Letting Go
Some reflections on war and the conflict in Ukraine
War is the ultimate expression of accumulated individual and collective ‘negative’ emotions such as anger, fear, bitterness, resentment, regret, anxiety and insecurity. Such emotions trigger the well-known ‘fight or flight’ reaction, which we are currently witnessing on our screens at this historic moment in time. In this state, reason often goes out the window and we say and…
Excess Baggage
When we travel from one place to another, be it city to city or one country to another, one major element besides the ticket or passport is baggage! Ever notice how we check what allowance we have even before booking or buying the ticket? Most of us are pretty familiar with the rules that also go with baggage allowance…
Your A-Z Guide to Divine Virtues – Yield
There are two meanings for Yield. One is to cultivate that is to produce good results, two is to surrender – this sometimes means to give in. In the spiritual context it means to dedicate. The two meanings go hand in hand, when we dedicate our lives to a higher purpose or power that of goodness…
Your A-Z Guide to Divine Virtues – Tolerance
True tolerance is about respecting and accepting differences. It means giving up any expectation that we have or want over people and situations It requires the realisations that we do not need control people and circumstances to make things go right at that time. We need to be able to create a space for quality…
Your A-Z Guide to Divine Virtues – Faith
Faith is the energy of understanding, that helps us realies that anything is possible, even if its not visible in-front of our eyes and more then that even when it is not visible within our reason. The success that comes from faith is closely linked to what we can let go. When we let go…
Self-Soothing – Stillness in the Storm
Welcome to our Stillness in the Storm (SITS) blog. Each month we look forward to introducing you to one of the seven tools for coping with fear and uncertainty explored in our recently published SITS book. We aim to briefly introduce a theme and give you a selection of practices you can try out during…
Compassion Challenge Day 5 – Giving
Giving Nature is always giving to us the support of light, food, water and a place to live in. It’s important to acknowledge how the earth has supported us. People around us are also giving, it could be through the services we receive or the support we may require. If you look at the bigger…
Compassion Challenge Day 4 – Forgiveness
Forgiveness and Reconciliation Forgiveness means to “give” this means to offer compassion love, affection, good wishes and have pure feelings towards the self and others. It is also about letting go of the past and focusing on the now. It’s also vital not to play the blame game but to accept what is and see…
Compassion Challenge Day 3 – Positivity
Positive Thinking The mind likes to think, to explore, to ponder and to consider. It is, of course, necessary to think. However, it is not necessary to overthink, but that is exactly what, only too often, we do. If we think wasteful thoughts, the mind will go into the depths and breadth of that waste thought, turning it over and…
Compassion Challenge Day 2 – Letting Go
Letting Go In order to bring about permanent change there comes a time when we need to look at what are we holding on to that is holding us back. Reflecting on this can allow dependencies to become supports to help us move forward instead. To be truly free there is a level of faith…
A Day in Silence
Generally being an outspoken and free person, I had a fear of being in silence from a very young age. I did however know there were benefits in keeping silent at times, so I experimented with this several times in those days. It was always ok on the day, but I felt limited and sort…
THE ART OF NON-ATTACHMENT
How does the ego convince us that it is real? Emotions sustain the ego because emotions feel real. Emotions come from the ‘my’ value we project onto things or people but that value is not a part of the object or person we call ‘mine’. My car has value for me but that ‘my’ value…
Freedom – Part 2b
Time Being present enables us to be contented all the time. Constant happiness can only be experienced when we are present. Why? All sadness/regret is based on something in the past that has already happened and all fear is based on something in the future that has not yet happened. If we are pre-occupied with…
Attitude in relationships
Our attitude creates our perception of what is happening in our relationships in life. If I have the attitude that someone is irritating, I will always find something irritating in that person’s behaviour so my attitude is a mind set that determines my experience of the relationship. That attitude of irritation comes from the ego…
Freedom – Part 2a
Body The ego has put our sense of self into the body and the role that we play in the drama of life. The body is not who we are but as soon as we are born, others relate to us as though we are the form we inhabit. “What a pretty girl. What a…
Freedom – Part 1a
Possessions Everything out there in the physical world is neutral. It is what it is. A car is a car. A dress is a dress. Any value judgement is a projection of opinion. “This is a nice dress.” Nice is a value judgement which I have projected onto the dress. The “nice” value is not…
How to overcome adversity?
It is true that in life challenges and adversity are a certainty, but do they have to overwhelm and overpower us? Some respond to adversity incredibly well, dealing with them skillfully, optimistically, enthusiastically and appropriately. Whilst others often feel disheartened, perhaps defeated, disempowered – with feelings of “why me?”, as though life holds a personal…
Helping children in finding their purpose
It has been said that children come through you but not from you – you may give them your love but not your thoughts (The Prophet, Khalil Gibran). From this we can denote the importance of lovingly overseeing the growth of a child, but not forcefully dominating or governing their lives. The former allows life…
What is Soul Consciousness?
‘’When individuals of any age learn to turn inward and connect with their innate, divine nature and it’s Source, then, regardless of circumstances, they experience and express true peace and happiness. This is why spiritual education is the need of the hour.’’ Dadi Ratan Mohini Soul Consciousness and Body Consciousness Soul consciousness is derived from…
Overcoming Negative Influences
Question: How can we stop the negative influence of people who are close to us and enable them to change their thinking pattern? Answer: This is a curious question. I don’t know if you have ever made the attempt to change anyone. I don’t believe I have met anyone who has been successful in that…
The Power of Tolerance
There are different situations that come in life where the power to tolerate is necessary. One is bad words and assault from others, one is when it comes to trying to establish the truth, one is discontent in small or large matters.Tolerance is required when going through sickness. If you speak about a sickness it…
The Story of Prajapita Baba, the Father of the People
On 18th January here at the Brahma Kumaris we celebrated the day of Prajapita Baba (or Brahma Baba), the Father of the people. This is the day which he left his mortal coil. He was an extremely pure soul and very faithful to God. He had excellent leadership qualities and was also a great visionary.…
New Beginnings
The month of January is a time for making New Year’s resolutions. One of my goals this year is not to miss early morning meditation. My role model is Brahma Baba. This soul used to wake up at 1am to do meditation every day for 34 years without fail. It is good to set goals…
Creating Heaven on Earth
Yesterday I had a great time at work and managed to create a peaceful environment for others. The return of that was my colleague seeing me as a “special soul”. I work with children so it is no easy feat to create peace for others. Here are my top tips for creating heaven in your…
Full of all virtues
Right now I am focusing on being full of all virtues and full of all powers. I think self-respect is the most important as it will clear all other obstacles and if you can see your own good qualities you will be happy all the time. All virtues can be obtained from staying peaceful in…
Overcoming personality clashes with others
I find myself sometimes peaceless due to personality clashes with other souls. I have had some negative experiences due to my own thinking. This can cause the mind to get stuck on one channel. I am now learning to be more mature in handling situations. I have learned that it is best not to get…
Forgiveness as a key to a healthy life
Being healthy nowadays is a kind of a fashion, and it shouldn’t be like that: health makes life much more pleasant and productive. It should be one of our first priorities. Let’s understand that health is not restricted to the body though; it also implies a life with no “dis-eases” in mind, relationships and even…
10 Best Steps on Overcoming Anger
Recognising First Signs Don’t do anything. Don’t act on the angry feeling. This is just an emotion. You can feel it without turning it into a behaviour. Response Try to step back from this feeling and label it, seeing that it is, in fact, separate from you. Notice its strength and how it pushes…
International Yoga Day
Last year was the first time that the world celebrated International Yoga Day officially. The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi asked the world leaders to adopt an International Yoga Day, saying that by changing lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change. ”Noting that Yoga is “an invaluable gift of…
Self-empowerment
Earlier this week I was able to develop the power to make a more permanent change to one of my negative personality habits. It was a habit ingrained in me since childhood and I had managed to get rid of it temporarily but then it returned. Since trying Raja Yoga Meditation I have now been…
How to beat depression
After many years of suffering from depression I am now overcoming it with the help of spirituality and medicine. It has been my experience that it is best to accept any illness and deal with it as quickly as possible to stop it from getting worse. Sometimes we are not powerful enough to overcome mental…
Strengthening Mental Health
I woke up this morning with a promise to myself that my negative thoughts will not defeat me and I am to work on strengthening my mental mind (health). However, very quickly, I found myself tangled in my morning routine, in judging, the right and the wrong and not what was wrong about me, but…
An angel cares, shares and inspires
“Every two hours I will put a brake on my mind and my tongue. I step inside myself for a minute and become quiet; I stop, relax and observe. Once my understanding is clearer, I can re-enter the flow of daily activities with new-found direction. As soon as I notice myself complaining and blaming I…
My spiritual retreat in Mount Abu
I have just returned from a spiritual retreat with the Brahma Kumaris at the headquarters in India. I attended several classes and the one I found most useful was one about staying happy. I am now learning to be happy no matter what, despite some very negative events happening in my past, knowing that at least…
Inner Happiness
Happiness is quite difficult to define, yet, most people are aware of whether they are happy or not. Certainly happiness is not pleasure, which is fleeting: parties, receiving a gift, a day on the beach, or, as bidden by myths of the consumerist world, the accumulation of things that we run after to recreate imagined…
How to make self-progress in life
I always keep in my awareness that as an ambassador of peace, I am an important person and since I am studying for a degree in becoming a deity, I will accumulate marks in this birth towards that, so every action and mistake is important. Your position or role in life does not matter, what…
Consider yourself to be God’s property
As a child my main concern was always to do well in my studies so that I could get a good job and help my family out of poverty. I never really thought much about character and sticking to your principles and was never lucky enough to be educated in this although I was a…
Spirituality in the workplace
Spirituality in the workplace Last academic year I started working at a school in my local area. I focussed on helping the students no matter what and building up a relationship with the students through an attitude of trust and by seeing their specialities – which starts with attitude and awareness. I was liked by…
Gaining Inner Power
I joined an engineering course as a university student, choosing engineering mainly for the good salary. I studied engineering up to PhD level at one of the world’s top universities and ended up with depression and no friends. I then decided I would work in the Education sector instead. I am now much happier and…
Easter and its Significance
The Yogi Bus Driver – Easter and its Significance It almost feels like the start of spring. Well it would, if it wasn’t so chilly! Easter, I’m talking about. It is preceded by a general change in weather conditions, for the better hopefully, with daffodils lining the roads and dual carriageways of many routes of…