August 27, 2013

Could Failure Be A Good Thing?

Can you give yourself permission to fail in order to succeed? Too often we live conservative lives for fear that we might 'fail.' In the process, however, we miss out on some of life's most amazing opportunities and lessons. Read more in my latest article 'Failing in Order to Succeed.'  http://www.maketheworldmove.com/failing-in-order-to-succeed-by-jessica-stead-make-the-world-move/

mtwm

August 26, 2013

The Path of Least Resistance

Do you ever stop to consider how you use your energy? Would you be surprised to learn that how you think about your life, can either zap or generate energy? Following on from my last post, “Loving Your Life,” I will share with you three of Deepak Chopra’s ideas that will help you conserve and use your energy in life affirming ways.

In Chopra’s fourth spiritual law, “The Law of Least Effort,” he explains that to do this you must free and re-direct your energy by learning the art of acceptance, responsibility and defencelessness. By doing this you can live a life with less resistance and more joy.

1. Acceptance

When you get stuck on what could have been, and stress over what might be, you deplete your body of vital energy...it’s exhausting. You can’t change the past and you can’t control the future, but you can choose how you respond to your present moment.

Chopra suggests that the first secret to living an easier life is to accept your present reality. He explains that this means accepting that ‘…this moment is as it should be.” However, it doesn’t mean giving up on what you desire. “You can wish for things in the future to be different, but in this moment you have to accept things as they are.”

What are the benefits of ‘going with’ your reality instead of resisting it? Chopra says “Any time you encounter resistance, recognize that if you force the situation, the resistance will only increase.” Does this sound familiar to you?

Have you been in a situation that you tried to force, only to end flat on the floor, exhausted, and no closer to your goal? I certainly have. I think Chopra is right, don’t push back against resistance or you will only meet more resistance. You will have expended all your energy and will have nothing to show for it, except maybe more frustration than you when started.

Instead of resisting what is, Chopra encourages us to have patience and to trust. Just like a good gardener, Chopra tells us to plant the seeds of your dreams and desires, to nurture them, but ultimately to wait for the right season for them to bloom. Too many times, you become impatient and begin to dig up those seeds looking for shoots, killing off any chance of your dreams taking root and then blossoming in the future.

When you realise that life unfolds as it’s meant to, you free yourselves of so much anxiety, fear and stress. As the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time for everything. In life there will be good times and bad times, times of success and failure, sadness and happiness, richness and poverty, health and illness. Understanding and accepting that this is what makes up life, you can begin to move through these times with confidence that you don’t need to resist the natural ebb and flow of life.

Free up vital energy by accepting your life as it is today, be patient and trust that good things will happen in the future, and redirect your energy in positive and loving ways.

How can you do that? Chopra’s next tip is to come to terms with your own responsibility in life and your own power to change how you feel about your circumstances.

2. Responsibility

Feel upset about certain events or how you have been treated in the past? It isn’t people or events you are reacting to when you get upset; rather, you are reacting to your feelings about those events and people, explains Chopra.

Want more control over how you feel about your life? Stop blaming anyone or anything else for your situation and begin responding to how you feel and change it, says Chopra. He encourages us to look beyond the issues you are dealing with to see what you can learn.

“All problems contain the seeds of opportunity, and this awareness allows you to take the moment and transform it to a better situation or thing…you will have many teachers around you, and many opportunities to evolve,” says Chopra.

3. Defencelessness

Lastly, Chopra’s third suggestion is to give up the desire or ‘need’ to convince others of your point of view. This is a major energy zapper and often has little impact. Not only shouldn’t you argue your point of view, Chopra encourages us to have an open mind explaining, “You don’t want to stand rigid like a tall oak that cracks and collapses in the storm. Instead, you want to be flexible, like a reed that bends with each storm and survives.”

If you are like me, then you will also need regular reminders that joy and peace aren’t found by resiting your life, but by embracing your life with acceptance and responsibility. You only need to look back on your life to see how true this fourth spiritual law is.

Recently I was resisting my life and getting increasingly agitated that things weren’t unfolding as I had hoped and expected. I was getting further and further into a hole, created by my own mindset and my gritted determination to ‘make it happen.’ Needless to say, nothing did happen. I was stuck in an utterly frustrating holding pattern.

It was only when I accepted things as they were, chose to re-direct my energy into new ideas and projects, and decided to let those other issues unfold as they needed to, that things began to really change.

Within a week the goals I had been pushing for months, were realised! Yes, it took longer than I had hoped, but it had happened. I sat back and thought “wow, what a waste of energy that was getting so agitated when things felt like they weren’t moving.” I hope next time I meet life’s roadblocks I can remember that everything unfolds in its own time, and not to get caught up in what I think ‘should’ be happening.

Do you need to accept your life as it is, and free up vital life energy to create new and wonderful things in your life?

Jess xx

Wait for your dreams to blossom

August 7, 2013

The Walking Wounded

This week ABC’s Four Corner’s aired a powerful episode called “Walking Wounded,” about a remarkable man named Giles Duley.

Giles was embedded within the U.S. army as a photographer in Afghanistan. In 2011 his life changed when he lost both legs and part of his left arm to an improvised explosive device (IED). However, Giles’ story is one of hope and resilience.

Giles made the decision to return to Afghanistan to photograph victims of IED’s. Sadly, most of the victims of IED’s are children and the poor of Afghanistan. Unlike Giles, the people he met did not have access to the medical care he did, and were often the sole breadwinner for their large families.

His story is a powerful reminder of the cost of war, the stark difference in opportunities between developed and developing countries, and one man’s drive to live a life of influence.

To watch the episode, check out ABC iview; 

http://www.abc.net.au/iview/?series=2303988#/view/41402

To see more of Giles’ photography visit his website;

http://gilesduley.com/

Thank you Giles for your wonderful inspiration, may we all embrace our limitations, use our talents, and make a difference in the world.

Jess xxx

Giles Duley

Photo sourced from: http://gilesduley.org/