Everybody has something they feel they can connect to, something they love, that seems to save them from themselves and others if they are ever feeling down or lost. For me and others it is music, listening to it can often take me away from everything else and clear my mind. We spend so much of our time thinking about ourselves getting through life almost as if its a battle, but life shouldn't be like that, we are on this earth maybe for a reason maybe not but I feel that life should be positive experience. I wouldn't say that I believe in heaven necessarily but I do believe there is something more after we 'die'. I believe, I think, in reincarnation, that after this life as a human, our souls embody another creature and go through life as that being. I believe that the way you conduct your life and how you act towards others has an effect on your next life. Much like karma, if you treat others with kindness you will be rewarded. This so say 'reward' is not to be a materialistic one, it comes from within yourself, being kind to others is part of the 'reward' as you are left with a feeling of goodness. Sometimes I feel as though karma doesn't come back to me always though, I always make sure to be as kind and generous towards others as possible, I am quite shy so sometimes it is difficult for me to show affection but once I get over my introverted side I can easily compliment and show others love. Even though I make sure to be kind and care for others karma doesn't always seem to come back to me, and I think I may know why. Being kind is a very important quality I believe, and loving all others not thinking badly of them is also very important, but you also need to make sure to love yourself and be kind to yourself. This I struggle with. I wish to have love for my self, to think great of my self and have full respect for who I am, but unfortunately at the moment I don't. I struggle to see positive qualities in me and therefore am left feeling negative on my own behalf, this is also a very unfortunate thing as it causes me to spend more time than I'd like, thinking about myself. This can become dangerous as your mind is uncomfortable with the body it lies in but feels incapable of escaping, this can cause self harm. The way I see self harm is a way of the mind trying to escape, for example by cutting yourself you are breaking into your skin, maybe you don't know it but your subconsciously thinking that somehow this will allow you to be free, allow your mind or spirit out.
As I find it difficult to love myself I am going to start these steps to try and improve myself:
1. Do not draw negative attention towards myself. If I am feeling down, angry or unwell try not make it obvious to others or turn it into a dramatic rant. If I find myself unable to hide my feelings and people question me, try to twist it around and make it positive. For example if I were to feel sick and somebody asked me, "are you all right? you don't look to well?". Reply, "yeah I'm fine thank you it'll soon pass." this is a positive response and will take the negative, pitying attention away from me which will in the end cause me to feel more positive anyway.
2. Be gentle towards myself. Being gentle towards yourself is thinking how you would treat others if they didn't feel loved, allow myself to love my flaws and notice to positive things about myself each day. These things may be physical or emotional, this will take time but gradually I will see more and more positive things about myself.
3. Nurture my body and keep my promises. Nurturing myself is important making sure I feel my body is healthy and pure, not allowing processed foods into it or anything I feel may harm it. Making promises to myself, for example saying that I wont eat a certain food as it doesn't make me feel good and keeping that, self love comes with no greed.
4.Thinking positively towards others, when I see somebody think in my head 4 positive things about them, their character, their talent, their appearance and anything else.
5. Achieve a goal each day. Doesn't matter how small it is make sure to achieve a goal. For example make sure to say hey to everybody I like, ask them how they are, compliment them.
6. If I find myself pointing out bad things about myself say no. Think about something else, draw my mind away to a different topic, don't spend to much time thinking about myself.
hope this may help others
xx
Instinctively we created the arts such as music, painting, dancing e.t.c And all this learning was something to be enjoyed and treasured, we were eager to learn. Sadly now that doesn't seem to be the case, especially in modern western society. School has become a bore, we sit in class staring at the clock longing for the lesson to be over, I am talking for a majority here not everybody. People comment on this saying its because "teenagers are lazy" or "ungrateful" or that we "expect everything in life to be handed to us just like that", but I don't think that is the case at all. I think its to do with the system, the feeling that learning is compulsory, it's forced upon us for the most of our childhood. 5 days a week we walk into an institution where we are required to stay focused, be on time, behave ourselves and we often find ourselves being shouted at my stressed adults. Okay, I understand that it is 'preparing us for the world out there' but the world shouldn't be like that, the world shouldn't be seen as a dangerous place it should be a place of freedom. When I say forced to learn I don't mean to make learning look negative because I am very grateful and appreciative of my education but learning doesn't need to be institutionalised. Humans have an instinct to learn and although schools give us the facilities to learn we can find them in many other places as now many of us have access to the internet where people post knowledge they have discovered. And true the inventors of computers and the internet went to school, collage and university. I am not saying these places should be limited but I do think that they shouldn't be compulsory and a forced requirement, because its likely that many people would still go to them out of choice.
