a trip to India, a need to discover myself and the world

In summer 2010 I started to feel this urge to change something in my life, to know more about myself, to know more about the world.  After a few great conversations, many hours of thinking, I decided to leave mostly everything behind me and head up to India.  I had a great life, amazing friends, someone I loved and who loved me, a house, a car, a dog, a pool in a nice backyard, etc... Yet I was feeling like a was missing out on something, like something was calling me elsewhere.  So I bought a one way ticket to India, to try and figure this out.

Three months have pass at this point, I have been in India most of this time.  Wow!  What an amazing journey it has been up to now!  I am meeting lost of amazing people, open minded and with whom I can talk about more then just the daily stuff of life.  It feels good and it is very inspiring.  I have also spent lots of time alone, appreciating it as much, being with myself, being with everything around me.  Reading also helps me to see the world in a different way, I have been reading some good books about yoga, which touches upon who we are according to the rest of the universe, etc... interesting stuff.

One thing for sure that have changed at this point is a profound sense of inner peace, a feeling that I am strong on my own, no mater what.  I've also had to face certain fears, like insects, rats, snakes, etc... and just trust in the bigger process, which is wonderful.  I can't pretend I don't have fears anymore, far from that, yet I remind myself of how much fear controls our daily life, and how I don't want to go back to that.

My perception of the rest of the world has also changed, after visiting just a few different cities in the last months, I now know that nothing I can read in a book or nothing anyone can say about a place will actually describe it.  No mater how much details can be offered, it will never represents the experience how I will experience that place.  I knew this as a concept, mind you, I often told people that were offering there insights on India or Asia that it is a matter of who you meet, the timing, etc...  Now I know I was right.  You live the world according to your expectation of it, you see it according to the filter of your past experience and of your present emotions.  The world will offer you exactly what you expect it too!  The universe is a place where balance must exist, good attracts good, abundance attracts abundance, so on and so forth!

Of course coming to India was also a way for me to not have the same "routine" as I had back home.  This as contributed to what I am experiencing now, yet, I could have found that sense of peace and better knowing myself anywhere else.  India is a spiritual place, yet you still have to seek spirituality here to find it.  It is a fact that many people come to India on a certain quest of self discovery, hoping to become more spiritual, change their life, etc...  I don't think it is India itself but the people we get to meet here.  The conversations I had, with perfect strangers, for a few minutes or hours have made me think and helped me change a few times.  I thank all of them/of you!

Gratitude is certainly the most important feeling to cultivate if you want to make a positive impact in your life.  I read about this a few times, now I feel it as a truth for myself.  Dr Emoto suggested it was one of the most powerful emotion to cultivate for healing the body.  The law of the universe that creates balance had to answer to gratitude by providing more of what makes you grateful.  It is an amazing circle of life itself.  Be grateful for what you have, and it will keep coming your way.  You will then be even more grateful and thus you will help your body heal, enhance your immune system, contribute to your mental capacities, etc...  I feel like pretending that if one emotion can change the world, it is gratitude.

Start with small things, be thankful for the small things in your daily life.  Make a habit of saying thank you to life/God/the Universe.  Cultivate gratitude for your health, the little things that make you feel good, the amazing people around you, anything.  But find something that makes you feel gratitude, take a few moments of just focusing on it, then smile.  Try it, you'll see, it'll make you feel better right away.

I don't pretend to have understand a big secret, it has been written before, it has been said before.  Jesus, Buddha, and many others spoke of similar things.  Be content with what you have, with who you are, and you will be happy!  I was reading something a few days ago that was saying something like that the end of the day, regardless of age, religion, political views, social status, etc... we are all looking for one thing, to be happy!  Unfortunately happiness is not something you can find, it is something you can feel. I am thankful for every happy moments that I have in a day!  Like Dr. Dier says: "I want to feel Good!"  So I choose to feel good, I choose what makes me feel good, I FEEL GOOD!  Feeling good, according to him still, is feeling God!  I believe it, I relate, I want to feel Good, I want to feel God.  To me this means I want to feel I am a part of this greater whole.  I want to feel I am alive, not just that I'm living!!!  So I am thankful for each moment that I feel Good!  I cultivate gratitude toward feeling good, therefore more things that increases my Feeling Good comes my way!  I am happy about that, and soooo grateful for it!

I hope I was able to share with you a little of what had taken place as a change up to now.  Maybe I was even able to influence you to change a little on how you see your daily routine.  It is not about the routine, it is about the perception around it.  No good, no bad, just what is!

Namaste my friends,
Love,
Charles