Peace is your own creation

                           

Negative feelings may sometimes seem the only possible answer to certain situations or circumstances. But remember that, the moment you BELIEVE you can overcome them, you make a leap towards a future of peace that YOU can create, with your own hands (= thoughts). No one can do it for you. No one can even just help you. Peace and serenity can only be obtained as YOUR own, personal creation.

Snail wisdom

Picture a snail moving along its trail. It slides away, slowly, according to its nature, without worrying about other, faster creatures like lizards, worms or bugs. The snail “knows” it is a snail and behaves as such. It trusts its own nature and acts accordingly. What about you? When you have a goal, do you always move towards it without allowing doubts to creep in? Do you believe in your capability to cut the arrival line? TRUST and AWARENESS are cardinal points in the pursuit of success. You must trust who you are, believe in your skills and abilities (your hidden treasures!) and feel deep within you that "what you already have and are" is good enough for you to proceed successfully on your chosen path. If the snail ever worried about the speed of others and didn’t trust its own, it wouldn’t arrive at destination. If you believe that you are not “good (i.e. smart, young, rich, thin, beautiful, handsome, educated etc…) enough” you will probably fail, even if you try hard. When the conditioning is too strong, it cannot be overcome by  a simple wish. Real COMMITMENT is necessary.

A few words about “prayer”

                         

Why do people pray? When you pray – if you do –  what do you expect? Basically, you pray because you have the intimate, deep need to feel listened to, cared for, to have your requests met. As long as prayer is done because of a practical need ONLY, it cannot be very fruitful. Prayer should go beyond that, it should embody a “need”, yes, but a need to be closer to the Source of Who You Really Are, a need to recognize that such closeness already exists and that you have the power to make it stronger and more meaningful. Only then will you see “results” in your life. The fact that your circumstances might change (even according to your own desires) can only be the result of understanding your true nature and realizing that you actually don’t “need” anything beside such awareness. You have the power to  create and re-create your own life. You just have to re-program your mind in order to believe it.

Look, listen, experience!

You are so busy in pursuing your goals that sometimes you lose contact with what really is. While focusing on your point of arrival you might miss enjoying the journey. You forget to live moment by moment because you are prone to look back towards the past or stare ahead towards  the future. Do you ever stop to think that neither the past  nor the future “actually” exist? The past is a memory of something long gone and done with, the future is a speculation about something that might occur. What about NOW? Do you pay attention to what is happening this very moment? Are you aware of your feelings, emotions, motivations in this very instant? Try “silence” for a little while. Silence means being “here” now, enjoying the sound of laughter, a shady tree, the noise of the ocean, without thinking of anything else… Just being. And in just “being”, you are living your life to the fullest. In so doing, you acquire the awareness that all is within yourself. The ouside world is merely a mirror of your spirit - the only creator or reality.

War and Peace

Forgiving others (and yourself) for mistakes that sometimes are “real”, most times just imaginary, is an indispensable step towards peace of mind. If you allow and keep nursing blame and resentment in your heart, your spirit will always be “at war”. You will constantly live with an inner storm that creates imbalance in every atom of your SELF.

Getting Out of The Cage (Part 3 - End)

You often try to find your way out in many different ways. You endeavor to unlock the door and don't see that it is already open. If you can convince yourself that all you need to do is to just turn the doorknob, you will have the proof that the door had never been locked. It is enough for you to confidently say either "yes" or "no", "I want", "I can", and your potential to be a free, your creative spirit will soar above the cage of conventions and conditionings. It will pass through them  as if they were fog dissolving in the sun of knowledge, of awareness and of truth. Make the choice: decide to understand that  THE  DOOR  IS  OPEN. Try it: knock or turn the knob and you shall see the portal of self determination and liberation fling open in front of your very eyes.

Getting Out of The Cage (Part 2)

   

Conditioning is the way behavioral habits were born on the physical, psychological and even spiritual level. You live as if in a cell and you are so well accustomed to your state of being a prisoner that you don't even think about the possibility of becoming the free master of yourself and of your choices. If, at a certain point, you happen to realize that you are entangled in a snare, you start to think about getting loose. You begin to suffer for all the constrictions you have to undergo and you desperately try to find the strength to free yourself from the bars of your imaginary prison. You don’t realize that such bars are not real, that they simply are a psychological and intellectual creation which exists only as long as your acceptance gives it life. The moment you say: "I don't believe it any more", such hindrance instantaneously dissolves.

Getting Out of The Cage (Part 1)

                                        

You often act without using your power of rational thinking. You have been taught to consider yourself as an empty container which needs to be gradually filled up. Such teaching has been carried out by education and by all the conditionings you have continuously endured by society and environment. Many are the prohibitions you received since childhood. Many are the injunctions given you to do specific things only because the current fashion, politeness or the accepted customs require such behaviour.You are caged, imprisoned in a strangulating net of "do" and "don't do", "say" and "don't say", even "think" and "don't think". Such a net was created by other human beings who gave themselves the right to decide, to establish certain rules and who were then smart enough to make others believe and “obey” them.

A new road?

              

  

I read these words on a poster in a waiting room: 

TO  ACCOMPLISH  GREAT  THINGS  YOU  MUST  NOT  ONLY  ACT,  BUT  ALSO  DREAM;  NOT  ONLY  PLAN,  BUT  ALSO  BELIEVE.

My reflection:

Look at the truth of what you’ve done with your life. And look at where you are going NOW.

I’m still doing the same with my own life. (Actually, it’s a life-long task!).

A 90 years old’s wise words

Life isn’t fair but it’s still good. 

When in doubt, just take the next small step. 

Life is too short to waste time hating or blaming anyone. 

You don’t have to win every argument: agree to disagree. 

Make peace with the past, so it won’t screw up the present. 

Don’t compare your life to others’ lives: you have no idea what their journey is all about. 

If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it. 

Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful. 

Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. 

When it comes to going after what you want in life, don’t take no for an answer. 

No one is in charge of your happiness but you. 

Forgive everyone everything.

Are you willing to spread your wings?

Learn not to see yourself as a caged bird.  You say: “This is NOT how I see myself!” Are you sure? Do you ever complain about this and that? Whenever you do, you admit you are feeling powerless, a victim of the situation. You feel you CAN’T do anything about it. You feel imprisoned by circumstances, therefore you can’t be who you want to be. Consequently, you are like a bird who can’t fly. But if you TRY to spread your wings, you’ll realize that the cage is not real, it only exists in your imagination. If you try to do a little more that you are used to doing, you’ll see that your potential is much greater than you think. And circumstances can be changed, problems can be solved. It is, once again, a matter of choice.

“Seeing” means being “present” here and now.

Do you believe your REALLY "see", experience all that is happening in your life? Think for a moment: When you go to a concert, are you able to listen to the music “completely”, without also looking around, fucusing on this or that, without “thinking”? While you are doing so (and you do it!!) the symphony or the song is partially lost – although you are unaware of it. The experience is not being totally lived because you are not “present”. You are somewhere else, wherever your thoughts are taking you. This happens every time you are doing something while your mind is wandering elsewhere. Drinking coffee while reading the newspaper? Having a snack while following a TV program? Watching a game and commenting it with a friend? Listening to someone while thinking about the answer you are going to give? All LOST experiences. Is it so bad? It’s certainly not fatal, but you definitely miss out on living FULLY. I know that “multi-tasking people” – so highly appreciated nowadays –  will surely disagree. Too bad!!

Shake it off!!

             

Have you ever tried to look at reality with “neutral eyes”? What does “neutral” mean? It means without judging anybody and anything. It means accepting what you see, what is happening, the way people are –  without wishing to change them. If you try and shake all judgement off, you will feel lighter, as if a heavy burden has fallen off your shoulders. You will experience PEACE. Judging (and often “condemning”) is an awfully hard job to do, although you usuallly believe it’s the only way to live your life. 

Step out of your limits (Part 3 - End)

           

The athlete who does not try to overcome the record established by his predecessor will always be mediocre. He will be a "good" runner or a "good" swimmer but nothing more. Excellence can be attained only when you dare to go a little further, when you become aware of your own abilities and you listen to your intuition, the voice of your true self which tells you: “Try, go on, endeavour, you can do it!” There are many goals you can aspire to: material, moral or spiritual, according to your nature and to your present needs. Mental narrowness, i.e. the incapability to see beyond your own nose, or the outright rejection of any idea that appears to be new or different, that seems to defy traditional beliefs, is a characteristic of the ignorant person. “Ignorance" does not only mean "not knowing", it mainly means a voluntary negation of mankind's capability to overcome its limits.  Only when you are fully aware that you can do it, shall you be able to soar – like a majestic eagle -  above mediocrity. Can a goal be more appealing?

Step out of your limits (Part 2)

     

As long as you remain quietly resting in your comfortable lifestyle, without wondering about what can be found around the corner, you shall always continue to be the way you are, and you shall never make any progress. This, of course, is an acceptable choice as well, just like the frog's choice… the frog who is happy, and always will be, living at the bottom of the well. But not all people are like that. Fortunately there are some who, while accepting their actual situation, ask themselves questions and wonder what can be found “beyond”. They face the view they have always seen, while staring into the distance, and say: "What is there at the farthest side of the horizon?" Thinking about what they have always done, they ask themselves: "How can I improve my achievements? Is it possible to reach a higher goal? Will I be able to progress on the spiritual path?" The nonconformist frog asks: Is the whole world just THIS? Or is there something “different” beyond the walls of my well?

Step out of your limits (Part 1)

Step out of your limits  (Part 1)                   

 

A lady, wanting to change the water in her goldfish bowl, transfers her fish into the bathtub, thinking they will greatly enjoy the wider space. When she comes back to fetch them, she is certain to find her fish scattered all around the large tub. But she is wrong: the fish are swimming in a corner, circling around and covering an area as big as their fishbowl. Why? Evidently they keep accepting limits that do not exist. They are not trying (and, sadly, they never will) to step “beyond”. Do YOU do the same? Do you accept limits that you - yourself - have created?  Do you resign yourself to live within the boundaries others have put all around you? Do you ever wonder if these confines are illusory and/or if they can be overcome?

Owning versus being

Your significance as a human being does not depend on how much you OWN, or on how much you KNOW. Owning material and/or non-material things, culture included, is desirable but it’s certainly not enough. What is important is what makes you act in a certain way (mainly your values and motivations). What you actually DO in life is what yields results, for yourself and for others. Be careful, therefore, because you are literally "re-creating" your life moment by moment. Life is a "trip" and YOU are the only one who chooses HOW to travel. 

Imagination is more powerful than reality.

Since the beginning of time, a “reality” has always existed: The present moment. If human beings had not used imagination, nothing would have ever changed. Mind - therefore thought - has the power to pick you up from the dust, to make you climb higher and higher. So, how come that you keep sitting on the first rung? Possibly you haven’t  even “seen” the ladder, the tool you need to rise, to change, to progress, to improve. Isn’t it much easier to remain stuck on the lower level, complaining about a situation you don’t like, an unhealthy relationship, an unfulfilling job…rather than do something about it? By the way, what are YOU doing about it? Can you imagine, (= create with your mind) a way of solving whatever is bothering you? But be careful about the “solution” you choose: it might end up being a "two-bladed knife"!

Bus #44 teaches a lesson!!

In a man neighborhood two #44 bus lines are in service. One goes downtown, the other to the train station. One day he had to go to the train station, so he took a pleasant walk to the bus stop, where he needed to be by 10:43am. When he checked his watch, it was 10:40am. He hadn’t arrived yet but He saw the back of bus #44 that briefly stopped and then drove away. He thought: “How strange. It’s not 10:43 yet”. Then he couldn't help thinking: “It was early! It’s NOT FAIR! Now I have to wait half an hour for the next ride.” Meanwhile another #44 bus pulled in at exactly 10:43!!! It was the one going to the train station. In a flash he realized that the previous bus was the one going downtown. He knew that the bus to downtown passed three minutes before the one to the station, but he hadn’t been “aware and alert”! “A good lesson!” He told himself. Do you tend to make hurried judgments, to give up hope too easily? Do you believe that you’ve missed your chance and will never be given a second one? If you are not aware and alert, you make assumptions without giving yourself time to reflect, weigh the situation, look at it from different perspectives. If, on the other hand, you are, you’ll see that what is FAIR for you is right there, and ready to be picked.

Spider webs

A recent conversation with a friend made me reflect that, as nothing in life happens by chance, all actions, encounters, relationships, thoughts or deeds are like threads on a spider web. The threads procede for sometime in a straight line, then they cross other threads and then others, thus creating a perfectly shaped and balanced web which totally reflects the spider’s needs. Do you do the same? Hardly. The various “points” (happenings) in your life definitely DO cross other people’s, but how much awareness do you have in actually carrying out the “crossings”? Is your behaviour balanced, suitable, sensible? Do you know what to think, say and do when you are interacting with your human fellows? Stop a moment to think about it.

Main principles of P.T.

An Italian friend asked me to synthesise  the main principles of Positive Thinking. I’ll be very brief.

Here they are:

1. You have the right to a better life.

2. You are responsible for your life.

3. You always have a choice.

Italian version:

1. Vivere una vita migliore e’ un tuo diritto.

2. Sei l’unico responsabile per la tua vita.

3. Hai sempre la possibilita’ di scelta.

Mental Programming – Part 3 (The end!)

                                                                      

The prejudices and pre-conceived ideas that regulate your life are not innate. Since birth, your mind undergoes a never ending absorption of information whose aim is to educate it, molding it in agreement with the accepted values of whatever society you live in.This information, that you get from most different but all equally powerful sources such as school, family, religion, social environment, build an actual screen around your brain.Thus, you find yourself fully conditioned, programmed to give precise answers to particular stimuli. If you fear something, your answer - i.e. your reaction - will be the result of the conditioning previously received. Therefore you will behave either cowardly or bravely or aggressively or indifferently and so on. Given a particular stimulus, the possible reactions to it are endless, as almost infinite are the programs that might have been activated in your brain since early childhood. Education, religion, the way others behave, even an image seen or a word heard by chance, have contributed to enrich your mental “computer”.

Mental Programming – Part 2

The prejudices and pre-conceived ideas that regulate your life are not innate. Since birth, your mind undergoes a never ending absorption of information whose aim is to educate it, molding it in agreement with the accepted values of whatever society you live in.This information, that you get from most different but all equally powerful sources such as school, family, religion, social environment, build an actual screen around your brain.Thus, you find yourself fully conditioned, programmed to give precise answers to particular stimuli. If you fear something, your answer - i.e. your reaction - will be the result of the conditioning previously received. Therefore you will behave either cowardly or bravely or aggressively or indifferently and so on. Given a particular stimulus, the possible reactions to it are endless, as almost infinite are the programs that might have been activated in your brain since early childhood. Education, religion, the way others behave, even an image seen or a word heard by chance, have contributed to enrich your mental “computer”.

Mental Programming – Part 1

                                                                       

Yesterday I kind of joked around. Today (and for a couple more days) I’m going to write about a serious topic: the brain. Let's see: Your brain can't help thinking, as this is “its” nature. But you are not your brain. This means that “your” true nature transcends thought, it is beyond any expressions on either a physical or mental level. Therefore the world created by your emotional thoughts is not the real world. Emotional thought is unable to perceive the essence of any element of creation. When you look at a rose, you don't simply enjoy its beauty or its scent. Your brain starts immediately to reason about the characteristics of this flower. It “thinks” about it. Therefore the deep essence of such experience is almost totally lost. By judging what surrounds you - as this is just what thinking is - you label situations, things and people and thus create a kind of cocoon where you happily live without being able to see beyond your prejudices and pre-conceived ideas.

No title

This morning I had written a brief article entitled “Of Tulips And Men”, where I described the beautiful vision of tulips: all different colors, yet creating an inspiring vision of unity.  I was planning to draw a parallel (another one!) between the armonious diversity of these flowers and mankind, when – suddenly - the text desappeared. I won’t write it again. On the contrary, I now wonder: Am I trying too hard to convey a message, here? Is this message received, anyway? Most of all, is it accepted?

“David” and you

An Italian friend suggested that I write something linking Art and Positive Thinking. It sounds like a good idea. What about drawing a parallel between Michelangelo’s “David” and a “normal” human being like me or… you? Let’s try. It is said that Michelangelo spent a long time looking for the block of marble in which he could discern the creation of his mind, that was already there. He finally found it and was able (certainly not without some effort) to carry out what his mind had conceived. The result was the most famous and admired statue of all times, a symbol of perfection. What about you? Can you see the “David” that is hidden in the depths of your spirit? Can you accept the idea that the “stuff” you are made of is just what you need in order to express your potential, in order to  make you the best you can be? Think about it. You might be happy with your findings.

Questions and Answers

If you ask: How many inhabitants does the city of Sidney have? How high is  Mount Everest? it is very easy to answer. You look it up on an encyclopedia or on the Internet and in no time you find the exact answers. All questions or doubts about things that can be calculated or historical facts are easily answered or solved.  However, if you ask:  Who am I? What is my purpose in life? How far should I go in trying to make my marriage work? How should I raise my child? How ought I to behave with my neighbor? these questions are not so simple to answer. You may have read books on the subject, listened to inspired speakers but,  deep inside, you feel they haven’t given you the perfect answer, the one you need . Why? Simply because what others said or wrote is the answer they found for themselves, according to “who they are”. Are their explanations able to convince you? They may or they may not. They can certainly help you formulate the problem, they can provide you with theories, but they are unable to give you "your own" answer, the one suitable for you. A teacher can show you the direction, but the actual path towards self-improvement must be found by you, with your owm means. No one else can do it for you.

Do you feel you ARE in control?

Today I’m briefly going back to the topic “Control”. Why? Because it’s one of the strongest motivations behind human behavior. But it’s going to be from a different perspective. Here you are: Accept the idea that you have absolutely NO control over things and/or situations. Think for a moment and ask yourself: “Have I ever experienced this?” Okay, have you? If the answer is "Yes", be aware that the ONLY thing you have control over is your reaction to whatever happens. Don’t take these words easy.  In order to live better, re-create your life, the NEED for control must be released. Good news: The choice is always yours! An even better news: You always have a choice!

Bored!!

There is a TV program I used to love. I watched it every night and thought I would keep watching it for as long as it was being broadcast. Then they started showing re-runs. It was still okay. I loved the program! But they kept on showing…. re-runs of the re-runs!! I slowly grew bored till I was fed up and stopped watching. Doesn’t something similar happen in life? In your life, too? Do you sometimes feel you are stuck in a rut? Doing the same thing? At the same time and/or place? In the same way? If this is the case, all you need is CHANGE. Don’t stop watching TV, if you enjoy it, just change the channel. Don’t give up doing what you think is good for you, just change “how” you do it. You may also try something totally new…Face a challenge (It doesn’t matter how small). Be brave! I’ve just started learning Sign Language. So far, I don’t need it but…it certainly "is" fun!

Worried about the future?

When you find yourself worrying about the future, try this. Picture the word FUTURE in your mind. Then, with an imaginary eraser, slowly “erase” it. Fill the empty space with the word  NOW. If you try this simple exercise often, expect positive results. A laughable quick fix?  Maybe. All I can say is that it worked for me, and it still does.

P.S. If you do it slowly, it won’t take more than 10 “seconds”!