Until you realize you have the ability to unconditionally feel good- that is, to feel joy, love, passion and all that good stuff, you will either anxiously chase after or anxiously cling to the external things and situations that you think will make you feel good or you think are making you feel good.
Except those things will not really make you feel good; they will make you feel anxious, because you fear not having them and/or acquiring them and therefore losing or never attaining your source of good feelings.
And so a vicious cycle of attempting to subdue this anxiety is started, in which you spend almost all of your time anxiously chasing and/or protecting in order to feel good, all the while not feeling good during the whole process, ironically enough!
The cycle will continue in one form or another until you realize your ability to unconditionally feel good, or in other words, until you realize that you are the source of those feel-good emotions, and not the external things or situations.
The reason why so much effort and struggle is needed in keeping our lives running is because we are trying to impose an artificial order upon them. We are afraid that without that order our lives would revert to chaos, which will inevitably end up in our death.
In our attempts at artificial order, we forget about the natural order of life: the order that created human beings in the first place, the order behind the workings of our bodies, the planet we live on, and the Universe we live in. We overlook the fact that what seems like chaos to us, is actually a miraculous and breathtaking orchestration.
Realizing this orchestration leads to the realization that surrendering to life, by following our own rhythms of joy and excitement with no expectation, is not surrendering to chaos, but rather surrendering to the power of the larger orchestration. In our surrender we are allowing ourselves to be a natural part of that orchestration.
If we just quieten our minds for a few moments and observe the miracle that is life, we can maybe begin to get a grasp of how wonderfully it already works, and we can finally relax into the natural workings of our lives.
Many of the common things people enjoy today were once perceived by others as “wrong” or “weird”. I mean, it must have been pretty weird to watch the first-ever basketball game for example. Imagine seeing people throwing balls at a peach basket for the first time. But if the players stopped playing because it was weird for some people, there would be no basketball today. And that’s just one example. Almost every new type of music, sport, clothing, or any other expression was initially ridiculed by someone, somewhere. That ridicule didn’t stop those who loved the new expression and that’s how change has always come to be. It takes a commitment to continue doing what you love regardless of what others may have to say.
Live each day with the spirit of celebration.
Celebrate that you are.
Celebrate that you didn’t need to do anything special to deserve to be, and that the Universe just had to have you within it at this time.
Celebrate that you have the opportunity to experience life in this wonderful Universe.
Celebrate that the Universe contains so much that you prefer, and that some of what you prefer, even if it’s just a tiny bit, has somehow made it into your experience.
Celebrate that not only do you get to experience life, but that life contains things that actually bring you joy.
Celebrate the fact that you can celebrate and that celebration exists at all.
Celebrate that joy exists within you, and so does the opposite of joy, so that you can actually experience joy as its own distinct experience.
Celebrate that the sun shines, that the rain falls, and that nature is so naturally beautiful.
Celebrate the music on your iPod, or the existence of your iPod itself.
Celebrate the food you eat.
Celebrate the clothes you wear.
Celebrate that the Universe contains so much inspiration for you to continue being yourself.
Celebrate that you’ve found some of that inspiration.
Celebrate that you don’t prefer everything, and that what you don’t prefer allows you to focus on what you do prefer.
Celebrate that you have the power to choose and that you can prefer whatever you want to prefer.
Celebrate all these things by acting on them and enjoying them.
Celebrate your favourite music by dancing to it.
Celebrate your clothes by wearing them proudly.
Celebrate the sun by basking in it.
Celebrate nature by beholding it.
Celebrate your power to choose by making preferable choices.
Celebrate life itself by enjoying the living of yours.
— Sohail Desai
Joy is the feeling of celebrating the fact that you are being yourself. The joy you feel as you dance to your favourite music, or play with your pet, or eat your favourite meal, or follow your curiosity, is your feeling of celebrating that you are being most “you” and that you’ve chosen an experience that reflects the being you prefer to be. As you’re joyful, colours get more vivid, the sun shines more brilliantly, your heart sings, your very cells tingle with excitement. It’s as if the whole universe is smiling and celebrating the birth of the wonderful being you have chosen to be.
— Sohail Desai
When it comes to living your life, the idea is to enjoy it as fully as you can, and to create it using the power of your preference and your focus. The idea is to create heaven on earth and to enjoy what makes physical reality such a unique experience. The sensations of being a physical being in a physical reality is such an awesome experience, if you take the time to appreciate it.
You do not need to settle or struggle in this life for some future reward. The reward is right here, right now. This life is meant to be enjoyed! There is no sense in waiting until you’re dead to experience what you think will be heaven, because that heaven, if you create it, will be a very different experience from the heaven you can create in this particular reality. Life on earth is just as special and can be just as enjoyable as any heaven can be.
— Sohail Desai
It is from the world of the dead, the world of non-physicality, that each of us made the choice to create the experience of being a human being in physical reality. We chose this experience simply for the uniqueness of it, and for the deliciousness of it. The choice wasn’t made in order to gain acceptance or to fix a problem, or to complete a mission. There was no need and there is still no need to justify why we desired and continue to desire the experience of physical reality. Keeping this in mind can allow us to appreciate and enjoy our current experience more fully, and for its own sake, while keeping it light-hearted. The choice to experience physical reality was made out of pure joy and a strong desire to enjoy it, after all. We can realize this perspective now, while we’re still within this experience, or later when we transition to the world of the dead to choose our next adventure. In the end, we will appreciate every bit of our experience.
— Sohail Desai
We are joy seeking beings. We are loving beings. We are freedom seeking beings. These are our commonalities, and these commonalities point to the nature of our source. Our source is that which is joyful, unconditionally loving, and completely free. Any apparent differences between us are actually the results or manifestations created out of the total freedom of our common source, to express itself in any and every way it can.
— Sohail Desai
Each breath we take is a declaration of the support from our wonderful universe. Each breath we take gives even more reason to be optimistic and to feel joyful towards all of life rather than fearful.
— Sohail Desai
There is no greater joy than simply being yourself, right here, right now.
To experience true freedom is to give up the need to control. This is what makes freedom both our greatest aspiration and our greatest fear.
— Sohail Desai
Too many people are not paying attention to their experience. They aren’t being honest about what brings them joy and what brings them pain. Instead, they are living based on the voices in their heads, the voices of others, telling them what is joyful and painful. If people paid attention to their experience and made honest decisions about what matters to them, I believe the world would be in a dramatically different state.
— Sohail Desai
Things can always be better no matter how high you reach and they can always be worse no matter how low you fall. Life is not limited in the amount of joyful or miserable experiences it contains. Realizing this allows you to enjoy the journey of Life no matter where it leads you and actually leads you to more and more enjoyable experiences.
— Sohail Desai
State of being is more important than the material possessions you desire. Even after you acquire those material possessions you will still desire to express your preferred state of being. State of being is the only constant that remains no matter how the material world changes. In other words: having fun will never go out of style.
— Sohail Desai
