“We have to continue to learn. We have to be open. And we have to be ready to release our knowledge in order to come to a higher understanding of reality.”Thich Nhat Hanh
“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.” Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
To experience peace does not mean that your life is always blissful. It means that you are capable of tapping into a blissful state of mind amidst the normal chaos of a hectic life” Jill Bolte Taylor
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” William James
Most children and adults abhor the darkness. It seems to go beyond the dread of the storytelling of our childhood days. It really isn’t unrealistic to hate the darkness when one observes the qualities within the dimness. Our seeing is greatly impaired, and our ears tune into every sound as we fear the unknown noises. We are anxious to talk with the human voice that resonates with all of us and feel the human touch around us. When in darkness, everything we bump into sends jitters through our spines because our minds envision something fearful.
We like to believe we fear nothing
Perhaps we like to believe we fear nothing but honestly, I have a notion that the dark sends shivers through just about everyone. We might attribute it to our minds jumping to ridiculous conclusions but in the end, we put on a light. How powerful is the light in dissipating the gloom? Blackness without a doubt obscures insight. Luminosity sheds awareness of truth and familiarity.
I don’t often consider why I dislike the dark, nor do I worry about it that much. I don’t understand my apprehension but I accept it and live with my worry. I likely spend more time worrying about the dimness than identifying my reasons for the issue. Perhaps the question is why do most of us love and enjoy the brightness.
Glowing beams of sunlight allow us to comprehend our world so much better through the use of our senses. We all like to observe, and comprehend our place in this world as well as in our environment. Gloom is heavy while illumination is airy while perceiving what we can’t always understand. What I found to be a surprise were the many mysteries we encounter and ignore in our daily lives.
We’d rather live with our fears
We love the brightness but we don’t delve deeply into the beams to perceive more understanding. We’d rather live with our fears accepting the consequences. Perhaps it is time to reinforce our courage and search for the truth. Our reality is dimmed even when we are within the brightness. Stepping into the light is the beginning but grasping the honesty of our lives is the next giant step forward into acquiring insight.
Babies fear their birth. Children fear losing mom and dad when left with sitters. Kids fear competing with others, failing their parents’ expectations, losing their parent’s love, siblings’ love, and friends’ love. So the loss is a huge fear for most of us. Inferiority issues arise from all our fears, as self-esteem is threatened. We tend to lose ourselves in the battle at any age, to please parents, siblings, and friends. We sometimes transform ourselves into something we don’t even recognize anymore.
Jealousy, anger, worry, and doubt are a few of the consequences of fear, along with distrust, anxiety, poor health, and addictions. Loss of love, jobs, pride, and ego take a toll not only on our bodies and minds but also on our souls. Life throws so many curve balls that leave us basically in the dark. Our fears keep us there. Finding new ways to solve our problems is paramount in finding our way back to the light. If we are honest we know that what we have attempted hasn’t worked.
We have choices but don’t see them
Many times we have choices but we don’t see them or we overshadow them with our worry. Anxiety can keep us stagnant. If we watched a TV show we would notice the character’s choices yet within our own lives we remain motionless to transform ourselves. I sense that life is difficult, so we succumb early and allow the shadows to deceive us.
Experiences of all kinds are challenging and require us to depend on our strength, courage, and wisdom. That is asking a lot from us but it is worthy of our finest effort. By overcoming our fears we diminish jealousy, competition, envy, insecurity, defeat, worry, anxiety, ill-health, stress, despondency, and negative thoughts. This allows us to embrace honesty, reality, love, empathy, serenity tolerance, confidence health, good habits, and a positive outlook.
Find the courage to face problems
Hiding behind closed doors with more on our plates than we can deal with is not a good idea. Finding the courage to face problems and find solutions through our own strength and the support of others is a worthy idea. It is relevant that we come to the realization that there is no competition in life so there is no need for jealousy or envy. There is no special race, religion, economic status, age or country of people more important than any other. The comparisons must end along with the inflated egos and nonsense ways we delineate the worth of another. Once these barriers are broken down we will find it easier to tolerate those we don’t understand and accept the differences.
For too long we have focused on earthly assessments and material worth. The cost has been taken from our spirits. At times I think we hardly recognize ourselves. We are so tangled up in the life we live that we can’t acknowledge the truth in the life we have. So many of us are wealthy beyond measurement. It just depends on the tool we use to assess. Contentment is the father of a peaceful and loving life.
Honesty is simple
It always appears to be an answer that is too simple, but honesty is simple to follow. There are no lies to be reinvented or stories to relate or egos to inflate. The mystery is what we have evolved to be the truth. In actuality the truth has always been easy to see and even easier to live by. Stop asking yourself how happy you are and instead ask yourself how much meaning you can find in your living. Life is too precious to waste it with fear and worry. If one dares to face the truth, they are rewarded with great illumination.
“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?” Rumi
“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” Albert Einstein
We are all so much together, but we are all dying of loneliness.” Albert Schweitzer
“People suffer because they are caught in their views. As soon as we release those views, we are free and we don’t suffer anymore.” Thich Nhat Hanh
“Mindfulness helps you go home to the present. And every time you go there and recognize a condition of happiness that you have, happiness comes. Thich Nhat Hanh
