I love reading the Harry Potter series of books. I thoroughly enjoy imagining the magical places and people with my minds eye while reading the book. And more recently I did not even have to imagine…..I got to live some of Harry's experiences in my everyday life. For the past few months I have literally been "Disapparating" by juggling a stressful job with my personal life situation. Harry travelled from place to place while I rushed from day to day and from deadline to deadline. Work was consuming a good portion of my waking hours and the stress that accompanied it was consuming my health and personal life. Days and weeks gone by seemed blurry. Every morning was getting heavier and harder to wake up as if I had met a "Dementor". And the routine of juggling continued…..!
At last one day I just decided to quit my job and take a few months break from work. I felt that life is made up of moments and a happy life is the sum total of happy moments. I felt the need from deep within to go more slowly through the day so that I could enjoy it more and create happy moments. I wanted to restore some sanity and energy to my strained life. Leaving a well paid job with many benefits was a pretty big decision. On one side the decision felt very liberating but on the other side I was weighed down by what I would be missing. My rational mind was debating on the "pros" and "cons" while my metaphysical mind wanted me to just take a break. I was sitting at the break fast table and sipping tea. I just closed my eyes and hoped something would guide me through this mental conflict. Should I go ahead and announce my decision to quit or should I hang in there for a little longer? I breathed deeply and went through my routine of sipping tea and browsing through some of my favorite blogs.
The first blog that I happened to read that day answered the exact question I was asking. It was about how someone had left their well paying job after going through the same dilemma I had gone through. In case you are curious here is a link to the blog post I read that day:
http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com/2011/07/take-responsibility-for-your-happiness.html
I was consumed by surprise - I had not expected my dilemma to be answered so soon! I also felt relived that I did not have to go through the weight of the mental conflict for very long. I decided at that very moment that I was indeed going with my decision of quitting my job.
Soon after I announced my decision to my friends and family. One of my friends told me something very interesting. She introduced me to a book called "You can heal your life" by Louise Hay. The book dealt with thought patterns and their effect on one's health and life. The authors own personal struggles with cancer and the way she healed herself by altering her thought patterns was very inspiring. I browsed through my friends copy of the book and the concept touched me very deeply. It made perfect sense to me. Over the past few months I was dealing with a few challenging personal issues myself and it was emotionally draining. I had bottled up my emotions like a tiger bound inside a cage. The book was the answer to what I had to do with my break. I had work to do. I needed to release my emotions and negative thought patterns accumulated so far. This was the key to face each of my personal problems with confidence and a positive attitude.
I have often wondered whether it is possible to be guided by a higher power when asked for? How do we know we are guided and what does that feel like? I did not realize until this situation that I would indeed know the answers to these questions I had been thinking about for long.
Any time we go through challenging situations and we sincerely ask for help, the help does indeed come to us. Our sincere request/s for help constitutes what is called "prayer". To answer our questions we are shown signposts. The signposts could be in any form such as written material or suggestions from people. When we have found the answer it feels right deep within us irrespective of what other people say. To be able to receive the answers we need to trust and go through life a little more mindfully so that we can listen to those answers. The answer provides a quiet confidence and a liberating feeling accompanied by an increased respect for our self. We feel lightness and a flow of positive energy within. Once we receive the answers we need to have the courage to accept the answer and take action. Sometimes the answer is to do the very thing that scares us, but we should go for it. When we come through we always come out a much stronger person.
What we can give back for the timely guidance is a simple whisper of "thank you" emanating straight from our hearts.
Thank you for reading!
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