I have thought about this many times. I am sure that all of us see many people through out the day where you just kind of shake your head and say…”wow… you don’t get it all, do you?”. Interesting read…

April 7, 2008
People Who Don’t Get It
Compassion for All

You may be someone who understands the true nature of reality, perceiving deeply that we all emanate from the same source, that we are all essentially one, and that we are here on Earth to love one another. To understand this is to be awakened to the true nature of the self, and this understanding is a blessing. Nevertheless, people who just do not get it are seemingly everywhere and, often, occupy positions of power. It can be frustrating and painful to watch them behave unconsciously.

We all encounter individuals such as this in our families, at work, and in all areas of public life. It is easy to find ourselves feeling intolerant of these people, wishing we could be free of them even though we know that separation from them is an illusion.

It helps sometimes to think of us all as different parts of one psyche. Within our own hearts and minds we have dark places that need healing, just as the heart and mind of the world have their dark places. The health of the whole organism depends upon the relative health of the individuals within it. We increase harmony when we hold on to the light, not allowing it to be clouded by judgment, anger, and fear about those who behave unconsciously. It is easier to accomplish this if we don’t focus on the negative qualities of individuals and instead on how increasing our own light will increase that of the overall picture.

When dealing with people who seem very unconscious, it helps to remember that everyone must find their own way to awakening, and that the experiences they are having are an essential part of their process. Holding them in the glow of our energy may be the best way to awaken theirs. At the same time, we are inspired by their example to look within and shed light on our own unconscious places, sacrificing the urge to judge and surrendering instead to humble self-inquiry.

This was a really nice weekend. Allow me to recap:

Friday – A pretty uneventful work day, but, since I did work at home, I got a chance to get a killer work out in at the fit forge (my garage). This workout consisted of:

Jump Rope: 5m / 4m / 3m / 2m / 1m / 30s / 15s / 30s / 1m / 2m = 19m, 15s

Tabata Set:

1. Heavy Bag
2. Wood choppers with a medicine ball
3. Crunches / Reverse Crunches
4. That thing where you hold the plate in front of your chest then move it around the back of your head.
5. Jar holding

After finishing work, I shaved my head with Victoria’s help:

… hilarious… I’m keeping it… for now…

That night, Victoria and I ate dinner at home, then went over to Shooter’s for a few to play some pool. It was a fun time. I hadn’t done that in a while.

Saturday, was a day filled with errands in preparation for my grandparents coming to visit. I don’t really remember a whole lot from yesterday, but I did get caught up on some laundry as well as some Ratchet and Clank for the PS3… very fun game.

We went to pick my grandparents up at 7pm, which was when their plane landed. Nice how that works out. After getting them, we stopped to get a bite to eat, then came home and chilled out for the rest of the night.

Today (Sunday), we slept in a little, got up, ate breakfast. We did a lot of hanging around today. I was supposed to go meet my friend Jose to talk about a project that we are working on, but that didn’t work out. Anyway… we ended up going to HEB to grab some groceries, then over to Home Depot. My grandfather was very gracious to buy me some stones for my flowerbeds in the front of the house. They look nice. I will post some pics when I take some.

On a good suggestion from Ryon, I also picked up some parts from Home Depot to build these:

http://www.rosstraining.com/articles/wheel.html

Here’s the video… insane:

All in all, they cost around $25 for BOTH!!! I tried them after I made them… I have a lot of work to do to get even close to this dude, or… well… anyone who is competent with these things. Whoa… ab pain… whoa…

Also, him and my grandmother cooked some arroz con pollo…mmmm…. for your gringos, that means “rice with chicken”. After eating that, we did some more hanging out. And, here I am… laying in bed, 1/2 watching ATHF, 1/2 blogging.

Looking forward, this coming week is my last at my current employer. I will be sure to post some more regarding my feelings on this topic. Unfortunately, being that this is a public forum, I can’t really speak or write what I really want to. It will be a good one… I promise = ) … stay tuned.

Read it… this is a good one:

April 4, 2008
Permission To Forgive Ourselves
Releasing Guilt

Learning to accept the things that we perceive as wrong can be a difficult task for many of us. Often we have been brought up to accept that it is normal to feel guilty about our actions and that by doing so we will make everything seem alright within ourselves. Even though we might feel that we have a reason to make up for the choices we have made, it is much more important for us to learn how to deal with them in a healthy and positive way, such as through forgiveness and understanding.

When we can look back at our past and really assess what has happened, we begin to realize that there are many dimensions to our actions. While feeling guilty might assuage our feelings at first, it is really only a short-term solution. It is all too ironic that being hard on ourselves is the easy way out. If we truly are able to gaze upon our lives through the lens of compassion, however, we will be able to see that there is much more to what we do and have done than we realize. Perhaps we were simply trying to protect ourselves or others and did the best we could at the time, or maybe we thought we had no other recourse and chose a solution in the heat of the moment. Once we can understand that dwelling in our negative feelings will only make us feel worse, we will come to recognize that it is really only through forgiving ourselves that we can transform our feelings and truly heal any resentment we have about our past.

Giving ourselves permission to feel at peace with our past actions is one of the most positive steps we can take toward living a life free from regrets, disappointments, and guilt. The more we are able to remind ourselves that the true path to a peaceful mind and heart is through acceptance of every part of our lives and actions, the more harmony and inner joy we will experience in all aspects of our lives.

Taken from Health & Nutrition by Michael R. Eades, M.D.:

Another example of the difficulty in resolving cognitive dissonance from today’s Wall Street Journal:

What, really, is Mrs. Clinton doing? She is having the worst case of cognitive dissonance in the history of modern politics. She cannot come up with a credible, realistic path to the nomination. She can’t trace the line from “this moment’s difficulties” to “my triumphant end.” But she cannot admit to herself that she can lose. Because Clintons don’t lose. She can’t figure out how to win, and she can’t accept the idea of not winning. She cannot accept that this nobody from nowhere could have beaten her, quietly and silently, every day. (She cannot accept that she still doesn’t know how he did it!)

She is concussed. But she is a scrapper, a fighter, and she’s doing what she knows how to do: scrap and fight. Only harder. So that she ups the ante every day. She helped Ireland achieve peace. She tried to stop Nafta. She’s been a leader for 35 years. She landed in Bosnia under siege and bravely dodged bullets. It was as if she’d watched the movie “Wag the Dog,” with its fake footage of a terrified refugee woman running frantically from mortar fire, and found it not a cautionary tale about manipulation and politics, but an inspiration.

Most of you who know me know that I am mostly apathetic when it comes to politics. I believe that the outcome has already been decided and that we sheople have nothing to do with who is actually "elected" to be the next president of this fine, fine country. However… please, please, for the love of god, do not let this righteous cunt become president.

"But she has a federal healthcare program that will cover all American’s"… right.. and you will wait forever for baseline care, at best. Oh… while paying out your ass in taxes. The fucking money for federal programs has to come from SOMEWHERE, people. Oh, and when they raise taxes, they don’t ask you how much you would like to contribute.

We are fucked… and not in the good way. This country is being destroyed from the inside out and it’s not going to get any better unless, the retards of America wake up and see what is under their noses…

Go here….

So, after a few months of really trying to enjoy my work, I have fallen back into the general “working for the weekend” or “do as little as you can do to not get noticed” mentality. I know what you are thinking “oh no, not another whiny, complaining blog entry about how much Bryan doesn’t like working”. No, my friend, not this time.

My general gripe is the lack of feeling of accomplishment/satisfaction that I experience on a daily basis. To put it really short and sweet, I was out sick yesterday (I should be today too, but am not) and I feel like I got the same amount accomplished as if I would have gone into the office and “worked”. I suppose what I am saying is that my current work experience leaves me feeling empty and borderline ashamed by the end of the day.

I go to work everyday pretty much knowing that I am going to spend most of the twiddling my thumbs and being really confused while more people ask for more shit from me. The biggest problem that I feel is that I really just straight up don’t care about the technology that my job entails which, by the domino affect, makes me not want to learn anything regarding said technology to become better at my job.

It’s a vicious cycle and I really feel like I need to get out.

Some would say that you work for what you do after work. Meaning, I suffer during the day and do what I want at night and on the weekend. Why should it have to be like that? Why should I have to endure despising what I toil on from 8am-5pm? Why is that I have to feel embarrassed when I tell people where I work? Why is it that I have to force myself to do the smallest amount of work? Why is it that I have to spend all day not having a clue as to what I am doing nor caring that I have no clue as to what I am doing?

Another thing that really bothers me is the antiquated technology that I “use” in my current incarnation. For every unit of time that I spend there, I feel that I am becoming more and more out of touch with what the real world is using to get things done. Who the fuck is still using C?

The culture and mentality makes me sick. Creativity and “innovation” are not fostered. Well… outwardly they are, but good luck with your ideas. They will go into the void. Make sure you work your 60 hours a week on … well, who the fuck knows and just keep pluggin’ away. Oh, and did I mention to keep your head down while you do that so you don’t see the rest of the world advancing around you? Yeah, do that too. The “cover your ass” mentality has really gotten to me. I do it, and I hate the fact that I do. I will give people answers just so they s.t.f.u and leave me the hell alone. I only help those that scream the loudest.

Clearly, I am disgruntled. Nothing I do at this place matters.

Maybe change will come soon. I am hoping.

I got this one today:

March 11, 2008
Nothing Big Required
You Are Enough

Most of us have the feeling that we are here to accomplish something big in our lives, and if we haven’t done something that fits the bill we may feel as if we are waiting. We may feel incomplete, or empty, as if our lives don’t yet make sense to us, because they don’t line up with our idea of major accomplishment. In some cases, this may be because we really are meant to do something that we haven’t yet done. But in most cases, we can let ourselves off the hook with the realization that just being here, being ourselves, is enough.

As we live our lives in this world, we share our energy and our spirit with the people around us in numerous ways. Our influence touches their lives and, through them, touches the lives of many more people. When we strive to live our lives to the fullest and to become our true selves, we are doing something big on an inner level, and that is more than enough to make sense of our being here on this planet at this time. There is no need to hold ourselves to an old idea in the back of our minds that we need to make headlines or single-handedly save the world in order to validate our existence.

We can each look within our hearts to discover what is true for us, what gives our lives meaning, and what excites us. We can release ourselves from any pressure to perform that comes from outside of our inner sense of purpose. Staying in tune with our own values and living our lives in tune with our own vision is all we need in order to fulfill our time here. Our lives are a process of becoming so that we cannot help but co-create; being who we are, responding to each moment as it comes, we can trust that this is enough.

I liked this one very much. So many people search for purpose and spend their entire lives wondering what they are “supposed” to do when what they should be doing is “just being”.

I have finally posted my 101 list. I have linked it in the “linx” section. I will start posting there regarding my 101 progress.

Over and out…

I read this this morning and loved the advice. I thought I would share it:

Do you want magical fat loss?  Here are five tips.

1.) Sleep an extra hour per night.  The hormonal response produced from getting the sleep that you really need, is truly magical.

2.) Eat breakfast.  When you break your night long starvation and feed yourself with the food that you need, it boosts your metabolism. 

3.) Keep a workout log.  Track how often you are really getting in to the gym, and how much stronger you are really getting.

4.) Keep a food log.  Track the number of meals that you eat each week that are unprocessed, whole food, and have protein.  Track the number of meals you eat that are crap.  Make sure you have good food at least 80% of the time.  Ideally 90%.

5.) Repeat steps 1-4.  They are the things you should be doing anyway.  Magical results come from doing the basics correctly, and with consistency.

See the full article here (I strongly recommend RSS’ing this blog if you do RSS stuff):

Magical Fat Loss Green Tea? Is this for real?

I know, I know, the title says “awesome weekend”, but I am going to go back a little bit to Wednesday because, I think that is where the streak of awesome days happened.

Wednesday – Worked sucks, but after work, my softball team won (bringing out record to 1-1) with a score of 23-8. It was a good old fashion beat down.

Thursday – Speaking of beat downs, I passed my test into 1st brown belt. 6 more months and I’ll be testing for 1st black. I can’t wait. I did pretty well on the sparring portion as well = ).

Friday – Conditioning class was rough this week. In fact, it’s rough every week. Friday was a rather stressful day at work. I ended up leaving a little bit later than I had wanted to, but I avoided having to work over the weekend which was really all I cared about. After work, Victoria and I just chilled out at my place, ate dinner, watched a movie, and fell asleep.

Saturday – I want to my first Shaolin tournament. I participated in every even that I was able to except open forms. I didn’t know there was an “open forms” event. I would have done 1st road of Golden Leopard had I had known… anyway. I took 1st place in 1st Brown level forms and 3rd in Chen tai chi. You might be thinking “3rd, that’s not so hot”. Well, when your competition is Sifu Paul and Sifu Mikey Tran, both guys that have been doing this way longer than I have, 3rd is something to be very proud of.

My sparring sucked ass this weekend. I was really not happy with it at all. Although I got some good hits in, I did not win any of my matches. One of my friends told me that I wasn’t myself and I agree. I guess it was just an off sparring day. Oh well, can’t win em’ all.

Master Joe gave a talk about sparring techniques to use to basically “unfocus” the mind on being so fixed on the “if he does this, I do that” strategy. I wish I would have heard that before my sparring matches = ). It’s stuff that I had heard already but always like to be reminded of.

In light of my crappy sparring and Master Joe’s talk. I am starting to incorporate Open Focus back into my daily routine of things. If you see me on a regular basis and know me, please bug the shit about me about open focus. Thank you.

The best part of the tournament though, was being there with all of my friends and some who I consider family. I cannot express what great things have come from this school and this thing that we all do together. It was great to be part of the competition, but it’s also great to cheer your friends on and see what awesome things they too have accomplished. There are lot’s of pictures and I will post them… AS SOON AS PEOPLE SEND THEM TO ME.

After the tournament was all over, I went over a party at Victoria’s place. It was small, but a lot of fun. I stayed over there that night.

Sunday – I went to Target to get some new stuff for the guest bathroom as it was looking pretty bare. After that, I got a bug up my ass to get a new bed set. I went to 6 freakin’ places and didn’t see anything that I liked. I think that I may have to turn to the info tubes for this one.

When I got home, I just did some stuff around the house like laundry, cleaning, vacuuming. Victoria came over and we hung out for a bit, then I went to the Black Belt Banquet at Dave & Busters. That was a lot of fun. It was really awesome to spend the evening with people that I not only work out and train with but admire and look up to.

Master Joe put together a short video about his history in this art. It was so great to see him as a younger guy in sparring matches, in competitions, doing forms, and just really doing what we are all doing now. It was a really fun night.

When I got home, Victoria was there just chillin ( she stayed at my place when I went to the BBB ). We just chilled for the rest of the night and eventually fell asleep.

Not to kill the mood or anything, but… now, I’m … at… work… feh. The cycle begins anew. The only thing keeping me going is the new leopard class that starts tonight (aww yea…).

Good news everyone!!! I have removed the security from my blog, so if you were having problems RSSing it, you shouldn’t anymore.