Daily Positive Thoughts: January 08, 2017: Power of Blessings

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 08, 2017: Power of Blessings

Power of Blessings

The power of blessings changes the fire of adverse situations into water.

Attitude Matters (Part 2)

Our attitude towards a person is commonly based a lot on what we listen from others about him or her, as discussed in yesterday’s message. On the other hand a person who is determined to have a positive attitude will not let all that he hears, affect him. He will maintain a balance by knowing everything about a person or what others are saying about the other person, if required and yet remaining the same. This is because sometimes in a particular role, in any sphere of life, it may be important to know everything about a person from others also. That does not mean that we should gossip about the other person and indulge in discussions about him or her. This may be unnecessary at times because sometimes people give incorrect feedback also. But that’s not true every time. Sometimes the feedback may be correct and not so nice. Also it may be important to know that piece of information about a particular person, which you are receiving.

At that time, use your power of discrimination and judgment to know whether what you are hearing is true or not because the other person may be incorrect or may purposely be lying or lying because of his or her own lack of discrimination and judgment power. Also, at times, it may be good to refuse the other person’s piece of information or if that’s not possible, hear it, but not let it affect you negatively. In other words, neither should you be disturbed by that piece of information nor should you share that piece of information with others. Lastly and very importantly your attitude towards that person whose information was shared should remain the same. Otherwise following your attitude change, your behavior towards that person changes and as a result the relationship with that person gets spoilt. How to keep a positive attitude for a person about whom we hear negative information? A little bit about that in tomorrow’s message.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Anticipation & Anxiety

When we are anticipating something it's so easy for the anticipation to turn into anxiety. 

How about turning anticipation into preparation! Recognize what you need to prepare & do it! Then choose to think about it, only when you need to.

Take away the anxiety from the anticipation & you're left with a healthy optimism. You're then able to relish how things happen, even if it's not in the way that you were anticipating.

Message for the day

To work with joy is to be free from tiredness.

Expression: When there is the happiness and joy of doing something, one can go on putting in effort even in the most difficult circumstances. For having done everything with happiness, there will be the inner quality revealed in each and every task. The happiness within will spread around to others too. 

Experience: As I never leave my inner joy, and am constantly in touch with my inner qualities, I am able to enjoy everything that life brings. Nothing will then be experienced as work, but I feel everything to be entertainment. I will be able to enjoy the richness of life even when there is something actually difficult. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 07, 2017: Compassion

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 07, 2017: Compassion

 

Compassion

A compassionate person develops an eye for spotting the qualities that make each person special. Even when others are at their lowest ebb, it is possible to help them restore their self-belief by keeping a firm, clear vision of their goodness and specialities. Taking a gently encouraging approach, I must never give up on anyone.

Attitude Matters (Part 1)

A beautiful aspect of our lives which we sometimes do not give adequate importance to is the need for taking care of our attitude towards everyone and how we look at each one. There was once a businessman who became known as the most successful person in his field because of his hard work and dedication. Thousands of people admired and respected him. Everyone’s attitude was extremely nice and positive towards him. Sometime in the middle of his career he started doing badly and suddenly people began to move away from him. The attitude of many people towards him started becoming negative and the same people who were happy with him, in his success, no longer were there for him, in his failure. The world had turned its back to him. Why did he face such a response from the people around him? Was something lacking in him? Did he commit some mistake? Not at all. But the world was like that for him. Bad. They say your attitude for someone should not only be positive but ever-positive i.e. continuously positive. 

Are we able to always have a positive attitude for everyone? Do you ever wonder what stops us from doing that? Our perception of people changes very easily. There is a small example of two people A and B having a conversation amongst each other. B explained something negative about C to A and went away. Later in the day, C came to A to ask for help and A refused to help because he thought C was not a nice person. Who was responsible for this action? B and his negative feedback about C which he gave to A. This changed A’s attitude towards C. This can happen with us in our social circles or in our offices or even in families. Attitude matters. It is the foundation stone of all relationships. Let’s give it a thought in the next two day’s messages.

 (To be continued tomorrow …)

Transform negative into positive

After a negative interaction, traces of emotions and impressions get left over. 

These shape our future expressions! That's why it's important to wipe the slate clean.

This doesn't mean erasing things completely, no, it means transforming negative into positive.

Here's how in 3 steps:

1) Acknowledge your emotions and understand what triggered them.

2) If you could replay that scene again, how would you do things differently?

3) Create a positive impression about that negative interaction and move on.

Message for the day

To be a giver means to give according to need.

Expression: The one who is a giver 

would be sensitive to the needs of others and will be able to give what the other person needs at the right time, instead of giving what he wants to give. Also such a person is able to give without expecting anything in return. 

Experience: When there is even a little thought to share with others whatever I have, I would naturally be able to perceive my own inner treasures and experience being full. Sharing with others, whatever I can, enables me to get their good wishes also. I thus find myself experiencing the richness of life. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 06, 2017: Emotional Pain

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 06, 2017: Emotional Pain 

Emotional Pain

In a situation of emotional distress, you usually have two options: to face the problem or not. Processing a problem means you are facing it. Suppressing the problem means you are not. There's a big difference between the two. Processing is to the mind what digesting is to the stomach. If your digestive system can't handle certain foods, you have to stop eating them, otherwise you become sick. Similarly, if you find yourself in a situation where you can’t cope, don't just sit there taking it all in. It's better to say something right there and then. To hold things inside will not allow you to have a healthy mind. What you take in will be indigestible and it will be obvious to others that you are having a problem. Our ability to cope is hampered by thinking too much about other people. This causes problems in the mental digestive system. The best mental 'antacid' is in-depth spiritual study. This, plus regular practice of self-awareness, penetrates the mind very deeply, dislodging emotional pain at its roots. Only then can emotion be purified, refined, and ultimately transformed.

The Dynamics Of Greed

Deficiencies inside us bring about a spiritual void or the lack of wholeness (fullness). As we lay the foundation of our lives on deficiencies or weaknesses, the result is suffering, sorrow and peacelessness. If we act in harmony with spiritual virtues and qualities, the result is cooperation, happiness, peace, contentment and finally, wholeness.

A spiritual void leads to selfishness and causes the creation of greed inside us. We want to have more and possess more, which generates a state of expectation and stress. We fill our lives with things and objects to cover up deeper deficiencies. Then we are afraid of losing them. We generate expectations of all kinds, and when they are not fulfilled we react with anger, frustration, fear or disappointment. The inner emptiness makes us become greedy. We fill ourselves with objects, properties, things. We take and consume more than what we can give to the Universe in the form of positive thoughts, feelings, vibrations, actions etc. and this brings about imbalances in the self, in relation to others and with nature.

Something similar happens on a physical level. The body has a capacity to recycle and eliminate waste through different mediums. However, since we consume more toxins than the body can process, it leads to imbalance and we are more prone to feeling physically ill and unfit and developing diseases etc.

Intellectual humility

Just when we think we've mastered something, something else comes along to make us humble again!

It's as if life is saying, 'don't box up your knowledge and think you've got it!' 

Think you have it all figured out and you're deciding that you don't need to know any more; you're closing your mind to new ideas and learning.

Instead be intellectually humble. Have confidence about what you know but keep your knowledge and understanding open - there's much more to come!

Message for the day

The method to finish negativity is to fill with the power of positivity. 

Expression: There are a lot of negative characteristics, which continue to work in one's lives colouring words, actions and behaviour. Such negativity cannot be removed by reminding oneself of it again and again. Instead, a reminder and an excuse to use positivity, helps finish this negativity very naturally. It is when even the tiniest ray of light comes that the darkness begins to disappear. 

Experience: When I start discovering and working with my inner positivity, I am able to easily win over my seemingly strong weaknesses. The lesser attention I give my weaknesses and the more attention I give my strengths, I am able to have an influence over my weaknesses and convert them into strengths. So there is a total experience of positivity, whatever the situation may be. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 05, 2017: Power of Protection

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 05, 2017: Power of Protection

Sunset Point, Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India

Power of Protection

Do you need protection? Are you strong enough to protect yourself? Cultivating self-awareness allows me to see how I have the inner power to choose my feelings regardless of what others say or do.

The Power To Transform Situations (Part 3)

Looking at situations with spectacles of a positive vision means having positive perceptions of negative situations. So, looking at situations with a brave face and not being in awe of the situation is a way of bringing to an end the problem as early as possible. Whereas being in awe of the situation and letting it affect your mind negatively means the problem gets prolonged further and does not go away very easily. So the choice is in our hands. But as some would say this is theory and theory is easy to preach and understand but when it comes to the real test papers of life, we forget this basic truth of life. We tend to easily get caught in the web of negativity which is always there and it gets created because of the habit of perceiving situations negatively.

Do you know that when a powerful consciousness acts on a negative situation on an energy level, it is an interaction between positive and negative forces? The greater our positive consciousness or the power of the positive force, the faster the negative scene which is the negative force, transforms into a positive one. The positive force is the energy of the mind and the negative force is a situation which is of the physical world, either of our physical body, of our wealth, of our relationships or of our role or sometimes of our mind itself. In all the cases except of the mind, it is the non-physical force of our consciousness which is stronger than the physical one because the mind is subtle and possesses greater power than anything physical. The mind can influence matter more than the other way round i.e. matter influencing the mind. Techniques like what we have shared in the previous message i.e. a positive thought diary maintained for the entire week can help you in raising the power of your mind. Keep one positive thought with you every day even if negative situations do not exist in your life and over a period of time you will enjoy a greater success rate in transforming negative situations of all types.

Far from the madding crowd

Want to find just a little bit of quiet far from the madding crowd? Without going away to a sanctuary or a retreat, you can find it right now, right here within yourself.

Here is an accessible exercise:

Slow down the speed of your thoughts, slow it right down & become aware of the spaces in between your thoughts. Focus on the quiet, empty spaces & let it stretch over the mind; & feel the quiet, sinking from the top of your head, right through to the tip of the toes.

Now allow the quiet to expand around you as you sit as quietly as you can. Create this quiet space for yourself & carry it into the madding crowd.

Message for the day

To have love for God means to be protected from weaknesses. 
Expression: To have love for God means to have love for the perfection that is present within each and every individual, which means to be able to recognize and relate to everyone's specialities. When this is done, automatically one remains free from one's own weaknesses and fears and also from looking at the imperfections in others.

Experience: God's love frees me from all worries and concerns. There will be that close connection with God that will enable me to feel light and easy as God takes care of all my worries and troubles. The faith that God is with me frees me from negativity and so I also find my faith making me an instrument to help others to be free from negativity. I am able to give hope and courage to others too. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 04, 2017: We are all part of one family

Daily Positive Thoughts: January 04, 2017: We are all part of one family

We are all part of one family

If I remain aware that as fellow human beings we are all part of one family, and that even the smallest of gestures can make a difference in people's lives, I am always blessed with a caring heart. It takes so little to show that I care yet it can mean so much.

The Power To Transform Situations (Part 2)

We all look to the world and its different situations with a positive attitude and no one wants to be negative in their approach in facing them. Yet when they come we are not able to transform them with ease and at times situations can be so powerful that many days can be spent in finding ways in overcoming them and life can become a struggle for many. Such a life in which you are not at peace in the presence of a negative situation is not something you like but at the same time, it is something which is not in the control of many of us. What that means is that a mind without positivity is difficult to remain calm and that means feeling a lack of power and also a lack of joy and contentment. Such a mind is not able to solve the problem that is in front and instead will be confused and will fear the situation.

A beautiful way of keeping the mind positive in a negative situation is to keep a powerful thought diary with you. What that means is create one affirmation or positive statement each day and note it down in your mind and keep that positive thought in your mind the whole day. Let it touch your sub-conscious mind so deeply that its effect travels in the form of positive energy outwards to the situation and is able to change it in a short period of time. Do you know that if you spend a complete day in one particular powerful thought of success, repeating it in your mind many times, you will not only be free of negativity, but also have the authority to erase the negative situation completely from your life? Such a thought gives rise to positive feelings and then slowly our attitude towards the situation becomes completely positive resulting in a positive destiny or situation in return. Try doing this the next time you face a negative situation and you will realize how it works.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Replenish the self

Meditation allows us to accumulate a stock of pure and positive thoughts; this will easily and automatically finish all waste and negativity.

Where there is light darkness does not exist, in the same way, wasteful and negative thoughts are just a lack of a pure and positive state of mind.

Take moments throughout the day to check and replenish the self.

Message for the day

To make use of situations in a positive way is to experience constant progress. 

Expression: Each and every situation comes with a hidden blessing - a hidden opportunity. It of course brings challenges, challenges that could bring out the best potential from within. But the one who is caught up with only weaknesses never gets a chance to use these challenging situations as opportunities. On the other hand, the one who uses his potential is able to be from his weaknesses also. 

Experience: When I am able to use all situations as opportunities to recognize and use my inner potential, I am able to be free from the influence of my weaknesses. This freedom gives me the ability to enjoy this moment without filling the mind with unnecessary doubts and questions. It gives the ability to bring about progress in my life, whatever the circumstance may be. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris