Why Yoga & Meditation is Good for You

In the rush of life, the pressure to meet timelines to deliver results, the desire to achieve some kind of superiority leading to frustrations caused by ambitions not reached, excessive indulgence in sense pleasures due to greed as well as habits, the cognitive apparatus gets disheveled, defiled, drained and tired, leading to symptoms of stress and burnout.

Unless you energise and infuse this cognitive apparatus with Vital Life Energy (Prana) you will be unable to perform tasks satisfactorily, with creativity and enthusiasm. A tried and tested way of energising yourself is Yoga in its broadest sense, which is not limited to the practice of just posture based excercises known as Hatha-Yoga.

195 Yoga aphorisms, known as Yoga Sutras, were compiled in the early centuries CE, by the sage Patanjali in India who synthesised and organised knowledge about Yoga from much older traditions.

The Yoga aphorisms are best known for the reference to 8 elements of practice culminating in a state of meditative consciousness of the mind, by concentration on something, leading to meditative absorption, and with regular practice, the development of a luminous mind which is equanimous and mindful.

The 8 elements of Yoga practice are:

1. Abstinences (Yama)
2. Observances (Niyama)
3. Yoga postures (Asana)
4. Breath control (Pranayama)
5. Withdrawl of the senses (Pratyahara)
6. Concentration of the mind (Dharana)
7. Meditation (Dhyana)
8. Absorption (Samadhi)

The main aim is to reach a state where you are untouched by the highs and lows of a dual world by transitioning to a meditative and metaphysical witness-consciousness state and observing empirical reality as separate from it. The by-product of this is being infused with Vital Life Energy which elevates your body and mind leading to a better quality of life.

Here are a host of metaphors that may encourage you to do Yoga and meditation, daily, to keep you going with your life in a state of happiness and devoid of stress:

1. Yoga and meditation is like filling your bicycle tyres with just the right amount of air so that your ride is not bumpy but smooth because the air also acts like a shock-absorber.
2. Yoga and meditation is like topping up your vehicle with fuel for the day. You just need to plug-in to the fuel source for a short while and then move on to your tasks for the day.
3. Yoga and meditation is like a gentle wind that blows and clears the clouds hiding the sun so that the light of your Soul can shine through into your body and mind and bring in a feeling of lightness and take away the feeling of heaviness.
4. Yoga and meditation is like rain that keeps the soil humid and therefore more fertile for seeds of creativity to sprout and new cells to grow.

According to scientific research, Yoga may:

1. Reduce stress
2. Relieve anxiety
3. Help manage depression
4. Stimulate brain function
5. Help prevent heart disease

I hope this article has encouraged you to learn techniques for Yoga and meditation and practice them daily for a fulfilling life.

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Preventing Burnout by ramping up your Spiritual Quotient

Why develop your Spiritual Quotient?

Burnout is the chief reason.

What are the symptoms of burnout? Ask yourself these questions and even if one answer is “Yes” you need to address it.

1. Have you become cynical or critical at school/college/work?
2. Do you drag yourself to do a job and have trouble getting started?
3. Have you become irritable or impatient in your interactions?
4. Do you lack the energy to be consistently productive?
5. Do you find it hard to concentrate?
6. Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?
7. Do you feel disillusioned about what you are doing?
8. Are you using food, drugs or alcohol to feel better?
9. Have your sleep habits changed?

Statistics of Burnout

• Gallup recently surveyed more than 7,500 full-time employees about burnout.
• 23 percent of those workers said they felt burned out more often than not.
• An additional 44 percent reported feeling burned out sometimes.
• To put that into context, nearly 2/3rd of full-time workers are dealing with burnout at some point while at work.

Burnout Defined

Employee burnout cases have increased to the point where the World Health Organization has officially recognized it and included it in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. 

The handbook describes burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

Body-Mind-Spirit

Humans are 3-part beings – Body Mind & Spirit and we have to manage all these three parts effectively for a balanced life that is without dis-ease!

What is Spirit?

Spirit is the presence of the fine energy within and around you which for instance is responsible for digestion.

A dead body cannot digest food because the Spirit is missing!

SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT is about infusing your thoughts and actions with Spirit leading to desirable attitudes and qualities. 

Examples are - Cheerfulness, Gratitude, and Empathy.

There are many ways of building your Spiritual Quotient, the chief ones being – 

Life Skills, Mindfulness, Yoga and Meditation.

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A Simple Meditation

Your soul is already, in bliss, aware, wise, creative, relaxed and also full of energy. All you need to do to renew yourself with its qualities is touch it by silencing your mind for a while. Meditation is how you do this and meditation is not as difficult as made out to be!

Before I give you a simple technique, let me tell you what it does. Meditation just increases the space between two thoughts and take note that there is nothing such as achieving complete stillness and no thought, here on earth! When the spaces between thoughts increase, there is less of habitual thinking which causes mental clutter and more of feelings and nudges coming from your heart. The hearts desires translate into thoughts in your mind and can be recognised by a relatively silent mind as your first thoughts on a subject. When we meditate, we can easily catch these "first thoughts" because we start to automatically watch what we are thinking! Here is an example of what a "first thought" is like and why you should follow it - If your friend asks you for a coffee and your first thought is a hesitation, then you must follow this hesitation and postpone your coffee for another time. Since your heart knows the future as well, the hesitation was caused because something closer to your heart, such as a close family member dropping by at home, is due to happen, and the coffee date will spoil it!

Now here are a couple of things to do to prepare yourself before you start your meditation:

1. First, the time has to be right. Early morning after a bath is a good time because you have yet not started your mind on thoughts about work.
2. Turn off any humming noise from appliances if you can.
3. Put your phone on "Silent" mode and if possible, place it in another room.
4. Sit straight on the floor or on a chair or bed.
5. Let your hands face up and legs be in a comfortable position because you don't want to focus on discomfort.
6. Close your eyes.

THE MEDITATION

1. After your preparation is done, slow down the pace of your breath to the slowest rhythm that is comfortable to you. This does not mean taking deep breaths but taking normal breaths at a slower pace.
2. Now, mentally follow your breath at the tip of your nose going in and then going out.
3. In your mind you can say “In” as you take a breath in from your nose and “Out” as you allow your breath to go out from your nose.
4. After sometime if you don't feel like saying it, just follow your breath going in from your nose and out of it, with the attention of your mind.
5. If some thoughts arise in between, let them come and go like you watch passing vehicles on the road. You don’t sit on every vehicle on the road and go off on it for a ride, do you? No! So, allow these thoughts to flow and just keep following your breath in and out with your mind.
6. Do this till you feel like. And, when you feel like coming out of it, lie down with your eyes closed.
7. Then, get up when you feel like and stay blissful by loving the day.

Try to do this every day at the same time but without timing it. Don't ever time it because meditation is all about going into a timeless zone.

Rest assured that with daily meditation, you will be renewed with soulful energy, inside-out, for the day, every day. Your clarity and creativity will give you joy and when expressed will give others joy. Each day will surely be a meaningful day!

If you wish to go a step further into prayerfulness, then click on this link - Prayer and Worship

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Presence, Present Moment and Going With The Flow

If you have read or heard about meditation, you may have come across the buzz words in the title but didn't understand their correlation.

Meditation is a spiritual practice where an individual uses a technique to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.

Some people focus on an object or thought and some un-focus to be in meditation.

The fact is that you become mentally clear when the space between your thoughts is increased whatever be the technique for meditation. There is no such thing as “no thought” because there will always be a thought conscious or sub-conscious at some interval unless you are dead!

You become emotionally calm when you allow, during your practice of some meditation technique, your pent up emotions in your sub-conscious to rise to the surface like bubbles and be expressed. Uncontrollable crying is often an outcome and the end result is calmness.

With meditation, when the space between your conscious thoughts increases and your sub-conscious emotions dissolve, you will feel your own “presence” as something larger than your body and mind and encompassing your whole being with a reassuring warmth.

You are right here in the "present moment" because you are no longer worried and anxious about your future and you are no longer uncomfortable about some past happening. 

When you are in the present moment, you are then consciously “going with the flow” of each present moment as it progresses with different events in the course of the day. In your calmness, you accept every moment with whatever present it brings and because there is space between your thoughts, which is actually where your presence resides, you respond to each moment with wisdom. It is within this space that you get in-spirations, in-sights and in-tuitions. You now have a “presence of mind” because the space between your thoughts is awareness, tapped into the all-knowing super-intelligent “Universal Consciousness"! This is what is referred to as mindfulness.

When you go with the flow, you have consciously befriended life and no longer think of it as opposing you. You have started to walk hand-in-hand with time and now, you are grateful for your past, you accept the present and love the future. You are not sitting still in some timeless realm nor are you shying away from events, instead you are engaging with each present moment with presence of mind and going with the flow... Isn’t it exciting that time brings to you waves upon waves of people, places and circumstances to engage with? Life can be as joyous as waves upon the ocean landing on the beach as you walk. I feel you will become passionate about life if you think of it this way!

To receive each “present” from the universe with the same excitement with which you receive a precious gift, find a meditation technique and keep marching on...

If you want a simple meditation to start with, then click on this link - A Simple Meditation

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5 Minute Simple Ritual To Align With God

God is that which has power over nature and human fortunes and is also referred to by some as Creation, Spirit, The Force, Universe, Cosmos, Existence, All That There Is etc. The word God originated from ancient words that mean ''to pour'' and ''to invoke''. When you surrender to God, in a sense you are bowing or pouring yourself into the immanent presence of God and at the same time you are calling forth and invoking the transcendent presence of God.

You may ask, “Why do we have to surrender to God?”

Everything has a mind of their own and then there is the collective mind of “All That There Is” which is perhaps like the conductor of an orchestra. By letting go of one’s individual mind for a while one can align with this “Conductor” and heed Its direction so that you play your part with your own mind in harmony with the symphony of the universe.

By no means is surrendering for a while ''not thinking for yourself''. Attuning to a force you have no control over is “thinking for yourself” and doing it. An example of attuning to a force you have no control over is carrying an umbrella even when the weather forecast says, ''No rain today'', because you know that you cannot control the weather nor can anyone predict it accurately. On a more logical note, we surrender to the laws of the land such as traffic rules and do not drive vehicles on the wrong side of the road so that people including yourself are not killed because everyone has aligned themselves to these rules.

So here is a 5 minute simple morning ritual of inner yielding to align with God, the Lord of the universe.

Note: This ritual does not mean that you have to become passive in your life but passive only for the guidance of God and then active to implement the guidance.

THE RITUAL

1. Relax your body: Lie on your back with your hands facing up and close your eyes. Relax all your muscles one by one from your toes up to your head. Take your attention to your jaws and your tongue and relax them. When relaxed, place yourself in the hands of God with complete faith. Transfer all your past and present loads to God. Know that you do not have any burden or debt of “karma”. There is nothing to get stressed about and there is nothing to fear. Feel your concerns disappear and enjoy your lightness.
You may like to say, "I place myself in Thy Hands and request Thee to hold all my concerns and support the load of my past, present and future."

2. Yield your mind: Simply let go of your thoughts and yield your mind earnestly to the mind of God. Feel the deep silence around you.
You may like to say, "I let go of my thoughts and yield my mind to Thy Mind. I request Thee for Thy guidance." 

3. Open your heart: Take a soulful deep breath in and as you exhale, open your heart wide and deep to allow the joy and grace of God to pervade your whole being and circumstances. Know that all of your past is forgiven and that the solutions you are looking for are emerging with God’s grace. Feel your worthiness to receive the love of God.
You may like to say, "I open my heart wide and deep and request Thy Joy and Grace to pervade my body, being and circumstances. May Thy Will be done.”

4. Enter God's Heart: Gently turn over to your left side and curl up like a child in the womb of God. Whisper from your heart, “Lord, as I enter Your Heart, envelope me with Thy Love”. Feel the warmth, calmness and reassuring security of God’s motherly love for a while.

5. Thank God: When you feel like, get up and say, “Thank you Lord for Thy ever-present, Love, Grace, Guidance and Support”. Remember that all of these are ever-present, so do not unplug yourself from them as you get up, by entertaining any thought that implies that you are done. Instead, fall in love with God and stay in love with life, God and yourself.

Now you can resume your responsibilities, with enthusiasm, in tune with God, and remember to be open to miracles. Your inner feelings are the gentle wisdom of God guiding you. Know that you are now an inspired agent of God and that you have to act with benevolence and humility, at all times.

(If you cannot remember the sequence of the ritual in one read, then practice the ritual a few times by reading it from your mobile phone while you do it. Ultimately it has to be done without any aids, with your eyes closed and with your whole-self, which is the fullness of your being)

Whenever you feel out of tune during the day, now you know how to be back in tune again in 5 minutes!

May the benevolent Force be with you.

As you resume your responsibilities, in order to remain in balance, here are some tips - The Pursuit Of Balance

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