Over the past few years I have greatly altered many of my beliefs and philosophies. I came to realize that most of what I thought about myself and the world had come from conditioning that I received as a child from my parents, siblings, peers, schooling and my religion. Now that I have awakened the self within me and discovered who I truly am, I am more conscious of my beliefs and philosophies in life:
ALWAYS SEEK HAPPINESS:
I believe very strongly that we are all here on this earth to live in happiness. I believe we create a lot of our own misery. I have found that true happiness comes from the inside, not what we have or do on the outside. The more I work on my inner happiness, the happier my life is. I have found happiness in the most unsuspecting places, like a walk in nature or a beautiful sunrise.
BE AUTHENTIC AND GENUINE:
I really didn’t know who I truly was until I began my journey of self discovery. As I shed the many conditioned beliefs that I inherited from others I came to discover a person very different from who I thought I was. Now that I have found that genuine and authentic me I am dedicated to being that person all of the time. What’s really nice is the person that I truly am is someone I really like.
PUTTING MYSELF FIRST:
I now understand that it is very important to take care of myself first. Although my conditioned beliefs taught me that this was “selfish,” I have come to realize that I cannot truly give to others what I do not have myself. How can I give love to others if I do not first love myself? I have discovered that the more I take care of myself the more I want to help and give to others.
PATIENCE:
I believe strongly in the art of patience, something I’ve come to appreciate over the past few years. I was a very impatient person for most of my life always hurrying to accomplish something new. Now I wait and allow my life to unfold in all its magnificence. That does not mean I do not take action. I am always taking action, but I allow my intuition to guide me and I am patient while waiting for the results.
LETTING GO:
I used to be a pusher. I pushed myself and I pushed others. I have come to realize that I can accomplish more by letting go and allowing the things I want to come into my life. Now the harder I push the less I get, the more I let go the more comes my way.
BALANCE:
I have learned that the more balance I am able to achieve in my life the happier I become. I believe balance is a dynamic process. I am always in a state of balancing and rebalancing in my life. The more aware I am, the more I can rebalance myself to ensure happiness.
NON JUDGMENT:
From an early age I learned judgment. Unfortunately I learned not only to judge others, but also to judge myself. I now work diligently to practice living in non judgment. I believe we were taught judgment in order to make ourselves feel good, but I know now that putting someone or something else down is not the way to truly feel good about who I am. I believe strongly that we should be discerning, but judging tends to be about someone winning and someone losing. I strive as much as possible in my life for win – win in everything I do.
BEING OPEN TO EVERYTHING & ATTACHED TO NOTHING:
I have found that the more open I am the freer I am. I have learned that I would rather be free and happy than right. I try to let go of the desire and need to be right. Letting go of attachment to a particular perspective as well as being open to all points-of-view has made a significant difference in my life.
LIFE IS A JOURNEY:
I spent a lot of my time worrying about the future and setting goals as well as regretting my past. I was very event focused and destination focused. I assumed that when I achieved a certain goal or got to a certain point in my life, only then would I be happy. But, I have now come to realize that life is truly a journey to be savoured and enjoyed each step of the way.
PRESENT MOMENT AWARENESS:
I have come to appreciate and practice awareness. I have found the more I work at awareness the higher my level of awareness becomes. I live much more in the moment these days enjoying the happy times and learning from the challenging ones. I find that my fears disappear when I stay in the present moment.
MY THOUGHTS ARE MY REALITY:
One of the more important beliefs I learned was that your view of the world comes from your thoughts. When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. Your reality which keeps changing comes from your thoughts. Happy thoughts create a happy reality.
GRATITUDE + APPRECIATION:
I have learned that one of the most powerful ways to increase your energy is through gratitude and appreciation. The more I appreciate what I have in my life, the more good things come to me. When you start appreciating everything in your life, your view of the world will definitely change.
FORGIVENESS:
I believe that forgiveness helps to set me free. It is more important to forgive for yourself, than for the person you are forgiving. Sometimes when I forgive it helps my relationship with the person, but sometimes it doesn’t. Either way I feel less bothered and somewhat lighter after I have truly forgiven. It’s like I let go of some excess baggage.
TREAT PEOPLE THE WAY THEY WANT TO BE TREATED:
Although I was conditioned to believe that you should treat people the way you want to be treated, I have found this not to be my truth. I believe people want to be treated the way they want to be treated. In order to truly do so, we must learn to understand the other person’s perspective and start to see each situation from the other person’s point of view. I have found the best way to do that is to listen to understand, as opposed to listening to respond when talking with someone.
ACCEPTING WHAT IS:
Learning to accept things as they are and for what they are has come to give me a greater sense of peace in my life. I think the best way to summarize my beliefs on acceptance is the Serenity Prayer- God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
COOPERATION:
I have been a very competitive person for most of my life and never really felt comfortable with it. I have now discovered the philosophy of cooperation and collaboration. My life feels so much better. I have a great desire to bring a greater state of cooperation to our world. I have taken the principle of cooperation to be a guiding light in all that I do in my life.
ALWAYS EXPRESS MY EMOTIONS:
I have learned the difficult way what happens to a person that does not allow their emotions to flow freely through them. I was taught to be a very logical person and never really learned how to express fully what I was feeling. Now that I have found my emotional side, I am a proponent of expressing in a healthy way all the emotions that come up within us, including the lower and slower emotions like guilt, sadness, shame and fear. I believe that unexpressed emotions within us can cause dis-ease.
