Daily Positive Thoughts: May 08, 2017: Solutions to problems

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 08, 2017: Solutions to problems

Solutions to problems

In order to find solutions to problems, it is important to improve the quality of my thinking. I need to calm my mind by creating peaceful thoughts. The first thing that follows is that problems stop affecting me. I am able to think more clearly, which brings about a solution.

Restoring The Mind-Body Balance 

Many people are under the impression that the focus of spirituality is only on the mind and the soul, and the physical body is neglected. But that’s not true. Our physical body is essential to our life and the art of living. It is our vehicle and our home. An appropriate balance of diet, sleep, relaxation and exercise is important for the body. However, when we enter the world of spirituality, the main emphasis is on the mind and the soul. This does not mean that we do not value or take care of our body. Without a healthy body, we would not be able to express ourselves mentally or spiritually. Spiritual progress, which includes the listening/studying and imbibing of spiritual knowledge, the practice of meditation, the inculcation of divine virtues and the spiritual service of others through different means is much easier and better with a healthy body. 

Unfortunately, though, we have lost the art or wisdom of balance and for very long we have placed too much emphasis on our physical form, the body; and less emphasis on our spiritual form, the soul, as a result, reducing our spiritual awareness. One of the aims of spirituality is to restore this balance between mind and body so that we can experience well-being and happiness at every level. So while our body and our physical energy are essential, the focus of spirituality is on the mind and the soul, to help regain the balance.

  

Do something constructive

Feeling guilty is like sitting in a rocking chair. We rock back & forth emotionally, but it doesn't get us anywhere!

The next time you find yourself sitting in the rocking chair of guilt, hop off & move to a better emotional place. How? Ask yourself, what can I do to make amends? And then act on it. 

Do something constructive & you'll feel better about yourself.

Message for the day

To recognize weaknesses is to have the ability to transform them. 

Thought to Ponder: We do try to work on weaknesses to remove them, but most times we are not able to understand what the real cause for them is. So, we do not find any marked difference, i.e., we are not able to bring about much of a change. The method to find the real weakness is to keep introspecting as to why the weakness is working. This needs honesty in the heart and clarity in the intellect. 

Point to Practice: Today I will pick out one weakness of mine and check what the real cause of that weakness is. When I try and understand, I find that I am much more easily able to work on removing my weaknesses. I then don't have guilt or negativity but am able to work on it with confidence. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 07, 2017: Peaceful Mind

Peaceful Mind

Learn how to keep your mind peaceful by feeding good thoughts to your mind. Let your mind rest.. let it be restful… not restless. Remember: my mind is my own. I mustn’t let my mind cause me distress. I cannot slap my mind (suppress the mind) – I have to give it love. By giving your own mind love you will make it peaceful.

Self Esteem

Self-esteem comes when I really value myself: When I place value on myself, then others, too, will value me. When I don't value myself, how can I expect others to value me? If I continuously put myself down, saying I'm no good or I am not capable, other people who hear this will start believing it. So what do I do? The key word is consciousness. As I start to make my consciousness positive by creating positive thoughts many times in the day about myself like - I am the most fortunate soul in the universe or I am a victorious soul, I cannot experience failure in any step in life or I am a self sovereign soul, ruler of my sense organs or I am a destroyer of obstacles or I am a spiritual rose flower who spreads the fragrance of divine qualities or similar thoughts, I become spiritually alert, then I am in a position to start valuing my life and as I start valuing myself, I develop self-confidence. The effect of this is that I start valuing others, understanding that everyone has their own position: not higher or lower, just different. Each one's uniqueness has its value.

Finishing Tasks

Often we're able to accomplish a task better when we do it in small bits over time.  It's when we have too many bits of unfinished tasks that our mind just starts to go into overload.

Whenever you can, try to finish what you start.  Finishing tasks leaves you with a joy of accomplishment and peace of mind.

Go on, try it for a whole day.  Finish a task before starting a new one and see how you feel at the end of the day.

Message for the day

To see and relate to virtues is the best form of diplomacy. 

Thought to Ponder: It is said that we need to be diplomatic while dealing with people. Yet, many feel that being diplomatic, equals to not being honest or truthful. However, the easiest way to be diplomatic is to see and relate to virtues. When I am able to see others' virtues, I am only relating to them with that. There might be weaknesses, but I don't highlight them during my interaction with them. So they too are more comfortable with me. 

Point to Practice: Today I will look for virtues. Out of all the people, I interact with; I will pay special attention to list out the virtues or specialties of at least three people. Every time I interact with them, I will remind myself of these qualities at least once during the interaction. This practice will help me create a habit of picking virtues. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 06, 2017: Take Time to Laugh

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 06, 2017: Take Time to Laugh

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher

It is well known that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were close allies and kindred political spirits. During their eight overlapping years in office, the U.S. president and the U.K. prime minister worked together to promote lower taxes, deregulation, free trade, and an aggressive stance against the Soviet Union.

 

Take Time to Laugh

Take time to laugh, it is the music of the soul. Take time to think, it is the source of power. Take time to read, it is the fountain of wisdom. Take time to love and be loved, it is a God-given privilege. Take time to work, it is the price of success.

Check And Change (Part 3)

Checking your actions and then changing them should be a natural habit and not something that is a burden on the mind. It’s as if the mind becomes accustomed to sub-consciously transform one’s habits or personality and keeps making easy and natural efforts to become a better human being at every step of life. This is living life correctly and carefully. Life is not just about performing actions but performing good actions which will give you happiness first and to others after that. 

It’s very easy to not take up responsibility for your actions and say that it does not matter. But it does matter a lot to our inner being, which becomes pure or impure depending on the actions we perform. Say for e.g. one day you have been very irritable since the morning and it's not been a nice day for you. You have lost your temper a few times and at the end of the day you say I have performed a lot of incorrect actions. So on a physical level there is nothing that you feel except a little anger, also sorrow and may be you repent that your actions have not exactly been of the highest level. But on an emotional level and internally, the soul or the inner being has the sanskaras or the impressions of every action that you have performed and those are negative impressions. So the soul becomes impure after even a single day of wrong actions. And imagine if we spent our complete life performing negative actions, without giving a thought to them, how it would cause us internal harm. In the same manner, by performing positive actions or by checking negative actions and changing them for the future, we will become purer and as a result happier human beings.

Change your Perception

How our reality appears to us says a lot about our perceptions, because our perception creates our reality.

To change our reality, we need to change our perception.

Remember we're changing only our perception of a situation or a person, not the person or the situation itself.

Message for the day

The one who defames or criticizes is a true friend. 

Thought to Ponder:   If one has a clear vision of where he wants to go, he constantly looks for opportunities and means to move ahead. When someone criticizes, it is an opportunity to learn something, to check and change what I might have missed. It doesn't matter with what intention the other person is criticizing. It is more important whether I have learnt from it or not. So he actually becomes a friend who is helping me progress. 

Point to Practice: Today I will listen to people carefully and take at least one point that I could bring about a change. I will then explain to myself that this particular aspect is going to help me to move forward. This is what I will bring into action. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 05, 2017: Spiritual Love

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 05, 2017: Spiritual Love

Spiritual Love

It is when we silence the chattering of our mind that we can truly hear what is in our heart and find the still, clear purity that lies within the soul. Spiritual love carries us into the silence of our original state of being. This silence contains the power to create harmony in all relationships and the sweetness to sustain them.

Check And Change (Part 2)

Whenever you start your day, wake up your attention and tell yourself that in the day ahead I will only perform good and constructive actions and before performing the actions, I will discriminate between right and wrong and judge whether the action I am about to perform or the words I am about to speak are in tune with my true nature. Everyone is basically a good person, but it’s the temporary sanskaras or personality of a person which make the person act or behave in a manner which is not very nice or presentable.

This is what happened as we came in the process of birth and rebirth. We started to forget our original good nature and our behavior and actions started becoming dictated by our acquired sanskaras which was our temporary nature. The acquired sanskaras are the false sanskaras or personality and the original sanskaras are the true sanskaras or personality. We need to revive the originalsanskaras and erase the false sanskaras. This is the aim of self-effort which means working on the self to improve the self and make yourself a better person in terms of virtues and powers and divinity. Once that happens, automatically our karmas or actions will start to become better and everyone around us will experience the same from us. This is how our relationships will also become full of goodness and positivity. A person with positive qualities is like a fragrant flower that everyone would like to be in the company of and who gives happiness and love to everyone. So, keep checking your actions and improving and changing them where required and at the same time keep filling yourself with positive virtues which will make your karmas beautiful and you will naturally perform lesser number of incorrect actions.  

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Become Light
Nothing really happens by over-thinking the stresses & worries in life.  

That's why it's important to let go.  Let go of the things that are out of your hands.  

Put your worries down.  Drop the stress.  Feel the weight lift off your shoulders.  And lighten up.

When you are light, it's easier to do something about the things that are in your hands!

Message for the day

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

Thought to Ponder: 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. 

Point to Practice: 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: May 04, 2017: Coolness

Daily Positive Thoughts: May 04, 2017: Coolness

Coolness

Maintaining a state of inner calmness protects me from becoming a slave to my emotions. It also helps me to keep a cool head when I see others becoming heated or angry. Coolness is not to be distant or uncaring; rather it requires that I develop the deeply caring nature of a peacemaker and serve others in the best possible way.

Check And Change (Part 1)

We all live our lives from morning till night without ever reflecting on what actions of ours go in the wrong direction and what actions are right and accurate. There was once a businessman who lived his life and his every day’s routine making a lot of mistakes and he never thought where he was going wrong. Life was just a fast line of actions for him, where even wrong actions were allowed because it was part of his business. They say, first think, then speak. First think, then act. But for many of us, it is first speak, then think or first act, then think i.e. first we perform the action and then reflect on it or think about it. It becomes very difficult for us when we do not check our actions and change them. In fact, we should check and change our thoughts first. Then, automatically our words and actions will get changed. That is the first step. 

So, just like the businessman, a lot of people are not sensitive enough to think as to why they should not perform negative actions and if they do perform the actions by mistake, as some of us do, they will not be sensitive enough to realize that they have to correct the negative actions and not perform them again which is only called – check and change in spiritual language. Life is short and we cannot afford to go after one action and another without using our intellect carefully. So, plant the seeds of good actions in the fields of life and the results of such actions will always be good in a way that is extremely natural and a law of life. A farmer also will check the quality of seeds that he is using in his physical field and bringing up into a crop. The same principle applies to life.

(To be continued tomorrow …)

Become Attractive

If my friends and relatives do not choose to accompany me on my spiritual path, why should I chase after them trying to get them to change?

They won't listen to me anyway, no matter what I say. A better approach is to focus on my own change process. 

A river doesn't need to urge people into drinking its water. People are naturally drawn to it, provided its waters are pure, free flowing and sweet.

In the same way become so attractive through your spiritual efforts that everyone will want to join you naturally.

Message for the day

To have the light of knowledge is to have the ability to finish darkness. 

Thought to Ponder:  When I have the light of knowledge about something I need to be able to put it into practice. Knowledge then helps me to finish negativity. If knowledge is not finishing my negativity, I need to check if I am understanding things accurately. Knowledge also means that I need to understand if I have the power to transform too. So, I do all that it takes to bring about transformation. 

Point to Practice: Today I will take up something that I am bothered with and work on it. i will see what point of knowledge I need to use to make it possible to change that negative into positive. I will bring out all those points of understanding and practice, which will help me to overcome that negativity. This will help me get the courage and also give me the determination to do the needful. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris