Give The SELF a chance

We all have a higher Self within; we were born with it. Sometimes we get a fleeting glimpse of the Self when we spontaneously act out of unconditional love. Recall a sudden wave of empathy engulfing you at the sight of a man shivering in the cold that prompted you to give him clothes; picking up a wounded animal on the road; the deep sense of fulfilment on rescuing someone in trouble. These arouse an incredible flow of energy and feelings within.

Momentarily, you rise from an ordinary state of being to an extraordinary one. The shift is spontaneous, unintentional and instinctive. You forget who you are: your status, position, your miseries; you act without assigning reason and logic. Neither do you expect reward or recognition in return. These are moments when your higher Self takes over.

The Self is a vast storehouse of positive energy that propels us to extend ourselves unconditionally. We drop our masks: our ego-self, the finite, entrenched in inhibitions, doubts, hesitations. But no sooner than the ego takes over, we again restrain ourselves from reaching out. Our conditioned mind constitutes our ego-self that endorses judgements, evaluations, biases, prejudices, predispositions. We gathered all this ignorantly and continue this way out of sheer habit, impeding manifestation of the Self.

The Self is the internal abundance that can be realized at our will any time. It has the power to nourish, nurture, absorb and inspire. All we need is to have faith and surrender our ego-self to the higher Self.

Give The SELF a chance.

A SPLITTING HEADACHE - sharing a post which I received and relate to.

*A SPLITTING HEADACHE*... 

The proprietor of a coffee shop had been busy all day. Being Saturday, it was very crowded & the customers were just unending. He had been on his toes since morning. Towards the evening he felt a splitting headache surfacing. As the clock ticked away, his headache worsened. Unable to bear it, he stepped out of the shop leaving his staff to look after the sales. He walked across the street to the Chemist, to buy himself a painkiller to relieve his headache. He swallowed the pill & felt relieved. He knew that in a few minutes he would feel better. As he strolled out of the shop, he casually asked the salesgirl, "Where is Mr Savarkar (the Chemist)? He's not at the cash counter today!" The girl replied, "Sir, Mr Savarkar had a splitting headache & said he was going across to the coffee shop. He said a cup of hot coffee would relieve him of his headache." 

The man's mouth went dry & he mumbled, "Oh! I see." This is a typical case of looking outside ourselves for something that we have within us. How strange but true! The chemist relieves his headache by drinking coffee & the coffee shop owner finds relief in a pain relieving pill! 

A man hunts across the lengths & breadths of the universe to find peace. 

Eventually he finds it in his heart & realizes that peace is really a state of mind. 

He undertakes many a pilgrimage to find God. 

Eventually he realizes that God is the in- dweller of the heart.

Life has its own ways of teaching us.....Amazing.

Radical acceptance to our rescue

The idea that we can fix perceived flaws in our partners, friends, parents, and grown children remains a promise of something that is unobtainable.

A healthy dose of ego often convinces us that our way of looking at things is right, but if we try to correct someone else it usually backfires.

Most of the times it implies that we are more enlightened and that we have a deeper knowledge of what’s best. The other person may get the message that he or she isn’t good enough and will in every probability become resentful.

A safer approach would be to look inward to fix the problem. This involves the recognition that you will never be in sync about some matters.

We have to accept the fact ‘We have this permanent difference, but we need to learn to live with each other’.

SOULS AND KARMIC CONNECTIONS

We have traveled through many lifetimes and lived with many different souls amidst family, friends or those who don't really get along with us.

Some may have even tried to harm us emotionally, physically or spiritually.

All said and done, we all are the same and belong to only one group that is SOULS.

We have all traveled together in different lifetimes and have shared various relationships with each other -

Father-mother

Husband-wife

Uncle-aunt

Brother-sister

Friends

Neighbors

Servants

Drivers and even so-called enemies

Each person is a soul that tries to help the other move forward spiritually and reduce the karmic luggage.

Sometimes the soul that loves us the most, might willingly take birth as an enemy or a tormentor in a lifetime, just to help us work out our karma.

Thus, a person who we think hates us and we in return hate, might be our greatest well-wisher spiritually.

He or she may be responsible for our becoming spiritual or compassionate.

That very person who is creating hell in our lives may bring us closer to spirituality.

In the present lifetime, he/she may be doing so because that could be the only way to teach us a lesson.

Sometimes, a soul is reborn just to comfort us and be there in times of need.

So, who is our friend and who is our enemy?

They all are part of the soul family that wants to help us and wants help in return.

Sometimes an opportunity comes in the form of a disaster.

Sometimes, the only way to grow spiritually and in life  is through pain, sorrow and turmoil.

That is when life seems strange.

Hence, never form judgements, abuse or hate and never say nasty things about anyone.

Who knows we may be harming the soul who loves us the most spiritually but we are not able to recognize it as the soul is wearing a different body in this particular lifetime.

WORDS - Healer & Dealer

Words hold the power to destroy, but they also hold the power to create.  This is because words do more than define our experiences.  In many cases they actually create them.

Help me finish the following phrase: “If you can’t say something nice…”That’s right: “don’t say anything at all.”  Most of us only think of that phrase in terms of how we talk to others.  But what about how we talk to ourselves?  If we say something nice to ourselves, it can be wonderful, encouraging, uplifting.  And if we say something negative or critical or depressing to ourselves, it can be absolutely devastating.

What about that little voice that lives inside all of us?  You know what I’m talking about.  Listen.  I bet you can hear it right now:  “What voice?  I don’t have a little voice.  This Sean guy is crazy.  I ate too much and feel bloated.  I’m tired.  That girl over there doesn’t like me.  Did I leave the stove on?

Yeah, that voice.  It’s constantly talking to us.  During the day it chatters in the background, making us feel insecure or sad, and at night it narrates our dreams and nightmares and keeps us awake with worry.  That voice is not something we need to be afraid of; it’s something we need to take control of.  Think of the voice as a two-year-old child.  What would happen if a two-year-old reached out of her highchair for more dessert and you ignored her?  Maybe she would scream and cry until you at least paid attention to her.  Sadly, this is what happens to our internal voice.  I have found that most people never deal with their inner voice until it gets too loud and starts acting disrespectful.

To escape this internal turmoil, we often numb ourselves into oblivion by overeating, watching too much TV, having impersonal sex, drinking too much alcohol, using drugs… the list goes on.  For some people, the inner voice gets so hurtful that they believe that the only way they can shut it off is by taking their own life.  This is not the outcome I want for you or anyone else in the world.

Like good parents of demanding two-year-olds, we need to take control and start parenting our inner voice.  Would you talk to your child or best friend the way you sometimes talk to yourself?  I didn’t think so.If we catch ourselves saying mean things to ourselves – “You’re too fat!  No one will ever love you!  You can’t do anything right!”  – we have to intervene and say, “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean that.  I’m just a little tired, scared, overwhelmed right now.”  Apologizing to ourselves is a foreign concept, but it’s necessary.We must respect ourselves.  Practice talking to yourself the way you would talk to a best friend, a mentor, or someone you really look up to.  Trust me, life will place plenty of obstacles in your path.  You can’t afford to be one of them yourself.

The following is an excerpt from Get Off Your “But” by Sean Stephenson.

The Free Prisoner

Life - we see it all around us,buzzing, moving, and still. Happiness and sadness both exist at the same time. This reminds me of the basic principle of accounting - For every credit there is an equal debit. Happiness, sadness is it real, fake, perception or plain mirage? What we all perceive is with respect to. That one is more happy than me. That one has more wealth than me. That one is more lucky than me. What does it mean? It means that we ignore our happiness and create sadness for ourselves. We are making ourselves a prisoner of our own thoughts.Is it necessary or has it become the only reason of our existence? The spirit is free and totally devoid of expectations. Aren't we free prisoners?

What you do makes a difference.

Every act of yours, every choice you make each day contributes in one way or the other.

Do not think that you are just a speck on the infinite canvas of life and it does not matter what you do – the world will always be the same. That’s not true and not the correct thinking. Your every action and every word makes a difference to someone. Your power - positive or negative contributes to the energy of the universe.

A thoughtful mind and a motivated individual can change the world and history is a witness to this, that it always has and will always make a difference. The smallest seed gives birth to the tallest tree.

The real change has and always starts with an individual, an individual who dares to dream of a different world, influences people to join him on the quest to get there, and takes action accordingly.

Easier said than done – but it doesn’t have to be grandiose and insurmountable plan or action. It simply has to start with the intention of changing one person atleast.