There are some major paradigms one needs to have in place in order to survive and thrive in life. These include how to deal with philosophical uncertainty, how to deal with physical pain, and how to deal with psychological distress.

I have a paradigm that I have been using for about a year that helps me deal with philosophical uncertainty, namely, living in appointed times by faith. I am currently working on paradigms to deal with physical pain and psychological distress.

To keep things simple, though, it is helpful to just think of this present moment. What should I be doing right now? This is especially helpful if you already have a general time paradigm in place, as I do. Usually, my consciousness can lead me in the right direction as far as the next activity or thought focus goes. Brooding, which I define as unproductive deep thought, is never the next right thing.

What if I genuinely do not know what the next right thing or best action is? In this case, some principles should be kept in mind.

• Always fulfill vows. If you don’t have any vows that you need to keep, then you don’t need to worry about this. However, if you have made a vow or two, you should make sure you keep these at all costs, even if you neglect virtually everything else.
• Be proactive with monthly challenge. If you have followed my blog for the past couple months, you will have noticed that I make a monthly challenge each month. Whatever I do or don’t do with other areas of my life, this should be something into which I put energy and attention. If you don’t do this, I would highly encourage you to start.
• Don’t negate other focuses. In addition to vows and monthly challenges, I also have other general focuses, either Scriptural or conscious-related. These don’t always have to be positively pursued, but they definitely should not be disregarded either. If you had a focus of doing good to someone you know, at the very least make sure you don’t do them harm.
• Do things that are both urgent and important. This point kind of goes without saying, but needs to be said in case you are just really down in the dumps or questioning the meaning of everything in life. Allow your common sense to determine what these are if needed. Exercising is usually important but not urgent. Preparing for a Toastmasters speech before I need to leave for the meeting is urgent but not that important. I could just give a sub-par speech, or call the president and say I cannot make it that evening.

I am hoping that by writing this down and looking at it, I will make these instructions a part of my life. As I am writing this, I have a headache and the tendons in my arm and wrist hurt, but I am committed to do the next right thing. How about you?

I am about halfway through my month of no judging. This focus has been more difficult than I thought it would be, but for a different reason than you might think. I actually feel like I am doing very well at not making value judgments about people based on their appearance, beliefs, attitudes, or actions – at least not directly.

One of the biggest questions I have had in regards to not judging others is how to label an idea false based on the logic I am using to understand it, without implying that people who believe that idea are somewhat inferior or deceived. Even in the times I do make this distinction in my mind, I am not so sure the people around me make the same distinction, and so they could feel judged even if I thought I was being neutral.

Another problem I have sometimes is sarcasm. When I satirize someone in my own mind or in the presence of others, I think it is inevitably a negative judgment of them. Yes, it is a joke. But the joke gets its punch from the supposed laughable actions or beliefs of another. A simple question I have asked myself: would I ever want to be the object of satire? No, I would not. So, should I be doing this to others?

So, I have made some clarifications for the rest of this month that will help me make the right judgment calls (pun intended).

• Avoid studying, thinking, and talking about controversial subjects. I am not banning myself from these arenas entirely at this time, but am limiting my exposure to them. If I don’t have a specific “need” to engage in these subjects, I will err on the side of simply not focusing on them for the present.
• Avoid all sarcasm and satire. I am thinking this prohibition will probably continue beyond my month of no judging. I cannot think of any very good reasons to think or speak in this fashion.
• Avoid default judging by always directing thoughts. One of my Scriptural focuses for the past 6 months has been ‘taking captive every thought.’ However, I shielded philosophical appointed times from this focus from the beginning and recently have become less structured with my thoughts in general. For the next two weeks of this monthly challenge, I want to really take ownership of all my thoughts. There will be several streams of thought that I can default to instead of judging: contemplating scripture, giving thanks, thinking about others (just in a neutral way – who are they, what do they like, etc.), thinking to the Father, making melody in my heart, and focusing on breath.
• Avoid judging yourself too much. The hardest thing to conquer in the area of judging is losing the judgmental attitude. Sometimes the judgment I have of others is simply runoff from being overly critical of myself.

I believe these clarifications will help me out a great deal as I discover how to not judge other people. This focus has made me very conscious of what I say and how I say it. I am definitely more conscious of when I am judging or about to judge others.

My first monthly challenge was, for the most part, a success. I had about a dozen exceptions (usually for specific meals) that I allowed during the month. I also cheated a couple times when playing the piano, but these times were few and far between.

I stopped for a 10-minute break after each hour of driving on my drive to and from Houston. This was very beneficial, though I am going to modify it slightly. In future, I will take a 5-minute break after every 45 minutes of driving. I don’t think the length of the break has as much benefit as just having more breaks.

Whenever I arrived at my destination after driving, I tried to get out of the car as quickly as possible to minimize sitting time. This also made me more decisive and waste less time rummaging in the car.

The exceptions I made were done consciously and not spur of the moment, except for a couple. During these exceptions, I tried to focus on perfect posture and really connecting my feet to the ground. This was good training in being more mindful when I do need to sit.

The beginning of the month, I was sitting in hero pose on a couple of pillows or cross-legged to work on my computer as well as do other things. However, by the end of the month I had created a standing workstation that I feel is much better for me at this time, especially considering how tight my hamstrings are.

I really believe now that every position we put our body in is bad if left in that position too long. This applies to sitting, standing, squatting, lying down, or any modification of these positions. The more we move, fidget, adjust, and flow from one position to another, the better for our overall balance, function, and health. On a side note, perhaps this is why I enjoy yoga as much as I do, because you are always flowing from posture to posture and incorporating breathing into all of it.

I really enjoyed having a monthly challenge and will definitely continue this practice. Intentional living is awesome, and even when it is not, at least you have something to focus on doing (or not doing)!

Tomorrow, I will begin my next monthly challenge: a month of no judging other people. While my first monthly challenge was fairly concrete, this next one is more ambiguous.

I am not limiting myself from making judgments of non-human entities, unless doing so would indirectly criticize people. I am not limiting myself from making judgments of other humans either, as long as the judgment is neutral. However, if a judgment directly or indirectly implies a person is good, bad, better, or worse, then I will avoid it.

I am avoiding both negative and positive judgments, because positive judgments give the implication that those who are not doing what is being praised are inferior. Thus, a positive judgment of one person is almost invariably a negative judgment of another person. It does not have to be, but it is more times than not. However, I will not monitor the positive judgments too strictly, as it is the negative ones with which I am most concerned.

Neutral judgments are fine. If I see someone always watching what they eat, I might judge that they are trying to lose weight or eat more healthy, but I don’t say they are good or bad for doing so. Even in these cases, I will be very careful what I say, because even though I may not be assigning a value judgment to an action, others still might perceive it as being judgmental. Here is what I will do if I find myself judging other people:

1. Turn the judgment upon myself. I have noticed that most of the things I judge others about are also things with which I struggle. So, when I find myself having these thoughts, I am going to scan my life and look for the character flaw from which they most likely originated.
2. Do something, however small, to correct the fault I discover in myself. This doesn’t mean I will make it my next major focus in life; it just means doing something to lessen it. For example, suppose I find myself judging someone for being harsh. I scan myself and realize that I can often be cold toward others when just focusing on accomplishing my own agenda. I purpose to smile more often and memorize a verse about a bright countenance.
3. Stop judging completely. After turning the judgment away from another person and onto myself, and having made a small correction, I will then lose the whole judging complex. I will stop judging myself. While judging yourself periodically and making correction to your life is a great practice, wallowing in self-loathing is decidedly not so.

Another thing I am really going to watch out for is judging the judgmental, which I wrote about here. When I become less judgmental of people in general, I tend to become more judgmental of those who judge. But this is inconsistent.

My prayers will be very general this month. In prayers for others, I will allow  myself to thank the Father for other people’s good qualities and might pray for something specifically if I know or feel strongly they would want me to do that.

One last thing I want to mention. My primary motivation for doing this is not Scriptural. A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking of making Matthew 7:1 (Judge not, that ye be not judged) my next Scripture focus, but ended up deciding on something else. However, I felt being more mindful of my judgments would be a good practice regardless, and so decided to make it my next monthly challenge, since I have been thinking about it a lot.

In the next post, I will update you on how my month of no sitting progressed.

With a title like that, this had better be a good blog post, right?

The first thing that needs to be addressed is the word ‘meaningful’. Here are some things I do not mean when I use this word:

• Exciting. Though there are a lot of things that I do which I find quite exciting on one or multiple levels, there are definitely other things I do which are just as meaningful but lack the excitement.
• Easy. A lot of things that are worth doing are not easy. Also, the word ‘easy’ usually means something that appeals to our fleshly desires. With this understanding, my definition of meaningful would include nothing easy.
• Appreciated by others. It is always nice to feel like others respect you for what you do, but sometimes doing meaningful things will make others think you are weird. Or, they may hate the meaning you have in your life and seek to do you harm.
• Emotionally fulfilling. Something meaningful will produce emotional fulfillment. However, it will almost never be immediate. And since I usually think of an activity as being emotionally fulfilling if I experience this type of fulfillment while doing the activity, this would mean that much of what I define as meaningful would not fit into this category.

I define a meaningful activity as one that I believe will move me closer to the most ideal state of existence. This of necessity would involve eternity. So, perhaps I should retitle this post, How to make everything you do in life eternally meaningful. By definition, this excludes everything done by most atheists as being meaningful (unless you are an atheist that believes in eternity somehow). I am not trying to offend by saying that; this is simply what my definition of meaning requires.

At this point, you must ask yourself this question. Are you 100% confident that what you are doing now will move you closer to the most ideal state of existence in eternity? If so, you need only follow what you already know. However, I’m assuming most of you are like me and not 100% confident, though you do feel like you have some pretty good guesses.

You need to do two things now. First, define in a nutshell what an ideal state of existence would be for you. Obviously, you cannot give a full definition, since you have never experienced this, and can only think about it. However, give it your best shot. My ideal existence would be one where I was living in total health and consciousness forever, and I believe this can only happen when I have an ever-present connection with the eternal YHVH.

Second, lay out a paradigm of how to view time, so you can always be moving towards this goal. You cannot push the pause button in life and figure everything out and then push play and act on your deliberatation. You have to deliberate, think, and plan as you are going through life. You need to create a paradigm of how you manage time in order to do this successfully. The way I solve this is through my paradigm of living in appointed times by faith. See my post on this subject, as well as part 2, part 3, and part 4 if you want to understand what this means.

Everything I do in life is meaningful now that I am following these paradigms. It may not be exciting. It may not be easy. It may not be appreciated by others. It may not be emotionally fulfilling right now. However, it is all eternally meaningful. Please share your thoughts if you have some ideas on meaning that are different than mine. I would love to hear them.

There are many things about my physical body that I would gladly trade off for someone else’s. I have chronic tendon pain in my wrists and arms, chronic mid-back pain from my kyphoscoliosis, and chronic sinus problems of one kind or another. My hair is balding in the front and in the back, I almost always have pimples on my face (I have used creams, taken pills, and changed my diet), and my hamstrings are incredibly tight even though I stretch them profusely. I work on all these aspects of my health and appearance. Sometimes they get better and sometimes they get worse.

If I had the option, I would love to exchange a lot of my health and features for someone else’s. However, I LOVE my consciousness. This is what keeps me going even when all the other problems weigh down on me at the same time and helps me to rise above all that mess. I would not trade my consciousness for anything in the world. What is my consciousness, you ask?

1. Is it knowledge? Well, not exactly, though it does include some of this. However, although I have a fair amount of knowledge in a lot of areas, there are still many areas where I know little or nothing at all.
2. Is it skill? No, though there are many skills my sense of consciousness has helped to develop. However, probably the area I am most skilled in is music and there are plenty of people I can name that I could exchange my skills for and be much better off.
3. Is it achievements? No. Achievements are all in the past and resting on my laurels, what few of them there are, does not constitute who I am.

My consciousness is my sense of identity and purpose. This entire blog for the most part is an outworking of my consciousness. If you look at the About Me page you will see the meaning of my name and my purpose statements. If you look at my Statement of Belief page you will see my journey in articulating my identity. Can I fully describe what I mean when I say my consciousness? No, I cannot. Ultimately, it is a metaphysical reality that must be experienced and only can be explained crudely.

Why is this? Well, it has its origin in the divine, the source of all energy, all matter, and all time. I was created with the capacity to know this person, and the pursuit of that connection is worth everything. I am infinitesimally important because He is infinite.

Find your consciousness. Find your identity. Find your purpose. This will sustain you even when everything else in life betrays you.

“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.”
~ Reinhold Niebuhr

I came across a bookmark with this prayer on it and loved it so much I decided to post it on my blog. I have seen a shortened version with just the first sentence several times, but the rest of it is just as good. A couple comments on why it resonates with me so much:

1. It acknowledges the tension between personal development and contentment. I am very interested in conscious growth spiritually, physically, mentally, and socially. However, I also realize the benefit of accepting myself the way the Father made me. But, did the Father make me with or intend me to live with the physical or motivational flaws I have, or should I seek to change these aspects of my physique and personality?
2. It exalts the concept of living in the moment. When I was in my teens, I had many idealized dreams about my future. Sometimes this was because I did not like myself and so liked imagining a time when I would be a world-class performer, speak to thousands of people, and write books that would change the world. Unfortunately, this idealized future focus caused me to apply myself less in the present. I now try to view each week, each day, and even each moment as special and be grateful for every breath.
3. It recognizes the role of suffering as the precursor for greater peace and joy. Philosophically, peace and joy do not make a whole lot of sense without suffering. If we did not have painful experiences to compare them with, we would not look at peace or joy as something special, but just as our ordinary experience.
4. It implies that fighting the world is not our calling, but rather surrendering to His will. Christians are called to follow the Christ’s commandments. Principally, this involves loving YHVH with all your heart and loving your neighbor as yourself. Judging others is usually a reactive attitude, whereas loving others is a proactive behavior
5. It recognizes that the ultimate goal in life is to find personal fulfillment or happiness. This is true of the here and now and also of eternity. I, too, want to be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Halleluyah!

This prayer really encapsulates my existence right now. Perhaps you would be blessed by thinking about it and making it your prayer as well.

Trying radical concepts out for short periods of time is, I believe, integral for ongoing personal development. Starting tomorrow, I am embarking on my first monthly challenge: no sitting on chairs or benches.

Here are some reasons why I am doing this:

1. Sitting on chairs or benches even for short periods of time causes me to have back pain.
2. It is harder for me to focus on correct posture when sitting on a chair or bench.
3. I want to develop other rest positions, such as squatting and hero pose, and use them comfortably.

The ground rules are pretty simple. I will not sit on any chair or bench for the next month. This includes couches, piano benches, pews, and stools, as well as ordinary chairs.

The only major exception I am making is car seats. I thought of removing my car seat, but I am not totally sure it is legal. Also, I would have to undo the electrical wiring for the seat which I would rather leave alone. I also cannot think of any healthy and comfortable way to drive a car longer distances other than sitting. My plan then is to not drive for more than 1 hour at a time without taking a 10-minute break.

Other than this, I may make a few minor exceptions to avoid social awkwardness, but I will try to work this out beforehand. Playing the piano is a bit of a challenge, but totally doable.

If you think of other monthly challenges I might be interested in, please let me know. I will give an update on how things went after the month is over.