As I am preparing to write this post and layout the sunset photos, my thoughts keep returning to the words I recently heard from an online instructor. His actual words were, "If we're not growing, we're consequently dying." The lecture was about the Levels of Consciousness and Self-Awareness and he skillfully explained the topic. I was blown away.
As I am staring at the photos of the sun sinking down the horizon, the familiar feeling of being blown away by witnessing something deep, profound, and true came back to me. What the instructor said was not entirely new. Most of it was even common sense, but it hit me differently when I heard it spoken out loud. Similarly, nothing is new about a sunset but when you see it for yourself and really take it in, you get a glimpse of a feeling of peace and satisfaction.
A friend just had his birthday recently and he said that the only thing he wants in life is to be contented. A long time ago, I would have smiled at this and thought to myself, "What a simple and humble way to live your life." I previously thought being contented in life meant living for yourself and having a life where you have everything you needed.
But is it really enough to be happy and at peace in life? Is that the right way to live? Can we spend our entire lives chasing peace and satisfaction that we can get, say by staring at sunsets?
I am convinced that living a happy, peaceful, and contented life is not enough. Deep inside, we all want to do something with our lives, not to prove that we are capable or that we can achieve something significant but because we genuinely want to do the things that we are doing. And consequently, by spending our lives doing things that are in complete alignment with our beliefs, values, and intentions, we positively impact the people around us and, by extension, the world.
Before I continue with my reflection, I'll give you a context on the sunset photos that serve as a backdrop to my thoughts and ideas. If you've been following my recent posts, you know that I started a travel blog series about Malapascua Island. I posted a 3speak sneak peek video about it, I wrote about the journey going there, and my Island Hopping experience around the island.
It's been fun reminiscing about that exciting summer experience. After we did our Island Hopping, my girlfriend and I decided to find a nice spot to view the sunset. We always look forward to the sunsets in most of our travels, especially when we're on the west side of the island. It's a relaxing way of ending the busy activities of the day.
For this particular sunset, we stayed in Logon Beach near the port. The tide was low and the sky was clear. Across the sunset, the eastern sky was illuminated by this pinkish light.
The sun was on the other side, and people would usually be glued to the west side during sunsets, but if you look to the opposite side, you'd see the softest pastel of colors in the shades of pink, blue, yellow, and orange created by the remaining light escaping from the horizon.
We go back to the reflection. I misheard what the instructor said and instead, what I remembered was, "If we're not living our lives, we're consequently dying." I think that made more sense. If we're not living, then we're dying, right? But what does it mean? What does it mean to live and what does it mean to die?
They say life is like the sun. It rises in the morning like how we grow from being little kids. It peaks at noontime, corresponding to when people reach the peak of their lives. And lastly, there's the sunset when people slowly lose their light, ending in the darkness of night and death.
But the sun's path is aligned and its pace constant. Rarely, life is a straight path and a steady pace. It's jagged and goes back and forth between fast and slow.
There will always be a sunrise and a sunset just like how humans are born and die. But unlike the sun reaching its peak where it shines the brightest, most people don't even begin to realize how far up high they could reach with their lives.
Sadly, a lot of people don't get to live up to their potential and just cruise through life at a low altitude until eventually sinking down into the horizon of death.
The ultimate destination is not the ultimate goal. Yes, we all die but we don't strive to reach death early. In fact, it's the opposite. We resist death as much as we can through the ways we know. The ultimate goal is to reach our peak where we can shine our light the brightest and be remembered for it.
Living life then is reaching for our peak. It's not about being happy and contented, it's about realizing your true potential. It's about looking up and seeing how far we can still go. It's about breaking through the clouds and showing our most genuine selves.
Marianne Williamson's words ring true:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
If you ask me right now whether I'm smart. I would say, "Yes. I am." This is because I have identified with it. Do I truly believe it? If I was to take an exam right now and fail, would I still believe that I'm smart? In one, two, or even three exams, maybe I could still say I'm smart but failing four, five, or six exams, I might start to falter.
Most of our identities and perceptions about ourselves come from our past experiences. And we solidify them as we encounter them over and over again. After identifying with the experience, we extrapolate them and think that that's all we're going to be in the future.
What I'm getting at is that what prevents us from reaching our full potential and living our lives are the limiting beliefs that we have set upon ourselves. These beliefs have been solidified only because we think they're true and part of our reality.
Our perception of reality can sometimes be inaccurate. We think that obstacles are holding us back from doing the 'scary' or 'ambitious' and having the things or the people we think we don't deserve, we can't keep, or we can't afford.
While some of these obstacles might seem real and true to us, many of them are only real in our minds, and they create feelings that make us think they're true. But they're not, at least not tangible in the sense that they're not physically keeping us tied to the ground and making us unable to do anything.
I'm in the process of completing my Master's Degree, and it's been a difficult journey. There are times when things about my research don't work out, and problems keep on popping up one after another. A frequent thought I have is this: "At this rate, I'm never going to graduate."
The problems are all real for me but what is not real is 'me not graduating.' One of my limiting beliefs is that when problems come one after another, things will not end well. This belief was developed from several experiences in my past, and I am identifying with it and extrapolating my future with it.
But is it true? Just because I encounter problems one after another, it doesn't mean things will end badly. This perception of reality is not only wrong but detrimental. It takes great self-awareness to let go of this perception of my reality. It's a process, but I'm getting better at it.
If I kept myself within this frame of mind, I know I would spiral into despair and worry. Our thoughts influence our emotions. Another memorable thing that the online instructor said was something like this, "Our feelings are a result of the quality of our thoughts."
A lot of us live our lives unaware of our thoughts. But if we only knew how powerful our thoughts could be in affecting our lives, then we would be more careful with them and more aware of them.
What we focus on intensely with our thoughts can become self-fulfilling prophecies. If I kept on focusing on my problems with my studies and worried most of the time about not graduating, then I'm sure that's what's going to happen.
Think about something you've always wanted to do or a goal you've wanted to accomplish. Are your thoughts about it riddled with excuses on why you can't do them? Are those excuses valid or true? Have you tried breaking the goal down to the necessary steps and resources and still have problems achieving it?
It might be that there is an underlying limiting belief that is keeping you from doing the things that you've always wanted to do.
Our limiting beliefs are what keep us from living our lives. They keep us down near the horizon, preventing us from reaching our peak. They dim the light inside us and hide our potential.
Living our lives is tearing down one limiting belief after another and rising to fill the space intended for us. But how do we overcome our limiting beliefs?
The first step is always awareness. We become aware of our beliefs based on our thoughts and the decisions that we make or don't make. Once we identify them, we question them and focus our attention on what's actually true.
The breakthrough with limiting beliefs is always a shift in perspective. Once we view ourselves or the world differently, we start redirecting our thoughts to possibilities and opportunities.
Changing and managing our thoughts can then help shape a new reality where we are no longer bound by the limits we have placed on ourselves.
Our thoughts can be self-fulfilling prophecies regardless of whether we're thinking of being unable or able to achieve the things we want to do. Our focus is a muscle, and it requires training to be steady and directed towards thoughts of growth and achievement.
I used to have a problem keeping my focus on doing certain tasks. I would get distracted easily and again; I have identified with this label from my past.
No amount of meditation or focus Apps can help us if deep inside, there is still that belief that we're someone who can be easily distracted and is out of focus. From there, we use our focus to take control of our thoughts.
Living our lives is focusing on the things that we want to do and on the thoughts that tell us we are capable of doing them.
If we're not living our lives, we're consequently dying.
We die slowly when we let our potential go to waste.
We die each day when we don't allow ourselves to have hopeful thoughts.
We sink low to the horizon when we limit ourselves from rising.
We lose our light when we think that past failures and mistakes define our present and predict our future.
So let us all live our lives and reach our peaks before we slowly welcome our inevitable sunsets.
That's it! This has become such a lengthy post. I wanted to write down some of the things I've learned from my Life Coaching Course. I also couldn't help and reflect on life while staring at the sunset photos during one of my favorite summer travels. I hope I stirred your mind a bit with some of the things I said in this post. I will continue my travel series from here, and be sure to check out the next part. See you then. Cheers!
He’s a dreamer and a thinker. He tends to sensationalize a lot of things. He got that from his mother. He’s also a bit melodramatic. Must be from his father. Bear with him as he shares his thoughts and experiences about his travels, dreams, and the variety of things he’s trying to learn and improve (personal development, writing, cryptocurrency, fitness, etc.). If you like this article please give it an upvote and if for some reason you’re interested in more future content, please don’t hesitate to follow.