My Ideal Writing Session

There are moments when writing is smooth and fascinating. Everything seems to flow smoothly and beautifully. The urge to put down my ideas in words is so strong, that the words just flow continuously; non-stop. I end the session with a smile in my face right from my heart. A content and full filling feelings in my heart.

I remember that moment clearly in my mind. I was sitting alone peacefully in front of my computer. Sitting up straight, comfortably and feel relax. The room was not completely quiet, but quiet enough to get me in the mood of writing. I have a subject in my mind to write about. I type the title, and begin the journey, point to point as it emerge in my mind. I keep on tapping my fingers on the keyboard without looking back at what I have wrote. Just keep on writing until I have no more point to elaborate. This is when I go back to my first word in the first  paragraph, read what I have wrote, correct the syntax and spelling here and there, fine tune it  until I'm satisfied.

If more ideas come in, I'll repeat the process until all is laid down satisfactorily. Once done I'll read it over and over again, word by word until I'm happy with it. Then I'll just leave it and continue with my other tasks peacefully and happily. Cheers!

Simplify!

When you feel overwhelmed, or life have become complicated, one simple advice would be to simplify. What is simplify anyway? It's like a magic word that can turn your life the other way round: from chaotic to calm, from busy to more free time, from rushing to relax.

Simplify, as it may sound is to make things simpler. How do you do that?

1. Keep or have only the necessary things in life
2. Focus on one small step at a time
3. Take the smallest number of steps to accomplish your task
4. Just make it satisfyingly good enough, because perfection tends to make things complicated
5. Do less in a day but with full conscious and enjoyment
6. Remove the clutter in your mind; the past and the future. Just focus on the present moment and enjoy it

Try it, and may peace be with you.

Let your mind breathe the freshness of the moment

Have you ever catch yourself smiling alone reminiscing the past? Or feeling sad or down due to some event in the past? I'm sure everyone of us has experienced that once in a while. Sometimes you get drifted away from your present, that you missed out what is going on  around you. The story you have just read, the tv program you have just watch before, the chat you had with your friends recently, they just come and go without warning or without you realizing it.

How does these memories and pictures of the past affects your daily life? A playback of a scene in an entertaining comedy you have just watch earlier might change your mood to happier mood, while a sad or a mystery story might leave you feeling sad or confused. But one thing for sure, it took you away from your present moment. One sign is, you suddenly can't remember what you have done and what you have not done. If you are sitting with a group of people, you seem to have lost connection even if you are physically there. Your time just passed by without you realizing it. And worse it eats up your energy, when you keep on repeating doing the same thing without realizing it. You seem to have lost your senses. You're watching the tv in front of you but you did not see it. You are listening  to a conversation but you didn't hear what they are talking about. You're eating your food but you doesn't taste it. You're washing the dishes, but you didn't feel the water flowing or the stickiness or the oily sense on the surface of the plates. You're sitting in a park surrounded by plants and flowers but you just couldn't smell the freshness and fragrance of the flowers and plants around you. What a waste of time and energy!

If the program you're watching is from a video player you might rewind the player, when suddenly you find you have lost track of the story. If you are listening to the conversation of your friends, you might suddenly popped out a stupid or irrelevant question to them, ending up being laughed at. If the food you're eating was tasty, everyone else praises how tasty the food was, except you because you forgot to taste it. It just went through your throat without you realizing it. You might have completed your dish washing, but to your amazed, there are still food sticking on the dishes here and there. You might end up washing them again.  If the park you were sitting in was beautiful, then it's too bad you didn't have the chance to enjoy and appreciate it.

What has passed, is past and gone. Be aware of what you have in your mind. Stop your thinking if what your have in your mind is the past. Don't let it decays in your mind, even though it is a sweet moment that's refreshing, it will get rotten in your mind if you keep on playing it. Just stop it there and then, when you catch yourself reminiscing. Clear your mind and enjoy your five senses in the presence of your soul. Refresh your mind with moment to moment experience.

Back to your origin

I always longing for that sense of peacefulness and serenity when I perform my prayer. Sometimes I tried hard to  be there, which feels like heaven, but it doesn't seem to be the way I want it to be. Lately, I try to connect with my soul every moment I could. Life is more peaceful. Tasks, workouts or whatever I do seems to be more alive, peaceful, energized and inspired. Then when I do my prayer I try to practice what I have learned; always connect to my soul and it works. I am finally there. The serenity feelings!

Then I started to ponder why life is so chaotic today. With technology, daily routines are more convenient than ever, entertainment is everywhere and yet people tend to be more crazy and crazier every day. Now I know why. The more you are further from your soul, your origin, the more chaotic your life will be. The technology and entertainment, tend to put our focus away from our soul. The internet, blackberry and ipod makes our mind busy wandering away, further from our soul. Sometimes, we are just lost in a different world in our mind that we forget our physical existence and ignore what is around us.  I'm not saying that we should be back to our ancestor primitive life. No! Though it seems a more environment friendly kind of lifestyle.  Just accept what is, go with the flow, but one important thing, wherever or however you go with the flow, tie yourself tightly to your soul. Your life will be more guided and meaningful.

So, whatever you do or whatever condition you  are in, just feel yourself rooted to your soul every moment, and act from that source. Life will be full of peace and serenity. Beautiful!

Be better than I used to be, not better than anyone else

"Be better than I used to be, not better than anyone else". I always say this to myself whenever I feel envious of somebody else's life. God has His own way of being fair and square. Identify you own weaknesses, accept it and do something to improve it. Make yourself better then you used to be. Life is not a race. You cannot be better than someone else, because each of us is different and we live in different circumstances. Believe me! God is being fair to everyone of us. Its how we help ourself  that makes the difference. So be appreciative and help yourself to be a better person.

We do not have the rights to judge others. Their life is what is, accept it. Instead, be aware of you own life as you are subjected to God's judgement. Life is short to be wasted on jealousy, hatred and arrogance. Let God guide you through your soul. Your life will be full of love and gratitude.

Be Like Water

Have you observed a flowing water? May it be the one in your decorative garden, or the one in the fish pond, or maybe in the waterfall you visited somewhere. Have you ever sense the peacefulness of its being? In essence, water by itself is clean, transparent, and tends to flow whenever it can. The water that flows downhill usually come from a source under the ground. It is pure and clean. As it flows, it encounters many obstacles, such as rocks, stones, sand and tree roots. Sometimes the soil, dried leaves and other small particles that come in its way, follows the flow and sometimes get stuck somewhere and just stop its journey there. But the water it still keep on flowing, encountering more and more things. That's the beauty of water! Keep on flowing no matter what comes in its way.

That's how life should be. Life is a journey like a flowing water. As long as you keep on flowing, you will be useful and benefit others. Whatever comes into your life, may it be pleasant, depressing, cheering, irritating, lovely or touching, it colors your life, just like the soil, the leaves, sand or dirt that flows with the water. But a flowing water will soon cleans up itself as it keeps on flowing, and shapes the stones and the rocks gently, as it passes them over time. Whatever the obstacles are, water always find its way through, to keep on flowing.

Flowing water helps cleans up whatever it passes by, may it be clothes, hands, or utensils that people wash in a flowing water. And in turn cleans up itself as it flow through nature.

Below I lists lessons that we can learn from a flowing water:

• Be gentle to whatever comes into your life.
• Always find your way out, not by struggling or fighting, but by accepting the present of the obstacles and find alternatives to keep on going
• Be open to whatever that comes in your way and let it be as it is
• Be valuable, by benefiting others gently as you pass by their life
• When you are feeling down, sad, depressed or anxious, move on with your life from moment to moment gently, and you will soon be back to your pure soul; peaceful and clean. Don't be like a stagnant water; living in your past, letting those negatives feelings colors your life forever.

Happy flowing!

What life is all about

We are born into this world, fresh and innocent. The first person we know is our care taker, may it be our parents, grandparents, foster parents, whoever take care and love us as who we are. From them we learn to be a human being just like others. We learn to communicate properly, eat properly, walk properly and behave properly.  In short we learn the basic of humanity from them.

As we grow older, we learn more. We interact with more people and begin to learn something from them too. We begin to form habits, establish what we like and what we don't. And when we grow up into adult, we try to establish who we are. What career we want to hold, what kind of lifestyle we want to have, what kind of status, entitlement we want to have, what are the things we want to posses. That's how we were brought up. Be somebody. Earn all the luxury in life while you are here in this world. Life is short. Be the best among the best.

As a consequence, all our life, we fight, we struggle, we do whatever we can to reach at the top. As we meet people and learn about their life, their success and failure, we envy their success, we tried hard to avoid failure. Our life become a race. When we win, we are happy, when we lose, we feel frustrated. Life becomes a struggle.  We sometimes exhausted, depressed, pressured. But what can we do, that's the purpose of our life. The purpose that we set, our parents set, our communities set.

Looking at life in different perspective can change your life. It is ok to be different as long as your are making the best out of your life. When we were in our mother's womb, we are well taken care of. Everything we need is there for us. We need not to worry. We let it be as it is. But when we were born nine months later, our life changes, there's a lot of intervention from out care taker whoever they are. Our life is shaped and colored by them. And when we grow up, and old enough to be independent, we take over our life thinking our future is all in our hands. What a big mistake!

We were well taken care of by God when we were in our mother's womb, but when we were born, our care taker interferes a lot in our life, then when we are adult, we ourselves trying hard to take control of our life. Little do we realize, that we have edge God out. We think we have the power to shape our destiny. We fight, we race to make it happen. In the struggle, some of us lose our mind, we even lose ourselves. We do whatever it takes to be at the top. Some of us manage to be there. Others failed. We become depressed when we fail. Some of us suffer mental problem, others involve in social problems. For the one who succeeded to be at the top,  the pleasure and fame does not last. They feel pressured to maintain their status, their title, their wealth, etc. They fight and struggle to maintain who they think they are. Eventually, life is not as beautiful as they thought it would be. The race never ends.

Have we ever ask ourself, why we want to be in this race? Is it worth it? No! Your life may look good to others who are on their way to the top, but you the one who is living it, do you feel peace, do you enjoy almost every moment of your life? Fear of being tumbled down, fear of losing your possession, fear of loosing your title and status. Hardship in facing your rivals. It's beautiful outside, but not inside. This what happen when we are living in ego. We think our possession, our status is who we are. And when we lose one of them, we feel like we are losing ourself.

On the other hand, let go ego and let God do the rest. We started as a sacred soul, doing nothing and letting God guide our path. We have no worries, no pain, when we were in our mothers's womb because we let God be there in our life. But when we are out in this world, we let ego take over our life. We edge God out. Instead of listening to God, we listen to our ego. Ego leads us to false happiness, while God leads us to a true ever lasting happiness.

Every person in this world has a purpose. God created each one of us with a purpose. To pursue our purpose, we have to let God guide us. Live our life with virtues and listen to our inner self all along the way to get guidance from God. Respect everyone you meet, no matter who they are. Everyone deserve respect from others because each of us is a divine spirit, no matter what we accumulate in this world. Be sincere in whatever you do. Nothing is more beautiful than a task done with a true pure heart. No intention to gain or to lose, but to just do it the best we can and to be valuable to others. No cheating, just be true to yourself and others, because God is always there every second watching you. Be kind to everyone who enters your life. A simple and sweet act such as a smile can spread peacefulness to others and in turn shape smile in theirs faces. Be supportive and ready to serve others. Surrender yourself to God, and focus on how you can help others. Whatever goes out will come back to us. So if we respect others, sincere, be kind to others and always serving others, God will make sure that you will get it back, usually in unexpected manner. The point here is to put yourself in the hands of God, and live life peacefully, by doing good deeds for others.

In this world, not all people are nice and kind. God created all kinds of people to teach us to be patience. When we meet unpleasant people, we accept they are as they are. Do not judge because it is not our right to judge others. But always remember to evaluate ourself as we are subjected to God's judgement. Forgive them and forget about it. And you will be at peace again.

Always start our day with gratitude. Thank God for another beautiful day. It will be a beautiful day if we decide it to be one. Be thankful for whatever comes into your life. Love others without condition. Fill your heart with love. What others do to you does not affect you, what affects you is how you respond to the situation. How you respond depends on what is inside you. If you heart and soul is full of love, then your response will be lovely. But if your heart is full of hatred, bad expectation, and negativity, then your response will be ugly. Think about it.

And finally ends your day with self evaluation, learn from it, and decide how you can improve. Sleep deeply by being your soul.