Peace

As we go through life I think we all wonder why we go through certain experiences like losing a loved one, losing a job, losing a home and the loss of companion. Its funny how we always focus on the experiences of loss and never evaluate the positive experiences like getting into the school of your choice, or landing your dream job, finding the home that is perfect for you and your family, traveling with your loved ones or any other experience that was peaceful and joys. Its as if through the pain of loss we are able to achieve something higher out of our lives.

All of life works in cycles. Just as you have your moments of happiness their are also your moments of sadness. I by no means am saying that its black and white, that either you are happy or you are sad, in all actuality the whole cycle is gray. Filled with all kinds of emotions that are related in some way to those of happiness or sadness. Why then are these two emotions the strongest? I feel that is because they are the polar opposites of each other. The world around us is a beacon of duality and it survives on the balance between those to thrive. In a similar fashion our lives are surrounded by duality like happiness and sadness. We need both to survive for each fulfills its role in helping us get to a different level of consciousness then we already are in. Tolle explains in A New Earth: Awakening to your Life's Purpose, "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment" (pg.41). Every experience serves a purpose. Like the old saying everything happens for a reason. We may not know why it is that things are the way they are and it may not even be for us to know but in accepting that every experience we have in life will take us to the place that we need to be brings with it a sense of comfort. It helps break the duality of happiness and sadness and allows you to come to a place of peace.

For me peace and acceptance are interchangeable. You can't have one without the other. If you can accept your life situations and know that just like the sun and moon are in cycle with one another so to are your moments of happiness and sadness then their is a peace that comes to your soul. You realize that none of those moments will last forever, especially not the sadness. So even in your moments of despair you will be able to smile and know that your feelings of loss will not be with you forever. Trust me it is much easier said then done. Their are days I still feel like the pain of loss will never leave me but it is all still part of the process. It is still an experience that will lead me to a higher place of consciousness and therefore I embrace it. I allow my self to cry, to feel hurt, to morn the loss of those dreams that I once had because in doing so I surrender my self to the higher powers and allow my self to become more conscious. Don't deprive your self of any experience that comes your way for in each experience, happy or sad, you allow yourself to become more conscious and more awaken to your true existence. Know that peace is not associated with either and comes from knowing that the cycle is necessary.

With Love & Peace

Flowering

I started reading A New Earth today by Eckhart Tolle. I have found that lately the books that I can relate to the most are ones that have a profound message hidden in them. As with The Power of Now, there is an infinite wealth of enlightenment that can be gained from this book, and yet there is no way to describe it!

The book opens by describing the simple beauty of the flower; the one creation that we all love. From its rich colors to its intoxicating smells the flower is the gateway to enlightenment. The simple bloom that can be seen even amidst destruction shows that beauty can be found anywhere. . .

As Tolle states, ". . .Flowers would become for us an expression in form of that which is most high, most sacred, and ultimately formless within our selves" (pg.2).  The recognition of flowers as beautiful has lead to it becoming a symbol for joy and love. Think about it for a moment,  have you ever gone to an event where there were no flowers present? I can't envision such a thing. Any occasion, big or small, always has flowers and over the years we have associated them with love and joy the two basic emotions that are desirable to all. The flower, despite its momentary time on earth, reminds us of the beauty the resides in everything around us. If you have ever gotten lost in a moment while observing a flower you can't understand what I am speaking of here. The beauty of a flower transcends time and space and takes you to a place of inner peace where you can witness your own flower blooming. It is in this place that you see yourself for the first time, you realize that you are that flower and that you too can offer that sense of love and joy to all those around you!

Despite the fact that flowers have integrated into our lives, very few people have opened up to the true beauty and insight the flower has to offer. I would even go as far as saying that they are closed off from nature as well. Ever since I was a child being outdoors was the best part of the day and as I grew older I realized that it wasn't because I associated being outdoors as a time for fun and games, but it was because being outdoors was a place to observe the natural world to know that you are just one piece of the universe. Even now as I right this I am sitting on my balcony observing the beautiful lush green grass below. I encourage you to spend at least one hour of your day outdoors and feel how it energizes you. Observe a flower and see beyond its physical beauty, let it help you find your inner flower that you can share with the world. I believe that there is a flower blooming inside us all; that we all have the potential of being beacons of love and joy for not only those that we know, but for all creatures on this earth, yet only a few of us choose to show that. Don't allow your self to fall into the latter category, let your flower shine through!

With Love & Joy

Reset Button

I grew up playing video games on the original Nintendo console and I loved the fact that when I was losing or the game wasn't going the way that I wanted it to I could just reset the game and start over. So what if we could implement that same practice in our lives? The moment things began to go astray or became to complicated we could just reset and start over.

Unfortunately I don't know of any technology that allows us to truly reset our lives and start over at the beginning, but I think we naturally reset throughout our lives. The people that we are right now are far away from the people that we thought we would be when we were children and the people that we will be in the future won't be the people that we in-vision in this moment. The reason why is because we constantly reset our lives. Sometimes we do this consciously but most of time it happens unconsciously.

I've been traveling down a path now for the past 7 years that has lead me on a serious of crazy adventures. Some incredibly fulfilling and others extremely devastating. After every experience I learned something that helped me move on to another crazy situation but the chaos never stopped. Towards the end there were moments of fulfillment but mostly just devastation. Then one day I woke up and realized that I was tried of the chaos. While the past 7 years of my life would be something I would never erase, I had out grown it. I had walked down the same road over and over again. I knew what was waiting for me at each intersection and I didn't desire it anymore. Every ounce of my soul yearned to be somewhere else...anywhere else but where I was and that's when it happened...I got the answers that I had been waiting for; the conformation that I no longer had to travel this road anymore, the realization that I had seen everything that I could possibly see and now it was time to explore a new one. Despite everything, a part of me is saddened to leave the path that has been my home for so long, but I believe fully that one day I will turn onto this road again and be amazed at the transformation that has taken place. Until then I look forward to the new road I will be traveling on along with the new adventures that will sweep me away.

Everyone will reset the path they walk more then once in life and it will be scary, VERY SCARY, but remember that you wouldn't reset if it wasn't absolutely necessary for you to do so. The reason why one must go down a new path is because the path they were on wasn't where they needed to be. So when that day comes and you reset take the lessons that you've learned and set out on a new adventure with faith in your heart and peace in your soul. Know that you are right where you were meant to be and everything else will flow naturally.

 Today marks my reset day. The ending of one beautiful, crazy journey and the start of another.

 With Faith, Love & Peace!

Music Therapy

I usually don't write about music because my knowledge on the subject is very lacking. Not to mention that I have grown up listening to several different types of music that I've never really had one genre that was my favorite. I have recently come to realize that at different points in my life I've used different genres of music to help me cope with the struggles of life.  Each genre presents its own unique qualities that make each particular situation a little more calm. In the unsteady path of life music has been my walking cane that has given me balance when I needed it the most.

I spent a good bit of last night driving around DC listening to Kanye. Something about the situation just clicked. Seeing DC at night light (although I've seen it many times) and blaring My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy just made me so calm. I drove all over DC until the album was done and on the way home I just felt at peace. I've never really done that before and it was shocking to me to realize how peaceful just stepping away from a situation can be. When I left my apartment I was angry and all I wanted to do was yell on the top of my lungs but instead I just blared some music and drove around the city and by the time I got home I was peaceful. I was able to have a conversation and not get worked up. It was as if all the rage just left me. I've never felt that clear in my life. Felt like there was nothing there...just peace resonating and bouncing around the walls...an unbreakable peace!

I'm sure there are better ways of finding that peace or sense of clarity then blaring Kanye and driving through DC but until I find a better way I think that is going to be on the top of my list. Sometimes we all just need a little music to just step back and look at things differently. The next time your feeling overwhelmed, struggling, or in a conflict take a step back. Leave the situation and just blare some music...I grantee that you will see things a whole lot differently.

Psychic Immune System

Our physical immune system protects us from pathogens while our psychic, or spiritual, immune system protects us from negativity. The difference between the two is that our physical immune system can work on its own. We don't need to tell our cells that we have been infected; most of the time they know before we are even aware that there is a foreign element present. However, our spiritual immune system requires a great deal of presence. It's only when we dive into ourselves and become present are we able to strengthen our psychic immune system and let it not be affected by negativity.

Eckhart Tolle describes this in The Power of Now, "[The] psychic immune system...protects you from the negative mental-emotional force field of others, which are highly contagious. Inhabiting the body protects you not by putting up a shield, but by raising the frequency vibration of your total energy field, so that anything that vibrates at a lower frequency, such as fear, anger, depression, and so on, now exists in what is virtually a different order of reality." (pg.124)

I'm sure that many of you can relate to this. How many times have you had a conversation with someone and all of a sudden just ended up in a bad mood even though when you started the conversation you were pleasant? Or have you noticed that when you were in a bad mood it affected the mood of someone close to you? The energies that we emit from our within affect not only ourselves but also the people around us, especially the people that are close to us. In this day and age it so easy to get bogged down by the constant negativity that lingers around us as a collective people. With everything going on in the world from violence to politics to finance and everything in between the levels of anger and depression have risen to an unbelievable high. The more people that feel this way the more it affects us all! Taking a step back and looking within is such a small step that can open a new world of possibilities. When we are centered within yourself then it becomes easy to not let the negativity of the world affect us. You will begin to see the brighter side of things. Conversations with people that once made you angry will not affect you anymore. I'm not saying that there won't be things that upset you, but you will express them better so as to not feed the negativity anymore. If we all did this the collective negativity wouldn't exist and therefore no one could affect us but ourselves. We would be in full control because there would be no negativity to draw us away from our consciousness.

In you interactions with people, especially those that you know trigger a negative response, be very present. Don't let their negativity affect you. By dismissing the negativity you not only help your self but, also help them! Be the best that you can be and see how easy it is not let the collective negativity bring you down!

With Joy & Peace

The Way of the Cross

In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle talks about the religious view of suffering as a means of finding God;

"The way of the cross is a complete reversal. It means that the worst things in your life, your cross, turns into the best thing that ever happened to you, by forcing you into surrender, into 'death,' forcing you to become as nothing, to become as God-because God, too, is no-thing." (Tolle pg.225)

This is a very powerful message! The idea that your suffering your pain can become your salvation. That in your moment of despair you will find God and be at peace. But do you have to suffer at all? To have to wait till your moment of despair to find God and be at peace?....NO!

For most us that are unaware or rather I say unconscious of the Now, the way of the cross will be the only chance for salvation. In their final moments they will come to find peace as their physical form dies. All the years of anger, resentment and pain that they carried would not exist because in their despair their pain would have forced them into the Now where they would find peace and in turn God. This however, does not have to be the case for all of humanity. We do not have to wait for our moments of despair to be at peace.

By surrendering ourselves into the present, the Now, we strengthen our bond with ourselves and we find peace and in turn God. Surrendering doesn't mean to throw your hands up in the air and just let things happen to you. It means allowing what is present in your life situation to be. To not label it as good or bad, but to embrace it as part of your life situation at this moment. If you feel sorrow then be present to that feeling. Understand where it comes from and why it is there. It is in being aware in the Now that we let go of our pain and find peace. Our life situations are constantly changing and knowing this allows us to not let every emotion, every thought, every "bad" situation prevent us from peace!

Embrace the moment Live in it! For only then will you be able to see how small it is in comparison to you. Let your cross be every moment of your life situation and let peace resonate from your core!

With Love & Peace

Fearless

Dictionary.com defines fear as a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain etc. either real or imagined. Therefore, by definition being fearless means to be without fear, or devoid of the feelings of distress.

The majority of fear that we feel is not associate to some form of pending danger, but rather an illusion of danger. I'll give you and example. I love my parents and my family very much and they mean a lot to me, but the majority of the decisions that I have made in my life have been in fear of them. Fear that I would hurt them, fear that they would not want to be a part of my life anymore, fear that I would be alone in this world....all of which are simple illusions that my mind created. While it is possibly true that my parents/family wouldn't support my every decision it does not mean that they should have control over them either! If they decided that they didn't want to be a part of my life because of a decision that I made, does that mean that I should stop living my life?

The answer is very obvious, NO! But for anyone that had grown up in an Indian household they know that the answer is not that simple. It's taken me almost 25 years to realize how simple it all really is...My life, is and always will be, MY LIFE. Living in fear of hurting those that I love and care about so much has only prevented me from living. Prevented me from being at peace with my self and prevented me from being happy. Ultimately my fear has kept me from living all these year and now, as I get close to my 25th birthday I realize how foolish it has been to hang on to this fear.

So, to all of you out there I say shed your fears. All of them! Do things that you have always been afraid of. Try foods that you haven't before. Go skydiving, or do anything else that you have always wanted to do but just been too afraid to. The outcome of these things may not be exactly what you thought but whatever comes of them it will be liberating to know that there is no more fear and subsequently no feelings of distress or pain. Take your life back from fear and see how much better it can be.

Living Fearless!

Simplicity

Have you ever stopped for a moment and thought about all the things that you possess and all the things that you spend your money on and wonder what the point of it all is?

Lately I've been doing a lot of this. I find that we, as humans, spend so much time and money investing in things that promise to bring us joy. All we have to do is turn on the TV or listen to the radio and we are immediately bombarded with advertisements for the newest phone, car, internet service, video game, clothes etc. The advertisements themselves might not necessary persuade us into buying these things that we don't necessarily need, but that combined with seeing other people walking around with these fancy objects makes me feel like we are missing out on something. For example, when the smartphones began to come out only a very few people had them. It was mostly high-end professional that got them as company phones and then we were fascinated with how they function and the glitz and glamor behind them. Now there are a small majority of people that don't own a smartphone and if you are part of that small majority you are immediately judged as inferior or even laughed at for possessing "old" technology.

My question to you then is, what do these things do for us? How does having the latest shoes, the newest model of a cell phone, the newest/biggest TV improve our lives? What enlightenment do these object posses?

I look around the house at the things that I own and I can't say that any of them add value to my life. Sure I am thankful for them and blessed that I have them, but could I live with out them? Yes! That ultimately is the truth of life, and the idea of living simply. The things that I own that are of the most value to me are things that were given to me as gifts from those that I love and most of those are thoughtful, hand-made or even enlightening gifts that bring a sense of joy and peace in my life.

To live simply is not to devoid your self of material things, but it is to not be wasteful. Don't buy the $150 shoe when you can buy a similar pair for $35. Don't spend time, money and energy investing into things that don't bring with them inner peace and happiness. Ultimately the objects will fade away but your inner peace will always be there even if there are no objects around! So take the challenge, for the next month be watchful of the things that you do and see if you can live simply.

With peace & happiness

Being Present

I've started to read a new book that has become an integral part of my life. It's become an addiction that I am very proud of. The book is entitled The Power or Now: A guide to spiritual enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle.

Unfortunately my new addiction means many blog posts on my spiritual journey. I don't expect you to follow my journey, I just wish to inspire someone to take the journey for them selves!

"I'll be happy when..." I am certain that all of us have made this statement at some point in our lives. Reflecting on the future as a place where "happiness" will be found. I'll give you a personal example. When I moved up here it was partly to go to school, but it was predominately to achieve some greater happiness that I felt like I was missing in Ga. I thought that being away, rather running away, from my past to a new place would bring me happiness. I had built up my future to be so much. I made it seem like I would be on top of the world here in Md and that I would find some magical key that would unlock my eternal happiness. Unfortunately that was not the truth.

I'm not saying I am unhappy in my present state, I am however saying that my skewed perception of life in Md is quite different then the reality of life here. I realized after moving up here that I'm not really a northern girl. I enjoy the south. I enjoy the warm weather and mostly I enjoy being close to my family and friends and seeing them for every holiday big or small. I never realized how lonely it gets not having family/friends to celebrate your birthday with or to just randomly go out to dinner with. Again, I'm not saying that I don't have friends here or that I feel alone, just saying that there is a difference in what I viewed as my future and what actually is my present.

Which brings me to my main point. We spend so much time focusing on our past or in-visioning a better future that we stop living in the present, The Now. We are so wrapped up in our past that we fool ourselves into thinking that we will have a better future and in this way we forget the present completely. As Tolle ask in his book, "In this very moment what problems do you have?". The difficulties of our lives are those that we create for our selves by constantly searching in the past and wanting a better future. By being present and experiencing the Now we eliminate the pain and find true eternal happiness and peace within our selves:

"Past and future obviously have no reality of their own. Just as the moon has no light of its own, but can only reflect the light of the sun, so are past and future only pale reflections of the light, power and reality of the eternal present. Their reality is 'borrowed' from the Now." (Tolle p.50)

Take a moment to stop what your doing and look around. Observe everything around you. Think of all the wonderful things that you have in your life at this very moment and I assure you a smile will come across your face. God has blessed us all with more then we could have ever imagined, it's just that sometimes we get so caught up in some idealized future that we forget that presently we already have everything that we need.

With love and peace.