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Fri 23 Jan, 2009 04:50 am
Here is an essay I wrote a while back that might give you insight how to plan and live your life as best you can
Alan
How to live your life by Alan McDougall
Trust God and the guidance of those that love you. Have faith in God.
Your time on earth is so limited so embrace life and live it to the full and savor all the joy and happiness it can give you, pluck the beautiful fruits off the tree of life and share it with your fellow beings
Remember what you have forgotten
You are given all the tools and resources you need during your life and what you do with them is up to you.
You are responsible and accountable for your actions in life, every deed, word, and thought.
Think before you utter a word because once spoken it can never be taken back
Be grateful for the life that God has given you. The old old saying "count your blessing one by one", reverberates in its truth across the universe.
Be aware of what is happening around you and don't let the beautiful gift of live come and go without you noticing it in all its beauty and meaning
Be willing to try to do your best in life, "Life does not require that we be the best-------- only that we try" (H Jackson Brown Jr.)
Love overcomes all barriers and banishes the useless attribute hate
Be honest with yourself and others all the time it checking each word and statement you utter before it leaves your mind in the form of writing or speech. Remember you can lie to yourself so often that you can finally believe it as truth.
A lie in any dialogue, debate or communique results in the entire being flawed and void of real truth. A molecule of cyanide mixed into a glass of sparking spring water will kill you; it is the Lie that separated us from God in the Finale.
Be patient with your partner, loved ones and especially yourself. Impatience can grow into anger and anger into hate.
You only live in the here and now and this is the platform for the rest of your life, a new beginning not an end. If you can live in the moment you will find peace.
What you hate in another is what you hate in yourself, so banish the most destructive attribute from your life and learn to love yourself.
Be tolerant and nonjudgmental to both yourself and to others. Change what you can.
There are some situations or events that you simply cant alter so release them into the wind of healing
Do you want to live in a prison most of your live? Well if you start destructive habits that lead to addition you become trapped in a prison of your own making. Withdrawal will make you return to these false highs again and again until you run out of options and come to the cross roads of Life or Death Choose life
Be courageous bravery is not being fearless, bravery is overcoming your fear
Destructive habits and additions can only really be overcome in if you really really want to stop even if you die in the process of regaining your God given free will.
Replace bad habits with good and positive ones, Opiate additions can be overcome by running as running makes your brain make endorphins that are much more powerful than any drug
Real wealth and abundance is when you are contented with what you have
In order to grow through life one must first establish a harmony within oneself, harness all our natural talents, gifts, formal and non-formal education towards the essential goals in life.
Choose early that which you love and do the utmost to make that your career and you will not really have to work one day in your life. Establish a hierarchy of preferences and aim for those most realistic and highest on the list.
Imagine you have only one year of life left and list the things you would do if this were all the time left for you. Incorporate this into the list, ranking all the events, and look at it. It should give you much food for thought in planning your journey through life.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood (Helen Keller)..
Be a perfect listener, observe what is happening around you by this your response will be the correct one
There is one set of cloths that you will carry for your whole life, your body a gift from god so appreciate ,look after it and love it. Accept what you cannot change and change for the better what you can.
Self esteem is the highest morality if you hate yourself you will hate others and if you love and appreciate yourself you will love and appreciate others.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. You are in a partnership with your body it is the temple of God and deserves the utmost love and respect Regular exercise and healthy lifestyle should be obvious.
Pleasure should be the manifestation of inner joy and you experience through your five senses normally, but sometimes the sixth sense gives you glimpses of the eternal places of happiness. It is not a sin to have fun and be glad you are alive.
God has given you eyelids so close then and don't let Depravity in all its forms into your mind. The eye is the window to the soul, look into the eyes of a stranger and you will hear your mind saying "beauty, kind, shy, bad, ugly, evil" or remote etc.
By just one careful look, one can read much about the character of one you do not know. When alarm bells ring in your mind, please listen to them.
Look, listen, read and enjoy that which is good and healthy to the mind. Guard all the doors or inputs to your mind; you are the one that permits these images or sounds into your brain. What we allow into our minds in of such prime importance that it cannot overstated.
The greatest attribute is honesty so be actively honest and truthful. When you are totally honest God is nearest.
You are or will be the combined result of the choices you make in life. Life will throw you some hard curve balls so try to catch them and make something positive out of them.
Be fair with yourself and others but remember life is not always fair and your circumstances are unique so address them with your own wisdom or with the help and love of those you admire as wise.
Become a person of grace by embracing your higher spiritual self, it is grace that leads you into eternity.
Let compassion grow in your inner being and look at the plight of others in great need and those that are suffering and in pain, hunger, sorrow and disease , pray or send positive thoughts to them, this does help even if you cannot see the results..
You are bound by your own ethics, morality and conscious and if you live according to those your life will be more peaceful. It is not really God who judges you; it is you who judges yourself at the end of the day.
Humor is a great secret of bodily as well as mental health, so find what makes you laugh and laugh out loud and often, this will flood your body and brain with healing brain hormones and endorphins. The greatest lesson is possibly not taking ourselves seriously and laughing at ourselves
Laughter is a seed to happiness
The lessons of life will be repeated to you over and over again until you have learned them and only when you have learned them can you move on to the next lesson in the great school we call life
Never ever, stop learning, even if you live to be one hundred years of age. Fascination with all things around you makes a rich and wonderful personality. A very high-developed sense of humor is of absolute prime importance in order to overcome the pitfalls of life.
You might say, 'well that's all right for the young but I am middle aged or older, However no matter what ones age, do the suggested exercise and you will be amazed at the richness and opportunities out there still within your grasp. Life is rich and has so much to offer us all.
Be positive in the midst of negativity by using that powerful tool, your sense of humor. Very important absolute necessity of very carefully choosing a real soul mate and friend who travel's the road of life with you, namely your spouse "Love and cherish God together.
Establish and maintain a link to the Divine, each one in their own personal way, be it by meditations, prayer, or contemplation of the glory of existence. Do whatever invigorates you the most.
Make life fun, pleasurable, happy, joyful but never depraved. "Don't practice sin" Really, life should be exquisite, fun, pleasurable, enjoyable and glorious.
Avoid unhealthy obsessions like a plague. However not all obsessions are unhealthy and the magnificent obsession is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are energy vampires, who will drain you of your life energy, leave you exhausted and depressed. Avoid them at all costs where practical.
Make your friends are energy invigilators and try to be one yourself. Again, the key here is ones sense of humor.
The mendacious are a pain and do not make good company but sometimes we can overlook and just laugh at their ridiculous stories.
Of course, life is not always a bed of roses and those dark times will come to us all.
Nevertheless, when in the long cold night of darkness of hopelessness and despair, one should always realize that the dawn will always come again and the sun shine warm once again upon ones cheek in the morning of joy.
Take it from someone who really knows! Me
Oh! How important it is to be forgiving. Unforgiveness has no purpose and will fester like a malignant tumour and result in ill health, doing more harm to yourself than to the one you will not forgive. Love each other.
However, how does one do this? Love is an action, so do love, even if you don't feel it. Carry it out by actions.
Compassion is a wonderful unique human quality, so enhance this within your being to the utmost degree. Read and study your bible daily. Have dialogue with God by prayer.
Don't allow anyone to take away from you that which you know is true to yourself. Honesty is the best policy.
Wisdom comes with the passing years, but asks children difficult questions and you will be amazed at their insight.
Live life like an incandescent light, glowing brightly until you put off this mortal cloak and blink out of existence. In other words, live until your demise.
Savour and cherish each glorious moment. Be careful not to say hurtful things to others because once the words have left your lips you can never take them back.
You legacy will become the heritage of those that come after you, and so what you do with your life is not only important to yourself.
There is one companion that will be with you every moment of your life and you should love this person as much as you love anything in the whole world.
This precious person is none other than you. Use and develop your intuition to a very high degree and it will help you from stumbling on the rocks along the pathways of Life.
Have you not been aware when you come into a room and meet a stranger that there is an instant liking or dislike between the two of you?
On the other hand, you have felt that a course of action was wrong and the closer you got the more uncomfortable you got with this course of action. These are examples of intuition, listen and adjust to them carefully and you could avoid much pain sorrow and anguish in your life.
You are truly absolutely 100% unique. There has never been one like you, there is now no one like you, and in all the future eternities, there will never be another just like. Of you fathers half billion sperm cells, only one reached you mother's egg and this was you.
No has ever had your unique genetic D.N.A. code or fingerprint. Are you not, therefore, very special and is it so wrong to love and respect the wonderful creation you are?
Go outside or get away from the noise of the city and in the quiet of early morning listen carefully, you will hear the birds chirping like beautiful electrons in the mind of God. Take in the glory of existence all around and feast your eyes on its beauty.
You know, of all the countless trillions of snowflakes, leaves, flowers, and no two are identical and each one is a unique creation of the Divine mind of God.
Feel the breeze upon your skin, smell the fragrance of the universe bath in the glory and joy of you existence.
Be at peace with yourself and all the rest of the universe. You are a child of the universe, so special and wonderful.
Develop the dormant senses beyond the five that are not utilized, and you will merge yourself in the wonder of the cosmic mind.
Take your mind into the place of unimaginable beauty and wonder, go on a journey into places you have never been and go further into the cosmic vastness of the beauty of the universe, with the power of imagination.
What is the purpose of life? "It is to live it to the full, without hurting others or doing the depraved".
Charity is wonderful gift to the soul.
Question everything with a sense of anticipation and wonder.
Love and respect your mortal body, as it is the vehicle that takes on this journey through mortal life on earth.
However, know this your consciousness or life energy is eternal and continues on forever, beyond the last curtain of life on this blessed earth.
Planet earth is our beloved mother and we must preserve her, love her and cherish her in all her blue glory. She is a blue blazing diamond glowing brightly in the vastness of the universe. Love all Gods' creatures.
Get all your priorities in order. Spouse, companion, family and children first. A balance in life between ones occupation and home life is essential or the psyche becomes unbalanced and depression and anxiety will take hold of you.
Take much time to be with the one you know best, namely, yourself.
Life is a school and if you do not pass a test, you will repeat it repeatedly until you have passed it and only then be able to move on.
Life made up of countless choices and each choice could ultimately determine and define ones destiny.
How we maintain good health, I think by developing a powerful sense of humour, much laughter and exposing one to things we find extremely funny.
Then having sufficient exercise combined with a balanced diet of fish and a combination of as many brightly coloured fruit and vegetables as one can afford.
Genetic proposition unfortunately plays a factor not always under our control. Red meat should be restricted to the rare occasion.
Remember, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and if you pollute it with toxic substances, you will suffer the consequences thereof.
I, however, acknowledge that the complexities and realities of life are much more complex than what I have written in my brief essay and thousands of voluminous unreadable books have been written of this subject. Therefore, the above is my humble attempt, be it what it may.
By Alan McDougall
Composed 12/7/2007
@Alan McDougall,
I think this type of thing would get more response if the text was easier to read. Let me know if you would like me to change the format at all.
@Justin,
This is ok if you believe in god and dont think your life is blessed more than others..For many these high ideas and attention to lifes meanings are a luxury they could never aspire to . I think above all you should be grateful that you won one of the first prizes in the lottery of life ..Those who lottery is a slum in South America living off a refuse tip and can not see past the next scrap in the next stinking bag, would dearly love our pleasures of self examination..
@Alan McDougall,
Justin
Quote:
I think this type of thing would get more response if the text was easier to read. Let me know if you would like me to change the format at all
Please change it, but maybe you read it before I changed it
@Alan McDougall,
XRIS
Quote:
This is ok if you believe in god and dont think your life is blessed more than others..For many these high ideas and attention to lifes meanings are a luxury they could never aspire to . I think above all you should be grateful that you won one of the first prizes in the lottery of life ..Those who lottery is a slum in South America living off a refuse tip and can not see past the next scrap in the next stinking bag, would dearly love our pleasures of self examination..
Xris You might be surprised that people living in slums and poverty still find space for laughter and happiness while others find life meaningless and full of despair and hopelessness although hugely wealthy
Take the late Elvis Presley as just one example he had everything money could buy including adoration by millions of fans, but this was still not enough. Why?
@Alan McDougall,
Alan McDougall wrote:XRIS
Xris You might be surprised that people living in slums and poverty still find space for laughter and happiness while others find life meaningless and full of despair and hopelessness although hugely wealthy
Take the late Elvis Presley as just one example he had everything money could buy including adoration by millions of fans, but this was still not enough. Why?
I am not saying human nature is written by their opportunities or their happiness can be bought . If you can muse about the higher things in life you are normally blessed with more than just surviving..you need the luxury of time to contemplate ..
@Alan McDougall,
XRIS
Quote:
I am not saying human nature is written by their opportunities or their happiness can be bought . If you can muse about the higher things in life you are normally blessed with more than just surviving..you need the luxury of time to contemplate ..
Good point, have you read Victor Frankel's book "Mans Search for Meaning?".
This amazing man a death camp survivor Auswitch (the most terrible camp) Found meaning is this place of horror and hopeless despair. He has passed on but is considered one of the most eminent psychiatrists of the twentieth century
@Alan McDougall,
Thanks for Sharing that Alan. I know sometimes sharing such intimacies with the general public can feel like wandering out on thin ice.
No, I can't much share since I don't share your views on God, the Divine and such. But it's nice writing and some very nice sentiments there.
Thanks
@Khethil,
Khethil
Quote:
Thanks for Sharing that Alan. I know sometimes sharing such intimacies with the general public can feel like wandering out on thin ice.
No, I can't much share since I don't share your views on God, the Divine and such. But it's nice writing and some very nice sentiments there.
Thanks
Thank you Khethil, It is good that we don't all view life exactly the same, how boring the forum and life in general would be it we did:bigsmile:
@Alan McDougall,
Alan McDougall;44239 wrote:How to live your life by Alan McDougall
Shall I (we) assume that as you are 'suggesting' that
we live our lives as you 'recommend', that this is how you live your own life? Learned/described from personal experience?
@Alan McDougall,
Jay
Quote:
Hi Alan,
I for one would like to thank you for your thoughts and posts. Your honesty and courage to write and submit to the form what you have learned and hold to be true is an inspiration. It is remarkable that you have acquired this way of understanding and way of being in spite of your challenges with mania. You have a precious gift, stay with it. Some of your writings remind me of William Blake. Most of his contemporaries considered him mad. A quote I love from Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba The Greek is:
"You need a little madness to cut the rope and be free."
Keep writing and thanks.
Jay
I am deeply grateful for a post like yours, may God bless you and all your beloved ones with abundant meaningful life full of joy, peace, security, happiness, health and love
Mainic depression has also been called "The Brilliant Madness" But I have no joy in having suffered from it, But every battle in life makes us stronger does it not?
Alan[/SIZE]
@nameless,
Nameless,
Quote:Shall I (we) assume that as you are 'suggesting' that we live our lives as you 'recommend', that this is how you live your own life? Learned/described from personal experience
Of course what I suggested is the ideal and as you said just my personal take on how to live life based on my own learning and struggles with it.
I am not a youngster and have been around the block a few times and learned some hard lessons.
So I thought sharing might be helpful to some.
But to try and encapsulate all that life can throw at one in a short essay is impossible, but hey why not give it a bash
There a hundreds of voluminous books on the subject that most people give up reading due to to the length and detail in these books
So I gave it a bash to encapsulate my take on how to live ones life in a short readable essay
I of course did not always live to the high values of my little essay, but now in the winter of my long life "I TRY"
And yes the essay is a suggestion and a recommendation, but maybe I should not have included the religious component in the essay, What do you think should I take it out and compromise my deep personal values?
I am sorry I took long to reply to your post, but my grandson who lives with me, hogs the computer day and night :bigsmile:
@Alan McDougall,
Alan McDougall;44635 wrote:
Of course what I suggested is the ideal and ...
Understood. Thanx for the respo.
Peace
@Alan McDougall,
Alan,
Brilliantly insightful and thank you for sharing. It makes one wonder, as I read each and every axiom you have written, why anyone would want to be of any other mind set? Many of us on this forum are gifted and are compelled to ask hard questions knowing the answers will not be shared by all. I find it hard to believe anyone capable of reading the words you have written, would disagree with the wisdom they speak. Which brings me to my point. What of those who are not so gifted and are victims due to their lack of such insight? What of them?
How can we turn your words of wisdom, into reality? Millions of words have been penned illustrating the wisdom you have so aptly identified, but unless they become a part of the reality in which we live, they remain just what the are: words.
What you have done is issue "instructions" ala Alan as to what we must do to live our life and have done so with the sincerest of heart. But there is nothing more exasperating in the world as being instructed what to do and not being able to follow those instructions especially when you take into consideration all the other instructions we are force to follow.
Your intentions IMO, are the most admirable and clearly indicate the divinity in you. What if what you are issuing as instructions were already innate in man and all we need to do is set them free? How could we go about that? Not inspirationally, not religiously, not economically but realistically in such a way that would mean something not only to the "enlightened" but to all, even those who are not? Is that within our power? If not, why? Who would not want an existence, life, of the magnitude of which you speak? I think if we can answer that question, we will be able to turn your thoughts into reality.
William
@Jay phil,
Jay wrote:"...why anyone would want to be of any other mind set?"
"How can we turn your words of wisdom, into reality?
Greetings William,
Yes, you are right they just remain words.
Possibly this is where individual "free will" comes in? We are not coursed to follow the "mandate of heaven" (to use a eastern tradition phrase).
If we are to experience the true joy of life, we don't have a choice. IMO.
William
@William,
Don't we have the choice to refuse it though?
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