Arid

It’s as if you are an empty shell. The hollow feeling gnaws you to the point that you are compelled to fill in the void by looking for fun… or try to look for other persons to make the time be filled with something. It is as if your time is devoid of things which are meaningful. You are craving for a change; something interesting or something new.

Most of the time, according to Margarita Tartakovsky, it is in abandoning the SELF which causes the feeling of being hollow and useless. You might abandon yourself unintentionally or unknowingly because you are striving for perfection or others’ approval. You might stop caring for yourself because you are trying cope with the social standards and you are comparing yourself to others. You do not appreciate your own uniqueness. You probably fail to acknowledge your strengths and limitations.

The craving for material things is one of the causes of feeling “unworthy”. A lot of us equate success to having beautiful things, gadgets, clothes and other things introduced through marketing campaigns. We see others donning signature clothes and we want to be like them. Cars are being made affordable for us to be “comfortable” and use this as a status symbol. We get angry with our partners and parents if they are poor and do not have the capacity to have them. We are equating our happiness to things which are tangible and could be displayed.

We fail to realize that happiness, satisfaction and peace are things which are INNER. If the spirit of the person is undernourished, it is similar to the physical body which will continue to crave for food. Unsatisfied hunger continues to haunt the person to the point that his/her moral projections will be twisted and dishonesty will then become part of his system. This is the time when the moral fibers will start to be corrupted.

So how could we shy away from the ARID areas of the spirit? We need to diagnose if we have spiritual health issues. We have to realize that if the INSIDE is hungry, the OUTSIDE will continue to crave for things to acquire; an insatiable cycle will soon happen until the day that we die. Most people are unaware of the importance of spiritual health that they are caught in the whirlwind of life, mindlessly and without question, living an illusion.

There are paths that we take to find the spiritual nourishment needed. Some considers religion as one but this is only one of the aforementioned paths. According to holistichelp.net: Religion and spirituality are not one in the same. Spiritual connection is about finding meaning and purpose in one’s life, discovering who you truly are and connecting with the sources that provide you inner strength, comfort, hope and inner peace.

In the development of learning plans, one of the most difficult attitudes which could be learned by students is APPRECIATION. They could mouth things which sound superficial since they do not do them in real life. Nature, for example, is not fully appreciated with the evidence of trash floating on rivers and seas. Life itself is not appreciated. Lots dwell on the negative side than on the positive ones. We count inefficiencies and not the blessings. People get depressed since they do not appreciate the things they have at the moment.

Positive psychology research mentions that gratitude and appreciation is strongly associated with emotions that help people enjoy greater health and happiness. These can also play important roles in nurturing relationships and can even inspire people to take better care of themselves.

With these, we then could attune ourselves to the essentials. We find our purpose and make our lives meaningful. We should not fail to enjoy what the materials things give us but they are not meant to be the ultimate goals for happiness. We cling to the belief that we are here in this world to realize our missions. We give thanks and appreciate the things that we have (big or small) and co-exist. Let us not do messianic acts since each one has a job to do and tasks to finish.

We live by embracing simplicity. It is the simple things, like our family and love, which will bring us joy and real happiness.