Happy new year to all of you. It is yet again the beginning of another year and I am confronted with unfinished business from 2008, pending work in 2009 and an indescribable anxiety for the years to come. And to think of it is just the beginning of the year.
Oprah has started the new year by screening 5 episodes of Live Your Best Life in 2009 dealing with food, weight and health, relationships and intimacy, money, and last but not least spirituality. Oprah says in these episodes that she aims to instill into each and everyone how they should live their best life according to how they see fit and not according to how the world wants them to live. Understanding very well that people are confronted with problems in these areas day in day out, year in year out, she has specialists in each field talking about how to tackle their problems. What really touched me in these episodes was the emphasis for HONESTY. Oprah tells us to be honest to ourselves and acknowledge the problems and tackle them, taking the bulls by the horn, so to speak!
We would have had lots of problems in the year that passed. And we are probably anticipating many more problems in the future. But what we cannot deny and cannot forget is the present. The present is all that we have and the sooner we acknowledge that fact, the better. There is basically no past and definitely no future because everything that happens, only happens in the present. Whatever that happened too, could only have happened in one present. Eckhart Tolle in the Power of Now states, when you surrender to what is and so become fully PRESENT, the PAST ceases to have any power.
I wish it was as easy as that. I have had my fair share of disappointments in 2008. I have had my fair share of joys and pleasures too in 2008. How does one be dispassionate about both pleasure and pain and treat them both in the same light? Can I treat the pains the same way I jumped for joy during my times of happiness and pleasure? Somehow pain doesn’t equal pleasure and I find it difficult indeed to look at only the happy incidents that happened to me.
Its okay to be sad about the pains, its also okay to cry about it. Infact it is double okay to acknowledge the fact that you have been hurt. What is not okay is to think about the past, regret our actions and wallow in self pity over all that has happened in the past. Why just acknowledge the painful episodes? The pleasures need acknowledgement too. Pain and pleasure are just opposites of the same coin and therefore cannot be avoided. One young lady in pouring her heart out to me commented on the waste of time and waste of energy and waste of all her sincerity in terms of an unrequited love affair. I would not call it a waste. I think they all serve as useful lessons and reminders to understand people better. She would have got so much joy while she was in that relationship. I think that should be acknowledged and that despite it all she will come out of it smiling.
We are grinning ear to ear when we are in a joyous relationship, over the moon when someone pays us a compliment, jubilant when we have had some success or the other or totally ecstatic when we have done something right. The question is, when will we be happy for no apparent reason? Happy for nothing... Not something to be tackled on a lazy sunday morning but really...think about it! Spiritual gurus all over advocate this ...being happy for nothing, happiness that is non dependent on any external factors. Can we just be happy for being able to wake up every morning, see the the sun rise and smell the flowers? I have not been successful with this so far but i think i am going to try this in 2009.
It is time to put everything behind me and move on in 2009 with fresh hope and new beginnings. Lets embrace 2009 with vigour and excitement. Lets love, laugh and live like we have never done before. Lets enjoy the present moment fully rendering both past and future powerless. Many of us fail to enjoy the present due to regrets of the past and anxiety over the future. And what do you get out of that? A totally screwed up present! Happy new year people!
