Finding Happiness Right Away!

Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, “You owe me”. Look what happens with a love like that, it lights the whole world and infuses life into every living cell that exists. Every morning, there is a beam of light and awareness for everyone. But the magic is seen only by the ones who are ready to open their eyes and SEE. Those who are ready for the acceptance of blessings, get it effortlessly. It’s just a matter to open the eyes to abundance that is out there, that’s all.

Let’s do a quick check: Observe people around, maybe the people you know, or look at your own living style and honestly answer this – is your schedule according to the life you want to realize or is your life somewhere squeezed like an adjustment in your schedule? Without realizing, haven’t we made life like the last entry of “sundry expense” in Profit &Loss only to tally the final balance sheet of our materialistic achievements? Let the reality sink in.

You know of the toys that run on keys? The more you rotate the key, the faster the toy runs. What happens when you turn the key but not let the toy run and instead hold it tight in your hand? It rattles as if in rage – only wanting to be set free. Imagine us being that charged toy held captive. Now we have so much untapped power within us, that when we happen to give it no heed or use it, we become unsettling. All that is required is to not be a CAPTIVE. You may listen to so many motivating podcasts, or read books that answers the key questions like “how to be happy”, “where to find peace”, no matter how much motivated you get by it, the effect wears off in no time. No matter how much happy we are at one moment, it wears off within the next few moments, no matter how many times we try being grateful for the privileges we have, it’s soon forgotten by minutest of inconveniences that comes to us. Why do we constantly become CAPTIVE? And what are we captivated by? Why is it that our chaos overpowers the peace we are trying to make? If emotions are the captivators that determine our mental state and well-being, instead of giving in to those downward spiralling emotions, why don’t we call them out on face and say, ‘Chal, Pehli fursat mein nikal’?

Simple solutions to complex situations:

I think, anything learned theoretically or changes cultivated by being “influenced” by someone can’t last for lifetime. But that what you realize yourself gets permanently infused in the virtue. It’s easy to understand concepts, but it’s life changing when you realize the crux of it. It’s life changing to know that being CAPTIVE or not is really a self-made choice… I think, emotions are not thralling, it’s only the one we dwell on, we get thralled by. A shift of focus from emotions that bog you down to the emotions that lift you up can be a first step to rekindle the inner flame, beam of light, or the Inaara in you.

Why is rekindling that beam of life even important you might ask, why add one more task to the already never ending to do list? Here’s why : for choosing to grow into being that who can’t be reigned by chaos or distress or any emotions that bog down.  To not be CAPTIVE, and most importantly, to experience life with arms wide open and insights of deep within; And just making it clear, surviving and living are complete different things. It’s what we want is what we go after, and self-realization or awakening is the want of rare. Some are content in the comfort of just meeting the survival needs, some are more restless because all they’re doing is only meeting the survival/career growth instinct. Regardless to which category we may belong to currently, a human life lived with no touch with the inner consciousness is still a human life unlived.

To rekindle that flame, to begin the process of being aware and touch that inner consciousness, is that of being grateful. Gratitude is such a powerful virtue, that if the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is ‘thank you’, it will be enough. Thankfulness is the beginning of gratitude and gratitude is the completion of thankfulness; so while thankfulness may merely consist of words, gratitude is reflected in the acts.

It may be difficult to absorb that you can be grateful even when your life is currently in tatters. Amidst family problems, health, loans and instalments, broken hearts and mental distress, etc what possibly can you be grateful about? For what? When I’d search for the answer to this myself, the most common advice would be to compare with someone who has less. That would automatically make you feel privileged and grateful. However, comparisons, in my view, is a superficial approach to it. It definitely works, but let’s imbibe the fundamentals of gratitude in a way that the need for comparison is not even required!

So, scientists have estimated that there are approximately 8700000 species on earth. So it is safe to consider that there are trillions and trillions of spermatozoa and ovum in the world, right? yet the success rate of them meeting and conceiving is so rare. Firstly having a life is a rare event given this calculation and on top of that being born under human species, (chances of being 1 out of 8.7 million species!) in itself is an extremely rare event. I emphasize that the chance of being a Human is so rare and here you are! You’ve got this rare human birth unasked! The life (jeeva), deeds (karma), soul (aatma) and ultimate liberation (moksha) can be manipulated only and only by one species on the planet, HUMAN! Only a human has the privilege to choose not to be stuck here only as just animal by choosing to awaken. When even before the human potential is realized, problems are fixed on eyes like glasses for most and that’s where the pathos reaches to infinity because with the glasses made of problems, no matter how far you try to see, you will still only see the problems. A virtue that holds gratitude breaks such unwanted glasses forever. Once you realize just how miraculously has life come to you and the privileges bestowed on top of that, you’ll know that there is more to this life than taking birth, giving birth and tasting the end of birth! Sometimes the solution to extremely complex situations is so simple but efficient that it outshadows confusions and puts everything into a plain perspective. And Gratitude is that solution.

There are pretty simple ways gratitude can be exercised effortlessly:

1. A reminder: Keep something with you that reminds you to practice gratitude. For instance a chain, a journal book, a pen holder or any object around you stickered with “I am grateful” so that whenever you see it, no matter what the thought of chain, you will be rereading the word gratitude. And something you see and think of constantly seeds in the subconscious. I am using an app called “Gratitude” since a year that helps me build on this virtue.
2. Alternative Approach: Every time you’re about to complaint, just pause for a moment and instead give a thought about the positive part of it and say it out loud. What it does is, everytime we complaint, that’s the energy we are giving out loud, you’re unknowingly welcoming more of this kind of energy into your life. When you count the blessings, they usually outstand the problems. Anywhich way if you are going to attract something, so why not the positives. Use better alternatives to what you’re dwelling on.
3. Happy List: It’s easy to forget all this when under stress. And then there are times when nothing feels right and life seems so fallen apart. For such situations, keep a collection in your cell of songs and images of things that makes your life so beautiful. Keep on adding to this collection and every time you feel sad, look at that collection and you’ll feel instantly uplifted.

There are always more things to be happy about and lesser to crib, but the mind is such it goes after that what is not there. A reversal of this mind-set will be such that instead of you getting sucked by negative vibes, you’ll be giving out the happy vibes and currently we need more of that. What you radiate is what you attract. Let the Inaara in you radiate, be grateful for this radiance J