Here is my essay in here Practical advice of how I think we should live out lives. The social element is also incorporated.
HOW TO LIVE YOUR LIFE
Alan McDougall:
Here is an essay I wrote a while back that might give some insight how to plan and live your life as best you can
Practical Advice How to live your life
Trust God and the guidance of those that love you.
Your time on earth is so limited so embrace life and live it to the full and savor all the joy and happiness it can give you, pluck the beautiful fruits off the tree of life and share it with your fellow beings
In order to grow through life one must first establish a harmony within oneself, harness all our natural talents, gifts, formal and non-formal education towards the essential goals in life.
Chose early that which you love and do the utmost to make that your career and you will not really have to work one day in your life. Establish a hierarchy of preferences and aim for those most realistic and highest on the list.
Imagine you have only one year of life left and list the things you would do if this were all the time left for you. Incorporate this into the list, ranking all the events, and look at it. It should give you much food for thought in planning your journey through life.
Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood (Helen Keller).
Remember what you have forgotten
you are given all the tools and resources you need during your life and what you do with them is up to you.
You are responsible and accountable for your actions in life, every deed, word, and thought.
Think before you utter a word because once spoken it can never be taken back
Be grateful for the life that God has given you. The old old saying “count your blessing one by one”, reverberates in its truth across the universe.
Be aware of what is happening around you and don’t let the beautiful gift of live come and go without you noticing it in all its beauty and meaning.
Be willing to try to do your best in life, “Life does not require that we be the best-------- only that we try” (H Jackson Brown Jr.)
Love overcomes all barriers and banishes the useless attribute hate
Be honest with yourself and others all the time it checking each word and statement you utter before it leaves your mind in the form of writing or speech. Remember you can lie to yourself so often that you can finally believe it as truth.
A lie in any dialogue, debate or communiqué results in the entire being flawed and void of real truth. A molecule of cyanide mixed into a glass of sparking spring water will kill you; it is the Lie that separated us from God in the Finale.
Be patient with your partner, loved ones and especially yourself. Impatience can grow into anger and anger into hate.
You only live in the here and now and this is the platform for the rest of your life, a new beginning not an end. If you can live in the moment you will find peace.
What you hate in another is what you hate in yourself, so banish the most destructive attribute from your life and learn to love yourself.
That terrible event you worried so much about never happened to you and will never happen in all of the future.
Be tolerant and non-judgemental towards both yourself and to others. Change what you can.
There are some situations or events that you simply cant alter so release them into the wind of healing or fate
Do you want to live in a prison most of your live. Well if you start destructive addictive habits that lead to addition you become trapped in a prison of your own making. Withdrawal will make you return to these false highs again and again until you run out of options and come to the cross roads of Life or Death Choose life
Be courageous bravery is not being fearless, bravery is overcoming your fear
Replace evil habits with good and positive ones, Opiate additions can be overcome by running as running makes your brain make endorphins that are much more powerful than any drug
Real wealth and abundance is when you are contented with what you have
Be a perfect listener, observe what is happening around you by this your response will be the correct one
Keep a journal
There is one set of cloths that you will carry for your whole life, that is your mortal body, your body a gift from god so appreciate it ,look after it and love it Accept what you cannot change about it and change for the better what you can.
Self esteem is the highest morality if you hate yourself you will hate others and if you love and appreciate yourself you will love and appreciate others.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.
You are in a partnership with your body, it is the temple of God and deserves the utmost love and respect Regular exercise and healthy lifestyle should be obvious.
Pleasure should be the manifestation of inner joy and you experience through your five senses normally, but sometimes the sixth sense gives you glimpses of the eternal places of happiness.
It is not a sin to have fun and be glad you are alive, so long as your pursuit of happiness does not hurt another person.
God has given you eyelids so close then and don’t allow Depravity in any of its forms into your mind. The eye is the window to the soul, look into the eyes of a stranger and you will hear your mind saying “beauty, kind, shy, bad, ugly, evil” or remote etc. By just one careful look, one can read much about the character of one you do not know. When alarm bells ring in your mind, please listen to them.
Look, listen, read and enjoy that which is good and healthy to the mind. Guard all the doors or inputs to your mind; you are the one that permits these images or sounds into your brain. What we allow into our minds in of such prime importance that it cannot be overstated.
The greatest attributes are wisdom and honesty so be actively honest and truthful. When you are totally honest God is nearest.
You are or will be the combined result of the choices you make in life. Life will throw you some hard curve balls so try to catch them and make something positive out of them.
Be fair with yourself and others but remember life is not always fair and your circumstances are unique so address them with your own wisdom or with the help and love of those you admire as wise.
Become a person of grace and altruism by embracing your higher spiritual self, it is grace and love that leads you into eternity.
Let compassion grow in your inner being and flow out as you look at the plight of others in great need and those that are suffering and in pain, hunger, sorrow and disease, pray or send positive thoughts to them, this does help even if you cannot see the results.
You are bound by your own ethics, morality and conscious and if you live according to those your life will be more peaceful. It is not really God who judges you; it is you who judges yourself at the end of the day.
Humour is a great secret of bodily as well as mental health, so find what makes you laugh and laugh out loud and often, this will flood your body and brain with healing brain hormones and endorphins. The greatest lesson is possibly not taking ourselves seriously and laughing at ourselves
Laughter is a seed to happiness and health
The lessons of life will be repeated to you over and over again until you have learned them and only when you have learned them can you move on to the next lesson in the great school we call life
Never ever, stop learning, even if you live to be one hundred years of age. Fascination with all things around you makes a rich and wonderful personality.
A very high-developed sense of humour is of absolute prime importance in order to overcome the pitfalls of life.
However no matter what ones age, do the suggested exercise and you will be amazed at the richness and opportunities out there still within your grasp. Life is rich and has so much to offer us all. Be positive in the midst of negativity by using that powerful tool, your sense of humour.
It is absolute necessity to very carefully choose a real soul mate and friend who travel’s the road of life with you, namely your spouse “Love and cherish God together. If you love your partner "In spite of not because of your journey in life together will endure mutual in contentment and requited love
Establish and maintain a link to the Divine, each one in their own personal way, be it by meditations, prayer, or contemplation of the glory of existence. Do whatever invigorates you the most.
Make life fun, pleasurable, happy, joyful but never depraved. “Don’t practice sin” Really, life should be exquisite, fun, pleasurable, enjoyable and glorious.
Avoid unhealthy obsessions like a plague. However not all obsessions are unhealthy and the magnificent obsession is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are energy vampires, who will drain you of your life energy, leave you exhausted and depressed. Avoid them where practical.
Make your friends are energy invigoraters and try to be one yourself. Again, the key here is ones sense of humour.
Of course, life is not always a bed of roses and those dark times will come to us all. Nevertheless, when in the long cold night of darkness of hopelessness and despair, one should always realize that the dawn will always come again and the sun shine warm once again upon ones cheek in the morning of joy. Take it from someone who really knows! The writer of this short essay.
Oh! How important it is to be forgiving. Unforgiveness has no purpose and will fester like a malignant tumour and result in ill health, doing more harm to yourself than to the one you will not forgive. Love each other. However, how does one do this? Love is an action, so do love, even if you don’t feel it. Carry it out by actions.
Compassion is a wonderful unique human quality, so enhance this within your being to the utmost degree. Read and study your scripture daily. Have dialogue with God by prayer.
Don’t allow anyone to take away from you that which you know is true to yourself. Honesty is the best policy.
Wisdom comes with the passing years, but asks children difficult questions and you will be amazed at their insight.
Live life like an incandescent light, glowing brightly until you put off this mortal cloak and blink out into another dimension of life into the afterlife. In other words, live until your demise on earth
Do not fear death because you will live on in another better realm of existence
Savour and cherish each glorious moment. Be careful not to say hurtful things to others because once the words have left your lips you can never take them back.
You legacy will become the heritage of those that come after you, and so what you do with your life is not only important to yourself. There is one companion that will be with you every moment of your life and you should love this person as much as you love anything in the whole world.
This precious person is none other than you. Use and develop your intuition to a very high degree and it will help you from stumbling on the rocks along the pathways of Life.
Have you not been aware when you come into a room and meet a stranger that there is an instant liking or dislike between the two of you? On the other hand, you have felt that a course of action was wrong and the closer you got the more uncomfortable you got with this course of action. These are examples of intuition, listen and adjust to them carefully and you could avoid much pain sorrow and anguish in your life.
You are truly absolutely 100% unique. There has never been one like you, there is now no one like you, and in all the future eternities, there will never be another just like. Of you fathers half billion sperm cells, only one reached you mother’s egg and this was you. No has ever had your unique genetic D.N.A. code or fingerprint. Are you not, therefore, very special and is it so wrong to love and respect the wonderful creation you are?
Go outside or get away from the noise of the city and in the quiet of early morning listen carefully, you will hear the birds chirping like beautiful electrons in the mind of God. Take in the glory of existence all around and feast your eyes on its beauty.
You know, of all the countless trillions of snowflakes, leaves, flowers, and no two are identical and each one is a unique creation of the Divine mind of God. Feel the breeze upon your skin, smell the fragrance of the universe bath in the glory and joy of you existence.
Be at peace with yourself and all the rest of the universe. You are a child of the universe, so special and wonderful. Develop the dormant senses beyond the five that are not utilized, and you will merge yourself in the wonder of the cosmic mind.
Take your mind into the place of unimaginable beauty and wonder, go on a journey into places you have never been and go further into the cosmic vastness of the beauty of the universe, with the power of imagination.
What is the purpose of life? It is to live it to the full, without hurting others or doing the depraved. Charity is wonderful gift to the soul. Question everything with a sense of anticipation and wonder.
Love and respect your mortal body, as it is the vehicle that takes on this journey through mortal life on earth. However, know this your consciousness or life energy is eternal and continues on forever, beyond the last curtain of life on this blessed earth.
Planet earth is our beloved mother and we must preserve her, love her and cherish her in all her blue glory. She is a blue blazing diamond glowing brightly in the vastness of the universe. Love all Gods’ creatures.
Get all your priorities in order. Spouse, companion, family and children first. A balance in life between ones occupation and home life is essential or the psyche becomes unbalanced and depression and anxiety will take hold of you. Take much time to be with the one you know best, namely, yourself.
Life is a school and if you do not pass a test, you will repeat it repeatedly until you have passed it and only then be able to move on. Life made up of countless choices and each choice could ultimately determine and define ones destiny. Refer back to chapter one!
How we maintain good health, I think by developing a powerful sense of humor, much laughter and exposing one to things we find extremely funny. Then having sufficient exercise combined with a balanced diet of fish and a combination of as many brightly coloured fruit and vegetables as one can afford.
Genetic proposition unfortunately plays a factor not always under our control. Red meat should be restricted to the rare occasion. Remember, your body is the temple of your immortal soul and if you pollute it with toxic substances, you will suffer the consequences thereof.
I, however, acknowledge that the complexities and realities of life are much more complex than what I have written in my brief essay and thousands of voluminous unreadable books have been written of this subject. Therefore, the above is my humble attempt, be it what it may.
By Alan McDougall
Composed 12/7/2007
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