I was browsing through my computer and deleting old files (that were related to classes from this year – wow that felt good!) and I came across something that caught my eye: an attempt at a word document prayer.
Suffice it to say I didn’t keep up my written prayers, which is a shame, because reading it makes it look like fun!
I had written this in the first week of January of 2011 and it made me smile. It is pretty self explanatory. Try it 🙂
Dear God,
I thought this might be a good way for me to pray to you. To write down my prayers so that I can physically see my “prayers”. And I can look back and see how many of them were answered. So really,… I’m testing you.
I’ve tried praying to you in many different ways. I’ve tried kneeling by my bed, with my palms together and eyes closed. That was great. I also have prayed to you during long walks in the cold, or just through simple meditation. I’ve even had a full fledged conversation with you out loud, while I sat on my desk in my room, which is where I like to sit when I talk to somebody on the phone.
All I know is that I really like talking to you, and I’m just discovering new ways of doing it.
Today I want to talk to you about the same shit I always talk to you about. I don’t know how you don’t get bored of me. But then again, you must be kind of used to it? I’m not sure.
Here are the four areas of my life that I give you permission to get your divine butt in here and fix:
All these areas feel so bleh for me right now. I feel so ungrounded and I just don’t feel like I am being helpful to myself at all. I don’t want to go into details because to be honest, I think about all of this stuff too damn much, and you’ve probably heard it all before. Since you can read my mind and stuff.
Anyway that’s what I wanted to say. Thanks a lot, in advance. I would really appreciate any help you can give me.
love,
Malavika
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I recently read a quote by Deepak Chopra that resonated with me; “Knowing is what happens when you stop thinking.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about this the last couple of days. I keep reminding myself to come back to my place of knowingness whenever I get caught up in my thinking and my thoughts. This is what I realized; thinking is exhasutive. If you do too much of it, you certainly feel it. You get “wuzzy” as I call it. Wuzziness happens when you think too much. It doesnt have to be anything in particular. It could be thinking about big life questions, or it also happens when you’ve been studying too long. The only way to describe it is that your brain feels like it has grown little hairs on it, and you are more confused than you were when you started. Well, that’s the official scientific definition.
I can hear Marie thinking “Oh my god. I can’t believe she is writing about this on her blog” already. We’ve had many lengthy discussions on wuzziness. I think it’s a great concept! But it took Marie and Michelle a while to appreciate how appropriate it is. They used to get so mad when I would even use that word in conversation!
Anyway, as I was saying. Thinking is exhaustive. After a while, you end up where you started. You go round and round in circles. No new information really enters your circle. And when it does, it’s very exciting and you obsess about it for a while, and then it becomes old news and part of that crap-tastic circle again.
There are no real creative ideas that emerge from thinking. You’re too busy doing work.
Knowingness is different. Knowingness is the space between thoughts. It goes much deeper than just simply thinking. It resonates deep within you. It offers you more consolation and peace than “thinking about it” can do. If something is bothering you, it would make sense to ask yourself to “know about the situation” instead of “think about the situation” – but I mean, how easy is that? Not very.
Knowingness has unlimited creative energy, and this is where new ideas and creative solutions to problems arise – not from thinking about it.
It’s the difference from your head and soul. Maybe these days we shouldn’t be following our heads. We shouldn’t even be following our hearts. We should be following our soul instead. Because this is where knowingness comes from.
If I am ever caught up in some kind of “life experience” that is challenging for me in some way, I realize that I tend to get biased. Why? Well because I am IN the situation, and my ego has a tendency of making me very self-important. It’s hard to see what is really going on. It’s hard to see the bigger picture.
Because of this I ask my nearest and dearest friends (hi guys!) to help me out. Whenever I am so caught up in something, I say to them “Ok, state the facts.”
Usually when I say this, I am met with unenthusiastic moans “ughhhh, this is too hard!!”, but they always do it in the end! Then what they have to do is state 3 facts about the situation. These facts are exactly what they claim to be – facts. Not biases, or opinions, or theories, or criticisms.
Just three truths about the situation/circumstance. Some may not be nice to hear, some might be great to hear – that isn’t the point. The point is that this is the truth, and everything is put into perspective.
This little game has helped me a lot! You should try it.
(To which Marie just said “It might be a game but it’s not a fun game!!! :(” )
But since I read Chopra’s quote about knowingness, I feel that an addition I would like to implement would be to state the “knows”. What do I KNOW in this situation. And luckily for my friends, only I can answer this one.
It’s probably a little bit harder, and requires more exploration on my part – but in the end, I know that these answers are the answers I will be looking for.
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I hope you all are enjoying your Friday! I had my physics lab exam today and it went smoothly. PHEW.
Your prayer document made me smile too, I especially loved this one 🙂
Here are the four areas of my life that I give you permission to get your divine butt in here and fix:
Few thoughts on thinking vs knowing :
Isn’t thinking the basis of knowing for us ‘rational’ mortals?
How does one achieve knowingness in the sense that you are talking about? It seems there is knowing something and then there is knowing that you know it. And then of course trusting what you know as known.
Hi Malavika,
Came back to your blog after 15 days or so.
Now that I have read your another post, I realize I really missed the blog. And loved to come back today.
I think I know what you are talking about thinking and knowing.
I guess it has come to me at the right time. I was struggling with a situation in my life here, and was thinking too much about it, but was not getting the solution. And the culprit is my Ego. I am going to us this knowingness, and the facts on this situation.
take care
Avneesh
P.S. I hope you are still taking out the lucky winners for the free reading every month. 🙂
Hi Avneesh. It is nice to have you back!
I think it’s very easy for us to get caught up in thinking too much about something – and when we do that, it’s very difficult to see the bigger picture or any possible solution. Knowing about it has really helped me a lot. It helps me get connected to what really matters. It helps me see the bigger picture from a new perspective, and to not get so caught up in the details – but instead think more about what result or outcome I want.
Good luck 🙂
I am not currently picking winners for the free reading draw. I may start it again soon 🙂
I would agree that knowing is unrelated to thinking and is in fact external to the mind. But i hope it is far more than simply keeping one’s head receptive, attuned to insight; clear of unwanted thought and internal dialogue.
That knowing is beyond thought, faith, belief, senses, knowledge and understanding. You just know. It’s a state akin to being, it is external, beyond the reach of why, how, what,…
It just is, universally, absolutely; a truth beyond debate; akin to knowing everything has as ass-hole (even when they’re not behaving like not one).
Me, I’ve only gotten to the stage where I know that I know nothing at all.