Be your own judge and be happy...Tuesday, 21st August 2012.

I discovered, from my own little research, that most people give up waiting on God's promises or look for other alternative just at the exact time their much expected breakthrough was to emerge. My little advice: before you decide to quit waiting on God or throw in the towel, ask yourself this little question - what if my breakthrough is to come in the next minute? By so doing, a little strength will spring out of you and you'll see reasons why you ought to wait…

Friendship is a cozy shelter from life’s rainy days.

Unexpected results and problems are part of life. Never lose hope in any condition because Darkness of night always finishes with light.

Do not dwell in the past; do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment

Every problem is like a big door. Surely there is a solution like a small key which can open it easily. Fine the right key. Life is simple, live it.

Progress has little to do with Speed But much to do with Direction So always concentrate on ur direction and not on the speed

Pearl of the Day: Don't make your voice loud, to make others listen to you make your attitude so loud, that others beg to listen to you…

Be eager to light a candle, rather than trust darkness.

There are 3 Special People in our Life:

Ø  Someone We Love but Have To Hate…

Ø  Someone We Hate but Can’t Live Without… and

Ø  Someone We Can’t Live without But have to Let Go…

Even your best friends lie to you at some point.. Because sometimes you are more important than the Truth!!

Friendship means understanding, not agreement. It means forgiveness, not forgetting. It means the memories last, even if contact is lost.

If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with…

Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others."

The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.

TEAM:

v  When we're working in a team, we need to make sure that we inform all the details to everyone involved in the task.

v  The task is easy to accomplish when those involved feel part of the team. So, make sure you communicate clearly, simply and openly.

v  This will naturally create a flow of contributions and enable the team to give their best to the task.

PS: Success is nothing like rain; it doesn't pour in easily. This is first the lesson for a committed dreamer.

No matter how hard life treats you as it should, no matter how dark the road ahead would seem as it would, always keep your head above the skies because that's where your dreams and aspirations lie…(Even though as life unfolds before you and there seems no hope ahead in the road of life, always take a step ahead with a leap of faith and belief and there will always be light to follow your dreams…)

Feeling trapped? Slow down!!

“If you're having difficulty coming up with new ideas, then slow down. For me, slowing down has been a tremendous source of creativity. It has allowed me to open up -- to know that there's life under the earth and that I have to let it come through me in a new way. Creativity exists in the present moment. You can't find it anywhere else.” -- Natalie Goldberg Feeling trapped in some way? Give yourself space. Space to do nothing but breathe. To intentionally relax those tight muscles. To just for a few precious minutes, let it all go. The world will keep turning if you tune out for a short while. And your world will begin to recover its balance. “It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal’s rhythm of rest and activity.” -- Thomas Moore Progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate.

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Is your ego involved?

"There is no room for God in him who is full of himself." -- Hasidic saying On the spiritual path, we must be diligent to discriminate whether we are acting from ego or from soul. If ego is in charge, what we do is self-referencing. At the deepest levels, we are motivated by our own self-interest. We’re looking out for ourselves more than for others. Although soul works through individuals, its focus is on the needs of others and on service to humanity. “Do not feed your ego and your problems, with your attention. ...Slowly, surely, the ego will lose weight, until one fine day it will be nothing but a thin ghost of its former self. You will be able to see right through it, to the divine presence that shines in each of us.” -- Eknath Easwaran "Why aren't you happy? It's because ninety-nine percent of everything you do, and think, and say, is for yourself -- and there isn't one." -- Wu Wei Wu First 'know yourself' - your personality and direction in life. Then 'create a plan'. Next 'heal yourself and what holds you back. Then you can expand and 'grow yourself'.

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Time for stillness...

“We're so engaged in doing things to achieve purposes of outer value that we forget that the inner value, the rapture that is associated with being alive, is what it's all about.”

-- Joseph Campbell

The sages all say that the path to liberation is found in entering the stillness within. To experience that stillness, we need to be willing to regularly stop the activity for a while.

How do we do this in a busy life? We set our priorities. Perhaps it means giving up a TV program or using a coffee break to grab a few moments of solitude. Perhaps we have to ask our partner, relative or neighbour to give us 30 minutes of time away from the kids. If we really want something, we can make it happen.

"Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you."

-- Doug King

Step by step, progressively learn basic meditation methods to relax, concentrate, focus, reflect, contemplate and illuminate...

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Smart questions to keep handy...

“Quality questions create a quality life. Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” -- Anthony Robbins Last time, we talked about questions to avoid. Today, let’s consider some that are truly empowering: - Is there a message for me in this experience? - What’s the gift in this situation? - What can I learn from this? - What’s the most loving thing I could do now? - What’s the most important thing for me to focus on now? - What would I do if I knew I could not fail? - What would I do if there were nothing to fear? “A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.” -- Francis Bacon Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision. Go deeper… Reach higher...

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Questions that aren't helpful

“We accept many notions because they seem to be the logical answers to our questions. But have we asked the right questions?” -- Harold L. Klawans Sometimes we ask questions for which we really don’t want the answer! Nonetheless, when we ask a question, our subconscious minds will get to work to answer us. Here are some examples of questions we want to avoid: - What’s wrong with me? - How long could this take? - What could go wrong? - How much trouble could it be? - How hard could it be? Asking questions can be empowering – as long as they’re smart questions! "The uncreative mind can spot wrong answers, but it takes a very creative mind to spot wrong questions." -- Anthony Jay

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Change...

"I find it fascinating that most people plan their vacations with better care than they plan their lives. Perhaps that is because escape is easier than change." -- Jim Rohn "Slowness to change usually means fear of the new." -- Philip Crosby “Just as the tumultuous chaos of a thunderstorm brings a nurturing rain that allows life to flourish, so too in human affairs times of advancement are preceded by times of disorder. Success comes to those who can weather the storm.” -- I Ching No. 3 “If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.” -- Norman Vincent Peale

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Awareness through love and fear...

“There is nothing holier in this life of ours than the first consciousness of love -- the first fluttering of its silken wings -- the first rising sound and breath of that wind which is so soon to sweep through the soul, to purify or to destroy.” -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Our inner journey takes us through the following stages relative to love and fear: 1. UNCONSCIOUS LOVE: When we are born, we exist as pure love but we are not conscious of our love. 2. UNCONSCIOUS FEAR: Our souls have set the stage for our evolution. As we grow, unconscious fears arise in our personalities that draw experiences to us that wound us. 3. CONSCIOUS FEAR: Our wounds bring pain and suffering that enable us to become conscious of our fears. 4. CONSCIOUS LOVE: When we've suffered enough pain, we are motivated to move through our fears to consciously experience the love that supports all. “Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.” -- Alexander Smith We don’t change overnight. Personal growth requires persistence...

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Growing ourselves...

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.” -- Oliver Wendell Holmes We are all on a life-long journey. It is a search for who we are and why we are here. It is a journey that expands our consciousness. There is an urge within each of us to move forward in life. It is an urge to become more whole, to find more meaning, and eventually to help others. It is human nature to strive for a sense of well-being. We all go through the same growth cycles, though our experiences may appear entirely different. By understanding the process of personal and spiritual growth, we can work more effectively with the process, instead of fighting and resisting it. “We can learn to be the catalysts for our own change.” -- Sarah Ban Breathnach

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What inspires you?

“It is never about how good your voice is; it is only about feeling the urge to sing, and then having the courage to do it with the voice you are given.”

-- Katie in ‘True to Form’ by Elizabeth Berg

How often have you allowed fear and your inner critic to stop you from doing something you were inspired to do?

Helen Keller said, "Life is either a grand adventure or nothing.” When we allow fear and criticism to stop us in our tracks, we give up that grand adventure. What a waste!

“Be an all-out, not a hold-out.”

-- Norman Vincent Peale

Why are you here? Open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose...

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Remove the filters...

“You got to look at things with the eye in your heart, not with the eye in your head.”

-- Lame Deer, Medicine Man of the Oglala people

Whenever we’re thinking, our experience is being filtered through our minds. For example, when I say to myself, “What a beautiful sunset!” I am not fully experiencing the sunset because I am involved with the words in my mind.

Explore letting go of the thoughts, the words, and connecting directly with your experiences. Tune in to the silence and the sensations in your body. Be aware of the spaciousness this brings because this is truly living in the present moment.

Being present doesn’t mean that we have to abandon thinking entirely. That’s not feasible, of course. But we can experiment with what it’s like to stop thinking once in a while!

“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.”

-- Hans Margolius

Awareness is the key to all change. Begin to trust yourself more deeply as you uncover new dimensions of who you are...

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Wonder-full!

“...we can't survive without enchantment... the loss of it is killing us.”

-- Thomas Moore

“There is one thing that all true spirituality has in common, whether that spirituality is derived from faith, from science, from nature or from the arts – a sense of wonder.”

-- Andrew Schneider

"There are only two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle, The other is as though everything is a miracle. I believe in the latter."

-- Albert Einstein

“We live in a world of theophanies. Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure.”

-- Macrina Wiederkehr

Why are you here? Open to more meaning and fulfillment by exploring your life purpose...

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Getting down to essentials

"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials."

-- Lin Yutang

Do you feel a desire to simplify your life?

If you say ‘yes,’ then set an intention to reduce the demands, stimuli, interruptions and busyness in your life. We each have the power to do this – we simply have to begin to say ‘no’ to those activities that don’t directly serve what we want for our lives.

Everyone of this planet deserves to have some free time to think, relax and have fun. If you long for this, begin now to clear your plate and allow a new level of experience to happen in your life. Take charge. Eliminate time wasters. Make some decisions about what matters to you.

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."

-- Hans Hofmann

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Feeling safe...

“Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are -- chaff and grain together -- certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.…” -- Dinah Craik We cherish our best friends and our special communities because we feel safe to be vulnerable when we’re in their embrace. And yet I have discovered that as long as I identify with my self-image, with my ego, there’s no safety possible anywhere. When the ego is on watch, even a dear friend’s truth may trigger reactions like anxiety, self-criticism and fear. The only true safety exists in living the truth of our soul, our essence. “Open your body and your mind to the subtler levels of experience, letting go of your attempt to control, to be right, not worrying about appearances, not trying to be safe.” -- Stephen Levine

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Opportunity...

“We are continually faced with great opportunities which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”

-- Margaret Mead

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.”

-- Francis Bacon

"What is opportunity, and when does it knock? It never knocks. You can wait a whole lifetime, listening, hoping, and you will hear no knocking. None at all. You are opportunity, and you must knock on the door leading to your destiny. You prepare yourself to recognize opportunity, to pursue and seize opportunity as you develop the strength of your personality, and build a self-image with which you are able to live -- with your self-respect alive and growing."

-- Maxwell Maltz

We don’t change overnight. Personal growth requires dogged  persistence. 

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Struggling with a decision?

"You can conquer almost any fear if you will only make up your mind to do so. For remember, fear doesn't exist anywhere except in the mind."

-- Dale Carnegie

My anxiety level spiked the other day as I wrestled with whether to choose option A or option B. I was so afraid of making the wrong choice!

And then I remembered, with deep gratitude, Susan Jeffers’ sage advice: There are no wrong decisions! Whatever we might choose in life will bring valuable experiences if we are open to receive them.

“Lighten up! Whatever happens as a result of your decision, you’ll handle it!”

-- Susan Jeffers

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Commitments to serve...

“Our deepest need is for the joy that comes with …knowing we are of genuine use to others.”

-- Eknath Easwaran

Holding an intention to be in service shapes our overall attitude towards life in many ways. For example, it brings a greater sensitivity and awareness of others, a commitment to harmlessness, a willingness to put others’ needs before our own and a desire to be in harmony with all.

An attitude of service also involves a willingness to be served when we truly need support.

"… there is no such thing as just existing. Everything is in service to everything else. Existence is giving and receiving. A stone gives and receives no less than a saint."

-- Jacob Needleman

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Distinguish personality desires from soul needs...

"Human history is the sad result of each one looking out for himself." -- Julio Cortazar We indulge ourselves when we seek to meet our longings through desires of the personality. We indulge ourselves when we buy more clothes to make us happy, when we eat another snack to ease the hunger, when we have an affair to feel powerful or loveable. Any pleasure we get, if we get any at all, is shallow and short- lived. The only lasting satisfaction can come from meeting the deep spiritual needs of the soul. We discover what we are really after in life when we identify the spiritual qualities and needs that lie behind our desires for material pleasures. "But life lived only for oneself does not truly satisfy men or women. There is a hunger in Americans today for larger purposes beyond the self." -- Betty Friedan

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Transformation...

"The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones."

-- William Faulkner

Longing for a miracle that will transform your life? Miracles happen, and if we don’t want that magic to disappear on us, we need to learn from each epiphany -- to integrate it, apply it, and build on it so we can permanently shift to a new level of being.

The real key to fulfillment lies in ONGOING transformation: building our awareness of daily opportunities to change our perceptions and raise our consciousness. Life is about dissolving the old and creating anew. The more we open to accepting and learning from every life experience, the more our lives transform.

"Enlightenment must come little by little -- otherwise it would overwhelm."

-- Idries Shah

Who are you, REALLY? To truly know yourself, you need to explore your subconscious mind.Can you do that????

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Honesty...

"Every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What level of honesty are you living now?

How honest are you with strangers, institutions and businesses, acquaintances, friends, family, spouse?

How honest are you with yourself?

"Our lives improve only when we take chances - and the first and most difficult risk we can take is to be honest with ourselves."

-- Walter Anderson

Access your own inner wisdom by tapping into your subconscious and intuition. Release stress, blocks and negative emotions, and spark imagination and greater vision...

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