Neutral and grateful

Hello friends. I wanted to share with you a little insight I had today about how to help find happiness and peace in every now moment.

I was talking with a friend today about events that happen in our lives that we wish had not happened. Like someone getting ill, losing a job, someone dying, losing a wallet, having a car

accident or even just a small event, like burning your supper. There is nothing we can do to stop any of those things happening – they are all just part of the human experience.

On a wider scale, most people in the world are having to deal with the Covid pandemic and so it is a challenge for all of us. How do we cope with external events like this and still manage to find a sense of peace and okayness with life? In the UK we are probably going to be in a national lockdown again from midnight, with all schools closing, apart for the children of key workers.

It’s so easy to forget that any external event is just something that happens but it’s our judgements and more often our resistance to the event that causes us to suffer.

Being in resistance to ‘what is’, is painful.

When you hear yourself saying the words ‘should not’ or ‘should have’, then notice you are in resistance to ‘what is’.

In talking to my friend, I perceived then when he placed a judgement on an event and usually that judgement came from a place of fear and anger, then he was literally making himself miserable.

I therefore recommended that instead of telling himself a story about an event, try really hard to stay NEUTRAL. Not to see it as necessarily good or bad but just something that’s happening. Our minds/Ego Love to go rushing off into the future and making all sorts of dramatic statements of which probably none of them will ever come true.

When we start to believe these thoughts and turn them into beliefs, then the event becomes charged with emotions.

Some of you may know of the story of the farmer and there was a war, so his son was taken off to be a soldier. His neighbour said to him that’s ‘bad luck’, and he replied ‘who is to say’. Then the neighbour heard that the farmer’s son was injured and said that was ‘bad luck’, but again, the farmer said ‘who is to say’. Then the son was able to come home because of his injuries and help his father on the farm, so the neighbour says ‘oh that’s good luck’ and he replied ‘who is to say’…

The story goes on with the neighbour making all sorts of judgements about what was ‘good luck’ and ‘bad luck’ BUT the father managed to stay neutral for every event that was occurring in his life.

Sometimes what seems like the worst thing that could’ve happen, turns out to be the best thing that could’ve happened. Invariably the silver lining is always much shinier than the cloud.

And the other trick to staying in a grounded and peaceful place is to practice GRATITUDE on a daily, if not hourly basis!

I say thank you to the universe a number of times through the day for my life, my body, my house, my family, my friends, this beautiful planet, this amazing universe, this dimensional plane of existence, this consciousness that all things arise from and this amazing mystery that we are all a part of. Sometimes I list so many things, it takes me ages to say my gratitude prayer!

Being so grateful for what you already have, leaves little space and time for what you think you don’t have or what you think you need.

Do you really need anything else in life? As Rumi said ‘ Be suspicious of the things you want’.

I have found that combining GRAITUDE with the ability to stay NEUTRAL in relation to external events, helps to keep me sane, grounded, peaceful and happy. That and a daily meditation session.

You may be already doing this in which case this whole post is simply a reminder to myself!

I would love to hear any tips or methods you have to help you to stay grounded. We can all learn from each other.

As Ram Dass famously said, “we are all just walking each other home”.

Much love to you all.

Rob xxx