What’s a belief that you hold with which many people disagree?

/ Robert / 16 Comments

What You Think Matters!
by Jonathan Hilton

You May Disagree
I have many beliefs that are not very popular with other people. Yet I do not throw my beliefs in the face of others because it makes no sense to argue over them. It is a waste of time. I believe the things I do because of a lifetime of experience and the questions that I ask. Each being answered sufficiently by experience and experiment. You can choose to not listen or to disagree or dismiss that is your prerogative.

How You Think Leads to How You Live

This is a belief that I have come to later in the game of life. The thoughts that you entertain in your mind are going to influence the experience you have in life. If you are thinking judgmental, mean or hateful thoughts about other people or groups of people, there is no doubt that you will experience those things in your own life.

These are negative thoughts which lead to unhappy experiences
If you choose to focus on accepting, kind and loving thoughts then that is going to be the general experience of your existence. How do I know? I used to think the former and now focus on the later and although I am the same person, the experience of life has been completely different.

You can question it any way you want to. Fear is the chief weapon of those who are critical. Often times when things are safe in your life, a person rejects any thought or action that will lead to change.

There is nothing wrong with experiencing fear itself, because fear gives you adrenaline to act, but if you focus on that and allow it to move your actions from day to day, your experience will suffer.

Change is Always Possible

The most daunting task for anyone to accomplish is to change the way that you think. We have spent a lifetime accumulating experiences which come along with mental programming which has managed to keep us safe and alive.
Yet there is nothing in that deal about enjoying life. Once you start to pursue happiness you have to start to notice what is making you unhappy. What is it that makes you hang your head with worry? What makes you afraid to speak? What makes you hide your individuality? What makes you hide who you are? Fear.

Fear that you won’t be accepted, or fear that someone is going to take something from you that you love. Fear that someone is going to harm you or those that you care about. These fears are fed by the mainstream media to gain ratings and Madison Avenue to earn consumer dollars.

The reality is that fear is just a thought and an illusionary thought at that. What you are afraid of is not real, it is a thought and that is it. What if? What should? What Might? Questions that provide these thoughts, they are not real they don’t exist yet they provide very real suffering for people.

Getting Out of Fear

Beliefs are merely thoughts that you choose every day to add weight to.
Getting rid of fear in your thoughts is simple but it is not easy. Stop thinking fearful things. Now that would be easy if we could control all of our thoughts, but you really can’t.

Thoughts pop into your mind at a rapid pace, representing your lifetime of experience. Bias, prejudice, hatred, fear are all a part of your experience and they are all associated with others.

You can’t stop them from popping into your mind, but you can control how much you pay attention to them. Simply noticing the thoughts of fear as what they are , fake, surprisingly releases you from their power. All of their power over you comes from you. Let the negative go and replace them with something more positive.

Replaced thoughts of fear with thoughts of love

Once you recognize and admit what your fears are and let them go, it is amazing how easy the good thoughts and feelings flow. It feels better to be happy, it is healthier to love and it is more enjoyable to live without fear.
It takes some time and you have to be honest with yourself. Recognizing your own weaknesses can be painful and difficult, but you have a simple choice here. Keep living your life in fear and be unhappy or admit to your negative thoughts and recognize that you have the ability to just let them go and think differently.

That is one of the things that I believe that many would disagree with and that is OK with me because I don’t really have any personal stake in whether anyone thinks I am right or not. I can only worry about the decisions that I make on a daily basis. That is all I can control and worry about. It is up to you what thoughts you think and the experience that you have in the world.

What’s a belief that you hold with which many people disagree?

What you think matters by Jonathan Hilton

More Precious than Gold

/ Robert / 6 Comments

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A breath or breeze bringing music, a kiss;
It’s cool, it’s hot, it’s crisp, it’s warm, it’s cold;
Carrying Winter’s chill and Summer’s bliss.
What wealth would be reaped if twas caught and sold!

Fair sylphs ‘twined within the east wind do whirl
With graceful ease o’er rainbows wide they dance;
Through fluffy clouds on thermals fast they twirl,
They soar. Are they in danger? Not a chance!

Cannot be seen; doesn’t mean it’s not there,
Lots’ around yet far more precious than gold.
Endangered? For now there’s enough to share.
Can be cut with a knife; just try to hold!

During darkness of night and light of day,
Ideas and thoughts are shed just like feathers
Free as sweet incense floating up, away.
Not one’s intent? Best to attach tethers!

Anger can be heard as clear as a bell,
The strife of life cannot be ignored.
How can we tell if it’s heaven or hell?
Listen for the hoard or the lord with sword.

Wide eyed fairy’s sigh heard from on high,
Warn those below “trouble comes, be away”,
Shy souls now cry out in fright as they fly,
“No good will come; now go, leave the affray”.

Strained moments pass the tension is immense,
Time to think is bought and conflict caught short,
Need not choose from flight or fight, they’ve seen sense,
Once again destructive thought’ve come to naught.

(c) Robert Jones 2013, All Rights Reserved

Autumn colours

/ Robert / 4 Comments

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Daylight saving steals and gives back one hour. I have spent every waking moment of today relishing the feeling of my hour being returned to me unharmed.

Imagine losing six months……

I have an affinity with Autumn, however to me October = Autumn, this is the month I was born, it is when the trees in the northern hemisphere change their colours and shed them for Winter. This is the time that there is still a chance of an Indian Summer, harvest festival, Halloween and the first sign of Christmas decorations.

When we moved to Australia in January 1998, we left Winter in Birmingham to be catapulted into Summer in Sydney and before I knew it was Autumn again, but in April. No matter how much I cherish those lost 26 weeks, it is not enough to return to the grey country.

Autumn flower

/ Robert / 6 Comments

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Autumn seems to have finally rolled into town. The clocks change back at 3am tomorrow morning, the official end to day light saving in Sydney, Australia.

After a glorious Easter we have had a vey wet week. We dashed out between showers this morning to take Stan for a walk. I took the picture above with my mobile phone. I was attracted to the green and red leaves and the fried egg like flower. I have no idea what variety of shrub this is, all suggestions will be gratefully received.

Floating Frangipani

/ Robert / 6 Comments

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I walk beneath the deep green dome shaped tree,
I enjoy the sinus tickling fragrance,
Spiralling yellow white blooms lie scattered.
I bend down to pick up fallen flowers,
Sensuous silky petals feel so fragile.
I float them in a bowl of cool water,
Sustain them for a little while longer.

Sunflowers and Chimneys

/ Robert / 11 Comments

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Sydney Park has undergone a major transformation over the past two decades. The land was originally given as a grant to a convict woman and has since served Sydney as a site for crops and food production, brick making, gas storage and waste disposal. When the New South Wales state government first envisaged turning the site into a public green space in the early 1980s, a key factor in transforming the site was to preserve some of the history associated with it.

Spanning 44 hectares, the park is the largest in Sydney and is connected by about 12 kilometres of pathways. The vast majority of the vegetation on the site was planted as part of a community effort in the early 1990s. The park now has nine hectares of gardens and 28,000 native trees, including 277 Port Jackson and Moreton Bay fig trees. Fifty types of mammals, native birds, frogs and reptiles also frequent the park.

Read more:
The Sydney Morning Herald, February 11, 2012 Rubbish dump transformed into park oasis tips its hat to the past