Current Events

January 4, 2015

New Year, Renewed Me!

Happy New Year everyone!  How is everyone doing in 2015?  Did you end 2014 with a bang and did you start 2015 with an even bigger bang?  Well I sure hope it was an eventful one for you!  Mine was quite interesting actually.  For the first time in years (and I mean like a decade) I tried something different for my new years celebration.  I went out to the Casino during the day, gambled a little and won $250.00, ate a delicious meal at Ruth’s Chris that cost me about $300.00 and got back home at 10:00pm to ring in the new year at home alone and sober while the rest of the world partied on.

For a while, I got into this terrible habit of always wanting to be out and about celebrating with friends and strangers and ringing in the new year drunk and sloppy and well forgetting everything from the previous year and not really knowing how to start the new year.  I loved being the life of the party and dancing away into the wee hours of the night (which became morning).  I loved dressing up and wearing an expensive dress and getting my hair done and blah blah blah.  I would spend about $500 on just one night of partying all to forget what had even happend during the celebrations.

Going into 2015 I wanted to do something completely different and out of my comfort zone.  Having gotten so used to the party life, all my friends had so many events lined up and I was being invited to every possible outing.  I could’ve gone to a million different house parties, driven down to Montreal, could’ve flewn to New York, traveled to Europe or even gone on an all inclusive trip to celebrate in the Bahamas.  However, this year I CHOSE to stay in and ring in the new year sober and conscious with big dreams for my future.

Don’t get me wrong, I still treated myself, I had an extremely expenisve and delicious last meal and spent time with friends gambling and being out of town.  But, my intention to end and start the years right was my main focus this time around.  It was so difficult for me to make this choice because I know I disappointed a lot of people.  I knew that by choosing to stay in, my friends and family felt neglected.  But, this was something I had to do for myself.  I had to stay in to prove to myself that I could be disciplined.  I wanted to make a point to myself that not only could I handle change, but, I could also embrace it with open sober arms.

My intentions for how I want to be in 2015 started off exactly how I wanted, new, different, sober, humble and responsible.  I chose to celebrate this way because it brought me out of my comfort zone; I don’t always need to be partying for every occassion, I can save money while everyone else spends, I can be sober and still enjoy celebrations and I can be alone while the world spends it with others.  This is exactly what I intended for the new year and the renewed me.  I wanted to be at my very best and start the year off with a great nights sleep (I got 10 hours of sleep to be exact).  I wanted a refreshed, renewed me going into 2015 because I wish to accomplish many things.  I had to start small because big changes are coming.  I am helping myself by taking small steps so when the time comes to handle the big obstacles it won’t be as hard.  2015 started off exactly the way I envisioned, with a renewed purpose and sense of self.

mindbodysoul

“Year’s end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us”. ~ Hal Borland

 

October 23, 2014

The Human “Race”

From the moment we are conceived to the moment we die, we, as humans, are living a race, known as the human “race”.  Starting from the bare seeds within the male testicles the race begins with millions of sperm trying to outrun one another to fertilize the egg in the females uterus.  This is where the race starts and then continues until we die.  Have you ever wondered why it is that we perceive our lives like this?  Everything a race, or a competition against one another and even against ourselves?  Who are we trying to beat?  Where are we trying to go too so fast?  Why do we live in a society where we pin ourselves against each other and compete for better jobs, more money, a bigger and better house, or a better girlfriend or boyfriend?

Even when we look around us, everything is a competition or a race of some kind.  From athletics to job hunting, to fame and fortune, to education to even child rearing.  We are all living our lives trying to out do one another rather than working and collaborating together.  The notion of helping one another and uplifting or empowering others who are not at a certain level is not a norm.  We as humans love to see others fail, we love to see others being judged and degraded by those more superior.  It’s like we have this sick twisted sense of living life.

Notice how even during the Roman Empire times gladiators would fight and peasants would be torn limb from limb savagely by animals while spectators watched happily as one of their own got tormented and destroyed right before their eyes.  Now a days we do not live this barbarically, however, this sense of torment still goes on to this very day.  From sports teams to reality show competitions to scholarships to getting the best jobs, it’s become this habit of ours to judge and criticize others and compare everyone to one another to find the “best” in this race we are living.   I do get that in order for us to achieve certain things we do require the best of the best at times or we do want to learn from the best.  I, myself, aspire to be the best at whatever it is I do, however, this constant competition mode we live in is not healthy for our beings.

I wish for a world where we work together and help others who are not at the same level achieve greatness.  I wish for a world where the best teach the worst, while the worst teach the best about patience, mastering their own fine arts, and gaining the satisfaction of helping others in lesser positions than themselves.  I wish for a world where we don’t have television shows that degrade a person who sings their soul out (even if they weren’t the best), but, instead praise him for being courageous enough to pursue his passion wile giving feedback on how to improve.  I wish for a world where we don’t see women and men being pinned against each other in manipulated competitions just to win a million dollar prize but no satisfaction within our very soul.  I wish to create a world where we empower one another, where if you lack a skill you can turn to your side and ask someone who doesn’t lack that skill to help you understand how to achieve greatness in that particular department.  I wish for a world where, if we do watch television shows, that they teach us about team building and how to work with one another to help solve problems, rather than watch individuals instigate problems while breaking others down.

I know that the human race is far from what I wish it actually was, but, I have the intention to create change in this world and I will put it out into the universe.  I want the world to be exactly as how I mentioned above.  I aspire to make these changes and one day in the future these changes will happen.

mindbodysoul

“If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another.” ~ Winston Churchill

 

 

June 6, 2014

Celebrity Status

I am writing this post to express my deepest concerns with this society.  We are living in an era where we worship celebrities more than finding ourselves, education, God or spirituality.  The very notion that a human being would spend thousands of dollars following someone who does not care or provide for you is mind boggling.  Then on top of that these celebrities get away with murder yet we still follow them.  In fact, we defend them and back them up as though we know them personally and make excuses for their actions.  I get it, we all make mistakes and as humans we can forgive.  But has this society become so stupid that we can’t see right from wrong anymore?

We live our lives making excuses for celebrites.  Especially the ones who live in the public eye.  Celebrites hold a lot of power.  They influence millions through their actions or lack there of.  If a normal person were to commit half of the crimes or “horrendous” acts committed by these celebrities they would be ridiculed, scrutinized and punished thoroughly for his/her acts.  There are consequences for actions.  But, it seems certain celebrites seem to get away with anything and everything and we just accept it without even a hiccup.  We stand together in solitude and claim we have this persons “back” while they endure the backlash for their actions.

I get it, we make excuses for them because we claim, “poor them, they are in the public eye so we need to try to cut them some slack”, “they are human and will make mistakes”, “it’s understandable because of their line of work” and etc..  This is a JOKE.  Seriously?  Because they are in the public eye and have EVERYTHING going for them, they need to take EXTRA precaution to make sure that what they built is not taken away from them.  And we, the people who follow them, should have stronger convictions and morals to stand against a person who has committed a wrong, even if it is someone we admire.  I do not condone certain actions and ignorance.  If my best friend, family member or coworker acts in an ignorant manner I make it clear that I do not condone such acts and I make them see their wrongs and work toward correcting it.  I do not just idly sit by and witness them commit wrongs and then stand behind them.  And these are people that directly affect me, not like a celebrity who doesn’t give two shits about me as an individual.

Take the two current media scandals going on, Donald Sterling vs. Justin Beiber.  Donald Sterling faced severe backlash for discussing his opinions on a matter which NEVER CLEARLY indicated he was being racist.  (Before I get backlash for my opinion, I want to state that I do not condone what he did either).  He was clearly egged on in the conversation by someone who was trying to entrap him.  He NEVER used the N word nor did he clearly come out and say anything derrogatory.  This man was stripped of his ownership not by his choice, but, by mass media attention.  Meanwhile this prepubesent dirty Justin Beiber waste of space and human life did far worse, whereby he used the N word multiple times and made multiple derrogatory references and he has every single person (also black people) standing behind him making excuses for him.  How is this even possible?  Where are his ramifications and consequences for his actions?  Doesn’t matter if this occurred now or before, regardless, he did it and there is video proof.

This is what is wrong with society today.  We are confused and we have no integrity.  We fall for anything because we don’t stand for anything.  We want equality yet there is NOTHING equal about any of this.  Justin Beiber should face the same if not worse consequences than Donald Sterling.  He needs to be stripped of any and all endoresements and made to publically apologize.  How can every sponsor and business stand behind him after what we just witnessed?  This is a joke right?  Public opinion for celebrities in the public eye needs to change.  These celebrities need a harsh reality check and I believe Beibers actions should be the clearest indication that we live in a very double standard, hypocritical, and contradictory society and world.

Time to reflect:

What is your opinion on this matter?  Am I being too harsh about this?  Does this make sense that we live in a world where one person gets penalized so hard while another (who committed a far worse act) gets a pat on the back and sympathy from the world?  I think not.  We need to make changes, immediately.   

mindbodysoul

“The difficulty we have in accepting responsibility for our behavior lies in the desire to avoid the pain of the consequences of that behavior.” ~ M. Scott Peck