Blogging

TESTAMENT TO THE TRUTH

Where has writing a daily blog in 2015 got me? I can't say I've accrued any additional wealth on a financial standing BUT, I have gained a wealth of information about myself and what I need to focus on next year in order to get somewhere in life.

Taking pen to paper or the virtual pen to the screen via a blog, has arguably been the best thing I've done to date. I've had a lot of fun times and I'm fortunate to say there's been a good deal of love, success and happiness over the years. However, we can all get a bit lost or caught up in the day to day dealings in life and suddenly start to question where we are heading? What's our purpose/our calling, and is there even any purpose to it all??? I guess some would call it a mid-life episode, but really, apart from letting go of the frivolities of youth, why do we have to change our ways anyway? Can't we carry on living and appreciating the life we have?

I believe we get too autonomous as we get older - too stuck in our ways. Some of the things we are doing are not good for our health or spiritual development - and if we allow them to go on, we could reach a point of despair later on down the road. This is where taking the time to write down our thoughts and learnings comes in to play. We can monitor just where the time is being spent and work out how best to make the most of the limited time that we have remaining.

All we have to do is to sit down on our own in the mornings and dedicate 20 minutes or so to write out our thoughts. Better still, use the Blogger iPhone app and add to the blog as you go about your day.

10 Day Countdown
It seems hard to believe that I'm just 10 days away from my yearly goal of writing consecutively for 365 days. I couldn't have foreseen this day or even believed it would have been possible, but here I am. It's a real testament to the fact that we just have to take small steps and believe in what we are doing. It's going to be a real eye opener looking back at what my thoughts have been and I very much look forward to the 1st day in January where I'll make my pledges for continuing my quest throughout 2016. 

Further Along The Path

BASE CAMP

I'm reminded today of a friend who fondly recounted the story about one of her greatest achievements - trekking to Everest base camp. Base Camp is located in Nepal at an altitude of 5,364m (17,598 ft) and it is where the main ascent to the top of Everest by the mountaineers and sherpas is commenced, all aiming for the glory of being in a select group of those who have reached the top. Base camp is a couple of thousand meters higher than the highest ski-resort in Europe. It's got significantly lower levels of oxygen in the air which inhibits our ability to function well.

At high altitude, the exertion required to take just a few steps, can mean you have to stop every few minutes to catch your breath. My friend was getting just a few steps at a time and having to stop. Some people have complications breathing at altitude and it can be life threatening to continue - so, when breathing became difficult, she was worried that after three long weeks of trekking to get to base camp, she'd have to stop a few hundred meters from reaching her final destination.

Porter Steps
It was not looking good. The group was getting held up and there were concerns about the time, but then she remembered some advice she'd gotten from the sherpas about taking porter steps. These tiny movements forward, although a lot slower to make progress, required far lower levels of exertion and so she was able to keep going without having to stop so many times. Without these big gaps and keeping up a slow, steady pace she actually saved some time, caught up with the others in the group and safely made it to base camp without incident. 

Benchmarks For Success

Starting my yoga course today, I realise just how far I've come along in these last ten months. And apart from the first week and month benchmarks, I've not really had any more markers on my journey to measure progress over the last half of the year.

Today I was shown a marker of my success this year so far. I could clearly see how well I've advanced along this chosen path - how open and aware of my actions, other people's motives, intentions and actions I am and also how I'm being influenced and what I'm being influenced with. I've taken a lot more control over my life by committing to this daily blog.

There's been motivation for learning something new every day, with regular affirmations appearing - that reinforce to me that I'm doing the right thing. Important, rational decisions are constantly being made.

I now set aside my times for fun and times for work plus try to made sure I do not have too much of either without compromising or affecting health and wellbeing. I'm tapping into new positive energy sources and as a result, have been able to do more of the things I like doing without getting ill or feeling guilty for doing any of them. Consciously I have been able to influence positive outcomes and I can regularly witness with my own eyes when these good things fall into place for me - and whenever I need them.

All of these new ideas have been learned, honed and utilised for giving me the power to make a better life path for myself. And all these small incremental steps have already gotten me a long way up the mountain - far higher than I even expected. I realised this fact today after I talked with the yoga gurus about mindfulness, awareness and being at one. I have been giving a lot of time to this level of understanding already, so I feel further along the path of enlightenment and closer to the person I aim to be when reach the top.