The Best Years of Your Life… Now!

“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”…

I heard this, when I was growing up, from adults. It was their way of telling me about the importance of thinking and introspection. If you engage in activities that are passive, pretty soon your defenses are laid wide open and your mind can be infiltrated and manipulated. When this happens, you lose your ability to control your own thought processes.

The defenses I’m referring to are your ability to analyze and discern the truth.

I have seen, over the last 20 years, an amazing amount of choices made available. All kinds of new “sub-cultures” have organized themselves. Whatever you’re interested in, you can find others who are like minded. You can “get together” in a virtual world and share information. This another way to spend time…another form of entertainment….another distraction, especially if you are a passive observer.

Failing to participate in activities that challenge you, reinforces and solidifies your status quo…

It keeps things the same in your life… This is why we humans prefer passive entertainment over active involvement. We don’t mind being moved emotionally. We just don’t want to engage in physical action to support what we feel. It’s safer and easier just to sit in front of the computer or television and “experience life”… in the most entertaining way possible…But that’s not living life.

The problem is time. It’s moving faster, ask anyone.

Something happened! Everybody feels it but nobody can explain it. For some of us, it’s a wake up call. Stop entertaining and start contemplating! You only have so much time left to reconnect with your true self. As the weeks, months and years go flying by, the inner progress you make becomes a timeless foundation. A solid platform based upon your truth. This only enhances your ability to discern what is real from what is entertainment and distraction.

The greatest adventure in life is finding out who you really are… then consciously changing your reality and your future so it reflects “your truth”…

It called being alive!

-Bob Baran

I’m an audiophile.

Next to creating and producing music I love listening to it. The thing is, I don’t just listen to it, I get involved with it… which brings up a recent experience:

How many times have you been faced with a situation that seems not to have any solution?

Let me explain what happened to me the other day. I have these two big 250 lbs (each) studio monitor speakers that used to be sitting in the wall (in sophits) in my former recording studio. You’ve all seen pictures of recording studios with the big mixing console, etc. That’s how my control room looked.

When Gwen and I built our dream house I had the Architect design (to my specs) a new control room as well as a dedicated listening room. (Hey every musicians’ dream is to have a world class recording studio in the house!) Well, to speed up the story. We don’t use big consoles to mix music anymore, it’s done in the box (inside the computer). So these behemoth speakers were relegated to the listening room. Where they made great home theatre speakers but not what I would call “audiophile” quality for listening to music.

Now in their heyday these speakers demanded (and received) 600 watts of power each! But now things were very different… I enjoy moderately low listening levels when I listen to music but I want to hear everything. I’ve got this really cool tube amp that only puts out 35 watts a channel (not 600). Needless to say when I connected the big speakers it didn’t sound right.

I set them up about 8 feet apart like they were in the old studio. The sound was small and congested so of course I blamed the amp.

Then I woke up the other morning with an idea:

Why was I thinking like it was still a recording studio? Why do those speakers have to be 8 feet apart? So I moved them further apart… about 16 feet apart! Now you would think that the small tube amp would never work now, because the speakers were so far apart…Guess again!

The speakers disappeared!

And a large holographic image of the music appeard between the speakers! It was amazing and I was floored. How many years had gone by (7 years) that I hadn’t taken advantage of this amazing musical bliss!…That was always there waiting for me to just “connect the dots”.

By changing my perspective regarding what was possible, I transformed already existing things (tube amp and studio monitors) into something I never imagined would work together… much less create an astonishing result!

Everything you need to transform your life is already in your possession or you have access to it… Change the way you look at your life and you will immediately alter the possibilities… Change your perspective/viewpoint.

Like me you may be blinded by a preconcieved notion…

Just by moving a couple of speakers another 8 feet apart I suddenly had the sound of a $50,000 sound system…and it didn’t cost me a cent!

-Bob Baran

Have you been told you have to find balance in your life? That’s a great idea in theory, but just dealing with everyday life is a balancing act… And then what about the curves life tosses you from the left field, the right and sometimes from straight on? Finding balance in those situations can require some adjustment time. It can be tough getting your feet back under you when the ground is wet and slippery with all the elements of your life.

Here’s another question for you… Is having a balanced life fulfilling or is it just maintaining the status quo? From here, it looks like just maintaining.

So if balancing your life is not the answer to a fulfilling life that brings you inner peace, what is?

Passion! When you have a passion for life and what you are doing with your life, all the curves life tosses out turn into opportunities. Sure, there may be adjustment time in these situations as well. But when you have a true passion for life, all the disappointments and losses come with silver linings. They help you further along the path you have set for yourself. The path your passion has illuminated.

But is passion the answer to inner peace? I say, yes!

You may ask, how can that be?

If you are defining passion as an intense emotion like rage or lust, then I can understand your confusion. But when you define passion as a source of lasting inspiration, inner peace follows that passion.

When you have passion and a sustained inspiration, all your actions go toward achieving what your have set out to do. Since we are goal oriented beings, the times when we are following our passion are the times when we are the most at peace.

Crazy, huh!? You’d think peace could be found on a mountain top or on the beach as the waves come crashing in. Don’t get me wrong, peace certainly can be found in those places, but only if you already have it inside of you. Peace doesn’t come from the outside, but rather from the inside out. When you are passionately involved with making your dreams come true, stop and check in with your inner self. You will find a reservoir of peace larger than you imagined possible.

Peace to all,

- Gwen Baran

When you feel confused, unable to make a decision because you don’t quite trust yourself it’s time for radical transformation.

Radical transformation is a little known principle which virtually guarantees that whatever decision you make will, some how and some way, get you where you want to go.

As long as the decision is followed up with action!

Here’s how radical transformation works:

This principle works only if your intent is pure. Your agenda must be for good. If it is, no matter what decision you make, as long as it is the best one you are capable of, will be the first step toward accomplishing what you desire.

How is this possible?

A pure agenda on your part means that you are not coloring your desire with a hidden motive. This means you are operating from the most honest place you can when you make the decision. Your honesty is the key to unlocking the true nature (and lesson) which is the ramification of the decision.

Having the ability to percieve the effect of the ramification enables you to adjust that outcome in a manner which brings you closer to your desire. Even if the information you based your decision on turns out to be faulty.

The fact that your intent was pure and you took action, it’s as if you kick start the process of manifestation. Since manifestation is always a work in progress your honesty will alert you whenever the ramification of a decision goes in the wrong direction. In other words, you begin to “see” the path you must take to get to your destination… and you change your direction as needed to get there.

So the best way to make sure you finally arrive at the place you intend is to do something!

Make a decision, trust yourself and take action.

Then trust yourself when you become aware that more action is necessary to make sure you get to where you want to go.

Remember: You can radically transform any decision into the perfect starting point by being true to yourself and your goal. The power of your integrity will uncover any loose ends caused by any decision you make…

Just do something.

-Bob Baran

I recently received an email asking me why a person would be frustrated and upset with everything and everybody outside of herself.

This gave me pause because I had to ask a few more questions before I could give an answer. The questions I asked were these:

Are you feeling betrayed by people and the “things” that are happening to you? Do you feel like you are the only one taking “things” seriously?

A question I should have asked is whether or not she found herself easily losing patience with people.

I think being frustrated and upset with everybody and everything is actually a form of panic attack. Imagine this scenario:

You find yourself in a situation where you are depending upon the actions and reactions of someone to be predictable. Then without warning the last thing you could imagine takes place. Something you weren’t prepared for and never expected. You are immediately thrown off balance…and time seems to slow down. It takes forever to get a reaction to your questions, it’s as if the person you are talking to is paralyzed or has suddenly gone into slow motion. You get very impatient and raise the “temperature” of the situation… After all, you’re incredulous at what is happening… and nothing you can do or say is changing anything.

What I’ve just described is a situation which triggers a panic attack. Your reaction of frustration and anger is how you are dealing with the feeling of panic you’re experiencing. The problem is your fight or flight response has kicked in because of the adrenaline in your bloodstream (caused by your panic). Now you raise the temperature with your frustration and anger in order to compensate for the panic you are feeling.

Hey, I’ve had this happen to me. I think everyone has.

It’s normal when it happens once in a great while because of a completely out of the ordinary situation taking place. If it’s happening on a regular or day to day basis, I would say you are having a continuing internal panic issue that is keeping your adrenaline level higher than normal thereby making your feeling of frustration and anger happen much more quickly. In other words, your fuse keeps getting shorter and shorter.

What do you do about it?

You’ve got to remove yourself from the environment which is causing the trigger. Then you have to pull back and evaluate what’s going on. What can you change about yourself and your expectations that can give you a healthier “buffer” for your reactions?

One of the things that worked for me was to learn how to expect the unexpected. I learned this skill in “defensive driving” class many years ago. You need to be able to put yourself into a mindset which prevents you from reacting with panic when something doesn’t go as you expect it to go. This way you’re not so surprised, caught off guard and the situation won’t trigger a panic response.

The bottom line? Maybe you need to take an extended vacation, change your job, get professional help…and start working on yourself.

Then again, maybe all you need to do is to “vent” to sympathetic listener who understands what you are going through.

-Bob Baran