Many people have expressed to me that running a home, a career and taking care of the old is a combination that does little justice to either. For most of us it ceases to be a choice in the end. For me, what is really important is that my work and home enhance my spirituality. That is definitely the end game.How can that happen? I think it is possible that a career can coexist with the development of the soul if we approach both with balance and determination.
Why do we need to ignore our spiritual selves if we need to work and bring in the bread? It can be extremely challenging no doubt, and careers can take up a great deal of time (depending on how ambitious one is) that can be actually used to replenish our souls. But the trick here is to manage our free time in a manner that befits us. Walks in nature, jottings in journals, healing, and other therapeutic activities can be scheduled on the weekends so that the body can recuperate and rejuvenate without rushing.
That being said, I come across so many people that are anxious for absolutely no reason. Could it be that our capacity to deal with life’s active challenges loses out to our capacity to feel nervousness? In the hours and minutes leading to an event, when we are expected to test our limits, nervousness does set in.
Not even when we come to terms with our trials can we shut out the anxiety that begins to mount in us. But then the truth arrives and we discover that worry was useless after all. That just proves to us that we are stronger than we believe ourselves to be. So now we know that anxiety is not rational in nature, which simply translates to that we cannot use mere logic to overcome it most times.
Normal adults find it remarkably difficult to focus on two distinct thoughts or emotions all at once. But we can at most times use this limitation to our advantage by staying centered. And how do we achieve that? Well! By concentrating on something completely unrelated to the source of worry, for instance-deep breathing, visualizations of success, and exercise to name a few. Meditation is a huge coping mechanism that helps people ground themselves.
The intense emotional flare up that one experiences exactly before a challenging situation is always a mixture of excitement and fear. Getting rid of the fear heightens the excitement, and if we do that we actually become aware of our centre and accept the hurdles that we have to jump.
To be totally honest most of us just sit with our feelings, and that I think that takes great courage. What we do not realize is that by doing so, and trying to deal with them later, we really do not deal with them at all but store them in our minds and bodies in such a way that they turn into anxieties that subsequently turn into health issues..
The reason we do this is because we live in a culture that does not support emotional awareness. But as we acknowledge the connect between mind and body, our emotions and our physical health, we get to see our feelings in a different light. So when sadness arrives, we either note its presence and give in to tears or turn it inward.
If we begin to acknowledge our feelings, we learn to let them go as well. It’s simple -all our feelings need is to be felt. We complicate matters by applying our energies, and our logic. All we need to do is allow the process by relaxing, opening ourselves to receive the bounty of the Universe just as the earth allows rain to fall on it.
The thing with us is that we need to realize that peace lives within us and we cannot offer the world anything that we do not already have.When we look at the chaos and turmoil outside our little world, we try to rectify it but are disappointed when we fail. Clearly what we don’t possess we cannot share. Peace needs a home in our lives and hearts first.
Just like peace, exists an emotion called pain. The minute we feel it, we want to get rid of it by medication. What we easily forget is that the body is merely telling us it needs our attention. A headache reminds us that we might just be hungry or stressed and a sore throat might mean that we just need to rest our voice. By not heeding the signs we risk a disconnect between our bodies and minds.
But physical pain is not the only pain that needs attention; the emotional kind provides us with invaluable information about our psyche. Just as we take our physical bodies seriously, so should we take our hearts by surrounding them with love and support. Healing one’s self needs time and understanding. Intuition creates awareness.
I see that most people attach their intelligence, talent, their good looks and all that they have accomplished to their self worth. It is definitely not so because so much of who we are and what we are changes as we journey through this life, leaving our actual worth constant.
Self worth is frequently mistaken as self-esteem, but the two are inherently different. Self-esteem is how one feels about oneself at a given moment of time and self worth is constant, immeasurable and how one feels when they have a oneness with the Universe. It is self-belief.
Your worth can never be taken from you or damaged, but can be forgotten and ignored. So you have to regularly nurture it. We are all born worthy, its entwined with our very being. That’s why we have to keep appreciating ourselves, defining our personal boundaries, broadening our horizons, and basically seeing that our needs are well met.
Losing sight of our self worth results in depression, insecurity and a lack of confidence. It is our self worth that makes us happy, confident and motivated. We are all like drops of water in an endless ocean. Our lives are continually in motion. And as with the ebb and flow of the tide we move on through life’s highs and lows.
Riding that wave we have to be careful to practice stillness so that we can flow with and not resist its motion. For when we do ride that wave, our lives evolve naturally. We have to be attentive, centered and awake, because life is dynamic and ever changing. Better than to fight life’s flow, is to stay calm and relaxed. Enjoy! Until next time, Ciao!
