Improvement Yourself By Reading Articles

I’m going to give you a trivial example to illustrate something huge.

Apply this tip and you’ll step into a transformation.

I’m promising you this because it happened to me.

For years now, I’ve had, as my desktop, a picture of a white colonial mansion set in a verdant green garden.

This symbolized prosperity for me. Tradition, security, and spacious and gracious living.

One day, however, I got impatient with it, sifted through what other images I had on my hard-drive and discovered a breathtaking island scene…sparkling waters, a painted swatch of cerulean blue sprinkled with sapphire, a golden, sun-drenched island with languid palm trees rustling in the wind, and a massive white sailing ship cutting through the water, heading straight for the island.

Now whenever I sit in front of my computer, I feel the pull of my dreams even stronger—a life of beauty and elegance, achievement, contribution, and even joy.

This is the trivial example…but, there is a powerful metaphor behind it.

You are the pictures in your mind.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Everything that you see, feel, experience, and acknowledge around you is due to a singular fact: it is an out-picturing of your inner vision.

If you’re surrounded by beauty, truth, and goodness, magnanimous friends, a loyal and devoted family, a business that lays golden eggs every morning so that you can enjoy the best breakfast possible—then my advice to you is to stop tuning in…you have much better things to do with your time.

If, however, everything is distressingly short of your ideal, then you may want to listen in.

Your thoughts, moment by moment, create your reality. They force you to make this choice over that one. You see only through the filter of your mental pictures. Opportunity or the lack of it only appears before you based on how your internal map of reality is set. You navigate your whole life based on your conditioned experiences.

Now if it’s not what you want—you need to change the picture, redraw the map, reconfigure your internal boundaries, and polish up the tarnished silver of your dreams

Instead of focusing on what is before you, you have to focus in on what resonates with your heart. It’s the belief in the evidence of things not seen that will shift your reality.

Seeking counsel is a fine thing, doing the best you can is a noble one, but the sage that you seek and the path that is your own can only be found within.

If you don’t make this move, you’ll continue living out your life unconsciously, accepting what is and going with it. While this is the fate of the bulk of humanity, the depression inherited by centuries of helplessness, is it really the best way for you?

You have a vast internal power, my friend.

Imagine what would happen if you used it?

You turn on the power by changing the pictures in your head. You have to run a different internal movie.

Little by little, things will change for you. Instead of living as a drone, part of the conditioned masses, you’ll become a visionary. Instead of accepting limitation, you’ll start embracing possibility. And instead of being like everyone else, you’ll become the person that you really believe yourself to be inside, the one who wakes up in the morning with a smile and a heart overflowing with joy.

Your stodgy white colonial mansion may make you feel safe, but you’ll be missing out on the thrill of riding an 18 meter Catamaran straight to the island of your dreams, where the sun is always warm and inviting, the sand beneath your feet is soft and yielding, and the song of the ocean is a lullaby that caresses every cell of your body with an echoing peace.

Saleem Rana would love to share his inspiring ideas with you. Hunting everywhere for a life worth living? Discover the life of your dreams. His book Never Ever Give Up tells you how. It is offered at no cost as a way to help YOU succeed. theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html theempoweredsoul.com/enter.html
Copyright 2004 Saleem Rana. Please feel free to pass this
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Recently I attended a memorial service for an elderly man for whom I was caregiver. In the six months I was his caregiver, I grew to love him and care about him very much. His death was very hard for me, and I was pleased that, despite his wishes of being laid to rest in another state, we had a service for him in our town as well.

Everything was beautiful that night. There were beautiful flowers, singers, two preachers, an excellent message by one preacher on forgiveness and second chances; it was perfect… except for one thing. Rather, three things, in the form of immature women.

My children, ages ten and eleven, attended with me. I gave them the choice to stay home or accompany me, and they chose to accompany me. They even allowed me to choose their clothes, and my son wore a shirt he would never wear otherwise. During the entire service, they behaved perfectly. They never fidgeted, whispered, or even made their presence known. My children acted more like adults than these 40 and 50 something women.

This gentleman’s ex-wife and son sat in the first pew, my mom and my kids in the third, and in the second were four of my moms friends- directly in front of me. I get along with them all and they are very funny women. I have a good time when I’m around them. However, there is a time and a place for everything, and that night was not the time nor the place for laughter- at least not during the service.

I am a big believer in respect to all living beings and all property. I believe every human is entitled to respect from birth until their choices and actions warrant otherwise. I also believe death should be respected to the utmost- no matter how the person lived. That night, respect was left at the door.

For the first twenty minutes, three of the women hit each other, joked, albeit softly and played around, much like very young children during a Church service. Directly in front of them, the ex-wife is upset and crying. Directly behind them, I am upset and crying. Finally after twenty minutes, I was at my boiling point and, after catching the eye of the first one who happened to turn around, asked her was this fun for them. I had to ask her three times before she heard me, so low was my voice. She said no, and from then on, didn’t acknowledge me, nor did she joke with the other women. I felt like if they didn’t want to be there, they never should have showed up. We would have understood that they’d rather be elsewhere.

As soon as the service was over, my children and I left. In keeping with my demand for respect for such situations, it was best I left immediately and deal with it all later, and when we were away from the Church.

I think it’s fine in such a situation to laugh and joke and have a good time, but do so before and/or after the service, unless a service specifically dictates otherwise. It’s great to remember the good times as it helps with our grieving process, but there is a time and place for everything.

We have little regard or respect anymore in this world for any form of life and I believe it’s a bad sign of even worse times to come. If we cannot exercise self control and have respect for a life passed for less than an hour during a memorial service, what does that say about us as a people in general?

A little goes a long way, and that night, their few minutes of disrespect for this gentleman went a long way in the wrong direction.

On the other hand, a little bit of respect goes a long way in determining one’s character. If we all would exercise a little respect every day for all living beings, might not the world begin to become a better place for all?

LifeWriter is an author on Writing.Com/ Writing.Com/
which is a site for Writing.Com/ Creative Writing.

She writing.com/main/view_item/user_id/lifewriter writes frequently on issues of child abuse, mental health and animal issues.