I AM...........

I often LOSE leverage,  As I strain to maintain...

A whispered edge of SPACE..

Keeping the DOOR of My Understanding from slamming shut.

The Force of a thousand Souls thrust upon it daily...

To keep the TRUTH and all it's secrets hidden behind.

For on this side of existence..  They are the BEACON...

And I AM simply the LIGHT.

My powers here are thus weakened....

Told to me as such,  just before I came.

Physical essence bringing a notion called CHOICE...

The story of how fear, disrespect, and hatred thus began.

But CONSCIOUSNESS is the CURRENCY..  All must use on the Other Side...

And CHOICE then becomes useless..  

For here I AM authentic power... and declared to always SHINE.

by Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

She's BACK........!!!

Tonight on ABC is the return of the most overlooked SuperHero themed show on the air.
AGENT CARTER is back for a second season!!  Her character was first introduced in Captain America: The First Avenger and this series continues her adventures in Los Angeles circa the 1940's. For fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is a treasure trove of backstory tidbits to help further flesh out the stories of all of our favorite AVENGERS!

Hayley Attwell plays agent Peggy Carter as an erudite super sleuth who can land a perfect punch when she needs to.  If you are still searching for a show that ignites the Hero/Heroine's Journey within, Agent Carter just may be the ticket!

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Turning Success into SIGNIFICANCE

While watching the final Democratic debate last evening, there was one through line that I feel is a core component of the true paradigm shift that has the greatest chance at combating the issues facing so many of us in this country and around the word.  When faced with the question of bi-partisanship, Bernie Sanders sounded off the most passionately, declaring the fact that the greater issue that must be engaged is the financial greed tied to the political system that has nearly wiped out the middle class in America.  The other two candidates agreed with these sentiments in what turned out to be one of the FEW issues in which all three found common ground.  This has been a recent triggering point for me as well!

I recently returned back to Northern Virginia after a stint just outside of Baltimore, MD, and am still trying to process the amount of poverty that I engaged on a daily basis.  You know the type of JOURNEY that may be underway when a car literally crashes into the foundation of your home at 8:00 in the morning, less than 5 days after moving in!  The car missed our just filled fuel tank by less than 4 inches, which if struck, would have sent the house into a massive explosion with me, my girlfriend, and our little pup inside!  YIKES!  ~~  I guess I still have work to do here God, but next time, how about a post-it..  :0)

Our street was shut down for the day, and we later found out the car was driven by a 15 year old who had stolen it the night before.  He got caught in a police chase that morning, that ended with him bailing out of the vehicle, and sending it careening straight into our home.  We lived in a historic suburb of Baltimore called Dikeyville (don't try to find it on a map) that had been built in the early 1800's and been kept to look like a picture taken straight out of a Dickens novel!  However, driving into the small, village like community was quite a humbling experience, as there was such poverty surrounding it.  I had never lived so close to areas that almost appeared to be victims of a war time barrage.  And these areas are FAR from anomalies in and around Baltimore.  It is, to say the least, quite a sobering experience, and one which still causes me to think a great deal about ways to assist this growing disparity between the haves and the have-nots.

One way that truly resonates with me is learning to turn Success into Significance.  Success tends to be more about ‘me’- what I've become and what I have got.  Significance is about what value I have created for others.  Success ignites your soul.  
Significance ignites a fire that many others can gather around for inspiration and support! 

Don't get me wrong, success is frickin' fantastic!!  One can only truly give away, that which they already have, right?!  But success in and of itself rarely adds VALUE to others.  Here are some examples that might help, in a quest to turn the success in your life into stupendous significance!

1- Success adds value to oneself.  Significance adds value to others.
A perfect example of this is my friend Jennifer Ohlson.  We met in college where she was awarded a full sports scholarship.   Here is just a sampling of some of her extraordinary personal achievements:
~~  Most lettered athlete in Colorado sports history
~~  USA Today Colorado Athlete of the Year
~~  ECAC Heptathlon Champion her senior year
The list goes on, but she has turned her MASSIVE personal success into a thriving business called Interactive Health Technologies!  She and her team have created a cloud based technology program to revolutionize the physical education system.   IHS is "dedicated to helping unlock the full potential inside every individual, empowering them from kindergarten through graduation day to take personal responsibility for their health and well-being."  Jen literally took her greatest passion and personal success, and has turned it into something that is adding TREMENDOUS value to others!  GO Jen!

2-  Success has limited influence.  Significance has UNLIMITED influence.
"When you influence a child, you influence a life.  When you influence a father, you influence a family.  When you influence a  leader, you influence ALL who turn to him/her for leadership."
Quote by Anonymous

3-  Turning Success into Significance is one of the best ways to find our CALLING.
I think we have all experienced the fleeting feeling that various success brings into our life.  But to go beyond ourself, and meld what our true talents to the world may be, with a burning desire to be of service to others, creates a gateway into our personal calling.

4-  Pursuing success only brings joy to but a few, but pursuing significance brings joy to many.  And isn't that what the Hero's Journey, at its core, is truly all about.  Bringing back the knowledge we have learned on our personal quest of challenges, to be of service to others who are still attempting to get through theirs?!  As Martin Luther King Jr. often espoused, “Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are we doing for others?”

So on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, let's all think about the personal success in our life and be grateful to have been given the talent, support, and energy to have accomplished it!  But please do not forget to think about the many ways we can turn that success into the type of lasting significance that this world so desperately needs!

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Go BRIGHT...or Go home........

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

FROM   Marianne Williamson's  A Return to Love

And as you shine brightly, remember God's LOVE LIGHT then illuminates the path for others. One NEVER knows if YOU may be the only bible/torah/quran the next person in your path shall ever read......................................

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Missing you Dad........

Alone I walk the shore...

Each step the cross I must bare

Waves of Illusion crash below

Past footprints no longer there

Hope is now my guiding light

To stave away all fear

The destination is not important

It is for the Journey that I AM here

Wind and piercing rain do come

‘Loss of Faith’ their intended try

Soulful Remembrances of that I AM

These transgressions are seething lies

A Phoenix flies overhead

The spiritual compass to lead my way

Conscious steps all drenched in the NOW

Soulful ruminations that must not sway

Eradicating all false essence

LOVE's stout boundaries to protect

Intrepid Promises of why I came

My soul's earthly contract now may be kept

And Heaven unleashes it's amazing grace

Ever expanding Strength.. my soul does accrue

Resonating in His promise for that I AM

Tomorrow as I wake..my body completely anew

by Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Happy Tuesday My Fellow New Age Nerds!

Quite astonishing to believe, but we just passed the two year mark of the passing of

our family's Patriarch, father, friend, and HERO, Roger Lee Poston.  

Although the healing process for me has progressed in many ways, there are still days in which I ache to hear his southern drawl, and am DEEPLY challenged to accept that my best friend has made his transition.  My dad embodied a life of service, connection, strength, and loving leadership; the epitome of a 'Bringer of the Light'.  

This poem was one of his favorites and so I share it with you as today's INSPIRATIONAL reading.......

I MISS YOU DAD. TONS.  You left an example of what a New Age Nerd can be and do in this world, and I COMMIT  from this point forward, to live a life using your essence as a template.   An extension of your personal Legend and Legacy.............

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

Possibilities.......

The pessimist resembles a man who observes with fear and sadness that his wall calender, from which he daily tears a sheet, grows thinner with each passing day.  On the other hand, the person who attacks the problems of life actively is like a man who removes each successive leaf from his calender and files it neatly and carefully away with its predecessors, after first having jotted down a few diary notes on the back.  She can reflect with PRIDE and JOY on all the richness set down in these notes, on all the life he has already lived to the fullest.
What will it matter to him if he notices he is growing old?  Has she any reason to envy the young people whom she sees, or wax nostalgic over her own lost youth?
What reasons has he to envy a young person?
For the POSSIBILITIES that a young person has, the future which is in store for him?
'No Thank You!', she will think.  'Instead of possibilities, I have realities in my past, not only the reality of work done and of love loved, but of many sufferings BRAVELY suffered.  These SUFFERINGS are even the things of which I am the most proud,
although these things cannot inspire envy.'

Quote by Victor Frankel

It's a brand new week.  There are only POSSIBILITIES awaiting you!!

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez

My Best Advice.. !!

I'm quite sure I am not alone when I declare that one of biggest pet peeves is  UNSOLICITED ADVICE!   Isn't it interesting how many 'experts' there are amongst our peers who know EXACTLY how to lose that 10 pounds, or quit smoking?!   Or what you "should" or "need" to do in order to manifest that new business, or end that relationship.  And how absolutely giving they tend to be with their knowledge, especially when we RARELY ask for it.

While I was studying for a master's degree in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica, the law regarding this epidemic was laid down the very first day of school.  While our class of nearly 300 was mingling about, introducing ourselves to one another for the first time, I noticed one of the program's lead instructors writing something in Gi-normous letters in the middle of the blackboard on the auditorium's stage.  Although she was writing in wipe away chalk, it was etched as indelible grace within my mind.   She wrote,  ‘The Most Damaging Deed One Can Do to Another's Soul, is Give Them Unsolicited Advice’.   For many in the class, that spiritual sentiment was worth the price of admission alone!  Learn it, Live it......   Spread it!!   Please!    Spread it!!   ;0)

Does this mean that we can't offer past experiences or insight to others with the intent of assisting them during a 'bump' in their personal Journey?  Absolutely NOT!  However, there are much more caring and impactful ways that we can be of service.  Here are THREE suggestions toward not giving anymore UNSOLICITED ADVICE:


1.  Determine how you should be showing up
Much of the time, we simply have the desire to be heard in life.  Especially those of us in the beautiful world of service. (teacher, coach, care-taker)   We tend to immediately rush in with an attempt to fix a situation or try and 'coach' somebody toward their goal.  I know I'm super guilty.  Perhaps the greatest act of respect you can offer someone is to simply ask them how they would like you to show up in the moment.  They may, for instance, just want you to listen.  Without saying a word.  Now there is a thought!!  lol

The next time you catch yourself wanting to pipe in with a soliloquy of unsolicited advice, try simply asking, "How would you like me to show up for you right now?"    You may be shocked to see how grateful they become!


2.  FIRST, ask if they would be open to a suggestion
One of the reasons giving unsolicited advice can be so hurtful is because most of the time, it comes across as though the way they are currently handling the situation or issue is ‘wrong.’  Nobody wants to feel inadequate, less than, and/or stupid.  By humbly asking if they would be ‘open’ to your suggestion, their defenses will typically go down, because it won't feel as though you are directly challenging them.  
And let's not kid ourselves.  Often times, we are really making something all about US when we extend unsolicited advice.

3. Refrain from using phrases that contain the words ‘Should’, ‘Need’, or ‘Ought’ 
I hate to break it to you, but as absolutely brilliant as you probably have come to be, you do NOT have anybody else's answers.  Don't take offense.  Neither did Jesus the Christ.  
My point is that the ONLY person who truly knows another person's TRUTH, is that person them-self.  You have no idea what anyone else needs or must do.  I have found great success by implementing the phrases, "What would it feel like if you..............  or  What do you think might happen if you.....".   Plus, by not giving specific advice, you don't have to worry about being held responsible by the consequences of your own words!

If you try implementing any of these tips, please let me know your experiences in the comments section below.  I would love to hear your thoughts!

Nerdmaste,

Jeffrey Louis Martinez