Andrew Hand

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Inspirational Video – Never Give Up On Your Dreams

Want to watch this on YouTube? Here’s the link: Inspirational Video – Never Give Up On Your Dreams

If you’ve ever struggled with Adversity or Struggle, you’re not alone.  I’ve been crippled by them in my own life at times.  The one thing that really continues to keep me going are my dreams and the feeling that I’m here on earth to fulfill a purpose.

Hopefully this is an inspirational video message and will hit you at a timely moment on your own journey.  I’ve always found it quite amazing how I’ve stumbled my way onto content that has greatly encouraged me in my own journey just when I most needed it.  Like it was the perfect message, designed for me and just there waiting!

I also want to say that despite the stories I share or however inspirational or non-inspirational you may find me – I’m just a regular human being facing the same challenges we all do.  I will say that I’ve been fortunate to find tools that just help me bounce out of rough patches faster than I used to.

If you’ve been struggling and find yourself running the hamster wheel of the same emotional cycles – believe me, I get it!  It can feel so debilitating to know you’re capable of living a different reality yet be stuck.  I’ve spent multiple 7yr patches of my life in these spots.

The biggest thing I could hope for you is to that you continue to listen to your heart, follow your dreams and passions, and create a positive psychological relationship with yourself.  To love ourselves beyond measure is one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.

You don’t have to have great self worth or love to accomplish things in life – but without it, the world is a rather hollow, cold, and negative place to be.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments, so please feel free to share!  Sending my thoughts your way…

 

Andrew

Why Being the Hero Might Destroy Your Happiness

Focus.  Focus is a word that defines so much of our reality.  Where we are in our lives, where we are in our careers.  Are we happy enough, healthy enough, doing enough of what excites us?

In this quest to see ourselves, create balance, and build our perfect life, where is the right place to focus?

I used to believe that vision was the paramount ingredient in living a life that mattered.  Do everything you can in service to the vision!  Then, I began thinking purpose was the defining point of clarity to make life meaningful.

Define your purpose and suddenly life gets so much easier and clearer.  All your actions become congruent to a master mission.

As I continued to get no closer to my vision and I seemed to be further and further from actually fulfilling my purpose, I began to look towards community as perhaps the piece that I’d been missing.  Though this seemed much closer to living a happier life, it too left me feeling unfulfilled.

I’d done great spiritual work, felt very content in my own energy, experienced extreme inner peace and meditative bliss for months on end:  Yet, I felt no closer to being the higher version of myself I saw.  I started to think, ‘maybe I’ve got a serious chemical imbalance here.’

As I began to push myself to feel okay, despite the chemical shifts I felt in my brain, things became easier, but I didn’t feel any closer to the vision I had for myself.

Then, something changed.

A friend and musical collaborator killed himself.  I saw the vision of who I wanted to be live in front of me and I felt hollow.  I leapt into the unknown and I felt alive again.  Then, wound up sitting in a room with all my old journals:  The history of my adult life lay before me.

As I opened the pages, what I saw was the same patterns repeating, over and over and over again.  Feel a new clarity has been reached, take action with joy and belief, see actions fail, grow despondent, sink into depression, and question entire point to life, find way out, and then repeat.

Was I living out the hero’s journey over and over, year after year?

It’s like I was forever caught in the loop of hearing the call of my vision, answering the call with purpose, taking action, sinking into the pit, finding the answer for how to move out, ascending to new heights, celebrating my victories and feeling THIS was finally it.  I finally would be the hero to my own life and BE who I longed to be.

It never happened.  It still hasn’t happened.  But, something has changed.

I’ve let go of needing to be the hero.  I’ve realized that living each day and trying to be the best version of myself is all I can really control.  I can’t bend the universe to my will.  I can’t make my dreams happen.  I know others can and have, but I have had no success with this approach and generally it’s left me with nothing but stress and angst at not being where I long to be.

So what’s this mean for you?

I think that by letting go of who we “need” and “want” to be and by focussing on who we are, there is a freedom that comes with that shift.

This doesn’t mean we don’t seek to grow, change, reach goals, follow our purpose, and passions, but it does mean that we’ve let go of needing a result, needing a victory and to be the hero to our stories.

I’ve seen my life flash before my eyes.  I’ve felt great meditative bliss.  I’ve felt great love, loss, and the depths of depression, but I’ve never let go of needing to be a hero.

As I’ve made this subtle shift of letting go of the outcome, I feel a general sense of ease that I haven’t felt for a long time.  Beyond that of a blissed out meditative state, this one feels firmly grounded and rooted in actual life experience, as opposed to just living in the spiritual bliss of the present moment.

My life purpose and vision remain the same as they have for decades.  The only thing that’s changed is my focus.  Instead of looking at a destination, I’m focussed on the journey and stepping forward each day as the best version of myself that I can be.

Refuse to Settle

I’ve been thinking today about a post I wrote earlier titled 7 Steps for Positive Change.

In this post I talked about how I often struggle to maintain a positive mindset and fall back into depression.  This got me thinking…

Why should I settle and accept this story?  If I desire a life on a whole new level from where I’ve been living, doesn’t that require me to abandon old stories that don’t serve me?  Even if it’s at the cost of being “relatable” to those struggling with depression?

What I mean is; I don’t plan to become someone who is always “awesome” and doesn’t have vulnerability, but why not draw a line in the sand and say, “I refuse to allow depression to take control of me.”?

I know more challenges will come in life, but why allow them to knock me down.  We can feel sad without feeling overwhelmed and hopeless.

I’m more writing this for my own internal process, but I feel a shift has to happen to move into a true life of success, contribution, and sustained happiness.  I feel that life IS possible.

What I’d like to propose for myself and any of you who might find this is the following:

Let us accept that depression is real.  Let us accept that if we allow it to take hold, we are responsible for that.  Let us accept that in every moment there is a choice.  There is a mental line in the sand…

Either, stand on the side of feeling down and giving away our power to negative thoughts and emotions, or…

Stand on the side that says NO.  I am sad, I am confused, I AM uncertain, or whatever the feelings may be, but I refuse to stand for anything other than the positive outlook that I am moving through this back to joy and peace.

That’s my commitment.  I’ve got to change.  I refuse to settle!

I know this resolve will be tested, I know I will fail, but I know which side of the line I will continue to stand on.  I’m done with the old side.

If you happen to be reading this I hope a.) it’s provided some value to you and b.) that you’ll share your experience with me in the comments.

Sending my thoughts out your way,

Andrew

7 Step Pattern Interrupt for Positive Change

I wanted to share this video with you in hopes that it might provide some useful ideas for when you’re going through a tough day or just having a moment of overwhelm, frustration, or feeling stuck.  I call it the 7 Step Pattern Interrupt for Positive Change, mostly because that’s easiest to remember ;-)

I don’t want to pretend or gloss over the fact that life is hard and we face MANY challenges.  I consider myself very fortunate, that despite my struggles with depression, I have lived a very good life, free from extreme suffering.

The ideas in this video are just steps that seem to consistently be part of the formula that helps me bounce out of the negative zones I get into.  Sometimes they last a long time and I don’t actually get out of them due to anything I’ve done…often I’m too depressed to WANT to change my state and I prefer to wallow in my depression.

I don’t know if you can relate, but if you can…I understand and I’m sending my thoughts and energy out to you and hope that through our connection, I can provide something useful to you in your life to increase your moments of joy.

So, these steps came about the other day because I was in another pattern of feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, uncertain, and not knowing what to do to make a change in my life.

I decided that the best thing to do was to just start writing in my journal and asking myself some questions.  Pattern Interrupts are something I first learned about from Tony Robbins.  Although I value Tony’s work, I’ve never been able to just change my state and suddenly catapult my life into some extraordinary place.  Now I don’t discount that this can happen, but in my experience, the shifts for me are more subtle and slow moving, not to mention cyclical.

Maybe I’m just not as mentally strong or am lazy in building a more consistent psychological state, I don’t know.  All I know is that I desire to have more good days than bad and would like to grow into a better version of myself…

The first question I asked myself is “what is ONE thing that I can do right now to feel better?” – that answer came back as breathe.

As I began to take some deep breaths, my nervous system began to calm down and as I relaxed, the corners of my mouth began to turn upwards into a slight smile.

I can’t tell you exactly what’s happening chemically when you’re breathing deeply and smiling, but I do know that the dopamine and serotonin begin flowing and correspond with a state of contentment, peace, and well-being.  So, it’s no surprise that in this state, I started to appreciate the beauty around me.  A quick Google search will show that low levels of serotonin and dopamine correspond with depression…so obviously we need ways to increase their amount if we’re ever going to stand a chance of moving OUT of depression.

Once I was smiling, breathing, and appreciating the beauty around me, and obviously now being flooded with dopamine and serotonin, I wanted to get up and move around.

Walking has been shown to increase creative inspiration and boost your mood and, as I waited for inspiration to strike in answer to what I needed to do to feel better, an idea came to me to just start writing about this experience.

Interestingly enough, a Stanford study showed that creative inspiration was increased by 60% in students who walked for anywhere from 5-16 minutes during, and after walking.  They noted it was especially helpful in those searching for an answer to a problem.  Pretty cool!

I realize that I’m not expressing anything new, but in writing things you already know and likely already have used in the past, my hope is that this post serves as a catalyst or reminder to create a useful method for you to add into your day.

The last two steps are just to take action on the idea/inspiration you’ve received and then to celebrate that positive action.

Taking action is one of the hardest things to do in my experience, but it’s also the only thing that creates a change.  I think the thing that excites me most is that by just priming yourself through breathing, smiling, and moving with appreciation for the beauty of life/nature, taking action then becomes MUCH easier.

Once you’ve done something to move yourself into taking action, you’re likely already feeling much better and I think that it’s really important to honor and celebrate that.  Be proud of yourself that you actually took control of your mental state and actively changed it.  That is pretty incredible and is good evidence to show that YOU have the ability to be in control of your thoughts and feelings.

Now I know that it’s not that easy all the time.  As I said before, I often lack the desire to change and oddly find comfort in my depression, but I KNOW this is limiting and it doesn’t serve me.  My goal for myself and for you would be that we more consistently practice an active changing of our mental states.

Don’t we deserve more?  Don’t we deserve to live with as much happiness and joy as we’re capable of creating?  I feel the answer is yes and I hope you do as well.

I hope you have gotten value from this and also that my song “The Best Day” that plays at the end of the video can be part of stoking the fires of joyfulness.  You can get that song, as well as many more in a similar vein in my Studio Classics Collection.

In closing, try these 7 Steps out (It can literally just take a few minutes or less) and see if they work for you…

1.) Breathe deeply a few times

2.) Smile, even if just slight…it will get bigger

3.) Notice the beauty around you/appreciate or practice some gratitude

4.) Stand up, go for a walk, or just move around for a few minutes staying in this relaxed breathing/smiling state

5.) Wait for an answer or inspiration to come for the question, frustration, or dilemma you’re facing

6.) Take immediate action towards that, no matter how small.  THAT is your momentum for continued action

7.) Now celebrate what you’ve done.  Feel good about consciously making a change

I’d love to hear from you in the comments below and if you’re not already subscribed to me…you can do that below.

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