Keep It Personal

Received an email from a friend who occasionally checks my blog and he mentioned that I have not been releasing my feelings and emotions on my blog as I have in the past. Don't know and can't explain why. I believe it has to do with a very busy work and social schedule that has left me pretty speechless by the end of the day.

It can probably also be interpreted that life is going smoothly and thus, the creative "victim" juices have been less free flowing, and hence the lack of posts. Blogs are indeed a great way to express ourselves and allow other people to know what is going on in our lives, but sometimes, I do have to admit to falling victim to "entertainment value", which is where the dilemma lies ...

The other reason is also that I am having my snailish computer upgraded, which is arriving tomorrow, so it may be a start to more good things to come, depending on your definition of what that is. What I have taken away from that email though is to keep it personal. Writing is my passion and even if it means a line or two (okay that will never happen with me), it's still keeping the flow and I believe that is what has to happen from now.

I have also been reading a very interesting and challenging book titled "The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment" by Eckhart Tolle. It talks about how we focus our daily life on the past and the future instead of the present (now), and how it affects the quality of life that we have because of this decision we make. It is only through focusing on the present that we will be able to achieve enlightenment, which is not something of the future.

I am only a quarter through the book, but I found it challenging to start, because it is totally at war with what our minds have been conditioned to think. However, the author has been very clever not to start rolling off the "dos and don'ts". Rather, he structures the book according to questions he has received over the years, and it does help in understanding some of the more confusing concepts.

One of the most poignant lines that jolted me was "Time is an illusion" and when he says that, he meant that "the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not "this moment." Is that not a fact?" It struck me as so real and cutting because all we ever have is now. We never know if we are ever going to be drawing the next breath, to survive the next second. All we have is now!

In saying so, it is a very powerful book because it challenges all our beliefs and our values and these are tough rocks to shift. I am finding it really confronting and trying to permeate it through my life when I am conscious, which is when I am focusing on the moment, instead of thinking of the past or the future. I can see how it can potentially change lives, like when we stop for moments in our lives to really look and appreciate what we have, and let that wave of joy and happiness engulf us. It is that fleeting moment that we are looking into prolonging, and this book seems to advocate that the only way we can do so, is focusing on the now, and not let the mind control us.

I am not reeling off any further here, because there are many other concepts and much more of the book to digest. All I can say now is that it reinforces some of the techniques I had learnt once from a self-development course I took.

The other thing is that the public has been relatively interested in my book whenever I find the time to read it on the bus or the train to work. I had already encountered two women who smiled and commented "Great book. Interesting concepts!", when we connected.

I have yet to see what impact this book will ultimately have on me, but I am liking what I am reading, so I am recommending that you pick it up too. I always believe in a healthy bit of skepticism but if there aren't challenging concepts in life, how can we improve?