We will face obstacles throughout our life, however my arrival to Malaysia seemed to carry ‘obstacles’ as a central theme. Starting with a late arrival to Kuala Lumpur that found me walking the streets at 2am looking for a guesthouse with vacancy. The next day I took a taxi to the Indian Embassy to be told that visa services were in another part of the city, where upon arrival I was told in no uncertain terms that Indian tourist visa’s were not being issued to foreigners in Malaysia or neighbouring Singapore.
What to do? Not that long ago I would have been supremely irritated by these turn of events, but now I readily see them as the perfect opportunity to live my practice.
When we resist the reality of how life is (ie. ups and downs) we reinforce the illusory and negative mindset of how life “should” be and create resistance and suffering in our lives. By accepting the reality of what is (in my case, no visa), we are better able to get on with life as it is and flow.
In truth, things could be much worse and so, by creating a practice that builds equanimity, I feel grateful for what I do have and release negative emotions and mind labels of ‘bad’, ‘unfair’ and such.
Reflection:
Next time you are faced by a person, event or feeling that you automatically label as ‘bad’- step back and acknowledge how they are not inherently ‘bad’ but rather a mere reaction and projection of the mind. Realise you can make a choice to feed this and suffer or retract the finger of judgment and witness the situation as it is and move forward without the drama.
[BTW- I have forfeit my booked flight to Mumbai and will fly to Thailand to get a visa, but before then is Borneo!]
Om,
Dani
www.thatgirldani.com
Dani
