"Whenever you go out of the doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile and put soul into every handclasp.
Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind that you would like to do and then without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal.
Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do and then as the days go gliding by, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunity that are required for the fulfillement of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the element it needs. Pciture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual.
Thought is supreme.
Preserve a right mental attitude - the attitude of courage, frankness and good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered.
We become like that on which our hearts are fixed.
Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are gods in Chrysalis."
- Elbert Hubbard.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Coming into a Dream
Let me tell you about a dream that I had. Someone put me back in school and there was all these things I had to do. Student things. Sports. Studies. Rules. Activities. And I dreaded every moment.
They had odd uniforms, odd sports, odd teachers and odder kids. How awful. At the end of the dream, I was running uphill and I thought, 'I could make this a pretty pathetic experience or I could make the best of the bad. And I fell into everything I did with deep enthusiasm and passion.
When I woke up, I felt that this was Now. And no different from my dream.
That even though I don't have everything I'd like to have, although everything isn't going the way I want it to, I still have a choice - to make it as dreadful as I believe it to be or the best.
Have fun while you can. Play. Don't drown in pity and don't take things or life so seriously. Life and Death is all a game that people fall in and out of. We are all players so PLAY.
'Live' is not just a word for 'breathe' or 'eat' or 'survive'. Whatever our purpose is in Life, we ought to live it with Full Intention. Play Hard. Live Hard. Love Hard (love in this context is define to be above physical lust; it is love of no condition. No boundaries).
Run with purpose, walk with purpose, drink coffee with purpose, laugh with purpose and you can never fail in Life.
They had odd uniforms, odd sports, odd teachers and odder kids. How awful. At the end of the dream, I was running uphill and I thought, 'I could make this a pretty pathetic experience or I could make the best of the bad. And I fell into everything I did with deep enthusiasm and passion.
When I woke up, I felt that this was Now. And no different from my dream.
That even though I don't have everything I'd like to have, although everything isn't going the way I want it to, I still have a choice - to make it as dreadful as I believe it to be or the best.
Have fun while you can. Play. Don't drown in pity and don't take things or life so seriously. Life and Death is all a game that people fall in and out of. We are all players so PLAY.
'Live' is not just a word for 'breathe' or 'eat' or 'survive'. Whatever our purpose is in Life, we ought to live it with Full Intention. Play Hard. Live Hard. Love Hard (love in this context is define to be above physical lust; it is love of no condition. No boundaries).
Run with purpose, walk with purpose, drink coffee with purpose, laugh with purpose and you can never fail in Life.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Attitude Gratitude
The Gratitude Journal
In her book ‘Simple Abundance’, Sarah Ban Breathnach describes how we can enrich our life by creating a daily gratitude journal.
‘Each night before I go to bed, I write down five things that I can be grateful about that day. Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgment of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties.
Simplicity, order, harmony, beauty and joy – all other principles that can transform your life will not blossom and flourish without gratitude…You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
As you focus on the abundance rather than on the lack in your life, you will be designing a wonderful new blueprint for the future. This sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work. This sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work, transforming your dreams into reality. Begin this day to explore and integrate this beautiful, life-affirming principle into your life, and the miracle you have been seeking will unfold to your wonder and amazement’.
In her book ‘Simple Abundance’, Sarah Ban Breathnach describes how we can enrich our life by creating a daily gratitude journal.
‘Each night before I go to bed, I write down five things that I can be grateful about that day. Real life isn’t always going to be perfect or go our way, but the recurring acknowledgment of what is working in our lives can help us not only to survive but surmount our difficulties.
Simplicity, order, harmony, beauty and joy – all other principles that can transform your life will not blossom and flourish without gratitude…You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you.
As you focus on the abundance rather than on the lack in your life, you will be designing a wonderful new blueprint for the future. This sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work. This sense of fulfillment is gratitude at work, transforming your dreams into reality. Begin this day to explore and integrate this beautiful, life-affirming principle into your life, and the miracle you have been seeking will unfold to your wonder and amazement’.
Monday, April 09, 2007
I Already Have All That I Seek
We're an answer-driven society. Everything we do we need answers.
We climb ladders. We climb mountains.
We go on journeys. We go for quests.
We chase. We search.
We look in the soul. We look at the soul. We look beyond the soul.
Have we found what we've been searching for?
What is it that we're looking for?
Do we even know?
How do we know the Hows, when we don't know the Whats?
We're lost, confused and disoriented.
But we're never hope-less.
If there's one thing about the humankind, we never lose hope. We may lose it as individuals, but as a collective, we care too much to do that. Have you ever given up hope on your family, friends or partners? That's what I mean. We're resilient in that sense. Hard to get rid of. Almost pest-like. Like cockroaches :D
So how do we know what we're looking for?
Look in the Whys.
This cycle of insanity is a fruitless one. As mentioned before, we seem to delight in this 'carrot & donkey' sequence of life. As though happiness is at the end of the 'string ofs...'.
The string of... graduation, work, wealth, sex, marriage, children, retirement... etc.
Myself? I'm like a dog chasing it's tail.
Came a day. One miserable day. A day I intent it to be miserable with my miserable thoughts. So miserable, I was miserable.
I was miserable because.
I was miserable because I felt I had nothing materially substantial to show for my 26 years of existence.
I was miserable because while the rest of the world had BMWs and LVs I had nothing
I was miserable because ten years ago, I had envisioned myself in love and in style.
So I was running a list of things in my mind: things I would do if; things I would feel when; things I would say at...etc.
In other words, I was saying that I can only be happy with myself if I'm thin, rich and beautiful.
Only later. Never here. Never now. Never in the moment.
Then I read. Even though I read it before. A singular line that meant everything and can mean also absolutely nothing. So powerful yet so power-less. In that moment, all things that clouded me depart.
"I have all that I seek."
Which simply means. There is nothing to achieve because I have it. There are no answers to seek. Because there are no questions. Everything that is to be provided for is already provided.
I have everything I need in this life.
Something else I read somewhere which I will loosely quote: "As long as you have shoulders, you will have clothes. As long as you have a mouth, you will have food."
And I will also like to add: "As long as you have limbs, you will have work. As long as you have ears, you have music. And as long as you have sight, you will have beauty."
In other words, be grateful for.
There is much to give thanks.
We climb ladders. We climb mountains.
We go on journeys. We go for quests.
We chase. We search.
We look in the soul. We look at the soul. We look beyond the soul.
Have we found what we've been searching for?
What is it that we're looking for?
Do we even know?
How do we know the Hows, when we don't know the Whats?
We're lost, confused and disoriented.
But we're never hope-less.
If there's one thing about the humankind, we never lose hope. We may lose it as individuals, but as a collective, we care too much to do that. Have you ever given up hope on your family, friends or partners? That's what I mean. We're resilient in that sense. Hard to get rid of. Almost pest-like. Like cockroaches :D
So how do we know what we're looking for?
Look in the Whys.
This cycle of insanity is a fruitless one. As mentioned before, we seem to delight in this 'carrot & donkey' sequence of life. As though happiness is at the end of the 'string ofs...'.
The string of... graduation, work, wealth, sex, marriage, children, retirement... etc.
Myself? I'm like a dog chasing it's tail.
Came a day. One miserable day. A day I intent it to be miserable with my miserable thoughts. So miserable, I was miserable.
I was miserable because.
I was miserable because I felt I had nothing materially substantial to show for my 26 years of existence.
I was miserable because while the rest of the world had BMWs and LVs I had nothing
I was miserable because ten years ago, I had envisioned myself in love and in style.
So I was running a list of things in my mind: things I would do if; things I would feel when; things I would say at...etc.
In other words, I was saying that I can only be happy with myself if I'm thin, rich and beautiful.
Only later. Never here. Never now. Never in the moment.
Then I read. Even though I read it before. A singular line that meant everything and can mean also absolutely nothing. So powerful yet so power-less. In that moment, all things that clouded me depart.
"I have all that I seek."
Which simply means. There is nothing to achieve because I have it. There are no answers to seek. Because there are no questions. Everything that is to be provided for is already provided.
I have everything I need in this life.
Something else I read somewhere which I will loosely quote: "As long as you have shoulders, you will have clothes. As long as you have a mouth, you will have food."
And I will also like to add: "As long as you have limbs, you will have work. As long as you have ears, you have music. And as long as you have sight, you will have beauty."
In other words, be grateful for.
There is much to give thanks.