How much time do you spend during your day checking your thoughts? How much time do you spend to read and learn about retraining your thoughts, befriending or removing inner critics, and making living inside your head a pleasant experience? At the end of the day, and at the end of life, the sum total of the quality of your thoughts will determine the quality of your life. Other people would count the money in your bank and how many cars you possess, but only you can know how much you actually enjoyed the ride.
“There’s very little return on investment in the material world, the bigger return on investments are in our spiritual life”……….The second I heard this statement (Rich Roll podcast, in conversation with Raghunath Cappo) my brain went…Whoa….Why haven’t I heard that before!!!
I have been looking at methods of investing money in a more sensible way for a while, with an end goal of a relatively comfortable retirement. Now that I do not have a steady 9-5 job, I rely on freelancing work, which prompted my logical mind to start thinking about retirement. How often do we think about our afterlife? Yes, it sounds scary and feels like the entire concept of death goes beyond what the logical mind could understand. But how much time and effort do we invest into understanding what is absolutely certain in life? – Death.
Having observed how teachings of many mainstream religions end up focusing more on separation than unity – I turned to spirituality. Spirituality lets you delve deep into any question that you might have about why we are here to where we could possibly go – search YouTube and you will discover teachings you have never heard of. Most of these teachings feel unfamiliar and weird at first, but with enough time, when you least expect it, you suddenly acquire insight into yet another concept that you couldn’t understand before. Chasing this kind of spiritual highs is not recommended by many spiritual teachers either, because ultimately, You already have all the answers that you seek (I’m yet to understand this concept). But seeking more spiritual knowledge has given me a better direction in life. I have certainly become a better person because of the spiritual journey – then again there’s another concept which states that there is no right or wrong because there is no judgment. Either way, the spiritual path may seem confusing and doesn’t offer you clear-cut answers, but it is definitely a path worth taking.
The reason behind all the separation and hate around us might be our lack of investments in cultivating self-awareness or spirituality; for you, it could be a meditation practice or religion or anything that lets you become more aware of the actual journey that you are taking which ultimately ends in death. Even if you are not interested in spirituality, thinking about the ultimate end will help you to decide the quality of your journey. And the surprising fact that I learned very recently (even though I have heard it a million times before), is that the quality of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts. Strange isn’t it. We make vague statements such as ‘Rich people are not happy’ or ‘Some poor people are happy even though they have nothing’, but the level of happiness or contentment is all inside your head – your thoughts.
How much time do you spend during your day checking your thoughts? How much time do you spend to read and learn about retraining your thoughts, befriending or removing inner critics, and making life inside your head a pleasant experience? At the end of the day, and at the end of life, the sum total of the quality of your thoughts will determine the quality of your life. Other people would count the money in your bank and how many cars you possess, but only you can know how much you actually enjoyed the ride.