Thursday, May 22, 2014

How to Transform Your Life in 24 Hours

What's happening to you?

Do you know why you are here, right now, breathing and thinking - living?

Does your life have purpose?


Many of us are surfing aimlessly through life on a wave that pushes us around, that tosses us here and there without our control. Sure, we do what we need to do to survive. But animals do that. There must be more to life than survival, than getting up each day to go to work, than grinding out the day until dinner, then doing it all again the next day. Is that life?

Here's the thing. Life is much bigger than survival.
Life is amazing, creative, immeasurably mysterious. Life is colorful, brilliant, and dazzling. Life is a sea of emotions, a mountain of possibilities. Life is enigmatic and challenging. Life is zestful, spontaneous and full of adventure.
This is life!

But how do we get out of the rut of survival to embrace something bigger, grander and more satisfying?

There is a way. A way that is tried and proven. A way that has been told to us in many languages throughout the ages by poets and gurus, by Messengers and thinkers of all stripes. This "divine wisdom" has many variations, but simply put it is this: "Know Thyself". That's it, you may wonder. That's the way to an incredible life. Indeed it is!

Have you ever driven a car?

Surely you have. You open the door and get in, start the engine, shift the gear into drive, and then gently release the brakes as you push the gas. Like magic, the car takes off. You drive away with ease. Now imagine if you didn't know what a car was. Imagine that your memory is wiped clean of any trace of knowledge about cars or machines of any kind. Imagine what would happen if you tried to drive a car then. First of all, you would have trouble trying to get in. If you figured out how to get in the car, you would be lost; hopelessly lost. No matter how fancy the car is - it could be a 2014 Lamborghini Veneno Roadster - it would be of no use to you. You would struggle to appreciate its worth and purpose.

Life is no different. If we do not understand who we are beyond our name and basic physiology, we are lost; hopelessly lost in our pursuit of living a purposeful life. So we must discover who we truly are. It's that simple and that complex.

You see, you are a phenomenon. You are a conscious being that can imagine anything. You can survey all sides of reality, weigh it in your infinite mind and choose from an ocean of possibilities. "Know thyself!" is an incredible injunction. I use the word "injunction" intentionally. We ignore this wisdom at our peril.

"But how can I know myself?", you may ask. Aha, we are getting somewhere. Questions are lovely things, because they often lead us to solutions. In the remainder of this post, I will share with you 10 effective ways to transform your life today. I could just as well describe these as 10 ways to know yourself. It doesn't matter. Knowing yourself is like unlocking the doors to the eternal Kingdom within. The "Kingdom of God is within you". Remember those words from the Bible? We can spend a lifetime searching on the outside, but inevitably every person who charts the stars to a purposeful life discovers that everything the heart desires is within.

So here goes. Get a pen and pad and write these down. You may want to share them with your friends and loved ones or to commit them to memory. In 24 hours, your life can be moving purposefully with ease, just like our imaginary car!

10 Things to do TODAY to Transform your life in 24 Hours

1. Be grateful - wherever you are, stop right now and pause for a few seconds. You are alive. Your heart is beating. You are breathing. You don't know how any of this is happening, but it's happening. Some mysterious force is keeping you alive, is sustaining you, and apparently wants you to be here. That's amazing! Don't take this for granted. Feel a deep sense of gratitude for your existence.

2. Remove every negative or doubtful thought from your mind - I don't care what your circumstances are right now. I can guarantee that no amount of doubt or negativity will help. So get rid of every negative thought. Throw them out! Say good-bye to them. They are like air pollution. In place of negative thoughts, think "I can", "I must", "I will", "It can be done", "I am good enough", "I am a divine creation,".....brand your brain permanently with the words "No negativity allowed."

3. Take three deep breaths - sounds simple, but there is a scientific reason this is so effective in energizing us. Every living thing needs oxygen to survive and thrive. And how do we get oxygen into our blood cells? We breathe. We are doing it all the time, but when we do it consciously, something amazing happens. We begin to sense our "aliveness". We literally feel the energy of life pulsing through our body.

4. Look at the sky for about 30 seconds (during the day). Do you remember how you felt when you looked at the clouds when you were a child? Was it not exquisite to see the light dancing off of the clouds, to watch the clouds shape-shift right before your eyes? Your imagination ran wild. The vastness of the heavens mesmerized you with its fathomless beauty.

5. Hug a loved one deeply. When was the last time you hugged your child, a spouse, a friend or anyone that you love so tightly and fully that time stood still? Believe it or not, sometimes all we need to feel hopeful and positive about life is a good, lasting hug!

6. Call up an old friend and reconnect - Most of us have a special friend that we have lost touch with. It may be a friend from high-school or university. When we think of this person, we cannot help but smile. This person touched us in ways we cannot describe. They were more than just a friend; they were a kindred soul who understood us implicitly, could feel our emotions and saw past our emotional walls. But somehow we lost touch with them. Maybe after college we got busy with work, with kids or with God knows what. Today, find out how to reach this person. Google their name. Search on facebook and twitter. If you are determined, you will find them. Call them up and give them the surprise of their life. This is a biggy! Try it!

7. Dance and sing in the shower - OK, I know some of you can't sing or dance to save your life (I can dance, but singing is not my forte), and I know this one is a little quirky. But there is something about dancing in the shower that relieves a lifetime of stress. Maybe it's the water or the sense of freedom we feel in the bathroom. I don't know. But believe me, a good dance in the shower does the trick!

8. Laugh when it is most unexpected to do so - I must qualify this a little. I do not mean to laugh at some other person's misfortune or to laugh when laughing would cause others to feel uncomfortable. That would be rude. But laughing at times when our minds try to get us to think negatively is a powerful way of asserting our commitment to think positively no matter what. When we do this habitually, the negative thoughts vanish. So today, laugh whenever something happens that would normally irritate you or cause you to feel angry. You will notice, almost immediately, that it is your thinking that determines your experience, not what is happening around you.

9. Smile inside - this is really neat. Most of us know how to put a smile on our face. But I am not talking about that. To smile inside is a much more metaphorical process. I really don't know what an "inner smile" looks like. But I know how it feels. It feels great. It's liberating and it's uplifting. Every so often throughout today pause and smile inside. This one thing has the power to transform your day!

10. Get a good night's sleep. Don't underestimate the power of sleep. During deep sleep, our heart rate, breathing and brain waves slow significantly; our muscles relax and our hormones are regulated. A survey conducted by the American Cancer Society concluded that people who sleep 6 hours or less per night, or who sleep 9 hours or more, had a death rate 30 percent higher than those who regularly slept 7 to 8 hours! And in scientific studies lab animals deprived of sleep die. So tonight, make sure you get at least 7 hours of restful sleep.

In 24 hours, with the incorporation of the 10 tips above, you could be looking at a new you in the mirror.

You may still look the same (oh, how we wish we could transform ourselves physically in 24 hours!), but something will be different. A process of transformation will be well underway. You will feel energized, hopeful, positive, and ready to live!

It is true that you may not be able to do all of the 10 tips in a 24 hour period (you may not be able to reach your long lost friend, for example), but most of the tips can be carried out in 24 hours. Do them. Try them and see what you experience. Your life on this earth is the only one you got, so live it to the fullest.

The 10 tips are simple, but mysteriously effective. Perhaps there is no mystery at all. After-all, if we think about it, all of the tips help us to cultivate a feeling of presence, a sense of aliveness and well-being that sharpens our focus, invigorates our passions and releases our positive energies into the fiber of our essence. Understood this way, we can see that these 10 tips are ways to help us to know ourselves. "Know thyself" just might be the most powerful, transformative revelation ever to light upon the mind of humankind.

About the Author: Deshon Fox is the author of The Middle Theory (www.themiddletheory.com), a sought after speaker, loving father and devoted husband. He is passionate about the mechanics of writing and enjoys motivating others to live their best life.

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