Complexity in Simplicity

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

.Sunny-side up, please.

Beat the bad times with positive thoughts that can shape your life.

I read an interesting article on Sunday from Straits Times. An article that made me agree with it. It is a pretty optimistic piece of article. But it would be good to note that a cancer patient wrote this. Perhaps I'm still not jaded enough to find this article THAT delusional. But I hope it will give some light to the down ones. I have skipped the intro though.

".........I have since come to believe in the power of the mind. I do not mean to suggest that the mind can overcome all suffering or illness. This is too simplistic a view.

But I do think there is some truth to the truism that we are what we think, and wisdom n the old adage that positive thinking can transform lives.

If nothing else, putting a positive spin when going through a difficult phase in life helps us stay hopeful- even if it does little to change the material facts of the circumstances.

And as we all know, hope in the face of adversity can be a great source of strength.

Sentient, feeling, loving human beings are no strangers to sufferings. Pain is a constant in life; only those who have stopped loving and stopped growing feel no pain. When one feels pain, the temptation to anaesthetise it away with activity is strong. It is only when we embrace the pain, accept it, trace its contours, learn its rhythms, that we can hope to move beyond that valley of pain, into the flatlands of daily, routine of life.

In the darkness of the valley, it is easy to lose sight of hope. It is easy to mistake a transitory journey through the darklands, for a permanent sojourn.

It is precisely at such times, that the power of the mind can work wonders.

When I go through these valley experiences, I have come to rely on an arsenal of tools both spiritual and material.

In the material world, I stave off depression by tapping on friends and company. I try to eat regularly and sleep well, with the aid of herbal or medical concoctions if necessary.

I make myself do things even when all I want to do is stay home and mope. I dragged friends to shop with me, take time out for a massage, visit someone - even when every light in my universe seems dimmed, when every activity is poignant with loss and anguish.

My spiritual arsenal has expanded over the years. Meditation in the Catholic tradition has become a lifesaver, as has more mainstream forms of prayer.

When the heart and mind want to dwell excessively on negativity and pain, I practise the habit of zapping negative thoughts.

It's very simple: you learn to identify the thought patten that triggers feelings of despair. You zap the thought and say: Stop.

You replace that negative thought pattern with a pre-determined sentence or affirmation that is positive and life-giving.

It is amazing how well such a simple prescription works, and how quickly you are able to stop trains of negative thinking in their tracks.

Amid the confusion and pain of a turbulent episode - whether it's a major illness, a divorce, a bereavement of a job loss - it requires superhuman effort to remember that life is not always so grey. It require wilful effort to believe that one day, things will get better.

For most of us, the pattern of our lives and memories of happier times, will beat out this faith that from the desolation of the ashes today, a phoenix may arise tomorrow.

Positive affirmations are one simple way to help us remember that after the tempest comes the rainbow - whose beauty can stir our battered souls.

If all these sound like mumbo-jumbo to you, at least know that there are sizeable numbers of people in the world today practising such esotheric mind practices who will swear they work.

A 2006 movie, The Secret, tells of the "law of attraction" - a reference to the belieft that positive thinking and hopeful expectation attracts what we want into our lives.

This is apparently not a new idea but can be traced back to ancient Egyptian and Hindu Philosophies.

I've often thought of God and the universe as benign beings who want good to human beings. If that stands, it's a matte of simple logic to believe that God, the universe, all powers that be, conspire to give you the things you need and want, which are good for you and good for others. And they are just a hopeful, positive, wilful thought away.

Call me an optimist, but I reckon that a pretty hopeful way upon which to build a life."

Taken from Thesundaytimes August 3, 2008 by Chua Mui Hoong.

I didnt buy the faith in God of hers. Personally I find the strength in her fight towards the ugly phase of life remarkable. I've always thought it's really important to never lose hope. True enough, hopes are things of uncertainty..they may once again bring you down into disappointment but it makes one alive.. Sometimes we wonder, why do we fight on? For various reasons I guess.

She said.."only those who have stopped loving and stopped growing feel no pain". I thought it was so true. It will be scary to see one feeling immune to the ugly phase of life, when u gave up in everything even in prayers. Someone with no love and stopped growing is as good as an emotionless corpse which is more scary than an anguish alive feeling soul. Sometimes I really look forward to the innocence in life. Seems like innocence loves the most and is still growing at the most.

Having said that, hopes cant be inserted into a person just like this. We need to find it ourselves, within ourselves.

You make it easier to be me

6:34 PM

Labels: Media, Reflections

doodled at Wednesday, August 06, 2008 by koon | Doodlelink |

2 Comments:

nice piece of article! thanks for sharing. see you in school alright! i want to eat at arts! (:
By Anonymous, at 12:06 PM

hahas! Yupps. See you in school! You should let me know ur timetable yea? So that we can probably mug in sch tgt (Hahas)...

And I met up w Jerica just now.. She sent her regards to you! :)
By koon, at 9:05 PM