Today’s version of spirituality is largely just playing out one side of duality. ‘Spiritual’ to most people, indicates a state where one is always happy, positive and unaffected by everything around them.

This of course, sounds better than being negative. Ordinarily, a person faced with problems is weighed down by them, and unpleasant incidents float around in the mind, causing agony and frustration. Not a pleasant place to be.

So, once these people have gathered enough strength, or enough frustration, whatever the case, they switch to being positive. They refuse to be bothered by situations or people. They choose to be grateful for everything they have in life, and focus on only those things that bring a smile to their face. Sounds good, right? But is it?

Life is like a pendulum. You can spend some time on one extreme, but sooner or later you are going to swing to the other end. It is only a matter of time. That is why, people who become ‘positive’, always smiling and full of life, eventually have to come face to face with their own darkness.

The problem with positivity is that it is not all inclusive – it lives in denial of darkness, which means one lives a lie. Positive people eventually start having big problems with all the ‘negative’ people in their lives. In extreme cases, they pick up the diseased energies of everyone around them. Crowds are a nightmare.

Then they get together with other positive people and try to figure out how to throw the toxic people out of their lives. But that never happens, because it is through these people that life is trying to show them a mirror.

Both positive and negative people are just trying to solve the same problems, in different ways. Both are making the same mistake – assuming that there is a problem. Because, there isn’t.

As I mentioned, life is like a pendulum. We all swing from one side to another. Either you can live life experiencing intense emotions on both sides, or you can settle in the center with very little or no movement, experiencing neither misery nor ecstasy. It is your choice, both are ok.

It only becomes a problem when we reject what is happening. When we resist the flow, then we either need a positive or negative way of thinking to make sense of what is happening to us. This resistance creates either mental disturbance, physical disease, or both.

To truly transcend a life situation it is important to look at, acknowledge and accept every aspect of our selves, and of our lives. It is as it is. This is part of your story, a story that you wrote yourself before your birth because you had some lessons in mind.

Every emotion you experience is important and needs all of your attention. Every situation in life is important and needs all of you, so that you can get the most out of it. Life is not about ‘not getting affected’. It is about getting affected with abandon. Because in reality, you are that which fire cannot burn and water cannot drown, you are that which was never born and will never die. You are just playing. Might as well play it right, right?