Archive for November, 2008

By Steve Mills

This is part one of a series about “Going With the Flow”

There is a lot written on personal development blogs about the concept of “going with the flow.” I am sure most Rebel Zen readers have encountered this term many times during their internet wanderings, and that you have heard many different takes on what it means. Here at Rebel Zen, we aren’t ones to get too hung up on definitions. What I am more interested on is different perspectives on the one idea. So in that spirit, here is one take on the idea of “Going with the Flow”

BIG FLOW : Life Flow

We quite often get to a point in our lives where things get out of control. This can be a major source of anxiety and stress for a lot of people, as they feel that they are constantly fighting against the world for control of their situation in life and circumstances.

Others however, learn to “go with the flow.” They realise that you can NEVER have 100% control of your life circumstances, and anything could happen in the next 5 years, weeks, days or minutes which could completely change things.

By Seamus Anthony

“Aggh! What’s Wrong With Me?”

Ever asked yourself that? I know I have…

But look – the answer to that question is NOTHING! There is nothing wrong with you dude!
You are a human and humans don’t just feel great all the time – humans feel all kinds of emotions including the unpleasant ones.

Humans make mistakes, they regret their actions, they lose their temper, they get drunk, they spend too much money on stupid things, they hurt themselves and the ones they love.

Normal.

All of this is completely normal and I want you to know right now that you don’t need to be a super-disciplined self-help guru to be happy! You don’t need to try and be perfect – YOU ALREADY ARE PERFECT! Even your so-called flaws, even those things that you want to change about yourself – these things are all perfect. That doesn’t mean you can’t implement positive change in your life – but meanwhile stop giving yourself a hard time, TODAY!

By Seamus Anthony

As you get a little bit older year-by-year you may find that your responsibilities seem to grow and grow, and so too does your desire to meet these responsibilities head on. Which is all very well, and probably for the best, but at what cost to your Inner Child and therefore your happiness and enjoyment of the moment?

When I was in my twenties I didn’t give a stuff about anything I was apparently “supposed” to do and happily left all practical matters to chance in order to give myself the time to enjoy doing the things I wanted to do (from the noble, like create fine music, to the less-noble, which we won’t go into now thank you very much).

Oh … ok, one story of my bad behaviour – but then straight to bed you hear kiddies?

The Other Extreme: Spoiling Your Inner-Child

By Seamus Anthony

Should you strive to change your habits, your circumstances, your whole life?

Or should you enjoy increased inner-peace by accepting who you are right now, unconditionally so you can relax and enjoy the moment?

I find life to be a constant tension between these two approaches, and I can’t help but notice that in what we loosely call the “personal development” field there are many pushers of both ways towards inner satisfaction.

I have for a while now leaned heavily in favor of the “Zen” path of warts-and-all self-acceptance of yourself and have been scornful of the Tony Robbins “go-get-em-tiger” school of hyped up motivation and the “follow-these-sacred-rules-and-kiss-my-Guru-ass” schools of overtly serious and holy spirituality.

That’s the attitude we founded Rebel Zen on: a different, down-to-Earth, street-savvy approach to Enlightenment and Worldly Success – and God help us if we ever lose sight of this mission because in my opinion it’s what is sorely needed.

BUT…

The other night I was awake at about 4 in the morning and a thought struck me like a punch in the face.

I have just posted an article over at People Jam about how you can use meditation and self-awareness to help you survive the inevitable craziness that happens between now and New Years.

The Self-Aware Silly Season

Enjoy your weekend – I’m off to drink beer! Ha!

Seamus Anthony

By Séamus Anthony

A short, sharp shock here and there, even an unpleasant one, can be a very powerful motivator. If you let go of your naturally defensive reactions and ‘look for the gift’, you may just find that the situation brings unexpected rewards.

The other evening I was walking to a party with some friends when I was very nearly hit by a moving car. It was traveling at a fair whack, and I would say it most likely would have been curtains for me had I been struck.

I didn’t even see it – I was jaywalking in front of some cars that were idling at the intersection and I didn’t realise that the left-turn arrow was green. The car was rushing to make the lights, and the first thing I knew about it was the sensation of something very large passing very quickly very close to my backside. My friends hollered at me to be careful, and the car pulled over. The young lads in it gave me some lip about watching where I was walking. They were rightfully angry; I wasn’t using my head (it was in the clouds).

Just a quick post to point you to my latest article over at The Change Blog: A 7 Step No-Waffle Plan for Real World Success.

The hits just keep on comin’

Cheers,

Seamus Anthony

I have a new post about how to be a rock star over at PickTheBrain.com – actually it is more a list of some different strategies for success, but that doesn’t sound anywhere near as interesting does it?

Click here to read the article.

Cheers,

Seamus Anthony

P.S. if you the article inspires you to listen to my music please do. Go here to check out my latest sounds at myspace, here to buy the disc, or here to buy it on iTunes. And finally here is the myspace page for my ’90s band I was rambling on about in the post.

By Steve Mills

You can learn a lot about life from reading and listening to the life stories of others. I love biographies, to see how my personal hero’s have structured their lives. The struggles they have faced, strategies they have used and the way that they have structured their lives in order to do what they love every day. The insight gained from looking at the place where people have started their life journey, and the steps they have taken to get to their goals is extremely valuable, like the condensed experience of every year of their life, put into the few hours it takes to read the book.

While it is important to use biographies and stories of success to learn and motivate us, there is one thing to be wary of. That is using the circumstances of others as excuses for not taking action ourselves. In the past I have caught myself, after reading about another self made billionaire, thinking things like “If only I got that big break then my life would be different” OR “if I didn’t have all of these responsibilities then I would have time to plan for success.”