Showing posts with label self-love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label self-love. Show all posts

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Does Wealth Lead to Happiness?

“Life in abundance comes only through great love” ~ Elbert Hubbard

Does wealth create happiness? Although a life free of financial worries sounds like the answer to all problems, I personally believe that it is not wealth that makes happiness but happiness that makes wealth.

In my opinion, there is no difference between types of energy, aside from the division between positive and negative. Both of them exist in the Universe, and everything we are, see, hear, feel or touch is made of both. Money and material things are no different – they are a manifestation of energy.

When we feel good about ourselves, and feel we deserve to receive good things, the positive energy we send out is a clear signal to the Universe that we are ready and willing to receive the many blessings that are available. When, on the other hand, we feel trapped into a dark tunnel of fear and doubt, we also feel that we have failed ourselves and others, and the signal we send out is that we don’t deserve the blessings that are available to us.

Very often, the prison we are in is an invisible one only we can see. Its walls are built with bricks made of guilt and unresolved issues. In the unfortunate event that we have done anything wrong and have gotten away with it, we fall prey of an even worse internal conflict – while our ego rejoices that we have won one, our inner spirit knows the scale isn’t balanced; justice is not done, the deed has not received adequate punishment, and we subconsciously take it upon ourselves to ensure that we get our just deserved.

Regardless of what we have done, we can’t go back and change things. Our inner spirit knows that, and does not expect any such thing. What we can do, is honor our ability to feel remorse and guilt, because it is a sure sign that our conscience is working, but once we have done so, we must also allow ourselves to let those feelings go and start afresh.

Beating ourselves over something we cannot change will not right the wrongs of the past, but will rather cause us to stumble again in the future. Instead, a complete reshuffling of our life cards needs to take place. First of all, we need to differentiate the things we feel bad about that are really wrong from those that are deemed wrong from a cultural point of view. In the latter case, what we have done may not even be wrong per se, but it is considered so because it goes against the grain of our established societal rules.

And if we can’t forgive ourselves entirely, let’s begin by forgiving others, knowing that, like us, they are held captive within the confines of a similar prison. Forgiving others allows us to heal those parts of ourselves that we can’t directly reach, and gives us a head start on a journey of true love.

On the map of abundance, selfless love is the main highway to get to destination; no toll payments are required and the sun is always shining bright at the end of the horizon.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Lessons

“Life will teach you the lessons, it is up to you to learn them” ~ Author unknown


It was during our GOLO yard sale, yesterday, when I engaged in a brief conversation with a homeless man who happened to wander through the area. He mentioned that lately he has been trying to figure out what life is all about, and he felt sure that our time on earth is but a journey to discover how to give back.

He talked to Lolly and myself for a moment, then raised his eyes and asked: “But how do you give back?”

I truly had no immediate response for him, and suggested he should do his best to help others that are in worse predicaments than he is. Then, something else occurred to me…

Could it be possible that his life lesson is one of a different nature? What if instead than learning how to give back – which he didn’t seem to have a problem to do – his life lesson was about learning how to accept and be humble? After all, what better life situation could teach humility more than being homeless and at the mercy of others’ kindness? Is it possible to identify our life purpose by observing the facets of our reality and the patterns we implement in our daily existence?

We may not be able to understand some of the lessons that we are meant to learn, as it is not necessary for us to do so, but if we pay attention we can at least have a rough idea of the direction we should follow. For example, if we are the victim of a string of failed relationships, the culprit of that pattern could be appointed to a lack of self-love. Maybe, then, part of our life purpose could be that of learning how to embrace unconditional love toward ourselves and others.

As the wonderful teacher it is, life hands us assignments through our daily challenges. Whether we choose to do our homework or not is up to us.