If I sit and begin to count my blessings, my human life will be finished, but my counting will not. One day I will see that I am 90 years old, and I am still counting my blessings. I will see that my counting is not yet complete because of the many blessings I have received.
I am blessed with an abundance of air to breathe. I am blessed with an abundance of drinking water. An abundance of food is given to me as a blessing. To see the world, I have received my eyes as a blessing. The bed is a blessing given to me for resting. There are countless blessings I am receiving every day, all the time.
Start counting your blessings and express the feeling of gratitude toward people, toward nature, and toward the God from whom you are getting blessings all the time. Don’t forget to express gratitude to your body and yourself as well.
To develop any habit, it requires consistency. Whatever habit you already have in your life, it is because of consistency.
To develop a new habit, you first start with a very simple and easy way. The action you are going to take must be so easy and so simple that your mind could not find any excuse for not doing it.
For example, if you want to start yoga as your new habit, then start it by doing it only for 1 minute every day. After one month, increase the timing to 2 to 3 minutes, then next month 3 to 4 minutes. If you can maintain it this way, then you will see that after 6 months you will be able to do it for 15 to 30 minutes. In my opinion, doing yoga every day for 15 minutes is enough for your daily healthy lifestyle.
To start yoga as your new habit, choose one or two very simple and easy yoga postures in the beginning. Do these 2 postures for 1 minute for one month. Then next month for 4 minutes. In the third month, 6 minutes. In the fourth month, 8 minutes, and then continue it this way for 6 months.
Remember one thing: never try to increase the quantity or time duration on a daily basis. Increase it on a monthly basis; you will enjoy it; otherwise, your mind will feel like pressure, and then you will easily give up.
Start with only one habit. Don’t aim to develop too many habits at the same time. If you do that, chances are your mind will reject it after some days. You will not feel like doing it anymore.
To develop a habit, always focus on the consistency, not on the quantity.
Keep the time duration for 6 months. Many researchers say it took 21 days to develop a new habit. But as I experience it, 21 days doesn’t work for me. Even I fail after doing 45 days. So I believe the more days you do it, the stronger your habit will become. So, do it for at least 6 months consciously. After that it will become your subconscious pattern—a subconscious habit. It means, after 6 months, you don’t have to put in any conscious effort to do it, because it will become your automatic habit pattern.
Track your habit for 6 months. I have shown you how to track in the picture below. If you skip a day for any reason, then give it a cross mark. Every end of the month, you check your track result. If you see that you made 70% progress, then reward yourself by having your favourite food or visiting your favourite place or anything like that. Celebrate the progress.
Habit Tracking Method
Do it for 6 months. After 6 months you don’t have to track your habit because it already became automatic. Now if you don’t do it for a day, then your mind and body will feel uncomfortable. It is the same as brushing your teeth. When you were a child, you didn’t want to brush your teeth, but your parents forcefully made you develop this habit. And now you can see that if you don’t brush for a day, then you feel very uncomfortable.
After completion of 6 months, choose another good habit and start developing it in the same process.
If you can do it like this for 2 to 3 years, you will see that you have developed 4 to 6 good habits. Through this process, you are not only developing a habit; you are also developing a new belief. A belief that “you can consciously develop any habit, and every time you do that, you are getting success.” And because of this belief, from next time, you will be able to go with 2-3 habits together.
Here I have shared my personal experience. This is how I develop my habit, and it works for me. I hope it will also work for you. Apply it, or you can modify it in your own way. Experiment with it and see if it works for you.
If you search for God outside of you, I doubt you’ll ever find God. But if you search yourself, I am sure you will find God.
Searching for God outside yourself is like, a piece of an apple searching for the apple outside itself. You are made of God, just like an apple piece is made of apple.
For me, God is an energy that always stays with me. Wherever I go, it goes with me. It never leaves me, not even for a moment. That energy and I are one. We cannot be separated.
Simple life, simple people, simple habits, simple work, simple food, simple things, and – a simple way of living.
The people who live simple lives find the originality of life in simplicity. They do not run after money and fame. Rather, they focus on what truly matters to them, and that can lead to greater mental well-being. As they live in simplicity, you will find their surroundings are neat and orderly, which leads to reduced stress and anxiety. Not too much dependency on technology or processed foods. You will find them connected to nature and natural things.
Simplicity allows them to have more time and energy to invest in relationships with family and friends, which enhances their emotional health and happiness.
Living in simplicity encourages mindful living and living in the moment. This enhances mental and physical health and also increases overall happiness in life.
Happiness can be achieved by living a simple life and focusing on the things that truly matter.
You are not alone. A wonderful being has always been with you. This being is supporting, helping, and guiding you all the time. This wonderful being never leaves you alone, not even for a moment.
You want to know who that being is?
Yes, this is your inner being!
You may ignore your inner being, but your ‘inner being’ never ignores you. Your inner being always adores you, always loves you. It never stops loving and supporting you, regardless of what happens.
If you want to live a struggle-free life, then stop thinking about struggles. Stop discussing your struggles and stop discussing others’ struggles as well.
Remove the word “struggle” from your vocabulary. Instead of the word struggle, start using words like ease, abundance, plenty, and prosperity.
Start thinking about prosperity. Talk about prosperity, discuss prosperity, love prosperity, feel prosperity, appreciate prosperity. See prosperity through your mind’s eye.
Shift your focus completely from the struggle to prosperity.
To have a struggle-free life, you have to think struggle-free thoughts first.
You can be replaced at work any time. And the business you have created can be copied. The things that you have now can be taken away from you.
The one thing that cannot be taken away from you is yourself. No one can copy who you are. No one can copy the way you think; no one can copy your energy. You are a unique being. No one can copy your uniqueness.
“If you work hard on your job, you can make a living, but if you work hard on yourself, you’ll make a fortune. “
– Jim Rohn.
So, “work harder on yourself than you do on your job.”
Whatever happened, happened in the NOW. Whatever is happening is happening in the NOW. Whatever will happen will happen in the NOW.
Physically you never live in the past or future; you are only living in the NOW.
You can’t leave the NOW, and the NOW can’t leave you.
“Don’t let the sadness of your past and the fear of your future ruin the happiness of your present.”
Don’t ruin your wonderful NOW by thinking about the past negative memories and the future’s unnecessary worries. In reality, they are not happening NOW. You are just entertaining them in your mind.
Don’t live your past in the NOW. Don’t live your future in the NOW.
Make your life beautiful and peaceful by living in the NOW.
If you have a habit of living in the past or future, it may be hard for you to stay present mentally. But with regular mindfulness practice, it will become easier for you to live in the NOW.
To change your life, you have to change yourself first.
What does it mean to change yourself?
Does this mean becoming someone else? Or does this mean changing your outer appearance, like hairstyle, skin colour, or body shape?
No, absolutely not. Changing yourself means changing your inner world, which includes your thoughts, feelings, perceptions, beliefs, etc. Changing the way you see the world, changing the way you see yourself.
Your outer physical reality is a reflection of your inner world.
You can relate it to a mirror. When you look in the mirror, you see a reflection of yourself. If the reflection face is angry, then you do not go over to the mirror and try to make the reflection smile, right? The only way to make the reflection smile for you is if you decide to smile first.
If you stand in front of a mirror with the attitude that, “I will not smile unless I see the reflection smile,” then you will be waiting forever. To get the reflection to smile, you have to smile first.
The same thing happens with your outer physical reality. Your outer physical reality is nothing but a reflection of your inner world. You can’t change your physical reality unless you change your inner world. Trying to change the outer physical reality instead of changing the inner world is like you are cleaning the mirror to get a different reflection.
So, do the inner work to change yourself. When you change, the outside reality has no choice but to change, just like the reflection in the mirror.
I hope I could make you understand through this mirror example.
Change always starts with you. If you don’t want to change yourself but want to change the world and the people around you, then I would say forget about change.
“Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world.” – Wayne Dyer
If you change, then you would see the world around you has changed. The people around you have changed. You will start attracting different circumstances and different people into your life. Or you may experience that the same people started behaving differently. This is how it works. This was something I had experienced many times. I was able to change people’s behaviour toward me just by changing my thoughts and beliefs. Just by changing my inner concept about them.
Everything depends on you. Your health, your relationship, your finances, or any aspect of your life depends entirely on you. If you change, they will change. If you stay the same, they will also stay the same. If you change fast, they will change fast; if you change slowly, they will also change slowly. I would say they are your best followers in the world. They follow you faithfully. They never stop following you. Your Facebook and Instagram followers may stop following you one day. : D
But your life aspects will never stop following you. They will continue to follow you in your whole life. Where will you find such authentic and loyal followers?
I want to share with you one example of my niece. My niece was studying in 12th class. She always used to complain about her school friends. She used to say that her school friends were very negative. They always backbite and gossip. My niece was unhappy because of this; she wanted a different friend circle, like, positive, ambitious, and encouraging. It was her desire.
One day she called me, and she was very happy. I asked her, “It seems you are very happy today; what happened?” And she replied, “I am very happy because I got selected in one entrance exam; now I will have admission in a new institute.”
I said, “Wow!” Congratulations! You got selected; that’s the reason you are so happy? She said no, this is not the reason. I asked, “Then what is the reason?” She replied, “I am happy because I will go to a new place. I will get a different friend circle there. I will go away from the school friend circle.”
Then I said to her, “Listen to me, no matter how many places you change, no matter how many friend circles you change, if you don’t change, you will keep attracting the same kind of friends with different faces.
After some days, she went to the new place and joined her new institute. She got a new friend circle there, and she was very happy with that friend circle.
But after three months, she called me and said that she was not happy in that new friend circle. I asked the reason; she replied that her new friend circle is the same as her old school friends circle.
You see, nothing changes in our lives if we don’t change ourselves.
You will keep attracting the same people with the same behaviour in your life until you change.
If you change, the circumstances will be changed for you, and the people will be changed for you. Or you will get to see that the same people started behaving differently. They no longer demonstrate the same behaviour toward you as they used to do before. Because you are no longer the same person. You have changed; your energy has changed.
One day I went to the hospital, and I had to wait for an hour for the appointment. I was thinking, What will I do in this one hour of free time? Then I decided to watch some educational videos on YouTube.
After watching some educational videos (that I really enjoyed), I looked at the time; I saw that it was 10:50 a.m., which meant only 10 minutes left for my appointment. I felt like the time passed so fast. I didn’t realize how an hour passed.
I turned off my phone and kept it in my bag. I stood up and started walking around. As I was walking, I was looking at all the people around; they were patients, and some were relatives of the patients. I observed some patients waiting in the waiting room and others engaged in their treatment procedures.
I didn’t know where I got the idea. I observed all those people and began to pray for them. I started praying like…..God, please bless them; please bless all of them!
God, please help all of them to feel comfortable with their bodies; I want all of them to feel happy. Thank you, God! I love you.
For 10 minutes, I was walking and praying for all of them.
When I was doing the prayer, I felt so great that I can’t explain it in words. I felt like I was the happiest person in this hospital.
Two learning parts:
1. You can use your most boring free time in wonderful ways that make you feel like enjoying it.
2. Pray for others. Praying for others makes you feel more fulfilled than praying for yourself. Because there are no others, we all are one.
A healer doesn’t heal you. A healer guides you step by step on how to heal. It is your body that heals itself.
Your body is doing everything on its own. Your body is in charge of managing and controlling all the functions inside your body.
Your body is breathing for you in a rhythmic way; it’s not your job. You don’t need to remind your body to take a breath. You don’t need to stay awake the whole night to take a breath. Your blood pumps through your body when you sleep; it’s not your job. Your heart is functioning in its own rhythmic way, not your job. Your digestive system is doing its digestive function in a great way, not your job. Your body is doing its cleaning process in a wonderful way; it is also not your job. Your immune system is doing a wonderful job to keep you healthy, not your job.
Your body organs are doing their job wonderfully; they are doing the most complex job. You don’t even need to think about it. You don’t even have any idea how everything is happening in such a balanced way. Your body is in charge of everything. Your body is doing its job wonderfully. Then how can you think that your body cannot do healing on its own?
Your body is more powerful than you ever thought it could be.
Many spiritual teachers often advise us to go within. They say that the universe is within us. Go within, and you will find the entire universe within you.
I didn’t understand what it means to go within until I did the Buddha’s Vipassana meditation. I didn’t know how to go within until I did Vipassana.
I am grateful to myself for deciding to do Vipassana meditation. I am also grateful to the person who recommended me to do Vipassana.
Although, it was difficult for me to do Vipassana meditation course for 10 days.
For 10 days I had to be completely silent. I couldn’t talk with anyone; I couldn’t smile; I couldn’t use my phone; reading and writing were not allowed. The main thing is that I wasn’t allowed to communicate in any way, whether it’s verbal or non-verbal.
The difficulty I faced was nothing compared to what I have learned through Vipassana meditation. The things I have learned and the knowledge I have gained are much more valuable to me. The most important thing is that, I discovered how to go within. I discovered how to connect with myself.
I am grateful to Siddhartha Gautama, and I admire his desire to know himself. I admire Siddhartha Gautama for becoming the Buddha.
I am grateful to Buddha for sharing his greatest wisdom with the world.
I am grateful for Buddha’s Vipassana meditation. I am grateful to S. N. Goenka ji for the work he had done to spread Vipassana meditation by establishing Vipassana meditation centres not only in India but throughout the world.
I would like to recommend my readers do a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at least once to discover how to go within.
It’s ok if you can’t see the path clearly. You don’t have to see everything clearly in the beginning. All you need to do is just identify your dream. Then start taking action. Start walking on the path of your dream. The more you walk, the more you will see the path clearly.
Have you ever walked on the road in foggy weather? If you walk in a foggy condition, you may find that you cannot see roads ahead from the starting point. As you move forward, you will start seeing the path ahead clearly.
The same happens with our dreams. We do not see everything clearly in the beginning. But once we start it, we get to know the next step, then the next, then the next, and so on, and finally we reach our destination—our dream. That’s how it works.
Start it, and then the universe will guide you step by step. You don’t have to worry about it. You just need to have faith. Believe in yourself and have faith in God. And then keep walking on the path of your dream.
On YouTube, I saw an interview with the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. He was sharing his journey about building his dream project, the Facebook page. In that interview, he said that before starting the Facebook project, he didn’t know how he was going to build it. He was unclear about the ‘how’. But once he started it, then he got to know about the next step, and then next, and then next step… and so on. And finally, we all got to see the results. He invented an amazing Facebook page that connects the world.
Note: Have a dream. Have faith. Start walking toward your dream. Enjoy the journey while walking toward your dream. Let the supreme power guide you step by step.
Not only the brain, other parts of the body also have memory. Every cell in the body has memory.
I would like to share with you a real example of mine.
I had an old cell phone that I stopped using when I bought a new one. After 3 years, I wanted to use that old phone again because I had some old memories in it. I took that phone and gave it a full battery charge. After that, I tried to unlock it. It was locked with a pattern-lock. I forgot the pattern lock. I tried to recall the pattern I set. I drew so many different patterns, but nothing worked. Not a single pattern matched. Then I stopped trying.
After a while I picked up the phone again. I sat on my bed comfortably. I relaxed my body and closed my eyes. I had decided not to think a single thought. My mind was blank.
After that, I let my right hand to draw a pattern on that old phone. I had decided that I would not control my hand with my conscious mind. On the phone screen, I just allowed my finger to move its own way . I observed that my finger moved on its own and formed a ‘Z’ pattern.
I opened my eyes. Then I used this same pattern to unlock my phone. I was shocked it worked. I was shocked that it worked on the first attempt.
This is what you need to know before trying to impress someone.
When you try to impress someone, you are not being your authentic self. You are just showing a temporary behaviour that is not really yours.
You are trying hard to impress the person. But there is no guarantee that the person will be impressed by you. Even if he/she gets impressed, that impression will be temporary.
Why so?
Because when you try to impress, you are not being your authentic self. Tryingto impress means, you are acting and behaving differently just to impress the person. You don’t usually act and behave like this.
Even if you act and behave like something that you are not, you will be unable to maintain that behaviour for long. When you are unable to maintain the behaviour, the impression you made before will fade.
But if you stop trying to impress others and start being your authentic self, then the people who are meant for you will automatically get impressed by you. That impression will be permanent because, at this time, you are just expressing your true natural behavior. You didn’t need to do any hard work here. Things just happen effortlessly.
Note: You don’t have to try hard to impress someone. You just be your authentic self! That’s enough!
If you are not aware of your thoughts then it will be difficult for you to control your thoughts. Rather your thoughts will control you.
Most of the time we just think by default. We are not aware of our thoughts. We are not aware of which thought is coming and which thought is going; and how one thought is connecting to another related thought.
So, how to control thoughts?
To control your thoughts, first you have to raise awareness within you. Once you raise awareness within yourself, you become like an observer. You can observe what is going on inside of your body and mind. You can observe which thought is coming and which thought is going.
As an observer you can also consciously choose your thoughts. You can consciously choose the thought you want and reject the thought you don’t want.
Note: So, raise your awareness first. And to raise awareness, you can practice meditation. You can practice mindfulness.
When the water remains calm, we can easily see the stones or whatever is there underwater.
But when the water is disturbed, or there is so much movement in the water; the water becomes muddy, and we cannot see anything under it.
Same thing happens with our minds.
Even though, there are many opportunities available for us, we are unable to see them with a disturbed mind.
But, when the mind is calm we can see everything clearly. We can see many things available for us that we couldn’t see before even though they were available before.
