Brahma Kumaris

04.11.15 Seeds of Thoughts You are the master of your mind so you can choose to create the results you want. Remove the weeds of unwanted feeings & undesired outcomes & plant seeds of positive thoughts. Then sit back & watch the fruits appear...... Tip: be patient, otherwise unripe fruit only causes indigestion! Criticism When faced with criticism, do you get defensive and fire back justifications? Let's face it; we are not as perfect as we think we are, so some of the criticism is probably valid. Why not use criticism as a constructive feedback to improve yourself? Try to steer clear of criticism which are NOT helpful. Don't take it personally and let the criticism slide. Unloading Your Pressure Baggage On a spiritual level, pressure can be defined as an external force acting on us divided by our ability to bear the force or resist it. Thus, force and resistance capacity are two variants in the equation of pressure. Everyone has different resistance capacities. Two people with different resistance capacities will experience different amounts of pressure on being subjected to the same magnitude of force. A feeling of pressure absorbs our freedom and gives us an experience of being ruled by an external entity. There are a lot of people who hold the belief that they can experience freedom only in the absence of an external force, which is almost impossible, since there is almost some force or the other exerted on the soul by ups and downs that takes place in the role that it plays through the physical body; which includes the physical body itself; profession; family; wealth, all types of relationships, etc. Even our own personality, thoughts, feelings, emotions etc. exert pressure on us at times. Apart from the resistance capacity, the other variant in the equation of pressure is not only force but our perception of what the magnitude of the force is. This depends primarily on the beliefs that we carry. Two people will perceive the same situation in their role (as explained above) as forces of different magnitudes. While we hold the belief that life events, people and their expectations from us, are the forces that are the causes of our pressure, we will be able to do little to change the habit of being pressurized. It is we who pressurize ourself and allow the outside to pressurize us. We can either go through our life journey while experiencing feelings of being emotionally imprisoned, confused, rushed and hurried, or we can do the same with the power of faith and determination, at the same time remaining patient and maintaining our inner emotional stability. In some cases, some of us put pressure on ourselves, because we carry the belief that a bit of pressure is good in order to achieve what we want; it provides us with positive energy and motivates us. So this is an example of perceiving a force in our life, a force which does not exist. Such kind of pressure can deceive us and give us a feeling of being beneficial in the short term but it can have harmful effects on us in the long term. Some others might not experience this pressure because they do not carry this belief at all and don't invite this force. (To be continued tomorrow...) Soul Sustenance Saying Goodbye To Anger 'I expect' is the great illusion, which converts itself into demanding rights without due respect for others. Anger in all its forms is a direct result of an expectation not being fulfilled and brings cries (although sometimes silent ones) of * They should have done this * Why did this happen? or * Don't you know better? Disappointment, accusations and demands are violent energies, which we throw around very naturally and easily in our daily life when our expectations are not fulfilled. They are like a burning fire that eats away at our original spiritual qualities, turning them to a dust that pollutes the self and others. Instead, let us continue to practise returning our thoughts to the self and remembering our original source of peace. In that experience of deep, natural peace, we will find balance and clarity and the ability to tolerate and adjust to the unexpected. One of the keys of meditation practice is to quickly gather our thought energy and take it inside to connect to our original qualities, no matter what may be happening outside, or even inside! Let me disconnect from the external and plug in to the internal energies that support me and then I will be able to say goodbye to anger very easily. Message for the day The one with contentment is neither upset nor upsets others. Expression: Many times I find that my words, actions or behaviour tends to upset others inspite of my not wanting to hurt them. I seem to be very happy with the situation, but others don't seem to be. At that time I am not really able to understand the reason for this and I consider the others to be unreasonable. Experience: I need to check myself when others are getting upset with me. I need to make effort to check and change myself constantly so that I am able to move along with the demands of time. This is what will bring about true contentment - such contentment that neither will I be upset nor will I upset others.