Time to Stop Talking and Start Doing
Recently, with the help of many people around me, I honestly admitted to myself that it’s time for me to stop talking and start doing. Let me explain.
Just the other day, my friend Rakeen and I made a trip to the bookstore in order to brainstorm ideas for Vunty and the direction of the blog. As I was suggesting ideas in one of the book aisles, Rakeen slowed me down, and asked, “Wait a minute, are you actually going to do any of the things you’re mentioning?” It was a great question. I then started asking myself, among the numerous ideas I had, which of these would I actually attempt? I began to realize that there were many I probably would not even try. Some of them seemed too fantastical or required a skill I did not possess. But the main obstacle to my development was the discomfort of not knowing where an idea could lead me. I felt too attached to my present state, and I feared for what could happen if I took a leap into the unknown.
Leaving My Comfort Zone
Rakeen then challenged me further saying, “If you really want to change, you have to do something that will make you uncomfortable.” Rakeen is right. The most uncomfortable area is where I have the most room to grow. The validity and value of the point closely resonated with me. I knew it on an intellectual level, but reminders are helpful. I then started to really ask myself, am I making attempts to leave my comfort zone on a consistent basis? Because where I am too afraid to venture is where I have the most room to grow. For example, I have always struggled with being social. Making conversation does not come easy to me. Upon meeting new people I seem to shy away, hiding my personality, afraid of God knows what. I would certainly like to work on developing a level of comfort in social situations, but I can no longer continue just talking about it. Now it is time for me to start “doing”. I will not delay this leap into the uncomfortable, not only for personal reasons but also for the growth of this blog. What would a personal development blog be without my being proactive about my development, despite feeling discomfort? I mean, that is the purpose of a personal development blog, right? To change yourself in a drastic way, actually do something, and then share how you did it with your readers? So at the very least, this is motivated by my blogging pursuits.
But of course, I’m doing this for personal reasons too. Thinking back on my personal journey with social anxiety, it is as if I had been a caterpillar who formed a cocoon. As other caterpillars around me started to come out of their cocoons, I remained complacent and tried to find new ways of improving my habitat from the inside. However, in time, other butterflies noticed I was staying behind and they wanted me to join them outside. Instead of waiting any longer, they decided to help me depart from my cozy environment. As I felt the effects of their actions on my cocoon, it began to hit me; there had been numerous occurrences in which other butterflies had also tried to help me leave my comfortable cocoon. Eventually, in spite of the great strength of my efforts, the numerous bumps catalyzed the natural process that my fear had been delaying. And so, with this post, I encourage myself to stop talking about improving, and start actually doing it. Even if that means I will be forced out of my comfort zone. Because when I choose to leave behind my comfy little cocoon, I will be able to join the other butterflies, floating happily along and confidently communicating my unique nature.
But this post would not be complete without an anecdote about my leap into the unknown. Without an anecdote, this post would just be more talk and no walk. And so, my friend Rakeen and I made a trip back to the bookstore. And again, he challenged me to push myself out of my comfort zone. That day, right then and there. No more excuses or maybe laters. He nudged me along saying, “I want you to go find someone in this store right now and talk to them.” He even gave me a line I could use to start a conversation. As he stood there suggesting what I was to say, my feelings of anxiety began to build in my stomach. I began to run through the future scenario in my mind, already predicting how the conversation would go. The interesting part was that I began making excuses for why I couldn’t go and talk to someone. I reasoned with myself, saying, “they don’t want to talk to you; people at the bookstore don’t want to be bothered, they’re here to find information and you shouldn’t interrupt them.” Looking back on this experience, it now seems as though I was justifying my anxiety. Maybe there was a small bit of truth to the statement that these people didn’t want to be bothered, but if that was the case, they could just tell me.
The feelings of dread in my stomach only got worse and worse (as you may know, social anxiety often arouses physiological reactions). I continued to relent and resist, saying “No. I won’t go talk to strangers, that would be weird.” But with Rakeen’s help and with some thought, I was able to more and more clearly perceive that I was merely labeling the situation as weird, when it really wasn’t. How could an action be weird, in and of itself? It cannot. As with many other things in life, it was my mindset or belief about the action that was determining how I perceived it. Now that I could reason that the action itself wasn’t weird, I felt a little more comfortable with the idea of talking to strangers, but still not completely. Let me assure you, social anxiety is not so simple that it may be conquered on the first attempt.
Baby Steps in the Right Direction
After ten minutes or so of thinking it over in my mind some more, my friend and I made an agreement. He would go with me to approach and talk to a stranger. We picked out someone in the store, and went to ask the man a question. We agreed upon asking a neutral question and something we were authentically interested in knowing. My friend and I approached the gentleman and Rakeen started off by asking, “Of the material you read in the store, how would you feel about reading it on a blog?” He then created some space for me to join in on the conversation and I asked a question. The deed was done. My first baby step (saying a few words to a stranger at a bookstore) was completed. I still didn’t feel so good about the idea of talking to strangers though. After another ten minutes or so, my friend and I then decided that we must try again, and this time I must be the one who starts the conversation. So after much struggling, I agreed. We approached another stranger, person number two, and asked him the same question. Except this time, I was the one who initiated the conversation. Even after this second attempt, I didn’t feel excellent. I felt as though I was still too dependent, and that truly I should be able to speak for myself. And yet, I was too frightened to approach a stranger entirely on my own. Was this a rational thought process? No. But this was honestly how I felt. So we left the bookstore, and as we walked out into the parking lot to leave, I became upset with myself for my inability to approach a stranger.
Accepting my feelings of regret, I came to realize that I should be proud of myself for making the first few steps in the right direction. The negative feelings I had were a benevolent part of the growth process. They were proof that I truly wanted to overcome my anxiety. I decided it was better that I felt upset rather than being merely apathetic towards the process. Then I acknowledged the two steps I had made and felt proud. Proud that I was working toward something, and made some steps in the right direction. Proud that I set my priorities and put first things first. Because I know that if I continue doing this on a consistent basis, I will be able to develop a habit of being more social.
I have acquired a simple calming practice that works very well so I’d like to share it.
To begin, close your eyes and be still. Take a few moments to let your thoughts subside and let go of any tension in your body. Start to take a few breaths in through your nose and feel your diaphragm expand with air each time you breath in. It is not necessary to take real deep breaths, just focus on your breathing. Each time you exhale, be aware of your breath as it slowly leaves your body. Imagine any stress leaving you as the air escapes.
It’s as easy as that.
Repeat this process until you feel fully calmed.
Some of my favorite quotes on breathing…
“When the breath wanders the mind also is unsteady. But when the breath is calmed the mind too will be still, and the yogi achieves long life. Therefore, one should learn to control the breath.” ~Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika
“Focusing on the act of breathing clears the mind of all daily distractions and clears our energy enabling us to better connect with the Spirit within.” ~Author Unknown
“I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.” ~Sylvia Plath
In middle school, I thought that the transition to high school would be something I wasn’t really prepared to handle. I would be taking five Honors level classes so I anticipated that the amount of work for all these classes would be unbearable. When freshman year came around, the ideas I held about what the year would be like came true. I overstressed all of my classes and studied for many hours. I got into bad habits that year. I would come home from school at 2:30PM and sleep until about 4:30PM. At the same time, I wasn’t finding a good balance. I had unhealthy eating habits, worried far too much about the future and didn’t put my own health first.
My fears and concerns were produced from an insecurity about what would happen if I didn’t do well in school. I got caught up in the future and neglected the now. I was totally living for a fantasy future.
Luckily, as the years went on I began to raise in my awareness of what I was doing. I noticed my habits and I wanted to change them. I was able to change the way I was doing things so that eventually each and every year became easier. I began to enjoy school, assignments, and started to cherish the process instead of viewing it as work.
My change in awareness may be attributed to personal development as well as new views I held about my identity in the world.
1. Take Care of Yourself First- by far the most important thing to realize is that YOU are most important. Stay connected with your self and be healthy. Do not take any demands so seriously that they begin to overshadow your own personal well-being. If you are not healthy and well, how can you expect to produce your highest quality work or learn the material you are studying? As I explained, during my freshman year I did not put my personal needs first. Ultimately, I was making it harder on myself. Even taking a day to organize your schedule and plan time for yourself is a really good idea.
2. Find a Balance- Add time into your schedule where you focus on doing something for you. Here are some suggestions: meditate, exercise or just relax. Find something that will help you to stay in a balanced routine.
3. Ask For Help – you will be able to learn something better if you ask for help. Also, if you don’t ask for help, it could prevent you from learning future concepts, especially if it is in a math or science class that builds upon previous material. It will not always be possible for you to teach yourself. Sometimes you will need the teacher to provide further explanation.
4. Use Your Resources- If you don’t know something, look it up. This seems like the obvious action to take, however sometimes we can become dependent on the teacher. We expect them to teach us every part of the material we are learning in its entirety. Learning to teach yourself is a valuable technique that you can work on in high school and use in college.
5. Focus and Take Good Notes – focusing in class is a very important part of being able to learn the material. When you fully focus and learn something the first time around it will commit to your memory and you won’t have to review as much. In addition, be sure to take good notes in class so that you can refer to them at a later time if necessary. Take notes in short hand and record the main points of the discussion or lecture. Use stars and exclamation points for the most important parts.
6. Study-studying helps you to review and practice. Review any material that you may have forgotten. Studying encompasses many things; doing your homework, practicing for tests, reviewing notes, making study guides, reviewing flash cards and any other helpful strategies. Choose what works best for you.
7. Don’t Compare Yourself To Others- Comparing yourself to others can be a waste of time and energy. It is common for students to become overly concerned with their performance in comparison to someone else. Instead I recommend you focus on doing your best and helping your classmates.
8. Get Enough Sleep – Personally I like to get at least eight hours of sleep a night. Sometimes I felt tired in class even if I got eight hours of sleep. The important thing is to get on a schedule where you go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. Avoid long mid-afternoon naps and staying up late to finish homework.
9. Be Organized and Set Goals – Organization is crucial to helping yourself with your classes. Keep track of all your assignments (due dates for projects, tests, and homework). I used an agenda throughout all four years of high school to help stay organized. Set goals for when you’d like to finish your projects. Each night, set aside blocks of time to do homework for each class. Set small attainable goals inside of the larger ones.
10. Don’t Stress- Stressing and worrying will only make it harder for you to stay focused, stay on task, and ultimately perform well in school. One of the most important things to keep in mind is that there is always time to improve. Do your best and work hard, but don’t stress. Remember there is nothing to worry about.
Your imagination is the ability to visualize, think of or feel a sense of something that isn’t currently perceived through the senses.
We all use our imagination as children, but it seems that as time goes on we begin to use our imagination less and less. For some of us we become too busy with other things and we don’t find time for ourselves. The good thing is that using our imagination can be easy and enjoyable when we do not perceive it as hard work. When was the last time you took some time to sit and imagine?
Maybe now is a good time to put this practice in use again. You may even have a few images or scenes that you’d like to imagine right to begin with. You might want to imagine a beautiful day, a loved-one smiling, a vacation destination etc. etc. No matter what it is that you would like to imagine, I would like to help you more fully access your power to visualize it, make it seem real, and create it. It’s truly amazing the extent to which we can create our own imaginings and the depth of these imaginings. Not only can we visualize scenes and stories but we can create them in detail, in amazing and elaborate depth, and in color. We can imagine fictitious dramas, technical plans, or escapes to another realm all within our own determination. When you think about it, many of the great works we take in on various mediums such as television, the radio, the cinema, books, etc. were created by the collective human imagination. So the question remains, how do we put our imagination to use?
1. Decide – the first step to take is to decide. You and only you have the power to unlock your ability.
2. Stop – the next step is to stop. Stop taking in content on various mediums and just let yourself “Be”. It is when we stop taking in content that we are most able to produce our own.
3. Create – you may now create whatever you would like. You could create anything or nothing (no-thing). While you are imagining, be sure to feel good. After all, life is perfect just the way it is.
4. Enjoy – using your imagination is fun. Rejoice in your ability.
5. Repeat – repeat, repeat, and repeat some more. Continue to use your imagination as much as you’d like and whenever you’d like.
Creative visualization is a practice of using our imaginings to consciously create change. Creative visualization is a powerful practice. More and more I have been using the power of creative visualization consciously. I say consciously because we create all the time even when we are not aware of it. When I consciously create there are often changes that take place in many different ways. When I notice these changes, I cherish and acknowledge them. My ability excites me so I would like to share my practice with you.
Feel Good
You have the power to use creative visualization to consciously create. It is as easy as deciding how you would like to feel and visualizing whatever you’d like. You can use my five steps for using your imagination, but I would like to highlight a very important part. Be sure to feel good about what you would like to create. When you incorporate your feelings, you are more fully accessing your power by aligning Body, Mind, and Spirit.
Practice
Practice creative visualization a few times a day. Your ability to create will astonish you. You will likely notice small changes at first but the big ones will come too.
Be Brave
Often times there will be an opportunity to create the change you seek and it will be difficult to do. The opportunity will arise from your newly created reality through your imaginings. For example, perhaps in the past you were someone who frequently resisted many things in your life. Then through creative visualization you decided to make a change. You decided to acknowledge and cherish the many positive things in your life, feeling good about them. Over time, you begin to have new opportunities come into your life. These opportunities will come as a result in the shift in the way you are choosing to be. At first you may not know how to handle all these new and great things as they come into your reality. This is okay and is to be expected. Remember, to effectively create the change you seek, it will often require bravery. Bravery will be required because you are moving out of your old habits and into a new choice about who you are.
The Law of Least Effort is the fourth spiritual law listed in the book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Practical Guide to the Fulfillment of Your Dreams
In Deepak’s words, “This law is based on the fact that nature’s intelligence functions with effortless ease and abandoned carefreeness. This is the principle of least action, of no resistance. This is, therefore, the principle of harmony and love. When we learn this lesson from nature, we easily fulfill our desires.”
The Law of Least Effort is the idea that fulfillment is easy to achieve when we we act out of love and unity. This is because love creates the least resistance to the natural flow of things. On the other hand, when we act selfishly and attempt to satisfy the ego, it is much more difficult to feel fulfilled.
Why and How it Works
Part of the reason why this law works has to do with the way we are perceiving our reality. When we make changes to our interior reality (changing the way we are feeling) our exterior reality then shifts to reflect our inner reality. So when we act out of oneness and truth, instead of acting solely for satisfaction of the ego, we notice a shift. Things become easier to experience with less expended effort. At the same time, there are changes to the things that make us feel fulfilled as we change our awareness. We may find fulfillment in something as simple as stillness, where as before we may have sought exterior sources of happiness.
One of the easiest ways to observe The Law of Least Effort in our everyday life is to observe nature’s intelligence at work.Anything in nature is an example of the law in action. Think of how a tree grows, does the tree have to struggle to grow or does it happen naturally? Think of an animal breathing, does it need to think to breathe? The obvious answer is no. These events happen naturally without any effort. The tree grows and the animal breathes with no struggle. There is no resistance so the needs are met easily and with no effort required.
The Law of Least effort is truly amazing. Prior to writing this post, I had been noticing this law at work in my life in an increasing number of ways. The less I thought about a “problem”, the easier it was to come up with a solution.The less I perceived a situation as a “struggle” the easier it was to change it. Sometimes I would have a solution to another “problem” just through acceptance of the present moment.
The Law of Least Effort can be applied in your everyday life by using the three principles outlined by Deepak in his book
Acceptance
Acceptance comes with making a decision. It is your choice to decide that every occurrence is happening perfectly just the way it is happening. Accept the fact that the universe is flawless just the way it is. In your acceptance you reduce the resistance you are creating.
Responsibility
Responsibility is the next principle of the law. Responsibility means not looking for a reason to blame anyone or yourself for the current situation. When you are responsible you see the situation as an opportunity to display your truest self to the world and recreate in love. You know that every situation is part of the perfection of it all.
Defenseless
Defenseless is the third principle used to apply the law. Defenselessness is important because it allows you to free up energy that is wasted on defending your opinions and points of view. You will no longer argue to defend yourself. Instead you will be open and flexible to listen to other points of view. If you present your opinion and others disagree, you will not feel a need to defend yourself.
All in all, you can let your intentions out into the universe and know that they will eventually come to fruition, when and if the time is right. Your intentions will be one with nature’s intelligence.
Weight Loss and The Law Of Least Effort
Weight-Loss is one very practical application of the Law of Least Effort. When we are attempting to lose weight, we often put a lot of energy into a perceived struggle. We may view ourselves as battling against our desire to eat unhealthy or even in a battle against a false identity. We may feel that it is going to be a hard fight for us to “win”. What we may not realize is that when we do this we are actually making it harder for ourselves to lose weight. To quote Sonia Johnson, “What we resist persists”. As we view it as a fight, it then becomes a fight and the weight loss becomes difficult. We get caught up in the idea of the battle.
When we apply the Law of Least Effort in this situation, weight loss actually becomes easy and effortless. Instead of feeling as if we are struggling, we solely connect to our true self and know the wants and needs of our body. We know what’s going to be best for our self and we do it. Also, we feel the great energy that is inside of us and we feel healthy. Health can not be overpowered by our resistance anymore.It just may happen that you may lose a lot of weight using this law and you may not even realize it. In fact, you may not remember or feel that you lost a lot until someone comments and reminds you.
Money and The Law of Least Effort
It is also very easy to observe the Law of Least Effort in action with money. When you are not focused on how much money you can spend, you may notice that you more frequently have money to spend. Also,when you are not focused solely on making money, and instead focus on what’s important, you will make more money. For example, with your blog, if you solely focused on monetizing it and spent no time writing content, you wouldn’t have a very profitable blog. However, if you instead focus on the real purpose of your writing and what you would like to accomplish, the money will come.
To quote, “Don’t chase the money, chase the dream”.
In any case, I have found that when we act out of love and release our resistance through whatever means, what happens is truly remarkable.
Comments?
More examples of nature’s intelligence at work?
Please Share.
Today I was watching an interview with Bud Hennekes from A Boundless World. As he explained the reason for writing his blog, I noticed that many of his answers overlapped with my own. We both had a life changing experience with death that lead us on a path to consciously improve ourselves and develop. We began to self-reflect and read many books in related topics such as self-growth, motivation and spirituality. We wanted to find ways to live a better life, find our purpose and improve. We wanted to take advantage of the time we had on Earth and be the best self we could be. Once we completed our research, however, what we found was truly amazing. We remembered truth about the nature of our being. We remembered that ultimately we are in charge of our reality and they way we experience life. It is up for us to decide. After our remembrance, we decided that we wanted to share our findings. We enabled ourselves to share our stories and our continual growth through our blogs and throughout our lives. We recognized the power of our experiences and that others would be embarking on similar journeys.
Humans and Awareness
Many of the bloggers in the Personal Development niche have similar stories to Bud and myself. Upon inspecting each blog individually, you may notice the minute differences in each blog. The design, writing style and the experiences we’ve had all may differ. However, if you think of each blogger as a human being who’s on a spiritual journey, then a greater truth becomes evident. We are on a mission to share a message about our identity, our true place in this world and why we are here. I believe that this message is one of change, one of identity, one of truth and one of calling. This message comes as we are becoming more conscious beings. We are creators living in unity.
There are so many personal development blogs because humans are raising their conscious awareness. We are awakening to the true nature of our unity as creatures and our ability to create our reality. We know that we possess an infinite and amazing power within ourselves. We feel called to help each other in remembering truths of our most basic nature. Because of this, many of us are reaching out to each other via technological means. We are connected in ways never before possible. This day in age we are able to share our messages to a large audience very easily. We are able to communicate the idea that there is another way, change is possible and we CAN decide how we would like to live. We are empowered by technology. We can write our posts and share them on the web for huge audiences.
Sharing In Remembrance
One of the posts on this blog, (Message to The 6.8 Billion People Of The World) was written with the specific intention of sharing it with the entire world. Personal development bloggers recognize the vast audience available online. They desire to connect with fellow human beings and rejoice in the truth of our being. We have all become aware that we are deciding how we want to live. As we enjoy our journey of change, we would like to share our greatest findings on joy, love, peace, unity, efficiency and purpose.
There are some of you whom are already awakened to remembrance. There are some of you whom are unaware there is a choice to be made. For others, you are aware of the choice but it is not your time to choose to live in remembrance. You are all at different steps on your journeys and we too, are on this journey with you. I am not suggesting personal development bloggers have all the answers. All we can do is share what we have found to be effective for us. We can not dictate how you will live your life and we do not choose to. We merely want to help you in your search and we see the tremendous opportunity that is available for everyone. We can reach out to you and connect, share our experiences, and create a place for the change to be acknowledged. Perhaps we seek a place where all will demonstrate oneness and love. Perhaps we hope to discover more about the greatest truths of the nature of our reality. We know we have something to offer. In any case, we are not going to pass up an opportunity as great as this one. Simply put, we are passionate about what we are doing.
An Information Age
We also realize that as the world is changing so are the means by which business is changing. Now is the time of an advanced information age. Information is of value to others. We accept money for the effort we put in to our blogs because we know we have created something valuable. This is essentially the way business has always been performed. Money has always been exchanged for something of value. In this case it happens to be information. Because we are essentially exchanging information for money, we see the new opportunity of earning income passively. Instead of exchanging our time for money, (by working for someone else) we produce something of worth by our own definition and can receive the benefits at any time.
In addition, we realize that when we come from a place of truth, we can produce creative, inspiring, and useful content. We see how this can be accessed for years to come and the greatness in the power of our creation. We view ourselves as entrepreneurs, writers, innovators and souls who are searching to connect. We have accepted the continual advancement of the world and have adapted.
Everything Is Changing
Although personal development bloggers thrive on change, they are not the only ones who are changing. Each and every moment everything is changing and evolving. Life is change. For some of you, today might’ve been the first day you decided to stop living as if you were trapped. Today you might have decided to break out of false illusions and celebrate the truth of reality. For others, you may have decided to stop living as if you are separate from anything else. Today you may have decided to stop living as if you are powerless. The truth is, we are all constantly evolving in each and every moment. We always are, were, and will be re-defining the ideas we hold about who we are and how we would like to be.
As personal development bloggers and humans, we know this. We know we will have a continual source of experiences and remembrances throughout our lives. There will never really be an end to the “development” we are experiencing. We will always have something new to enjoy, relate, and remember.
Celebrate and rejoice for now is the time to live.
At 18 years of age, I love all of life. I have an awareness of the perfection of everything. Sometimes we are faced with a situation that others may consider unlucky or wish it wasn’t happening. At these times, I embrace the situation and become aware of my thoughts. My awareness may be attributed to a collection of experiences I have had: my entire life. I think we have a choice to create and experience things the way we choose and that ultimately life really IS perfect just the way it IS.
Remembering Truth
When I was in 7th grade I had an emergency appendectomy. I had been experiencing pain in my lower right abdomen so I searched on Google to discover information about possible causes of my pain. After searching online, I discovered it was likely I was experiencing pain from an appendicitis. I visited my physician who agreed and sent me to the hospital for some testing. As “luck” would have it, my appendix was about to burst. I felt grateful to have discovered the source of pain before any further complications. The next morning I was scheduled for an emergency appendectomy. That night sitting in the emergency room, I realized that I was powerless in my ability to change what was happening. However, what I could change was the way I perceived and experienced the current circumstances. I could change my perception of everything. In one way, all of my “life” was to be put on hold. My school work and all other things I previously viewed as important would come to a halt.
On the other hand, my real “life” was continuing here and now. Anything I previously viewed as significant no longer held any real importance. This removal from my routine helped me to become very aware. I knew I had been close to death. I automatically prioritized things in my life. What was truly important to me? What would I really like to do with the time I have here on Earth? It also became clear to me that relief would come with acceptance. I was able to be at peace with the situation by understanding that my fears and worries would offer me no relief. A calm, soothing feeling came over me and I became sure that I would be okay. I felt confident that life is eternal.
Over the next few years I did not choose to be overly attached to menial things. Sure, at times I might worry about trivial things or concern myself with them. But this experience would act as a reminder for me. It would remind me that while I am experiencing life in this world, I need not worry about things and the way they would work out. Now living my life, I enjoy creating the highest version of who I truly am and expressing it. I am grateful for my emergency appendectomy because it helped me to remember who I really am. Looking back, I see the perfection in this event and I have grown in my awareness ever since.
I had another similar life-changing experience the following summer after my appendectomy. The summer of 8th grade and going in to 9th grade, I was eating at a restaurant with my family. My dad had driven his own car from work to meet up with the rest of the family. As we were leaving, I struggled deciding who I wanted to go home with. If I left with my mom and sister, I would be leaving my dad alone. But I wanted to talk with my mom and it wasn’t a far ride back to the house. I had a strong inner feeling that I should go home with my mom and sister, so I did. Within a few minutes of leaving the restaurant, my sister got really excited talking to my mom while she was driving. Someone three cars ahead of us stopped to take a left turn and the cars in front of us all stopped short. My sister looked to the right because another car was attempting to pull out into traffic. As she looked ahead again she slammed on the brakes to stop but wasn’t quite fast enough. We hit the car in front of us and the car was badly damaged. I was in the back seat wearing a seat belt so I was fine. My mom and sister, however, were not wearing their seat belts. When offered medical treatment, they refused it because they felt good enough to leave the scene without going to the hospital.
Later that day, my mom began experiencing bursts of pain all up her arm. She felt like she had pieces of glass from the windshield in her arm and in her hands. She asked me to look and check for glass but there were no visible signs of anything. That night, my mom took some pain medicine and the next day she visited with her doctor. She told the doctor her symptoms who sent her for neck and spinal testing. It was then discovered that my mom had a broken disc in her neck. My mom had neck surgery and has never been completely relieved from pain ever since. She is still careful with the way she sleeps on her neck and is unable to carry heavy items. Looking back, I am grateful for the gut feeling I had that day. Even though I wasn’t able to “do” anything, I am glad I was able to be present at the accident to offer support and comfort. I now follow my gut instinct frequently and with more confidence.
To this day, my sister still experiences neck and back pain as a result of the accident. Every so often, she visits a doctor for pain relief. Although I was not injured in the accident, everyone in the car that day remembered a few important things about life. I know personally I was awakened to the fragility of the human body. I also developed my ability to accept seemingly terrible and unexplainable events of life. I know that I remembered the importance of trusting my gut, the comfort of unison and that acceptance is beautiful. It is true that at first I did not see the perfection in the accident at all. I thought to myself, “My mom and sister were both injured and it was a traumatic experience, where is the perfection in that?” However, I now realize the accident was perfect, just as all of life is.
A Place of Knowing: Questions To Ask Yourself
Understanding the perfection of life itself is really all about coming to a place of knowing. When you reach this place it becomes clear that everything is happening perfectly, despite the way it may appear. For example, when you are experiencing an event, sometimes your first reaction may be to condemn it. However, perhaps you would like to take a step back from the situation and ask yourself a few questions. Why am I perceiving the situation this way? Is my reaction allowing me to be at peace with the situation? Is there a greater truth for me to remember?
Things To Keep In Mind
Be confident with the way things are happening and remember the perfection of life. God is great. Remember that you are creating your experience in, through and with God. When you come to a realization that all of life is perfect, you give yourself great liberty. You may let go of attachment to your identity as a victim and instead see how everything is designed in greatness. “Should” and “should not” become merely labels. The ultimate reality is that everything IS the way it IS. When you decide that everything is perfect, you acknowledge that there is nothing that “needs” to be done because there is nothing that isn’t perfect already. You become able to experience whatever you choose, which is the truth of reality. When you know this truth you will have reached a place of knowing.
Deciding Ahead Of Time
When you reach a place of knowing, you can then decide ahead of time how you would like to experience any event prior to it taking place. You can decide that you will celebrate its perfection and decide how you will “BE” during the experience before it even happens. You are able to do this because you know that no matter what happens it will be perfect because it always was, is and will be. A few times in my life so far, I have been shocked after I decided how I would be ahead of time. One time I decided that I would be accepting and a few days later I realized a completely different way to think of the situation. I had not even previously considered the new way of thinking. This was evidence for me that ultimately my thoughts were not as effective as the way I was choosing to “Be”.
3 Simple Steps To Help You
Embrace It – Just be with the situation. Feel how it feels and let the thoughts come.
Ask Yourself These Questions- Why am I perceiving the situation this way? Is my reaction allowing me to be at peace with the situation? Is there a greater truth for me to remember?
Rejoice- View the perfection of Life=God=Love.
Comments? Please Share.
We Are All Messengers
With my past few posts, I feel that I was not sharing enough of my true self with you guys, my readers. I was failing to share my own “take” on the topic, my own experience and what I have learned from it. I had rendered my posts distant and wrote them as if I was an all-knowing source of information, providing concrete ways to achieve desired results. This, however, is obviously not the case. Life is a process of creation and self-discovery. Things are constantly changing, we are always growing and learning. I too am going through this process with you. As I continue to grow and change, it is my aim to share my own experiences, ideas, beliefs, and discoveries of what has worked for me, with you. I would like to do this because I believe that I, and you, are messengers in this world. We are sent to carry a message about our true identity to the world and to share it. We share this in whatever way we choose, each and every day, and most effectively through the choices we make about who we choose to be. For these reasons, I have created this blog to be a messenger, sharing the message that we have heard from many people, from many different sources, in many different ways.
With this in mind, I have decided not to delete my old posts. Instead, I will leave them. As I grow and continue to develop as a person, so too will this blog. I will be able to look back upon my old beliefs, thoughts and ideas. I will be able to observe the changes that occur to them as I continue to develop. As time passes, I expect my writing to change, the topics I cover to change, my beliefs to change and my understanding of who I am to change. Many other unforeseeable changes are also certain.
Although the future is uncertain, I have made the decision now to share as much of my own experience as I can through my posts. I want to help others grow and learn while being able to relate to my own experience. I do not want to write a step-by-step article, guide, or how-to that has no personal meaning. No-one is perfect, we are all continually developing, each and every day. With this, I remind you to be transparent with the people in your own life. Be honest and show them your true feelings. Do not feel insecure, showing your true self will not render you powerless. Embrace honesty and it will make things flow more smoothly. Others will understand where you are coming from.
For these reasons, I would like to share with you who I am, and some of my own growth so far.
Me
Although my Being is eternal, my body is young. Really, I am only 18 years old. At the time of writing this post, I just graduated high school only a few weeks ago. The great thing is that age is not a determining factor of what I have to share, as we are all growing each and every moment. I too face many of the same conditions in life as you. I ask many of the same questions, share many of the same experiences and feel many of the same emotions. The way we choose to define ourselves in each and every circumstance is a continuing process that never stops.
As for my past, I grew up in a household with strong Catholic influence. My sister and I were brought to Mass most Sundays by our parents. I was always a self-reflective, shy and quiet individual. Sitting there in church, I eventually became very focused on developing an understanding of God, of life and of the way things work in the world. I continued my Catholic education by attending CCD in grades 1-10, learning more and more about the Catholic faith. Following my Confirmation, I decided to become a Lector at my church and to read from the Gospel once a month at Mass. Over the years, I always was open to new ideas about the biggest questions of life and I began to form my own thoughts on the nature of things.
I have had problems with anxiety at times in my life and present moment awareness has helped me to overcome it. I have had panic attacks and worried immensely over things I couldn’t control. Also, I have cared far too much about what people think of me, my reputation and other egotistic attachments, seeking security in the exterior world.
I am now more in touch with my own self and am able to access my inner abundance. I now care less about many of the superficial things I once cared about. It has allowed me to access a freedom I always possessed but previously chose to ignore. I have a deeper faith in life itself, knowing everything is perfect just the way it is.
Vunty
I first founded Vunty with a programmer located in India who I found via Yahoo! Answers. After almost a full year online after launch, we had slow growth in new members, slow website development and a blog with little content. Since the founding of Vunty, the co-founder and I became friends, sharing our own experiences as we worked on the site. After struggling with the site development, which was being built around the BlogEngine.NET blogging application, I felt that we were trying to “re-invent the wheel” so to speak and our site wasn’t even fully functional. It was hard to promote a social networking site for bloggers when it wasn’t built around a blog itself and the network was nothing extraordinary. I emailed Sethu and we agreed to change the aim of the site. I was always interested in Personal Development and Entrepreneurship so I knew I could write in that niche. I was also excited to be able to share my spiritual growth through the blog. I began researching blogs and noticed that WordPress based blogs were far more visually attractive and appeared more user-friendly. (Read more on WordPress vs. BlogEngine.NET) I installed WordPress on my website host in late May of 2010 and began researching how to blog effectively. Since then, I have been able to make some money on the side by using my blog to launch my online services to my clients. I have done work as a social media promoter and hope to make an additional stream of income from Vunty as well. So far, I have set aside my profits to spend on my college expenses. I continue to enjoy the new Vunty I have created. I seek to improve it as I improve myself each and every moment.
Reconciling My Beliefs With My Actions
It is true that I struggle with the idea of making money from this blog. It is something that I would like to do, however at times I feel that I am being selfish about it, who am I to deserve great wealth? It’s not like I am not already living a comfortable life. I have reconciled my conflict by seeing the value of my blog, the sharing and the help that goes on here, the effort I’ve put into it and the fact that there is plenty of wealth for the world to share. I comfort myself with the idea of not becoming too attached to the money. I have decided that it is “ok” to make money from Vunty but I continue to monitor my true desire for writing each and every post.
I often struggle with displaying my highest spiritual beliefs about who I am in a practical daily manner. I know that this is accomplished solely through what I choose to Be. It is in the choosing that I can demonstrate the highest truth about who I am.
I believe we are all messengers, sent to literally BE God’s message in action, as we recreate ourselves in each and every moment. I believe we are all one and that there is no real division amongst us, only perceived differences. A belief that we are different from one another creates divisions which do not reflect our truth.
I believe we are here to experience ourselves in the realm of the relative and to remember all that is true about the nature of our Being. I believe that our beliefs should not divide us but that we should be united in our differences, realizing that we are all one.
I am at times dishonest, however I believe honesty is the higher choice to display my truest self. I display hatred at times, even though I believe love is what we truly are. At times, I do not display my highest belief of who I am to the world, but I know that it is all right because life is a process of change, and I am continually growing on my path to Mastery.
I am that I AM and always will be.
Messengers
I have had some of my most eye opening experiences through reading the Conversations with God Books
(affiliate links) by Neale Donald Walsch and the books The Power of Now
Eckhart’s books have shown me that living in the moment is a liberating and truly amazing practice that helps you to live a life without many of the “problems” created when living within the mind.
I am truly grateful for finding these books and the way they have influenced me.
My parents and my sister have been some of the most influential messengers in my life. My family displays an unconditional love for me that I truly am thankful for. On a day-to-day basis my parents are there for me and they added “fuel to my fire” when I was curious about the nature of things in the world. Sometimes even their honest display of lacking an answer was just what I needed to continue to search for my own. I know my sister and my parents want the best for me. In fact, my entire family wants the best for me.
I would like to thank everyone who as been in my life for what they have helped me to remember.
I am on a mission to give others back to themselves through the way I choose to be.
I have adopted the same mission for this blog: to give others back to themselves through remembrance.
I hope the posts in this blog can be passed on from its readers to many others throughout the world.
I know that my life is a reflection of my truth.
-Sean
