Something to make you think!

Here is a poem I wrote a couple of years ago and one of my pictures. This picture is called Trust and will hopefully stir up some emotions from deep within. We need to trust in ourselves and not go into denial - this poem and picture are reminders of just that. The poem is called:

No more denial.


Don’t deny how you feel
Don’t deny what you see
Open your heart and you can always be free

The world all around you
Is waiting for a chance
To see you express what
Others see at a glance

Deep within you
If you are true to yourself
Is a desire to be loved
As you know you deserve

Why deny all the love
That is waiting to shine
Through your heart to be
Met here in mine

Think not of the past
Or what might be
Live for today
Take a chance, be free

To feel, to express all
Emotions, desires
Is to be honest and not deny
All that your soul requires

Jenu
Copyright
Jenu Soul Energy Artwork 2007-8
All rights reserved

A lifelong romance!

'To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance',
a brilliant and often quoted remark from Oscar Wilde.

The majority of us are under the illusion that we are not good enough, unlovable, not worthy of love and the list goes on...... Why? Most of the time it is due to our upbringing and the information we have gathered over time that we take on board as part of ourselves. Why is it that out of one hundred remarks where 88% are good, do we always remember all of the 12% negative remarks and cannot even remember the good ones?

Until we change how we feel about ourselves we will remain in the position we are in at the moment. If we think that we are worthless and unlovable we will attract just that into our lives. If we are fearful and insecure then we hide away from life and miss out on all of the wonderful opportunities that life has to offer.

So as from today I want each and everyone of you to change the way you think about yourself!!

To love yourself is not selfish it is imperative. At the end of the day you have to live with you for the rest of your life so make yourself someone you love living with and others will also feel this too. Do you want to spend your life with a misery or someone who sees the good in all?? Ok so from now on love yourself, be kind to yourself, look after yourself, your body, your mind and your spirit. Accept yourself, faults and all, for who you are and love that with all your heart. Say to yourself continually during the day - I love and accept myself for who I am unconditionally - the more you say it the more you will believe it and eventually what seems quite alien now will be a part of you and very natural in no time at all. Say it loud in front of the mirror, in your head while on the bus, train or wherever, just say it and say it over and over again.

Try this for the next week and notice the changes, subtle and succinct, that take place in you and how you feel about life, as the week continues.

Get back to me and let me know.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO IMPROVE YOUR SELF?

Having looked at self improvement and success, unlocking your self improvement and how a positive attitude can change your life, I have not yet explained exactly why it is important to improve your self.

Sometimes, when we are totally wrapped up in all our doubts, fears and insecurities, we more often than not, come up with the thought “I wish I was somebody else.” We truly believe that most people are better than us- when in reality most people are thinking the same about us.

When you spot an incredible eye-catching girl sitting by herself at a party, casually sipping on a glass of Asti Spumanti how often do you think to yourself, “she looks so perfectly calm and confident.” But if you could see into her mind, you would see dark clouds of thoughts and you would be more than amazed to find out that she’s thinking “are people talking about why I am seated here alone?... Why don’t guys find me attractive? …I don’t like my ankles, they look too skinny… I wish I was as intelligent as my best friend.”

What about a young business entrepreneur, would you say “Wooh… what else could he ask for?” as eh stares at himself in the mirror and murmurs to himself, “I hate my big eyes… I wonder why my friends won’t talk to me… I hope mom and dad can still work things out.”

Isn’t it funny? We look at other people, envy them, for looking or being so outrageously perfect, and wish we could trade places with them, while they look at us and think the same thing. We are insecure when we see others we consider successful, beautiful or clever and strangely enough those people are thinking the same about us.

The majority of people suffer in one way or another with low self-esteem or a lack of self-confidence and therefore often lose hope in self improvement because they find themselves enveloped in quiet desperation and cannot see their way through.

One of Whitney Houston’s songs says “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” True enough. In order to love others, you must love yourself too. Remember, you cannot give others what you do not have.

Before telling other people how they can improve themselves, let them see that you are a representation and a product of self improvement. Self improvement makes us better people, we then inspire other people, and then the rest of the world will follow.

Stop thinking of yourself as a second-rate being. Forget the repetitive thought of “If only I was richer… if only I was thinner” and so on. Accepting your true self is the first step to self improvement. We need to stop comparing ourselves to others only to find out at the end that we’ve got 10 more reasons to envy them.

We all have our insecurities. Nobody is perfect. We always wish we had better things, better features, better body parts, etc. But life does not need to be perfect for people to be happy about themselves. Self improvement and loving yourself is not a matter of shouting to the whole world that you are perfect and you are the best. It’s the virtue of acceptance and contentment. When we begin to improve ourselves, we then begin to feel contented and happy.

Self improvement is important because it opens us up to a world of opportunities that you would not have had the courage to do before self improvement. It expands your way of thinking and accepting people for who they are. You will attract more like minded people into your life once you change your way of thinking and seeing your world. Learning to love yourself is one of the hardest lessons of all but one of the most important. You cannot truly love another unconditionally until you accept yourself unconditionally. Accept the way you look, your quirky ways, your very being and enjoy being the person you are today. Then look forward to the person you want to be and enjoy the journey.

Genuine Happiness Comes from Within

Having looked at how we see the world and also the difference a positive attitude can make it is now time to look at where the real problem lies and believe me this is the hard part.

Life isn’t the sweetest candy. Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find people who continued to live fascinating and wonderful lives and then thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere –

“How did their life become so adorably sweet?
How come they still can manage to laugh and play around despite a busy stressful life?” Then I pause and think for awhile… How many times, and how many people, over the years have told me that I have to start with ‘self’. Perhaps that was where these people had started to work and I decided then and there to do the same.

So, how does one become genuinely happy?

Step 1 is to love yourself.

A very wise teacher once said to me that "loving means accepting. To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lie a great deal of courage to be able to discover ways on how to improve our repertoire and to recover from our mistakes. "

Genuine happiness also pertains to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the question “how to be genuinely happy.”

I believe that life is about finding out about right and wrong, trying and failing, winning and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. So can we be genuinely happy in spite all these? Of course, and it is often in the little simple pleasures that we find the greatest happiness, such as every time you exert effort to improve the quality of your life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your beautiful pets or playing with your children. How do you feel after these simple and pleasurable activities?

Genuine happiness isn’t about driving the hottest Formula 1 car, nor getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest 13th month pay, or beating the sales quota. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life don’t go to the fastest, the strongest, the bravest or the best. So, how do you become genuinely happy? Every one has his own definition of ‘happiness’. Happiness for a writer may mean launching as much best selling books as possible. Happiness for a basketball rookie may mean getting the rookie of the year award. Happiness for a beggar may mean a lot of money. Happiness for a business man may mean success. So, really now, how do we become genuinely happy? Simple. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. Its about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistake and telling your self “Oh, I’ll do better next time”, you carry with you a flame of strong will power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try – that will make you a genuinely happy person.

When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults unconditionally you can become genuinely happy”. Once you accept and love yourself for who you are you will radiate a happiness for all to see. It is important to realize that the only way to truly accept and love others unconditionally, for who they are, is to first accept and love yourself, for who you are.

The biggest and most beautiful thing in the world is love and the only way to love is unconditionally, accepting people for who they are. Love them for their quirky traits, their awful habits, their wonderful smile, their infectious laughter, every single part of each individual person is perfectly in harmony with this universe in which we live. That includes you. Without you, something is missing, just like a piece from a jigsaw, without which the final picture is not complete. So this universe without you is incomplete - that is how important and loved you are.

Look at yourself in the mirror – look deep into your eyes at the being within and feel the love rise from the depths of your soul – feel the love and be genuinely happy - self love is the key to love and genuine happiness.