Learn to Appreciate

We tend to look at obstacles in a negative way. This is something we might be able work on, slowly learning to treat obstacles as learning experiences and as positive things in general. I mentioned that before, here.

But this post is about the other side--how we look at the good things we have. There are so many things we have and simply take for granted. This is true, for example, for an employer who mistreats an employee because he thinks it doesn't matter (after all, the mistreated employee is getting paid, right?). It's also true for family and friends we take for granted, often not pausing to appreciate the fact that a person has chosen us to spend a lifetime with (or in the case of friends, even just a rare afternoon at the football stadium).

Once we figure this one out, it's possible to look further and learn to appreciate everything around us.

The ideas above, by the way, are much better explained in this post from Dream Manifesto, where author Jack Canfield writes

When you are in a state of appreciation and gratitude, you are in a state of abundance. You are appreciating what you do have instead of focusing on, and complaining about, what you don’t have. Your focus is on what you have received… and you always get more of what you focus on.

On Meditation, Spirituality, and Howard Stern

I've commented on some blogs (as well as mentioning it here) that I approach meditation as a physical/mental exercise rather than a spiritual one, and it led me to think about spirituality and about what I'm missing.

I do believe that a spiritual background could make it easier to meditate, but is it really necessary?

None other than Howard Stern is actually a big fan of meditation. It's something he's been doing before each show for many years, since his first radio job. But like me, he feels no connection to the spiritual side of meditation.

So, am I missing something here?

Or is spiritual meditation just another path to the same place we all reach through meditation?

Or is there a third option: Am I, by meditating and getting the peace I need to distance myself from myself actually practicing the spiritual meditation? In other words, if I get to where I need to go, does it mean I'm having a spiritual experience (even as I distance myself from that word)?

On Daily Meditation

Goal number six in my slowly growing list of 101 goals is to meditate daily for a week. I had achieved this goal soon after starting this project. It was an easy goal, requiring a few minutes a day for a week.

But then, following the good feeling I felt when I updated the goal list to write this goal was complete, I pretty much neglected the meditation.

But why is that? To be fair, I can only do that at night, when my baby is asleep. And between fearing him waking up and the dogs barking, I can't bring myself to relax even for a few minutes, even though I regret it every night, knowing a day without meditation is a day with more stress and less understanding.

Writing it down here actually allows me to make sense of things. It's a cycle that can be broken only by me. I too stressed to meditate, which means that if I allow myself these five minutes I will not be stressed anymore.

Come on... I can do this. In fact, I'll create another goal: #51: Now that I've succeeded in meditating daily for a week, I will meditate daily for a month.

We'll go from there.

Back to Verizon

. . . Then one day I got a postcard in the mail from Dick Cheney, saying "Thanks a Million." A few weeks later I got a letter explaining this was part of a marketing campaign for Credo Mobile, formerly known as Working Assets. They were giving me examples of the ways Verizon (and other cellphone companies) have trampled on our civil rights in cooperation with the Bush administration.

Unlike Verizon and AT&T, they were a good company.

So I turned a blind eye to the fact that they were getting cellphone service through Sprint, which was just as eager to share our phone calls with Bush and Cheney. And I turned a blind eye to the fact that their credit card wasn't independent, but was part of MBNA and then Bank of America.

And for months I even turned a blind eye to the fact that the service was unbelievably bad.

I would sit on one end of the couch and talk, then move to the other side of the couch and the call would drop, telling me I was now roaming...

Things added up, and I couldn't turn a blind eye anymore. The internet stopped working, most calls were going straight to voice mail, the camera sucked, the speed dial didn't work...

It's been less than a year, and I've decided it's time to move back to Verizon. It's time to turn a blind eye to Verizon's Bush-era crimes. Good luck to Credo Mobile. Sorry.

And Dick Cheney, you're welcome.

Steve v4.6

Steve v4.8 Weight Loss Blog

I like to give shout outs here every once in a while. In the past, I had mentioned Mike's livelife365, and more recently I wrote a post about Donald Foley's An Actor's Journey.

And today, a post about Steve.

One day, as it happens, Steve realized he had lost control. I know how that feels, having quit smoking by the ol' "Eat a snickers bar every time you crave a cigarette" method. And I too had lost control, gaining 40 pounds in two months. For me, just the shock of the rapid gain was enough to start taking care of myself, but for others, the weight gain is slow, almost unnoticeable until it hits you.

When it hit Steve, he decided to take control over his body.

The name of the blog refers to Steve's age, but also to the versions of himself. As he ages, he's taking more control over his life and his weight--losing over 150 pounds, taking up yoga, discovering nutrition, and writing great sentences, like this one:

But whether I live to the ripe old age of 48-1/4 or 148-1/4 matters little, so long as I strive to improve myself every single moment- and enjoy the scenery along the path I create as I go.