Lifestyle
Tending the Mind Garden Part 1:
You can’t spell Winter without Win
“No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn”
Hal Borland
I have no idea who Hal Borland is but I’m sure he’d be proud his quote finally made it into The Beartaria Times.
I’m feeling very motivated and uplifted as winter comes to a close, and would like to share some of that with you. For context, I’ll get you caught up on just a little bit of what’s been going on in my life this last year. This is going to be a 2 maybe 3 part series about cultivating an anti-fragile mentality starting at the very ground level where all tricks begin: The mind. I’ll share some methods you can use to help get your thoughts and spirit in order. The journey may be difficult, but your attitude will turn that into a win every time. My intention is that you find at least one or two golden nuggets from this and can apply them immediately to your life.
The One Man Board Room
I have recently started a profitable local small business with no money in the middle of winter in Wyoming. It’s a handyman business and is something many handy Bears who require money or a different job could start. As my unemployment money ran out and my savings dwindled, the pucker factor was high. Without hesitating, I created a rough business plan on the fly, and began making a website and setting up the business back end. This included social media pages, logo design, payment processing, and so on.
The business launched in December 2020. I had done minimal market research but was certain my skills with home repairs and remodeling were in demand in my area. Almost immediately I felt the doubts and fears weighing heavily on me. As the last of my savings dwindled, I was considering how many squirrels I could convince my girlfriend to eat. Squirrels are free, organic, and have a largely vegan diet which I’m sure any health conscious homeless people can appreciate. Thankfully it hasn’t come to that yet. With this stress pushed to the back of my mind I kept leaning into the tasks I needed to get done. Just one step forward, and then the next. I am reminded of my time in some of the more difficult military schools I’ve attended. You must win in your mind first in order to survive the harsh training. Any negative thought that rises must be dealt with quickly.
Note: Negativity is the energy you put on a situation or problem that needs to be addressed. For example: If you’re feeling crushed or weighed down emotionally when you get a flat tire, YOU respond with that energy and YOU need to learn to shift out of feeling bad (i.e. afraid, worried, despair) when problems pop up. Instead, you must cultivate the ability to keep a good attitude when dealing with problems. Having a sense of humor about it, and making a decision carefully but QUICKLY to solve the problem are a must.
Keep Your Mind Fertile
Just as the height of my anxiety kicked in, I reached out to Heaven in gratitude and really began to relax and let go. This happened almost in a flash. I felt the fear fall away and then the phone started to ring and jobs started to come to me. I leaned further on my faith and became increasingly grateful for the abundance that God has already blessed me with and will continue to bless me with in the future. It was important for me to keep my mind “fertile” with gratitude and a winning attitude. I felt like God had realigned my spirit with the path he has laid out for me. You must seek the Creator and humble yourself to His will for this to work for you long term.
I am always grateful for the times the Heavenly Father has graciously given me clear help and inspiration. The point I want to drive home is that for you to win, you have to be active on the field. It’s much like when your car breaks down in the middle of the road and a kind stranger shows up suddenly and starts pushing your car. When that happens, the right thing to do is get out and help push while taking the wheel and guiding the car to safety. Like the kind stranger, God will do His part, and you should do your best to help even if it’s just as a gesture of gratitude.
Two are better than One
One key element that I know Creator God brought into my life exactly when He knew I would need it, was the calm, positive presence of my girlfriend (Blonde Genius Bear). Having a good partner who understands this battle of the mind is such a blessing.
“When life throws hot oil at you, make fried chicken!“
Nighthawk Bear (while attacking a castle, no doubt)
For those of you in relationships, it’s a good idea to really take this to heart and help coach one another when you’re undergoing a rigorous time of growth. Like a spotter in the gym, your significant other is there to help you shoulder the weight and keep moving. It’s really beautiful to experience. I wish this for all of you.
Healthy, Holy and Whole
The specific things I do to help “push my car” are a pretty standard part of treating my mind, body, and soul holistically.
The word Holistic comes from the Greek word holos or “whole.” Interestingly, I believe the word “Holy” also comes from this same root. To be Holy, is to be healthy and whole. If your mind or spirit is feeling downtrodden or you can’t shake some doubts and fears (or worse), you may have a “Soul Cold” and need to detox.
I won’t fully discuss every possible part of a good soul detox otherwise you’ll be reading this until NEXT winter. So, for the sake of time, I will list a quick checklist of the basics so you can self-assess that you’re at least not actively poisoning your own spirit with the following:
Soul Detox
In holistic healing, the first step is to STOP POISONING YOURSELF. This goes for your mind and soul as well. This is a super critical part of tending your mind garden.
- Stop watching the news, and movies/shows (Stop wasting time. It’s ok to cut loose a little bit every now and then, but if you’re watching movies every weekend, and bingeing on TV shows, you’re doing yourself and your community a disservice).
- Repent (meaning “turn away from”) any unhealthy or dishonorable or “bad” behavior (drunkenness, unfaithfulness, the “big 10”, etc)
- Forgive any wrongs done to you (easier said than done but this is a MUST)
- Monitor your “self talk” for anything overtly negative and even destructive
- Focus on gratitude (more on this later)
- Clean up your diet one item at a time (Clean eating is a must. You don’t have to do it all right away, but begin making progress, learning about this NOW)
Changing your life is a constant process. You’re either improving, or you are sliding down hill. You never stay the same. Don’t worry if you feel behind on making these changes. Make the commitment to start now. Don’t stare too long on the past. Remember that a small changes done consistently (this is KEY) over time, will lead to monumental progress when you look back even 2 years from now. There are volumes of examples I could write on this, but this will give you the building blocks to begin your personal lifestyle shift if you need one.
Recap
You are not on your own in making your life better or overcoming challenges, but you are responsible for taking action and doing the work of moving forward. If you stay in motion, and seek the path of the Creator, you will be fine. If you stop moving forward, or get too bogged down by unhealthy influences in your mind or body (most importantly the MIND) you will stumble. That’s ok, just work on stumbling less and cleaning up your life.
Remember this (you have no excuse to feel “surprised” once you know this): Even after you feel like you’ve mastered basics, you will still reach incredibly difficult times in your life where you’ll wonder “what did I get myself into.” That’s ok, that part is called Growth. Lean into it, and focus on being grateful for your life and the blessings in it. I will write more on the actual practical application of gratitude in the near future. It’s almost as if it’s a jet fuel of sorts that will fuel your ability to recover from punches that life throws at you.
Until next time, turn that hat backwards, turn into the wind, and slap a huge grin on your face. The wind brings change. For those who have the courage to go and see what’s out there, may the change ever be in your favor.
Lifestyle
Preppers Rarely Share These Invaluable Tips
When we think about prepping, images of stockpiled food, alternative energy sources, water filtration systems, and survival gear usually come to mind. These elements are vital for self-reliance and resilience in challenging times, and they form the backbone of material preparedness. Yet there are other equally essential, often-overlooked dimensions to preparedness, things that might not come up as frequently but are invaluable for long-term success.
In prepping circles, the conversations are rich in talk about physical and material assets, but there are hidden aspects, like mindset, personal character, and community bonds, that strengthen an individual and create a lasting foundation for true resilience. Here are the often-unspoken, but invaluable, elements that can make all the difference in facing an uncertain future.
- Personal Development: The Foundation of All Preparedness
Stockpiling resources only goes so far without a strong personal foundation. A prepper’s mindset often includes adaptability, problem-solving, and a deep commitment to learning. Developing these skills requires intentional growth in areas like self-discipline, critical thinking, and stress management. By expanding these strengths, you’re preparing yourself to adapt to new or unexpected situations, not just sticking to rigid plans.
Skills like cooking, first aid, or learning how to work with your hands are often emphasized, but underlying these is the ability to learn and grow as needed. Personal development is an unspoken but essential part of becoming truly self-sufficient.
- Mindset and Character: Building Inner Resilience
A survivalist’s mindset is more than just a belief in being prepared; it’s about the willingness to persevere through discomfort, loss, and setbacks. When challenges arise, mindset and character provide the fortitude to keep going. This includes developing patience, emotional regulation, and the ability to stay calm under pressure.
Character and integrity come into play when resources are limited and decisions get difficult. If a crisis tests the moral boundaries of a community or family, those with a foundation of integrity can navigate challenges without compromising their values or making decisions they’d later regret.
- Perseverance: Embracing the Long Game
One of the greatest assets in preparedness is perseverance. Often, those new to prepping go through cycles of enthusiasm followed by discouragement if they hit financial or logistical setbacks. The ones who truly make preparedness a lifestyle don’t approach it as a “project” but as a consistent, long-term journey.
Real resilience comes from the willingness to keep improving your situation, whether that means adding to your skill set, restocking your supplies, or staying physically and mentally fit. Perseverance is the unshakeable commitment to keep moving forward, even if progress feels slow.
- Relationships: Building Bonds that Sustain
Perhaps the most underappreciated asset in preparedness is relationships. It’s easy to imagine a “lone wolf” approach to survival, but the truth is that relationships can make or break one’s resilience. Whether it’s family, friends, or neighbors, people who are united in common values, trust, and mutual support can do far more than isolated individuals.
In a survival situation, each person’s strengths complement the others, and diverse skill sets increase a group’s chances of success. But this kind of unity doesn’t develop overnight; it requires cultivating trust and communication well in advance. Building relationships within your local community, especially those who share a preparedness mindset, is an often-overlooked part of self-reliance.
- Community Development: Creating a Network of Support
Beyond individual relationships, a resilient prepper looks to the wider community. When a crisis strikes, those with local allies and a network of like-minded individuals can respond faster and more effectively. This doesn’t mean compromising your privacy or security—it means seeking out genuine connections and nurturing a spirit of cooperation. Community development can be as simple as knowing who can help with specific tasks, organizing skills-sharing events, or supporting local businesses that align with your values.
Local communities can create networks for bartering, resource sharing, and security, all of which make the community stronger as a whole. Preppers who embrace community development can create systems that allow for interdependence, rather than total self-reliance, which, in the end, can be more effective and sustainable.
True preparedness goes beyond what we can store in our homes or grow in our gardens. It encompasses who we are, how we relate to others, and our capacity to continue growing, regardless of our circumstances. When preppers embrace personal development, mindset, character, perseverance, relationships, and community development, they lay a foundation that can weather any storm.
Join our community app today to meet old friends for the first time and have a community of over 15,000+ people to share your journey with!
Keep striving, keep growing, and never stop building your legendary life!
Lifestyle
The Negation Positions
The appropriate question in this moment is: What encodes the negativity to repel one thought or action and not another?
The night defines the day, the land defines the sea, the wall defines the room, thus, the negation defines the position.
By Moss Town Bear (aka Sam Daniel)
It is understood that one part is known due to the existence of its counterpart. We define the day by the nightly negation of light; the sea by the negation of fluidity; the room by the negation of space, but equally, one’s identity is known by the negation of indifference.
An infantile thought that takes residence in the mind of many informs the thinker that the positive is a good, right, and desirable thing; and the negative is a bad, left, and undesirable thing. Yet, position is born of apo- meaning “origin”; and site meaning “place”. Hence, positivity is the prenatal spirit that springs forth original thoughts and actions. Negation is born of ne- meaning “not”. Hence, negativity is the denial of an exogenous thought or action that possesses the potential to pervert one’s prenatal spirit. Thus, like a pond with fertile water that’s held by the fortified clay, positivity and negativity are interdependent forces that enable the human to animate in the world, but not be absorbed by the world.
Similar to the fertile water and our aquatic friends therein, the positivity within the human allows the trace of consciousness to swim without interruption. It houses the library of one’s history and the laboratory for one’s future; yet it is lighter than a feather and as empty as a desert. It is the undefinable, yet it is the source of all definitions; it can define all except itself – like the earthworm that cannot separate the earth from the worm. Positivity has the capacity to conjure all possibilities, of dreams and nightmares, of conscience and characteristics, of morals and dogmas; hence, the human possesses negativity to protect itself from total dissolution into the ocean of everything.
The negativity, like the fortified clay, defines one’s identity by deciding not only the thoughts and actions that enter, but also the thoughts and actions that exit. It has become obvious that the curse cast upon the notion of negativity has effected a perceptual error that illustrates negativity to be a monstrous thing that is bad, left, and undesirable. However, the perceptual error can be corrected by interpreting negativity as a motion rather than matter, a function rather than a form, and a verb rather than a noun. Thus, the negative is not a bad, left, and undesirable thing, instead it is a primordial force that repels the thoughts and actions that are bad; that ought to be left; and that are undesirable.
The appropriate question in this moment is: What encodes the negativity to repel one thought or action and not another? At the time that the spiders web is severed, the spider immediately re-imagines and re-creates its web by re-membering the prenatal template. This reveals the hypothesis that the human was posited with a prenatal identity. However, if the negativity of a human is corrupted by illogical thinking and unfelt feelings or punctured by poisonous interventions, the definition of one’s identity will begin to bleed like water through sand. The corrupted or punctured human will often utter responses that deny their differences, such as, “It’s fine”; “It doesn’t matter”; and, “I don’t mind”. These responses – aside from the speaker subliminally confessing that they must de-fine that which matters to their mind – are an example of positivity bleeding out of the human upon vocal waves. It is plausible to presume that, like the bleeding wound that becomes a stiff scab, the human that has abdicated their positivity will inevitably begin to form a calloused identity, and thus, affirming their indifference.
These final words intend to empower one to fortify their force of negation by reiterating that the human body is a Nation unto itself; its feelings are its culture; and its logic is its leader; but, its prenatal spirit is its judge. Thus, one ought to remember beyond the words they embody to begin to resurrect their original place. Upon recovery of this ancient template, may one cultivate the custom of declaring, without guilt, the differences that define their boundary and the Law within. With all words and actions said and done, let us stand upon the living constitution insofar that when a malevolent temptation presents itself, we may authorise, with humour and humility, “No”.
If you are interested in submitting an article for BeartariaTimes.com as a guest writer please email Editor@BeartariaTimes.com.
Lifestyle
Everyone Homeschools Their Children
The question isn’t whether you homeschool your child but how you homeschool them.
The idea of homeschooling often conjures images of structured lessons at home, textbooks on the kitchen table, and parents carefully guiding their children through a curriculum. But the truth is, whether we realize it or not, we all homeschool our children daily. From the moment they are born, children absorb the world around them and learn from every interaction, observation, and experience.
The question isn’t whether you homeschool your child but how you homeschool them. Are you intentional about what they learn from you? Or are they simply picking up lessons by accident through your behavior, words, and habits?
Children are like sponges. They absorb everything from their environment, and their first teachers are always their parents. This learning doesn’t only happen when you sit them down to teach a specific skill; it happens constantly. Every interaction, every conversation, and every action you take becomes a lesson in their eyes.
Think about how children pick up the language. They don’t learn to speak because we give them formal lessons in grammar. They learn by listening to how we talk, watching our facial expressions, and understanding the emotions behind our words. The same is true for other, less obvious lessons. They learn how to handle hard times by watching how we react to pressure. They learn how to communicate by observing how we speak to others. They learn our values through the choices we make every day.
Without even realizing it, parents are teaching their children all the time, whether through how they solve problems, treat people, or manage responsibilities. This is homeschooling in its purest form—teaching through example.
Given that our children are constantly learning from us, it becomes crucial that we are intentional about what we teach. If we ignore this responsibility, they will still learn but may learn lessons we didn’t mean to impart. They might pick up our bad habits, fears, or negative attitudes.
Intentional homeschooling means controlling the lessons your child absorbs. It involves being aware of how your actions and words affect them and consciously modeling the values, habits, and skills you want them to develop.
For example, if you want your children to value hard work, it’s not enough to tell them that hard work is important. They need to see you putting effort into your tasks, staying focused, and persevering through challenges. If you want them to learn kindness, they must see you treating others respectfully. Intentional homeschooling means leading by example and being mindful of the lessons you teach through your actions and words.
One of the most powerful aspects of homeschooling, intentional or otherwise, is that learning happens everywhere. Whether your children attend a formal school or not, many of their most important lessons take place in the home.
When you cook dinner, they can learn about nutrition, math (through measuring ingredients), following plans and responsibility of tasks. When you manage resources, they learn about budgeting and the value of money. When you repair something around the house, they see problem-solving in action. And when you make time to read, exercise, or work on a hobby, they learn the importance of personal growth and lifelong learning.
These moments are opportunities to shape who your children will become. Being intentional about these everyday lessons can help your children develop a variety of skills and values that will assist them throughout their lives.
While formal education plays an important role in a child’s education, it is not a substitute for the lessons learned at home. Schools provide knowledge and skills in subjects like math, science, and literature, but they cannot teach values, ethics, or character in the same way a parent can. How you handle conflict, how you talk about your work, and even how you treat yourself all contribute to your child’s education in ways no classroom can replicate.
By understanding that education starts at home, parents can take active roles in shaping their children’s education and emotional, social, and moral development.
Everyone homeschools their children, whether we recognize it or not. Children learn constantly from their parents, picking up lessons from every action, word, and decision. The key to effective homeschooling is intentionality—making sure the lessons we teach align with the values, skills, and behaviors we want to instill in our children.
By taking an active role in our children’s education inside and outside the home, we can help them grow into thoughtful, capable, and responsible individuals. The lessons they learn from us today will shape the adults they become tomorrow. So, the next time you think about homeschooling, remember: you’re already doing it—make it count.
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