Not Needing Time To Be Who You Are

For most things in life, you need time: to learn a new skill, build a house, become an expert, make a cup of tea... Time is useless, however, for the most essential thing in life, the one thing that really matters: self-realization, which means knowing who you are beyond the surface self - beyond your name, your physical form, your history, your story.

You cannot find yourself in the past or future. The only place where you can find yourself is in the Now.

Spiritual seekers look for self-realization or enlightenment in the future. To be a seeker implies that you need the future. If this is what you believe, it becomes true for you: you will need time until you realize that you don't need time to be who you are.

- Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

Imagine Yourself As A Tall, Stately Palm Tree

Be an organism without goals and objectives - instead, stand strong and successful, capable of adjusting to the forces of nature. Be willing to adapt to whatever may come your way by initially allowing yourself to experience that energy, much like the bending tree in hurricane-force winds.

When criticism comes, listen. When powerful forces push you in any direction, bow rather than fight, lean rather than break, and allow yourself to be free from a rigid set of rules - in so doing, you'll be preserved and unbroken. Keep an inner vision of the wind symbolizing difficult situations as you affirm: I have no rigidity within me. I can bend to any wind and remain unbroken. I will use the strength of the wind to make me even stronger and better preserved.

This simple teaching is so pleasant that you'll wonder why you didn't realize it before. In the Tao time, acknowledge the "storm" and then allow it to be felt in your body - observe it without judgment, just like the tree bends in the wind. As rigidity reappears, notice that as well, allowing the winds to blow as you exercise the Tao in place of the ego!

Seek to uncover the root of your stiffness and achieve greater flexibility in the storms of life. When seen as this kind of opportunity to open to the Tao energy, storminess can be transformed into exhilarating events that uncover more of your true nature of love.

- Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer



Photo Credit: Wikd

Change The Way You See The Storms Of Your Life

Work at removing ego as the dominant influence over you. Release the need for the attention of others and witness how people become drawn to you naturally. Let go of having to win an argument and being right by changing the atmosphere with a statement such as "You're very likely correct. Thanks for giving me a new perspective."

This kind of proclamation gives everyone permission to relax their rigidity because you have no need to prove yourself or make others wrong. If you change the way you think, the life you're living will change, so be willing to say, "I don't know" or "I'm uncertain as to why I even did what I did."

As Lao Tzu reminds you, when you suspend your pomposity and rigidity, others recognize themselves in your flexible nature, and they'll trust you.

- Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer

When Failure Becomes an Impossibility

Awareness of the Tao nurtures flexibility, and removing your rigidity creates an atmosphere of trust. When you live from the perspective of being able to say, "I don't know for certain, but I'm willing to listen," you become a person whom others identify with. Why? Because your flexibility lets them see that their point of view is welcome. By being open to all possibilities, everyone who encounters you feels their ideas are valuable and there's no need for conflict.

As you connect more and more to your Tao nature, you begin noticing that this principle is perpetually present, available in every moment. In other words, the Tao isn't trying to get someplace other than where it is. It has no goals, no desire, no judgements; it flows everywhere because it is energy of creation.

To be in harmony with the Tao is to be free of goals, immersed in all that you're doing without concern about the outcome - just noticing in each moment and allowing yourself to flow with the creative Source that's energizing everything and everyone in the universe. When you live in this way, failure becomes an impossibility.

How can you fail at being yourself and trusting completely in the wisdom of the Source of everything? With failure removed from your life, you understand what Lao-tzu means when he says that "everything he does succeeds."

- Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life by Dr. Wayne Dyer

Tao Te Ching Verse 22: All Things Will Come To You

Yield and overcome;
Bend and be straight;
Empty and be full;
Wear out and be new;
Have little and gain;
Have much and be confused.

Therefore wise men embrace the one
And set an example to all.
Not putting on a display,
They shine forth.
Not justifying themselves,
They are distinguished.
Not boasting,
They receive recognition.
Not bragging,
They never falter.
They do not quarrel,
So on one quarrels with them.
Therefore the ancients say, "Yield and overcome."
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.

- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu

Living The Elusive Paradox

Right now make a simple decision to move your index finger. Now wiggle your toes. Next, lift your arm. Finally, ask yourself, What is it that allows me to make these movements?

In other words, what is it that allows you to see shapes and colors? What force behind your eyes invisibly signals you to process the sky as blue or a tree as tall? What is the formless energy that tweaks a vibration somewhere in your ear to give rise to sound?

What it all is, is formless and nameless. Yes, it is value. Yes, it is obscure. And when you begin to see the world in this manner, you begin knowing that aspect of yourself. This is what Lao-tzu describes as "the life breath of all things," and it needn't remain a mystery. You have the same eternal Tao inside of you, and you apply it a million times a day. It is within you... it is you.

This far-reaching 21st verse of the Tao Te Ching asks you to let go of seeking results in money, accomplishments, acquisitions, fame, and so on. Instead, shift your attention to the energy in the beginning of all things - the elusive and intangible Tao. The greatest virtue is to find this nameless, formless force within yourself. Know it by looking within and seeing it at work in all of your thoughts and actions.

Do The Tao Now

Today, become conscious of the force that allows your every movement. For five minutes in your meditation, stay in "the gap" between your thoughts and notice the elusive but omnipresent invisible Source that allows you to speak, hear, touch, and move.

Breaking Habitual Patterns To Feel Renewed

It's easy to become trapped in habitual patterns that do not serve you well and promote inflexibility. Therefore it is very helpful to consciously cultivate flexibility by relinquishing things in your life and creating new patterns of thinking and behaving.

Practicing flexibility creates flexibility in your nervous system by challenging your brain cells to make new associations. The neurons in your nervous system and the choices in your life are engaged in a continuous feedback loop. In your willingness to try new things, your neural networks become more flexible and open to new perceptions, interpretations, and choices, which in turn support new interneuronal connections.

Here are a few suggestions of things you can do to break out of your habitual behavioral patterns. Try them for a week and observe what happens to your body and mind.

- Change your diet
- Change your exercise program
- Change your route to work
- Change your bedtime
- Meditate longer
- Buy different clothing
- Wear new colors
- Listen to different kinds of music
- Stop wearing a watch
- Wear your watch on the other wrist
- Go out to lunch with someone new
- Try a new restaurant
- Change your opinion about something or someone
- Call a friend you haven't spoken to in years
- Answer the phone differently
- Change your voice mail message
- Read a book that you usually wouldn't consider
- Watch a different television show
- Listen to a different radio station
- Take a new class

Let go of old ways and you will feel renewed. Learning to be flexible means learning to access the most flexible domain of your being - the field of timeless awareness underlying your mind and body. This is the field of infinite flexibility on a daily basis through meditation. Have the conscious intention to think and act flexibly. Practice letting go whenever holding on is no longer serving you.

- Grow Young, Live Longer by Deepak Chopra 

Do you have any additional suggestions of things you can do to break habitual behavioral patterns? If so, leave them in the comments section below.

Release Toxic Work To Fulfill Your Purpose In Life

Most people spend a good portion of their life on the job. So ideally work should afford the opportunity to express your creativity, to interact meaningfully with your coworkers, and to provide the material security you seek. Unfortunatly, many people find their workplace to be a source of stress rather than fulfillment, and consequently, aging is accelerated rather than reversed.

The world would be a better place if we all could do what made us happy, while expressing our unique talents in service to others and ourselves. According to Ayurveda, this is the state of living in dharma, or fulfilling your purpose in life. Even if you are not able to earn a living doing exactly what you like doing best, see if you can bring some aliveness to your workplace.

- Try connecting more openly with your coworkers so your work environment is emotionally healthier.

- Observe your environment and see if you can improve the sounds, sights, or smells that surround you.

- Look for opportunities to align your work with your values, needs, and beliefs.

Life is precious and you have the right to perform work that is meaningful. A test to see if you are in your dharma is to notice how often you look at the time. If your inner dialogue tells you that time is creeping by very slowly and you cannot wait to get off work, you are probably not in a position that is fully expressing your purpose in life.

If, on the other hand, you find that time flies while you are engaged, it is a good clue that this work is the type that can help you grow younger. Listen to the signals that your body and mind are communicating and commit to spending your day creating greater fulfillment for you and those in your life.

- Grow Younger, Live Longer by Deepak Chopra

The One Thing That Matters Most In Life

Many things in your life matter, but only one thing matters absolutely.

It matters whether you succeed or fail in the eyes of the world. It matters whether you are healthy or not healthy, whether you are educated or not educated. It matters whether you are rich or poor - it certainly makes a difference in your life. Yes, all these things matter, relatively speaking, but they don't matter absolutely.

There is something that matters more than any of those things and that is finding the essence of who you are beyond the short-lived entity, that short-lived personalized sense of self.

You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.

- Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle

Tao Te Ching Verse 21: The Ways of Creation

The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone.
The Tao is elusive and intangible.
Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image.
Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form.
Oh, it is dim and dark, and yet within is essence.
This essence is very real, and therein lies faith.
From the very beginning until now its name has never been forgotten.
Thus I perceive the creation.
How do I know the ways of creation?
Because of this.

- Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu