Accepting Fortune
This Chinese New Year, my sis bought some lovely nail stickers and we had a lot of fun sticking them on during the reunion dinner.
All the wishes and sayings for a prosperous year literally on my fingers. Very auspicious indeed! 😊
It also sparked off an insight the next day which was Day 1 of Chinese New Year celebrations.
My parents decided to go along with my sis and I to visit my grandma so that they can hitch a ride with us in the car we booked.
As we planned to stay on longer at grandma’s to catch up with my extended family, I offered to grab a car for my parents who wanted to head home earlier.
But my mum vehemently disagreed. She said that they were not in a rush and didn’t want to waste money.
I wanted them to enjoy a comfortable ride home as they were both tired from all the preparations for Chinese New Year. They had to take 2 buses to get back home with a relatively long journey of almost 2 hours. Compared to 30 minutes by car.
But from past experience, I know that I cannot force my mum or it will escalate into an argument. So I had no choice but to respect their choice though my heart ached lots because I wanted to pamper them.
It also made me reflect about luck (which we spoke about in last week’s inbox) and fortune.
That we need to be open to accepting and enjoying good fortune when it arrives.
Instead of dismissing it due to our own beliefs or discomfort.
In my parents’ case, they wanted to take the public transport so that they can save money for me. It was their frugal nature. But I wanted them to enjoy a comfortable ride and it was money that I can afford to spend. In this case, they didn’t get to enjoy the good fortune that knocked on their door by their choice.
I can understand their reluctance because I am equally bad at enjoying good fortune at times. For example, my reluctance to accept business class tickets so that I can save money or during our club’s WOW Morning at W Hotel event in February when I did all the prep work by myself as I didn’t want to trouble others. It meant that I strained my injured knee unnecessarily through additional walking. So ‘unluckily’, I had to rest my knees for the next few days after the event. I could have prevented this and enjoyed good fortune?
I also see this reluctance to enjoy good fortune showing up in different ways in the lives of people around me.
Of course, we will have our reasons or beliefs for our choices. Yet when a belief becomes non-useful or cause discomfort, perhaps we need to review it. Or when we insist that goodness and fortune has to be a certain way.
When luck, good fortune or goodness presents itself, we must be open and willing to accept and enjoy that affinity.
The realisations have made me more open to embracing good fortune when it comes. When goodness comes my way, big and small, I welcome it warmly.
What about you, when good fortune and luck knocks on your door, will you say yes and enjoy it?
Are you ready to enjoy good fortune?
Reflection
Action
Your beliefs are like the operating system to your brain. They are one of the primary filters that determine what you delete and what you pay attention to. They determine how you perceive and interpret your experiences.
Beliefs act as self-fulfilling prophecies. They act as permission, as well as blocks to what we can do. They have to be acted on if they are to mean anything; therefore beliefs are principles of action, not empty ideals.
Beliefs are never absolutely true. For every belief, there is always a counter belief. Non-useful beliefs are called limiting beliefs (e.g. “Nobody will want to hire me, I am too old to learn this, I always make mistakes, I am stupid, I am a failure, I suck at relationships, I only attract jerks.”).
To be able to enjoy good fortune or manifest miracles in our life, it is important for us to review the beliefs that we have. To weed out those that are limiting.
When I went on my transformative journey to change my life, I realised I had a lot of negative beliefs and associations related to money, for example, that I should be contented with what I have, that only some people deserve to be rich, that it is my life’s lot to be just okay, that I should save money for others etc.
There is a great difference between being contented with what one has versus a poverty consciousness mindset. Only human minds alone can give rise to the negativity surrounding money. Religious indoctrination concerning money can also be damaging at times. For me to turn around my finances, I had to “reformat” my “mind disk” where the subject of money was concerned.
With the recent examples, I realised that I still had limiting beliefs to release. One, to stop feeling bad that I was troubling others and ask for help when needed. Two, to stop feeling bad about accepting the generosity of others.
A belief is not the absolute truth. Yet, oftentimes, we take it to be the truth.
A belief can seek to empower or dis-empower us. We need to discern.
When you have the opportunity, reflect on the beliefs that you might have about fortune, goodness and money. Are the beliefs useful or hindering you?
Practice for the Week
Happily embrace goodness that comes your way this week. Express gratitude each time.
