
Artist: Emile Munier (1840-1895)
Serenity
The real sign of serenity is not seen so much in
the face, as found in the depth and stillness of
the eyes.
Balance in Life
The indication of balance in life is a sense of
well-being, optimism
and a clear conscience. The foundation for
achieving this is to look
after ourselves spiritually - making our mind
peaceful, loving and
thoughtful at all times. Then we will
instinctively know how much time
to spend on our own well-being and how much on
fulfilling other
responsibilities. We can only give our best to
others when we are
ourselves at our best.
Limiting Influences On Your Decision Making
Ability
It is extremely important to realize that, in
any situation, you have the power to choose
whether your response in that situation will be
passive or pro-active, positive or negative,
indifferent or attentive etc. You choose what
action you take and how you feel. But do you
exercise your power of choice all the time? You
need to check which factors influence your
decision making and push you either in one
direction or the other? There are many
factors that control and limit your power to
make the right, and more importantly, free
choices. These factors primarily include
influences of people that dominate your ways of
thinking, your beliefs, your attitudes, even
your complete personalities, etc. You are also
limited by the influence of your own fears,
attachments, desires, biases or other negative
and waste thoughts, which result in a lack of
focus.
There are a lot of people who are not used to
thinking for themselves or even prefer being a
'yes' man going along with what others think and
say, without having an opinion of their own.
Also as you pass through your childhood and
teenage life and enter adulthood, you acquire
many preconceived ideas or beliefs from your
family and social and cultural environment; that
is why you assume inside that some things or
people are always positive and others are always
negative when, in fact, that's not necessarily
true. This directly affects the type of
decisions you make, each time there is a
requirement for one. In any particular
situation, courage, wisdom, high self-esteem and
focus is required to sit down calmly and make an
assessment about the possible choices before
you, and then finally make the right decision. The
more you practice relaxation, positive thinking
and meditation, the more you rise above all the
negatively influencing factors mentioned above ,
the more you experience the positive qualities
and powers mentioned above and exercise your
power of choice accurately and with confidence.
(To be continued tomorrow ....)
Soul Sustenance
To Complement And Not To Compete (Part 1)
Harmony, well-being and the fulfillment of
individual purpose are only possible when our consciousness
is universal or inclusive (taking everyone into
consideration) in the sense that we can
recognize and appreciate the purpose and
necessity of all things in life and,
therefore, give them the space to express their
basic right to be. When people, either on an
individual or collective level are no longer
universal or they are exclusive (no
longer taking everyone into consideration), that
is, when the foundation of their identity is
based on ego and superiority, then harmony,
peace and certainly love are lost both in the
individual and in society. Individuals,
societies, nations, religions and politics all
do not remain universal when they are gifted a
particular specialty, talent or position. While
it is healthy and necessary to value who you
are, it becomes most unhealthy and violent to
become attached to your special qualities,
making others feel inferior because they do not
possess those same qualities. The reason for
conflict, on any level, is nearly always this
sense of right to dominate or suppress others
because we feel we are better in one way or
another. Unfortunately, in modern society, the
idea of outdoing others in order to prove the
value of the person, or idea, has overtaken the
basic principle of life, which is complementarity.
When we learn to complement rather than compete,
there will be peace and, above all,
self-respect. Self-respect means to recognize
myself as I am and thus fulfill my purpose
without injury to, or comparison with, others.
(To be continued tomorrow …)
Message for the day
The true joy of living lies in the ability to
enjoy the present moment.
Expression:
The one who is able to remain
in the present is able to learn from the past
and bring out the best from the self. Also there
is a clear vision of the future, so all the
energies are directed towards that vision. The
mind is neither totally caught up with the past
nor with the future. Since there is attention on
the present moment, there is the ability to use
it to the fullest extent.
Experience:
When I am in the present I am able to remain in
the awareness of the gifts of the present.
Having learnt from the past I am able to enrich
myself from the different experiences that I
have had. As I am also clear about where I have
to go, I enjoy the journey and also move on
towards constant success.