The Power of Thought
Thoughts are what our mind is made of. You might feel you have no control over your thoughts but that’s not true. The key to controlling your thoughts is awareness. Be aware of what you are thinking at every moment of your day and each time you think a negative thought, replace it by a positive one.
Repeat the following affirmation “I am the master of my thoughts”. You will soon find that a positive change is taking place in your outlook and once that happens your life will change forever.
After all it is how we perceive and process a particular situation or circumstance that determines our reaction and thought towards it. Lets take an example- you are in a party and this stranger who is talking to you is avoiding looking at you. Your reaction towards this can be any of the following depending upon how you processed the situation:
§ He/She is shy
§ He/She finds me boring and wants to get rid of me
§ What a weird person
So you see positive, outlook is very important and that comes from the thoughts, and they come from awareness.
Just be:
§ Aware of your thought.
§ Replace the negative thought with a positive one.
§ Accompany it with a positive bodily sensation i.e. when you are feeling good what signs does your body show e.g. smiling, sitting up tall, gesturing etc.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Calm Amidst Chaos
Nuances of Daily living
How to achieve peace of mind in every day hassled life. Well I speak from personal experience – I found immense peace in chanting. No, trust me, I am not advocating priesthood or asking you to become a monk. Everyday things started becoming less chaotic and more clam. A howling baby, burning food, dusty rooms, unmade bed, sink full of dirty dishes, piles of ironing, dirty laundry… Yes, amidst all that, I was still calm.
You see, the trick is a simple two step process
§ Daily chanting
§ Little planning and a little ignoring (more like looking at the bigger picture)
Lets start with chanting – find a place, any place, even a rocking chair with a sleeping baby on top of you is also fine. Breathe deeply for a minute, close your eyes and repeat in your mind, “I am inspired, disciplined and energized” 100 times (initially begin with 30 ). The catch is to do it every day, same time, same place for atleast one month. Don’t skip on weekends. If it’s not possible to do it at the usual time, then do it in the evening or morning or night. Just be regular and you will soon see a major difference.
Chanting is done to let the thoughts flow freely in your mind. Once it becomes a part of your routine, you will find that after chanting you are fresh to start anew with gusto. The interesting thing is that though our mind is filled with innumerable thoughts , we can think only one thing at a time- go on see it for your self. So when you are chanting you are filling your mind with this positive affirmation. This will help you succeed in all the walks of life, be it being a better mother, wife, employee, boss or a spiritual being.
Let’s come to the second component i.e. planning- I am not asking you to work according to minute allocation. All I am saying is to divide work into big chunks of work and assign each chunk a particular day.
For example: making bed and doing dishes – daily
Dusting - twice a week
Ironing - twice or thrice a week
Laundry - once a week etc.
How to achieve peace of mind in every day hassled life. Well I speak from personal experience – I found immense peace in chanting. No, trust me, I am not advocating priesthood or asking you to become a monk. Everyday things started becoming less chaotic and more clam. A howling baby, burning food, dusty rooms, unmade bed, sink full of dirty dishes, piles of ironing, dirty laundry… Yes, amidst all that, I was still calm.
You see, the trick is a simple two step process
§ Daily chanting
§ Little planning and a little ignoring (more like looking at the bigger picture)
Lets start with chanting – find a place, any place, even a rocking chair with a sleeping baby on top of you is also fine. Breathe deeply for a minute, close your eyes and repeat in your mind, “I am inspired, disciplined and energized” 100 times (initially begin with 30 ). The catch is to do it every day, same time, same place for atleast one month. Don’t skip on weekends. If it’s not possible to do it at the usual time, then do it in the evening or morning or night. Just be regular and you will soon see a major difference.
Chanting is done to let the thoughts flow freely in your mind. Once it becomes a part of your routine, you will find that after chanting you are fresh to start anew with gusto. The interesting thing is that though our mind is filled with innumerable thoughts , we can think only one thing at a time- go on see it for your self. So when you are chanting you are filling your mind with this positive affirmation. This will help you succeed in all the walks of life, be it being a better mother, wife, employee, boss or a spiritual being.
Let’s come to the second component i.e. planning- I am not asking you to work according to minute allocation. All I am saying is to divide work into big chunks of work and assign each chunk a particular day.
For example: making bed and doing dishes – daily
Dusting - twice a week
Ironing - twice or thrice a week
Laundry - once a week etc.
Once you have allocated each day to a chore, do only that chore on the assigned day and that too in spurts and bursts. I mean, do not try to complete the chore in one go, instead do it for 15 – 20 min then care for baby or cook. This way you will always be focused on your priorities i.e. caring for your family and having time for your self. Remember ten years from now will the amount of cleaning matter? House work is done to support the proper functioning of family, the focal point of our lives.
The biggest calming effect is- hugging and kissing your child when all you want to do is explode with anger or stress.
The biggest calming effect is- hugging and kissing your child when all you want to do is explode with anger or stress.
Incase you are not able to finish the work on a particular day, remember tomorrow is another day and some times you have to forsake cleanliness for the sake of the needs of your little one. Bible says cleanliness is a duty of every woman but a spic and span house is a house of a barren. “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, [and to be] a joyful mother of children”. Psalm 113:9
If you have grown up kids and you are still stuck in an untidy rut then visit this great site http://www.flylady.com/ .
Warm regards
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Warm regards
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