True Diamonds Become a true diamond. Eat the nourishment of happiness and never give sorrow to anyone. There is a difference between true and false. True diamonds sparkle from afar. Tolerance Tolerance enables one to learn from mistakes. When one is sure of what he is doing and he is in his stage of self-respect, criticism can be taken in the right way. This will give the ability to look within when something goes wrong. Instead of justifying mistakes there will be the ability to learn from them and improve. When someone criticises us, we need to remind ourselves that we have something to learn from it. Let us ask ourselves if there is at least a small aspect that we could learn from and incorporate in our life. Let us take this aspect and leave the rest. Role Induced Stress A very common form of stress which has raised its head in recent years is stress induced due to one's role. There was once a famous movie actor, well known as one of the best of all time and he was obviously very much aware of the same. One day as he was shooting for his new film; his director, a very prominent figure in the film-making arena, mentioned to him that there was a general perception spreading in the film industry as well as in the film going audiences that the actor was getting older with time and his performance was dropping and he needed to spruce up his performances if he had to compete with the younger actors. As soon as he heard this, he started taking his acting role and everything related to it over seriously and lost his happiness completely because he had been used to listening only to praises regarding his performances and reputation all his life. He also forgot all that the world had given him all his life, all the love, respect and adulation and became angry, bitter and resentful towards everyone he met, believing that they no longer held those feelings for him as much as before. Also a general sense of fear and nervousness started developed inside him regarding his next performance. One piece of information had changed him altogether. What had gripped him - 'Role Induced Stress'. His emotion of stress was made of three sub emotions - sorrow, anger and fear (or worry). What was the cause - he over identified with his role. He 'believed' he was an extremely famous hero actor. But was hero actor what he was? It's what he did. But he learned to believe it is what he is. Even we need to remind ourself that we get to play various roles on the world stage of action and that if we over-identify with any of the roles, which a lot of us do, then just like the actor, our creativity, spontaneity and lightness is reduced and we start to take things far too seriously, more than necessary, and as a result get stressed. (To be continued tomorrow ...) Soul Sustenance Understanding Fear Everyone, when they are young, knows what their destiny is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to wish for everything they would like to see happen to them in their lives. But, as time passes, a mysterious force begins to convince them that it will be impossible for them to realize their destiny... There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure. Fear is an energy that puts a brake on you and prevents you from doing what you want and aiming where you want to go. It blocks you in the communication and expression of what you want to say. Fear makes you hide, suppress and not express the most attractive; the most beautiful part of your inner self. Fear has an influence on our capacity to reason, discriminate and take decisions. It makes us doubt, it makes us indecisive even in the simplest decisions of our lives. Fear does not allow your energy to flow, and that weakens your state of wellbeing and general health. Fear locks you into yourself and makes you become indecisive. It is a shadow over your inner self that prevents you from acting with ease and fluidity. It reduces your capacity of expression, of being yourself, of dealing with life and flowing in it. Message for the day Faith in one's progress brings contentment. Projection: Even when the situation is not according to what is expected, there is contentment for the one who has faith in his own progress. Such a person will not just sit back waiting for things to change nor will he just curse his fate. Instead he'll do his best and use all his resources in bettering the situation. Solution: The understanding that all life's situations are a training for me, automatically keeps me content in all situations. There is naturally an experience of constant progress and a feeling of having gained something from all situations.