Never give up on yourself

Knowingly or unknowingly, we keep looking for external validation. Others to give us a chance, others to include us,  others to initiate something which we need, others to motivate us, others to understand us, others to love, support, and care for us.

Are we doing all this for ourselves?

Know your self-worth. Stay self-motivated. Take other people's opinions lightly. Even if the choices someone makes are not to your liking, don't let that define your self-worth. 

What is inward tuning that mediation practice teaches us? To look within for inspiration, motivation, answers, approval,acceptance love ,and respect.

There is a difference between self-care and selfishness.  Care for your own feelings and needs.Be your own best friend and try to help yourself in all aspects of life. Selfishness is caring only for oneself at the expense of others. But self care is caring for oneself and also treating others the same way.

Don't settle for less. Rejections, hurdles,delays, pitfalls, U-turn and detours are all part and parcel of life's journey and not the end of the journey.Don't be disappointed. Believe in yourself. Never give up.Stand up for yourself. Its ok to cry, its ok to fall down. But dont complain about the situation. Just go ahead and pick yourself up.Keep going and keep growing.Never give up on yourself. If you don't do it for yourself no one else is going to do it for you.

Reflections

Assumptions and possibilities :

From this moment to another unknown moment, there are infinite possibilities.

How much should we assume the unknown and proceed in a particular direction? Of course, it's better than not walking anywhere at all.

Flexibility and structured approach :

Flexibility shows expanded consciousness. A structured and organized approach to life is discipline.  This may seem contradictory, but it's not. We need to follow a structured approach to life while still being flexible to handle unexpected hurdles, blockers, detours, restarts, and tests that come along the way.

Live the moment with a fresh attitude :

Half the problem is solved when we don't project past fears into the future. At the same time, we should take lessons from past experiences also, but those lessons alone should not become a stereotype pattern for the future. We should have some allowance for different outcomes for the same event because underlying conditions could be other.

The ultimate trinity :

The amalgamation of condition, consciousness, and willpower is mastery. It shows our state of being, understanding, and doing. It is the expansion of our heart, mind, and application of will.

Comfort or content:

Are we content with a situation, or does a familiar situation make us comfortable as we get used to it?

Now is all that exists

Start from where you are with what you have

Count your blessings and keep going. 

Moving beyond hurdles

 It's always easy to move on in the smooth path, but that's not always the case in the journey of life. At times, a lot of things happen in life that drain energy, demotivate us, cut off our enthusiasm, or make us question our beliefs.

"Acceptance," as always, is the magical solution, but we often forget to apply a suitable ointment to the wound.

When the mistake is ours, it's much easier to accept the result, affirm to correct ourselves, and move on, but the tests are sometimes more intense. We may sincerely do our best, but our efforts may not be acknowledged.  We may even be kicked off or ignored despite giving our best. 

We put in so much sincere hard work at an organization, which may never be rewarded.

We gave so much of ourselves to someone who never understood our love.

We want to serve and contribute to something in society but never get an opportunity to do that.

In all these above scenarios, our intentions are right and pure, but still, we face hurdles. The intensity of the effect it produces on us depends on how much we give of ourselves. We just need to develop the correct understanding first of all so that we do not feel hurt or bitter. Thinking why it happened to me or it should not have happened is of no use.

When our enthusiasm is cut off knowingly or unknowingly, it's very easy to get demotivated. We can pause and take some time to recover, but taking excessive time or just remaining in demotivation will only make things worse.

Even for some simple things like weight loss, when I take small steps, losing 2 or 3 kgs is generally very long. Then suddenly there could be some hurdle in the form of health issue or medication which comes my way and break the tiny habits. But when I give up on the tiny habits, within no time, the weight goes up. This is just a small example that is easy to understand; the same applies to everything. At times, we don't get what we want so easily or quickly, or we face so many hurdles in just doing what we are doing.

 Every time we give up, things never get better, but only bitter. We need to put in continuous efforts even to sustain what we have. When there is no acceleration, the vehicle stops at a point. Gratitude and ability to count the blessings is the key to joyful life. We should Keep going irrespective of whatever comes our way. Self-motivation and strong will power are the key to keep going irrespective of all the hurdles which comes our way. Always begin from where you are, with what you have.

Moving beyond experiences

 The unconditional 

In our evolutionary journey, our understanding goes through multiple stages.

Ignorance: The first stage we go through is ignorance. We have opinions, both good and bad, just out of ignorance. Prejudice is the highest form of ignorance. It can be from what we hear, read, or listen, or mindlessly without any reason.

Observation: In the second stage, we observe things from a distance and form good and bad opinions without solid experience. It is very possible that with experience, our awareness grows and may erase both the admiration and irritation. 

Experience: Sometimes, people come to conclusions with minimal experience without understanding the whole. Emotions could be stronger than understanding; we act from emotional memory instead of cognitive memory. We should know the difference between what is said and done, what is said but not done, and what is done but not said.

Beyond experiences: While it's quite a journey from ignorance to observation to emotional memory based on experiences to cognitive memory based on experiences, still, it's not the end. We can't experience everything in a limited time. We need to move past our experiences also. This is the transition from conditional experiences into spontaneous, dynamic living in the present moment without being conditioned by past thoughts, beliefs, or experiences,  with unconditional love, total trust, and utmost surrender to God and all of God's creations.

Why do we need to move beyond experiences?

At times, we may have repeated negative experiences; these memories create a strong impression and guide our behaviors without our knowledge. When hard work does not lead to success, it could lead to a lethargic attitude; when our love is not correctly received and reciprocated, it could lead to trust issues, unexpected rejections, and hurts could lead to hesitation in seeking help. When the absence of something gives a bitter experience, the mind could be excessively attached to possessing it and associate our self-worth with that. 

While learning from experiences is good at ,times when there are extremely rigid patterns in our behavior, we need to re-align ourselves and use the sense of discrimination. When we cannot be flexible and spontaneous and be excessively driven by the past we are mere machines and do not use the sense of discrimination that makes us human.

How to move beyond the conditioning and act spontaneously instead of rigid pattern : Meditation is the only way.

This spontaneous does not mean fickle or unstable, its a stable state of mind which is free from rigid conditioning.

"The best gift we can give to the universe is our transformed selves" - Daaji