Benefits of opening up your spiritual side

Being known as a spiritual person many may think is something to not brag about. Many people I speak to about it say that a lot of stigma is attached to the idea, thus putting many people off. However, I realised while travelling the world just how many more doors were opening up to me just by having an open heart, appreciating the moments I was in (not rushing away my time) and connecting to energy around me. It’s so easy to allow other people’s energy to rub off on you – whether that be for the good or for the bad, so it’s important we protect ourselves.

I find that when I meditate or even pray in bed at night I find that my mind offers me new ideas and solutions to my problems that were otherwise not there. Have faith, have a warm heart and always be nice to people, then you will never go wrong in life!!

Something I recommend to anyone while travelling is to travel write. For me, it really allowed me to express myself and learn about other cultures. Not only that, but I could share my experiences with the world and others would be educated by my explorations, which is a great bonus.

If society were run by community rather than a governed system full of rules and boundaries, everyone would probably be a lot more spiritual. It’s about accepting your friend, family or even stranger for who they are, or who they want to be. Give them space to breath and be – we should never try to change a person.

So open up your heart and your mind and don’t restrict yourself to this world’s beautiful and amazing possibilities. We need to make history as a person, even if that means leaving a family legacy behind.

Your life is your book – so write it the way you want it. 🙂

Traditions are changing

Isn’t it wonderful how traditions are changing? Women no longer have to rely on men for empowerment or recognition, as women are now breadwinners as are men. In my grandparents time it was a norm for women to stay at home and manage the family while the men went out to work. Duties were split heavily and both people knew their roles. Now the roles seem to be blurred and shared a lot more – there is a greater deal of equality, which in my opinion, is for the better.

I know hear many of my friends telling me how they can’t wait to get on their career ladder and marriage and children will be coming much later in their life. This mentality is VERY different to how it used to be as the paradigm has shifted and women are now just as much business-minded as are men. It has meant, however, that men and women (in a lot of situations) are sharing more stress as they both work, they both manage the home and the both have to bring up their children. This consequently could mean that children are spending less time with their parents and more time with a nanny, so whether this is a great transformation in society for the children involved is unknown.

All that is entirely true is that times have changed and will only continue to change. Women and men are swapping roles and to be honest, it’s very hard to keep up. Expectations fluctuate but all that remains true, and true to me as a person, is I will always remain myself – Miss Gemma Leigh Smith and continue to be the best person I can be!

‘Antidote’

“The world is sick” – people have forgotten what it is like to truly live and feel so unconscious as to where they want to go in their lives. It seems that people are searching for joy on their telephones, when in-fact social media isn’t that social AT ALL, and won’t bring about much joy in the slightest. So what can be done?

As I have previously written, the shopping mall has become the new church, so perhaps by touching in and enjoying the conversations with the people in our company when it exists is a great starting point. People seem to be so wrapped up in themselves these days that they cannot even open the door for another person or help an elderly person with their shopping. If we see someone struggling, surely we should stick together and help? To give back is an amazing feeling, and imagine what the world would be like if everyone did one voluntary thing for somebody else every week – I’m sure it would be a much better, happier place.

All forms of addictions can be considered as an escapism – to take someone from reality to another place where no worry exists. They feel worry free, and most of us are guilty and have an addiction of our own, whether that’s Facebook or drinking alcohol, but what we should stop and ask ourselves is does that really solve the problem? We know the answer to that, yet it still doesn’t stop us.

Just by being thankful for what we have and showing gratitude the universe WILL give you more things to be grateful for, it’s the fact of life. If we moan and complain, become selfish and centered on our own needs without taking into consideration the needs of others, it becomes an isolated, one-way society. Don’t we all want togetherness? I find that I’m happiest when I’m with my family, and we are all sat round laughing and telling jokes, because we are all in the present moment and the feeling of sharing joy with another being is priceless. A mobile phone doesn’t make us happy nor does having a network of over 3,000 people on Twitter or Facebook because none of that is in REAL life – this is what we need to remember. So next time you want to meet a friend or even catch up with someone, why not call them? Or why not write them a letter? Create the intimacy that has been lost for such a long time now; I think it’s caught up in something. That something being the Internet.

The shopping mall is the new church

“The shopping mall is the new church” – when I first heard that statement I was like what? It took me quite some time to figure it out, but actually it makes a lot of sense.

So consumerism and the need to shop has become the new faith in practice. It is evident and felt, especially on the weekends when you can hardly shop comfortably as it is so busy, and every one else has the same idea that you had. Britain is known to be a Christian nation, but is this the case anymore? The only people I know that still go to church and follow a faith are my grandparents.

This generation seems to have become stuck and lost in what they are doing, most people hardly even know who they are anymore. The constant ‘want’ to be and have for drives humanity insane, whether they realise it or not, so undoubtedly the shopping mall is the new church in today’s world.

And how can this change? Well if more people speak up that is definitely a great place to start. Sitting back and remaining quiet doesn’t solve a thing, and having the attitude of ‘what’s the point, how can I make a difference on my own?’ is not the right way either. Imagine if everyone felt like this, it would be an awful place to live in.

Life is beautiful as I constantly express throughout my blog, but only when it is lived to the full capacity. It’s about seeing, and not only looking. To get in touch with our higher self is a magnificent experience, which can be reached and accessed by going to church, repenting our sins and salvation and letting go of the baggage that sits on so many of our shoulders.

It really doesn’t have to be that difficult, we just make it that way.

Natural beauty

Natural beauty – isn’t this something everyone should be proud of us. I mean, how fantastic is it that there is only one of us. There is no double, no recreation, no one that thinks in the same way as us, no one that looks the way that we do, don’t you just love yourself?

The misconception people have about loving oneself is that it is a beautiful thing, and a beautiful journey. How can you expect to love somebody else if you cannot find the love from within to love yourself? You find the beauty within you so you are able to find the beauty in others, and it’s a beautiful quality to have.

With the media being so pressurising and influential in how we are supposed to look and fit in, many girls and even guys can feel intimidated by their appearance and that they are simply not good enough. They feel as though they always have to keep up and compete, which is why school, college and university has somewhat turned into a miniature fashion parade but a daunting one.

This monopolises and has an effect on parents who face the moaning from their children asking for a new this or a new that, just because their friends has one or the latest ‘in thing’. It isn’t fair, but what we should be teaching our children and even our friends is that every one is beautiful just the way they are and those who don’t confine and don’t copy are even more unique and special, because it’s about being happy in your own skin no matter what society surrounds you in.

Keep smiling and keep believing because natural beauty really is amazing. And what is even more credible is that confidence as a trait is the most attractive trait in the world. You could have all the looks but have no personality to radiate and share, making you instantly unattractive, boring and just like every other person who strives just to look good. Be different and stand out, and love who you are.

You got to love love

What is the point in success if it can’t be shared with anyone?

How important is love to you, and what exactly does it mean? Love is a huge word in the dictionary – probably the biggest – and it means something different to everyone.

To begin, there are many different types of love. Love for a friend, love for a job, love for a partner/fiance/husband or wife, love for a particular genre of music and so on. We can love our animals unconditionally and even love our God with every part of us.

‘To love is to be vulnerable.” We are opening ourselves up to someone or something in a way that may end recklessly. When we love we are taking the risk of that love being destroyed and taken away from us, that is why it is important to not love with every part of you. Hold a bit back, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Numerous times I have seen people love and lose what they considered to be ‘the best thing that has ever happened to them’. It feels like your whole world is upside down when you lose that special person or thing in your life. When it becomes such a big part of it and all of a sudden it vanishes it is normal for us to feel empty.

But time is a great healer, and as one door closes one door opens. Staying hopeful, open-minded and not wholeheartedly devoting yourself to one thing will allow you to leave room for yourself: love yourself through and through, because at the end of it all you are not going anywhere.

You got to love love.

It can bring out the best in us, and it is an amazing feeling when we meet the right person that helps us to be the best person we can be. Laughing endlessly and having jokes like best friends would do so, feeling alive when you’re around that thing or person you love are all feelings that are addictive. So wearing our hearts on our sleeves can be dangerous.

One thing I would like to end it on: Trust cannot be expected, it has to be earned.

Doubt That Tries To Get In The Way

It troubles my mind sometimes when doubt creeps in to your mind and you begin to question everything in life. 

Why is it so unfair and divided in the world with people deprived of enough food when there is more than enough to go around to feed everyone? Am I on the right road to what I’m supposed to do? Is there more that I could be doing to help people and give something back?

It can be troubling and worrying but what one wise man once told me, all we can do is “lead by example”, and hopefully the positivity you radiate from yourself as a being will reflect onto others. 

Then I remember that we are all human and it’s quite normal for us to doubt things, the world and even the people that we associate ourselves with. 

Association has a huge effect on the way we view the world even if we fail to see it for ourselves. A ‘vision’ is shared and distilled into our minds, perhaps one that may be out of character to who we actually are and then we become influenced. 

All I know now is that we just need to take it one step at a time and not plan too far into the future because you never know what tomorrow may bring. Looking too far into the ‘long-haul’ can distract you from now, and can make us not appreciate what is in-front of us when it exists. 

When we sit back and live in the present moment there are no worries, Hakuna Matata, as they say in the very famous Lion King!

Shining light on the generation of today

Being the observant individual that I am, I noticed some rare behaviour on the national railway the other day.

A group of young teenagers – they were no older than 16 years old – were conversing out loud about drugs as a conversation, bringing the topic to life in a positive mannerism.

You could see the expressions on other people’s faces change when they could overhear it, and it makes you realise just how quickly the generations are growing up now and getting to grips with society and all of the bad stuff within it. Quite scary really.

Having never experienced a bad train journey before I was quite shocked at the language of this ‘youth’ generation. I also have a young sister myself who is 12 years old, and it shuns light on the possible conversations she may be having with her friends now or in the future, and just how important education is for these young teens in today’s world about such topics.

Parents can desperately try and wrap their children up in cotton wool, but does this really prohibit what happens outside of the house? Too much discipline and strict rules can make children rebel and want to be mischievous even more, so I think a good balance is needed in freedom and education/awareness.

To top off my journey there was a group of young boys of a similar age who decided to torment a couple as they tried to leave the train. A young mum with her child in her arms decided to raise her voice, swear and pull angry expressions at this group which only caused a heap more of problems. One thing lead to the next and the verbal language continued to stir the carriage. Horrific is the best way to describe it.

So don’t be vulnerable and don’t shut your eyes to the evident issues in the modern age. It will happen inevitably – completely out of our control – and all we can do is lead by example. Be the change you want to see in the world said a wise man – Gandhi.

What makes you truly happy?

It can take a while figuring out what makes you truly happy, and quite often until you’ve experimented you may not ever know. It’s the same for job choices. We may get an internship somewhere with a company we thought we would never work for, but when we try something different there’s a chance of us finding ourselves or discovering skills you never knew existed.

I’m 42, and I still don’t know if this is the right job for me.

One of my parents friends said that to me, and I was a little shocked. Generally it’s thought that during your 20s you are chasing that dream career, and when you get to your 30s/40s you’re quite settled and content with most areas of your life. But that doesn’t apply to everyone!

– Life is all about balance –

A little bit of this and a little bit of that. Mixing things up a bit and keeping it alive and real. It’s important to not let things become a habit or routine in your life to the point you feel that something isn’t right but your too stuck in a rut to change anything. It can feel disappointing when your instinct disagrees with your current situation and change is frightening.

We only accept what we choose to accept.

Life is one big adventure

Do you know what it feels like to live on the edge? Do you feel daring enough?

Something I have had figured out lately is that life is full of challenges, and every day we are faced with either a routine or spontaneity. I heard someone say to me today how they volunteered to work for a radio company for 2 years of their life, without getting paid during both of those years, just for the passion for that particular industry; and that only.

I would much rather do something I love and not get paid for it than go to work every day dreading what I do; it would make me so miserable

An amazing outlook, I thought. It’s fascinating nowadays how many people you speak to that say that they are chasing this big dream job just for the money. When you dissect the core interest in the profession, it is usually very minimal.

“Money makes the world go round.” – You must all of heard that one before. It sure does, but I would rather make money for a difference than let it make me different. With lots of money, usually comes more responsibility. Life is all about balance, acting on impulse and doing what you love best.

So this is where I correlate back to ‘living on the edge’, and exploring your “adventurous” side. Before I went travelling back in 2012, I was the most shy girl in my class. I would never had said boo to a goose, and my parents were so shocked that I decided to take the leap of faith and explore the world: on my own. I done it though, and it was the best thing I ever did up to this point in my life. It grew me as a person, it helped me learn things about myself I never previously knew and I had the opportunity to make friends all over the planet.

Life is one big adventure, so why not live your dreams and don’t hold yourself back from what it is you really want to do? Don’t let an external factor of way, a way of living or another person dictate – only you know what it is that makes you truly happy!