Recently I came across a wonderful story and thought of sharing with you. It is a heart-warming tale that emphasizes virtue of positivity and optimism. The search of happiness is eternal but it can be found in small things of life. One need not to go to unknown lands to search for elusive happiness. Look beside you, you will find it somewhere hidden. Happiness is not just made of large things, big events and major achievements. It is also made of small things that we people normally tend to ignore. Let’s read this wonderful story and learn our lessons.

“Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour a day to drain the fluids from his lungs. His bed was next to the room’s only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.

The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and   families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed next to the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.

The man in the other bed would live for those one-hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the outside world. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm amid flowers of every color of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscape, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.  Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind’s eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head: Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see  anything? It didn’t seem fair. As the thought fermented, the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour. He   began to brood and found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window – and that thought now controlled his life.

Late one night, as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man   watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence–deathly silence.

The following morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendant to take it away–no words, no fuss. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his   first look. Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. “

-          (Author Unknown)

Your statements hold such great importance in your lives. The speech you make, the sentences you utter in the course of a day so much reflects your thinking. Wise people have said, always think before you speak because of simple reason that your words make your personality. Using affirmative sentences in a confident manner changes a lot about your underlying belief. Imagine starting your speech with ‘I Can’ on a regular basis and witness the change. Although small, but these changes bring major positive effects in one’s life. While you speak think of yourself as an accomplisher and as someone who has dreams and then speak words.

Procrastination is a problem, a real big problem. Procrastination delays movement and causes impediment. If you have faith and good speech and still you are not able to make any move then blame it on procrastination factor. Take a step forward and don’t look back. And even if you look back it should be for the purpose of reflecting upon how things have gone and what you could have done to make journey more fruitful. Actions must take place or else you will keep staring at opportunities gone by. Nobody likes to miss his moments and take actions and move ahead.

Don’t fear taking risks. A risk taker goes a long way in deciding one’s fate. Risk and reward run together. But before taking risks, think about all the factors involved and try to master your fears. That is the key to gain confidence and proclaim proudly, Yes, I Can.

]]> http://inspirationforliving.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/i-can/feed/ 0 inspirationforliving yes_we_can http://inspirationforliving.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/life-without-limitations/ http://inspirationforliving.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/life-without-limitations/#comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:27:15 +0000 inspirationforliving http://inspirationforliving.wordpress.com/?p=208 ]]>

Life is a tricky concept. To some, its definition is as simple as to life is for living and for some others, life is the greatest mystery. Both categories are right in their own way. But one thing common to both categories is opportunities offered by life at every juncture of our lives. Some may accept these opportunities gleefully and some others may dismiss it by complaining of noise. But opportunities are not meant to stay forever. One needs to grasp them as soon as possible or else they might slip away to some other waiting arms.

Having said that, life is full of different paths. Life is not about restrictions and limitations. If there are limitations then that definitely exists in your mind and not in life. Life in other words is all about endless possibilities and one is free to choose any path he wishes to. We keep coming across several such stories where people have gone beyond the perceived limitations and performed miracles.

So how to live a life without limitations? Well, start with your faith. One must have faith in a higher authority. Faith dos necessarily mean being religious. It just signifies one must be spiritual and engage in practices that make his spirit stronger. As you think so you become. So expand your thinking and imagine unconquered frontiers. No negativity in your thought process should be allowed. Soon, it will become your habit to think big and going whole hog for your dreams.

Our life never goes in a smooth curve. We tend to face several ups and downs in the fascinating journey of life. It does not much time to gravitate from ecstasy to despair. Things that are taking place in the outside world are beyond our control. We cannot make things run on our whims and fancies but yes, we can always strive towards maintaining balance. Balance is defined as “creating a state of harmony among all the elements of your day, your week and your life”. It’s a blessing to make balance your habit. If you are balanced, it represents a state of equilibrium where one can be more poised and feel stable.

Humans are destined to perform several functions in a day. If we don’t create a sense of delegation, we will find it tough to maintain balance and without balance, there can’t be any peace and harmony. Life cannot be carried in a comforting state without presence of balance. One needs to take certain actions to achieve this essential feat. The first requirement is to control your life and your actions. You cannot change the events taking place in your surroundings but yes, you can always change your actions and reactions.

One must live his life; he or she finds it fit. The first priority should be you and then only all others. If you cannot make yourself happy, nobody else can. Its futile to think of what others are saying or thinking. It will drain you of your energy and time. Just keep doing your work. Change is inevitable so accept the changes whenever they come your way. Don’t resist changes. A routine life makes thing much easier. Try making a to-do list every night and complete them the following day.

We humans are prone to making mistakes. It is no crime to make a mistake. Sometimes, in the flow of life we hurt others. Often we sleep over it and some other times we like to say sorry but move on. But, as the song goes, ‘sorry seems to be the hardest word’ and that is so true. Asking for forgiveness is a tough thing because it involves suppressing your ego. At the same time, forgiveness must be heartfelt because there is no felt saying sorry if you don’t mean that. One can also be not sure of forgiveness even if regret is expressed. But one should have heart pure and clean while apologizing.

 Before taking the initiative, one must be pretty sure of why he is sorry. Go behind the reasons and realize your mistake. Then only, the expression will be genuine. Fake apology mostly worsens the case so be very genuine about what you feel. There is one suggestion of writing down your apology. This will make you more comfortable. Writing also helps if the person is feeling embarrassed. One can send this written apology where it is intended. But its always better to meet person one to one and then apologize. One strong suggestion is to never to make any excuse while saying sorry. It does not really give a positive vibe. Avoid blame game and just be sincere. Rest assured, things will fall into place.

One of the psychological problems faced by lot of people at different stages of their lives is lack of confidence and low self esteem. This is not a good stage to be in at any point of time. These two menaces can make a person feel inferior and he starts thinking that he is less talented than other people. One must strive to overcome this problem. It is difficult, yes but then nothing comes easy in life. Inferiority complex is responsible for filling up your mind with negative thoughts which over the period turn out to be a huge problem. Overcoming inferiority complex is key to increase self-esteem.

To start with, one must try to think positively. To develop a god personality, positive thoughts must replace negative thoughts. The trick is to think positively about not only you but also people around you and society in general. Often sense of inadequate physical appearance makes one feel inferior. In such conditions, one should try to groom himself. It can be done by improving dressing sense and taking good care of your physical appearance. If someone lacks a particular thing, he feels inferiority complex. To handle such situations, one needs to focus upon his strengths and ignore what you do not have. No one in this world is perfect so why even bother about this issue? One should also try to improve his skills. Develop your attitude and life will again appear beautiful.

If you start judging the world with some perfect standards, you will disappoint yourself because the world will fail miserably on your tests. When someone tells you that you did a good job, appreciate the comment and say thank you. Do not start to ramble on how you failed to reach your goals and how unsatisfied you are with this current report.

When someone appreciates your performance or praises your attire, do not put yourself down. That is not being humble. Putting yourself down in turn sets you up as a superior person. It sounds like you are fishing for compliments. Even if you are not, the other person feels that you are putting him down because you are not appreciating his comments or thanking him for his kind gesture. You also come across as a person who is never satisfied in life. You are belittling the other person’s opinion.

Just be a gracious person in accepting thanks and appreciations. Be gracious in accepting your debt to others. Be gracious to people who helped you on your way. Be gracious to favors that others have shown. Be gracious when someone is remembering you. Be gracious in forgiving some oversights. After all it is only from your mistakes that you learn more than from your successes.

When you are gracious, others in your immediate environment also become gracious. All it takes is one person being gracious so as to make a difficult situation becoming easy and moving on smoothly.

Forgiveness is a great virtue to have. It has been said that “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.” How true! The need of forgiveness arises from anger. Anger because few expectations have not been met or you have been betrayed or you have been robed of some deserving rewards. But thinking of it, isn’t anger a very interesting emotion? We humans are supposed to experience all sort of emotions. And emotions are as varied as they come. But as per society’s dictum we are not supposed to express all the negative emotions. Rather we have been taught to deny some so called negative emotions.

It has been ingrained in us that getting rid of anger is one of the most important aspects of our lives. Society preaches us these thing and we are expected to listen to them. But what is the fallout of such sin of suppression? Anger is not a bad thing as such. What is bad, however is holding anger inside you without providing it a let out. Have you ever noticed that sometimes we suppress anger for hours, days or even years and that result in unpleasant scenarios? Suppressing our anger has such deep roots that quite often we even forget that we are holding onto a potent weapon. But remember anger always manifests itself in some form or other. It would be foolhardy to underestimate the potency of this weapon. We will further dwell on this subject in coming articles.

The word ‘integrity’ must be one of the most used words in personal as well as professional sphere. You must have heard of this term from your parents, teachers and in your corporate life. This word traces its origin to Latin word ‘integer’ that means ‘whole’. Integrity is undoubtedly a very crucial word in our life simply because the meaning it conveys. It refers to completeness, totality and wholeness. It’s a complete word with no terms and conditions attached. So why are we talking about this word?

Well, just to put across the point that a strong human always possess this rare virtue called integrity. It’s almost like you are in sync with your deepest core. You are truthful and aligned with who you are. Its not one-off condition or event. Its ongoing process and a quality that must be retained at all cost. Integrity indicates the need of speaking what you know to be truth. Truth may often cause conflict what then every good thing comes at a price. Acting as per your personal values is great achievement. Like all other achievements, attaining integrity demands hard work and persistence but few things are worth striving for despite all the hardships involved. 

Let me quote something by Byron Katie- “The voice within is what I’m married to. All marriage is a metaphor for that marriage. My lover is the place inside me where an honest yes and no come from. That’s my true partner. It’s always there. And to tell you yes when my integrity says no is to divorce that partner.” I hope that sums it up.

The concept of core beliefs holds a very significant importance in any human’s life. It has been said that our physical foundation refers to core stability or alignment of our movement whereas mental or psychological foundation is represented by our core beliefs. Core beliefs tend to develop into a set way, a set pattern as we grow older.  The question that comes in my mind is whether we are well supported by our beliefs? Do beliefs play their role in making us go where we want to be?

We have our beliefs intact in the same place since so many years. But sometimes, we need to recognize that core beliefs have played their part and are no longer instrumental in any sort of development and growth. We need to learn skills that can identify such beliefs and guide us where and how to proceed. The biggest limitation towards the journey of change and transformation is the thought that we can not change. Thinking that, we have been designed this way and we will continue to perform like this forever. Wrong. It does not happen that way.

If you look deep inside you will find that some of the beliefs no longer support you in your cause or should I say greater goal. Just looking at your potential and thinking that what wonder can I achieve if I change few of my core beliefs. Life would start appearing more meaningful. It’s all about you believing in whatever you want to believe. Trust me; the results will more than surprise you, of course in a positive way.