Nathan Barinstein – An Incredible Channel of Inspiration

Hi everyone,

I have found the most incredible, inspiring channel on youtube, called Nathan Barinstein (you can click on the name in blue to check it out, or just look up “Nathan Barinstein on youtube). This is a super interesting and entertaining channel and all of the videos that have been uploaded to it are FASCINATING. To anyone who reads this blog, please go check it out, you won’t regret it.

This is a youtube channel for anyone interested in travel, in self-discovery, and beautiful cinematography.

Here are the links to some of the videos (click on the titles below):

What is Happiness?

Meeting a President

Flying In An Old American Plane 

I really do think they’re worth checking out, and you can subscribe to the channel to get notifications whenever a new video goes up.

You can thank me later!

-mrprose

Life Is An Impossibly Big Mountain

Hello Everyone,

I’m here posting today as a mark of the fact that I am not permanently gone. I have not given up on this blog!

I recently edited one of my old poems because I felt it could be greatly improved, and it was something I experimented with giving a new meaning. By that I mean that I wanted to take a new twist with the words I had already written out. Hope you enjoy!

Life is like an impossibly big mountain

Intimidating in stature, blocking my path

Path to what? I don’t really know

I thought I had it all figured out

 

I’ve tried to climb it

Like everyone does, like everyone can

But I fall every time, every time I try

I don’t even feel like I have a choice, like I get a say

So I try again,

Only to fall once more

 

Sometimes, it feels like I’m finally getting somewhere

Somewhere far way

Somewhere better than this place

Better than anything I’ve got right now

And then I’ll look down and freeze with fear

Seconds later I’m tumbling through the air

 

I know my struggle is futile

But it’s strange,

Because I can’t help but hope

That something will change

 

And so I climb this mountain

Starting from the floor

Only to climb again,

Only to fall once more

-mrprose

I Cannot Simply Be

I am lost

Without direction, just a shell is left

To endure the ride of life,

I have nothing more

I cannot simply be

 

The pain raking my very soul

The pain you see in my eyes

It’s there, its real – I put it there

I cannot simply be

 

I’ve tried to run

To step aside

To feel just a moment’s peace within

But I’m stuck here,

With myself

Suffering from the lack of me

I cannot simply be

 

Consumed am I, for I consume

The young man was lost amidst his pride,

A disguise for the truth inside

I cannot simply be

 

So raw, so vivid, so real,

How am I anything when I fail to see

That to be free, to be truly Free

I must learn to simply be

Identity and Stillness

I’m back! I really must apologize for my unannounced absence. I am adamant about my belief that this blog should never be a job, so when I begin to grow thin with the time I have available to work on it, if I do not feel inspired, I refuse to force the words. But I’m back, and if you’re still around, please know that your support through this time means everything to me.

Breaking the ice is a mind game. (Photo credit: adstream)

Where do I begin after so long? As is with anything, after such a time of absence, a form of mental barrier is created. Breaking the ice of writing on this blog has become more than just an issue of inspiration or time, but of defeating a psychological obstacle. Imagine how you feel when trying to return to a barely–started project.

It’s not all bad, though. There are things I have discovered during my time away. For example, despite my efforts, I had come to identify with this blog. It became fuel for my ego – that I was successfully writing every day, and above all else, receiving significant traffic and praise. I don’t like that I was that way, but it was what it was.

Still stuck on my false ideas, I didn’t know who I was. How do you define such a thing as identity? (Photo credit: Cahaya Dalam Kegelapan)

As I struggled more and more each day to write, (Every single piece requires complete focus for up to several hours of time that I may not have) my ego was confronted with an issue – how was I going to keep my identity? I mention the ego, because it is the key factor in this entire equation – and it’s important to remember that one’s ego and identity aren’t really as healthy or important to one’s existence as one may think. It’s an amazing thing, how stepping back just a little changes your entire perspective – for the first time, I may have experienced what many adults seem to experience later on in life, when the vital question is finally asked – who the hell am I really? Without this blog to define me, was I becoming less meaningful/valuable as a person?

Unfortunately, I did what most people do: instead of dis-identifying with the things around me, I dove straight into them with the hopes that somehow I would feel better. By some great misconception, I had the idea that a damaged ego is a bad thing, and that it needed tending, it needed care. What’s worse, it wasn’t as though I was consciously thinking it, it was that society had ingrained that way of thinking as a truth within me. And if I think in that way, who doesn’t? We’re all so brain-washed by our own selves that we treat the ego like a broken arm. Yikes.

Stillness. (Photo credit: david.ian.roberts)

Because of the way society is set up, particularly in the 21st century, the “real world” is literally run by the material. And with the right perspective, one would see that it is that material-based mindset that dictates far too much of our lives. And in many ways, it really is. Like I’ve written about before, there is always someone who’s more experienced, better, smarter, faster. This is a tough world we live in. But what we so easily forget is that these things that we use to fuel feelings of self-importance, these things that we use to judge others on intelligence or competence of any kind, don’t matter at all. We must remind ourselves that the truly important things in life, whatever they may be for you, are immeasurable – still, contentment, happiness, love – their importance is not diminished but forgotten in the huffing and puffing that has become life. I lost contact with one of those things, and in doing so, I learned something truly powerful:

Identity and inner-stillness cannot co-exist.

So that’s it from me today. I hope all of you enjoyed your Thanksgiving, although I’d like to add that true appreciation and thankfulness is a year-around thing.

–mrprose 🙂

Related articles

• Reflections on Stillness (thetawny.wordpress.com)

The Blame Game

Morning, I’ve got a good one for all of you today.

It’s quite easy to go around living your life blaming. It doesn’t matter what or who you blame, but as long as you are always performing the act of blaming, you never have to shoulder on responsibility. Many people do just that all their life – to avoid the harshness of the real world. Like I said, it isn’t difficult to live that way at all. Taking on responsibility requires facing reality, which is something many people do not have the courage to do. It certainly isn’t always the most inviting option, particularly in times of weakness.

Live honestly. Take ownership. (Photo credit: Mick E. Talbot)

So many live seeing the world as the cause of all of their faults. People choose to view things that way, for if they look at themselves as the reason, then they are truly at fault for not living the life they wish. And although that may be the reality, it is a cruel and bitter reality indeed.

The people, places or things around one can quite easily be blamed as the reason(s) why one’s life is unsatisfactory. In fact, some have gotten so good at doing this, at skirting the responsibilities of life, that they have made this sad way of living into a game.

The Blame Game.

It’s a game we all know, occasionally play, and hate to see others play. It’s a selfish game, played with one’s intentions well and truly above all others’. It’s a game ruled by weakness.

Pointing the finger is to focus solely on others. (Photo credit: Adam Crowe)

Why do so many choose to participate in this style of living? It’s an awful way to live, firstly, but what’s worse, it’s a game no one can ever win. It is a never-ending process of pointing the finger at anything but one’s self. You can never win, because responsibility is a part of life, and without it, one does not allow themselves the chance to freely live.

Why take on the painful truths when it is so much easier to find something/someone else to put at fault? Because integrity is left behind in the quest to constantly use others to avoid pain for one’s self. Honest living becomes an impossibility when one seeks to blame others for their faults. You are not being truthful with others, nor are you being truthful with yourself.

The biggest misconception, though, if even unsaid, is that the lack of responsibility will contribute to staying happy, as reality can be a very harsh place at times. But the truth is that doing this only moves one farther away from a place of happiness by suppressing crucial components of life. By relinquishing honesty and living selfishly. The blame game is a perfect way of staying in a little bubble, and makes it impossible to stay connected with the universe, or to live with value and awareness.

It is worth it to participate in the ruthless cycle of blame?

–mrprose

Related articles

• Stop Playing the Blame Game (zen-haven.dk)
• It’s All About You (complexbeauty.wordpress.com)

Limits Exist Solely In The Mind

We are our own greatest obstacle when it comes to what our limits are.

It’s easy to look around and find reasons to blame things for your limitations, your failures. In fact, it’s so easy, we all do it, if even just a little. It’s a simple escape from the hard reality that stares at us all the time, and we’re human after all. It’s something that needs to be recognized, because the lack of ownership people have of themselves and their actions is one of the leading contributors of why there are so many issues in our world today.

Ultimately, we are the creators of our own limits. As I have said before, I always find it fascinating how we run our lives, through our choices, our energy, our mindset. Questions of fate and freewill, of our thoughts manifesting things in our lives, of the way we choose to live, (with or without awareness, etc.) are always very intriguing to me. These questions pertain to our own selves – human beings are incredible mysteries with hidden wonders. But what’s more, once the answers to these questions are found through personal exploration, one’s life will change greatly – a clarity that did not previously exist will pervade throughout one’s existence.

You already have the answers, just look at them. (Photo credit: Ricky Romero)

The methods of finding these answers, and even the answers themselves, vary greatly for each and every one of us. Always though, these keys to pure living lie within, and the further you go, the more you will find yourself. Superficial living doesn’t in anyway reinforce personal growth. You have to look deeper.

What I have found is that it is one’s own self that is the greatest preventer. I more than anyone or anything, control my life, and it is my own fears that dictate my boundaries. Perhaps the simplest example – I cannot ride roller coasters. They fill me with fear and thus I cannot bring myself to ride them. The fear comes from my mind. My soul, my “I” does not know fear. It is beyond material pains and pleasures.

Now I do not mean to say that the world does not limit us in any ways, for it does. We have incarnated into imperfect bodies after all. But it is not physical limits that I am addressing. It is not about how many miles one can run, but how far they can push themselves beyond pain. Pain, after all, is our greatest teacher on this planet, but that too exists only in the mind. Your soul does not know pain. But I believe we have come down to Earth to be in physical bodies for a reason. And perhaps that reason is to transcend limitations.

To be your full potential, your true self, you cannot not hold with you the restrictions of the physical. Sadly though, we all have them. They exist. Where do they come from? What manifests them? Limits exist solely in the mind.

At the same time, you create your opportunities. I believe the mind plays a part in that as well, manifesting things into being. Sending intentions. Staying positive. Finding the will to break through deterrents.

You are looking at a reflection of your fear. Walls provide a false security. (Photo credit: Alpha Beta Photography)

It’s quite amazing, really. And it creates this wonderful dichotomy of construction and destruction. We are architects, but we are also demolitionists. It all depends to how we choose to use the tools we have – our bodies, our intellect, our imagination. We can contribute to this limitless universe. We can be this limitless universe. Or we can enclose our worlds with mental walls of fear and anxiety. It is always your choice.

The walls surrounding you? They are yours. You can do what you wish with them.

–mrprose

Crushing Me

It crushes me,

With it’s death-binding grip,

I want to be free,

I want to breathe,

But in moments like these,

It’s clasp won’t cease to squeeze,

 

It crushes me,

A tower high in the sky,

Standing far above my head,

No matter how hard I try,

Inescapable,

 

It crushes me,

How my own expectations,

Are impossible, unattainable,

They manifest my limitations,

With force I push forward,

I must reach my destination!

And it’s with those words,

That I run into more frustration,

 

It is my own narrowed mind,

My own greedy ego,

That generates my confinement,

For I am my own greatest foe.

Friday Question: How Do You Deal With Your Ego?

Good Morning,

It’s Friday again, and as has become tradition, I will be posing a question for anyone to answer. But before I do that, I would just like to thank everyone that has commented and participated in responding on any of my pieces. Often, it is many of your astute opinions that have led me to broaden and expand my own personal perspective on things. More than that, I realize that I am connecting with people that are thinking critically and openly as well, and so I would just like to show my appreciation by thanking all that have shown their support. Thank you.

So it’s right to it then, I suppose: question time. How do you keep your ego in check?

This time, I’m targeting a more direct question to all of your readers. I see the ego as an obstacle that we all have to face if we want to live anything more than a shallow life. So I’m wondering how people overcome or at the very least deal with such a thing. How exactly do you move beyond the material desires that tease and tantalize us? The want for a certain image, to have certain things, to be a certain way.

I’ve come to see the ego as an invisible enemy of human beings, an obstacle we created for ourselves. We each have a different ego, but a similarity we all share is that we want. It is that desire that we all have, and I want to know how you handle your’s? What do you do when the ego gets a little too big?

Thanks again everyone, and I’m looking forward to some great conversations.

–mrprose

Life Is But a Blazing Fire by Falling Squirrel

Hello again everyone, it’s been a while. I find that I can no longer post everyday amidst the rigors of life, but I am most definitely not gone! I am working on my reply piece to last Friday’s question, but for today, I have another amazing poem to share with all of you. This one is written by a writer that goes by the name Falling Squirrel. This piece stood out to me because of it’s intensity and sad truths. It was as if this poem was written in words that I couldn’t yet find, but somehow knew deep down. It has a nice flow, and I think it’s worth several run-throughs. Enjoy:

Take a photo of your life

Take a little snapshot

Full of joy and full of strife

For which you have a soft spot

 

In the future, take a look

Shuffle through the cards

And you will see the thoughts that shook

Your world so very hard

 

But most of all now, you will see

A pattern – ‘cause your life repeats

So take my word for it, I know

That what you reap is what you sow

 

We’re trapped, us all, each single one

We’re meant to burn another sun

We build our fires, night and day

So we can see the ashen blaze…

So we can pay the price we pay…

 

So we can see our world decay.

Thanks again to everyone that submitted! You may submit another piece of your own here.

–mrprose

Friday Question: What is Authentic Art?

Hello everyone,

It’s Friday! Who doesn’t love a Friday? It’s a great day to ponder on meaningful questions, don’t you think? Well guess what, I have one.

I’m endlessly intrigued by how people view the world. I find it simply amazing that we can all have our own ideas and perspectives on the same thing. Who’s to say everyone’s perception of color, sense of hearing, or interpretation of smell is the same? Different people enjoy different genres of music, different styles of writing, different architecture. Our world is so diverse. The same goes for art.

Just like anything in history, art has progressed massively through the ages. The discoveries of man have always been reflected in the arts of every culture. We yearn to express ourselves.

Are those art pieces? (Photo credit: A.Currell)

I cannot say that I am drawn to, or connect with all forms of art. There are songs I hear or paintings I see or poems I read that I simply dislike. I may not connect with the message, or maybe it has the feel of being sloppily made. Perhaps you get the impression that it’s an ordinary piece of ‘artwork’ that in itself has no uniqueness, or any sort of deeper message. I have commonly heard disgust directed toward modern works of art, because they do not follow traditional rules. The price-tag in particular can sometimes be cause enough for outrage.

So here’s my question for you, my readers: What do you think is authentic artwork? What holds meaning, has a powerful message, or is a true work of expression, in your opinion? What is worthy or being called ‘art’?

I’m excited to hear what all of you have to say… happy Friday!

–mrprose