“When we change our thoughts, we change our attitude”
Attitude is the foundation stone of all relationships. Are we able to take care of our mind and always have a positive attitude and outlook for everyone? Take out a few seconds today to praise the self and others and see the difference it makes. Recognition does wonders to people’s motivation, attitude, and efficiency.
Spiritual wisdom says our attitude towards everyone should not only be positive, but ever-positive, continuously positive. So, if we are conscious of our thoughts, we can practise making every thought we think count, because each thought is creating our reality. Thoughts are the seeds that create our feelings, affect our attitude and physical health, shape our relationships, and create the world around us. Thoughts change our life and create our destiny.
Silence is the very foundation of our being, out of which come all our thoughts. The way to silence is through meditation. In silent reflection we can find solutions to create a healthy balance in our life. One option is to check our priorities each day. Although work is an important part of our life, sometimes we allow work to take priority over everything else. When we visualise a tree, we can picture the self as the seed, and the family is the trunk. Work and everything else we do, are the branches. This is the correct order of priority. Our priorities cannot be in the reverse order of branches, trunk, and the seed. When we change our priorities to be: First the self, second the family, and third our work, our attitude changes. We will no longer complain that we have no time to have a healthy balance between our work and the rest of our life.
Getting our life in balance and in harmony begins by caring first for ourselves. We need to distribute our time well. A good way of doing this is to ringfence one special hour of ‘me time’ every morning, to meditate and exercise. Throughout the day, pause for a minute after every hour to rest and recharge the mind, with a few powerful thoughts, and to create powerful thinking patterns. It follows that there will be no need to make effort to consciously create right thoughts whenever a negative situation unfolds. The mind will already be recharged and automatically start thinking in a positive, solution-focused direction, right away. It is also important to make sure we have between six to seven hours for restful sleep. Our bodies also benefit when we make sure we follow set meal times and eat mindfully. Our relationships flourish when we make sure to spend three to four hours of the day with family or close friends.
When our priorities are to first nourish ourselves, second, to strengthen our body and relationships with family and friends, we are then energised to put in the full energy required to do our work, well and meaningfully. Our intuition, decision-making, cooperation, and productivity increase. We all have to work for our livelihood and the sustenance of our families, and most of us want to work well. But when we put work in the right place in our list of priorities, there is more lightness and we achieve more in less time. If all we do, both in work and play, is based on an attitude of appreciation and love for self, and for others, then this is a life well lived.
Chirya Yvonne Risely is a Rajyoga meditation teacher, based at the Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center, USA.