Fear is such a feeling that even Life cannot do without it. It exists, to teach us lessons and to help us grow as people. It is interesting to even know that love per se is often presented as the opposite of fear. Though actual love is not threatened by any negative emotions, even though like sharks they swim in the ocean of love. All variants that we fear, beautiful or ugly, powerful or small, all exist in this same pool but ultimately disappear from this great ocean. We exist in the same ocean, being made of the same love and live our lives being one with everything.

In this whole illusion of survival in the dualistic world of the positive and the negative, darkness and light, male and female, all our choices are made helping us live and learning from them. This is our role on this planet. Of course under all that speculation, we do make relative choices- that of being conscious of who and what we are. We undoubtedly chose love that makes us more playful, joyful, loving and wise.

It  is  our  free  will  that  makes  us  chose  love  over everything. We are all beings with minds of our own, making choices. A life full of deliberate choice making so to speak. But it is definitely not free will against predetermined destiny. Our imaginations create the inner pictures that in turn evoke our egos to nudge our next action. Our will is the ego part and that ego takes us to our need to constantly acquire evidence for our importance. But sometimes this same will does not let our imaginations take over.

So it is important that we will ourselves to be happy, successful, wealthy, and famous, even though these ideas are born out of the ego. We usually become what we think about, and what we think about in turn is getting what we want. Our egos are just a set of beliefs, which help to define us in many ways. On the negative side it is solely responsible for our feelings of self doubt and hold us hostage at most times.

Our worth as people is measured by what we acquire (materially) and what we accomplish. Having less, makes us less valuable and therefore unworthy of respect from others. If we don’t get the respect we crave, since our opinions of ourselves depend on others opinions, then we begin to disrespect ourselves. Here we are held hostage by the ego. We have to somehow change this circle, and love our selves unconditionally, and make decisions of our life irrespective of what others think of us.

At most times, people ask themselves what more can we do with our lives? The answer to that could very well be, since we came with nothing and will leave with nothing-the only thing is to give away as much as we can. By giving away parts of our selves we become purposeful. What if you don’t realize your purpose then- be sure your purpose will find you.

Perhaps we should seize every opportunity, no matter how small, to give of our lives away to some service or the other. By doing this we get our egos out of the way, enabling us to help without desire for mere gratification or reward. That would definitely mean falling in love with what we do, as only love makes us selfless, and let the universe handle the reward section.

So many of us leave things to fate, thinking what will be, will be but the story is that if free will is used and we use our choices even in the choices that are placed in front of us, we can change a bit of the narration. Your purpose is between you and your inner self, and cannot be swayed by another’s thoughts. Acting like we are living the life of our dreams enables us to move closer to the truth. For all of this, we have to create harmony between our thoughts and actions.

For if the harmony is not sought then our egos begin to dominate our thought process. Our inner thoughts know exactly why we are here on the earth, and also realize what our purpose is but it is our egos that make us chase the money, prestige, popularity, and most of all the sensory pleasures. This makes us lose our way. Listening to our egos leaves us feeling unaccomplished and listless.

You are what you think, and if your thoughts are aimless, so will be your life. So train your thought process, create intent and life will seem more meaningful. Our intelligence and our energy make us aware of our intentions and they in turn nudge us towards the ultimate truth. We have to stay in a place that encourages gratitude. And that includes everything-our jobs, successes, so called failures, possessions, etc.

Just like we need gratitude so do we need humility, because when it enters our inner self, it teaches us that even if we are perfect we are somehow nothing without it. We think we are going to live forever, when in actuality we are in the hands of a higher power. The reason for our depressions and ennui is very clearly that we are not being able to see beyond our overactive egos. The more we chase after approval, it eludes us.

At the end of a full day, of all the stories we accumulate in our brains, words, images and songs even, they all continue to crowd our brains incessantly, as we battle sleep. Lying in the dark, we continually process the happenings of our days. So much leaves us unsettled and rattled. We definitely do not find the peace we are searching for. Just as a cluttered home needs to be de-cluttered from time to time, so also does the mind, in order that it be able to accept new ideas, information and inspiration.

In fact some of the things that help us relax only add to the clutter, like watching television, movies, reading, talking to a friend all spell- more information. We need to break from mental stimulation if we want to be peaceful. Simple activities like meditation, taking a walk, yoga and deep breathing make us draw the much-needed attention to our weary minds and bodies. A definite mental slow down. Rituals like this should be practiced

Previously published in WIC Style