Wednesday, April 20, 2016

It is a wonderful journey

Life is sometimes   a game. Life is sometimes a challenge. Life is sometimes LOVE. Life is sometimes a joy.  Life is for some cruel who have had enough of it. Life is for some a Blessing who are always looking for what the next moment will uncover.

Life overall is a journey , a wonderful one. Keep moving forward.. Destination is always BLISS.  One needs to get some wisdom to understand this mindset.  We are here is it not, to just uplift one more human being, provide a ray of hope through our example, our inspiration, our sweet word or sometimes a strong loving message?

Move on!!! Let your music out and be heard by all.  Each one can do. I can do !!! You can do !!!! Let us make this journey a blissful blessing. It is in our hands, actually in our mind, in our hearts.

Love
Suresh

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Wi-Fi Connection

All along my childhood, I knew one thing for sure. Whatever happens , every person is individually responsible for his or her actions and in the final count , he or she will be accountable for his or her actions. No one else can be your proxy or help you or chip in for you. You will be bearing the result of your actions. No one else can come to your rescue. This awareness has been there with me for a very long time and this has established the direction of my actions many many times.
    Assume a huge bank - nature or universe. It is all encompassing and all inclusive. Every thought that crosses your mind is released into this bank and gets deposited in your account , if you like it or not. These are all the causes for which there has to be an effect and you are the target for that effect. Depending on the nature of that initial thought , the nature of effect varies. Cumulatively , the net result of all the thoughts , basically determine your destiny. The bank has been accumulating these thoughts in your name life after life. As long as there are more "effects" remaining in your account , you are bound to return to life. To put an end to this cycle , you either choose your thoughts to be neutral or assign them to some power superior to you , so that they do not get deposited in your name. This way , the effect of these , need not be borne by you.
                As long as the balance in the account is either positive or negative , you have to have a life to exhaust the balance. Better to have a positive balance , rather than negative.  Also , when you expect something in return to whatever you  have done or given out (actions) , you are applying them (actions) in your name. Instead, if you just act and leave it at that , without attaching your ego to it, or without expecting anything in return for your action, it will not get attached with your name in it. This way, your account balance can be reduced. The final destination is to make the balance zero.

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Journey of Life --> From point A to Point B

Want to move on in life ?

Ok. Apparently, you are looking to move on in your life. Better your life in some way. Improve your present status in whatever area of your life. If that is true , where should you begin ? On of our dear friends had inspired us to ask questions so as to elicit some response , for any situation ,  if you are looking for some life direction at any time.  The quality of your life depends on the quality of questions you ask yourself.
Questions make you think , let me repeat , they make you think .. THINK .. that is the key. Now is the time to put your most precious , most invaluable tool to work ! Your brain , your thought process.  We will come to that in a bit.

    First let us explore , how to begin , where to begin our journey. For any journey to begin , where do you normally begin ?  If you are planning a vacation , what do you do first ? You decide on a location to visit. Then you plan your vacation , for eg, how many days for the vacation, when can you go , which time of the year , where to stay , how to travel, plan ahead the travel bookings. How to get dropped to the airport , if travelling by air. It all begins when you know where to start your journey-- the FROM (location). Even when you try to get directions, your GPS needs to know where you are now . The second question will be TO location. Where do you want to go ?  Applying similar analogy , your life journey also needs two main points of reference :

    Where are you now ?
     Where do you want to be , say 2 years from today?

If you have ever  been to a mall, you must have seen the map which depicts the layout and then the red arrow mark which shows where you are now. Unless you know where to begin , you really cannot chalk out an effective plan of action for where you want to go. This needs some homework to be done. Because this is your life. Get serious. Spend some time , analyzing your present position in life. Ask your self some quality questions. Make your brain think. Examine all areas of your life :
Personal
Economic / Financial
Career
Relationships
Family
Spiritual
Social
Health

On a scale of 1 - 10 , where do you rank yourself ? Make sure you are honest to yourself. This is not the time to impress anyone. The more true you are to yourself, the better the results would be. After all , it is YOUR  LIFE. Once you have found answers to all these , now you are all set to move on to the second step.

  Now , where do you want to see yourself in the next 2 years or 5 years ? Let us explore another analogy here. Are you aware of  a trajectory ? An arch like path formed when a missile is fired or any similar object is ejected with a  force. This  arch like path is called a trajectory. The picture below is self-explanatory ::


   

   Pay attention to the fact that it has a begin point and an end point. Irrespective of where the begin point is today , even with a slight change in the angle of the trajectory , the end point variation will be considerable.  We apply this analogy to our life and it translates into , insignificant changes , done at minute levels , end up changing our end point in a major way. So , let us not get intimidated by the fact that it takes some change to see a change in our end point. The change need not be a drastic one . Even minutest small changes have the potential to make voluminous changes to the end results.

      To get to where you are today , it took some (considerable) time. So do not be in a rush to see immediate results. Any change , to show up as a tangible one , will take some time. Be patient and be kind to yourself. Allow some time and do not berate yourself if things do not turn out to be the way you expected in the given time period.

     Now that you have identified where you are and where you want to be in a given time period , we need to know how to go about it. There are specifics involved . depending on each of your needs, but there are some general directions , which every one can follow to achieve the desired results. Let us discuss some concepts about beliefs - how they are formed and how they can be changed to aid us in our journey for a better tomorrow.

                            When we are born, we are born with a clean hard disk , which is completely blank , and un-formatted. But as we grow , it gets written down by our various experiences, some are good and positive and some may be negative and self-defeating. At present , whatever has been written so far , if the  net effect is positive , you experience a positive life and if that is a negative net effect , you may be experiencing negativity in your life. Stop right now , and examine your present thought - is that thought something that is helping you move forward ? If you continue in the same thought line , where will it take you ? Be honest and admit it frankly. This is the home work for all of us.  Assign a time per day , if that is difficult, maybe some time per week , if that is difficult also , some time per month , to sit down in a closed room , without any disturbance - external or internal (no tv, no cell phone , no dear friends , no relatives , no one around you ). Now  sit still and become an observer of yourself. Pay attention to the thoughts that you are thinking. Say thanks for that thought and let it go. Do not let that thought build further. If a bird starts building a nest on your head , would you let it continue ?  No !. So stop that nest from forming , right now . Now , there is another thought coming in - catch it  right there . Express thanks for its coming and let it go. Keep doing that for some time. Eventually , you will become better at that. Initially , you will have to keep reminding yourself to release the thoughts as they keep coming. This is the only way , you train yourself to become aware of your thoughts. This is the first step in  the process of self advancement. And this is the only way to get into the habit of identifying your thoughts.

      Then comes the second step of changing your not so friendly thoughts ( or even the worst thoughts) to those of friendly , helpful, uplifting and encouraging ones. Now that you have become aware of  your thoughts , you can also understand the underlying tone of those thoughts.  You are the best judge to know if it is a uplifting thought or a demeaning thought. If it falls in the second category, immediately stop that thought , acknowledge and appreciate its entry and at the same time release it , just express thanks and let it go. Repeat this as many times as you can. Until it becomes a habit and you are comfortably able to pay attention to at least 50% of your thoughts.  It is humanly impossible to become aware of every single thought. Becoming aware of  at least 50 % of thoughts will help you catapult your life into a quantum leap.

        Now that you are aware of  your thoughts , you can recognize the undercurrent of that thought process,  now comes the time to know how to channel the new thoughts. What should your thoughts be ? On what lines ? What should be the tone ?  Here , let me repeat how thoughts are an  important part of our lives :

  Thoughts  ===> repeated thoughts form beliefs====>leads to  Actions ====> form Habits ====> forms your character ====> is your destiny.

   Hence , to change your destiny , you should make attempt to change your thoughts. To get a good fruit  from a tree, what do you do ? Water the roots  well. You would fertilize properly. Aerate the soil near and around the roots.  Nothing to do with the branch endings ! Similarly , to see good fruit on our life tree , we need to tend to our roots -- our thoughts ! As simple as that ! There is no better secret than this.

    Let us examine another analogy here. Have you ever appreciated a well kept garden ? Have you realized how much effort has gone into getting to that end point ?  A lot of effort must have gone into weeding , planting desired seeds, tending to those new germinated seeds , water the plants regularly , consistently , keep away the new weeds, provide support to growing plants , ward off any wild animals or bugs that may harm the plants , etc , etc.  If you pay attention here , you can see that if unattended , a garden will attract weeds by default. They do not need special care , nor do they need any support. On the contrary , it is very tedious effort to have a beautiful blooming garden. It needs constant attention , persistent removal of weeds , continuous watering , constantly keeping away the bugs to have the beauty of a colourful garden.  On the same lines , if you are not watchful , you will easily fall prey to negative thoughts or unsupportive thoughts , just like weeds.  It needs conscious effort to identify the weeds , or in our case , the unsupportive thoughts , and replace those with  uplifting and supportive thoughts.
 
         So now , we have identified that we  should become aware of our thoughts and also accepted that it takes conscious and persistent and ongoing effort to  keep off any unwanted , unsupportive , self defeating thoughts. Let us now see how we can achieve this. Once  you have identified a thought as negative or unfriendly, acknowledge , accept it as is , express thanks and let go. Accepting the present is the only  best way to a better future. At every phase , acknowledging the present moment is the begin point. Then take the second step of replacing that thought with a more helpful thought.
Let us use an example here :

     A: I am not good at talking with people. ==> not a supportive thought
     B: I am getting better and becoming more friendly.
              OR
          I am a friendly person and people love talking with me.  ===> uplifting thought

It may not be helping you change your feeling immediately , but once you get into the habit of converting all such thoughts into helpful thoughts , you will start seeing the difference over time, in the way you feel , which will change the way you respond to events and which eventually results in changing your situations and circumstances , thus basically , you will see a completely better picture , given enough time between the beginning and seeing changes around you.
         For thoughts to turn into a belief , it takes repetition. In the same way that repeated input from peers, relatives and friends , over a period of some years , have formed your present day beliefs , similarly , your new beliefs will take some consistent repetition to form a belief. You keep repeating  your new beliefs in the form of affirmations , constantly , until they become so inbuilt that your brain processes those by default. Your actions stem from those beliefs.  So , for each area of your life , you can create your own affirmations , the new beliefs and follow this process of repetition until you see the results desired by you.

      Now  you have a blueprint of action items to be taken  by you - to move on from POINT of BEGINNING to POINT of your DESIRE.
 
     


   


Saturday, March 19, 2016

Thoughts - a background

My thoughts on thoughts ::

   Human beings think on an average 600000 thoughts everyday , yet very few are aware of the fact , let alone the content of each thought. We are so accustomed not to pay any attention to what we think that we are not even aware of the fact that thoughts can be directed , manipulated or tuned or in other words massaged to bring about better results.
                          As a preview to this , let me take you on a journey to where you were just a few weeks ago or a few months ago or a few years ago. Try to recollect your circumstances then, the people in your life, the events that happened, the situations you were in , the conversations you had , type of relationships you were in , etc. What were your reactions to each of those ? Dd you ever think of all the situations to be pleasant ? Or did you feel they were overbearing , difficult or tough ? Did you ask God - "Why me ?" . OR did you express your thanks and gratitude to whatever was happening ? What were your predominant thoughts ?
    I know it is a bit too many questions for you to answer. But  you get the point. Right . Whatever was the undercurrent of your thoughts - that of lack or that of abundance, that of complaining or that of gratitude , would have shaped your present circumstances. There is no denying of this fact. We must have come across this concept in so many diverse ways all along our childhood. Parents say "tathaasthu" - that means let that come true , whatever you are thinking , or saying , let it happen, let it become true.. You must have heard the mention of angels who make every wish of yours come true. You also must have heard that "life is like an echo" - whatever you give out , comes back to you. All these are so many ways to express the same basic principle of cause and effect , which has universal occurence and flawless execution , irrespective of the fact that you and I believe or not believe, accept it or not.
                            There is not a single moment in your wakeful part of life when your brain is not spawning a thought. To make a change in that thought , to give it the direction you want , the first step would be , to  become aware of it , acknowledge the tone of it, then know what the right tone should be . It is only then , can you give it the right direction, the right dimension, the right colour and the right depth to bring you the results you desire.
                  When we  were born, our hard disk was clean  and transparent, it had God's divinity imprinted on it. Slowly , life happens, and the hard disk gets formatted and obliterates and hides the beauty of the divine under the mask of various feelings of hatred , jealousy , covetousness, anger , greed , lethargy , laziness, selfishness , etc. Make an effort to clean up all these layers , the inner divine soul shines bright with all its innate charm. That is the process of meditation which allows you to reconnect with your real inner you.
                    It is a known fact that thoughts lead to  beliefs , beliefs lead to actions , actions lead to habits , habits form your character and character becomes your destiny. Following this chain , we know that our destiny is rooted in our thoughts. Again, it re-affirms the undeniable fact that our thoughts are the very basis of our destiny.
     Let us explore another analogy. Let us consider a garden. If no one is tending to a garden , what would occupy the vacant land ?  Of course , weeds ! Same is the story with thoughts. If in the garden of our mind , if we do not stand guard , all junk thoughts will be prevailing , by default.  What do we do to have a beautiful garden ?  We have to clean the garden of all the weeds, plant seeds of the flowers or fruits you would like to have in your garden , then water the seeds , have patience until they germinate, ensure proper lighting , warmth and watering , see that no pests infest the crop, protect them from wild animals, fertilize , provide support for them to grow , then at the end , you can reap a good harvest. Similarly, our mind is the garden where we will have to identify the weeds, carefully remove them, plant good / better thoughts , nurture them with patience , watch them , observe them closely so that they are not diluted or polluted , then with enough of time and effort , we can see the results in our manifested world. Anyone can begin at any point  and give this a trial - not with an intention of challenging the concept , but with a firm belief  that it is creating a new and better life.
       If you think you can  OR If you think you cannot - either way , you are right - because your  thoughts are the cause - the effect of which has to be in conformity with the original thought -- it is the universal law of cause and effect.