How do you celebrate your birthday every year ? Cakes, gifts, parties, outings and many such things are normally included in the celebration list. What about reflecting on your life gone so far? What about starting your new year with a new mindset and outlook based on your reflection?
Every birthday anniversary is special as one turns a year older after learning many lessons and experiencing new things year after year. However, one of the important milestones in one’s life is when one turns 40. Most of you will be aware that the official name for the 40th anniversary is Ruby Jubilee. The age between 40-50 years is a special period in one’s life as although we all support the saying "life begins at 40", it can also be rightly said that almost one half of a person’s life is over no matter how the person has lived those 40 years.
Let's briefly reflect on the first 40 years of one’s life:
Initial Period (0 – 10 years) – The only thing most of us remember in relation to these initial years of one’s life is through cute pictures that we may find stored in some old cupboard. We may also hear stories of our naughtiness and behaviour of our childhood days from our family and relatives. Toys, books, clothes and other things relating to this period are also kept by many for memories.
Development Period (11 – 25 years) – These years are spent in educating and learning many things to develop oneself in such a way that one becomes able to meet the expectations of the society. These years also relate to the anxiety and fear that we all have within ourselves regarding our future.
Settling Period (25 – 40 years) – These are the life changing years as one spends these years in settling in one’s career, getting married, bringing up children, meeting another level of expectations of the society, experiencing a mixed bag of emotions trying to secure the future and so on.
After spending these incredible 40 years, what is the status of a human being between the age of 40-50 years? To smoothly transition to the next important phase of one’s life after living the initial 40 years, one must reflect properly on themselves as part of their Ruby Jubilee birthday celebration. Below are few ideas on things to reflect by adopting a new outlook/ mindset:
1) Personal Qualities – Be true to yourself and reflect on your personal nature and qualities. We clean our physical self and homes daily but don’t bother to reflect on our nature and mindset and continuously suffer because of this. Vow to improve the personal qualities that are not healthy for your mind and that adversely impact your relationship with others.
2) Contentment – Almost everywhere in the world people are suffering for many reasons while we are blessed with many things in our life and no matter how much one has one will need more. Start practicing to be content as much as possible which comes through gratitude and forgiveness.
3) Do activities you enjoy – Start spending more and more time in doing the tasks (work related or other) which make you feel more satisfied, happy, calm and peaceful. Start finding other ways (such as investment returns, rental income on property, etc) to earn money rather than working like a machine 24/7, without any satisfaction.
4) Duty towards your soul: We all know that we are part and parcel of the Absolute Truth (God). After many births as different species, we get the human birth and in this birth only can one think about God. So, one should develop the habit to connect to God as this is one’s duty towards his/her soul and no one should waste the human birth without performing this crucial duty towards one’s soul. Enhancement of spiritual practice on a regular basis is also necessary.
5) Detox: As one turns older, one should realize that detoxifying is very important for advancement. For example, detoxifying the habit of complaining, detoxifying the habit of storing extra things without any use of them, detoxifying negative thinking for own self or others, detoxifying the habit of wasting time and so on.
Note to Readers - Although this post is dedicated for people turning 40 or who are currently in their 40s, the message from this post can be implemented by anyone irrespective of their age considering its advantage.
Related Post: Celebrating Birthdays and Anniversaries -
https://www.sthitapragyadiaries.com/post/celebrating-birthdays-and-anniversaries
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