Happiness never decreases by being shared. 

BUDDHA

What is it about both love and happiness that makes it infinite?

Happiness and love are each, infinite pools of emotion that are not in the least bit diminished in the active sharing with others. 

Each defy the mathematical rules which only allow for a finite experience to be divided into smaller parcels, which in turn, decrease the volume of the total. 

In sharing happiness, we discover that, if anything, sharing happiness generates a greater sum of the parts than having maintained it internally. 

Happiness creates the opportunity for one party to infuse another with a splash of emotion that has the potential contagion factor of spreading instantaneously to another party or living creature. 

When we share happiness, we are doling out a microcosm of our heart for others to fully thrive, upon receiving the stimulation, and with great expectation that our happiness quotient will be joined by those with whom we opt to include. Try smiling at strangers today, and watch their reactions.

Our happiness may be found in millions of different circumstances, manners, opportunities, and situations. Once it has been achieved, discovered or generated, this happiness is fully capable of propelling us to new heights of experience that will enable our overall being to vibrate at a higher frequency, and thereby perform a catalytic stimuli for the rest of our internal being, so that we are all the more capable of enjoying circumstances and opportunities surrounding us. 

Happiness may be fleeting, but its overall effect on us can never be dismissed as insignificant, for our true internal happiness is one of the core fuels upon which our lives are constructed. 

When we embrace happiness as being the endgame, and we leverage our systems and resources to facilitate those goals being reached, we awaken to a reservoir of positive emotion, upon which we may float languidly at our leisure. 

In this frame of reference, we are hard-pressed not to want to share that we are having those feelings with others, and in our choice to do so, we hope that they will find some common joy with us for our having willingly shared a resource that is so precious to us. 

(Happy) Tuesday! 

Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.  

WILL ROGERS

How much time do you spend reflecting on times gone by?

Reminiscing about joyous or disappointing, or any other emotionally-driven event, is one of the qualities that makes us human. We have the opportunity to reflect. 

Presumably our capacity for this gives way to our ability to grow from the reflection, and ultimately continue to blossom as the being that we are. 

That said, there are moments that are appropriate to continue to reflect upon, but at some specific point, we are better served spending our time enjoying the present and preparing for the future, than we are to live in the past and find our greatest comfort in that experience.

We are truly an evolving entity in which continuous stimuli provoke ongoing responses. This is valuable in countless ways, and when used properly, is the foundation of our entire growth. 

Allowing ourselves the time and opportunity to explore these moments, gives way to insights, and from these, presumably come new behaviors and improved expectations for how our ongoing existence will be defined. 

We are most definitely working to leverage this strength to our greatest benefit. However, at a specific ratio of time spent versus value received, there is unquestionably a metaphorical line in the sand which clearly delineates where we must stop said reflecting, and instead leverage what we have garnered from this into our actions in our ongoing existence. 

There are times, both positive and negative, in which we are caught by an event in our past that continuously beckons our attention. If it is a positive moment, there is joy in reflecting. If it is a sad moment, that is no longer achievable, as in the case of spending time with someone who has made their transition, then we find ourselves caught between wishing desperately we had more time with them versus finding the courage to continue to move forward with our own lives in their absence. 

Conversely, there are moments where we have weathered something extraordinary, which has left an indelible imprint on our current state of affairs. This moment continues to rise into our consciousness, and is a perpetual thief of our awareness during the course of a given day. 

When this transpires, we are forced to continuously battle our way through these disappointments, and learn to find our greater strength in staying fully present and allowing our core being to flourish. 

The past is a great reminder, but it is never to be taking the lion share of our daily budget of time allocations.

Live in the Now.

Happy Monday!

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn’t know you left open.

JOHN BARRYMORE

How do you win the elusive pursuit of continuous happiness?

I think you have to start with the presumption that there is no such thing as continuous happiness.

Happiness is a state of mind that can fluctuate instantaneously in any direction. We are fortunate to feel such an emotion, and to appreciate such an emotion when it is present. When it is absent, it is most noticeably missing. As we try to discern how and why we are unhappy and what specifically is making us feel this way, we are able to pinpoint many stimuli that are provocateurs of their own respective flavor of happiness.

Collectively, they add tremendous value to our lives in countless ways. As we are fortunate to find these moments in our lives, we tend to document them, and treasure them as they truly represent the meaning of life.

It is our great joy to discover the new variables, which make us feel equally pleased by their presence, or by their overall stimuli.

For many people, happiness is a recurring state of mind that arises out of prescribed notions that they have established for themselves, and in which they continually expose themselves for the purpose of feeling such a vibrant emotion.

Underneath happiness lies a range of mental perspectives, which enable us to enjoy that happiness… predicated upon how and why we are feeling it.

If we explore why we want to feel happy, we come to a much more esoteric discussion.

One might argue that we feel happy because it is in the spectrum of the most desirable emotions to live within.

One might defend this by explaining that a life that is content and satiating, is resplendent with happy experiences and opportunities. Whereas another might argue that happiness in and of itself is not an endgame, but rather a byproduct of a much greater scheme that is formulated directly from living a fulfilling lifestyle, however, that might be defined by the individual.

We know that we are most certainly appreciative of feeling such an emotion, and we might tell ourselves that this state of existence is what we are most certainly working to live for. But, given how elusive happiness tends to be, sometimes happiness arrives in our world, like a butterfly lighting on your finger. It is truly unexpected, but hopefully, always very much appreciated!

Happy Saturday!

The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear. 

RUMI

What can you hear in the silence?

When you get absolutely silent, and all that you can hear is the rise and fall of your breath, a whole different world opens up at your disposal.

In such a space, we are connected to a far deeper range of perception than all that we might presume to be cognizant of, before the silence commences.

When we are able to retreat into our own sanctuary, we become receptive to understanding far greater truths than many of which we are readily experiencing in the course of our daily lives.

In the silence, the reciprocal version of you, which lives on the other side, and which communicates with you through emotion, is better able to deliver you invaluable insights and perspectives that are not so readily apparent in the course of our daily existence.

Through this perspective, we are able to visualize the components upon which our greater construction is made.

These variables are considerably more insightful, and as a result, more truthful, than some of the distortions upon which we rely, in the course of our day in and day out experiences.

The silence is a sanctuary that blocks out distraction and fully facilitates our own internal guidance system, which is extraordinarily capable of seeing as well as processing, so much of what goes unnoticed as we engage with our daily routine.

In the silence, we discover core truths about ourselves, about our feelings, and about our intuition, upon which we must rely, in order to survive in life.

We are prudent if we are leveraging this tremendous resource to our personal advantage, for within it lies one of the most potent and most prolific resources in our entire arsenal.

When you learn to champion your silence, you will emerge considerably more masterful, and as a direct result, find yourself more on top of your game than you ever have been before.

Happy Friday!

https://brianweiner.com

How to stop time: kiss.

How to travel in time: read.

How to escape time: music.

How to feel time: write.

How to release time: breathe. 

MATT HAIG 

What exactly is your relationship with time? 

Is time your friend? Or your adversary? 

Does it force you to hone your skills? 

Or does it preclude you from having sufficient resources to fully build your arsenal of opportunities? 

Are you continuously seeking more time? Or are you trying to stop time in its tracks? 

Every one of these variables are critical to your ability to navigate your place in the world with efficiency and poise so that you will make the very best use of the time you have as a three-dimensional creature living in this three-dimensional illusion, we call Life. 

What is it specifically that makes time so elastic? If you are doing something that is relaxing and distracting from your normal daily fare, time sometimes expands exponentially in your favor. 

Whereas, conversely, you may find yourself in a quagmire of short time constraints that are entirely limited by an insane deadline.

When we are sensitive to the construct of time, we find ourselves inextricably caught up within its rhythms. The sun rises and sets, the moon  waxes and wanes, the seasons revolve through their cycles, and collectively we are marking our own respective experiences in relationship to these natural metronomes. (Unless, of course, we rise off of planet Earth and become subject to the space/time continuum.)

How is it that time is such a valuable, if not, perhaps when paired with our health, the most valuable, of all of the assets we might have in life? 

Given that we are finite beings, we are ultimately forced to recognize and value time as our collective currency, upon which each of us must draw. 

In order to experience learning or participate in anything terrestrial, it is only through our own perceptions of this experience that we are not only aware of this variable, but also respectful of how and why it is so imperative that we come to terms with the realization that, regardless of any other limitation that could come our way, time is the inescapable constant that binds all of us into a collective global experience. 

You must find numerous important ways to spend your time, because it is truly the most relevant currency with which you are transacting in life.

Given that truth, make certain that the choices you make for your expenditures of time, are ones that are truly the most valuable to you.

Happy Thursday!

Nothing is so strong as gentleness.

Nothing so gentle as real strength.

When is it possible for pure strength to be gentle?

At first blush, this might appear to be contrary to expectation, for certainly anything that must be tremendously strong would, by definition, have the power and energy to exemplify anything of its choosing. 

But what if perhaps there is a misnomer in the concept? 

What if the opportunity for strength, provides the greatest opportunity to be equally gentle? Is this not the perfect embodiment of yin-yang?

We have seen all sorts of examples in nature videos in which a ferocious beast has befriended a frail animal, and taken it metaphorically under its wing, to be nurturing and kind. In many cases, this is a maternal instinct that is manifesting itself from one specie to another, especially if the more frail specie does not have any kind of maternal support of its own. I have seen wonderful videos of a black jaguar who raised a young puppy and grew to be best friends.

In human beings, we see some of the largest nations in the world leveraging their strength and collective power to bring a population that is suffering from any one of countless disasters, as much relief, medical support and food, as the powerful nation may be capable of delivering. 

If we take this on a much more personal basis, we see humans who have tremendous power of their own, learning to share those experiences and knowledge with willing students who are desirous of achieving similar status. 

The art of being gentle is a learned process which is accomplished, in many cases, by one participant having opportunity to exemplify their power, in such a space as to deliver in their capacity for such, to others who might be influenced by the converse nature of power behaving appropriately under restrained circumstances. 

We are often times rewarding the most powerful for their successes, predicated upon performance and ultimate glory… but as a society, we are far more likely to improve our overall vibrational energy by recognizing that it is equally important for us to celebrate the powerful acting with kindness, compassion, empathy, and a deep understanding of circumstances that others might be working their hardest to overcome. 

Happy Wednesday!

Life is incredibly fragile on its best days.

BRIAN WEINER

How stable is anything in life? 

Life has the potential to change in the blink of an eye, for countless different reasons. 

All that we take for granted can evaporate or change in milliseconds, predicated upon circumstances. 

If we are truly understanding the tremendous value and privilege it is to be alive, then we are more likely to grasp every opportunity to celebrate these incredible benefits to their ultimate value. 

Whether it is the loss of someone you love, or a friendship coming to an end, or a business opportunity that is working its way to conclusion or hundreds of other variables that we might have presumed to be based on solid ground, we do our best to leverage all of our composure to process this catharsis and thereby come to a new equilibrium as to that particular aspect of our lives coming to conclusion. 

We are a continuous stream of thoughts, dreams, experiences, hopes, wishes, regrets, disappointments, expectations, and surprises. Throughout this cornucopia of emotion and experience, comes a life philosophy that we are wholly responsible for making valid and justifiable as the way we might spend our lives. 

I shared that life is incredibly fragile on its best days, yesterday, when a friend shared with me that they had just lost their best friend and were trying to process the pain and grief that is associated. In my experience, there is no salve, there is no cure, nor is there a remedy for grief. There is only the ability to allow those emotions to process over a period of time, in order that we might one day come to an understanding of how and why that grief is just another layer in the tapestry of our own lives. 

The grief, while natural, is almost certainly not what the party you are grieving for, would have wanted for you to be experiencing. I think most of us would hope that after our passing, others will remember us with joy in their hearts and a deep warmth that comes with our remembrance.

Given the fragility of the entire experience, it strikes me that gratitude and appreciation are our single biggest allies for enabling us to understand the greater benefits and values of staying the course and continuously improving upon ourselves, day after day. 

Life will always be what we are capable of making of it. Our appreciation of its fragility should not be a cause for fear or trepidation, but rather it should be a stimuli to continuously take inventory of all that we are so fortunate to have and a consistent reminder of how and why every single day is precious.

Happy Tuesday!

The person who does more than what they are paid for, will soon be paid for more than what they do.

How much unpaid work do you put into your career every week?

When you have a fire in your belly, you discover that you are far more willing to infuse your time with extra energy, rather than continuing to live in the status quo.

We are continuously working to improve our circumstances, and as a direct result, we find ourselves more and more willing to invest time and energy into the variables that can potentially accelerate us beyond anything that we have done thus far.

For many people, the security of a regular paycheck drives all of the continuous motivation that someone might need in order to get by in life.

If there is a defined window of time exerted, paired with an expected payment procured, many people will be more than content to leverage that formula to make their respective overhead.

Whereas others are dancing to the beat of a different drummer.

This driving force gives many a cause to invest the extra energy in learning, training, growing, and improving themselves on every possible front, so that eventually they will find their path to succeed at whatever in life they are determined to succeed at.

Trying to find that deep stimulation which comprehends the internal desire and capitalizes on that energy to further accelerate one’s position in life, could not be more important.

It is only through these individuals that the human condition is continually elevated.

If you are determined to prevail, your payoff will substantially improve as a direct result of the efforts you have put forth to get there.

Happy Monday!

When is an apology insufficient to quell the issue?

All relationships, personal and professional, come with a price tag.

The price expended for such, is most usually measured in time.

Through the time we spend on any relationship, we are investing. The investment may be invested for numerous motivations, but at the end of the day, the more we expend towards something, the greater the expectation we have that it will pay off for us in countless ways.

While we are making such an investment, we come to expect certain rewards for that expenditure. Those rewards are equally diverse in their substance, but whether the rewards are apparent and obvious, or subtle and only we can explain them, they are the reason why we are willing to put forth our energy towards such.

What happens when we are making this investment and the reward is not forthcoming, as expected?

In some cases, that answer is so nebulous, as to defy a true definition. We make choices predicated upon what we believe are reasonable expectations. Sometimes those expectations are based on substantive facts, and other times, we are saddened to discover that we were completely offbase in our assessment of what we were hoping to receive. That is the nature of life.

In many cases, we have every reason to believe that someone will act in accord with our projected expectations of them. This may be based on accurate facts, direct assertions or promises made by them, upon which you may hope to rely.

It is a sad experience to awaken to the reality that they are not either willing or capable of performing as they may have stated. In that moment, we are left in a quiet zone of choice. Our choices may be to either understand the extenuating circumstances which have caused them to not act or behave as expected… or we may instead, have to come to the realization that they are either not willing or not capable of engaging with you as you might have hoped.

What then?

Here is the moment of soul searching. Predicated upon the myriad variables that may have caused that circumstance to transpire, we must dig within and decide whether it is excusable and forgivable, or it is not.

When we evaluate all aspects of our relationship dynamics with the other party, we must search our soul for an answer. In many cases, we brush it off and let it go.

But if the transgression is too far astray from that upon which we have relied, there unquestionably comes a time when we must own our feelings and respond in a manner that makes it clear that this breach of faith, confidence or promise was not acceptable.

When we come to that intersection, we are left with countless possible replies.

Make absolutely certain that the reply you opt to provide, is one that will deliver you the long term outcome you are most desirous of achieving, or your blurted out response may come back to haunt you for years to come.

Happy Sunday!

https://brianweiner.com

Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.

What exactly is the price we pay for experience? 

Pending upon what experiences we are discussing, the price paid for those could be ranging from inconsequential to the most severe of penalties. 

If you are working to live a full life, complete with a wide array of opportunities, you will most certainly find moments in your life in which you are being exposed to circumstances which will ultimately deliver you tremendous potential rewards, and for which you may ultimately have to sacrifice variables in your world, that you might not have been willing to pay. 

With each and every chapter of our lives, we are absorbing multitudes of experiences.

When we consider the price that we pay for experience, we might presume that we would be considerably more guarded about those experiences, and specifically about what benefits we are hoping to achieve for having gone through them. 

Our experiences are continuously packed with unforeseen variables from which we are honing our respective skills, perspectives, and reactions in order to be considerably more prepared for the next set of variables that come our way. 

It is true that very few experiences come without a price tag, so wouldn’t it be wise for us to understand that, and as a direct result, treasure those experiences for the valuable possessions, they truly are. 

Happy Saturday!