05.07.2015 Green Man Humility Humility accepts what's there. Sometimes there is a lot available and sometimes only a little. It doesn't matter. In humility there is the trust that everything will come anyway, at the right time. No Procrastination Good planning is always helpful, but time spent stressing and procrastinating about having too much to do or doubting whether you're capable of doing it, just drains your energy and achieves nothing. Instead of thinking about doing something just get on with it. The faster you get on with it, the fewer problems you create. You'll find that the more willing you are to respond positively to opportunities, the more your capacity will grow. Different Thought Types (cont.) We have explained Positive Thoughts yesterday. Today we continue with the same: Positive Thoughts (cont.) Positive thoughts make you happy and as a result your expectations of others decrease. This does not mean that they do not matter to you, but that you no longer demand love, respect, recognition, or even calm, from them, and it makes your relationships that much easier. This is the best way to create long-lasting and harmonious relationships. When you have inner happiness, you have the strength to accept other people as they are without wanting them to be different. This acceptance produces more peaceful relationships. With the positive attitude you create, you can offer yourself to other people just the way you are, with your virtues and limitations, without pretence. Your body also benefits greatly, since when you have a balanced, harmonious mind you are less susceptible to illnesses. A person who has many useless thoughts will often feel very tired because they are spending their energy in creating thousands of unnecessary and inefficient thoughts. Your mind is strengthened and healed by being nourished with positive thoughts. A healthy mind is the basis of a balanced personality. Soul Sustenance Frozen Perceptions Like water, which over a period of time freezes and takes the form of frozen ice cubes, when kept in an ice tray; perceptions of different things, people and events, inside our consciousness, which come onto the surface of our consciousness regularly i.e. we shape our thoughts, words and actions based on them, regularly, take the form of rigid perceptions over a period of time. These rigid or 'frozen perceptions', which sometimes never liquefy in our entire lifetime, are commonly called our beliefs, which can stick in our consciousness like ice cubes and be difficult to uproot at times. One of the greatest harms that holding to a set of beliefs does is, that it doesn't let us see from other peoples' point of view. Let's say two people look at the same painting from two different points in a room. One describes what she sees and how the painting looks to her. Then the other describes how the painting looks to him. Both perceptions are bound to be different to some extent. They are different because they look from different angles, different points (places) of viewing in the same room. So who has the right view? Neither. But what both of them see is right from their point of view. Another e.g. is, there is Mrs. A at my workplace, whom over a period of time, I have been seeing from a certain point of view and have started perceiving to be inefficient. Bringing this perception into my consciousness repeatedly has frozen this perception inside my consciousness and it has taken the form of a belief, which may be incorrect or correct, partially or completely. Now even if three different people who have all seen Mrs. A from three different points of view i.e. in three different set of circumstances, and have seen three different shades of the same virtue i.e. efficiency in her; come and share their different, but all positive and right perceptions with me, depending on their respective circumstantial view, I will not agree with them and not respect their perception because a person with unfrozen perceptions would at least give a hearing to others' perceptions, but someone with frozen perceptions, i.e. with fixed beliefs, is not able to that and is not able to empathize with or see from others’ point of view. Message for the day To be free from the burden of responsibility is to fulfill the responsibility well. Projection: When I am responsile for something or people expect me to be answerable for something, I tend to feel heavy because of these responsibilities. With the such a feeling of having a burden, I'm not able to fulfill my responsibilities to the best of my ability. Solution: Whatever responsibilities are given to me are according to my capabilities. When I remind myself of this I'll be able to be light and give my best to fulfill all my responsibilities.