Meme and Meaning

Meme and Meaning is done... But not entirely. The project is changing, the explicit approach is changing, and whatever it turns out to be will be found at everythinginall.com.It's important to adapt our course in life when we feel something else coming to the surface that needs to be expressed. As always, intuition is key.Love more. Steven

What Do You Need to Ask Someone Before They Die? Obviously, everyone is going to die, that much is obvious. However, how many relationships have never fully been realized or resolved due to the people involved not having a full, honest and forthright conversation about who they are and how they feel? Part of living a “good” life is connecting with the people that matter most to you on the deepest level possible. Such a connection requires vulnerability as well as the surfacing of many past regrets, struggles, and pent-up emotions. In many ways I think it is more important to really know someone in this intimate way than it is to spend copious amounts of time with them, and since you never know when you or that person will leave this life, now is the time to sit down, speak, ask questions, and wade through the discomfort so that you can arrive on the other side of a deeper, more sincere love. This could be your parent(s), your friends, your siblings, or really anyone. If you have to even think for a moment about whether or not you need to do this with “so and so” person, then likely you need to. Yes, the other person or people have to be receptive and open to this process, and if they are not, then all you can do is attempt to resolve the situation within yourself by doing the best you can. In either case, you need to consider these questions for yourself as well. Though this is by no means a comprehensive list, it is a great place to start and I will continue to add more questions as they present themselves over time. https://memeandmeaning.com

Connect with Your Parents While You Still Can Sort of a more personal episode but I think something of value can still be said for the urgency we all should bring towards our relationships. Death comes far too soon and far too fast in many cicumstances, and there is no better time than now to make the deep connections you desire with the people you love in your life.https://memeandmeaning.com

8 Practical Tips to Progress in Meditation I find that when someone starts meditating, or when they begin to take it seriously again after some time away, there can be a “honeymoon” phase in which their sessions are very attentive and calm. The benefits of the practice are apparent in this case. However, such results in every sit are not to be expected, and there will be times where your mind at its most distressing moments. If you begin to feel as though you are moving off track or stagnating with your practice, some general tips can help you course correct and set you up for further progress. Below are some tips and questions to nudge you in the right direction: inward.Download the recomendations and questions from https://memeandmeaning.com

What is Art? What is art? Is it limited to paintings and murals, or is it a more expansive, higher principle? Is strong, concise leadership in times of struggle art? Is pulling the hard truths out of people an art? Art is that which is not perfect, but sincere. Art is that which reveals what the human mind can do when it goes both through and beyond doubt, resistance, and fear. Art is that which causes a greater connection between people and shows them a higher, more ideal reality in which they feel both the severity and beauty of the human condition. Below are some reflective questions to consider your art, what’s holding it back, and what could make it better.Worksheet at: https://memeandmeaning.com/content/what-is-art

Self Honor VS Self Love Self love is a helpful idea for some people. But if you realize you have something to do with why your life sucks, you need self honor.Download the in-depth reflection worksheet at:https://memeandmeaning.com

One Trick to Overcome Resistance Resistance bites us all in the ass on seemingly everything, or at least on the things we are least comfortable with. There's no more time for that, especially if you are serious about something. Go through it, create and execute anyway, and let it be there if it wants to.https://memeandmeaning.com

What You Must Get Right Before Anything Else Values... Values, Values, Values. If you don't know em, you don't know who you are. How do you do discover them? Listen in.https://memeandmeaning.com

What Vegans Get Wrong What vegans get wrong, how they can do better, how to make this a less divisive issue, and how to actually solve these problems many of us are concerned about.

How to Stop Procrastinating Procrastinating is essentially failing to do something becuase it's uncomfortable; it's resistance. How exactly do we overcome it though to be more effective in the direction of our goals?Find out in this episode of the Meme and Meaning Podcast.https://memeandmeaning.com

Shifting Your Social Life to Match Your Goals It goes without saying that we are social creatures. Thus, creating a social component around your goals that is oriented in the same direction provides both tremendous opporutinty and value along whatever path you may be on.https://memeandmeaning.com

How To Be Brutally Honest With Yourself Doing my best outline a practice that I've recently started and have gained tremendous value from. May be "out there" for some of you, but so is anything that will have the potential to grow you.Much Love,Stevenhttps://memeandmeaning.com

What Is Life Purpose What do you really want in life? Perhaps that isn't specific enough... What do you really want to create in the world? What do you want to contribute?https://memeandmeaning.com

Sometimes You Have to Just Put Yourself Out There It's such a waste to spend any more time not executing on what you want. Whatever you want to create or realize in the world, just produce something and strive to improve it overtime. You just have to start.

Update as of Summer 2018 The aim is now different with this content. Hopefully some people can gain some value of it but at this point in my life, this is for me to document my thoughts and my development. Expect more content probably varying in topic and scope in the near future; I am not sure about the consistency. https://memeandmeaning.comBest wishes, Steven*Don't use the word fuck too much (or any word for that matter)... it gets old quickly

What Is Needed For Growth? We need the pain of our situation. We need the desire for more and an open mind to hear of it. We need time to study and practice, as well as the resources to continue on. We need a greater understanding of where we have come from, the characters we have cast for ourselves, and the people we can aspire to be. We need skills and a profound sense of curiosity. We need a faith in congruence: the alignment of our actions and our values.Without these, we are fruitless.Blog post: https://memeandmeaning.com/What-Is-Needed-For-Growth/

What Would Your Life Look Like If You Went All Out? Acting on anything is a matter of priorities, and the truth is that you do have the time for the things that are most important. Sure, you may be scared, you may harbor resistance, but don't act like time or resources are stopping you from dedicating some form of practice every day. That's an excuse and a pitiful one at best.Blog Post at https://memeandmeaning.com/all-out

A Time for Solitude Perhaps it has been a while since you have taken the time to sit alone and observe. Perhaps it has been a while since you have acknowledged what you actually wanted out of all your time, in the midst of all your obligations and distractions. Blog Post at https://memeandmeaning.com/A-Time-for-Solitude/

The Beauty of Existential Crises You are here to listen and follow that crazy and quiet idea in your head and so this is nothing short of a midlife crisis. The more you have these at a young age the better, because they are the wake up calls that most people won't face one until they are forty; till they have spent the greater part of their life and their foundation on things that likely didn't pan out how they'd hoped.Blog Post at https://memeandmeaning.com/The-Beauty-of-Existential-Crisis/

Knowing Nature Put aside all your presuppositions, put aside what you think about nature and look upon her, as if for the first time. Have you lost that perrenial mystery, that timeless awe, reverence, and respect for being itself?

Why Existence? People often dismiss philosophy as impractical jargon yet fail to see how it is at the foundation of their life...Blog post at https://memeandmeaning.com/Why-Existence/

See Through Yourself To See the Person You May Become What must you do now so that you don't hold the same regrets in the future? Or, said in another way, what do you have to do to make your future self-proud? What are the first steps towards making those things happen? Can you do at least that?Blog post at https://memeandmeaning.com/blog

That Confidence Game The confidence you seek cannot help you in the same way the cart cannot pull the horse. Just like most good things in life, it comes through the method which tries the least to achieve it. The method that involves having bigger things on your mind than the outcome that can be prestigiously shown.Blog Post at https://memeandmeaning.com/That-Confidence-Game/If you are having a bad day, what role have you, and are you playing in it?

The Nuanced Thinker What makes someone a nuanced thinker; someone who can really tease the torn from the tied and the wheat from the chaff?The blog post can be found at https://memeandmeaning.com/The-Nuanced-Thinker/Choose to have a different kind of day

Beyond the Mound - An Allegory This is the ebb and flow of nature. We must push our luck and venture to retrieve that which will build us up before the next wave crashes down upon us. This is the eternal story. Not an evil one and not a just one, but none the less the one we have.In understanding these forces at play, the forces living through our finite lives, could we perhaps hold some compassion for each other? "They" are needed as you are needed, and through a sincere recognition, we have a chance at striking that forward compromise that is the goldy locks zone. The blog post can be found at https://memeandmeaning.com/Beyond-The_Mound/

Thy Purpose, Not Life Purpose The subtleties and eccentricities of purpose may be difficult to spot, but if you knock on the door with a persistence greater than the lifetime you have thus far wasted, something will answer: something so senseless and grandiose yet right.The post for this episode can be found at https://memeandmeaning.com/Thy-Purpose-Not-Life-Purpose/If you had everything you would ever need, what would you want to do? What change would you want to create in the world?

Can You Relate to Doubt You don't have this thing figured out and as long as you can keep your wits about you and see that ahead before all you say, you can have faith that you will settle into the correct path. Some may say this art of yours as some sort of arrogance, and some may see it as a phase. In either case, wish them well.The post for this episode can be found at https://memeandmeaning.com/Relating-Doubt/Where's all the love at?

Do You Love It And Is It Helping Anyone? If you are going to do something, you might as well go all in and do it well. The ironic thing is that people respect those who humbly own what they do 100% - even if they fail to find a fan.The post for this episode can be found at http://memeandmeaning.com/Shedding-the-Mange/What do you need from yourself today?

A Maturing Evolution What if men and women saw each other as the people they could become, instead of the people that they currently are?The post for this episode can be found at memeandmeaning.com/A-Maturing-Evolution/What if man knew himself, and his actual possibilities, what then?Who would you be, and what would you do if you saw yourself as who you could become instead of who you are?

The Meta-Myth This journey you wish to embark on is well-known, yet not well trodden. For this is precisely the point, to enter into the unknown, the place you least want to look.The blog post for this episode can be found at http://memeandmeaning.com/The-Meta-Myth/Treat yourself well

Pissing Time Death is the other side of birth, and in convention we return to that transcendent womb from which we came, but in truth we had never left in the first place. Remain gracious for your blessings.The blog post for this episode can be found at memeandmeaning.com/blog/

The Gravity of Grace Death is the other side of birth, and in convention we return to that transcendent womb from which we came, but in truth we had never left in the first place. Remain gracious for your blessings because they will be gone before you know it.The blog post for this episode can be found at memeandmeaning.com/blogGo hug someone

Doubts Incarnate The biggest tragedy we face in life is not that we lose something, but that we gain the arrogance of thinking we could keep anything at all.The blog post for this episode is on memeandmeaning.com/blogGod Bless

Ne te Quaesiveris Look not outside yourself but instead towards that inner dimension that is all too often forgotten, for this is what they all say and will continue to say.See this post, along with the podcast, at memeandmeaning.com/blog

How To Gain Lasting Peace of Mind - Two Strategies That Work Long Term Everything comes down to the way in which we want to feel and life is too short to chase or run from the fleeting feelings of pleasure and pain. If we desire true composure, peace of mind is the only solution. Downloadable worksheet available here(scroll down): http://memeandmeaning.com/

Episode Notes I recently returned from my second Vipassana Meditation Retreat and thought that I would share a bit of my experience and thoughts.Learn more at: https://www.dhamma.org/

When we bring death into our lives, we begin to live fully. To integrate and to view life from that perspective of non-duality; at least a level of it. To see that opposites depend on each other. To know hot means we had to know cold. To know light, means we had to know dark, and so to know life, means that maybe we had to know death. You're here, you're alive and hopefully well. Go do something with that.

The decisions we make across time determine our life and our decisions are derived from the values we consciously or consciously hold. Are you going to let someone else's values live through you, or will you be one of the few to know yourself?

This manifests in different ways for all of us whether they be tears of joy, sorrow, or everything in between. The point is simple - if we don't get in touch with the profundity of our experience and prepare for the passing of the people and things we love, we risk living a life without gratitude; without presence.

Watch your thoughts. Watch your friends, your community, your guilty pleasures, and especially yourself. Then, ask “Do I want to be made up of such things?” Surround yourself with that which supports your highest good and do what you do for the pure love of it.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” - Henry David Thoreau, Walden Don't know where to go? Follow the meaning.

"However, many holy words you read, However many you speak, What good will they do you If you do not act on upon them?" – Buddha If you have found this work to be useful in the effort towards a more fulfilling life, then please share it with your friends, subscribe, and like across all applicable platforms you use. Website: http://memeandmeaning.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84CWjf9QtBm9lQBGEiNVFg iTunes Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/meme-and-meaning/id1262844280

"Self-observation is the first step of inner unfolding." – Amit Ray In this meditation, we are starting with a non-denominational mindfulness based body scan. Doing this every day will leave tangible results within the first few weeks. Center your attention, focus on this gift that is your body, and relax - this habit will prepare you for the journey that is to come. Your best, most authentic life.

Why do you stay down? Why do you choose to view your setbacks as enemies and not friends, for it is in your control to cower or grow? Get up, move onwards, and strive diligently. This week, we look at the Stoics and their view on obstacles (hint: it's not the easy way out) Website: http://memeandmeaning.com Blog Post: http://memeandmeaning.com/your-strugg... iTunes Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.” – Seneca Cultivating Gratitude - the Stoic way. website: http://memeandmeaning.com youtube: https://youtu.be/DiEqL38YUCs facebook: https://facebook.com/memeandmeaning

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations Focusing on what we can control, and letting go of what we can’t is the primary teaching from philosophers like Epictetus, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius. They say that our control begins with our perspective and behavior, and ends with everything outside of that: other people, events, etc. Knowing this and hammering it into your psyche will lead to greater peace of mind and something akin to mindfulness. Blog post: http://memeandmeaning.com/?p=319#.WZpkhnd97Vo Podcast: http://memeandmeaning.com/?page_id=50#.WZnWV3d97Vo Website: memeandmeaning.com iTunes Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/meme-and-meaning/id1262844280

Sometimes we don't know where to start. We know that ourselves and our life can be so much more, yet we lack the vision and the wherewithal to form meaningful order out of our chaotic lives. In this episode, I'm sharing three practices that have provided me a foundation for my own vision and growth - You don't always need to know where you are going, but you need to go.