Brahma Kumaris

27.08.17 Sorrows Song Have you ever noticed how we spend our life pursuing happiness and completely mistake it for sorrow? It's true, everything you do is motivated by the desire to attain a moment of happiness. Spend a few moments reflecting and you will see. And yet what we consume in order to be happy is very often sorrow! We often rate a good movie by the amount of violence and destruction. The scriptwriters know we will surrender our emotional state to the emotions of the characters, and then enjoy the rollercoaster journey between elation and depression, love and fear. And in the end they have convinced us to say "wonderful, loved every minute". And then listen to the music we buy - is it uplifting, does it empower us? Does it encourage our spirit to soar high, free and happy. Not a chance. We hear the music of melancholy, and the lyrics of suffering and pain dressed as love and fulfilment. But the illusion is now so powerful that many of you, as you read this, will be resisting the idea already, convinced that the music you love is uplifting and inspiring. How can violence, depression, sadness and pain uplift and inspire? How can you get happiness out of sorrow? Wakey Wakey!! Limiting Influences On Your Decision Making Ability (Part 1) It is extremely important to realize that, in any situation, you have the power to choose whether your response in that situation will be passive or pro-active, positive or negative, indifferent or attentive etc. You choose what action you take and how you feel. But do you exercise your power of choice all the time? You need to check which factors influence your decision making and push you either in one direction or the other? There are many factors that control and limit your power to make the right, and more importantly, free choices. These factors primarily include influences of people that dominate your ways of thinking, your beliefs, your attitudes, even your complete personalities, etc. You are also limited by the influence of your own fears, attachments, desires, biases or other negative and waste thoughts, which result in a lack of focus. There are a lot of people who are not used to thinking for themselves or even prefer being a yes man going along with what others think and say, without having an opinion of their own. Also as you pass through your childhood and teenage life and enter adulthood, you acquire many preconceived ideas or beliefs from your family and social and cultural environment; that is why you assume inside that some things or people are always positive and others are always negative when, in fact, that’s not necessarily true. This directly affects the type of decisions you make, each time there is a requirement for one. In any particular situation, courage, wisdom, high self-esteem and focus is required to sit down calmly and make an assessment about the possible choices before you, and then finally make the right decision. The more you practice relaxation, positive thinking and meditation, the more you rise above all the negatively influencing factors mentioned above , the more you experience the positive qualities and powers mentioned above and exercise your power of choice accurately and with confidence. (To be continued tomorrow ….) Humility Humility brings excellence. Humility means there is no expectation of being perfect always. So whatever is done comes naturally. There is no feeling of threat about others' opinion, but the one who is humble is able to express inner talent without any fear and expectations. So humility takes one forward towards excellence: When I am humble, I am able to stabilize myself in my state of self-respect always. This naturally is felt even when I am not able to bring perfection in my actions or even when others are not satisfied with me. Internally there is a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that I am constantly learning and moving forward. Message for the day The one who is calm and cool is the one who makes the right decisions. Expression: The natural nature of the human mind is to come under pressure and tension during negative situations. When there is a challenging situation, there is naturally the tendency to find it difficult to maintain an inner state of calm. But the one who has the ability to go within and find the inner calm is able to be clear in thinking and is able to make the right decisions. Experience: When I am able to experience the inner state of calm, I am able to be clear in my thinking. With this clarity I find the right decisions and solutions emerging very naturally within my mind. I will never have the difficulty of having to make decisions, but all decisions are made with ease and they are right too.