How many of you out there think about things that have gone wrong in the past? Money issues, relationship issues, stuff like that? Did you know that we are the only creatures that don’t focus on what is happening right now? If you yell at your dog for peeing on the carpet, does that dog feel ashamed for what it did? I’m sure it does, for the moment, but then an hour later your dog is wagging its tail and looking at you to throw the damn ball. Babies are the same way… until they are trained to do otherwise.

So what is it about humans that make us this way? Why do we hyper-focus on things we can’t change? If we’ve made a mistake in the past, why do we beat ourselves up all the time? Do we repeat this pattern? If not, then why go into beat up mode? Even if you do repeat the pattern, learn from the mistake and move forward!

Think about War for a moment. Why are wars fought? Are they fought because of something that is happening right now? Not really. Most of the root causes for any war are because of something that happened in the past. The reason the Christians hate the Muslims is not because of anything that is happening right now. It’s all because of a seed that was planted long ago and the longer it goes on, the harder it is to forget. Ireland is also a great example of this. If people didn’t look into the past they wouldn’t have any reason to fight. War isn’t the only example. Like I stated above… we have a war going on inside of ourselves. We beat ourselves up every day for something we can’t do a damn thing about anymore.

I think society has trained us to believe that if we keep feeling guilty about something than nobody else will throw it in our faces. We remember everything. Hey, I grew up in a small town and went from Kindergarten to my Senior year in High School with most of the same people. Want to talk about people that will remind you of all of your past mistakes? I think what it comes down to is fear. So what is fear anyway? The acronym for fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Meaning… it’s not really there. We just make it show up there. It’s like a reminder that we could mess up if we don’t mind ourselves. Eckhart Tolle wrote a great book called, The Power of NOW. When we concentrate on the NOW we no longer look into our past and see everything that we’ve ‘messed up’. Living in the NOW takes your surroundings right in this moment. Try it right now… focus on just the present. How do you feel right now? I mean, right now, not a couple of minutes ago, or this morning… I mean right this second. I’ll bet you feel just fine. There aren’t any conversations going on in your head reminding you of things in the past, nor of what you have to do for the future.

There is another powerful book that crosses with living in the now… It’s called The Law of Attraction.  Jerry and Esther Hicks started the Law of Attraction movement years ago, then a woman by the name of Rhonda Byrne made it more mainstream when she came out with the movie, The Secret. If you haven’t seen it I encourage you to watch it. It’s Free pretty much anywhere now a days. The Law of Attraction is the name given to the maxim “like attracts like” which in New Thought philosophy is used to sum up the idea that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts a person brings positive or negative experiences into their life. You can also try this out for yourself. It’s actually very practical. I’ve found in my life that whatever I focus on becomes my reality. Make a game out of it. Focus on finding a penny within the next few days. Wake up and say, Today I will find a penny. I guarantee you that if you focus on finding a penny, you will, in fact, find a penny. When that works, up the ante. Keep playing this game with yourself until it is no longer a ‘coincidence’. I personally don’t believe in coincidences. Everything happens for a reason.

If you would like to learn more about either The Power of NOW or the Law of Attraction feel free to reach out to me and we can go into further details on how it can change your life. Book a Reiki session or a coaching session with me. I can help you overcome some of these areas that have been debilitating you for so long. It’s your life. Live it NOW!

Peace,
David

P.S.
You can also read my blog every month in Sin City Presents Magazine.

This morning I woke up, grabbed some coffee and started working on my website and ran across this blog that I had written back in November of 2015. It’s an important time in my life right now where I think that it is worth reposting. And as the Universe works, it slapped me in the face with this and told me to follow my own advice. You see, I needed this reminder this morning because for the last week or two I’ve been stressed out. Stressed out because of the lack of money coming in, instead of looking at what I have right now in my life.

I have a beautiful Fiance who is completely supportive of me, my Reiki Practice is growing and I’m getting new clients every day, I have the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute going strong and the new Stone Temple Pilots Tribute taking off like wildfire. And if that isn’t enough I’ve got a killer Metal Band with an ever growing fanbase. So, again… I’m being redundant… this was a very important reminder to myself and hopefully it is for you as well.
David

(Reposted from November 2015)

When I started studying the Law of Attraction one of the first things I learned was to look at everything in my life as a blessing. This was back in early 2000’s. I had to totally reconfigure my brain. Seriously. I mean, I’ve always been a positive guy, but there was much more too it. I was externally positive. I was kind to the people around me or anybody that I would meet, but inside I was constantly beating myself up for not doing this, or not doing that. My life sucks, etc. Well guess what? My life did suck. It did because I didn’t believe any different. Once I started changing my internal dialog, that is when my life started changing all around. On the outside I was still the same person. Nobody really saw a major difference in me, but I was much happier and had a much broader outlook on life.

So what did I do?

Like I mentioned… I had to change my internal dialog. I had to take baby steps at first. If it rained outside I wouldn’t say, “Oh no. It’s going to be muggy today.” I’d change it around and say, “Wow! Rain. This is awesome!” Sometimes I felt like I was completely bullshitting myself, but I would still continue being positive for everything that happened. Everything! You’ve got to fake it until you make it. Once you start getting into the routine of ‘faking it’ eventually it will start happening automatically. I would start the first thing in the morning before I got out of bed. My dialog to myself was, “Today is going to be an amazing day. What can I create today?” I found myself jumping out of bed, welcoming the new day and all it had to offer. When you start doing this you will be surprised at how many opportunities you have come to you. Positive, like-minded souls will start popping up everywhere. They were always there but when you have your blinders on you just don’t see them. You can’t be a vibrational match to something if you’re on a different vibration yourself. Think of it like a radio. If the station you want to listen to is 94.3 and you are on 92.8… you just aren’t going to be able to hear it. Seems silly, but this is how it works.

We are all vibrations. And whatever frequency we resonate at, that is what we will attract. Like attracts like. It’s just the way it is whether you believe in all the metaphysical mumbo jumbo or not. It’s still our reality.

Do you find yourself in a certain crowd that you don’t want to be a part of? Want to make them disappear? Change your vibration. One of two things will happen. A:) They won’t want to hang around you anymore or B:) You’ll start noticing patterns similar to who you are that you don’t like. It doesn’t mean that these people are bad. It just means that they are on a different vibration than you and they are living their life the way that they believe it to be. And…. This does not mean that you get to preach to them. I can’t stand people who preach. To me they are people who need to have more people on their side to confirm what they are doing. You don’t need any more validation that your own internal dialog. But this is a whole different topic. I don’t want to stray too far away from the subject.

So what can you do for support?

Like any professional, be it a Major League Baseball player or a Singer… you have a coach. No matter what level you are on you need to have somebody there to challenge you. I don’t recommend your partner, I would find somebody you are not in relationship with. Why? Because a good coach will challenge you. A good coach will piss you off at times because they are getting you to think outside of the box. I remember my first coach. I loathed the idea of talking to this person every day. It was exhausting because at the beginning of the day they would say, “So David. What are you going to create today?” It drove me mad. Not just because they would say that but because they would ask me for specific things that I created the day before. And I had to prove it! I had to be accountable for all of my actions. But that coach never took anything personally because they knew it had nothing to do with them.

I got my chance to coach people and some of those people still stay in touch with me today. It’s a very humbling position to be in. Again, it’s not about you… the Ego stays out of it. You are there to guide another person, to get them to think outside of their box. Some boxes are different sizes.

Remember that everybody is on their own journey and your journey is not theirs.

So… every day I want you to count your blessings. I want you to wake up and count all the positive things in your life. You will be surprised at how many positive things you can add up. If you want help… if you need a coach I can do this or I can get you somebody that you are comfortable with.

Namaste,
David

Six years ago today my sister Darlene left this plane for yet another one. It seems like it was an eternity ago and also yesterday. It’s an odd feeling. Darlene was an amazing soul who was a Healer/Chiropractor. I admired what she did because it furthered me along on my spiritual path. It was Darlene that introduced me to things like Bach Remedies and the holistic world. It was her that I would call when in need of council. I remember vividly living in Boulder, Colorado getting my car worked on and spending an hour or so on the phone with her. It was the last long conversation we would have, you see she was in the final stages of her disease (Sjögren’s) and was at peace with it. She told me that she was not going to make it and that life was short. She told me that I needed to get off of my ass and use what God gave me and that if I let it go to waste then I was a fool.

I brushed off that conversation a few times. Out of fear. Out of fear of failure. Too many times I’ve done this in my life. What is fear anyway? There is a great acronym for it; False Evidence Appearing Real.

A month or so later I was in New York City recording an album with a group. I took a day off and headed up to Connecticut where Darlene was in the hospital. I met the family up there, us laughing and joking as we’ve always done, we didn’t want Darlene to see us sad, we were there to cheer her up when it fact it was the other way around. We were there for Darlene, our rock, to console us and let us know that everything was going to be ok. She was very frail but still had her sense of humor, her laugh… an unmistakable laugh that I still hear in my head. Everyone of us sat with her and when it was my time to sit with her she reiterated what she had told me on the phone no more than a month earlier…

“David… Live your life to its fullest and don’t look back. You have a gift, use it. Don’t waste it away.”

There is a song that reminds me of what she said and I’ve since adopted that song as a reminder of her words. It might just be a wake up call for you as well. Take a listen.
Tim McGraw – Live like you were Dying

That was the last time I saw her.

When she passed I packed everything into my pick-up truck and moved to Los Angeles to do what I am doing today. It hasn’t been easy, but I know now I’m living on my own terms and giving of myself to the world. It doesn’t seem like six years to me because I’ve done so much in the last six years, it seems like a whole other life, it has been a whole other life and I thank her for kicking me in the ass to do it. Sometimes it takes a tragedy to wake us up. I never want to be on my death bed saying, “I wish I woulda.”

When I went back to Connecticut for her memorial I could not believe the amount of people that were there. Literally hundreds of people that I didn’t know. People that she had healed, who loved her just as much as I loved her. It was humbling to listen to people tell me how my sister had changed their lives and made them who they are today. It was my sister that believed in them enough to get them to believe in themselves.

Most people in this world are afraid of Death. They are afraid of dying. What they should be more afraid of is… not living. Life & Death, Yin/Yang, Light/Dark… You can’t have one without the other, nor should you want one without the other. Without Death people would not truly live. So if there is a lesson in all of this, it is that Life is mean’t to be lived and that living our own lives is necessary if only as an example for others, but most importantly because it is our life. If you are just living your life going to work for some half assed job so you can buy stuff so you can be ‘happy’, you are fooling yourself. Once you do what you were mean’t to do here then, and only then, will you be happy. So do like my sister said, “Get off your ass and start living.”

Darlene left us here to carry on her work. My sisters Michelle, Nicole and Lezette and my brothers Fred, Derek and Erek. Seven siblings thrown together in this world, Darlene the Eighth. The symbol of Infinity, eternal life, never ending, as I believe we all are.

Darlene… Thank you for reminding me once again, who I am.
Peace,
David

P.S.
The picture that you see is of Darlene on her wedding day. She and her husband Barry were together until her passing. So I hold this day special in my heart for him as well and I admire him for doing like the song says, “Live like you were dying.”

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Believe in Yourself

Let me start off by saying this.. believing in yourself, and taking care of yourself first is not selfishness.

I remember years ago I was told that believing in yourself is not selfishness, it was hard to hear because the way I was raised was to put others before myself. As I’ve grown on my spiritual path I have adopted this philosophy of taking care of myself first… it was difficult at first but the more I practiced it the more I realized that by serving myself I was also serving others.

What do I mean by this?

When you start taking care of your own needs first, and you are honest about what you feel and who you truly are, you are going to weed out a lot of people in your life. That is ok. You can’t make everyone happy, nor should you want to. Eventually though you will find someone that is on the same vibration that you are, someone that believes in themselves as much as you believe in you. You’ve heard me talk before about ‘mirror’s’. When I talk about mirrors what I am talking about is this… when you look in the mirror you see yourself, if you look in the mirror and you see someone that is miserable, unhappy, insecure, etc., do you really think that you’re going to get back something else? Let me elaborate. You can’t have what you are not. It’s impossible. It might happen, yes, but it will be brief because the other person will eventually see your true colors. So, no matter what you want in this world you have to be honest with yourself and honest with the other person.

It’s a hard lesson, but a worthwhile one. I wouldn’t have who I have in my life now did I not look in the mirror and become who I truly am. I have who I have in my life now because I am reflecting who I am. I wrote a song called The Mirror of your Soul with D.N.A.. I wrote this song after dating a narcissist. I believe though that everything happens for a reason. Had I not have had this experience I never would have taken a look at who I really am. Everything happens for a reason… Everything.

What did I learn from this and how can it help you?

Take it from a guy that has taken the backseat in many relationships. I’m not blaming them, quite the contrary, I was to blame for all of them. Why? Because I wasn’t in the relationships for me, at first I was, but after a period of time I was in them for somebody else. It was either to please a family member or to prove to the other in the relationship that I could become what they needed me to be in order to make them happy. It’s a lose/lose situation because you can never make somebody else happy, that is their responsibility. Now, that doesn’t mean that you cannot add to another persons happiness, but you can not, and let me say this again… you can’t be responsible for somebody else’s happiness or unhappiness. It’s impossible. But I tried, and I failed many times. It was a pattern of mine to do everything in my power to make someone happy, to prove to them that I could do it. The pattern would last for about 3-5 years before I internally blew up. I would run away, I would start resenting them or I would go find somebody else, and the person I was with at the time would be left standing there dumbfounded not understanding what the hell was going on. They never knew because I would beat myself up inside, convincing myself that I could change for that person.

It wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles that all of this changed. I was forced to be alone. I forced myself for the most part. I recognized the patterns by learning more about myself. It took me being alone, with myself, to really look deep into who I really was and what I really wanted. Yes, I dated here and there, and sometimes I would fall back into the pattern, but this time it was different. I recognized the pattern. That was the key. Sometimes it would only take one date, sometimes a month, but I looked at what I wanted first. Was this person serving who I really wanted to be to the world? Were we both in alignment of what we both needed? How could I serve that person while also serving myself? Millions of questions would come up, and each time I would meditate on it to see if I was falling back into an old pattern or not.

Who are you seeing in the mirror? Who do you want to see in the mirror?

Start taking care of yourself and that reflection will change. Trust me.

Namaste,
David

P.S.
This blog can also be read in the Sin City Presents Magazine.