Your Presence Often Outweighs Everything Else In Your Life.

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Many of us are familiar with the famous saying; "Out of sight, out of mind." This saying comes from the idea that if you're not present in someone's presence at the moment or often enough, then you likely won't be a priority on that person's mind. By now we all know that while this particular saying is popular and likely has some truth to it depending on the individuals involved, it is also one that shouldn't be taken so literally. We all have people in our lives that while we may not be around all the time, we definitely think about them on a frequent basis. Though the out of sight and mind statement is one that so many people tend to use, the idea of maintaining being present in life is probably more in line with how most of us think and feel. If we're being honest with ourselves, we both value and need to have people around us in this life. Human interaction and the relationships that we have with other humans are what this life that we live in thrive on. Truth be told, many of us probably wouldn't be able to maintain our sanity if we didn't have the presence of people that we care for around us. Beyond that, there are already so many people in this world that are lacking in this area of life, and I think we can all agree that it shows with the number of people that deal with depression, etc. I'm not implying that all forms of depression deal with people not having other people in their lives. However, I do feel that it is probably one of the biggest reasons why people deal with this. Not speaking for everyone, just for myself, but I think many of us underestimate the importance of being present. This not only applies to the people that we love and close for, but also towards all aspects of our lives. Many of us weigh the pros and cons of whether it is beneficial to be present, and that is a valid act in my opinion. However, from my perspective, your presence will often outweigh everything else in your life.

Yo, yo, yo! What is going on everybody out there in the land of the internet? We are here once again for another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. I am Brad H. of course, and I'd like to welcome you all to another week of wisdom, inspiration, and positive vibes and energy. I hope that all has been good and well in the lives of every single person that is reading this. In the unfortunate circumstances where that has not been the case for anyone out there, keep on holding your head up and continue to strive towards changing the things that you're able to. Before getting into the topic that I'll be delving into for the week, I'd like to use this portion of the post to address something that doesn't have anything to do with this week's topic. I haven't talked much baseball on here this year, so I'm going to go ahead and give my thoughts on The World Series taking place right now. Boy, was that a crazy game last night or what? It honestly felt like that one wasn't going to end. The Dodger were able to keep themselves alive for another game after a 3-2 win over the Boston Red Sox. Now I recall writing something about The World Series last season that took place between the Dodgers and the Houston Astros. I mentioned in that post that I was an Astros fan, but I also like the Dodgers as well. Of course my Astros didn't make it back this year, so I'm pulling for the Dodgers to win it all this time around. Though it was a tense game last night that featured a bit of luck happening for the Dodgers, I am glad they were able to come away with the W. Now it all shifts to tonight's game. Since it is a bit late to be making predictions, I'm not going to do that. I'll just say that I hope the Dodgers can come up with a way to extend this thing to another game. Am I surprised that the Red Sox are up on the Dodgers in this series? Absolutely not! That pitching rotation Boston has is really good, and you can't go wrong with that offense they got. We'll just have to see what happens, but hopefully we can be in for another treat like we had last night. Well I'm going to go ahead and leave baseball alone for now, so lets transition into the heart of this week's topic, which deals with why I believe our presence often outweighs everything else in our lives.

So now that I've gotten on my soapbox for a bit, it is time for me to give the regular disclaimer that I give before addressing the main focus of this week's topic. Every single one of us have different outlooks on how we see this world that we're living in. We all have differences in the ways we think and move throughout our daily lives. I say that to say that it is unrealistic for us to believe that we're always going to see eye-to-eye when it comes to giving our opinions and perspectives. The primary goal that I have with this topic, as with the rest that I cover is to hopefully provide some inspiration that can hopefully serve as motivation to help us to keep moving forward in our lives. My other hope with all of this is to hopefully ignite a spark in someone else that serves as a way for another person to see a topic in a manner they may not have before. I personally believe that it is a wonderful feeling when you already have formed an opinion on something, and then you receive a perspective from another person that allows you to expand upon the opinion that you've already formed. It is honestly one of my favorite things in life to be like; "Hmm, I never thought of it that way." I don't expect this to be the case for everyone, but I have a feeling that many of you feel the same way. So how did I arrive at the topic of why our presence is so important to our lives and the lives of other? Recently, I've been giving a lot of thought about this particular topic and how so many of us forget how important that our presence plays in our lives. In some ways, I have equated this topic to some situations that people that I know are currently dealing with in their lives. Upon relating this to the lives of others, I thought of several different ways where being present matters greatly in our lives. So for this week, I'm going to be giving a few examples of why being present is important, and I'm going to hopefully provide some explanations for why I believe our presence often outweighs many aspects of our lives. So with that being said, lets go ahead and tackle this.

Most of us have likely heard about the importance of being in the present moment, and how difficult it is to be in the present moment when you're focused on the past or the future. I feel this same state of mind applies when it comes to the idea of having a state of presence in our lives. What do I mean by this? From my perspective, the state of presence is not only being in the present moment, but it also deals with the idea of showing up and having a presence. Be mindful that there is more than one way to having a presence. Your presence can be anything from showing up at one of your classes to take a test, to having an online presence where people are aware of you despite not being in your physical presence. There are many ways to view a topic such as this, but for the focal point of this topic, I want to more so stress how your physical presence can have an influence on other people. I want to break how I feel about this down into two aspects. The first aspect I want to address is the aspect of the importance of having a presence in the lives of others. I want to get into this first, because I personally believe that this is the most important aspect of having a presence. I say this because regardless of who you are, if you have any kind of responsibilities in your life, you also likely have people that rely on you. As I mentioned earlier, I believe much of the reason why people suffer from depression comes from feeling alone. Now I know that we all have our own individual lives to live, but if you also have people that rely on you, then they rely on your presence as well. This means that is is important that you have a physical presence in their lives. Think of a child when they are little, and how most of them only go to the people they're around the most. Children cling to the people they see the most, which means that for that to be able to happen, their parents and whomever else they are close to have a presence in their lives. They may not yet understand the ins and outs of life, but they do know who is present in their lives.

The second aspect of how our presence plays an important part in our lives is the personal aspect. Beyond just having the state of presence for others in our lives, we also have to see it from a personal side of things as well. From my perspective, we often times in life focus more on the outcome of things rather than what our presence in itself can do to benefit us. In order for us to achieve the things that we're seeking in this life, we have to have a steady and consistent presence in whatever it is we're trying to do. Take the following as an example. Imagine a guy that loves playing basketball, and is wanting to try out for a basketball team. It would be natural for this guy to think about the outcome of wondering whether or not he makes the team, but putting so much emphasis on this can also cause distractions. Now the more wise thing for the player to do is not worry about the outcome of whether he makes the team not, but rather focus on trying to have a steady presence at the tryouts. This is why I say that your presence can outweigh the other aspects of your life. If you are present in what you're trying to accomplish, the results will often take care for themselves. When you put this into that perspective, you come to realize that it isn't always about achieving the outcome you desire, but rather being able to appreciate and enjoy the journey that leads to whatever the outcome is. Now I know I used basketball as an example, but this can apply to anything in life from relationships, career, etc. Furthermore, a steady presence can also yield positive results even when you may not have initially achieved the result you desired. Going back to the basketball example I provided, lets imagine that the player didn't make the team after the tryouts. However, despite not making the team, he showed up and gave a lot of effort. Though he may not have had the same level of talent as the other players, lets say the coach saw how determined he was. Now lets say that one of the players that did make the team has to quit for whatever reason, and the coach has to replace him with one of the players he decided to cut. Now imagine the coach going back and choosing the player that we're talking about because he showed up and gave the effort. Though he may not have made the cut initially, his presence was enough to get him to what he desired.

It is time to head into the home stretch of this topic. Now that I've given a few examples of what it means to be present and have a presence state of mind, I want to get into why I feel it outweighs nearly everything else in our lives. From my perspective, your presence outweighs most of the results and outcome in your life comes from the idea of time. See, when you are present and have a presence towards something, you are making the conscious effort to give your time to whatever requires your presence. In my opinion, this is important due to the fact that we all have a limited amount of time. I've written in the past about how important time is and how it drives us, so I'm not going to get too much into that. However, because time does indeed run our lives, we can often never have too much of it. There are all kinds of material things and items in this life that we can probably never have too much of, but you can never have too much time. This is why it is pertinent to be able to discern what is and isn't worthy of your time. When you have a in the present state of mind, you are willingly giving your time to the things you like. If you're present in something that you enjoy, the other aspects of life do not matter as much. Going back to the basketball example I gave earlier; if you love and enjoy playing basketball, the idea of getting cut and not making the team won't matter as much. Of course that would disappoint you, but you had the presence of mind to go after something you enjoy, which means that it won't be a waste of your time. When you have a state of presence, you can look back at those things and enjoy them regardless of the outcome. It all comes down to time and learning to engulf yourself fully in the things you enjoy. And if you ask me, from my perspective, that just isn't something that you can put a price tag on. Upon reading this, I hope this encourages others to appreciate what you give your presence to. You don't have to always physically do things. Sometimes your presence towards something is all that is needed.

Well we've arrived at the end of another topic for the blog. I hope that I was able to express myself in a manner that those of you that have made it this far could understand. I appreciate everyone that stopped by, and although I may not be physically able to see you all, just knowing your presence towards what I have to say is inspiring. This has been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. If anyone has anything they'd like to contribute as far as feedback, please feel free to do so in the comments. You can also find me on Twitter @BradrickH. Well I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far, and I hope you have an even better week ahead. The weather has been wonderful here in southeast Texas the last couple of days. Always gotta get out and enjoy it when that happens. Well I'll see you all in the next one. Till then, peace and love to everyone!

©2018 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

How Bad Habits During Troubling Times Can Make Our Lives Even Harder.

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If you've been alive long enough, I think we can all agree that life can be hard to deal with at times. This is something that we are all aware of, and we also know by now that there isn't much that can be done to stop those hard times that life can bring. There are many different events that can happen in life that could be classified as troubling. The death of a family member or close friend is an example of one of those events. Finding out that you or someone that you care for has been diagnosed with a health condition can be troubling as well. Again, there are so many different things that could be troubling, and what could be troubling for one person may not apply to someone else. Like I always mention on here, much of this all comes down to perspective. However, I think it is safe to say that we all look for ways to ease those troubling life moments when they occur. Because we naturally want to feel comfortable and at peace within our lives, we all want to make troubling moments disappear as soon as possible. In the last topic that I covered via this blog, I talked at length about how positive daily habits are the key to handling negativity. While I am a firm believer in this being the most constructive way to deal with negative forces, I also know that not everyone practice daily positive habits. Furthermore, even for those of us that do make positive habits a daily ritual in our lives, bad habits are also a critical aspect of our lives as well. As I touched on in the last topic, we would all be lying to ourselves and others if any of us said that we don't have any bad habits. Having habits that could be considered bad are just a part of life that we have to constantly work towards changing for the better. Now with all of that being said, how often do many of us on occasion turn to bad habits whenever troubles come into our lives? Those bad habits are often the habits that make us feel good in the moment, but do they really make our lives better after the storms pass? I personally don't believe they do, and I'll go so far as to say that practicing bad habits during troubling times can make our lives even more harder.

Hello once again to all you good people out here in the land of the internet! This is Brad H. back at it once again, and I'd like to welcome everyone that showed up to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! As with the usual standard that I've been using on here, we're back once again to address topics that will hopefully serve as some inspiration for all of us. My hope is that the topic that I've chosen for this installment will give us some added motivation to keep on moving forward in our daily lives. Before getting on my soapbox for a bit, I'd like to thank everyone that is joining me on here. Whether this is your first time visiting here, or you've been reading me for sometime, I sincerely appreciate everyone that spends a few minutes of their day reading these topics. I know I give thanks quite a bit on here, but I feel that it is something that cannot be said enough. In the last installment I talked about the importance of heeding warnings from your local officials if you stay in areas where hurricanes could potentially make landfall. I made those moments in response to Hurricane Florence that hit the Carolinas a few weeks ago. Well earlier this week the gulf coast was hit by Hurricane Michael. Michael made land around the Florida panhandle as a category 4 storm. The latest death toll from this storm is 17. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone that have been affected by this terrible storm. Instead of spending my soapbox talking in depth about the storm, I want to talk about something I've been thinking about and that is control. I think that we as people always want to feel like we're in control of everything. People that are bosses and ceos want to feel in control of their employees. Parents want to feel in control of their kids. There are so many things that we want to feel in control over. However, how much control do we really have in this world? Can any of us stop a hurricane or volcano? Can we prevent tornadoes from touching down? We as humans want to feel in control, but when you think of the grand scheme of things, we don't have as much control as we think we do. This is why I think it is importance for us to always stay humble in this life. Not a single one of us are immune to anything in this life, so we have to temper our expectations when it comes to having control. Just something to think about ya know? Alright, we're going to go ahead and transition into this week's topic of how bad habits during troubling times can make our lives even harder.

Now that I've brought up a topic besides the topic that we're going to be talking about in this edition, it's time to go ahead and give the usual disclaimer that is given before going in depth on the main topic. We all come from different backgrounds, which also means that we all have different outlooks on life and the way we see the world. The primary objective with this topic, as well as the rest is to hopefully give some inspiration that will help us to keep on pressing forward in this life. Through the words that I'm aiming to express here, I'm also hoping that this will inspire others to see things in a way that they may not have before. I'm not trying to force my beliefs on anyone else, but if this helps become a spark that will gets the critical thinking juices going for others, then I consider that to be a good thing. I believe the opportunities to learn from one another is an endless endeavor, and I think it is something that we would exploit as often as we can. So how did I come to discussing how bad habits during troubling times can make our lives even harder? Well I briefly touched earlier on how last week's topic dealt with positive habits being an aid during difficult times. We all know that when there is good happening life, there is also bad going on as well. Life is a balance of the two, so if I'm going to to talk about the good that comes with positive habits, I also have to be willing to get the bad out there as well. Now in making an attempt to convey all of this, I'm not saying that the bad should be our primary focus. That absolutely is not the case. However, I also recognize that life doesn't always bring only good moments. Yes there are many good moments that will come our way in this life, but there will always be sprinklings of bad moments to go along as well. For this week's topic, I'm going to attempt to show why it is important to be able to rely on your good habits whenever those bad times come along. I don't want this to be seen as a fear tactic, but rather something that we can hopefully be able to take something positive away from.

Ever heard the saying "that when it rains it pours?" I'm sure that most, if not all of you have heard this being mentioned before. This is one of those popular phrases that many people use to describe when things in life maybe aren't going so well, it can often last for sometime without there being much good on the horizon. Think of it like receiving some bad news one day, and then also receiving some more bad news only a day or a few days later. I think that most of us have had times in our lives that describe this, but we also know that while we will face times of adversity in our lives, those times won't always last. Brighter days are always on the horizon if we keep a positive outlook and an open mind. That said, many of us often self sabotage ourselves when it comes to facing troubling moments in our lives. Now in saying that, I hope that I'm not giving the impression that this is something we intentionally do to ourselves. In some aspects and circumstances that may be the case, however, I don't believe that this is something that we as people do just to intentionally make things even harder. Now going back to sabotaging ourselves that I mentioned, how exactly do we do this you may wonder? Well from my perspective, and believe me I feel that this applies to myself at times, we often resort to bad habits when we're facing challenging in our lives. This is something that I have mentioned so many times on here, but I think we'd be lying to ourselves if we said that this is something none of us ever do. Now the reason why I say we resort to bad habits comes from the fact that we often turn to things that make us feel good in the moment. We as people don't like feeling uncomfortable and uneasy, so it is in our nature to gravitate towards the things that make us forget about our issues. I don't feel this is something that we should be judged for doing. As I stated before, I believe this is something that is just a part of our human nature. But just because something is part of our nature as humans doesn't mean that it is always the right option. The last topic that I covered goes more into that.

Now that I've talked about how we often self sabotage ourselves during difficult moments in our lives, I want to give some examples of how we do this. I want you to think of some of the things that you all engage in when you are feeling stressed out in your life. Now if you're someone that always faces your problems head on without the aid of anything negative, none of this will apply to you, and I personally commend you for being able to do that. However, for those of us that maybe don't always take the forthright approach towards tackling our problems, some of the ways we choose to aid in our stressful moments may be good for us initially (so we think), but they often can exacerbate our problems. Lets just say that whenever you're feeling stressed out that you choose to binge eat a certain type of food that tastes good, but has a lot of sugar in it. Of course eating it is going to taste good and help you forget about those troubling times you're dealing with, but also eating too much of it can have ill effects on your health also. This is an example of how a bad habit can potentially make our lives even more harder. You are already dealing with something hard, but you are also potentially putting yourself at risk for having even more issues down the road. Now I know that food is just one example, but this can apply to nearly anything. There is another statement that goes "too much of anything is bad for you." Something as simple as watching television or playing video games can turn into something toxic if you're not able to limit how much of it that you intake into your life. This is the exact reason why we're always told to try and find more constructive ways to handle our problems. Allowing the potential for problems to stack on top of problems can create a spiral effect of issues that you may never find a solution to. Again, I don't believe this is something most of us do intentionally, but it is something that we can only change if we're aware of it.

So how do we keep bad habits from making our lives even worse? Well I could say what I've been saying about replacing bad habits with better ones. At this point that kinda goes without saying. However, I want to touch again on what I said earlier about not always be aware of how the things we do affect us during stress moments in our lives. We all know by now that in order to remedy a problem, we must first able to identify the problem. For this week's topic, instead of identifying what the problems are, we want to be more aware of the things we're engaging in and how they affect us. From my perspective, often times the bad habits that we engage in have become so normalized to us that we don't even see them as bad habits. When we pick up those cakes, pies, etc to eat when we're feeling stressed, we're often not aware of how they can affect us in the long term due to the fact that doing this has become normal to us. This is exactly why it is a habit. Sure the goal that we should focus on is replacing those bad habits with better ones like I talked at length about in the last installment. However, making ourselves aware of the effects of what we do when we're stressed can help greatly in keeping bad habits from making our lives even more harder. This all comes down to rewiring ourselves to create better habits, and the only way to do this is to break those negative patterns we engage in. So my challenge for everyone that has read this and find themselves struggling with partaking in bad habits when troubling times come around, just pause and take a second to gauge how you are feeling. Really think and ponder on what you're facing. Often times the things we're dealing with may be troubling, but they often aren't as bad as we make them out to be. I also want you to think about why you are choosing to do something when you feel stressed. Think about why you are choosing to binge eat, drink, etc. Finally, try and focus on how this is going to affect you in the long run. Always remember that every action has a consequence, and some of those consequences have more costly effects than others. I understand that it isn't easy breaking bad habits. Believe me I know this first hand. But we also shouldn't go along being comfortable with the potential of making something that is already bad even more worse.

Well I think I have said all I wanted to say for this go round, so I'm going to go ahead and close this installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' out. I hope that I was able to express myself in a manner that made some sense. I also hope that someone out there was able to find some kind of inspiration from this. If you have any comments or anything else to contribute to this, please feel free to do so in the comments. I can also be found on Twitter @BradrickH. Well I hope everyone enjoyed this, and I hope you all have an even more enjoyable weekend. Be sure to keep everyone that was affected by Hurricane Michael in your thoughts. From what I've seen on the news in regards to that storm, some of the areas that were affected where it made landfall are going to be uninhabitable for weeks, maybe months. The power that these storms can pack is truly devastating. Well I hope you all have a great and positive week ahead. Till next time, I'll see you all in the next one. Peace!

©2018 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.