By Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

I woke up this morning to find that fog was everywhere outside, which made me want to get out to nature and see what it’d look like in the haze.

Especially when I see fog, I get the feeling that this land contains an ancient energy that’s accessible in meditation or by simply getting out and enjoying the environment, and I couldn’t resist the call to get out there.

My wife thought it’d be a great opportunity to get some pictures, so we set out for one of our favorite spots.

I realized during our time out there that anything can be beautiful if we let it. Even the foggiest environment can be serene, and all we have to do is open our eyes to see that beauty is everywhere – even the in the ugliest or foggiest places.

The human mind has a knack for judging people, places or situations as ‘bad’ or ‘good, ‘pretty’ or ‘ugly’, and this tendency can keep us from seeing the beauty that exists all around, which we can pick up on if we’re willing to open up.

Throughout all of the judgments, labels and expectations, we’ve forgotten that everything about our existence can be heavenly. We don’t have to use this concept as an excuse to ignore or run from the bad things in life, and it can actually help us see them through a new lens.

When we become truly aware, we realize that there’s beauty in everything. The warmest spring days and the harshest winter days have something to offer; something to teach, and even when we’re in unfavorable circumstances, we can take a moment to find the good in them.

Nothing about this reality has to bring us down or keep us from shining our light, and only when we let our minds complicate things do we fail to see the splendor all around us.

Alan Watts told us that the ego is “nothing other than the focus of conscious attention”, and when we focus too heavily on one aspect of life, we miss out on what all the other aspects have to offer.

I’ll use an example.

If we’re focused so heavily on the arrival of summer that we forget to appreciate the white snow draped over the grass and trees in winter, we’ll miss out on the beauty that exists in that moment, which we could enjoy if we weren’t so focused on something we think is worthier of our attention.

Like a lot of spiritual teachers and writers have told us, being grounded in the present moment is the best way to enjoy life. Only when we’re rooted in the present can we appreciate the things around us, and this requires an open mind (and heart) and the willingness to embody the silence of the sacred self.

We can learn a lot about ourselves and our existence when we quiet the mind and take some time to meditate, and meditation teaches us to appreciate the world’s heavenliness. We realize in meditation that we have nothing left to strive for; nothing left to gain or earn, and our mere existence is enough.

Similarly, we realize that we don’t have to expect so much from the world just to enjoy life. We can enjoy life under our current circumstances, and the world doesn’t have to conform to our expectations for us to find happiness or wholeness.

As naïve as it might sound, everything is perfect the way it is and it’s only the mind that convinces us it isn’t. Foggy days can be just as great as the clear, sunny days we all enjoy, and we can even enjoy the cold winter days if we’re open, aware and grounded in the present.

It all comes down to our perspective, and the world can either be great or awful depending on how we see it.

If our perspective is positive and we don’t go out of our way to avoid the negative things in life, we’ll obviously enjoy a more positive, wholesome existence and we won’t feel like anything needs to change before we can be at peace.

Peace and positivity will be constant when we transcend the anger, stress and frustration that take us out of our peaceful center, and all it takes to permanently transcend them is to recognize that everything – the good and the bad – is perfect the way it is.

It might seem paradoxical, but there’s beauty in the ugliness and peace in the chaos. For the most part, we’re here to embody the beauty and peace that can become constant aspects of our existence, and this is why staying positive is so important.

Some people, even in the conscious community, don’t think we should try to stay positive because they think it’s an excuse to avoid anything bad or negative. Again, as long as we don’t try to avoid the negative things that happen on this world every day, there’s no reason we shouldn’t stay positive.

It certainly won’t keep us from raising our vibration, and while the dark is as much a part of our existence as the light, meditation and centeredness help us see that love, joy and all of the other uplifting qualities are meant to permeate us.

They’ll permeate us in the higher realms, so why shouldn’t we feed them while we’re here in the lower?

We’re leaving behind anger, hatred, division and all these qualities that have kept us from understanding our true nature, and we’re learning to cultivate love, peace, joy and everything else that helps us see that life isn’t the burden it’s been made out to be.

Life can be joyful and heavenly if we let it, and all it takes is the willingness to shift our perspective and cultivate these centered yet undeniably light and happy qualities.

This will help us transform our life in wonderful and profound ways, and when we can shift into a permanently peaceful, content state of mind while exploring any negativity that comes up from within (or from the world), we’ll have finally discovered the secret to an enjoyable, free-flowing existence.

We’ll have discovered the secret so many masters and enlightened teachers have tried to show us, and we’ll have discovered it on our own, without the need for any external assistance. We hold the key to our happiness and wholeness, and the condition of the outside world has little to do with it.

Our inner condition has everything to do with it, and searching for the good in life doesn’t mean we have to avoid the bad. It just means we’re willing to look to the skies instead of down at our feet, and I don’t see anything wrong with that.

Society might, but I’m not talking about filling our heads with rainbows and unicorns.

I’m talking about going out of our way to find the rainbow in the rainstorm and appreciating it as much as we appreciate the storm, because they’re both powerful acts of nature that deserve some attention and appreciation.

Share freely.

I’m a twenty-one year old writer, blogger, musician and channel for the creative expression of the Universe, and I created The Culture of Awareness daily news site.

The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, articles I’ve written, and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material about the fall of the planetary elite and a new paradigm of unity and spirituality.

I’ve contributed to a few different spiritual websites including The Master Shift, Waking Times, Golden Age of Gaia, Wake Up World and Expanded Consciousness. I can also be found on Facebook ( and ) and , and I write a paid weekly newsletter that you can subscribe to for $11.11 a month .