Enlightened wisdom believes that the question is more important than the answer. In other words, without the correct question being asked, you cannot ever get the correct answer. So asking the RIGHT questions to yourself is the most important thing you can do for your own personal growth…
We are born, and we will all die one day – this is certain. In the middle of our birth and death is this thing called Life. We don’t have a choice about the fact that we will die one day, but we do have a choice about how we will live the days of our life. So here’s an important question to ask yourself – What is life for? What is my life about? What is the purpose of my journey here?
It’s important to ask this question because the answer will decide what your experience of life becomes. Is life just for growing up, getting education, meeting your partner, having children, creating a big successful career, company, or family, having experiences, friendships, relationships, and then one day leaving it all behind when you pass away?
It is true that along the way you may do all of this, but what is the big picture of life all about? This is an important and powerful question to ask.
I asked myself this question when I was just a teenager, and then went in search of the answer. I looked both within, into my heart, and also searched externally, by meeting and learning from enlightened teachers. Eventually after a lot of search, practice and experience, I found my answer.
While each one of us has different goals to fulfil and life to love, there is a common thread in our existence too. We are all here, experiencing life, to bring out the best possible potential from within us and share it with others. We are all here to be the best we can be, as individual human beings.
This is the answer to the big question that will clarify and set the path of your life – You are here to be the best that you can be, in your relationships, in your work, in your friendships, in your efforts and in your life.
To help you live your best life let’s begin by understanding that there are essentially just three ways to live life.
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- You can live your lowest life: regardless of circumstances, this is a life where you don’t follow your dreams; you keep chasing STUFF. You are the least important person in your life; everyone else is more important than you: your partner, your kids, your work, and your in-laws – all of this is more important that being authentic to yourself.
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- You can live a mediocre life. Regardless of circumstances, this is a life where sometimes you get your way, but it is only after other’s get theirs too. So there is always a compromise. And you’re supposed to feel satisfied with just what you’ve got, been given, or received in life. You look around and see that everyone else is doing the same thing – they are not living the lives they want to live, instead they are always compromising to keep moving ahead. Mr Jones gets up, goes to work, comes home, spends time with the family, then goes to bed. The next day, he gets up and does the same thing all over again. This is the conditioned life, albeit stable, secure and comfortable. Living this life of no sense of life purpose every day is dangerous as it may bring you to a mindset that believes this is how life is supposed to be. Once this mindset has taken root you are condemned to a life time of mediocrity and non significance.
- You can live your best life! This is a life where you know the reason you are alive. You have a clear sense of what you want to do with your life. You are living authentically, not to fulfil others expectations of you. You are full of purpose, passion and a sense of completeness. You are engaged in work that you love, you share life with someone you love. When you wake up you know you’re living your highest potential.
If you can find the courage inside you to decide to live your highest life, here are 5 tips to help you to do so.
Living your best, highest, biggest, brightest life is easy when you follow the 5 tips. The first tip is the most difficult, but let us start here because if you can do this, then all the others that follow are easy.
Tip 1 for living your BEST life – Accept Responsibility for your life and everything in it.
Understand that you can only change what you have responsibility for. If you are not responsible for it, then you do not have the power to change it either.
So accept responsibility for yourself and creating your BEST life.
Make a commitment that you will live your best life. Accept that you have to make it happen – not your partner, your husband, your family. It’s not your mother’s responsibility! Others can help and guide you, but it is your job to walk this path. This also means that you STOP WAITING!
Stop depending or waiting for others to make your life better! Instead you do it yourself. This step is most important but difficult too. If you don’t participate in making your own life better, well then nothing can become better. Make a silent mental commitment to yourself “I will do/change whatever I have to… I am responsible for living my best life.” Then think of what actions you can take to make your life better today. Not tomorrow, not next month. Identify some small steps/things that will improve your life experience today, and then take action on them.
Conscious change starts inside you first. This is a truth that can never change. Wasn’t this article a thought in my mind before it became real? Similarly, your relationship, your home, your children, your job, your current life – all these were thoughts first before they became a reality. When you understand this, you can also understand how to change your life for the better.
Tip 2 for living your BEST life – Invest in yourself by learning meditation
Every day that we are alive, we invest. We invest our time, energy and effort in our children, our homes, business, our travels, our stocks & shares… but along the way we forget to invest in ourselves.
You are at the centre of your whole life and everything you have created in it. So make sure the core is always well taken care of. Think about it – before your children came into your life, were you not there first? Who came before your home? You! Before the relationship? You!
You are the reason why everything else is in your life. Sometimes we lose sight of this powerful truth…
So make sure you invest in yourself by training your mind to be happy and joyful. Meditation is the ancient science of mind training and it shows you the way to create your own happiness and joy. It also gives you a mental clarity that allows you to see the big picture of your life and empowers you to take steps to make it what you wish.
So invest in training your mind through meditation. You cannot live your best life without a mind that supports you to be happy and joyful. Find a good teacher and then spend the time, energy, effort and money you need to learn the wisdom that will guide you to your BEST life.
Invest also in your health, and good experiences. Exercise, travel, enjoy good food and drink, enjoy nature, hang out with positive people and most important of all – remember to see the good in your life on a daily basis, not just once in a while.
Tip 3 for living your BEST life – Discover and follow your passions.
Ask yourself this simple question – How much passion do you feel in life? Do you feel alive and on fire as you start your day? Are you excited to be at work? Do you feel that you are doing what you were born to do?
To live your BEST life, you must discover and release your passion – this is extremely beneficial for you and everyone around you too. You must look within yourself to find meaning and work that will light a fire inside you.
It takes courage to live your BEST life because it means finding and following what you love to do. Be aware that you will always be better at doing what you love to do than doing what you don’t love. Now if you think that you don’t have a passion/dream in the first place, I want to remind you that you DO! It’s just been so long since you thought about your passion that you think it is no longer there. So spend some time looking within and discover the fire that is waiting to be lit inside you.
Tip 4 for living your BEST life – Release negativity.
Release and let go of all negativity, regardless of why it’s there. There are always good reasons of why we feel anger, hatred, grudges or jealously towards others, but no reason is good enough to keep on hurting yourself for. All negativity hurts you more that those around you.
Imagine that you are holding onto some heavy weights in your hands. And now you try to raise your hands higher to flap your wings to fly. You will find that the weight is really heavy and it holds you down. Blame, complaining, anger, grudges… these are all the weights that hold you down.
Interestingly, the more positive you become the more you see good opportunities – reasons to say thank you and be grateful. And the universe supports you more too.
Be aware that if 5 years ago someone hurt you, but you keep thinking about how that person hurt you by what he said or did… then he hurt you but once, but since then you’ve hurt yourself a 100 times thinking back about it.
If you get on a flight to go somewhere there is always a limit on the baggage you are allowed to carry. 20kg in economy, or 30kg in business class, or 40kg in first class… but always there is a limit. If you take more that that you are penalised! Similarly, in life if you carry too much baggage you are penalised and you won’t enjoy the beauty that life has to offer.
So, let go of the negative experiences of your life. Accept that it is you who has to let go of the pain, not the people who caused you the pain (if you wait for them, you are playing out the role of a victim). The enlightened teachers say it is never the snake bite that kills you; it is the poison left behind that kills you.
Learn your lessons for the hard knocks of life, and move on a better person. Don’t hold on to the past, because the past is not holding on to you!
Tip 5 for living your BEST life – Love yourself every day.
Treat yourself with love every day, not just on special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. Don’t wait for others to make you feel good either! Take the responsibility to make yourself feel good no matter what happens! Again, meditation training will be invaluable for this.
So everyday of your life, remember that the most important person in your life is YOU!
Enjoy small pleasures on a daily basis – a cup of coffee, a walk in the park, yoga class, a good book to read, a chat with a friend, a massage, enjoying the beautiful trees around you… anything to show yourself some love very day.
If life was just one thing, then all people would be having the same experience of life. Yet some are happy, others unhappy. Some are full of gratitude, and others are full of complains. The truth is that life is nothing without you. There would be no experience/ definition/ quality of life without you.
In truth, Life is what you make it to be, nothing more, nothing less.
So make a commitment to live your BEST life: your Beautiful, Empowered, Shining and True life.
This would be a life well lived!
