Thursday, March 19, 2020

Letter to Men

Dear men,

I see you
I see your dedication to your craft, your fingers moving delicately
I see the hunger in your eyes, the longing passion in them
I see the power in your arms, how they sway with swagger
I see the point of your shoulders, how wide your expanse is
I see the swiftness in your legs, how they rush to aid and support
I see your lips, detailing the path set before you
I see your feet, how they begin to create the scale that would soon be you as the mountain
I see your mind, disciplined and steadied on your course
I see your core, how infinity is stored deep in sacred pleasure
I see the things that people tell you are hideous, are beastly, are ugly, are ghastly
Somehow, regardless of what they say, you turn your heels against every word, submerge it deep into the ground, and use it to propel you to greater heights 
They hate you for this 
They hate your mastery of their hatred 
They cannot stand the glory of your presence 
They don’t appreciate the way you smile, when they thought your heart shattered
They don’t appreciate the happiness you contain in the DNA of your identity 
They are perplexed at your ability to see ahead of the curve without fear 
They hate that they have to sit and wait for you to tell them when the curve will come as you go
They hate that they can’t see the curve themselves 
They claim they have every right to your power. To your strength. To your title. To your crown. To your throne 
To infinity, and beyond 
There is no infinity beyond you, men 
Your joy contains the code of life
What brings you satisfaction incorporates everyone in the room 
You don’t hesitate to share your experience with those willing to listen 
You ready your ears to the need of your fellow
You know that what you have will always be replenished, so you give no thought to the ‘morrow and give freely
You need nothing
If life were to begin tomorrow, you would hit the ground running
You need no one
The intensity of your song as you live will reach the heavens, so much that even hell would shed a tear just to have a sample
So please men, know that you are seen
Play a song for yourself for a spell
Dance to your favorite tune on your own when the mood strikes you
And let the potential in your emotions power the world’s future for generations to come 

Sincerely,

[Sign your name here]

Thursday, March 5, 2020

The Ultimate Love

To admit to yourself that you loved someone without shame, no matter how the end arrived... this ought to be a possibility. 

You ought to be able to look back and say that you loved, and not have any shame in it. 
You ought to not have any shame because when you show that you love someone beyond the price of what it costs for them to receive your love, without any regard whatsoever for its return, it is without a doubt felt. There is no question. 
People who don’t know you will look at you and recognize it.

Everyone knows it. Your soul never denies that kind of love. Your soul radiates that kind of love.

And if you have loved like you never cared about the return, why should you find yourself with regret, or even consider the pain they’ve caused you as though after the fact that would be a reason to take it back? “If only I had known” you might say. 

You never said that you would love with a deep, bone piercing, marrow dividing love, if and only if they would treat you respectfully. How could you have possibly measured that kind of offering? How many hands do you think it would take just to support the weight of that kind of love, to carry it?

If your heart had space for love with any amount of compromise, I guarantee you would have been like any other person walking down the street. You would be unnoticed, and this message would be empty.

This is not the case.

You have poured out the ultimate love. You cannot hide anymore. Once you do this, it’s just not possible.

But we live like we can. We try to cover back up the light, the utterly bright and shining light with shame, regret, blame, guilt, fear of it happening again all while wishing we didn’t have to cover it up.
This is a joke and many people should laugh at themselves for this.

You should laugh because you know your heart pants thirstily to open up like it used to, you might wish, “if only there were a person you could pour yourself like a beaker of water out to....” see, you’re ready to do it all again if you had access to the container. 

You’ve already proving that you’re unlimited in resource.
You are both the beaker and you are the container. Pour out to yourself. You will never run out of space. 

And you will find little by little, your flow will fill over into the containers around you. You don’t notice it at first, but you will notice that the world itself IS the container. And in pouring out into yourself, you will pour out to everyone else. And they will have so much they won’t know what to do with it. And they will try to snuff out the light, the love like you once did, wishing they didn’t have to experience it. But they know it doesn’t work. 

If you’re ever wondering if that person out there is still thinking about you... they are.

You have given them the ultimate love. You have asked for nothing when you loved them. And they still left. Or maybe you did. 

You left a mark they will never forget. You are the scar they will never heal from, even if they came back to ask you to reclaim that love and make it all go away. Even if they came back, asking for more scars. 

You must decide once and for all to let that ultimate love go from where you think it lives, and ask it to come back to you, to realize that what you gave came from you. You were the origin your own shining smile in their reflection. And you let them see that. They saw that too. They envied that. They didn’t have it. They measured and tried to compensate, realizing your love was just too big to calculate.

They were not the reason for your love.
They were not the reason your flower bloomed, you were. You allowed your light, your love, your flower to bloom through you to them. 
You reached out to them.

You were the one they were missing.

So call your love back. 
Take it back and own the fact that you gave them everything.
Own the fact that you loved them without regret, without compromise, without caution, without pretending, without shame, without fear. 

That love is yours. They don’t have it anymore. 
You do. It was always yours.


Saturday, February 29, 2020

On Insult

On Insult:
Anything that happens to me is only a message that improves my being. 

“They” aren’t challenging me to be less than myself.
Nobody is. 
Who are “they” if they are not me?
That is not my obstacle to get around.

There is no one that is MY obstacle. 
I get to decide my obstacles.

What are challenges? 
Questions that query the growth of my being.
Challenges do not belong to “Them”. 
Challenges belong to me.
Challenges are not insults. 

“They” are not insulting me. 
Nobody is. 
Who are “they” if they are not me?

I can only insult myself.
I can insult myself if I allow insult.
I can only insult myself if I turn my eyes away from my goals, my desires, the faith that everyone gives me to that end...



Sunday, February 23, 2020

How to Stop Wasting Time

The best way to stop wasting time is to remove your concept of what “wasting time” means first. 

You do not know if what you’re doing is going to inspire you into your next true mode of action.
Stop getting in your own way. 
Leave your Self, your Mind, alone; you are fine. 

Stop nitpicking yourself.

Who told you that what you’re doing right now is a waste of time? 
Haven’t you heard that your mind, your subconscious always shows you what you want to see? What you need to see?

If your mind understands your need for work, motivation, or inspiration, it will always lead you to those things subconsciously. 
If your mind understands your need for safety (which it does) it will always point at the things that help keep you safe. TRULY safe. You will have safety whether you like it or not. Actively looking for safety assumes to your mind that you do not have it. That is a hard life to live.

Stop being surprised at moments where you find yourself in the right place, at the right time, at the right moment, and just start being prepared.

Everything you see is what you have always wanted to see. So let your mind do its work, and leave it alone. It’s supposed to help you see what you want.

How do you know you always see the things that you want to see? Ask yourself one thing: if one thing you liked looking at gave itself to you completely today, would you use it or turn it away? 

If you would use it, you would design a purpose for it.
If you would turn it away, you understand that its design would undermine your purpose. 

Your mind already knows your purpose! 
That is why you would be able to turn away something even if it gives itself to you completely: what is giving itself to you is not considering your purpose, or the direction you’re trying to go in.

In fact, most of the things that give themselves to you completely are not considering your purpose or your needs, and if you can definitively turn it away, you have proven to your mind that you understand this.

This is what “No” means. 

There is no need to feel bad about saying “no” to something. You are not entitled or obligated to sticking around waiting for things to change just because you are presently found in it, even though you desperately, earnestly want to escape it.

What has given itself to you may be blind to your needs, but you are not blind to your purpose. That is why you are uncomfortable, because you can see clear as day that what you have is not what you want, or meant for you.

Through all of this there is not a single moment where you are actually “wasting time”. All of the things you feel mean something; they are all messengers of what you want to see.. what you need to see.

Take a look at the kind of people that use this phrase “wasting time” and actually believe in saying that. Think about the journey from where they started for you to meet them. They come all the way from where they are, to meet you, to be present, just to tell YOU that “this” is a “waste of time”? 

What is “this” that was wasted? What were they present for?

And then, watch how they hurry out to leave, where are they really going? 

I can tell you the answer because they tell me and everyone else that is around to hear it: they are going to waste their time somewhere else.

So do not worry about wasting time. If you’ve found this message, let this be reassurance that you “drifting” on social media is not “wasting time”. 
You wandering aimlessly outside for hours, feeling lost is not “wasting time”. 
You studying for more than 10+ hours is not “wasting time”.
You not having a social life is not “wasting time”.
You partying every weekend is not “wasting time”.
You thinking about time is not “wasting time”.
You sleeping all day is not “wasting time”.
You talking for hours is not “wasting time”.
You doing nothing is not “wasting time”.

No time is wasted until you tell the world that time is being wasted.
Act like you are wasting time, and that is when you introduce yourself to a hard life.

You will have an even harder life if you keep up an attitude of “wasting time” all the way up until the point you actually say to people and yourself that you are “wasting time”. That is when you start going nowhere.

Nevertheless you are here, reading this message.
So know that when it comes to time, keep to Mind this one thing:

Time is already yours. 
Time is on YOUR side.
You are time.

So be on time. 

- Zay Sensei

Next post: https://ninjamindset.blogspot.com/2020/02/on-insult.html Previous post: http://ninjamindset.blogspot.com/2017/02/put-some-respect-on-it.html
Link to my world: https://linktr.ee/veaire

Saturday, February 11, 2017

There Are Levels To This

We're going to play a numbers game with our relationships in this particular post. The world doesn't publicly put a number or a value to the friends we make and have, but this post is going to do something of that sort. 

The idea for this post is to help people question and identify the reasons they have others in their lives, as well as to deliver a nice dose of introspection.

You just... don't have to use numbers or the titles on this post in real life. :)


Before we jump in, keep two things in mind:

1) Growth is the adventure and the key.

2) These levels of perception can only ever go as deep as your belief about relationships and the relationship with yourself will allow. 




If people are liars and cheaters out to get you, you will only get as far with people as that belief allows, which is about as far as your arm reach especially if you're lying to yourself about who you even are.

The Four Tiers of Perception

They are: 
• The Shell,
• The Halo, 
• The Reveal, and 
• The Core. 

Let's start with the first.

I - The Shell: 
This is the most superficial layer of relationships (and of your perception). You'll see this type pretty much everywhere you go. 

When you're riding on the tram in crowded trains and you see hordes of people around you eyeing ads on the wall or that cute person two poles down...
When you go to a library where the walls have an amber finish, timeless books are scattered around, and idle bodies bury themselves into the next page of a book... 
When you go to a store or a restaurant and exchange orders and thank you's...
Getting into a quick banter or discussion of a topic at a college...
Exchanging seductive looks at each other in a flashy, darkly lit lounge, all of this is the happening of a level one interaction or relationship. 

Quite often it is the pulchritude of the other person that is the reason why two people are even talking. 

The ultimate idea of "The Shell" is that there is no foundation. There is no depth to the relationship which means you know near to nothing about the person and what they believe, what they want, and where they intend to go (except what you can assume). They don't ever have to be telling the truth. After all, for all you know you might only ever be looking at "The Shell" of someone's personality. Anything can happen on this level, from absolute danger to sex to marriage if both of you allow it.  

II - The Halo: 
If two people are being particularly decent for some time, the relationship gets to this stage of perception, and this is where exciting things start to happen. One might think that their new friend is the coolest person they've ever met, and will hang out with them very often. Communication is at an all time high, and you both are joining each other at events of various vibes. 

Texting and phone calling may abound. If there is mutual sexual interest, this will persist from The Shell and hang-outs will be happening often. It might seem like you can never get enough of this person and it's true, you can't get enough. It'll be like they are brand new, and so many great experiences will be happening, one after the other. The Halo has a timeline of a few weeks, to a few months, even years, depending on how consistent communication is.

III - The Reveal: 
It's when relationships and your perception get to this level that you realize a person for who they are. The "Halo" effect wears off. Things won't be as pleasant as they used to be. Pleasantries will still exist, but this is highly dependent on how true someone is being with themselves and other people. If someone was around for self-gain, if someone had an objective, if someone wore a mask, if someone was pretending to be someone they were not, all of that breaks down at this level. The Reveal is also where deep feelings start to really mix. People get hurt at this level the most because this is often where the beliefs and realities of each person's lives clash once the other person is able to see it. 




For many reasons, this is why it's important to love yourself, because when relationships and friendships go through The Reveal, it's either crippling or revitalizing. There are attributes that will sustain a relationship once The Reveal happens, and it requires that each person be at least two things if not more: real and true.

If you consider it, it might explain why people don't ever want to get close to one another. They would have to be someone real and actually believe in something worth living for beyond themselves. They would have to stop acting like they aren't there for their own benefit, they would have to stop attempting to stroke their superficial ego in futility. They would have to take off their halo, lay it down and humbly declare: "I am not as well as I appear to be, but as much as I have seen of myself I consider to be beautiful and am willing to share this with you as I grow." It's such a scary thing to do. 
It requires fierce honesty aimed directly at your own self. You can be fiercely honest with others but the ones unwilling to face the truth themselves will fall away from this and might stay as the liars they are. And that's okay.



In spite of this though, people are out here searching for authenticity. Raw, uncultured authenticity. 

Those that don't believe they have it, want to see it and emulate it. They're starving for it.

Usually, people are already being enough of themselves from the beginning that most of us should be able to tell if cooperation, a relationship, or partnership is going to work. People typically ignore the signs when they are fully aware of who someone is, often to achieve their own goals. Ignoring these signs as if they are not there makes it all come crashing dangerously down at The Reveal anyway and has other adverse effects you'd do well to steer clear of. Using people is inadvisable.

Lastly...

IV - The Core:
Even more so, the pleasantries slow down but at this point they bear no weight on the people and their relationship or perception with/of each other. That is because the value received by each person in this party involves simply experiencing the other person as they are. Here at the core is where bonds form, loyalty begins to solidify, honesty and trust create this paste that soothes the heart as the days tumble on...



The heart commits the soul to memory. 

This is the connection that looks like a true brother/sister bond, a true best friend bond, that can occur between anyone, including animals.
We want this, which in short is ... Love.

If two people are being true and loving themselves from day one of the encounter, this unified love is a sure thing. However, people will forever be at different points in their lives, and being true from day one takes time. Which is perfectly fine. You're not supposed to have it all together. Growth is the adventure and the key. If people lived like they understood this about themselves and other people, reaching a core-level relationship would be easier.

On The Other Hand

This 4th level concept highlights the reality of where we place our value when it comes to human relations nowadays. As great as the ideal of the core sounds, quite often many things get in the way of achieving a relationship that reaches this level, things like:

Timing
Clinging to the Past
Sex
Clashing Personal Values
Lack of Forgiveness (or too much to the point of self-disrespect)
Lack of Self-Evaluation (or too much to the point of immobility)
Selfishness
Anger
Lack of Understanding (or too much to the lack of accountability)
Pain and Fear
Lack of Patience (or too much to the point of utter silence)
Lack of Care (or too much to the point of extreme coddling)
Parallel Perspectives...

As time progresses, if a person takes time to reflect on their past decisions it will be possible to tick off each caveat one by one, losing people you don't want to lose as a result of change, embracing new personal horizons, going through shifts and pains you never thought you'd experience for the sake of self-improvement...

Through all of this, if you strive to maintain an open heart while at the same time being a vanguard for your heart, you are able to ensure that you can receive love at its right timing as well as give it, concurrently avoiding being abused, to achieve a core-level bond.




But of course, you will never be able to keep your heart open all the time, and that's okay.
Growth is the adventure and the key.

Remember that these levels correspond to your belief about relationships, which can easily be tied to the relationship with yourself.
If you have faith in humanity, and think that ultimately:
- People really are hurting and just trying to heal (sometimes in terrible, messed up ways)
- They are trying the best they can with what they've got (which might not be much)

You're most likely going to be more understanding and considerate. If you look at yourself, bite the bullet and tell yourself the straight up truth, it will really improve the status of your life as you make small and necessary changes. You'll also have the ability to be sympathetic towards others that are struggling. That is all your choice there though.


All through life, you'll have people in shells and halos coming in and leaving once they reveal themselves. Some will be staying long enough for you both to see each other's cores as they are. You'll be learning who people are and forgetting them, they'll be changing and remaining the same...
But the main thing to remember...
is to Learn, 
Love Yourself,
and Grow.

Growth is the adventure and the key.

Onward and upwards, friends.

The last post before this one was called, "On Loving You", check it out if you haven't!

**You can find me on Facebook as Isaiah Dunkley (Veaire). I am an artist as well as friendly blogger. Feel free to find me and send messages on your thoughts.

Sunday, March 6, 2016

On Loving You


Read that quote. And really take a second to answer it.

When I read that quote, saying "me" was not even in the first four things that I knew I loved. I even felt a bit uneasy saying "me" once I thought about it.
That was a bit stunning to realize.

Based on my reluctance to say "me" as an answer to that question, I'd probably give people who did love me a hard time just because I would think that I do not deserve their love, all because I won't even accept my own.

Loving yourself is the grandest, largest, and most essential factor to relationships that will involve every single person you come across in your life, whether they are strangers, love interests, friends, or family, including yourself. 

However, whether it is on the Internet, by the words of relatives, friends, or celebrities, people are always telling you to love yourself. The only thing is, no one tells you how to love yourself. Is it because they don't know? Do they not know how to explain it? I personally thought it to be that people were lazy; always ready to tell you what to do but never ready to explain anything.

So how do you love yourself?

Give It A Name

You first have to understand that love is something you can obtain. 
Yes, it is something you can have.
If you believe love to be this magical, airy substance that flits about, daring you to capture it, it will always stay beyond your reach. How you define love and then practice it, is how you know you have it. If you have it, you can then give it. That's where the fun begins.



If you've never defined love, or left the definition to chance and feelings, then you are most likely causing yourself unnecessary trouble. This is true especially if this unknown love has you disrespecting and treating yourself unjustly, compared to the one you say you love. 

If you think you have the capacity to love someone else, without acknowledging your own humanity (that is, your own needs and wants), you're going to find yourself empty. When those needs are missing, it will in turn start to stagnate the relationship you have with everyone because you aren't getting what you require. 
In that instance, part of loving yourself would be to let other people know what you need because without that, relationships won't thrive.

The definition of love will vary from neighbor to neighbor, but it will always have one thing in common: 
A standard. 
A foundation. 

This is similar to what "Scissors" discussed, but the only exception is that loving yourself has very little to do with cutting people off if someone crosses a line of respect. Cutting people off is a very minor aspect of love because people who love themselves understand that they are simply placing their TEAC (time, energy, attention, communication) elsewhere, in part for self respect, and in part for the standard that they refuse to fall below (to someone else's standard that is too low for a relationship to work). It's not about excommunication. 

Does This Mean Something To You?

You see, a few years ago, I was searching for a definition that I could operate by. I was searching because I'm the kind of person that can guide myself better when I have answers. I heard about love all my life but I never thought about what love meant to me. 
The first time I ever gave love a definition, I had said that, "Love is understanding". It was this to me very early on because as a child I was always misunderstood. Growing up, I was always a spectacle since I never did things the socially acceptable and conventional way.  

Over time as I grew up, I realized that love was more than just what I was missing out on, and I developed a phrase that let me conceptualize how presently applicable love is beyond just myself:
"Love is understanding the best of what to give." 
That's to myself and any event, and to whomever I meet, under innumerable circumstances.

The absolute and most important word in that phrase is "give". Love does not exist without giving. So understand here and now, that you can give things to yourself. You can give things like fries, ice cream, care, time, anything that may be beneficial or detrimental to your being.




I do believe however, that it is necessary to at the very least start defining love as the things you've always wanted and never had, that you think other people would appreciate if you gave it. Eventually, you will realize that love and giving is more than what you never had, especially because experience will teach you that people will not always hold value to the things you consider valuable. This is ok though, since knowing this gives you clear permission to take care of yourself and your needs first.

No matter what, it is always better to fulfill your own needs first. If you operate by a definition, you'll be able to guide yourself as far as what is the best to give to yourself, then to everyone else according to what they need. 

Let's not fool ourselves though. When I say "love yourself", and "fulfill your needs", it is easy to misconstrue it as "giving yourself things you want" but confusing the want with need. 
You will never need a cigarette to calm your nerves.
You will never need drugs, sex or external sources to give you peace of mind. Other people cannot give you things that you yourself are already capable of building with patience (like conviction, determination, faith, will, trust, forgiveness, understanding, empathy). Short term gains will never beat the experience of constructing solidarity with your soul, brick by brick with your own heart and mind. Yes, this takes time, but being forged by time produces a much more powerful and valuable you, to yourself and to the world.

So, what is love to you? Turn the answer inward, perform it to yourself, and then perform it to everyone else.



Love Has A Shadow, Too

The funny thing about asking "what is love to you?", is that love is a question, not an answer.
Love comes with a series of unspoken questions that prove you, but it helps you break it down by asking you things that will apply to the many situations you experience in life like:

- Don't you care about yourself enough to stop now?
- Don't you trust yourself enough to make this decision?
- Are you lying to yourself?
- You're strong enough to face this and push through... Right?
- You're going to get up once you finish falling, right?
- Is this what you deserve?

Every time you answer a question, you will answer in action, not word. You will fail. Very often. Sometimes, the point will be to fail, and press on. Once you get to a certain point and far enough in your life, looking back your decisions will talk back to you and answer those questions love asked you. That's how you realize you've learned. That's how you realize where you been. 

In part, this is why people don't often feel good about looking too deep into things, because whenever they look, their answer to love's questions tell them what they're afraid to believe now...
The things they already know and yet don't want to confront.

Honestly, It hurts to look back through your life and see yourself say to love, 
"No, I don't respect myself." 
Yes, this is what I deserve."
"No, I'm not strong enough to face this." 
"I don't care about myself enough to stop."

Then denial and pride kick in to protect you from the sorrow of the truth that encroaches your comfort lines, but right then and there, love is asking you, 
"Are you strong enough to face yourself now?" Denial and pride don't jump in until you tell them to. 
If they do, negative energy begins to build up inside. This is the type of energy that causes people to be selfish, boisterous, and narcissistic. This is the type of energy that once it builds up enough, makes people become depressed, frustrated, angry, confused, lazy, many things will be everyone else's fault but their own, and there will be a need to release this cyclonic energy into others for ones own happiness. They'll think they are happy.



You may have already experienced people like this. You may have been this person. The truth about them is... They need a release, and causing pain is a short term cure for their own pain. This is the effect of answering love's questions with shame, pride, ignorance, everything else but honesty and ones own self.

Love is a question, not an answer.
And how you answer it right in the moment, will speak back to you when you look back. And you will know.
Either you run behind shame and ask it to hide you, or you stand right there, turn your glance to the left, tell shame, denial, ego and the others not to jump in this time, nod to them that you can handle it and declare:
"No, I'm not strong enough to face myself, but I want to. Here and now." 

The hard work begins then. You might not see the point in being vulnerable if you can just refuse any form of intimacy to avoid the dangers of people getting too close.
You might not see the point in working so hard to be honest when you can lie to get ahead much faster. 
You might not see the point in being transparent when you get away much quicker with walls and shade. 
It's much easier to give yourself the excuse that you are filth and can't do anything right, just to have a reason to do nothing at all.

But that's exactly the kind of thing that equivocates to lack of self love. What you do to other people is always what you do to yourself first.

So yes, the hard work begins here, and yes, you will fail often. It's all part of the deal of being human. 

Don't forget! 
If you want to know how to love yourself, define what love even is by the things you want and then practice it. It can be a list of things you do and say, like being more patient if you aren't, smiling more if you often have dreary moods, occasionally treating yourself when you're too focused instead of burning yourself out. 
It could be a small, guiding phrase, to help your mind quickly snap back around how you want to act. 

Remember that defining love around what you want is designed to get you started on what that word really means for you and the world around you. If you can't find words, try actions. You might find it easier to understand something when you're in the action and experience of loving, not in the thought of it. Much like finding worth, you can't just know you have worth, you do things that you find worth your time and therein do you find your worth.
Keep in mind that love is a question that listens to what you do when you answer, it does not hear what you say. Anything you do outside of your definition of love is most likely a reaction from pain, fear, or a past experience. 
So know that this is a journey.
Know that you must never judge yourself when you fail, even though sometimes you might judge yourself anyway. And that's okay if you do sometimes. Forge ahead regardless.
Know... That the results over time are worth so much.
And finally, know that...



  

Through trial and error, always upwards.

The next post is already out, "There are Levels to This". Find out what kind of levels there might be ;)
And the one before... "Where the 'Right One' Is"

**You can find me on Facebook as Isaiah Dunkley (Veaire). I am an artist as well as friendly blogger. Feel free to find me and send messages on your thoughts..