Happy Easter

Last night I watched the Mel Gibson directed film “The Passion of the Christ”.

I chose it for a few reasons. Normally my favorite shows and movies are period pieces or historical fiction: Think Braveheart, Troy, 300, Gladiator etc.. so I was searching Netflix through that category. Then I saw The Passion of Christ come up in the Top 10 recommended movies because Easter was the following day. I also really like Mel Gibson and heard him talk about directing this film on a podcast recently, so I decided to give it a shot and watch it through.

The movie is gruesome, as I believe it should be because you can’t sugarcoat and "Disneyfy" (just created this word) the events that happened to Jesus.

But for me, the biggest aspects that came out of me watching this movie was my curiosity and questions I was eager to learn about.

I was asking ChatGPT questions throughout the entire film to better understand exactly why Jesus was sentenced to death and went down the rabbit hole of his teachings and everything.

To be honest, I really enjoyed diving into it.

See, as a kid, I was forced to go to Sunday School and go to Church. I hated it and, to be honest, almost nothing was retained or stuck with me.

This is not so different from my experience when I was in school all my life growing up.

I felt that I was forced to be somewhere that I didn’t want to be and forced to learn about things that I did not care about.

But now, 20 years later, I love learning about the areas of my life that I am naturally curious about, mostly philosophy, health, wellness, spirituality, neuroscience, languages, cultures, personal development, and really how to live the greatest life possible.

And what I have learned from being curious in so many different areas of life can be articulated best I believe from this Bruce Lee quote: “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own.”

See, I don’t necessarily believe or subscribe to all of the teachings in the Bible, but I do agree with a lot of them.

Here are some examples:

1.) “The Kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21)
2.) “Judge not, lest you be judged.” (Matthew 7:1)
3.) “Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” (Luke 6:37)
4.) “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” (Matthew 7:12)

The same goes for the philosophy of Stoicism. I love that philosophy; however, I don’t agree or subscribe to all of it.

I think a problem with society today is that a lot of people find one thing that they don’t agree with and then write everything off about it completely.

They don’t like one aspect of the Bible; they unsubscribe from it completely.

They hear someone say something that they don’t agree with or like on a podcast, and then they try to cancel that person and claim to hate them.

Instead of being so extreme in opinions and views of everything and anyone, the approach that has worked best for me in life has been to take what I believe makes the most sense for me, ignoring what I feel doesn’t align, and then adding what is uniquely my own.

This has led to me being able to live the best of all worlds.

I do it with everything.

My fitness and nutrition protocols, my beliefs and philosophies, the foods I eat, and the things that I like and dislike about different cultures.

I don’t believe there is a one-size-fits-all approach to life, and we have to live so extremely in one way or the other.

I believe the truth lies in the gray.

So my main hope for you reading this newsletter is to be curious and open-minded about alternative ways to think, feel, and be in life.

Experiment with different ways to live.

Try new things.

Keep the things that give you joy, peace, and energy.

Discard the things that give you stress, anxiety, worry, and fear.

It is never to late to change in this life no matter how long you have subscribed to a certain way of being or living.

You are under no obligation to be the same person that you were even 5 seconds ago.

Seriously, every day I feel that I am a completely different person.

What a life.

Happy Easter,
Brandon