#ltuae

[the--abditory]

be very very frightened, arthur dent

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((full view for better quality))

[bibliophile-with-tea]

Life, the Universe and Everything

Author: Douglas Adams Series: Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [3] Published: 1982 August Genre: Humor, Science Fiction

[vanettda]

The secrets of life, the universe, and everything. A webcomic of sage(ish) optimism and positive thinking. #webcomic #ltuae #webcomics #lds

[studiokittie]

Need vs. Want - The secret to unlocking that which you desire.

How often do we tell ourselves that we Need something?

I need to get out of bed right now.

I need to do the dishes.

I need $500 to pay my bills.

I need to call my mom.

I need to finish this report on time.

I need to meditate more.

I do this all the time. In fact, I probably said the word Need to myself at least five times before I even sat up in bed this morning. And I noticed it far more than normal, so I got up, sat on the bed instead, and meditated for a while.

“Why am I saying Need all the time?” I asked myself and Life the Universe and Everything (LTUAE). “I don’t really enjoy it. It creates pressure within me, a feeling of pass/fail, a grinding sensation of obligation instead of enjoyment.”

The answers flowed like water, visuals and phrases melded together in that wonderfully silky way only a meditative state can deliver.

What do you really need? I heard in my head. You need air, to breathe. Water, to drink. Food, to eat. Shelter, to stay warm. What beyond this do you need? What is necessary?

“Love,” I replied. “Money to pay the bills. In fact, a big chunk of money would be great, to pay off debt. I need to make my business successful. I need to support my family. I need to help my husband. I need —“

Do you Need those things? Are they necessary? Would your human life end without them?

“Well… no. It would feel like it was ending, if a chain reaction was set off and everything went wrong and we were broke and homeless and scared. But no, it wouldn’t be the end of life. Not right away.”

Then these are not Needs. These are Wants.

And just like that, my mind sort of exploded open. I’ve always defined Wants as things that would be nice to have - luxuries, things like Christmas presents and fun vacations. Wants are the icing on the cake. Needs make up the cake itself.

So I sat with it some more, and I recalled The Desire Map, which I completed last year. The core of Danielle’s philosophy is that when we approach the things we would like to have as Desires, we open the door to more flow, more ease and grace, more fun and sexy and adventure. Needs are important, of course - they allow us to live. But beyond survival, beyond the bare bones basics, in that grey area of all the things that make up our life but don’t actually determine our survival… those are the things we desire.

Turns out I was equipped to view my life through a lens of want and desire, instead of need. I decided to re-write the morning’s list of concerns, saying Want instead of Need:

I want enough money to pay all our bills on time.

I want enough money to pay off all our debt, either all in one go, or for consolidation purposes.

I want Studio Kittie to flourish and thrive and help all the right people while supporting me and my family.

I want to energetically support my husband in all his endeavors because I believe in him.

The change was dramatic, and delicious. Instead of hard nuggets of pressure, I felt like each item was an exciting event on my horizon. I could feel, in my heart, the pleasurable sensation of anticipation replace the gritty feeling of anxiety. And most astonishing, instead of a terse list of things I’d better do or else, suddenly I had a list of intentions I wanted to see manifest in my life.

Needs are tied to our biological survival mode, and for good reason. But too much survival mode and we burn out. Is it not better to observe the things we would like to see enter our lives through that rosy-golden lens of Desire? For when we Want something, our imagination can show us the way to achieve it.

I invite you to try the Need vs Want list making game for yourself. Write down five things you truly feel you Need in your life. (It doesn’t matter what they are, they are valid because you feel they are.) Pay attention to how you feel when you tell yourself you Need to figure these things out. Then, on another sheet of paper, or maybe right alongside the first list, re-write those Needs as Wants. Allow the language to change, allow your imagination to flow. Pay attention to how these things feel the second time around. Is there more lightness, more spaciousness, more ease and flow? Do you feel less pressured and more excited? How does your creative problem-solving self begin to approach them differently?

If you’re open, please share the results of your game with me. I’d love to compare notes. I think this might be a game changer.

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[studiokittie]

I can't believe this is my new pep talk.

I know. I know! It's so silly. But it's true.

By it, I mean the message in the video. I know it came about via experimentation and film school shenanigans, and I know Shia looks like a sort of man-ape motivational speaker, but the entire message is spot flipping on. 

In 2012 I had an early mid-life crisis. I had a home, a job, a loving family... but I saw no future for myself. No plane of existence where I was doing something that Truly Mattered. My soul was feeling awfully withered and I was scared I'd feel like that forever.

I was able to turn things around! It took time, asking for help, some deep searching, and lots of work. But every minute of it was soul expanding, not contracting. Every step made me feel more alive, and in touch with something larger than myself. A purpose. A calling. A reason to get up in the morning. 

Looking back, because hindsight is a blessed bitch, I can identify one of my most pivotal shifts. I can't call it a "moment," because it took months to realize. But once it clicked, there was no going back. And here it is:

We have to grow our lives into what we want them to be.

Life does not hand us a basket chock full of our hopes and dreams. We have to get down in the dirt, plant the seeds of our desires, nurture them while they grow, and harvest the fruits of our labors.

Life absolutely helps us along the way! Life brings the energetic rain to nurture our seeds; life brings the people in alignment to help up tend our garden; life gives us lessons and obstacles so we learn how to be stronger in our purpose.  

But life doesn't do the work and hand us the results. It's up to us to decide what we want and go for it. Then, and only then, do we get handed help along the way.

My biggest problem three years ago was figuring out what it was I wanted. I could not answer the question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" I knew what I could do, and I knew what I wanted -- but I had no idea how to fill in the big middle gap. 

One day back then, through a series of events I can only describe as eerily synchronistic, I discovered a book titled Your Heart's Desire: Instructions for Creating the Life You Really Want. I knew nothing about the author, and the language was a little hokey for my taste at the time, but the book offered a step-by-step plan for identifying, nurturing, and converting dreams into realities. So, I committed. I did the steps exactly as instructed. I filled pages and pages of my journal with words and sketches and hopes and fears and dreams that I wanted to come true. 

And it worked. 

It's not that it helped me bring my dream car into my life (even though it totally did and I love Haniel more than is likely reasonable), it's not that it showed me how powerful the human mind is, it's not even that it helped me reconnect with LTUAE after years of separation... this book taught me a formula for getting my thoughts out of the aether and into reality. It was like a Golden Ticket.

So what's my point? Just do it. Make your dreams come true. If you feel stuck, if you have a great idea but no place to start, if you know you're destined for more but repeat the same pattern every day: tell a friend or write it down or scream it from a cliff top (I did this last one, it's totally liberating). Decide that you want to plant a seed and bring a dream into reality. Look around for a Golden Ticket of your own. Read books and listen to podcasts and find blogs written by people who have been there and done that. Heck, please email me and ask me for resources. This has nothing to do with whether or not you believe in God or The Secret or Atlantis or Atheism. It has everything to do with the fact that you are human, and capable of creating what you want, as long as you have a place to start. 

Because yes you can!

[boodle69]

I'm getting So Long and Thanks For All the Fish the fourth book in the HHGTTG (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) Series! I have Hitchhikers  Restaurant at the end of the Universe  and Life, the Universe  and Everything. I got a 10 dollar gift card to Barnes and Noble and the last time i was there is was $7.50. I AM SO EXISTED!