Mind At Ease

One day, a teacher was walking from one town to another with a few of his students. While they were traveling, they happened to pass by a lake. They stopped to rest there and the teacher asked one of his students to get him some water from the lake. A student walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed some people were washing clothes in the water and right at that moment, a horse and cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy. The student thought, ““How can I give this muddy water to my teacher to drink!”” So he came back and told his teacher, “The water in the lake is very muddy. I don’’t think it is suitable for you to drink.”” After a while, the teacher again asked the same student to go back to the lake and get him some water. The student obediently went back to the lake. This time he found that the mud had settled down and the water was clean so he collected some in a pot and brought it to his teacher. The teacher looked at the water then looked up at the student and said, ““See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be and the mud settled down on its own. It is also the same with your mind. When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time and it will settle down on its own.”

My Reflection:

How many times have you been overwhelmed by things in your life and react in a way you wish you never? The pace of our modern world tends to put our minds in a chaotic state. Sometimes it's easy to escape the ‘madness’ and other times it can be really difficult. How many times have you let your mind go wild, thinking about to-do-lists, what's happening later in the day, tomorrow’s events, reliving an experience which frustrated you the day before, panicking about work…. a tornado is brewing in your mind and you're getting real anxious because you can’t find the off button to the chaos in your mind. The truth is that you don’t need to turn off your mind, you never will be able to, but you can stop listening to the ‘noise’, stop allowing those thoughts orchestrate your feeling towards life and allow your mind to settle. Be patient with yourself. The quicker you can identify the noise in your mind, you will be able to settle it and bounce back to a state of peace. A peaceful mind is essential for our effectiveness in every day life. It keeps us calm no matter what the situation is. As the above story illustrates… when your mind is disturbed, it’s like mud in water, let it settle down and it will become pure once again.


Have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there". - George Harrison

Deliver The Goods

By Elbert Hubbard

Author Elbert Hubbard told the story of an incident during the Spanish-American War. It was imperative that the president got a message to the leader of the insurgents. His name was Garcia and he was known to be fighting somewhere in the mountains of Cuba, but no mail or telegraph could reach him. Someone said, "There's a fellow by the name of Rowan who will find Garcia for you if anybody can." Rowan took the letter without hesitation. He sealed it in a leather pouch strapped over his chest. He landed in the dark of night off the coast of Cuba and made his way to the mountains, after much difficulty, found Garcia. He handed him the letter, turned around and headed home. Hubbard tells this story in "A Letter to Garcia." Rowan didn't ask, "Exactly where is he?" or "I doubt if I can do it." There was a job to be done and he did it.

My Reflection:

Sometimes we are guilty of automatically looking for excuses to get out of a little hard work or to relieve ourselves of responsibility. A little too often we rationalise why we can’t do certain things, making excuses to prevent ourselves from achieving greatness… Unfortunately this is the first step in personal sabotage. Get over your “excuse making” self, no one enjoys listening to an excuse maker! It’s time to seize each opportunity that is presented to you and immerse yourself fully. Forget the why and how... just do it! Making excuses will only hinder your own personal progress. If you want results you will have to work hard, that is the only way you will get ahead of the crowd. Instead of making a hundred and one excuses why you can't complete a task or you can’t take on a project, think about our hero Rowan and deliver the goods!


Have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” – Benjamin Franklin

Be Like Water

By Bruce Lee

“Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way around or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

My Reflection:

Water doesn’t stop at obstacles, it works its way around them. Flowing water always finds the path of least resistance and follows it without effort or hesitation. If there is the slightest gap or weakness, water will find its way through and keep flowing. We can apply this principle to our own lives… when faced with obstacles in your life be like water, find ways around it, don’t be rigid and focused on one aspect. Be open to new ideas and work your way around it. Sadly when we sometimes face life’s hurdles, we fight back or completely walk away quitting far too early. If an object is dropped into the water it doesn’t fight back, it just moves out of the way and swallows it up. So to, you should adopt the formless energy of water and swallow up life’s challenges with little resistance.

Have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"Notice that the stiffest tree is most easily cracked, while the bamboo or willow survives by bending with the wind." - Bruce Lee

The Bumblebee

According to scientists, the bumblebee's body is too heavy and its wing span too small. Aerodynamically, the bumblebee cannot fly. But the bumblebee doesn't know that and but it keeps flying anyway.

Reflection

Sometimes we are so quick in life to throw our hands up in the air and say “I can’t do this” or “I don’t have the intelligence, strength or capacity to do that”… The truth is you CAN. Unlike the bumblebee we tend to let the world convince us that we can’t do certain things. If you don’t know your limitations you will never become successful, so what if you sometimes you fail… that’s just the beginning of the journey. I can assure you that if you go out there and forget about the “I can’t”, you will really surprise yourself. The only limitations you have are the ones that are self-imposed! No person can succeed in this world if they stay in their comfort zone… imagine the bumblebee believed in the science of aerodynamics he would never take flight… Believe in yourself, listen to your heart, accept no one else’s definition of your own life and you too will all soar like our friend, the bumblebee.

Have an awesome week!
Darren Zwiers

"There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee