Daily Positive Thoughts: March 14, 2017: Look Inwards

Look Inwards

 

We all have three eyes. Two for looking out and one for looking in. Why would we want to look in when everything is happening 'out there'? Because the treasure we seek is inside, not outside. What is treasure? Beauty, truth, peace, happiness. You already have what you seek. You already are stunningly beautiful. You are already peaceful and loving. How come you don't know this? Simple, you never look inwards, beyond superficial memories or recent experiences, so you never see your own riches. Take a moment to stop, look in and see. Don't rush. Don't search. Just look. And be aware.

Qualities, Virtues And Powers

Innate or basic characteristics are properties that are unchangeable. It's impossible to take the heat out of the sun or sweetness out of sugar. Heat and sweetness are part of the unchanging make-up of the sun and sugar respectively; they are the basic properties of each of them. In the same way, in spite of whatever I have become as a human individual, my deep basic characteristics are still the same ones that have always existed in me. It's my inner core of qualities that in fact inspires me to seek the ideal in whatever I do. The impulse to seek and to dream comes from my own store of innate attributes that is just waiting to be found and brought into practical activity. 

The innate qualities of the soul are those that are the most basic: Peace, Truth, Happiness, Love, Purity, Power and Bliss. They are so basic that they themselves are the foundation of all virtues and powers. They are like primary colors and virtues and powers are secondary colors. Just as orange (a secondary color) is made of red and yellow (both primary colors) and blue is made of yellow and green, virtues such as patience, tolerance, courage, generosity etc. and powers, are obtained by mixing the basic qualities e.g. 

Patience - peace, love and power
Humility – love, peace and truth
Courage - power and truth

The aim of meditation is to emerge and enhance my qualities so that my behavior becomes full of virtues and powers.

Tame your stress

When stress looks like it's getting out of control, take a moment and 'tame your stress'. How? Be present.

As soon as you start dwelling on the past or the future, release the need to control the uncontrollable & be present. Keep bringing yourself back to the present moment & let everything else fall away.

Feel the stress reduce & realize that you're OK & so is everything else. Now you're ready to get back on track! 

Message for the day

To order whilst being seated on the seat is to ensure obedience. 

Thought to Ponder: Before I expect obedience from others, I need to check if my own mind and sense organs are obedient. For this, I need to be seated on the seat of my own self-respect (of the qualities I have). Thus seated, like a king, when I order, I find that orders are obeyed.

Point to Practice: Today I will practice a point of self-respect. I will recognize and appreciate one quality in myself. I will remind myself of this quality, from time to time, throughout the day. If I find my mind wandering or my sense organs disobedient, I will give orders with the same consciousness of self-respect. Then, I will find positive results. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 13, 2017: Members of a Great Family

Members of a Great Family

 

Values are related to each other as if they were members of a great family. From peace and happiness emerges inner joy. From this state of wholeness love awakens and with is the desire to share and give.

Two of its relatives are tolerance and respect.

All values have a shared origin which unites them – the peace of spirituality.

When you lose peace you begin to lose everything.

Keeping The Watchman Of Attention Alert 

All the religions and spiritual groups place a lot of importance on the virtue of discipline.  Without discipline you do not manage to transform negative habits and you do not create a new state of awareness where the self is nourished through the experience of spirituality. Every day you eat, you brush your teeth, bathe, drink water and breathe, and all of this you do not consider a discipline; you have adopted them as something natural in order for your body to continue working. On a spiritual level you also need to nourish yourself and to have a discipline that, with practice, a time comes when it becomes natural because you incorporate it into your life. In the process of change you need to discipline yourself in order not to let old habits come to the forefront. Until you have burnt them and they have died, you should keep the watchman of attention alert in order to maintain your self-control, given that each time you use a negative habit in action, you strengthen it. When you do not use it, you allow it to die.

The path of the spiritual traveler is therefore one of waking (awareness of self as soul) and sleeping (under the illusion that we are our body), waking and sleeping. We tend to fluctuate between the two (like dawn and dusk) until we find stability in soul-consciousness. This is why it is important to awaken and stay awake, and why it's important to give our mind and intellect good spiritual food (knowledge) and exercise (meditation) every day to keep them fresh and alert. Being conscious of the soul, acting from that consciousness, the scars (habits and tendencies) left by past actions based on illusions of bodily awareness are healed. Discipline is necessary for growth and personal transformation if you want to obtain satisfying and permanent results. If not, the old habits continue to rule in your life. The evidence that our discipline in the practice of meditation is working is mental lightness and an increasing easiness in our interactions with others.

Do you try to do everything yourself?

Don't trust others to do things right?

Do everything yourself & you'll always be busy doing everything! Instead be less busy & more efficient.

Decide what to do yourself & what to delegate. Consider when to take cooperation from others, & when to invest in developing others' skills.

When possible, let people choose which tasks to take on, if not then match the person to the task. Know when to be clear about what & how, & when to let others use their creativity & initiative. 

Message for the day

To invest rightly is to increase savings.

Thought to Ponder: How we spend is more important than not spending at all. When it comes to our biggest asset, our thoughts, we need to invest well. When we have positive thoughts, they become a saving for the future too. 

Point to Practice: Today I will spend at least half an hour with something that gives me a feeling of positivity. Today I will also be careful to avoid anything that will create negative feelings in me. This will ensure that I will be investing my thoughts in the right way, without wasting them. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 12, 2017: Eternal Star

Eternal Star

There is a part of you that is perfect and pure. It is untouched by the less-than-perfect characteristics you have acquired by living in a less than perfect world. This part of you is a still and eternal star. Make time to reach it and this will bring you untold benefit.

Effort To Manipulate The Law Of Action

Human laws can be adjusted, manipulated and even ignored by some, but no one can do the same with the Law of Karma. On the physical level, there is no time interval between an action and its reaction. If I throw an object in the air, it falls back immediately with the same force. With the Law of Karma, however, there can be a delay between the action and its result or fruit. The seeds of certain actions (negative or positive) bring immediate fruit. Others can take years or even many births to bear fruit. If I eat too much ice-cream, I will see the result or karmic effect of the negative karma of greed within a space of ten-fifteen minutes in the form of a headache or after two days in the form of a cold and flu. This is an e.g. in which we realize the working of the Law of Karma, we realize clearly the cause and its effect, but on a subtle level, when we see the effects of actions, we do not realize that the cause may have actually been in a previous life. There is a total connection between the cause and the effect.

When we analyze a natural calamity such as a major earthquake that uproots buildings and trees, overturns vehicles and kills thousands of people. The physical cause may be tectonic activity associated with faults inside the earth’s surface but at the same time, we realize that such a calamity could have its roots in a process initiated by human beings a few hours, days or months ago – an e.g. being testing of nuclear weapons. On a personal level, I can say that there is nothing which happens to me for which I am not responsible. Whether I remember what I did to make it happen or not, whether I realize it or choose to ignore it, I am ultimately responsible.

Down & Out?

Sometimes when we feel down, all our thoughts of dejection and feelings of discontent block us. It's as if, in that moment, we're not open to receiving all the good that is coming to us; it just can't get through.
When this happens, start by taking a deep breath and relaxing. Allow your heart to feel more open, your mind more expansive, and allow your natural good feelings to emerge.
Now notice if anything has changed from a moment ago. Notice all the good that is coming to you, right now. 

Message for the day

To invest rightly is to increase savings. 

Thought to Ponder: How we spend is more important than not spending at all. When it comes to our biggest asset, our thoughts, we need to invest well. When we have positive thoughts, they become a saving for the future too. 

Point to Practice: Today I will spend at least half an hour with something that gives me a feeling of positivity. Today I will also be careful to avoid anything that will create negative feelings in me. This will ensure that I will be investing my thoughts in the right way, without wasting them. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 11, 2017: Natural Flexibility

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 11, 2017: Natural Flexibility

Outdoor Tree Cathedral

Natural Flexibility

With humility and love, flexibility becomes natural. When I come across someone who is not being co-operative I need to become humble and try to understand what the other person is communicating, if not through words at least through actions. When I am able to listen with love and understanding, I will not be rigid anymore but will be able to adapt to communicate and co-operate with others.

When We Change Others Change (Part 3)

While being involved in action, make it a point to remain connected with your inner centre of peace, love and bliss which is the spiritual centre or the soul. Also, feel the presence of God or the Higher Power in your life at each and every step without which we cannot succeed in our actions, especially in our relationships and interactions, where powers from both the soul and God are required. So, satisfying others with your behavior and through the energy that you share with them, will only be possible when you first carry positive energy inside yourself.

You can try and do everything possible to make people’s ideas similar to yours and make them work the way you want them to, but a single action of yours which is full of goodness can achieve that much faster than you can if you tried through other methods. Say for e.g. a person in your family constantly has a habit of disobeying you and going against your requests and he or she does not believe in being on good terms with you and will always find a reason to differ with you in opinions. You have tried for many months to come to good terms with this person, but you have not succeeded. Now, you make yourself a sweeter and more tolerant person and work on making yourself more humble. Suddenly, what you could not achieve in such a long time becomes very easy and gets done in a few days because seeing your practical change, the other person gets inspired to change him or herself much faster than by just persuading the other person constantly, to change. Remember when we change, others will change and until we do not do that, changing others will remain the most difficult thing to achieve and in fact it will be impossible. So, change yourself and set an example for others to follow.

Think for Yourself

When we hear something negative about someone, the negativity seeps in & easily influences our perception, attitude & behaviour towards that person, even when our experience of that person is not negative.
The next time you hear something negative about someone, rather than go by hearsay, keep an open mind & make up your own mind. 

Message for the day

To understand is to be understood. 

Thought to Ponder: When there is a difference of opinion, we try hard to convince the other person of our point of view. However, since they are doing the same, there is no meeting point. Our effort needs to be in trying to understand the other person first. Even if we cannot understand the logic, we need to understand the emotions behind the argument.

Point to Practice: Today I will go upto one person whom I had an argument with and tell him I understand. For this, I will first change my own thinking and see how well I can understand the other person. I will then find that, because I respect people's opinion and feeling, they too are able to understand us. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 10, 2017: Best Help We Can Give

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 10, 2017: Best Help We Can Give

Best Help We Can Give

To help others discover their talents is the best help we can give. Sometimes people are unaware of their talents, or afraid to use them. But if we do not use the gifts we have been given, we can never be truly happy. Throughout our lives, people help us grow.  As we grow older, we can help others too. Making others aware of the things they do well and subtly encouraging them to use their talents is the best way to help them progress.

When We Change Others Change (Part 2)

Handling people with different natures requires a lot of spiritual strength and can be the most difficult thing to achieve for some.It’s not just about physical skills like a way of speaking or presenting yourself, which are some measures we take in our office or in our personal relationships but its more about virtues and powers as well as wisdom of different types of actions and their results. 

E.g. if you are preparing for a meeting in your office with many different office colleagues, then you will take different steps on a physical level, like seeing what is on the company’s agenda to discuss, what are the different complaints of the different people in your group, where is the company lacking and things like how best my outer personality should be so that everyone is satisfied with me. But do we ever think of how is my inner personality, am I good natured, am I able to fulfill everyone’s inner desires with my love and good wishes and have I spiritually empowered myself so much so that I can tolerate each and everyone even if their behavior and way of working is different from mine. Otherwise when we see different personalities of people and different intentions as well as aims and objectives which everyone possesses, it disturbs us and that unfocused state of mind does not let us act in a positive way and our decisions can become incorrect. Of course, we cannot always think that people will be easy to deal with and also our efforts to please them can be unsuccessful at times. But, to bring harmony in relationships, we also need to have spiritual skills like good judgment power, discrimination power, the ability to mould, power to accept and the ability to give respect to each one’s opinion, which will make it easy to succeed.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Energize Meals

Our moods not only affect the food we cook, but they also affect the people who eat the food. 

So if you're not in a good mood, take a moment to clear your emotions or put on your favourite feel-good music.

Cook peacefully, cook happily, and then not only will you fill the food with good vibes, but you'll also enhance the flavour and energize the meal for yourself and the people who eat what you cook. 

Message for the day

To keep the mind calm and clear is to find solutions to problems. 

Thought to Ponder: The more my mind is calm and peaceful, the more there is a chance to find solutions. But, when faced with a problem, our mind which is like a plain paper is filled with unnecessary things, so much so that we cannot even see the solution that is right in front of us.

Point to Practice: Today I will be silent when faced with a problem. I will calm my mind too, before I even attempt to think of a solution for the problem. This will help me find solutions quickly. Also there would be accuracy in the decisions that I take. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: March 09, 2017: Busy People

Busy People

We live in the age of ‘busy’. Busy people not only do a lot, they think a lot. Being lost in thought, is not only tiring and a brilliant way of waste energy, it’s as if we have forgotten the very ground of our being which is still and silent. Learn to meditate and turn the eye of your attention and awareness within, let your mind be quiet and allow your being to be still.

When We Change Others Change (Part 1)

Living a life full of many different types of relationships sometimes brings with it different types of challenges and relationships can become a test of our mental strength when what we expect from others is not what we receive. Expectations from others can sometimes burden us so much that at times we can find people extremely difficult to deal with and also we may loose interest in our lives to an extent, difficult to imagine. There was once a king who ruled a very big kingdom, which was full of different types of people, who were not only different in their roles but also very different in their natures and personalities. The king sometimes wondered that I am not able to satisfy so many different people because everyone has different expectations from me. At the same time, his different expectations from the people of his kingdom were immense and at times it became difficult for him to experience peace and inner stability while handling their concerns and demands. A minister of the king gave him a suggestion that instead of trying to focusing on everyone’s desires and what they wanted, you be your good self and focus on playing your role in the best possible way and leave the rest to happen as it happens.

Many a times, it’s not about making the effort to change others but it’s changing yourself which brings positive results because it is your change which inspires others to change. Remember everyone will not act or behave as we want and sometimes it can be difficult to cope with this but if we remain determined in our positive behavior and change, they will, after seeing our change, over a period of time, begin to realize their mistakes and become the way you expect them to be.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

How you start the day sets the tone for the rest of your day! 

When the alarm goes off in the morning, do you drag yourself out of bed, jump out of bed or hit snooze, again, and again, oversleep and then end up rushing around because you're late?

Here are a few tricks to get out of bed and stay out:

- Place your alarm out of reach, so you have to get up to turn it off.

- Do a few stretches in bed, to energize you to get out of bed.

- Put a glass of water near your bed and drink it as soon as you switch off the alarm. It hydrates and wakes your body up.

- Make your bed when you get out of it, so it discourages you from climbing back in.

Message for the day

To be free from past is to take the gifts of the present. 

Thought to Ponder: When my mind is continuously dwelling on the past, I miss out on the opportunities and gifts of the present. I need to remember that if my past has helped in shaping up the present, then this moment would be the past of tomorrow. So, I need to use the present moment well, so that I can make both my present and future beautiful.

Point to Practice: Today I will do something that will make me happy. It could be a simple thing like resuming with a hobby or saying hi to an old friend or even spending time with nature. This will enable me to spend time fruitfully with the present moment. By making it a practice to use of all these moments in the right way, I will be enriching myself each day. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris