A Clean Slate

Have you ever wondered what your life was before? Before what you might ask? Before everything. Before the frustrations, the disappointments, the regrets, the anger, the resentments, the planning, the stress. Before the running to work, the hurrying of the meal, the shuttling of kids to infinite after school activities. Before the sleepless nights, the anxieties, the being late, and the list goes on.

We were all born into this world without any of these fears or negative emotions or worries. We were born with a clean slate. Think of it like a white eraser board. Clean, pure, unmarked. Then over time slowly we mark the board. Sometimes with a black color, sometimes with red, green, blue, yellow or purple. All colors indicative of various outpouring of emotions. We make streaks, squiggles, lines, curves, writings, waves, shapes, pictograms, alphabets, numerals. These may represent various activities done in our lifetimes. In the end we have a brilliant mess of colors and configurations. If we are too close to the board we see random colorful shapes. Chaotic at best. Much like when we are in the throws of our lives running from moment to moment without thinking just doing. It may seem chaos at first, with feelings of madness. If we step away and look at the entire eraser board we see the border of the board and within it you can see an abstract colorful image. To each person like art, the beauty of it is in the eye of the beholder. So to each person their dry eraser board may look beautiful or a horrible mess. In any event we can reflect on a lifetime of achievements that represent the entire picture.

 What you think of your dry eraser board is entirely up to you. Do you see it with not enough interlinked squiggles or not enough maintained relationships? Do you see too many red colors  or too much anger? Do you see enough straight lines or too much on the career oriented path? Do you see too many shapes or too many confusing thoughts? Or do you see your board fairly white and clean acquired from a path of purity and clarity undertaken through a lifetime of understanding, patience and acceptance or forgiveness? Do you perceive your board as wholesome full of organized shapes, pictograms, alpha numerals from a life of orchestrated plans and actions? 

Sometimes as you try to erase lines or shapes, or rather erase bad memories, or emotions, there still is a faint hint of the prior line or shape if it is not removed immediately. Have you ever tried removing these markings months or years later, it is very difficult, requiring multiple attempts with the dry eraser or other cleaning solutions. So too is this analogy applicable in life. It may take up to a life time to remove the negative emotions, the mistrust, the stresses, the fears and like preconceived notions very hard to erase. But they can be wiped out, with patience, with dedication and forgiveness and letting go of your fears. Through understanding, meditation and living in the moment as if you were there consciously and purposefully making an appropriate marking, like an artist painting a canvas, creatively allowing each stroke to eventually fill up the canvas to its complete potential and art is born.

In the end you may end up with a beautiful and artful board resulting from a purposeful and successful life. We all are longing for a time when things were simpler, when life was simpler, a cleaner slate if you will. We can achieve this. The markers are in your hand and you are the person making the lines, shapes or pictograms. But remember the eraser is also in your hand and if you are on purpose you may have less to erase, but if you must erase, then erase quickly before the ink has time to dry and you are stuck with an uphill task of removal of negative qualities.

Can you feel your white board getting cleaner?

Your Inner Voice

Have you ever had that tune stuck in your head from a song that you could not place or a catchy tune that you just cannot forget and cannot stop humming whenever your mind wanders? It happens to me all the time. Invariably it is the same depending on my mood, with the Lion King Theme song, “Hakuna Matata”, or the Jingle Bell Song. I find my mind wandering aimlessly as I walk around or doing chores such as laundry, ironing, or picking weeds, I catch myself humming variations of these 2 tunes. It is normal. We all have these tunes. We are not crazy.

Have you ever wondered what is behind these tunes? The subconscious rearing its presence in the background, it is your inner voice. Your conscience talking back to you, gently guiding you and allowing you to connect to your true self, your spirit. We often ignore it or suppress it. If it tells us left but we decide right, and end up in the wrong place, it was our inner voice talking but we did not listen. If it tells us to do something but we did the opposite and a different outcome occurs that was unexpected, it was our lack of listening.

The inner voice can be dubbed as instinctual, or your spirit guide. Some will go as far as saying it is God or angels talking to you. I would like to believe in all the above. Connected in some way to a higher plane of existence a more insightful part of ourselves knows how to reach out and help us when we need the assistance, whether it is for mundane matters, or critical decisions in life for example career choices, relationship dealings, financial planning, or lifestyle changes, creative thinking or risk taking. It is always there with us, observing and guiding.

Why do some people always look like they have all the answers? Why do these people get everything they want? Why does everything seem to always work out for them? I believe that it is because these people in part are people who listen to their inner voice. They hear it, they listen to it, allows it to guide them towards success. Can you say that this is faith? Perhaps but it is much more than that alone. Faith has to happen only once you listen to your inner voice, your inner hum that will connect to your true spirit. Your true nature ( not the one that has labeled you who you are by your ego) will surface through your subconscious and work with you to achieve a better outcome. Your inner voice will never harm you. It is part of you, your gift of guidance from a higher abode or existence from whence you came to sustain you in this materially manifested temporary world. It is your connection with the universe, and all the life within it. It is your connection to divinity.

The more you are with calm mind, peaceful and focus in the present moment, the more joy and happiness you will feel. The more “right” things will feel, leading to more sound decisions, guiding you to your true destiny and not the one your ego wishes you to chase after. It is with this inner voice you will find yourself and create a brilliant future.

 Can you hear yourself singing yet?

Traffic Jams

Everywhere I go I seem to land up in traffic jams. Which every country, or state I visit, I meet them. Whether I leave early or I leave late, whether it is during school time or not, I end up in a jam of some sorts either due to a broken down car, an accident or construction. I even was in one long traffic cue that resulted from waiting for a mother duck and her duckling family crossing the road! We have all faced traffic jams in some shape or form in the past, or are facing them presently or will do so in the future. It is inevitable. How do you get everyone to where they want to go all at the same time?  Impossible by any physics principle you apply. 

During the traffic jam, the peering out the side of the window to see the root cause, to give a sense of how long a wait it is going to be, or the impatient honking ( like that ever solved the problem!) are typical customary actions that go along with the frustration, the anger, the cursing, and the banging of the steering wheel.  I often wonder how all this can be avoided. I think we are all meant to be somewhere at a certain time. We are all preoccupied with distractions in our lives prior to heading out somewhere and so invariably are rushed as we are “late.” This is where the problem begins. But if we all take adequate time and plan out our day we may arrive to where we wish to be at the right time. However I am also a believer that we always are where we are, because of where we choose to be and we arrive to our temporary destinations exactly on time and on target, not a moment too soon or a moment too late. 

Traffic jams are life’s way of saying slow down and take a second to understand and enjoy the moment. A good time for mindfulness meditation whether for a few minutes or a few hours is  a traffic jam. Like the Snickers commercial slogan “Not going anywhere for a while, grab a Snickers Bar”, we can apply this to the traffic jam. “Not going anywhere for a while, then be HERE” Grab a bite into a fresh rich block of time and be mindful.  If we are always mindful, and not lost in thoughts, or talking there is more time to observe, listen and think. Many a time I take the opportunity to look around me in the traffic jam. Either looking at the trees, sky, or nature around me as each time I looked at it, the scene changes. Nothing is forever, and zipping on by in the car, you miss truly knowing what is around you, and being mindful of your surroundings. Sometimes I observe my fellow "traffic jam buddies" others stuck on their commute. How often do you get a chance at looking at your fellow man? Do you turn down your window and say hello? I do. In this way I have discovered shops in my town that I did not know existed, quaint ice cream parlors, services I thought only were available in other towns. When we are present and mindful, the world opens up and blossoms, with awakening from within. A connection of sorts occurs with you and the universe. The moment you get back into a different focus, your intention and attention changes and so does your connection. 

Not every traffic jam is going to ruin your day. It may have been the perfect traffic jam to delay you from an accident or calamity. The traffic jam may delay you from taking your flight, but in time to meet someone on the next flight you were meant to meet. It may delay you long enough to miss the job interview, but only to allow the right job to come your way. Life is not without its sense of fairness and balance. If we trust it, it will continue to trust you, and you will believe that you are meant to be where you are and will be where you are meant to go, at the right time to the right place. 
 

You can be locked in a traffic jam internally for years and decades. I am referring to the jam of the mind and emotions. Perhaps a distrustful encounter or a negative experience leading to resentment and we hold onto this anger, grief, the torment for most of our lives. Reliving it over and over again till it consumes us. Until one day we keep honking the horn and there is no one there but ourselves and our bruised egos. Forgiving the past, accepting the present and welcoming the future allows us to step out of those jams. 

If you live in the moment and are mindful you will not only exist happier, more relaxed but will eventually be free of your internal traffic jams. But if you are next time stuck in an external traffic jam, look around and within. You will explore a whole new world and discover that you are meant to be in this jam and like all jams this too does not last forever and you can leave the traffic jam feeling a sense of well being and elated and not frustrated and dejected at being late. After all “ Time is an illusion, sleep time doubly so.”

How do you plan to get out of your traffic jam today?

One in a Billion

I recently went on a trip to India on a holiday. There was much to see upon my immediate arrival, even leaving the airport terminal. There was the bustling of people everywhere. Men, women, old and young. Everybody was darting around, seemingly aimlessly, but in fact all with a purpose. Everybody had somewhere to go and something to do. I got into the car, and we left the airport heading home after a very long 20 hour journey. Looking through the window, I saw an amazing diversity of humanity. Not from the standpoint of peoples of different countries, but truly different individuals within the same country. People of all kinds roaming rapidly. Darker skinned, lighter skinned, poverty stricken, well to-do, fat and thin,  all on some seemingly erratic path. Some employed, some unemployed, some rich, some poor, some going home, some going to work. The place is packed. People driving or being driven, people on the road walking, people  shuttling on bicycles or tricycles. The sounds of people constantly talking to each other and to others on cell phones, dogs barking, and cars honking their horns. Its pandemonium. But if you pause, tune out the noise, the sights, the judgment. Tune out the chaos, and you will see the order. The order of constant motion. A billion people in this country, all in perpetual motion. This is not unlike the rest of the world imagine 7.03 billion all in constant motion.

I started seeing past the masses of population and saw a fusion of entities moving, and soon the image turned to that similar to the image of the sea. Flowing seamlessly, but always flowing. The waves like the people amalgamating into a large pool. I started to think about these individual waves or people. What were their purposes? What were there hopes and goals and dreams? What led them to this world and their circumstances? Who makes it big and who doesnot? One in a billion people in this country will become the President or Prime Minister. One in a billion will become the richest man or woman in the country. One in a billion will invent a better way to travel. One in a billion will find the cure for cancer. One in a billion will rethink the way we are the way we are for what they do. One in a billion will bring freedom to the oppressed through non violence. One in a billion will teach us unconditional love. One in a billion will create art that will bring a smile to everyone. And the list goes on and on. 

Now imagine this concept for any trait of human existence. Love, acceptance, gratitude, strength, patience, forgiveness, intelligence to name but a few. Now apply this to various areas in life, such as art, medicine, engineering, farming, service to others, writing, music and building. If each member of the human race, let go of their ego and their willingness to be right and instead replace it with innate traits as described above, and apply it then imagine what heights our species can reach. We may sit on our existing laurels and believe that we have achieved so much, through mining for the elements, putting a man on the moon or at the deepest depths of the sea and cure certain infections, but if you look at all that is left to achieve, we have barely scratched the surface of our true potential. Our true nature has not been allowed to come out fully due to limits that we place upon ourselves through anger, resentment, jealousy, envy, greed, lust and our egos are at the heart of this loss of balance, preventing progress.

Letting go of the ego, allows our mind, spirit and consciousness to  work in harmony to find a better way and allow us as a whole to grow. I once heard that if you want to change the world, you must first start by changing yourself. I think this also applies by changing the way you look at the world. Not with apathy, distain and mistrust, but with loving kindness and acceptance. This is easier said than done as we are all hard wired into our egos and in the need of self preservation we forget about preservation of our civilization, our planet, our true spirit. If we believe in change then we can change what we believe for the better. You fill find yourself less in a struggle on a daily basis with loss of dreams but working more towards a peaceful end. 

One in a billion, are you feeling lucky today?