Wearing the right lenses.

The clock strikes 12 midnight and a message beeps on my phone. “Happy 40th Birthday” with emoticons of a smiley and a cake and balloons. More than the noise of the clock striking 12 and the message beep on my phone, a loud noise struck inside my head – “Oh my God - 40th birthday, are you kidding ??? ”.

I used to think I had a lot of time in hand … but No … guess that was a big myth … I am already at mid-point, with the most positive assumption that I have a life of 80 approx, if not 100, considering today’s average human life span. Tears started rolling down my eyes at the thought of being at that age and seeing that I have reached nowhere really to claim credit for. I am still with wounds and scratches everywhere on my body and mind and I am far from getting healed.

I sat on my desk and started to pen my journal, a habit which I picked up few months back. That seemed enough so I started a post series titled “Wisdom@40” on Facebook. My friends and cousins and friends all used to tease me a lot on the newly gained wisdom but no one had any point to object or rule it over. Ofcourse the list of learnings is endless and it is always one to his own but sharing few pointers down here that the test of time over these years has taught me, personally.  And in all honesty, right now I am decently okay with this.

1. A basic daily discipline helps maintain the balance in life and keeps us away from many health hazards – physical and emotional, to a large extent.
2. Starting the day with a note of “Gratitude” absorbs stress miraculously. No matter how hard life has treated you in the past, it still has something to offer you new every day. So getting up each day to thank the supreme energy for what you are left with “still” is a good start and end to the day. It is perhaps the only answer to deal all life problems. It takes our focus off from the complains for what we don’t have onto what we do have. 
3. Having our own money. Money gives a different kind of self-confidence. It is a necessary evil. 
4. Attachment to anything or anyone can be the most painful experience. Maintaining a one hand distance with all can be a beautiful exercise to maintain a good and balanced relationship with everyone and everything. 
5. Learn the “Let-go” formula. It is extremely tough but that’s how it works the best, I am sure.
6. Be your own best friend. Nothing can be a bigger bliss than this. There may come many moments in life when we realize we have everyone around but we have no one really at the same time. 
7. Learning to accept life as it comes is a great ability. This comes only with surrender. By cultivating this a little more everyday will only make us stronger and stronger day by day.
8. The only communication that has a magical effect is our communication with the universe. No one else is there really to listen. 
9. Understand your own limits. No point in stressing ourselves with more than we can take. No one will share the stress on our shoulder. After all our shoulder is only ours. 
10. Try keeping your expectations to the bare minimum. Expectations can be suicidal.
11. Nothing happens as and when we wish and want. Learning the open secret – “patience”, always helps. That’s how nature operates.
12. The hill is hard to climb but you will eventually get to the top by taking baby steps. Being persistent in our efforts definitely shows results.
13. No matter what, never look back with regret. Treat by-gones to be by-gones and keep looking forward. It would always help to weave a new dream for a beautiful tomorrow and that builds hope.
14. Invest less on PEOPLE. No one gives a life time guarantee. It is important to find our passion in which we can get completely lost. Discovering something we love to do has an amazing effect on our entire life. Essentially, it is what will keep us going when times are rough.
15. Whenever fear comes to us, we need to remember that someone is up there to protect us. Placing our trust on it unconditionally with the firm belief that sooner or later it will definitely listen to us, always builds courage. 
16. Forgiveness is the key to our own mental peace. Holding grudges against anyone only hollows us from within. If a feeling comes that anyone has done wrong to us, it works wonders to just surrender to our own fate with folded hands, head bowed down, no matter how much of tears roll down, handing over the person to life and moving on with our head high that we did not do anything wrong and we gave your best, wipes tears away. 
17. People can really test your patience. Take 3 attempts to make them understand and then leave them. First we are only responsible for ourselves and second we are all different individuals - unique in our own way – respecting the uniqueness is important.
18. Always maintain a journal. Journaling one’s own reflections at the end of the day is a great way to end the day. It helps you introspect and heal yourself from within.
19. Loving oneself and always keep yourself as our priority is not being selfish. Ignoring self never helps. You have to love yourself, before you can love others. When you look into the mirror, smile at yourself and be proud of yourself.  
20. Last but not the least, always be positive and open to receiving Grace. It is the biggest magic that can happen in anyone’s life.  

Life is always full of learnings. It teaches us at every step. Looking back at my own life, today I realize, though a bit late in life and I learnt it the hard way without doubts, today I am grateful for everything that led me to this. All the challenges I faced were all worth it for the story of my life and making me who I am today.  Moving forward, I know I have to keep reminding myself all these points at regular time intervals, for I know that if I fail to remember these then I would fall flat again. Universe has certainly given me the basic education to deal with life in future and I am supremely grateful.

These are just few very basic pointers to life that I have personally learnt from my own experiences.

Life can be actually a beautiful roller coaster ride if we know the tricks of how to live it and wear the right lenses.