You decide who you are, what you want, what you can/cannot do and what you think you deserve!

 

It is very important that you realise that you play a strong role in your own future. You decide who you are, what you want, what you can and cannot do and what you deserve. The choices that you make individually and collectively in conjunction with the other players in your life decide your future. It does not only decide your future pleasure, joy and happiness but it also plays a vital role in the moment-to-moment way you experience life

Rene

 

The image you have of yourself is distorted and warped.

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The image you have of yourself is distorted and warped. You have been conditioned to think that you are your physical body and your history. It is very difficult for some to grasp this principle. I find the confusion surprising because most religions believe that you have a body and a soul. You are thus not looking at the real you when you look in the mirror, but the “virtual’ you that is busy trying it’s level best to interact with the other virtual people that they run into daily. You and everyone that you meet are like actors on a virtual stage. You are playing the roles that you mistakenly accepted as real to the best of your ability. You pretend that you are the character on the stage. You walk, talk and act like the impersonator and try to blend into the dramas you or other created on this virtual stage of life. Your real you (soul) is not this character on the stage. The real you is an observer that watch how well you do in the impersonation game that you involve yourself in. The problem came when you were convinced that you are the actor and that you are measured according to the success of your plays. Set yourself free and see things as they really are. The real you cannot be contaminated and can never become the virtual person that you thought depicts who you are.

Rene

 

What happens to you is not as important as how you respond to the situation. How you respond to a situation determines who you are going to become.

Every decision or choice you make and action you take, gives you the opportunity to create yourself and to discover whom you really are. On occasion, we are all submitted to adversity, disappointments and setbacks. What happens to you is not as important as how you respond to the situation. How you respond to a situation determines who you are going to become. It is through hardship and suffering that we grow, create and ‘re-member’ who we are. Suffering and pain enable us to develop certain virtues that lead to self-mastery. God did not invent suffering and it is not His intention to punish us. Suffering or hardship is not a curse and it does not indicate that you are an evil person. Those who ignore and contradict the Universal Laws are more likely to experience suffering. Suffering occurs when we suppress negative emotions and harbour grudges, resentment, anger or hatred.

“There is nothing wrong with God’s creation. Misery and suffering only exist in the mind.” Sri Ramana Maharshi

It is important to make wise choices and to live in harmony with nature and the people in your immediate environment. There is grace in living in harmony with the Universal Laws. Discovering your authentic self and ‘re-membering’ who you really are, will enable you to live according to Universal Truths and to eventually overcome suffering. Suffering serves a purpose; it builds character and accumulates inner strength and wisdom. Most of the great Masters endured suffering, but they succeeded in transcending their emotional and physical pain. They disciplined their minds and this enabled them to transcend any form of suffering. They developed their divinity within, which is pure love and this led them on the path to eternal joy and inner peace. The Great Masters did not have material wealth, but they had emotional and spiritual health and ‘wellth’.

 

When faced with an adverse situation, it is important to figure out what you can learn from the situation. The moment you find something or somebody to blame for your suffering, you do not take responsibility for the situation and you disempower yourself. Putting the blame elsewhere deprives you of an opportunity to learn from the situation. The Divine knows what you need and what you need to learn. If you are not going to learn the lesson, it may take the universe several years to orchestrate a similar experience. Trust in the Divine and know that there is a higher purpose. The perpetrator was merely the instrument and in every adverse situation, there is the possibility of healing, a gift, the promise of growth and grace. Search for the advantages, benefits, lessons or gifts in adverse situations, forgive and move on with your life. There is nobility in losing, as long as you do not lose the lesson.

“I believe that all suffering is caused by ignorance.” – The Dalai Lama

Pain and suffering in relationships, often result from wanting to use relationships for your own purposes and needs. If you want to define the relationship in a certain way or change the other person, you will encounter resistance. If you enslave a person, you will be enslaved, but if you free someone, you will be freed. The need to enchain or change a person means that you need to look within and identify your emotional wounds that are responsible for your inappropriate behaviour. The need to change a person indicates conditional acceptance. It may also indicate that you should rather not develop a close relationship with that person. Imposing your needs on another person means that you do not truly accept and love that person, because love is not conditional and prescriptive. Love provides others with a safe place to be themselves and allows them the latitude to be imperfect and to make mistakes.

Susan Minnaar

DIG DEEPER – KNOWLEDGE BLOW AWAY IGNORANCE!

 

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.”

 

“It’s not who you are that holds you back, it’s who you think you’re not.”

Being naked, without clothes, bare-butt nude; what does that mean to you?

Okay, more specifically, what does you being naked mean to you? Whoops; let’s consider context. I’m guessing that the thought of you being naked alone in the bathtub has a different feel than the thought of you walking down a busy, crowded street totally bare…frankly, I’m hoping.

I’m not suggesting (as some people have) that all nudity in all contexts is ‘healthy’. As with many over-applied ideas, it doesn’t always stand up to scrutiny (so to speak…ahem).

But our bodies are, needless to say, an important part of who we are. It’s not that we have to shove nudity in people’s faces (unless we’re lap dancers) to show how wonderfully un-uptight we are. However, life becomes a little easier and more enjoyable when we can relax about nakedness when it does happen.

For some people, though, appearing naked at anytime feels like a problem.

People can become chronically embarrassed and shy about being seen naked, even by their lovers or spouses. I say ‘become’ because, of course, once upon a time you were completely unaware of even the idea of nudity. No newly born babes are shy when naked.

So what makes some people relaxed with their bodies whilst others run blushing to the nearest light switch?

Where does body shyness come from?

Okay, other than Biblical references to Adam and Eve’s sudden self-consciousness at their nudity (and subsequent fall from grace), why might you have become shy about nudity? As I said, you weren’t born that way. You must have learned to be shy without clothes.

Well, firstly, some awareness around our own nudity is a good thing. We of course need to be aware that nudity isn’t always called for.

Causes for shyness around nakedness include:

• Exclusively viewing nudity in the context of sex and being embarrassed about that.

• Having grown up in a household or culture in which nudity was shameful and discouraged.

• Having lack of confidence in the appearance of your own body.

• Having had your body ridiculed or having been ridiculed for being naked in the past.

• Feeling that your body falls pitifully short of air-brushed media bodies and therefore should never be displayed.

If you want to become more comfortable with being unclothed, follow these tips:

Tip 1: Vividly recall not being shy when naked

I have a clear recollection of stripping off and running naked in the park on a hot summer’s day (and no, that wasn’t last summer!). I must have been two or three years old, but I can still recall the sheer freedom of the experience. I didn’t think in terms of ‘nakedness’ or even about how I might appear.

I’m not suggesting that’s a totally good thing in an adult (if we want to avoid arrest), but sometimes it helps us to think about times of wonderful spontaneity to feel a little more relaxed now. If you can remember a time in which you were naked and felt fine about that, then close your eyes and take five minutes to vividly recall those feelings of freedom.

Tip 2: Remember what’s genuinely sexy

Remember that confidence is sexier than anything. I know I said that nakedness isn’t always about sex – and it shouldn’t be; nor should it be about being too self-conscious.

But it is just worth bearing in mind that being relaxed with who you are can be more of a turn-on than any amount of symmetrically firm ‘perfection’.

Tip 3: A little at a time gets you there

One woman who had never appeared naked in front of her husband wanted to be able to relax more in her own skin. I suggested she appear naked for a second (whilst she walked to switch off the light), then two seconds the next week. After a few weeks, she could walk around for minutes at a time and sometimes even forgot entirely that she was naked. A big jump can feel daunting, but many little hops can get you there.

Tip 4: Spend more time naked

This sounds obvious, but the more time you spend naked, the more natural it starts to feel. When you’re on your own (and the temperature is well above freezing), do stuff in the nude. Taking an hour to do the housework naked means that you become accustomed to being as nature intended and of course it starts to feel natural very quickly. If you can feel relaxed and natural on your own, it’s going to feel easier to be naked in front of another person.

 

SOURCE

 

You decide who you are, what you want, what you can and cannot do and what you deserve!

It is very important that you realise that you play a strong role in your own future. You decide who you are, what you want, what you can and cannot do and what you deserve. The choices that you make individually and collectively in conjunction with the other players in your life decide your future. It does not only decide your future pleasure, joy and happiness but it also plays a vital role in the moment-to-moment way you experience life

Rene