Daily Positive Thoughts: November 24, 2016: Exercise and Diet

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 24, 2016: Exercise and Diet

Exercise and Diet

Unhealthy lifestyles are rooted in the mind and seeded in the soul. The spiritual exercise of the mind involves taking the mind out of the physical body and to the subtle, angelic body of light and then to our state of being a soul - a sentient point of light and power. As for diet control, pure thoughts are the healthy diet for the mind. Creative thoughts are like vitamins and positive thoughts provide proteins that build will power, while thoughts of serving others are like carbohydrates, which provide energy for the mind.

Motivation – The Life Driving Force (Part 4)

When surrounded by challenges, sometimes we all need a little extra nurturing, and that gentleness can come from loved ones, or just from ourselves. Also, enjoying watching television, enjoying the hot chocolate and the coffee, enjoying the cold drink and the ice cream, enjoying the brisk walk and the gym, enjoying the picnic and the party, enjoying the holiday - these are all things that help us replenish our energy and remain motivated to some extent when we've had a rough day. But remember that to remain constantly motivated you need to also take a look at the non-physical dimension of thoughts and feelings.Physical treatments, therapies and relaxation strategies will help you but they cannot change the way you think. Your thinking is the cause. And behind your thoughts, your beliefs are a deeper cause. We need to pay much more attention to our thoughts and feelings, learn to manage them, learn to fill them with peace and calm, and then our personality will change for the better, as we restore our mental and then physical well-being and learn to remain motivated and fearless amidst challenges. Remember no one else creates our thoughts and feelings, and they don't just happen, though it feels that way sometimes. When you learn to identify and assess the quality of your thoughts and feelings, you can begin to choose the ones you know are positive and that in turn keeps you motivated.

Also, remember there's virtually always something positive that can be found in the challenges we face. Bear in mind that the period of challenge is short and you will soon overcome the challenge. On a lighter note, spend a little time each day thinking of all the things you are looking forward to doing once you are free from these exams that life has to offer - though don’t daydream for hours about this! Also, when you long for life without difficulties and challenges and you want to keep yourself motivated when faced with them, remind yourself that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. Challenges are not here to stay and while they are there, they bring about self-empowerment.

Empower

When we provide regular support and assistance to others, they come to rely on us and become dependent. Dependency can be unhealthy, for us and for them.

What if we were to make others less dependent on us, rather than more? Whether it's our children, colleagues, clients, we can learn to provide help or share skills in a way that allows the other person to feel more confident and capable to do things themselves.

Empowering others to be more independent and self-reliant also empowers us!

Message for the day

To check regularly means to bring about a change. 

Expression: When there is any negative action performed, there is an immediate feeling of guilt and a desire not to perform it again. But the checking also needs to be at a level where it never repeats again. Maintaining a chart of one's own weakness means checking regularly. Such checking brings about a permanent change. 

Experience: When I am able to maintain a chart where I could monitor my own progress, I am able to remain committed to my transformation. Adverse situations or people will never deter me, but I am able to bring about the desired change. I am able to continue the process of transformation even when what I seek to change is not harmful in the present phase of my life. Thus regular checking will prevent carelessness from creeping in. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 23, 2016: Radiate Happiness

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 23, 2016: Radiate Happiness

Radiate Happiness

Have you ever noticed that happiness is not a dependency, it is a decision? You don't actually need anything to be happy. It's not something that comes from outside, it comes from inside, and when you radiate a happy energy you'll be amazed what it attracts into your life. Don't worry, be happy...sound familiar? Decide now, be happy, and watch magic begin to enter your life.

Motivation – The Life Driving Force (Part 3)

Have you ever noticed some people only work a few hours a day and are hardly ever confronted by deadlines or other pressures, but they are more stressed and less motivated than those working long hours to tight deadlines. Have you ever watched two people doing the same or similar work, to the same deadlines? One tears their hair out with a lot of anxiety. The other is completely relaxed while doing it. Some people love challenges. They love it when they are occupied and bottled up with challenges at hand and passionate about overcoming them. They work hard on themselves to overcome challenges and are not overwhelmed by them. What really reinforces them to do that is the motivation that they have to overcome the challenge and become successful.  Challenges motivate them. At the same time, there are times when there are too many challenges to overcome and deadlines to meet and the same people who have overcome challenges earlier are not able to cope up with them and keep themselves motivated. That is the time when they realize that what they are going through is stress and challenges have affected their motivation levels adversely.

Why the difference between two people, why the difference from challenge to challenge or situation to situation? Perception. So it's not what you do, or when you have to do it by, that causes your stress and brings down your motivation; it's how you perceive the whats and whens of daily life that generates your stress and affects your motivation levels. It's how each one perceives what they do and the possible outcome. And your perception is based on your beliefs and beliefs don't come built into your genes. All beliefs are learned. We learn them, send them into our subconscious and they then pop up and out through our thoughts, emotions and words. The problem is we not only hold beliefs, we identify with them. But beliefs are not the truth.

(To be continued tomorrow ….)

Disappointed?

Do you frequently get disappointed? Did you know that disappointment has nothing to do with other people or situations? 

Disappointment is our emotional response to an expectation that we created.

So the next time you feel disappointed, check to see if your expectations are reasonable and realistic. 

If they're not, then consider shifting your expectations to something more appropriate.

Message for the day

To bring benefit to many is to give true meaning to life. 

Expression: Living for oneself is common. Then, from time to time, there will be hurt, anger and even sorrow. But life is truly worth living and great when I am conscious of what I am giving others. Because I have to give, I will take from life and others with what can fill me (positive), and not what empties me (negative). 

Experience: Today I will check if my every interaction with everyone throughout the day is mutually beneficial. Let no one go away from me empty handed (some positive experience). I will give a smile at least, if nothing else. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 22, 2016: Start Early

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 22, 2016: Start Early

Start Early

The best time to awaken both body and spirit is in the early morning. We are fresh, in solitude, and the vibrations of the world are at their calmest. It is not surprising that you will find all experienced meditators and yogis up with the dawn, inviting the sun of spirit to shine into the heart of their soul. The first half hour of conscious awareness will be the foundation of your day. Make an early start. Meditate, set the switch of your consciousness and calibrate your energy for the day. You'll be surprised the difference it makes.

Motivation – The Life Driving Force (Part 2)

Life throws different types of challenges at us. A difficult relationship with one particular person, we have all experienced, can at times have the potential to completely overpower our thoughts for days and even for years. Most of us will have endured the trauma of exams at some stage in our lives, usually at school, college or university. The looming prospect of having to answer questions on your most hated subjects often meant that even the most laid-back of personalities will have experienced feelings of anxiety, worry and exam stress. A sudden physical illness can at times have the destructive ability to not only bring about physical discomfort but make us dejected, discouraged and sorrowful for days until it subsides. A deadline at work or a sudden crash of the business market are types of challenging situations on the professional front. A difficult personality trait which constantly hinders our progress and harms our relationships is an example of a challenge on the personal front.

So challenges can be unpleasant, even scary, but they are important as in the process of overcoming the challenge, you work harder on yourself and they make you more determined and powerful. If you are not spiritually equipped to rise to these challenges, these tests of your internal strength, when they come about, it is unlikely you will be motivated enough to cross them. When faced with challenges, people can find that they are able to go the extra mile and pull from the backs of their minds answers to questions they did not realize they had ever learnt or ever knew. So, challenges can be helpful – but only if you turn the challenges into internal positive energy, you remain motivated while crossing them and by doing that you transform the challenges into blessings or gifts in disguise which will help you advance ahead and become more experienced and wise.

(To be continued tomorrow ….)

Look at Specialities

Nowadays it is a fashion and also a compulsion to wear glasses. So wear the glasses of seeing only specialities. Nothing else should be visible. 

For instance, when you wear red glasses, even something green will appear to be red. So when coming into connection with everyone, adopt the vision of seeing only their specialities and you will become special.

Message for the day

The one way to break an old habit is to create a new one. 

Expression: We take new year resolutions and try hard to break habits. But the more we are thinking of it and worrying about it, we are investing time and energy in it. This will only strengthen the habit we want to break. Instead, let me create an alternate habit which is good and that will replace the old one. It is more important to think of what I want rather than what I don't want. 

Experience: Today I will invest more time and energy in a new habit than what I am investing in old habit. I will ensure that, through this I will create a new habit, which will replace the old one, as there would be no longer any space for it in my life. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 21, 2016: Take a High Jump

Daily Positive Thoughts: November 21, 2016: Take a High Jump

 

Take a High Jump

Instead of breaking the rock of problems with the hammer of waste thoughts, take a high jump and become one who crosses over the rock of problems.

Motivation – The Life Driving Force (Part 1)

Motivation is the driving force behind our thoughts, feelings, words and actions which transfers us from one reality to another, from where I am to where I wish to be. It is an inner positive energy, a combination of enthusiasm and clear perception that enables us to accomplish a task or overcome a challenge.  It is the desire to be continually interested and committed to a task or to attain a goal or cross a difficult situation.

Our thoughts really do color our perceptions, and affect our motivation levels in many ways. What thoughts are in your mind today? Which thoughts are weighing you down? Have you ever turned over the exam papers of life - challenging situations, overpowering situations, disturbing situations, de-motivating situations; looked at the questions that life throws at you and wondered if you are sitting the right test? Or glanced through these papers of life and only see questions or aspects you aren’t equipped at handling? Or worse still, know that you once knew the answers to these questions but frustratingly, those nuggets of spiritual wisdom, required to overcome these situations are now out of reach no matter how far into the back of your mind you grope, causing emotions of worry, frustration, fear, anger, discouragement, depression, panic and hopelessness to erupt inside you?

(To be continued tomorrow ….)

Openness to learn brings progress. 

When someone corrects me or gives me any advice or suggestion, I am usually not willing to listen to them. After putting in a lot of effort, I normally feel I have done the task to the utmost perfection and so am not able to listen to any suggestions from anyone. But with this kind of attitude I am not able to learn and progress. I need to keep my mind constantly open to learning in order to experience progress. With this attitude I can learn from everything that happens. And thus I will be able to bring improvement in each and every task that I do. 

Message for the day

To be happy is to be living.

Though to Ponder: The true blessing of life is happiness. To be happy is as simple and necessary as breathing. Just as I don't forget to breathe, I shouldn't forget to be happy. Just as breath is life, happiness too is the true life. My lifespan is counted based on the number of moments I live happily. 

Point to Practice: Today I will be happy and I will accumulate precious moment of happiness in the piggy bank of my soul. The more number of happiness I collect, the richer I will be. So today I will collect as much as I can. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris

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