Healthy minds, Happy living

Your article here reminded me of a swedish proverb which goes like this:
Fear less, hope more;
Chew less, eat more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more;
And all the good things will b yourz! :)

Self esteem is important too.
`When it comes to building self esteem and confidence, don`t
think self improvement, think self development. What`s the
difference? If you regard personal development as
improvement, it suggests that something in you needs to be
``fixed``.

Each improvement then leads to the need for more
improvements and you`ll be stuck in a cyclical loop of
personal improvements that never seem good enough.
So start with your existing strengths, skills, talents and
gifts and develop these from a position of strength.

Building self esteem and confidence is a process that
involves making changes. Making changes takes time and
energy. So one of the best ways to raise your self esteem
is to improve your level of energy and dynamism.

Improving your Energy and Dynamism

To achieve this, ensure that you have a nourishing diet,
sleep well, take regular exercise, meditate regularly, make
time to do things that you enjoy spend time with people you
love. More importantly, develop a structure and routine so
that these aspects are built into your daily life. For
example schedule time during the day to relax, meditate,
take a walk etc.

Building self esteem and confidence is dependent on breaking
old habits and developing new productive ones. A key habit
that needs to be shattered is the habit of negative
thinking. These thoughts are so interwoven into the fabric
of your mind that you assume that they are normal and
changeable - but they are not! Learning how to acknowledge
and deal with your inner critic is an extremely effective
way of starting to boost your self esteem.

Forget the Blame Game!

Stop judging yourself and other people in your life for what
has happened to you in the past. Playing the Blame Game
serves no one, least of all yourself. People did what they
thought was best at the time, the same way you did. Learn
to forgive yourself and others for past mistakes.
Harbouring old grudges takes up a lot of time and energy you
could be using in more productive ways.

Learn how to reconcile, resolve and accept what has happened
in the past and know that it has made you a much stronger
person. Acknowledge your fears and find out what`s really
behind them. Many of your fears are likely to be
groundless, but it is the thinking, attitudes and beliefs
that cause much of the inappropriate fear. Fear is often a
disguise for your lack of belief in yourself and your
judgements.

Best way to start building self esteem and confidence

The best way to start building your self esteem and
confidence is to commit to making changes. Even if you use
just one of the examples listed above, it will begin to make
a difference to your level of self esteem. Know that you
are valued, regardless of what has happened before`.

Ideals I believe in and try to live by.

Very Nice! I am trying to practice all these things. Hope that you will post similar articles in future also.

It was outstanding sarwat. Really liked it. Esoteric science exactly teaches us this same lesson that you have put forward so beautifully.
Thnx Sarwat.

thank u Saminasha nazarhayatkhan cipram PM for liking my first effort and thanks to others who also take time to read this simplest article special thanks to Zahraj for adding another good concept and taking so much interest
hope to see you people and know ur thoughts here
thanks again
sarwat

I could not come back to this earlier, but I have been thinking of something that is clearly missing from this concise checklist. Praying - mainly to complete yourself. All the components of forgiveness and tolerance are tied into praying.


My point in my previous post is somewhere between the following:

``The best thing you can give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent tolerance``

So, my friend spoke about some cases/episodes from his study circle. He spoke about ome woman who broke down during one of the meetings of the study circle. Her boss at work was extremely nasty to her. Upon hearing her challenges, one of the colleagues/teachers recommended her to pray for her manager. The victim was taken aback by the suggestion. She was not a happy camper to hear that, but based on the advice of her colleagues/teachers, she promised to look into it. Now, keep in mind that this study circle has students from various walks of life. The colleagues take turn to be the teachers.

After a month or so, when the circle reconvened, they found the same woman with a 180 degree different attitude sitting amongst them and willing to share her findings. According to her, it took a lot of emotional effort out of her to pray for a dislikable person. But strangely enough, by her praying for this ``dislikable`` person, in a very focused manner, a strange web of connection started to develop. The manager`s behavior slowly started changing. After a month or so, both of them happened to develop very pleasant terms with each other. The narrator never stopped praying for her since she got hooked into that. And, somehow it gave her a lot of contentment and peace of mind.

After I discussed the above with my peer`o`murshid - valid`ae`muhtaram, I realized that there was a two-fold lesson learned:
a) Self-discipline to overcome the grievance and invoke compassion
b) Focus/Purity of intent

......

The 1st point kind of reminded me of an interesting concept I was told by one of my mentors. The said gentleman, a warm blooded Irish Man, deeply into meta-physical and spirituality, shared a very interesting concept with me a few years back - pray for your enemy/foe/opponent. This was a very unique concept and still is. I do not have enough time to go into more depth, but it`s not ``forgiveness``, it`s ``praying`` for someone who is not so dear to you and has been a complete nuisance at times in your life.

Rest later....

Welcome to Chowk, Sarwat!

I`m still working on all of these!

best,

What is this place coming to be?? An onlne Reader`s Digest?!
Kiddin! ;-)
Actually, I think this piece couldn`t be morely timely on the chowk. Thank you Sarwat. Welcome to the chowk.
rgds,
PM

simply sarwat

I wish we had such text in our little children`s text books instead of the two-nation theory and Ummah.

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Life is short. Make a fun of it.

a lot of these would sound like cliches, but definitely a good set of thoughts to remind oneself time and again.

kaurasach - one definitely needs to be careful. perhaps pragmatic is a better word. that goes without saying, but doesn`t detract from the essence of the article.

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And, to borrow from Steppenwolf, an approach to life that takes into account:-

a) Born to be Wild.
b) Never too late to start all over again.

Happy living, a healthy long yawn between birth and death.