one in the same

I’ve been reading Kabir at night before I go to bed (remember, I stopped opening email/facebook/twitter/instagram/any other thing that doesn’t send me positive vibrations before bed. read here!). I stumbled upon a really amazing poem yesterday. I want to share with all of you!

1. 16. santan jot na pucho nirguniyan
IT is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs
For the priest, the warrior, the trades-man, and all the thirty-six castes,
alike are seeking for God.
It is but folly to ask what the caste of a saint may be ;
The barber has sought God, the washerwoman, and the carpenter
Even Raidas was a seeker after God.
The Rishi Swapacha was a tanner by caste.
Hindus and Moslems alike have achieved that End, where remains no mark of distinction.
-Kabir

We are all on some sort of path, trying to grasp for something bigger than this body we live in. Whether we know it or not, want to believe it or not, we are all walking some journey seeking something. None of us are different, and at the end of the day, there are no separations between you and me.

In Ayurveda, we talk about the life force as prana. Prana is the living energy within people and things and objects. It’s also the tying factor that binds us all together in this world and what binds us to the greater universe and whatever higher thing you believe in. We put so much emphasis on the differences and purposely separate ourselves. In retrospect, we are all one in the same. We are all connected by some energy that is pushing us on our individual paths. Once we begin to accept this, the boundaries can be broken. We can start putting aside our ego and jealousy and desires and aversions, and start living a more pure, a more humble life.

The saint has no caste, the barber has no caste. We all have reached the goal at some point or other, and then, nothing matters.

There is no such thing as difference, only uniqueness.

this too shall pass

The second round of vipasanna was one of the hardest things I believe that I have ever done in my life. Never has the phrase “this too shall pass” resonated in me more than it does now.

There is a concept of “annicha” that Goenkeji talks about in his discourses. Everything is in constant motion; nature, animals, us, even the walls that surround us in our homes. Our minds just aren’t subtle enough to pick up on it. Everything is impermanent. Everything.

This idea of impermanence is semi-easy to understand. It is a concept that we learned in physical science back in 8th grade along with other Newton Laws. I even remember watching a science cartoon (nerd alert, I know!) way back when about this idea, and remember them proving this fact that everything is in constant motion. As simple as this idea sounds, and as simple it is to “understand”, it’s not exactly an easy concept to fully experience or realize. We are constantly looking at the gross, and change is something that isn’t always received well.

Permanence. This idea of being stuck, static. When you think about it from this angle, it sounds a little ugly. Who wants to be stuck? Static? Continuously in the same place as before? I know that I don’t. And the cool part about it all, is that we’re not. You can never step into the same river twice, because the river is constantly flowing towards the ocean, and because of that flow, you are always going to be surrounded by new water coming from the source. And just like the river, we too, are constantly in motion, in constant change. Sure, it may not seem like it from the physical, external shell that we see each morning in the mirror, but think about all of the internal changes that are going on inside of you at this very moment, the next moment, and the next one after that. Really, you are not the same person every day you wake up. On a more physical level, you definitely aren’t the same person you were 1 year ago, 5, 10, 15 years ago, otherwise you’d be stuck in a period of infancy or being a child or even worse, being stuck in your preteen appearance. Who wants to face that agony on an everyday basis?

We are constantly changing. We are impermanent. Dr. Lad gave a really good example in class last week, similar to this concept. Our blood cells last about 108-120 days (Ayurvedically speaking). But every time they “die” do you turn around and mourn their loss? Probably not. And although this example can be taken a little bit morbidly, what is the essence of what it is saying? There’s an attachment issue in this world. A stickiness. And classically speaking, raag/dvesh (pleasure/dislike). And this runs our world. Attachment.

If we can begin to realize that everything is impermanent, that even the strongest storms that create the hardest sorrows, pain, and hurt, that they don’t last forever, maybe we can start minimizing this attachment, whether good or bad. Attachment isn’t just to things that you enjoy, but to things that you dislike as well. If we can start peeling back the layers and figuring out where this is actually coming from, maybe we can be one step closer to figuring ourselves out, because at the end of the day, everything that we see around us, externally, is all just a reflection of what is going on inside of us. It’s really not you that is making me upset, but it’s me that is making me upset.

I’m realizing more and more everyday, that this path I’ve chosen, this path of wanting to seek truth as it says in my bio, as I have set intentions for, as I have began to revolve my life around isn’t easy. At all. It’s even harder than vipasanna, and I didn’t even think that it was possible. To truly be happy, to truly live a life with purpose, to truly live a life filled with love and compassion isn’t easy. At all. It takes a lot of work, and boy am I realizing that now more than ever. Even when I’ve figured out the root cause of a problem I’m having, figuring out what to do with that, is really confusing.

We create more and more layers around us every single day. It’s time to start clearing those layers away. Those layers, too, are impermanent; it takes a lot to see that.

One of our teachers in class said something that really struck a chord with me today. “Even a raindrop will find the ocean one day.” We’re not stuck. We’re not static. We are constantly changing. And one day we too will find the ocean.

 

daily encouragement: do something

And a lovely daily encouragement from one wise man that I love to read about, Mr. Ikeda:

“Rather than sitting around idly and rusting, we must act, give of ourselves and contribute something to the world. The French scholar Robert Arnauld (1588-1674) declared, “Have we not all eternity to rest in?” Why do you seek to rest while you are still alive? he asks. These are venerable words indeed. When young people make truly dedicated efforts, almost punishing themselves, their true brilliance will shine forth.”

Daisaku Ikeda

floss your teeth

Oh hello there! I know it’s been about a week again. But, I just want to let you all know that today, officially marks the first day of my crazy summer. I work at a summer leadership conference for juniors in high school. It’s a ton of fun, and I love my job, but there is no exaggeration in me saying that I literally come home every night drained after a 10-11 hour work day. So, in advance, I apologize for what will be a slow summer of blog posts.

But, anyways! On to more important and crazier things, like the title of this post. I hope all of my dentist/to-be-dentist friends like this post dedicated to flossing your teeth! I never really got the importance of flossing my teeth until recently. Maybe that officially makes me an adult? Well, whatever it is, I now understand the importance of flossing. I never realized how true the dental care commercials were when they say, “get what brushing leaves behind…”. And let me tell you, its gross. No matter how far back you smash your toothbrush up against the walls of your mouth, and no matter how foamy your toothpaste is, there is still going to be food left in the crevices between your teeth. What’s the solution? Floss.

I began thinking about taking this idea and turning it back onto my life. “Flossing your life” Sounds kind of ridiculous, but the idea started to take shape. I thought about all of the changes I’ve been trying to implement in my life, as well as my progress on the goals I’ve set. A little before my senior year of college, I had made a decision to essentially turn my life 180 and focus my attention on reaching my goal and searching for Truth. Then, this past year, through my encounters and experiences and overall different adventures life had been taking me, I began to pinpoint areas that I wanted to change and things I wanted to do differently.

Of course, all of this requires “taking the trash out”, if you will, of your life. My ideas of trash ranged from something simple to just eating better quality and healthier food, to reading books and articles that are more aligned with my goals, all the way to meditating to literally take the trash out of my mind and purify my mind. But, when I came up with this concept of flossing your life, I began to realize that I need to take care of all the crevices in my life that are still filled with the residue that is just as bad, if not worse, for me. What residue is stuck in the corners of my life?

I haven’t really sat down and actually introspected and thought of an actual list of things that I know need cleaning up, but off the top of my head, I can think of some really simple things that don’t seem like a lot, but can definitely have a negative impact on my life. One of the items that makes my list, is sheer laziness. There are days/times when I don’t feel like doing anything. Let me just sit in my bed and watch Netflix all day long. I try to be as productive as I can on a day-to-day basis, but there are days when I don’t make it. That is the residue. Although it seems minor, each time I choose not to do anything, is time wasted when I could be doing something really great for myself, such as reading a good book, or spending time with the people I love. It’s the accumulation that causes the cavities; same goes to your own life.

Of course, it’s important to stay positive and give your self a pat on the back for the great changes you made in your life, but don’t forget the little stuff. It begins to add up. What other crevices can you think of that could use a little flossing in your life?

strengthen your mind

“No matter how healthy, intelligent or affluent we may be, if our minds are weak, then our happiness will also be frail and brittle. Our minds of faith, moreover, enable us to bring out the full potential in all things and situations, so it is crucial that we strive to forge our minds of faith.”  Daisaku Ikeda

The point of this blog is to let you in on my life and my thoughts and my experiences as I travel down this path of spirituality and my desire to seek Truth. Despite all of these great experiences and adventures I’ve been having, I forget my purpose and fall back in to the daily routine of life which includes home and work. 

This daily encouragement could not have come at a better time. I’ve been slacking on my meditation–a tool that I believe is one of the best ways to sharpen and strengthen your mind. I can’t say this is true or not, but to me the mind is a path to your soul, and your soul is the seat of your inner truth. Our mind is such a powerful, yet such an underused instrument in our lives. I forget this, and when I forget I begin to slack. Time to get back on a routine that involves meditation. Funny how these reminders come at exactly the time you need it the most. For me? I’m about to start a very stressful and anxiety-ridden couple months. I need my mind to be on point 24/7. Meditation time folks. Gotta get back in touch with myself. 

daily encouragement

“To possess both wisdom and compassion is the heart of our human revolution. If you have wisdom alone and lack compassion, it will be a cold, perverse wisdom. If you have compassion alone and lack wisdom, you cannot give happiness to others. You are even likely to lead them in the wrong direction, and you won’t be able to achieve your own happiness.”
–Daisaku Ikeda

shouldering burdens

I made it back to one of my favorite teacher’s yoga class yesterday (my work schedule is so ridiculous, that this is like the best thing that’s happened to me…getting off on a Saturday morning!). I was already pretty sore from my yoga session Friday, but I wanted to go, because Amy really incorporates the spiritual aspect of yoga into her vinyasa flows and I absolutely love it.

Friday, we did a ton of shoulder/upper arm asanas, and focused more on that. To my somewhat displeasure, we again, did a lot of shoulder/upper arm asanas today as well. It seriously was really difficult to get through. But, somehow or another, I did. And it was awesome.

But, this isn’t the point of this post. We started off class just standing in mountain pose and practicing some intentional breathing. The instructor started talking about intention, and what brought us to class that day. She continued to talk about a book she is reading about how mental symptoms manifest into physical symptoms. She was focusing in on the shoulders and how we carry all of our burdens in our shoulders. You can almost tell when someone is overwhelmed by their burdens, or whose ever burdens he/she is carrying, by how their shoulders are at a resting state–they are almost always rolled forward. This unintentionally brings a slouch to your back.

I never really thought of this before. I began to think about it as she was talking about shoulders rolled forward, and I realized that mine were definitely rolled forward. Go ahead and see for yourself. Are your shoulders rolled forward? If they are, roll them back. See what happens. I immediately rolled them back, which automatically opened my chest up and lifted my chin. Amazing. Something as simple as that brought a little bit more physical confidence in my appearance. Incredible.

The book that she was reading is called You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. In the book, the author has different mantras that you say for different physical symptoms. Amy began to read the mantra for shoulders as we were huffing and puffing practicing our intentional breathing and ujayi breathing. She began to tell us that in the book that when people have rolled shoulders it means they feel like they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. I thought, there are definitely times when I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders. I consistently want to please everyone around me, I willingly bring that pressure upon myself. Does this happen to you guys ever?

Louise Hay’s mantra for the shoulders was kind of long, but I found this one line excerpt from it. “I choose to allow all of my experiences to be joyous and loving.” I think this is a very powerful affirmation to tell yourself on a regular basis. I don’t think we realize that when we don’t take even 2 minutes to focus on our own mental and physical health, how it begins to show physically. I choose to allow all of my experiences to be joyous and loving. There is no one out there in this world, in my life, that is telling me, “Nishita, you must be miserable and stressed and overwhelmed all the time.” No one. I’ve created this reality in my head that tells me I should be in a constant state of frenzy. I choose to allow all of my experiences to be joyous and loving. 

It’s hard to admit to yourself that the way you feel isn’t because of anyone else except yourself. But, I think once we realize this we can begin make our lives a little bit less miserable, and a lot more exciting and joyous.

This week, I’m going to think about my intention in every thing I do, the same way Amy makes me think about my intention every time I walk into her class. What’s your intention going to be this week? I am choosing to allow all of my experiences to be joyous and loving!

ps. This book is definitely on my list of books to read now. Have any of you read it?

Book Review: Discovering Your Hidden Spiritual Resources (part 2)

So, thus begins part 2 of my book review for Eknath Easwaran‘s Discovering Your Hidden Spiritual Resources. In the first post, I talked about what the book is based off of. In this post, I want to explain his idea of original goodness via what he calls spiritual laws. These laws are the eight Beatitudes. Like I mentioned in part 1, there are some beatitudes that I want to discuss in detail, and I’ll get around to that at some point other than now.

Purity: We have put so many filters in our life, that we don’t see things as they really are. We see them through these filters, which is essentially distorting our view of the world and ourselves. We have to clean these panes, so that we are able to our true self, our core of goodness more clearly. These filters of feelings, memories, and desires have begun to dictate what we see, what we don’t see, and how we see it. We are basically creating images for ourselves that are not a true reflection of reality. What can we do to start cleansing ourselves mentally and spiritually so that we may become more pure, and truly have a vision filled with love? Meditation. Meditation is the first step to begin looking inward, and to see things as they really are. This will eventually give us the ability to “transform our personality from self-centered to selfless, from unconcerned to caring, eventually from human to divine.”

Humility: We have become so engrossed in doing things for ourselves. I have to go to school for my degree. This is my plan. This is my education, my job, my life, my family. Everything we talk about belongs to us apparently. Have we forgotten about the other individual? Are we essentially isolating ourselves from the rest of humanity by focusing on our personal needs all the time? Easwaran says yes, we are. “Asking life to make a selfish man happy is like asking a banana tree to give you mangoes.” We need to stop dwelling on our personal needs and benefits so that we can experience what true joy is. Here’s a reality check if I’ve ever heard one, “the world will not devote itself to making you happy.” Dang. How freaking true is this? I need to make my ego zero, because when it’s zero, God can fill that void with true love. How amazing does that sound? To be filled with pure love. How can I make myself zero? By losing myself in helping others, selflessly. That is the key here. Selfless vs. Selfish. “If you live today completely in love–hating no one, hurting no one, serving all–then tomorrow has to be good, whatever comes.”

Simplicity: Easwaran defines simplicity as “singling out what is worth living for, and then shaping our lives around what matters and letting go of everything else”. Do you have a list of things you are living for? If I had to think off the top of my head, my list would entail God, spirituality, family, and close friends that are basically family. Ask me if I’m willing to let go of everything else though. The answers no. Man, I have a lot of work to do still. He talks about how simple living is the art of using minimum means to attain maximum results; live gently. One way to do this is to realize that really nothing on this earth belongs to us personally, so we can look at things in a more simpler way. What is ours? “Simplifying your life then, does not mean cutting back on anything of value. It means learning the delicate artistry of making your every action count, taking notice of the needs of the whole.”

Patience: “Life is full of ups and downs. But you don’t have to go up and down with them. You can teach your mind to be calm and kind whatever comes.” Patience is something I’ve talked about before, and is a virtue that I need a lot of work in. Impatience can create a lot of negative energy in your life. Meditation is a tool that you can use to calm your mind, and truly create an inner peace. Impatience can bring stress into our lives, not that our lives can use any more of it. But, we have to learn to roll with what life gives us, and to remain calm in these situations. Again, something that I’m not always the best at. (No one’s perfect here!). Personally, after doing the 10-day vipassana course, I am trying to approach life in a very neutral manner, so that when I do act, my actions are coming from a truly pure and compassionate place. This is really important with patience, and I definitely agree with Easwaran that meditation is the key to creating a calm and patient mind and soul.

Love: “Love is a full-time occupation, a continuous state of mind.”  What kind of love is Easwaran talking about in this chapter? It’s really normal for us to separate love into different aspects. The love you have for your friend is different than the love you have for your family which is different than the love you have for your significant other. But, if we look at the root of all those relationships…what is the commonality in them? Love; the kind of love that we would be willing to do anything for those people because we truly love them. Easwaran points out that love is being able to still be kind to someone after they’ve blatantly been mean to us. Love is going through the rough times with another individual, and being that support during that period. Love takes endurance. But, I think the most profound thing that he points out, is that we claim to love God. But, how can we love this Being who is the epitome of selfless love, when we can’t even love another individual selflessly? We want to have a selfless relationship with God, but when do we go to him? When we want to pass a test, or make it through something. That’s anything but selfless. We have to first learn to love another individual in the purest definition of love before we can even begin to love God. Woah. Anyone else beginning to think that they have a lot to work on?

Mercy: I think that I can summarize this entire chapter into these words: “As we sow, so shall we reap.” Every action that we take, every thought that we think is accounted for. There is a popular modern saying, that isn’t my favorite, but it goes something like “karma is a b-word”. Well, it’s really easy for us to think this way when it doesn’t effect us. When someone else we don’t like or don’t get along with gets a bad card dealt to them, we’re so quick to say “karma is a b-word.” But, everyone gets what they sow. Why don’t we all just realize that it’s always better  to pick the side of mercy? In the end, we’re all fighting the same battle. So, why not help the other person win? “Mercy teaches that all of us in this world are on the same side.”

Peacemaking: “We must active cultivate peace as a virtue, trying to make it a permanent state of mind.” Why should we try to make peace a permanent state of mind? Because our thoughts become our actions, oh so quickly. Not only does this happen, but our perception is influenced by what is our mind is constantly dwelling on. If we are in a permanent state of negativity, consistently say my life sucks, my day sucks, I hate the people around me, then all of those things are going to come true. It’s all about attitude people. I think we all know the old saying, two wrongs don’t make a right. And it’s so true. If there is wrong done to us, we don’t need to fight it. Accept what happened, and move on. “Our children deserve to grow up in a peaceful world, and it is our responsibility to do everything we can to see that they get the chance.” Instead of spreading hate, why don’t we start spreading a little love? We need to personally take responsibility and be the example that those around us need to see.

Desire: The Upanishads say, “You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your deep, driving desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your dignity.” Take a minute to think about what your desires truly are. Are they worthy to be told to the world? Are the worthy enough to live by? To eventually be your dignity? The problem is, is that we let our desires dictate our lives. We’ve let them take control of our mind and intellect, when really, it should be our mind and intellect that control our senses. We shouldn’t run after every single thing that catches our attention. Training our mind though to become in control is a really tough task. Meditation is the tool to accomplish this. It trains your mind to stay in control, and to become unwavering, so that it won’t falter when we’re put in situations that can make our senses go gaga and want everything.

Holy moly that was a lot I feel like. And I didn’t even cover a lot of the stuff that I wanted to. Like I said, this book was dense material-wise. At the end of the day, I think that it is a great book which talks about real-life examples of how we can implement a daily meditation routine into our lives, so that we can truly live out these eight Beatitudes.

Easwaran is an incredible soul and an enlightened individual. Reading his books and understanding his perspective puts these huge philosophical, sometimes daunting, theories into such simple language, that it’s impossible not to grasp. I can only hope that my 2-post review did him and his writing justice.

Please check out this book! Think about ways you can implement these qualities into your life, after all spiritual laws are a good guide for anyone. I think everyone needs a good guide on this journey, and Easwaran is a fantastic pick.

For more information on Easwaran, his meditation technique and center, programs offered by his organization, or to just sign up for Thoughts of the Days, visit http://www.easwaran.org! This is a great resource for many spiritual needs.

Book Review: Discovering Your Hidden Spiritual Resources (part 1)

I just read a phenomenal book that I wanted to share with you all. I finished reading Discovering Your Hidden Spiritual Resources written by Eknath Easwaran just a day or two ago. I’ve mentioned a few quotes from the book here and there, but I wanted to do a complete review. There are some things from the book that I want to do entirely separate posts for, but that’s a different conversation for another day. This book covers a lot of material, so I’m just going to talk about the highlights. It’s a great book, so I recommend buying it and reading it for yourself!

So, what is this book all about? Throughout the entire book, Easwaran takes the eight Beatitudes and talks about how we can implement those qualities into our own life, and how meditation makes the process easier. He calls each of these qualities a “spiritual law” which will help us to peel off the layers upon layers we’ve created in our lives, so that we can seriously uncover the “uncreated light” within us.

What are these qualities he speaks of?
Purity: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Humility: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Simplicity: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Patience: Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Love: Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mercy: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Peacemaking: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Desire: Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Easwaran starts the book off by talking about original goodness, and uses this idea as the basis for the rest of the book. What is original goodness? Original goodness is this idea that our core, as humans, is good. That we are inherently good, not bad. Because of this, we don’t have to figure out how to make ourselves good, because we are. All we have to do is get rid of the layers we’ve piled on ourselves that is covering that inner, pure layer of goodness. He says, “…before original sin was original innocence. That is our real nature.” He goes on to say that that we all have the capacity to reach God. But, it takes a lot of effort to meet that end. We are all seeds of God. However, we need to put that goal in our life. Having that goal makes us work hard to attain it. We have to realize that God is our home, and that is where we ultimately belong. Home is where the heart is, and the heart is the seat of love. He quotes Mechtild of Magdeburg, “The soul is made of love, just as the body is made of flesh–and must ever strive to return to love. Therefore, it can never find rest nor happiness in other things. It must love itself in love. By its very nature it must seek God, who is love.” I thought that this was just really beautiful.

How do we know when someone has reached this state? When he/she has “an unbroken awareness of the presence of God in all creatures.” They exemplify the qualities of “unfailing compassion, fearlessness, equanimity, and the unshakable knowledge, based on direct, personal experience, that all the treasures and pleasures of this world together are worth nothing if one has not found the uncreated light at the center of the soul.” I don’t know about you guys, but that state, the state in which you can seriously see God in every single soul and every single living thing on this planet, is really hard to get to. I mean, unfailing compassion. I still have mean thoughts going through my head when someone says something bad to me. But to still love that individual and see the God in them, despite that person being mean to you…that is such a Godly state if you ask me. I’d like to think that I know nothing I own and want and “need” has no worth, but honestly at this point in my life, I would have a hard time parting with my nail polish collection. I need some serious progress folks. But, in the end, this task isn’t easy. It’s daunting, scary, unpredictable. But, I don’t think God would have made it easy in the first place. We have to be aggressive on our spiritual path to find the Ultimate Truth, or else we’ll just do everything at slow, unfinished pace, and that’s not development to me.

Meditation: Easwaran talks about how meditation is a great and powerful tool we can use to start that introspection process, and really begin to see our true selves. (Y’all, I’m beginning to see a pattern here in my life. Meditation is the key to everything. Seriously. I’m hearing it everywhere).

Ok, what I’m going to do now, is write a synopsis of each of the Beatitudes in another post. There are a few that I want to go into in-depth detail in subsequent posts, because there was just a lot of good material in them. For now, however, I’ll try and talk about the crux of each spiritual law.

carry on

There’s been a lot of buzz around this whole keep calm and carry on business for the past year or so. Everywhere I go, I see some poster that’s taken the original, and turned it into something personal. “Keep calm and buy shoes”, “Keep calm and watch tv”. Shoot, if you go to Pinterest and search “keep calm” you will have an infinite amount of posters and sayings with the theme of keep calm. I think it’s become a little over done now. I get it, if anything happens, just keep calm and do something you like to do.

Did y’all know that this was actually used in Britain during the beginning of WWII to boost morale of their citizens? Yeah, it was created by the government. I think if we look at the original purpose and original message behind the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster, there is a ton of value behind it; something that is very applicable in our own lives.

a scanned copy of what the original poster looked like

Has there ever been a time in your life where you are just so anxiety-ridden, it becomes the controller of your life? Personally, I am an anxiety-prone individual. I am super Type-A and a huge micro-manager. Mainly when it comes to things not working out like I planned (which rarely happens anyways), the anxiety kicks in. But, I panic. I panic when I don’t have control of my life, my future, whatever.

The past few months have been very much like this. I’m not sure what the next few months are going to hold in my life. Things aren’t working out like I had planned in my head. And it stresses me out. A lot.

When I saw this picture, a “keep calm and carry on” one, I began to think, it is so true. I just need to keep calm and carry on.

Sometimes I have a hard time living in the moments. I worry so much about the next day or the next few months and the future, that I don’t even realize that the entire day is done. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think there is a lot of value in planning ahead and preparing. It makes for things to be less stressful. But, when it comes to parts of the future that you can’t even control, why do I waste so much time behind it? It’s hard to realize this and constantly remember this, but, the only thing you have control over is the moment you are currently in. You can’t do anything about what happened even 4 seconds ago, let alone 4 seconds from now. So, why do we, or at least me, why do I allow myself to let anxiety over something I can’t even control, control my life?

Keep calm and carry on. Carry on with what you can control right now. You can control if you’re going to be nice to a person who has never rubbed you the right way. You can control what you’re going to eat for lunch. You can control how you are going to spend the 10 minutes of break you get during your work day or school day.

Keep calm. Keep calm and have faith that everything is going to work out the way it’s supposed to. There is a bigger plan for all of us that we may not be aware of just yet. Sometimes, we all just have to bite the bullet and take that leap of faith. It may be a big leap or a small leap. We can’t always have the reasons for everything at our fingertips. Sometimes, it takes a while to figure things out. But, we have to have that faith, and keep reminding ourselves that everything is going to work out the way it’s supposed to.

Faith is a topic that I can literally talk for days about. I mean, the last post I wrote was about faith as well. There are many times where I’ve lost my faith in myself, my family, whatever. But, it’s not hard to get that back. I think we’re all meant to be faithful people, to something, anything. So, if you’re ever in need of a faith boost, just open up a spiritual book, visit a place of worship, close your room door, light some candles, and just relax and focus on the moment, do some introspection. There’s always something that will renew that faith. But, most importantly, always have faith in yourself. Keep calm and carry on. We’re all meant for greatness. Keep calm and carry on until you’ve found it.

Have a happy day!