To realize freedom, the mind has to learn to look at life, which is a vast movement without the bondage of time, for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness. Watch, but don't stop and interpret, "I am free" - then you're living in a memory of something that has gone. To understand and live now, everything of yesterday must die.

Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

This quote goes out to a friend:

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

This video goes with my previous article, "The Importance of Physical Fitness in Your Spiritual Journey." I think you will find it motivational and inspiring. The girl featured in the video, uses parkour as her activity (one of the components of a physical fitness routine I talked about) in order to provide an outlet to express herself creatively in a physical way.

It's a good video that shows how physical fitness can not only improve yourself physically, but also spiritually as well.

Photo courtesy of d_vdm

The adage of improving what's inside yourself to help you with things that are outside of you is a central component to the self help way of thinking. "You cannot love someone until you love yourself," - is an expression you have probably heard thousands of time. Personal development these days seem to focus solely on improving your inner game - your mental and spiritual health. For a lot of you, this is the reason you got into self improvement in the first place. It was a quest for more knowledge, more information. You wanted to understand - to make sense of it all.

The two components of your "self"

It is in the understanding of ourselves that fear comes to an end. If the individual is to grapple with life from moment to moment, if he is to face its intricacies, its miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable and, therefore, free of theories and particular patterns of thought.

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

Self-love involves a yes to myself in whatever I am going through, instead of holding on to some concept of what or how I should be. Any idea I have about who I am or who I should be is never accurate, for it always falls short of the living presence that I am, as this unfolds freshly in each new moment. Who I am is not a fixed entity but a dynamic stream of experiencing that is alive in every moment - when I let myself happen.

John Welwood, Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships: Healing the Wound of the Heart