The Importance Of Viewing Your Mind As A Muscle.

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Strength and muscle! Two words that anyone that may be into health and fitness probably know all too well. These two words go hand-in-hand with one another when it comes to maintaining our health. There are so many muscles that are located throughout various parts of our bodies. We all know that in order for us to maintain those muscles and keep them working at their optimal peak, we have to work them out. You may not have to work them daily, but it is something that you have to do from time to time in order for them to function properly. It's just like that old phrase that goes; "Use it or lose it!" We also are aware of how important our minds are when it comes to an activity such as exercising. Anytime that a person is doing something strenuous, regardless of what it may be, there will come a time when you are going to become fatigued. For most people to want to keep on going when they find themselves becoming tired, what is the main state that they tap into to push on? Yep, you got it, the mind. The mind has so many various affects on our lives and how we live. But just like any other muscle that exists within the body, the mind needs to be worked out as well. It is for this reason that I think that it is of utmost importance for us to view our minds as being a muscle. 

Yo! What's going on everybody? Hope all has been good and well with you all as of late. I am Brad H., and I would like to welcome you all to another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I am here to hopefully bring my perspective on a topic that has been on my mind recently. Through the topic that I will bring, the goal is to hopefully provide some inspiration that can help us stay motivated in our lives. This is the soapbox section of this week's topic where I talk about something that has nothing to do with the topic for the week. I feel that what I'm going to address is something that I have brought up multiple times since the month of March, but I want to do my due diligence and spread the importance of doing all you can to protect yourselves from the Covid-19 virus. I know that the news has been talking about this virus everyday since it started, and I know that many of us have fatigue from it. However, the time that we've been warned about is here, and that is the winter months when the cooler weather sets in. We've been seeing 100,000 plus new cases daily for the last week or so, and it looks like things won't be getting better anytime soon. Please everyone, stay as safe as possible during this time. I know that we're all tired of this, but we really have to crack down and look out for one another during these winter months. Just wanted to put that out there. Believe me, I am tired of it just like everyone else is. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, lets go further into this week's topic on the importance of viewing our minds as a muscle. 

I addressed the aspect of the mind in various topics in the past, and I highly doubt that this will be the last time that I do so. I believe that one of the main reasons as to why I give so much focus to developing our minds is due to the fact that the mind is infinite. It basically entails all the mental thoughts and processes that we use in order to process the things that we encounter in our individual realities. There are so many ways of viewing the mind and the uses that it can have within our lives. Also, I'm of the belief that the mind is what governs much of our thoughts when it comes to being able to handle life. Now I spoke in the opening about how muscles have to be maintained in order for them to operate at their peak performance. I believe that the same outlook can apply when it comes to our minds. Now of course the mind isn't an actual muscle, so there is no way possible to physically work it. However, I believe that it can be viewed more as a spiritual muscle when it comes to exercising it. It isn't something that you can see or actually touch like a physical muscle, but you know that it exists within you. 

So now that we've established that the mind can be viewed in a similar light as a muscle that can be flexed, how exactly do we workout our minds? What does it mean to work your mind and build it towards becoming stronger? From my own perspective, I believe the best way to put our minds through a workout is to do things that help improve our minds. When you think about it in the grand scheme of things, we all work our minds daily anyway with the various thoughts we have. However, I believe that it is the thoughts that we think, along with the things we do that have the greatest affect on strengthening our minds. I want you to think of this as an example. Say that there are two people that use their minds throughout the day in different ways. One person spends most of their time watching reality television, while the other person does things that challenge themselves. Who do you think is doing the most to improve their mind between the two? I would say that the person that challenges themselves probably does more to workout their mind. This is just a small example, but doing things that force your mind and brain to work is the best way to put your mind through those "mental gymnastics" that we hear about. 

We have discussed how the mind is similar to a muscle, as well as gave a few examples on how to workout the mind. So why do I believe that it is of importance for us to view our minds as a muscle that needs to be worked on? Well for the obvious reasons that I have already pointed out, but also because as you go throughout life and age, you're going to have to be able to rely on your mind more than your body. We all know realize that the body deteriorates as we age, and we find ourselves being unable to do things as well as we once did. It kinda makes me think of what I heard a rapper say in a song before. His word were; "Now I'm older, my mind moves fast, my body slower!" I believe that the best way to have a stable mind is to work towards it on a daily basis. Besides, the majority of the battles that we will face in our lives will require the mind to conquer. If we know that this is the case, then why shouldn't we do all we can to improve our minds? I'll close by saying that we often hear the phrase, "He or she has lost their mind." As I pointed out earlier in regards to working out the muscles, we have to use it or lose it. 

Well that is the topic for this week everyone! I hope that you all found this enjoyable, as well as something that you are able to take something away from. If anyone has any comments to contribute, please feel free to do so in the comments. You can also hit me up on Twitter @BradrickH if you all like. This has been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective', brought to you by Brad H. I hope you all have a great weekend, and an even better week ahead. Please stay safe out there, and I will see you all on the next topic. Peace out!

©2020 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Importance Of Keeping Your Mind Simple.

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I know that I probably sound like a broken record when I bring up the topic of being cautious of the things we take in. This is something that I've talked about very many times on here, and I highly doubt that there will ever come a time where I no longer have a need not to. For those of you that may not know what I mean by being cautious of what we take in, I'm referring to all the information that comes at us on a daily basis. Things such as the news, social media, etc, are examples of what I mean by this. We live in an era where information is always readily available to the point where I feel as if our brains have a hard time taking it all in due to the constant release of it. One of the terms that people in the fitness industry use is "overtraining". Overtraining is described as "a point where a person may have a decrease in performance and plateauing as a result of failure to consistently perform at a certain level or training load; a load which exceeds their recovery capacity." I bring up the term overtraining because I feel that it pretty describes what many of us do to our minds when it comes to taking in information. Now I'm not going to get on here and say that we should never take in any kind of information. I mean if you're reading this, you are more than likely not someone that doesn't use the internet or social media in general. Living in a society where the internet and social media is the norm makes it extremely difficult to avoid. However, just with the overtraining term that I brought up, many of us willingly consume too much information that is quite frankly unnecessary to our lives. I believe there is where the problem lies, and brings me to this week's topic on why I believe it is of importance to keep your mind simple.

What's going on everybody in the land of the internet? This is Brad H. back once again, and you are not tuned into another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! This is the blog where I give my perspective on a topic that I think could be helpful for us all. Glad to have you all joining me once again for a week of introspection. As usual before we get down to this week's topic breakdown, I'm going to get on my soapbox and talk briefly about something that has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Boy, talk about a downward spiral huh? I know that sounds a bit weird being that you all have no idea what I'm talking about. I am talking about the Golden State Warriors of the NBA. After being such a juggernaut for the past several years, they look like a team that won't even be able to sniff the playoffs. Now I know losing Kevin Durant and not having Klay Thompson for this season were big blows to their squad. Now Stephen Curry is down, and Draymond Green is also dealing with injuries. The thing that shocked me just a bit was how bad they were looking even before Curry and Green went down. I knew they weren't going to be what they have been, but I figured they would at least be able to get into the playoffs with Curry still there. I know they have a lot of young players, and their team has pretty much done a total overhaul. But with that being said, it's kinda hard to feel bad for them being that they had such a good run of being at the top. It's still early in the season, so we'll have to see how things unfold. I just know that I'm happy that basketball is back. Now that I've gotten on my soapbox, lets go ahead and get into this week's topic of keeping your mind simple.

Before we get into the heart of the topic on the importance of keeping your mind simple, I thought it would be beneficial to establish that there is a clear cut difference when it comes to the mind and the idea of keeping it simple. I know many of you are aware of this already, however, I figured I would point this out before going further with my main points for this topic. Now for most people that would maybe hear a statement that could describe someone as being a simple minded individual, there will likely be a negative association that goes along with this statement. I will admit that I happen to be one that would agree with anyone that views a simple minded person as something negative. Now in saying that, I'm not attempting to belittle or bash people that could be viewed as being simple minded. The truth is that we all are simple minded at various periods of our lives, and most people that are seen as simple minded often times just don't know any better. Negativity is definitely associated with the idea of being simple minded, but of course that isn't what we're talking about with this week's topic. From my perspective, there is a big difference between being simple minded, and keeping your mind simple. I wanted to address this because I want to make sure that no one confuses this topic as one that encourage us to dumb ourselves down. Now that we've established the difference between being simple minded and keeping your mind simple, what exactly does keeping your mind simple entail exactly?

When I think of a person that aims to keep their mind simple, I pretty much liken it to someone that is a minimalist. People that are viewed as minimalists often keep their lives simple from a standpoint of not having a ton of clutter in their lives. These are people that basically only keep the necessities in their lives because they realize that having too much of anything in your life can weigh you down. I believe that this same logic applies when it comes to our minds from my own personal perspective. We as people have a tendency to bog down and fill our lives, and our minds up with meaningless things that add up to being toxic clutter for our minds. I brought up earlier in this post how we already have so much information that we're taking in daily. Some of what we take in can't be helped, and depending on what it is we're taking in, it can be valuable for us. On the flip side of the coin, there are also things that we needlessly consume in our minds. When I think of this, bad habits such as gossiping and being overly concerned with the affairs of others are examples of this. From my perspective, when you engage in these types of habits, you are essentially corrupting your mind. Doing things like gossiping about others are poison to our spirits in my opinion, and we know that our mind and spirit go hand in hand with one another. Doing things like this excessively not only adds unnecessary clutter to your mind, but it also keeps your mind running consistently. This ultimately brings me to the point of why I feel it is of importance to keep our minds simple.

So we've talked about having too much clutter in your life and how it potentially leads to toxic habits. Well from my perspective, when we unnecessarily bring things that could be deemed as clutter into our minds, we tend to develop the habit of overthinking. It brings us to a point where we potentially make things in our lives more complicated than they need to be. This also includes our relationships with other people as well. A common theme that I've brought up in this subject is the word "over". Just like when I brought up the overtraining example earlier in the topic, overthinking is just as damaging from my perspective. This is why I believe it is importance for us as people to keep our minds simple. Getting to a point where our minds operate in a healthy way is the ideal here. I believe it is difficult to do this when our minds are filled up with so much clutter. It makes it hard for us to think and process things, and that makes our lives even more complicated. Am I saying that we shouldn't be on a path towards knowledge and information? Absolutely not. What I'm saying is that we have to learn to let go of habits that can be corrupting to our minds. I do realize that breaking bad habits isn't easy, and this is something that I've brought up on here before. But I am also a believer that the same way you develop a habit, you can also train yourself to unbreak it. At the end of it all, I just believe in adopting a minimalist approach in all areas of our lives. It's time for us to examine ourselves, and start ridding our minds and our lives of clutter. Make the decision to keep your mind simple today.

That pretty much sums up what I wanted to discuss when it comes to the importance of keeping your mind simple. I hope that you all enjoyed it, and most importantly I hope that it was of some benefit to some of you. If any of you have anything that you'd like to contribute to this topic, please feel free to do so in the comment section. You can also follow me on Twitter @BradrickH if you'd like. November is here folks, so the year is quickly coming to an end. However, just because this year is about to go out doesn't mean that we can't make the next couple of months great! This has been another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. I hope you all have a great weekend, and an even greater week ahead. Take care everyone, and I'll see you all on the next topic. Peace!

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

The Importance of Controlling Your Emotions.

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We're all aware that our emotions play a huge part in our everyday ability to function. Our emotions are normally the driving factor behind the decisions that we make, as well as how we react to certain things that happen in our lives. While we all have emotional moments and experiences that are a part of our make-up, the degree of variance in how our emotions control us will vary from person to person. Some people will just be more emotional than others, and some people will allow their emotions in certain circumstances to control them more than others. It appears that in this day and age that society looks down upon people that are emotional, and while I'm a firm believer that it's okay for we as people to be emotional at times, allowing our emotions to control us can be a very detrimental thing to our lives. It's okay to have emotions, but it's also important to work on having a firm hold over your emotions as well.

What's up ladies and gentlemen? Good day to you all, and welcome to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. As I tend to say repetitively because it's the truth, I hope this reaches you all in good health and spirits, as well as in a positive state of mind. The year 2016 is quickly progressing along, and we've already arrived at the month of March. March is always an exciting month for me as it marks my birthday month. I'll be celebrating my 35th year on this planet on the 11th, so I'm pretty excited about that milestone if you will. Also, I wrote in the last post that I would be participating in a 5K in late February. The race took place this past Saturday, and it was an overall fun and successful event. The event titled the Kinsel Ford 5K was the very first race that I ever partook in, and this year marked my fifth time participating in this annual event. Saying that it has somewhat of a nostalgic place in my life would be an understatement. For the past few years, it has become an event that I look forward to. Although it was a challenging ordeal participating with my dealing of a few injuries leading up to the race, I was still able to complete the race in under 30 minutes; the target goal that I normally set for myself. Its been a few days since the event took place, and I'm still pretty satisfied with the aftermath! So the next big thing happening for me will be my upcoming birthday, and I'll be sure to talk about that some in the next post. Alright, lets go ahead and get into this week's topic of dealing with our emotions better.

Before getting into this topic, I want to state that a person's viewpoint on a topic will always vary. My goal with all of this isn't to focus on what is considered right or wrong, but rather using this platform as an outlet to express my opinions. If you happen to disagree with me that's perfectly fine, however, through the process of expressing my opinions via this platform, the hope is to leave anyone that reads this with something to think about and maybe evaluate more. Now as I stated earlier in this post, emotions play a big part in how we live our lives. I would even go so far as to say that the way we handle our emotions is probably at the core essence of who we are as people. I believe that emotions are the catalyst for not only how we view the world in general, but for also how we view our relationships and interactions with others. When you really take it in and consider it, the happenings in our individual lives, along with how good or bad our relationships with others are play a large factor in determining how high or low our emotions can get. It's basically a process of what is happening in our lives vs. how we react to and handle what is happening.

Now from my perspective on this topic, being an overly emotional person can be a good or bad thing depending on what is happening in our lives. We're all aware that whenever something good happens for us that it normally sparks happy feelings and emotions, while the opposite happens whenever things tend to go south. Since happy and positive emotions are associated with things going well, for the sake of making my point in this post, I want to focus on the importance of having control of our emotions when things may not be going all the best. My reasoning behind this has to due with that the fact that many of us make irrational choices and decisions whenever we're allowing ourselves to be controlled by our emotions. This is exactly why I stated earlier that this is a habit that can be very detrimental to our lives. Whenever you're an emotional wreck when things aren't going all that well, it's important for you to understand you're not really your true self at that particular moment. At that moment, you've more or less become a slave to your emotions, which in turn puts you more at risk of making bad choices.

Some of you may wonder why is any of this even relevant since we all have emotions. I can't speak for anyone else, but it's important to me because I myself have allowed myself to become a slave to negative emotions at times. It's something that we all battle with at times but more importantly, it's something that I see happening in society way more than I'd like to see. Too many individuals are hurting themselves both in the long and short term by allowing their emotions to control them at certain moments. Think about this example for a second. You have a person that maybe loaned a family member or a friend some money right? Weeks go by and they haven't seen nor heard from the individual that the money was loaned to. Now the emotion of anger is probably beginning to kick in, and at this point it would be totally justifiable. Now lets say for the sake or argument that the person finally catches up with and confronts the individual they loaned the money to, and a heated argument takes place among the two. While being angry is understandable, do you believe it would do more harm or good if the person that loaned the money confronted the other individual in a more aggressive manner compared to a more calmer approach?

The point that I'm trying to make here is that allowing your emotions to control you in bad situations can be counter productive. We've all seen and heard of family members and friends falling out over certain things, which is similar to the example that I used. Normally in these type of situations, it begins with anger, which leads to a negative emotional state of mind that sparks these heated confrontations. In the end, these type of conflicts ultimately do more damage than good. As I've mentioned previously, it's perfectly normal for our emotions to play a role in certain situations. The thing we want to focus on is not allowing ourselves to do or say something we end up regretting because we were emotional at a particular moment. None of us are perfect and we're all flawed individuals, so of course gaining a hold on our emotions is a task that will not come easy. However, the thing we want to work on is becoming more conscious of our decisions whenever those negative emotions start to creep in. From my perspective, a more conscious person is a more aware person, and a more aware person makes better decisions regardless of how good or bad a moment is. One of my favorite examples I like to use in regards to controlling your emotions goes like this: Allowing your emotions to control you is like being in a moving car, and your emotions are in the drivers seat while you're sitting on the passengers side; a crash is bound to occur.

Well folks that's it for this entry of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. I believe and hope that I was able to get across the point that I'm trying to make. Like always, the hope is that some meaning and understanding was gained from this. Even if there wasn't, I still appreciate those of you that stop by. Alright I'm out this peace, so thanks again to those of you that stopped by. Have a great week ahead, and stay positive my people. See you all in the next one. Peace!

©2016 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Importance of Using Your Mind(Your State of Mind Determines a lot of things In Your Life).

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The power of the mind. I don't believe that many of us are able to comprehend how powerful our minds can be. That may sound odd to some people, but it's really not that hard to believe. The fact that many of us fail to use our minds to it's full potential is evidence that we don't grasp the true power of our minds. Hello once again, this is ya boy Brad H. coming at you once again with another of 'Brad H's Perspective'. Thanks for taking out the time again to check me out. We're going to be discussing the importance of the mind, and how our state of mind determines a lot of things in life.

I first want to start out by apologizing for being on a brief hiatus. I ran in a 5K race this past Saturday, and I celebrated another birthday yesterday. I'm going to relate both of those experiences to what I'm going to discuss in this blog posting in a bit. It's amazing to me how powerful our minds can be. Our minds not only control how we calculate and form ideas, but it also controls our outlooks on life. I personally feel that our minds are the single most thing that can get us through anything obstacles that we're facing in life. I just think that we don't use it enough.

Here is a prime example. Since yesterday was my birthday, I was told by several people yesterday that I'm getting old. While it is indeed true that we all get older in age and body, I think that our minds are what age slower. Should I view myself as an old man because I'm getting older in age? Just because my number in years are increasing, doesn't mean that my mind doesn't think otherwise. There are some people in their 60's, 70's, and 80's who may view themselves as old in age, but not in mind. Like the old saying goes; "You're only as old as you feel." If you view yourself as being old, then you will be old. The mind plays in huge factor in various aspects of our lives, especially when it comes to health.

During the 5K race that I recently participated in, I felt myself getting winded around the last .75 miles left in the race. My body wanted to stop, but I allowed my mind to dictate how I would finish. People complain daily about their situations in life, and do not realize that a sound and strong mind can change your viewpoints and circumstances. A person can be without certain things that most would consider essential in life, and find peace through the power of their mind. We as a people need to rely on the power of our minds to get us through a lot of hardships in life. Does it require effort? Of course it does, but a stable and sane mind is worth it.

I challenge myself and everyone else to strengthen and learn the importance of using our minds. It's a powerful tool that can be a blueprint and guide through life. Everything doesn't have to be physical. We have to balance it all out with the mental aspect as well. Well that's it for this week's edition of 'Brad H's Perspective'. I hope you enjoyed the post, and hopefully it left you with something on the brain. Keep trying to be positive, and I'll see you next time. Peace!