path Archives - Blocks of Life

May 10, 2025April 9, 2025 by Pete Wiley

Heaven and Hell—The Realms Inside You

I believe in heaven and hell. They are as good (heaven) and as bad (hell) as you might imagine. But to me, they are not places but part of the human condition. We create our own heaven and/or hell inside of us and in our lives. If you have a positive, meaningful life and have a good perspective on how good your life is, you reside in heaven. If you’re petty, narcissistic, and selfish, and you view your life as one of winning and losing, you are in hell. The good news is that you have a choice of where you reside. There are people who have a hard life full of tragedy and heartache that still reside in heaven because they are able to focus on the good parts of their lives and the people who love them. There are also people who have everything they could possibly want but only see the challenges in their lives. They are living in hell by choice.

April 26, 2025April 3, 2025 by Pete Wiley

Pick Up the Pieces—Looking Forward After a Tragedy

I’ve always hated the phrase, “Things happen for a reason.” I much prefer the perspective of opportunity. When people experience a loss, it’s important to process the event as a loss. An event causes pain, and to deny that pain is to deny that part of yourself and inhibit your ability to process the pain. At the same time, a painful event can change the nature of your life. Your existence is based on a certain order of things: your emotional landscape, your connections, your livelihood, and your activities. If one of these is altered or removed, you will move toward a new order of things. This process may be arbitrary, or if you’re intentional, the process can be based on the direction you want to go.

November 23, 2024October 17, 2024 by Pete Wiley

Choosing a Path of Peace

Peace as a concept is underrated. It is often defined by war—specifically, the absence of war. But peace is so much more. Peace is not just the absence of something but a significant presence. Peace doesn’t require the absence of conflict; it requires that it is handled respectfully and open-mindedly. From a personal perspective, peace is not the absence of challenges, heartaches, or stress; it is coming to terms with them. Peace is not a switch—it’s a path you can take.

in Emotions / Proactive / Uncategorized 1 comments

March 4, 2023 by Pete Wiley

Embracing the Mini-Journeys in the Big Journey of Life

Life is a journey. It contains many twists and turns and can be fraught with challenges, risks, and frustrations. It’s daunting to think about life as one big journey, but that’s okay because it is also made up of a multitude of mini-journeys. Like any significant endeavor, it’s helpful to break it up into manageable pieces. In focusing on the mini-journeys, you may also find nuances you otherwise might not have seen. To reverse the old saying, you might miss the trees for the forest. But changing your mindset and embracing your mini-journeys takes intentionality and open-mindedness. It’s easy to engage in business as usual and lose sight of the opportunities along your path. You have to stop, consider, and build an awareness of how you might proceed with your journey and what mini-journeys that will entail.

in Open Mind / Proactive 1 comments

December 25, 2021December 2, 2021 by Pete Wiley

Your Vision as Your Reality—Living Your Ideal Life

Each of us has a vision—the ideal version of our lives.

But what you may not realize is that your overall vision is made up of your day-to-day and moment-to-moment visions. If you can make those mini-visions become real, your overall vision will take care of itself.

In this context, I’m not talking about a major life goal to accomplish or milestones to achieve. I’m talking about what you want your life to be—the ideal version of how you live, how you feel, and what you think. While this does, of course, relate to your accomplishments, it is more about your approach and outlook than about the particulars. How you engage with and interpret all of the people, circumstances, and events along your path will define both your reality and your vision. As much as it feels like many of those elements are out of your control, they’re not. It can be difficult to not let them drive your outlook, but through intentional living, it is possible.

in Mindful / Proactive 0 comments