The When I Started Then I Stopped Thread

[sikhni777]

Habits can make or break a person. This change happens slowly without us realizing it. Then one day all of a sudden we stop to think and wonder - what went wrong there?

Developing a new habit can help you keep up with things. A new habit has to be a conscious thing. That means you need to have a goal to achieve. For instance you want to loose weight. Therefore you will start to eat healthy. When you start a new habit you will automatically drop a bad or less healthier one. The purpose of this thread is to make us aware of the good habits floating around. So this thread goes like this

GOAL : weight loss

When I started drinking black tea then I left drinking tea with milk.

GOAL: Spiritual awareness

When I started reading Sikh sangat I stopped reading mumsnet

GOAL: Healthy Eating

When I started eating beans on toast I stopped eating paronthe.

GOAL: Controlling anger

When I started praying regularly I stopped shouting and negative talk

Please share and lets learn what others are doing too.

[khalsaman1]

This a great thread brother.

May I suggest one thing? Let's say "Waheguru has given me XX and I've stopped doing YY"

Remember the Guru's words. We humans are capable of nothing. Everything happens in Waheguru's will.

[sikhni777]

Thanks bro I'm a sis. You have made the thread even greater. Or Waheguru has made the thread greater through you.

[Bundha]

Our body is like a temple and we need to keep it clean outside and in.

Outside, because it houses our soul and if it does not function properly then we cannot concentrate on our soul.

So set goals for your body:

Lose weight; we can all do with losing a little weight.

Eat more greens. The deeper the vegetable colours are the better they are for the body, full of antioxidants.

Deep breathing exercises, good for calming the nerves and prepares the body for meditation.

Set goals for the soul: This is our main goal everything else is peripheral.

Set goal to get up amritwella.

Set goal to recite daily the panj banies.

Set goal to mentally do mutha-take of jyote of AkaalPurkh that resides within you.

Set goal to recite mool mantra whenever you are cooking or making a sandwich or making a cup of tea.

Think about what you are good at, if you doodle on pieces of paper then try taking up drawing. Do you have an eye for a good picture then try photography. Be creative , open your mind, be happy and keep Guru Jis name on your lips at all time.

[Bundha]

Try this, think of the person you hate the most or the person who hates you the most.

Now close your eyes and in your mind say "<Name of person>, Guru Nanak Dev Ji tay-ra bhulla karay"

do this every day for a week. This kills your hate, that bitterness, that negativity you have for this person starts to dissipate.

Guru Ji also blesses you. It is easy to say good things about the people we love but very hard to say positive things about those we hate. We then start to mold our mind away from negativity towards people and not only do we feel better but our Mann gets proper chittar, because he is the one who takes us down the wrong road.

Little changes make a difference, little changes we can manage in this hectic world. So make those little changes do not stay stationary make those changes. Make changes about naam and simran. One day do meditation on "nothing" clear your mind, the next day try 5 mallas of Waheguru, the next try 5 chaupai sahibs, the next just repeat Dhan Guru Nanak, Dhan Guru Nanak.

Make that change.

[kaurp]

wow, very nice idea to kill hate BUNDHA.i am surely going to try this cause when we have bad feelings for someone it disturbs our own peace.

[sikhni777]

Rangeele jiba har ke naye.

The first effort has to be made by your yourself...

then follows

so rang rangile har har dheyae

When Waheguru inspired me to start saying Waheguru then I just had to put a full stop on this sentence and go and do some simran.

After the simran session, it was Waheguru's meher that he gave me the strength to have this thought of remembering Waheguru. Be thankful for the Waheguru inspired effort which happened in the first place and pray it keeps happening.

[Bundha]

Have you ever noticed people who go to the Gurdwara and they have been going to the Gurdwara for years yet they are the same now as they were years ago. Nothing has changed in their lives they come to the Gurdwara do mutha-take, listen and go home. Some come to the Gurdwara, they even do sewa in the langar hall or elsewhere, for years, yet they remain the same. Why has meeting the sangat or doing sewa of the sangat not affected their lives? Why are they the same now as they were years ago? Why has all that bani all that sewa not had an effect on their soul?

Because it goes in one ear and out the other. They have not made a conscious effort to follow Guru’s path, they have not made a conscious effort to make changes in their lives to move closer to Guru Ji. To them going to the Gurdwara is just something you do on a Sunday and maybe meet friends and relatives. Even doing sewa has not the motive it should have. Rather than thinking that sewa to the sangat is sewa to the Guru, that sewa brings nimarta and humbleness, that sewa washes away your paap, that sewa is a form of bhagati and through it one moves closer to your Guru, instead it is more of a social thing and as such it does not bring about the changes within oneself that it should.

One example contrary to this, at Soho road Gurdwara there is a man who on weekends cleans the toilets. He cleans the bowls and the sinks and mops the floor and replenishes the toilet rolls and the soap. When I first saw him he was clean shaven, now years later he is keshdhari. Well done that man, I say. Your humbleness in cleaning the toilets (who amongst us would do this on a regular basis) has been seen and blessed by AkaalPurkh Guru Ji so positive changes have come into his life.

Apart from this person, I see the same faces week in week out, some come just for the langar and go home with full bellies. Some come and do sewa but then partake in langar and all that pun-dhaan built up is cancelled out, they go home with nothing it all balances out. We want to increase our punn/good deeds but if we write them off by eating all that langar then it all balances out.

If you are doing sewa then for that day why not abstain from langar, at least go home with something in your karmic account. I have seen sewadhars who do sewa and then sit down to double helpings of saag with extra adhakar/ginger and makkhi rotis with two full glasses of lassi. I am not criticising them in the least, it is Gurughar and it is Guru-ka-langar and they can eat as much as they like, however this is not what Guru-ka-langar is all about.

So make those changes, little ones, ones that you can cope with and progress in your life. Do sewa, very important, but make sure you take something home with you spiritual wise.

[simran345]

Singh ji, who are we to judge others like that?? Even if you have become a brahmgyani and have mastered yourself, then what is the point to judge others? They will receive what they will, it is better to focus on individual sadhana. We do not know what is going through there minds, so stop guessing?

I like these thoughts.

[sikhni777]

When you listen deeply to the wordcof God then nothing matters. For some reason one day the katha was so great that when I was having langar, I was just full of thankfulness. It was just dhal parshadha and I waa surprised that I was not yearning for the sabji too. However before I used to get upset when the halls full and you have to stand around. When people do hard physical seva however they need to eat their fill. We need to purify our mind and never judge how much others eat. Guru ghar provides for everyones needs. We are blessed to have langar. Guruji has thought of our every need.

I remember a sakhi about a bhagat ji whose wife was having to do extra work because they had a visitor. This was God himself testing her. One day her neighbour asked her why she has lost weight and she is very thin. She replied that their visitor eats a lot. The visitor disappeared and bhagat ji was very angry with his wife. So we need to remember this everytime we come close to looking at what others are eating. Take it as your test. It is a natural instinct to look into others plates.