Brahma Kumaris

05.06.17 Concentration Ability When you want to do something sincerely and are decisive about it; the power of concentration becomes available to you. Concentration allows you to achieve more in less time and respond to situations in a more effective way. Situation Proofing Yourself (Part 2) A life without situations is like trying to live a life in an imaginary world, cut off from reality. There are two categories of people. One will make the situation smaller by having positive perceptions or ways of looking at the situation. The other will make the situation bigger than what it is by having negative perceptions. The negative perceptions are the first reasons for making an easy situation seemingly difficult or a difficult situation into a very difficult one. The negative perceptions stand on four pillars, the four questions -How? Why? When? What? Just remember the last time you were faced with a difficult situation, it was always one of these four questions or more than one on which your perceptions stood. If it’s all four, then the negative perceptions become the strongest and stand the tallest. And of course the other two exclamations (being surprised negatively) – the If! and the But! These raise the negative perceptions even higher and before you know the situation looks bigger than it is. On the other hand, if we are positive, we will rise above these questions and not create these two exclamations. This is situation-proofing. A situation is there but I have situation-proofed myself. Situation-proofing means I go beyond the influence of the situation by keeping these questions and exclamations away and not having any negative perceptions. As we all know, the energy of our consciousness (or smriti in Hindi) flows into our attitudes (or vriti in Hindi) and shapes them. The energy of our attitudes flows into our perceptions or the way we look at real-life situations (drishti or drishtikon in Hindi) and shapes them. Finally the energy of our perceptions flows into our words and actions (or kriti in Hindi) and shapes them. This is the process that takes place in our mind and this is the process that is required to be completely understood before understanding how situation-proofing works. We shall explain that in tomorrow’s message. Going Nowhere? As long as you are thinking of where you could be, you are marking yourself absent from where you are now. Which means you are nowhere instead of now here. Many people spend their entire life in 'nowhere'. Not a wise choice! Message for the day To have good wishes for others is to give them the ability to transform. Thought to Ponder: I need to develop the ability to have positive feelings and good wishes to everyone, including the ones who behave or think negatively. When I do this, I am able to give them the power to transform themselves. My pure feelings become a support and a base on which they can bring about a change for the better. Point to Practice: Today I will create good thoughts for someone I am not able to get along well with or someone who is being negative. I will go up to them and say something nice to them with these feelings of good wishes. This will enable them to get the power to bring forth their inherent goodness and work with it.