1. You kick out idleness
“Idleness is only the refuge of weak minds, and the holiday of fools.”
― Philip Dormer Stanhope
Idleness is doing nothing or spending most of your time doing things that mean nothing. More often than not, these activities take up a lot of your time and effort. In the long run, you will feel worthless, empty and hollow. This is because idleness creates a pattern negative energy that leads to negative thoughts and distractive behavior like alcohol and drug abuse.
“Waste is any human activity which absorbs resources but creates no value.”
– Womak and Jones
Apparently, one of the causes of obesity is idleness caused by inactivity for long periods of time especially spending a lot of time watching movies and tv(people eat a lot in movies and tv has a lot of food ads)
Depression is another negative outcome of idleness. Here, there is a vicious cycle, the more depressed one is the more depressed they get if they do not get up and get busy though for many in this state, it is a challenge. In idleness, the mind tends to amplify any negative thoughts and beliefs and therefore making the whole situation worse.
2. You love more and care less
“The first step toward success is taken when you refuse to be a captive of the environment in which you first find yourself.”
— Mark Caine: American Writer
All the news nowadays is delivered to us hyped up, amplified and exaggerated. Thanks to the availability of technology, we get to know of every bad thing that has happened locally and internationally – tragedies, famines, accidents, murders, massacres, etc. This constant feeding of negative news causes worry and anxiety even though most of them are beyond our control.
We have to let go of things we cannot control and do not affect us directly. We cannot afford to weigh our minds and hearts with such magnitude of terrible news. While I do not mean that you become indifferent to your surrounding, it is imperative that you learn to shut down on such negativity. If you do not, you lead a life of crippling fear and anxiety and in this state; it is a matter of time before you are consumed by stress which will give birth to diseases like high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, etc.
In this state, your productivity is constantly on a drop and even your relationships are unhealthy and unfulfilling. In other words, you become like a zombie; you will not attain your full potential at this rate which will lead to bitterness in the long run. Bitterness makes you very unpleasant to be with.
“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”
— Wayne W. Dyer: American self-help author and motivational speaker
3. You develop a grateful heart
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
― Eckhart Tolle
You have so much to be grateful for. For one, you can read this article meaning you are literate and not visually impaired.
A friend of mine tells me that she was reminded of how grateful she should be when a nurse at a hospital told her of how everyday, when she wakes up, she says a prayer of gratitude because at the hospital, several people are so sick that they are unable to swallow saliva. Think about that. I bet you do not remember that you swallow saliva several times in a minute. Try not to swallow and imagine how it would be.
So, just how many things have you been taking for granted lately? Do you go through your days always complaining of what is not ‘right’ in your life? Always moping around the office? How about starting the day with a smile? It will be difficult at first but we are what we pretend to be. List five things everyday you are grateful for before you get out of bed and tell yourself what a beautiful day it is. Of course it helps when you wakeup on time so you do not begin your day in a panic.
“I have learned over a period of time to be almost unconsciously grateful–as a child is–for a sunny day, blue water, flowers in a vase, a tree turning red. I have learned to be glad at dawn and when the sky is dark. Only children and a few spiritually evolved people are born to feel gratitude as naturally as they breathe, without even thinking. Most of us come to it step by painful step, to discover that gratitude is a form of acceptance.”
― Faith Baldwin
4. You stop being judgmental
“When you think yours is the only true path you forever chain yourself to judging others and narrow the vision of God. The road to righteousness and arrogance is a parallel road that can intersect each other several times throughout a person’s life. It’s often hard to recognize one road from another. What makes them different is the road to righteousness is paved with the love of humanity. The road to arrogance is paved with the love of self.”
― Shannon L. Alder
A judgmental person thinks that they are better than everyone else. Therein lies the problem; everyone is on their journey unique to only them. Comparing yourself to anybody else then would be that you have not embarked on your own journey yet. You are too busy looking at others living their lives.
When we focus on ourselves, we realize that we make so many mistakes and that we have many faults such that we cannot begin to look at other people. We instead are constantly trying to improve on our short falls and thereby have no time to scrutinize others. Searching inwards makes us like people as we understand that what you see unacceptable in other people is the same way others see you. We all have behaviors that for some reason irritate/ annoy/baffle others. We all have weaknesses and deficiencies.
“The moment that judgement stops through acceptance of what it is, you are free of the mind. You have made room for love, for joy, for peace.”
― Eckhart Tolle
When we get down from our high horse, we realize that we are all trying to make a living to the best of our knowledge for the moment and that we all develop at different levels; when we are ready. Are you the same person you were five years ago? I think not. You must have done some things that looking back now (hindsight is 20/20), you would have taken a different path. Perhaps acted with more foresight? Someone might have looked at you then and wondered at how silly you looked or if you were in your senses. When we see others stumble, the only thing to do is look and be grateful that we were not in that situation because who knows, we could have done worse.
When you are not judging others, are you constantly judging yourself?…
“I am my own biggest critic. Before anyone else has criticized me, I have already criticized myself. But for the rest of my life, I am going to be with me and I don’t want to spend my life with someone who is always critical. So I am going to stop being my own critic. It’s high time that I accept all the great things about me.”
― C. JoyBell C