When we focus on problems, we will have more problems, and when we focus on possibilities, we will have more opportunities. Ships don’t sink because of the water around them; ships sink because of the water that gets in them. So don’t let what’s happening around us get inside of us and weigh us down.
Life is an opportunity—the truest opportunity, as we only have this one life to navigate. The breath coming into us is the definition of opportunity. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that to keep our focus clear and to remember what is real because we get impressed by money, followers, degrees and titles. One should be impressed by kindness, integrity, generosity and humility.
Nothing in this world is permanent. So we don’t have to stress ourselves too much because no matter how bad the situation is, it will change. If this life is our story, wouldn’t we want to make sure that it is an interesting one?
Some people want their story of life to be an adventure. They want to climb high mountains or do things that no one has ever done before. But the greatest adventure is to know own self, to know the real us, the one that never changes even if your body ages. Have we ever worked on our relationship with our self? Or, have we been more concerned with what other people think of us? We worry more about how our neighbours and colleagues see us because we have learned to measure ourselves with the scales of the world to measure our status, our level of success.
But what really matters to us is—do we feel good, do we feel at ease or not? As at the end of the day, we have some very simple needs and on the top of the list has always been the need to feel contentment, Peace. Peace is a fundamental human need that needs to be felt from within us.
We spend a lot of time and energy to make sure that our body is comfortable. Do we also spend time to make sure that our existence is comfortable?
In today’s time, where people are trying to scare and manipulate each other away from peace by using fear, do we realise what fear does to people? Fear takes away the vision of a human being and makes it narrow.
It becomes important not to be influenced by that fear because there is something that is so incredible inside each one of us and that is the courage to see beyond that fear, to see beyond that time and to understand that, as human beings, we have the possibility of being able to be in peace.
So we must make conscious choices. Even when we find ourselves in desperate situations, we still have to make choices. Sometimes that can be hard, but each one of us has a great strength within us. When we don’t know about that strength, we search for someone to help us. But there is no need to search outside when we already have an incredible strength within ourselves. All we need to do is connect with it. When we start making use of our strengths and make conscious choices, it’s like lighting a lamp which can fill the life of our and others with the light of joy and clarity.
In the age we live in, information and technology abound. More people have graduated from universities than ever before. Yet this has not helped us solve the global issues that we are facing and things just seem to get more and more complex.
Information and technology are important, but for the essential things in life, we need to know ourselves, we need to feel peace within ourselves. Real peace does not exist somewhere else. It is inside of us. This is the real navigation of life. We all need to develop our own inner understanding and then do whatever we can to increase the conscious awareness of humanity, so we can come together and tackle the issues that are surrounding us.
The author, also known by the honorary title of Ambassador of Peace, addresses audiences in more than 250 cities across all continents on Humanity and Peace.
For more information, visit www.premrawat.com and www.rajvidyakender.org