Your thoughts are what have created your reality up until now and what will create your reality for the rest of your earthly existence. You will be astounded, when you start taking notice, of the amount of negative thoughts you have every single hour of the day. What you think about is what you get, whether it is positive or negative. If the universe hears your thoughts of lack, it will make sure you receive more lack, and if it hears your thoughts of abundance, it will make sure you have abundance in your life.
   So take notice of what you are thinking and what your emotions are telling you. As soon as you notice a negative thought or bad feeling, stop yourself right there and then and turn it into a positive affirmation.
   We all have so many negative programmes in our subconscious mind that have been given to us by our parents and other adult influences in our life during childhood (this is not their fault, they are just passing on the beliefs they have been given from their parents).
   The best way of doing this is to watch our thoughts and emotions and practice positive thinking and affirmations every day of our life. Slowly but surely we are able to reprogramme our mind, changing negative beliefs that hinder our life experiences to positive beliefs of self worth and love, enabling us to live a more fulfilled life, attracting positive loving experiences into our daily existence. So if you catch yourself thinking a negative thought such as ‘I have a bad relationship or I am so broke’, immediately turn this into a positive thought such as ‘I have a happy, loving relationship or, I now have an abundance of money’ — any affirmation will do as long as it turns the negative into a positive. It doesn’t matter if you don’t really believe it initially, if you say it regularly enough, the subconscious will start believing it and begin attracting it to you. It is amazing how this one practice can change your whole life.

Love yourself : 

Most of us are bought up thinking it is wrong to love ourselves, that we are vain if we even like ourself. This programme sets us up for so much heartache in our life. The truth is, if we don’t love ourselves, we cannot truly love anyone else. Until we love ourself unconditionally, we are constantly looking for fulfillment in other people, especially our partners, which can only lead to disappointment and heartache. When we can honestly say we love every part of ourselves, we will automatically stop judging others. It is then that we realise, we are all perfect in spirit and doing the best we can in this human existence with the programmes we have been given in childhood. When we can just accept without judgement, we really start to understand the term inner peace. It is then that we can truly forgive others for the wrongs we think they have done to us — often becoming the cause of lifelong pain and eventually illness or disease of our physical body.

Time to meditate :By meditating, we are nurturing our body, mind and spirit. If we spend 20 minutes every day in meditation, we will soon reap the rewards. We become more peaceful throughout the day and sleep more soundly at night. Things that would normally upset us start to just wash over us — the peace is too lovely for us to let these little incidents interfere with it. Anxiety and other fear-based emotions will drop away as we become aware that we are connected to the creator and the abundance of the universe, leaving us feeling safe and peaceful. Our own spiritual guidance becomes stronger and we become more in tune with our own psychic gifts.

Live in the ‘now’ : When we live for today, life becomes so much less stressful. Really, all that there is, is now. None of us even know if tomorrow will ever come, so why do we spend so much time worrying about tomorrow instead of making the most of what we know we do have and filling our days with laughter and love. If there is only now, then there is no yesterday, no past and no reason to be angry at anybody. When we can release all anger from our body we will certainly feel the benefits. Holding on the anger and unforgiveness is debilitating to our physical and emotional bodies. I read once that the most selfish thing we can ever do is to forgive. I truly understand that now, forgiveness equals freedom. If we are holding on to anger we need to work on loving ourself. If there is no tomorrow, no future, no reason to stress about bills and money, no reason to worry about what’s going to happen to. 
   By     : Lyn Nichols – an expert in the field of New Age spirituality
Source : sunday times.

            So how do thoughts affect us? Thoughts can be episodic and fleeting, or they can be recurrent, or they can become a belief. Let’s see the kind of beliefs people have:

·                    I am so plain, who will like me?

·                    Money only comes to people who are wicked and evil and who do wheeling and dealing.

·                    I will always be fat because I have fat genes and no willpower.

·                    Some people are lucky but I’m not.

·                    Life is a struggle.

A lot of you must be wondering what such esoteric ideas have to do with health. Here’s what:

Health is th final outcome of our thoughts. Many doctors struggle to heal their patients of lifestyle diseases, skin problems and allergies and find it frustrating because the patient harbours such strong fatalistic thoughts that ultimately the disease wins and the doctor loses.

We have to ultimately realize the presence of the most powerful energy in the universe – mental energy and thoughts. All thoughts about ourselves need to be watched. Are they about prosperity, health, positive relationships or they only fearful thoughts of loss of money, bad health, children who hanker after money? Thoughts are energy. Repeated thoughts become habits, habits become character and character leads to destiny.

So please be responsible about what you think.

Tag:[tag] health, habits, character, destiny, relationships, prosperity, thoughts, life style, energy, gandhi, physical pain, family, money, fat, struggle, luck [/tag]
By Shikha Sharma

Source – HT

What should you do with rest of your life? About three thousand years ago, a Jewish king named Solomon aired his opinion on the subject. As he put it, he “wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives”.
   Solomon was an interesting character, and he had a lot going for him. He was intelligent. Indeed, this sageking still has the reputation of being the “wisest man who ever lived”.
   He also had the means to do practically anything he wanted to do. In his old age, Solomon found time to reflect on his lifelong experiences. And he passed his thoughts down in writing. He starts off by telling us that everything in life is meaningless.
   “I know, because I have seen it all. You name it, I’ve done it. I not only did it, but I did it in a big time, kingly fashion. I denied myself nothing, nothing at all. But looking back on it now, I can tell you none of it amounted to a hill of beans.”
   “What do you think is worthwhile in life? The pursuit of pleasure? I had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines. I had music from men and women singers; all the wine I could drink; and a palace full of people falling all over themselves doing everything they could think of to get in my good graces.
   “Sure, it is enjoyable up to a point. But when you get everything you want whenever you want it, you quickly discover how meaningless pleasure really is.
   “Here is what I’ve learned: Whenever you seek pleasure, pleasure eludes you. The only way you may find pleasure is by seeking something else first. It could be nothing more than paying someone a sincere compliment, or giving someone a hand with an unpleasant task.
   “The idea is that when you least expect it, happiness suddenly bubbles up like a well inside of you. You don’t find pleasure; pleasure finds you. Pursuing pleasure is like chasing after the wind.
   “If not pleasure, then what? Wealth? Do you think you should dedicate your life to the pursuit of wealth? I had houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit trees, reservoirs watering groves of trees, slaves, more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem, horses and chariots, and more silver and gold than anyone can imagine. I had it all. But if money and things could buy happiness, then I would have been the happiest man that ever lived.
   “But what did I discover? Just this: Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. A rich man doesn’t even sleep well at night. He’s too worried about his money.
   “Money has its uses, but don’t lose perspective. We were born naked, and when we die, we’re going to take with us just what we brought into this world. Whatever we acquire will be left to someone who had not worked for it.”
   If neither pleasure nor wealth are worthwhile pursuits, how about the scholarly pursuit of knowledge?
   “Oh yes, I spent a great deal of time in study. I learned everything I could about every subject under the sun. That’s how I got my reputation for wisdom. It didn’t fall out of a tree, you know. What did I find out? Only this: The more you learn, the more you discover there is to know. Even the brightest of us are ignorant of many things. Certainly, wisdom is better than foolishness, but remember, in a few years, both the wise man and the fool wind up in the grave. Before long both are forgotten.”
   So, pleasure, wealth, and knowledge all have limited value. What’s left? Work? “Yes, I worked. I built houses, planted vineyards, gardens, parks, fruit trees, and groves of trees. I delighted in my work. That was my reward.
   “Of course, it was merely a temporary ‘feel-good-about-it’ sort of thing. In the long run, all of our toil is useless. Whatever you make, you can’t take with you. And in due course, whatever we create will be torn down or destroyed and soon forgotten.”
   So, the wise man threw a wet blanket over most of the things people devote themselves to today. Then what should we do? How should we spend our brief time on earth?
   The answer is simple: “A man can do nothing better than to eat, drink and find satisfaction in work. Enjoy life with the one you love. Be happy and do good as long as you live. Whatever you do, do it with all the might because you never know when life might end.
   “While we are young, enjoy life as much as possible. But don’t forget, God will judge everything we do. The years slip by quickly. Infants turn into youths, youths into adults, adults into middle age, and middle age into old age. It doesn’t take long at all.
   “All too soon, the troubles and afflictions of age sap the strength and weaken the mind. Then death calls your number and body returns to the ground from where it came, and soul returns to God who gave it.”
   Solomon concludes his advice with this warning: “God will bring every deed into judgment including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked.”
   Has Solomon’s 3,000-year-old advice stood the test of time?
   Some things have changed. Primarily, we have more gadgets these days than they had back in his time. But our basic choices remain the same. We can dedicate our lives to pleasure, money or possessions, or knowledge, or work. Then again when we reflect on the brevity of life, the certainty of death, and the promise of judgment, we might decide Solomon knew what he was talking about.
   But what about God judging the good and wicked? The moral law certainly implies that God cares about us, what we do with our lives, and the choices we make. Also our longing for justice, often frustrated in this life, leads us to believe, we will get whatever we are due in the world to come.
   By the end of the book, Solomon reaches a different conclusion: Life has a point after all. Our sojourn can best be described as a sort of boot camp or school of hard knocks. We are here to learn. Learn what? Learn that pleasures, money, possessions, knowledge, and work all have only limited value. None of these pursuits should be the focal point of our lives.
   Our primary task is to develop character, that is, a certain type of character. Earth, we discover, is nothing more than a large training centre for character. Those who graduate have learned their lessons on: fair play, unselfishness, humility, courage, faithfulness, honesty, truthfulness, and treating others with respect.

 By : Jerry Boone

Source : sunday times