God must be an audience and other reflections

Hello dear reader,

Happy November!

I hope fall has been treating you well.

As for me, after spending more than a month at home during the puja holidays, I’m now back at my workplace, slowly settling into routine again.

I have been listening to my little inner voice and giving myself more alone time and time to just be by myself.

All the major festivities are over now, and I suppose we’re all quietly waiting for Christmas and the New Year.

October went by in a flash, but it brought with it many revelations for me.

Maybe because I had ample free time — time to think, to feel, and to come face to face with all that was lying suppressed within me.

I’m still healing, and I feel my self-discovery journey has only just begun.

Today, I simply want to share some thoughts that have been resting on my heart lately.

1. God must be an audience

It occurred to me a few days ago that maybe God must be an audience.

He seems to me now to be more of an audience, a quiet observer than a writer.

Perhaps He writes a few plot twists here and there, but what we do, how we respond, and the choices we make are all up to us.

He is both the writer and the audience of our lives- adding scenes, challenges, and moments, then sitting back (almost laughingly) to see how we respond and navigate life’s twists and turns.

Perhaps He watches to see what our principles are, how we live our lives, what lessons we’re learning, and how we’re evolving.

Are we living with integrity? Courage? Kindness?

Are we facing ourselves, coming in touch with our truest emotions and choosing the path that, though difficult, brings us closer to our soul?

Or are we acting cowardly, running away from pain and always choosing the easier path?

And if we don’t learn the first time, I believe He gives us the same learning experience again and again, until we finally understand.

• P.S Why I pray and how to pray
• On Ordinary things that aren’t ordinary at all

2. A temporary human experience

This life is a temporary human experience, so it’s better that we loosen our grip a little.

We’re all just guests here on Earth, and there’s nothing to be taken too seriously.

• Going through sickness? It’s a temporary human experience.

• Going through grief? It’s a temporary human experience.

• Going through failure? It’s a temporary human experience.

Feel what you have to feel, but know that you can’t skip life’s experiences.

They’re what make us human. They’re what remind us that we’re still alive.

And as long as we’re alive, anything is possible.

P.S Minimize Seriousness if you want to be happy

3. Don’t rush happiness

Sometimes I get so sad that it feels like nothing can lift me up.

I feel a deep, quiet melancholy as I try to make sense of things. And in that sadness, I feel no urge to escape it. I simply sit with it.

My friend once told me that maybe I am romanticising my sadness, but I don’t think that’s true.

I simply feel comfortable enough to stay in that sadness, just be with myself, and to listen to what it’s trying to say.

Also, I feel I know how to suffer well and take care of my emotions, no matter what they are.

I open my journal, put on some soothing instrumental music (currently loving Colou’s Trumpet Meditations), and write and write and write my heart out until I feel at peace.

It makes me realise how peace and melancholy, joy and grief, can coexist side by side.

At other times, I talk to my friends, go for a walk, clean my home, take a nap or simply be.

I don’t want to rush happiness. I think we often do more harm by trying too hard to be happy.

For now, I just want every emotion to move through me and let it pass in its own time.

What’s the hurry, really, to be happy anyway?

• P.S 10 Ways to start a journal entry
• Don’t seek happiness if you want to be happy. Seek these instead

4. You have no control over anything but yourself.

I think the secret to peace is to let go of control.

We often wonder why people did what they did- how they could be so mean, so inconsiderate, so hurtful.

But the truth is, we have no control over other people’s feelings or actions.

We only have control over ourselves- our choices, our responses, our way of living.

The way to peace is to let them.

Let them do what they want.
Let them choose what they want.
Let them say what they want.

You will then see exactly who they are as a person.

It is their life, and you have no control over it.

So be at peace by living and being in control of your own journey.

Your life journey is all that truly matters.

Making a wonderful life out of the life you’re given is your only responsibility.

5. Your relationship with yourself is the biggest relationship you will ever have.

Sometimes we lose ourselves. We forget to look after ourselves. Everyone and everything else takes priority, except us.

But the lesson for me this October was this:

• I must nurture my relationship with myself.
• I must never forget that this is my highest relationship.
• Listen to your heart’s cravings. Be in touch with yourself.
• Listen to the gentle nudge and whispers of your heart.
• Be true to who you are and what you feel.
• There’s no need to prove a point or explain yourself to anyone.
• Don’t overextend yourself or stretch yourself too thin.
• Don’t let your ego make decisions.
• Your happiness- the quiet one that lives deep within your soul is what matters most.
• Trust that all these trials in life are polishing your heart, for how else could it ever be polished?

We are born here to experience, to learn, and to evolve into who we are truly meant to be.

We’re all unfolding petal by petal.

So here’s to November- to slowing down, being more intentional, loosening our grip, and learning to live gently.

xx

P.S This was a part from my Mindful Monday Newsletter. To receive my newsletter directly to your inbox, subscribe below. It would be wonderful to have you ❤️

Journal Prompt of the Week

• What would happen if I stopped rushing my healing?
• What would my life look like if I trusted the unfolding completely?

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Blog Post of the Week

• One Tiny Habit that Changes Everything
• How to not feel lonely living alone

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Quote of the Week

One from Others

Inner peace is not always a pristine calmness, sometimes it is accepting the tension inside of you without reacting to it, literally feeling it without reinforcing it and then moving gently through your day.

— Yung Pueblo

One from me

Forgiveness is what makes love complete.

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This much for today!

I wish you a wonderful week ahead

Love and regards,

Vishaka

Past Newsletters you might like:

• Quiet Acts of Grace and the way things Inter-Are
• On Travelling and Things That Travel Beyond Us
• Notes from hills: On Change and impermanence
• On Cats, Gratitude and Neutral Things