Believing.. to Knowing..

Would you ever say "I believe that there is air around me"? It would sound really stupid, isn’t it? You know that there is air on this planet, all around you. You can feel it even if you can’t see it. What is the need for 'believing' in something which you know already exists? That explains the difference between believing and knowing.

When we keep saying that we are a strong believer of God, or that we believe in something, raise a Question within - Do we really know, or are we trying hard to push something into us, which we find hard to accept? Are we conditioned to accept these beliefs without questioning, at the subconscious level?

Ms.Anita Moorjani, the author of the bestseller Dying to be Me, talks about moving from a plane of Belief to a plane of Knowing.  Her life experience helped her to move into a state of Knowing - that even terminal illnesses like cancer cannot dominate over you if you don't allow it to! Isn't that a great feeling? -  to experience and know the Higher Power within us and around us, which is much more powerful than what we can otherwise perceive or comprehend?

Bible says: “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
I kept wondering for many years.. mustard seed is so small.. isn't my belief even that big? What did Jesus actually mean when he said this? I got my answer from one of my friends few years back - Examine a mustard seed - it has a thin skin covering it. The mustard seed occupies the entire space within its outer cover, that it is almost impossible to separate it out. Well, that explains it! What Jesus meant was actually the completeness of our belief. If we totally believe in something, without even a tiny fraction of doubt, nothing is impossible for us.

Our mind is a powerful resource available at our disposal. More than often, we become a slave of it, even without being aware of it. When the mind gets into an autopilot mode, it is very powerful, and can drive us crazy - making us live in the past, and making us fear the future. Get into the driver seat and switch off the autopilot. Let us make ourselves some free space within us, and remove all the clutter, so that we can make it work to our advantage. The journey from 'believing' to 'knowing' can start only then!

Miracles happen in life, only if we allow them to. In fact, if our mind is able to comprehend an idea, it is no longer a miracle. Few hundred years back, electricity (and its current applications) was a miracle that majority of the population may have found difficult to comprehend. Yet, someone in the crowd knew that it was possible, conceived and processed it in their mind, and finally materialized it into the physical world. It is no longer a miracle to the mankind, but just another phenomenon based on the laws of physics.

Healing our physical bodies using the knowledge that each of us are much beyond the physical bodies, and that healing within(mind/subconscious) leads to healing without (the physical body), again is perceived as a miracle now. It may not be too far into the future, where this might also become just a normal phenomenon. This however needs our consciousness to move into the state of knowing that such a healing is possible, even without the support of medications. And with more such miracles happening, it will slowly stop being a miracle.

One of the easiest manifestation of thoughts that I have experienced is through ‘pimples’ on my face. Whenever I think about pimples, I almost always end up having them on my face the next morning! Since they are considered unclean/anti-beauty elements on the face, I too carry many of those pimple/scar removing face creams with me. However, on few occasions, I have taken the action of not applying the cream on my pimples, knowing that I have the healing power within me. And whenever that action-cum-belief was because of ‘knowing’, I have experienced complete healing – the next day, the pimple vanished. But whenever I was trying hard to push that belief into me, it hasn’t worked, even though there was an associated action of not applying the cream.

The knowing matters, and just believing doesn’t get us too far. And whenever an action was taken with definite knowledge of the result, miracles have always happened!

Gratitude - the Ultimate therapy

Let us monitor the thoughts that pre-occupy our mind most of our waking hours. What sort of thoughts dominate our minds all day? Thoughts related to the differences we have with the people around us, I would say! Be it personal or professional. Or, there could be worries related to the imaginary situations that we create for ourselves (Instead, shouldn't this creativity be used on something more productive?). We often think that the people around us are our enemies, always trying to hurt us, or waiting to take advantage of us in all possible ways. We feel no one can be trusted - maybe it is a learning from our past experiences. We think we need to keep ourselves armed (mentally, more than physically), ready to defend the behaviors and verbal attacks coming from the people around us. Within our homes, we feel our spouses are being too mean, parents and in-laws do not even treat us as humans, our children do not give us the respect we deserve after all the pains we have taken in bringing them up. At work it is even more challenging, with our bosses trying to squeeze out every bit out from us, and the peers trying to stab at our back if we are not alert.

In the mist of all these thoughts, how do we find peace? How do we live a satisfying life? The mentally ill people who we see on the roads, blabbering things - how different are we to them? Only that they tell out things innocently, but we have to silently suffer all these thoughts going on within us! How can we even relax for a few minutes? Our mind keeps pouring in with all the suggestions which is perceived to help us. Some of these suggestions we think are very comforting, giving us satisfaction at the possibility of getting a score over our 'enemies'. We feel elated for a few minutes devouring pleasure from these scoring thoughts, but that is all what it lasts for. The endless loop of worries and anxiety still continues, and we feel drained out by the end of the day, not even getting a peaceful sleep at the end of it all.

How can we put an end to these endless cycle of worries that we have to go through every day? The numerous experiences I have gained from my life have taught me that Gratitude and Love are the sure-shot magic bullets that can take out all our worries. In fact both gratitude and love originate from the same feeling; they are inseparable. For each and every worry that we have, the prescription is to identify and invoke a feeling of Gratitude and Love that can free us from this worry!

Whenever we catch ourselves worrying about something (yes, we need to be alert and check what is going on in there as frequent as possible!), stop for a moment. My secret weapon to stop my thoughts has always been the Question - "So What?". This really helps me to anchor myself back in the present - take me away from the past and future. The present moment has the power to stop our endless worries. Take a moment to look at the beautiful things around us. Aren’t they all perfect? - the trees, the clouds, the wind that is gently soothing us. Being at that place to enjoy the beauty around us is truly a great blessing, isn't it? Be grateful for the good things we are in possession at this moment. Whatever we are worrying about is just a possibility. Why don't we deal with it when it is required? Believe and know that we will be equipped the best way to deal with the problems at the right moment.

What about the people in our life? People's behavior are often situational, and is transaction based. One instance - maybe a behavior, or a word, need not define who the person actually is. Think about the stress that person maybe going through which made him/her react in the way that hurt us. What about the numerous instances which had earlier made us enjoy his/her company? Be grateful for those moments. Be willing to give people around us a ‘break’ that they deserve. Don't we also face such situations which make us go past our limits and hurt others?

Love and Gratitude will always come to our rescue, whenever we allow it to. It is the power we have within us, the one we can use to turn things around, in our favor, always at our disposal. We can be liberated from the un-necessary worries if we just decide to take help from these powerful feelings, that we already are in possession. There has not been a single exception when this hasn't worked – try it out for yourself. If the entire universe works on this principle, who are we to defy it?

Hard to stick to your Resolutions?

New Year has been the time to take new resolutions since ages. Seldom does all our enthusiasm and excitement last more than a few weeks though. As days pass, we regret having taken the resolutions and find many logical reasons why our resolution was not practical. We blame ourselves for having to go through the trauma of feeling guilty!

These two acts – 1) Not adhering to the resolution, which would have definitely helped us do better in life (of course, that is what resolutions are all about), and 2) regrets, guilty feeling and self-pity over not being able to meet them - has a double impact on our lives. We are depriving ourselves of something good in our life, and on top of it, we feel guilty that we cannot stick to our own resolutions. No resolutions is therefore, definitely better than breaking it after we take one.

How can we stick to these resolutions? Rephrasing it better, why should we stick to our resolutions?

Resolutions can stay longer only if we love ourselves. Love ourselves because God created us perfect. Whatever reasons we have now for not being able to love ourselves, we created them over our life time. Look for the perfections that we see in us. Thank the Creator for the blessings we have received with absolutely no effort or contribution from our side. List down the good things we know about our character, our physical wellness. There are multitudes of people around us who are suffering much more than us. Begin the year with heartfelt gratitude for the blessings we have taken for granted all these years. This love for our own self, this feeling of gratitude will definitely help us realize our own worth. This will help us realize the responsibility we have been given – responsibility of taking care of our body, our mind, our soul, our family, our relations, our finances and so on. Resolutions, hence will be more of a responsible behavior, and we will feel better being able to meet them day after day, week after week and so on. They become our second nature, just because we love ourselves!

What is the feeling we experience when we think about any resolution we have taken in the past? Is it something similar to the feeling when someone punishes us? Is it similar to being asked to do something that we don’t want to, and feel being forced into? Well, identifying the reason for your resolution, which is the love for yourself, or your loved ones will help us change this feeling. Love is capable of expelling all the negative feelings, and lifting us into a higher realm. Resolutions have to be associated with a feeling of love.

Imagine that we have taken a resolution of doing an activity, say, physical exercises, every day. What happens if we break the routine for a day or a week? Getting back into the routine is often the hardest part, harder than beginning the first time. We then get into the negative feeling of guilt and self-blame. Instead, just pat ourselves on the back and appreciate our dedication and commitment over the last few days or weeks. Accept that it is OK not being able to do what you actually wanted to do. You can always get back to your routine, just because you love doing it. There is no need for self-pity or guilty feeling. Revisit the ‘reasons’ for your resolution again and again, if you find psychological blocks within you. You deserve all the good things in life; nothing can stop you from who you want to be; no one else can decide for you. You are your own boss.

GO FOR IT!