How can you be happier and more satisfied in your life? I thought of using this as a title of this post. Its the most common question asked and answered in self-help/improvment guides. But I realized it has something to do with the submissive nature of ours. Hence I consider us all self-inflicted slaves to our mind.
The happiness and satisfaction of our lives is a state or experience of our mind. We pereceive things through our senses and experience it in our mind. Mostly it lasts for a very short time, before again our mind projects a new situation/condition to make us feel incomplete. We keep trying and experimenting with various things, people and situations around us. We try to determine how to make the best out of them to our benefit or for people we care. We see, hear, taste, smell, touch and feel everything at our disposal in our own way. Thereby to establish a meaning or connection to it. There are myriad subjects available to us whether we know them all yet or not.
There lies the catch, the constant endeavor to please our mind, convince it, satisfy it, etc. We confuse our satisfaction to be that of our minds'. As unfortunately 99% of us dont know our identity beyond our mind and body. No I am not refering to us being a soul. As soul too just comprises of our subtle body. But I am not even talking about various layers of our existence here.
You will have to experiment this on your own to realize what I am trying to say here purely out of my own experience. First of all lets just do away with the barrier of any kind of fear of society, law, etc. As they prevent us from taking into action many thoughts that may occur to us at times. We dont want to pay heed to those kind of feeling and desires here. We all have our sense of righteousness based on our upbringing, culture, education and exposure. So there are again many actions we avoid out of that obligation. So now we narrow down to all actions & activities which are unconditional and free from prejudice or dire consequences.
We spend all of our time & energy for ourselves and/or things/people we deem important to us. But you have to at least try to go out of your way even if it costs you a bit and keep yourself open to do something for someone self-lessly. You have to deduce that the outcome is not benefitial to you in anyway you can understand for now. There is nothing in return you expect from it. Again you can choose any activity for the same. But I suppose you get the gist. The heart of the matter here is that do something willingly against your mind's wish everyday for sometime. Be it assisting somebody helpless whom you dont know, tending to anybody in need, planting trees in remote places, cleaning places where we dont hangout, etc.
I would like to stress here again that I am pointing towards things you either dont notice because you are too busy and self-absorbed in your own life or dont consciously take out time for. Even if you start with half an hour a day, it can yield results you cant possibly imagine. All you need to do is cut sometime out of your next weekend getaway, coffee with a dear one, a little bit from your sleep, etc. The more you dont like to do or cant do the better. It can be a sick relative you dont like to visit or some distant aquaintance in very poor & helpless state. If its strangers in these conditions then all the more better. You should force yourself out of the reverie of selfish pursuits & gains. For a change expand your heart, broaden your mind and choose to be different from animals.
There is so much stress & confusion at every nook and corner of our life today. Essentially because all our energies our constantly focused to just please our mind. It has gradually made us very selfish and focused only on our feelings and desires. My career, my companion, my family, my friends, my ideology, my aim, my ambition, my desire, my wish...............We have become so predictable and boring indirectly.
Interestingly, this is also the essence of meditation. Its meant for you to exercise control over your mind & body for sometime and avoid them from participating in any conscious activity. To refrain from all feelings, thoughts, ideas, movements for a shortwhile everyday. The most vivid and direct way to confront your true nature. To be completely comfortable and in acceptance of who you are. Before you venture out in the world with your expectations & ideas and hoping people to see you in the right light. Its the most primary selfless activity from which you cant derive anything physical. It gradually opens up the capacity in you pay more attention to everything around, to be aware, to have greater & longer focus on your determination, to contribute to existence in its entirety with however small a contribution. To be happier & more satisfied in your skin.
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