Success is being truly free from your own shackles...

If you have not failed you do not know completely what success is...and success to me means being truly free from your own shackles...

My own life experiences have led me to believe that failure, no matter how big or small, is critical to providing clarity to our thoughts and actions. This is unfortunate but true. It is when you hit rock bottom, that your inner strength is tested. It is when you face trauma, you really find out who you are. It is when you rise from being down and out that real life begins...

At this point in my life, people just wonder how it is possible that I am "singing" all the time. How can one be happy all the time? Don't I have "problems"?

And herein lies the simple secret:

I made a very conscious choice, a decision to reprogram my brain cells, not because someone else urged me to, but because I wanted to. At every step, there are always only 2 choices, and it is we who have the control over the choices, always. There is no one else to take the credit for the right choice just as there is no one else to take the blame for the wrong choice, no matter how much we may desire to dump the blame.

Once the choice is made to enrich, to grow ourselves, the path automatically opens up. The Universe has no other choice but to show the way to us according to the choices we have made. The power of intention is critical. People desire to have this or that on a constant basis, but how many really have made the intention? And that is the only reason dreams may not come true. If the right intention is there with heart, with a passion, followed by consistent action, there is no way success will not be written.

With intention comes determination and with determination comes action. Anything that is worth anything is worth waiting for. One needs patience. Follow your passion without concerning yourself with the result, for fruit is the byproduct of intention, passion and action.

One always needs a mentor, a guide who can provide light to your path, who can be a source of inspiration, who is trustworthy, who will guide you unconditionally...I was very fortunate to be shown the way to one without even knowing...and only because I was ready. "When the student is ready, the Teacher appears," I have repeated this mantra many times in the last 3 years.

The Universal guides are all around us in many shapes and forms. All we need is awareness, which comes from going inwards on a daily basis. I used to wonder how I would get answers to the millions of questions I seemed to face all the time. I realized that all answers are within us. They are always with us. We just need to dig deeper inside our own selves.

Another discovery I made was that I needed to go into my zones of utter discomfort to reach the answers... it is never easy, but the end result of such discomfort is complete freedom from the shackles we place on ourselves.

When you find the answers, questions stop being questions! There is so much inner wisdom that all situations look simple, and uncomplicated. There are only solutions, no problems. You just progress with joy in your heart, you get a step closer to the Source.

All external becomes trivial. You become thirsty for the internal. Your heart expands, and happiness bubbles. There remains no choice but to spread the overflowing joy with complete faith and gratitude :)