BeInspired

How often have you seen or read something and immediately dismissed the notion with the thought I know better? It is a common human trait. Some of us build very strong personas over our lifetime where we believe our thoughts or views are the right or only way.

Releasing the grip on the notion that your way of viewing, thinking or even being is the only way, can help to open your mind to new ideas and possibilities. Letting go of the idea that “Your Way is the Only Way” may prove difficult for some people, but doing so can often provide great opportunities for learning or collaboration. It is always good to be open to new perspectives, as invariably other people will have had different life experiences, and thus will see things slightly differently from how you see things. This shift in mindset can be very helpful in many aspects of life, even if you then later choose your solution or approach after having considered other perspectives.

This same notion holds true for any activity which you decide to take for self-improvement, spiritual development or awakening. Always try to have an open mind when you are presented with a new or different way of doing things. You may be surprised at what you may learn in the process. Sometimes this learning may not come directly from what you have undertaken, but arises as a result of having opened your mind to new possibilities.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Whatever the past was, it is now gone. There is nothing you can do to change anything that has gone before. Turn your attention to the here and now. It is hard to resist the allure of dwelling on what has gone before. But if you want to be successful in your life, you must turn your attention to what is happening to you right now. You might be tempted to dwell on the past because it was awful, or because it was wonderful. Either way, you have to leave it behind, because the only way to live is in the present.

If you revisit the past because of regrets, then you should realise that you can’t go back and undo what you have done. The reality is that we have all made some form of one or more decisions in the past which we later regret, but that is the past. If you hang on to guilt, you are only damaging yourself, feeding a new cycle of emotion which could lead you to a very similar situation. What you can do is learn from the past. Acknowledge the choices you made and do your best to make better choices now and in the future.

If on the other hand, you yearn for the proverbial good old days. Take the opportunity to appreciate the memories, but also move on and put your efforts into finding happiness in the present. We all have to leave things behind and discover the opportunities which lay in the present to create additional positive memories.

It can be helpful to see the past as a separate part of your life, like a different room in your house such as a library filled with books of your memories. You can visit this room, but importantly it is not where you live your life, or at least you shouldn’t.

Savour all the moments that life offers by treating every second as important and precious. Don’t waste it unnecessarily living in the past. Live in the now for a more fulfilling life.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

The Sun is the centre and ruler of the Solar System. The sun is the life-giver as it sends out energy and light to all the planets. Without this energy, all life as we know it would cease.

The Sun to the positive aspects, radiates material energies to create change. The energies of the Sun will seemingly magnify the energies of any celestial object in opposition to the position of our home planet, the Earth. Meaning quite simply, that when the Sun is in a constellation, the energies of that constellation will be intensified, so that people born of the same Sun Sign will be more likely to resonate with these aspects more than other individuals.

Visit Astronomical Astrology for a wealth of additional information on True Astrology.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Take up the challenge to stop scrolling through things on your smartphone for a minute after reading this. With the ever increasing use of modern technology, it is becoming increasingly common to find people of all ages continually being on their smartphones, immersed in VR or playing games.

So, take the one minute stop scrolling challenge now.

Turn down the volume of your smartphone, turn off the screen and put it away.

Use the time to focus your mind on the growing silence which fills the growing void or the seeming gap in time which has opened up.

As you breathe, allow the increasing sense of quietness to pervade every corner of your mind. If other thoughts start to encroach on the quietness, strive to push them aside, giving your mind one true minute of focus and calmness.

Do not be afraid of the quietness or silence, notifications, DMs and other interruptions can wait. Your ability to maintain the focus of your mind is a sign of your inner strength.

Build upon this challenge and do it at least once per day, you will be surprised how much of a difference this simple stop scrolling challenge can make you feel. If you have succeeded in the one minute challenge, try pushing yourself for a greater experience by reaching for a quiet time of 5 or more minutes.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

If your efforts to alter a challenging circumstance have proven futile despite numerous attempts, perhaps it’s opportune to reconsider your perspective on the situation.

Embracing a new outlook might unveil alternative approaches, or reveal aspects that were previously overlooked, paving the way for a more effective and transformative response to the challenges at hand.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Mindfulness is a helpful practice that can contribute to overall happiness, but it may not always be the answer you need or are looking for. Mindfulness, the hugely popular zeitgeist theory seems to have morphed into the concept that to be happy we must live fully in the present moment. Taken to the extreme this can lead to total focus on whatever you are doing or experiencing “Right This Second”. Some see Mindfulness as a revolution. It is sweeping through many aspects of people’s lives, from mindful parenting, mindful business dealings, mindful eating, and even mindful chores to mindful walking, promising all types of revolutionary changes in people’s lives.

Happiness is a complex and multifaceted concept that is influenced by many factors. While mindfulness can be a helpful tool for cultivating happiness, it is not a standalone solution to all of life’s challenges and is actually beneficial for many other reasons. Other factors in life should be an important source of joy and happiness. So, while mindfulness can be a useful practice for cultivating happiness, it is not a panacea or a one-size-fits-all solution for everyone.

Mindfulness simply involves focusing your attention on your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations as they arise in the present moment. Mindfulness does not magically create happiness or a better life, it is just a tool which can be used for intentionally paying attention to the present moment and not just with focus, but also with curiosity, openness, and non-judgment. It is often the later aspects which are overlooked in the rush to embrace mindfulness, or follow the latest mindfulness guru or influencer. Mindfulness should be taken as one aspect of many meditative practices which can be used for focus and the reality is that some people do really have problems with the proverbial “Raisin of Mindfulness”. It is important to explore a range of different practices and techniques to find one that works for you to cultivate lasting happiness and improve your mental well-being.

Remember that while Mindfulness is a great tool, it is like a hammer, you cannot do every job with a hammer, and sometimes you need to use a different tool.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Increasingly all of our lives are being affected by the cult of social media and celebrity. You can become your own influencer, an influencer of your life, for life.

While you may see the snippets of other people’s lives around you, do not allow those illusions of the perfect body, dream lifestyles, fantasy homes or other seemingly enviable aspects to dominate your thinking. Steadily more and more of us are becoming unhappy, disillusioned or even worse, as we compare our lives to the world of others.

Take the opportunity to look at your own life; realise and recognise all that you have achieved. In this way, you become your own influencer, a unique influencer. It can start with a very simple concept such as “I am enough”, or “I have achieved”. Establishing this self-influencer mindset will give you a newfound sense of happiness and contentment, allowing you to continue to influence your life for the better. Make the effort to create a mantra, which you repeat every morning or even throughout the day until it sinks in and your mind accepts it. As you allow this positive aspect to build within your life, you will begin to discover that many things are your own source of happiness. You will quickly realise that “I am enough, I have enough, I have always been enough and I always will be enough” can be very powerful tools as an influencer of your own life and destiny.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾

Be mindful of the destination addiction where you become fixated with the notion that happiness is elsewhere. Until you surrender that concept of happiness is in another place, it is going to never be where you are. So on examination what does this all mean? If you were to answer the question, do you live your life only to get to the end of it? Then most people would say unequivocally no. However in the world today, many people suffer from the belief that success or happiness is the destination. They are always on the run, on the move, and their goal seems to be to get through the day rather than live each day. Such people become addicted to the idea that the future is where success will be found, happiness resides, and that each intervening moment is just a means to get there.

Rather than living in the now, more and more people seem to be living in anything but the now, being psychologically absent and disregarding everything currently in their life. If you find that you are thinking this way, then you are falling into the trap of destination addiction. You continually chase the illusive notion of happiness and literally suffer from your pursuits. In this case, you may find that your goal has not been to enjoy the day, but instead, you have focused on getting through the day. You have always been focused on getting somewhere, foregoing the opportunities to savour the moments of life along the way. When you arrive at the destination, the feeling of success or happiness seems to elude you, as if it has somehow escaped to the next day, week or year. Then the feeling of satisfaction is continually deferred, and you end up living your life in hot pursuit of some extraordinary bliss which you have no idea how to find.

Social media and an era of excess make a major contribution to the pandemic of destination addiction. In the never-ending pursuit of happiness, you may find that you spend increasing amounts of time or money on trying to acquire happiness. But if you are being honest, how often have you found that the happiness so acquired was only temporary? This is made worse by people and companies peddling items and experiences to “totally change your life” or “make you happier than you ever dreamed possible”. Cars with the newest widgets, fancier clothing, more exquisite jewellery or even the latest gadget, can all be symptomatic of this underlying trend to feed destination addiction.

As increasing numbers of us become engrossed in destination addiction, as we tend to rush through as many experiences as quickly as possible. You may find that you start living by the adage of “been there, done that”. Life should not be about destinations or endings; if it were then life would be very different. If life were about the destination then you would only read the last page of any book, have deserts for meals, or only attended graduation day at school or college. Destination addiction is frequently an attempt to get on with life faster, hoping that you will enjoy your life better. Yet constant rushing through life frequently means that you will miss or bypass golden opportunities along the way. In this way, destination addiction is working against you, as you become too busy or too focused on the objective to be aware of life happing around you. It can become increasingly easy to feel empty as if your life is lacking any meaning.

If you are prone to overthinking, then destination addiction is the perfect setup for failure. It can become very common for people to trade short-term gratification in the hope of reaching the ultimate goal. It could be manifest that happiness is the next deal, the next high, the next acquisition, the next drink, or even something seemingly as silly as the next hot-fudge sundae. In all these instances realise that your mind is overthinking and making you believe the proverbial adage that the grass is greener over the next hill. Destination addiction can cause you to become impatient as you attempt to reach your goal. You then end up with little time for yourself and grow evermore impatient as the destination always seems just out of reach.

It is important to be aware that none of us is immune to destination addiction, and we all have times when we have to convince ourselves that better times are ahead. The trouble with destination addiction is that it focuses purely on the end and not on purpose. Fortunately, there is an excellent remedy for destination addiction, but it is often hard to find.

The key to defeating destination addiction is to find happiness in the life you have and to achieve the goals that are important to you, not what you believe will impress everyone else. When you declare that you are content with what you have, where you are and who you are, it is possible to break out of this addiction. You may then find that you begin to live more in the now and savour the full experiences that life avails to you every day. You can then live intelligently with purpose, make the means the end, and also the end the means. Then you may come to the realisation that true happiness never comes from a destination. Happiness comes from within us as you experience and live in the here and now.

♾ Awaken your Mind ♾