It can be a stark difference between the things we want and the things we actually need. If you can become more aware of what you are choosing in each moment, this becomes a little easier to figure out.
Start with when you go shopping. Do you really need a new pair of shoes, or a new TV, or that bag of potato chips? Or do you just want it?
It can be difficult to decide in the heat of the buying moment, but if you step back it’s easier to admit that you might not actually need it.
There is nothing wrong with having nice things, but if it is at the expense of your savings or your credit card debt is ballooning, then perhaps right now it would be better to enjoy what you already have. As you deliberately focus on developing the skills you possess that can make you money, you will eventually have enough to buy those things if you still want them.
Taking time to think about what I want is good; putting off what I need to do really isn’t
I just want to feel good.
Whatever I do, this is the ultimate goal. Whatever I think I need in my life, the ultimate aim is to feel good.
It could be a job, a partner, some kind of food or a glass of wine. At the root of everything I do is the desire to feel good.
So why do some of the things I choose to do not support that ultimate goal?
I have been involved with people I knew would be no good for me. I have had more to drink or eat than I should, at some level knowing that I was going to pay for it but unwilling in the moment to stop.
I eat things sometimes because they taste so good, and then my body fights back and nothing about it is good anymore.
It seems kind of insane to do this knowing that it won’t lead me back to what I want, which is to feel good.
It was impossible not to be happy in Costa Rica – just out there swimming with a friend
There are two ways to exist in this world. You can choose to be pleasant or you can choose to be miserable. If you are not able to be pleasant, then you have chosen misery.
The conditioning that we received as children that enabled us to fit into society also absolved us of the ability to recognize that we have the power to choose our thoughts and our emotions. We get very good at blaming others or outside circumstances for our unhappiness.
In other words, we don’t take responsibility for who we are and how we act.
By saying things like, “Oh, that’s just the way I am” or “I’ve always been this way,” we absolve ourselves of the ability to choose a different path. We lose our strength by giving our power away in this manner.
Dropping all expectations and living in the moment leads to peace of mind and a blissful existence.
When every moment is taken for what it is and the mind is not creating stories around it, the beauty of presence and the wonderment of this incarnation shines through.
It is enough. It is perfect.
The mind is such an intricate creation, beautiful and mad at the same time. It is used to dream and to torture, to explore and to persecute. It does this to itself, and it is quite psychotic.
Releasing thoughts and remaining keenly aware and present without the endless judging and categorizing leads to a freedom unknown in common times.
This existence will end. It could end in the next breath, or the one after. It could end decades from now. Most certainly, though, it will end.
The span of life covers a small moment in time, a single breath in the field of eternity. The scope of this life is tiny, inconsequential, in a universe of multiple dimensions and existences.
All is unimportant, and yet all means everything. Thoughts take one away from living, mesmerizing us to exist in worlds that are false.
The only real thing is love. If it is not love, it is fear and it is false. The two cannot exist at the same time.
To love all in every moment is the real life. Releasing expectations and demands allows the love to shine through, enhancing the existence and everything that comes into contact with it.
The anchor is the breath. To become keenly aware in every moment of the breath brings awareness to what is. Thoughts take the awareness on a journey of what is not. It is a fantasy.
If thoughts can be accepted as being fantasy, then the endeavour is either to release all thoughts or use them to create a glorious fantasy. Negative thoughts are not necessary.
Experiences come and go, and they are neither good nor bad – they just are. The opportunity for education exists in every experience, and when the mind is taken out of the equation the experience is allowed to unfold as it must. After the unfolding, the messages become clear and the learning is complete.
After that, it is on to the next.
Trying to force a situation to unfold in a certain way is like trying to force a rose to bloom. It is impossible and destructive. Releasing the experience to be what it is promotes freedom, clarity, and peace.
This is the ultimate goal of this existence. Every moment is exactly the way it is supposed to be. Acceptance is the key, and freedom is found on the other side of the door. Freedom, and bliss and a joy not found in common waking hours in a world that has gone insane.
Love is all there is, fear is false, and thoughts are mere tools used to achieve bliss.
