Despite Distractions Distractions are everywhere. No matter how much we try, it's almost impossible to get rid of all the distractions. How about this: focus despite distractions! Here are a few tips: - Have music in the background. Music can tune out the distractions around you & keep you engaged & motivated. - Be energised. Have enough sleep & stay hydrated. The more energy you have, the less likely you are to get distracted. - Set email times. Schedule specific times to check & respond to emails. Emotions Every emotion you have ever experienced began as a thought. Your dominant thoughts are programmed into the unconscious mind and become locked into the nervous system. Think confident thoughts, and you feel confident. Think angry thoughts and you feel angry. It is simply not true that emotions happen to us in a random and uncontrolled way; we create them by choosing our thoughts. Top sports stars are very well aware of this. They know that if they allow their emotions to run amok, they will disempower themselves and ultimately concede the match. They are among the most adept at using their thoughts to manage their emotional states. The Energy Of Faith What we believe becomes reality. It has been said that faith can move mountains. The highest mountains are our negative thoughts, feelings and ideas, which block our capacity to rise beyond our limits. Faith is the energy of understanding that enables us to realize anything is possible even if it is not visible in front of our eyes. The success that comes from faith is closely linked with 'letting go'. It is only when we let go of what we are used to, or what we have learnt to depend on, that new perceptions and new possibilities will present themselves to us. All that is needed are a few basic facts and then we can take action. When we drive a car, do we insist on knowing how the engine works in detail before driving it? Do we know the mechanical details of a lift before we use it? Most people are only aware of the basic functions and this is all they need to carry out the action. However, they do have the faith that the car has been correctly constructed to do its job safely and that by pressing a few buttons the lift will raise them to wherever it is they want to go. In the modern life-style, there is a tendency to over-think, to want to control and direct every outcome, but such a life lacks spontaneity and simplicity. Although we do need a framework, it must be flexible enough to allow space for the unexpected, the unpredictable and the great surprise. Such a space is the window through which the light of innovation can enter. When life is over-planned, we become cemented in, unable to grow, or flow, into new horizons. Faith allows us to realize that optimum results can happen without always having to structure or plan. Such faith is the basis for new vision and allows us to reach beyond our limits; because we believe we are more than what meets the eye. Such faith is the inspirational energy of every pioneer in whatever field. Soul Sustenance At Peace with Time - The Key To Relaxed Living (Part 1) To live in freedom you have to live at peace (harmony) with time; live the dimension of time as a creator of time and not a slave of time; live without being either a prisoner or victim of time. To live at peace with time is to live in harmony with nature, beginning with your inner nature. When you plant a sapling today, you cannot accelerate the process so that the next day you have a tree. When it is summer, you cannot make the earth revolve around the sun quicker or slower for winter to arrive before or later. Everything has its rhythm in nature. We have distanced ourselves from the natural rhythm and our accelerated mind exercises pressure, creates stress and causes anxiety. We plan the future, we are stuck in the past and the present escapes us. Many worries have to do with how we live time: the past, the present and the future. Worrying about what might happen (future), when the moment has not yet come for it to happen, takes away from us the necessary energy to deal with it when it finally arrives. Living in memories drains our energy; the past already happened and no longer exists, except in our memory. We feed memories, not realizing that emerging the memory in our mind distracts us from the present and weakens us. It is like being a plug that connects to a socket with no current passing through. We lose our energy. We want to relive an experience that already happened, and in the end we feel disappointed, feeling a mental and emotional waste. (To be continued tomorrow …) Message for the day The one way of finishing waste thinking is to find a solution. Expression: When there is something negative that happens the mind tends to create a lot of waste and negative thoughts. At such a time there is no clear understanding of what is to be done and so there is difficulty in being positive at such a time. But once the problem is identified and the right solution found, i.e., the right explanation is given, there is no more waste thoughts, words or actions. Experience: When I am able to find the right solution at each step, whenever even negative situations happen, I am able to remain happy and content. I am not worried about the problem at hand but I know instead that this problem has come to increase my own inner strength and capability. Thus I am able to maintain my inner positivity under all circumstances.