Fate Is In Our Own Hands

Fate Is In Our Own Hands

by Inspirational and motivational stories on Friday, February 3, 2012 at 5:14am ·

Once upon a time, there was a general who was leading his army into battle against an enemy ten times the size of his own.

Along the way to the battle field, the troops stopped by a small temple to pray for victory.

The general held up a coin and told his troops, “I am going to implore the gods to help us crush our enemy. If this coin lands with the heads on top, we’ll win. If it’s tails, we’ll lose. Our fate is in the hands of the gods. Let’s pray wholeheartedly.”

After a short prayer, the general tossed the coin. It landed with the heads on top. The troops were overjoyed and went into the battle with high siprit.

Just as predicted, the smaller army won the battle.

The soldiers were exalted, “It’s good to have the gods on our side! No one can change what they have determined.”

“Really?” The general show them the coin—both sides of it were heads.

How Failure Succeeded

How Failure Succeeded

by Inspirational and motivational stories on Sunday, December 11, 2011 at 2:31pm ·

Before this, I was a very negative person with all sorts of excuses I used in my life. But things have changed after I'd watched a movie about a person who is defected that has neither legs nor hands.

He has always liked those challenging career. Till one day, he made the decision to join a wrestling game and made it as his real career. Well, it sounds weird for a defected person to fight with a normal person, right? However, his strong spirit has helped him to overcome all the negativity in his surroundings.

Finally, after 36 times of falling, bleeding and humiliating, he succeeded by winning the semi-final game. It was a quite, no, a very huge achievement for himself.

So, for us as a normal person with complete body, do we really want to quit after one or two failure? Just ask yourself and think about it.

Remember, never give up until you've lost 36 times!!

Making your mark on the world...

Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it's not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won't. it's whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.

Benefits Of Being Grateful: From Gratitude Comes Great Well-Being

Most of us, at one time or another, have faced some sort of overwhelming challenge. Whether it be in business, relationships, or health – some challenges can take us for a loop, places where we don’t want to go… if we allow. We’re human – even the most seemingly, perfectly grounded person – struggles at times.

If you’ve been severely challenged or are presently worrying and stressing over a difficult situation – try showing a bit of thanks – gratitude – for all that IS working right in your life. And, build from there. Gratitude is powerful.

Attitude of Gratitude

Did you know that next to immunodepressants, gratitude heals organ transplant patients fastest? The Mississippi University for Women found out in a study that patients who kept a gratitude journal scored better in mental health tests than those who didn’t, even when they started off at the same level of mental health. They generally healed faster, had more vitality and were happier.

It doesn’t stop there – those who are unwell are not the only people who benefit from an attitude of gratitude. The debate continues as to whether material well-being and happiness makes a person grateful or whether it is the other way around.

Tests were done where participants were all of the same income level, their lives were more or less the same in terms of satisfaction and happiness and their mental health was at par.

Some were asked to keep a gratitude journal and others were asked to go on living as usual. After 2 months, the people who kept gratitude journals showed significant leaps in happiness and well-being. They said they were much more energetic and felt that they got what they wanted. They felt that they traveled towards their goals faster.

What Is The Connection Between Gratitude And Well Being?

There’s really no single explanation, but there’s agreement on one thing: the more grateful you are, the more positive you feel about life and about yourself, and the more you achieve.

Gratitude helps you see all things in their perspective. In the past, when you’ve felt grateful for something or someone – did you see how suddenly that thing’s or person’s value swelled and became even more meaningful to you?

If you wake up and immediately give thanks for a great, blue sky, you’ll notice that the day seems much richer. If you give thanks for your spouse, your brain has a way of picking it up and making you see even better things about them and this makes you feel happier. Happiness leads to well-being.

Gratitude also makes you focus on the things that you’re grateful for and you therefore attract more. It’s the old law of attraction, which holds that what you think about grows.

If you’re grateful for strong, fulfilling relationships, they tend to grow and therefore you’ll be happier. If you’re grateful for a strong business, it will grow and you’ll feel more fulfilled.

Does It Really Matter Why Gratitude Leads To Well-Being?

You now know that it does, so why not start to practice it. How would you gain from being able to put your challenges in perspective, faster? I was able to start making positive moves to create the outcome that I preferred.

Yes, it required a time commitment. In fact, as a busy woman, fitting “gratitude time” into my day was very difficult at first. But, I found the time because it was that important.

I discovered that if I wanted to do it, I had to set aside a time for nothing else but “gratitude time” and my journal had to be in a place where I couldn’t ignore it. After awhile it became my habit – the first thing I do before I get out of bed.

I think about and write down what I am grateful for. The more grateful I am, the more I have to be grateful for – the better I feel and the more productive I am throughout my day. What a powerful way to start your day!!

I encourage you to make a gratitude journal. Plan it in such a way that it’s in your path everyday and you can’t ignore it. You’ll find that after days, even just hours of your first journaling, your perspective will be different and you will have given yourself more time to go forward and focus on what matters most.


Spiritual & Emotional Healing Resources:

Working With and Healing Your Inner Child & Inner Adolescent – The happier your childhood, the less of a problem you’ll now have with your inner child. Because he or she will be happy and content to stay in their own world. Conversely, the more pain you went through then, the more problems you’re likely to have now. These two complete visualization meditations can be the first step in going back and healing that childhood, and that adolescence. The first one guides you to meet and interact with your inner child. The second guides you to similarly work with your inner adolescent.

Healing Your Ego  – You need a strong, healthy, positive ego to function in life. To do that, first you need to take back the power you’ve given it. And then follow specific technique to heal it. Heal your wounded ego with these three audio files on healing your ego and returning it to its rightful place – as a servant who delivers information to you.

The Magic Of Forgiveness – Forgiveness is the only key that opens the door to a life free from emotional and mental pain. Release the burdens of your past and present that haunt you, end the emotional pain you feel in your heart, ‘take a shower on the inside’ – cleaning out all the gunk that’s stuck within you.

EDUCATION DOES NOT MEAN GOOD JUDGEMENT

There is a story about a man who sold hot dogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers . He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hot dogs. His sales and profit went up. He ordered more meat and got himself a bigger and a better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father.

Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it."

The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad time." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, and listened to the radio, he ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day, the father cut down his order for the meat and buns, took down the sign and was no longer enthusiastic. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hot dog stand.

And his sales started coming down rapidly. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right. We are in the middle of a
recession. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

Negative motivation brings the desire to take the easier way which ends up being the tougher way.

Internal motivation comes from within, such as pride, a sense of achievement, responsibility and belief.

A beautiful story - The Blind Passenger

The passengers on the bus watched sympathetically as the attractive young woman with the white cane made her way carefully up the steps. She paid the driver, using her hands to feel the location of the seats, walked down the aisle and found the seat he'd told her was empty. Then she settled in, placed her briefcase on her lap and rested her cane against her leg.

It had been a year since Susan, thirty-four, became blind. Due to a medical misdiagnosis, she had been rendered sightless, and she was suddenly thrown into a world of darkness, anger, frustration and self-pity. Once a fiercely independent woman, Susan now felt condemned by this terrible twist of fate to become a powerless and helpless burden on everyone around her.

"How could this have happened to me?" she would plead, her heart knotted with anger, but no matter how much she cried, protested, ranted or prayed, she knew the painful truth that her sight was never going to return. A cloud of depression hung over Susan's once optimistic spirit. Just getting through each day was an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. And all she had to cling to was her husband Mark.

Mark was an Air Forces officer and he loved Susan with all of his heart. When she first lost her sight, he watched her sink into despair and was determined to help his wife gain the strength and confidence she needed to become independent again.

Mark's military background had trained him well to deal with such sensitive situations, and yet he knew this was the most difficult battle he would ever face.
Finally, Susan felt ready to return to her job, but how would she get there? She used to take the bus, but was now too frightened to get around the city by herself. Mark volunteered to drive her to and from work each day, even though they worked at opposite ends of the city.

At first, this comforted Susan and fulfilled Mark's need to protect his sightless wife who was so insecure about performing the slightest task. Soon, however, Mark realized that this arrangement wasn't working, it was hectic and costly.

'Susan is going to have to start taking the bus again' he admitted to himself, but just the thought of mentioning it to her made him cringe, she was still so fragile and so angry. 'How would she react?' he admitted to himself again.
Just as Mark predicted, Susan was horrified at the idea of taking the bus again. "I'm blind!" she responded bitterly "How am I supposed to know where I'm going? I feel like you're abandoning me".

Mark's heart broke to hear these words, but he knew what had to be done. He promised Susan that each morning and evening he would ride the bus with her, for as long as it took, until she got the hang of it. And that is exactly what happened.

For two solid weeks, Mark, military uniform and all, accompanied Susan to and from work each day. He taught her how to rely on her other senses specifically her hearing, how to determine where she was and how to adapt to her new environment.

He helped her befriend the bus drivers who could watch out for her, and save her a seat. He made her laugh, even on those not-so-good days when she would trip exiting the bus, or drop her briefcase. Each morning they made the journey together, and Mark would take a cab back to his office.

Although this routine was even more costly and exhausting than the previous one, Mark knew it was only a matter of time before Susan would be able to ride the bus on her own. He believed in her, he used to know before she'd lost her sight, who wasn't afraid of any challenge and who would never, ever quit.

Finally, Susan decided that she was ready to try the trip on her own. Monday morning arrived, and before she left, she threw her arms around Mark, her temporary bus riding companion, her husband and her best friend. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude for his loyalty, his sincerity, his patience and his love. She said good-bye, and for the first time, they went their separate ways. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, each day on her own went perfectly, and Susan had never felt better. She was doing it and she was going to work all by herself.


On Friday morning, Susan took the bus to work as usual. As she was paying for her fare to exit the bus, the driver said "Boy, I sure envy you" Susan wasn't sure if the driver was speaking to her or not. After all, who on earth would ever envy a blind woman who had struggled just to find the courage to live for the past year?.

Curiously, she asked him "Why do you say that you envy me?" The driver responded "It must feel so good to be taken care of and protected like you are". Susan had no idea what the driver was talking about, she asked him again "What do you mean?" .

The driver answered, "You know, every morning for the past week, a fine looking gentleman in a military uniform has been standing across the corner watching you when you get off the bus. He makes sure you cross the street safely and he watches you until you enter your office building. Then he blows you a kiss, gives you a little salute and walks away. You are one lucky lady" .

Tears of happiness poured down Susan's cheeks. For although she couldn't physically see him, she had always felt Mark's presence. She was fortunate, so fortunate, for he had given her a gift more powerful than sight, a gift she didn't need to see to believe, the gift of love that can bring light where there had been darkness. You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, but she is beautiful because you love her.
God watches over us in just the same way. We may not know His presence, and we may not be able to see His blessed face, but He is there nonetheless!.

GIVE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU...

Spiritualize the LIFE

Today's life is so, that everyone feels to be very busy in this hectic day to day life. We all are very busy at our work place & in our home life also. In this busy life, we face lot of tensions & our mind is full of stress all the time. We forget about the true happiness in life & how it can be attained. For us earning lot's of money in life & enjoying it, is the mantra that can give us happiness in life. In our life we either run after money or we try to make our near & dear one's happy in life. Money & material things may give us joy at present but when these material things are not in our life, due to one reason or the other, much pain comes in our life. Same is the case with human relations. Till the time these relations are with you, they may give you joy for the time being. But in the absence of these relations our mind feels pain & sorrow.

We all know that we have come to this world alone & shall leave this world alone only. Whatever things we acquire or whatever relations we make on this world stage is only in between your birth & death. Some day, these things or relations shall leave you within this lifetime or ultimately you have to leave all these in the end. Any infatuation to material things or relations is going to give you pain only, whenever, separation shall occur from these one day. All material things & human relations are imperfect & any imperfect thing cannot give PERFECT love or joy to you. Unless you find a perfect & permanent thing in life, you shall not be able to find perfect love in life.

So, What is the real truth of life? It is to evolve and manifest the Spiritual principles within ourselves. We need to search the truth, the truth about ourself, our soul, which is a part of that Super Soul called God. We need to seek God who is the Divinity concealed behind different forms of life. We need to see the external world as God. We need to see & worship the sacred, Divine Presence that sanctifies all places and all objects in this world. It is the Divine Spirit that pervades all places around us, we need to feel it's presence around us. We need to see the Lord of the Universe, the hidden God, who pervades His own creation, all around us. This is that we need to Spiritualize our life.

To Spiritualize our life, we need to fill our thoughts & sentiments, every single word and deed of ours with an attitude of intense reverence, devotion, and worshipfulness to that Divine Spirit called God who pervades all the space & is all around us. Let all of our life be pervaded by that Spiritual emotion. Let's live in the awareness of that Divinity all around us. Behold light of God shining all around us & everywhere. Divine Being looks at you through all eyes. Let's feel this truth that all life is spiritual. So Let's endeavour to spiritualize our life. This is the key to devotion & blessedness.

As per Bhagwat Gita:

"ye tu dharmamritam idam
yathoktam paryupasate
sraddadhana mat-parama
bhaktas te ’tiva me priyah" (Bhagwat Gita: Chapter Twelve verse 20)

"Sri Krishna said to Arjuna: O Arjuna, Those who follow this imperishable path of spiritual & devotional service and who completely engage themselves with faith, making Me the supreme goal, are very, very dear to Me."

Bhagwat Gita also teaches us that "we should know ourself to be that immortal soul". Once you are able to do that then we shall feel our SELF to be part & parcel of that Universal Self (GOD) who is infinite love & is pervading all around us. We are a spark of that Universal Soul, who is the source of infinite love. Once we are able to know that, our life too shall be full of love & blessedness.

The King WIth Four Wives

"A Story Of Four Wives" Once upon a time...there was a rich King who had four wives. He loved the fourth wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest of delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best. He also loved the third wife very much, and he was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another. He also loved his second wife. She was his confidante and was always kind, considerate, and patient with him.


     Whenever the King faced a problem, he could confide in her to help him get through the difficult times. The King's first wife was a very loyal partner and had made greatcontributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her. One day, the King fell ill, and he knew his time was short.He thought of his luxurious life and pondered, "I now have four wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone. Thus, he asked the fourth wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing, and showered great care over you.
  Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "Absolutely not!" replied the fourth wife, and she walked away without another word. Her answer cut like a sharp knife right into his heart. The sad King then asked the third wife, "I have loved you all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No," replied the third wife. "Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to remarry!" His heart sank and turned cold.
 
He then asked the second wife, "I have always turned to you for help, and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time," replied the second wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." Her answer came like a bolt of thunder, and the King was devastated. Then a voice called out. "I'll leave with you and follow you no matter where you go."
   The King looked up, and there was his first wife. She was so sad and thin, she looked half-starved. Greatly grieved, the King said, "I should have taken much better care of you when I had the chance!" In truth, we all have four wives in our lives: Our fourth wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.
    Our third wife is our possessions, status, and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others. Our second wife is our family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave. And our first wife is our soul, often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power, and pleasures of the ego. However, our soul is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go. So cultivate, strengthen, and cherish it now! It IS your greatest gift to offer the world.

The Safe

Once upon a time, a greedy, rich man hired a great mathematician. The rich man wanted the mathematician to find the best way for him to make the greatest profit in everything he did. The rich man was building a huge safe, and his greatest dream was to fill it with gold and jewels.

The mathematician was shut away for months in his study, before finally believing he had found the solution. But he soon found there were some errors in his calculations, and he started all over again.

One night he appeared at the rich man's house, with a big smile on his face: "I found it!" he said, "My calculations are perfect." The rich man was going on a long journey the next day, and didn't have time to listen. He promised the mathematician he would pay him double his wages if he would take charge of the business while he was away, and put the new formulas into practice. Excited by his new discovery, the mathematician was delighted to accept.

When the rich man returned, months later, he found that all of his possessions had gone. Furious, he went to ask for an explanation from the mathematician. The mathematician calmly told him what he had done. He had given everything away to people. The rich man couldn't believe it, but the mathematician explained it further.

"For months I analyzed how a rich man could gain the maximum benefit, but what I could do was always limited. There's a limit to how much one man can do by himself. Then I understood the key was that many people could help us to achieve the aim. So the conclusion was that helping others was the best way to get more and more people to benefit us."

Disappointed and furious, the greedy man stormed off, desperate at having lost everything to the hare-brained schemes of a madman. However, while he was walking away disconsolately, several neighbors ran over, worried about him. All of them had been helped when the mathematician shared out the rich man's fortune. They felt so grateful to him that they offered him the hospitality of their houses, and anything such a special man might need. The neighbors even argued over who would get to help him.

Over the next few days, he saw the full results of what the mathematician had calculated. Wherever he went he was received with great honor, and everyone was willing to help him in whatever way they could. He realized that his not having anything had given him much, much more.

In this way, he managed to quickly set up flourishing businesses, but this time he followed the brilliant mathematician's advice. No longer did he keep his riches in a safe, or anything like it. Instead, he shared out his fortune among a hundred friends, whose hearts he had converted into the safest, most grateful and fruitful of safes.

Moral of the story

Everything we give to others will, sooner or later, return to us, whether or not it be in a form we expected

The Bricks Of Life

About ten years ago, a young and very successful executive named Josh was traveling down a Chicago neighborhood street.

He was going a bit too fast in his sleek, black, 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE, which was only two months old. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no child darted out, but a brick sailed out and -- WHUMP! -- it smashed into the Jag's shiny black side door! SCREECH...!!!! Brakes slammed! Gears ground into reverse, and tires madly spun the Jaguar back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown.

Josh jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car. He shouted at the kid, "What was that all about and who are you Just what the heck are you doing!" Building up a head of steam, he went on. "That's my new Jag, that brick you threw is gonna cost you a lot of money. Why did you throw it."

"Please, mister, please... I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do! pleaded the youngster. I threw the brick because no one else would stop!"

Tears were dripping down the boy's chin as he pointed around the parked car. "It's my brother, Mister", he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asked the executive, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the young executive tried desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat.

Straining, he lifted the young man back into the wheelchair and took out his handkerchief and wiped the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything was going to be OK. He then watched the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home. It was a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12-cylinder Jaguar XKE - a long and slow walk.

Josh never did fix the side door of his Jaguar. He kept the dent to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at him to get his attention.

What a great story!

At times in our lives, we tend to become so wrapped up in other things. We become focused on ourselves or our job we do not realize there are others around us that need our help.

We can react in a negative way to a situation without fully realizing or taking the time to look at the other persons situation, or to take the time to find out the reason the other person has taken the action that they did.