In Celebration of being Alive

I recently read on a friend's blog that we live a life of "displacement". I have been thinking of this phrase for a while and the more i think of it, the more it makes sense to me. 

Think of it, one thing displaces another in our mind and becomes all important. Till the time that thought is not achieved or fulfilled, it is the most important thing in our minds and nothing else matters. Once that reaches a place of comfort or basically where we wanted to see it, automatically it becomes less important to us, something else displaces it! And life goes on, the cycle repeating itself over and over again...

This law of displacement is a very strong law. It takes over us completely. It defines how we behave, what we say, how we feel, our position on things, our relationships with people and our peace of mind. if things go well, we feel great, sense of achievement, sense of pride, sense of fulfilment and otherwise there is only pain, suffering, discontentment, anger, isolation, loneliness, frustration. 

So who defines our happiness for us? Our joy, life spirit, peace of mind - a material thing, an ambition, a relationship, something or someone that recently displaced some other material thing, thought, person in our minds? Is that not strange? and we let it happen to us again and again in our lives. Often leading to a life less happy, a life more troubled, a life more lonely, a life more unfulfilled. 

As i grapple often with my own "displacements" in life, more and more i begin to realise that true happiness, peace, contentment comes from within. Well we all know that intellectually, don't we? The trick is to know it emotionally. To experience it and then learn to depend on it. 

Ever tried to follow cherished dreams? Your list of 10 things i must do before i die? Or being less dramatic, doing what i always really wanted to do...read a book, learn a language, go join a class, travel, drink coffee with a friend? How much happiness does that give you? 

Often we become extremely critical of our own selves. often we forget to cherish, love and respect our own selves. Often we tend to ignore our own needs and all of it combined leads to a sense of dissatisfaction. The "displaced need" rears its ugly head and becomes all powerful taking precedence over everything else. Ironically, it is always something or someone else, never you. Never your own self.

So can we for once learn to replace our "displacements" with our own self! Our 10 things that we always wanted to do, loving and honouring ourselves, respecting and fulfilling our duties, obligations with a sense of purpose and living our life with a celebration - In celebration of being alive!!