Tag Archives: quest

You Are Right and I Am Wrong

New age spirituality has a tendency to immediately discard any notions of religion, almost vehemently. That simple word has so many different connotations for everybody that it’s like a rainbow of emotions.

And what’s more, using this word seems to invite the non-believers among us to try and teach the religiously inclined why they’re wrong, who are usually at the same time trying to tell us it’s right.

Nobody wins. Nobody hears the other. And what is right and wrong?

If I understand correctly, the main opposition to religion is about the forced nature of it. New spiritual ideals say let’s let people find the answers for themselves through their own searching, not through being forced. Away from propaganda of organized religion, and into organic research and learning. Searching inside ourselves rather than reading about it in a book.

Perhaps the definition of spirituality is to learn from everything, from everybody, while trying to remove prejudices that cloud our ability to learn.

I think this starts with smiling, but I’m not 100% sure on that 🙂

How you define learning is up to you, but there is only one way to go about it.

 

Positivity

health

Stay positive. It takes a life time to achieve the things you’re looking to achieve. This road your going down is not a temporary change of mind, this is a life altering mindset that is going to change your whole outlook on life.

Be prepared to make some drastic changes to the way that you live, but always believe that it’s for the better.

Do not get discouraged when after a week you don’t see any major changes. Some changes will be so slow that you hardly notice them until one day you wake up and look at the goals you had set a few months ago and realize that hey, I am on this track now.

Even if you’ve fallen off the track, today is a new day, get right back on that track. You can never give up in this quest.

This is your life.

As long as you’re alive, every second of the day is a new opportunity to become what you want to become.

1948_mkgandhi

Passion

free_spirit

Passion is what life is. No two people have exact same passions, but many people can have similar passions, which provides some sort of connection for us with other beings in this world; some sort of grounds to communicate on and relate.

The secret is to understand what your passions are, study them, learn from them and grow with them in a positive environment.

For myself, to find what my passion is, I need to really understand what my goals are, and what I am trying to do with my life. In reality, the goals and passions kind of sit hand in hand. When I start thinking about these things, my mind naturally flows into the areas of my most passion. Curiously, there are always ideas and thoughts that my passion digs up that are out of this world, while others are logical, standard, and perhaps even productive with any luck!

Without that main effort though, the initial thought: “What is it that I want to do? Where does my mind lead me when I think of tomorrow?” there is no chance at even understanding your true passion.

Passions aren’t just a girlfriend, or love, passion involves hobbies, quests, goals, and accomplishments often summed up in a personal mission statement. They involve anything that when thought about, all other troubles in the world seem to fade away. One believes that to just follow this journey along the passion quest to the end, the world will be complete and fulfilling.

Me? Yes, I truly believe this. An example for me is when I think about photography. Initially it started with a wanting a digital SLR (DSLR) camera, picking out which kind I wanted most, and then having to keep using my old point and shoot camera until I could gather up enough money to get my DSLR. Then it turned into going places to get spectacular photographs that would blow the doors off of National Geographic Magazine. After this, my passion soon turned to how to edit these photos, which format I should be capturing the images in (RAW, JPG, TIFF, etc.) and how to edit them. Learning Photoshop and testing out Paint Shop Pro and all the various builds of each of them was also involving, learning layers and levels and brightness and contrast all turned into one big giant passion soup, something which I enjoy immensely.

For me, it’s easy to identify a passion; it’s something that consumes all of my time. I naturally fall into searching out new ways to do what I’m passionate about, how to become successful; how to grow.

I firmly believe that to be inwardly happy; to be proud and supportive and attentive in every day of your life, one needs to pursue their passions. Once the passions have been categorized or identified then is when the real work starts with brainstorming ideas on how to actively grow and build and master that passion. This takes a lot of focus and positivity to stay aligned with your goals that come with it. One thing to definitely not be afraid of, is when you learn more about your passion, when you grow with your passion you may find that your goals tend to change slightly to align more effectively with your new path, or train of thoughts.

Mahatma_Gandhi

A quote I will leave you with from Gandhi is: “No matter what it is, I make judgment based on the best of my knowledge. If that knowledge shall change and my stance also changes as a result, I will be the first to admit my mistake, and proceed aligned with the new knowledge.”

Fasting

Fasting is done for a variety of reasons, each of which is held only by the faster, who is the most important person were concerned with. When undertaking the challenge of a fast, do not be afraid: its not as horrible as some might lead you to believe.

1948_mkgandhi

In accordance with blogs and articles, the best way to enter and exit a fast is with a gradual reducing of food going in, and a gradual increase of food going out, which should last about 2 days on either side.

Going in to the fast will be the harder one to achieve, for your stomach is still calling for its next feeding, but when coming out, usually you will not even be able to eat a giant steak and potato dinner.

At both times, eat healthy, avoid any junk food or fast food and stick to meals consisting of raw vegetables and fruits, or small portions of grains or rice, but the key is to eat as healthy as possible.

This is especially important for the detox faster, for the healthier you eat the better you will feel as well. Eating healthier foods will, as happens even when you’re not fasting, make you feel healthier, and your stomach will not speak to you in loud groans trying to digest the junk just fed it.

Many experts talk about fasting to lose weight as well. One even claimed to have done the 40 day fast, with nothing but water, tea, and diluted juice. He lost 150lbs, which brought his weight down to 80lbs. If it’s a diet you’re looking for however, I would suggest a more practical way such as exercise and eating healthy as first steps towards loosing the weight.

In most corners, however, one thing is common: is it as much a mental challenge as it is a physical challenge. Stay focused! This is a mind exercise!

Most bodies are capable of doing the fast (check with your doctor if you are on any medication or are experiencing health problems), it’s the challenge of not letting your mind get carried away with longing for hunger.

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Key factors to this success are keeping yourself busy, and knowing your goals. Some fasts, especially the longer ones, recommend lots of bed rest. This could be a good thing for people that can handle inactivity without going crazy, but that’s not something I particularly fancy. I am a firm believer that activity stimulates the mind, and keeps the body aware. It doesn’t necessarily have to be lifting weights, which is very dangerous when fasting, but reading, cleaning, organizing: going about regular daily activities. Yes, it is true that in the longer fasts one will lose not be capable of much strenuous activities, but each person should test the limits their body is capable of achieving.

Please, consult a physician if you have any medical history, or continual health problems. I am not to be held responsible. If you start feeling heart palpitations, black outs, or other various very unhealthy conditions as a result of the fast, don’t be stubborn, break the fast and keep yourself alive.

On this note, some circles claim that long extended fasts can cure diseases of all sorts: Mental illnesses, cancers, old football injuries (i.e. broken bones), etc. This I cannot attest to, but if a person were in the position of either living with cancer or trying a 40 day fast, I think it’s easy to see which way would be more enviable.

Most of all stay strong in your quest, for whatever reason you seek to undertake the fast, know why you are doing it, and stay positive. You’re doing it for yourself and yourself only. Good luck!