By: BK Shivani
Source: The Daily Guardian
Dated: September 27th, 2025
Each thought we create, each word we speak should be such that it raises the quality of our vibrations. Life is not about the situations we face; it is about the way we respond to them. We allow ourselves to be saddened, irritated, worried by small things - a scratch on my phone, a dent on the car. These minor issues drain our energy, and one day a bigger situation comes along, and we do not have the power to face it.
We need to prize our spiritual well-being above everything else. We are eternal souls on a long journey, of several lifetimes. Everything we have - our achievements, possessions, family, friends - will cease to be with us one day. We will either lose them along the way or leave them when we leave our body. But there is one thing we will not lose - the way we responded to the scenes of life and the consequent karma that was created. It is recorded in the soul.
In every situation, we have three options - create a thought that weakens us; a thought that keeps our energy level stable; or one that makes us stronger. Suppose you are driving home with your family in your new car, and the car gets dented. The right thought in such a situation would be: 'It is just a dent... everything else is fine... we are all safe'. But what happens quite often is that if another driver happens to so much as scratch our car, we get upset, angry, step out, argue with that person, or blame the one sitting in our car: ‘You were talking, that is why I was distracted and did not see the other car." Whether it is a scratch, a dent, or serious damage, we end up depleting our power. When we leave our body, the car will not go with us. But the thoughts, emotions, the blaming... all the karma we created, has been recorded in the soul forever.
When we are being photographed, we take care to look our best. We can be equally mindful of how we live life. Every scene is being recorded in the soul - in terms of how we perceive it and respond to it. Photographs can be edited, but the recording in the soul cannot be edited. What we are today is the result of recordings we made earlier - maybe in this lifetime, or in past lives, as the immortal soul carries a record of everything it has experienced. Sometimes there is a scene that agitates us, angers us, leave us stressed. The next day we realise that it was a small matter and we need not have bothered so much about it. But we cannot undo the recording of negative emotions we created.
This is why it helps to live with awareness – knowing that each thought and action is being recorded in the soul, and will shape my destiny. My destiny is not determined by the people or situations I face, but by how I perceive and respond to them. My perception and response, in turn, are influenced by how I label the situation. If I call it a crisis, my feelings would correspond to that label; if I see it as a challenge, my feelings would be less distressing; if I just call it a situation, I am unlikely to be worried. But if I decide that there is some benefit in the situation, or a lesson I can learn, then my feelings about it would be entirely different.
We can choose to see, or label, challenging people and situations in a way that keeps us positive and stable. This may not resolve the situation, but we will come out stronger from the experience. When we start doing this regularly, nothing will feel too difficult in life. Problems will become valuable lessons that we will enjoy learning - to emerge wiser and stronger.
BK Shivani is a well-known motivational speaker and Rajyoga teacher.
