Daily Positive Thoughts: November 20, 2016: Just Having Fun

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 20, 2016: Just Having Fun

Cotton factory in Madhya Pradesh, India

Just Having Fun

Work without happiness is like a burden that you have to endure, but when you are internally happy it becomes a game, and you're just having fun.

Overcoming Mood Swings

At each moment of the day, we have the capability to feel something. Our feelings vary throughout the course of the day. Sometimes they are joyful and sometimes they are painful. What we forget to do is to choose our feelings consciously.  Instead, many of us have become lazy and allowed our feelings to be dictated and shaped by people and circumstances.   In other words, we have become influenced.   Our swinging, changing moods are the result of the inner karma of becoming attached to things, people, ideas and circumstances.  If we are attached to a person and suddenly he/she leaves us we will feel gloomy and our mood of sadness will drain our energy just when we need to remain optimistic and enthusiastic about the future. Any form of loss will bring about a mood of sadness. If this sadness lasts for a long period of time, it will gradually turn into depression.

When we consider the world around us to be our source of happiness and joy, our moods will fluctuate, even with the changing weather.  But when we are spiritually empowered or strong our happiness and joy come from inside.  We are stable in the face of praise or insult, loss or gain.  We are no longer moody and stability becomes our basic nature. We are in control of our life, our feelings. And while we cannot control the waves of the ocean of life around us, we can control and choose how we will respond to outer events and people.  When we do that, we will be able to choose what we feel, regardless of what may happen in our life.   Life stops being a rollercoaster and becomes more of a cruise, less a storm and more a gentle breeze.

The power to listen brings inner peace. 

Sometimes I find myself hurt even though the other person did not mean anything. This is because I am hearing the words but not able to understand the meaning behind it. This brings misunderstanding and conflicts and even spoils relationships. When someone is telling me something I need to listen to the other person rather than merely hearing to his words. When I am able to understand the intentions behind his words I am able to take something from them instead of just creating conflicts in relationships.

Message for the day

To love God is to get attainments from Him.

Though to Ponder: If I believe that God is only waiting to punish me for my sins, I can only be God fearing. Then, I will not be able to experience benefit from Him. On the other hand, when I understand that God is an Ocean of love, I will be able to experience so much attainment by experiencing Him as a constant companion. I can then feel His help at each step, in spite of the situations. 

Point to Practice: Today I will keep God as my Companion at every step. When God is with me I will of course keep a watch on my words and actions. Also where something unwanted comes my way, I can take His support and easily overcome these negative situations. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 19, 2016: Principle of Pure Love

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 19, 2016: Principle of Pure Love

Principle of Pure Love

If we obey the principle of pure love, our life will always go in the right direction. Altruistic and unconditional love is pure and comes from our inner truth. When we are obedient to that inner truth, our life becomes a joyful dance.

The Energy Of Thought And Feeling

Like so many other energies - sound energy, light energy, electrical energy, etc., which are primarily invisible forms of energy and come under the realm of matter or the 5 elements, the energy of thought and feeling is also a form of invisible energy. The only difference is that it is an energy which transcends the limits of matter or the 5 elements and is metaphysical or non-physical and extremely subtle in nature. It is a living or conscient energy which originates from the conscient soul, as compared to the other energies which are non-living or non-conscient in nature. But at the same time, it is important not to forget that it is closely connected with the physical body and can only express itself through a physical body. The other energies cannot express themselves since they are non-living. Also, we perceive this energy only when we are inside the physical body.

It is an energy which has kept going and going for as long as we have lived, life after life, in many wrong directions a lot of times. It is this energy which we need to learn to channelize, control, manage, discipline etc. because by doing that we experience our original virtues of peace, love, joy and power, which is our only and only desire, for which we use various different methods, but many times is not fulfilled, because we forget this basic and most important method. This is something which we have not been able to do since a long time, and something which a lot of people have desired to achieve since thousands of years. The technique of meditation is one technique which helps us in doing that. The channelization of this energy will also improve the state of our physical body as it has a positive effect on the various body systems, the quality of all roles that we play and the success we achieve while playing them and very importantly our relationships – not only with others but with our self and the Supreme Being or God also.

To forgive means to forget the mistakes of the past. 

When someone does something wrong to me, I keep holding on to it. I continue to keep it in my mind, which influences all my future interactions with that person. Even if he has changed, I remind him of it with my own attitude and thus he finds it difficult to sustain his change. I need to develop the power to forget the other person's mistakes and remember his positive actions. When I give such a conducive and positive environment, I make it easier for him to realize and I inspire him to bring about a change by overcoming his weakness. 

Message for the day

To sow seeds of right effort is to reap results in plenty. 

Though to Ponder: When I go on putting in effort in the right direction, I will keep gaining qualities. I will keep drawing the best from everything around and I will keep receiving cooperation from people. If, in between anything or anyone hinders this, its effect will not be so much as I am continuing to put in my efforts.

Point to Practice: Today I will do something constructive for what I really aim for. Towards this, I will make small little contributions. I will also continue with this practice every day and one day I will find the result coming. It could be either what I expected or something else that I haven't expected. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 18, 2016: Introversion

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 18, 2016: Introversion

Introversion

The ability to enjoy one's own company is one of the greatest gifts life has to offer. Learning to turn my thoughts away from all my responsibilities at the day's end and take my mind into a state of peace and benevolence enables me to carry greater and greater loads without feeling the burden. When my inner landscape is full of beautiful thoughts, everything I do is a pleasure. Gently, I calm down chaotic situations and offer solace to troubled minds.

Personality Radiation

Each thought that we create every word we speak and every action we perform is responsible for the radiation of non-physical energy or vibration into the universe; towards other people, to the surroundings or the atmosphere as well as to physical nature. A very important aspect of our consciousness which influences the quality of this vibration is the intention or hidden meaning behind each thought, word and action.  When the intention is pure, positive and unconditional, positive packets of the energy of peace, love, good wishes, happiness and truth get transmitted. People who experience this positive energy from us are reminded of their personal positive qualities, even if these qualities are different from ours, and get inspired to imbibe the same and put them into practice, although this may not even be our conscious intention in the first place, but we just have a general pure, positive, intention towards everything and everyone around us. But this giving of inspiration happens automatically. On the other hand, when the intention is negative and impure, it is as if we bring other people, surroundings and nature down i.e. in a way we absorb positive energy from these entities, instead of filling them. People, without realizing, will come down from their positive personality state on receiving this energy and become inclined to thinking and speaking against their basic, positive nature; thus it is a negative inspiration. Both are energy exchanges, but one is positive and the other is negative.

The above process happens even when we are quiet, not creating any thoughts and not speaking or performing any actions. Depending on the kind of nature or personality we have, those types of vibrations keep getting emitted from us all the time. The higher the quality of the activity inside the mind and intellect during the day and in general in our life, even if they are inactive at a particular point of time, the higher the quality of the energy radiated at that time. It’s as if we are constant spiritual energy radiators and radiate our personality all the time, even while we sleep. The purer our personality, the purer this radiation is.

Determination breaks the barriers that difficulties create. 

Difficulties do come in my life and I cannot avoid them. When they come I find that they create barriers in my way. When such barriers come my way I am not able to experience progress in anyway and I find myself losing interest in doing things. Whenever difficult situations come my way, I need to remind myself that such situations come my way in order to help me move forward. When I remind myself of this I find that I get the determination to work on them. Only with determination will I be able to work on them to overcome them.

Message for the day

To see only problems is to become the one who only takes service. 

Expression: When there is the practice of seeing only problems in all situations there is the inability to find solutions and act effectively. All the resources that could be used for the benefit of the self and others remain hidden. Such a person becomes dependent on others for finding solutions and a source of pity. 

Experience: When I am caught up with problems and not able to see anything else, I am unable to experience progress. I find myself moving backward losing a lot of things I have. I would not be able to retain my self-confidence and would become dependent on others.

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 17, 2016: Rest Easy

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 17, 2016: Rest Easy

Rest Easy

Rest does not come with sleeping, it comes with waking. This is both an insight and an action of enlightenment. When we are enlightened we realize that real rest is possible only when we become free of illusion and we no longer struggle against life. Illusion is the idea that people should be, and do, what we want them to. The truth is, all is as it should be, despite appearances, or our perceptions of others to the contrary. This means you can be easy on yourself, easy with others and easy with the world around you. Easiness is a virtue, an attractive one at that. It is much more influential than force. So quit forcing, end the struggling and...relax!

A Powerful Consciousness Of Faith In Critical Situations (Part 3)

In the latter part of the birth-rebirth cycle, as our accounts of negative karma increased, we have experienced large number of ups and downs in the four parameters explained in the last two days messages – mind, body, wealth (or profession) andrelationships. All these bitter experiences, which we obviously do not remember today, have weakened us and left deep scars on our subconscious mind and are in fact the main cause of the creation of sanskaras of fear, uncertainty, doubt, pessimism, etc. which we find in ourselves today. Repeated experiences cause the formation of similar sanskaras. If we experience peace repeatedly i.e. we think about peace, visualize peace, make peaceful conversations repeatedly, sanskaras of peace are created inside us. In the same way each time something went wrong with any of the four parameters (mentioned above) in the past births; due to a lack of spiritual awareness and power, we experienced sorrow, pain, peacelessness, anxiety etc. and that caused the creation of similar sanskaras inside us. This is the main reason why today we find ourselves in a situation, when faced with a problem, we are not being able to have the faith in ourselves, that we can emerge victorious in the situation.

We have experienced failure in the past births at different points of time and many times and that is why each time something goes wrong, although we emerge thoughts of victory we dilute these thoughts with a large number of weak thoughts, of possible failure. This kind of a weak consciousness during problems is not only prolonging the time period of our problems but is also keeping the solution away much longer. Today, with the help of spirituality, we need to inject the power of faith in our thoughts, words and actions. For that, we need to increase our thought power tremendously, which will have an effect on our words and actions automatically. The food of powerful thoughts through listening to or reading spiritual knowledge and the experience of emotional power through meditation given to the mind only can heal the emotional scars inside us over a period of time, the result of which we can become full of fierce determination and will-power so as to weaken negative situations and not let situations weaken us.

Honour Promises

Often we make promises that we're not able to fulfill. 
Failing to keep promises leads to a breakdown in trust.

So avoid making promises you can't keep. 

Before you make a promise, think twice and be realistic about what's possible. 

Realize that you have limited time, energy and resources.

When we honour our promises, we gain self-trust and the trust of other people.

Message for the day

As are the thoughts, so is the quality of life

Thought to Ponder: It is said that chanting brings happiness and benefit. Real chanting is remembering those things which bring beauty to my thoughts, and not just repeating the words. Throughout the day, when I go on remembering and experiencing these positive things, they further get sustained. This continues and these thoughts help me even when things are not going good. Thus, the quality of life gets better by the day.

Point to Practice: Today I will take one point to practice internally. This could be a simple thought like "I am special with my own unique set of specialties" or "God is my Companion at every step". This will help me sustain a positive experience throughout the day. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 16, 2016: Live Values

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 16, 2016: Live Values

Artist:  Laura Iverson, Zen Breeze Art Gallery

Live Values

Values are those things, both tangible and intangible, which we care about the most. Most of us demonstrate by our actions that our values are mostly tangible or material. But if we were to reflect for a moment we might find that what we truly value is very intangible. Love, peace and happiness are our deepest values whether we are aware of it or not. So let's experiment. If peace is something you value, then how will you live peacefully today. You experience what you live. So if you want peace in your life...give it and you'll live it. Or do you prefer a bit of anger and stress? We are all artists and it's only when we paint our own life with the innate values of our spirit, which are also our eternal virtues, that we are truly creative. Paint a little peace, love and wisdom into your life today. If you do, and you make it a regular inner activity, the giving is automatic and the living is...easy!

A Powerful Consciousness Of Faith In Critical Situations (Part 2)

Having accepted the reality that negative situations in our mind, body, wealth or relationships will arise in our life from time to time (explained yesterday), a question arises what kind of consciousness do I keep in these kind of situations and how do I ensure that the situation does not overpower my consciousness. Because only a powerful consciousness of faith or victory will keep me protected from the negative emotional (internal) and physical (external) influence of these problems but will also become the most important influencing factor which will help me in overcoming the problem and going towards the solution or attracting it towards me, sometimes immediately and sometimes slowly, but steadily, without losing my inner stability during the period that I wait for the solution to arise.

What is a powerful consciousness of faith when faced with a negative situation? No negative scene or situation of any type in my life lasts forever and this scene shall also pass and I shall emerge victorious over it using the power of thought, the power of positivity, the power of spiritual knowledge, the power of meditation. Victory is my birthright and it is dead certain. This is in short a powerful consciousness of faith.

In tomorrow’s message, we shall explain what is preventing us from keeping this consciousness of faith and how we can maintain it in critical situations.

To-Do lists are important. 

Often what we have to do overweighs what we have done.

Why not make it more rewarding by keeping a "have-done" list. 

A "have-done" list gives you a chance to acknowledge & appreciate your accomplishments. 
It also gives you the encouragement to do more.

Look at your "to-do" & "have-done" list, & notice what sorts of tasks aren't making the journey from "to-do" into 
the "have-done", & work out why. Refine your strategy & bridge the gap between your expectations & your results.

Message for the day

Change is a means to take one forward for those who are positive. 
Thought to Ponder: For the one who is not able to maintain an inner state of positivity, every change in life is challenging and sometimes even a threat. Negative situations seem like mountains or a storm come to take away something from me. But in fact, every situation, be it negative or positive is a gift for me to take me forward. I need not be afraid because I know to see the positive aspect, even if it is a small one. I am able to learn and move forward. 

Point to Practice: Today I will sit and list out 3 changes that happened in the last couple of years. I will then make a list of what I learnt from these situations and what positive outcomes there were because of that change. I will also keep a lookout in a similar for future situations too. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 15, 2016: The Influence of Gossip

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 15, 2016: The Influence of Gossip

The Influence of Gossip

I cannot afford to overlook the influence that other people have on me. To what extent do I check that I am not being influenced by gossip? Negativity in the mind is like poison. Negative thoughts are the seeds of negative actions. Gossip and guessing bring sorrow, heaviness and distrust. Hear no evil. See no evil. Speak no evil. Think no evil.

A Powerful Consciousness Of Faith In Critical Situations (Part 1)

Almost every single day in our present lives brings with it various ups and downs in mind or sanskaras (when our thoughts or sanskaras are not the way we would like them to be, in spite of us wanting them to be so), body, wealth (or profession or role) and relationships. There is not a single human soul existing in the entire world today that is experiencing a constant state of positivity in the four parameters mentioned above. All parameters are extremely changeable and every now and then seem to bring with them negative surprises.  A very simple reason for this is today we stand at the far end of the eternal world cycle, when every human soul is in its last phase of its journey of birth and rebirth in this respective cycle, a journey in which it has committed many mistakes, especially in the latter part of the journey, as it has continued to lose its power and succumbed to negativity or the consciousness of the physical body.

So the problems from time to time in the four parameters mind, body, wealth and relationships are nothing but a reflection or mirror image of incorrect actions performed by each soul, especially in the latter part of this cycle. If we are expecting a time to come in the present time, when all these will be absolutely fine and they will always be positive, that will not be possible, not until this cycle reaches an end and we return back home to the soul world.  Until we return, we will need to settle all our accounts of our past karmas or incorrect actions, by being faced with problems in these four parameters (not necessarily in all of them at the same time, but in one or more from time to time) and overcoming them with ease, positivity and power. Instead of running away from this reality we need to accept it completely and instead of looking at ways of keeping these parameters positive on a physical or superficial level only, which we will be able to do but only to some extent because there will be times when it will not be possible for us to change the negativity in these parameters, in spite of our deep efforts on a physical level.  We should do it and we will be able to do it at times, but it will not be possible each time that these parameters will change for the better as much as we want and at the speed we desire.

(To be continued tomorrow…)

Slow and steady wins the race

The Way of the turtle is to be slow. Slow down to savour the small things in life, to stop and smell the roses.

Slow down to relax more and stress less. Slow down without procrastinating and you'll be more productive.

Remember, 'slow and steady wins the race'. So, keep pace with your inner turtle and it'll take you through to the finish line.

Message for the day

The one who has the power of truth is the one who can tolerate. 
Thought to Ponder:  When someone disbelieves me I usually tend to argue back and try to prove my point to the others but find that I am not able to convince them. Yet I find that the more I talk the less I am listened to. And I only end up getting frustrated.

Point to Practice: When someone challenges the truth of my words, I need to check within myself if there is something that I can correct or learn. When I learn to do this, instead of being stubborn with what I have to say or blaming others, I find it easy to tolerate. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris