What life-lessons have I learned lately?

1. Do not be so arrogant as to think you can achieve your goals on your own (that is, from the standpoint of the separate self); instead, trust in the divine within you. Trust in God, just as the Israelites trusted in God to win their battles. When they turned away from God, they would lose because submission and trust is the only way to achieve.
2. Men should not have to conform to the standards of “being tough” or “real men don’t cry.” I learned recently that being vulnerable, while uncomfortable, actually gives you a chance to receive compassion from others and strengthen your connections with them.
3. Don’t always trust authority figures just because they are called as such; there is no king, president, or parliament but God and the divine spark within oneself.
4. Inner peace is not about always being happy; it is about being content even when going through an emotional rollercoaster.
5. To really empower oneself and others, one needs to affirm a connection with the divine Source and recognize oneself as a divine spirit having a human experience.
6. For distance runners, start conservative, especially if you are prone to starting too fast. The last mile, give it a comfortably hard push beyond the pace you have been going. Sprint to the finish once you can see it. More importantly, don’t overthink it.
7. Avoid biased news sources, whether CNN or Fox or MSNBC. These can be helpful for getting basic information, but be very skeptical of the ways these are presented.
8. Sexual self-awareness; human pain, suffering, emotion, and joy; awareness of the inevitability of death; having to make ethical decisions; working at a career or job to make a living; and self-consciousness and fear of the thoughts of others are actually beneficial initiations into divine consciousness, or, as the Bible puts it, “knowledge of good and evil.”
9. Rape culture is not the notion that people are just going around saying rape is a good thing. Rather, it is a multitude of cultural micro-aggressive attitudes, narratives, and portrayals that are slippery slopes to complacency about rape.
10. Religious movements that demean women through gender roles contribute to rape culture by making society believe that men have an innate, God-given superiority to, and thus authority over, women.
11. Find a way to get a catchy nickname if you want to get closer to others. I don’t know why, but it really works.
12. When speaking in public, scan the audience before and after you speak to connect with the audience better.
13. Patriarchy was not a deliberate attempt of men to oppress women. Rather, the origins of society happened to come from males and so were chiefly concerned with matters that pertain to males. Feminism tries to deconstruct the bias within that framework.
14. Social anxiety can be seen as a blessing, not a curse. While difficult, it is a special path to divine knowledge of self-consciousness.
15. Music can be a beautiful way to raise awareness about suicide and mental health issues.
16. It is not just victims of cyberbullying who suffer; cyberbullies suffer, too, and it is the responsibility of human beings as a community to help such individuals through their pain and insecurity.
17. Be careful about joking on social media; people might not take it as a joke, and there can be serious consequences.
18. Cynicism (as in Greek philosophy, not a negative view of the world) and the path of Jesus of Nazareth (imitatio Christi) is a brilliant way to live in light of the current environmental crisis.
19. Socializing is important. Don’t take on too much, or you will lose time to socialize, and this can lead to depression.