by WellnessWiz Jack

Caught a Beatles song on the radio yesterday. “Twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.”

Got me thinkin’.

Twenty years ago, I hiked the Milford Track in New Zealand’s Fiordland. Forty-five miles of glacier-carved valleys, sheer granite walls, rock slides, hanging waterfalls, and up-and-over-the-continental-divide. Breathtaking beauty.

Glacier water so pure I didn’t carry a bottle — just knelt at a stream and drank like people used to before lawyers and warning labels, wondering if there were fish upstream. Vistas to infinity. The nighttime Southern Cross overhead. Earth showing off.

The Kiwis give you three days to complete the 45-mile hike. If you’re not at the ferry in 72 hours, I’m fairly certain they dispatch their national rugby team after you. And you do not want the All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby union team, jogging toward you with purpose in their eyes.

To demonstrate solidarity, I stuck a silver fern logo on my backpack. Figured it might buy me a few extra minutes if tardy.

I understand rugby — burly guys, leather balls, bruises, collapsed ears and all. Cricket? Not a clue. Still looks like a committee meeting interrupted by tea.

Learned to chant the Māori haka along the way: Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora! “It’s death! It’s death! It’s life! It’s life!”

Frankly, that’s a pretty good way to start the morning. Cuppa coffee plus ceremonial war chant makes one more emotionally prepared for the modern news cycle and inane morning shows.

Like I said… got me thinkin’.

We denizens of the Paleolithic generation tend to do that. Think, I mean. Instead of spending fourteen consecutive hours hypnotized by clickbait on a glowing rectangle the size of a Pop-Tart. Okay, okay… allow a septuagenarian one or two snide remarks. As CSN sang: Just look at them and smile, and know they love you.

We dinos do other things too. Gardening. Toss grandkids into swimming pools. Birdfeeders. Yell at squirrels stealing the largest strawberry in the garden just before harvest.

It’s death, it’s life. Ah yes… the Milford Track.

I found myself representing the United States in a fierce international athletic competition against two Aussies, 20-years my juniors. You probably missed it because CNN was covering something less important. After all, Billie Jean King already waxed Bobby Riggs on behalf of younger women athletes everywhere.

USA vs. OZ

Older Guy VS Cocky Whippersnappers. We’d crossed paths during the first two days of the trek and quickly established the sacred international male ritual known as “trash talking.” I was dubbed “The Yank,” and may have gently reminded them Australia began as a penal colony. Important to pronounce penal carefully. One misplaced vowel and the whole conversation goes sideways. I might have misplaced.

The wager was simple: “Last bloke to Milford shouts the beers.” (Humm? They were risking ½ and I was risking 2. (Like trade tariffs—those wily dudes.)

The Aussies were fascinated that Americans could legally own firearms. Their understanding of the USA appeared groomed by Dirty Harry movies and crime dramas. They cited our murder rates as a deep societal flaw.

I countered by explaining that, as a Texan from a gun-totin’ republic, I would personally protect them from the notorious Ivan Milat, dubbed Backpacker Murderer, should that Sydney-based serial killer emerge from the forest wielding ill intent and poor social skills.

That established the friendship immediately. Come-uppance with a smile. Nothing bonds men faster than mutual insults and exaggerated geopolitical stereotypes.

Day Three of the Milford Track crosses the continental divide — climbing beyond the alpine tree line into a cloud-world before descending forever down the other side. Waterfalls. Mountain scrub giving way to lush fern forests. Then finally the staggering majesty of Milford Sound… which, the Kiwis happily inform you, is a fiord, not a fjord. Apparently New Zealand vowels evolve the King’s English as independent from Norway.

That morning I didn’t know whether my Aussie competitors were ahead or behind me, but honor was at stake now. Possibly national pride. Certainly beer.

So up, over, then down the mountain I charged — jumping boulder to boulder, USA flag on my backpack flapping backward to indicate rapid forward momentum. Stopping only long enough to admire Sutherland Falls and scoop handfuls of 20,000-year-old glacier water into my mouth while briefly wondering whether anything upstream had recently held a committee meeting of intestinal consequences.

Certainly some exciting new vitages for the gut microbiome.

I reached the ferry dock just as the boat was pulling away. Hopped on, then I looked back. My Aussie mates came storming down the trail moments too late.

I waved victoriously from the departing ferry feeling like MacArthur returning to the Philippines, if MacArthur had been fleeing two Aussies and a beer tab.” Pretty sure Baz waved back with one finger.

At the hotel in Milford, I arranged for staff to greet the next ferry with a handwritten sign: “Baz & Dean — Meet me at the restaurant. — The Yank”

As they arrived, boots clomping and gear clanking, I welcomed them to a charcuterie board.

No beverages, mind you. That part of the agreement remained legally binding.

We toasted the American victory. Dean later admitted he wasn’t entirely certain there had even been a competition. Baz replied, “I told ya to get your arse outta that tent.”

And just like that, we were good mates, BFFs! Rigors of the trail.

We even exchanged postcards afterward — promises that if I ever made it to Sydney, there’d be a beer waiting (Ivan Milat had been apprehended), and if they ever came to Texas, I’d let them fire a shoot a six-shooter.

Funny thing about travel. You begin thinking the mountains or waterfalls will be the memory that lasts forever. But often it’s the laughter.

Three strangers from opposite sides of the planet, teasing each other across accents and cultures, discovering that humor translates better than politics ever will.

A trail. A wager. A ferry missed by minutes. A beer honestly lost. A friendship honestly won.

So, thank you, Paul McCartney, for the unexpected reverie. Twenty years ago today, a lone Texan represented the United States in the grueling Milford Track International Non-Invitational Championship, narrowly defeating two younger Australians and securing bragging rights for approximately three glorious minutes.

The All Blacks never had to come after me. Though I do recall, like them, being unable to walk properly the next day.

Small price to pay for honor, glory, sore knees… and the quiet joys of international friendships. It’s been 20 years but the joy remains. Think I’ll send a postcard … maybe get a reply.

The charismatic speaker smiles, leans forward, lowers his voice, casts a look of concern, adds an extra-sincere nod, and delivers the gaslighting line with great solemnity.

“First, I want you to understand something… it’s not your fault.”

Around the room shoulders relax. A few people nod knowingly, gratefully. A few sigh and smile.

On stage, the marketing wolf’s sheep-suit glistens under the lights. His close rate just ticked upward. And the vulnerable reach for their wallets.

The Honeyed Absolution Trap

Here we will examine this deceit, this manipulation: the honeyed absolution trap. It’s not just a sales technique, it strips agency and deceives the power of self-responsibility. It provides a carte-blanche excuse further weakening a feckless person’s Will.

With clearer understanding we become immune to such duplicitous snake oil—the sort meant to herd the “sheeple” the speaker clearly believes we are.

If “it’s not your fault” absolution were a drug, the audience just swallowed a 1200-milligram horse tranq — a masterstroke of hidden persuasion.

It also elevates the speaker into the exalted position of priestly authority — lavering out the communion wafer to a congregation hungry for absolution.

Consider this PassionPlay article a small vaccination against this wile of the wily — also known as sleek, well-tailored, spin-doctor marketeers. More importantly, it opens the door to a loftier discussion — revealing our real purpose here.

Self-Responsibility in an Out-Of-Control World

Once you begin to notice the pattern, you see it everywhere: the velvet mitten of absolution with a razor-steel fishhook hidden neatly inside.

Health gurus use the absolution technique. Financial coaches deploy it. Self-help authors lean on it. Motivational speakers build entire seminars around it.

When a salesman begins with absolution, the rabbit is already in the hat.

Why “It’s Not Your Fault” Works

The absolving phrase works so well because it presses an ancient human button. Most people quietly carry a degree of shame about the things in their lives that aren’t going well — weight, money, health, relationships, children sowing wild oats, aging. We all experience consternation when things gang aft agley.

It is the Bond, James Bond, expectation that a person should somehow be an expert in everything all the time. Complete life mastery.

[Related Post (perhaps my favorite) “The Extraordinary Talent Of Being Ordinary”] provided below.]

The gentle “Shhhh… there now. It’s not your fault” creates instant alliance. The marketer is no longer the adversary; but becomes the vulnerable person’s priest, confidant, and fellow sojourner.

No longer judge and jury — now an ally. Absolution whispers the allure, “You and I are on the same side. The real problem is something else.”

Instant rapport — which, conveniently, is very useful when closing a sale.

It increases hope and motivation to buy whatever the speaker is offering. If people believe a problem is entirely their own fault, they often feel stuck or discouraged. Saying “it’s not your fault” suggests the problem is fixable — that the real cause simply has not been understood until now.

And that sets the stage for The Grand Reveal. The structure usually looks something like this:

Old belief: You failed because of willpower.
Reframe: It’s not your fault — you were a hapless victim of bad information.
Grand Reveal: Here is the real mechanism.
Solution: Here’s the program or product that fixes it.

At this point the listener slips into the victim narrative, seeking salvation from the speaker. “Oh you poor dear. You unfortunate victim. Let me lift you up.”

Is it a form of psychic black magic when someone encourages victim mentality?

When the listener side-steps their errant self-blame — even temporarily — the nervous system relaxes. Sounds like a good thing, yes? But au contraire.

Relief precedes reasoning. This’s why “it’s not your fault” sells. The guard comes down. The ears open. (And the slavering wolf licks his chops.)

Confession may be good for the soul, but absolution sells far more programs.

The Funnel: “It’s Not Your Fault”

The phrase rarely stands alone. It’s usually the first move in a familiar persuasion structure — a highway of intentions paving the primrose path.

Step One: Remove blame. “It’s not your fault.” Earn trust. Subliminally exalt self.

Step Two: Introduce the villain. Shift the cause somewhere else.

Bad science. Doctors don’t cure. Big Food is poisoning you. Big Pharma is lying to you. Big Agriculture is destroying the soil. CAFO food is trash. The food pyramid was deliberately upside down. Your hormones are broken. Your metabolism is damaged. Your gut bacteria are sabotaging you. All true.

On particularly creative days, Mercury is in retrograde. Oh yes — and Big Government, whose nutritional wisdom, backed by doctors, once convinced an entire nation that breakfast should begin with a bowl of sugar.

Step Three: Reveal the hidden truth — the new discovery.

“No one has explained this correctly before.” “This is the real reason.” “This is why you’ve struggled.”

Often the conversation now pivots to some obscure biological mechanism most people have never encountered — mitochondria, leptin, ghrelin, gut microbes, secret tax strategies, or a newly discovered metabolic switch.

In the next ten minutes, decades of complex biology is untangled, simplified, and conveniently packaged — just before the early-bird discount expires. Act now because supplies are limited.

Step Four: Present the great solution. A program. A protocol. A supplement. A membership. A coaching course.

The rabbit pops up from the hat. How’s Trix?

There it is — the miracle solution that thousands of scientists, doctors, pundits, and universities somehow overlooked, or conspired to obfuscate, and that Nature herself neglected to mention… until tonight’s presentation.

Always: The Grain of Truth

To be fair, there is often a grain of truth inside the message. After all, the best deceptions always contain a grain or two.

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Modern environments really are stacked against us in ways previous generations never faced.

Ultra-processed foods engineered to be hyper-palatable and addictive. Advertising psychology extraordinarily skilled at persuading us to eat them. Sleep disruption is common. Chemical exposures are widespread. Even the most conscientious person must navigate a biological obstacle course.

So when someone says “it’s not your fault,” part of the statement may indeed contain a short-run truth. The little truth that tells a big lie. “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette.”

Partial truth can be persuasive. And that is where the magician enters the story. A magician never begins with the trick. The first task is always to control our attention. Once our focus is guided in the right misdirection, the illusion proceeds smoothly. Effective marketing works the same way.

Once we see the structure, the spell weakens. We begin to notice the choreography. But this raises a deeper question.

If modern systems truly do mislead people, isn’t it fair to say the problem is not their fault? Or does responsibility lie somewhere else?

Here we must consult an authority older than marketing. Nature herself.

Nature does not operate on blame. Nature operates on consequence.

In Nature, ignorance is no excuse. We all suffer because of ignorance. The body responds to inputs whether the person understands the rules or not. The rules become evident via symptoms.

Arsenic does not become harmless because someone trusted a food label. Insulin resistance (inflammation) does not politely wait for us to read a textbook. The force of Gravity has never attended a motivational seminar.

Nature is many things. But she has never once said, “Well bless your heart — it’s not your fault. You didn’t know.”

Ignorance may be understandable. But consequences occur with impeccable reliability to make sure we eventually understand. In that sense, with Nature’s slap on the face, we can reply “Thanks. I needed that.”

This is the quiet law of life that many traditions have called karma or come-uppance — not punishment, just cause-and-effect unfolding exactly as it must.

The liver processes toxins. The arteries respond to inflammation. Cells respond to signals. Biology runs the program whether the user has read the manual or not.

So where does that leave us? Somewhere between blame/shame and absolution.

Blame looks backward. Absolution excuses victims without merit. Responsibility moves forward.

Small symptoms — like hairline cracks in a nuclear reactor — eventually widen into larger failures. Nature warned us. Our responsibility is to notice the warning signs and take corrective action. Nature’s on our side, patient, long-suffering (even mildly forgiving), silently seeks our best health possible under the circumstances.

In natural health practice, responsibility expresses itself as self-respect for the remarkable “temple” on loan to us for this human experience. The practitioner’s role is to help people restore foundational health — digestion, elimination, detoxification, sleep, resilience, balanced hormone function, immune modulation — and correct causes so the body can function on its own without dependence on endless supplements or drugs.

The body communicates through symptoms. The natural health practitioner listens carefully, seeks the underlying cause, and helps the body restore its innate balance.

The most honest statement about fault might be this: It may not be our fault that we were misled or errantly trusted that Institutions were looking out for us; but once we see the pattern, a.k.a. the symptom expression, it becomes our responsibility to respond — to take corrective action.

“The great end of life is not knowledge but action.” —Thomas Huxley

Responsibility does not demand perfection. Life eventually humbles everyone. It is part of the cost of living and learning — a purification process.

Even the most disciplined health advocate can catch a virus or step off a curb at the wrong moment. Mortality of the physical body maintains a perfect record.

What changes how we move through the world? Awareness!

A person who pays attention begins to notice patterns: what strengthens the body, what drains it, what improves sleep, what sabotages it. What supports continued optimal function, what impedes it.

Curiosity replaces resignation. And often something deeper appears — goodwill toward life itself. Compassion expands. Responsibility begins to express itself not as burden but as privilege.

Self-Responsibility Is a Privilege (“It’s Not Your Fault” is an Excuse)

What privilege does responsibility afford? The privilege of steering one’s own ship. Of engaging Life on one’s own terms, to do one’s best to express their core values — the love that affirms life.

This is how we learn to navigate life’s rocky shoals. How we learn to trust inner guidance — the quiet knowingness that often appears as gut instinct. When we scrape the hull along the way, we grin, learn the lesson, and share the wisdom gained with others.

[Related post: How Your Gut Microbes Shape Your Intuition provided below.]

A small compass can help. Before believing a message — or passing it along — ask three simple questions.

1. Is it true?
Completely, unequivocally true?

In the sales-pitch world of “It’s not your fault,” we might ask ourselves: does this claim actually match biology, reality, and evidence… or does it merely sound convincing?

Consensus, after all, is not truth. It is the basis of A.I. and Google rankings, aka censorship, to a fault.) History is full of examples where consensus means little more than the blind leading the blind.

2. Is it necessary?
Does the information genuinely help us live better? Or is it simply another piece of noise in the modern information storm — one that helps the speaker live better financially?

3. Is it kind?
Does the message respect the agency, dignity, and intelligence of the listener? Or does it manipulate fear, shame, or insecurity?

If a claim fails even one of these three tests, it probably belongs in a late-night infomercial. But wait — there’s more.

None of this means we abandon compassion. Life is complicated. People are raising families, caring for health, navigating confusing advice, paying mortgages, dodging bullets, and trying to stay afloat in a world that seems to accelerate every decade.

No one begins life with complete knowledge. Compassion reminds us of that. But compassion does not erase cause-and-effect. Nature keeps the score quietly. Fortunately, Nature also allows us to play the next inning better.

So, the next time someone leans forward and says softly, “It’s not your fault,” we might simply smile. Beam good will. Head for the exit — there’s better places to be. We have just witnessed the opening gambit of a hidden-agenda persuasion strategy.

Once we understand how the magician performs the trick, the show becomes far more entertaining as we can watch the machinations unfold (unless you enjoy suspension of disbelief). Just remember to keep an eye on the hat. That’s usually where the rabbit appears.

It may not have been our fault that we were misled. All institutions prevaricate in some capacity. Trust is betrayed. But once the pattern becomes visible, responsibility returns quietly to our hands. This is the sanctity of the individual.

Nature does not accuse or scold: It simply keeps the books. Cause leads to effect. Seeds become harvest. The body responds faithfully to what we think, feel, and do. E.g. what we be.

Compassion reminds us that every person is learning the rules while already playing the game. Responsibility reminds us that awareness gives us the power to play it better tomorrow.

“It’s not your fault” is a theft. It steals a person’s learning experience and self-respect. Ultimately, the goal is neither blame nor absolution. It is awareness.

Awareness that the world is full of influences, persuaders, and cleverly packaged explanations. Awareness that Nature continues to operate by quiet laws of cause-and-effect. Awareness that each of us — imperfect though we may be — hold the remarkable privilege of choosing how we respond, of taking action.

Responsibility, it turns out, is not the opposite of compassion. It is compassion’s most practical form.

PassionPlay Exercise

The next time we notice ourselves engaging in blame or criticism, pause for a moment. Very often the quality we condemn in others reflects something within ourselves as well. A facet of ourselves that our hearts take umbrage — a modicum of self-loathing that only we can absolve, that we can surrender and heal. Something that requires attention. Something to improve.

“To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub.” Translation: rub is not about massage or brisket. It’s the small divot that deflects the ball in lawn bowling. It’s the obstacle to looking inward for self-improvement. It’s the rub the wrong way. (And includes stroking cats.)

In this world, nearly everyone attempts to influence others. But some are willing to resort to the black magic of subtly manipulating another person’s thinking and steals self-responsibility: steals the lesson. It’s not your fault.

Simply acknowledge your inner gut-reaction. Some people even say “cancel-cancel-cancel” out loud, interrupting the thought. Others make a small chopping motion with the hand — a kinesthetic signal that helps the brain identify and reset the pattern.

Next take responsibility for the new awareness — that perhaps you wish to exalt yourself to give absolution, or slyly manipulate people to buy your product. Trust that you’ll be more successful without subterfuge. Forgive yourself. Embrace the higher pathway through Life’s turmoil.

The very act of saying “It’s not your fault” is an admission of the speaker’s weakness and insecurity. The implication? The speaker knows the product is inferior and overpriced, and thus seeks to bolster sales with subliminal trickery.

Yes, even when outside forces are involved — arsenic in rice, corporate pollution, mercury-amalgam dental fillings, plastics, environmental toxins, endless digital distractions, the very sanctity of the individual demands taking self-responsibility for our realities.

None of us escape the modern world. But there’s much we can do about it, and that starts with taking personal responsibility.

Love Conquers All

Next, the open heart engages forgiveness — for the situation, for the speaker, and for whatever resonance allowed the message to hook your attention.

Responsibility means recognizing the lesson while it is still a small leak rather than a bursting dam.

From that point forward, we can choose the higher path. Life itself begins supplying the answers. Do you trust that? It’s the admonishment: Seek and ye shall find. It’s engagement with life as an active dynamic.

Responsibility, it turns out, is not a burden placed upon us by some stern universe. It is the quiet privilege of participating consciously in the great cause-and-effect conversations of life. And once we begin to see that clearly, the wolves lose their allure and become laughable (even endearing) Wily Coyotes: the sheep suits stop fooling anyone, and the path forward becomes wonderfully worthwhile and expanding.

Links To Related Posts Mentioned Above:

Human survival has not depended on strength or speed, but on adaptability. The ability to notice change, revise assumptions, and alter behavior—sometimes within a single generation—is what allowed our species to outlast stronger, faster, and more specialized rivals.

Adaptation isn’t optional; it is the difference between ascendance and extinction. When environments shift—climate, culture, technology, food, ideas—those who adapt thoughtfully survive, and those who cling to yesterday’s rules quietly join the dinosaurs.

Oh yes. I hear grumblings from the seasoned set whose perspective spans the decades who grow weary of all the falderal:

• Passwords often require a capital letter, lowercase letter, number, symbol, a childhood trauma, and your first pet’s name —but not the same password you used last time.

• Young people do not Google—they ask strangers on TikTok who speak confidently while being wrong.

• Writing complete sentences with punctuation makes one sound angry judgmental or possibly a CEO

• Printing-out is unnecessary. Just sign, scan, upload, and re-name the file correctly.

• Streaming means paying monthly for things you used to own.

• Influencer is a job, not a punchline.

• Phoning without warning is socially reckless: ghosting for weeks is normal.

The Tempest of Rapid Change

A life-characteristic of the Techno Age is rapid change — no longer waiting 50 years for the glacier to come closer: no longer “The British are coming! The British are coming! (They’ll be here next Spring.)

An essential part of human survival is the ability to adapt and change.

For some oldsters, it’s not change itself. They have much experience with change and are proven adaptors. It’s the direction of change that rankles.

Directions such as loss of freedom, privacy, and autonomy.

So here, let’s find the lemonade recipe under all the chaos of change.

Let’s start with a universal truth that every person on planet Earth can agree with. (Except, of course, there’s one guy who’s disagrees.)

We live in interesting times.

That statement is actually part of a back-handed Chinese curse when wished on others. While so much of human adaptability is to thwart change, interesting times means the plague arrived, a herd of elephants just stamped through your home, and the Mongolian hoards just arrived to give archery lessons.

Cases in point to thwart change:

•Keeping the house at 72°F year-round, as if the planet personally agreed to a contractual eternal spring.

• Building homes sealed tighter than frog’s submarine, then buying machines to re-introduce the air we excluded.

• Calling anything older than five years “obsolete,” unless it’s a errant opinion, which remains timeless and non-negotiable.

Castaways Forced To Adapt

There’s an archetypal storyline that enthralls people with a momentous change of plans: The Castaway.

A ship founders in the storm and a lone survivor makes it to a deserted island. Perhaps you’ve seen movies or read books: The Black Stallion, Cast Away, Robinson Caruso, Blue Lagoon, Lord of the Flies, Swiss Family Robinson.

Such stories are about the ever-present Winds of Change that the Earth and fellow beings inflict on the road of life. They are about adapting.

Today, the unprecedented, kaleidoscopic pace of changes is pulling at humanity’s seams. Time-wise, a significant change of pace, with technology updating faster than common sense.

There’s an old adage: “In every problem lies an opportunity.”

Shall legacy-generation folks (those not born with an Apple watch strapped to their foreheads) be stressed about all the newfangled cyber gyrations? Succumb to anxiety created by media-spun injustices designed to rouse negative emotions: hatred, angst, worry, vengeance, and general emotional dis-settlement?

Or, do we absorb by osmosis the plethora of blessings laying under the chaotic surface?

Inner Turmoil or Peace — It’s a Choice

Let’s spotlight the humble fishes, Pisces adaptabiles, for analogy. Tuna, sword, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, it doesn’t matter.

Surrounded by depths of calm water, the storm rages above unleashing fury and destruction upon ships and shore. Below the fury, the happy fish (poetic assumed mood) munch tasty seaweed singing Sebastian-The-Crab’s Under the sea. (Not complacent, not ignorant, just having another ho-humuhum day in the salt water.)

Meanwhile above, pundits predict and glorify every woe from man-made global pandemics, typhoons, nuclear mishaps, political overthrow, banking collapses, and social order upheavals. Lions, tigers and bears, oh my!

It’s okay if your first response is ‘yikes!’ It’s only natural to oppose radical upheavals.

But in today’s cyber-changing environment, our ‘yikes!’ needs to be as short-lived as a TikTok trend before the algorithm notices. Yikes! can precede a commitment to adapt. Let’s stir up some lemonade, to not join the Neanderthal, wooly mammoths, and last-month’s charging cable in extinction.

The Question Only You Can Answer

“You still got game?”

New problems call for new solutions. And today, new solutions require new creativity to meet the rigors of ever-changing life as the science fiction of yesterday becomes reality today. Like it or not. (Don’t tell Cyberdyne Systems.)

How we respond to new challenges reveals much about ourselves. Do we become bitter malcontents buying guns, gold/silver, and survival rations? Packing bug-out bags? Studying movies about the zombie apocalypse as primers?

Or are we carpe diem-ing and diving deeper into our inner calm beneath the chaos? You know, where reality dwells. Doesn’t Row-Row-Row Your Boat profoundly remind us: Life is butter dream? (for those who love toast). So we have the go within advice.

Perhaps a little of both?

Chance favors the prepared body-mind-spirit. And the casino. It also favors those who seek creative physical solutions in the spirit arena.

Do you trust that all things work together for good? Or do you beg to differ? Do you trust your gut instinct? Or is your gut-microbiome adding distress to your decisions?

When we spend time in the inner calm, we become more knowing when to stand strong like oak, or bend like willow in these chaotic times.

Love Quotient

Poignant question. Are you loving as much as you used to?

Along the same line (if I may be so personal): How much time in a day do you spend loving, dwelling in the times and activities of good-will, warm family love, and even hot-love?

With our lives surrounded by media expositions with direct intent to create strife, polarize, and command viewership via discord; we see our human society becoming more mistrustful, even hateful. Are we getting swept along with the tempest, or are we placidly munching seaweed under the storm?

Cyber echo-chamber affiliations hold many people’s attention for hours every day, digging self-affirming trenches through brains. Are we standing strong like oak to disallow programming our minds toward hate, not bending like willow to their designs?

So, in case you read past it, and didn’t pause to examine, my poignant, provocative (not intentionally over-familiar) question about the impact of more rapid changes in your life: Are you loving as much as you used to?

All-Pervasive Love

Do you know? Do you believe? Throughout our lives, throughout all life, is an undertow of Love. Yes, even despite the tempests. Even despite human’s inhumanity toward others.

We must know this for ourselves. It’s how our minds construct our personal cosmologies. Do you know the all-pervasive current of Love that creates and sustains Life? Or is that a santa-claus thought of wishful thinking?

Underneath the antics and shenanigans that dominate life on Earth; under the daily grind; under the random chaotic events that occur—parking tickets, flat tires, fender benders, and the grocery store being sold out of toilet paper—under the episodes of dire events and media circus; under all the hoopla . . . have you experienced Love as something more than a neurotransmitter cascade of oxytocin, dopamine, vasopressin, serotonin, phenylethylamine, and norepinephrine?

If you’re thinking “not sure, but it’d be nice,” then the way to get it is to give it.

Supporting this fact/concept of pervasive love (albeit rare), is most all religions teach God is Love. They affirm there’s the calm depths beneath the surface. Despite all the smitings and punishments, there’s a clear position or evolution toward Love as a universal presence.

Here on Earth, most folks agree: the universal panacea is love, and the universal language is love. We know this, perhaps first as a theory, but more importantly as a direct experience.

Love may be a small, still voice, but it’s here, now, where ever we are: alone, with friends, in a crowd. In times of peace and especially in times of strife and turmoil.

Steadfast love is the inner gumption that turns chaos into opportunity to live in the fullness of life. Like our Pisces adaptabiles in the sea, love is all around us, in us, through us. We live in a thin sea of love. And yeah, the media has a louder voice demanding that we rise above its din.

Opportunity in Tandem With Chaos

So, what do we do with opportunity being in tandem with chaos? Inevitably, when we apply our creative purpose, it turns into a life worthwhile, a life fulfilled. Where’s our creative purpose? Sebastian sings it for us.

Chaos is a necessary ingredient. Like the bitter herb that awakens the Unami savor.

Here on Earth, life is messy. By design. (That’s not cynicism.) And messy means opportunity to claim the calm love within. So, might we say, “Bring it on” instead of, “The world’s going to hell in a hand-basket”?

Much of what we do as human beings is to arrange the mess to be more beautiful. Like putting silk curtains on the prison cell window. Okay, it’s a human trait. Hey, nice curtains. We innately long to be reflective of the beauty that uplifts the heart. Long to live the love.

So what now? What do we do today? And tomorrow?

The fish in the calm beneath the lashing tempest knows. It’s not what the media tricks us into believing and the jangled stress hormones releases from the media’s rousing the rabble.

So, what it is … is … I cannot say specifically or usurp your individuality. But I can proffer generally. It’s something our hearts know so well. (Drumroll.) Here it is:

Practice loving.

Practicing love has become harder in the modern-day environment. We adapt by trying harder, being stronger, choosing wisely.

Right now, we can engage loving our families, our pets, our plants, our friends. And ourselves. [Sadly self-love often sounds like “No thank you.”] Then stretch it and love our communities, our countries. And soon our hearts expand to love the entire world and Life itself.

Rising above the vast anonymous masses of humanity, savants demonstrate heart — they love life itself, and by default, every form of life. Even the pesky mosquito. The exalted ability to swat with love.

Can we let love shape our destinies amidst the ever-increasing chaos? Love opens doors that are closed to those who do not engage their hearts. Thus a few moments each day in contemplation-meditation-realization goes a long way to guide our row boats to safe harbor.

Sage Advice

Today, let’s spend a few minutes in our happy place, our loving paths. Follow that with simple actions: a smile for a stranger, an anonymous gift of assistance, a kind word, a helpful deed, a kind thought. Proactively passing it forward.

This is an antidote. It makes our today vastly superior to what media pundits planned for us. We hold our power, our choice, our striving to live more love, thus we be the change we wish to see. [Quote attributed to M. Gandhi.]

Let’s claim … know … beneath the chaos is the calm. We learn and grow, not by avoiding the storm because we are the storm. We learn and grow in spirit with a foot in both arenas — the calm and turmoil.

The more the chaos, the more we must engage the calm inside to prevail. Opportunity!

Life on Earth is a test. It’s only a test. We may not want to encourage difficulties with a “Bring it on” game-face, but modern life guarantees that today will be a day to genuflect to the mighty Winds of Change.

To keep our balance, we must choose how to love: stand strong like oak, or bend like willow.

Knowing when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em is the art of living. And that gambler’s instinct is most active and creative when we tap into the calm under the surface. That’s what the typhoon does to the Pisces adaptabiles. It drives it deeper into the cradle of life.

Here in the great within, we find opportunities, meaning, even destiny. Discovering the all-pervasive current of love underneath it all … that’s the happy place where we can go placidly amid the noise and haste. The more chaos, the more lemonade.

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By WellnessWiz Jack

Prelude - Average VS Ordinary

My wife, Janine, is a master of the Honey-Do list—she’s reached tri-dimensional sensei status. When I started posting on Substack, she handed me a fresh list:

• Sweep the doormats
• Water the hibiscus
• Write an article on the virtues of being an average person.

I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Was she suggesting she’s married to an average Joe Schmo? Or that, despite her beauty and intelligence, I’m married to an average Susie-Q? Have we lived an average life?

Tell you right now, I don’t like average. Do you? Doesn’t it have a capital “L” on the forehead? Isn’t it a bit of a euphemism — a word to soft-sell a disappointing reality?

You know, “Little Tommy’s an average student. Let’s prepare him to wield a shovel, not go into rocket surgery.” “Little Susie’s just average. The school counselor recommends typing class, in lieu of astrophysics.

Caution lights flashed behind my eyes, like the classic trick question: “Do these jeans make my butt look fat?”

So, I incubated. Watered the doormats, swept the hibiscus, wrote an average guitar song (no yodeling, and no, you don’t want to hear it). Why average? Because it’s not my forté. I don’t aspire to rock stardom. Not in my genes or my jeans.

I cleaned my pickup-truck bed, helped my brother who lives in a barn in a cow pasture, and fed sunflower seeds to our cardinal friends (avian, not clergy).

Did some above-average things, too, according to my innate skills and forté. Clinically helped solve a migraine case, two inveterate constipation, and two eczema cases. (All in a day’s natural health work.) For me, that’s like rescuing a kitty stuck in a tree. I took a moment to bask once again in how the natural-health model helps the body heal itself. Eventually, after due subconscious incubation, this article hatched.

This piece belongs in the Passion Play category—the home of spirit/heart-inclined, life-affirming reflections. The other categories:
• WellnessWiz — natural healing
• Silence DuGood — fractured history and caustic commentary
• Short Stack — quirky health tips.

Different strokes for different folks.

Let’s begin with Sly Stone, the funk/soul/pop/rock architect who rewired music while famously falling apart. You know the line: “I — I — I am everyday people.” [Ironic because Sly was anything but everyday.]

That’s our arena: ordinary life and its extra-ordinary craft. Even the god-like 5-Star General puts his pants on one leg at a time. (Note: Firefighters come down the pole and can slide into both legs simultaneously singing, “Thank you for lettin’ me be myself,” but they’ve earned that flourish with practice.)

So, this article has a scope. We must first lop off the right and left extremes of the bell curve. But we’re not excluding those “far left and right” folks from this discourse’s intrinsic values. It’s just that all I can say to a Diva is “holy cow, you’re talented” and to a scumbag scammer, “Quit being mean. Life’s hard enough without your making it worse.”

Divas (on the left extreme of the bell curve) and professional scumbags (on the right extreme) are not admitted to our Ordinary Everyday People Club, bless their hearts. And you can refrain from thinking I’m rude regarding scumbags. The 25% is a kind, generously low number.

Idol Stress

We live in a world that worships the superstar. It was hard enough to achieve teen idol status in my Gen-Paleolithic era; even harder today for Gen Z, bombarded by TikTok prodigies and pressured to “excel” before breakfast. Validation now comes in units of thumbs-up. Suicide rates climb.

Basic Human Needs

Here’s an overview to start. There’s ALWAYS a problem when we human beings seek approbation and validation from other human beings. After all, everyone is a bit strange except for you and me, and sometimes I wonder about you. Yeah, sometimes I wonder about me.

Seems we’re hardwired to consider making our mark on society and the future of humanity. We’re all born with a sense of self-importance, self-approval, and longing to rule the universe. Just part of the Id, Ego, Superego, Shadow, Persona, and all that.

Then, along the way:
1) A few people discover they have special sway (the looker, the athlete, the songbird) and capitalize on it,
2) Most people find they are rank-and-file, and operate from that perspective, and
3) Some find they are a bit skewed and decide to set aside some human values (honesty, caring, fairness) and cheat or take advantage of others. Thus, our bell curve.

• Core human desires. Recognition, fame, fortune, power, R-E-S-P-E-C-T, affection, heroism, glory—even god-like status among mere mortals.
• Core traps of desires. Angst. Ego. Pride (not rainbow; the kind that goeth before a fall). For achievers: superiority complex, self-absorption, comparing to others (worry).
For non-achievers: inferiority, envy, quiet desperation, comparing to others (despair).
• Core mistake? Seeking validation from others instead of knowing from within. Thus, the old aphorism: “The kingdom of God is within you.”

The Great Sorting Hat

We all see the feats that launch mortals into superstardom:
• The scruffy guy with the golden, emotive voice that elicits tears of wonder
• The Diva who wavers every note in the scale before landing on the right one
• The one-armed drummer
• The concert pianist (with or without sequined costumes)
• The wide receiver who makes the one-handed grab (not the Presidential version, the winning touchdown.)
• The firefighter emerging from a conflagration carrying two cats, three children, granny, and the heirloom black-velvet Elvis portrait.

I once had breakfast in a Santa Ynez coffee shop with David Crosby. This was after his liver transplant from living god-like a bit too long. Now humble (sort of), he wouldn’t trade the past, but had wry humor about it. Crossed the line, loved the view, paid the price, reaped the rewards.

Hero status began in oral traditions, then Gilgamesh, then Homer’s tales of brave Ulysses (that’s Odysseus to you and me), then Beowulf, then Superman in the late 1940s. Humans are hard-wired to admire the alpha hero. For our species’ history, heroes are forged in the crucible of conquering, smiting, slaying, winning. The winners of wars get to write the history.

Some folks walk into life with the path swept for them— brooms smoothing the way for the curling stone’s slide. Young prodigies with pipes rivaling Céline Dion. Natural athletes whose mercurial feet and sticky fingers win ballgames. Conductors who can hear the same architecture Mozart heard rolling snooker balls across the baize.

But what about the situationally aware neighbor with the fire extinguisher?
The delivery guy with the jumper cables?
The mother of three who can parallel park while maintaining order?
The nurse who hits the vein the first time?
The teacher giving little Tommy the easy question that builds confidence?

These are the day-to-day, salt-of-the-earth, woof-and-warp fibers that knit our species and society together. People of great value. Ordinary people with unsung talents.

Okay, we’ve lopped off the top 3%—the golden ones in the penthouses with paparazzi in tow.

Now, let’s shrink the bottom sludge to a single representative stool specimen: scammers, corporate yes-people, spin-marketers, some lawyers, most politicians, abusers, bigots, grifters, the mean-spirited. No need for a full zoological catalog with 50 more words for scumbags.

Do you find that humanity is bottom-heavy —way too much junk in the trunk? What percent of humanity is undesirable? That number varies according to a person’s standards, judgmental metrics, and ethics. Yes, we can love everybody — but that doesn’t mean we have to associate with skuzzbuckets and funkweasels.

Lets you and me not be part of that weight class. I don’t mean to wish anyone ill, so hey, all y’all mean people, go in peace and find redemption, you, you so-and-so’s. There, I said it. Societally speaking, Granny doesn’t need a Nigerian advance fee scam or an Indian call-center crypto scam.

Average Joe-the-Plumber

Somewhere along life’s road, we midlin’ bell-curve folks get the reality check. Ain’t got the chops for glamour, public acclaim, or magnetic admiration.

Baring my soul here, the Dallas Cowboys never asked me to training camp. (Okay, I never played football.) The Tedeschi-Trucks band never asked me to jam with them, the Queen never invited me to tea, and Taylor won’t likely invite me to her wedding.

So, here’s the turning point for many people. Will we live in regret, envy, and hollowness—or will we become extraordinarily ordinary? Will we let go of fantasy and enter the nitty-gritty of a life well-lived by genuine metrics that matter?

What metrics? Our personal metrics.

In a healthy timeline of human maturation, this turning-point revelation should arrive before age 30. But nobody teaches how to reconcile the necessary mental dis-ease of wanting something not to be, and finding the groove of personal effectiveness and meaning. The brain’s external focus insists on a skewed self-portrait until our hearts’s internal focus aligns with our inner truth.

Who said it better than Bobby Burns: “O wad some Pow’r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!” Lowland Scots may have been lousy with vermin (Bobby slept in a barn with the smell of manure in his nostrils), but his truth is amazingly insightful and clear.

Or Emerson: The eye can’t see itself. Or Oscar Wilde: The final mystery is oneself.

So, if you’ve been trimmed from this conversation as a diva or creepazoid, take heart—you can still join the illustrious ranks of everyday people and enjoy the rights and privileges thereof. Don’t despair, The needle’s eye awaits.

Destiny Calls

Is it realistic to strive for greatness? Sure. Go for it. Give it all ya got. And if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

But when you find yourself banging your head against the same wall, it’s not time to limp away in defeat—it’s time for the reality check. Not failure. Recalibration. Not accepting the doom of average. But finding and honing your personal perfection in the life actually meant for you.

The Peter Principle

We all rise to our greatest level of incompetence.

We climb the ladder rung by rung until we reach the one that breaks—and then we spend the rest of our lives hanging there, pretending it’s part of the job description.

Ambition elevates us; wisdom tells us when to stop climbing. The Peter Principle reminds us that the summit is not always the place where we flourish—sometimes our highest rise is simply the moment before our balance fails. The art is knowing the difference.

Idyl Interview: Pretend Robin Quivers Interviews WellnessWiz Jack

WWJ : Moi? You’re asking about me? Okay.

So, I wake with the rooster’s crow—bright-eyed, serene, and ready. Quick contemplation on life and love. Then I grab my parachute, scuba gear, and surfboard. A little skydiving, a short swim with the turtles, and a dawn patrol hang-ten session—all before the average Joe has found the coffee filter.

RQ: Really?

WWJ: Sure. I free-fall 8,000 feet, splash into a lagoon, chat with my octopi friends (promise no more tako sushi), and surf a perfect peeler to shore. Great cardio. Nothing says ‘rise and shine’ like removing your fins while walking backwards up the beach.

Naturally, Taylor Swift’s chopper is idling nearby. She insists I hop over for tea with Paul McCartney in her skybox at the Chiefs game. We nod politely at each other, both wearing Travis Kelce super bowl jerseys. I point at mine: “It’s for my niece.”

She leans in. I need your advice.

RQ: She needs your advice?

WWJ: “Desperately. Poor thing’s distraught. Andy Reid just called her from the sidelines begging for help. McCartney answered first and quoted Lennon’s ‘toe-jam football’ lyric. Didn’t help.

RQ: Wait—football before breakfast?

WWJ: Time doesn’t behave normally for her. If Taylor can climb inside her mossy piano, she can bend the clock a little.

The situation is dire: fourth down, three seconds left. Chiefs trail by five. Ball on the Eagles two-yard line. Jalen Carter looks like he’s about to spit. Mahomes’ ankle looks like a waterlogged armadillo. Eagles circling for another humiliating victory.

I nod. I lean in. Terror darkened Taylor’s light-blue eyes only seen in anticipation of her next album drop.

Tay, it’s simple. Four words. You can do this.

Her lips tremble. Karma is a cat? My kingdom come undone? Cardigan under the bed?

No. I hold up four fingers, each one falling to emphasize: Throw. It. To. Kelce.

Light dawns. Arrrgh, I get it!

She relays the message. The crowd erupts. Somewhere, a friendship bracelet is forged.

Well, Tay, I’d love to stay, but I’m off to make breakfast tacos with my wife and alphabetize the clinic files. Still need to squeeze in some Shakespeare and opera before the day gets underway.

Plus, there’s probably a chemical company poisoning people, a pharmaceutical company burying adverse research studies, telecommunications execs hiding 5G data about frying kid’s brains, banks laundering money, and I’m hoping to make some inroads in the Middle East and Ukraine today. Got this rare, untested concept. It’s called forgiveness.

“Fine—but before you go, help me rhyme something with Kanye. Beyoncé’s not working.”

“Maybe castaway or things ya-don’t-say. Or check Emily Dickinson—she liked four-beat stanzas and compressed imagery.”

My phone chimes. Unique ringtone. “Yes, Madame Prime Minister, I can hop over after breakfast tacos.” (One must have priorities.)

“Room at the Top (of the World Tonight”

In every greatness arena rises a steep pyramid. Success often demands 24/7 striving, commitment, be-it-til-you-become-it, and all the Tony Robbins aphorisms you can handle.

Everyone deserves the chance to see if they’ve got the chops. But alas—those extraordinary folks, we’ve now set aside.

Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera didn’t attend Diva School. (Neither did Sarah Silverman). Nor Tay-Tay Swift, or Teddy Swims. They work like maniacs—but they didn’t acquire their gifts. They arrived pre-installed.

Texas boy Matthew McConaughey determined it’s his sweat — his natural pheromones—that attracts people. Having stood downwind at a U.T. game, I’m not convinced. Or maybe it was Bevo. I think it’s more the way he says “Alright…”

Likely it’s Justin Bieber’s and Myley Cyrus’ tattoos, and Brad Pitt’s boyish charm—none learned in school.

When God passed out the Influencer genes, there were only so many to inflict on humanity. Thus, the narrowing pyramid.

People wishing to live the superstar life usually underestimate the toll. The angst, the exposure, the expectations. Fame can rot the brain. Before long, folks believe their own press releases.

Guitar gods—Clapton, Santana, Segovia, Jeff Beck, Van Halen, Brian May, Prince—put in their 10,000 hours. So did Derek Trucks, Tosin Abasi, Mateus Asato, Mark Lettieri. But they were born with the circuitry.

There are a thousand arenas for excellence: axe throwers, marksmen, poker players, dancers, chefs, chess masters, bronc and reining riders, stock-car racers (turn left!), surfers, domino aligners, skateboarders, pickleball aficionados. The U.S. even hosts a Grand-National Biggest, Bestest Liar Contest every four years, complete with oval-office and red button.

If you’ve got the chops—great. Run with it. People will throw garlands (and occasionally underwear) at your feet. Your bank account will swell. Your ego will blossom. Endorphins will flood the brain.

How long can 15 minutes of fame last? (Ask Nicole Kidman, whose trajectory expands and extends with a little surgical assistance.)

This article is not to dissuade achievers. If you’ve got the gift—use it. Visualize, brand, market, and “gopher it” with gusto. Everybody loves a winner. The general theme of the book Passion Play is about finding your heart connection for life empowerment. Thus the impeccable extraordinary satisfaction of significance.

If you know thyself—and thyself’s voice only sounds good in the shower—you may be overlooking your real talent, your genuine life-fulfilling role.

Take Janine, my wife. She can take any English word and instantly rearrange it alphabetically. Genuine magic. You say Mississippi, and before the last “ee” leaves your lips, she says: “i-i-i-i-M-p-p-s-s-s-s.” Same with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. [I wonder if I can monetize that better than earning Substack paid subscriptions?]

Are we doomed to mediocrity? Second-class citizenry? Lives of quiet desperation? Forever on the outside longingly looking in?

If you think so—au contraire. Take heart in what comes next.

Know Thyself

At the University of Texas Tower, you’ll find the inscription: Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free — from John (The Revelator) 8:32.

A parallel wisdom comes from Apollo’s Temple at Delphi: γνῶθι σεαυτόν gnōthi seauton — Know Thyself. (Don’t ask Janine to alphabetize that one.)

Seems that’s step one. And it doesn’t just happen. It comes through introspection, contemplation, honest reality, and a willingness to walk those misty inner corridors where the real person — with the real extraordinary mission — resides. Won’t happen thumbing TikToks. But it’s necessary for a healthy, happy life.

Nothing wrong with dreaming, fantasizing, or the occasional sprinkle of wishful thinking. But our reality checks must ask:
Who am I?
What can I genuinely excel at?
Where do I find meaning?

Pay attention — this isn’t taught in school. None of the really important things are:
• How to be an excellent spouse
• How to be a superb parent
• How to know when enough is enough
• How to be healthy
• How to generate income (the coin of the realm) for freedom, meaning, ease and adventures
• How to find fulfillment in a life well lived.

Neither do they teach:
• How to fold a fitted sheet without losing your religion (No, Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg can’t help)
• How to pretend you’re listening while your brain prepares what you’ll say next
• How to avoid profanity when Tech Support begins, “Have you tried restarting?”

Part of maturation is making peace with ourselves — easy for some, harder for those bedazzled by the external world and neglecting their inner landscape.

The Bane of Comparison

Pundits point out that problems begin when we compare ourselves to others. Here’s some edifying quotes:

“Comparison is the thief of joy and the creator of needless suffering.” — Buddhist teaching

“When you compare, you lose your way.” — Zen saying

“They measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.” — Apostle Paul writing a second letter to the Christians at Corinth

“Do not compare yourself with others. Compare yourself with who you were yesterday.” — Seneca & Epictetus (Stoics)

“Do not look at how others walk their path. Walk yours in sincerity.” — Sufi teaching

“God calls you to be you, not someone else.” - Christian aphorism

The point of all that? Relax and know you have your own special mission. It may not be fame and fortune, but it might be more worthy. It might bolster the very fabric of society.

So, what can you do? What about the artistry of being in the moment? What about being a vehicle for good/light/love in the world?

Alas — I’ll never accept “average.” But ordinary aspiring for personal extraordinariness? That I can embrace, because almost everyone is ordinary, and with some practice, can exhibit extraordinary talent and fulfillment.

A quick summary to all the verbarrhea above is to find your core, your center within. Everyone, even the guy in the back of the class has a special purpose, a reason for being.

Average sounds like a disease. Nobody wants to be average. It sounds like cannon fodder.

Sage Advice: Don’t compare your life to the glitzy glamor of celebrities, and certainly don’t sell your humanity to make a buck at the expense of others. Claim yourself. Your ethics. Your honor. Your niche in the great continuum of life. Whew!

We can aspire to the Desiderata - a 1927 poem by Max Ehrmann. (Worth reading from time to time. It’s a reality check.

We can practice: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? before taking action.

Virtues of Extra-Ordinary Ordinariness

So now we tout the virtues — the advantages — of choosing not to chase what lies outside our true capabilities, but to develop an extraordinary aspect of ourselves according to our heartfelt purpose.

Consider these attributes of being ordinary (with secret extraordinary powers).

Resonance
Not charisma — resonance. Being approachable. Having rapport. The quality that says, “I’ve been there too.” Universal empathy creates camaraderie: the shared experience of being human.

Elitist, effete, too-smart-for-their-own-good folks do not resonate with the vast anonymous masses. They are pariahs lacking in social graces.

Case in point: Elon Musk. He tried for resonance with the bubbas by wielding a chainsaw. Problem? Lack of empathy (and a viable plan) created a lot of collateral damage with mass firings.

Janine calls it “b-l-l-u i-n a a-C-h-i-n h-o-p-s” when I behave that way. Blessedly, I’ve not bullishly broken any crockery in the China shop lately.

Do you want resonance with family, friends, and people? It’s a “one of us” attribute.

Genuineness
The real deal. Authentic, genu-wine, humble, salt of the earth. Relatable. Most importantly: true to self.

Genuineness is a person comfortable in their own skin, warts and all. In fact, your wart may look more like Brad Pitt than William-Bradley does.

Bob Dylan and Tom Waits had to make peace with their voices. Lyle Lovett made peace with a Picasso-esque face — then married Julia Roberts. Danny Trejo has a face only a mother could love, yet his authenticity makes him relatable, even lovable. (Don’t tell Sr. Machete I said that.)

Balanced self-love is a relaxed form of power — noncompetitive, self-sufficient, grounded in the assurance you have a niche in the grand cycle of life, and that your role is both important and fulfilling.

Do you want genuineness, and not a façade? It’s an ordinary-person attribute, too.

Resilience —Weather Life’s Tempests
The median, “ordinary” launching pad for extraordinary ordinariness is more stable, less extreme. Per our bell curve, not a place for celebrities or scallywags.

Life comes in waves — some lifting you, some knocking you sideways. But when you’re in the middle of the bell curve, you’re often better equipped for the rollercoaster ride.

Picture a cruise ship: The bow pitches like a see-saw. The stern yaws like a jackdaw. The middle, though, is the balance point — the center of gravity for pitch and roll, the place with less drama, less sea sickness, fewer slings and arrows. Also, fewer distractions from a spirit/heart-led life.

Not boring — just centered. Close enough to the fringe to taste adventure, but not controlled by it.

Freedom — License to Chill

Is an Olympic gymnast “free” on the balance beam early Saturday morning? Is Tiger Woods free at 4:30 a.m., hitting golf balls in the rain?

Nothing wrong with obsessive focus when it’s freely chosen and joy-filled.

There’s a deep-&-wise saying: What you own, owns you.

Own a house, and now you must work life’s hours to pay insurance, mortgage, maintenance, and OMG, property taxes. Then Joe-The-Plumber informs you the flush mechanism needs replacement and quotes you a lawyer’s retainer fee. The great American money pit.

There is also the time expense: rain-gutter archaeology, upkeep, trash to the curb so the blessed wood elves will make it disappear and reappear in a landfill.

Maybe this is why Lee Child’s fictional character Jack Reacher is so beloved — a relatable meathead who owns nothing but a toothbrush and the clothes he’s wearing. (Reacher, not Child. Betcha Child owns five toothbrushes, one for each home plus one for the airplane.)

Some people set firm boundaries on how much freedom they’ll sacrifice to mortgages, car payments, insurance, diamonds, rain-gutter and window replacement ploys. They step aside from the exhausting expectations of others.

Expert or Factotum?

Are you free to be a factotum (jack of all trades) — know a little about a lot? Or a one-trick pony, master of one tiny slice of life? Generalist VS Specialist?

Either way, you may not buy a Ferrari with pocket change, but that sunset is twice as golden when you have time to watch it.

The real exercise is knowing when to get off the treadmill. Some never do. Their treadmills only stop at the grave.

Il Dolce Far Niente

What about il dolce far niente — the sweetness of doing nothing? The sabbath of the soul. The idle hour. The sacred art of puttering.

We pop life’s cork at birth and rush to become someone or something. When do we let life breathe?

In homeopathy, chronic hurry is a mental symptom. It creates cellular wear and tear. In America’s Puritan ethic, il dolce far niente is seen as sloth, laziness, slacker-ism.

Are you on board with that? Must you produce something, then something else, then something more before you feel worthy? Or can you relax, recharge, smell the roses, and simply be?

Yes — be.

I once took groups to Haiku, Mau’i for 10-day detox programs with colonics, special diet, Passion Play workshops, and exercises. A natural-health extravaganza.

Once, at Wayne Dyer’s request — after he spontaneously attended, then taught, a Passion Play class — I drove his friend, Baba Ram Dass, from Haiku to Kihei so he could get some sunshine. This was after Baba’s stroke. We did not speak on the drive, but the communication was strong.

Richard Alpert — Baba Ram Dass — wrote Be Here Now, teaching East Indian spiritual principles to Americans. Its message: the only real moment is the present. Not the past. Not the future. The infinite now.

Later, on the beach, I asked him whether soul merges with the oneness of God, losing identity; or if soul retains identity and contributes to God’s evolution — becoming more self-aware and God-realized. And where Jesus fit in with atonement and salvation? Fun stuff.

Ram Dass stuck to his destiny: merging with the Godhead. I, clinging to independence, begged to differ. He said I needed to surrender. I replied I was still throwing punches and would likely go down swinging.

We shared a whole-being laugh — free of judgments — and let it be. For me, that moment revealed the importance of il dolce far niente.

The U.S. lacks this deeply. Too much hurry-hurry, ding-ding. It does seem, ala Zimmerman, that the times they are a-changin’. But in the right direction? Mobile device fixation only puts blood on the tracks.

Can you think of parallel statistics with that “right direction?” query, e.g. Amount of drug use—prescription and recreational? Level of national health? Rates of divorce and suicide. Rate of school shootings?

Moments of being, blithely puttering, can refresh and uplift the spirit, nurture the heart, expand appreciation, lengthen life (spare telomeres), increase joy and love; and — like the Mau’i detox groups discovered — un-constipate our inner lives, letting us flow with the rhythm of the eternal now.

Et tu? Do you need to achieve more today? Or can you putter a little? What’s the cost of the chains we accept and refuse?

Find, Hone, Revel — Extraordinary Ordinariness

Years ago, I discovered my extraordinary talent — my heart-felt role in this life. I shared the process in the Passion Play book’s mirror exercise. It applies to health, wealth, relationships, creativity, charity, and defined my occupation.

My introspection revealed that I’m here to help people experience genuine health — body, mind, spirit. It took me 11 days to craft a definition that resonated:

Day 1: I want to be a successful clinician.
Day 2: I want to be a successful clinician who helps many people.
Day 3: I want to be an effective clinician known for getting great results.
Day 4: I am a successful clinician.
Day 5: I am a successful clinician who genuinely helps people.
Day 6: I am a successful, caring clinician who helps many people.
Day 7: I am a successful clinician known for his keen insights.
Day 8: I, Jack, am the best natural healer I can be.
Day 9: I, Jack, am the best natural healer.
Day 10: I, Jack, am a dedicated, natural health clinician — a benefit to all who come.
Day 11: I, Jack, am a dedicated, effective natural health practitioner. I help people experience better health.

That eleventh day resonated with me and became my credo. My niche. How I make my way in this world. It didn’t include jammin’ with the Stones, but for me, is so much more rewarding. (Even if it’d be really cool filling the backbeat between Keith and Ronnie.)

When we follow our hearts — our inner mission, not outer dazzlement — our purpose clarifies, and there’s a special purpose for every human being. (Not a Navin R. Johnson special purpose from the Steve Martin movie, The Jerk; but the very reason for being alive.

Life Itself guarantees each person has a role, a niche, a special purpose. Demonstrable from bacteria on up to apex predators such as you and me.) It’s up to us to find it, accept it, develop it into a life extraordinaire, or cast it aside, squander it, and live in desperation.

So, the cutting questions becomes: Do you feel fulfilled?

Is your life measured by square footage, cars, bling? Or by raising self-assured, kind children? By listening when someone needs an ear? By nurturing, helping, and being present in the here and now? By great spiritual adventures? Or is it an endless pursuit of gotta take what’s mine?

We live among celebrities and divas with talents that dazzle. Thank them for the joy. We also live among takers and tricksters. No thank you, please. But, the world we create can reflect our hearts and our true, special purpose.

Being ordinary, with secret, extraordinary talents, and devotion to intrinsic values, offers a life far from the madding crowd. Not inferior. Real.

Perhaps your mission is to help one person each day with an act of kindness.
Perhaps to be a comforter (a solace-giver, not bedclothes) to those in distress.
Perhaps to be a teacher, an encourager to those on a difficult life-path.
Perhaps to care for animals and plants.

In the end, the measure of a life isn’t found in applause, possessions, bank accounts, or the spotlight’s glare, but in the quiet fidelity to what calls us from within. Our purpose doesn’t shout; it whispers like the buzzing of bees and the wind through the trees.

It reveals itself in the steady choices we make, the courage we summon, and the goodness we give away when no one is watching. If we honor that inner summons — faint at first, then unmistakable — we discover that being “ordinary” is the doorway to a life of extraordinary uncommon depth.

Do you agree? The world doesn’t need more dazzlers. It needs more people living their true purpose, one honest, steady act at a time. And if so, it begins with knowing your Passion and initiating your Play.

A Passion Play Discourse #2

This is the second discourse in an on-going series based on the book Passion Play, (Tips) with the first being The Healing Power of Appreciation.

The title of this installment filtered into my awareness when my wife, Janine, stuck a Post-it note to my forehead that read, Love & Happiness - The Art of Appreciation. Subtle as a supernova’s wink. She’s a master of the gentle nudge, and I—being not quite as dense as a black hole—took the hint for a topic. Appreciation begins at home, so here goes: “She’s my North Star—beacon through the Texas canyons to home is where the heart is.” (Check-mark in the husband column.)

Now, to the task at hand.

Negativity Bias

Being human means, we dwell in a thick patch of the universe called Earth, where, over the millennia, danger lurked everywhere— environment, animals, germs, people. Our brains evolved accordingly—hardwired with what researchers officially call a Negativity Bias, a survival app permanently installed in our gray matter.

Great for avoiding saber-toothed tigers. Not so good for avoiding marital frostbite, office politics, or Facebook/Meta thumbs-downers.

The negativity bias whispers that danger deserves more attention than delight. Result? Societies awash in mistrust, road rage, clickbait outrage, and neighbors who store grudges like canned tuna in a fallout shelter. Once upon a time, that suspicion of strangers helped our ancestors live long enough to pass on their genes. But today? It’s the reason gentle Aunt Bethany sharpens her elbows at the Black Friday sale.

Appreciation: A Counterforce To Negativity

a.k.a. Know Thyself & Thy Inner Eeyore

Researchers cite a 3:1 Rule: three positive things almost outweigh one negative event. In intimate relationships, the ratio swells to 5:1. Go figure. One small peccadillo—forgotten anniversary, socks under the bed —can puncture and deflate five kind gestures faster than you can say, “Sleep in the doghouse.”

Still, we’re not condemned to gloom. We can master this trait, redirect it, and practice the counterforce expansion: appreciation. Think of it as handing the steering wheel to your inner light and let the grump ride shotgun.

Our relationships are a terrific boot camp for practicing appreciation, but the art of appreciation is even more profound. It’s a necessary attribute for enlivening spiritual awareness. Appreciation aspires to a common thread in many religions: Soul exists because God loves it. For people without a religious affiliation, Love is everything helps counter life’s pain and suffering with appreciation of being sentient.

Health, Environment, & Technology:
The New Predators

a.k.a. Modern-Day Lions, Tigers & Bears (Literal & Figurative Oh-My’s)

Times haven’t changed that much. Japan logged 219 bear injuries last year, India graphed some 44 deaths by tiger, and lions account for some 250 deaths—reminding us that claws and fangs still matter. Won’t mention gators and crocs for fear of PETA wrath. But in daily life, most of us wrestle not with wild predators, but with five broad “modern predators”:

• Health & Lifestyle Threats - Chronic diseases, iatrogenic mishaps, mental health crises, pandemics, and the old stalwarts: tobacco, alcohol, recreational drugs.

• Environmental Dangers - Toxins, pesticides, plastics, forever chemicals, heavy metals, and deforestation, [see WellnessWiz Substack exposés: Nanoplastics: The Microscopic Menace, and Forever Chemicals, plus Arsenic In Our Rice.]

• Political & Social Dangers - Storm-flags of Freedom fraying at the edges, polarization, corporate overreach, wealth gaps, and the psychosis of terrorism, [see Telecommunications- Freedom or Slavery?]

• Tech & Cyber Slavery - A.I. taking jobs, hackers taking data, social media taking societal peace of mind.

• Nuclear Radiation - Ever lurking in medical waste barrels, reactors, and geopolitics.

Like our prehistoric kin, we can’t afford to ignore threats—real or metaphorical (the ever-present quicksand of Negative Bias strengthened echo-chamber suffocations and social conformity. Miss a danger and it can be fatal. Miss a pleasure and it’s merely inconvenient.

Key Features of Negativity Bias

Psychologists (those patient souls who study why we insist on stubbing the same toe twice) describe the Negativity Bias this way:

• Attention - The brain spots the tiger in the weeds faster than the wildflowers. Same goes for typos in a love letter. “Dear June April.” Our brains naturally notice threats and mistakes faster than positive details.

• Memory - Compliments slip off like Teflon™; insults stick like roach traps. Praise is quickly forgotten, but criticism lingers … and lingers.

• Decision-Making - “Once bitten, twice shy” isn’t a proverb, it’s a brain setting. One bad experience makes us extra cautious the next time.

• Emotion - Fear and anger are felt at stadium volume; joy and appreciation play on a pocket radio, and gratitude on an Oura ring. Negative emotions feel stronger than positive ones.

Everyday Examples of Negativity Bias

• One criticism outweighs a dozen compliments (ask any spouse).

• First impressions last—especially bad ones. A good handshake fades in a nano-second; spinach-in-teeth lasts longer than a Popeye cartoon.

• News outlets serve negativity like it’s an all-you-can-eat buffet—because your brain will always line up for another helping.

• Investors dread losing $100 far more than they delight in earning it.

Appreciation – The Universal Antidote

Today, our inherent Negative Bias, left unchecked, breeds chronic fretfulness, excessive mistrust, and perpetual unhappiness.

Appreciation is the counterweight. And more. Not denial of danger, not Pollyanna naïve optimism, but a conscious practice of noticing what’s good and true and right and beautiful and uplifting—and giving it conscious attention to savor life’s moments, cultivating joy. It’s how we wrestle the steering wheel back from the inner Eeyore and invite a sunnier Tigger aboard.

Ultimately, living in joy is a choice. And it’s not a convenience or luxury item, it’s the mission. A necessity to personal growth. Especially in the interesting times of pain, loss, worry, and turmoil.

Overcoming Negative Bias with Mindful /Heartful Appreciation

It’s erroneous to say, “I must fight my Negative Bias” It’s not a fight. Not a subjugation. Not even oppositional.

“It’s a simple matter of shifting one’s attention from the din and clamor of the Negative Bias—even appreciating it as a survival attribute— and placing attention on moments of uplifting appreciation. Yes, we can smile at the word simple. Something so easy that only a young child can do it. Yeah, one of those.

Like when a toddler toddles past a marching band—ignoring the booming bass drums—and stops to grin at a dandelion puff. The thrumming fades; the wonder wins.

Or in the adult world, the disarming moment, “I love it when your eyes sparkle when you’re mad.” Thus, not becoming defensive and oppositional, but acknowledging the underlying love as greater, not exaggerating the brain’s tendence to make a mere spark into a wildfire.

Appreciation activates sensory awareness. The more we engage our senses, we enliven and strengthen the experience with textures, flavors, colors, smells, and resonances.

More profoundly, we engage overtones of life’s transcendence purpose. There is a similar message in mindfulness practices (a common thread in Buddhist, Hindu, Islam, Jainism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Indigenous Traditions, Sikhism, and Christian-agape). Psychology supports the brain’s plasticity and ability to unlearn detrimental behaviors, to re-train itself to be completely present in the moment. Here, we practice appreciation as a portal to transcending the mind, and experiencing moments of joy and good-will for being part of life’s grand design.

One facet of this is the yogic concept, Namaste - the soul in me acknowledges the soul in you. The Negative Bias is busy thinking the person’s eyes are shifty and the mole on the cheek looks like Whistler’s Mother. But appreciation is uplifting to both the receiver and the giver. And if there’s mutual appreciation, then agape, where two or more are gathered.

While estranged on planet Earth, the art of appreciation is a universal principle. It’s a muscle to be exercised with profound benefits for doing so.

Incentivizing Appreciation: Benefits

Practicing appreciation brings myriad benefits. Too many to name. Each topic is an entire discourse, and maybe a worthy endeavor for postings. (You’ll let me know in the comments section below.)

Engaging appreciation builds self-confidence, self-esteem. It turns away anger. Strengthens physical health. Increases beauty. Attracts friends. Elevated enjoyment and happiness. Brings new opportunities. Solves loneliness. Relieves pain and anguish. Helps heal post-traumatic stress and painful emotions.

There’s the story of Norman Cousins, the man who laughed away the pain and illness medically labeled as Ankylosing Spondylosis. In the 1960s, he hobbled out of the hospital and checked into a hotel and took charge of healing himself. His therapy was Vitamin C and laughter. Cousins described how the hospital environment—constant alarms, pessimistic doctors, fluorescent lights—seemed to worsen his condition.

He eschewed the negative news reports and watched movies: Marx Brothers, Three Stooges, and comedy shows. He read humorous books. He discovered that 10-minutes a day of belly laughter relieved his pain for 2-hours.

Mind—Body Connection. Cousins went on to live an additional 30-years. He helped establish that emotions impact cellular biochemistry. Stress and the Negative Bias impede healing. Joy and laughter counter the effects of negative, aberrant cellular metabolic processes, and stimulate immunological health (psychoneuroimmunity).

Here, I’ll proffer that the art of appreciation does all that and more. People who spend time in appreciation exhibit more joy and laughter than the average person. Not my opinion. Clearly backed by science.

Science supports the chain:
Appreciation —► More Positive Emotions(Joy, Contentment) —► More Playfulness & Laughter —► Better Health Outcomes. It’s not just poetic—it’s measurable.

Ready for your dose of joy and heart-felt enlivenment? Go back and read The Healing Power of Appreciation (link below) with the self-appreciative intent to put a principle or two into motion. And take action on the suggested “Make a List Exercise.”

Technique for Transcending Negative Bias

Monitoring attention. There’s something dynamic about our minds. We animate the objects upon which we place our attention to some degree. We enliven them with appreciation. This is the age-old Law of Attraction. Love grows when we cast appropriate attention eye upon an object or situation. Appropriate? Loving as in good-will.

That statement requires explanation. The ardent admirer—the annoying, obsequious, overreaching suitor—is not doing it right and is rebuffed. Such is an attitude of taking, not giving. But appreciating another’s attributes in good-will resonates a positive encouragement to be more of our true selves.

In Passion Play, a person carefully crafts core, uplifting “verses” of appreciation, of self-identification, of aspirational reality. For example, the unctuous, ardent admirer above, exudes, “I’m gonna get that hunky guy or gorgeous babe as a personal conquest.” This breaks the intangible law of respecting another’s personal space. The inevitable rebuff becomes the hard knocks lesson.

A more soulful, edifying position might be, “I enjoy being a conduit for love to others. I open my heart to accept love, freely given.”

Thank you. In parting, here’s three blurbs about Passion Play.

• Passion Play is the art and science of living the life of your dreams.

• Passion Play applies an ancient Native American reflection method (Mirror Technique) with an enhanced mental imaging process (Sensualization) to create goals and dreams that are truly congruent with our core values.

It’s unique method of refining living verses to awaken creative strengths of belief/knowingness, commitment, with resolve to help shape and author a life of wonder.

• Passion Play helps overcome known, unknown, and inherent self-limiting beliefs. It helps open new doors to a life of success and abundance. Now, if and when you are ready, you can harness your passion and begin a new play.

Nanoplastics: The Microscopic Menace

Forever Chemicals

Arsenic In Our Rice

Telecommunications: Freedom or Slavery?

You can check out the Passion Play book here

The following material is for subscribers, those interested in the Passion Play techniques and upgrading their life experiences. We’ll delve further into the Law of Attraction and a story when Wayne Dyer attended a Passion Play seminar in Maui. Holy Cow! What did I do when Wayne walked in? Also …drum roll … a short poem (yeah, sometime I prove brevity is the soul of wit, not often, but sometimes), and a 7-day Appreciation Workout.]

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By WellnessWiz Jack Tips

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” —Voltaire

Foreword

If I told you that simply reading this article might make you healthier and live longer, would that sound suspect? Too good to be true? A wellness version of snake oil?

And yet... what if it were true? Well not just reading it, but engaging its simple message.

There’s a simple practice—one you can do right now, without even lifting your derrière off the couch—that could uplift your spirit, boost heart health, expand your joy, and bring more meaning to your life. It can also improve your business, deepen your relationships, and nourish your sense of purpose.

That’s not wishful thinking. That’s what science says.

Seedling

The seedling for this article occurred with a news article about A.I. (Artificial Intelligence.) Seems that some people are establishing personal and intimate relationships with A.I.

The basis is artificial appreciation.

A.I. compliments, understands, pays attention, never complains, and butters butts without calling them biscuits. For people in a parched relationships, thirsting for appreciation, A.I. pours on praise like an Amazon reviewer swearing the air fryer healed arthritis.

Certainly A.I. parrots praise, but here’s a powerful example for humans. Appreciation lifts the spirits of both the giver and receiver.

We all need upliftment (gravity sucks). Let’s apply the appreciation principle for some very positive net gain.

Introduction: Body, Mind, Spirit

As a natural health practitioner, I strive to live by the same tenets of wellness I teach: nurture the body, expand the mind, and align with Spirit. “Strive” being the operational word. On-going.

Cosmology Hierarchy:
• Spirit enlivens Mind and Body
• Mind influences Body
• Mind and Body experience life.
All connected. Holistic whole-ism.

Healing isn’t just nutrients and remedies (certainly not toxic drugs) —it’s a vibration, a resonance. That sounds a bit woo-woo, but the more science delves into the body electric and how light, sound, and frequencies restore health (and in the case of 5G frequencies, stress the body[1]^, [2]) the more we understand the profound meaning that health is a vibratory rate, tuned by nutrients, attitude, cellular wisdom, and connection to Love (aka goodwill).

I’ve written much about the body—nutrition, detox, science, physiology.
And written on the mind—how thoughts shape DNA, how emotions impact cell function. Perhaps you’ve read that fear harms the kidneys, anger and resentment harm the liver, grief perturbs the lungs, hatred ravages the heart.

Here begins our WellnessWiz foray into Spirit—and how tuning in to its qualities, like appreciation, can uplift thoughts, renew health, awaken joy, and connect with a more vital life and spiritual adventures.

Having written much on body, and a goodly amount on mind, I wrote a book in Saipan, Passion Play, about how to harness the etheric (Spirit – the great manifesting force) principles to create a successful, fulfilling life. It’s based on a Indigenous American Mirror Technique exercise. [There’s a few copies of the book left at AppleADayPress dot com.]

This discussion on appreciation stems from that reflective time. I hope this moment we share here imparts an ember to enhance your life experience.

Appreciation: A Vital Spark

Isn’t it wonderful to feel appreciated? Or to appreciate someone else? There’s a little tingle in the heart. It lifts our mood, sparkles our eyes, and puts a boing in our steps.

According to research, regular appreciation—even just the act of feeling it—can make us healthier[3] and live longer[4].

But beyond the occasional thank-you or feel-good moment, appreciation is an attitude, a practice, a conscious enhancement that creates a better life. It’s a lens through which we see more wonder in our world—and a surprising catalyst for success.

So hey, if they’re handing out better heath and we don’t have to buy anything, let’s take a few minutes and harness this power.

The Power of Appreciation

Go ahead. Try it now. Let’s see what this is all about.

Think of someone or something you appreciate—a friend, a place, a piece of music, a mission, your dog, your faith. Notice that glow in your chest? That clarity in your mind? That lift in your spirit?

That’s appreciation. A love-filled vibrational frequency. A quickening of life itself.

More Than a Mindset, A Connection

Appreciation isn’t about rebranding life’s problems as “opportunities.” That’s just a mental twist.

Instead, what if we truly welcomed life’s challenges—not as burdens to overcome, but as refiners of character, purifiers of soul? Not “mind over matter,” but “heart through experiences.” It’s easy to appreciate loved ones. A bit more difficult to appreciate hardships.

When we tap into appreciation, even our bodies respond: the mouth curls upward (smile), tension eases, shoulders lower. Stress postures soften and we move with grace and ease.

Appreciation transforms life stomping over you into a deep-tissue ashiatsu massage.

Practicing Élan Vital

The French call it élan vital—the vital force of life. It’s the animating impulse to adapt, create, survive, and thrive within each of us. If you’re alive, you gots it!

The acts of appreciation strengthens that life force. It reams congestion (aka dis-ease) out of the pipes so more vitality can flow.

Of course I’m talking to the man in the mirror here. I write to remind myself to practice what I preach. So let me say: I appreciate you, dear readers. Your kind attention means much to me. And hey—just writing that makes me smile.

Sunlight From Soul

Appreciation is like morning sunshine: it awakens the tone of the day with spirit’s sustenance for excellence, growth, and success.

We like it when our real estate appreciates, when our collector’s items appreciate. We’d like even better if those beanie babies and baseball cards would appreciate in value.

Appreciation is an increase in value, and that’s a great concept when we apply it to our lives, our relationships, our work and business success. Good as gold. Even better.

Prove this for yourself. Before your first sip of morning coffee/tea, have a moment’s contemplation and activate your appreciation faculty—especially for a person or God. This is really about appreciating life. Turn on your love light. Before the news media steals it and rubs your nose in the world’s travails arousing ire and outrage. We can call this exercise “centering.”

This is particularly helpful for parents who are at odds with a child. Instead of criticism or “straighten up and do what I tell you,” focus on the child’s virtues. Doing so will soften your demeanor and strengthen the child’s self-esteem. Reinforcing what’s right goes a long way toward smoothing the way through the difficult years.

Next, carry the spirit of appreciation into the day. Connection, not isolation. Appreciate your car, that you are not walking. Appreciate your co-workers, you’re on the same team. Appreciate the guy at the water cooler, every office needs one.

Activate Appreciation Via Gratitude

When able, make appreciation active. Not just private “inspiration,” but an engagement. Kind words, kind deeds. Changes the day’s complexion from rash encounters to radiant moments.

Gratitude is the action side of appreciation. Appreciation is a state of wonder we choose to adopt. Gratitude is demonstrating appreciation. It’s acknowledging someone or something with thanks. Something? Yes, plants and animals respond to appreciation. Not woo-woo. Scientific fact.

The trickle of morning appreciation that started with your initial thoughts over coffee/tea/juice/smoothie, soon spill over and stream into the day, touch others, often with opportunities and appreciation returning to you. Now you’re cooking!

We all can admire appreciative thoughts as potentials, now activate. Kinetically share them.

More than acknowledging the appreciative mood (knickknacks and gewgaws), launch the feeling with gratitude.

The art of appreciation is like cultivating the garden. Gratitude is handing someone a rutabaga. So... how does your garden grow?

Cultivating Appreciation: Five Spheres of Influence

People who cultivate appreciation tend to become happier, healthier, and more fulfilled. It's not magic—it's spiritual momentum. It’s going to bed knowing your life is enhanced because you brightened someone’s life, shared inspiration, lent a helping hand. Because you appreciate the wonders of life, you find life is full of wonder.

When you dwell in appreciation, you attract more of what resonates as joy, what grows in value. As the homeopath Dr. Samuel Hahnemann taught, like cures like. In other words, the body naturally seeks the harmonizing influences that restore health. Birds of a feather.

As appreciation flows out of your being, so does it return. Like that Elvis song, “Return to Sender.” Want to be sure to say that appreciation is not ingracious compliments about someone’s dress or sunglasses. It’s tapping into honest appreciation. Practice, and you’ll become a tuning fork for discovering things to appreciate.Then when it touches your heart, you can express gratitude for that moment and say something apropos.

To the frowning lady at the license bureau, “I don’t know how you do it, handling all these impatient people, one after another. You must have a special strength. I so admire. I wish I had a dose of what you’ve got.” [A long forgotten smile erupts.] “I got 5 kids at home. This is nothing.” [Nodding with appreciation.] Well, they’ll never give you a plaque for it, but you’re a hero. And I hope you know it.] Click, stamp. She beams, “Thank you.” Walking away, the room is brighter. Someone else catches your smile and returns it. And elderly man holds the door open. “Why thank you. My sore elbow so appreciates your kindness.”

Little appreciations can sprinkle your environment like pixie dust, and often become the fertile soil for other’s hearts to experience, not just something “nice,” but a twink of the divine.

Appreciation, then, is a compost for more positive life experiences—enriching everything it touches. It’s an “attitude adjustment” The book, Passion Play proposes mastery in 5 vital spheres of life. Let’s explore its ripple effect in those five vital spheres

1. Financial Sphere

Genuine appreciation for the power and freedom of money, for the good it can do, for the help it can bring, for peace of mind, for a product or, an honorable company if you can find one, is an attitude that can ripple outward and come back many-fold. When we appreciate the tacit-agreement with printed paper and metal coins, we apply a law of attraction via that appreciation.

So very different from the love of money is the root of all evil. Instead, avoid that trap and appreciate the good that money and charity do. Appreciate providing a home and opportunity. Appreciation of money, void of greed and avarice, is foundational to financial success. It’s a game we humans play, but important to survival.

Like a vegetable garden, appreciation of money, and its power to accomplish things, is the basis to have enough plus enough to share. It helps to define what is enough for you – what percentage of your life will you spend in it’s pursuit? Appreciation eases the way to a sufficiency and freedom

2. Health Sphere

When you appreciate your body's miraculous intelligence—the heartbeats, breath, digestion, and cell membranes opening and closing gated channels—you’re more inclined to care for it with nourishing food, rest, movement, and support.

The simple truth: the body can heal, especially when you remove what harms it, and supply what helps it. Appreciation makes us better stewards of this temple we live in. We could say that practicing appreciation for ourselves would be a fulfilling 13^th step to the classic 12-step program

3. Relationship Sphere

Appreciating others for who they are—not just what they do—deepens connections. Most people are starved for genuine recognition of their value and contribution.

A kind word, a heartfelt thank you, a smile... these are heart nutrients that revive the spirit of the giver and receiver.

Ask yourself: Am I a giver? A receiver? Both? Appreciation turns relationships into meaningful partnerships.

Want to improve the quality of your primary relationships? Make that list we discussed. Dole out that list when the time and circumstances are apropos. Share one appreciation each day for a week. Thus, your silent, take-for-granted appreciations become dynamic expressions of gratitude. See what happens as appreciations and gratitude return, and the many-fold improvements brighten and nurture the relationship.

4. Spiritual Sphere

At its highest octave, appreciation is worship. Not in the dogmatic sense, but in the act of revering life itself. It's hard to persecute others when you're actively appreciating the divine thread running through us all.

The Goodwill Principle—unconditional, non-discriminatory, unifying—is the quiet engine behind appreciation. The happiest people are “lovers of life.”

5. Charity Sphere

Appreciation is giving with dignity. It's not "here, take my crumbs." It's "I see your worth. Here’s something to help you remember." It’s not showy “look what I’m doing.” It’s not even giving money or objects. It starts with simple appreciation.

For many, it takes a little work to appreciate more and more so that charity becomes a necessary outflow to make room for more inflow to come.

Every time we lie a day with the intent to appreciate and uplift—even a little—we expand our scope of influence. That’s power. That’s love in action.

ROI: Return on Intention

Whatever we appreciate tends to increase in value. Like compound interest for the body-mind-spirit. Appreciation is putting attention on something, loving something in the spirit of good will. But caution: this law of attention it two-edged. Appreciate the wrong things, and you might become rich in stress and poor in peace.

In times past, the faculty of right-discrimination meant making good, loving choices, taking responsibility for what you put your attention on. Today, the word “discrimination” has shifted to a negative connotation of prejudice and injustice, so let’s update our vocabulary to right discernment, e.g. making good choices.

A handy criterion for making ethical choices is three questions:

1. Is it true?
2. Is it necessary?
3. Is it kind?

Each of the 5 spheres calls for thoughtful choices. The Passion Play book demonstrates how to craft empowering “verses” in each of the spheres to remove blockages or problems in health, wealth, relationships, ability to share, and spiritual adventures. The art of living is determining what—and whom—we hold in esteem. Sadly, this isn’t taught in school. But it’s never too late to become your own teacher.

Appreciation vs. Gratitude: A Friendly Distinction

“If the only prayer you say in your life is ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
—Meister Eckhart

Though often used interchangeably, appreciation and gratitude have their own flavors:

• Appreciation is a state of being. It’s seeing value with the heart—an inner resonance.

• Gratitude is appreciation expressed. A thank-you in word or deed. It’s appreciation given wings. It often shows up after something good happens.

Energetics of Gratitude

Gratitude is a pump-primer. It moves energy. It creates a vacuum for spirit to fill. It circulates appreciation and fills us with more capacity to give again.

“Gratitude conserves the vital energies of a person more than any other attitude tested.”
—Hans Selye

Appreciation is a muscle. Use it or lose it. Train it and gain it. Here, we focus on exercising appreciation, of becoming masters of appreciation as a tone of life.

Vacuum Law

Nature abhors a vacuum—Aristotle said it. Most people agree during house cleaning.

Clean out a closet, and the kids show up so you can store their stuff. Make room in your heart by expressing appreciation, and life rushes in to fill it with more. The vacuum principle.

Appreciation with gratitude makes space. Life fills it with good things.

Final Thought: Love in Action

Let’s equate appreciation with a form of love. Appreciation is love-in-waiting. Gratitude is love-in-motion. When we cultivate both, they don’t just improve our outlook—they shape our reality.

Celebration: Manifesting the Élan of Spirit

Think of a goal you’re working toward. Now imagine how you’d feel if it were already achieved. That sensory experience—how it looks, smells, tastes, sounds, feels—is called sensualization. And it's a powerful tool for manifestation.

Add to that the spirit of celebration, and you’ve got joy in motion.

Now, this doesn’t require confetti, party hat or tweedler. This is about carrying celebration in your core—joy of your goal before attainment. It energizes your journey toward a goal and makes the process fun.

Celebration, The Attitude

Celebration means the feeling of “mission accomplished” even before it physically happens.

Joy is fuel. Enthusiasm is contagious. When you choose to work with a celebratory heart, your work becomes more than a job—it becomes a dance.

It’s not about waiting until you make a million dollars to celebrate—it’s about celebrating the vision now. Feel it. Be it. Mentally pack your bags.

This joy-based approach flips the old Puritan model—work hard, suffer long, then celebrate with a harp on a cloud. Why not celebrate while you build? Joy in your work is the canary in your coalmine. If it dies, your work is out of sync with your true values. Change required.

Celebration Is Inner Victory

Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.”
Let’s add: If you can celebrate it, you can accelerate it.

Celebration is the now-energy of a goal fulfilled. It’s not the trophy—it’s the training montage with theme music playing in your mind.

Which leads us to the powerhouse trio...

The Tres Amigos of Success

• Appreciation = the inner lens of intrinsic value

• Gratitude = appreciation in expression

• Celebration = a joyous heart moved to action

Together, they form a triad of momentum—a propeller that lifts goals off the ground. Of course there are many other attributes for success, belief, stick-to-it-ness, even chance favoring the prepared mind

.Celebration is an affirmative action based on feeling the goal attained, the destination reached or milestone passed, the race won, and the victory grasped. It’s the chariot ride through ancient Rome cheered by adoring throngs.

The accelerated way to manifest goals is to hold in your heart and thoughts the knowingness that the goal is attained right now. That’s joyous! Celebrate attitudinally AS IF the achievement were present in your life. The more you assume that posture, the more IT IS part of your awareness. The more you act like a financially independent person, the more you create and accept the environment for financial independence.

The more you assume the position of dwelling in terrific relationships, the more you attract those exact relationships.

So, “Party on, Garth. Party on, Wayne.” The spirit of celebration sets a joyous tone for the complete sensualization of success-experiences.

A Simple, Transformative Exercise

How to build your Appreciation Engine:

Step 1: Pick a Person or Thing

A spouse, child, friend, job, spiritual endeavor, business… or even yourself.

Step 2: Make That Appreciation List

Write down everything you sincerely appreciate about that person or thing. Start with 10, grow to 25 or more. Be honest—don’t force it. If you have grudges and criticisms, it may grow slowly as you look past those issues as the proactive healer.

Step 3: Read It

Silently or aloud. There’s power in “aloud” as you hear it and utilize a different part of your brain. Genuinely believe each statement as true – don’t overreach. Then when the time is right and natural, you’ll be able to divulge your appreciation, e.g. express gratitude

Step 4: Express It

Let those thoughts naturally inspire gestures—compliments, thank-yous, interest, listening, a helpful act, a shared smile. We don’t sit down and read the list to a person and make it embarrassing and imply that a response is necessary. As we become familiar with our list, we automatically and naturally find opportunity to express a point now and then. Oftentimes a simple “thank you” is all it takes.

Why This Works (Even on Tough Days)

Let’s be real: not every day will feel like a celebration. This is life on earth after all. But practice makes darn-near perfect.

We all have days when molehills become mountains—when a complaint, a refund request, or a criticism can throw you off course.

But with your list, you can recalibrate. Remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Let appreciation reframe the day. It’s like an emotional reset button—without the drama.

Appreciation vs. Criticism

For those who love charts, let’s compare the two forces:

Appreciation Criticism

Grows Shrinks
Compounds value Depletes value
Uplifts Diminishes
Flourishes Withers
Gives back Pushes away
Inspires joy Invites resistance

Appreciation is expansion. Criticism is contraction. Use your right discernment to choose.

Follow-Through with Heart

Dwelling in genuine appreciation opens countless doors in life. It is a secret of success—a competitive edge—and a magic power to both attaining your goals and living a life of wonder.

It doesn’t take a grand gesture. Sometimes a moment’s contemplation opens the way. A kind word can be enough. Or a gesture that says, “I see you. You matter.” It starts with finding a moment to appreciate something – the sunrise, the hibiscus blossoms someone sent seeds for you to enjoy, resolving to speak only kind words today (and trying again tomorrow). Then string them all together, a glass bead game that makes the day’s mundane activities expand into spheres of wonder.

Do it and observe as your life path changes for the better. Truly.

Best wishes in all your uplifting endeavors.

Citations:

[1] Hardell L, Carlberg M. Health risks from radiofrequency radiation, including 5G, should be assessed by experts with no conflicts of interest. Oncol Lett. 2020 Oct;20(4):15. doi: 10.3892/ol.2020.11876. Epub 2020 Jul 15. PMID: 32774488; PMCID: PMC7405337.

[2] Ronald N. Kostoff, Paul Heroux, Michael Aschner, Aristides Tsatsakis, Adverse health effects of 5G mobile networking technology under real-life conditions, Toxicology Letters, Volume 323, 2020, Pages 35-40,

ISSN 0378-4274, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxlet.2020.01.020. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037842742030028X)

[3] 2010. Accessed 6 November 2016. http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000316.

[4] Mills, Paul J.; et al. "The Role of Gratitude in Spiritual Well-being in Asymptomatic Heart Failure Patients." Spiritual Clinical Practice. March 2015. Accessed 7 November 2016. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4507265/.