Self love takes many forms. We don’t always know what the right thing is for us at the time, but we certainly know when something feels wrong. Listening to the answers found within requires a kind of attuned attention. A spaciousness inside where we can sense how we are interacting with life.
This is often where life can unfold in a new way.
All war is caused by belief.
Belief in ownership, belief in difference, belief in entitlement, belief in an idea, belief in religion, belief in grandiosity, belief in fear, belief in personal identity.
Belief is the bases of all division.
We can have endless ideas, and all sorts of things can come into our mind, but it’s not unless we believe a thought that it is given any power.
A kettle cannot boil unless it is plugged in and switched on. We plug an idea in by giving it attention (conscious or unconscious), we switch it on through believing it.
Otherwise a thought is just that, a thought. Just like a kettle is just an object we would throw away if we had no helpful use for it, we need to learn to discern if our thoughts are useful. And with how we act from there.. are we being kind?.. both inside ourselves and with others.
We look everywhere for ourselves. Yet it’s in the stopping, in the silence, in the stillness that we feel the simple pulse of the presence of being.
This is gold. This is all.
Often we think we need to break down our inner walls to heal. We might try too hard to open up when we’re not quite ready. Or we might try to be beyond our fear, when really it’s still there.
An easier way to approach it is to allow ourselves to have walls, to see them, to know them, to understand where they come from, to be honest with others about them and to give ourselves moments of opening to freedom.
We need to learn it’s safe to let the light in and safe, with discernment, to let our vulnerability show.
To do this we can make little windows in the wall, bit by bit, by increasing our self awareness and with sincere, consistent intention. We can communicate about our walls/fears realistically and we can begin to trust that life isn’t out to hurt us.
Albert Einstein said ‘We cannot solve a problem at the same level of thinking that created the problem.’
If we fight division with division, all we do is continue and increase divisiveness.
Focus on what we share. Focus on our humanity. Drop the personal and seek the universal. Where we put our energy, gets energised. What we focus on grows.
Creativity for me is an act of listening.
It is an attentive way of being alive to and engaging with what is unfolding in each moment.
Sitting down and putting a post like this together, is a way my creativity takes form. And yet the funny thing is, I don’t actually feel like I really ‘create’ anything. I experience it more in the way that I am simply putting some collected components together: a photo, a central thought and a few more thoughts for a caption.
The photos I take out walking. Even in the most seemingly ordinary suburban street, there are many beautiful things to see. The more I am looking with an empty ‘beginners mind’, the more I see beauty. The simplest of things are a work of art. The things we overlook are fascinating. And many times I have to override my mind’s quickness at dismissing things as ‘not that amazing’, or ‘no one will be interested in that’.
Sometimes I’ll see something that shows a certain quality or message yet to be deciphered, and oftentimes will be perfect for my post that night, or sometimes months later.
With the central thought, it will often just ‘pop in’, seemingly from nowhere. Usually when I’m doing yoga, or listening to a spiritual teaching, or walking in nature, or contemplating on/listening to experiences. Sometimes with a photo I take, the words will come in simultaneously.
It’s also here an awareness is required to listen, as these kinds of thoughts are often not pushy, or sticky, or seemingly outstanding. They’re often quiet, unassuming, easily overlooked or slipping by. A sense of discernment takes place.
Sometimes a thought will come that I don’t understand, or my mind isn’t convinced of and even argues with. I will ponder on it more deeply and listen to it’s message.
I’ll jot these thoughts down on my notes and have them there for when I make my posts.
I don’t think the caption or anything out ahead of time. That would be a chore; a kind of forcing. I wouldn’t have the energy or motivation for that approach!
No, again.. I listen. Words come, naturally, arising. Like jamming impromptu with music.
I’ll do a final read through and use my mind to make it read well..
and whaa-la!! Created!
Do we allow space for ourselves to be visible? Do we willingly offer and communicate our vulnerability? Or do we hide/avoid?
Do we allow space for others we are with to be visible and attended to? Do we take up space by offering perhaps more than is needed?
The more we turn toward ourselves with honesty and earnestness the more free we become.
The more we avoid, deny and run from ourselves the more imprisoned we become.
We’re no use to anyone if we don’t look after ourselves too.
What things do you do to fill yourself up? How do you show yourself care? How would you talk to someone you love, what advice would you give them?… start to apply this and receive this in yourself.
RATNA DYER 