It's What We All Long For..

Written By: HipHopSince1989

Love...its what we all long for in some way or another. To find that special someone to live out the rest of your years with. Contrary to popular belief, it's somethin that even us guys often search for, women just tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves. For those that are single and on that steady quest for completion, worry not. Imma tell you the reason why you shouldn't be too frustrated if you can't exactly find your Romeo or Juliet right now. Let's take a look at this shall we?

I was talkin to a friend earlier today, and she was tellin me about the frustrations of not being able to find love in a "timely fashion". I used a pretty good analogy as i explained why she shouldnt fret about stuff and why she should enjoy the very days that she's living right now. I told her that finding love is kinda like Christmas...most of the excitement does not come from the actual gift, the thrill comes from the WANT. It's the shaking of the gifts, the Christmas carols, the decorating of the tree, and ahhh yes...writing that good 'ol Christmas list, that makes up the Christmas spirit, which is the fun part. In translation, its the love songs, the crush, the thought of your "perfect other", and yes, even those occasional feelings of loneliness that make the quest for love exciting! Have you ever noticed how boring Christmas day is? The rush is gone because you now have nothing to hope for because you already have what you wanted...

Her response to my Christmas analogy was "Christmas has a date". I quickly replied "And so does your destiny...you just don't know when it is..and thats the exciting part about it all."

I think we've become a society that is addicted to the ideal concept of what love is. Hollywood is to blame for that. They've painted their picture of what love is to be, but in real life, things don't necessarily end as they do on the silver screen. We're simply in love with love. Remember that you also have to take the bad with the good. Along with that girl or guy thats intelligent, funny, and has a nice smile, also comes things like disagreements, fights (hopefully not physical lol) and the occassional "THIS BITCH/NIGGA IS GETTIN ON MY

LAST GODDAMN NERVE!" I think that alotta people enter relationships with the pre-conceived notion that things are gonna be as they appear on TV. When they find out that love isn't what it's broadcasted to be, then they want out. (60% divorce rate in California anyone?)

Im not tryna downplay love and relationships in any kinda way. I think love is an extraordinary and euphoric high that everybody should experience at LEAST once in a lifetime. And yes, a relationship can make life more enjoyable at times. All i'm saying is that love should never define you and or hinder you due to an absence of it. Enjoy your time alone, as you work on the most important relationship in life, the one with yourself. Use this time to really find out what it is that you want and make yourself available to what it is you're wishing for. You should view yourself and the love that you can possibly give to someone as a gift. One day that person will find you and your love shall be your gift to that person. You choose to give that person that gift because you know in your heart that they truly deserve it. It'll be then, when you really learn to love and appreciate someone and it will make that person's presence (presents) that much greater.

The Time Machine

Written By: HipHopSince1989

There's been much discussion on whether time machines actually exist. Some believe that top secret branches of the government have these devices that can allow one to travel back into time. Well, if you need confirmation on whether time traveling machines are fact, then i'm here to tell you that they're very much real, and i know this because i...*looks left and right suspiciously* i have one. (mumbles in a very discreet voice)

Alrite alrite ALRITE, shit! So maybe i really don't have one...but music is about the closest thing we have to an actual time machine. I believe that music is capable of triggering the strongest feelings of nostalgia...nobody in my family understands the love i have for music. My brother always says 'Music don't mean shit to me, all it is, is sounds comin out the speakers!' I CRINGE AT THAT REMARK! How could somebody say that with a straight face? Music has the power to take you back into time...whenever i wanna travel back to the best years of my life, i have this 90's R&B playlist that i have on my iTunes that i dive into. It's something about 90's R&B songs that really hit home with me...however, this can work with any type of music. Music, for me, marks the time for certain eras. I can hear a song or a certain album, and i'll remember EXACTLY what i was doin, who i was with, and the frame of mind i was in at the time when i first heard it. I'm pretty sure these same feelings are triggered within YOU as well, whether you've taken the time to purposely travel back to those days, or maybe you heard a song on the radio that briefly took your soul down memory lane.

Nostalgic feelings are so strong, so clear, and so vivid, that a simple song can amazingly bring out the kid in you. Or an ex that you still love...or fun and exciting times of your life that you so dearly miss. So don't be afraid to try this exercise...find a quiet space, compile a list of tunes that you love from different eras throughout your life, grab a pair of headphones, close your eyes, and let your mind take you back into time as you let your heart fill with those memories of the past. Who said time machines don't exist? They lied to you. Call 'em out on that.

-The Time Machine

T. Franklin 'Casual Part II'

Casual Part II by HipHopSince1989

The Meaning of Life - Story Waters

You are amazing. You are the creation of yourself. You are that which creates. You are the choice to experience existence – beingness. The only limit to what you can be is your self-belief and your imagination. To be born into this reality is to enter a wonderful, shared illusion that grants you complete free-will in the creation of your own personal reality; this is your creatorship. Within the illusion we believe that we are looking at a separate, objective world where we experience self and other; beneath this apparent separation we are unified; we are one.

Reality is a mirror of your being. You are creation exploring itself in a space-time mirror. Through what you choose to believe you create your reality. You change your reality by changing your beliefs about both it and yourself. The eyes with which you look actually shape what you see (this is now shown in quantum physics). Perception is not passive; it is an act of creation. Your choice of perception forms not only how you experience yourself, but your entire reality. Awakening to your creatorship leads your experience of reality to become more fluid and direct. This is to enter conscious creatorship where what you desire is quickly manifest.

The key to conscious creatorship is the allowance of change; the birthing of the unknown into the known. The basis of allowance is acceptance. To change your reality you must first accept it. As long as you reject what you do not like about your reality you are in denial of your creatorship, leaving you feeling stuck. To accept that you are choosing your reality, release attachment to any preconception of how life should be and instead love what is. This comes through the taking of complete responsibility for every element of your reality. This is to love your choice. It is to love yourself. You are the choice of yourself.

Release your fear. Fear is fear of the unknown, fear of being limitless. Fear creates limitation. There is a natural, beautiful unfolding to life that can only arise when you let go of the control that arises through fear. To face your fear is to allow yourself to be vulnerable and put down the shields you have used to protect yourself. All shields are a representation of a belief in danger and therefore lead you to the very danger you want them to protect you from. Whilst you are barricaded behind shields (fear) you will never truly feel safe. All that blocks you in life is the manifestation of your fear. The discovery of freedom is the realization that the only force pushing against you is you. You hold the key to any cage you may be in. To cease to judge and control your own being is to release struggle and enter joyful, effortless creation.

You are awakening to your creatorship and the nature of the illusion. This is a natural process and requires no more than fearlessly being yourself. This means opening and following your heart. This is your freedom: believe whatever your heart feels to believe. This is to live in the Now. It is to awaken to the equality of all beingness and release judgment of both yourself and the world. Ever changing truth is the reflection of the ever unfolding birth of beingness that is life. In this state there is no such thing as ‘The Truth’. There is no need of an answer for there is no problem. Just be. There are no limits to what you can be; you are infinite. The joy of this life arises through completely allowing your own being.

Within your heart is a dream. The meaning of life is to live that dream. You can only live that dream if you believe you can. Believe in your dream. You are free to be whatever it is you wish to be. You are an embodiment of all creation. The answer to every question you can conceive is within you, for you are both the creator and perceiver of all you experience. Allow your beingness to blossom without limitation or control and you will experience the limitless love and freedom that you are.

~Story Waters

Carpe Diem

Written by Sam Floyd:

Being new to this blog, I wanted to make my first post slightly indicative of my personality. My life motto is "carpe diem". It's latin for "seize the day", and it's tatted on the backs of my arms for many reasons...

Life, as we perceive it from the first-person point of view, is one big experience consisting of the what's happening RIGHT NOW, and what's happened in the PAST. We all know that there are 3 main classifications of time: the past, present, and future. It's clear to see that life, as we experience it, does NOT consist of the future. (Yes, I realize that the future is very important, is is often what drives us to do the things we do in the present, but that's for another day).

What I am trying to say is: to make the most of life, you must make the most of EVERY SINGLE DAY. No one knows what the future holds, and your life could very well end tomorrow. Ask yourself this: If my life were to end tomorrow, would I be satisfied with what I have experienced in my life so far? If you can't honestly answer "yes", then this is the post you NEED to be reading.

One of my favorite music artists, B.o.B., has a tattoo on his forearm that reads "be in the moment". That is some of the best advice that anyone could ever give/receive. If you make the most of every moment, then you for damn sure have made the most of day. Days turn to weeks, weeks turn to months, months turn to years, and years turn into a lifetime. You only get ONE life, make the most of it. Kiss slowly, love hard, and most importantly, do what you WANT to do. A good friend of mine told me that he wouldn't trade our high school memories for all of the gold in africa. Memories are priceless. Those moments that you made the most of, will fade to memories that will bring you joy in moments in the future that you wish you weren't in, but unfortunately are.

Don't sit around waiting for life to come for you. Go get it. Make it happen. Live life to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised. (yeah, I DID just end that with a cliche')

A Lost Generation?

A Dope AARP Advertisement:

We CAN Change the World

Understanding Auras...

We have all heard of the term, "aura" before, but what does that really mean?




More on Auras and Chakras Coming Soon . . .

Keep on Flowin'

Be like water.

MOVING FORWARD-LK
Love.Energy.Knowledge.Time

Invisible Money

Troy Harris

If you have ever heard any of the following phrases, you are reading the right blog:

"It's not about what you make. It's about what you bring home."

"It takes money to make money."

"A penny saved is a penny earned."

"Money doesn't grow on trees."

Well, truth be told, all of these cliches are true. Very true. True to the bone. In America, Jews recycle their money over 12 times in the Jewish community. Blacks? LESS THAN ONE. Whites, Asians, and even Hispanics are somewhere in between the two. Alright, to put it plainly, the easiest way to restrict financial growth, and subsequent success, is to spend money before you "get it". So many blacks in the world do this very thing and it is a significant part of the problem we face when trying to become a more powerful race. Why? Its the same thing that makes us buy lottery tickets, have unprotected sex, smoke weed, and rob people. Immediate gratification. The idea of getting what you exactly want exactly when you want it (without regard for much of anything else). Ok, so now the question is "Why blacks?" Immediate gratification isn't some racist form of intangible energy out to get us. No it isn't, but sometimes I wonder if we're out to get ourselves.

What you listen to, you think, what you think, you become. Every time. Our music, generally speaking, talks mostly about having nice things: expensive chains that start depreciating as soon as you buy them, rims that are too big and scrub the bottom of your car every time you make a turn, owning a different pair of shoes for every other shirt you own, etc. Thus, the moment we get one penny over the required amount, we buy houses with pools in the backyard that end up serving as habitats for the amphibian wildlife because we can't even afford to get it cleaned, suits to impress people at church that we don't even care about, and other related things. So, yes, our music is leading to our downfall.

"Gator boots, with the pimped out Gucci suits. Ain't got no job, but I stay sharp. Can't pay my rent cuz all my money's spent. But thats ok, cuz I'm still fly. Got a quarter tank of gas in my new G-Class. But that's alright cuz I'm gon ride. Got everything in my momma's name. But I'm hood rich....." -Mannie Fresh

We can try very hard to explain this misfortune to no avail. Maybe its the fact that we, as America's most oppressed people, take advantage of any and every opportunity to get something nice because we've simply just never had it before. Maybe its not even a problem and we just value nice things more than financial stability (which directly equates to power nowadays). Maybe we just like everyone to know we have money. After all, it is easier to see Mercedes and shiny jewelry than 401k's and account balances. Or maybe its just niggas being niggas: the nature of the beast. Maybe not.

In economics, the MPC (Marginal Propensity to Consume) is the number that explains people's tendency to spend in relation to how much they save. (If you make $100 and spend $80 the MPC is .8) Without a single statistic, I'm pretty sure its easy to see which race's MPC is the highest. Now, when people consume, it speeds the flow of money up and usually makes for a better economy. The only problem is we aren't in America alone and there are very few black businesses today to help recycle our money and give it time to multiply. So we buy from everyone else.

That all boils down to this: WE, the people with the highest tendency to consume and the LOWEST amount of businesses, in proportion, are the main contributors in speeding up an economy in which we are but the CONSUMER and rarely the PRODUCER. This is two-fold. Not only are we making ourselves worse off by saving little and spending lots, we are helping to boost other races' status in this country by giving them our money to stack on top of their people's (who are wise enough to actually support their race). Its bad enough when we consume so much and save so little, but every time we consume, we do it elsewhere. So while they're moving forward with robust pockets and smiles on the way to the bank, we're running backwards, smiling just as hard, on the way to the white owned car dealership thinking we're just as "rich" as them. smFUCKINGh. Imagine playing Monopoly, rolling the dice and it reading "-3" and go past "Go" the wrong way and go $200 dollars in debt. That's the reality of it.

So there it is... Invisible Money. The money that DOESN'T grow on trees or show up in the piggy bank on that rainy day. The money that is in our hands just long enough to deposit and spend. The money that's made and never brought home. If we changed our music we wouldn't be bred so frivolously. If we altered our attitude towards black owned businesses, we would create a positive environment to surround them in, making it conducive for success and our money would GROW. If we changed our consuming habits, we could move up from the bottom of the totem pole and start living up to our potential. Break the mold. We're a powerful people. Act like it.

When is Motivation MOST Important?

Peter Bregman, Harvard Business Review

How (and When) to Motivate Yourself

I woke up this morning to pouring rain and temperatures in the low 40s. I had planned on going for an early bike ride in Central Park but now I wasn't so sure. I like to get some exercise every day and given my commitments for the rest of the day, this was my only opportunity. But did I really want to get so wet and cold?

I decided to go for it, though I continued to question myself as I put on my biking clothes and got my bike out of the basement. I paused under the awning of our apartment building, as rain streamed down on either side of me.

A friend of mine, Chris, happened to be dashing home to avoid the rain and stopped under the awning for a second.

"Great day for a bike ride," he said, before running on.

He's right, I thought, this is dumb. I stayed under the awning for a few more minutes as I considered retreating into the warmth of my apartment.

Finally, knowing that I'd feel great after a good, hard ride, I got on my bike and took off, pedaling hard. The initial sting of the cold rain had me questioning myself again but I kept going.

Then, after less than five minutes, the rain stopped bothering me. And after a few more minutes, it felt kind of good. Invigorating. It turned out to be a great ride.

When I got back to the apartment building — drenched, a little muddy, and with a big smile on my face — one of my neighbors commented on how motivated and disciplined I was to be out on a day like that.

But he was wrong. My ride in the rain taught me a good lesson about motivation and discipline: we need it less than we think.

"I didn't need to be motivated for long," I laughed. "Just long enough to get outside."

Because once I was already in the rain, it took no discipline to keep riding. Getting started was the hard part. Like getting into a cold pool. Once you're in, it's fine. It's getting in that takes motivation.

In fact, when you think about it, we only need to be motivated for a few short moments. Between those moments, momentum or habit or unconscious focus takes over.

I write at least one post a week. Does that take discipline? Sure. But when I break it down, the hardest part — the part for which I need the discipline — is sitting down to write. I'll find all sorts of things to distract me from starting. But if I can get myself to start a post, I don't need much discipline to finish it.

Need willpower to work on something difficult? Ask yourself when you need that willpower the most. Received feedback that you should talk less in meetings? Figure out when are you most susceptible to blabbing on. Trying to maintain a commitment to yourself or someone else? Identify the times when you are most at risk of violating that commitment.

Then, whatever you do, don't give up in the moments when you're most vulnerable. Don't give up the bike ride while standing under the awning watching it rain. Even when your friend tells you you're crazy to go out.

In other words, never quit a diet while reading the dessert menu. It's too tempting. That's not the right time to second-guess your commitment. It's precisely the time to use your willpower and discipline.

We waste a lot of time, energy, and focus second-guessing ourselves. Am I doing the right work? Is this project worthwhile? Is this employee going to work out? That moment-by-moment deliberation is a distraction at best and sabotage at worst. If you keep asking yourself whether a project is worth working on, you'll reduce your effort on that project — who wants to spend time on something that might fail? — and doom its success.

On the other hand, it's impossible to ignore those feelings of uncertainty. The solution? Schedule them. Create an established time to second-guess yourself, a time when you know your commitment won't be weakened by the temptations of the moment. If you're going to break the diet, do it when your need for willpower is at its lowest. Decide to decide the next day, maybe after a healthy breakfast or a little exercise, when you know your inclination to stick to your goals will be naturally high.

Then, if you decide to stay on the diet, commit fully and powerfully until the next scheduled time to deliberate. Knowing you have a planned pause allows you to focus and concentrate without hesitation until the established time to second guess yourself.

And if you do eventually decide to change your commitment, you'll know it's not from momentary weakness. It'll be a strategic, rational, intentional decision.

What's important is that your moment of choice is when you are in the right state of mind — when you need the least willpower — to make the best decision.

Which is why, sitting here at my computer, dry, comfortable, and having had a great ride today, I've decided to go out again tomorrow.


I think that this article touches on a very important note. The hardest part of most tasks is just STARTING. Once we start, we can do it... so like Nike said JUST DO IT.