What are some practical steps to open our eyes and evolve, in the face of recurring life challenges?

One piece of advice is to read.

Read holy books.

You can find inspiration from the lives and teachings of people in the holy books.

Here’s an example:

Minoo Jha

· 6y

Why is it important to forgive?

Hi, You asked, Why is it important to forgive? Forgiving is both an aspiration. And a coping strategy. It is important to getting along with the most important people in our lives. It is important to thriving. And it is important to happiness. You may never be able to forget what someone did. But you can learn to forgive them for it. Forgiving is not easy. But if you turn to the strength within, you can do it. I wrote a post last Easter. It is about how Jesus Christ is the perfect example of turning to the strength within. Even if you are from a different faith, or have no faith, it it worth a read. The Strength Within When you have to make sense of the senseless…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He made sense of the senseless by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the amazing strength of Jesus to deal with the senseless, your inspiration. He showed us how it’s done. Let's do it. When you have to cope with disappointment…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He coped with disappointment by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the strength of Jesus to deal with disappointment, your inspiration. He showed it can be done. Let’s do it. When you suffer great pain…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He suffered great pain by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the strength of Jesus to suffer great pain, your inspiration. He showed it can be done. Let’s do it. When you are dealing with rejection…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He dealt with rejection by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make Jesus' capacity for dealing with rejection, your inspiration. He showed it can be done. Let's do it. To forgive and forget…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He forgave and forgot by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the amazing strength of Jesus to forgive and forget, your inspiration. He showed it can be done. Let’s do it. To find the will to persist in your mission…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. He found the will to persist in his mission by turning to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the will of Jesus to persist in his mission, your inspiration. Let’s do it. When your faith is tested…turn to the strength within. That’s what Jesus did. When his faith was tested, he turned to the strength within. Today, Easter Sunday, is a day to make the amazing capacity of Jesus to continue to be faithful, your inspiration. He showed how it’s done. Let’s do it. Don’t let disappointment crush you, don’t let shame, humiliation, or grief, submerge you, don’t let betrayal and rejection weaken your faith, don’t let bitterness make it hard for you to forgive… Just turn to the strength within…like Jesus did. What better day, than today, to make a new promise to yourself… “I will turn to the strength within!”

Read biographies.

Biographies of people you admire.

Read their biographies in full.

Or read the Wikipedia versions.

Or read summaries on websites, like History.com.

You will find out how your heroes coped with challenges.

Many great people achieved greatness, and made their mark in history, through unusual means.

If there ever was an unusual means, it was consulting the Oracles of Delphi.

Alexander the Great would not have left such a mark on history, if not for consulting the Oracles of Delphi.

Diogenes dealt with the challenge of having being caught out in an act of shame, by consulting and heeding the Oracles of Delphi.

What is the modern day version of consulting the Oracles of Delphi?

Astrology, fortune-telling, numerology?

Praying - and seeking answers through prayer, with an open mind, may be all that you need.

Minoo Jha

· 7y

How can you speak concretely to the unconscious mind?

Just being more open to Miracles…. Principles of Miracles 1. There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal. 2. Miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their source, which is far beyond evaluation. 3. Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle. So begins the book “A Course in Miracles”, a book that has inspired countless people over the decades, including authors and life coaches such as Julia Cameron, Gabrielle Bernstein and Iyanla Vanzant. The book has a fascinating history. The story goes like this…. The year is 1958. William Thetford, a Phd in psychology joins Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons as a psychology professor, during which time, he also serves as Director of Clinical Psychology at the Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. Shortly after, he hires a research associate and associate professor by the name of Helen Schucman. Helen Schucman is great at her work, but she and William Thetford do not get along. Frequent arguments and disagreements characterize their working relationship. One day, after one of their heated arguments, Thetford is completely fed up and delivers an impassioned speech to Helen. He says it is totally crazy they butt heads about everything, cannot see eye to eye, and can't work agreeably with each other. At the end of the speech, he declares “There has to be another way”. His speech, far from upsetting Helen Schucman, strikes a deep chord in her. She is especially struck by the words, “There has to be another way”. Helen has a series of visions and dreams thereafter. Then on October 21, 1965, a voice (which she takes to be the voice of Jesus) says to her, “This is a Course in Miracles. Take notes.” Startled, Helen gets out a pencil, and begins to take down what the voice is saying, in shorthand. The first words said by the voice are “This is a Course in Miracles. Take notes.” This is followed by Principles of Miracles. The next day, Helen reluctantly tells Thetford about the voice and the notes. He encourages her to continue taking notes, and even offers to type them up for her. Over several years, Helen experiences the voice every night, and continues to take notes. She dictates the notes to Thetford, who types them up. By the time the voice stops, the manuscript is 600 pages long, and 7 years have passed. They make photocopies of the manuscript, and give one of the copies to Father Benedict Groeschel, a Roman Catholic priest, who studied under Thetford, and is also known to Helen. Father Benedict Groeschel gives the manuscript to a friend Kenneth Wapnick, who has led a fascinating and miraculous life himself. Like Helen, Kenneth has experienced several dreams and epiphanies; one of them results in him becoming a Roman Catholic, though he was raised in the Jewish tradition. The night Kenneth meets Helen, he tosses and turns, and sleepless in bed, he remembers a dream he had the year before. In the dream, he is among a group of people, much younger than himself, when suddenly, a very wise middle-aged woman lawyer enters the room, takes him aside, and asks him 3 questions. One of the questions is “If you could change any of your childhood experiences, what would you change?” Kenneth gives the answer - which proves to be the correct one - he would not change anything, since all was the way it should be, and the past no longer matters. Kenneth wakes up, and half-awake, half-asleep, it dawns on him, the woman in the dream is Helen. Wapnick has 2 more uncanny dreams - both featuring a book - at which time, he decides he should delay no longer in reading Helen's manuscript. Wapnick planned to spend his life as a monk in Israel, but after these three dreams, he writes a letter to Helen informing her will be visiting the US briefly, and plans to read her book during his visit. Reading A Course in Miracles completely changes his plans. He recognizes Helen’s book as the perfect blend of psychology and spirituality, and decides his mission is to stay in America to help Helen edit and publish the book, and to make it his life’s work to spread the book's message of forgiveness. So he and Helen start work on editing the book. Soon after it is published, they start the organization, Foundation for a Course in Miracles, to help people transform their lives through adopting A Course in Miracles. Thetford, too, dedicates the rest of his life to spreading the word of A Course in Miracles. And when he retires, he decides to meditate on the message of a Course in Miracles in his own life. If Schucman, Thetford and Wapnick experienced all the miracles they did, it was because they were open to miracles. It is very important to be open to miracles in our life. Not all things come through thinking, and reflection and planning, and willpower. Many unexpected things happen as a result of grace. When I was 27, I became a vegetarian literally overnight. I remember that day, because I met up with friends, and we talked about going on a hunting trip. I did not know, I was to experience a complete change of heart that very night. It was waiting for me in a little known Lewis Carroll story called Sylvie and Bruno. I had borrowed the book Alice in Wonderland from my friend Anita, because I wanted to re-read it as an adult, and see if I took anything new from it. In the book Anita lent me, there was another short story by Caroll, “Sylvie and Bruno ”, at the end of the book. “Hmm….” I said, “I wonder what this is about.” I found myself reading the story of a man who converses with two fairies in his garden called Sylvie and Bruno. At one part of the story, Sylvie and Bruno see a dead hare. Sylvie wants to know how the hare died. The man explains to her it was killed by hunters. Weeping, she wants to know, why do human beings hunt? To which the man sorrowfully answers, “Just to prove they have good aim.” The vanity and senselessness of hunting struck me right there and then, and I found tears streaming down my face. I determined to become a vegetarian, as soon as possible, and the very next day, I started eliminating meat from my diet. I became a gradual vegetarian over the next 3 years. What is this, if not a miracle? We have to be open to miracles. Throughout history, well-known figures achieved breakthroughs in their life, because they were open to miracles. Have you read about St. Augustine? If you have, you will know he was a typical young man, indulging in wine, women and song. His mother, who was a devout Christian, implored him to mend his ways, but her words fell on deaf ears. Then one day, when Augustine was visiting his mother, he heard a childlike voice say, “Take up and read.” This was a turning point for him. Augustine took it as a divine command to open his Bible and read the first thing his eyes laid on. Augustine read from Paul's Epistle to the Romans – the “Transformation of Believers” section, consisting of chapters 12 through 15 – in which Paul outlines how the Gospel transforms believers and their behavior. …“Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” He was a converted man from that day. Have you read about Diogenes the Cynic? He and his father were engaged in debasing currency, and when they were banished from Sinope for their crime, Diogenes visited the Delphi Oracles to find out what the future held for him. The Oracle at Delphi instructed him to adulterate the political and cultural traditions of the day. So Diogenes moved to Athens, and dedicated the rest of his life to doing that; to debunking all that was false in Athenian society. Have you read about the apple falling on Newton's head? Surely that is a miracle. Have you read about Archimedes in the bath? Surely that is a miracle. Just be open to more miracles…and your subconscious mind will become your biggest ally.

Are you a physical, rather than spiritual person at this point?

Stretching yourself physically might be the answer to dealing with the challenges of life.

Get yourself a trainer.

Or find a partner, or partners, with whom you can stretch yourself, physically.

Read self-help books that are written for someone like you.

Books about people who have stretched themselves physically.

Minoo Jha

· 7y

Why would you choose a harder path in life, when others run away do you stay and fight for your path?

Hi Kennedy, You asked, Why would you choose a harder path in life, when others run away do you stay and fight for your path? Things which are worth it, which are valuable, are rarely easy. We have to stretch to get them. Most people don’t reach the levels they are capable of. This is simply because they get comfortable too easily. They get comfortable too fast. They are willing to do only so much, and no more! They find it impossible to find the time, to find the energy, to do anything more, anything extra. But I know from experience when I find the time and the energy to do more, I gain so much. It is my sweat equity which has got me to where I am today - a successful Commissions Administration and Sales Comp Consultant. At times it was (and is) exhausting, at times challenging, but in the end, I have arrived at a better, more satisfying place as a result of the extra effort. In the prologue of Spartan Up, Joe de Sena, reflects on participating in the Raid International Ukatak, an extreme sports event... Here's what he says: “An inverse correlation exists between how you feel during the race, and how you feel after it.” De Sena felt like a million bucks after the Ukatak was over, but during the event, he was utterly miserable, frightened, and desperate, at many points. He adds, “When you break through the other side of hell and finish an event that did not seem possible, that stopped you in your tracks, over and over, something happens. You feel accomplished, incredibly proud of yourself, and in some ways, a different person” I totally agree. If a chicken can play America the Beautiful, surely I can stretch myself and get beyond where I currently am. And so can anyone else.

Keep an eye out for quotations and one liners.

Sometimes a single line of wisdom can change the trajectory of your life.

Recently, I came across this quote:

"A fool is better than an obstinate man".

It made me think about all the things I am obstinate about.

And the things I used to be obstinate about, and stopped being obstinate about, bringing a welcome change in my life.

What are you being obstinate about?

Being obstinate could be what is holding you back from dealing with your current life challenges.

Obstinate that you can’t do something - because you have never done it before.

Obstinate that you are too old, or too young, or too whatever, to start something, or to give up something.

Obstinate that you can’t do something, because you have tried many times, and you have failed.

Obstinate that you are right, and others are wrong.

Obstinate that you can't help be resentful about a situation.

Obstinate that you hold the truth, and others don't.

What are you currently obstinate about?

What are ways to open your eyes and evolve?

If you know someone wise, ask them.

Have conversations with people whose ideas you value.

Watch or listen to podcasts.

Read blog posts.

Expand the number of people you interact with.

You can learn something new almost everyday.

Recently, I learned this from someone at my book club:

She told me that the founder of Sikhism wanted to create a religion that avoided the worst of Hinduism and the worst of Islam.

Since Hinduism was intrinsically linked with the caste system, and with many gender atrocities at the time, the founder decided that there would be only two last names for Sikh men and Sikh women. Sikh men would have the last name, Singh - which means lion, and Sikh women would have the last name Kaur - which means princess.

From Google AI, I was able to learn more…

“Sikhism mandates absolute spiritual and social equality between men and women. The faith’s scriptures reject female infanticide, the veiling of women, and the notion that women are impure. Both genders possess equal rights to participate in religious, cultural, and leadership roles.”

If you were to found a religion, and take the best of today’s religions, what would you include in it? What would you exclude?

The challenges of life are there to help us evolve.

The challenges are questions to which we are invited to seek answers.

There are many ways and places to search for those answers.

Both Newton and the Buddha found their answers sitting under a tree.

Answers are found by thinking or meditating deeply.

Those who give themselves time to think deeply, to self-reflect, to tap into the wisdom available, and to access their unconscious mind through prayer and meditation, will find the answers they seek.

Is oversharing a negative trait? What's the correct way to share something about yourself?

Oversharing can be a sign of self-centeredness.

Self-centeredness is an unattractive quality.

People like to be around those who listen to them, not just treat them as a ear for all their thoughts, and feelings.

Minoo Jha

 · 2y

Why do people love to talk about themselves?

Hi, Why do people like talking about themselves so much? Because that’s what’s on their mind - what’s happening to them, what they are doing, how good or bad they are, what problems they have, what they did or did not do on a day. I answered a Quora question, “How do I find fascinating conversationalists?” I listed these suggestions. * The best conversationalists are storytellers. So I would say look for people who are storytellers. * I would also look for people who are interested in a lot of things, and read a lot. People who are interested in lots of things and read a lot will always have something new and interesting to share. * Finally, I would look for people who are great listeners. As I have said on my blog, interested people are interesting. * Until you find “your people”, I would tune into talks, podcasts and You Tube videos. I have discovered several riveting talks, podcasts and videos. Have you listened to Alan Watts, Sadhguru, or Jordan Peterson? Have you listened to This American Life? I am so excited to even list these options. I can’t wait to see what you think of them. I need to add one more bullet point, triggered by your question: * Find people who are other-centered, rather than self-centered

As you become less self-centered, you will become better at being “conversational company”.

“Conversational company” is different from being company to sing with, company to dance with, company to travel with, company to eat with, company to attend a business meeting with, or company to attend an event with.

Those who are skilled at “conversational company” do thoughtful sharing.

They know when to share, and how to share.

Those who have a natural or developed “conversational company” talent, do not avoid sharing, but share in a positive way.

And they share with humility.

I will leave you with one important thought on becoming better conversational company...

Interesting people are interested people.