Meditations on God

Healthy Change
Healthy habits create healthy attitudes.

When we feel good about ourselves, that feeling tends to carry over into other aspects of our lives.

Our outlooks improve and, as this happens, our relationships and even our opportunities improve.

But external results must not be our primary motive as they are largely outside of our control.

Our focus should be on living better, feeling better, and behaving better.

By changing our actions in a healthy way, we change our bodies and minds in a healthy way.

Inevitably, this will have a natural ripple effect in the rest of our lives.

Change like this happens slowly, over a long period of time, however, so we have to be patient and trust the process.

The truth is, if we are healthier in mind, body, and spirit, even if nothing around us changes in kind, we will still be better off for our efforts and more well adapted to interact with an unhealthy world in a healthy way.

‘Healthy Change’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh

HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
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June 24, 2022

change, habits, health, healthy lifestyle, healthy living, holistic
Traversing The Darkness
If someone brings out the worst in us, we should be thankful.

They are doing us a favor.

They are teaching us about parts of ourselves that we may have otherwise remained ignorant of.

It is not easy to unearth the deepest, darkest aspects of our character.

These parts of who we are want to remain hidden.

They avoid the light, knowing that exposure may lead to their demise.

In the shadows of our being, they hide and whisper to us, trying to control us subtly so as to go unnoticed.

Their language is fear, anger, insecurity, and all other forms of life-stealing thoughts and emotions, our isolation and alienation from the light being their only goal.

But every once in a while the darkness within us shows its hand.

Some person or circumstance affects us in just the right way at exactly the right time and the darkness consumes us.

In these moments, it feels as though the light leaves us and all we feel is anger, fear, and pain.

In spite of how we may feel, these moments are a gift, however, for it is through them that we gain our greatest insight into that which is holding us back, controlling us, manipulating us, and keeping us from living a life as our true selves.

If we allow them to be, these moments are enlightening in every sense of the word.

We should, therefore, be thankful for those persons and situations that bring us to these dark, hidden places within ourselves.

For it is only by traversing the darkness within us that we will find our light to shine unto the world.

HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
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June 23, 2022

change, darkness, enlightenment, light, purpose, relationships
Relating To Our Needs
If we are willing to listen, people will tell us what they need from us.

Their needs are often quite different from their wants.

Wants are much easier to express, but they tend to be superficial manifestations of our needs.

Needs run deep and they are usually buried far beneath the distractions of daily life, the influence of the world around us, and the stories we tell ourselves about who we think we are or want to be.

Our wants tend to be relatively simple, measurable, and achievable, even if they ultimately lead us to fulfillment.

Our needs, on the other hand, are quite a bit more complex and elusive.

And yet, our needs are somewhat constant.

They are with us wherever we go, regardless of our material successes or failures.

But we need to really pay attention in order to discover and understand our needs.

They do not shout as loudly at us as our wants do.

Our needs tend to gnaw and nag at us from deep inside.

By being quiet, patient, and compassionate with ourselves, we can slowly become attuned to what our needs are saying, what they are asking or even begging us for, and, through this process, we realize that our needs are not really much different from the needs of others.

From this place of understanding within ourselves, we open up to the needs of others.

And, while others may only be able or willing to tell us what they want from us, we begin to see the underlying truth of their requests or demands because their truth is ours as well even if it manifests differently.

By relating to ourselves and others from this place of fundamental need, we find that life is actually much simpler and far more rewarding.

HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
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June 22, 2022

compassion, empathy, life, needs, wants
Living Through Failure
There will be days when our best effort is simply not good enough.

It may not be good enough for us, for those around us, or for the task or goal we set out to accomplish.

Putting forth our best effort does not guarantee that we will achieve the results we want.

This is a fact of life.

We cannot let this fact dissuade us from trying, however.

Anything worth doing comes with the risk of failure.

In fact, the more worthwhile the goal, the greater the risk of failure that comes with it and the more severe the consequences of failure are likely to be.

But a life without worthwhile goals, that is a life without worthwhile risk, is no life at all.

It is better to live and die a thousand deaths striving for greatness than to die slowly and steadily for one’s entire life without ever having having lived at all.

HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
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June 21, 2022

failure, goals, life, risk
A Catalyst For Transformation
We may wish to change, but without the proper motivation, we may find it an impossible task.

Our habits, patterns, and triggers (for lack of a better word) are deeply ingrained into our psyche.

Our character has been formed by countless experiences and influences, both known and unknown to us.

And these things have affected us in ways it is impossible to fully comprehend.

Of course, there is deep, personal work we can do to better understand how and why we are who we are, but there will always be mysteries within us that no amount of effort can uncover.

Therefore, we find ourselves only partly in control of how we think, act, and communicate.

So much of the who, what, and why of ourselves resides deep beneath our consciousness.

We may admit that certain aspects of our character are objectionable, causing us and the people around us more pain, frustration, and confusion than we would wish to cause if we had a choice.

But if we only have a superficial grasp of these attitudes and behaviors, we can only address them superficially and this likely means temporarily.

Inevitably, when we are caught unawares, perhaps when we are overly tired, overworked, or overwhelmed, in spite of the pain it causes us and the people around us, we revert back to our old ways.

This may continue for years, maybe even for a lifetime if we cannot get down to the causes and conditions that have brought us to this point in our person.

But in order to do this, we must first be vulnerable enough to experience and be changed by the truth of who we have become.

For that to happen, however, there usually needs to be a catalyst, something that forces us to want to change so much that we are willing to dig deep within ourselves to unearth the things that are hiding, the things we could not our were not willing to see.

This catalyst for deep, revolutionary transformation most often manifests in our lives as either unrelenting pain or unwavering love.

And in spite of our wishes, this catalyst usually arrives when we least expect or want it.

If we do not take the opportunity to change when it presents itself, however, we have no guarantee when or if it will return.

Life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who are willing to face the deepest of fears.

HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
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June 20, 2022

change, evolution, fear, transformation, vulnerability

Healthy Change

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Traversing The Darkness

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Relating To Our Needs

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Living Through Failure

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A Catalyst For Transformation

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