I found all of these videos on youtube. They all are videos that I found encouraging to me–– videos that are guideposts about how to live life–how to dance out of the dungeon of despair and enjoy life. One of my goals in life is to enjoy life–something that seems like it shouldn’t be difficult to do. I can live, think, create and do. Yet, if I am feeling stuck, sad, fearful, and frustrated life feels very difficult. I have collected some videos here, so I (and you) can easily go back to them at any time for inspiration and encouragement.
There are signposts all around us. There are books, videos, and people who claim they know how to “dance”– how to make life work.
Below is a video that shows Willl Smith talking about life and the secrets he has learned about how to live life– how to dance in life (my words). Will Smith says: “Make a choice, just decide what is going to be, who you re going to be, and how you are going to do it…. I believe I can create whatever I want to create…. I feel very strongly we are who we choose to be.”
Sometimes when I watch a video like this about Will Smith and all his wisdom about how to live life, it actually makes me more discouraged– discouraged that this guy has his life all working so well, and I am still struggling unable to figure out how to do these things he is talking about…. My experience is that when I am feeling “down” I don’t believe that I can choose who I want to be. My negative emotions have me in a stranglehold. How can I break their bonds. Once again, that is what this website is about– exploring ways to escape that dungeon of despair.
This next video reminds me that life is about taking action! When I am stuck in my dungeon of depression I am hesitant to try to do anything…. doing things, anything, I have found to be one of the keys to “dancing out of the dungeon”. Many times I am going to try things and fail, but my job in life is to get up and try again, even though I likely may fail again. That is life– “dancing” is doing things. Many times I “fail” (and fall to the ground) in the dance of life. I need to get up and try again. I am succeeding in life if I keep trying, even though I fall down many times. The key is to take action– to keep trying, and to smile while I try! (In my mind I seem to think if I “take action” I should be succeeding all the time. Not true.)
It is very good when I take action and do things– but I need to remember that I am going to fail sometimes at the the things I try, and that is okay, that is normal to fail. The key is to not get discouraged when I fail– to not get chained up in my dungeon of despair. I need to remember that failing is normal! I need to remember to get up after I fail and try, try, and try again….
This next video is inspiring. It reminds me that I really can do (and eventually will do) things that I sometimes think I will never be able to do! I really can dance out of my dungeon of limiting thinking….
In the following video Steve Jobs talks about the need for passion in our lives.
Steve Jobs, in this video, says: “You need a lot of passion for what you’re doing because its so hard. Without passion, any rational person would give up. ” That rings true to me. And I love it when I feel the passion creating projects I care about doing. And I love experiencing that passion when I experience it. What I have not yet figured out is how to keep that passion alive and functioning in me, all, or even most, of the time. I am pretty sure that when I have passion for what I am doing, I have, at least for awhile, bolted out of my “dungeon of despair”. It is when I slow down, and stop actively doing, that I can slip back into that “dungeon where I sit and stare”.
How should I be living life? How should I be spending my time? I found this song on youtube that reminded me what I should be doing in life…
I rember back in 2000 when I first heard this song on the radio: I hope you Dance. This song definitely fits this website: Dancing Out of the Dungeon. Lots of good words, but as I heard somewhere long ago: The only knowledge that does us any good, is the knowledge that we apply to our life.
I am writing this new entry on my thoughts on November 27, 2012.
There is a great truth about life that I think I have learned (or started to learn) many times, and then I somehow question or forget this great truth that I have found.
It is a truth that makes my life so much better!
When I remember this truth and apply it to my life… many times I have found myself dancing out of my dungeon and enjoying life (at least for a little while while I practice this truth).
I honestly don’t know why I can’t (don’t) practice this great truth all (or at least most) of the time in my life. I think I have discovered this truth many times… and yet I somehow I keep drifting away from it, and find myself often drifting back towards my dungeon of despair…..
So, you are saying, “Tell us this great truth!! We won’t be so stupid as you have been to not value it and apply it to our lives!!” I hope you are right. But I suspect many of us have heard this great truth many times in our lives, but we somehow just can’t believe that life can be that simple. Our experience tells us “life is very difficult”.
Okay. I will tell you this great truth I have learned and valued, forgotten and rediscovered, many times. The truth is stated in one way in the movie The Iron Giant:
“You are what you choose to be!”
See, I told you that you would be like me, and think “what is so great about that truth. I have heard that many times before. It doesn’t seem like any great life-changing truth.” And I would agree with you most of the time…. until I somehow rediscover it in my own life and for at least awhile I experience the amazing life-changing power in that simple statement.
Below is a video I found on the internet where Oprah Winfrey says that she has been trying to tell one main message to her television audience for over twenty years…. the message is “YOU REALLY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE”. At the end of the video she says again: “It is very true that the way you think creates reality for yourself…. you really can change your own reality based on the way you think.” Here is the video:
You may be a lot like me, and think things like: “Yeah, yeah, yeah… I have heard this all before and it might work for Oprah, and other confident go-go-for it kind of people, but I am not like that. I get stuck in my feelings and life CAN’T (isn’t) as easy as these superachievers make it sound!!!” And too much of the time– when I have again forgotten this truth– I would agree with you! But about a week ago I “rediscovered” this truth and got excited about controlling my thoughts, and my life, and my days, and doing things I wanted to be doing… and I started functioning and enjoying my life more for a number of days in a row (and accomplished a lot working on goals that I have). It was fun. Just an hour ago, or so, I noticed as I sat down at this computer I could feel a little voice inside of me starting to stop caring about and valuing controlling my thoughts. So I decided to look on Youtube to see if I could find some videos that would help remind me of these truths about a better way to live life.
I hope you (and I) can practice “taking control of our life”. I am convinced that we can do it. And, my experiences tell me that it is a valuable thing to do. It is amazing that such a seemingly simple, almost obvious, thing can be so important to how I live my life. As Oprah said (and I have personally experienced at times): YOU REALLY CAN CHANGE YOUR OWN REALITY BASED ON THE WAY YOU THINK.
I hope one of these days I can hang onto that truth and keep practicing it in my life.
Below is another video that I found that I think has hidden in it the same message. It is by the author Napolean Hill. He wrote the famous book Think and Grow Rich. I have heard of that book for decades and read parts of it– mostly thinking “I don’t really care about getting rich, I just want to be happy and enjoy being me, and not be depressed!” But I think that Napolean Hill might actually be saying the same “truth” that I have discovered (and forgotten) so many times. Listen and see if you see it:
At 1:16 in the video is the statement: “Let me call your attention to a great power, which is under your control…a power which is greater than poverty, greater than the lack of education, greater than all of your fears and superstitions combined. It is the power to take possession of your own mind and direct it to whatever ends you desire.” There is that “truth” again–the truth that I have the ability to “take possession of my own mind and direct it to whatever ends I desire”. I have done that at times, for a minute, an hour, or even most of a week– and I have been amazed by the great power to take charge of myself that I actually had….until I “forgot I had that power” and stopped using it, and slid back towards my dungeon again. That’s okay. I have this blog that I am writing that I can refer back to if my thinking gets too muddled again, Hopefully I can practice using this great power in my life more and more in the future. I think that would be a really wise idea!
I am an artist. When I can get myself to function, I love to create. Being in the middle of creating a work of art is one of the most fun exciting experiences I ever have in life. Here is a video I found about celebrating creativity, beauty, and imagination.
I like these words in the video: “We can use our imagination to push through the darkness and revel in the beauty that is on the other side!”