Travelling Companions On the journey of life, we find many travelling companions. Some are like-minded, others' are incompatible. Some encourage us to travel further; others' may hold us back. Some stay with us until their own journey steers them on a different course, and then we say goodbye ! Today, take a moment to appreciate your travelling companions. Co-operation Normally there is a tendency to do everything alone. We mostly feel that it is much easier not to involve too many people in order to avoid the different kinds of personalities we have to deal with. We do expect others' help but not always do we get that. We then continue to blame them which only creates negative feelings. So the responsibility seems like a burden and we feel heavy. The basis of the success of any task is the combined resources of many people. Each and everyone have his own specialties and when we are able to connect to them, we are able to make use of them for the task. So even the biggest task seems easy with the cooperation of all. Secondly, our positive feelings combined with the good wishes of all involved will be for the task which will add to its success. Identity Crisis The primary quality or the original condition of a pure mind, a pure self, is peace. Initially there was no confusion about 'who I am'. As time passed by, and we came in the process of birth and rebirth, we began to identify with what we are not, starting with our own physical form, and then with external things like lands, positions, material possessions and people. These multiple identities generated the first confusions. In those moments, our inner peace was broken. This is why today many of us suffer from an identity crisis, but we are so used to living in this crisis that we are not even aware that it is a crisis. We are not sure what we should be. We are constantly comparing ourselves with others. We regularly aim to be like others. We even imitate (copy) the lifestyles of others: all signs that we don't know who or what we are. And if we think we are sure about who we are, the stability it brings does not last for long, as it is almost always based on something external to the self, something that must therefore be subject to change. In other words each and every one of us has learned to identify with something we are not. This loss of true self-identity, at the most deep level, the spiritual level, is what gives rise to fear. And when what we fear might happen actually does happen, we get angry and try to control what we cannot control, so that it doesn't happen again. Soul Sustenance Performing A Spiritual Audit At The End Of The Day - Part 1 Our normal day at the office or/and at home is filled with lots of actions and interactions. On a normal day, without realizing consciously, we create almost 30,000-40,000 thoughts. So, not only are we active physically but extremely active on a subtle or non-physical level also. Imagine sleeping with all this burden of thoughts, words and actions which have been created throughout the day, many of which have been waste and negative in nature. What would be the resulting quality of my sleep? So it is extremely important to perform a spiritual/emotional audit or evaluation at the end of each day. In a lot of professional sectors of life today, people recognize the need for reflection and audit, not only of financial records but also a general evaluation of the respective sector, to maintain and improve both the service to customers and the job satisfaction of people working in the sector. Checking my own behavior, as a daily exercise; not just checking, but also bringing about respective changes for the next day, enables me to continue to develop and grow, as a human being and in the quality of my work and personal and professional relationships. Have gone through the self-evaluation, it is also advised to become completely light by submitting the mistakes made and heaviness accumulated in the day to the Supreme Being. Doing this helps me put a full-stop to the same and settle all my spiritual accounts at the end of the day. I need to put an end to all commas (when looking at scenes that caused me to slow down and reduced the speed of my progress), question marks (when looking at scenes which caused a why, what, how, when, etc.... in my consciousness) and exclamation marks (when looking at negative or waste scenes, which were unexpected and surprising) which were created in the day's activities. Along with remembering what all good happened during the day, what did I achieve and what good actions did I perform, there is lots to forget at the end of the day, which should not be carried into my sleep at any cost. Disturbed, thought-filled, unsound sleep, will result in a not so fresh body and mind the next morning, which will cause my mood to be disturbed, adversely affecting the following day. (To be continued tomorrow...) Message for the day To be clean at heart is to give happiness to others. Expression: The one who has a clean heart is the one who always tries to do the best for those with whom he comes in contact. Thus, the person develops the ability to accept others as they are and ignore anything wrong done by them. Instead, he is able to do the right action without losing the balance. So such a person brings happiness for himself and for others through every action he performs. Experience: When I have a clean heart I am able to have an experience of my inner qualities. I am able to enjoy the beauty of the different relationships, each relationship and each person being unique. Thus others are able to get in touch with their inner beauty too. So there is happiness experienced by all.