Time management

Let’s talk priorities and time management and this in relation to time to rest and relax from duties etc.

I will start with my normal straight forward way of speaking: if you are in balance you won’t need time to rest and relax. Only when you do things that take you out of your balance you need time to relax, to be back in balance. In that case what you are doing is not a sport, not a joy, not a pleasure to do.

With saying this, let’s start the interesting part of time management. What is time management more then setting your priorities so your ego won’t get away with distracting you into business, doing busy things that don’t need to be done? People who need time management have a big ego who is very good at distracting you from your goal in life, in work etc. Your ego is very good in time management and consuming your valuable time is one of its big goals. With pleasure he or she distracts you into misuse of your time, your resources of money, health etc.

Simply living in the now moment won’t help you for you are able to live in the now moment, enjoy what you are doing and doing nothing worthwhile for your own growth or soul. The ego is a very big and good player in every circumstance, but that’s not an excuse (although your ego finds everything he or she wants you to do a very good excuse to make you wander around and lose precious time which you could use better for your soul work which you came to do upon earth).

So with every task you do, you could ask yourself if it serves you and all who are concerned for the good of all concerned. You would say, there is nothing wrong with watching TV. I would state that there is everything wrong with watching TV. And then again, seeing and pondering a life of a saint when you watch TV is a good example for your life. When the TV is for leisure, fun without any spiritual education, for resting and consuming imagines and while being tired being programmed by hidden messages (or outspoken values like: you have to be blond, slim with big boobs to be of value in the world) or getting distraction from your own life (being boring, being dull, being on the run for your own faults, mischief, and lack of a valued interesting life with responsibility for yourself and your development as being towards your soul, everything is against watching TV.

So TV is out, by now. VBS, who is rebelling against this statement? Relax, it is just a remark and a question to think about. Watching TV is one of the most time consuming things in western society. Life is so valuable and being wasted on the couch sitting, eating junk food and watching TV is a pity for the precious life you have been given, by God and your parents. Don’t complain that your parents watch TV all the time so you don’t know any better. You do know, and complaining isn’t an excuse either.

This gives me the big opportunity to start with my other topic of wasting time: complaining, finding excuses, saying: I can’t change that, it is as I am, I am like that, always, I can’t remember a time when it was different, this is how I am raised. No excuse anymore. If you have to have a need for an excuse, you didn’t consider your actions for the good of all concerned. No question about it. Complaining, saying what you don’t want to say, idle talk, gossiping, all are just excuses and wasting of time. Cut this back and you’ve got enough time to do something more in your household, on meditating, or both at the same time.

Complaining, watching TV, doing things you don’t want to do, all cost a lot of energy, and wasting energy and time puts a stress upon you, a tension in your system, and then you will lose time with being tired, being sick, having chronic ailments and so on.

I know that Sai Baba has a program on cutting back on energy (like wasting time, wasting money, wasting energy, wasting speech and so on). He is quite right! Of course he is, that’s why he came here upon Earth. For the ones who aren’t interested to see a representative of God walking upon earth, like Jesus, Buddha, Krishna and so on (you forget to write the Chinese name. I don’t know how to spell it. You will find out, great example of love anyway), they can look at each other and see the God in their neighbors, their hated family members and then they are a bit closer to the God in themselves. And I don’t want to state that when you are going to look at Sai Baba, you won’t look at your neighbors for being representatives of God.

Next a big losing time issue: day dreaming as a nice thing to do. And it is indeed relaxing for it takes you out of your own circumstances. Some of you do it in the negative form: what if this happens... what if that terrible thing happens... and what if this thing didn’t happen, would we be still together...? And yes big songs and movies are made of this material. And yes, it is again a waste of time, energy and money. So if you see yourself doing this, just stop it. Of course you are the boss of yourself, who else?

So if we have reduced the bad habits, let us reduce the good habits. Good habits are also a waste of time and ones energies, you will ask yourself? Yes indeed they are. Let’s talk sports. What is good about sport? Training your body, okay fine with me. When you do more then the necessary thing to keep your body in good health? Doing your thing more then two times a week, or more then two things or being addicted to run every day for 10 miles or more? Another thing: keeping an eye on your intake of food. Fine with me too, but what if it becomes offensive, consuming your ideas of having pleasure with food and eating? What if eating takes all your time, or when counting calories takes all your time and you can only think about being too fat or losing weight? Another nice thing to do is taking time to meet with people, with friends, going for a social talk to by example family. Some times it is very good, and at other times it just consumes your time and energy for there is no reason for the good of all concerned why you should get together at that time. And remarks like: they expect me to do like this, when I don’t visit my mother twice a week she will bury me (or she will feel neglected, alone etc).

Another good habit to reduce is taking care of others. Taking care of others is fine as long it is for the good of all concerned, but too much is too much. We could speak of respect for ones inner values and lessons. We also could speak about time for yourself or not, energy for your own goal and only be of help when asked by (human) nature and/or spirit.

When we see the wasting of energy, the priorities one has to set in one’s life, you could ask yourself: what is really important so I save time, money and energy? That all depends on the matters at hand in your life. For when being too generous with money and time in helping people, saving time for oneself is the idea. For being selfish and a big spender of money and time with shopping, volunteer work is a good thing to spend time upon, and give money to. It depends upon you and your attitude in life, your lessons you came to learn, your blocks in energy which causes you tension and stress, the things your diseases tell you and so on.

There is a good meditation as an example to figure these things out. If I save my time, and I reduce energy loss for what shall I use it for the good of all concerned? It might be a long road to figure this out, it maybe not. So let’s start the meditation:

Sit relaxed (when not possible, figure out why with the meditations I gave previously. Write everything that passes your mind on a piece of paper while doing the exercises for releasing tension in your body. It will guide you to the clue needed or to the next step).

Go to your inner garden. Next to your inner university, your inner wisdom temple and to the temple of the God you are. With every place you follow the following instructions:

Wander around in your inner garden (university etc), pay attention to what you feel, see, experience. Try to figure out what you are able to do in your daily life to pay homage to this place and what you are able to do in a meditation (repeating sequence of meditations) to honor this place, to clean it, to decorate it, to contribute to it. Ask if you can do something to honor this place during daily life. See if you get a vision, an image, a feeling , a color, a sound, a song etc. Any clue will do. Listen, be open and don’t let your programming come between you and the answer.

When you have visited the inner garden and asked these questions, go back to daily life, count back and take the clue you got into your hectic life you are living. Ponder it during what you are doing, be quiet with this clue upon your thought, think of it before you sleep. When you’ve got a better understanding or when you feel you are ready for the next place, do just the same as with the university. Don’t forget to write down the clues you get after each mediation, so you are able to remember the clues right.

When you have visited each place and got the first clue, ask for another, for with every progress you make you are able to receive other clues, more deepening insights and so on. When you have had enough clues, or you won’t get any, ask if you may remember a situation where you can reduce tension and stress in your life or reduce wasting energy and time. Ask also for guidance for the next time you hit upon a similar situation. Write down everything you feel, think etc.

When you have finished this meditation, thank yourself, thank your guidance, be thankful for the answers, clues you got, and thank, above all, yourself and the good of all concerned.

Next, when you have finished this project, go back to all the places and ask: if I save my time, and I reduce energy loss for what shall I use it for the good of all concerned? Of course you are free to use other phrases which suit you better. And you may of course start the previous meditation with this sentence on your mind as programming and guidance instructions.

The splendid thing as result of these meditations will be that you got little by little clues why you came upon earth, what your task is in life and what your soul wants to give to you as guidance in your daily life with normal circumstances everyone has to face.

Have a good time while pondering time and cutting back on waste and overdo of things.

With love,

Ashtar.