The Universe is MAGICALLY Fair, So What’s Your Problem?

Raising to the sun and bumping Bulgarian hip-hop, my eye still stinging in irritation and my hand still cut from climbing into a thorny cove the prior night, I could really feel the comprehensive pain from the past few days of cycling. Limping down to the kitchen I am greeted by a tatted up Bulgarian hipster, still drunk from the night before, asking me if “I think I’m a tough guy.” I try to ignore his ridiculousness, this could just be the extent of his English, learned from a few Pacino flicks, and decide to move my focus to the day ahead. I find out from the equally ridiculous hostel owner that the final stretch to Istanbul is 300kms, about double what I expected. I crash back in bed in a daze, wondering why everything over these past few days have become so shitty, how can so many elements be flawed at once in my life, after all, I’ve been focusing on positivity and was constantly grateful for the things I have, right!?
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The purpose of setting off on this intrepid cycle was to be in a state of constant bliss, always seeking the truth but never wavering from internal joy. So why the HELL was everything going wrong?! It wasn’t until I broke down and accepted the state of affairs that I landed on the poignant truth of the matter, and I felt the magic of life flutter back into my consciousness. I scratched the underbelly of my brain and started to uncover the focus that I had chosen for myself, leading up to my next major destination, Istanbul. It was a pattern that seemed to perpetual itself through the whole trip. My fear that leaving the war-torn, weather-whipped state of my pedaling activities would reduce my brain to mush and the wonderful growth I’d been experiencing would cease had been the driving force of the wonderful, transformative and murderous distress I was currently feeling. After all, a week with my beautiful mother in Istanbul, with its expected standard of luxury, splendid ease and joyful moments couldn’t possibly match the fierce gusto and instinct-driven thrill of being lost in a rural Ex-Soviet setting on a bike. I started to see where these problems arose from, what it was in my mind that convinced the universe that a nice helping of hell would be the best medicine for the upcoming pampering.

The beautiful thing I realized right there and then, which I consciously grasped by looking back into my past thoughts, is that every single problem I was facing in the moment, as unfair and crappy as they seemed, were actually created by none other than little old me! We are creative beings, so everything that comes into our reality is the product of our thoughts, feelings and intentions for our self. I had created the pain, the anxiety, the subsequent physical injuries, the rowdy hosts, the displeasing notion of biking another 300kms through sweltering heat into a new cultural setting. I realized that this journey wasn’t about constant joy and bliss, it was about just this, finding where my mind creates suffering in order to teach me lessons and help me grow as a person, and also to get better at finding the lessons without creating such suffering. Once realizing this, it begged the question, why is the mind set up to create such problems for ourselves out of nothingness, when it can just cut to the chase and create what we want with ease and joy? When we are facing difficult challenges in one area of life, it is important to really investigate why these problems have come up, because these are often the areas that our self is struggling the most in breaking the thick shell of the ego and letting the light of our soul to shine through.

Whether is be a habit of the conditioned mind, or a true means of tapping deeper into the human spirit, it seems that us humans intentionally cover our gold with a slew of difficult situations and obstacles to overcome before we allow ourselves to reach our actual desires. I’ve possibly created the endless challenge of pushing over mountain tops for myself, so I can one day more confidently create my true desire of changing social rules that seem unfit, moving against the grain, and helping society live a more enjoyable and free existence. To the human mind, there are no easy tasks, so we feel the need to create as much difficulty for ourselves as possible, so the obtainment of our desires appears more realistic. The catch is, we can learn how to move closer to our desires without creating as many problems, once we learn how our mind is spinning them up.

Thought and the conscious universe is set up so we can set any rules we want, we don’t have to go through these problems, but the minds we were given are limited in its ability to think beyond this concept, to a true believe that everything we desire can come to us with ease, that the universe is fair and that we create absolutely everything we perceive. It’s hard to admit, but most of the issues we face on a day-to-day basis were created by our own mind. Usually subconsciously, mostly insightful to our psyche and always representative of the focus of our inner mental state. When we realize this, we can start looking at our problems as a source for personal growth and whenever they come up, we get a peek into what negative feelings we’ve been putting out into the universe without ever knowing. These problems are often created as a means of strengthening our resolve, and depending on how we handle them, can lead us further down our path of purpose and enlightenment. Our first response though is to look at them as these bullshit instances that we have no control over, which have happened completely randomly. With this mindset, people end up facing the same bleak situations over and over instead of looking at problems in life as a signal that something is wrong or that they are putting out the wrong frequencies consistently. This involves looking past the current reality of things, which is often scary for people to do, and regarded as reckless and foolish. When we learn that it’s our own thought process that is creating the problems, we try to steer our minds away from these problems and focus on the positives. The issue with this is that we our designed to grow this way, while the conscious power of thought can choose to grow in any way conceived, the human brain seems to be designed out of growth through pressure, using heat to bend the steel. So, until we can transcend our problems and leave the reality of our situation outside of our brain, we must learn to use our problems as leverage to get over the hill.

In Buddhist mythology, the symbol of The Plough represents this powerful tool that we can use in personal development. The Plough is our internal attitude that allows us to turn the harsh soil of our ego into a fertile field that can grow the fruits of our desires and souls intentions. While our brain is still conditioned to expect difficulty, we have the power to use those difficulties to aid in creation.

Instead of trying to get rid of your problems in life, begin to recognize the creative nature they have in store for you and use them as a tool for growth. While is may be difficult to break our association to facing difficulty before experiencing growth, with a fresh perspective you can be sure to face your problems with an attitude that will give insights into what you’re intending to create and make the difficult times more enjoyable. All you need to do is recognize that whenever you have a problem in life, you have created it for some means of bettering yourself, be it through breaking egoistic habits or focusing more openly on the light at the other end of the tunnel.

There is a natural part of me that wants perpetual prosperity, joy and ease in my life and then there is another side that craves challenge, strife and the fear that comes along with uncertainty. On this trip, I’ve found that when I focus on prosperity, everything seems to fall into place perfectly, problems may arise but given my mindset nothing seems to be stifling enough to break my mood. Other periods of the trip have been wrought with difficultly and stress and it is in these times that I feel like I’m growing as a person. I believe that we have the power to experience both and the ultimate power that we need to realize is, that no matter what focus we take, there is always something beautiful in store for us that is truly a blessing. So next time you’re faced with a problem, try to look back into your mind and find the point where your daring nature may have created this scenario, and realize that your work at that time is to get past the notion that these are random, unfair events and to the space where you see the true gold that you’ve created for yourself hiding under the tough surface.

You’ve got to serve your self

We all dream of going on a daring adventure, stepping out of our day-to-day lives so we can live out in the world with an exciting new reality, where our mood is as capricious as our environment. After deciding to claim just that a year ago, my anxious pre-journey mind fantasized about what incredible adventures lay ahead, what challenges I would face, and ultimately what stories I would have to tell in the end. Biking through Romania provided no shortage of adventures; from standing off with a pack of vicious herd dogs in the middle of an isolated rolling meadow, to dragging my 60 kg heap of gear through a kilometer long mud pit in an insect infested forest, to getting lost in a dated Romanian village being led by my compass and shouts in a foreign language. I had gotten everything I was looking for, but it wasn’t until attempting the Transfagasan Highway, Romania’s highest and most grueling road that I started to realize what I was truly looking for while still stuck in my mundane, adventure-less American setting.

My approach of the highway was laden with fear. The night before, I biked up to the base of the mountain so I would give myself adequate time to get through the pass the following day. I left the town just before the mountains late in the day, my rear wheel hub has snapped after the strain I had put on it going through tracks of road that certainly weren’t worthy of making it on a map, so I had apprehensions about whether the road would even be accessible and whether I was prepared for the trip. I cycled down through lush fields as the sun set, checking my map to see where I’d be entering. I eased up on the pedals as I approached the ominous arched sign over the road, “Highway 7C”, the road snapped sharply off the highway and pointed directly to the mountains I’d been looking at for the past few hours. I pedaled slowly through the night as bats flew over head, the moon kissed the ridge of the mountains, illuminating its peaks poetically as dogs barked in the distance. As I rolled my bike into a farm to set up camp, I heard the sound of angry sheep dogs intensified as they ran towards me in the dark, I jolted back to the road and sped away avoiding attack. After about an hour of playing this game with the dogs in the dark, I finally found a spot where I went undetected. I woke up early morning to a downpour, an extra seed of doubt for the ride ahead. As I started cycling to the mountains, the clouds parted but the intense feelings of fear and doubt didn’t. As I pushed up a steep incline in the cold wetness, I tried to figure out why there was so much misery surrounding the day, both in my mind and in reality. Was this opening my soul, what was the lesson in the frustration I was facing? After a grueling day of consistent uphill pedaling and forewarnings of fear by passing motorists, I sat at the top of the mountain face, overlooking a cascading waterfall and began to contemplate why I was facing so much frustration when I was getting everything I wanted, all the adventure I could’ve hoped for. It was there in my broken state that I realized by manifesting adventure for my ego, I had lost contact with manifesting the inherent joy that I thought the adventure would provide.

Every step we take through life, we have the choice of intending for either of our two separate selves, our lower self, which is the make up of our ego, and our higher self, which is what we know exists below our frustrated longing and needy behavior. As I sat at the base of Romania’s longest tunnel, which shot through the peak of the mountain, I realized that while I had effectively manifested everything I’d been intending, a feeling of adventure, listless endurance and accomplishment, it didn’t matter because I had lost touch with the part of me that really mattered, the part of me that is content without all the adventure and glory. Our focus and energy can create everything we want in life, but if we are creating through the ego, we may find that the things we end up with don’t actually create the expected fulfillment. There is a balance that exists in life when we connect with our higher self, our soul which has no association to physical and social needs, where we become whole and complete as we need to be, and our creation for the lower self becomes something secondary to what we already have inside. I realized where my intentions had led me, I had been facing this challenge as a way to serve my ego and had lost touch with the real connection to the magic of life. By intending something for my lower self, the process of creating it in my life led to a whole slew of negative feelings and insecurities. Even though it eventually became my reality, it had encapsulated my focus of energy, leading me further away from my higher self. The word ‘selfishness’ sets out to scorn the person who thinks about getting something for themselves, making it seem that by being selfish, we need to compete for, fight with and even steal everything that resides outside of us. The distinction here that needs to be made is that selfishness is only bad when a person is intending for their lower self, but the act of selfishness in intending for the high self is the key to joyful creation and prosperity in the world. Being selfish for our higher self creates the energy that makes people do kind things for strangers, give their time openly to help with no concept of loosing out, and is the definition of positive energy in the world. That’s why I think the world needs to start being more selfish, because if we can’t find the soulful energy in ourselves, we will find ourselves grasping at the destructive demands of our other self in order fill that void.

All it took was to check-in with myself and understand that the pain and fear was coming out of choosing to serve the wrong self, and I was able to instantly switch gears. I may have been switching gears downhill that day, but the change in mindset allowed me to climb higher into the self that matters. When you focus on connecting with your soul, your higher self, the part of you that needs no approval, no stories, outcomes or change, you will be surprise by the daring adventure you’ll be led down.

The Liteness of HumanKind

We believe that having millions of dollars would made us happy, but if we acquire the bounty with no action, we would likely be surprised at the empty feeling that the millions would bring. This is why so many lottery winners end up going broke, slipping into depression and often times committing suicide. Fruit without action is what creates this vacant feeling inside us, so what in life creates the joy that we associate with acquisition, wealth and prosperity in life. The joy of the fruit lies in it’s creation, happiness comes from the action and energy that produces the fruit in the first place. This is why on our path of acquisition and achievement, the most fulfilling route will be one were we put all of our energy and heart into the action and completely detached from the outcome thereafter. When we are in this state of flow, we actually end up manifesting more fruit into our lives, because we begin to derive our joy from just the action and even when the crown jewel is in our hands, we know that it is no match to the feeling of the energy we put into creating

The reason that action and creating something for yourself provides so much fulfillment is because it is basically our purpose of existence. When you boil it down, of highest goal on earth is to create, be it a baby, a new relationship or a new form of art. That’s why when we start focusing on the splendor of our creative action throughout our spiritual journeys, we won’t even stop to think about all of the wonderful fruit that is being created as a result, because we are so fulfilled from just creating it!

Being touched by so many kind souls over such a short weekend in Prague, with commitment to nothing but the moment, it really demonstated the importance of liteness in humanity. By liteness, I don’t mean the glory of the infinite, the rapture of God or anything of the like. As a wandering nomad, liteness is prerogative numero uno. The idea of having no commitment to a city, a specific lifestyle, any given relationships, or even to a plan is what’s so attractive about liteness and it creates an interesting enviroment to learn about ourselves. To many, the idea of a life without any real responsibility or commitment may sound fleeting and empty, but experiencing the effects of liteness proves the contrary. With a life of liteness laid out for the intrepid traveler, we oddly find ourselves with a heavy emotional attachment to the people and places we stumble upon in our wavering states, and a real desire in us to make a massive difference in the world after experiencing the power of easy, moment-to-moment action.

Back home, the lives we build for ourselves lends to heavy commitments as we feel a need to grow relationships and a life that has some roots in the ground. When the need to built any further falls away, and the need for freedom and liteness bubbles to the surface, there is an opportunity to learn how to experience the deep connections of home without all of the weight that can come with a life of sole devotion. The lite life teaches us the importance of displaying immense kindness and good in the little relationships we find ourselves in from fleeting moment to moment. When you combine liteness and kindness, we learn the important talent of giving everything in our souls without expecting anything in return. In a solidified life, where relationships are more permanent and circumstances more impacting, we sometimes hold back from totally giving ourselves, out of fear of creating something that’s undesirable or out of fear of being hurt. Liteness allows us to create and give in a state of temperance, meaning there is no fear of being hurt or messing up because you know the next circumstance is right around the corner. While a perpetual state of liteness isn’t the goal, it is the doorway to living lite in a heavy world with heavy life situations.

The idea of ‘Eternal Return’ originally conceived by ancient Egyptians and later adopted by philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer sums up the concept of liteness leading to liberation very well. It proposes the idea of eternal consequence, or everything we do in life being fully reincarnated throughout eternity. Say a man makes the decision to open his heart to a woman he has fallen for and it ends in embarrassment or rejection, his soul will have to deal with the emotional consciousness of his action into eternity if ‘Eternal Return’ exists. The concept of liteness goes off the fact that ‘Eternal Return’ isn’t the reality and we can always change the direction of our intentions and therefore our life. Under the guise of liteness, we can more easily tackle some of the heavy, tremendous ambitions that have been weighing us down due to a limited belief about what‘s possible.

If your weighty goal is to be a world-renowned inspirational speaker, but it doesn’t seem realistic in your mind, why not start by inspiring just one person with kindness and supportiveness. When you learn to live lite, the overall effect you can have is huge, even though it may not feel so at first. By acting lite, you’ve already started doing what you set out to do. Instead of trying to start a non-profit, go out and start doing small philantropic acts around the cause you want to effect, it may not look like your vision at first, but the liteness and motion will make it easier to get to that ideal and your goal will eventually manifest how you envisioned. Everyday, we have the opportunity to do what we want in life, weight and commitment are usually the things holding us back from action, so use the power of liteness and see the immense effect you can have on another person and the world by giving a little of yourself and a little kindness

Taken infront of “The Czech Inn” in Prague by the kind and talented Cat

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Adventures in Intuition

We all have moments where we connect with a feeling that there may be more to the simple sights and sounds of life, something hiding under the surface of our perceptions.  About a year ago, when I committed to learning more about connecting with that feeling and amplifying it’s volume, I had no idea that it would lead my mind down such a radical path of beliefs and life experiences. I’ve been a skeptic in the past, but my life experience over the past year has instilled a certainty in me that the inner voice we all question and doubt its worth, truly is the source of miracles and amazement in our lives. The spiritual lessons I’ve learned seemed to have came to me at the perfect time, and while I’ve explored these aspects of thought in the past, they’ve never sunk in quite like they have for me recently.

The way I’ve been living my life, and I can say that I’m happier than I’ve ever been, is by accessing the feeling of gratitude for everything I have and want in my life and just witnessing the story that unfolds.  It was something I was certainly skeptical about in the beginning, until I started to experience the immense love and joy inherent in this process, and I’ve never looked back. By focusing your energy on the life that you know really exists under all the societal, egoistic, selfish clutter created in the mind, you get inline with the power of your life outside of your body, your bank account or your preconception of the world. Once you convince yourself of the power that you have over your reality, and witnessing it first hand is the best way to convince yourself, there is a sense of peace and joy that begins to flood your inner-being.  At first I thought that this peace came from not having to worry about bad things happening because my mind was in control, but I came to learn that that rational was rather nonsensical.  We experience bad, challenging thing that often times feel horrible given our narrow view of our lives, but when we consider the cosmic purpose of our souls and actually feel that purpose through love and gratitude, we take every event in our lives as steps along the way to unleashing the bliss that resides in all of us, and realizing that bliss is the birthright of our planet. Accessing this spiritual power is simple, you focus your energy and intention on the things you want out of life, courageously follow the coincidence that happen moment to moment surrounding your intentions, and constantly fuel the people and circumstances of those coincidences with that positive, universal energy.  The more energy you give to people and the events in your life, the more clear the answers and insights will come to you through the universal intelligence we are all apart of.

When you first learn about the power of the mind and your personal ability to manifest anything you can conceive into your life, the obvious initial desire is to manifest a great life for yourself; plenty of money, lots of friends, loads of free time to do what you. As you continue to connect with this universal energy through focusing on gratitude for everything that is, you start to realize the deeper levels of fulfillment that exist and your previous desires seem less important, you start being more interested in connecting with other creative beings, feeling love for the simply things and inspiring others in the world to feel equal beauty that you’ve discovered. In my spiritual coincidental searching I have met people who claim that the only thing they need to be happy is water, and freeing themselves of the delusions of the body leads to even higher spiritual vibrations.  Now, that’s going pretty far down the rabbit hole, but as I’ve been asking questions and watching the answers manifest in my life, I’ve opened myself to radical ways of thinking that I would have previously dismissed. The more and more we witness the miracle and magic that our life really is, the more willing we are to accept more seemingly out-of-the-box ideas.

For some reading in, you may think what I’m proposing is pretty pie-in-the-sky, an overly-esoteric idea.  Others reading along couldn’t agree with me more as you have witnessed everything I’m talking about. When I started this blog, it was originally to get comfortable communicating these ideas to the world, an outlet to face my fear of people thinking I was crazy or just a hapless dreamer by illogically following these beliefs.  I’ve learned to deal with these opinions, and have come to see that we all have our own paths in life and I want to share my experiences to empower anyone else who has felt the same thing I’m going through and hopefully to open some other peoples eyes to these soul experiences I’m convinced I’ve witnessed. I’d love nothing more than to hear from people who have some belief in this concept, but are struggling with certain doubts about the absolute nature of our mind and the universe. The true power lies in that belief, so I’d love to explore everyone’s beliefs around the topic, strengthen all of our beliefs, answer any questions people have, and hear some stories of peoples magical life experiences. Love you guys.

NLT Interview: Exploring Truth with Veron Graham

Part II here

I was honored to be interviewed by Veron Graham of ExploreTruth.com about long term travel, the journey of spiritual and personal development and just chatted about life and the world. Veron is a great person who showcases his journey of personal discovery through his blog, and I’m really happy to be connected with him.

At Explore Truth, Veron examines some of the most meaningful life questions; the spiritual journey we all need to be on,  looking for purpose in life, commitment to health, lifestyle design and understanding the truths of the world around us.

Sweet Dreams Come True

Thinking back a year ago, feeling stuck in an office in Chicago not sure what I was doing with my life, I never would have dreamt that I would be in Jerusalem right now reflecting on a month of travel, looking forward to the possibilities and experiences that lay ahead. I have absolutely made a dream of mine come true and it gives me the feeling that I need to keep dreaming bigger and going for more in life. New Life Travel was just a dream of mine a year ago, and the fact that I have even 1 person reading along is astounding to me, I never set a goal for myself, I just simply followed the signs of the dream I had.  Goals we set for ourselves always have some control element where we look for realistic means to the ends. The problem with the goals that we set for ourselves is that they are based in a reality that may be limiting our true potential due to fears and doubts that were created out of years of upbringing and social conditioning, uninspired bullies telling us weren’t good enough, naysayers, doubters, the media convincing us that the next person is better. Most of the world that we know is created out of a reality that is selling our true potential short as human beings, and recreating that reality is the hardest part.  Your personal growth depends on breaking out of this reality, that’s why I propose we let go of our goals and start unleashing our dreams. If goals where constructed from a limited concept of reality, our dreams will bring us closer to what is really out there, all while testing us along the way.

This approach to life may be viewed as reckless and irresponsible, with things like families and the economy weigh us down, but we have to realize that there is a major misconception with the word “responsibility”, the misunderstanding that it means building the safest life for ourselves possible, where nothing can go wrong and we will be safe and comfortable. I think my generation uses the term responsibility as an excuse for not doing the things they want, instead following the stable options, leading a more “responsible” life. The thing that we don’t get is that the word responsible translates to “response able”, or the ability to respond to events and circumstances. Building a life of stability and safety is making it so we never need to respond to anything. Two problems with this are that by striving to create a life of little response, even the most stable and secure person will have to face major challenges in life and they may not be able to respond to it in the right way when it happens. Secondly, our spiritual development as humans is rooted in how we respond to life as it unfolds in front of us. Being a truly responsible person means being willing to put yourself out there and deal with every situation positively as it comes up.  I truly believe that fulfillment comes from the process of going after an intuition or feeling, facing the fears and doubts brought up by it and learning to deal with problems better as you repeat the cycle. By creating a stable life, someone may feel secure never having to worry about material things, but they will most certainly feel emptiness outside of their material lives. Thinking back to the travels I made from Jerusalem to Cairo, a lot of unexpected, scary circumstances came up. Leaving Israel I was worried that getting the Israeli passport stamp on a separate sheet of paper would be a major issue. The customs agent said there was nothing that could be done, so I was willing to take the stamp and deal with the circumstances, then in the last minute, two German travelers came to the rescue and told me how to get a separate stamp.  When my friends’ motor-scooters battery died in the Sinai desert, I was fully willing to spend the night under the stars with no food and little water, when a car appeared in the desert night that ended up being a truck full of cops. These two instances were the scariest parts of my trip and also seemed to be the parts where I was most, what some would consider, “lucky”. When we are responsible, we respond to the events in our life calmly and with certainty, and the result is either a positive outcome, some positive spiritual fulfillment, or both. The one thing we can do in life to ensure that we will always have something to respond to is chase the huge dreams we have in our head.  And due to the spiritual light that comes from our learned ability to respond to even the most horrific trails, responsibility will usually turn our dreams into a reality.

In the video I said that the reason I love this blog so much is because I get to put my big dreams out there and continue to dream bigger.  The truth is, the reason I love this blog so much is because it allows me to connect with all of you and learn about how everyone else is making their dreams a reality.  I would love nothing more than for this blog to be a bit of motivation to get people excited about chasing their own dreams, and a way for me to hear if my theory about chasing ones dreams is really true. So I would absolutely love to hear what some of your dreams are at the moment and I would love to hear about all of you going after those dreams. Leave a comment and put those big plans for your life out in the open, and then start thinking about how you’ll respond to everything that comes along with pursuing those dreams. Here are some of the big, out there, seemingly ridiculous dreams that I have in my head right now and would love to pursue:

Dream list

-Turn New Life Travel into a widely read blog where I can influence some of the worlds’ problems, through collaborating with non-profits, influential givers and keep giving myself as I grow.

– Becoming a published traveler writer, combining travel stories with a spiritual development message.

– Write a book about unconventional approaches to creating your ideal life and finding your purpose.

– Become an awesome photographer with not-so-awesome gear, I’m starting another website called Facingtheglobe.com where I want to post just pictures of the faces of people in every country I visit. The site will help with my fear of asking strangers, in strange lands to be photographed.

– Create a travel documentary.

– Start a non-profit that uses social media to connect the affluent world with the impoverished world.

– Become conversational in Arabic and Mandarin.

– Never stop traveling.