Opening the Windows Within
Inspiration and Insights to Elevate Our LivesBy David W. StanfieldiUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 David W. Stanfield
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-6939-1 Contents
Introduction..................................................ixChapter 1. Lighting the Inner Flame...........................1Life..........................................................1Love..........................................................6Truth.........................................................10Hope..........................................................14Values........................................................18Chapter 2. The Essence of Emotions............................23Emotion.......................................................23Feeling.......................................................28Heart.........................................................32Well-Being....................................................35Energy........................................................41Chapter 3. Self-Identity and Empowerment......................46Learning......................................................46Perspective...................................................51Character.....................................................55Influences....................................................60Desire........................................................64Motivation....................................................67Chapter 4. The Most Magnificent Mind..........................71Thought.......................................................71Consciousness.................................................76Perception....................................................80Mind..........................................................83Intelligence..................................................88Competence....................................................93Chapter 5. Seeking Spiritual Significance.....................96Spirituality..................................................96Spiritual Warmth..............................................103Religious.....................................................105Philosophy....................................................112Reflection....................................................116Chapter 6. The Human Connection...............................121Communication.................................................121Relationships.................................................125Humanity......................................................128Nature........................................................133Patriotism....................................................136Society.......................................................139Afterword.....................................................144Sailing through Life..........................................145Sights and Sounds to Behold...................................146Greater Prosperity in Life....................................147
Chapter One
Lighting the Inner Flame
Life
We have arrived at the nature of who we are through our development during our lifetimes. The blended effect of all our qualities, experiences, and knowledge continues to be enhanced. Being human is a lifetime occupation.
When we have gained a broader perspective about what is most important in life, the small challenges we face along the way will amount to only slight interferences.
Self-reflection is a unique gift to mankind that allows us to see inside ourselves and become in tune with how we think and feel. When we have a better sense about who we are, we will make better decisions as we navigate our journey through life.
We pave the path before us as we set out upon our life's journey. In doing so, we fill many roles, such as surveyor, engineer, laborer, and diplomat. How well we have prepared ourselves will greatly determine how wonderful our journey is destined to be.
We have depended on others before us to hold the torches that light the path for our journey through life. We too must bear the torches for others so that they will avoid stumbling on their own journeys.
We face many obstacles as we make our way through life, but hardly anything we encounter couldn't be improved by having a pure conscience, sincere motives, and a positive outlook.
The fast-paced and busy lives we lead sometimes leave us with little time to contemplate. When we finally slow down, it is often just long enough to catch our breath so that we can keep going again. Wherever we may be in life, we should always allow time to draw upon refreshing and inspiring thoughts so that our lives may be lived more meaningfully and enjoyably.
As we reflect back on our own segment of time at what we have accomplished or what purpose we have served, will we feel fulfilled? Will we have achieved what was intended for us? Now is the time to ask these questions while the rest of our lives still await us.
Life's freedoms are truly experienced when our enthusiasm and aspirations are thriving and we have broken free from the shackles of anguish and discouragement.
We may pause at times in our lives to consider what more we could have done or what minutes we could have spared. Life only yields us so many minutes. When we have a strong devotion, ambitious endeavor, or worthwhile cause to tend to, we will ration our minutes more sparingly.
Every minute saved through focused effort, planning, and efficiency is a minute gained to spend according to our own choice.
Since we all need a sense of direction as we navigate through life, why not use the compass found in compassion?
It is easier to get where we are going in life when we maintain a clear focus, realistic vision, and have a sense of direction.
We must gain control of our better senses; otherwise, we will rely too heavily on our lesser senses while striving to meet life's opportunities and challenges.
When people elevate the emotional, spiritual, and intellectual aspects of their nature to a heightened level of maturity, they are better prepared to face any challenge that comes their way.
How remarkable the design is for each day with enough time provided to accomplish all the necessary labor and tasks that we can fit in and enough time for rest so that we can renew again.
Our lives become more enriched when we maintain balance. Strive every day to live, learn, love, labor, and laugh—and do these leisurely when possible.
A typical rosebush may have ten times as many thorns as it does flowers, but when we observe a rosebush, we usually focus more on the flowers. This is also a wonderful way to view life.
We go through life more graciously when we maintain a warm heart, a cool temper, and turn a cold shoulder toward anger.
The essence of life is ultimately reached when our emotions, senses, thoughts, and feelings have aligned with our spiritual nature and increase our awareness of who we are within.
For life to be fully appreciated, it has to be lived with the richness and fullness of human interaction and emotion.
We are each living through our own segment of time within the timeframe of all human existence. The space that we occupy is merely a speck in the entire universe.
It has been said that idle time is the devil's workshop. Perhaps this is so, but it is also God's workshop. In fact, it is whoever's workshop we decide it should be.
How can we realistically set out to solve the world's problems when many of our problems originate from our own way of thinking?
More information exists now than has ever existed before, but after a while, too much information loses its effectiveness. When necessary information goes unknown to society, we need to find a better way to access this. We have reached a time when a more intentional approach is needed for acquiring beneficial and essential knowledge so that we are better prepared to meet life.
Many of the obstacles that limit our achievements in life are integrated within our thinking. A few slight adjustments can move us past some of these obstacles.
We have arrived upon a time that is especially important to supplement our thinking more sensibly, rationally, and intentionally. The meaningful information available to us is often accompanied by nonsense and confusion that will also influence us. We should focus on what is essential and important while dismissing what is senseless to avoid corrupting our thoughts.
We have developed our knowledge to this point in our lives based on our past experiences. Since this process occurred gradually, whatever adjustments we make are likely to occur gradually as well.
Implementing change in our lives can be as simple as considering what needs to be changed and then doing it.
When we gain insights and perspectives that bring greater meaning to the important things in life, we become enlightened and empowered, which helps propel us as we set out in pursuit of our dreams.
Every generation attempts to build upon the progress of the previous generations. We have experienced war and peace, economic surges and recessions, and struggled to broaden the umbrella of freedom. Much has been accomplished, but more is yet to be done. Visionaries help to lead us through the uncertain times.
When we strive to seek similarities—rather than differences—among people, we will begin to discover the means for overcoming our greatest fears, obstacles, and problems.
We need something more to sustain passion in our lives—beyond the labor of our careers and the toil of daily responsibilities. We should pursue our interests, ambitions, and dreams because they will often provide the enrichment that we seek in life.
Knowing the larger goal in life that we are enthusiastically setting out to accomplish is to have a real sense of knowing our purpose.
When some great cause, idea, or ambition has embraced you, the inner flame of desire will grow brighter and more intensely, transmitting an amazing, endless energy to satisfy the demand.
Fulfillment in life can occur when some newly found passion or mission embraces and invigorates you to excel and accomplish something empowering and significant that can bring hope, peace, joy, meaning, and purpose into our lives and the lives of others.
The more we understand about feelings, spirituality, thoughts, and emotions, the more we will understand other aspects of our own nature. This knowledge shapes and strengthens us so that we are better equipped to meet life's challenges.
We all have a more pleasant side of our nature that promotes goodness and kindness. We should allow this part of our nature to be revealed and known. Don't keep this stashed away. The beauty of a sparkling diamond is only known when it is seen.
Some of the dearest people I have ever known have also been the kindest. Our world needs more kindness. Kind hearts help to kindle other kind hearts and souls. Both are greatly needed.
Our time in life is certainly appreciated, but the time that we spend peacefully and pleasantly is truly endearing.
Every person possesses an inner beauty and an inner ambition for experiencing life. We shape this, nurture it, and protect it as though it were our inner gemstone. This gemstone may resemble some coarse, unformed diamond ore—or it might be shaped and shined to resemble something beautiful. This substance that we are all made from is the same and it symbolizes the characteristics of our soul. As it develops, every facet of this inner gemstone represents some aspect of ourselves and reflects who we are to the world.
Love
Love is perhaps the most important, yet least understood, word in the English language. The magnitude of love is too enormous for us to adequately comprehend. Everything wonderful, beautiful, and positive has a relationship with love—and nothing that is good is without love. Love embraces everything that is good, including the positive connective energy that sustains life.
Love encompasses all that is positive and good. It is encapsulated within our hearts, minds, and souls. The way that we are affected by love shows by how it stirs us and how we reflect it outwardly toward others.
Love is connected to all things pleasant, positive, and pure. We should occasionally reflect on what love means to us, what we have accepted as love, and how we are affected by love.
Love has no boundaries and, therefore, is universal. The extent to which love is known and lived among mankind corresponds to how it is emphasized, embraced, and incorporated into our lives.
Love is positive and enjoyable and is realized emotionally, physically, and spiritually. The magnificence of love magnifies as its energy intensifies.
There are things in life that will draw us closer and other things that will force us away. We always seem to be gravitating in the direction of something, so we should strive to make this positive, loving, and good.
The beauty in the way love works is how it draws us to what is good, positive, and trusting while also cautioning about what is negative and corrupt. Love has certain intuitive characteristics that help to guide us.
The effect that love has is perpetual, as its energy reciprocates like the ripples created by pebbles tossed into a pond. Every kind deed or gesture is yet another pebble or ripple that displays love in action.
When we love someone, we tend to admire and emphasize his or her good qualities. However, when we dislike someone, we tend to do just the opposite, focusing on their unfavorable qualities. This can be used as a barometer to help us gauge our love toward others.
When we see love demonstrated by others, our own feelings of love often become activated and excited as we romanticize. Sometimes our feelings of love are lagging and we need that occasional spark so that we can rekindle that flame. When that flame is relit, we become alive with love again.
People feel good when someone takes a personal interest in them. People want to be accepted, appreciated, affirmed, and loved.
Love typically has a close relationship with feeling, while thoughts may sometimes seem detached. As thought and feeling correspond, a greater magnitude of love resonates within our lives. The experience of love, at any level, excites us and heightens our senses.
The components of love are also the components of character. When we realize this, we can bring greater peace and harmony into our lives.
Truth and love reside within the highest and purest regions of our consciousness. The more these are active and alive, the more invigorated and empowered we will be.
The ultimate motivation of our thoughts relies on truth, while the ultimate motivation of our actions relies on love. When we embrace truth and love and their principles, they become what we think, who we are, and are reflected in all that we do.
Love and logic are often disjoined; one is emotionally based while the other is intellectually based. Compassion is the mechanism that draws these together, allowing our feelings to become understood and our thoughts to become tempered by feeling.
Logic is rather independent of love—and love is usually unfamiliar with logic. However, they do become acquainted as they are introduced by compassion, which unites them and then sends them off dancing.
Love is often unfamiliar with logic because love is mostly intuitive. Love and logic associate through their common understanding of truth and reason–and because of the positive qualities they share. When the aspects of truth or love disperse, their positive influence diminishes.
Love can be thought or felt. It can display affection and it can be an act of kindness. Love might be bold or it may stay subtle. It can be given, received, and shared. Love has no limits or boundaries and it occurs both in magnificent and insignificant ways. Love is so abundant and enormous that there is no way to completely escape it.
Love is so vast and awesome, but it is also intricate and subtle. Love knows no evil and, instead, transforms evil. Lives positively affected by love become lifted. When we are drawn toward love, we move much closer to resolving our conflicts.
Perhaps the measure of intelligence in society should place more of its emphasis on love and compassion. Intelligence pertains not just to information, but also to how it is correlated into action. Since our actions demonstrate our true convictions and motivations, they show where our values are really centered. When love and compassion are given their due emphasis, they will be regarded more importantly and become more evident in society.
The sensation of love is often experienced physically as a feeling of inner warmth and elation that radiates from the region around our heart.
A disregard for sensitivity causes some people to rely on force to get what they want. Love can barely be realized without some level of sensitivity.
It is true that all that glitters is not gold, but it is also true that all that is golden does not glitter. We value most what we embrace, adore, and hold dear. These are what define love for us.
As important as love is, it would seem that we would have a fuller understanding of all that it means. We should know about various types of love and the different ways that it is experienced. We should know about the empowering energy that love brings. We should also know that all positive things that affect our lives are somehow related to love.
A correlation exists between love and life through the positive energy that love brings. Positive energy is essential for the creation of life and all other aspects of living. This interaction of energy and living-form may point directly to the essence of love and life.
Love has so many dimensions and expressions, and we relate to types of love in different ways. The common characteristics that love shares are the passion that it brings and its positive effect that draws us close to it.
Love embraces everything in life and all things that are positive. Love has no interest in anger, deceit, malice, or envy—except to convert them.
When we are administering to the needs of others, we might pause to consider that "minister" occurs in the word "administer."
If only there could be something resembling a bank account of compassion, I could see it being built upon goodness, kindness, caring, and love. The proceeds would accumulate and then be divvied out as we felt inclined. Each day, we could spread some of it around to positively affect others. Occasionally, we will encounter those whose stock is depleted, but we may help replenish it with some of our own.
The fondest and most endearing memories that we latch onto typically will share a common element relating in some way to love.
Love has a radiant quality about it that is evident in its appeal and emotional effect. It may be instantly realized like the warmth of the radiant sunrays that reach us through the parting clouds.
Truth
There is no higher order than the ultimate truth because truth represents what is ultimately real. Honesty is the level of consistency in relating to truth and accepting it. Truth and honesty are consistent, and the closer we are to these, the stronger our values will be.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Opening the Windows Withinby David W. Stanfield Copyright © 2010 by David W. Stanfield. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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