You must be at your best, to give your best.

   Please, forgive my absence.  I've been having a very difficult time finding inspirations to write about.  But, after thought, I believe I know the reasons why I've been having such a hard time, and decided to write about that.

    The thing I decided to bring up, is negative thoughts.  Straying from the stress, and water which I've been so obsessed with, why else could negative thoughts be harmful?  And the conclusion I've came to, is it restricts us from living up to our full potentials.  As I thought about it, they're very close to allowing a python to constrict us, and eventually, bite us with a lethal injection.  A pinch at first, but left untreated, deadly.
  

    (Forgive me if this is confusing, this is all realizations I've had just today, so they're a bit unorganized.)

    When you succumb to negative thinking, I believe your focus draws to within yourself, and your defense on the outside goes down.  You know how when you're said, you seem to just give into the things you've been trying to avoid?  Or you lose your temper easier, and things of the sort?  Or you just want to be alone and isolate yourself?  Well... This happens to me.  And if it happens to you, I hope I can help somehow!

    What I noticed, is the level of happiness I get when I'm helping someone else, in some way.  I actually tend to have extremely depressive thoughts 90% of the day, but I am able to counteract them because of my love for my friends and family.  If I allow myself to be sad, I can't think clearly enough to help someone else.  I get very selfish in thought, and one thought just leads to the next.  I'm the kind of person that people just can't talk sense into.  I don't know why I don't listen, but I just can't hear anything else except my own problem.  But with my love for my friends and family, I'm so glad to say I can disregard myself, at least long enough for my mind to become healthy enough again for me to think clearly enough to solve the problem.  The more I learn, and grow, and the closer I get to God, the better of a father I can
be for my future family and wife.  They are everything I care about, and everything I live for.  When I think about it all, I can't help but think of my kids whom I haven't met yet, and I love them so much.  I want to be a father that can raise them up with the best life possible, teaching them how to be happy and on the right path in their own lives, and I want to be able to help my wife with anything and everything too.  And to do that, I need to be at my best.  Mentally, physically, and as a priesthood father, I need to be able to provide only the best for them.
    Also, my family that I do have here already.  I want to always be in a position that I can help them, be their best friend, and best son, and brother anyone could have.  Even not living at home, everything I do effects them.  They are whom I am closest to, and if I started making destructive choices, it would hurt them so much.  If I would make good choices, they would be so happy for me.  And I want to make them happy.  Because if they're happier, they can be closer to their best, so we can be a family at our best, to go and give our best to the world.

    Leaving that for a moment, second to me is my friends, and everyone I meet.  I could never fully elaborate with words the extent a decision one makes effects the world.  Just a simple smile could travel to someone who has been down in the dumps.  That smile was just enough to pull them out, to be thinking clearly enough to help another, who helps another, and so forth.  And it all started, with that someone who smiled at you earlier that day.

    "Our lives are made possible by the movement of an unseen energy.  Therefore, I would hope that we'll always be aware of this and pay attention to those around us and the things going on around us.  This is something that is very important.  This is because the act of looking at something has an effect on it.  Everyone seems to be aware of this, but we don't put it into practice.  In the home, parents need to pay attention to their children.  It's the same thing."

Dr. Sheldrake

    I truly believe we underestimate how far our actions travel.  I also believe it is healthy practice, to meditate on this often.  Pick any situation, and just think of something you could do to someone, positive or negative.  Now, imagine how that person was effected by what you did, and how they're going to react to the people they meet, and think on this as long as you can.  Now, if it was positive, halt that progression with an angry person, or someone negative.  Likewise with a negative repercussion, imagine a happy person stopping that.  

    I learned in a Sociology course over one Summer of a fantastic comparison of people.  Life is like an organism.  And we all have our part, and spot, like the organs of the body.  Imagine now, one rebellious boy, deciding to avoid his responsibilities whatever they may be.  Everyone near now needs to pitch in to compensate for that disfunctioning piece, and for what those pitching in lost, others need to pitch in too.  Eventually, a huge repercussion happens all to make up for that rebellious person.  

    Just like in our bodies, when something isn't working, it does what it can to compensate for whatever is going wrong.  The problem with this, is the tissue or organ deciding or being halted at it's function, drops it's percent, let's say, to 50%.  Now, everything else needs to raise to above 100% to make up for that, causing stress.  And stress, as Robert Sapolsky has dedicated his life to making known, is potentially fatal.  

    So in short, the closer you are to being at your best, the better you give, and the better you give, the better everyone else is too.

A great friend of  mine, Caren Becker.

    When you're feeling down, hard on yourself, or angry, but you don't function at 100% (I plan to research the actual mechanics).  And literally every second you spend in that, it gets harder and harder to get out, digging you deeper and deeper, tighter and tighter.  There's a sensitivity we need to approach ourselves, and others in this situation.  

   (This metaphor was presented in parable given by an authority leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but I forgot whom it was, and when, so I'll do my best and hope not to butcher it).  Like a 'stubborn' horse.  There is not much success coming out when you drag the horse as hard as you can, calling it stupid, and forcing it to come with you.  The most you'll achieve, is the horse locking his legs tighter, or even dropping to the ground completely.  

    But if you give the horse sincere concern and love, and walk next to and with the horse as a friend, with gratitude for the horse's trust in you, and you will much more likely achieve the horse to come.  

    In this type, we too must help and lead those fallen to the snare and lies and stubborness that arises from those poisonous and negative thoughts.  I'd like to end by begging anyone who reads this, to NEVER underestimate the power you have to change this world with love and gratitude.  Love and gratitude are not only emotion, but more principally, action.  I believe they are verbs, and I believe that they are the key and answer to 99% of the problems that arise in this world.  Sure I'm not a scientist or a doctor, or anything professional or credible in this world.  But, from my experience in life, from what I've learned and read, it's true.  And I truly believe it. 

    I have to apologize... I understand the thoughts in this are quite scattered, so if you have any questions of any sort, feel free to ask and I'd love to discuss this!