The Beauty of Disconnection

“Without great solitude no serious work is possible.”
– Pablo Picasso

There are mornings when I wake up and refuse to turn on my MacBook, sometimes I'll even shut off my Blackberry for a couple hours. I’ll just sit or lay down somewhere in my house, knowing full well I cannot be distracted in this moment. I listen to a song that inspires me (or as Stephanie Koch would call them: "Helicopter Songs") and just reflect on life, try to realize my dreams coming true, or pretend I am somewhere else by losing myself in a good novel. Some nights I’ll sit down and write my most passionate thoughts for hours on end. Nothing but the quiet stillness of the night and the gentle tapping of the keyboard. Minutes passing by with the blink of an eye and hours seeming like minutes.

And it’s beautiful.

The days when I want to take in that same tranquility but not stay indoors, I’ll take my longboard across town to run some errands. The exhilaration I get from the cool wind breeze in my face as I burn down rural hills and city side streets gives me is beyond liberating, it gives me a natural high. Reminiscent of times I've been on ecstasy, except with no down side. What could be more perfect. I enjoy the moment as I bask in my connection with life and my disconnection from technology.

These are the moments when disconnection shows its glorious face, when life is in full force, when we are fully connected to the world immediately around us, while disconnected from the world at large. These moments have become increasingly rare because of our connectedness with technology, thus why I pursue these moments and disconnect as often as I want. I'm not saying we should abandon technology. It’s not the technology we should be afraid of. It’s a life where we’re always connected, always interrupted, always distracted, and continuously bombarded with information and requests. It’s a life where we have no time to create, or connect with real people. Disconnection is the solution, or at least an integral part of it. It’s very difficult for many people, because connection is addictive. But what's difficult is always worth it. Nothing comes by easy, especially if it is to benefit your lifestyle and mental/physical health.

This week, I challenge you to remove certain distractions from your life. Be honest with yourself and think about what vices you have in your life right now that are eating hours away from your personal life. Whether it be time spent on your cell phone, sitting around playing video games, or the hours per week you spend perving on Facebook. Trust me, you won't miss much. One week removed, based on your honesty and willpower you will notice a significant change in your life. Things you "Liked" before will start to lose it's value and soon you will come to realize that none of that stuff before actually mattered. Most importantly, you will gain a greater awareness of what you actually want in life, day by day becoming closer to the true being in you. You can only begin to understand your purpose when you eliminate these kind of distractions. Disconnect from your current reality and take the blindfold off your eyes before it's too late. The thing is not many people actually get to live, most just exist. That's it. People have it made up in their minds that happiness is a pursuit or a direction and they will focus on it when the moment presents itself. The truth is that this fictional, fairy tale moment never comes. Happiness is waiting for you right now beneath your feet. The only question you should ask yourself:

Will you lower yourself as much to find it there?

My Decision to Leave Facebook

Question:

Why are we so caught up in our obsession with online social connectivity?

Yesterday, I had an eye opening experience while sitting on the couch of a newly acquainted friend's condo. I was having a momenet with my Blackberry only to take my eye off of her for a second to find the other 3 guys in the room consumed by their iPhone, MacBook, and PS3 respectively. There was little to no conversation happening in the room and it made me a little disgusted, especially since I was one of the people involved in the "screen slavery". Never before have screens got more attention than human beings. Here's a test, next time you're at school, work or out for dinner with friends, observe how many people are involved with their phones more than making actual connectivity with the people around them, it's quite disturbing. We are becoming like droids being plugged into this stream of technology infused culture where distraction is all around us and productivity is no where to be found.

We are now more than a decade into the "Age of Information", but you might as well call it the Age of Distraction because there have never been more to keep our minds off what really matters. While humanity has never been completely free of distraction, in the present day never have the distractions been as overwhelming and persistent as it is right now. Thus why I plan on minimalizing distraction by removing Facebook and other time wasting tools out of my personal life.

Cable was the first distraction I cut out of my life. I became an avid reader, keeping my face in more books instead of logging time on Facebook. I soon found out that book after book, my understanding of the world we live in became increasingly more vivid and clear. You could say, I now have a higher definition of viewing the world from viewing less high definition. Easily one of the best decision I made in 2010. This year I planned on removing Facebook from my life. After reasoning with myself and subconsciously picking up on some obvious signals along the way, I made the choice to remove a major distraction and notorious time killer from my life.

This is more than just a statement, it's a vision of something bigger to come. The underlying focus is to boost the moral and personal gratification of certain aspects in my life and spend more time concentrating on intimate relationships, not just connecting with them online. Yes, connecting with family and close friends online is important to me but paradoxically, I feel there would be a boost in our quality of life, our relationships, and our sense of community if we all spent less time social networking online and spent more time concentrating on actually connecting with people we truly and genuinely care about in real time. Erin Lacourciere said it best as her New Year's Resolution: "Less Face-book time and more Face time."

It is a lot easier to hide behind a keyboard than it is to confront someone. We spend less time with our friends and family because when we are with them we are all on our mobile devices being consumed by whatever it is that is happening right now in the fast-paced, never ending, always growing social networking world. There are simple solutions to devoting more love and appreciation to your closest friends and family, instead of reverting to SMS, Email or Facebook. Make a phone call or surprise them with a quick visit to their home. It will show that you have character, a quick text messag can give off the impression that you are a "care-acter", not actually caring. It's easy to pretend and be fake behind the anonymity of a keyboard, in fact I find it to be very impersonal and cheap. If you truly care about someone, you will make the extra effort to get in touch with them, call them, or even stop by for a visit like the good old days before cell phones when we were little kids and your friends actually ran over to your house to see you, it shows love and legitimate care for a person. I miss that and want to find a way to resurrect these old school values in a new school way.

Facebook has become the lazy person's tool for staying "connected" without actually having to be connected. Attaining more friends without actually having any friends. Staying in the loop with your communities with out even having to leave the house. This is a sad, yet true reality of the way things are and where we are headed. I say just because this is how it is right now, doesn't mean it's the way it has to be.

All I know is in the present day, 2011, we have entered into a time where we can no longer escape technology. We have created it and now it has consumed us. There is virtually endless amounts of shopping, downloading, uploading, surfing, blogging, social networking, and gaming that can take up all of your precious personal time. All the while, as you're brain is being sucked into your one-on-one time with your computer, several new notifications have popped up on your Blackberry or iPhone, forcing you to be distracted every minute of every hour, stealing your attention away from the most important matters in life.

If you don't know what I'm talking about consider this.

Right now you have several programs opened up on your MacBook, multiple pages on your web browser, you're PVR'ing two shows at the same time while watching another and attempting to keep five BBM/SMS conversations going all at once. This is just one primary example of the multitude of distractions in our day-to-day lives. Removing one or many of these is a huge step towards the productiveness of our humanity and image of our reality.

We’ve come into this Age without being aware that it was actually happening or
even realized the consequences to follow. The sad truth is that the internet has become an addiction for many. There’s this instant short-term gratification we receive from constant activities such as checking our email, text messages, favorite blogs, forums, Twitter, Myspace, and Facebook. That’s why it’s so easy to become addicted to being connected and distracted. No one seems to think there is anything wrong with this; meanwhile other addictive activities, such as doing harmful drugs or eating unhealthy fast food have the same kind of instant positive feedback. You do the activity and almost instantly you’re rewarded with some kind of pleasure and you don’t feel the negative consequences until later.

It has become so outrageous that now it is not only a standard but an expectation for you to be a part of social networking. It's in our blood, you're either dead or you're Facebooking. More than half of Canadian citizens are now on Facebook so it has officially become the norm. I'm sure some of you have seen the 2010 blockbuster, "Social Network" if you haven't rent it today and open your eyes to what is known as the biggest phenomenon on the planet today. Facebook. Embarrassingly so it has even interlaced into our lingo.

"Today, I Tagged your sister, Liked your girlfriend's profile, then Poked your mom"

Facebook has become the "Face" of our world and to many quitting would seem like an outlandish or even Amish thing to do. Sure, I'll wind up a social networking outcast. I won't be invited to all of the important "groups" and hyped up "events". Let's just say, it's the risk I'm willing to take to receive less distraction, more productivity, and a higher quality of life.

Here’s an example of how distracted you are. If you somehow have made it this far reading my words, how many times did you get distracted or tempted to switch to something else? How many times did you think of something you wanted to do, check your phone, change the channel or deviate from this page by means of other distractions? How many times did you want
to switch, but resisted? How many different things made a noise or visual distraction while you were reading? How many people tried to get your attention? In an ideal world, the answers to all those questions would be “zero”, you’d be able to read with no distractions, and completely focus all the time.

Removing Facebook is one rather large source of distraction for me personally. It will allow me to harness more of my time on writing, creating, and maintaining important relationships as well as getting my career on the right track. I hope some of you have become inspired to alter or remove certain distractions from your own lives. It doesn't have to necessarily be Television or Facebook. It can be anything, as long as know you are making a conscious effort to strive towards realizing your purpose, potential and living out your true passion.

Finally, to put things into perspective, out of nearly 1000 people that I have on Facebook, roughly 100 will acknowledge this post. Out of those 100, maybe 10-15 will actually read this. Out of those 10-15, few will read the entire thing without being distracted, but only one will become inspired to do the same with their life. One is all I am looking for right now. You can't expect the masses to lead, following is what we do and what we have done for centuries and centuries. All it takes is one leader out of 1000 to stand up and spark the necessary change needed within a society. If no one stands up, we will continue to head in a direction with no direction. When the Italians decided to sail the uncharted seas into the unknown, somebody had to step up and steer the ship. That man was Columbus. If it were not for his uncanny courage, they would not have founded North America and who knows what the state of our culture would look like right now or if there would even be one. I'm not saying I'm Columbus but today we are faced with the same kind of challenges as they did. For the last decade and a half we have been surfing the uncharted seas of the web in discovery of something better. We have already realized the infinite access to information we have on the internet, yet we have become the laziest and most unproductive Age in history. Quite simply because there have never been more to distract us. In reality, given the circumstances and access to resources and technology we do today, it is remarkable how little we actually get done. It is time to reshape the way we view our world, ourselves, and each other. There is a better way and I plan on finding out exactly what that is.

You're Already Perfect

‘Be Content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.’ ~Lao Tzu

A lot of people go to the library or local book store and pick up personal development self-help books because they want to improve something about themselves. They’re not satisfied with their lives, they’re unhappy with their bodies, in their mind, the way things are is never enough.

I know... because I was one of those people.

This desire to improve upon self and compare ourselves to others was one of the things that led to writing. I got sick and tired of trying to keep up, set trends, be relevant, see the latest movies and be involved in the latest reality tv shows. Blah, blah, blah. This fake reality soon became overplayed and highly stressful.

Suddenly, I had a powerful realization that has helped me is simply my life: You’re already good enough as you are, you already have more than what you need and you’re already perfect just the way you are.

Try saying that to yourself, as corny as that might sound, just to see if it sounds true. Does it resonate as something you already believe (in which case, you can probably stop reading now), or does it not feel right? Do you feel like there are things you still need to improve?

The thing I’ve learned, and it’s not some new truth but an old one that took me much too long to learn, is that if you learn to be content with who you are and where you are in life, it changes everything. All of a sudden, your life as you know it becomes actually enjoyable and you start living life passionately, instead of robotically. You become yourself (and what a breath of fresh air that is) and you start to throw opinions, standards and categories out the window. This makes room for not only overall improvement of the quality of your own life but it also translates into your relationships, aquaintances and even complete strangers. People will start to see you glowing (not physically of course but metaphysically) and want to know more about what it is that makes you enjoy being in your own skin, loving life, living out passions eloquently as a consequence of your choice of being.

Really take a moment to realize the depth of what I am saying here: You already have everything you need to be happy, right here, right now. One day you will wake up and understand this. Don't let it be on your death bed.

Let's put things into perspective here...

You already possess two eyes that have the ability to appreciate the beauty of the northern skies, the radiance of the sunlight beaming down on your face, the constellations revealing the divine masterpiece of our existence.

You already possess two ears that have the ability to appreciate the sound of your favorite music beating beautifully on the inner rhythm of your heart beat, the sound of rainfall (almost nightly if you live in Vancouver, so you better start appreciating it), the laughter of your friends and loved ones, a baby crying for it's mother understanding what it is to be loved and appreciated.

You already possess two nostrils that have the ability to smell the fresh-cut grass, coffee first thing in the morning, the fresh scent of ocean breeze on a hot mid summer night.

And you already possess two hands that have the ability to brush the face of the one you love most, understanding what it is to be loved and give love in it's dawning essence. Hands to hold, hands to shake a complete stranger and exchange kindness and radiance into each other's lives.

These blessings are a miracle that we take for granted.

Instead, we strive for more and more when we already have everything. We spend so much time and money on things that will "supposedly" improve our lives. We want nicer clothes, cooler gadgets, bigger muscles, bigger boobs, flatter stomachs, bigger houses, more cars with robotic voices that talk to you and command you where to go. Call me an old soul but I feel that we’ve kind of gone insane in this rapidly increasing want for more as an overall Western society.

The sane thing is to realize we don’t need any of that. We don’t need to improve our lives. We don’t need to improve ourselves, because we’re already perfect.

Once you accept this truth, it will free you.

You will now be free to do things you never before thought imaginable. Not because you want to be better than the next guy, but because you do what you love and you love what you do. The secret ingredient to this you ask? Do only what you are passionate about and gives you the most amount of joy. Find it, follow it, pursue it and become it. Don't wait for someday because John Fogerty once told me, "Someday never comes".

2011: The Canvas

“We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”

~Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961) Journalist, Novelist

There could not be a more fitting time than 1.1.11 to begin crafting the image of self and the life around you. Today we have been given a blank canvas and an opportunity to realize more of what we have in store for 2011. Create an image of your own identity where your thoughts are the brush hand woven by the mind, your consciousness is the framework and your life is your canvas.

Before you begin, make sure your canvas is authentic to you and not anybody else's. The most beautiful paintings are crafted not just from a paint brush but more so behind a crystal clear vision. An inward view of beauty which becomes an outward product of the life which you see before you.

When sketching the image of your life, imagine it from the inside out and not the other way around. If you have problems looking within, stare at yourself in the mirror. The truth may look ugly to you but with a clean canvas, you have the ability to change your image for now and forever.

The most beautiful art is simplicity in it's essence. Erase the clutter from 2010 and concentrate your craft on only that which matters most to self. Don't paint things or possessions or attainments or achievements. Those don't matter in the true image of self. There is much more beauty which beholds within.

Make an effort in your art to create something new, not reproducing what has already been done. Most of society places higher priority on following or keeping up with a fast paced, always moving world. Our effort should consist of creating a more gratifying human world with more creativity and less conformity.

Today, stand in front of your canvas and envision the shape in which you want your year to look like. It starts now, while it is the most fresh in your head, not tomorrow when the vision is cloudy. Don't hesitate, start sketching it out in your head. Take the initiative to live your life according to the way only you know you can. Life is what you make of it. Take your brush, dip it into your soul and paint your true nature the way it was intended. I think Kahlil Gibran, the Prophet said it best here,

"True art arises when the secret vision of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes."

Real creation is expression through the way you craft yourself. You are a canvas, life is your creation, now go carve your future.

Photo Credit: Erik Olavi Vesterinen

The Fisherman and The Businessman

SUCCESS

 

It is in our human nature to desire to be successful. We all want success. But how do we measure success? 

 

This is a story about a Mexican fisherman who illustrates success in a simple life well lived.

 

The businessman was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The businessman complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them. The Mexican replied only a little while.

 

The businessman then asked why he didn't stay out longer and catch more fish? The Mexican said he had enough to support his family's immediate needs. The businessman then asked, but what do you do with the rest of your time? The Mexican fisherman said, "I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine and play guitar with my amigos; I have a full and busy life, señor."

 

The businessman scoffed, "I am a Harvard MBA and I could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat you could buy several boats; eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor and eventually open your own cannery. You would control the product, processing and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City where you would run your expanding enterprise."

 

The Mexican fisherman asked, "But señor, how long will this all take?" To which the businessman replied, "15-20 years." "But what then, señor?" The businessman laughed and said, "That's the best part! When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich. You would make millions." "Millions, señor? Then what?" The businessman said, "Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos."

 

The fisherman, still smiling, looked up and said, "Isn't that what I'm doing right now?"

 

-Author Unknown

 

We live in a world in which being successful means everything. Success is measured by power, popularity, control, achievement, and winning. By having more and being more we think this equals "success". The businessman measured success by the accumulation of wealth and by living a plush life. Sure, wealth may momentarily help us to escape emptiness but it cannot cure it. Only love, happiness and peace can fill the empty voids in our lives.

"Money has never made a man happy yet, nor will it. The more a man has, the more he wants" -Benjamin Franklin

The businessman encouraged the fisherman to accumulate "things". "Buy a bigger boat," then "buy several boats," and then eventually buy a "fleet of fishing boats." The businessman claimed all this would lead to power and status. What does all this really mean?

"Too many people buy things they don't want, with money they don't have, to impress people they don't like" -Will Smith

To me it sounds like more "things" we have, the more we have to show off our increasing ego to hide behind the insecurities because we are afraid to bring forth what we really want in life, we fear judgement and falling behind in the food chain of being filthy rich. People use the phrase, "the bigger the better". Well I say "less is more". 

Life is not a Race, but indeed a Journey. Be honest. You will get the same in return. Work Hard. You will appreciate everything that much more. Be choosy with people. Quality beats quantity everytime. Say "Thank you", "I Love You", and "Great Job" to someone every day of your life. Someone deserves to hear it.  Let your handshake mean more than what is enclosed in pen and paper. Dream your own dreams. It allows you to become that which you aspire to, not someone else's vision of you. Appreciate the little things in life and enjoy them. Some of the best things really are free.

In closing, these wise words from Waldo Emerson would have to sum up with this to the fullest on my definition of success...

"To laugh often and always; to win the respect of loved ones and the affection of children; to learn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best inothers; to leave the world a little bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed socialcondition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

 

 

"Darkness" and "The Light"

The polarities of life are extreme examples of two basic human constitutes or tendencies. There have been many ways of characterizing them. For example, male and female, intellectual and emotional, consciousness and the unconscious, yin and the yang, spirit and the flesh, sun and the moon, unity and multiplicity, light and the darkness, and so on. Each pair is a metaphor for the pulling tension of the polarities in our lives. The heading I have chosen to express this tension is "darkness" and "the light" because they are large resonant terms with religious connotations and I am not a religious man. Although I do think this subject needs to be brought up in a general unbiased context and discussed on a more regular basis. We tend to shy away from anything outside of what's going on in pop culture. Our conversations are based around useless garbage like Jersey Shore and Kim Kardashian. This piece is not to be understood as a theological concept, but rather as a symbolization of bettering my own understanding as to where we came from and how we were brought into this world beyond our mother's womb. So let's begin with the innermost part of us. The spirit or soul.

I have always wondered if there were a difference between the two words associated with inner being, 'Spirit' and 'Soul'. Since I was a child, I have always been fascinated with the idea that where is this innate omen inside of us that leads to a higher power or 'other side'. Thus, I did a little research on the conjunction of the two metaphorical mystical forces and I came up somewhat of a creative illustration of the two.

Spirit is expressed in metaphors of light. The spirit flies and soars like Peter Pan with an imagination beyond our comprehension and an age which never changes. That's why you hear the old expressions, "he has an old soul" it is referring to the ageless spirit. Our spirit longs for transcendence, to rise above the world. The spirit is 100% pure. Pure reason, pure philosophy, pure mathematics, pure light, pure love.

Soul is expressed in metaphors of darkness. It can only be visible to other spirits. The soul is not transcendent but immanent, lying hidden within the world. It prefers the twilight to the light, where things mingle and worlds intersect. In contrast to our flesh, the spirit resists disease and flees death. Soul seeks death like it's own proper realm. The soul savors death, whose bitterness is an initiation. Spirit leaps over death and its darkness to emphasize the light of rebirth. Where does the spirit and soul come from?

The spirit and soul travel metaphysically into our flesh from a higher source of power that is beyond our understanding. Buddhists call it our "Chi" and Christians call it "Holy Spirit". Regardless of the fact, quite simply we are a creation, sculpted in the perfect image of a higher consciousness much like every other beautiful aspect of Mother Earth. This is something we cannot grasp because it is such an intricate process that not even scientists have come to figure it out. Just take a look at a strand of DNA under a microscope, it is beyond unexplainable how the aesthetics of how we are created came to be.

Since we are this creation, that does not make us pure. Just like any other figure in mother nature's essence, we can be corrupted and used for an unintended purpose due to free will and the gift of consciousness. Furthermore, in us is this light and this is not a metaphor. They are real photons our bodies emit. On the flip side, darkness is not a synonym for evil as depicted in religious terms. It is a relative absence of light, and is necessary for any creation to be viewed by us. There cannot be light without the dark. Much like the rotational sphere of our universe, if we always had sunlight and no darkness, the world would rot and everything would be destroyed and vise versa. Much like how there is no duality such that one is better than the other. In every human we have been given the virtue of balance. How one chooses to use this virtue is up to free will. If the balance is distorted and the one takes ascendancy over the other, there will be no good which could come from it. Thus, if there is a God, he would have wanted us to have a perfect balance and live in harmony with the universe, mother nature, and each other. Never having excess of one thing to the point where the other is neglected. Abuse of anything, even of the light is of negative nature. We are the darkness. We are the light. The kingdom is within us and all around us. Even as illustrated in biblical scripture.

“The Kingdom Of God is within you, and all around you. ” Luke 17:21

Universal Mind Control?

A great except from the amazing book "Prometheus Rising".

"The traditional Childrearing methods are quite logical, pragmatic and sound in fulfilling the real purpose of society, which is not to create an ideal person, but to create a semi-robot who mimics the society as closely as possible - both in its rational and its irrational aspects, both as the repository of the wisdom of the past and as the sum total of all the cruelties and stupidities of the past. Very simply, a totally aware, alert, awakened (un-brainwashed) person would not fit very well into any of the standard roles society offers; the damaged, robotized products of traditional child-rearing do fit into those slots.

That is, there is a neuro-socialogical 'logic' to the illogical. Are traditional schools very much like mini-prisons? Do they stifle imagination, cramp the child physically and mentally and run on various forms of overt and covert terrorism? Of course, the answer is a un-ambiguous yes; but schools are necessary to train people for roles in the ordinary office or factory or profession, which are also very much like mini prisons, stifle imagination, cramp the person physically and mentally and run on terror (threat of loss of bio survival tickets in the form of pay checks). The permissive movement in child-rearing appeared only when it did, and has succeeded only to a limited extent, because society has always needed and still thinks it needs human robots.

Utopian child rearing will advance further, necessarily, only as society itself evolves out of authoritarianism. That is, as the accelerated changes now occurring propel us into the most rapid period of social evolution in all human history, we will then need citizens who are not robots, who are creative; who are not docile, who are innovative, who are not narrow-minded bigots, who are explorers in every sense of the word."