LIKE A PHOENIX

There comes a time in your life, when everything seems to fall apart and you seem to see the world from below – being outside looking in. And then there it is, the one big question circling around in your mind daring you for an answer: What is the meaning of this life?

Is it having or starting a family? Is it having a job? Is it aiming at good health?

One famous person once said: When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life. – John Lennon

So, happiness is the key to life. Everything else is either an outcome or a tool in reaching happiness. Happiness is what inspires you, what moves you, what makes you do things. It is happiness that brings you forward in this life. It is happiness that makes you see love. It is happiness that makes you achieve things. It is happiness that takes you towards your dreams. And your happiness starts with you and only you. It does not depend on things or other people. Your happiness only depends on you. You just have to make that choice. Once you have decided that happiness is what you want for yourself, all the tools will be given to you. You will find them automatically.

Your happiness starts inside you, inside your mind. Go and ask yourself what you want from life for yourself. Find all these little things that you like and concentrate your thoughts on them. Ban all other thoughts from your mind so they can’t rule you because you only have this one life, and your choice should be to live it and live it well.

You have your values, and they are important. They define you. So never sell for less just to please anybody. As Doe Zantamata said: You can never be a nobody when you believe in yourself, because somebody always believes in you. So always believe in you. You are the most important person in your universe, and all that matters is your happiness and that you are pleased with yourself. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you.

Your life is all about finding your light, the one thing that makes you shine inside and out. Only if you spread your very own light people will see you and love you for the one you are.

Every now and then doubts may be appearing at the surface. Listen to them but don’t allow them to turn off your light. Keep the faith about the one you are and want to be. The same with fear. It walks hand in hand with doubts. So listen to them but don’t let them occupy all the space in your mind. Raise the rent and kick them out. Still, it is important to listen to them since they are telling you something. But don’t let them overtake your light.

When life knocks you down, roll over, and look at the stars. See how they are sparkling. They might appear tiny, but even though they are millions of miles away, they are shining their light so strongly. And you can do the same.

Since like attracts like, and energy flows where attention goes, it is positive minds that live positive lives. It is all up to you. It is you choice to shine your light strongly. Only you can do that. And if there is anything negative crossing your path, do not let it get to you. Instead, turn it into a stepping stone. It might be something taking you in the right direction for your destination. Or it might even take you to something bigger and better, bigger and better than you could have imagined. Sometimes a detour might even be the shortcut you were looking for. A detour might be the much clearer path.

Whatever it you wish to accomplish or achieve, move towards your destination with a heart full of happiness and love for your life. All that matters is you. And the key to life is happiness, your light.

So if you are lying on the ground, do not allow anyone to kick you. Take this as a chance since this open a new road for you and rise like the phoenix from the ashes.

TIME...

Time. There we have four tiny letters forming such a big word. But what is time exactly?

Things about time being said are: Time is money. Time is a healer. I don’t have enough time. Etc. Often time is treated as a possession, but in reality it is not. We are not able to physically hold it in our hands. So maybe time is just an illusion?

Today we measure time in different ways. We have years. We have seasons. We have hours, minutes, and seconds. And we use clocks and calendars telling us the day and how late it is – assigning some numbers. Also, it looks like many of us have become a slave of time, a slave of these numbers. Constantly we do hear the clock ticking, be it the clock telling us the hour, or be it the biological clock.

Diaries are filled with plenty of appointments and activities. People feel they have to fulfill as many duties as possible in order to be of value to society. But by doing so they actually put themselves aside. Haven’t we learnt that quality means more than quantity? The same should apply here.

We all have our qualities and talents and should enjoy them.

Whenever we are doing something we really like, it feels like time is flying away. Whereas when we are engaged in less favourable activities, time seems to be going very slow – like a snailing snail.

However, when we burden ourselves with too many responsibilities within a too small frame of time, we’ll eventually get hit by the mystery of the burn-out syndrome. The result is that our free time is not defined by any quality at all anymore. Instead, we’ll get trapped in depression and a total lack of inspiration, which would normally kick us forward to get active with something – things we like. Hence, by pressuring ourselves with too much quantity of doing something we actually and indirectly aim at the opposite target. So stop just busying yourself with all these things. We should always desire a certain balance and pay attention to quality.

This need to please everyone and hence being so busy with everything at the same time does not do YOU any favours. It is not wrong to take a day off and get a little lazy here, a little lazy there. By doing so you are absolutely not decreasing your value to the world. Actually, you might add to it. By taking time for yourself and concentrating on who you are and on what you like doing, you are setting an example. The key to life still is happiness, and only if we are happy ourselves we able to spread that happiness, which reminds other people of being happy too. What would be the point of being right here and right now only keeping (too) busy? This does not conclude living. This simply means being. But we should all want to live and do the thing we like without being pressured by society putting (too) many deadlines on you. Deadlines – the first half of that word already says so much.

But we all have our own rhythms in this life. Let’s take that biological clock, for example. This is only a tool to spread panic. Someone once said women should have children by the age of 35. That is in people’s heads. And after that you are too old. But looking around us today, we are proven the exact opposite. Women start having children after the age of 40, rarely also later than that. And that is when society starts attacking. But who are we to judge?

We all lead different lives writing different life stories, and we all age differently. Just put two random people of the same age next to each other. Let’s use the example with two people at the age of 30. But looking at them, we are not able to tell how old they really are. With one of them we guess (s)he is at his/her early twenties, whereas with the other person we say (s)he is nearly 40. But according to some calendar this person is 30 years of age. To everyone time means something completely different, and we use it in so many different ways. Hence, time and age should not be defined by some numbers that we were once assigned. And a saying goes: You are as old as you feel. So, secretly we all know more about time than we can truly fathom.

Measuring time pretty much is a tool used to organize ourselves. That way we keep our appointments etc. Very many years ago it helped improving trade and economy. Today, we cannot imagine a life without it. We have schedules for everything, which has widened possibilities of getting from one place to another in a shorter frame of time. But still, this is just a tool. Very many years ago people might not have worried about things like that. Their journeys took longer, but that did not decrease the value of spending time. These days we are such a fast living society. We pass by things and people and do not even realize it. We do not see the tree right in front of us. We do not hear the bird singing just for us in the morning. We simply rush. And we event more and more tools to keep rushing. But we must remember to breathe and also feel alive. It is a gift to ourselves if we decide to slow down and simply be there for us. Every once in a while we should forget about this fourth dimension. We need to be without this pressure – just like when we go on vacation.

A trip away simply shows that we then try to run away from time and the pressures it seems to bring. We are yearning for more freedom and less boundaries. We should even do a little of that when we in the circle of this everyday life. Slowing down is soothing the soul. Every now and then we need stop to link everything we do to time. Just go out there and enjoy being you. This is preciousness with value.

So, can we say what time is exactly? Not really, I guess. It has always been there. But it is really down to all of us individually what we do with it , how we use it and how serious we take this business of these assigned numbers. It is down to all of us individually how and how much value we place in our lives. As long as we remember that our own individual happiness is the key to life we shall succeed! It is not time that is pressuring or ruling us, it is only us ourselves, the human beings we are. It is not time that can heal us, it is only us ourselves. It is not time that equals money and making it, it is only us ourselves (if that is what we desire). It is not time that defines the value of us, it is only us ourselves. It is not time that makes us do this and that etc., it is only us ourselves.

In its very own way time exists in this material world. On a spiritual level, however, it is an illusion.