Tag Archives: soul

Why do we read books?

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Some of us like to read. Because we are curious to know everything about anything – history, anthropology, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, etc. We are driven by the desire of understanding where we came from and where we are heading.

Some others are driven by the need to feel. They read fiction – romance, science fiction, horror, etc – to make them feel alive.

But you can’t feel alive or excel at intellectually understanding a field without having sensitivity to life. The want of sensitivity pushes us to read, to wrap our souls around the gentleness that authors bless some of their characters with. Once we gained sensitivity, we may feel one with life, a joyful connection that we sometimes see in someone else’s eyes.

Sensitivity is the light that shows us the way in the labyrinth of knowledge. Once we gained sensitivity, we may get interested in making an effort to grow the knowledge.

Knowledge does good to the mind. Kindness does good to the soul. We badly need them both. Continue reading. In addition, please practice lovingness.

 

Writing down your way out of an upsetting health problem

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When you face a serious health problem, you may experience a cocktail of feelings like disbelief, despair, regrets, fear, belief and hope. You start reevaluating your life. You may also feel genuine thankfulness about being alive, which may push you into taking a new direction of life as soon as you get well.

If health has previously been taken for granted, now you feel a deep appreciation for having a healthy body. Small and insignificant moments, such as watching a movie with the family or going for a walk on a sunny day, start to be special and genuine sources of joy.

The tormenting issues you dealt with in relationships lose their importance. They become tiny details of life in front death.

When you fight to bring your body back to balance, it’s a good time to write down your feelings in your diary or computer or wherever you feel safe to entrust your most intimate thoughts.

In addition to putting down on paper your emotions in such an upsetting moment of life, you may also want to embrace a new perspective on life by writing about:

What is the new person that you want to transform into?

What are you going to do in order to bring the balance between your mind, body and soul?

How do you want to maintain the connection between you and God (or the Universe or the Super Intelligence – call it however you wish)?

What kind of life would you like to have as a healthy new you?

How would you express your gratefulness for what you have in your life?

Who are the people and what are the activities that will take your time?

What is the first thing that you will do as the healthy new you?

Answering these questions (among others) is a part of the healing process. But there is something more. You’ll have to promise to yourself to commit wholeheartedly to make it happen.

When life gets back on the good track, you may forget about the resolutions you thought about when going through hard times. You may fall back into the trap of the old emotional patterns and behaviours. Reading your own thoughts scribbled down in times of pure gratefulness of life may remind you of the importance of continuing with the change of lifestyle.

When you get lost in the tiny details of life all over again, reading your thoughts originated in hard times may help you think simple – only health and love matter.

Reminding yourself how you envisioned your life in a moment of genuine appreciation of life is maybe one of the best ways to become aware of the personal blockages that keep you away from being the best that you can be in body, mind and soul!

So, Who Are You?

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We are busy

Single people, people in relationships, people having a family – we buzz around all day long, in the pursuit of deeds that we perceive more or less meaningful.

Even the standard reply to the question “How are you?” has changed from “I am fine.” to “I am busy”. I wonder. Is it possible that we WANT to keep ourselves busy? Otherwise, how would we know what to do with ourselves? What thoughts and feelings would we have during half an hour of sitting in silence?

With whom to be better connected than with yourself?

When the evening comes and we put our head on the pillow, do we impersonate the wife, mother, student or subordinate that we were during daytime? Why not trying to find ourselves in the few minutes before sliding into the world of sleep?

What a treat at the end of the day, to reconnect to ourselves, to the joyous soul with which we came into this world! If we want to know why we came into this world, wouldn’t it be sensible to try to figure out who we were when we landed here? Who we were before we were damaged?

Maybe one night we get lucky and we feel our soul. We feel its core, its breath, and its wholeness. Who knows what else we would discover about who we truly are?

What if we don’t know how to reconnect to ourselves?

We need to look for help from the external environment so that we are put on the right track, which we would later follow on our own.

We need EXPOSURE. We need to start opening the channel that connects us to ourselves. For example, finding a group of people who are in a similar search and join them. Talk and discuss.

See the example of the Paphos Seminar, a one-week seminar on the psychology and philosophy of the good life, which has been organised twice a year for 18 years in Paphos, Cyprus by the philosopher Esa Saarinen (professor at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland). The aim of the seminar is to help people “to construct their own ideas and to spread them internally”, “to open a broadband channel to people’ subjective sense of life orientation.” No ideas are imposed, simply a framework of philosophical ideas that offer food for thought. The participants are free to become emotional as they reflect upon different themes related to life, such as “present moment”, “love”, “choice” and “respect”. At the end of the seminar, each attendant discovers new insights into herself/himself.

The idea of this seminar can be replicated at a smaller case by you, me, by everyone. For example, how about gathering a group of friends with an interest in say, finding happiness, and discuss relevant books, every three months? (since we are busy people, maybe a more frequent interval for meetings is out of question.)

How about those ones of us who are too shy and too introvert for such sort of group activities? In this case, skipping the discussions and reading books on our own may equally help. Whatever works as long as we feel we have reached access the core of our souls.

Reflecting upon our life is enlightening the haze inside us. We don’t know why we are here but we should feel grateful for the life that was offered to us. Why not do the most with it and start by rescuing ourselves?