Electrifying Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is the highest level of life energy we can experience as human beings here on earth. Some may say ecstasy is even higher still, but others might counter that ecstasy is not readily available to every mortal on this planet, while enthusiasm can be felt by anyone who discovers his passion, his reason of being, his life’s mission. Enthusiasm will be felt by anyone who lives, or aspires to live, according to his divine plan.

Enthusiasm means you are ‘possessed’ by a divine spirit, taking you higher and higher, and continually drawing you closer to the realisation of yourself as the divine creature that you are. The realisation of yourself entails the realisation of your dreams. First you need to identify your passion and your mission, and then you need to get serious about implementing them in your life. Soon you will be carried aloft by a divine wind, plenty of energy will flow through your being, and you will feel blessed with extraordinary creativity and inspiration, lifting you up to heavenly vibrations.

How do you embark on this journey of enthusiasm, cruising the earthly waters? How can you maintain your balance and prevent falling into the cold waters of depression, emptiness and lack of energy? Follow the steps set out below and join the planetary crew of enthusiasts!

1) Find your passion, your goal in life, the reason why you are alive. This passion should not be linked to one particular person; otherwise you will fall into the water whenever this other person goes away. Your passion is something personal, something inside yourself. Your passion does not depend on anything outside yourself (your lover, your children or your job) to guarantee your happiness! Discover your own unique talents, develop them and offer them to the world. What is it that you are passionate about? What are the activities that boost your energy? What makes you lose track of time? What is it that absorbs your mind so much that you forget about dinner? This is what excites you, and that feeling of excitement is your soul raising its hand, shouting “This way, please!” Listen to your soul: follow your excitement.

2) Free yourself of energy vampires, so you can use all of your precious energy to expand and progress. As long as you let yourself be terrorised by your partner, boss, parents, colleagues or children, you won’t get very far with your energy. You are merely trying to survive, and survival has nothing to do with enthusiasm! Break with people who are dragging you down and start living it up!

3) Learn to say ‘no’ to time-consuming, futile activities like arguing with your partner or children, taking care of people who don’t want to change their ways anyway, going shopping and preparing warm meals for people who don’t appreciate your efforts, answering phone calls for people who talk down to you, and so on… Pay attention to what activities you spend your time and energy on, separate the wheat from the chaff and break radically with everything that eats up your precious time without offering something in return!

4) Stop trying to save the whole world but rather start by saving yourself. Is this being egotistic? No, this is called self-love. Stop trying to solve somebody else’s problems, but rather concentrate on your own goal and keep moving forward! It isn’t until you are receiving a lot of energy from your own exciting activities, that you will have a lot to offer to others. Your mere example of living your passion is much more effective towards producing change than endlessly proposing solutions to people who got so stuck in their problems that they don’t want to resolve them anyway… You are not responsible for them! But you are responsible for yourself!

5) Stay focused on your goal, on your well-being, on your happiness. Fulfilling your dream is your priority and your guideline for every decision you make. Don’t waste time on unimportant details. You don’t have to know everything before you can get started, and you don’t have to resolve everything before you can move on. You don’t have to take your children to the gym everyday yourself; teach them how to take the bus, or set up a schedule to work in shifts with other parents.

6) Find your balance: eat good food, maintain positive energy vibrations, listen to music you enjoy, spend time in nature. Take care of yourself. Nourish yourself with high quality food on all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual! Every object, every thought, every environment, every person has a certain energy level. You can easily sense this. Learn how to feel the energy moving in your body. Learn how to feel this energy and stay away from people, places or activities that drain your energy. Instead, look for those things that boost your energy up and integrate them into your daily life. Be sensitive for and pay attention to what your body is telling you, and then act accordingly.

7) Be positive – Don’t listen to naysayers, naggers, or depressed people. Look on the bright side of life! Hang out with positive people. Read inspiring books. Go for a daily stroll in the park or a walk through the forest. Breathe, fill your body and mind with pure oxygen. Listen to something that motivates you instead of exposing yourself to the endless stream of very-low-energy newscasts telling you how many people got killed today. Put a screen saver on your computer displaying motivational quotes to remind you that it is YOU who is creating your own life from your own mindset! Write motivational texts on flashcards and stick them on your dashboard, computer, doors, fridge, bed, table, everywhere!

8) Love, love, love, and then love some more! Love your children, your cat, your dog, your mother and father, your mother-in-law (if possible, just kidding), your garden, your nose, your belly, your street, your neighbours, your house, your town, everything! Love is the highest energy vibration we can feel. Don’t wait around for love to come into your life! Make love happen yourself! Be the love that you are looking for. Love and you will be loved!

9) Be grateful, stop complaining about what you don’t have. Stop focusing on what is lacking in your life. Instead focus on what you do have. Be grateful and say thank you to those around you. Say thank you to the Universe. Look at what you already have right now: what do you already possess, who already loves you, what skills do you have already? Express gratitude for these and more of it will come to you. Focusing on something makes it bigger, because you are feeding it with energy. So focus on what you want and don’t focus on what you don’t want. The best way to receive more of what you want, is to be sincerely grateful for what you have already.

10) Give, be a giver, not a taker – Give freely and generously of your love, your talents, your energy, your knowledge, your charisma, your time to those with whom you have a good energy connection. Using your talents to make this world a better place is the most satisfying activity there is. By offering your talents to others, you are aligning yourself with your divine life plan and you will be filled with enthusiasm! You will notice that people are happier, more on track, more confident, stronger and healthier after receiving the gift of your talents and support, and this will make you feel so happy and light that you will feel afloat! And this is because your energy vibrations are so high that you are touching divinity! You are floating like an angel! However, be careful when you are giving your energy to “energy vampires.” You don’t have to let yourself bleed for the sake of people who drain you without giving anything in return. Always check to see if the energy is being shared, if it is flowing in both directions. If not, then stop.

Stay on your life path, doing what you were meant to do: realising your dreams by offering your unique talents to those other angels who cross your path… Your reward: electrifying enthusiasm!

Loneliness, Isolation & Fear

Loneliness involves a deep sense of isolation and disconnection from others, and it occurs when persons feel that they have no one with whom to share the joys and hardships of life. Some have stated that their loneliness feels less like sadness and more like an imprisonment that leaves them despondent toward life.

Loneliness is hard to heal. It requires more than just casual social contact – we need to form genuine connections with others on a personal one-to-one basis. It requires an investment in other people and patience until real, sincere relationship develops. Loneliness teaches us the value of a friend, whom we do not take for granted. But first we need to make friends with ourselves, and then we can confidently look outwards and see the best in others.

Remember that almost everyone feels lonely at some time. It is a sign that important needs are not being met. Changing the situation may involve finding and developing a circle of friends, but it may also mean learning to enjoy your times alone; to use them more constructively and pleasurably. The tools and resources recommended here will help you overcome loneliness and isolation.

Loneliness is potentially a more dangerous emotional state which in the worst cases can lead to depression and suicide. Emotional loneliness does not have to be associated with physical loneliness. You can be physically alone but still remain happy. Instead, the emotion of loneliness is often linked with personal insecurities which make you think that you are isolated from others. For example, maybe you feel like a social outcast because you do not have a partner. This is not true because lots of single people are perfectly happy and are certainly not social outcasts. It is just an emotional state.

If you are constantly affected by feelings of rejection and/or have real trouble taking chances in your life, the signs of emotional loneliness and the fear of the unknown are present.

Once you have identified the problem you can begin to take action. Below I have outlined 3 ideas to help you overcome these emotional states:

1) TAKE UP AN ACTIVITY THAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO:- Maybe you have always wanted to join the local soccer team but you made excuses not to? Well now is the time to dive in and do that special activity. Not only will this involve taking a chance and help you defeat your fear of the unknown, but it will also place you in a social situation allowing you to bond with others and rise above feelings of isolation.

2) GO TRAVELLING: – If we are being honest, most of us have ambitions to see the world and go travelling. However, the fear of the unknown keeps us trapped in a pretty routine lifestyle so that this is never possible. Now I know for some people going travelling is simply not possible but if you sit down and think “is it really not possible or am I just making excuses?” you may be surprised at the answer. Going travelling represents a huge leap into the unknown. Therefore, it is a great way to overcome your fear of the unknown. Plus, you will meet all kinds of people on your travels and start to feel accepted.

3) FEEL GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF: – This one is probably the most important. If you cannot love yourself is it fair to ask others to love you? If you do not accept yourself as a person then it is no wonder you feel isolated. No matter what your physical condition or your financial circumstances, you need to start thinking about yourself positively. Once you start to think about yourself positively you will develop a new-found sense of confidence. This confidence will help you destroy the feelings of loneliness and allow you to take more risks, helping you overcome your fear of the unknown.

Overcoming Grief – starting over after loss

Rebuilding occurs after the death, divorce or separation of a loved one.

First comes the shock of the loss and then denial that is has happened, particularly if there was no warning. We have hopes and dreams of the future that include our loved one and suddenly he or she is not there. How will we cope? How can we go on?

But go on we must and we will. Often times our first step is to attempt to regain what we have lost. This is impossible if our loved one has died but that doesn’t stop us from trying.

A lot of what we go through in our grieving process is our best attempt to keep that person alive and well in our perception. So, we do things like go over the memories, look through picture albums, talk about our loved one to everyone who will listen, think about him or her every minute and even speak to him or her out loud.

If a loved one has not died, but has chosen to walk out of one’s life, it can be more challenging. In this instance, you not only have to get over the shock of the loss but also cope with the feelings of rejection.

In our best attempt to get our loved one back, we may engage in all the behaviours someone who has lost their partner to death would. But in addition, we may beg them to take us back, follow our loved one around, try to get our friends to intervene on our behalf, and a host of other maladaptive behaviours.

Everyone grieves at his or her own pace. I am in no way suggesting that this process can or should be rushed. What I am saying is that when a person is ready, he or she can turn the grief into  new hope for the future.

However, if you find yourself in the process of starting over, adopting this particular attitude can be fairly helpful. You begin by brainstorming all the possible benefits of no longer being in relationship with the person who’s gone. This may seem uncomfortable at first, almost a betrayal of the love you shared, but it is the most healing thing you can do at this point.

You may feel that moving on will, in some way; send the message that you didn’t really love enough. In an attempt to show the world how much you loved your partner, you use the depth of your grieving as the message. And if you are someone who wants to continue grieving, then nothing I have to say will get in your way. You don’t even have to continue reading.

This article is really for those people who are tired of being depressed, who are ready to start again and who want to actually believe that things can get better.

In 2005, my husband died of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma when he was 47 years old, leaving behind his two daughters aged 7 and 12 and son aged 17. Initially, there was no positive benefit I could see from that event at all. However when I was ready to look for the positives, they did appear.

One of the first positives I saw is that I actually had the opportunity to say goodbye. Many people do not have that opportunity when loved ones pass.

You too, can find the benefit in the loss of your last relationship. It merely involves putting on the proper lenses that will allow you to see it. Just like in science, there can be no positive without the negative and no negative without the positive. You can’t have protons without neutrons and you can’t have a devastating event in your life without it also bringing some positive benefits. Healing and moving on requires these lenses.

While you continue to mourn the loss of your relationship, you’re only staying stuck in the past. Instead of mourning the loss of the relationship, focus on how fortunate you were to have that relationship in your life for as long as you did.

There are no guarantees in this life. When a loved one enters our life, there is no surety for how long he or she will stay. They’re not possessions to be owned, but rather our gift to be cherished for as long as we have it.

One of the first steps to take in healing our grief is to reach out to others in our life who loves us. When someone we love leaves us, it creates a huge void in our life. Some try to fill this void with drugs or alcohol, but that only results in a temporary reprieve from the pain.

If love is what we lost, then the only thing that will help us to feel better is more love. During this time you may confuse sex with love and go looking for meaningless encounters. However, this again will only postpone the inevitability of the pain of the loss of love.

We must replace love with love. Reach out to friends, family and co-workers. It’s not the same, it’s not what you are really craving, but it will help heal the pain.

After that temporary reprieve with those who love us, you must start rebuilding your life and your strength. You can go on. You can laugh again. And yes, you can love again. Love has many forms.

But none of this will truly do the trick unless you learn to love yourself again. How does one accomplish this task? You must take inventory. Make a list of all that you have to offer the world. What are your strengths? What are your interests? What are your talents and abilities? What do you love?

If you’re having difficulty completing your list, ask someone you trust for help. An objective viewpoint can often point out positives of which we are unaware.

And if, after taking this step, you are still unsure of your special talents and skills, then make a list of the person that you want to be. What is it that you would like to be able to offer the world? Describe a person that you admire whom you would strive to become. As long as there’s breath in your body, it is never too late to learn to expand and grow to become the person that you truly want to be.

If you feel as if your life is over, you are truly wasting the gift of life that you have been given. There is only one you. You have something unique inside you to offer the rest of us. Please don’t keep it hidden, lost in your grief

Do not climb in the grave with your loved one. It is not your time. Do not wither and die behind the door your loved one closed on his or her way out of your life. Find someone less fortunate than you, and do something for them without expecting anything in return. You’ll be surprised what that does to elevate your mood.

What Do You Want In Life?

Most people don’t discover what they want in life until it’s time to die – and that’s a shame!

Most people spend the best years of their lives watching television or doing things they dislike. An author described humanity by saying; “Most people die at twenty and are buried at eighty when their bodies just caught up” Are you one of the living zombies?

Which begs you to ask yourself – What do you really want in life?

Some people struggle in answering such a tough-minded question. When asked what they want or what their goals in life are, many are unsure. They dillydally in their decision, hardly giving any thought about what they want in life. People without definite goals are letting time pass them by. Are you one of these people?

If you are undecided about what you want out of life, do not worry. There are many ways of discovering your purpose in life.

To discover what you want in life, try looking deep into your heart. Oftentimes, people are ruled by logic. People live by what they think they should be or by what others like them to be. The discovery process is the perfect time to listen to your heart. What your heart desires comes from the whispers of your authentic self. Your authentic self is the real you.

Listen to your heart to be able to listen to your authentic self. What your heart says usually feels right. What your heart desires is what you usually love to do and this represents your passion. Anything done with passion is like play where the task is accomplished without hesitation. You pour out your very best and feel no pressure or resistance.

You will totally enjoy doing things that are your passion. Setbacks, difficulties, and obstacles will make it more challenging, but should not deter you from pursuing your goals. Naturally, there may be barriers that may prevent you from reaching your goal, but your heart’s desire will find ways to overcome these barriers so that you may ultimately get what you want in life. Remember this: the universe supports people who are pursuing their passion and those who are pursuing their destiny.

However, this does not mean that you don’t use your head. People are born with both the mind and heart. Your duty is to live your best life and be in harmony with your mind and heart. The poet Rumi wisely said, “Live completely in the head and you cannot feel the breath and rhythm of life. Live completely in the heart and you may find yourself acting like a love-struck fool with poor judgment and discipline. It’s all a fine balance – the head and heart must forge a lifetime partnership if one wants to live a beautiful life.”

Listen to your instinct. Part of human nature is the mysterious and spontaneous reaction on things. Often times, these are called instincts. Your authentic self communicates with you and guides you via instincts. Instincts are those gentle nudges that urge you to act and follow a certain path. Your role then is to listen attentively.

Often times, we listen to what others say and allow them to run our lives. Parents often do this to their children. “We come from a family of doctors, so my son must also be a doctor.” How often do we hear this from parents who have good intentions for their children? Parents unconsciously block the true expression of their child’s real self and calling. Friends and critics will discourage you and point out the impossibility of your dream. Before heeding their advice, evaluate the accomplishments of the critics. Did they achieve their dreams? Do they dream big at all?

Remember, it is your destiny that is in line, not theirs. It doesn’t mean, though, that you will not listen to what other people say. Hear them out just the same. But the final decision should be yours.

There is only one thing to remember: Every person, to live truly and greatly, must define how he wants to live and what his brightest life will look like. Listen to your instincts and follow your heart’s desire. You will never go wrong.

Mother Divine

May is a fitting month to honour our mothers since it is associated with Buddha, the epitome of compassion, service, and selflessness, and therefore a Mother figure to humanity.

Buddha lived for others and reached perfection by losing himself in the service and love of humanity. The Mother also lives for others and gains the priceless treasure of sacrifice of self through her motherhood.

We are grateful for what she does in society but the essence of the matter is the gain that comes to her—spiritual gain, that is—if she brings the children up in the right spirit and takes advantage of the rare opportunity shown her.

It is true that few women grasp the opportunity, just as few of us grasp the many other opportunities for spiritual development that are constantly being offered to us.

The mother brings life into the world, rears it, protects it—and this life is a soul that is being reared, a soul that has come for the purpose of divine knowledge. She is the indispensable handmaiden of the Lord in this delicate process in which she nurtures the life to reach the age of reason so it can fend for itself.

This pivotal theme in the whole creation is dependent on the mother not only being a body enabling the birth to take place, but the rearing of the child, educating it, giving it health and so forth—a vital and tremendous role and sacred function in its ultimate implications.

Her problem, however, is great—attachment, possessiveness, forgetting her opportunities in the pressure of duties! In this forgetting of her spiritual role, Nature in the form of natural impulses, cravings, demands, etc., takes over and blinds her still more to the rare situation she is in. But at the same time we must remember that it is her very power of sympathy that lies behind her major flaw, which is her attachment.

So the mother is the most paradoxical of all figures. She has the most sacred function in life—she is praised for her love and selflessness and in our imaginations she becomes almost a religious figure, but on closer analysis we find she deserves more of our pity and prayers than anyone else because hers is the most difficult task of all.

With this knowledge, let the mother raise the children for her soul’s sake. Let her see her tasks as divinely ordained. Let her accept the mandate given her as not a duty so much as an opportunity to learn from this priceless experience, unrivalled in human affairs, so that one day she may love all other children too, in the same way, and attain the state of Universal Motherhood, Divine Motherhood and through Mother Love gain Divine Love.

RAIN IN OUR LIVES…

Whenever it rains, I’m reminded of what my grandmother always said.  “You won’t get wet – just run in between the raindrops, and you’ll be just fine.”  I also think of that saying when life rains down hard on me and I wonder how to dodge the drops, then, too.  Gran’s gentle and humorous confidence that life always worked out for the best instilled in me the same optimism and joyful outlook on life. 

When we realise that the inevitable rain showers come and go in our lives no matter how much we try to avoid the dampness of the moment, we find comfort and a sense of content understanding when we look behind the clouds of circumstance and know the sunshine of possibility never left our world.

Life lessons, like the rain in our lives, offer us both pleasant and unpleasant experiences.  We recognise that life’s challenges, much like precipitation, bring opportunities for growth, but only when the soil of our consciousness absorbs the lesson. 

If we put up umbrellas of protection from the majesty of life falling down on us, we negate the possibility of receiving new information and therefore, deny progression toward our greater good.  Yet, if we look up to the sky and willingly allow the inevitable rain to reach us, we may indeed get wet; even drenched in the torrent of blessings disguised as a dark cloud teaching us valuable lessons. 

 Only when we walk in the rain, with its glorious thunder and lighting and life-sustaining water, do we embrace the possibility of moving through it and accepting the blessings it brings. 

At times in our lives, we experience drought or downpour.  We complacently go from day-to-day, enjoying our bliss.  All the while, somewhere, the rain builds, but it avoids hitting us directly.  We see the accumulation of problems and feel the residual effects of the gathering storm, but we don’t experience the outburst directly.  And then, when the skies open up and problems pour down on us, we use different methods, like prayer or coping mechanisms, to assist us in redirecting the conflict away from us, for a better use.  Like weather, does God give us an “all or nothing” presentation of life’s challenges?  Sometimes, it seems that way. 

One little lesson at a time, we feel soaked in life’s education, yet we must remember what’s in between the drops themselves.  My grandmother’s gentle advice to run in between the drops meant that while we experience the downpour of life, the way to cross the street to a sunny side of positive outcome, is to take advantage of those brief moments and spaces in time – between the drops – and take a breath of air to assess what’s happening, then move on to the next challenge. 

As we embrace the gentle rain and the small sprinklings of life happening from time to time, we prepare ourselves by learning slowly and completely the lessons the heavens give us at the perfect time and place, and in the perfect order.  Rain, like life’s ordeals, gives us nourishment, and is necessary for growth.  Without the existence of the dark clouds and humidity, the sunshine in our lives may be taken for granted.

Difficulties really do evaporate with time.  Your true power is found between the trickles of misfortune, in the awareness of your ability to move from one challenge to the next.