Let's close our eyes.
Sometimes closing your eyes is a good nudge for our minds to start settling down.
All throughout the day,
We are just stimulated until we fall asleep.
This is a good trigger,
A nudge to let our minds know there's nothing to run around now at least for the next 20-30 minutes.
Give yourself the permission to be happy.
My wife keeps saying this,
And I would like to expound on that a little bit.
I've heard her say this to her friends and my family members many times,
So I thought I would share a little about it and what it means and how is it relevant in all our lives.
There is no doubt that we all want to be happy,
But sometimes we don't want to be happy because somewhere deep down there is a skewed understanding that maybe being happy is selfish.
So we jeopardize our happiness,
We reject it,
We dismiss it,
Ignore it many times because we don't have the permission to be happy.
Of course,
I cannot give you that permission.
I can remind you that you can give it to yourself.
So give yourself the permission to be happy.
If it helps,
Talk to yourself in your mind.
Tell yourself you can be happy.
Tell yourself it's okay to be happy.
Today is a great day to be happy.
No matter what has happened in the past or no matter what will happen in the future,
I want to be happy.
I deserve to be happy.
If consciously or unconsciously I have created roadblocks for my own happiness,
Let me dissolve them.
Some of us like to bury ourselves in work,
In tasks.
Some of us like to be busy,
We are overachievers,
So we bury this need to be happy,
Deepest desire to be happy under some mundane tasks,
Taking care of our families,
Earning a livelihood,
Taking care of kids,
Managing people,
Managing work.
In this hustle-bustle,
Take a pause right now without being afraid,
Without hesitating.
Acknowledge this need that we all have to be happy and give yourself that permission.
If there is something like the higher power or the universe or nature or God,
Whatever we like to call it,
Let them hear you today.
Let them feel you today.
Let your subconscious and your unconscious resonate,
Become alive and acknowledge this need.
No matter what definitions we have,
What narrative we have,
What incidents have happened,
Doesn't matter.
Tell yourself,
I love you.
I want you to be happy.
Don't run away from this.
Even if it sounds absurd,
Play with me,
Play along.
Whether you are a heart person or a head person,
The need to be happy is alike.
For the next few minutes,
Stop being so hard on yourself.
Forgive yourself of everything that you call a mistake that you made and just give yourself the permission to be happy.
If it's too painful,
Then endure it.
It's not nearly as painful as a toothache.
If thoughts are distracting you from this exercise,
Ignore them.
Since these decisions,
These barriers go so deep in our unconscious that throwing thoughts our way is a good strategy to distract us.
The only way to penetrate through our mind all the way to the unconscious at a cellular level is to let this percolate deep inside by being with it,
Sitting with it.
I was talking to someone last week and I asked them,
Do you love yourself?
This was a 21-year-old boy and he said sometimes.
It was heart-wrenching to hear that because when we love someone,
We ignore their mistakes.
We swallow their mistakes.
We swallow their behavior.
We want them to be happy just like we want our kids to be happy,
Our spouses to be happy,
No matter what.
To tell yourself,
Feel when you say it.
Don't wait for another person to say it to you.
Say it to yourself first.
I love you.
I want you to be happy.
I want you to feel lighter.
Don't negotiate with any thoughts.
Not everything needs to be negotiated,
Discussed.
This is too simple to argue,
To justify,
To defend.
No.
Today is a day of heart.
Keep your mind aside.
Your heart doesn't need any justification or negotiation.
It just knows it right away.
If you feel like running away,
Stay here.
If you feel like venturing into thoughts,
Stay here.
In these pauses,
Feel your own presence.
Feel your own wounds.
Feel your own cries for help,
For love,
To be seen.
And every time something comes up,
Tell yourself,
I love you.
It's okay.
I love you just the way you are.
I love you regardless of whatever mistakes you've made.
You don't need to become someone for me to love you.
Neither do you need to do anything to deserve this love.
Just your presence.
Just your presence is enough for this love.
That's the truest form of love.
Loving the presence.
Everything else is transactional.
Let's start healing our relationship with ourselves.
Without that,
Being happy is an ephemeral thing.
We stumble on it now and again,
But we won't live with it.
No matter what is popping up in your mind,
We don't want to go anywhere in our childhood,
In our adulthood,
To find instances.
We're just going to embrace everything all at once.
We don't want to spend a second longer in accepting,
In loving,
In embracing ourselves.
We don't want to make it an inefficient gradual process of going event by event.
That's all for the mind.
Just embrace the whole thing.
That's what the heart wants and move ahead.
Live from this point onwards as the one completely open to receiving the happiness,
The peace,
The joy,
Regardless of what happens and what you do.
Forgive whoever is popping up in your mind.
The teenager,
The younger adult,
The child.
We all did the best we could and everything that happened led us to this point.
It's a beautiful symphony that is coinciding here for all of us.
Recognize this.
See the beauty and embrace it.
Give yourself,
Instead of giving a two second hug,
This is a 20 minute hug for yourself,
To yourself.
Stay with it.
Don't drift away.
You know,
As a kid,
When we scraped ourselves,
Scraped our knee or our elbow,
The best thing that our parents told us to do was to let it air out,
Clean it up and let it air out.
It will automatically heal itself.
No need for a band-aid or any dressing.
That's what is happening right now.
You staying with it is the love,
Is the air that is letting this relationship heal.
If you need to do this again,
Repeat it.
Do it again and again until you can answer this question of mine with a resounding yes.
Do you love yourself?
Thank you.
