Macho Nouveau Is For Men And Women

Tao Of Yummi Sutra 24

Does macho, which means “aggressive pride in one’s masculine identity as a tough guy,” have a female equivalent? Shouldn’t there be an equivalent term for women? Aren’t women every bit as tough — and is ‘tough’ enough to be ‘macho’ or does power need to evolve?

What should a man aspire to be? What should a woman aspire to be? Why should there be any difference in the aspiration around what inspires us?

“Macho nouveaux (plural for nouveau)” are referential to both men and women. Regardless of gender, you face opportunities to define what it means to hold power. Even if the playing field is not level, you must make a conscious decision about how to use what you have.

To hold power is to hold potential. This potential can actualize as creation that gives, extraction that takes or destruction that annihilates. One out of three of these adds value.

You can see the spectrum of power usage in the competition for political power, as male and female candidates, who aspire to lead, exercise innate power by fanning the fires of fear and anger — or kindling the flames of hope and purpose.

Fear exercises a gravitational force that carries people away from the moment, as they attach to concepts designed to arouse anxiety about losing what they have or missing out on what they might have. Ignorant of the current moment, fear leads to anger, which is destructive…of value and values, respect, compassion and love, both for one’s Self and others.

Hope implies faith in the Universe unfolding as it should. This faith enables you to release expectations and become mindful in the moment. Hope inspires purpose, which is creative…of value and values, respect, compassion and love, both for one’s Self and others. Actualize your potential in service of value creation. You can cast blame or cast your vote. It’s up to you.

The Juiciest Juice: What Truly Inspires

‘The things’ in your life are here for you to enjoy, and there’s nothing ‘less than’ about enjoying ‘the things’. However, when it comes to the inspiration you give and receive in life — is it ‘the things’ in your possession, or ‘the work’ that you’ve done –choices you’ve made and authentic value you’ve created — to earn ‘the things’ which truly guides and deeply inspires?

Likewise, ‘the things’ in your life can be lost, stolen, wear out, or become obsolete. When you identify yourSelf by ‘the things’ in your life, and something happens (which it will) to ‘the things’, what happens to you? Does your sense of values change? Does your orientation to help or the intention you set to value creation go away? Do you somehow become less essential as part of the fabric of the Universe?

You will always be an essential part of the Universe unfolding. The love you give and receive is ever-present and unlimited. All else is transitory. Even the body you inhabit is temporary. Care for it. Nurture it. Shape your body into a physical vessel you love to inhabit. Although your body will age, who you are in this body only becomes more and more yourSelf, enriched by mindful experience in each current moment.

‘The things’ in your life are not you. What makes you yourSelf, fortunately, is. What will you use to inspire others?

Earn Money To Survive, Earn Trust To Thrive

Does genuine compassion come from a desire to please others? Compassion is inspiration to create the value that helps end the suffering. Pleasing others is about attaching to expectations for the future. When you attach to expectations, it carries you away from the current moment, where your authentic self resides. To know genuine compassion, you must first know compassion for yourSelf.

Authentic value originates deep in yourSelf as well. You are here to help, and have value to give, but this does not necessarily mean that you please others as you do ‘the work’ to help end the suffering. Seeking approval through pleasing others is an orientation that originates in a feeling of ‘less than’. You are never ‘less than’ and always enough.

Those who create authentic value to lessen suffering are here to help move things forward. They have value to give, just as you do. Realize that you are enough and unlock the authentic value that is yours’ to give. With the courage to share your vision, you can take the steps to bring it to life.

You earn trust through the value you create. Trust makes change sustainable. At the beginning, before the vision is known to work, it requires trust to start. Even when the vision is coming to life, trust is required to see it through. When it is vision no more, but authentic value brought to life in the Universe, trust becomes belief. Moment after moment, belief becomes faith. When you’ve earned faith, the cycle has become sustainable. You earn money to survive. You earn trust to thrive.

Instead Of Flashing Cash, Flash Inspiration

Do you see people using their resources to inspire or intimidate? Intimidation is part of the “zero-sum game” where one must lose for another to win. Specifically, intimidation is intended to make others feel ‘less than’ so that the “zero-sum gamer” can feel like they are enough. This is an illusion. No one wins the “zero-sum game” because value is destroyed when it could otherwise be created. When you set your intention to value creation, your goal is to inspire — both yourSelf and others.

The decisions you make, in each moment, are opportunities to demonstrate authentic value. The value you create, as you live into purpose, is how you make your living. You earn a paycheck to survive, but isn’t your living, aka life, bigger than any paycheck? While your paycheck allows you to survive, without a living greater than a paycheck, how will you thrive?

The direction you face is forward. Living into purpose is the way to meet each opportunity. Being mindful in the moment is how you open to the delightful and unexpected: inspiration and creativity. This is the life you lead and the living you make. No matter how much you have, you are always worth more than money. YourSelf is who you are.

Flash inspiration instead of cash.

All Hail The Power Of The Soft Sweet And Beautiful

What force is more powerful than Nature? All must bow to the force of Nature. Although nature’s power shows through earthquakes and hurricanes, it also manifests in the power of beauty and love.

Is beauty powerful? Homer famously says that beauty launched a thousand ships for the Trojan War. If beauty can launch ships for war, it can also unify hearts for peace. What about beautiful taste, or deliciousness? Beautiful texture, or softness? The experience of beauty inspires. It is within your power to create value that inspires rather than fear that engenders pain and suffering.

Bees can sting, but they also create honey. Rain can storm and sun can burn, but it also creates the most gorgeous looking and smelling, soft and lush, petals of flowers. The cycle of life in nature is sustainable all by itself…filled with the delightful and unexpected, inspiration and creativity. This is all around you, unfolding in each moment.

You are woven into this fabric as an essential part of the Universe unfolding. What is the barrier between your spirit and your mind; your mind and your body; your body and the rest of the Universe? You cannot name it because there is no barrier between you and the greater Universe, and so you are greater than any single isolated point. This is your authentic nature. You can manifest power as soft, sweet and beautiful as the petal of a flower.

The Power Of Your Choice

From creation to destruction — inspiration to intimidation, power is only sustainable when based in trust, love and authenticity. Power must be jealously protected if it is based on greed, fear and pain, and intended to intimidate.

What is intimidation, but attachment to fear? Does it create impact to bring the hammer down? Of course, and the impact manifests as pain and fear. It definitely makes an impression, if not an outright dent. However, does the power of pain and fear sustain itself? No, as soon as people can find a way out, they do. There is no sustainable allegiance to pain and fear. This is why despots keep ‘the people’ down. Totalitarian rule is based on intimidation rather than inspiration — a cycle of fear — fear created in the hearts of ‘the people’ because the ruler is fearful of ‘the people’ rising up.

As you live into purpose you begin to release attachments and become more mindful in the moment, engaging in a sustainable cycle. Without attachment, as you become mindful in the moment, you open to the delightful and unexpected: inspiration and creativity. As you open to inspiration and creativity, and create value, you see that the value you have to give is authentic, and special, after all. As you observe the value that is yours’ to give as authentic and special after all, you become more purposeful, realizing that you have the power to help. Fortunately, you are here to help. Mindful in the moment, which is all that is, you open to the delightful and unexpected…the sustainable power of authenticity, love and inspiration.

Faith!