Intention is powerful. Everything that we do begins with an intention. How we decide to live our lives is based on the intentions that we have. We can become acutely aware of our intention and whether it is wholesome or unwholesome by practicing mindfulness of our thoughts, and what motivates us to do what we do.
Many ancient traditions realize the power that intention has in shaping our reality. Qigong masters proclaim that “Qi (or chi) follows intent,” which is similar to the more popular saying, “energy flows where attention goes.” In the classic Vedic text of the Upanishads it states: “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.” Many people do not take the time to reflect on their mind and actions and ask themselves why it is that they do what they do. What is the motivating force in your life? Why do you live your life in the way that you do? Why do you think, speak, and act in the way that you do? What is your intention for life? Do you wish to improve the state of the world and benefit the lives of yourself and others? Or do you wish to only benefit yourself? Are you motivated by love or fear? Abundance or scarcity? What is your reason for living? It is important to look into our motives and determine whether our intentions are pure or impure. By recognizing what the cause of our effort is, we can decide to give up doing the things that are not really in line with our desires, and can then give our energy and intention to things that are really important. By becoming aware of the source of our efforts, we can have clarity on our path, and can hold our intentions firmly in our mind, thus giving us the energy we need to follow the path with understanding and awareness.
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1. The first thing to let go of in order to be happy is to let go of others opinions of you. We must learn to stop caring about how others perceive us because their perception is only limited to their past experiences and what they can interpret. It's simple, they aren't you, they don't understand why you do things the way you do or why you are the way you are. They also aren't in your head all day. They really can't get a good grasp on who you truly are. It's good to stop caring about this because you'll learn that no matter what you do, you'll always be judged on some way and miss interpreted. No matter how hard you try to be yourself, which really takes no effort at all, people will still see you from their own perspective. Not everyone shares the same experiences as you, not everyone has faced the same problems you have or dealt with the same problems. Let go of this and learn to see yourself in the way you wish to. At the end of the day, how you perceive yourself is all that matters.
2. The second thing you must let go of in order to be happy is to let go of the need for others acceptance. Self acceptance is very key on your journey and will take you the most far if you truly learn. To accept yourself means to be okay with all aspects of yourself. It means to love every last bit of yourself so deeply that you see no problem and if you do, you completely are okay with it which is accepting in itself. We all have the urge to want to feel apart or to "fit in", it's been deeply conditioned in us through past experiences, at least for some. The truth is, is that we really don't need others to be okay with what we're doing. Those people who don't accept you, won't do you any good in life. They serve no purpose on your journey and they really won't get you anywhere, only slow you down and keep you stagnant if you choose to listen. The people that accept you, will show it and those are the ones who you should listen to. But overall, you need to accept yourself first and foremost. Before anyone's approval, you need your own approval. Nothing will ever feel whole if you are not feeling whole from within with what your doing. Self acceptance is one of the greatest things one can obtain and retain. 3. The third thing to let go of in order to be happy is the act of over planning for the future. Personally, too many times I have over planned for a future event and then come time for that event it doesn't happen. Then your left feeling discouraged and somewhat upset. No one wants to feel discouraged or let down. So to prevent this from happening, we need to learn to stop planning so much for the future and begin to focus solely on the present moment. Nothing besides the present moment is guaranteed. Why should you hold expectations on the future which can be changed at any moment in time. The future is never set in stone and it changes almost everyday. Train yourself to not become attached to future plans, and to only focus and value what's happening right now. The more you begin to live in the present moment, the more the future begins to not matter. It starts to almost become unreal because your so in tune with the present moment. That's the way it should be. The people who're the most happy, are the ones that are content with right now and only live in the now. Stop putting all your time and energy into something that isn't guaranteed yet. Yes planning for the may be necessary but there's a certain extent. You have to be ready for sudden changes and that comes by being at one with the present moment. When your living present, your at peace with everything that comes and goes. You don't expect anything, you just flow with what us. This will cultivate internal happiness. 4. The fourth thing to let go of in order to be happy is fear of rejection. Rejection sucks, we all know how bad it hurts to be rejected by someone or something that meant a great deal to you. But a lot of the time, after being rejected before, we start to develop a fear of rejection. We don't want to be rejected at all even though it hasn't happened yet to a point where we don't even try, take a risk to achieve it. The idea that we'll be rejected is enough to stop us from trying. That's an illusion though. It's not real and it's a false reality that we envision in our heads. We see the scenario taking place and we can already imagine ourselves being rejected so we don't even want to face it point blank or take the risk. This fear though, will hold you back from so much on your journey. You'll miss out on potential opportunities because your so worried about being rejected when it hasn't even happened yet. First is requires you to let go of the past rejections, to realize that those do not define who you are today. You have to tell yourself and believe that your a lot more than that and that it won't hold you back from the present moment. Once we can accept that we've been rejected before and be content with it, then it's time move forward. This is where you can start taking risks and going for whatever you desire because nothing in the past will hold you back. You'll believe that 100% and that's how you'll let go of that fear. 5. The fifth thing to let go of in order to be happy is expectations. When we start to make expectations in our daily life, we're already setting ourselves up for disappointment. Ive learned that its healthier to release expectations and begin to start approaching life from an open minded point of view . Start to live with a sense of exploration, have trust in the decision's you make, make the choice that feels best right now and let go of reliance. Yes, its okay have have goals for yourself but leave space in between those for new energy to flow in. Have a game plan but be willing to change routes and fully trust that path you've taken. Be willing to let go. Sometimes the less-thought choices turn out to be the best choices. Live your life knowing that deep down you will always be guided exactly where you need to be need. Life becomes more surreal and exciting when you stop expecting things and begin going with the flow of it. It gives you a sense of liveliness. These expectations distract us from the moment and in the moment is where we find true direction in our life. Expecting things to happen can lead to a destructive, unhealthy cycle. This is how it works: We believe that everything will go as planned, we become reliant on that vision and when it fails to happen the way we want, we get disappointed and angry. Whats actually best for us is to start looking within ourseleves. . We can't let these expectations distract us from finding internal fulfillment; true fulfillment. It all starts by releasing the belief that these expectations will save us. Your life is like a ride down a river. You don't quite know the destination, you only know the ride. We only know what we've experienced. But people would rather watch the river ride than experience it; jump in as to say. Life's about trusting the current your riding in now and when choosing a current, whichever looks good now. Some don't even want to jump in the river. They're too scared, too reliant that it'll go the way they planned. Ive been there. Its like you don't know what path to take and you end up not taking any path. Your just watching the river flow by. You have to have some faith and learn to jump in. Stop trying to set these expectations and just jump in. It doesn't matter where your going, at least your moving. You never know whats going to await you at the shore. Yesterday, my friend and I were getting Subway, a sub shop. While we were in there, there was a pretty decently long line and in line, there was a african american man waiting out of line. Everyone else was in line but he was waiting off to the side with only a bag of chips in his hand. After the customer before paid for his lunch, the man, who was on the side of the cashier, mentioned her and asked if he could pay for his chips real quick. He paid for the chips and his change came out of the machine. Now this is the interesting part. Since the man was not in line, he would have to reach over the whole side and counter to get the coins out of the change machine. Instead, the man who was next in line grabbed his change for him. The african american man was amazed. He responded and said "wow man thank you so much for doing that, i greatly appreciate it a lot!" He smiled brightly and you could feel his genuineness. He turned away for a second and then turned back to the man and told him "that was really awesome, one love and bless you, have a great day" and gave him a fist bump and left. I've never seen such a simple thing being done but such an appreciative and genuine reaction. It wasn't a big deal at all that he got his change for him but the man responded in a way like it was the best thing someone's done for him. It was a pure expression of a humans gratitude. You could feel the love radiating off the man. He was most definitely full internally. I couldn't help but to smile to my friend and we were so blown away by what we'd just witnessed and felt. It was truly an interesting interaction we saw. That made my day and i'm sure his day as well and it inspired me to do something nice for someone while always showing a genuine thanks to someone for a simple favor. Life.
Never confuse self-love with a big ego. The two are entirely different. A big ego requires a person to think that they are better than others and will often put others down in order to keep that perception. Yes, it looks great to see someone with self love but a lot people are using that to boost their ego. It's being misunderstood and if continues, it will only further feed your ego and you'll eventually lose sight. That isn't what self love is about. Self love means you are your own best friend and you love, accept, consider, encourage, care for, and believe in yourself. Through that, you are able to do that for others even indirectly by insipiring them to do the same. To be grateful for the gift of a lifetime means to love it; to love you 💓
Compassion is the mysterious capacity within each of us that makes it possible for suffering that is neither our own nor of our concern, to affect us as though it were. It is that instinctive and selfless insight that reveals to us the existence of our own true being in every living creature. Compassion is the tie that binds every human being to each other and to the mystery of creation. It is the common thread of all religions, meditations, and community structures. Compassion does not acknowledge the artificial social, economic, and religious barriers we place between ourselves and others. It acknowledges the common cry of human longings, aspirations, and tragedies. When a reflex reaction causes us to help a stranger, with no motivation other than that person is in need, or maybe in peril of his life, our compassion is in action. Compassion of others begins with kindness of ourselves. It means loving yourself enough to be able to give to others, unconditionally. Understanding ones suffering is an act of compassion and is one of the greatest gifts given to one. Compassion means understanding, understanding is a quality of love. If you don't have compassion, you wont understand and if you can't understand, you can't love.
A flower is a conditioned phenomenon. A flower needs a specific combination of conditions that come together to allow the flower to grow. A seed, soil, sunshine, clouds, rain, earth, a gardner, and our own conciousness. This is all that is needed in order for the flower to come to be. It is born and then it will eventually die. When we say that something is conditioned, we mean that it has to be inter connected with everything else. It cannot exist independently. When we look deeply into the heart of the flower; it's true essence, we understand that it cannot exist by itself alone. Because it does not have any independent, permanent existence, we see that it is empty of a separate self. Because the flower's true nature is of nonself and impermanence, this means that it is at the same time full of everything in the universe. When you understand the essence and beauty of a flower, you understand the whole universe deeply.
The flower is proof that everything is connected, we merely need everything that is here in this universe. Everything serves some sort of purpose to help the collective progress and grow, to help everything become it's beautiful form. Just like flowers need all this to grow, we need each other to grow, we need all of life. Look at the oneness in this universe. The universe is whole. People are like sunflowers. We all have a seed within us that requires nourishment which consists of attention and daily watering. Of course sunlight too! It is this seed that must grow in order for us to walk on a path of true love and compassion. We cannot neglect this seed, it is our prize possession; the most valuable thing in the whole universe. We must do everything we can so that it may flourish and begin to beautifully flower. It must be exposed only to light that serves purpose, that excels the growth of the sunflower seed. It may only abosrb the cleanest and purest of water. It only allows for daily watering but does not need others to help water it. This seed is our true self. This is the seed of self love. To love oneself means to water your seed daily. If you don't love yourself, that means your not doing what's best for you. You aren't working on yourself, your only forgetting about the beautiful seed inside that needs to grow. Your looking for someone else to water your plant because your scared that your water isn't pure enough. You could be scared that your water isn't enough but what you don't realize is that your water source is infinite. I once didn't love myself. I wasn't content with that I was doing. I didn't appreciate my own existence. I wasn't happy with what I giving out in life. I didn't feel whole and I looked to someone else to give me that sense of wholeness. But then that blew away. I was only left with myself. There was no other way of fulfillment, I didn't want any external fulfillment because I was so tired of being drained. It left me with the desire to find an even bigger piece inside of me. It reopened my eyes to that seed inside of me. I saw how much it's grown and I told myself I'd only move coward with it, until I was living my greatest version. No ideal version was ever in my mind, I understood that growth is infinite. This put me on the path to self love, to self appreciation and living abundantly. Before, I always knew about self love and I thought I really loved myself but I hadn't been put to test. I didn't actually know If loved myself but since I knew of self love, I thought that meant I'd automatically love myself now. It was through pain and discomfort where I really grew the most with myself. Its where I really learned what it means to love yourself and how. I began doing things that I loved, things I was passionate about, working on being mindful, surrounding myself with people who genuinely care about me and want to help me achieve my purpose and also with people I could have fun with, and most importantly, I started to appreciate what I had. I've learned that when you love yourself enough, you'll choose things that challenge you but also shape you in a positive way. More specifically things that will help shed off unnecessary layers and reach your core; your true being. I've also learned that people who love themselves will act through love, not just speak of it. They directly reflect their beliefs and morals. They're considerate of others who they love but also putting their self first. Your all you really got so you have to make sure the inside is good foremost. You gotta work on that relationship first before you can invest in another one. The one with yourself is most important. Loving yourself means that you do things through abundance and compassion. You don't expect anything in return because what your already doing is enough. The act itself is the fulfillment, not the reaction. If you don't love what's on the inside, how can you expect to have anything to give besides attachment and food for the ego. Doing things out of your own fullfillment is one of the greatest aspects of self love. It's because when your doing this, you don't feel the need to receive anything sort of love or gratitude back from anyone. Your already doing something though love itself and that is enough. That is also how you become whole. Loving yourself means that you don't neglect or go too hard on yourself. I used to be super tough on myself when I made mistakes or didn't achieve what was ideally to me. Maybe you invested a lot into something and it still crashed whether that being job related, or even relationship related. Personally i'd tend to then beat myself up about it then. What I learned is that we're humans and we don't know better. We only know enough to take us moment to moment. We know everything we need to know at every moment. You can't be hard on yourself for not knowing better. What you should do is replace that self pity with something you can grow from. See it as a chance to learn and become better from it. See the bad as a blessing in disguise. The way you perceive the world shows a lot about your relationship with yourself. Yes see through love and see the good but don't only try to see through those, you'll become discouraged because there's not only love or good. The world is a duality and there's both love and hate. Take both for what they are, good and bad. We have to learn to recognize the bad too so that we can bring light upon it. The more we become resistant to the duality of life, the more we begin to live in an illusion. Part of loving yourself is accepting the reality of life. It's being one with love and hate because spiritually that serves the best purpose for us momentarily and especially down the road. If you ever find yourself questioning if you love yourself or not, take a step back, look at what you have in life, bring awareness to any external attachments you think you might have or potentially developing and ask yourself, "Would I still be 100% content if this were to leave?" Yes you may try and convince yourself that you'll be fine but don't try to fool yourself. Be real with yourself, face the truth of things because once you accept it, light is let in and you can grow with yourself. Let it be a reminder to constantly take a look on the inside and to not ignore it. There's so many aspects of self love but what i'm really trying to get at is that we need to start paying more attention on the inside and less on the outside. We need to water our seed continuously so that we're always growing in some form. Step out your comfort zone, learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable and your relationship with yourself will begin to flower. You'll become familiar with the type of person you are and you'll know what you need to work on. Take time out of your day everyday to give awareness to your body and mind. Read books, learn about your interests, spend time in nature, make some art! Do anything you can to grow individually with yourself. Because when you love yourself, you embrace the power of being alone!
People, things, places and feelings are what we call temporary. As humans we don't get along well with temporary. This is due to the ego whom is apart of us. We like to think that everything will stay, be forever. It's because we aren't content with change though. When we find something we really like, we invest a lot of love, time and energy into it. At least for some people they do give 100% when they feel that it is needed. I know personally I will. I also do believe that this amount of energy and effort put into, feeds for future attachment. Potentially it could be the unconscious ways of us becoming attached. We like to expect a lot out of life and we all have our ideal expectations. We like something, we become satisfied with it and then expect it to be around forever. Realistically nobody wants to lose something or somebody they love. It's almost human nature to feel that way but sometimes we have to take a step back and realize maybe that this attachment is due to how much we put in. Maybe we have to rethink what we put our energy into. We value too many external things and don't cultivate enough from within and it can become unbalanced, then lead to attachment. For example, we should put our energy into something we know will serve us a true purpose. Like something that will reciprocate it. I think we also fool ourselves into believing that everything is reciprocated. Let's take people into perspective; not everyone on this planet will show you the same amount of love back that you give to them. It's the reality of things honestly, it comes down to the individual on whether they feel like it should be reciprocated or not. You definitely cannot hold expectations on humans because we're so inconsistent. Humans constantly change, like the saying "people change with the seasons" because it is true, we do change on some level everyday. So why are we chasing this temporary life. One thing i've learned that helps is to just try and enjoy what you have at the moment. When you have something great in front of you, enjoy that moment to the fullest. This may sound funny but don't enjoy it too much because then you'll be pretty upset when it's not there anymore. You know what they say "Don't have too much fun". But seriously, it's possible to be able to enjoy aspects of life and be present with them without developing attachment. To stop chasing temporariness means to stop expecting things to be given to you. This applies to happiness too but the secret is to find happiness and joy in giving, not receiving. When your giving and feeling happy, your doing that from an abundant infinite source of love from within. That will never go away, that's always there with you; that infinite source. Learn to give unconditionally without expectations of reciprocation. Although everything you do will be reciprocated in some way just don't expect a specific way. Life moves in weird ways and sometimes karma takes a bit to come around. The happiness that you cultivate from within can never be taken from you. It is forever. What's on the inside, what you create from within is the only thing that isn't not temporary and is the only thing you have true control of. We don't really have control over temporary, external things. Create your own happiness by giving without the need to receive. Stop holding onto expectations, stop putting all your energy into things that won't serve a purpose in your life and most importantly, enjoy the things that you do have. Always focus on what you have. Sometimes you gotta take a step back to see what you have and that's okay. When your content with what you have within, then the external world cannot fool you.
P.S. my blog is going to be undergoing some construction soon. I'm currently working with a web designer to change some things about my blog for the better. I might even be on a new domain soon. I haven't been making any blogs lately because i've been busy with living other aspects of my life and also working on a layout for my page. It will look awesome when finished and I will continue to post blogs and upload some pictures from my life. I'm posting this blog now just to show you guys what's been on my mind for this past week and to inform y'all that I might not be posting a lot for a lil bit. I don't wanna rush this process of redesigning it because I really want it to look spectacular and make people feel ecstatic when they visit my page! One of the biggest realizations ive had this year, is that actions speak louder than words. Words don't mean anything! In terms of love, i've learned that love can only truly be shown through action. Love cannot be put into words, and it really can't be defined through words anyway. Actions are what show true love. What you do, what you give and how you treat others including yourself, show many aspects of love. When you love someone or something, you show it. You don't just say "hey I love this or that", you physically do things that show your love and appreciation for it. Love isn't temporary! You can't just love something and then not love it. Love is eternal, it never dies and it's always there inside of you. Speaking of love does nothing for yourself or others. Yes, some people may believe it when they hear "I love you" but personally that doesn't mean a lot anymore after what i've experienced for myself. It's about the little actions and sacrifices you do\make for someone/something that show your love. You can only feel words so deeply but when you begin to see action taken to show love, you really start to feel it on a deeper level. Yes it's possible to think your in love with someone. I believe that when you love someone/something, it always has meaning towards your life. You don't give up on things you love. When you love, you care, you appreciate, you show gratitude. Those are all shown through actions. True love is a choice. It's shown even when those who you love are not around. Love can be shown in many simple ways but yet today we all try to express it through words most of the time. Have we forgot how to love? Let's take a relationship for an example, when you and your partner both love each other and you guys know it for sure, even if you guys break up, that doesn't mean that the love goes away. You'll regardless show your gratitude and appreciation for them even if they aren't in your life anymore. You don't take people completely out of your life who you love. Yes sometimes space is needed and that's okay but when you love someone, they're never completely gone. You always have to be considerate of people you love because if you do really love them, then why wouldn't you want to be? When you love, you always choose love. You go beyond ego and learn to love people from within.
"When you like a flower, you pluck it but when you love a flower, you water it daily" This is a quote that I love and many may not understand it. What this means is that when you just "like" someone (flower), you show it care and appreciation for some time but then you drop it, you leave it. This is shallow and it's modern day attachment. We like to become attached to things and then say we love it but we don't really wanna work on it, water it. When you love someone, you never stop showing it. You always provide support and positivity. You allow it to grow and you'll forever be there to help. So if you love someone, show it, take them on a walk to a beautiful place :^) Forgiveness is one of the greatest gifts that you can ever obtain or give. To forgive is to unconditionally love someone. It doesn't matter what that person did to you or how they treated you, you should always forgive. Be the bigger person and forgive everyone. When you learn to forgive, your loving yourself. Your allowing that person to be because of their mistakes which sets you free also. Have y'all ever forgave someone who doesn't deserve it. Well if you have, you'll know that when you do, you'll feel an immense amount of energy and love flowing through you. Forgiving allows light to come in, it allows you to heal yourself from that light. You should forgive someone because you know at a time you loved that person so much and they meant the world to you. You accepted them and never judged them or used their flaws against them. Forgive because you know all their flaws, forgive because you still love them. You create space within when you forgive people. When someone meant so much to you, you couldn't ever hold a grudge on them because of all the love you developed for them. It takes a big heart and a lot of courage from within to forgive someone fully. It'll only cause a transformation in you because your growing by learning to forgive. Your learning how to let go and accept fully. Just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you have to ever forget what they did. Just accept them, accept it and flow with life. Move on with your life and open your heart up to the love and light. Forgive because you know that person is more than that. Forgive because you once loved them and maybe you still do... Life is beautiful and you should never hold grudges. Forgive to become your greatest version. 🌞💛☀️
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