Focus on the Truth - Daily Reflections
Below are the three reflective subsets I use during the day to help continually align myself to a mindset that's focused on the truth. Now mind you, truth is factual, but it can be anecdotal (based on experience) as well. The first we should always align ourselves to, the second we need to use good reason in order to determine if enough people or enough of the right people have experienced success based on a certain perspective. Anecdotal truth simply means it hasn't been established as fact because we haven't had the opportunity to study it in a scientific manner, but that doesn't eliminate the benefit, just be sure to proceed with good reason and caution.
I highly encourage you to use these reflections to during your day in order to come to a better understanding of yourself, to gain temperance over your emotions, and to create within you a solution oriented perspective
Daily Reflections - Focus on the Truth
Morning Reflection:
What am I connected (gratitude/love) with?
How do I avoid deception (vices)?
How do I embrace truth (virtues)?
Think freely (meditate) on how you will use truth to overcome current possible adversities (wisdom / good judgement).
Remind yourself that you can only control your thoughts and actions, that everything else is out of your control (reflect on the truth).
Day Reflection:
Constantly reflect on how you can improve yourself, but bear this in mind with regards to the truth. You cannot change the past, and the future will happen regardless, it’s how you choose to react in the present which dictates what you learn and how you feel. Keep an end in mind (plan) for advancement, in order to remove deception (vices) from your life, and to incorporate truth (virtue) into your entire being.
Night Reflection:
Did I live according to the truth (virtue)?
Did I treat the people with whom I interacted with in freedom (humility), and empowerment (truth), and did it serve to connect (love) them with their true self, my true self, and the Truth (God)?
What deceptions (vices) have I fought?
Have I optimized myself by cultivating truth (virtue) into my being?
Consider an end in mind (plan) for tomorrow, no matter what it may be, if you are compelled, then live in the truth of your authentic desires.
Remind yourself this day is complete, and there is nothing you can do to change what has already occurred, no matter how pleasurable (good) or how painful (bad). Accept it, and live in the only thing you truly possess, which is the now.
Wanting What You Want
Life is an echo chamber, and the world is filled with an innumerable variation of such chambers. We listen to what others believe we want in life and then we proceed to go try and find fulfillment in that. Someone says "this is what you want in order to be happy and fulfilled", but is it? Is it really what you want? Has your perspective become someone else's perspective of what they think your perspective should be? In an age where social media dominates the internet, and the media is constantly telling you what to love, how can we truly know what we want to love?
We're so fearful of spending time alone, in solitude, that we lose sight of what truly matters, our life, and our time, the most valuable assets we can provide to another. If you're constantly listening to what others want you to want, then how will you ever know what you truly want? I know what I want more than anything in this world, to love someone and to be loved by them, and to create a family with them that's filled with truth, good, and love. I hope you find what you truly want. We all deserve to be fulfilled, because in that we give the best of ourselves, but first we must empty ourselves of what others think we want, and fill ourselves with what we actually want, and this starts in solitude.
The Willingness to Forgive, Accept, & Love
We all have a journey we are on in order to find who we truly are. In life what we all truly desire is to have people support us in our path to self-realization, discovery, and understanding. Perhaps you could also call this path the way to salvation. The worst thing we can do to ourselves, and to another, is be unwilling to accept them as they are. When we don't forgive someone we remain lodged in the past, and are unable to move forward into the hope of the future. When we forgive others who've wronged us we are free from the burden of the past. You can only truly forgive another if you believe you are able to be forgiven. If you don't forgive others, it's simply a reflection of your belief that you're not able to be forgiven yourself. When you love others with acceptance and forgiveness then you have shown yourself as one who believes they are accepted, forgiven, and loved. I am accepted, forgiven, and loved by God, myself, my family, my friends, and loved ones.
Love, Acceptance, & Truth
With Love, Acceptance, & Truth From Chris Goode
Language is a beautiful tool by which we communicate with one another. Sometimes however we make things overly complicated and lose the meaning behind words in confusing sentences and phrases. Here's an example of one of my favorite verses from the Bible (CEB - Common English Bible) simplified in a manner that's more understandable. Also take notice of the dynamic between the internal, such as patience, and the external such as kindness.
'Love (Acceptance / Truth) is patient and kind, never jealous, boastful, proud, or rude. Love (Acceptance / Truth) isn't selfish or quick tempered. It doesn't keep a record of wrongs that others do. Love (Acceptance / Truth) rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. Love (Acceptance / Truth) is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. Love (Acceptance / Truth) never fails!
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
True Self, True Change: Accepting Self, Accepting Change
From: Chris Goode
Edited By: Adam Davenport
The Most Important Question
Who are you?
Have you ever genuinely asked yourself that question before?
Too often we live life being someone we are not for the sake of others, but never considering our own authentic self. We work to please others, to earn their favorable opinion and approval, but at what cost? In the end we become someone we’re not, and the life we lived was really a false one.
So this begs the question: how do we become our true accepting selves?
I’m here to offer hope that can become reality, because the time for holding ourselves back is coming to an end, and the time for unleashing our limitless potential by becoming who we were always meant to be, our true accepting selves, is here.
Ego, the False Self
The first thing we must realize is that our ego, our false identity, is the source from which we find ourselves unable to change or accept correction. It’s arrogant to assume we know everything; only through humility and the willingness to accept correction can we begin the process of change for the better. We will never achieve true joy and true greatness unless we’re willing to accept that we could be wrong, and then are able to accept the necessary corrections in order to make our lives better. Do not be the person who is unwilling to accept a better way because of arrogance. Do not be the person who wasn’t true to themselves because they lacked self-awareness. Our potential is so much greater than that; let’s not limit ourselves due to fear, and see the value that humility and acceptance bring to our advancement as human beings.
Fear Controls Us
The next thing we must understand is the role of ego, which is the source of fear, which is always based on a deceptive and an incorrect perspective. We protect our ego and false self through defensiveness, resistance, and unwillingness to accept correction pertaining to our fears in order to maintain a false sense of security. Otherwise we may find ourselves in an existential crisis realizing our safety to be false, and knowing we were living in a way that wasn’t true to who we really were and who we actually are. Fear controls us, disempowers us, and ultimately disconnects us from our true selves. It’s what holds us back from making the decisions we know we should make, therefore putting us under its control, which disempowers us from fulfilling our limitless potential through good reasoning, and ultimately disconnects us from accepting who we truly are, and who we were always meant to be. Recognizing this is the beginning of good reasoning. We must not allow ourselves to continue accepting the lies we tell ourselves, and the only way to change that is by accepting the truth.
Truth (Acceptance) Sets Us Free
The only cure for a life which has been limited, prevented, and inhibited by fear, is by beginning to accept the truth and making a commitment to the truth at all costs. When we learn to accept things as they actually are, and we place our total confidence in the strength, safety, and comfort truth and acceptance ultimately provide, we will be set free from the ego, the false self, with its outpouring of bad reasoning that was the result of fear and lies. Initially, it’s the most difficult thing we will ever commit to, but what we will begin to recognize is the freedom it provides will begin to remove fear and self-deception completely and totally from our lives, only leaving us with good reasoning because we are able to be corrected by whatever may come our way, so that we can always find solutions to our problems. We can’t change what happens to us in life, but we can decide how to react in a way that serves to free us, empower us, and connect us with who we truly were meant to be and who we truly are, which is a fearless being, living in the truth, and navigating life with good reason.
Presence, the True Self
So, what’s the result of a mind which is committed to the truth, and is able to realize that the past cannot be changed, that life happens in the present, and we ultimately have no control over the future? I’ll share this: as we are now able to live corrected in all things, we will be able to accept our entire being; mind, body, and spirit, and become impenetrable to the things which we cannot control, which is whatever lies outside of our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Once we recognize the truth that we are unable to change the bad judgements and opinions of others about us, then we will be totally present with who we truly are and were always meant to be. We will accept our true passions, the ones which we knew would benefit us. In the past, we believed the lies that fear produced, but now in the present we are capable of believing the freedom truth offers.
The Good News
With that said, you know what you need to do, therefore do it. When you’re not trying to control what you never truly controlled in the first place, you will grow in varying degrees of presence until you are constantly and perfectly present. It will feel like you are swimming downstream with the flow of the river of life instead of swimming upstream against the current. What this means is you will experience a perfect focus, which enables to attend to the task at hand, not finding yourself distracted or discouraged by external circumstances which you cannot control, but simply by your ability to seek out and accept the truth in the given situation, accept truth accordingly, and become stronger. It’s in this that you will finally know who you truly were meant to be, and who you truly are, and be able to declare with fearless confidence and hope, “This is who I am!”