By developing and practicing good habits each day, you affirm that you do have control over the very core of your life in the midst of the chaos. Stephen Guise
MAN IS THE ARCHITECT OF HIS OWN DESTINY.
Beneath the human skull is a world pulsating with life and intelligence. These myriad cells in the brain receive and send signals and sensations while engaging in various sensory activities. It’s a huge world teeming with cellular activities making us what we are and it is our brain that keeps the right of habits. Repetitive actions make habits. If we want to make or break a habit the brain will have to be trained accordingly. Any kind of sentimental attachment to habits that need to be broken will have to be voted out. Discrimination is required to keep good habits and discard unwanted ones. [Verse 40 in the Upanishad says ” The ignorant, who lacks discrimination, the faithless or the doubting self, perishes.] Some times we get enslaved in customs that are unsocial or not good for our growth. It is always a series of repeated and misguided actions that refuse to see or hear the voice of reason.
How do we avoid such actions?
We need to guard ourselves against the first performance of a wrong act because once performed- like a rolling snowball it gets bigger and bigger. Therefore reason has to be used in all our actions that we decide to undertake. Hence discrimination. Bad habits bring chaos and misery. In our minds, we constantly need to impeach it during daily introspections and do affirmative talk with ourselves or then-take help.
The immense powers bestowed on us humans get wasted if we ignore our inner voice and encourage our vices. Our offenses could be petty, major, inconsequential, or heavily damaging. They could be anyone of the ills that are hurting us or our society these days. Sometimes people lack the vision to see where these transgressions can take them. They can be totally unmindful of the deep pit these harmful habits can take them, where there is nothing but suffering and burning in the flames of distress.
It’s enslaving and trapping, but remember, any good or bad habit takes time to form. The Biblical verse says: ” For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Which means that even the good habits and the goodness is snatched from the person who does not strive to bring in a change for the positive. It requires wisdom guided discrimination to break bad habits and form good ones. For example, did we ever realize that over time so surreptitiously the smartphones crept into our palms and in our lives destroying so many good habits and relations that we nurtured? Breaking this habit will, of course, be for our good.
We must always keep testing our willpower by giving up some favourite food or something that we love so that we do not become a slave to anything or anyone in our lives. These habits that we form threaten our right to free choice. Questioning ourselves continuously is very important. We must not forget who and what we truly are. It comes with introspection and meditation. This (meditation) is one good practice that we need to develop.
How do we really free ourselves from the influence of our vices and sow the seeds of success? According to Paramahansa Yogananda, these are a few things we must do regularly.
- Self Analysis: We need to give up a robot style of living and dispassionate conditioning. True self-analysis is the greatest art of progress. We need to be truthful to ourselves where we can see our faults clearly. Many people have progressed by perfecting the art of visualization. To see in your mind’s eye good and desirable things about yourself helps. In fact, the power of thought cannot be mistaken. Thought by itself is a potent action. A mere change of thought can replace unpleasant feelings to pleasant ones. I remember my mother’s reaction/advice to us when we grumbled about the sweltering heat in our city. She would tell us to imagine snowfall outside with a very pleasant and cool breeze and then she would laugh. Least realizing that this was a practice in visualization. It helped. The truth is that mental attitude can do wonders.
- Read good books, listen to motivational music and speeches. It all helps. we do gain by following great saints and sages and reading about them. Of course, the mantra would be in discrimination and not blindly following whatever one reads.
- Whatever we have done can be undone. This can happen only through full-throttle determination. Weaknesses can be banished and you can make yourself what you want to be.
- Self Disciplining: is a potent mode if we want good habits to be a part of us. Practice is the medicine.
Though we can all take help from support groups, trainers, psychiatrists, therapists, or programs created to help people but first we must try breaking habits by ourselves, and repeatedly trying may help. Either way, remember that it is you who will be at the helm and it’s you who is the navigator of your own life.
PERSEVERANCE by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
We must not hope to be mowers, And to gather the ripe gold ears Unless we have first been sowers And watered the furrows with tears.
It is not just as we take it, This mystical world of ours, Life’s field will yield as we make it A harvest of thorns or of flowers.
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Good luck and God Bless ❤
MYSTORYMYWAY 