Simple and Practical Ways to Live a Better life

    hold fast

     

    • Listen to the promptings of the heart a little more, and listen to the complaints of the mind a little less.

      • O my mind,
      You talk too much!
      Do follow my heart
      That lives in silence.

      – Sri Chinmoy

    • Value Inner Peace above all other desires. – If we have inner peace we will be content no matter how many material possessions we have.
    • Be a good listener. Don’t always talk about Yourself.
    • Don’t expect from other people. If you expect from other people you will be disappointed at some time.
    • Be willing to do things without demanding recognition. It is only the ego that wants recognition.
    • Think of others more than you think of yourself. Self-giving is the secret of happiness.
    • Avoid acting or speaking when angry or upset. If you wait your mood will improve and you will avoid regretting it later.
    • Be Tolerant of Others. People are trying in their own way to do the right thing.
    • Don’t try and do two things at once. If you are with someone, give your whole attention to them, – don’t be planning how to pay your gas bill.
    • Don’t Try to Impress Others. There is no need.

      • “When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”

      – Lao Tzu Continue reading “Simple and Practical Ways to Live a Better life”

    Positive Thinking: Its Benefits and Limitations

    pink sky

    We often hear the mantra that positive thinking is a key to our success and happiness. – It is true that thoughts are of crucial importance in shaping experiences in our life. But, what do we actually mean by positive thinking? When is positive thinking helpful and when is it a hindrance?

    What Positive Thinking is Not.

    1. Expecting that thoughts alone can bring success.

    Good thoughts are important for success. But, Edmund Hilary didn’t climb Mount Everest, just by thinking about it. Combine positive thinking by taking practical steps. Don’t just dream – Act.

    2. Ignoring our Weaknesses

    We need to develop self confidence and belief in our capacities. But, this should not be mistaken for pride and arrogance. If we feel that we are always right, this is a real mistake. This is not so much positive thinking as arrogant wishful thinking. We need to combine self-confidence with a quiet humility.

    3. Expecting People will Behave in a Certain Way

    Positive thinking should not assume that we can change someone’s nature just through positive thoughts. We should avoid magnifying people’s weaknesses, but, it is a mistake to feel that we can change someone’s nature through positive thinking. In practise we will always be disappointed. Positive thinking can be used to offer goodwill to others, but, do not expect fundamental change from others.

    4. Desire for Great Riches through positive Thinking

    George Bernard Shaw said there are 2 tragedies in life “One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it” If we feel positive thinking is repeating a mantra like ” I will be rich, i will have loads of money” – Maybe we will get money; but, is this what will give us abiding satisfaction? Positive thinking should be used for our self improvement and not our self aggrandizement

    Continue reading “Positive Thinking: Its Benefits and Limitations”

    What is Personal Development?

    blue boat

    Personal development is our conscious self-improvement and self-transcendence. It is the aspiration to realise our higher self

    The process of Personal development involves several aspects:

    • Transcending our Negative Qualities.

    We all have negative qualities such as pride, anger and doubt. Personal development is a conscious effort to reduce and minimise these qualities by focusing on the positive aspects of life.

    • Controlling Our Thoughts.

    Control of our thoughts is essential for our own development. If we allow ourselves to be at the mercy of our own thoughts, we cannot hope to minimise our negative qualities and bring our good qualities to the fore. Meditation is the best way to cultivate a silent mind.

    • Self-Transcendence.

    Self-Transcendence is the art of going beyond our own self-imposed limitations. This means we aspire to reach new goals and not to be satisfied with what we were in the past.

    • Intuition.

    Personal development means we learn to listen to the inner voice – our inner pilot. The messages of our inner voice can only be heard with a silent mind. This inner inspiration comes not from our ego, but our Soul.

    Continue reading “What is Personal Development?”

    10 Effective Ways To Clear Out Your Clutter

    Japanese Garden

    Is your workplace is surrounded by useless stuff and clutter that you find difficult to get rid of? If you have been planning to unclutter your room, these are some tips to make sure you can actually do it.

    1. Do I need it? Is it Beautiful?

    Do you really need the item? Is the item of intrinsic beauty? Even by just asking these questions we can help to decide whether we really need it. The problem is that often we accumulate things, without questioning whether we really need them. Go through each item, if you cannot justify its use then get rid without any qualms.

    2. Start with Nothing and add only what you need.

    Another very effective way to remove unnecessary clutter is to start from scratch. Rather than looking at things to throw away, imagine the room was completely bare, and then only add what you really need. This is a great way to decide whether a thing is of practical importance or just there out of habit.

    3. Beauty in Simplicity

    To get rid of clutter you should try and keep in your mind a vision of a better alternative. If you have something to aspire for, it will become much easier to throw things away. If you really value the beauty of simplicity then it will be effortless to make this a reality. Look at catalogues of dream houses, in these “show piece settings” you won’t see piles of old newspapers, unwashed coffee cups and piles of dirty laundry.

    4. Don’t be Overly Sentimental.

    Do you really need to keep your school notes from Grade 5? – It’s not as if you were any good at Maths anyway. Unless you are likely to reread elementary geometry in the next 12 months, you can probably chuck out these painful memories of old school days. This doesn’t mean you have to throw everything away. Do keep things of great sentimental value, but don’t feel guilty about not keeping everything.

    5. Choose top 10 Items

    If you have difficulty throwing ornamental things away, why not try making a list of just your favourite top 7 or top 3 items? This forces you to be ruthless and only keep the things that you really want.

    Continue reading “10 Effective Ways To Clear Out Your Clutter”

    How To Gain Control of Your Own Thoughts

    setting-sun

    Quite often we find ourselves with many negative thoughts going through our mind. These trains of thoughts can become very powerful as we endlessly repeat them in our mind. The problem is that that the more we focus on the thoughts, the more powerful they become. Therefore, it can become very difficult to stop these endless cycles of thoughts.

    However, it is definitely possible and these are a few tips to control our thoughts.

    1. Make a conscious decision to Stop the thoughts

    The problem is that sometimes we attach ourselves to certain ideas and problems, and we subconsciously get a kind of pleasure from going through a certain problem / issue. If we subconsciously keep inviting the thoughts, we will never be able to stop them. Therefore, the first stage is to make a clear and conscious decision to stop the repetition of the thoughts. Be aware of their negative impact and don’t allow them to come any more. This conscious step is an indispensable stage in controlling our thoughts.

    2. Look upon the Thoughts as being Outside of yourself.

    When we first try to stop the thoughts, it seems very difficult because they feel such a strong part of our mind. Therefore, the second stage is to feel that the thoughts are separate to our self. When a thought appears in your mind, look upon the thought as coming from outside yourself. This is a very powerful way to reduce the impact of thoughts on our mind. Once we realise our thoughts are separate to ourselves it becomes possible to stop them.

    3. Who is it who listens to thoughts?

    This is a technique to try and discover the origination of your thoughts. Whenever a thought appears, just ask yourself, who is it who is thinking this? What we do is to try and discover the source of thoughts. Through asking this question we realise that there is an “I” which can decide to accept or reject thoughts. By asking this question we will be able to stop the thoughts as soon as they enter. You are not a victim of your own thoughts, it is you who either rejects or gives life to thoughts.

    4. Catch thoughts as soon as they appear.

    This exercise requires a determined effort on our part. We need to be vigilant and watch every thought that enters our mind. As soon as we see a negative thought enter, we must immediately discard it and refuse to follow it. The more we follow thoughts, the more difficult it becomes to stop them later. Therefore, it is best to catch them as soon as possible.

    Continue reading “How To Gain Control of Your Own Thoughts”

    Best of September at Sri Chinmoy Inspiration

    Welcome to new readers, and thanks for subscribing to our RSS feed. These are some selected articles from Sri Chinmoy Inspiration and from other sites in September:


    Other Recommended Articles

    How to Avoid Procrastination

    allsouls

    Procrastination

    “To delay and put off doing what could be done now, especially out of habitual carelessness or laziness. Often associated with feelings of guilt.”

    To some extent we all engage in procrastination, but, if we are not careful, procrastination can easily become a habit that we are not even aware of. Yet, when we procrastinate we in a state of limbo; neither enjoying a period of relaxation or gaining the satisfaction of achieving something.

    Why do We procrastinate?

    The first reason we procrastinate is that we aim for perfection, but feel this perfection is not possible for us to achieve. Because we want to attain perfection, we feel it is justified for us to wait until we are in a better frame of mind, or circumstances are more favourable. However, when we wait for circumstances to be “just right” we may never start at all. Related to this aim of perfection is the fear of failure, or fear of living upto our high expectations. Subconsciously we do not want to start, because we feel we will be embarrassed or let down by our achievements. This fear of failure can be exacerbated by concerns over what others may think. Therefore, rather than risk disappointment, we put off doing the task at all. Another reason for procrastination, is that we prefer to do things that are easier and more enjoyable. Procrastination is often most serious when we are completing our academic studies; there are many more enjoyable things to do than write essays. Procrastination is made even easier when we are working on the internet. Technology like the internet, gives us many options to spend time without much effort. Therefore, we can easily spend time, surfing the internet and checking email; these tasks are much less effort than doing something productive.

    Continue reading “How to Avoid Procrastination”

    Finding Time For Relaxation

    morning fog

    We can easily spend 8 hours a day working, yet to find just 30 minutes for our own relaxation can seem very difficult. Many beginners to meditation state that a big difficulty is finding time to meditate. However, if we really want to do something – we can make time. Here are a few suggestions for finding time for meditation or a moment of relaxation.

    1. Create Your Own Time.

    If we wait until we have done everything else and then meditate, we will always be struggling to find time. The best way to create time is to set a fixed time for the specific purpose of our own meditation. This can be for 15 minutes or it can be for half an hour. The important thing is that we will see this time as non negotiable. Other things can always wait. The advantage of a certain fixed time, for our own personal development, is that we will feel relaxed in this time. We will know that during this period there will be no other demands on our time. This is essential to creating a feeling of relaxation. Work out a suitable time for creating your own space and time. You may find that early in the morning is very conducive to meditation.

    2. Don’t Do Things Twice.

    How often do we find ourselves watching the same news on two different occasions? If you watch the news on several different times and then read the same items on the internet we are gaining nothing extra but just wasting our time. This principle can be used for many different scenarios. The important thing is that we avoid going over the same ground twice. If you have checked your email half an hour ago, there is no need to do it again.

    3. Get Up Early.

    Morning is the best part of the day, but, it is easy to waste it – lying in bed for longer than necessary. Often we get up early in the week, but, then sleep in at the weekend. However, there is no reason to lose time, just because it is the weekend. Dozing in bed does not make us less tired – even if our mind likes us to think so. Make a determined effort to get up earlier and maintain a regular time for every day. The secret to successful sleeping is to get into a pattern of getting up early and then sticking to it.

    Continue reading “Finding Time For Relaxation”

    10 Tips to Avoid Becoming Depressed

    sunset game

    Is it possible to avoid depression? What is the secret of cultivating happiness and avoiding periods of unhappiness? To a large extent, we determine our own frame of mind; we shouldn’t feel that we are a helpless victim to depression. Depression is something that we can avoid by cultivating the opposite – happiness.

    Here are some tips for avoiding depression

    1. Offer goodwill to Others.

    If we seek to make others miserable how can we expect to be happy ourselves? If we offer goodwill to other people this creates a powerful positive energy. Focusing on other people’s good qualities can definitely help improve our own state of mind. There is a principle that what we give out, we get back. Therefore, by offering positive energy to, at some time, we will also be the recipient.

    2. Learn to Detach from Thoughts

    Thoughts play a very significant role in determining our state of mind. If we pursue negative thoughts then we give them greater power and influence over our state of being. However, it is possible to decide which thoughts to allow and which to reject. We have to learn to be vigilant and prevent negative thoughts from taking hold. As soon as we become aware of negative thoughts we should let go of them. We can imagine that we are throwing them out of our mind into a cosmic dustbin.

    3. Keep Busy.

    If we struggle to detach from negative thoughts we should just throw ourselves into other activities. When we get involved in other activities that we enjoy it takes us out of ourselves. Activity forces us to do something constructive, and does not allow us to dwell on our depressed state of mind.

    4. Avoid Feelings of guilt.

    If we have made a mistake, harbouring feelings of guilt will not help alleviate the situation. In particular, we are seeking to avoid feelings of guilty for minor events of no significance. Often we have done nothing wrong, but, others seek to make us feel guilty for their bad fortune. Instead of feeling guilty we should seek to concentrate on doing the right thing.

    5. Live a Balanced Life.

    In life we need to make room for different aspects. If we focus all our time and energy on work then we will have no time for relaxation and cultivating other aspects of our life. If we pursue an unbalanced life unhappiness is more likely to occur.

    Continue reading “10 Tips to Avoid Becoming Depressed”

    How to Deal With Problems

    man on beach

    Problems cannot be avoided in everyday life. When we do not have difficulties, the human mind has a tendency to create extra problems. To deal with problems that arise we should not seek to avoid them. We need to look at them as an opportunity to improve our nature. By overcoming problems we can strengthen our will and learn valuable lessons.

    Here are some tips for dealing with problems:

    1. Don’t Feel Miserable

    The existence of a problem does not mean we should feel miserable or guilty. True, the problem may be the result of our previous mistakes, but, regretting the past will not help us deal with the issue at hand. Also, quite often problems arise through no fault of our own. To feel guilty for problems created by others is to make a double mistake.

    2. Opportunity not a Problem

    Often what we see as a problem is really an opportunity to learn something or overcome a certain weakness. We will never invite problems into our life, but if we are able to have the right attitude we realise that by overcoming them we can learn something quite valuable.

    Our goal is not to have
    A problem-free life.
    But to conquer all the problems
    As they appear
    Along our life-road.

    Source: No Unreachable Goal, by Sri Chinmoy

    3. Be Resolute

    If the problem is stemming from other people, we have to be steadfast in not allowing the problem to enter into us. We should try to build an invisible barrier to stop the negativity entering into us. For example, if others are very stressed, they will subconsciously try to pass their anxieties onto us. If we are not strong these anxieties will enter into us. However, if we can detach ourselves from their worries and stress we will remain unaffected.

    “Courage consists in equality to the problem before us.”

    – Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Continue reading “How to Deal With Problems”