We are responsible for every thought, word and deed of ours. The ancient masters said we are the owner of our deeds and we are the result of them.

Once we understand the concept of...

AS WE SOW, SO WE REAP

... we will understand that whatever we get out of our lives is a result of what we have planted in our mind. Our past mental imprints determine our present situation in life, and the mental imprints that we plant now will determine our future situation.

The ancient sages liken this to planting a garden. If we want a beautiful garden, we will have to selectively plant beautiful plants. What is equally important is that we must constantly pull out the weeds. Without doing that, our garden will be overrun by weeds, obscuring the beautiful plants.

Likewise, to plant for a beautiful life, we must select only the mental imprints that we want, and constantly weed out the unuseful or harmful mental imprints. This, of course, requires constant mindfulness. We need to continuously guard what goes pass our conscious mind into our subconscious mind.

What this means is that ...

WE ARE FULLY RESPONSIBLE AND ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR LIVES

We cannot blame anyone or anything for what is happening in our lives. Unfortunately, we often have this unhealthy tendency to blame someone or something. We unconsciously look for someone to blame when things go wrong in our lives rather than accept that we reaped what we sow.

Funnily, though, when good things come into our lives, we somehow believe we deserve them. We rarely look outside for someone to praise. If we would blame others for the bad things, why do we not praise others for the good things in our lives?

Blaming others is our way of avoiding taking responsibility for our lives. As long as we do that, we will never be the master of our lives. To counter this unhealthy tendency, we should instead cultivate a sense of gratitude towards all that we received.

One of the ways I do this is by repeating the following poem like a mantra as often as I can remember:

Thank you for the abundance,

Thank you for the wealth;

Thank you for all the happiness,

Protections and Good Health.

Repeat this mantra consistently every night before you sleep and you'll soon experience the pleasant changes in your life.

EXERCISE

Here are two other methods you can use to cultivate a sense of gratitude:

1. The Gratitude Book

At the end of each day, review your day and count your blessings. Write these down in a little note book. You may call this note book your Gratitude Book. By doing this consistently, you'll be retraining your mind to focus on the positive aspects of your life. Why is this important? Because like attracts like. The more you focus on the positive in life, the more positive things will come your way.

2. Altruistic Joy

Altruistic joy is a concept borrowed from the Buddhists. It means rejoicing at other people's good fortune. This practice counters our tendency to be envious of another person's success. Each time we rejoice at other's success, we are basically planting joyful imprints in our mind, thereby sowing seeds of joy for our own future.

Dr. Tim Ong is a medical doctor who has a keen interest in self improvement and personal transformation. In his free time, he teaches meditation and gives public talks. He is also the webmaster of MindScienceInfo.com. Sign up for his mind transforming newsletter by sending a blank email to transformnow@aweber.com.