Nothing can go wrong

Do you have any talent in drawing? I remember when I was in my school days, drawing was not my favourite subject at all. I have not been very good at it. I think I don’t have any talent in drawing. I always become very amazed when I look at a beautiful painting or drawing. In my heart I said I wish I had this talent. Those people can express their feelings into very beautiful art works. I really appreciate it as well as envy.

Until last week a friend introduced me to a doodling art. I joined her workshop on doodling. I never heard it before. It was an online workshop via Zoom. Basically you just draw anything your heart wants to draw….any shapes in any colors. You don’t need to erase anything, you won’t make ‘any mistake’, just keep drawing. No worries.

We were given 20 minutes to draw with piano music played as a background. I really enjoyed it. I thought my drawing turned out really well. I felt so good. At the end of the workshop each one of us had to share our drawing and show it on camera.

Someone reluctantly showed his drawing and said “I don’t know what I drawed, I think it doesn’t make a sense”.

My friend said “It doesn’t have to make any sense. Nothing can go wrong in this” This words sound very liberating to me. It is liberating the soul. I wished I heard these words long ago.

Just let the soul express its feeling and emotion freely. You will feel really good about yourself through this doodling.

Thank you Soni.

My debate partner

My friend has moved to Dubai since last few years for a family reason. We didn’t communicate much since then. Yesterday out of the blue we chatted. She told me how she has been going through the lockdown in her place. Then we chatted about many things. Random topics.

Suddenly I said to her: ”Hey, I remembered something. You were my debate partner.” When we lived in the same city, we went to the same meditation class. And in the class many times both of us involved in a debate on any particular topic. I remember that I always expressed my thoughts in a very strong way. This made her listen to me, though not necessarily agreed with me. But she had become a nice partner. Each one of us understood that we wanted to seek a better understanding on particular point we were debating, not to put any of us down. No. It was in fact a sweet debate.

Our memory flew back to our days when we did rediculous things together, like spending hours at Starbucks reading our favorite book and discussing it. I realize that it is very nice to have someone you may call a friend who has the same interest with you. You can talk or debate or have fun together. I miss that moments.

How to stay creative

Everyone wants to become creative. To become creative means to keep creating an idea and executing the idea. To be creative you need to have an open mind, a mind that is open to new ideas. Not a closed mind. An open mind is more accepting. An open mind finishes worries and fears inside. It is liberating. It is courageous. Life keeps changing and you need to cope with the change, unless you will be left behind. Life keeps moving, you need to move with it. Life keeps flowing, you need to go with its flow. Life is never static. You need the power to adapt yourself for this. This is a power that you need to develop from within.

How do you make yourself stay open-minded and creative? I think you need to make friend with the younger generations. Talk to them more. Listen to them more. They are very creative. They will bring newness into your creative process inside your head. Many are fast learners, especially in digital technology. You need to be humble in front of them. Learn from them. Keep this spirit of a learner inside you, this spirit will keep seeking and creating new things.

I have a very good friend who is an expert in computer, she is in fact a web designer. This weekend I have an online workshop. I have to prepare a presentation for this workshop. I realize that I am not very good at digital stuff, like downloading video, converting the file and sharing it on a presentation. I knew whom to ask. So I begged her time for a meet up. She is a really kind-hearted person. She taught me everything I needed to know from her. She is not only very good at computer but she is also very good at teaching. Very patient.

Million thanks, Michelle!

Your inner kingdom

Each one of us is a king in our inner kingdom, inside our heads. In your inner kingdom, you have three ministers helping you. The three ministers are your mind, intellect and your heart. They are your ministers and you are the king. They should listen to you. They should be always under your control. Are they working well? Are you controlling your ministers? How do you know that you can control them or not?

Hold a meeting with them everyday. Really make time for this. This is to know their well-beings. You have to control them and never let any of them control you or do any mischievous thing. You are the king, you should always sit on your throne. This throne is your seat of self respect. The seat of your wise self. Only when you remain seated on this seat, your three ministers will listen to you and obey your commands.

How do you know that they are under controlled? Your mind will only think what you want it to think. Your intellect will only remember what you want it to remember and your heart will only feel what you want it to feel. You will not say “I don’t want to think about it, but my mind keeps thinking about it. It gets pulled easily.” “I want to forget it, but I can’t.” “I am not peaceful.” This is the language you speak when you can not control them.

Live your life

When I am conducting a workshop on journaling I always suggest everyone to write their thoughts and feelings honestly. You are writing for yourself. You are not writing to publish a book, so be honest. No one will judge you. You are your own judge. But I found that this is the hardest challenge for most people when start journaling. The emotion behind it is always fear – fear if anyone knows their feelings inside. Fear of being judged by others. There is so much insecurity inside. You might have experienced this. This fear is blocking you from expressing the true feelings. It doesn’t free you. It doesn’t liberate your soul.

We might have been living under people’s judgement for a long time. You have to free yourself from this thought. You are here to live your life not to live in other people’s judgement. People will always judge you for whatever you are doing or feeling anyway. You need to develop courage from within. The first courage is to see the true self without any mask. Once this courage is developed, those people’s judgement will not affect you. You are not influenced.

The two faces of ego

Ego is the enemy of everyone. It resides in each and every of us. We have to conquer this enemy. How to conquer it? We have to know it. Only when we know this enemy well, then we can conquer it.

Ego has two faces – the inferior I and the superior I.

When you hear the voice of “I am excluded” , “I am not valued”, “They don’t respect me“, “I am a victim”. This is the voice of the inferior I. Can you hear this voice? How often do you hear this voice? This is the voice that brings you down again and again. If you keep listening to this voice, you will become weak. You keep listening to this voice and then you start believing in it. What you believe will become your reality (what you feel). You start feeling isolated, small or weak. Can you stop this voice? Do not let this voice keep echoing in your head. You need power to stop it. This is the power of the soul that you need. Develop this power, so you will become victorious in your internal battle. You are in fact battling with yourself (your ego). Your enemy is not out there, but right here, inside you.

At other time you might also hear the voice “I know better”, “I am more experienced”, “They should listen to me”, this is the voice of the superior I.

Both are the ego. Both are false. Both make you fluctuate internally. The real you is not inferior nor superior. Nothing can pull you down. Remain seated on the seat of the real I. This is the seat of self respect. If you remain seated on this seat, you will experience yourself to be a master. A master of the self. You are the king. You are royal.

Peace of Mind

You are your best friend and also your worst enemy.

There are two personalities inside us. The true ’I’ and the false ’I’. They are two different personalities. They are not silent. They keep speaking. Do you hear them speaking? The false ’I’ speaks louder than the true ’I’. You can easily hear it. It creates noise in your head. It speaks worries, uncertainties and doubts. The false ‘I’ creates fear and peacelessness. If you do not control it, it will create chaos in your mind. So you need to control it and make it quiet.

The true ’I’ speaks very gently and softly. Sometimes it is almost unheard. It speaks wisdom and truth. It creates calmness in your mind. If you want to experience peace of mind, you need to listen to the true ‘I’ more often. This is the first step to a peace of mind.

So which one is your best friend and which one is your worst enemy?

A plant-based diet

A few days ago a friend shared to me that she had been working from home for more than a month. She said that it made her so bored. She only went out for her grocery shopping. She said that the virus had been frightening her so much. It is invisible yet so frightening. The virus is so tiny that we can not see it, yet it creates terror to the entire planet. The number of death keeps increasing day by day. Everyone experiences this like a terror.

This made me reflect and think. Are we not creating the same terror for other living beings in this planet? For animals, for example. We might have done some cruelty to animals too. How many lives have been taken for just the stomachs of human beings? What we have been doing might be much more cruel than what the virus is doing to us now. A constant terror! Are those animals not suffering from terror created by human beings? I remember very long time ago I saw an innocent cow was being slaughtered for a sacrifice. I still remember the expression on her face, the two eyes were in tears. The innocent cow was facing her death just right in front of her eyes. I could see the fear on her face. It was so tragic. The innocent cow died on the hands of a man. Since then I can not bear seeing animal being slaughtered.

Last week I read a post by a blogger. One of my favorite bloggers. This coronavirus has led him to a plant-based diet. He has made a resolution to become ’more’ vegetarian because of this coronavirus. Along with the post he wrote a very long description behind the idea of plant-based diet that has been adopted by many people accross the globe.

Mindfulness

My friend who is from Suriname only moved to this city last year. She said to me that she only heard the noise of the traffic from her apartment where she lives in. She never heard birds chirping. Many birds might have moved away from the city. In fact, we do not live really far from each other. I said to her that every morning I still could enjoy birds chirping from the roof top. She might just not be aware of it. The next morning she texted to me excitedly that she heard rooster making a morning wake up call. She was so amazed and asked herself if it was always doing it everyday, but she just didn’t hear it. Because the awareness was not there, so the rooster didn’t seem to exist to her.

She wrote this: “I am just having a break from my work and sitting on my sofa and I hear birds chirping. So sweet.”

This covid-19 has brought new awarness in many of us. Being more aware of what is around us including what is in the nature. Everything might be the same, but because there is no awarness, they do not seem to exist to us. They are too small compared to our focus in our day-to-day life. We miss to enjoy and appreciate their existence. To be mindful is to be aware. Being aware is being in the now.

Thank you for sharing, Kawita.

Immune system of the soul

During these days we are exposed with information on coronavirus so much. It has created so much fear in people. We are not only fighting the coronavirus but also the fear in each one of us. Coronavirus infects the body and fear infects the soul. We and the world are now fighting against the coronavirus, but each one of us is fighting against the internal virus in the soul. We are strongly requested to stay clean – to wash our hands often and to put on mask to protect ourself from this virus.

But how to protect the soul from the fear? The body has its immune system to fight any virus or bacteria in the body. We are suggested to eat healthy food and have enough good sleep for keeping the immune of the body. The soul also has its immune system to fight against the fear. Good thoughts are the best nutrition for the soul. Have enough good thoughts during the day. Nurture your mind with high quality thoughts. Don’t let any mundane and ordinary thoughts take space in your mind. The mind is the laboratory to invent the anti vaccine for the virus. Really make time to stay introverted and work in your inner laboratory. Invent your own vaccine. Don’t forget to keep your laboratory very clean.

How much do you have to do this during these days and many days ahead? The world needs this so much.