Happy Sunday!
And welcome to today's edition of 'Conscious living with Purnima'. In today's post I will share with you 3 tips to remain sane in a noisy world. I hope you find them useful.
There is no way to control the noise of the world: what is right, what is wrong, what you should be doing, what you should not be doing, what somebody else is doing, how right or wrong they are etc. etc. etc. It's easy to get pulled in different directions and lose our sense of purpose, focus and balance amidst all the noise. It's useful to have some tools that help us come back to our center. Let me share 3 tips with you today that are helping me. I sincerely hope that they help you too.
1. Be organized
“Let us postpone nothing. Let us balance life’s account every day. One who daily puts the finishing touches to his life is never in want of time.”
- Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius
As I make a living working for myself, I am always on a look out for better ways to manage my time. I recently found the ‘bullet journal’ method and it is helping me tremendously to stay focused on what’s most important for me.
Earlier I used to have several journals to help me stay organized. One for goals, one for daily gratitude, one for this and one for that. With this new system, I have been able to integrate them all into one. It has simplified my life and given me renewed focus.
If you are someone already using this system, then shoot me an email and let me know where you are on your journey. I would love to learn a thing or two from you. And if ‘bullet journal’ is a term new to you, then I highly recommend you read the book, The bullet journal by Ryder Carroll, and get started.
2. Prioritize daily quiet time
“If we listen from the mind of silence, every birdsong and every whispering of the pine branches in the wind will speak to us.”
- Thich Naht Hanh, Silence
There is a verse in Bhagavad Gita (Hindu scripture) where the soul and the super soul (higher self) are compared to 2 birds sitting on the same tree.
"One of the birds is eating the fruits of the tree, while the other is watching his friend. Although the 2 birds are on the same tree, the eating bird is fully engrossed with anxiety and moroseness as the enjoyer of the fruits of the tree. But if in some way or other he turns his face to his friend, at once the suffering bird becomes free from all anxieties."
There are several things I have read in the scriptures but this particular verse and the parallel has stayed with me and I find it very profound. I interpret the sitting, watching bird as our very own internal guidance system.
Only way to connect to that guidance is to still the noise of the outside world and go inward through silence. I have been having a consistent meditation practice of 20 mins a day for several months now. A regular practice is giving me greater clarity of mind. I also find that my capacity to pause before responding has increased.
I believe that each of us has an internal guidance system and it's up to us to turn it on. If you don't have a consistent meditation practice going, then I highly recommend that you prioritise one.
3. Love yourself fiercely
“Perhaps we should love ourselves so fiercely, that when others see us they know exactly how it should be done.”
- Rudy Francisco
Loving yourself does not mean pampering yourself, treating yourself to chocolates and cakes or blowing money at a spa.
Loving yourself means doing what's good for you even if uncomfortable.
Getting your daily exercise, paying attention to how you nourish your body, giving yourself permission to rest, standing up for yourself, saying no, not depending on others to make you happy, allowing yourself to be vulnerable so you can learn & grow, forgiving yourself for mistakes, falling short, screwing up (badly even), and still being gentle & kind to yourself because you know your journey, is what loving yourself fiercely means.
Tell yourself, and tell yourself often, that going through feelings of rejection, disappointment, failure, anxiety, stress, feeling incapable, or lost are all part of the human experience. You never, NEVER have to beat yourself up for experiencing them. Just vow to always, ALWAYS be extra gentle and kind to yourself. (And those words "NEVER" and "ALWAYS" have been repeated twice, in full caps & highlighted in bold on purpose).
As a new week starts tomorrow, see how you can start putting these 3 tips into practice and notice how that changes your experience of the world.
We deserve to navigate our lives with ease & in peace. And it all starts with the actions we consciously take towards that.
Good article.. liked the key takeaways.