Tactical Tuesday: Are you facing light or darkness?

Throughout the day each us of has the chance to either face the light or face the darkness. Of course, light and darkness have been used in many settings to represent many things, but for this purpose, I am saying light helps you be content and satisfied, darkness leads to misery and dissatisfied.

In the digital age, when we are supposed to be more enlightened, smarter than previous generations, there's a lot of very dissatisfied people. Why? What are you doing in your personal life to enhance your health or distract from it?

Let's look at some ways we can chose either light or darkness.

What kind of music do you listen to? Music is a powerful way to transform our emotions and lift our moods. Of course, there are different genre's, but various studies on music show that some music and how it is played can actually physically hurt us, like make us pickup extra growth on our brains as protection.

Other music excites our passions and base desires. It turns our natural man into a raging beast, which wouldn't be considered turning us towards light and healthy relationships.

And, of course, some music has baseless lyrics not helping our minds or the voices we play back to ourselves if we're filling them with those lyrics.

What about what you watch or read, is it turning you towards the light or away into darkness? Recently I started following Ben Owen who is a major fighter of men who in the dark cover of their homes or where ever thrive on wicked and dark activities such as pornography and human trafficking.

Man, I hope no one reading this is caught in that darkness.

But let's move from total darkness to a little lighter topic. What about the things you think and say throughout the day - are they bringing you closer to the light or towards darkness?

In one of the corps I worked at, the conversation from senior leaders that I interfaced with, was often low. You would frequently hear the "F" word, "sh_tshow," and other profanity. As my drill sergeant used to say, your language shows your intelligence.

Certainly each of these people felt they were intelligent, but their language betrayed them. Profanity demonstrates a littleness of thought, a crudeness toward lower things, things that definitely bring darkness.

In a world saturated with communication and noise, shouldn't we try and elevate it to the best of our ability to a higher place? We don't need vulgarity to promote an environment that could easily lead to darkness instead of light.

How about our thoughts, do they lead us to the light or darkness? For example, how do we view and think about others. especially those different or who we disagree with.

How about the way we think about ourselves, does it lead to light or darkness? How is our self-concept or self-esteem? Are the thousands of messages we are telling ourselves throughout the day in our subconscious reinforcing light or darkness?

The things we feed the brain with determines what we get back. Are you feeding your with things that lift and inspire you? That help you form positive relationships and care about other people.

So, the real question is, not so much whether you're doing these things, but what is it that you want? Do you want to live in darkness or light? What can you do to help yourself receive more light?

What is it in your routine that would help you take one step towards things in the light and out of the darkness? The movies you watch, the music you listen to, or the conversations you engage in or language you use. For me, one weapon I have found, in times past and is today, is music. I've found at various times that I need more uplifting and inspiring music that what's typically on the radio or from the latest stars.

Classical music provides some of the light. As someone who didn't have the benefit of hearing or understanding it before, it became a ray of sunshine, in troubling times.

Another area of life that brings light is possessing gratitude. I will never grow tired of talking about it's benefits. When we possess gratitude, we automatically add light to our lives. We lift our moods and emotions. We also bring some happiness into our lives, not only at the moment, but for days and weeks to come.

So, how will you add light into your life? What's one thing you can do to embrace the light and turn away from any darkness? What have you used in the past, that you might tap into now? Maybe it's turning off the news which seems to be hurling dark things faster than ever.

Whatever you chose do it for yourself and loved ones. For men, do it for those you have close relationships with. Do it for yourself also, so that you can possess a stronger sense of fulfillment and happiness. Be mindful about your light and dark areas in life and chose the light.

#mindfulliving #healthandwellbeing