By Shubhra Chaturvedi
Guest writer for Wake Up World
We live on a blue planet that circles around a ball of fire next to a moon that moves the sea, and you don’t believe in miracles?
The only place to be is in the present, the past is a memory and the future is a dream. People say their call to god or their prayers are going unanswered and lose faith so easily, but how can you expect god or the power to help you if you aren’t home and the door goes unanswered? If you are busy thinking of yesterday or tomorrow you are never really in the present.
I am not a philosopher or a mystic. I am just a regular girl. And the last few years have been hard – quite hard. But through this time I have understood that it was all necessary for me to be where I am today, and if even one event didn’t go the way it did I wouldn’t have been on this wonderful journey. I had a persistent voice in my head asking me to share my learnings, lessons of my favourite books and quotes that helped me believe in magic. I hope this helps you heal and move to a better place in your life.
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Do You Believe in Magic?
It is alright to be sad, as Khalil Gibran said “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.” You will never understand the importance of happiness, the pure love of the world if you haven’t been in pain. We all need darkness to see the stars and the moon. It was through the difficult times; when I thought it was just about time to give up that I was shown the light at the end of the tunnel. It was times when I thought I had no one, that god sent me angels from whom I have learnt so much. We keep imagining some magical creature with wings to come by and save us, but in reality you cannot see their wings, they are all around us.
“A Warrior of Light knows that he has much to be grateful for. He was helped in his struggle by the angels, celestial forces that placed each thing in its place, thus allowing him to give of his best. That is why, at sunset, he kneels and gives thanks for the protective cloak surrounding him. His companions say “He’s so lucky!” But he knows that ‘luck’ is knowing to look around him and to see where his friends are, because it was through their words that the angels were able to make themselves heard” – The Zahir, Paulo Coelho
The question that arises is how to release yourself from the pain, as you have to at some point or the other. The answer is as simple as when you decide to. I know this is much easier said than done, but at any given point of time there are different vibrations in the world and they are yours to pick from. As Rumi said “The wound is the place where the light enters you”. Only when we choose to relieve ourselves of this pain will be realize that it is our choice at any second which vibration we would want to be on. But to be able to do this you cannot let your mind be your master, you cannot allow it to take over you. What you think is in your control, getting rid of negative thoughts can be done in an instant once you start to use your mind as a tool rather than your master. Unfortunately it isn’t that easy and there is a lot to be done in order to let your mind respect you and become your devotee rather than your master.
There were days where I would feel pangs of fear for no real reason, which made me question all my fears being only in my mind. I would be travelling and I would feel negativity or the devil take over. The devil being my mind… when you are vulnerable your mind can turn into the devil and play tricks which start to slowly fill darkness… that’s when I decided whether life works the way I want it to or not I can’t let this happen to myself. Thankfully my faith in the unknown started to bloom even further, I would be home alone and I would feel dark energies all around me… there were times where I would be scared to look up into the mirror again only to see something behind me.
But that’s when I revolted; I knew the light in me was much brighter than any darkness. I was crying one night due to all the stress in my head; I heard a voice in my head say to me “why are you crying? Things aren’t as bad as you thought they would be” in my head I replied “Why did you give humans this feature if you expect us not to cry? And besides I am trying to release myself from the anxiety”. As you know most of us cry sometimes not out of sadness but just to let things out of the system.
Next morning I woke up and took my normal route to work, once I sat in the cab I realized the driver looked very similar to a man I consider my role model in life. I decided to ditch the theory and thought I was too sleepy or hallucinating. While waiting at a signal a beggar walked up to me. I gave him a decent amount that would at least buy him meals for the day. When I reached office and pulled out my wallet, this familiar looking man says to me “you are a wonderful person madam and I refuse to take money from you” he drove away! Very strange I wondered. The day went exceedingly well, I got home in the evening and spoke to my family… they hadn’t sounded that happy and chirpy in months. I hung up and gave thanks a million times, slowly due to the happiness I cried… for a while till I heard this sarcastic voice in my head say “you can cry out of happiness as well and release yourself from the anxiety, I hope you have your answer on why I gave you this feature of tears. Doesn’t this make you feel better?” From then on, more than there being signs sent to me I became more aware and the universal love slowly started to flow through me. My attention would suddenly be pulled to a sight where there would be graffiti on the wall with quotes like “it’s all written” and every time I would log onto the social media every single quote I would see would seem like it were posted just for me.
I decided to work further on my fears as I figured that they hold so much space in my mind also I realized in order to be in the present at each moment you cannot have accumulated garbage in your head. You need to analyze yourself as a psychiatrist would, your fears, reactions, anger, hatred and habits. Try to drill deeper and into your past as to why you behave in a certain way, or why you fear certain things. One by one you need open up these knots in your mind, and as you start you will slowly start to feel the burden in your head reduce… you have to understand that fears, anger and hatred only occupy space in your own mind. Hate is an extremely powerful word, you must empathize with people who hurt you as you have a number of your own issues bothering you so do they. When you look back at life you will realize that people reacted in certain ways only due to the circumstances they were facing. Haven’t you changed in the last few years? Keeping bitterness inside you is one of the worst things that you can do, as slowly and steadily it will start to eat you insides. Forgive, and throw your ego aside. This does not mean you forget, but forgive for your sake. In the movies “Into the Wild” Ron (the old Man) says to Christopher – “When you forgive you love, and when you love it changes everything”.
Where do all your fears lead to? What happens or so you think will happen at the end of each of your nightmares? Death, Oh that dreaded word! John Lennon said “I’m not afraid of death because I don’t believe in it. It’s like getting out of one car and into another”. I cannot give you an answer of what lies on the other side of this life, but like the light and the darkness coexist and one without the other would not make sense. Whatever is written will happen whether you try to stop it or not, Maqtoob – Destiny. What’s coming will come; we’ll meet it when it does.
When you are on your deathbed would you rather have a series of beautiful, carefree memories or a flash of fear and regret is up to you? The one movie that opened my mind towards death was The Lovely Bones; it very beautifully explains a theory… I hope you enjoy it. In the movie it was that beautiful tree between life and after life that struck me the most. If you have lived every moment in sync with your intuition and what your conscience says how is it possible to be afraid of death? While I was blown away by the tree in the movie it would follow me everywhere. I started to see the tree in my dreams, on articles on social media. Finally I decided to paint an amateur version of it. I painted after my school days; it’s not the most beautiful painting but what was going on inside me at that moment can probably be explained in one word as ecstasy.
“Everyone is so afraid of death, the real Sufis laugh; nothing tyrannizes their hearts. What strikes the oyster shell does not damage the pearl.” ~ Rumi
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Finding Magic ~ My Saviors
Love
The one feeling that changes everything, everything you knew or thought you knew changes. They say love heals, here’s what I think out of personal experiences.
The last few years have been a little difficult on the love front and all of above mentioned learning is largely due to the drama I have been facing. But none of that matters… if it hadn’t happened I wouldn’t have been half way here. When a person loves you unconditionally, through you deepest and darkest secrets…you learn to look at yourself in good light. Every mystic and philosopher says that in order to reach peace or nirvana it’s most important to love yourself. When someone looks at you like you are magic, everything changes. It heals you in a way that no one else or nothing else can ever change. Once you are in love, you become love. They say that every relationship is a reflection of what you feel it is and when you don’t have any secrets, guilt or unhappiness and you are completely yourself in every minute. As Khalil Gibran said,
“Love has no other desire than to fulfill itself, but if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires; to melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night. To know the pain of too much tenderness. And to bleed willingly and joyfully. To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving; To rest at noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy; to return home at eventide with gratitude; And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.”
Once you find your tribe, life becomes a symphony. No matter what happens don’t settle for life, in just another step you might find them. One of the biggest pleasures in life is being accepted as exactly who you are, with your flaws and beauty. When you meet them, you will know. A cloud will lift, the pretense will disappear and you will become a much lighter version of yourself. Once the heart in full, nothing matters… Whether they are not by your side today, or they moved on or they aren’t in this world anymore or at least not visible. Their vibe stays with you always. It like Magic! I started to believe in Magic… I also felt a lot of different signs coming to me whether they were pure coincidences or fragments of my imagination I am happy today, which I believe is the only thing that matters.
I am sure that people around the world understood different things from the movie Interstellar. What struck me the most was that love in the most powerful force in the world and I have felt it. I am thankful for having felt it, as most people go their entire lives without knowing this immense feeling of happiness and being content. I am glad to have witnessed this Magic.
Gratitude
“You can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
You know it’s almost like Love taught me to say thanks as well. As I understood more and more about this relationship of mine, the more I said thanks. Slowly it started to almost spread happiness from one part of my body to another and with all the signs that I was being attracted to it helped me elevate a little further. It made me value my other relationships more, my angels – my friends that stood with me through thick and thin without any judgment. It made me give thanks for my family and I understood how lucky I was to have them. I gave thanks for the sea, for the trees… and it started to become synchronicity. Around this time I started to follow Wake Up World. I learnt to not be a pain, even if I was in pain.
As Wayne Dyer said, “I believe when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.“ When you start being grateful you start to become a giver, a giver of joy, strength and love. Live your life in a way where even if you seize to exist tomorrow, you made a difference in your own small way.
Cleaning Your Space
Most of us tend to relate cleaning to a very exterior activity whereas it’s something so different…it clears so much space in your mind. Your mind stays uncluttered when you are in a clean area. Make your zone, your own… create a vision board, personalization of your own sacred space. Make the small collages that you took through dorm rooms; they had more energy than you ever realized.
Incense
I believe allowing ventilation in and around the house or your room as one of the most important things to get rid of negativity. Use of certain candles and incense can drastically change the vibe to much more positive one. (For more ideas, please see: 7 Ways to Increase the Good Vibes in Your Home.)
Keeping Busy
Stay busy! Read the books you loved again! Listen to the music you love, works on your painting, walk around town, zone looking at the beautiful trees & the flowers and give thanks for being able to witness such moments…slowdown in life. I learnt from Basher’s wonderful interviews that whenever you are involved in an activity you love where you lose track of time, you start to channel – which is a meditative state. Music – Music has some incredible power to transport you to other times, the songs that you used love will always bring back wonderful vibes. For me it takes me away from everything negative. It is my most loved companion.
Good Foods
As you get a little older, your body very clearly gives you signs on what to eat and what not to eat. I realized that what I eat also affects my day to day vibe quite a bit. On days that you eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables you mind remains quite clear and you stay so much more active. Also I understood the complete joy of home cooked food. But I also understood that there is nothing that helps you better on a bad day…. Only one mood fixer which is a jar of nutella!
Tea Loving!
As the eighth century tea master Lu Yu, author of The Classic of Tea” said Tea tempers the spirit and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness” Cleansing the insides of your body also makes you much lighter, for me it has been amazing. My day to day strength has increased drastically and it helps me stay calm and keep a lot of clarity in my mind. Apparently an antioxidant found in white, green, oolong and black teas is 100 times as effective as Vitamin C and 25 times as effective as Vitamin E in fighting radicals and protecting healthy cells from damage. Nonetheless, it’s good for you so why not?
Vibes
The key is to trust your intuition with the types of vibes you feel around. Once you start to trust you intuitions you can feel a negative person in the room or at least in your close surroundings instantly. In fact a few times recently I have been able to sense creepy looking men before they even entered the vicinity. Your inner being is awake and aware you have to trust it. It will also help you gauge the best company, you shouldn’t settle for any lesser.
Enough Sleep
My most favorite cousin introduced me to this beautiful book called “Laws of the spirit world – by Khorshed Bhavnagri.” “For instance – we the spirit souls and you earth souls do meet constantly and almost every day. You will ask how? When you are in deep sleep, people on Earth leave their body and travel up to certain heights to meet their departed loved ones. Only a magnetic cord known as the Silver Cord joins you to your body. This cord will bring you back to your body if you are woken up suddenly. This happens only if you sleep is deep and dreamless. You can only meet the loved ones who love you as well. But there must be mutual love between them. You may meet your loved one for a few minutes or few hours – it depends on your sleep. Have you noticed when you sleep well you feel calm and less miserable than before. Well, the reason is this – you meet you loved ones and they calm you down and provide guidance.”
This really changed me, I literally feel like someone is calling out to me. And the more you sleep, the better you feel as your body heals. Nothing works better than a good sleep.
Clearing Your Mind
Spend at least some time in a day observing complete silence in your mind. Don’t think of anything, stop looking for answers. Osho said “Don’t try to understand life, live it! Don’t try to understand love. Move into love. Then you will know – and all that knowing will come out of experiencing. The more you know, the more you know that much remains to be known.” Don’t spend your life worrying about things that are real only in your mind. When you recognize you thoughts every day and get rid of the bogus ones you will not carry unnecessary baggage from one day to the other.
Helping Others
One of Rumi’s most beautiful quotes is “Be a Lamp, a Lifeboat, a Ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.” What comes in return is not our concern; an Australian Aboriginal proverb says “We are all Visitors to this place. We are just passing through, our purpose is to observe, learn, grow and love and then return home.” When we help others it slowly starts to heal our soul, you learn to get happiness out of their small happiness. Who is rich and famous in this world may be at the lowest realm in the spirit world and a beggar you see on the street maybe from a realm higher than the priest in the church. Help as much as you can to anyone who you think genuinely needs help, and do it from your heart. Giving is a joy only the ones who engage in witness. As you let your own light shine, you unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Exercising
It is said that exercising is the best way to beat depression. While you exercise as you all must know your body releases endorphins which interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. For example, the feeling that follows a run or workout is often described as “euphoric.” That feeling, known as a “runner’s high,” is accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life. Today, more than 95% of all chronic diseases are caused by food choice, toxic food ingredients, nutritional deficiencies and lack of physical exercise. Stop blaming your schedule and work load for not working out, when you pull out a little time your efficiency will increase by folds.
Spend at least sometime out in the open under through the day and through the night. Walk those few blocks, look at those beautiful trees… look at the stars and the moon on a clear night. It’s all breath taking if you give it sometime. The Moon and stars take you away, for me the moon is my god… I look at it for answers and for its sheer beauty and I am certain of its healing powers.
Please understand that my life situations haven’t changed at all, but I am happy. You don’t have to wait for the happy ending, you can be happy right away… You can be at peace nonetheless. This does not mean sit right here, if you don’t find your true dreams and purposes there will be nothing that would be a driving force. Follow your conscience and intuition, and the journey will be worth it. Today I have an extremely intimate and loving relationship with the Unknown… And there is no feeling more beautiful.
I wish you all a wonderful life, and on this note sharing a perspective that one of the most adorable and loving angel that I was made to meet shared with me.
“The level of matter in the universe has been constant since the Big Bang.’ In all the aeons we have lost nothing. We have gained nothing – not a speck, not a grain, not a breath. The universe is simply a sealed, twisted kaleidoscope that has reordered itself a trillion trillion trillion times over. Each baby then is a unique collision, a cocktail, a remix – of all that has come before: made from molecules of Napoleon and stardust and comets and whale tooth, colloidal mercury and Cleopatra’s breath: and with the same darkness that is between the stars between, and inside, our own atoms.
“When you know this, you suddenly see the crowded top deck of the bus, in the rain as a miracle: this collection of people is by the way of a starburst constellation. Families are bright, irregular shapes nebulae. Finding a person you love is like galaxies colliding. We are all peculiar, unrepeatable, perambulating micro- universes – we will never be again. Oh God, the sheer exuberant, unlikely fact of our existences. The honor of being alive. They will never be able to make you again. Don’t you dare waste a second thinking something better will happen when it ends. Don’t you dare.” ~ Caitlin Moran
About the author:
Shubhra believes happiness is contagious and wishes to spread her vibe everywhere that she can. She believes if she could get by her difficult moments and find happiness she should share her journey to help others move on. She loves to travel and be away from civilization as much as she can.
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