Abundance Project

Who wants to live abundantly? Everybody wants to have an abundant life. To have an abundant life means to experience that I have nothing lacking in my life. To experience gratitude more often. I think it has to do with mindset. It is about how you create it in your mind and then feel it in your heart – having an abundant mindset and a big heart.

Attract abundance into your life!

A few months ago I joined a 21 Days challenge of abundance with friends and I thought to rerun this challenge for myself. I call it as Abundance Project. Since I do it personally, I don’t have to follow the original guidance of this challenge. I do not make it into 21 days either. It is more than 30 days now. I still do not know when to finish it. I free myself for this. This project is more about a morning reflection on this topic everyday and put it in writing. I go into the depth of the different aspects of this topic. Write different thoughts of abundance. It helps me to see abundance in life within me, around me, in nature and in time of the past, the present and the future. If you can see abundance, your heart will become content. You develop gratitude. Where there is contentment, all the other inner powers will come.

Finish strong!

Today is the last day of 2020. How are you going to finish this year? For the last one year we have been haunted by covid so much and it is still haunting our days ahead. It doesn’t have a deadline. 2020 has become a difficult year for many of us. There has been a big change in how we live today from the way we lived last year. This situation has made us to make some adjustment. Each one of us has developed the power to adjust ourselves to the situations. This is the power of the soul. With this power you can accept the situation easily, you also develop patience. It is a strength, an inner strength.

Finish strong 2020!

This virus is infecting the body, the lung and the respiratory system. It is not infecting the spirit, unless you allow it. You can remain strong mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Keep your spirit very strong and finish 2020 strong.

Happy new year, everyone!

Life during pandemic

My friend is a teacher in a school. She teaches the secondary level students. She said that her school will start to have a face-to-face class in January. But it will work only for secondary level students. They would have both, a face to face and online class at the same time. If the parents do not want to send their kids to the face-to-face, then they can still join the online one. It would be a challenge for the teacher to teach this way. She said that it would not be applied for little kids. Little kids can not practise social distancing.

I remembered a couple years ago when neighbors’ kids were still small, I loved having them playing in my house. I think kids are very genuine in their hearts, they are pure and innocent. Sometimes they made a mess in my house. I miss the scene now because some of those kids have grown up. They don’t play anymore. They prefer socializing with their teenaged friends. I had my neighbors‘s kids in my house yesterday. I noticed that they have changed their toys they play with. They are using gadget now.  This kid in yellow is teaching how to use an apps to the other kid.

Always put your mask on!

How can ask them to practise social distancing while they are playing? How can we tell them not to sit close to each other? I then remembered what my friend said, it is very difficult for kids to practise social distancing. At least I reminded them to put their masks on.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

Hi, it is December!

This pandemic has completely reset my mind. I think in a personal level, I have adjusted myself quite well. I do not have the courage to make any travel plan. It is already December. Ussually I have made a travel plan for a year end vacation before December. My colleagues also usually have made their plans for their family vacation every December.  But not this year. Nobody has shared any trip plan yet.

When a colleague was talking about air ticket promotion which sounded really a good deal, I felt like I just woke up from a very long sleep. “What is it?” I said in my mind.

It has been a year when I had my last travel. I never imagined before that it would be this long, we have to stay in our place and not travel. A vacation for me is to spend sometimes in nature, away from the city. In December last year, I went to Banyuwangi. I thought I would like to travel from one end to the other end of Java. I took a train from Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and Banyuwangi. A very long trip, but it was a really wonderful trip.

It is the place where you can see blue sky everyday.

It is called ‘Africa van Java’

People call it “Lord of the Ring” forest

Me and the Loro Jonggrangs

I have found several ways to enjoy my December with no traveling nor ‘vacation’.

What about you? Do you have any plan to end this year?

Don’t listen to gossip

If you want to experience happiness, do not listen to gossip. What is gossip? Gossip is about two things, it is talking about others and about their weakness. When you are gossiping you are talking of what someone is doing wrong or what someone is doing not well. Someone’s mistake or someone’s failure. When you are talking about someone’s achievement, it is not called gossiping.

Don’t listen to gossip. Don’t spoil the atmosphere!

You listen to gossip, what do you do then? You keep it in your awareness, you repeat it in your mind, then you talk about it with others. You are spreading it. Others then also do the same. It then spreads in the entire atmosphere.

It just doesn’t stop in listening. It spreads widely. A thought creates vibration in the atmosphere. The more it is talked, the stronger the vibration in the atmosphere. Vibration is energy. The energy from gossiping is negative. So when you spread a gossip, you make the energy of the atmosphere become negative.

So do not listen to gossip. When you listen to it, first you imbibe it into yourself. You are the first one who imbibe the negative energy. You consume that energy, you nurture that energy, because it is negative energy, you become weak. By spreading it, you spoil the atmosphere even more.

The Festival of Lights

Yesterday was Diwali festival. Indian people celebrate this festival every year. This is also called a festival of light. People lit lights in their home last night. They were inviting goddess Laksmi for wealth. That’s what I heard from my Indian friend.

I am interested in understanding the spiritual meaning of any festival. Why light? What is the significance behind it? The form of a soul is light. A soul is remembered as a very tiny point of light. It is behind our two physical eyes. Some call it as the third eye or the divine eye. Why divine? It is to see the truth. To see means to understand. A soul has intellect to understand everything. When the intellect is open, it is said to be enlightened. But when the intellect is closed, it said to be ignorant. We can not see the soul with our physical eyes, but have you ever meet someone who is ‘shining’ very brightly? You can see a beautiful light from her eyes. Very pure. We are not talking about physical light, this is spiritual light. The soul can feel this light.

Diwali is remembered as a festival to lit the light of the soul. Become a light for the world.

The soul needs silence and solitude to be enlightened.

I have received this greeting from a friend, David who has been staying in India for the last 25 years. He is an artist and also a musician. He said to me that he was celebrating Diwali this year in a more quiet way (because of the lockdown). He enjoyed the solitude and the silence. In fact the soul needs solitude and silence to be enlightened.

Keep your mind calm and clear

My colleague was confirmed to have covid and being hospitalized last week. So everyone was requested to take a test for covid-19 during the weekend. The result should be submitted via email on Monday at the latest.

Keep your mind calm!

My rapid test turned out to be somehow reactive, so I was suggested to take the PCR test. It is said that PCR is more accurate than a rapid test. I was aware that I was in a situation where I needed to make a quick decision what to do and where to go for the PCR test. To get the result as quickly as possible is the best, I thought. A colleague suggested me to go to the nearest laboratory. With the same day result. It made me stressful. I was aware that I had to keep myself calm and not panic in such a situation. I needed to have a clarity in my mind for what I need to do next. I focused on the solution, not the situation (problem). I prepared myseelf for a self quarantine in case my PCR test turned out to be positive.

The virus is not in my control. It Is invisible. Do not focus on what is not in your control. Focus on what you can control.

Before I received the result of the test in the evening, I avoided discussing my situation with anyone. I know that the more I discuss it, the more I become worried. It never helps in keeping the mind calm and clear.

I couldn’t wait the result of the test. Those 6 hours of waiting was experienced to be the longest hours ever. And finally the result said that I was free from covid-19. 

Pay attention to what you remember

It is said “pay attention to what you remember”. I have been hearing this many times. So I thought there might be some truth in it.

What you remember will influence you.

To remember is to plug your thinking into something. When it is plugged, you will then start being influenced by it. A feeling will be created based on what you remember. This feeling creates your internal state, your internal reality. When you are influenced, you are not the ruler in your internal kingdom.

If you are feeling unhappy, ask yourself “What have I been remembering?” You will then quickly know why you feel unhappy. It is not that someone has made you unhappy. No. You have let yourself get influenced.

So really pay attention to what you remember, to what you are plugging your thinking into.

Life is about remembering and forgetting. Sometimes we just make a little mistake. The little mistake is that we remember what we should forget and we forget what we should remember. Pay attention to this and start creating your life by creating your internal reality.

A Daylight Walking

When this pandemic just started, I was exposed to the information of how to keep our immune system strong. One of the tips and tricks is to get exposure to direct sunlight. I remember during the “stay at home” period many people made time for having direct sunlight exposure. You might be one of them.

I have been developing a new habit for the last few months and I am happy with this that I can do it consistently. I take a daylight walking around the office buildings during the lunch break. It is very simple, easy and healthy. I get the direct sunlight and at the same time I have a physical exercise. I enjoy it very much. It might be useful for busy people who do not have time for exercise.

Walking is an easy and simple exercise.

During this pandemic all the fitness centers are closed. My colleague really loves having physical exercise for her stamina. It is very interesting to see how she adapts herself to this pandemic. She made a shift. She takes a walk from home to office and from office to home everyday. I think it is really a brilliant idea. It takes her one hour for each way.

How about you?

How to meditate

Meditation is a self-talk. Noone but you involve in this. You need to do it alone. I understand that many people find it uncomfortable to have a self-talk. My friends learned meditation but they did not continue this because they do not enjoy having a self-talk.

Meditation is a practice for the mind

How to talk to yourself? A friend asked me this question.
You can’t talk to yourself until the self is ready to listen. The self is not ready to listen due to the noise in the mind. So you need to make the mind calm first. Observe what is going on in the mind. Just observe. Put yourself as a detached observer. If you can put yourself as a detached observer for quite a while, then you will notice that your mind starts to calm down. Only then you can start talking.

The following is an example of meditation commentary to help you to have a self-talk. This is not a mantra. Meditation is not not a religious practice, so you can free yourself to create your own, in your own language.

Meditation commentary – Body and Soul
I remind myself that I am not just this physical body. Inside this body there is the true me. A pure spirit. I am the spirit living in this body. I am light. I am subtle. I am the energy inside this body. I am eternal. I am not growing older, I will never die. A spirit never dies.

This body is the vehicle for the soul. I am the soul, driving this body. I take the control of the body. I am aware of my mind and what it creates. I am aware of every thought that I create. I listen to my mind. I listen to myself. I am aware the 3 personalities within me. I am aware that they keep speaking. I listen. I observe.

I make this time to listen to myself. I listen to the voice in my head. The voice of the 3 personalities in me.
I make this time to see myself inside.
I make this time for myself.
I take care of myself.