The Power Of Protecting Your Peace At All Costs.

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One of the things that I have frequently brought up on this platform is the unpredictability of life. When it comes to living life, there are so many nuances and unpredictable factors that determine how we live our lives as individuals. I believe that this also applies when it comes to the word "peace". What exactly is "peace"? Most people equate peace to being a state of well-being that gives us both serenity and tranquility from turmoil. Generally speaking, peace is something that is associated with what most people want for the world. We often hear others say that we need to work towards increasing peace in this world. As there is so much uncertainty that exists within this world, the more uncertain of peace there will be. Though world peace is something that many of us wish for, there are other forms of peace that have to be considered. I believe that one of those forms is the peace that comes from within us as individuals. Just like war is the opposite of peace, there are many of us that are at war internally with ourselves. There can be so many reasons as to why a person may be warring within themselves. However, one of the biggest reasons for this often stems from our relationships with other people. Many of us feel the obligation to always go over and beyond for people and responsibilities that come along with life. The obligations that we have are definitely important and should be tended to. However, we must also understand the great power that comes from us protecting our peace at all costs. 

 

What's up everyone? It's Brad H. back here to bring you all another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I'm back to give my perspective on a topic that can hopefully be beneficial towards our lives. I hope that all has been good and well in all of your lives as of late. So for my soapbox this week, I'm going to be giving my last viewpoint on the NBA Finals. By the time the next topic comes out, the finals will be completed. I initially felt like the Golden State Warriors were going to win the series 4-2 over the Boston Celtics. I will admit that I have gotten a little nervous about that prediction. Boston has played extremely well throughout the playoffs, and that has continued in this series so far. I'm still going to stick with my original prediction of the Warriors winning, but I think this series is likely going seven games. I don't think anyone besides fans of the teams would complain about seeing a seven game series. It just means more basketball for us to watch. This has definitely been an interesting NBA season, but we've reached the end of it. The playoffs overall have been pretty good though. There were some upsets that made it interesting for sure. For those of you following the finals, I would love to see your comments on who you all believe will win. Now that I've gotten on my soapbox, it's time to go ahead and talk about the power of protecting our peace at all costs. 

Now I spoke in the opening on how peace comes in various forms. For this week's topic, I want to focus on the individual peace that comes from within us. My reasoning for wanting to cover this as a topic is noticing over the years the lack of inner peace within people. This is something that is across the board as the world has changed so much over the years. While peace comes in various forms and ways, there are also different things and entities that can rob us of our peace. Since there is no way for me to know what brings or disrupts every individual's peace, I'm going to be presenting this from a general perspective. For those of us that may be lacking peace within our lives, must do our due diligence to determine what are the things that may be affecting our peace. Everyone's life circumstances are always going to be different and unique to the individual. Therefore, it is important for us evaluate ourselves thoroughly in order to remedy whatever may be disrupting our peace. This topic may indeed not apply to everyone since some of you may not deal with this as a chronic issue in your life. Regardless if it applies or not, I hope that each and every person that comes across this is able to take something positive away from it. 

We all know that there are so many things in this world can rob us of having peace within ourselves. Many of those things are going to be circumstances that aren't necessarily within our control. What about the things that we do have control over when it comes to having peace? Though there are many factors that contribute to peace, I would dare say that other individuals are the ones that deplete peace in our lives. This means that most of us likely will have friends or relatives in our lives that affect us having peace. I mentioned earlier in the topic certain obligations that come with life often contribute to potentially disturbing our peace. Obligations come in many forms, but the biggest obligations that most people feel is to other people. Now that I've brought up the idea that family and friends can affect our peace, I am not implying that this is always the case. Some people will never know how it feels to have people close to them affect their peace, and that is a good thing for those this applies to. However, anyone that has dealt with an individual that has disturbed their inner peace will probably admit that it often comes from the people that they're closest with. The obligations that we feel towards these type of individuals is much of the reason as to why we keep them in our lives despite their presence robbing us of our peace. Though it may be very difficult to face, we always have the power to preserve our peace if we feel that it's constantly being trifled with. 

So why is there power in protecting your peace at all costs? I believe from my perspective that inner peace is one of the most important aspects of life. A person will never be happy if they do not have peace within themselves, and the evidence of that is taking a good look at the shape the world is in today. Due to the fact that I believe inner peace is an essential thing to happiness in life, having it is a powerful thing in a world that seems to be lacking it. Now that we've established why I believe peace is so powerful, it's fairly obvious why it should be protected at all costs. The often challenging thing is that sometimes the obligations that have been brought up throughout this topic have to be eliminated; or at the very least cut back on. It is understandable that it can be difficult to let go of certain things and maybe even people that take away from your peace. When it comes to various circumstances where this applies, the easy thing to do is just avoid those circumstances. However, when it comes to individuals that are affecting your peace, it may be necessary to let them know how you feel. See if there is some common ground that can be reached where you and the person can interact without it affecting your peace. There are so many different ways to go about doing this, so every person needs to figure out what works best for them individually. The most important thing that I hope everyone takes from this is that your peace is powerful. Therefore, there isn't anything that should constantly rob you of having it. If anything or anyone is doing so, you have the power to react to that situation accordingly. 

That is how we're going to end this week's topic here on 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! I hope that you all found this to be both helpful and enjoyable. Any questions, comments or concerns can be left down in the comment box. Before I end this, I want to say that for those of you that are movie fans, do yourself a favor and go see the film "Top Gun: Maverick" if you are able to do so. I know this should be in the soapbox section, but I just thought I would throw it in here at the end. I saw it earlier, and it is one of those films that needs to be experienced at a theater.. Alright, time for me to go now. I hope you all have a great rest of the weekend, and I'll get up with y'all on the next topic. Take care everyone!

The Importance Of Attempting To Be Happy.

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I think that the good majority of us can agree that we all would like to experience as much happiness as we possibly can while we're alive. Of course we do have exceptions to that belief with the people that are miserable, and seem to enjoy having it that way. For the people that have unhappiness in their nature, that's their prerogative I suppose. My only quarrel with people like this is that they are often the ones that attempt to steal the joy of others because their unhappy. That's a topic for another day, but I definitely believe that most of us want peace and happiness in our lives for the most part. Happiness is one of those things that is truly a mindset. It is essentially a state of being that varies from person to person. However, I am a firm believer that it is something that rests solely on our shoulders. It is our responsibility to define what happiness means to us personally, and then take the necessary steps to reach that state of bliss. Something that I've noticed in regards to happiness and how the world we live in deems it is the idea that being unhappy comes from having a lack of items. There are many people out there in this world that truly believe that the only way to be happy is to acquire a lot of material things. In essence, this is what I would call social engineering, and it's a trap that many of us fall. In my opinion, this type of agenda causes us to stay in a state of unhappiness, even when we may have much to be happy for. Because of this type of engineering, I believe that many of us give up on the idea of finding and experiencing happiness. This is why I feel that it is of importance for us to attempt to find happiness.

Hello once again good people! This is Brad H. coming at you all once again, and you are now tuned into another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'! For those that may be first time viewers, this is a platform I use to express my thoughts on a topic that I come up with as a point of interest. I try and use that topic to provide some inspiration that can hopefully serve us all in our lives. How are you all doing this time around? Good I hope. This section of the topic for the week is the soapbox section where I bring up something that is unrelated to the main topic at hand. So this upcoming week will mark the Thanksgiving holiday for many across the world. This is something that I try and bring up every year on my topics, because I think it is something that gets overlooked a lot during the holidays. I want to remind everyone to be mindful of those that are grieving during this time of the year. Yes I do know that the holidays are special for many of us, but the holidays also makes people think about their loved ones that are no longer here. I've talked about it before on here, but I lost a dear family member of mines six years ago during the week of Thanksgiving. Because of that unfortunate event, I tend to look at Thanksgiving a bit differently than I once did. I'm sure many of you can relate to this. I'll close by encouraging you all to call and check up on someone you know that may have lost someone around this time period in the past. Make sure they are holding up okay, and for those you that are personally affected by this, remember that the spirits of our loved ones live on through us. That's all for my soapbox, so lets go ahead and talk about the importance of attempting to be happy.

Now I talked earlier about how I feel that we as people have been socially engineered by the world we live in when it comes to happiness. My reasoning for bringing this up is because I believe that we can all agree that there are so many of us that just aren't happy in life. I know that sounds depressing and self deprecating, but it is a reality for so many of us. Now there are likely some instances where it is genuinely both reasonable and understandable for a person to not be happy. I will also admit that there are different levels when it comes to being happy, so happiness cannot be viewed as something in a vacuum. However, how many of us complain about not being happy despite having some semblance of things that we should be happy for? Most of us have so much to be happy for; heck even just being among the living is something worth being happy for. Unfortunately due to the societal norms that have placed upon us, many of us are unable to see past the fact that many of us do have reasons to have some level of happiness. We spend too much of our mental space focusing our time and energy towards all the reasons we shouldn't be happy, rather than focusing more on the things that we already have. Again, this isn't entirely our fault because I think it has become habitual for us to view life in this way. Most of have been conditioned to view the glass as being half empty over half full, and if we practice bad habits on a everyday basis, those habits become ingrained in our psyche to the point where it's hard to break free of these habits.

Now I brought up earlier the habits and conditioning by society to set up the next point that I want to make for this topic. Hopefully what I'm about to say doesn't come across as too harsh, but the reality for most of us that experience chronic unhappiness in our live is that we are choosing not to be happy. Yes, I am one of those people that indeed do feel that happiness is a choice, and I'm going to expand on that point by saying this. There are many of us aren't even trying to find happiness in our lives. Now some people may read that and say; "Brad H., what do you mean I'm not trying to be happy?" My response to that question would be this; how can you be attempting to find happiness if you're still under the programming that conditions when it comes to happiness? If you've yet to truly break free of the standard of happiness that society has set upon us, how can you truly attempt to have happiness. See, most of us feel like the only way for us to be happy is if we have all these various material items, etc. Too many of us believe that by chasing after these things is the only way for us to attempt to be happy. I personally believe from my perspective that attempting to find happiness means changing our mindset. The thing with happiness is that it always comes in waves. Even people that are generally happy in their lives will go through patches where they experience a lack of happiness. Again, it comes in waves, but changing our mindset is the only way that we can attempt to achieve happiness.

So ultimately, why do I feel is it of importance for us to attempt to be happy? Besides the obvious benefits that come along with being happy in this life, the idea of breaking our minds free of the societal shackles is the main reason from my own perspective. In my opinion, these shackles that I'm referencing in this topic are the reason for many of us to not even trying have happiness. This is why I believe so many of us would rather complain about how messed up our lives are rather than trying to see a better outlook on our lives. As I brought up earlier on this installment, many of us have a lot of things in this life to be happy for. Unfortunately, we often fail to recognize these things because of what we've been deceived into believing what happiness is by the world we live. The bottom line is that if you're someone that experiences long term periods of being unhappy with life, your life and your mind likely will not change until you attempt to do something about it. I believe the best way for us to do this is to start looking at the little things in our lives that most of us take for granted. If you have people in your life that truly love and care for you, that is definitely something to be happy for. If you woke up today and you're breathing, that is something to be extremely happy for. There are many other reasons as to why we should express happiness, but it ultimately comes down to us as individuals. What I do know for sure is that we'll never be happy if we don't try to be, so lets try and change our thoughts to manifest happiness into our lives. There is always hope, but we have to be willing to try.

That about sums up this topic. I've pretty much said all that I think needs to have been said, so I'm going to go ahead and sign off. Thank you all once again to those of you that have read this far. I really appreciate every single person that does. I hope that this topic served as some inspiration for some of you out there. If you have any comments or feedback to give, please feel free to do so. You can also connect with me on Twitter @BradrickH if you like. For those that celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy your family and the week ahead. This has been another installment of 'Brad H.'s Perspective' brought to you by Brad H. Take care everyone, and I'll see you all in the month of December.

©2019 Bradrick H. All Rights Reserved.

Stopping With the Band-Aids, and Focusing On Long Term Solutions.

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One of the sometimes unfortunate things that come along with being human is a word called "pain". Part of being human means that we all are going to fall victim to some sort of physical and trauma related pain. It's a common occurrence for us to receive minor cuts, scrapes, bruises, and scratches from time to time. Now while growing up as a youth, and for some people even today, most of us used band-aids to cover those minor physical wounds that we received. We're all aware that the band-aids themselves weren't a permanent solution to healing the wounds, but we used them as a method to help ease the pain right? Well, it's become my belief that many of us not only use band-aids for physical related injuries. Some of us are using them both mentally and emotionally as well, rather than looking towards finding long term solutions to our issues. Welcome to another edition of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'.

What's up, and hello to everyone out there! As always, thanks for stopping by to check me out again. I've definitely been on somewhat of a hiatus in recent weeks, but I'm back at it once again. Now I began this post talking about band-aids, and how they mostly provide only temporary relief to pain. Then, I began to talk about how many of us are using band-aids as a way to cope with our mental and emotional well-being. Hopefully, I didn't veer too far off of the track and confused anyone. However, people that are familiar with my pasts blog posts are probably aware that I often use unconventional analogies to try to get my points across. In the end, however, there is still a point to be made.

Now it's no secret that we will all find ourselves in some rough spots and situations throughout life. Some of us are just happy to get through our problems on a day-to-day basis, while others prefer to think about their life from a long-term spectrum. Now I'm not 100% certain, but I'm willing to bet that there are more of us just looking to get through our problems on a daily basis, rather than getting to the real roots of our issues, and ultimately fixing them permanently. I could be wrong in making that assumption, but I have a hunch that I may be right. Now regardless of which end of the short-term, long-term spectrum that a person views themselves on, it's wise to keep in mind that it's a good thing just be able to get by and make it. However, do you believe that your life would be much better if you got to the root cause of your problem, rather than just putting a band-aid on them?

Now getting back to the band-aid analogy that I previously referenced to. It's true that most of us are using mental and emotional band-aids to deal with our problems. The primary reason I state this is quite simple; I myself have, and sometimes still use this strategy as a coping mechanism. In a way it's almost like someone that procrastinates often. We become too accustom to putting off things that can be done today for a later date, and sometimes we ultimately end up not doing them at all. That's the approach that many of us have in regards to our personal problems. Just like a minor bruise, we're using the band-aid, instead of really finding a solution.

I think I've pretty much hit on the main point that I want to make, so I'm going to bring this post to a close. We all create our own mental and emotional band-aids in life. Of course they can be helpful for the short-term, but using them over and over again will create a sense of dependency on them. Whatever problems that we're experiencing in our lives, we have to stop with the band-aids, and begin to focus on finding solutions to them for the long-term. I personally feel that's the only way to not only help rid ourselves of the constant struggles we face, but also helping to find a certain level of peace within ourselves. Just my opinion.

That's all that I have for this week, so thanks again to all the readers for stopping by and checking out another one of 'Brad H.'s Perspective'. As with my previous posts, everything that I write are my own thoughts and how I strive to live my own life. If anyone finds what I've written useful or informative, then that's definitely an added bonus. Alright I'm out, so I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week. See you in the next one. Peace!