The Adventure of Life And 7 Rejuvenating Reminders For Living a Peaceful & Joy-filled Life

Life is short.

 

Appearing like a pocket of experiences stolen from the continuous stream of some godlike material, life is but only a glimpse.

 

If not just a fleeting glimpse, what is it, after all?

 

Like a rising wave which falls as soon as it rises, life too begins to end the moment it has begun to begin.

 

When we look closely into the relevance of life, we will find ourselves feeling fascinated to discover the fact that life is nothing but a journey towards death.

 

Our birth is nothing but a gateway we enter only to traverse this journey, a journey whose final destination, ultimately, is death.

 

And so, it is quite appropriate to say that life is short. Tiny as a heartbeat; only as expansive as a breath; and, only as much filled as the space of the sky with temporary clouds.

 

As we navigate this teeny-weeny journey of life, each one of us tends to develop and cultivate our own strategies, our own set of thoughts which, sometimes, make us feel happier, and sometimes, miserable.

 

Most of the times when we feel unpleasant or miserable, in times like these, we tend to forget that we have the freedom of choice to choose our thoughts. Say, if I am feeling disastrous and I still remember that I have the freedom to choose my thoughts, then I will immediately change the thoughts which are making me feel disastrous, right?

 

So, it is not incorrect to say that, whenever we feel unpleasantness in the form of sadness, rage, shame, bitterness, envy, or hatred, it is usually because we have forgotten in that moment, that we do have the freedom of choice. To choose the way we can think and consequently, change our feelings.

 

None of these feelings is either good or bad, but holding on to them could surely be a cause of destruction. Freedom of choice is nothing but the choice to respond to life and whatever life throws at us in any given moment. Yes, it could be tragic, terrible or perhaps utterly traumatizing. This is what is called as ‘challenges’. Thereupon, freedom of choice is something which we can use to cut through these difficult challenges in the battleground of life.

 

The more we are able to remember our choice-taking self, the better we are able to hold on to our deep inner identity in times of challenges, trouble and inner suffering while navigating through this utterly dispassionate field of life.

 

As a result, our life is a consistent struggle to deepen the expanse of our self-awareness so that simultaneously, these moments of forgetfulness keep on shrinking in size.

 

We cannot learn from anyone or anything, how to cultivate self-awareness. Mostly, it is a natural consequence of what we experience in life and how we respond to these experiences.

 

We cannot learn this fundamental from books, people, words, or any other form of sensory data that appears in front of us. However, all of this data including books, people, words, work etc. is certainly helpful in revealing tiny pointers to us which, we can use to become more self-aware.

 

Thinking of this, in this article, I am sharing a list of seven incredibly rejuvenating reminders which can be helpful for you for living life with much peace and utter joy as they have always been for me.

 

So, let’s read on! To go through them quickly, you can also watch this video:

 

 

#1   Appreciate. Create. Celebrate. – Appreciate what you have. Create what you can. Celebrate who you are.

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/NehasNotebook/reminders-nehas-notebook/

 

Cultivating self-awareness is about the tiny-little simple things more than the huge steps or big, complex ideas. Atleast, mostly. And when it comes to these simple little things, ‘Appreciation’ is truly a valuable tool. It is very similar to gratitude or thankfulness.

 

While it is not always possible to stay in a thankful mood all the time, ‘Appreciate’ is certainly a wonderful reminder to check-in from time to time.

 

When we appreciate all that we have, when we celebrate all the elements that make up our individual identity, we receive more of it.

 

“Life is too short not to celebrate nice moments.” – Jurgen Klopp

 

Most of the times, we get entangled in the web of comparisons and lose our peace, wanting more of what others have, and ignoring what we already have.

 

But it cannot be underestimated that, acceptance of what we already have paves way to more of what we want, as Ms. Oprah also says in this lovely quote of hers,

 

“The more you celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” – Oprah Winfrey

 

If all you have is a beggar’s palm, then appreciate life for offering you a beggar’s palm!

 

Easier said than done, but, always a useful thing to do.

Accepting, appreciation and celebrating what you have doesn’t mean not striving for more of what you want. It simply illustrates that the more we cultivate an attitude of acceptance, appreciation and celebration towards our life, the more life supports us in providing us the more of what we will appreciate and celebrate!

 

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” – Tom Peters

 

In the end, life is what you celebrate. All other dates are forgotten sooner or later. Only the ones we remembered to celebrate remain in our memories.

 

Saying which,

 

“Appreciate what you have.

Create what you can.

Celebrate who you are.” - Neha's Notebook

 

#2  Life is an adventure to be explored and I am ready for it!

 

Almost all of us have heard this famous dialogue quoted from the movie Rocky,

 

“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now if you know what you’re worth then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody! Cowards do that and that ain’t you! You’re better than that!” - Rocky Balboa

 

As truly said in this dialogue, life is not sweet all the time. Unlike fairy tales and fantasies, it is not always a sun-filled lush meadow. Rather, it is filled with situations which feel horrible and people who act nasty. In fact, most of the time, life is all about eating peanuts of iron and drinking volcanoes of fire.

 

It is easier to live in a familiar state of ignorance forever, and very difficult to look at oneself in the mirror. Rather, to say it in simpler words, we can say that life is an adventure, an exploration, a voyage. It might not be perfect, smooth, pleasant and happy all the time, but it will be as interesting as we choose to make of it despite all the frightening challenges and bitter moments that it offers us.

 

The bitterness of life is a metaphorical poison that we humans are afraid to face. However, only by drinking this bitter poison of reality is that we can make peace with ourselves and others. And so, this reminder is all about reminding yourself that life is a thrilling adventure and you have all the power to make your way through this chilling territory of human life. If you are ready for the chills and the thrills, then who knows, perhaps, you might discover yourself even swooshing and playing with the skeletals of your DNA, oh yes!

 

#3  You are doing absolutely fantastic…god doesn’t look at you through the eyes of charts, graphs & progress meters…

 

Okay. So, let’s talk about planners and progress charts.

 

I use them a lot.

 

Many people do.

 

They’re super-interesting, especially if we like to track our progress and our overall quality of life. I do relish the coffee-table feeling of making lists and working endlessly on a variety of planning & organization systems.

 

But of soon, I have also realized that all of this, taken together, is not the determinant of improvement or progress that we are making in terms of inner growth but merely a medium.

 

Instead, when we start to determine our inner growth on the base of these external parameters, is that, we begin to hinder or block our own inner self from progressing in the terms of wholeness and self-awareness. So, this reminder is to remind ourselves that, irrespective of progress in outer goals, we can consider ourself to be a fantastic creature, just like bears and boars. Just like lions, sparrows and squirrels. Their planners are taken care of by the nature itself. We can also try putting our trust in life too!

 

So, fret not. Take it easy. Let it go, and let life move on!

 

#4  This moment is a cloud. Live it before it passes away!

In one way, “this moment” is something which was always there and which will always be there. In fact, “this moment” is the only thing that we have in any given point of time. Even when we’re thinking about some past moment or imagining some future scenario, we are doing this process in “this moment”.

 

So, all we have is “this moment”.

 

“This moment is all there is.” - Rumi

 

So, this reminder is to remind ourselves that no matter how interesting another moment might be, but this moment is only one and irreplaceable.

 

Many similar moments will come but it won’t be the same. So, make sure you live this moment to the fullest. Whether joy or pain, go straight through it; dive deep into it!

 

#5  Perhaps the best way to grow in life is to not get too serious about anything!

 

When we are faced with life’s quality of unfairness, it is difficult not to get serious. But this cannot be denied that the moment we resist the unfairness of life is the moment we block our own growth.

 

“Acceptance of what is, is happiness.” - Unknown

So, we might get serious from time to time, but never too serious to take this teeny-weeny life too seriously to not remember that it is not going to last forever.

 

#6  Remember to laugh today…

 If the idea of laughter doesn’t sync with you, consider giggling as the second option!

 

#7  I trust that everything is happening for me…

Does life and everything in life happen for me?

 

Can we say it with utmost certainty that it happens for me and not against me?

 

Well, no. Nope!

 

No one can say it with the point precision of certainty, that, subjectively, life happens for me and not against me. However, there is something which we can say with certainty.

 

That is, if I choose to believe that something is against me, then it will remain against me. But despite all odds, if I choose to believe that whether an event is against me or for me, I choose to make the best use of it, for myself.

 

We must always allow ourselves to sink into the feelings of utter melancholy and bouts of grief, howsoever, but only, with the knowledge that all these feelings have been offered to me by life, so that I can rise beyond them. Even these feelings, apparently negative, are for me. Too!

:) :) :)