How to live your life by Alan McDougall
In order to grow through life one must first establish a harmony within oneself, harness all our natural talents, gifts, formal and non-formal education towards the essential goals in life. Chose early that which you love and do the utmost to make that your career and you will not really have to work one day in your life. Establish a hierarchy of preferences and aim for those most realistic and highest on the list. Imagine you have only one year of life left and list the things you would do if this were all the time left for you. Incorporate this into the list, ranking all the events, and look at it. It should give you much food for thought in planning your journey through life.

Never ever, stop learning, even if you live to be one hundred years of age. Fascination with all things around you makes a rich and wonderful personality. A very high-developed sense of humour is of absolute prime importance in order to overcome the pitfalls of life. You might say, ‘well that’s all right for the young but I am middle aged or older, However no matter what ones age, do the suggested exercise and you will be amazed at the richness and opportunities out there still within your grasp. Life is rich and has so much to offer us all. Be positive in the midst of negativity by using that powerful tool, your sense of humour. Very important although not apparent to many persons is the absolute necessity of having a real soul mate and friend who travel’s the road of life with you. This might not necessarily be you spouse, amazing as this sounds. They are often not our eternal soul mate, strange as this might be to some. They are the ones with which we will share eternity.

Establish and maintain a link to the Divine, each one in their own personal way, be it by meditations, prayer, or contemplation of the glory of existence. Do whatever invigorates you the most. Make life fun, pleasurable, happy, joyful but never depraved. Sensuality is a wonderful gift if used correctly. Use this part of your psyche correctly and to the utmost. “Really, life should be exquisite, fun, pleasurable, enjoyable and glorious. Unhealthy obsessions must be avoided like a plague (religious fanaticism etc).

There are energy vampires, who will drain you of your life energy, leave you exhausted and depressed. Avoid them at all costs where practical. Make your friends are energy invigorators and be one yourself. Again, the key here is ones sense of humour. The mendacious are a pain and do not really make good company but sometimes we can overlook and just laugh at their ridiculous stories.

Of course, life is not always a bed of roses and those dark times will come to us all. Nevertheless, when in the long cold night of darkness of hopelessness and despair, one should always realize that the dawn will always come again and the sun shine warm once again upon ones cheek in the morning of joy. Take it from someone who really knows!
Oh! How important it is to be forgiving. Unforgiveness has no purpose and will fester like a malignant tumour and result in ill health, doing more harm to yourself than to the one you will not forgive. Love each other. However, how does one do this? Love is an action, so do love, even if you don’t feel it. Carry it out by actions. Compassion is a wonderful unique human quality, so enhance this within your being to the utmost degree.

Don’t allow anyone to take away from you that which you know is true to yourself. Honesty is the best policy and sometimes-absolute truth can hurt. Humanity consists mainly of good people, who are being held ransom by a minute evil 0000.1 few. Some religious fanatics say that humanity is intrinsically evil and destined to hell. However, I simply don’t buy into this nonsense.

Wisdom comes with the passing years, but ask children difficult questions and you will be amazed at their insight. Live life like an incandescent light, glowing brightly until you put off this mortal cloak and blink out of existence. In other words, live until your demise. Savour and cherish each glorious moment. Be careful not to say hurtful things to others because once the words have left your lips you can never take them back.

You legacy will become the heritage of those that come after you, and so what you do with your life is not only important to yourself. There is one companion that will be with you every moment of your life and you should love this person as much as you love anything in the whole world. This precious person is none other than you. Use and develop your intuition to a very high degree and it will help you from stumbling on the rocks along the pathways of Life. Have you not been aware when you come into a room and meet a stranger that there is an instant liking or dislike between the two of you? On the other hand, you have felt that a course of action was wrong and the closer you got the more uncomfortable you got with this course of action. These are examples of intuition, listen and adjust to them carefully and you could avoid much pain sorrow and anguish in your life.

The eye is the window to the soul, look into the eyes of a stranger and you will hear your mind saying “beauty, kind, shy, bad, ugly, evil” or remote etc. By just one careful look, one can read much about the character of one you do not know. When alarm bells ring in your mind, please listen to them.

You are truly absolutely 100% unique. There has never been one like you, there is now no one like you, and in all the future eternities, there will never be another just like. Of you fathers half billion sperm cells, only one reached you mother’s egg and this was you. No has ever had your unique genetic D.N.A. code or fingerprint. Are you not, therefore, very special and is it so wrong to love and respect the wonderful creation you are?

Go outside or get away from the noise of the city and in the quiet of early morning listen carefully, you will hear the birds chirping like beautiful electrons in the mind of God. Take in the glory of existence all around and feast your eyes on its beauty. You know, of all the countless trillions of snowflakes, leaves, flowers, and no two are identical and each one is a unique creation of the Divine mind of God. Feel the breeze upon your skin, smell the fragrance of the universe bath in the glory and joy of you existence. Be at peace with yourself and all the rest of the universe. You are a child of the universe, so special and wonderful. Develop the dormant senses beyond the five that are not utilized, and you will merge yourself in the wonder of the cosmic mind.

Take your mind into the place of unimaginable beauty and wonder, go on a journey into places you have never been and go further into the cosmic vastness of the beauty of the universe, with the power of imagination. What is the purpose of life? It is to live it to the full, without hurting others or doing the depraved. Charity is wonderful gift to the soul. Question everything with a sense of anticipation and wonder. Love and respect your mortal body, as it is the vehicle that takes on this journey through mortal life on earth. However, know this your consciousness or life energy is eternal and continues on forever, beyond the last curtain of life on this blessed earth. Planet earth is our beloved mother and we must preserve her, love her and cherish her in all her blue glory. She is a blue blazing diamond glowing brightly in the vastness of the universe. Love all gods’ creatures. Get all your priorities in order. Spouse, companion, family and children first. A balance in life between ones occupation and home life is essential or the psyche becomes unbalanced and depression and anxiety will take hold of you. Take much time to be with the one you know best, namely, yourself.

Life is a school and if you do not pass a test, you will repeat it repeatedly until you have passed it and only then be able to move on. Life made up of countless choices and each choice could ultimately determine and define ones destiny. Refer back to chapter one!

How we maintain good health, I think by developing a powerful sense of humour, much laughter and exposing one to things we find extremely funny. Then having sufficient exercise combined with a balanced died of fish and a combination of as many brightly coloured fruit and vegetables as one can afford. Genetic proposition unfortunately plays a factor not always under our control. Red meat should be restricted to the rare occasion. Remember, your body is the temple of your soul and if you pollute it with toxic substances, you will suffer the consequences thereof.

What about pollution of the mind? Yes, one must be very careful about what you allow into the gateways of your mind. As a young boy, I was shown terrible photo that horrified me and gave my young mind the idea that sex was an evil perversion. This horrible image of nearly sixty years ago still haunts me and remains implanted in the basement of my mind. Once we have looked at filth, it is with us all the days of our lives, imbedded deep within the brain.

Look, listen, read and enjoy that which is good and healthy to the mind. Guard all the doors or inputs to your mind; you are the one that permits these images or sounds into your brain. What we allow into our minds in of such prime importance that it cannot overstated.

I, however, acknowledge that the complexities and realities of life are much more complex than what I have written in my brief essay and thousands of voluminous unreadable books have been written of this subject. Therefore, the above is my humble attempt by it what it may.

By Alan McDougall
Composed 12/7/2007