Category: Blog

Are You a Shaman?

A Shaman is a spiritually evolved individual who bridges the gap between humans and the course of all life. They possess spiritually advanced sensitivities are often considered to have psychic abilities and are referred to as seers and healers who access the energetic source of all life (God).

A Shaman serves the local and greater community to see life as it is, not as it is presented by social or governing bodies. They possess a higher divine perspective on all things of the earth, the cosmos and are multi-disciplinary explorers of consciousness.

Depending on where the Shaman is located on the earth, he or she may be referred to as a minister, priest or priestess, healer, psychic, medicine man/medicine woman, conjurer, sorcerer, and the like.

Commonly they practice their faith-based spiritual and healing arts outside the realm of academia and outside legal or governmental control as serving a higher authority (God) embracing the separation of church and state.

Natural abilities are inherited or handed down generation to generation and the current spiritual evolution of the human being is seeing these gifts as more accessible by the masses who, if so inclined, may expand their own potential shamanism via study and practice.

Shamanism espouses a greater connection to source with the ability to offer instruction, counseling, transfer insight, messages, or healing via energetic dissemination or exchange with others.

Shamanism is no respecter of sex as women or men can be equally empowered to embrace their shamanistic abilities and to answer their individual calling to such a spiritual mission.

Traditional shamans spend many years as an apprentice with commensurate training in a wide spectrum of religious, spiritual, and esoteric influences along their shamanistic journey, which often include a series of uncommon initiations, rituals, and experiences.

Many a student of shamanism does progress to the stage of being a full shaman but seek only to study shamanistic ways in an effort to expand their own consciousness and connection with source (God).

The study of shamanism is not without risk, as some who have aggressively sought out the ultimate shamanistic experience have crossed-over to the other side leaving their lifeless body in the wake.

Shamans have a special ability to look at things differently, to foresee potential obstacles, and have the ability to pre-navigate to circumvent things that would otherwise be problematic, so they often function in society as advisors, coaches, counselors, consultants, and therapists.

You also see them active in traditional healing arts using their gifts and abilities to augment the healing of their patients, either secretly or openly, depending on their circumstances and local religious, social, legal, or governmental constraints.

Shamans are also able to channel source energy to create individualistic works of art.

They may find their home among any of the arts, including public performance, or more private expressions of art. They may be artists, singers, songwriters, dancers, painters, digital artists, filmmakers, actors, actresses, documentarians, writers, etc.

You may also see them successfully thriving amidst the sciences as researchers, forensics, psychologists, physicists (quantum and otherwise), professors, as well as amidst the therapeutic sciences.

They are highly intelligent, intuitive, sensitive and connected to nature, drawing information and may be in communication with the spiritual world, earth’s elements, flora, and fauna.

What do you think?

Are you a shaman?

Make Time for Fun

You are awakening and you’re in the process of forging your new path through the world which is emerging before your very eyes and every day is an uncharted adventure. It’s easy to get so focused and enthusiastic about learning, growing, changing, seeing, and getting to know more and more about things that you barely could have imagined before (if you dared), that sometimes you can forget to make time for fun.

Then, every once and a while, you ask yourself,

“Is this supposed to be fun?”

And the answer is, “Yes!”

Make Time for Fun

It’s like all areas of life, you can achieve much greater heights of fulfillment if you find ways to take breaks and make time for fun, having more joy in life, balancing work and play. For what is the point of this life, if you’re so focused on your mission that you’re not taking the time to enjoy all this life has to offer?

Becoming spiritually enlightened is not just about moving from thinking with your head to getting in touch with your heart’s central nervous system, expanding your consciousness, and creating a greater connection to God. It should include having more love and fun in your life.

Sometimes, you get so wrapped up in doing the work of solving your personal equation of Perception + Purpose = Prosperity, that you forget to PLAY.

Joy and love are the chief components that raise your vibration to masterful levels. The journey of the spiritually enlightened is not one that can be conducted by pure force of will. You can review all the statistics, do the research, understand all the quantum sciences, and have all the knowledge of the secrets of the universe, but without joy and love your quality of life is lost in the pursuit of evolutionary expansion.

Your evolutionary expansion includes balance. To achieve your highest and best, make time for fun to enjoy the good things this life has to offer. Take time to smell the roses, to love more, and to have fun.

Find ways to actively progress spiritually while creating opportunities to have fun for increased happiness and joy.

When I do energy work with clients, to seal the work I infuse energy for love, health, wealth, freedom, and fun (among other energetic infusions, depending on the client’s needs). For what is life, if it is not fun? It is empty.

Besides the work that we do to continue our spiritual awakening, growth, and expansion, there are other forms of work which may be necessary for our survival. We may have day jobs, the highest form of which would be doing what you love so much that it doesn’t even seem like work at all.

Whatever you do, make time to play and have fun. Make time every day (or at least 2 or 3 times a week) to have some fun.

Remember, as being a full human (including the latest evolutionary version) you are a multifaceted composite being comprised of body, mind, and spirit. It is your responsibility to care for yourself in a holistic manner paying attention to all three areas of life.

Neglecting any of these areas will diminish your quality of life, ‘ere the need for balance in all things.

Even me. Sometimes I get so caught up in the work, that I forget to make playtime for myself. So grateful that I have friends looking out for me ensuring that I make time for fun.

You Might Be a Toxic Person

If you’ve ever hurt someone you loved, made a decision that lead to an outcome you didn’t want or expected, said something with your outside voice that you knew once it was out you wished you could have taken it back, or asserted yourself in such a way as to cause conflict or distress for someone else you might be a toxic person.

Let’s take a look at signs which might indicate that you, or someone you know, might be a toxic person.

If you’re telling your partner what to wear or what not to wear, what activities to participate in, what friends to hang out with, what to do, or where to go, you might be a toxic person.

If you’re constantly getting attention or resources from others without giving much, if anything, in return, you might be a toxic person.

If people reach out to you in an attempt to connect to you and you ignore them, their calls, or their texts, and you generally think others are just plain annoying, unless you want something from them, you might be a toxic person.

If you are handy with putting negative spin on circumstances, often exaggerate, or lie to make yourself look better, or others to appear to be less appealing (or even bad), then make yourself look like God’s gift to save the world (or at least this circumstance), you might be a toxic person.

If you have a knack for using the exact words that people say or recall people’s actions and responses in intricate detail to twist and weaponize against others to make them look bad, potentially destroying their lives, you might be a toxic person.

If you use something that someone’s told you in confidence against them or use it to put yourself in a better light or to make you seem superior or less-flawed than someone else, you might be a toxic person.

If you take someone else’s words out of context, make it look as though it was an attack against you or your integrity, and counterattack, just to assert how better a person you are, and how awful the other person is to even question you or your integrity, you might be a toxic person.

If you have a tendency to pick on or torture people emotionally because they are gentle, kind, loving, and giving people who you see as somewhat weaker than they should be, and maybe feel like you’re doing them a favor by making them a little tougher by challenging their sensibilities with a little conflict, drama, or abuse, you might be a toxic person.

If you brag about your accomplishments, and feel free to embellish a little to make your personal stories even more fascinating and disregard the accomplishments of others, you might be a toxic person.

If your constantly making excuses for yourself for not fulfilling your end of the bargain, blaming others for your lack of diligence or commitment when you fall short of the mark, you might be a toxic person.

If you lack integrity, which means that you’re more prone to lie than not and find it hard to keep promises of make good on the things you say with the things you do, you might be a toxic person.

If someone you know is doing something you don’t agree with, and you use guilt, some form of self-deprecation, or throw a pity party to get them to change their plans on your behalf, you might be a toxic person.

If you generally feel that other people are not up to your standards in one way or another, and you feel like it’s up to you to see them change to come more in-line with your way of thinking, being, acting, or living, you might be a toxic person.

If you are constantly seeing the shortcomings in others and often find yourself trying to make them change to better suit your standards, you might be a toxic person.

If you are likely to abuse someone else by disrespecting them, raising your voice, intimidating, belittling, threatening them, or even potentially committing acts of violence to get your way, you might be a toxic person.

If your first reaction is to be jealous with the potential of escalating to rage when your partner is out of range of your discerning watchful eye (and you assume that he or she will be unfaithful to you), you might be a toxic person.

If you look deep within and you find that of all people you know you cannot be trusted, and this leads you to the conclusion that no one else can be trusted, then you might be a toxic person.

But before you go jumping to self-martyrdom about your being a toxic person, let me put your mind at ease. First of all, if you’re wondering if you might be a toxic person, then you’re probably not toxic at all.

We all make mistakes and blunder through life and we’re all doing the best we can with what we have, and sometimes, we do better than other times. No problem, more than likely you’ll get another chance to do it better somewhere further down the road along your life’s path.

So, congratulations! You’re not a toxic person!

Toxic people are a different breed, they muscle their way through life, pushing everyone else out of their way, leaving a wake of emotional destruction in their wake, without a thought of how their attempts to satisfy themselves might affect others.

This is not an uncommon occurrence. For the toxic person, it is a way of life, and in most cases, they are not too bothered by their inconveniencing others or causing them hurt feelings or hardship. They just keep pushing and prodding, moving whatever gets in their way aside to get what they want.

When dealing with toxic people, try not to judge them for being broken or wicked. You do not know what lifetime of living might turn someone into a person, like that. Try to have compassion for them, but steer free from them, because you are never expected to suffer at the hands of someone else. It is your responsibility to protect your own sacred space.

Higher Perspective of Trust Betrayal

When dealing the effects and aftereffects of broken trust, betrayal, unfaithfulness, having suffered at the hands of cheaters and liars, or being victimized manipulative predators or psychopaths, it’s natural to take it personally, but there is a higher perspective of trust betrayal.

When you’ve trusted someone and they betray you, you conjure up a symphony of wild emotions which are all chained together with all the times you’ve ever been betrayed. Every betrayal is worse than the last as the cascading emotional flood ensues.

Under these conditions, it’s easy to lose control of your faculties as you protest profusely for trusting someone who couldn’t be trusted, and you are hurt so very deeply.

What can you do?

You could choose to forgive. Forgiveness releases you from the victimization, but it doesn’t mean you must tolerate the betrayal. Forgiving your transgressor means you’re willing to not harbor ill will or seek retaliation or revenge. Forgiveness frees you from most of the negative impact but does not excuse their behavior and you needn’t submit yourself to putting yourself in a weakened position of having to allow the person who hurt you to continue to do so.

Forgiveness releases you from being the victim as you realize that while you can love or trust someone sometimes people are not able to maintain the same level of trust that you are able to have in others. You retain the learnings from the episodic adventure, hopefully discovering what part you played in the twisted tryst and become a better person for having survived such an affair.

As a victim of trust betrayal, it is easy to assign blame. You can blame the other person for doing you wrong, but this only prolongs your suffering. Accepting the blame, yourself, seeing the part you played in this betrayal of trust and taking full responsibility empowers you to be free from the whole debacle.

If you can muster up the imagery which understands that none of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, and understanding that we’re all doing the best we can with what we have. You have just witnessed someone doing the best they could with what they had, and you were in a sense, the shock absorber designated to endure this scenario because someone else may not have fared as well as you did. It could have been worse.

Then, there is time. They say it heals all wounds, and for the most part it does, but trusting that person again, could be another story altogether. Just as we choose who we love, we also choose who we will trust, and who we may learn to trust again, given time and personal growth on the part or both parties.

Those who trust expecting others to be trusted and betrayers are a harmonic match for each other. Only growing beyond expectations of the obedience and unlimited respect of another person will set you in a vibrational frequency above such human interaction. If you can achieve this, you cannot be betrayed because you are no longer attached to the preconceived idea that anyone owes you anything. You simply love and allow other to just “be.”

The higher perspective of trust betrayal sees no trust or betrayal. Any interpersonal problems you have are only a matter of selfish misperception. If we can perceive correctly that we are all “one,” each of us an integral part of the other, as we are all a part of the whole, we could never hurt or be hurt.

We are all God’s eyes and ears in human form experiencing life in different ways. No one is ever broken or bad, just experiencing this life in ways that may be different than you are in this moment of now.

This doesn’t mean that you will never be disappointed in someone else’s performance, ability, or lack thereof. It also doesn’t imply there is no responsibility nor consequences for one’s actions. It just means that you are less attached to your expectation which may be beyond another person’s capability, and you allow others just as much unconditional love as you might expect for yourself.

This is the higher perspective of trust betrayal which liberates you from the lower vibration of attachment to unreasonable expectations and keeps you safe, free, above and outside the cycle where others are trapped until they are able to raise their frequencies on their own.

The good news is, this is part of the evolution of humanity which our species is expanding into. It will mean the end of separation and war, leading to our oneness and peace.

For more information, see: Trust Betrayal dot com.

Drama or Dream

You have been charged with living out your journey as a human being on this planet. Yes, you came as a divinely inspired being with a purpose, plan, and your own song to sing, but likely have lost sight of this through the process of living your life to the best of your cognizant abilities.

With every breath you take every step you make in every moment of your life it is up to you to decide to experience episodic

Drama or Dream

The Choice is Yours

Any time you feel poorly, when you feel slighted, misunderstood, shamed, ridiculed, threatened, or victimized, it is up to you whether you will see this feeling and the scene that follows play out as drama or dream, the choice is yours.

If you feel, for any reason, your life is one with consummate drama, you will respond to any ill feeling in a way which charges the impending scenario with negative energy which will play out in a dramatic scene. Your response will feel justified in the outset but will have you feeling worse once the scene has played itself out.

On the other hand, if you respond to ill feelings with love, love will find a way to turn the scenario in a more pleasing direction. The charge in the Bible’s Matthew 5:44 supports this advice divinely, “love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

This concept is nothing new and was previously noted in Proverbs 15:1 with, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” Simple social science at work, even thousands of years ago.

Let’s face it,

Life is a bitch

More like a drunk ass

Life will throw all kinds of opportunities for you to choose drama or dream, it’s a bitch, or more like a drunk who’s had one too many, who is invading your space or pushing your buttons.

If a drunk bumps into you, causing you to spill your drink (chocolate milk), it’s up to you to make a decision. Will you put a negative spin on this, or will you approach the situation with love?

Want drama?

Your initial reaction would be to push the drunk back, and no one would blame you for asserting yourself in the defense of your personal space. When you look into the drunk’s eyes, you can see a lifetime of pain welling up which turns to rage, and now you’ve got a fight on your hands. The repercussions of which could tarry on for some time depending on how the fight goes.

How about the dream?

Or, when the drunk bumps into you, you can smile, put your hand on his should and say, “Whoa, Nelly! What happened to your sea legs, sailor?” As you look into the drunk’s eye, you can see a lifetime of pain. When he looks back at you, seeing eyes filled with love and you’re smiling at him, he feels loved, even for the slightest moment, and this simple gesture, you’re showing a bit of kindness, may be the bright spot in the drunk’s day (possibly his entire life). He might even offer to buy you another chocolate milk.

Does it work every time?

Though it may look like it doesn’t, or it may look like an utter failure at the outset, your kindness is remembered. It may take time and some other kindness shown by others to break through the thick walls which people who have experienced a great deal of pain in their life have built around their hearts to protect themselves from ever being hurt again.

So, they may respond inappropriately. They may reject your kindness.

Instead of being offended, maybe you could muster enough love in you to have compassion for someone in this condition. For God’s sake, don’t point out that you are aware of the drunk’s condition. Just remember that if it weren’t for God’s grace, you might be in the same place as the drunk.

Even if you do not see the immediate rewards for your benevolent act, it does work every time. After all, he’s doing the best he can with what he has, and aren’t all of us just doing the same?

Just love him and bless him as he makes it through another day. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day for, maybe not, but we are no better than he, for in our own ways, we can be a little reckless and bump into things in life which catch us by surprise, too.

It’s on you, whether you live your life in drama or dream by simply choosing love over defense.

March 2019 Image Directory

Wrapping up the month of March, here’s a quick screenshot review of the month’s news. Let me know which ones you like the most. Thanks for your input, -David M Masters

Aliens are Here! Flesh vs Spirit Evolving What’s in Your Movie?
Take the Blame You Are Evolution I’m Sorry Please Forgive Me Thank You I Love You

My Life is Going Nowhere

 Fear is Impatient What’s Important to You?
It’s Not Real! When Do You Get Programmed? Edify Others
DON’T (fill in the blank)! Limiting Unlimited Possibilities Stop! Prison Bars
I Don’t Know About Human Trafficking in America How to Stop the Latent Abuse It’s Hard to Talk to People
Cutting Cords for Freedom and Peace Your Deepest Darkest Secrets Getting to Know Yourself
What Are Your Personal Values? He’s So Successful He Sucks

 

Aliens are Here!

You’ve read the sci-fi, heard the conspiracies, and heard people proclaim the aliens are here! The question remains, are the aliens here are or on their way? Thanks to uncovered evidence beneath sedimentary layers of our Earth, it appears that someone besides us, indicating aliens may have been here before we arrived.

With all we know about who we are and are learning about what else might be “out there,” its hard to believe that we are the only intelligent life in the universe, and it might cause you to rationalize that our race may be quite primitive in comparison to intelligent life that may predate our species.

I admit, the existence of aliens is not my area of expertise, though I have made the acquaintance of others who specialize in this area of study, and the evidence on which they base their conclusions is quite compelling.

When you hear the word, “Alien,” your first thought could include anything from a fellow human from outside the country where you reside to alien greys, the thin figures with large heads and big black eyes.

The possibility of existence has grown in popular awareness over the last couple of hundred years due to increased signs and various methods of visiting the third rock from our sun.

Some alien experts believe that some extraterrestrial aliens look just like we do, cannot be easily identified, and walk among us. Even SpaceX CEO Elon Musk publicly claims the aliens are here (while attending at the World Government Summit in Dubai).

Then there are those who believe that there are human/alien hybrids who are living among us. Reports are coming in from researchers and those who believe they are alien hybrids.

Allegedly starting as early as a hundred years ago, pregnant women were abducted in their sleep and subjected to a procedure to overlay alien DNA over the naturally occurring human DNA.

Why would extraterrestrial races want to do such a thing?

The common consensus appears to be they’re being concerned about the long-term survivability of the human race. It’s as if these more advanced races have a benevolent desire to see humanity advance and evolve beyond our naturally-inclined barbarian ways of life on planet Earth, which is unsustainable.

There is also the likelihood that we are related to and possibly deeply-connected to these beings from other worlds, for just as God created us, they are also creations of God. The same life-force which gives us consciousness is also a part of their consciousness.

Certainly, the current evolutionary status of human metamorphosis is measurably present, even with the concerted efforts of society’s ability to clearly deny anything which is not to be believed.

Does the government know aliens are here?

Hundreds of billions of American tax dollars spent on fringe science attributed to alien technology and the covering up of data “forbidden” for release to those who finance the research and development (taxpayers) of said otherworldly knowledge, would indicate there is much more going on here than meets the average eye.

The American government’s military leaves no paranormal stone unturned in an effort to weaponize any technology, extraterrestrial or otherwise, which might give us an unfair advantage over our enemies. Plus, what if these off-world beings are far less benevolent than they appear to be? How could we defend ourselves from an advanced alien invasion?

If you are paying taxes to the United States of America or their designees, you are paying for the research, development, and the preventing of your knowledge about these alien affairs. And if you believe that there is no truth in the “aliens are here” story, then you are regarded as a good American citizen. You may not be ready to meet aliens from outer space.

If you are compelled to think there may be a degree of veracity to the alien idea, please proceed with caution. The government will spare no expense in the silencing of this growing knowledge base among those in “the know” and you wouldn’t want to expose yourself as possessing independent thought or asking questions which are unsanctioned.

You wouldn’t want to be accused of suffering from Individuality Psychosis, now, would you?

I fully support the asking of unsanctioned questions and believe the discovery of unauthorized data as our God-given right, not to be impeded by any regulation.

Whether the aliens are here or not, may or may not matter at all, or it might be very important, indeed.

What do you think?

Flesh vs Spirit Evolving

You come to Earth and inherit a human body and your journey begins with reconciling your existence as a young spiritual being acclimating to your new environment. At the earliest of age, you are tasked with finding out who you are. Your discoveries accumulate as your identity develops chaining experience upon experience as your sense of self evolves.

You have an inherent desire to be cared for, but it doesn’t take long for you to figure out that taking care of and defending yourself is up to you and you establish patterns to see that your needs are taken care of. This establishes an energy pattern of a particular vibrational frequency which will vary as you make your way through this life, which affects all areas of your life, mental, physical, and spiritual.

The more you struggle to find your own way, the more your ability to connect with your higher spiritual self is closed off as you gain mechanical systems to survive and do the best you can to mitigate the challenges you face in life on Earth. In most, if not all, cases, your higher self is squelched altogether, but it never dies.

At various stages in life, your spiritual self will find ways to garner your attention if an effort to awaken your higher self which has been subdued.

Your higher self will try to poke through in times of stress and struggle. It’s up to you how you respond to hearing this still small voice when it speaks up. Most people just push it away as nonsense, as you continue to make your way through life on your own accord by force of will, determination, accompanied with blood, sweat, and tears.

Flesh vs. Spirit Evolving

This is man’s struggle of flesh against the spirit. Only, as we evolve the struggle of the spirit to emerge becomes more pressing.

For centuries man’s will stomps out potential emerging spirit most of the time, but there’s something happening now, today, right now, our planet is moving through a stage of metamorphosis affecting all matter, life, mankind, including you, too.

A sacred resonance exists in all of life and matter within and throughout all molecules, this energy is no less than purely divine and resonates at the vibration of pure love or above. There exists a harmonic orchestra among all life, matter, and the absence of matter.

Like a sacred carrier wave, God is in all things, everything.

Either this is true, or it is not. What you do with this rejection or realization is up to you.

Your cells are evolving with this harmonic resonance and if you are prone to reject the very thought of it, no problem, for there are forces, highly powerful forces very hard at work to prevent this evolutionary process. So, who of us could blame you, for we were raised from birth to think thusly. Even so, people, just like you and me, are at various stages of awakening the expanding life of liberty and expansion which awaits our species.

Ever notice your desire for change? It’s growing. You find yourself wanting change, finding ways to grab hold of what change you can, only to find it lackluster. You cannot substitute the natural evolution of your being with change which you have been granted or provided yourself via your physical abilities. While it may appease your desire for change in the moment, your human mind/body system is still not satisfied.

Nestled deep within your heart is the central nervous system of your higher self and your connection to the source of all life, but so much emphasis has been placed on the central nervous system of your functioning brain, and little or no attention is placed on your spiritual nature which is where your true self resides, where you hail from, and evolving toward.

Once you begin to awaken you are able to see things as they really are and not like you’ve been trained to interpret life. Life becomes less about you, and more about “us” and our interconnectedness, which is counter-intuitive based on your terrestrial training might dictate.

At some point, as you continue to grow, evolve, and expand you realize that not only are we all “one,” but you have a clearer understanding about your connectedness to all that is, seen and unseen.

If this concept is contrary to how you’re feeling in this moment, no problem. Keep doing whatever it is that is working for you now.

If you are awakened by a moment of clarity from your innermost and highest self? You decide what to do, to push it back down or listen.

There is no judgment as we’re all doing the best we can with what we have.

You are still playing an active role as we continue this evolutionary process.

God bless you as you make your way.

What’s in Your Movie?

Imagine you’re a genius filmmaker who has been assigned a very special project challenge. Your film company has made all the arrangements. They have found a town to use as your next film’s location. All the arrangements have been made. The local government has received signatures from every person who lives and/or works in the town authorizing you to make any film you like using local talent, any naturally occurring events, and locations to make your movie.

All the releases have been signed and you are allowed to use anything and anyone in the town as long as you do not disrupt anything that might have (or have not) occurred naturally. The residents have been charged to ignore your presence and that of your crew as much as possible and you may use and/or bring in outside talent as long as they have not been on film before. This motion picture is to have an incredibly natural feel to it, and you have no script, but your mind’s already swimming in ideas.

You accept the challenge.

Day one. You and your crew arrive in Astoria, the location of your film. Immediately, you and your crew drive around the town and scope out potential sets. Any home, any building, any location is yours for the choosing. You take some basic reference shots of potential locations for you to refer to later.

You decide you’ll start shooting tomorrow at a restaurant and lounge called the Crab Pot.

Next up, you have time to select your key players, so you and your crew head out to downtown to see what the locals look like. The local supermarket seems to be the place with the most foot traffic, so you settle-in there, posting up where local Girl Scouts usually are outside the store selling cookies.

At first, a crowd starts to develop around your area outside the store. Local law enforcement arrives to break up the crowd because they’ve pledged to ignore your presence unless you reach out to them. They apologize profusely and you recruit two of the officers, Jason, and Kelly to be talent in your film.

By five o’clock p.m. on your first day, you’ve selected the location where you are going to shoot, and you have a cast of eight locals selected to start filming. You’ve called a dancer from Las Vegas to appear in your film, and she’s on the bus right now, headed for Astoria, she should be arriving tomorrow. You’re thinking she will play your love interest.

That night you’re up all night plotting and scheming as your intention is to start shooting first thing in the morning.

The next morning, before the break of day, you and your crew set off to the Crab Pot to better acquaint yourself with the location and to get some establishing shots. Wait-a-minute… What are all those lights and emergency vehicles doing down the road? You tell your crew to start filming from the limo.

What? You insist they shoot anything and everything. Maybe you will find a way to fit the footage in later. They agree and comply. As you get closer to your location,

Well, I’ll be damned.

Sure enough, the Crab Pot suddenly burst into flames in the middle of the night, and it looks like you’re your location is a bust. You’re frustrated, as you rip out the sketches of your storyboard which relate to this location, as you tell your crew to get out and film everything, getting the best shots they can.

You start sketching-out the events which are currently being recorded, maybe you will find a way to write them in later.

Unfortunately, Eli, one of your cast members was in that fire. Although severely burned, he was rescued by firefighters, treated by EMTs and transferred to the hospital. You send half of your crew to follow him to the hospital while the other half continues to cover the fire. Eli died after being put on life support at the hospital, so now you’re down to a cast of seven, with one en route on the bus. You scratch-out parts you had intended Eli to play in your film.

By three o’clock p.m., you have footage of the fire, emergency response, and hospital footage in the can, as you film the arrival Tasha, the dancer, as she steps off the bus. You take a shine to her, thinking she is going to play a significant role in your reality-feeling movie.

By seven o’clock p.m., the dancer is being handcuffed and stuffed into the back of a police car, kicking and screaming. In four hours, she had gotten drunk, high, lifted the wallets of eleven locals (two from your crew members), stolen three cell phones, had sex with the mayor and his wife (unbeknownst to each other), and was arrested for being drunk and disorderly, theft, and destruction of public property. (Which you have documented and “in the can.”)

You send two cameramen to follow the police car and document whatever happens to the dancer.

You don’t know how this is going to affect your script or if any of the footage collected from your second day in town and first day’s shoot will appear in any of your movie at all, but you will be thinking of ways you can use it for your best advantage in upcoming script revisions.

There’s still hope for the scheduled “chance” encounter when you lightly direct and passively shoot the meeting of Alex and Mandy at the Pig & Pancake, while you and your staff grab a bite out of the camera’s view.

At nine-thirty you get a call from the pair covering the dancer. It appears she has outstanding warrants in Las Vegas and will no longer be a potential cast member. You call the videographers back to “The Pig” to join the rest of the crew.

And so it goes, day-in, day-out, every day after day, just making the best film you can out of the footage you get. You have your plans and ideas, and stuff happens. You readjust and keep shooting.

Just like real life.

What’s in your movie?

Take the Blame

When you feel compelled to blame others for your misfortunes, it may be time to turn your attention inward because more often than not, when you point your finger at someone else, it’s a pretty good indication that the responsible party is doing the finger-pointing.

Who wants to admit that they are sabotaging themselves? No one. Regardless, if you want your circumstance and life to change for the better, really the only way to get there is to take responsibility for the situation.

So, if you’re looking for someone to blame, blame yourself.

This is the fast-track to creating meaningful and rapid, long-lasting changes in your life.

Can you change anyone else? Not really. You might be able to coerce them to comply with your demands, but their heart will not be in it and the results will be short-lived. You can only change you.

This goes not only for people, but everything around you which creates situations which do not appear to serve you well. The doctor, bankers, the laws, the cops, the “system,” the government, the tax collectors, Mother Nature, natural disasters, the Grim Reaper, the devil, even God.

Whenever you start to place responsibility outside yourself, as early as you can notice it, it’s time to switch it up and ask yourself,

What part did I play in this?

And look for ways to answer the question,

How can I make it my fault?

If you can put yourself in the driver’s seat of your life in this manner, you can take charge of all areas of your life. Things that seemed chaotic and out of control, start to fall into place when you take full responsibility for whatever is causing you discontent, stress, or just not going your way.

All of a sudden, you are no longer a victim and you are able to influence areas of life which seemed to be beyond your influence. Misfortunes or bad luck disintegrate and fade away because you are the master, like the director of your life’s story.

It’s like you’ve been dropped off in some place which seems unfamiliar to you with a film crew. You are unaware of your surroundings, but curious about the props which may be available to you, and your purpose is to make the best motion picture you can, using only the indigenous tools, people, places, things, including culture and circumstance to the best of your ability. What’s in your movie?

When you are “at cause,” when you take full responsibility, you are the director of your life, so start directing.

Now, you are in charge of your relationship(s), your friends, family, co-workers, job or career,

The only thing that’s holding you back from all the good things in life is the “you” who resides within you who seeks to blame anyone or anything for everything that doesn’t go your way.

You’ve been programmed to play the role of the victim by blaming everyone and everything but you. You don’t have to accept any responsibility for playing the part of the helpless victim, and if you choose to do so, victimization will be a constant in your life. If this is your lot in life, you will blame anyone and everything for whatever happens to you.

Everyone else is at fault but you. You blame your past, your parents, your siblings. You blame the country, society, your boss, other drivers, anyone or anything, as long as it’s not you because you are pure and blameless. (Which sounds a little narcissistic, does it not?)

No problem. You can take the wheel at any time and become the master of your fate.

Stop the game and take the blame.

Is now a good time to take charge of your life now?