Living In Our Own Skin [Peeling Back The Layers]

Joy Is Not In Things
It Is In Us

"Society is a masked ball, where every one hides his real character, and reveals it by hiding." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The poster boy. This is who I have been for most of my life with respect to the issues I'm about to address.

Most humans are really just sleep walking through their lives. Society tells us that if we have this car, we are somehow better than another, that if we live in this type of home we are somehow better than another. If we have this type of clothes, again, we are somehow better.

But the real story is that the woman or man is doing all this to be liked.

I just bought this car. Do you like me now?
I just bought this house. Do you like me now?
I just bought this Hugo Boss suit, this outfit. Do you like me now?

If we really think about it, we just want to be liked. From the executive to the janitor, we just want to be liked. We are all struggling!

It makes one ask questions of who they like and why they like them?
It should be the person inside, that something about them. It's not what their assets are; rather their asset is who they are.

Each of us, every person, has a wonderful story in them. Truly. We are all children of God. At times we just need to stop, reflect, and perhaps quit running from ourselves.

It's interesting; so many people are trying to find God. Many get involved in a religion only to jump to another. In a lot of cases they are not looking for God at all. Many are joining nothing dis-similar than a gym or a club, per say. They just want to be around people that perhaps have a similar interest. Or mostly just to feel like they belong.

Most of our lives it is just that. We just want to belong! To be liked, needed, or be loved! We just need to be truly honest with ourselves and question our purpose in each thing we do. That God is in each of us, not something to go searching for, but searching within ourselves. And in that lies the answer.

Each of us holds a beautiful story only to be told. We are all capable of the most beautiful things.

The mind is a very powerful organ. Albert Einstein stated that we only use 10% of the brain. I was a young child when I read that. I thought it was a typo or just me and my dealing with my learning disorder.

But I never forgot it and now years later, I understand.

Most people don't want to think. Thomas Edison wrote: "Five percent of the people think, 10 percent of the people think they think, and the other 85 percent would rather die than think."

We are conditioned in ways from media/society not to think. We are banged and banged over the head from ads and media to be this and that and not to think.

Mother Teresa once said: "One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody."

We need to stop and take ownership of our lives. To realize and accept that happiness isn't in possessions. In us, lies the happiness. When we realize this, one has another type of life; a calm, a peace, a joy. A life that we never thought was possible.

--- Copyright © 2009 Miles Patrick Yohnke
Widely recognized and award-nominated engineer, producer, writer, poet and founder and C.E.O. of 5 Star Productions, Miles Patrick Yohnke brings many years of experience to the music industry; including many awards in sales and marketing.

A Joyful Life

The Secrets To A Joyful Life

Turn your weaknesses into your strengths. Success is failure turned inside out.

We need to find a deeper meaning in life. Our duty, as artists, is to tap into those notes that resonate in us all. Not to sleep walk through life, like an outpatient program; but to strike a chord. We can't catch kindness in a net or a gun. When kindness is given to you, it's by choice. One must adopt an attitude of gratitude.

We can become prisoners of self. One must dig tunnels; escape one's own mind. We get just this one life. We have to stop doing time but live lives like we planned in our youth. No matter where we are, how old, we can always reach our dreams. All your life you're going to be judged, what matters is keeping your soul intact and making work that matters. We have to stop telling people what we are going to do, what we have not yet accomplished, and tell them instead what we have accomplished. Only in this way can we be accountable for our actions. I am not accountable for achievements I have not yet reached, but I am what I have accomplished.

It's when we stop forcing it ... trying to impress, that we really shine through; we start having strong people like us, just fall into our laps - and those that are weak are empowered by the tone of our voice. Get off your knees and do. Words without action is death. One has to stop sitting in the back, waiting. Come to the front. The front row of life.

A joyful life. My mother told me at a very young age, "Miles, we are placed on this planet to help others. Go out and help others." So, it is by her words that I try to shape and reshape my life. Yes, each day we will be challenged by indifferent people and for the most part it isn't their fault.

We are just so conditioned by life (media, society) to live like caveman or barbarians (non-contemplating spoon-fed society). To live like the subjects in mindless beer commercials. Their ideals perhaps "you deserve better, more than another, you are the most important." After a while we believe it.

Brainwashed. Let's have "fun." Fun? Fun is a limiting word. Why would one limit their existence to only this? Is that all we appreciate for the life we've been given?

Life is a 24/7 celebration of the word itself (existence). So maybe one needs to replace the word "fun" (a word created by media to keep you down, to bait you, to sell you things, tell you what you need) to the word "joyful." Maybe we could be way happier if we lived a life that from each waking day till sleep time is joyful.

You get but one life. We are each only given one shot at getting it right in the long run. Find a job you love and you'll start to bring joy to yourself and all others in your life. Words are either negative or positive.

Could it be that all this time "fun" is really a negative word and "joy" a positive one? Perhaps a little rethinking is in order.

--- Copyright© 2010 Miles Patrick Yohnke - All Rights Reserved.