Circle of life

I often wondered if there was more to life than what I could see. Whatever I had learnt since childhood about reaping what you sow and good people are rewarded by God and bad ones are punished, was just not holding true in my life. Why did good people suffer? Why did things not go well for me when I didn’t do anything wrong?

So the search began. Like many others I know, I read books, learnt mediation, affirmations and attended workshops. With each my thinking patterns changed. I got many insights from books, discovered the beauty of inner peace with meditation, learnt the power of words with affirmations. My life improved immensely. I was determined to find God, self realisation and the secret of life. With each step I could feel I was closer to it.

I am enjoying every step of my inner journey. The next step always reveals itself at the perfect time. They say when you turn to walk towards God, he runs towards you. I once asked my mentor and guide if it was alright to keep changing our beliefs. I was dropping old beliefs with every step. She answered that if you continue with the same beliefs then where is the growth?

At this point I feel I have found the secret of leading a life of miracles. I have come back to where I began, completing the circle. I have discovered that I have nowhere to go and nothing to do. I am the miracle I was looking for. It has always been me. When it dawned on me, I looked around and found miracles in everyone and everything.

 

The Happiness Habit

It is our nature to be curious, to wonder beyond what we require for our daily living. That’s what differentiates us from our fellow beasts on the planet.

If you ever observe the animals, they look quite contented. They eat when they are hungry, sleep when they are sleepy. They follow their instincts quite simply. They aren’t contemplating, “Should I do this or that?”, “Why did I select this? Maybe I would’ve been better off with that. Is this a mistake?”, or, “I wonder what the other lion is thinking of me. I bet he’s judging me. Maybe if I walk this way or do this…. that should show him how great I am!” Only we humans do that.

On the upside, we do get to control what we think. Our happiness or unhappiness truly depends on only one thing, it is our thoughts. We believe our unhappiness comes from the situation, conditions or people in our lives, but think about it. It is actually only our thoughts about the situation, conditions or people. To test what I’m suggesting here, take something that makes you unhappy. Is there any person on the planet for whom this wouldn’t be as bad as it is for you? There are people on the streets, or with terminal illnesses, living in so much pain, they would trade places with you any day. In their given situation, your problem wouldn’t be a problem at all. So that makes the cause of unhappiness relative, not absolute.

It is not the condition in your life that’s causing unhappiness; it is your thoughts about it. Before you reject my point, consider this. We have built walls around us to protect ourselves from getting hurt and we have been doing this all our lives, so it isn’t easy to accept that it was only our thoughts that caused us pain and not the outside world!

The good news is that if you do accept it, it can be the most liberating thing in the world. It gives the control of your life back in your hands. All you have to do is change your thoughts. Sounds easy enough, but how can we change our thoughts? When one negative thought comes, thousands come trailing behind it. Also when we try to think positively, it doesn’t last very long. This is because it is a habit we took years to form. We learnt it from our parents, our teachers and everyone around us. We will have to unlearn the negative thoughts habit.

Just like you would learn any new language, sports or skill, give it some time. When you learn a racquet game for example, you may not be able to hit the ball at all, leave alone make a score. So for the first few days, you practice hitting the ball. Within a few weeks you pick up the game and you feel exhilarated whenever you score. With more and more practice you become a pro at it. Then you no longer need to think of hitting the ball, it becomes automatic.

What happens when you try to change your thoughts? It works for a few minutes and then it fails. You give up. Treat it like a new sport. It’s a skill you need to practice. Don’t give up when you fall. Get up and give it another shot. Each time the getting back up will be quicker.

Just like you need a coach and some sports equipment for a sport, you will need tools for changing your thoughts. Pick up good books, talk to people who are ahead of you on the same path and ask for help when you need it. Set a target if it helps. Say, “I’m going to give this six months. I’m not giving up before that.”

If it doesn’t work, at the end of six months, you maybe where you are today. But if it works, you will be living the happiest version of your life. Isn’t that what we do everything for, to be happy!

What would you be

What would you be with some encouragement? What if every time you did something, people around you appreciated and thanked you? What if you didn’t have to do anything for their appreciation? What if the fact that you existed was enough?
How would your life change? Would you perform better? Would you be happier? Even healthier, maybe?
What if I tell you, it doesn’t matter whether others appreciate you or not, only your own opinion of yourself matters. The only reason we let people make us feel small is because inside we ourselves feel we are inadequate.
What if you stopped criticizing yourself from now on? Every time you look in the mirror, instead of thinking you’re too fat or too thin, too old, too young, too short, too tall or whatever it is you usually think, you try thinking, “I like myself just the way I am.”
 All day in everything we do or don’t do, we keep thinking we need to improve. There’s absolutely nothing wrong in improving, as long as it doesn’t rob you of appreciating how far you’ve already come. We can never be perfect since perfection means completion, but life goes on and we are work in progress till our last day.
‘From tomorrow I need to get up early, I need to hit the gym, I need to eat healthy, I need to spend time with the family, I need to make more money, I need to pray more!’ The list is endless.
What if you just decided you are OK with who you are, where you are?
 One simple decision can change your life. Just accept yourself right here, right now!
Begin now by being kind to yourself. Realize that this is not time passing by, this is your life passing by! Drop all expectations and be OK with yourself.
For every ten things you think you did wrong, you did ten thousand right! Appreciate yourself for those. Find five things to appreciate in yourself everyday. Write them down, paste them on your mirror. Whenever you catch yourself criticizing your self, stop! Replace it with ‘I am OK. I am good. I am better today than I was yesterday. I will never be this age again so I am going to appreciate myself now.’
One simple change will add so much to your life, you will be amazed.
Nurture yourself like a small sapling and then see how you blossom.

My relationship with God

As a child, God was someone I prayed to for things I wanted and for protection from things I feared. Also, I was taught that it was my duty to pray to him since he provided for me, you know, he could get upset and take it all back!

As I grew up, when I went to temples and churches, I covered my head and whispered prayers, trying to fit in everything that needed to be fixed. As time passed, and sometimes things didn’t go so well, I would get upset with God. You can say I had a love hate relationship with him.

Then, something happened- a search began! Who is God? Who am I? What am I doing here anyways? I began to question everything. As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears. Teachers came in many forms, a loving aunt who introduced me to the Law of Attraction, a simple Guru who taught me meditation! One book after the other of new age spirituality, even Discovery science on TV with Journey through a wormhole. For me to believe, science and spirituality had to validate each other somehow. I even read Physics books on Time and Quantum Physics.

Well, the search  is still on, but where I stand today, God is a friend. God is my admirer, and I am his. We adore each other! He dotes on me and sends me signs of his affection in every moment. There are birds, flowers, trees, squirrels, clouds, rainbows, rain…. so many things that were always there but went unnoticed and unappreciated by me. Not anymore. There were situations I perceived as negative, not anymore.

There is nothing outside of God. If there was, who would have made it? And with what? I have begun to see him in everything, including myself. Once you start seeing him in everything and everything in him, your life fills with so much joy! God is in the fun things too! No longer do I think of his presence only when I put on a serious face in a religious place. He laughs with me and cracks a good joke too! He is in everything I choose to be or do, yes, in the late night partying too! Who do you think created all of that?

I meditate, I pray, I follow the rituals, read the books, knowing that I’m doing it because I want to, not to please God. He is always pleased, he loves us unconditionally. So as long as I’m happy in what I’m doing or being, he’s happy too! That’s my God, my friend, my everything!

The miracle that we are

We think of ourselves as a single living being, taking our own selves for granted.
Each cell of the billions of cells in our bodies is living and dying separately, functioning without our interference.
Each one living for a moment, but passing on it’s memory and function to the new one before dying! Yet, unaware of the millions of miracles in our own body, we criticize our looks, our health, our weight!
We run around being fascinated by other people, other objects, looking for attention. As if the attention and love of the divine running through us is nothing! As if the miracle that we are is nothing!

Message from God

Message from God:
How much I cheer to see you be yourself. How happy it makes me to see you love yourself, after all I created you.
I wonder why you wonder what others think of you, is it not enough that I created you?
Could you be anything less than a perfect divine being? No man could duplicate a single cell in your body, I smile at their attempts.
Millions of miracles working automatically in your body, and you look at the others and feel they look better?
One day you will sit here with me and we will look at your life and laugh at how precious you were and how little you thought of yourself!
Until then, I will enjoy everything you do and keep loving and supporting you. My love, my child, is always unconditional.

First day at school

I dropped you to the play way. It was the most beautiful place. It had swings and gardens, butterflies on flowers, a couple of rabbits! There were teachers to lovingly teach you.

Yes, another child could hit you, you could fall. Yes, you were safer in my arms at home, but it was so beautiful. It was still worth it. I was waiting right outside.

You cried, thinking I abandoned you. You didn’t enjoy a thing. After school I picked you, and you realized I was there all along. Today go and make the best of it, now that you aren’t afraid. I’ll wait for you outside and you can tell me all about your adventure on the way home.

Exactly, said God. Now you know! So go enjoy the adventure you call life. I’m right here waiting.