Lighting the diyas within ourselves
Celebrating
Diwali is the festival of lights where we gather with our families to light diyas and to celebrate a new beginning. This is the time to be grateful and to count our blessings—something we often forget due to the rat race of what we call life.
Too often we get hung up on small details that cause us discouragement and stress which is part of life. We need to know how to deal with it. Just like we light diyas to brighten our homes, we must learn how to light the diya within us.
Loving Yourself
How do we enjoy life? We must first learn to love ourselves. Only then can we love others. We often take care of other people while ignoring our own health and needs which could make us suffer in the end. As human beings we need to be loved but only when we are happy and comfortable in our own skin—can we love others. We tend to get attached to people especially those close to us—that is part of life but nothing lasts forever and we must learn to enjoy and cherish the moment since we never know where life will take us.
Living in the present
We must learn to live in the moment. We often do not enjoy life. We are always thinking of the past or the future. Our minds are also constantly whirring with both positive and negative thoughts. Human beings sometimes overthink and when that special moment arrives it goes in a flash. It becomes part of the past and a just memory. In the practice of Buddhism the say we must practice mindfulness.
“We will never be able to be happy all the time in life, that’s not natural. Life is about experiencing light and dark, black and white All things have a natural rhythm. However, when we live in the present moment and difficult emotions do arise, we do not attach to them. Instead, we accept them and allow them to flow through us. Being present is a practice, it is something we must learn to cultivate and expand in our lives”
Kindness goes a long way
We must also be kind to all living beings. So many of us believe in a supreme being yet when it comes down to small details we often do not help those in need. We feel supreme or we think that there is no point in helping. It is time for us to start doing small gestures that could help improve someones life —just by feeding a meal or helping out a friend without expecting anything in return.
According to the Mayo Clinic Health System “Being kind boosts serotonin and dopamine, which are neurotransmitters in the brain that give you feelings of satisfaction and well-being, and cause the pleasure/reward centers in your brain to light up.” When we help others this increases our endorphins that helps reduce stress and anxiety.
This is not easy to do but we must learn to start practicing one step at a time and remember once we light the diyas within us only then can we go and make a difference in and be able to light the world.