REALITY CHECK PART 1

     This is a series where I will be shedding light on the crucial issues that are existent in the world and the ones that have a major impact on life as we know it. I think we have become accustomed to living in a bubble, closed off from the real world that we forget what is truly of importance. We come across endless information from the media and most of it is just utter nonsense if you come to think of it. The media mostly gives the audience what it asks for because this is linked to ratings and ratings are linked to paychecks. In this age of media conglomeration money talks and it is becoming more evident that preeminent issues that can change the world are not being given the attention that they deserve. What has this lead to? Ignorance. I want to change the way you view the world and the only way for me to achieve this is by telling you what you should be focusing on to change your perspective on things.

     It is becoming increasingly alarming at the rate at which we are depleting our water sources. Global warming is catching up with us and it is inevitably going to end water if we do not come up with sustainable solutions. Water is the most vital resource that exists. Our bodies are made up of over 60% water, producing energy requires water, cooling our atmosphere requires water, producing the meat that the world consumes requires water, agriculture requires water...I can go on and on about the uses of water, the list is endless. It is devastating to know that the most valuable resource that we have as humanity is the least treasured and the most misused. It is evident that the world has started experiencing the effects of global warming. Hurricanes in Florida have wiped out towns and killed hundreds of people, flooding in India, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries has also resulted in the same fate. The wildfires in Australia caused by an increase in temperatures have destroyed lush forests and have resulted in massive loss of wealth, recurring drought in Russia has caused parts of the country to declare a state of emergency. The increasing examples of such catastrophes are becoming increasingly worrying.

    It scares me looking at the bigger picture. The ice in Antarctica and Greenland is gradually melting resulting in the region losing about 70 kilometers of ice per year. The ice contained in this region accounts for most of the fresh water in the world. The melting of the ice is causing an increase in sea level which screams disaster for flat countries. Bangladesh has a low lying coast which is gradually being submerged due to the rise in sea levels. According to predictions, in a century, this might lead to more than 30 million people being displaced from their homes. That number is nerve wracking. Where these people are going to go? Nobody knows.

    We need to start taking responsibility of what is going on in the world. It is our own doing. In this age of capitalism we forget that we are suffocating our world gradually. The increase in greenhouse emissions, excessive use of fossil fuels, improper garbage disposal, these are all man made problems in the race to make more money. Incessant greed and ignorance will be the end of us unless we change the story. Just as there exists oil disputes across the world, nations will start to collide because of inadequate water. Think about it. It is already happening, look at the disputes that occurred along the Nile Valley or the ones occurring in parts of Asia for example between India and Bangladesh over The Ganges, it is also happening in the Middle East and South America. We need change and we need it fast. The responsibility to take care of the posterity is with us. Now that you are aware, what is it that you can do to help better the situation? That is the question.

PLEASURE OF SOLITUDE

     The thing I have come to value the most in life is my alone time. Being alone and being lonely are two ends of a spectrum. We tend to seek people to share our time with, afraid of feeling lonely and we end up depriving ourselves of the time to get to know who we are more intently. The risk of not giving yourself enough alone time is that you are exposing yourself more to outwardly influences, which creep in into our lives and cause a disturbance in our peaceful state of mind. Most people are so concerned about finding people who will fill their empty shell of loneliness but they forget it all begins from within. In order not to feel lonely we must love being with ourselves. Start focusing on your personal growth to strengthen your sense of self. We may not truly know who we are but we know who we think we are.

     Turn yourself into a person with depth. Learn yourself and from that, get to know which parts of yourself need to change. It is not unusual to be oblivious of your shortcomings when you do not take time to center your mind and find your true self. I have found that meditation is ideal in finding inner peace.  Disconnecting from the world relieves us of the pressure of what is expected of us by other people. Do not be afraid to detach yourself from people who persistently drag you into their problems. You do not owe them anything, distance yourself for the greater good. Some of us are stuck trying to help other people with their issues that we forget to pay attention to ourselves. Slowly you start to lose your identity and that ends up breaking you. Centering yourself in the midst of chaos will be the true test of your self awareness. It is not an easy road trying to be who you are in a world that is constantly pressuring us to be someone else. Once you start to become conscious of who you are, growth becomes imminent. You will start to value your time and people who have your best interests in mind.

      I have found that getting away out of town to a serene environment is my favorite thing to do to unwind and re-evaluate my life. I love going to places I have never been before. It gets my mind off all the seriousness in my life. I believe we were born to enjoy this conscious awareness experience we call life and discover our full potential. This can only be achieved if we are comfortable with who we are. It is a journey, be aware that you are on that journey and the only way that you will to go is forward, towards abundance. This time round I explored a resort in Thika, Kenya called Ol donyo Sapuk Resort. It is set at the foot of Mt. Kilimambogo; the scenery was surreal and one which you might consider going to experience. The video gives you a preview of the experience. Enjoy. 

TRUST HAS TO BE EARNED

   You have got to be vigilant about the people you let into your life. Not everyone you share your dreams and goals with will want what is best for you. You need to start evaluating your friends to determine who actually has your best interest. When your circle of friends starts to reduce, maturity starts to kick in. You start to value quality over quantity. That is the way to ensure that the people who are closest to you are the people who you share the same values and goals with. People that will push you to greatness are hard to come by. When you find them, keep them close. It is human nature to want to share your dreams and aspirations with other people. At times we get too excited with what is going on in our lives that we blubber out all your future plans to anybody who will listen to you. This is dangerous. We need to practice a certain level of restraint when it comes to sharing what is important to us. 90% of the time the people that we associate with do not want us to succeed. Some are jealous, others don't want you to progress more than them, others just don't care. Learn how to read people basing it on your interactions with them. 

   Good energy and bad energy do not mix. The more you tell the wrong people about your future plans and private life, the more that positive energy will dissipate into oblivion. You block yourself from progress. Be mindful that the more information you give to people the more likely that that information will be used against you at the worst possible time. Knowing who can and cannot be trusted is crucial and it is an intuition that you need to perfect. Trust is one of the hardest things to rebuild once it is broken. Do not put yourself in a situation where you set yourself up for disappointment. For you to find the right people to trust, you need to be trustworthy yourself. Don't expect people to give you something that you cannot give back. If you ever feel that you are starting to doubt someone's trustworthiness, pay close attention to their actions. People often reveal their true nature unconsciously through what they do. The actions will tell you everything that you need to know. Relationships, partnerships and friendships can't work if there is no trust. 

   You do not owe everyone your full honesty when it comes to what you do in private. This does not mean that you keep everything bottled up inside you. Good people exist and those are the people that you should be attracting into your life. They are quite few.  If you cannot trust someone trust your gut, it is your gift from God. From experience, some of the best moments in life are the ones  you can't tell anyone about. 

ALIVE OR JUST BREATHING?

    As I am writing this, I am in an ecstatic mood. Ever since I had my spiritual awakening realizing that there is so much more to life than our current state of reality, happiness has been like a shadow following me everywhere I go. We tend to get caught up with what is happening to us instead on focusing on how to respond to all these experiences that we get bombarded with in our daily lives. All the posts that I have written so far have been an evaluation of the experiences that I have and still going through and this post is not an exception. I have gone through plenty of challenges over these past few couple of months and at times I felt so low that it was affecting my whole well being. It is the things and people that we love dearly that can hurt us the most. I felt like I had been pushed to the wall and as if there was only one way out of my predicament and that was to accept defeat. I had to step back and look at the bigger picture and once I did that, I experienced a paradigm shift. I have realized there is no point of stressing over our current negative situations because it makes us live in the past hindering progress.

    In life you either win or learn. Detach yourself from failure and look at it as an opportunity to know how to do things right the next time. Resistance is part of success. After changing my perception about my reality I had to reset my mind to accommodate all that I had learnt to prepare myself for my next battle. What better way to free your mind than a weekend getaway with amazing friends to a place so surreal as the Great Rift Valley Lodge! The friends that you keep are either going to build you or break you. At your worst, you will need friends to help you lift the weight off; choose them wisely. I live for new experiences and heading to Naivasha, where the lodge is located, was an incredible idea. Being away from the city life unclogs your mind and brings you mental clarity. The ambiance of the lodge was warm and it felt like a home away from home. My mind was only focused on enjoying myself and forming stronger bonds with my friends. It made my challenges feel really small and not as important as I had perceived them to be. In fact, I am glad that I went through the low moments because it made me appreciate what is most valuable in life which is making stronger connections with people I love and seeing what the world has to offer in terms of its natural beauty. I live to travel and I want to inspire you to want to see the world as badly as I want to. Life was not meant to be lived in the same place. I made a short clip to show you some snapshots of the weekend getaway and maybe you could visit the place and have an unforgettable time too. Life is too exciting to not be experienced.

BREAKTHROUGH

    There will always come a time when you are at your lowest. Everything seems to be going wrong and you don't know what to do. Hopelessness starts to creep in. You start to feel like a failure. You start to make comparisons between you and the people around you. Comparison only makes what you are feeling worse. You feel like your goal is so close yet so far away. Frustration consumes you; it gets to you that you are the problem. No matter how hard you try, you end up at the start of it all; with nothing. Is this how you feel right now? Let me tell you what to do...don't panic! A lot of the pain we are dealing with are really only our thoughts. 

     You know that failure is a part of success. In my previous posts I have told you to view failure as 

opportunity. How you choose to deal with your failures defines your character. Never giving up is easier said than done but once you start to cultivate that culture within you, there is nothing that will break you. Most of the success stories you know speak of people who have overcome great obstacles in order to be where they are now. Resilience and persistence for a successful person are must have qualities to progress in this world. If success was easy, everybody would be successful; but that isn't the case now, is it? It might feel that there is no way to move forward when you've hit rock bottom but there is always a way, you just need to look carefully enough to find it. Our worries and disappointments cloud our judgement and it becomes harder to find a solution to a problem when our minds are racing through all the things that we have done wrong. For you to progress and make the changes that you ought to make, you have to clear your mind of any thoughts that are not in alignment with your goals. 

     When you are at an ultimate low that is when you are about to have a breakthrough. If you are the type of person to give up easily, you will never get to enjoy the results of your hard work. How do you know that you are going through a breakthrough? You will start to face opposition from the people around you. People will start to question what you do and how you do it. Most people start to second guess themselves after a few negative comments from the people they trust. Block out the pointless criticism and focus on the bigger picture.It is usual to lose friends during such a time; not everyone will see eye to eye with you. During a breakthrough you will also start to question yourself. This usually comes from fear. Don't be afraid of your dreams; when your dreams don't scare you they are not big enough. Your end goal is achievable, believe that. We were all blessed with intuition; when you feel that what you are doing is what will push you further ahead in life then do not fret when you are confronted with opposition. Trust yourself. You know great things are coming when everything seems to be going wrong. Old energy is clearing out for new energy to enter. Be patient. It is always at our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light. 

THE 7 NATURAL LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE

   There are 7 natural laws that keep the universe in perfect harmony. This explains the order that exists in the universe. It is important that you understand and align yourself with these laws because they govern our lives whether we are aware of them or not. Whether you believe that these laws exist or not is IRRELEVANT. The laws are impartial. Knowing these laws will lead you to get in touch with your spirituality and unlock your full potential. Master these laws and you will be able to see your life unfold the way you want it to.

     The Law of Vibration

   In my earlier post on 'The Secret', I had introduced you to the Law of Attraction which is the basic law of the universe. These two laws are one. This law states that everything vibrates with its own frequency. Everything that exists is all energy; this includes our thoughts. Like energy attracts like energy. This therefore suggests that our thoughts emit a frequency that attracts other like frequencies which manifest as our reality. All that we desire has its own frequency which is also true about that that we do not desire. To use this law in your favor, your thoughts must be at the same frequency as that which is desired. Constantly focusing on a particular thought attracts its vibrational match.

     The Law of Cause and Effect

    Every cause has an effect and every effect has its cause. The philosophical ideas from this law are borrowed from the laws of physics. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Let your thoughts be the cause to the effects that are desired. Where we concentrate most of our energy comes to be.

      The Law of Relativity

    The true essence of something is measured by the way we relate it to something else, this is how we give meaning to things. I want to relate this law to your life. Ever looked at someone else's life and compared it to yours? I'm sure it left you feeling discouraged especially if the person you are in comparison with is further ahead in life. Or have you ever experienced a hard time and it makes you feel like you have hit rock bottom and there is no chance of redeeming yourself? I always encouraged people to look at the positive side of every situation. Your current being will always be far much better than another person going through more difficult challenges than you are. Instead of feeling discouraged by other people's current situations and the difficulties that you are going through at the moment, realize that there are so many other people who are going through a worse time. Comparing your troubles and situation to someone else going through a harder time makes our challenges feel less significant.

      The Law of Polarity

     This law states that everything that exists has its opposite. The opposites are the two extremes of a thing. For example hot-cold, day-night, failure-success, pain-pleasure, good-evil and so on. What you are coexists with what you are not. In the absence of what you are not, what you are cannot exist. Where you put your energy dictates what comes to be. This is why it is crucial to train yourself to focus on what it is that you love. It is always difficult to completely eliminate negative thoughts, this is because they exist in harmony with positive thoughts. The only way to keep your mind from wandering into negativity is to stay in constant awareness of your thoughts.

      The Law of Rhythm 

    This law states all that exists has a natural cycle to it. For example business cycles, tides going in and back out, night follows day, life regenerates itself and so on. Life is made up of a series of ups and downs. Even in our darkest moments there is always a light at the end of the tunnel if we open our eyes wide enough to see it. Failure is an integral part of life, how we deal with failure determines the outcome of our lives. Failure is a means to an end. Learn to see failure as opportunity. When you are on the brink of giving up, that is when your life is about to undergo a transformation that will change your current predicament. Existence of hard times is a sign that your life is about to change. So stop beating yourself up when you are down and start preparing yourself for the great things to come.

      The Law of Transmutation

    This law states that energy moves in and out of physical form. All that exists began as a single thought which manifested through concentrating on the idea. A thought is creative energy. Concentrating on a particular thought gives it creative power that moves energy to manifest what you desire into reality. The universe arranges itself according to your thoughts. Harness your creative energy by focusing on what you desire.

       The Law of Gestation

      This law states that everything takes time to manifest. A thought takes concentrated effort to eventually materialize. Visualization of what it is you desire, makes it real in the mental and spiritual realm. It may exist immediately in the mental and spiritual world but the time and space elements of your physical existence makes it take time to manifest. I want you to understand that the past, present and future all exist as ONE. If you concentrate on a particular thought, know that the physical manifestation already exists in the universe just at a different time of your existence. People fail to achieve their goals because they get discouraged too early on their success journey. Do not give up in your pursuit of what you want, when the time is right you will get it. It is law!

SECRETS OF SUPER ACHIEVERS

Paradox of freedom
      'No man is free who is not master of himself'
       ~Epictetus

      This is a quote derived from the book that has resonated deep within me. I read this book with the aim of learning what needs to be done in order for me to achieve success. I was particularly interested in the chapter that talked about discipline. One of the main reasons many of us fail to achieve success is because we lack the consistency to do what needs to be done when it should be done. Human beings are creatures of habit. One destructive habit repeated consistently becomes innate and it takes an incredible amount of effort to break out of the habit. Similarly, it takes the same amount of effort to develop and grow a necessary habit. Discipline broods consistency and this consistency gives us a momentum which is fuel to success. Getting into the right mindset every day is always a challenge to most people. The possibility of distractions is endless. It takes a strong individual to conquer his mind to do what needs to be done when it ought to be done.

      It is quite obvious that discipline is paramount if you want to be exceptional in all your undertakings. So, why is it then that some people fall short of success? It is one thing to be aware of something and another to practice it. To know and not do is not to know at all. Just because you are aware that discipline is crucial, does not mean that you are disciplined. Life is a series of pain and pleasure. The order in which the two facts of life are dealt with determines the destiny of your life. A disciplined individual schedules life in such a way that the pain is dealt with first in order to enhance pleasure later. If it was easy, everyone would be successful. The most brilliant minds can go untapped because of lack of this essential characteristic. The difference between a dreamer and a go-getter is action.

      Building a foundation based on discipline will require sacrifice, diligence and persistence. Decide on what it is that you would like to change and determine the steps that you need to take to get to where you want to be. Start applying discipline in one aspect of your life, whether it is fitness, diet, education or punctuality and this will inevitably consume your whole being. This process can take a substantial amount of time to be mastered and it might be discouraging when you do not see the results immediately. It should be at the back of your mind that good things take time. Your speed is not important. As long as your moving, you are still lapping everyone on the couch. The key to discipline is a sense of destiny. Do not lose sight of your end goal. Remember, no one ever reached any eminence, and no one having reached it, ever maintained it, without discipline.