Monday, May 14, 2012

Inspiration - To Breathe In

On Friday afternoon, I arrived into New Vrindavan for the annual Festival of Inspiration. I felt strange. I felt as though my mind and heart was riddled with faultfinding in every person I saw. I felt raw because I was finding fault with myself. 

That evening, I got to interact with my spiritual master, Radhanath Swami, for the first time in an entire year. He glowed with kindness and love. We spoke for about five minutes, and when I walked away, I felt reflective. 

I was tidying my bunk on the bus a little later, feeling a little hopeless about all of my faultfinding. But then I wondered, "What would Radhanath Swami do? What would HE say is the antidote to the poison of faultfinding?"

Glorifying. Appreciation. 

Suddenly a huge grin blossomed on my face.  I decided that I would dare to share my experience of someone's beautiful essence with at least 10 people, and then keep going so as to lose track. 

The next day, I had some trouble in my quest. I felt mired in my faultfinding, and it took me awhile to muster up courage to share my experience of someone's inspiring essence. To share my appreciation with my parents, who were visiting from out of town, was a special challenge.

But once I did, I began to pick up speed and more speed, to the point that appreciation was all I wanted to say! I began to feel connected to strangers, even. Words of appreciation would flow from my mouth before I could even think. 

On Mother's Day, I filled an entire booklet in my appreciation of my mother. And I kid you not, after I had finished I felt that I could have filled up an entire other booklet. 

So this Sunday morning when the Festival drew to a close, I sat on the empty, quiet bus, writing in my journal. I reflected that I felt as though I had taken a deep, deep breath of fresh air. 

I felt inspired.

Suddenly, I smiled. The definition of "inspire" is "to breathe in."

I feel as though I made a choice to breathe in the love around me and realize just how much love I can give every moment. Just as we have no choice but to breathe to continue to live, I believe that we get to make the choice every day to live an inspired life. And I discovered that the simplest (but not always the easiest) way to start the flow of love is to appreciate, to glorify. 

So go! Get inspired! 


4 comments:

kathleen m said...

Ok, I am inspired, and I will choose to be inspired tomorrow! I will also show appreciation to 10 people, and hopefully lose count afterwards, tomorrow. Thank you for your being appreciative conscious nature.

Jessica M said...

This was an inspiring post! Our attitude and perspective on life definitely has a direct impact in how we experience it.

I think it's so awesome that Radhanath Swami is your spiritual teacher! I have just become aware of him myself and recently listened to his lecture on "The Essence of Religions" that he spoke at a Unitarian Universalist church. There was so much love, understanding and awareness in his words. You can find a short post I wrote about that lecture here if you'd like:

ascendingthehills.blogspot.com/2012/05/radhanath-swami-true-religion.html

I friend referred me to your blog. I'm so glad he did! I look forward to reading more here. :)

~ namaste

Jessica

Deepak said...

super super awesome article. I really want to learn from it. Thank you so much for sharing the nectar.

partha said...

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