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Positive Reflections messages from Awakening consciousness
Ponder the Greatness
In the silence of my being, in the stillness of peace, I ponder the greatness of my existence, and the truly endless love and power I have within me
Overcoming Mental Fatigue With 5 Spiritual Steps (Part 3)
4) Live Life As A Beautiful Journey Without Any Burdens Of Situations – A very important practice for experiencing life without getting burdened is to enjoy the journey. Have you ever seen a journey without side scenes? In the same way, life’s journey will always have scenes that are sometimes negative and sometimes positive. And remember no scenes stay forever. So, while looking at each scene, be free from any anxiety and worry because as we know from our life’s experience – This also shall pass. The present becomes the past and the future will be beautiful. No negative situation lasts forever and a patient wait with a consciousness full of peace will always bring us to a point in the journey, when the scene has gone and the beautiful journey continues. This is a law of life. Also, the more we remain detached from side scenes in our life’s journey, the more happier and full of lightness we will be.
5) Your Thoughts Create Your Life … Be Your Own Monitor – A very important aspect of keeping your thoughts less and very positive and light and remaining free from mental fatigue, is checking your thoughts from time to time throughout the day. One is changing the direction of your thoughts to a positive one, when they are becoming negative and building up in quantity and negative strength and disturbing you. This can be done by keeping a book or any other source of positive reading on your mobile or laptop with you. Read it in the day from time to time. Do it 4-5 times a day and you will be able to change the direction of your thinking easily. Also, when you end the day, review your thoughts of the entire day that has passed and make corrections for the next day. The next morning, plan your tasks for the day and include regular short breaks for self-checking of your thoughts along with them.
Overcoming Mental Fatigue With 5 Spiritual Steps (Part 2)
2)Think Of Others Only When Necessary – A common habit that we all have is to think of others even when it is not necessary and important. Suppose a person in your office is not performing well and upto his necessary capacity and his work efficiency directly influences your company’s performance, a common response would be to correct him and also talk about his work to the right people in the company. Once you have done that, should you think about him negatively each time you see him or should you keep talking about him negatively to each and every person in the company, which is called waste or unnecessary talk. There are so many such people in our lives. If we carry heavy thoughts filled with negativity about each family member, friend and office colleague, will it not be tiring? So apply the full stop, give up the unnecessary question marks and also exclamation marks in your thoughts. Keep your thoughts less and replace negative thoughts about others with thoughts about their specialties, qualities and skills as well as positive personality characteristics, so that you do not get tired and experience mental fatigue.
3) Give Up Your Ego And Live Freely – A very big weight that some of us are carrying on our emotional heads or minds is of our subtle ego. This morning my colleague at my college or at my workplace commented negatively on my dress I was wearing. She commented and I did not see her the entire day after that, but I carry her comment in my mind and heart as if it was the biggest insult that I ever received from anyone. Where there is excessive ego, there is immense feeling of insult. Why? Because I am too attached to my positive self-image and I cannot tolerate anyone disrespecting the image even a little bit. So be sweet, humble and kind - the one who does not get negatively affected by people’s comments and loves everyone inspite of that. Bow down and be humble and your excessive thoughts of feeling insulted in your everyday interactions will stop and keep your mind light.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
Overcoming Mental Fatigue With 5 Spiritual Steps (Part 1)
We all require regular periods of silence and introversion in our fast lifestyle with busy days, where most of us, have a lot of actions to perform. So, a good question to ask oneself is that do I like a mind which is full of thoughts or do I like it with fewer thoughts and greater spaces between them. Once upon a time, there was a group of people travelling from one country to another on foot. They had great loads to carry on their backs and it was a tiring journey. By the time, they reached their destination, they had lost a lot of energy and their enthusiasm was at its lowest. Their task was to carry stuff from one place to another. Who would not like a life with lesser physical weight to carry?
In the same manner, our emotional carriers are our minds which carry the weight of our thoughts.
The fewer the thoughts and the lighter they are, the more our minds will be light and always enthusiastic. Let’s look at five techniques to keep our minds light and flying in joy always:
1) Create One Thought At A Time – A mind which is anxious and full of fear thinks excessively and faster than what is required at that point of time. Also, such a mind sometimes creates negative and false future realities, which increase the number of thoughts, as it anticipates and then tries to solve non-existent problems that have not yet occurred, but the mind fears that they may occur. This is what we commonly call negative thinking. On the other hand, positive thinking is the visualization of positive scenes for the future, with complete hope and determination. When we do this regularly in all types of situations, our mind slows down and every thought is like a little atom which sits inside the mind and keeps us relaxed, comfortable and free from any burdens.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
On A Spiritual Joyride (Part 3)
Spirituality is a beautiful and fulfilling life which everyone in the world needs to adopt and it is not only for people who have an interest in religion or are spiritually inclined already.
Spirituality gives the power of relieving yourself of all mental pressures and it also teaches us the way of keeping our thoughts, words and actions in check. Both of these are necessary for being successful. Also, spirituality does not mean leaving material comforts of life and lead a life which is away from the world. On the other hand, it changes our relationship with material comforts and makes us less attached to them. This helps us experience permanent joy. On the other hand an attachment to material comforts can give sorrow also at times. So, never hesitate to sit on the joyride of spirituality, as we call it, because life and the relationships and roles that we play and the way we play them changes after doing that. Ask someone who is spiritual and loves leading a life according to spiritual principles. Such a person will tell you how lightness and contentment along with the power to handle situations and also the ability to change your thinking from negative to positive, are some of the benefits of a spiritual life.
Also, talking about relationships; there are people, whose relationships were disturbed. A spiritual life gave them the method of living their life with love, immense happiness and power and they overcome the problems in their relationships easily. This is because of their change in ways of thinking and as a result they could resolve the difficult situations in relationships because of ego clashes and differences of opinions.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
On A Spiritual Joyride (Part 2)
Variety in life is an important way to sustain a spiritual journey which many of us are on. Meditation is a technique which is being practiced by millions of people all over the world. At the Brahma Kumaris, people from many countries practice meditation in their daily lives. At the same time, as per the knowledge shared by God, they take care that meditation does not become just like a daily routine. Everyday meditation is done with different types of positive thoughts. In this way, spirituality is like a fun filled joyride in which different experiences become a daily part of your life. Also everyone at the Brahma Kumaris will not study spiritual knowledge only when they are alone or at home. They will also visit one of the centres of the Brahma Kumaris daily for an hour, wherever they are. And they will listen to spiritual knowledge in a gathering. The intention behind this type of practice, besides better understanding of the knowledge, is an increase in enthusiasm by sitting with people of the same mindset. Also, you gain from their spiritual power, which is called the power of the gathering.
Spirituality also brings with it the duty of sharing all that you listen and learn, with others, which also increases your enthusiasm. Along with sharing, which we call service at the Brahma Kumaris, there is great importance given to changing oneself positively. This is a way of going ahead in life on an emotional level. This is because changing oneself automatically causes a positive energy of change to flow in my words and actions, which further flows to others causing an increase in enthusiasm in oneself. This is the spiritual joyride on which we sit everyday and wait for the next day with a lot of interest.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
On A Spiritual Joyride (Part 1)
A very important aspect of our lives is variety. Variety means doing a lot of different things in life which increase our enthusiasm and joy. It means loving every moment of the day by making it different. Whenever you have spent many days in your life doing one particular thing or working on one particular task, ask yourself am I becoming single task oriented? Or do I, while performing the task, also take care that my work is accompanied by periods of creative activities like reading, meditating, interacting and spreading all that I know, to others and learning more than I know now?
There was once a king who loved the role he was playing and also gave a lot of love to the people he ruled. There was no one in his kingdom who did not like him or respect him but yet boredom was something he had to face repeatedly. The same routine was something he experienced everyday and he did not know how to overcome that. So, one day, he decided to spend a fixed time everyday talking to people in his kingdom discussing the problems that they were facing. And also, he started fixing small targets in his life, like ensuring that by this particular day, this particular work will get done which can also be termed as goal setting. He realized soon that by filling his life with the flavor of ambition, which in small amounts, is extremely useful for progress, his life was no longer repetitive. In fact, life became something he enjoyed, as long as the ambition was kept in limits and he did not overcome over-ambitious, which could lead to stress. Love for each task you perform and at the same time different tasks during the day is the secret to a happiness filled life. A spiritual perspective to variety in life is filling your mind with new thoughts everyday and maintaining a pure and positive mindset. At the same time, let this positive mindset or consciousness be differently positive everyday, by giving the mind new instructions everyday.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
Going Back To My Original Nature
Our present personalities are basically the combined habits of this lifetime (birth), built on the combined habits of previous lifetimes (births), all of which have left their mark (sometimes deep and sometimes not so deep) on our consciousness. It may well be that habits such as becoming angry, upset, anxious, stressed, sorrowful or scared, have been with us for so long that, they feel a natural part of our inner world, so natural that when someone says our true nature is not anger but peace, not fear but love, not aggression but acceptance, not anxiety but calm, it does not feel right. And even if it did feel right for a moment, we have become so attached to our old habitual moods, emotions and behaviors that we do not really want to change. It may even be the case that we have become so weak that we need help to change. It seems much easier to stay the way we are.
As we begin to meditate and develop our spiritual practice, our views on the above subject will fluctuate. When that does happen, imagine you are having a conversation with yourself and teaching yourself. Give yourself permission to be peaceful by nature, full of love and joy by nature, naturally content by nature, wherever you are and in whatever you do. After a while, you won't need to give yourself permission and you will find these states of being are there within you quite naturally at every moment. They are our original and eternal nature. Everything else is acquired or learned. In so many ways introduction to spirituality, like many other approaches to inner awakening, is as much about unlearning (the acquired beliefs) as it is about learning (new beliefs).
A New Journey With A New Personality (Part 2)
Famous personalities are constantly sought after, in demand and remembered by many due to their specialties, may they be actors, gurus, sportsmen, politicians, founders of religions etc. Even in our daily lives, we tend to remember people with more specialties much more than the rest. God is the most complete and perfect personality that exists, but not a physical personality, a spiritual one. There is no one who is more specialty and virtue-filled than him. That is the reason he is an entity or living energy or personality who is remembered the most by each and everyone all over the world.
The above types of personalities mentioned are physical personalities and are remembered by some or many but not remembered by the rest and along with their specialties, they definitely have shortcomings. Also, you might find it difficult getting to meet them even for a few minutes. God is one personality without any weaknesses and he is my constant friend, once I start my journey. He is one who, although being the highest personality, can be available to thousands making a similar journey at the same time, not because he is omnipresent (present everywhere) but because he is omnipotent (the most powerful) and the only being possessing this capability. So, a specialty of this journey is that the more I progress on it and the more time I spend with this new personality accompanying me in my new journey, I constantly see new facets of this new personality being revealed in my life, which keeps the journey constantly refreshing. This also keeps me wondering what is going to be revealed next. So, once this journey of exploration and discovery has started, there's no reason to stop even for a second and there is immense amount of motivation to continue and keep smiling!
A New Journey With A New Personality (Part 1)
Anyone who shows an inclination in getting to know the Supreme Being closely has a fascinating journey in front of them. Spiritual knowledge is the vehicle in which I make this extremely interesting journey full of exploration. Without sitting in the vehicle, I cannot make the journey. As I sit in this vehicle, I am introduced to this new, multi-faced, peaceful, loveful and blissful character in my life, a character who is spiritually rich with treasures of knowledge, virtues, powers, happiness and blessings, a character commonly called God, by everyone.
He is a character who introduces himself as being just a point of conscient light, a form very simple and plain. Yet, hidden beneath that simple light, incognito form is an immense volume of experience, wisdom and depth, such that even a lifetime spent in this journey, in his company, does not bring you to knowing him completely. The more you dive into the ocean of knowledge contained within the light, the more you discover and the more treasures of knowledge and experiences you receive. Every time you make contact with this new found companion called God, there is growth inside you and there is an increase of peace, love, happiness and power inside you. It's just as if after you've begun this journey, you're never quite the same again. However much time you spend in his company during the journey, whether it be in imbibing knowledge from him or remembering him during meditation or even sharing the benefits of this journey to other friends and relatives so that they can also start this journey themselves and experience what you are experiencing; whether you do either of these for a few minutes or an hour, there's always an experience of subtle growth and development inside you.
(To be continued tomorrow...)
The Energy Of Give And Take In Relationships
Love, more than any other virtue, is an extremely positive energy; it is an invisible prime mover and foundation of each one of our lives, a source of motivation and inspiration. People lacking love in their lives are normally lesser motivated and happier than those who have positive and healthy relationships full of love and an immense amount of love in their lives. But when the same energy of love, possessing immense positive potential, is negatively focused and is not used correctly, it leads to many dependencies which are negative in nature. How?
When you love someone, that could be your parents, your spouse, your children, your siblings, your friends, any relationship for that matter; there is a invisible and positive emotional and mental attraction between you and that person which keeps you connected to him/her, but the moment the love turns into attachment and becomes a dependency, that person starts dominating and controlling your inner world of thoughts, feelings and emotions and your mental and emotional freedom is lost. It is as if your inner world succumbs to the influence of the other person and you are no longer yourself. Everything that goes on inside you and that comes out of you has an impression of the other. This kind of love is not empowering, energizing and healing, because in this kind of love, over a period of time, desires, wants and expectations from the other start emerging. All these emotions place you in a mental mode of taking instead of giving. Also in such a kind of love, where love is mixed with a desire to possess, over a period of time you start wanting to control the other. From this control, you start exercising a power to influence the other. At first you are under their influence. As more attachment builds up, this is followed shortly by your desire to bring them under your submission and influence them. This is love that wants to take and not give. In this kind of relationship of love, there is suffering and sorrow. Even if joy exists, it is extremely short lived. Unconditional love or love that only wants to give and not take or expect, strengthens and is healing, it never hurts or inflicts pain on the other.
Flying With The Wings Of God's Love
We experience God every single day in our lives. We remember Him and thank Him at every step for showing us how to live our lives beautifully and free from the influence of obstacles. God's sweet love are like wings for us, with which we can fly high above problems of day-to-day life. God says that when we fly with the wings of His love, we become very light and free from whats, whys, hows and whens, which arise in our mind when life brings in front of us challenges which we do not expect, either in our health, relationships, roles and even through our own sanskaras. Let's look at a few steps how we can fly with these wings in our lives:
1) Experience God Closely In The Early Morning Hours - God is an Ocean Of Love and He showers His love on us the entire day. But the early morning hours are every special, when the vibrations of the world are pure and silent. At this time, we can connect with Him and absorb His love in our heart through meditation and spiritual study.
2) Make God Your Sweetest Companion In Every Action - Whether it is working in the office or taking care of your children or visiting the market, hold God's hand and remain in His sweet company always. This way your love for Him and His love for you increases and you become enriched with His love at every step.
3) Make Your Personality Pure, Sweet And Humble - God says those children of His who are like Him in nature - pure, sweet and humble, receive His love all the time. When obstacles arise in such children's lives, God comes down in their lives and destroys those obstacles Himself and frees them from sorrow of any type.
4) Have Soul Awareness In Every Action And Interaction - Beautiful children of God - the Supreme Soul, are ones who remain in soul awareness always. Such children pull God's love in their lives and become powerful. For such children, stress becomes a past reality and they fly lightly above the ups and downs of life.
Today's Learning :
I practice soul awareness in every interaction, staying pure, humble and sweet, so that I remain powerful and rise above life's challenges with ease.
"𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟑 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬"
(ask this within before acting out)
A Vision Of Goodness For Everyone (Part 3)
Everyday, when you begin performing actions, watch everyone with goodness in your eyes and heart. Tell yourself and visualize how God is looking at each one in the world. Always bring in front of your eyes, God’s love and good wishes for that particular person, who is in front of you, that particular person who is sometimes not very well-behaved and possesses a negative nature. You find it difficult to interact comfortably and peacefully with him or her. Now keeping this positive wisdom in your mind, create a positive attitude for the person. Now based on that attitude, keep a positive vision for the other person. The more your vision remains positive, the more your words and actions will become beautiful and positive towards the other person. And the more the words and actions are pure and nice, the more the person will change as you want, into a nice person. This is the secret for changing a person from not so nice into nice. Our consciousness influences our attitude; our attitude influences our vision; our vision influences our words and actions. All of them together radiate the positive energy of goodness to the other person. This positive energy transforms the other person’s nature positively. This process is called world transformation through self transformation or the other’s transformation through my transformation.
So, we live in a world, where sometimes we will see the negative in people, whether at home or in our workplace or in that marketplace. Also, sometimes we will perceive people to be bad, although they are not. But take care that you don’t ever leave your goodness. God sees so much negativity in the entire world but He never leaves His vision of goodness for everyone. He uses the knowledge of human beings that He possesses, the knowledge that everyone was pure and positive when they came into this world and lost their goodness over many lives; to keep His vision positive and also keeps good wishes of change for everyone. So be good, see good and make others good with that vision of goodness. Don’t leave your goodness in the ocean of imperfections that surrounds you in the entire world.
A Vision Of Goodness For Everyone (Part 2)
God loves the world more than we do. He loves each person on this world more than we can ever do. This is because he is the Ocean of Love and Mercy. When we see imperfections in the world, sometimes we feel sorrow, sometimes hatred and sometimes even anger. Although God knows the negativity in the minds of his billions of children in the world, He also knows the hidden goodness and niceness in people, which we cannot see. This goodness is not only what everyone possesses now but also what they have possessed in their previous lives or births. So, God does not get angry and does not hate anyone and nor does He experience any pain, when He sees anger, ego, jealousy, revenge and hatred in the world.
So, let us think about our perception of the world and let us look upto God and take a positive inspiration from His perception. Let us tell ourselves that we will be good and see the good in the world and its people, which is our eternal family. We will not worry that the world is deteriorating in goodness and we no longer have the support from the world to remain good at all times. There are some people in this world who leave goodness because they feel they cannot survive if they are good and they will be left behind in every sphere of life. And then there are some who remain good, no matter what happens around them. Such people are loved and respected immensely not only by the world, but also by God. Sometimes this love can take time to come from the world, but remember if you enjoy God’s love and you find a place in his book of good people, people will love you sooner or later. So be good and do good always, be a goodness filled personality, well liked and loved by the world and respected by God.
(To be continued tomorrow …)