LivingConsciously

Kindness is greater than merely an elementary word or a disposable expression. The real intent of kindness is manifest by means of your thoughts and actions every single day. Kindness is personified with the inner countenances of harmlessness, which can aid you to re-establish the balance in your life and redress the karma we all carry. Come to be that individual of true and unquestionable kindness to expand happiness and no hurt into the world around you.

Each of us have some form of stress which impacts on our lives. Appropriately recognising and dealing with it can lead to a more balanced and healthy life. There are many schools of thought as to the root cause of stress. However, a new way to look at stress, is that stress is purely a build-up of energy. As you experience life, your own thoughts and reactions can lead to an accumulation of energy within different areas of the mind and body. If this build-up of energy is not appropriately dissipated, the overload of emotional energy will cause issues for the human mechanism.

While we can still consider the traditional aspects of stress, this new slant on stress provides you with an opportunity. When you start to feel stressed, find a way to release the build-up of emotional energy so that it does not hurt you or others around you.

Some simple techniques can be utilised to help you destress by draining away these overloads of energy. One simple method can entail taking a few minutes out in meditation or mindfulness to seeing yourself near a lake or ocean, seeing the emotional energy draining away into the water. Another similar method is to stand on the earth, then think of the emotional energy being drawn away into the ground. Alternatively, if you are practised in breath works, then you can see these excess energies flowing out as dark clouds when you exhale.

You may believe we have more than five senses, however, one sense is routinely neglected. That is common sense, as it appears to be seldom acknowledged and frequently in short supply. Your sixth (common) sense is not a conventional sense of the physical body. You may identify that common sense is not intrinsic in everyone to a similar degree, rather it is derived from awareness and is an integral part of your thought processes.

Encountering your common sense is about becoming more aware, taking the bigger picture into view and taking into consideration the effects of any one of your thoughts or actions. As you become more mindful of your common sense, you may sometimes feel through the pit of your stomach. At other times, common sense or sound judgement can seem akin to the quiet whisper originating from the back of your head, informing you to be aware or do something another way.

Throughout your day, ask yourself if you have suitably considered your thoughts or actions. Being aware of the repercussions of any thoughts or actions can be the most significant step in learning how to tap into your sixth (common) sense.

Increasingly the thoughts of many people are being affected by external sources such as reality TV, and influencers on social media. Every day millions of us are being bombarded by messages, images and videos from these various sources. It is becoming normal that people accept what they see or hear without questioning its content or validity to their own lives. On acceptance, it can then become integrated into your own programmed thinking.

Realise how you can react to situations or events with the programmed thinking which was manufactured for mass consumption. Make the smart choice to not act as if you were participating in an episode of Goggle box. Break free from this social conditioning to be your own life influencer.

As you continue your journey on the pathway of awakening, you will face many challenges. Not all of these challenges seem obvious or straightforward. Every day we all express different thoughts and emotions. However, certain emotions can cause more problems than others as they feed your lower ego.

These lower emotions are typically characterised by fear, arrogance, rage, despondency, jealousy and greed and can be analogous to many aspects of the seven deadly sins. You should strive to recognise any aspects of these lower emotions within you. Where you do find any thoughts, emotions or feelings of this nature, you should do your best to bring these aspects under control, then banish them from every facet of your life. If you allow these emotions to be retained within, they will feed your lower ego with energy, giving the mind the opportunity to then regain its power over you and your life.

Have you developed a pattern of tuning to the negative? There is a strong correlation between being optimistic and being physically well. Typically, people who express positive emotions are at a reduced risk of becoming ill. Feeling happy is linked with better general health and longer life.

Positive psychology encompasses a variety of techniques that focus on: developing positive thoughts, positive emotions, developing positive experiences. It also works at a deeper level on improving our positive character traits, such as loyalty, humility and integrity. Positive psychology does not discount that there are negatives that impact our lives. Instead, positive psychology aims to look at the situation to better understand human experiences and determine how to best foster positivity and good thinking.

A significant amount of many people’s brainpower is overinvested in worry and concern. Knowing how powerful your mind is, you have the capacity to bring about some change in your life. It will take practice and perseverance; however, thinking anything will occur can be a significant step towards making it happen.

Make an effort to divert some of your mental capacity to evoke more favourable changes in life. Focus on what feels good and find a task that occupies your mind to take the body out of its cycle of negative or disruptive thought.

As individuals, each of us differs from one another in our ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to our environment, to learn from experience and to engage in various forms of reasoning through the application of active intelligence. These differences are never entirely consistent, as your intellectual capabilities will vary on different occasions and in different aspects of your life.