Is HOPE Whispering In Your Ears?

Hope whispers in my ear that I needn’t worry about kids, family, money, health, future and even world.  “Don’t Worry..” she says, “I am here alive in your heart and carry you through your worries.  ‘Forgetting’ is the magic dust I sprinkle on you. As you sweetly slip in to your dreamworld, I whisper gently and promise that I will hold your hands through the night and fill your world with dreams that help you wake up fresh and bright eyed.”

As life started closing in with all its worries, I was not convinced of these gentle whispers of Hope and needed more assurances from her.

Hope did not give up and continued to whisper in my ear that

• She is here to make the world a better place by inspiring people to have visions that will not shatter with their current realities,
• She is the bedrock of all visions and
• She is an angel from God installed in every human heart no matter how flickering she might be in there.

Hope told me to tell you

• To not give up,
• To hold on as all pain comes to an end,
• That Hope cannot be kicked out so easily
• That she will linger as long as you dream even faintly against your reality.

Hope is the sun shining even when clouds are covering it up.  She asks us to remember that just as we feel a guarantee that there will be sunshine after heavy rains, there will be Hope even as despair tries to cover us up.  All she needs is half an acknowledgment from us and she is ready to run with us, leading us.

This is what Hope told me today.

She says that she is the next breath of fresh air that enters you – all you need to do is to pause, remember and inhale her deeply and she will light that lamp in your heart.

So, please lend her your ear and she will fill you with most divine melodies that you ever heard.

As Poet Lisel Mueller says –

Hope

It hovers in dark corners

before the lights are turned on,

it shakes sleep from its eyes

and drops from mushroom gills,

it explodes in the starry heads

of dandelions turned sages,

it sticks to the wings of green angels

that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye

of the many-eyed potato,

it lives in each earthworm segment

surviving cruelty,

it is the motion that runs

from the eyes to the tail of a dog,

it is the mouth that inflates the lungs

of the child that has just been born.”

Will you allow Hope to whisper in your ear? What is she saying? Can you hear her?

Remember,

Hope is the Oxygen in the next breath you take. 

Fill your lungs with it – you won’t regret. 

Pause…..Relax….Breathe….deeply and fully. 

Do not let despair take over and constrict your lungs.

Fill them with Hope.

Inhale ‘Hope’ the Life Saver.

Until next time

With Love and Respect

Padma Ayyagari

Inhale ‘Hope’ the Life Saver.

Until next time

With Love and Respect

Padma Ayyagari

“4 Fundamental Desires That Fuel The 3 Enemies – Part II”

“Energy Crisis!” … (Photo credit: Toban B.)

Desire to Create & Desire to Experience

• A comfortable lifestyle
• A safe and secure future
• Fun
• Pleasure etc.,

Translated as physical manifestations, these two desires equate to Money and Energy.  You need money and energy to Create and to Experience.  This is what drives you to work and earn.

Now,  that desire in itself is quite noble because you don’t strive to create and experience all that just for yourself but your loved ones as well.

But when these two desires drive you constantly, incessantly and continuously, then they are prime sources for the cause of worry – don’t you think?

Excessive spending (consumerism) in the hope that somehow it creates comfort, safety, security, fun, pleasure etc.,  =  Waste of money and Waste of energy.

How do you put a Ceiling on Desire to Create &  Desire to Experience?

Do you need so much of……………., so many of…………….( You can fill in the blanks)

Do you have to keep up with what your friends have?

Are you conned by the media that unless you have X, Y, Z, you are not complete?

More = Clutter = Maintenance = Money = Energy = Worry.

Can you not have just enough of everything?

I know ‘enough’ is subjective and relative but you do know what I am talking about.

Enough shoes, enough clothes, enough stuff, enough as you are

Etc., Etc.,

How does putting a Ceiling on Desire on Money and Energy help?

It saves you money because you are not accumulating and consuming more than necessary

It saves your physical energy when excessive shopping is reduced

It saves your mental energy spent in deciding what to buy

It saves Mental and Emotional energy at the thought of storing, maintaining the stuff

It stops you from worrying as you don’t have to work so hard to keep up, nor do you have to worry about paying for things you can’t afford

It stops you from fear that you will lose

Most importantly, you will be living in the present, content with what you have

Money and energy are two powerful resources you have at your disposal.  A Ceiling on Desire on how you spend these two precious resources will result in a life that is much more balanced, centered and in the now.

The worry in the drive to create experiences, the worry that you may not be safe if you don’t have enough, will minimize immensely if you learn to live in the now, not at a future moment always.  Living in the now frees our energy.

Ceiling on Desire on Money & Energy = Contentment & Satisfaction

What do you do with all the saved money and energy?

You help others.

You find satisfaction through contribution and your longevity increases as a result.

How are you going to put this into practice?  

If you want to get ideas on how to minimize,  visit this comprehensive blog (my favorite) at http://www.zenhabits.net, particularly this post on scarcity

What areas of expending money and energy are you going to put a ceiling on?  Please leave your comments.  Love to hear from you

With Love and Respect
Padma Ayyagari

4 Fundamental Desires That Fuel The 3 Enemies – Part I

Español: Sathya Sai Baba alimentado los pobres año 1948 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last 3 blog posts I talked about the 3 Enemies that Rob Your Health in all the 5 personality domains and in the last post promised to talk about an antidote for these enemies.

Well it is now time to explore that idea.

What do you think are the fundamental desires that motivate us human beings to live on this planet?  No matter what you do, life is governed and ruled by all of these desires.

You cannot escape from them.  They overlap each other – one leading to the other and eventually becoming one huge pot of a massive desire.

Do you know what they are?

The 4 Fundamental Desires are

1. The Desire to Live
   
2. The Desire to Create 
3. The Desire to Experience
4. The Desire to have Continuity for our Existence

Are you wondering how these desires are related to the 3 enemies?  Well, if you look at the first one – The Desire to Live is connected to Curry (Food in general) – don’t’ you think?

The desire to live is a fundamental human trait, not just human but every species on this planet has a desire to live as long as it can.

That basic desire which used to be satisfied with simple sustenance over the centuries now turned into a massive industry that is billions of dollars worth with trillions of choices – The food industry

As the choices increased, the Desire to Live gradually turned into a Desire to Consume  and now we are at a point where this desire is potentially killing us, both through excessive consumption and excessive wastage. We all know what excessive consumption does to us – from obesity to diabetes to heart disease – all life style related diseases point to one thing – the type of food that we consume.

Whilst the developed nations are slowly killing themselves through excessive consumption, the wastage that happens in these  nations is also one of the reasons for the starving deaths of the millions in the other part of the world.

We are dying due to excess, they are dying due to lack – where is the equality?

Answer to this – NO, Not give up eating ( I like my food too)

Desire is fundamental, we cannot live without desires.  Desire motivates us, desire drives us. So stopping to desire is not an option because that leads to self-deprivation and we cannot survive self-deprivation for long.

So, what is the answer?

Ceiling on Desires

It is a concept and a program coined by Sathya Sai Baba.  Knowing that we have desires, knowing that our desires motivate and drive us,  we actively put a ceiling on those desires.  Measure the resulting savings in monetary terms and donate that money to a charity of choice.

Example: If you like chocolate ( or anything else for that matter), instead of having 2 chocolate bars, have one and the money you would spend on the second chocolate is donated to a charity.  I am sure you can come up with any number of examples.

So, how does a Ceiling on Desire for food help your health?

1. Physically – your ceiling will help you (of course that is obvious).
2. Mentally – you are satisfied about your self-control.
3. Emotionally – you are happy that you are saving money.
4. Socially – you can be an example, a role model to others in many ways – from saving money to looking beautiful. You can also be the talk of the town (wink, wink)
5. Spiritually – the sacrifice you made by not choosing that extra is literally going to give life to others. The resulting joy and contentment you gain through your direct contribution to society is priceless.

All that through a little act of putting an active ceiling on desire – isn’t it worth thinking about?

When we consciously think about it, we waste so much food.  Forget about supermarkets throwing out good food, we waste so much food in our homes. Our pantries and fridges are over flowing and half of that stuff never sees daylight and yet we are driven to buy more and eat more.

As a start, I am going to put a ceiling on my Coffee consumption – only 1 cup per day, that is from 6 a day down to 1 a day.  If I convert that into dollars, I would save at least $ 15.00 a day.  I will get a jar and put that money in every time I feel like a coffee and donate to a charity.  So, Good Bye 5 cups of Coffee…………

What is it for you?  What ceiling are you going to put today on your eating habits?

Open declarations help us stick to our plans better.   Please comment here and publicly affirm your ceiling.

Also stay tuned for the next 3 posts on how the other 3 desires are fueling our remaining 2 enemies of Hurry and Worry.

Until next time

With Love and Respect

Padma Ayyagari