrace what is.

 

Don’t worry about what isn’t.

 

Release your obsession with judgment of yourself.  Express the grace that you need and are worthy of. You are exactly the way you are supposed to be. Break out of contrast and stepping into acceptance.

 

Namaste,

Kevin

 

 

Insider Mindset – Own Your World

Posted on by kgoodman

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Ownership, of an activity, gives an interesting shift to experience. Ownership is powerful. If you feel ownership you care about the outcome. You don’t suffer the apathy of a spectator, you become a participant.

One of the keys to ownership is feeling like an insider.

Have you ever noticed in a good movie or book, that you care about the characters? Not just care, but actually identify with the characters and find a way that the story could be about you. Good storytelling takes time to introduce the characters and make them relatable.

I was watching the remake of Ocean’s Eleven, the other day. About 30 minutes into the movie a team of eleven people is assembled for a party to begin their scheme. I realized as the camera panned around the room, showing all the participants in the scheme, that I knew them all. They had taken the time to introduce each of the characters and I felt like I knew them, I was even comfortable in this group. It is a group of thieves, normally I am a little uncomfortable when surrounded by thieves, but the film had done a fantastic job of introducing each of the characters to me and making me care about what happened to them. I was invested. Regardless of the merit of their activity, I was an insider now, and I wanted them to succeed.

This is something a good manager does. Building up a good story and explaining it clearly to the team. When someone new joins a company or a team, it is important that they understand the motivation of the organization and the players involved. They need to be connected and emotionally invested.

Take a moment and look at your life.

Think about the activities that you own.

Where do you feel like an insider?

Where do you feel like an outsider?

Observe the differences between these two feelings and the results? Do you participate in more insider activities? Or outsider activities? Why?

In many ways being an insider is a choice. If you don’t feel like an insider you can point the finger of blame at the world. Often being an outside is a result of your own choice or perception of not fitting in.

Insiders are the game changers. They are the game makers. They are the backstage pass holders. They take the stage, while everyone else watches from the sidelines.

Shift your mindset. Remember, you hold the key. Find a way to become an insider. Own your world and begin to shape it.

You are the ultimate insider, nobody else is you!

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I would love to hear back on your epiphanies of ownership.

Namaste,

Kevin

Crafting Illusion Into Truth

Posted on by kgoodman

School Shootings.

Corporate Greed.

Genetically Modified Foods, Untested and Unleashed on our food supply.

Religions that teach outsiders are wrong or even evil.

Governments that can’t manage their pocketbooks.

It’s not uncommon for me to be frustrated. I am frequently lost in thoughts of how the world should be and the contrast of how the world actually is causes me tension. This cognitive dissonance creates angst and fatigue as I try to comprehend the space between what is, and what should be.

I believe, that as a culture/society/world, we can rise together to become more and better than we presently are.

I believe that we can craft around us a world that we are truly proud to live in.

I believe we have a lot of work ahead of us.

I have a favorite quote from Babylon 5 (a sci-fi TV show from the 1990’s). A character was delusional, believing he was King Arthur. The delusion was causing this person to live a life of meaning and he was making a difference. The doctor on the show wanted to “heal” him, to bring him back to “reality”. Marcus Cole defended the delusional man’s position saying “Better the illusions that exalt us than 10,000 truths”. “Babylon 5: A Late Delivery from Avalon (#3.13)” (1996)

This has always stuck with me. The world is a challenging place. And the truth of the world, that media would push on us, is that we are a violent and out of control people without moral guidance. But I don’t believe that is the whole truth. It is a half truth that only tells the negative parts of the story.

I choose to focus on the illusions that uplift me and allow for a world that can be better. I choose to believe that we can all be a part of the world we want to live in, and make that world the truth.

I invite you, as 2013 begins, to find the illusions that make our world a better place. Focus in on those illusions until they become our truth.

Namaste,

Kevin

You Cannot Run Out Of Time

Posted on by kgoodman

“You cannot run out of time. There is infinite Time. You are finite. Zathras is finite. This…is wrong tool” – Zathras (Babylon 5, 1996) – click for sound byte

Reminder to self, “time is abundant.”

I have been dropping things lately. The hypochondriac in me was beginning to think I might have some early onset neurological disorder. Then I started looking at when these things were happening, and I realized these occurrences are not coming from system failures, they are coming from my perception of scarcity.

I have been operating in an attitude of scarcity of time. Rushing from one thing to the next has lead me to a mindset of urgency and I have lost patience for the moment.

I could blame our culture. I could point the finger at my financial needs. I could even blame my iphone, always making me tap the screen to make sure I’m not missing anything.

But at the end if the day, blame is no resolution.

I am the one intimately impacted by my rush. I am the projector of the perception of lack.

My attitude of scarcity ripples out and impacts the world around me in so many unseen ways.

So I must remind myself, through grace and release, that “Time is Infinite”.

I love this cliche’ – Each moment is a gift, that’s why they call it the “Present”.

Namaste, Kevin

clock at midnight

The Magical Art Of Believing

Posted on by kgoodman

With Christmas soon upon us I find it appropriate that my latest epiphany regards belief.

From belief in the goodness of mankind to belief in Santa Claus, we live in a world built upon belief. The world around us tends to shape itself to match our beliefs. If we believe the world is a good place, we tend to see the good around us. If we believe the world is a bad place, we tend to see only the bad. Our beliefs manifest themselves to us through our focused attention.

Sometimes when I put my daughter into her car seat (almost 3 years old), she kicks and screams and struggles to avoid being buckled in. There is some incongruity between the action, putting my daughter in her car seat to keep her safe while we travel, and the response, being affronted that we would require that she must sit down and be buckled in. It is like she doesn’t understand that we have her best interests at heart. We are trying to keep her safe. She has her own ideas about what is supposed to happen next.

I realize, after some soul searching, that she may have picked up this behavior from me. I tend to react the same way to the universe. Instead of flowing with my life and allowing for what will come next, I tend to kick and fight and struggle, trying to change the outcome. I have my own opinions about what is supposed to happen next. When reality disagrees with me, instead of peacefully allowing for the change in plans, I tend to stiffen my back, grit my teeth, and bare down for a fight.

This all comes down to two beliefs that I’m working on.

One that I’m trying to strengthen and another that I’m trying to let go of.

The first belief, is the most beneficial, the belief that the universe has my best interests at heart.

If I truly embraced and accepted this I would relax, release and allow myself to be buckled in for safety.

Instead I tend to fight and kick and believe that I know better and that I can control what comes next.

It is this second belief. The illusion of control, that I am working on releasing. Don’t get my wrong, I have a great deal of control over the superficial. I can choose what to wear and what I will eat for lunch and whether to go into work on any given day. But when it comes to the really important things in life, I am simply a co-creator. I am involved and I am affected, but I am not in control. Releasing that perceived control and relaxing is such a blessing, when I remember to do it.

This holiday season reflect on your beliefs. I encourage you to focus in on the beliefs that are empowering you, and release the beliefs that are holding you back.

And regardless of what you believe, how you worship, or how you choose to experience the sacred – I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Namaste, Kevin

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Breathing Through Transition

Posted on by kgoodman

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Let me begin by saying, I am a man. I have only experienced birth as an intimate spectator. Our daughter came into the world in our living room, by design, with our wonderful midwife. I have the utmost respect for women and the choices they have to make involving the health and welfare of themselves and their child’s life, and I intend no disrespect in anything I say in this column. These are simply comments and observations based on my experience as an assistant and observer.

Birth is never easy. But it is natural.

Hospitals tend to make us think it’s a medical condition. When it comes to the treatment of a pregnant woman at a hospital, you would think she had a 50/50 chance of making it through the process. We seem to forget that birth is natural and more specifically something that nature intended for humanity. If birth was an unsuccessful activity that always required surgical intervention, the worlds first surgeon would have never been born.

Birth is a beautiful process involving transition from one state to another. Going from a state of Union to a state of duality. One becomes two.

There are several lessons I learned from the birth of our daughter almost 3 years ago. As we prepare to bring a second new life into the world shortly, after the new year, these lessons are coming to the forefront of my mind once more.

1) Stay calm and remember to breath. Breathing is critical to flowing with the process.

The ocean doesn’t create a beach by throwing itself at a wall of rock one time. It slowly and rhythmically works at the rock wall over many years. Breaking the rocks down bit by bit until the rocks become a fine sandy beach. So too, patience and gentle rhythmic breathing enables the dramatic transformation of birth. If you hold your breath and try to force transition, something will rip, rupture or generally become damaged. You must allow for your body to leverage the flow of the process to enable new life to emerge.

2) Birth cannot be forced, it cannot be rushed, and it cannot be slowed down.

We have drugs to speed things up, we have drugs to slow things down and we have surgery to rush it… But if you intend to stay with the process and allow nature to take it’s course, then you must let go. Be with the birthing process.

3) It’s okay to hire a coach.

Major transitions such as birth are dramatic and powerful. They can also be scary and daunting. It’s okay and even encouraged to find someone experienced at the process and engage their help in the transition.

4) Your work isn’t over after the birth is complete.

We love births! We love having a new life to wonder over and to see the world through fresh eyes. But for a parent, birth is merely a transition state. After the birth, your work isn’t over. Nurturing this newborn is a lifetime practice.

Embrace the work ahead and remember lesson number 1, stay calm and breath.

As I enter several transitions of my own. I find myself pondering the birthing process and trying to learn from it.

When transitions come, I tend to hold my breath, waiting for the next moment to come. This only makes me nervous, anxious, and increases the risk of something rupturing.

Breathe through it.

When transitions come, I tend to want them to get over with. I see the change coming. I want to hurry it up. Get this over with, so I can get on with my life. The change is more powerful if it takes its time and comes naturally. Also, the change is your life. It is not a side station to wait at, the process of change is life in action.

Don’t force it, don’t rush it, it will be here exactly when it is intended to arrive.

When transitions come, I tend to close my eyes and hope I won’t be too alarmed when I open them again. The nature of these transitions is change. Change that occurs needs nurturing after its occurance. For lasting change in your life, you must nurture the result of that change, it will not sustain itself.

Be with the changes in your life. Sit with them, work with them. Allow for the transition. And remember to nurture the results so they grow into healthy changes that can have a positive impact on your world.

Namaste, Kevin

Learning To Trust Again

Posted on by kgoodman

“Listen deeply with your heart, for your heart always knows the truth.” – Drunvalo Melchizedek

Trust is a difficult subject. Trust introduces risk. Risk introduces fear. Fear introduces paralysis.

These are the side effects of trust with expectations.

Trust is not a contract. Trust is not a guarantee of outcome. Trust is a gift.

Trust, in it’s purist form, combined with letting go of the outcome leads to freedom.

Trust encompasses many aspects of our being. One of the biggest challenges I have with trust is my ego. When I trust, I invest ego in the activity. I believe that my trust is a side effect of my insight, and the success of my insight bolsters my ego. So if my trust was misplaced and the outcome is not as promised, my ego takes the hit.

This usually results in me being offended, irritable and generally not the best person to be around.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Trust, to be fully realized and benefited from, must be given and released. The universe has its own plans for our path and the path of those around us.

No one knows for certain what the next moment holds, and mistakes will happen. Mistakes are the currency of the universe. They must be spent for progress to occur. If mistakes are not spent, the spiritual economy seizes up and stagnates.

Consider mistakes the lifeblood of your personal growth. Any healthy organism will frequently make mistakes in order to determine that pathway that succeeds.

So allowing for trust to occur you must also allow for mistakes, and in the process practice grace and compassion. Your trust was given as a gift.

This is especially true when you practice trust with yourself.

Practice compassion and grace on your own efforts. If we were to give up when a mistake happened and stop trusting our instincts, we would never become better at our lives. Every failure is a step forward to success.

Trust me.

Namaste,

Kevin

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Polarity Consciousness

Posted on by kgoodman

Good versus Evil

Liberals versus Conservatives

Republicans versus Democrats

Paper versus Plastic

 

Sometimes the right choice is to not to get pulled into the dichotomy.

 

Polarity consciousness is a way of processing the universe as differentials. It has been argued that this it is a result of our fall from enlightenment to where we are today.

 

Some would even say it is a bad thing.

 

Oddly calling polarity consciousness a bad thing, is a result of polarity consciousness. It is the way 99.9 percent of the people on the planet see the world and process information. I would say 100 percent, but I’m certain there are few people processing on a higher level than me, though I don’t believe they are running the planet or in our government.

 

Pain is meaningless without pleasure. Good is impotent without evil. We process the world, and experience the world, through the differentiating of one thing versus another. In order to judge one thing, it must be contrasted against another.

 

There are a number of gotchas or challenges involved in polarity consciousness that we should be aware of.

 

Having an understanding of how we process ideas can help us guard against that process being used to manipulate us. A great example of this a political election. We typically come out of a major election with a polarized country. Half the country thinks the other half is crazy. Half things they have won and the other half feels they got the shaft.

 

In truth everybody is a little crazy and everybody is a little sane.

 

If we could see past the labels applied to us by people that are trying to manipulate us, we could see, we really have a lot in common. Everybody on the planet really just wants to live a life of meaning and value. But we get caught up on polarizing ideas and think we must defend our side against perceived attackers.

 

Polarity consciousness leads to this type of thinking, and this type of thinking leads to separateness and destructive behaviors.

 

Polarity consciousness leads us to the illusion that we are individuals separate from others. Regardless of your metaphysical leanings, this type of thinking is blatantly false.

 

Walk with me down this path for a moment.

 

A person believes they are right and the other group is wrong. They wish the argument, and the group, would simply go away. Magically they get their wish. The next week they find a new group to disagree with and that group goes away. This would continue until there were only two people left on the planet. They would have a disagreement and now it’s just one man (or woman) and the planet. Then that individual would get in an argument with the planet and suddenly find they got their wish and they were all alone. Needless to say living without others and the planet is unsustainable.

 

This falsehood leads to wars over meaningless differences.

Gratefully nobody has been given this banishment power. When someone tries to seize it, for example Hitler, the world fights back.

 

But this kind of thinking is still going on today because we operate in polarity consciousness.

 

Given the state of our consciousness as a planet, it is difficult if not impossible to escape this way of thinking. In mindful states and during meditation we can catch glimpses of what other perceptions of consciousness are like. But in the end we return to this physical world where we perceive ourselves as ‘other’.

 

Take some time today to remember we are all in this together. Remember your connectedness to others. Unite in the common cause of living a life of value and meaning.

Namaste,

Kevin

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