Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. And with the effort to further promote that awareness, and a vision of the world where “we’re all connected and protected from suicide,” came Australia’s R U OK? campaign. R U OK? is a not-for-profit organization, founded by Gavin Larkin in 2009, whose mission is to encourage everyone to meaningfully ask each other, “Are you ok?” When I learned of this amazing movement yesterday, thanks to a friend’s post on Instagram about R U OK Day, I was ecstatic. Not only does this movement encourage people to reach out to each other, but it also promotes effective ways to do so with particular communication strategies that can be used to connect with someone who may be struggling. Asking the simple question, “Are you ok?” may not seem like a big deal. But it is. And it means the world to someone who is suffering.
Category: Stream of Consciousness
Choices We Make In Life
The divine are constantly communicating with us, telling us all that we need to know. We just need to learn how to perceive and decipher the messages as they come. A lot of times these messages will show up through other people; people who are either close to us in relation, such as a family member or significant other whom we respect, or a stranger so unfamiliar to us that we have no choice but to accept it as a sign. While these signs are ever-present in my life, and I welcome them constantly, none was so timely and important as the one that came a couple of weeks ago. It all started with a movie. A cousin of mine told me, about a year ago, about What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams. At the time, I decided to look for it and noticed that, to no coincidence, they were playing it on DIRECTV. So I set it to record. But I never saw it. That was until two different people, within days of each other, told me to watch the movie. I knew right then and there I had to see it. When I told my mom the following night, she warned I might get emotional; apparently all she remembers is how sad it made her. But when I mentioned how various people were telling me to watch it, she said that perhaps it would change my life. When I asked her what it was about, all she did was shrug and say, “Choices we make in life.”
Wisdom and Responsibility
Once you discover the truth, you can never unknow it. Sometimes that truth you now know brings a whirlwind into your life and you wish you could go back to the way things were before you learned it, but that’s not the way life works. The wisdom we acquire brings with it a tremendous responsibility to fuse it into the world. That’s a fact I’ve had to realize and embrace. I’ve realized that my life experiences have happened for a very specific reason…for me to do something about them. That’s a fact that applies to each and every one of us.
Expanding the Bubble
When I’ve come across someone in a bubble, I’ve wondered about the way they got there and what exactly was within that bubble. I’ll be honest, sometimes I haven’t understood their mindset or may have found it a bit limiting. At times, I have even taken it upon myself to try to question it so as to expand their minds. Yet, I’ve done it not because I’ve wanted to change them, but because I’d like them to entertain alternate possibilities. It’s an action with an intention I’ve needed to reflect on and clarify within myself, for there were times that I felt I was trying to change people by imposing my beliefs and knew that it was wrong and unfair to them. I decided then to simply become a grower of bubbles rather than a burster of them. I realized that while I would love for people to see things the way I do, I found a tremendous benefit in taking the time to step into others’ worlds and see things the way they did instead.
This Is Not Real Life…
The world is an illusion, a powerful one indeed. While the Earth can bring about many pleasures, it is wise to hold fast to the Divine vision. A lot has happened in my life, I’ve faced a lot of trying terrors, and frankly, there have been times where I’ve lost hope…in myself and in the world. But amidst the darkness, a ray of light has always shone through and illuminated in me what’s truly important. The boon of importance that has been given to me is that of the reborn soul. While the idea of rebirth is a glorious one and presents itself with a resulting refinement, it is not without much doubt, trial, and destruction. A doubt that is brought about by the ego.
Pieces of the Puzzle
When you give a child a puzzle, what’s their greatest joy? For a young one, it’s the final picture, the beautiful artwork the jigsaw pieces create. It doesn’t matter if the puzzle is 8 pieces or 24; it’s the final product they most enjoy. This is a joy that doesn’t stay within us as the years go by. Rather, we tend to go for the more challenging ones, with 500 pieces, and only upon accomplishing those are we convinced that the final picture is beautiful and was worth the time it took to put together. It’s the challenge that drives us. But must it always be this way, in every situation? Why is it that challenges and obstacles are more attractive than gifts and blessings? Why can’t things that come easy be just as beautiful? In the case of people, most of us tend to like, and actually prefer, the relationships that are most difficult and challenging rather than the ones that flow nicely and just happen to fit. A lot of natural and amiable connections are often seen as too “easy” and thus are not as appreciated. But in my opinion, this is a misguided way of thinking.
Saying the Right Words
It is often said that it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Although for the most part I find this to be true, it is truly amazing how a specific phrase, or set of words, can have an effect on someone. This is something I’ve learned throughout the years, sometimes one has to be careful what one says to someone else, one never knows how another can be affected or offended. However, it is ideal that one should have the freedom to speak their mind and share all of their ideas without censor or fear of being criticized. Now, for thought, when it comes to someone you love, if a topic arises and they say those simple little words that strung together have been thrown your way and pained you over the years, what do you do? Now, they may not have been saying them directly to you or your situation, for they’re unaware, but they believe in those words and stand by them. Is that means to question everything else? Maybe it has more to do with disconnecting one’s self from those words at the moment and trying to understand, but I’ll tell you, it’s not easy.
A Trippy Way of Thinking, Call Me Gifted
Taking a moment to sit back and think about things can be a way to reflect, but can also open a portal to another dimension of consciousness. I speak from experience when I say, the mind has powers far more superior to what the body can expend. There are all sorts of movies and books that speak of this “oneness” with the world and I can actually say that on my own I’ve felt such a splendor. When I look at myself in the mirror and take an extra second to look directly into the eyes of my own reflection, I know it’s me yet I feel disconnected at the same time as if my mind and body, for that moment, were in fact separate beings. Then there’s the time paradox. The statement, “You’ve only one life to live” is constantly spoken by many just like, “life is short.” Is it really?
The Power of Words
Most, if not all of us, have gotten into a fight. They’re not always fun, but they always teach you something. Some people say that when they fight they really don’t mean some of the things they say, but after someone told me different I really took a second and thought, maybe that’s not the case. When we explode from frustration and release everything that bothers us, our thoughts come seeping through our lips and out as words. Maybe we’re a little harsher to the other person than we would like to be, but no one truly speaks for nothing. People may disagree with me, I can’t speak for the whole world, but through my own experiences I know that no matter what my words are real and they express the way I really feel.