Wisdom of Long-Lived People

Here are the excerpts from brilliant book by Deepak Chopra, M.D., Ageless Body, Timeless Mind.

“This conclusion came after studying long-lived people from many diverse cultures and periods of history. Active mastery means having autonomy over one’s life and circumstances, not power over others.  Beyond any body of evidence about aging and how to prevent it, the single most important factor is that you make something creative from your existence.”

Ten Keys to Active Mastery:

1. Listen to your body’s wisdom, which expresses itself through signals of comfort and discomfort.  When choosing a certain behavior, ask your body, “How do you feel about this?” If your body sends a signal of physical or emotional distress, watch out.  If your body sends a signal of comfort and eagerness, proceed.

2. Live in the present, for it is the only moment you have.  Keep your attention on what is here and now; look for the fullness in every moment.  Accept what comes to you totally and completely so that you can appreciate it, learn from it, and then let it go.  The present is as it should be.  It reflects infinite laws of Nature that have brought you this exact thought, this exact physical response.  This moment is as it is because the universe is as it is.  Don’t struggle against the infinite scheme of things; instead, be at one with it.

3. Take time to be silent, to meditate, to quiet the internal dialogue.  In moments of silence, realize that you are recontacting your source of pure awareness.  Pay attention to your inner life so that you can be guided by intuition rather than externally imposed interpretations of what is or isn’t good for you.

4.  Relinquish your need for external approval.  You alone are the judge of your worth, and your goal is to discover infinite worth in yourself, no matter what anyone else thinks.  There is great freedom in this realization.

5. When you find yourself reacting with anger or opposition to any person or circumstance, realize that you are only struggling with yourself.  Putting up resistance is the response of defenses created by old hurts.  When you relinquish this anger, you will be healing yourself and cooperating with the flow of the universe.

6. Know that the world “out there” reflects your reality “in here.” The people you react to most strongly, whether with love or hate, are projections of your inner world.  What you most hate is what you most deny in yourself.  What you most love is what you most wish for in yourself.  Use the mirror of relationships to guide your evolution.  The goal is total self-knowledge.  When you achieve that, what you most want will automatically be there, and what you most dislike will disappear.

7.  Shed the burden of judgment – you will feel much lighter.  Judgment imposes right and wrong on situations that just are.  Everything can be understood and forgiven, but when you judge, you cut off understanding and shut down the process of learning to love.  In judging others, you reflect your lack of self-acceptance.  Remember that every person you forgive adds to your self-love.

8. Don’t contaminate your body with toxins, either through food, drink, or toxic emotions.  Your body is more than a life-support system.  It is the vehicle that will carry you on the journey of your evolution.  The health of every cell directly contributes to your state of well-being, because every cell is a point of awareness within the field of awareness that is you.

9. Replace fear-motivated behavior with love-motivated behavior.  Fear is the product of memory, which dwells in the past.  Remembering what hurt us before, we direct our energies toward making certain that an old hurt will not repeat itself.  But trying to impose the past on the present will never wipe out the threat of being hurt.  That happens only when you find the security of your own being, which is love.  Motivated by the truth inside you, you can face any threat because your inner strength is invulnerable to fear.

10. Understand that the physical world is just a mirror of a deeper intelligence.  Intelligence is the invisible organizer of all matter and energy, and since a portion of this intelligence resides in you, you share in the organizing power of the cosmos.  Because you are inseparably linked to everything, you cannot afford to foul the planet’s air and water.  But at a deeper level, you cannot afford to live with a toxic mind, because every thought makes an impression on the whole field of intelligence.  Living in balance and purity is the highest good for you and the Earth.

This is 4th book I read by Deepak Chopra.  Interestingly, when I read his thoughts, I catch myself thinking mostly the same.  I get pleasantly surprised when I find some of his expressions are exact like mine, as if we speak the same language.

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Camouflage

I did it.  My friends did it.  Lots of women still do it.  Men do it, too.  All creatures, animals and birds do it all the time.  They camouflage themselves in their environment.  They hide to escape predators; they hide to save their lives.  A lizard’s skin tone suddenly resembles rustic fallen leaves on the ground.  Squirrel’s fur color is exact like palm tree’s or any tree’s bark.  Robin lifts up his head resembling a tree leaf.  Insects become the same color as surface they land on.  It’s a trick of survival, matter of life and death situation.

Now you probably asking, “What animals and we have in common?” We don’t need to hide from predators.  This does not make sense.  Or does it?

Looking deeply in ourselves, we’ll find we do camouflage.  The only difference among animals and us is that camouflage saves and protects animals, but it has an adverse reaction to us.  To some degree or another, we all have “a fit in” disease, and could be detrimental to our self-image, self-identity and even our health.

All of us probably heard or said to others “Oh, I like your outfit.  Where did you get it?”  Let’s admit it, we like to wear the same or similar clothes as others wear.  Even fashion magazines compare the real designer clothes to bargain look-a-likes, that anyone can “afford.”  By “fitting-in,” we camouflage our individuality, our individual tastes.  We blend in with others, by avoiding to be different.  We wear the similar hairstyles, similar jewelry, similar shoes.  We even “copy” movie stars.  Our justification is that now we look like famous people, or perhaps even better.

Don’t get me wrong, though.  Some of us try really hard to be different, but our society is set up this way that we look at those people who are different as outcasts, odd, strange and eccentrics.  Why can’t we accept them as normal human beings celebrating their differences and individuality?  They just try to express themselves of who they are and not what society wants them to be.  Better yet, why can’t we express unique ourselves in our clothes, our style full-heartedly and would not be judged and not judge others who do the same?  Why can’t we just celebrate our differences?

Secondly, beauty is everything for many of us.  We do everything we can to stay thin, young and beautiful.  Some of us go to the extremes to have plastic surgery, to go under the knife, just to become a beauty from outside.  That’s a form of extreme, another form of camouflage.  We want to fit-in a beautiful world around us, among beautiful friends in a beautiful society where media plays a huge role in changing “ugly ducklings” to beautiful swans, or showing never-aging actors and actresses.  Whatever happened to beauty from inside?  Whatever happened to intelligence and creativity and resourcefulness  as great qualities? Whatever happened for giving respect to older people who proudly are showing their age and wisdom?  It seems that all of this is forgotten.  All forgotten of what is important.  Outside beauty, no matter what way is achieved, no matter how many times going under the knife is all that matters.  To me, that’s a camouflage under the mask.  Shockingly enough, still physically not developed teens go under the knife to get breast implants.  Everything is just for an image, so they would fit in among beautiful people.  All of this fake beautification is just a mask.  What people do not realize is that no matter if person is the most beautiful from outside, if he or she does not have a high self-esteem, no boob job or face lifts will be good enough.  They’ll feel horrible anyway.  The first thing what they need fixing is their self-esteem.  If they are proud of who they are, they’ll not need plastic surgery to make them fake beauties.  Here is an idea for the media: how about a show portraying how people can be beautiful from inside.  There are many everyday heroes doing great deeds.  They don’t need to hide under fake masks.  They are beautiful all around.  It’s what inside that matters, and no makeover will change that.  Then maybe our children will learn more valuable lessons in life.

The third camouflage is not that noticeable, but it is as destructible.  Many of us don’t even know or notice it until it is too late, and we get easily lost.  We camouflage ourselves among family, at our work, at our endless the same over and over again schedule, earning that dollar to pay the bills.  We get easily stuck in the same routine over and over again.  We become what everyone expects us to be: a great wife, great husband, a breadwinner, excellent employee or manager, great mother, great father…  We start to become people-pleasers at no matter what price.  We take care of all of the world, and become what world expects us to become, but we never truly find the time to take care of ourselves.  We get so involved in the same routine over and over again.  Days, months, years go by very quickly, and we lose ourselves in every day life.  We lose ourselves.  Period.  Then, if we’re lucky enough, we wake up one day.  Many of us are not that lucky.  But if we are, we start asking ourselves, “Who am I? What do I like? What I’m here to do? I did everything for everybody, how about me?  What do I want in life?  What do I want to accomplish for myself?” We hit identity crisis.  When our children grow up and move out, or if marriage did not work or spouse died, many of us start to feel empty.  We gave all to others, and nothing is left for us.  Some of us hit the bottom and get depressed.  But some of us are lucky to still have time to re-discover ourselves.

Life is too short to be unhappy.  So let’s be happy for who we are.  Let’s wear clothes and hairstyles that express our individuality and makes us comfortable.  It’s OK to be different.  Let’s not follow the crowd.  Let’s be proud of who we are, not hide behind fake masks of plastic surgery.  Let’s be proud of our gray hair and wrinkles that show our wisdom acquired by age.  Let’s find the time for ourselves to do what we want to do in our lives, and learn and accomplish more, and be proud of who we are.  It is great to be imperfect.  Nature is imperfect.  That’s why it is so beautiful.  We do not need to hide from predators like animals do.  Therefore, let’s open ourselves like rose opens it’s bud and show the world who we truly are.  Let’s come out of camouflage.

For inspiration to be different and self-expressive, you can log into Dalia Koss Unique Jewelry where you’ll find stunning one-of-a-kind pieces that no one has.  You can express yourself with her art pieces in the most unique ways.    Shoerazzi.com brings you the best of the best in shoes, all in different styles.  Here you’ll see celebrities and people on the street wear them portraying their unique style.  living on impulse is all about life-style, adventures, living life you can only dream of, unless of course you decide to live it yourself.

Be yourself and inspire others to be themselves as well.  World is too boring when people want to be the same.

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