This month’s blog message will be a bit of a departure from what you are used to. I just want to ask you a few sincere questions, ones maybe no one has ever asked you before.
Are you happy being alive?
When you wake up each morning do you feel a sense of joy?
Do you look forward to the day? Or is your outlook filled with dread, worry or anxiety?
Now all I want you to do is to take a few moments to think about these questions. You don’t have to answer them right away. Take them with you on your drive to work or shopping. Think about them over lunch or your afternoon walk. Maybe even make them the topic of conversation at your dinner table tonight.
If you think about it, which I have, you have to admit that so much of our lives and our reality takes place beyond our conscious mind...there is so much of which we’re unaware. If we are smart, we understand this and we know how important it is to make time for a bit of introspective thinking...to see what is going on beneath the surface. This is what I want you to do today.
Consider the thousands of decisions and choices you make each day. How many of them are made with clear, conscious intention...in a manner that will positively affect your life? I think you will be surprised at the answer!
My point is, we all make choices, irrespective of the condition of our life. Despite what has happened in our past or what we are currently experiencing, we can still choose joy. We can always fall in love with being alive. Life is after all, the most precious gift we’ve ever been given.
Something happens to all of us at a certain point in our lives. We come to appreciate the value of life. We know that it can be taken away from us at any moment.
When we’re young, we have the whole world out ahead of us. We don’t do a whole lot of thinking very far into the future. But take it from me...the future arrives quicker than you realize and soon enough middle-age is here. In the wink of an eye and the beat of a heart, even more time has passed and we find we’ve grown old.
I have said many times that we need not allow the past and from where we’ve come to determine our future and where we’re headed. Though the past exists only in our minds, it is a darn handy thing to have around. We can create a prosperous future by referencing the past through new eyes. We can take what is valuable from the past and use it to alter our experience of the future.
A college philosophy professor of mine once told me that if we want to understand the causes that existed in our past, all we need do is look at the results as they have manifested in our present.
And I have added to that wisdom over the years. I say that if we want to understand what results will be manifested in our future, we need but look at the causes that exist in our present.
The message I am hoping you will take away from our little chat today, coupled with your introspective thinking, is that it is possible to experience exuberant joy and to fall in love with being alive, no matter what has occurred in our life so far. Any obstacles or challenges we’ve encountered along the way should not be seen as impediments...because they are indeed the path and the way.
To rediscover joy and fall in love with being alive requires we let go of hurt and disappointments while refusing to drag along excess baggage not relevant to our future. I have adopted a little three-word affirmation that I recite from time to time when it crosses my mind...
REMEMBER...RELEASE...RENEW.
By all means, it is OK to REMEMBER the past. As a matter of fact it is a very helpful tool. I just make sure I don’t go back there and dwell! And instead of witnessing the past through the old eyes of pain and suffering, I choose to rewrite a brand new script seen through brand new eyes...ones of self-forgiveness and compassion.
To do this I must RELEASE. This means I let go of the destructive and disempowering thoughts or emotions that I associate with my past. Since I cannot create a new future the way I wish with these negative states following me, so it is absolutely imperative that I consciously RELEASE them.
Then I must RENEW! I invite myself to appreciate the lessons imbued in my experiences, so that I can see them through my new eyes and make a better tomorrow for myself.
If you wish to rediscover joy and fall in love with being alive, then you must let go of that which impedes upon this way of life.
REMEMBER...RELEASE...RENEW.
Only then will you discover the fountain of joy that has been living within us all the time.
One of my most revered personal heroes and role models is a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. He is, in my opinion, the pre-eminent expert on mythology, religion and God as well as a highly respected and regarded pioneer into the human experience. One of the more profound things he’s ever written goes a bit like this...
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. But I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think we’re seeking an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonance with our own innermost being and reality...so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
Today, all I ask is that you reflect on your own life. Think about many of the choices you’ve made, especially the ones you’ve made that were less than fully conscious. Take a good look at how the past and the choices you’ve made have affected who you are today? Then ask yourself...
Am I happy being alive?
When I wake up each morning do I feel a sense of joy?
Do I look forward to the day? Or is my outlook filled with dread, worry or anxiety?
Get back with me on this...if you will. Let’s make these blog messages more of a two-way street. I would love to hear your thoughts. Don't hesitate to push the Contact Me button and start a conversation.
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