Life - page 5

Ikigai - the Reason for Being

Darryl Bachmeier Jun 10, 2020 Life
The Realities of Life Often times, life presents you with different challenges – challenges that nearly choke you out of existence. At those crucial moments, the purpose of life becomes bleak and its essence, frustrating. Then, and right there at that crossroad, it dawns on you that the journey of life is full of ups and downs, push and pulls – an indication that life is not at all, a bed of roses. Of course, in life, many forces militate against one’s quest for fulfillment. For some, it is the daily hustle and bustle for survival while for some others; it is the search for a better life, a raised paycheck or an upgraded standard of living. Ikigai: Bouncing Back In reacting to life’s pressures, the Japanese people invented a concept known as ‘Ikigai’ simply translated in English as ‘the reason for being’. The concept is a marriage of two...

Dealing with Setbacks

Darryl Bachmeier Jun 10, 2020 Life
Setbacks are normal Are you frustrated because a business you invested your time and money into imploded and there was nothing you could do about it? Or was it a set-target you were supposed to hit that failed? Or perhaps, it’s the case that you keep struggling to make life more reasonable and yet, the more you try, the more unrealistic it becomes? Now you feel downcast and demoralized because you keep rising and falling as the current of life’s storm never cease to rock your boat? Of course, these experiences would have made you realize that the peregrination of life is chequered by vicissitudes. Yes, life is not all bed of roses and at certain times you are bound to face challenges which could occur as minor setbacks or even, as an overwhelming defeat. It is normal! Hence, this piece has been aptly written to help you make the...

Wu Wei

Darryl Bachmeier Jun 9, 2020 Life
Can you achieve something by doing nothing? Well, it seems so, but not quite so literally. There is a significant concept of Taoism called Wu Wei. It’s Chinese, and it literally translates to “non-doing” or doing nothing. What it stands for is a natural action. That means an action that doesn’t involve excessive effort or struggle. Wu Wei is actually the cultivation of a certain mental state in which your actions are very effortlessly in alignment with what we call the flow of life. So, basically, it’s going with the flow, and it’s characterized by a feeling of great ease when we are spontaneously acting perfectly. It’s when you’re doing the right thing spontaneously and effortlessly, without even trying. Haven’t you ever started doing something where everything seemed to just flow, and you felt like you became one with the world? We often refer to it as being in the...

Humility

Darryl Bachmeier Jun 9, 2020 Life
What is the opposite of arrogance, aggression, vanity, and pride? It’s humility. Humility is the act of being reverential, modest, and politely submissive. It seems like it doesn’t leave you any power, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not true cause humility gives you a lot of power. Aren’t you tired of the desire to be right, to impress, and get ahead? Humility offers you freedom from all those desires. What’s best about it is that losses and frustrations have less impact. So who is a humble person? It’s a person that confidently receives the opportunities to improve, grow, and reject labels that society forces on them. You, too, can lead a humble life, and it is a life that results in compassion, contentment, forgiveness, and patience. What is it all about? Humility is actually the attitude or feeling that you are not better than anyone else since you have no special...

Generosity

Darryl Bachmeier Jun 9, 2020 Life
Have you ever given someone your time or something else, without expecting anything in return? Well, it has been proven that such acts of generosity are good for your health! Isn’t it funny how you feel the need to pay it forward when someone has been generous to you? Research has proved that when you are generous to someone, they will start acting more generously toward other people for some time. The thing about generous people is that they are, in fact, healthier. Feeling grateful is for them a permanent state of being. Those who remain so mindfully thankful, rather than people who are temporarily grateful, engage in heather behavior, and are more relaxed, are less often sick, and even have a stronger immune system. Isn’t negativity actually easier than gratitude? Well, there are biological reasons for that. Our brains pay attention to stressors, so they focus more on things...

Writing your Personal mission statement

Darryl Bachmeier Mar 23, 2020 Life
A personal mission statement is as a compass set to a specific location. It is a powerful combination of words that sum you, your goals, and sometimes ambitions up. A personal mission statement is a mission statement designed for you. It is your mantra, your central dogma, and it gives you your identity. A personal mission statement is important because it is a simple tool that allows you to make powerful long terms decisions without worry or stress. In a simple example, if your mission statement states that you want to save the world via legal means, you would have no trouble ignoring illegal things. What a mission statement should not be An expression of who you are going to be A mission statement should be an expression of who you already are and not an expression of who you are going to be. The future is so far away....

Death and Dying

Darryl Bachmeier Mar 22, 2020 Life
Death is one of the scariest topics for several people. Our culture has learned to sidestep it in conversations. Death is terrifying for several reasons. We do not completely know what awaits us after. We are not sure if there is an afterlife or if blank, nothing waits for us. We have little control over happenings once we are dead. We leave those we love behind and leave several things undone. Dying is even worse. Except for terminally ill people, we generally do not know how fast we are dying. Worse still, the process of dying can be short and sudden without time to prepare for what happens after or very long and painful. How to deal with death and dying Despite the possible unpleasantness of death and dying, we all will go through it eventually. What then do we do about this? There are several approaches to dealing with...