Featured Blog Posts - HigherCons2024-03-19T09:49:07Zhttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profiles/blog/feed?promoted=1&xn_auth=noWhy So Many Smart People Aren’t Happytag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2016-05-04:505106:BlogPost:428082016-05-04T11:32:13.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><span>It’s a paradox: Shouldn’t the most accomplished be well equipped to make choices that maximize life satisfaction?</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr">There are three things, once one’s basic needs are satisfied, that academic literature points to as the ingredients for happiness: having meaningful social relationships, being good at…</p>
<p><span>It’s a paradox: Shouldn’t the most accomplished be well equipped to make choices that maximize life satisfaction?</span></p>
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<p dir="ltr">There are three things, once one’s basic needs are satisfied, that academic literature points to as the ingredients for happiness: having meaningful social relationships, being good at whatever it is one spends one’s days doing, and having the freedom to make life decisions independently.</p>
<p dir="ltr">But research into happiness has also yielded something a little less obvious: Being better educated, richer, or more accomplished doesn’t do much to predict whether someone will be happy. In fact, it might mean someone is less likely to be satisfied with life.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That second finding is the puzzle that Raj Raghunathan, a professor of marketing at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business, tries to make sense of in his recent book, <em><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781101980736">If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Happy?</a></em>Raghunathan’s writing does fall under the category of self-help (with all of the pep talks and progress worksheets that that entails), but his commitment to scientific research serves as ballast for the genre’s more glib tendencies.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">I recently spoke to Raghunathan about his book, and the interview that follows has been edited and condensed for the sake of clarity.</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> One of the premises of your book is that people may have a sense of what will make them happy, but they approach those things in ways that don’t maximize happiness. Could you provide an example of that disconnect?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> If you take the need for mastery—the need for competence—there are two broad approaches that one can take to becoming very good at something. One approach is to engage in what people call social comparisons. That is, wanting to be the best at doing something: “I want to be the best professor there is,” or something like that.</p>
<p dir="ltr">There are many problems with that, but one big problem with that is that it's very difficult to assess. What are the yardsticks for judging somebody on a particular dimension? What are the yardsticks for being the best professor? Is it about research, teaching? Even if you take only teaching, is it the ratings you get from students, or is it the content that you deliver in class, or the number of students who pass an exam or take a test and do really well in it? So it gets very difficult to judge, because these yardsticks become increasingly ambiguous as a field becomes narrower or more technical.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So what happens in general is that people tend to gravitate toward less ambiguous—even if they're not so relevant—yardsticks. People judge the best professors by the number of awards they get, or the salary that they get, or the kind of school that they are in, which might on the face of it seem like it's a good yardstick for judging how good somebody is, but at the same time it's not really relevant to the particular field.</p>
<p dir="ltr">And those yardsticks are ones that we adapt to really quickly. So if you get a huge raise this month, you might be happy for a month, two months, maybe six months. But after that, you're going to get used to it and you're going to want another big bump. And you'll want to keep getting those in order to sustain your happiness levels. In most people you can see that that's not a very sustainable source of happiness.</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> What’s the other mindset?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> What I recommend is an alternative approach, which is to become a little more aware of what it is that you're really good at, and what you enjoy doing. When you don't need to compare yourself to other people, you gravitate towards things that you instinctively enjoy doing, and you're good at, and if you just focus on that for a long enough time, then chances are very, very high that you're going to progress towards mastery anyway, and the fame and the power and the money and everything will come as a byproduct, rather than something that you chase directly in trying to be superior to other people.</p>
<p dir="ltr">If you were to go back to the three things that people need—mastery, belonging, and autonomy—I'd add a fourth, after basic necessities have been met. It’s the attitude or the worldview that you bring to life. And that worldview can be characterized, just for simplicity, in one of two fashions: One extreme is a kind of scarcity-minded approach, that my win is going to come at somebody else's loss, which makes you engage in social comparisons. And the other view is what I would call a more abundance-oriented approach, that there's room for everybody to grow.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> I was really interested by the line you were drawing in the book between abundance and scarcity, because instantly that makes me think of economics: Economics is, in many ways, the study of things that are scarce. Can you talk about the mental processes that are at play when people are thinking in terms of scarcity?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> I'm not trying to argue in the book that the scarcity mindset is either shallow or completely useless. If you're caught in a warzone, if you're in a poverty-stricken area, if you're fighting for your survival, if you're in a competitive sport like boxing, the scarcity mindset does play a very important role.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Most of us are the products of people who survived in what was for a very, very long time, in our evolution as a species, a scarcity-oriented universe. Food was scarce, resources were scarce, fertile land was scarce, and so on. So we do have a very hard-wired tendency to be scarcity-oriented. But I think what has happened over time is we don't have to literally fight for our survival every day.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I think that as intelligent beings we need to recognize that some of the vestiges of our evolutionary tendencies might be holding us back. If I'm at an advertising agency, for example, or in software design, those are the kinds of fields where it is now being shown in quite a lot of studies that you actually perform better if you don't put yourself under the scarcity mindset, if you don’t worry about the outcomes and enjoy the process of doing something, rather than the goal.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> Since we’re hard-wired to think in terms of scarcity, I’m very interested in what can be done to prod someone into a different mindset. One experiment you talked about in the book found that workers who received a daily email to remind them to make decisions that maximize happiness reported being markedly happier than those who didn't get the email. Is it really as simple as that sort of thing?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> On the one hand, we are hard-wired to focus more on negative things. But at the same time, we are also all hard-wired to be seeking a sense of happiness and the desire to flourish, and to be the best we can be. Ultimately, what we need in order to be happy is at some level pretty simple. It requires doing something that you find meaningful, that you can kind of get lost in on a daily basis.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When you observe children, they are very good at this. They don't get distracted by all those extrinsic yardsticks. They go for things that really bring them a lot of enjoyment. In my book I talk when we got my son a little mechanical car when he was about 3 years old, because he saw a neighbor get that car. He was into the car for about three days. After that he wanted to play with the box in which the car came. It was just a box. He didn't have any idea that the car cost more, or was more valuable, or more technologically advanced. He was into the box because he saw a character on a TV show called Hamilton the pig, who lives inside a box. He wanted to replicate that life for himself.</p>
<p dir="ltr">What we were trying to do in that particular study is bring that focus back into people's attention. For example, rather than sitting in front of the TV, a father might decide to play a little game of baseball with his son. What people might do varies, but when there’s a reminder, what we discover is that—and these are studies conducted with Fortune 500 employees, undergraduate students—they make seemingly small, you might even call them trivial, decisions, but they add up to a happier life overall. This simple reminder on an everyday basis is a kind of reality check, which puts things in perspective for people.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> What do you think it is about the messages people receive about what it takes to be successful in business that runs counter to this mindset? In other words, do you think that working your way up any professional ladder requires not thinking in terms of abundance?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> Daniel Pink, in his book <em>Drive</em>, talks about how what used to be used as motivators to employees—what he calls the carrots and sticks approach—are now being replaced by what he calls “Motivation 2.0,” which is more trying to figure out what is it that people are really passionate about. Google is a famous big company that tries to practice this, and Whole Foods is another.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I do think that we carry lots of baggage from how businesses used to operate. Simon Sinek, in one of his books, makes the argument that businesses and the rules by which businesses operate are structured along the lines of how the military used to operate—very hierarchical and scarcity-oriented. But he talks about how, actually, if you look a little bit deeper into the best leaders in the military, they tend not to be that way. So there's been a mistaken adoption of a certain set of ideas based on how things used to operate in the past, but in fact, what's now emerging as a much more successful approach to doing business and to being successful is having a more abundance-oriented approach.</p>
<p dir="ltr">In the big picture, the business world’s messages are a little jumbled. In business schools, I see that there's a huge push towards corporate social responsibility and finding a passion, but at the same time, if you look at the kinds of people who get invited to come give keynote addresses, or what it is that we focus on to improve our <em>Businessweek</em> rankings, it's things that are extrinsic. We invite people who made a million bucks, and we look at incoming MBA students and their outgoing salaries.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> You mentioned earlier how easily people adapt to positive changes in their lives, and I’m familiar with <a href="http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/01/classic-study-on-happiness-and-the-lottery.html">the research</a> showing that lottery winners are no happier, a year later, than even people who just as recently suffered serious injuries. That resonates with me: If you told me back in high school that I was going to be writing for a magazine, I'd have been overjoyed. And right now, I am happy in many ways, but I still have a lot of the same old insecurities and worries about the future. I assume it’s something a lot of others experience too. Can you talk about what's necessary to steer yourself away from that mindset?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> That's the plight of most people in the world, I would say. There are expectations that if you achieve some given thing, you're going to be happy. But it turns out that's not true. And a large part of that is due to adaptation, but a large part of it also is that you see this mountain in front of you and you want to climb over it. And when you do, it turns out there are more mountains to climb.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The one thing that has really really helped me in this regard is a concept that I call “the dispassionate pursuit of passion” in the book, and basically the concept boils down to not tethering your happiness to the achievement of outcomes. The reason why it's important to not tie happiness to outcomes is that outcomes by themselves don't really have an unambiguously positive or negative effect on your happiness. Yes, there are some outcomes—you get a terminal disease, or your child dies—that are pretty extreme, but let's leave those out. But if you think about it, the breakup that you had with your childhood girlfriend, or you broke an arm and were in a hospital bed for two months, when they occurred, you might have felt, “Oh my goodness, this is the end of the world! I'm never going to recover from it.” But it turns out we're very good at recovering from those, and not just that, but those very events that we thought were really extremely negative were in fact pivotal in making us grow and learn.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Everybody's got some kind of a belief about whether good things are going to happen or bad things are going to happen. There's no way to scientifically prove that one of these beliefs is more accurate than another. But if you believe life is benign, you're going to see lots of evidence for it. If you think life is malign, you're going to see lots of evidence for it. It's kind of like a placebo effect. Given that all of these beliefs are all equally valid, why not adopt the belief that is going to be more useful to you in your life as you go along?</p>
<p dir="ltr"><span>Pinsker:</span> It's become clear to me after reading your book and talking to you that American culture, and maybe even capitalism in general, doesn't do very much to encourage the abundance approach over the scarcity approach. Are there any societies or cultures that in your mind have figured this out, or is it the case that society will almost always send certain messages, and it’s up to individuals to have their own counterprogramming?</p>
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<p dir="ltr"><span>Raghunathan:</span> On the face of it, it might look like I'm saying that capitalism in general is not very good at promoting an abundance mindset. But I don't think that that is entirely accurate. If you were to break capitalism down into two very important tenets, one is the freedom of movement of people, thought, and goods, and the freedom of choice. The second aspect is a distribution of resources according to people's abilities rather than according to people's needs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That first tenet of capitalism, I think, is beautiful, and I wouldn't let go of it. And if that ideology comes with the baggage of distribution of resources according to abilities, then I take that package, rather than a package where you restrict people's freedom of thought and what kinds of choices they can make, even if it's combined with a distribution of resources according to people's needs.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Ultimately, you can't force people to adopt an abundance mindset. They're going to have to select it themselves, through self-exploration and soul-searching, and looking at the science. Then, some people consciously arrive at a more socialistic way of living, by choice. That's the way in which I think this is going to work out best—for capitalism to kind of flip itself on its head to arrive at that.</p>
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<p dir="ltr">- by Joe Pinsker</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Source: <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/why-so-many-smart-people-arent-happy/479832/?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_facebook">http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/why-so-many-smart-people-arent-happy/479832/?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_facebook</a></p>
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<p></p>Why Successful People Spend 10 Hours a Week Just Thinkingtag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2016-04-13:505106:BlogPost:431032016-04-13T14:25:04.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><strong>Warren Buffett has spent 80% of his career thinking. Here's why.</strong></p>
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<div class="splitArticleUpperContainer"><div class="bodycopy"><div class="article-body inc_editable"><p>Warren Buffett, the CEO of the fourth largest company in the country, isn't as busy as you are. By his own estimate, …</p>
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<p><strong>Warren Buffett has spent 80% of his career thinking. Here's why.</strong></p>
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<p>Warren Buffett, the CEO of the fourth largest company in the country, isn't as busy as you are. By his own estimate, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/4ip0">he has spent 80% of his career reading and thinking</a>.</p>
<p>"That's what created [one of the] world's most successful business records in history. He has a lot of time to think," <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/quqd">Charlie Munger</a>, Buffett's long-time business partner, has said of his unusual approach to productivity.</p>
<p>For most people, Buffett's wide-open schedule is totally counter-intuitive. It goes against everything we think we know about what a leader does. Reading about the Elon Musks and Jeff Immelts of the world leads us to assume that business greatness means little sleep, and even less time with loved ones. Immelt, for example, has worked <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/lne1">100 hours per week for his entire career</a>.</p>
<p>Buffett's schedule may seem like an anomaly. In reality, he's a trailblazer. Thanks in part to his example, over the past few years, several high-profile CEOs have come out against the norm of constant busyness. They argue that critical thinking time is essential in a complex, rapidly-changing digital economy.</p>
<p>AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, for instance, makes his executives spend <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/pbrz">10% of their day</a>, or four hours per week, just thinking. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, schedules <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/y13h">2 hours of uninterrupted thinking time per day</a>. Jack Dorsey is a <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/xdpl">serial wanderer</a>. Bill Gates is famous for <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/njbs">taking a week off twice a year</a> just to reflect deeply without interruption.</p>
<p>I do the same. At my $250 million company, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/f74f">O2E (Ordinary to Exceptional) Brands</a>, which includes brands like <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/rvu2">1-800-GOT-JUNK?</a>, I set aside all of Monday for thinking. I believe that, whatever your business type or size, you can and should make time for it too.</p>
<h2>The Case For Thinking Time</h2>
<p><em>"Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe."-Abraham Lincoln</em></p>
<p>Most people see leadership as a sport where success is determined by hard work. Instead, I like to think of business as being more like surgery.</p>
<p>My father was one of the top surgeons in Canada, so when I was young I saw how surgeons aim to have maximum impact with minimum intervention. Like Lincoln chopping down a tree, accomplishing this is about careful planning. The actual surgery-the physical work-is only a small part of the process.</p>
<p>I approach business the same way. The Mondays I devote to thinking allow me to operate with surgical precision during the rest of the week. Here's what I do during that day.</p>
<h2>Step #1: Schedule the whole day in your calendar</h2>
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<p>Are other people constantly taking your time and dictating your priorities? If so, the first step to finding time to devote to thinking is to take control of your calendar. Let people know that you won't respond to emails or phone calls on a particular day, unless there's an emergency.</p>
<h2>Step #2: Do NOT go to your office</h2>
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<p>My best ideas come when I'm not in the office, so I often spend the day wandering around Vancouver. I pick where to go based on the type of thinking that I need to do. On a given Monday, I might go through six coffee shops. I might walk in the forest, take a bike ride, hang out on the beach, sit on a park bench, or even have a glass of wine. Whenever I feel stuck, I move locations.</p>
<h2>Step #3: Bring your journal</h2>
<p>Writing is a powerful way to capture your ideas and get them into an organized, actionable form. The key is not to censor or judge yourself-just spill your thoughts onto paper without criticism or even evaluation. There are many ways to do this. I'm a very visual person, so my notebook is filled with pictures, arrows and words. Find what works best for you.</p>
<h2>Step #4: Reschedule or shorten meetings you have later in the week</h2>
<p>As I'm out of the office all Monday, my Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are usually spent in back-to-back meetings. I set aside 15 minutes on Monday to review the meetings that are set up for the week and compare them to my priorities. If a meeting isn't a high priority, I will ask my assistant to either reschedule it or shorten it.</p>
<h2>Step #5: Prune your to-do list for the week</h2>
<p>Most of those meetings lead to action steps. Over the course of the week, tasks pile up and my to-do list can become so long that it's unrealistic for me to complete all of it. Rather than blindly checking off items as they come up, I use my thinking day to review the list and evaluate which ones are truly a priority. I ask myself: 'Should we really action this?' Often, I find that what seemed important at first isn't anymore.</p>
<h2>Step #6: Identify your top three outcomes for the day</h2>
<p>Besides planning your week to come and reviewing your to-do list, set three goals for your thinking day and jot them down. This will ensure you get the maximum impact from those open hours.</p>
<h2>Step #7: Use powerful questions to encourage deep thinking</h2>
<p>You will also want to devote some of your time to thinking deeply about your priorities and the direction of your business. I find prompts are helpful for this. Here are some of my favorites:</p>
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<li>Am I doing the right things with the right people?</li>
<li>What's most important?</li>
<li>What am I good at?</li>
<li>What am I bad at?</li>
<li>How can I spend more time doing what I'm good at?</li>
<li>How can I spend less time doing what I'm bad at?</li>
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<p>Alternatively, I'll write out a goal and think about how I can strategically move toward it.</p>
<h2>Step #8: Set aside time to solve your biggest problems</h2>
<p>As important as big-picture thinking is, every business will need to solve shorter-term problems. A portion of your day can also be spent investigating challenging issues and brainstorming ways to push through them.</p>
<h2>Step #9: Set aside time to think of new ideas</h2>
<p>Reacting to problems is essential, but so is proactively coming up with new ideas to better your business. Set aside some time to brainstorm new ways of doing things, or new opportunities to explore.</p>
<h2>Remember This</h2>
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<p>Don't be surprised if taking a whole day for thinking feels like an indulgence at first it certainly did for me. I felt guilty for taking walks in the park or sipping wine while others were in the office. But now I can't imagine not doing it.</p>
<p>As CEO, I have realized I don't need to be the first one in and the last one to leave, but I do need to be the most impactful person in the office. And my 'Thinking Mondays' help me accomplish that.</p>
<p>If nothing else, remember this: Warren Buffett has built his whole calendar around thinking. "You look at his schedule sometimes and there's a haircut. Tuesday, haircut day," <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/quqd">says his partner, Charlie Munger</a>.</p>
<p>In this complex, rapidly-changing world, the calendars of world-class CEOs will look more like Warren Buffett's and less like Jeff Immelt's!</p>
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<span><em>This is a guest post from </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/6s3v"><em>Brian Scudamore</em></a><em>, founder and CEO of</em> <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/xxie"><em>O2E Brands</em></a><em>, the 250M company group of </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/83my"><em>1-800-GOT-JUNK?</em></a><em>, </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/7obo"><em>You Move Me</em></a><em>, </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/itea"><em>Wow 1 Day Painting</em></a><em> and </em><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://9nl.it/jv4f"><em>Shack Shine</em></a></span><br />
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<a href="http://www.inc.com/empact/why-successful-people-spend-10-hours-a-week-just-thinking.html">http://www.inc.com/empact/why-successful-people-spend-10-hours-a-week-just-thinking.html</a><br />
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</div>Who Is A Hindu?tag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2015-03-03:505106:BlogPost:390032015-03-03T04:57:21.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393690357?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393690357?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="570"></img></a></p>
<p>by <span style="color: #333333;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sadhvi-bhagawati-saraswati/" rel="author"><span class="name fn" style="color: #333333;">Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati</span></a></span></p>
<p>Countless people across the world ask me : "Have you converted to Hinduism?" The question is understandable. After all, people don't often behold an…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393690357?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393690357?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="570" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>by <span style="color: #333333;"><a rel="author" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sadhvi-bhagawati-saraswati/"><span class="name fn" style="color: #333333;">Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati</span></a></span></p>
<p>Countless people across the world ask me : "Have you converted to Hinduism?" The question is understandable. After all, people don't often behold an American woman of Jewish ancestry draped in the saffron robes of a Hindu renunciant.</p>
<p>However, although the question is simple, the answer is complex. Hinduism does not convert. It does not exist in a box with borders and boundaries. There are more differences between lineages within Hinduism than there are between Hinduism and some other religions.</p>
<p>If one were to ask several Hindus, "What is the most fundamental tenet of Hinduism?" or "How is God understood in Hinduism?" one would get a wide range of equally viable, equally legitimate answers. In fact, two of the most fundamental teachings of Hinduism are "Let all the noble thoughts come from all directions," and "The Truth is one but the sages call it by different names."</p>
<p>So, what exactly is Hinduism, then, that is open enough to embrace an American sanyasi?</p>
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<p>"By whatever name and form the devotee worships me with love, I appear to the devotee in that form."</p>
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<p>Nowhere in the Vedas - the foundational texts of Hindu theology - does one find the word Hindu. Rather, "Hindu" is actually the name given to the people living beyond the banks of the Sindhu or the Indus River, in what was known as the Indus valley civilisation. Hindus refer to their religion as Sanatan Dharma, the eternal way of life. This way of life encompasses everything from a philosophical understanding of the nature of the universe and our role in it, to treatises on science, math, music, architecture and medicine.</p>
<p>The "religion" of Hinduism, if one wanted to attempt to neatly box it up, could be said to include several components.</p>
<p>The first of these is inclusivity. Hinduism excludes almost nothing. The arms of Hinduism are immeasurably long and embrace innumerable names, forms and concepts of the Divine. However, worshippers of varying Divine manifestations all agree on one essential component: the Supreme Reality is infinite, omniscient, omnipresent, and knowable by all names.</p>
<p>As God is infinite and all of creation a manifestation of the same Creator, Hindus see the whole world as one family. In fact, the scriptures state clearly: Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam, or "The world is one family." Hindu prayers are prayers for all; Hindus don't pray for Hindus or Indians. Rather, Hindus pray,</p>
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<p>Sarve bhavantu sukhinah<br>Sarve santu niraamayaah<br>Sarve bhadraani pashyantu<br>Maakaschit duhkha bhaag bhavet</p>
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<p>It means, "May all be happy, may all be healthy, may all behold that which is good and auspicious, may no one suffer."</p>
<p>Another aspect is that of a personal relationship with God. Regardless of the name, form in which a Hindu believes, he or she is encouraged to have a personal connection with that particular form. The God of Hinduism is a God who is knowable, approachable, infinite and yet fully prepared to incarnate in material form, a God to whom our food, water, earnings and lives are dedicated.</p>
<p>One common misconception of Hinduism is that it is polytheistic. With so many images, it is understandable that people would assume that each image is a separate God. However, Hinduism is very much a monotheistic religion, in which that one, infinite Supreme Reality is manifest in all of creation. The first line of the Isopanishads reminds us:</p>
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<p>Ishaavaasyam idam sarvam <br>yat kim ca jagatyam jagat</p>
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<p>It means the entire universe is pervaded by the divine. That same all-pervasive Supreme Reality manifests in infinite forms with infinite names. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains beautifully, "By whatever name and form the devotee worships me with love, I appear to the devotee in that form."</p>
<p>For this reason, Hindu practices emphasise ahimsa or nonviolence toward humans, animals and Mother Nature. A large majority of Hindus are vegetarians, avoid leather, pray to and for Mother Nature, and have rituals surrounding the ways and times that one may pick flowers, fruits or otherwise injure a living plant.</p>
<p>Stemming from the tenet of an all-pervasive God, one of the core components of the Hindu tradition is service, seva, or karma yoga. Hinduism teaches us to see God in the poor, sick, and needy; the tradition is filled with stories of God appearing as an unexpected guest or a beggar.</p>
<p>Most Hindu organisations have large social service programs engaged in a wide range of charitable activities. Service is seen as one of the highest forms of worship.</p>
<p>As the traditional name of Hinduism is Sanatan Dharma or "eternal way of life" the tenets and principles of Hinduism are not relegated only to worship or prayer. Rather, Hinduism informs every aspect of our lives from the moment we awaken to the moment we sleep. There are shastras and sutras for nearly every component of life, as well as for architecture, medicine, science, math and music.</p>
<p>Hinduism, in the words of Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, "is not a weekend business." A Hindu's actions are governed by spiritual laws in the home and in the workplace as well as in the temple.</p>
<p>Another central and unique aspect of Hinduism is emphasis on the divine feminine, or Shakti, as the essential energy and force through which creation, sustenance and dissolution are performed. Worship of the Divine Mother - whether in Her nurturing, compassionate form or in Her fierce, fiery form - is a common thread that weaves through the entire tapestry of Hinduism.</p>
<p>However, it is not only the Feminine in Her ethereal, celestial role that is worshipped, it is the feminine in her human form. We are exhorted by the scriptures to hold women in the highest ideal: "Wherever women are adored and respected, there the Gods are happy."</p>
<p>As news reports cover the rape and abuse of girls and women throughout India, people misconstrue this as a subjugation of the female endorsed by Hindu culture. The abuse of women is a societal evil which must be swiftly eradicated. However, it couldn't be further from the very tenets of Hinduism.</p>
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<p><em>The author is the director of the <a href="http://www.internationalyogafestival.com/" target="_hplink">International Yoga Festival at Parmarth Niketan Ashram</a>in Rishikesh. The festival runs from 1-7 March.</em></p>
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<p><em><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sadhvi-bhagawati-saraswati/who-is-a-hindu_b_6767294.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.in/sadhvi-bhagawati-saraswati/who-is-a-hindu_b_6767294.html</a></em></p>Answer 6 Questions to Reveal Your Life Purposetag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-12-26:505106:BlogPost:387072014-12-26T07:17:03.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p>Deep down inside, you know what you most love to do and how you can make your mark on the world. Get ready for some soul-searching. by <a href="http://www.success.com/profile/stephanie-wood">Stephanie Wood</a><span><br></br></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691726?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691726?profile=original" width="582"></img></a></p>
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<p class="BODY">As a reader, you probably earn a good living but also define success as something more than money…</p>
<p>Deep down inside, you know what you most love to do and how you can make your mark on the world. Get ready for some soul-searching. by <a href="http://www.success.com/profile/stephanie-wood">Stephanie Wood</a><span><br></span></p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691726?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691726?profile=original" width="582" class="align-center"></a></p>
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<p class="BODY">As a reader, you probably earn a good living but also define success as something more than money and the things it can buy. To you it’s a holistic concept—not just financial success, but also happiness, good relationships, and the ability to give back and contribute to society. “You need a higher purpose than just survival,” says Tina Tessina, Ph.D., a Long Beach, Calif., psychotherapist and author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1494842033/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1494842033&linkCode=as2&tag=sm0fe-20&linkId=EETMT66W4AIE24TL">The Ten Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make after Forty</a></em>. “Once self-confidence and self-esteem are established, you’ll need a challenge to feel satisfied, a way to express your uniqueness and individuality to yourself, to friends, and to the world.”</p>
<p class="BODY">“People think they will feel fulfilled when they check off their list: getting married, having kids, buying a certain house, getting a boat, reaching a certain title or profit level in their business,” says Elizabeth Lombardo, Ph.D., author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580055494/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1580055494&linkCode=as2&tag=sm0fe-20&linkId=FE4VYQL6OJXOZTGA">Better than Perfect: 7 Strategies to Crush Your Inner Critic and Create a Life You Love</a></em>. “But happiness doesn’t come from money and success. Even celebrities who make more money than we can imagine doing just one movie don’t feel fulfilled.”</p>
<p class="BODY">What truly moves you and how can you turn that passion into a fulfilling mission in life? Everyone’s different, but we’ve outlined some common strategies that can lead each of you to your unique goal. Here are some key questions to ask yourself.</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>1. As a child and back in my younger days, what experiences were the most memorable?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">What pastimes did I find most fulfilling?</p>
<p class="BODY">“Make a list of everything that gave you pleasure” as a kid and teenager, recommends Jim Donovan, life and business coach and author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1577314018/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1577314018&linkCode=as2&tag=sm0fe-20&linkId=MAPWXYTGNPSQFXBV">Handbook to a Happier Life</a></em>. “Maybe it was playing basketball or guitar. Start small and resume those activities. Then once you rediscover that passion, look for a way to use it to help others. Maybe you can volunteer to coach a basketball league for underprivileged kids.” Donovan teaches personal development strategies to prison inmates every week. “I don’t know how to not do this,” he says. “I need the experience as much as they do.”</p>
<p class="BODY">A sense of purpose comes from within and isn’t imposed or chosen from outside, Tessina emphasizes. “Your purpose may be your livelihood, or it may have nothing to do with how you make a living. Your purpose may be a simple one, like making a good, healthy life for yourself and your children, or it may be more dramatic and based on what you learned by your own childhood experience.”</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>2. Who is my idol and why do I admire this person?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">The answer may or may not be a famous person. You might admire a colleague’s giving and thoughtfulness, or that he or she is so in tune with family, Lombardo says. Or maybe it’s someone really big, like <a href="http://www.success.com/article/steve-jobs-master-of-innovation" target="_blank" title="Steve Jobs: Master of Innovation | SUCCESS.com">Steve Jobs</a>. An idol like that can be intimidating, but you need to take the comparison out of the equation, she says. Admire his characteristics, his vision and ability to stay focused in spite of the naysayers, but don’t try to be him. Learn from him, but be you.</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>3. What are my core values and beliefs?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">It sounds like a simple question, but it’s far from it. We can accept certain values because we’ve been taught they’re important, but sometimes they don’t work for us. That corner office and CEO title, for example, may cripple your heart and soul. “After years of listening to others, I realized that what mattered to me was freedom,” recalls Donovan. “I didn’t want a job to run my life, and I think a lot of people feel the same way. The secret is to stop waiting for the company to make it better for you. Make it happen yourself.”</p>
<p class="BODY">Start by making a list of values you think are important, Lombardo suggests. They may include everything from integrity to friendship, faith to humor, patience to spontaneity. Then rank each on a scale of 1 to 10. “All values are good,” she notes, “but understanding which are most important to you will help you understand what will give your life meaning.”</p>
<p class="BODY">For those clients who may be blocked, New York City career counselor Roy Cohen, author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0137052642/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0137052642&linkCode=as2&tag=sm0fe-20&linkId=L5BC674F7ZR3Q2RG">The Wall Street Professional's Survival Guide</a></em>, encourages them to try an activity that neutralizes and contains the distractions, such as <a href="http://www.success.com/article/meditation-your-way" target="_blank" title="Mediation--Your Way | SUCCESS.com">meditation</a>, yoga or even a more dramatic option such as an Outward Bound wilderness immersion program (there’s one just for corporate team-building). “Sometimes people are in such a familiar place that they can’t think creatively,” Cohen explains. “They need to remove themselves as much as possible from their comfort zone, so that the roles they typically play are stripped away. Being on their own and relying entirely on their initiative to survive and thrive is often transformative. It may take six months of meditating plus a wilderness trip plus therapy, but collectively those experiences will produce a spark and something will emerge from the process.”</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>4. What causes are near and dear to my heart? And how can I use my professional credentials to help those causes?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">Watch the evening news for a week or check out the online headlines: What gets you most upset? Maybe it’s the stories of child abuse or the parents working three jobs who still can’t pay their bills. Maybe it’s the lack of vaccines in underdeveloped countries that could stem the spread of preventable diseases. “Just get your feet wet,” Lombardo says. “You don’t have to find one thing and stick with it forever. Just open your mind to the possibilities and you’ll be amazed what presents itself.”</p>
<p class="BODY">Understand, too, that it can take a while to settle on the right focus for <em>you</em>, so plan on <a href="http://www.success.com/article/the-introverts-guide-to-networking" target="_blank" title="The Introvert’s Guide to Networking | SUCCESS.com">doing a lot of networking</a> and research before settling on a cause or a role. “Talk to the people who are involved in an organization or area you’re interested in: What challenges are they telling you about, what is their biggest need, how can you fit in and contribute?” recommends William Winn, Ph.D., a consulting psychologist with the Boston advisory firm New Directions, which helps professionals reinvent themselves. Think of it like transferring into a college, he says. The people and systems are already in place, unlike when everyone arrives as freshmen together. You need to figure out how to fit into that existing culture.</p>
<p class="BODY">Many people may at first feel as if they want to get away from the tasks they perform at work, Winn says. “If they’re in a financial job, they think, <em>I don’t want anything to do with numbers</em>. But the reality is, the charity that you have your heart set on may really need your accounting or investing skills,” he says. “And performing those tasks for a nonprofit is going to be a completely different experience because the environment and objectives are different—you’re performing them to do good, not just to make a profit.”</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>5. What goals should I set for myself?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">Take stock of each segment of your life, Donovan says, and write down what you visualize as the ultimate goal in each area. Include your career, family, health, relationships, spirituality and travel desires. Ask yourself: <em>What would my best health look like? Who are the people I most want to spend time with? What do I most want to change?</em> Write down each ultimate goal and make a habit of visualizing each one on a daily basis: you, running a marathon; your family enjoying dinner together; you and your partner building a home for the needy or embarking on a missionary trip to an underdeveloped country. “If you don’t understand and set your own goals, you will end up living someone else’s,” Donovan cautions.</p>
<p class="BODY">Next, <a href="http://www.success.com/article/john-c-maxwell-are-you-stretching-toward-your-goals-or-just-coasting" target="_blank" title="John C. Maxwell: Are You Stretching toward Your Goals or Just Coasting? | SUCCESS.com">you need goals for the challenge</a> or cause you’re focusing on. “I tell people to create a business plan,” Cohen says. “Since successful people tend to be metrics- and model-driven, they need to begin with research and information gathering, assess and evaluate what they have learned, and then turn that insight into a life-plan that is more meaningful.”</p>
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<p class="SUBHEAD"><strong>6. What do I want my legacy to be?</strong></p>
<p class="BODY">The ultimate question for anyone considering how to make a greater contribution to his or her world: <a href="http://www.success.com/article/this-is-how-you-leave-a-legacy" target="_blank" title="Rohn: This Is How You Leave a Legacy | SUCCESS.com"><em>How do I want to be remembered by those whose lives I touch?</em></a> A simple way to get to this answer is to write your own obituary. Sometimes referred to as an “autobituary,” it’s a chance for reflection that also forces you to realize that your time is limited and to take a hard look at the way you’re spending it. “Your 30s, 40s and 50s are an intense time at work and in building relationships, and the self takes a backseat to all this,” Winn says. But when business is good and your children are getting older, it’s time “to press the reset button and ask, <em>What matters to ME now?</em>”</p>
<p class="BODY">The “autobituary” exercise is a way to discover that. Just start by recording the facts, then add in others’ opinions that you would hope to be true: <em>He was a good friend. She was a parent who really understood her children. He spent countless hours volunteering in his community.</em> (Need more help? <a href="http://obituaryguide.com/template.php" target="_blank" title="Free Template | obituaryguide.com">ObituaryGuide.com</a> offers a free template.)</p>
<p class="BODY">If the idea of an obituary feels too morbid, think about your 90th or 100th birthday party, Lombardo says. “Who do you want to be there, and what do you want your guests to say about you in their birthday toasts: ‘He was a loving father and husband’; ‘She donated money and time to this cause.’ Or ‘I loved working for him because he was patient and helped me learn from my mistakes,’ and ‘He always understood family was just as important as work. He was the best boss I ever had.’ ”</p>
<p class="BODY">Whatever form it takes, “In the end, a re-examination of our lives seldom talks about money and power, but focuses instead on the ways we have all made a difference,” Winn says. Let that be your guiding principle for the next, best stage of your life.</p>
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<h3 class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-TITLE"><strong>Your Personal Mission Statement</strong></h3>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR_SUBHEAD">Here’s a quick way to get a sense of your life’s purpose.</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY">By reviewing the kind of person you are and the abilities that come naturally to you, even if they got you into trouble in the past, you can gain insight into your life purpose, says psychotherapist Tina Tessina, Ph.D., author of <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1494842033/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1494842033&linkCode=as2&tag=sm0fe-20&linkId=DYDF6PAV3SUH53LG">The Ten Smartest Decisions a Woman Can Make after Forty</a></em>. Do so by writing down a list of descriptions about yourself in each of the following categories:</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY"><strong>Personal qualities</strong> (e.g., friendly, intellectual, a good communicator)</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY"><strong>Your talents</strong> (e.g., painting, motivating people by public speaking, athletics, mentoring)</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY"><strong>The circumstances that tend to repeat in your life </strong>(e.g., do you wind up teaching others, listening to people’s problems, working with children or technology?)</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY"><strong>Your desires</strong> (e.g., traveling, cleaning up the environment, running for political office)</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY">Then take the answer that is most important to you in each category and complete the following sentence:</p>
<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY">I ________________ (your name) am designed to be a ________________ (insert personal quality) who can ________________ (insert talent) and I find myself ________________ (fill in recurring patterns or circumstances) often, because I am supposed to ________________ (desire).</p>
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<p class="SIDEBARS_SIDEBAR-BODY"><strong>Example: </strong><br>I, the President of the U.S., (your name) am designed to be a good communicator (insert personal quality) who can motivate people through my speeches (insert talent) and I often find myself listening to people’s problems (fill in recurring patterns or circumstances) because I am supposed to run for office and improve their circumstances (desire).</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.success.com/article/significance-a-philosophic-take-on-what-creates-happiness" target="_self" title="Significance: A Philosophic Take on What Creates Happiness | SUCCESS.com"><strong>Purpose is essential to true contentment—because you may have a great career, be happily married and healthy but still feel that something vital is missing. Read a philosophic take on what creates happiness.</strong></a></p>
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<p><span>- Source: <a href="http://www.success.com/article/answer-6-questions-to-reveal-your-life-purpose#sthash.4gI2hmZS.dpuf">http://www.success.com/article/answer-6-questions-to-reveal-your-life-purpose#sthash.4gI2hmZS.dpuf</a></span></p>The Age of Loneliness is Killing Ustag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-11-22:505106:BlogPost:383002014-11-22T05:08:40.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><em><span class="font-size-5">For the most social of creatures, the mammalian bee, there’s no such thing now as society. This will be our downfall.</span></em></p>
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<p>What do we call this time? It’s not the information age: the collapse of popular education movements left a void filled by marketing and…</p>
<p><em><span class="font-size-5">For the most social of creatures, the mammalian bee, there’s no such thing now as society. This will be our downfall.</span></em></p>
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<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393682508?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393682508?profile=original" width="460" class="align-center"></a></span></p>
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<p>What do we call this time? It’s not the information age: the collapse of popular education movements left a void filled by marketing and<a href="http://www.autodidactproject.org/other/hj1.html" title="">conspiracy theories</a>. Like the stone age, iron age and space age, the digital age says plenty about our artefacts but little about society. The anthropocene, in which humans exert a major impact on the biosphere, fails to distinguish this century from the previous 20. What clear social change marks out our time from those that precede it? To me it’s obvious. This is the Age of Loneliness.</p>
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<p>When Thomas Hobbes claimed that in the state of nature, before authority arose to keep us in check, we were engaged in a war “<a href="http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html" title="">of every man against every man</a>”, he could not have been more wrong. We were social creatures from the start, mammalian bees, who depended entirely on each other. The hominins of east Africa could not have survived one night alone. We are shaped, to a greater extent than almost any other species, by contact with others. The age we are entering, in which we exist apart, is unlike any that has gone before.</p>
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<p>Three months ago we read that loneliness has become an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/20/loneliness-britains-silent-plague-hurts-young-people-most" title="">epidemic among young adults</a>. Now we learn that it is just as great an affliction of older people. A study by Independent Age shows that severe loneliness in England blights the lives of <a href="http://www.independentage.org/isolation-a-growing-issue-among-older-men/" title="">700,000 men and 1.1m women over 50</a>, and is rising with astonishing speed.</p>
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<p>Ebola is unlikely ever to kill as many people as this disease strikes down. Social isolation is as potent a cause of early death <a href="http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/threat-to-health/" title="">as smoking 15 cigarettes a day</a>; loneliness, research suggests, is <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/feb/16/loneliness-twice-as-unhealthy-as-obesity-older-people" title="">twice as deadly as obesity</a>. Dementia, high blood pressure, alcoholism and accidents – all these, like depression, paranoia, anxiety and suicide, become <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/20/loneliness-britains-silent-plague-hurts-young-people-most" title="">more prevalent when connections are cut</a>. We cannot cope alone.</p>
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<p>Yes, factories have closed, people travel by car instead of buses, use YouTube rather than the cinema. But these shifts alone fail to explain the speed of our social collapse. These structural changes have been accompanied by a life-denying ideology, which enforces and celebrates our social isolation. The war of every man against every man – competition and individualism, in other words – is the religion of our time, justified by a mythology of lone rangers, sole traders, self-starters, self-made men and women, going it alone. For the most social of creatures, who cannot prosper without love, there is no such thing as society, only heroic individualism. What counts is to win. The rest is collateral damage.</p>
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<p>British children no longer aspire to be train drivers or nurses – more than a fifth say they “just want to be rich”: wealth and fame are the<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11014591/One-in-five-children-just-want-to-be-rich-when-they-grow-up.html" title=""> sole ambitions of 40% of those surveyed</a>. A government study in June revealed that <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10909524/Britain-the-loneliness-capital-of-Europe.html" title="">Britain is the loneliness capital of Europe</a>. We are less likely than other Europeans to have close friends or to know our neighbours. Who can be surprised, when everywhere we are urged to fight like stray dogs over a dustbin?</p>
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<p>We have changed our language to reflect this shift. Our most cutting insult is loser. We no longer talk about people. Now we call them individuals. So pervasive has this alienating, atomising term become that even the charities fighting loneliness use it to describe the <a href="http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2014/05/FINAL-Age-UK-PR-response-02.05.14.pdf" title="">bipedal entities formerly known as human beings</a>. We can scarcely complete a sentence without getting personal. Personally speaking (to distinguish myself from a ventriloquist’s dummy), I prefer personal friends to the impersonal variety and personal belongings to the kind that don’t belong to me. Though that’s just my personal preference, otherwise known as my preference.</p>
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<p>One of the tragic outcomes of loneliness is that people turn to their televisions for consolation: two-fifths of older people report that <a href="http://www.campaigntoendloneliness.org/loneliness-research/" title="">the one-eyed god is their principal company</a>. This self-medication aggravates the disease. Research by economists at the University of Milan suggests that <a href="http://boa.unimib.it/bitstream/10281/23044/2/Income_Aspirations_Television_and_Happiness.pdf" title="">television helps to drive competitive aspiration</a>. It strongly reinforces the income-happiness paradox: the fact that, as national incomes rise, happiness does not rise with them.</p>
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<p>Aspiration, which increases with income, ensures that the point of arrival, of sustained satisfaction, retreats before us. The researchers found that those who watch a lot of TV derive less satisfaction from a given level of income than those who watch only a little. TV speeds up the hedonic treadmill, forcing us to strive even harder to sustain the same level of satisfaction. You have only to think of the wall-to-wall auctions on daytime TV, Dragon’s Den, the Apprentice and the myriad forms of career-making competition the medium celebrates, the generalised obsession with fame and wealth, the pervasive sense, in watching it, that life is somewhere other than where you are, to see why this might be.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So what’s the point? What do we gain from this war of all against all? Competition drives growth, but growth no longer makes us wealthier. Figures published this week show that, while the income of company directors has risen by more than a fifth, wages for the workforce as a whole have fallen in real terms over the past year. The bosses earn – sorry, I mean take – 120 times more than the average full-time worker. (In 2000, it was 47 times). And even if competition did make us richer, it would make us no happier, as the satisfaction derived from a rise in income would be undermined by the aspirational impacts of competition.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The top 1% own 48% of global wealth, but even they aren’t happy.<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/04/secret-fears-of-the-super-rich/308419/" title="">A survey by Boston College</a> of people with an average net worth of $78m found that they too were assailed by anxiety, dissatisfaction and loneliness. Many of them reported feeling financially insecure: to reach safe ground, they believed, they would need, on average, about 25% more money. (And if they got it? They’d doubtless need another 25%). One respondent said he wouldn’t get there until he had $1bn in the bank.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For this, we have ripped the natural world apart, degraded our conditions of life, surrendered our freedoms and prospects of contentment to a compulsive, atomising, joyless hedonism, in which, having consumed all else, we start to prey upon ourselves. For this, we have destroyed the essence of humanity: our connectedness.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Yes, there are palliatives, clever and delightful schemes like Men in Sheds and Walking Football developed by charities for isolated older people. But if we are to break this cycle and come together once more, we must confront the world-eating, flesh-eating system into which we have been forced.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Hobbes’s pre-social condition was a myth. But we are entering a post-social condition our ancestors would have believed impossible. Our lives are becoming nasty, brutish and long.</p>
<p></p>
<p>- by George Monbiot</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/14/age-of-loneliness-killing-us">http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/14/age-of-loneliness-killing-us</a></p>Why Hinduism isn’t an “ism” but a Way of Lifetag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-11-20:505106:BlogPost:385902014-11-20T10:44:04.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p></p>
<p><strong>Sadhguru:</strong> The term and concept of Hinduism was coined only in recent times. Otherwise, there was really no such thing. The word “Hindu” essentially comes from the word Sindhu. Anyone who is born in the land of Sindhu is a Hindu. It is a cultural and geographic identity. It is like saying “I am an Indian” but it is a more ancient identity…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688620?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688620?profile=original" width="640" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Sadhguru:</strong> The term and concept of Hinduism was coined only in recent times. Otherwise, there was really no such thing. The word “Hindu” essentially comes from the word Sindhu. Anyone who is born in the land of Sindhu is a Hindu. It is a cultural and geographic identity. It is like saying “I am an Indian” but it is a more ancient identity than being an Indian. “Indian” is only about seventy years old, but this is an identity that we have always lived with.</p>
<p>Being a Hindu does not mean having a particular belief system. Basically, the whole culture was oriented towards realizing one’s full potential. Whatever you did in this culture was Hindu. There is no particular god or ideology that you can call as the Hindu way of life. You can be a Hindu irrespective of whether you worship a man-god or a woman-god, whether you worship a cow or a tree. If you don’t worship anything you can still be a Hindu.</p>
<p>It is only recently and due to external influences that this geographical and cultural identity has attempted to transform itself into a religious identity called Hinduism. Hindu was never an “ism”, and the attempt to organize it as a religion is still not successful because the Hindu way of life which is referred to as <a href="http://sadhguru.org/mission/global-harmony/" target="_blank">Sanatana Dharma</a> or universal law is all-inclusive in nature and does not exclude anything. The Hindu way of life is not an organized belief system but a science of salvation.</p>
<h2>The science of salvation</h2>
<p>The conflicts in the world have always been projected as <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/what-is-good-what-is-bad/" title="What is Good, What is Bad?" target="_blank">good versus bad</a>, but really, the conflict is always one man’s belief versus another man’s belief. In the past, religion was far more important to people than it is now, but still there were no theocratic states in this culture; the ruler had his religion and the subjects had the freedom to follow theirs. There was no conflict because people did not look at religion as an organized process.</p>
<p>Everywhere in the world, whenever anyone spoke anything other than the existing organized religion of that time, the first thing that the people said was, “Kill.” In Europe, thousands of women were burnt at the stake simply because they showed other kinds of possibilities and capabilities that were not logically understood by people. So they were labeled as witches and burnt. Persecution has always been the thing. Some of the famous ones that you know who were persecuted were <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/jesus-christ-superstar/" title="Jesus Christ Superstar" target="_blank">Jesus</a>, Mansoor and Socrates. They were persecuted simply because they showed other kinds of capabilities which were not considered normal.</p>
<p>So, wherever spirituality happened in the West, it always happened in secrecy. It always was individual or in small groups, never as a society. But in this culture, there has never been anything called persecution for spiritual people. At the most, they called you for debates and asked you questions. Because the pursuit is truth, so people sat down and argued whether what they knew was true or what the other person knew was true. If his truth was more powerful than yours, you become a part of him. If your truth was more powerful than theirs, they would become a part of you. It is a very different kind of search. People were searching to know. They were not just believing and trying to prove that their belief was right.</p>
<div class="shortcode-pullquote right-quote">
<Everywhere else people believe “God created us.” Here we know we created god so we take total freedom to create whatever kind of god we can relate to.<br />
</div>
<p>There is no belief system to the Hindu way of life. Someone believes in God, someone else can choose not to believe in God. Everybody can have their own way of worship and way to salvation. If there are five people in your family, each one can worship the God of their choice, or not worship anything, and still be a good Hindu. So you are a Hindu irrespective of what you believe or don’t believe.</p>
<p>At the same time, there was a common line running through all these. In <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/indian-culture/" title="Indian Culture – Why We Do What We Do!" target="_blank">this culture</a>, the only goal in human life is <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/what-is-enlightenment-can-spiritual-practices-enlighten-me/" title="What is Enlightenment?" target="_blank">liberation or mukti</a>. Liberation from the very process of life, from everything that you know as limitations and to go beyond that. God is not held as the ultimate thing, God is seen as one of the stepping stones. This is a Godless but a devout nation in the sense that there is no concretized idea of God. When I say Godless, we need to understand that this is the only culture that has given humans the freedom not just to make a choice of Gods, but to create the sort of God that you can relate to. You can worship a rock, a cow, your mother – you can worship whatever you feel like – because this is a culture where we have always known that God is our making. Everywhere else people believe “God created us.” Here we know we created god so we take total freedom to create whatever kind of god we can relate to. People <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/ayudha-pooja/" title="Ayudha Pooja – What Is Its Significance?" target="_blank">worshiped whatever aspect of life</a> they related to most, and that was perfectly fine.</p>
<h2>A Godless nation</h2>
<p>In the East, spirituality and religion were never an organized process. Organization was only to the extent of making spirituality available to everyone – not for conquest. Essentially, religion is about you, it is not about God. Religion is about your liberation. God is just one more stepping stone that you can use or skip towards your ultimate liberation. This culture recognizes human wellbeing and freedom as of paramount importance versus the prominence of God, and hence the whole technology of god-making evolved into the <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/science-of-temples/what-is-consecration/" title="What is Consecration?" target="_blank">science of consecrating</a> various<a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/hindu-idols-gods-worship/" title="Idols in the Hindu Way of Life – Why Are They Worshipped?" target="_blank">types of energy forms</a> and spaces.</p>
<p>The essential purpose of God is to create reverence in a person. What you are reverential towards is not important. Being reverential is what is important. If you make reverence the quality of your life, then you become far more receptive to life. Life will happen to you in bigger ways. There is so much misunderstanding about these things because there is a certain dialectical ethos to the culture where we want to express everything in a story or in a song. But in a way, this whole culture referred to as Hindu is rooted in the spiritual ethos of each individual working toward ultimate liberation as the fundamental goal in life.</p>
<p>If you explore mysticism in India, it is absolutely incredible and this has been possible because it does not come from a belief system. It happens as a scientific means to explore dimensions beyond the physical.</p>
<p>India is not a study, but a phenomenon of possibilities, though a cauldron of multiple cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic soup. It is all held together by a single thread of seeking. The tremendous longing has been nurtured into the peoples of the land, the longing to be free. Free from the very process of life and death. India cannot be studied, at the least one must soak it in, or at best must dissolve. This is the only way. It cannot be studied, western analysis of India is too off the mark, as symptomatic analysis of Bharat will only lead to very grossly misunderstood conclusions of a nation that revels and thrives in a chaos that is organic and exuberant.</p>
<p>This most ancient of nations upon this earth is not built upon a set of principles or beliefs or ambitions of its citizenry. It is a nation of seekers, seeking not wealth or wellbeing, but liberation, not of economic or political kind, but the ultimate liberation.</p>
<p>When <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/sadhguru/masters-words/adiyogi-the-first-yogi-more-than-a-man/" title="Adiyogi – The First Yogi: More Than a Man" target="_blank">Adiyogi</a> was asked how many ways to enlightenment, he said only 112 if you are within the realm of your physical system, but if you transcend the physical, then every atom in the universe is a doorway. “Bharat”, as the nation has been known for many millennia, is a complex amalgamation of this variety of spiritual possibilities. If you happen to be at the Maha Kumbh, there was quite a display of this. The best compliment came from none other than Mark Twain, after his visit to India, he said, “So far as I am able to judge, nothing has been left undone, either by man or nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Nothing seems to have been forgotten, nothing overlooked.”</p>
<h2>Bharata</h2>
<p>One must not forget that the basis of seeking is that One has realized that One does not know. One does not know the nature of One’s being. Instead of settling for a culturally convenient belief, for a whole populace to have the courage and commitment to seek the truth about themselves. This the basis of this nation that is called Bharata. Bha meaning sensation, that is the basis of all experience and expression; Ra meaning Raga, the tune and texture of life; Ta meaning Tala, the rhythms of life, which involve both rhythms of the human system and nature.</p>
<p>To preserve, protect and nurture the fundamental ethos of Bharat, the legacy of wisdom and unbridled exploration of life is a true gift to the Humanity as a whole. As a generation, this is an important responsibility that we should fulfill. Let not the limitless possibilities that the sages of this land explored and expounded be lost in religious bigotry and senseless simplistic dogmas.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/hinduism-not-religion/">http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/hinduism-not-religion/</a></p>Learn Life from Your Childtag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-11-17:505106:BlogPost:385862014-11-17T15:43:14.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p><em>Childhood is a time that we look back on with fondness – for the simple joys of life and freedom from responsibilities. But when we look at it deeply enough, are children really free? Or are they burdened by the expectations and impositions of the adults around them? Do we really have much to teach our children, or is there more we can learn from…</em></p>
<p><em><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686878?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686878?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"></a></em></p>
<p><em>Childhood is a time that we look back on with fondness – for the simple joys of life and freedom from responsibilities. But when we look at it deeply enough, are children really free? Or are they burdened by the expectations and impositions of the adults around them? Do we really have much to teach our children, or is there more we can learn from them?</em></p>
<div class="isha-divider small"></div>
<p><strong>Sadhguru: </strong>If parents are truly concerned about their children, they must raise their children in such a way that the child will never have any need for the parent. The process of loving should always be liberating, not entangling. So when your children are born, allow them to look around, to spend time with nature and by themselves. Create an atmosphere of love and support. Allow them to grow, allow their intelligence to grow and help them look at life on their own terms, as human beings – not identified with the family, wealth, or anything else. Just helping them to look at life as human beings is very essential for their well being and also that of the world.</p>
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<p>Your home should not be a place for you to impose your culture, ideas and morals upon your children. It should instead be a supportive atmosphere. If children feel most comfortable at home, they will naturally try to spend more time there than outside. Right now, a street corner may feel like a more comfortable place for them than being at home because of the impositions they face. So, if that discomfort is absent, they will not make the street corner a sanctuary. This does not mean that they are not going to be exposed to the hard realities of the world. They will be, and these realities will influence your children in some way or the other. But always, parents encouraging their children to think for themselves, to use their own intelligence to see what is best, are the greatest insurance for a child to grow up well.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Most adults assume that as soon as a child is born, it is time to become teachers. When a child enters your house, it is not the time to become a teacher; it is time to learn, because if you look at yourself and your child, your child is more joyous, isn’t it? You lived like a zombie before this little bundle of joy entered your life. Now, unknowingly, you have started laughing and singing, you crawl under the sofa along with the child. Life is happening because of them, not because of you. The only thing that you can teach your child – which you have to, to some extent – is how to survive. But a child knows more about life itself, experientially. An adult is capable of all kinds of suffering – imagined suffering. A child has still not gone to that. So it is time you learn life from them, not the other way around.</p>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/relationships/love-your-kids-liberate-them/">http://www.ishafoundation.org/blog/lifestyle/relationships/love-your-kids-liberate-them/</a></p>
<p></p>Top 7 Myths about Yoga – Busted!tag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-08-12:505106:BlogPost:382112014-08-12T01:17:21.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p></p>
<p>There is a lot of “yoga” happening in the world today that has very little to do with what yoga really is. Several myths about this ancient practice have long been masquerading as facts. It’s time we demystify yoga, in Sadhguru’s very own words.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 1: Yoga comes from Hinduism</strong></p>
<p><br></br>Sadhguru: Yoga is Hindu just the way…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393680909?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393680909?profile=original" width="640" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>There is a lot of “yoga” happening in the world today that has very little to do with what yoga really is. Several myths about this ancient practice have long been masquerading as facts. It’s time we demystify yoga, in Sadhguru’s very own words.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 1: Yoga comes from Hinduism</strong></p>
<p><br>Sadhguru: Yoga is Hindu just the way gravity is Christian. Just because the law of gravity was propounded by Isaac Newton, who lived in a Christian culture, does it make gravity Christian? Yoga is a technology. Anybody who is willing to make use of it can make use of it.</p>
<p>Why the yogic sciences have gotten labeled as Hindu by a few ignorant people is because this science and technology grew and prospered in this culture, so naturally it has gotten associated with the Hindu way of life. The word “Hindu” has come from the word “Sindhu”, which is a river. Because this culture grew from the banks of the river Sindhu or Indus, this culture got labeled as Hindu. Hindu is not an “ism” – it is not a religion. It is a geographical and cultural identity.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 2: Why be a human when you can be a pretzel? Yoga is all about impossible postures.</strong></p>
<p><br>Sadhguru: When we utter the word “yoga”, most people on the planet only think of asanas . Of all the different things that the science of yoga explores – just about every aspect of life – today’s world has chosen to represent yoga with only the physical aspect. In the yogic system, there is very little significance given to asanas. For a little over two hundred Yoga Sutras, only one sutra is dedicated to asanas. But somehow, in modern times, this one sutra has gained significance over everything else.</p>
<p>In many ways, it is a clear manifestation of where the world is going. The whole journey of the modern world is just this, from deeper dimensions – from the spirit – to body. That is exactly what we want to reverse. We want human beings to start their journey with the body but move towards their inner nature.</p>
<p>I am incapable of being depressed, otherwise I would be depressed looking at the way hata yoga is being practiced around the world and people thinking that is what it is. The practice as you see it – the mechanics of it, is simply of the body. You have to breathe life into it, otherwise it will not become alive. This is why traditionally, there has been so much stress on a live Guru – to make it alive. The yogic system is a subtle manipulation of your system to allow it to rise to a different level. Yoga means that which allows you to attain to your higher nature. Every asana, every mudra, every way of breathing – everything – is focused towards this.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 3: Want six-pack abs? Yoga is a great exercise regime.</strong></p>
<p><br>Sadhguru: If fitness is what you are seeking, if you want six-pack abs or whatever number, I would say go and play tennis or hike in the mountains. Yoga is not an exercise, it has other dimensions attached to it. A different dimension of fitness – yes – you get health out of it, but not six-pack abs. If you are doing yoga to burn calories or tone up your muscle, obviously you are doing improper yoga, there is no question about that. For abs, you can go to the gym. Yoga needs to be practiced in a very subtle, gentle way, not in a forceful muscle-building way, because this is not about exercise.</p>
<p>The physical body has a whole memory structure. If you are willing to read this physical body, everything – how this cosmos evolved from nothingness to this point – is written into this body. When you do asanas, you are opening up that memory and trying to restructure this life towards an ultimate possibility. If hata yoga is taught in a proper atmosphere, it is a fantastic process of shaping your system into a fantastic vessel, a fabulous device to receive the Divine.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 4: It is only in the last century that yoga has gone global</strong></p>
<p>Sadhguru: Today, though it is being practiced in all kinds of manifestations and distortions, at least the word “yoga” is getting a global presence. There has never been one organized body to propagate this, but still, it has survived and lived on because it has worked like nothing else for human wellbeing for the longest period of time.</p>
<p><br>Millions of people are practicing it, but where did this come from? Who originated yoga? The story is very long; its antiquity is lost in the hoary of time. In the yogic culture, Shiva is not known as a God, but as the Adiyogi or the first yogi – the originator of yoga. He was the one who first put this seed into the human mind.</p>
<p>The first part of Shiva’s teaching was to Parvathi, his wife. The second set of yoga teachings were expounded to the first seven disciples. This happened at the banks of Kanti Sarovar at Kedarnath. This is where the world’s first yoga program happened.</p>
<p>After many years, when the transmission of the yogic science was complete, it produced seven fully enlightened beings – the seven celebrated sages who are today known as the Sapta Rishis, and are worshipped and admired in Indian culture. Shiva put different aspects of yoga into each of these seven people, and these aspects became the seven basic forms of yoga. Even today, yoga has maintained these seven distinct forms.</p>
<p>The Sapta Rishis were sent in seven different directions to different parts of the world to carry this dimension with which a human being can evolve beyond his present limitations and compulsions.</p>
<p>One went to Central Asia, one to the Middle East and North Africa, one to South America, one stayed right there with Adiyogi, one to the lower regions of Himalayas, one to Eastern Asia and one travelled south into the Indian subcontinent. Time has ravaged many things, but when the cultures of those lands are carefully looked at, small strands of these people’s work can be seen, still alive. It has taken on various colors and forms, and has changed its complexion in a million different ways, but these strands can still be seen.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 5: Find your groove. Yoga & music go well.</strong></p>
<p>Sadhguru: There should never be a mirror or music when you practice asanas. Hata yoga demands a certain involvement of your body, mind, energy and the innermost core. If you want to get the involvement of that which is the source of creation within you, your body, your mind, your energy must be absolutely involved. You should approach it with a certain reverence and certain focus. Not just going, playing music and doing something. One of the biggest problems in yoga studios is, the teacher is doing asanas and speaking. This is a sure way to cause damage to yourself.</p>
<p><br>No talking in the asana is not just a norm, it is a rule. You never ever speak in postures. The breath, the mental focus and the stability of energy is most important when you are doing the asana. If you speak, you will destroy all that. At least eight to ten people have come to us with serious imbalances with which we have helped them. I think about four of them have given up their profession now because they knew what nonsense they were doing.</p>
<p>A few years ago when I was in America, I was invited to speak in a yoga studio by someone. So I went to her yoga studio and music was playing – chang, chang, chang – to keep everybody enthusiastic. She was in ardhamatsyendrasana and was talking to a group of people. When she saw me, she just jumped up from the table, came and hugged me.</p>
<p>I took her aside and told her, “See, you will bring serious imbalances into your system. How long have you been doing this?” She said some fifteen, sixteen years. I said, “If you’ve done this for sixteen years, you must be suffering from this, this and this.” She looked at me terrified and the next day she comes to me and says, “Sadhguru, what you said has been happening to me. I’m going through all sorts of treatment from the doctors.” I said, “You don’t need a doctor, you are causing it. You stop this, this will go away.” After about one-and-a-half years, she gave up teaching yoga.</p>
<p>A lot of people who have done improper yoga have lost their mental balance. This is not because yoga is dangerous. Stupidity has always been a dangerous thing on the planet. You do something stupid, it will cause damage to you. Stupidity is one thing which has always been a dangerous thing on this planet, right from ancient times.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 6: Need a yoga study guide? You can learn yoga from a book.</strong></p>
<p><br>Sadhguru: Today, if you enter any major bookstore, you will find a minimum of 15 to 20 different yoga books. How to learn yoga in 7 days, how to become a yogi in 21 days… Many people have caused immense damage to themselves by learning yoga through books. It seems to be very simple, but when you do it, you will see it is a very subtle aspect. This has to be done with perfect understanding and proper guidance. Without this, one can get into deep trouble. A book can inspire you, but it is not meant to teach a practice.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Myth 7: Yoga is something you practice every morning and evening</strong></p>
<p><br>Sadhguru: Yoga is not something that you do morning-evening. It is a certain way of being. One must become yoga. If it’s morning-evening yoga, the rest of the time entanglement – this is not yoga, this is only yoga practice.</p>
<p>There is no aspect of life which is excluded from the yogic process. If your life becomes yoga, then you can do everything. You can run your family, you can go to the office, you can run your business, you can do whatever you want without any problem if your way of being becomes yoga. Every aspect of life, either you can use it to entangle yourself or to liberate yourself. If you are using it to entangle yourself, we call it as karma. If you are using it to liberate yourself, we call it yoga.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/top-7-myths-about-yoga-busted/">http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/top-7-myths-about-yoga-busted/</a></p>Why Was The Indian Caste System Created? by Sadhgurutag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-08-05:505106:BlogPost:385032014-08-05T12:07:32.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p>"The caste system in India seems unfair and uncalled for – why divide people based on profession or birth? But was it always so? And is abolishing the caste system the answer to solving the problems associated with it today."</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Sadhguru:</strong> The Indian caste system can be understood this way. There are four basic castes in what is…</p>
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<p>"The caste system in India seems unfair and uncalled for – why divide people based on profession or birth? But was it always so? And is abolishing the caste system the answer to solving the problems associated with it today."</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Sadhguru:</strong> The Indian caste system can be understood this way. There are four basic castes in what is called Varnashrama Dharma. One is the Shudras, who do menial jobs; Vaishyas, who trade and do business; Kshatriyas, who protect and administer the community or the country; and the Brahmana, who handles the education and the spiritual process of that society.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>The four tiers</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>This classification into four tiers of social structure can be understood in different contexts. One way of looking at it is, those who did not take responsibility for their own lives or those who did not take responsibility with the situations in which they lived in, such people were termed as Shudras; he is taking responsibility only for his survival, nothing more. The Vaishya is somebody who takes responsibility for himself, his family and his community. So trading was given to him. Today, the whole system, the whole business atmosphere is very different, but in those times the trader is somebody who stored up grains and all the necessary things that people would need. When there was a scarcity, he gave it out to the community. So in every community there were Vaishyas who took care of this aspect of life – they stored commodities and gave it out when it was needed. These are people who took responsibility for their family and to some extent the smaller community around them. Kshatriyas were people who took responsibility for the whole community or the country. They were the people who bore arms to defend their nation and community and were willing to die to protect the people. They were given administration, and the military apparatus were in their hands.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The brahmins were given education. Spiritual processes and religion were in his hands because the word ‘brahmin’ itself comes from this, that it is somebody who has realized that he is the Brahman or the ‘Divine.’ So a brahmin comes from an ultimate sense of responsibility, an unlimited sense of responsibility. Only a person who has an unlimited sense of responsibility should handle education and religion because they were considered as the most vital aspects of any society.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Difference vs Discrimination</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>So accordingly, the caste system was made in India. It was a good arrangement for those days. It is just that over a period of time, you became a brahmin by birth not by worth; that is when the trouble started. That is so with every system. Whatever system we create, we must constantly work to keep it clean and make it happen well otherwise every system, no matter how beautiful the system is to start with, can become a source of exploitation.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Over a period of time, human societies have tried to make every difference into a discrimination. Differences are fine. The world is bound to be different and it is nice that it is different, but we try to make every difference into a discrimination, whether it is race, religion or gender. So when we lost our senses and started making everything discriminatory, the Indian caste system became an ugly system. What was once a very relevant way to develop skills in a society has unfortunately became discriminatory and negative, not productive. When there were no IITs or ITIs, when there were no training centers, your family was the only way to train, isn’t it? So it was very important to maintain a blacksmith culture, a goldsmith culture or a cobbler culture; otherwise there would be no skills.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Systems of training</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>This whole caste system in India came when there were no formal training centers for any particular profession. Suppose your father was a blacksmith, so at the age of 6, the moment you were ready, you started playing around with the hammer and anvil. By the time you were 8, your father saw that you anyway wanted to hit it, so it was better to hit it with some purpose. By the time you were 12, you were on the job. By the time you were 18 or 20, you had some craft and expertise on your hand to make your own living.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>So if your father was a blacksmith, you became a blacksmith; if your father was a goldsmith, you became a goldsmith. Each profession developed its own training centers within the family structure because that was the only training center; all the craft, professionalism and skills in the society could only evolve like this. If you are a blacksmith, you do not try to go and do a goldsmith’s job, you just do a blacksmith’s job because we need a blacksmith in the society. When people multiplied and became a thousand blacksmiths, naturally they had their own way of eating, their own way of marriage and their own way of doing things, so they formed a caste. There is really nothing wrong with it if you look at it on one level. It was just a certain arrangement of convenience for the society. Between a blacksmith and a goldsmith, the kind of hammer they use, how they work, how they look, what and how they eat, everything was naturally distinctly different because the type of work was very different.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It is over a period of time that it became a means for exploitation. We started saying that a man who runs the temple is better than a man who runs the school. A man who runs the school is better than a man who runs the blacksmith shop. These are differences, everybody has to do something. But we established differences as discriminations over a period of time. If we had just maintained the difference, we would have been a nice, colorful culture; but we made it discriminatory.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>A sense of inclusiveness</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Human beings make every difference discriminatory simply because every human being is longing to be a little more than what he is right now. One unfortunate way he has found is to put down the person next to him. His longing is actually to feel more, but he does not know how to enhance himself, so the best thing is to depreciate somebody else. It is a very rudimentary mind, but we have worked like that for a long time and we are continuing to work like that. It is time to change it, but that is not going to change just by stripping off the old caste system – it will just establish itself in a thousand other ways. For example do you think there is no caste system in New York City? There is a different kind of caste system based on education, or economic capabilities; all these things create their own kind of discriminatory groups. So it is not going to change unless we revolutionize the human mind.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>If there is no sense of inclusiveness in individual human beings there is no way that the systems they create or actions they perform will lead to inclusiveness. If individuals do not experience this inclusiveness, they end up creating very exclusive processes. One basic aspect of spiritual process is that it makes one into an all inclusive human being. At the same time it will hugely equip the individual to be more efficient, more capable, more balanced and in turn more productive.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/why-we-do-what-we-do-the-caste-system/">http://blog.ishafoundation.org/lifestyle/why-we-do-what-we-do-the-caste-system/</a></p>The Koshas: 5 Layers of Beingtag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-07-09:505106:BlogPost:374742014-07-09T10:15:17.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p>If you’re a typical health-conscious Yoga International reader, you've probably already exercised today. Whether you went for a brisk walk, played some tennis, or worked out at the gym, you recognize the importance of keeping your physical body in shape. But have you exercised your subtle body yet? Or your causal body? According to the yoga tradition, every one…</p>
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<p>If you’re a typical health-conscious Yoga International reader, you've probably already exercised today. Whether you went for a brisk walk, played some tennis, or worked out at the gym, you recognize the importance of keeping your physical body in shape. But have you exercised your subtle body yet? Or your causal body? According to the yoga tradition, every one of us has five bodies, each made of increasingly finer grades of energy. And if we intend to live a fully balanced, healthy life, it tells us, all our bodies need to be kept in good condition.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="block">
<According to the yoga tradition, every one of us has five bodies, each made of increasingly finer grades of energy.<br />
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The five progressively subtler bodies that compose our personality are described in a yoga classic called the <em>Taittiriya Upanishad</em>:</p>
<p></p>
<p><em>“Human beings consist of a material body built from the food they eat. Those who care for this body are nourished by the universe itself.</em></p>
<p><em>“Inside this is another body made of life energy. It fills the physical body and takes its shape. Those who treat this vital force as divine experience excellent health and longevity because this energy is the source of physical life.</em></p>
<p><em>“Within the vital force is yet another body, this one made of thought energy. It fills the two denser bodies and has the same shape. Those who understand and control the mental body are no longer afflicted by fear.</em></p>
<p><em>“Deeper still lies another body comprised of intellect. It permeates the three denser bodies and assumes the same form. Those who establish their awareness here free themselves from unhealthy thoughts and actions, and develop the self-control necessary to achieve their goals.</em></p>
<p><em>“Hidden inside it is yet a subtler body, composed of pure joy. It pervades the other bodies and shares the same shape. It is experienced as happiness, delight, and bliss.”</em></p>
<p></p>
<p>These five bodies are called koshas, or “sheaths,” in Sanskrit, because each fits in the next like a sword in a scabbard. Only the densest is made of matter as we know it; the other four are energy states invisible to the physical eye, though we can easily sense their presence inside us when we pay close attention. Since the inner bodies are the source of our well-being during life and are the vehicles we travel in after death, India’s ancient yogis developed specific exercises to strengthen and tone each one in turn.</p>
<h3>Your Second Body</h3>
<p>You’re already familiar with your physical body. It’s called annamaya kosha in yoga, (maya means “made of” and anna means “food” or “physical matter.”) But yoga also makes you aware of a second body, the organizing field that holds your material body together. This is the life energy that governs your biological processes, from breathing to digestion to the circulation of your blood. It’s called chi in Chinese medicine and prana in yoga. The ancient Egyptians called it the ka.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="block">
<Acupuncture and homeopathy don’t directly affect your physical body; they work on the vital force that activates and sustains it.<br />
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>Acupuncture and homeopathy don’t directly affect your physical body; they work on the vital force that activates and sustains it. Orthodox physicians in the West recognized the importance of the vital force up till the 19th century, but with the development of sulfa drugs and antibiotics, their attention shifted from the energy states underlying human biology to focus exclusively on the physical body itself.</p>
<p>The energy body is called the prana-maya kosha in yoga. When it ceases to function your physical body can no longer operate. Your heart and lungs stop working and your cells begin to disintegrate. In Western culture we strongly identify with our material body, yet without prana supporting and directing it, it can’t survive more than a few minutes.</p>
<p>Yoga devotes an entire class of practices called pranayama to replenishing</p>
<p>the vitality of the pranamaya kosha. Exercises like diaphragmatic breathing, the complete yogic breath, and alternate nostril breathing are specifically designed to enhance the proper functioning of your second sheath.</p>
<p>In addition, getting plenty of fresh air and sunlight is essential for maintaining the health of the vital force. Yoga texts explain that the sun is the ultimate source of prana, and it is said that some advanced yogis go for years without eating; instead they simply absorb the prana radiated by the sun. For most of us, however, fresh whole foods are a major source of prana.</p>
<h3>Your Third Body</h3>
<p>The third sheath or mental body is the apparatus responsible for our sensory and motor activities and our day-to-day awareness when we’re functioning “on automatic.” It processes input from our five senses and responds reflexively. When we move through life passively, reacting to our environment rather than actively shaping it, our awareness is focused here. Many people, and most animals, routinely operate at this level.</p>
<p>This body is called manomaya kosha (which means “body made of thought processes”). In the West we associate our routine mental state with the brain, but according to yoga the entire nervous system (including the brain) merely mediates the activity of the manomaya kosha, expressing the commands of this higher energy state through the physical body.</p>
<p>You get a clear sense of what the mental body is when you observe a patient in a coma. Their second sheath is still operating so their heart continues to pump and their lungs expand and contract. But the person has no awareness of the external world and no ability to take action because the activity of the mental body has shut down. The pranamaya kohsa operates from the moment of our first breath to our last, but the manomaya kosha shuts down temporarily on a daily basis, regenerating itself during the state of deep sleep.</p>
<p>The health of the manomaya kosha is tremendously enhanced through the practice of mantra meditation. This soothes and balances this inner body, and helps release “knots” of energy tied up in mental complexes and obsessive thoughts. Yogis who spend a great deal of time in meditation often have very little need for sleep, in part because their mental vehicles are functioning optimally, like a car that’s just had a tune-up.</p>
<p>The mental body “feeds” on the sense impressions we offer it. If we supply our third sheath with a continual stream of violent TV shows and video games, for example, it begins to crave increasingly aggressive forms of stimulation, and may become more agitated and less sensitive to the suffering of others. If we “stuff” it with too much work or too much play we may experience a form of mental “indigestion,” leaving us feeling harried or exhausted. A harmonious environment, interesting professional challenges, and fun and supportive relationships offer an ideal diet for the mind. A daily session of pratyahara, or sensory withdrawal, leading into meditation provides an excellent inner tune-up.</p>
<h3>Your Fourth Body</h3>
<p>Subtler still is the vijnanamaya kosha (vijnana means “the power of judgment or discernment”). It’s often translated as “intellect,” but the real meaning is broader, encompassing all the functions of the higher mind, including conscience and will. It may be easier to understand the distinction between the third sheath or mental body and the fourth sheath or intellectual body by taking a look at those in whom the vijnanamaya kosha is underdeveloped.</p>
<p>One such type is someone who doesn’t seem to be in control of her life, who is constantly reacting to circumstances rather than making a decision and responding proactively. This kind of woman has a hard time making up her mind, thinking for herself, or being creative. She has very little willpower and is continually the victim of her own poor judgment.</p>
<p>Another example of a deficient fourth sheath is someone without strong personal ethics. He may attend religious services and speak piously about moral values, but when the opportunity arises to benefit himself at the expense of others, he doesn’t hesitate to act. His ability to discern between right and wrong is weak; conscience is a platitude rather than a living experience for him.</p>
<p>An activated fourth sheath is what distinguishes human beings from animals. Only humans have the ability to direct their own lives, free from the promptings of instinct, and to make moral choices. The sages considered the development of a healthy vijnanamaya kosha so important that they placed the exercises for it at the very beginning of the yoga system. These are the yamas and niyamas, commitments every yoga student is asked to make: not to harm, lie, steal, overindulge, or desire more than you actually need; instead you are asked to be content, pure, self-disciplined, studious, and devoted.</p>
<p>Jnana yoga also works with this kosha. This is the path of the intellect in which you are advised to study spiritual truths, contemplate them deeply, and finally incorporate them into the very core of your personality. On this path your spiritual understanding becomes the “food” with which you nourish your intellect.</p>
<p>As your meditation practice deepens over the months and years, your ability to connect with inner guidance is enhanced. You begin to experience the events in your life, even the painful ones, in a calm and objective manner. Your yogic lifestyle, contemplation, and meditation lead to clarity of judgment, greater intuitive insight, and increased willpower as your vijnanamaya kosha grows stronger and more balanced.</p>
<h3>Your Fifth Body</h3>
<p>In the vast majority of humans, the fifth sheath is totally underdeveloped. This is the anandamaya kosha, the subtlemost body which is experienced as ananda (spiritual bliss). Generally only saints, sages, and genuine mystics have done the inner work necessary to make ananda a living part of their daily experience, and most people are hardly even aware that this level of consciousness exists within themselves.</p>
<p></p>
<blockquote class="block">
<Generally only saints, sages, and genuine mystics have done the inner work necessary to make ananda a living part of their daily experience, and most people are hardly even aware that this level of consciousness exists within themselves.<br />
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>The anandamaya kosha is extremely important in yoga because it’s the final and thinnest veil standing between our ordinary awareness and our higher Self. Many individuals who’ve had near-death experiences have reported experiencing a brilliant white light radiating all-embracing wisdom and unconditional love. This is the experience of the anandamaya kosha. Saints and mystics purify their minds so that they can have this experience throughout life, not just for a fleeting moment at death.</p>
<p>In the tantric tradition, spirit is often symbolized as Shiva, the transcendent Lord who is ever immersed in divine consciousness. Matter/energy is called Shakti, the Supreme Goddess whose divine body is this entire universe. It’s said that they love each other with unspeakable intensity. Their supreme love is experienced in the anandamaya kosha, where spirit and matter passionately embrace.</p>
<p>We can awaken our bliss sheath through three practices. The first is seva, selfless service. This opens our heart to our innate unity with other beings. The second is bhakti yoga, devotion to God. This opens our heart to our unity with the all-pervading Divine Being. The third is samadhi, intensely focused meditation, which opens our heart to our own divine being.</p>
<h3>Radiant Health</h3>
<p>You are a multidimensional creature. Your awareness manifests on many different planes. Yoga introduces you to yourself and trains you to live fully and gracefully at every level of your being. From the hatha postures that strengthen and tone your physical body to the breathing exercises that balance and vitalize your life force, from the meditation practice that quiets and clears your mind to the self-study and selfless love that open up an inner world of knowledge and unity, yoga is a holistic system that develops and integrates every part of your personality. By getting to know your five bodies and the inner Self (whose awareness illumines them all), you can experience the health and fulfillment of an enlightened life.</p>
<h3>Experiencing Your Five Sheaths</h3>
<p></p>
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<p>The five sheaths are not theoretical constructs. They are real parts of your being that you can actually experience. The following eight-step exercise will help you get a fuller sense of these inner dimensions of your personality.</p>
<ol>
<li>Sit comfortably with your head, neck, and trunk in a straight line. Sit upright without straining. You’ll feel both alert and relaxed.</li>
<li>Close your eyes, withdrawing your awareness from the sights and sounds around you. Bring your full attention to your physical body. Be aware of your head and shoulders, chest and waist, back and abdomen, arms and legs. This is your annamaya kosha.</li>
<li>Bring your full attention to the point between your nostrils and feel yourself breathe. Gradually your breath will flow more slowly, smoothly, and quietly. Be aware of the energy pulsing through your body. It’s making your heart beat, your lungs expand and contract, the blood course through your veins, your stomach gurgle. The force orchestrating this movement—not your physical body itself—is your prana-maya kosha.</li>
<li>Shift your awareness into your brain. Pay attention to the part of your awareness that’s regulating your sensory input and motor output. This is the part of you that notices your nose is itching and orders your hand to scratch it. It notes that you’re uncomfortable sitting in one position for so long and wants you to move your legs. It generates the reflexive mental chatter that continually fires through your mind. This is your manomaya kosha.</li>
<li>Lift your awareness higher inside your skull. Sense the part of your awareness that consciously made the decision to participate in this exercise and right now is commanding you to sit still and complete it. It recognizes the value of expanding your self-awareness and compels you to get up early in the morning to do your hatha postures and meditation, even though lazing in bed might be more pleasant. This is your vijnanamaya kosha.</li>
<li>Center your awareness in your heart. Relax deeply; keep breathing smoothly and evenly. Now, taking as much time as you need, allow yourself to settle into a state of complete tranquility. Buried deep in that inner peace is a sense of purest happiness. This is not an emotional euphoria, though as you leave this state it may pour out of you as a sense of great joy and gratitude. It is a space of perfect contentment, perfect attunement, and abiding stillness. There is no sense of lack, or fear, or desire. This is your anandamaya kosha.</li>
<li>Now simply be aware of your own awareness. The pure consciousness that is having this experience lies beyond this experience. It is your true inner Self, your immortal being. Rest in your own being for as long as you can hold your attention there.</li>
<li>Return your attention to your breath. Breathe slowly, smoothly, and evenly. Open your eyes. Take a moment to relax and absorb this experience before you get up.</li>
</ol>
<h3>From Death to Birth—and Beyond</h3>
<p>In many yoga texts you’ll find the five sheaths grouped into three. The physical body and vital force are called the sthula sharira, the “gross body.” The mental body and intellect are called the sukshma sharira, the “subtle” or “astral body.” The bliss sheath is called the karana sharira, the “causal body.” These are recognized in many different spiritual traditions. Plutarch, a Greek priest who presided at the Temple of Delphi in the first century ce, called them the soma, psyche, and nous, respectively.</p>
<p>The gross body disintegrates at death. The subtle body disintegrates at rebirth, allowing you to develop a new personality in your next life. The causal body reincarnates again and again, carrying your karma with it like luggage. It finally disintegrates at the time of liberation, when the higher Self disengages from the cycle of birth and death.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span>BY </span><strong><a href="http://yogainternational.com/profile/86">Linda Johnsen</a></strong></p>
<div id="about">
<a href="http://yogainternational.com/profile/86" class="author"></a><br />
<p><span class="light">ABOUT <a href="http://yogainternational.com/profile/86">Linda Johnsen</a></span> Linda Johnsen, MS, is the author of numerous books including<a href="http://shop.himalayaninstitute.org/products/lost-masters-sages-of-ancient-greece" target="_blank"> <em>Lost Masters: Sages of Ancient Greece</em></a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0893891797/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0893891797&linkCode=as2&tag=himalainstit-20" target="_blank"><em>Meditation Is Boring?</em></a>. Her most recent book is <em>Kirtan! Chanting as a Spiritual Practice</em>. Visit her at <a href="http://thousandsuns.org/" target="_blank">ThousandSuns.org</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://yogainternational.com/article/view/the-koshas-5-layers-of-being">http://yogainternational.com/article/view/the-koshas-5-layers-of-being</a></p>
</div>Why Meditate?tag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-03-24:505106:BlogPost:373942014-03-24T01:52:58.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p>During most of our waking life our minds are engaged in a continuous internal dialogue in which the meaning and emotional associations of one thought trigger the next. We hear a snippet of music and suddenly we’re thinking about the first time we heard that song with an old boyfriend or girlfriend and how that relationship ended. If we’re still holding emotional pain…</p>
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<p>During most of our waking life our minds are engaged in a continuous internal dialogue in which the meaning and emotional associations of one thought trigger the next. We hear a snippet of music and suddenly we’re thinking about the first time we heard that song with an old boyfriend or girlfriend and how that relationship ended. If we’re still holding emotional pain over that ending, those feelings may bubble up and then our mind may veer into criticism, self-pity, or worries about the future.</p>
<p>All day long our mind spins stories about our work, our health, our finances, our family, or that funny look the store clerk gave us. Often we’re not even conscious of the internal soundtrack unspooling in our mind and yet it is the greatest source of stress in our lives. Although the mind is capable of creating life-affirming stories, it has what neuroscientists refer to as a <em>negativity bias,</em> a tendency to pay more attention to negative experiences than to positive ones. The negativity bias evolved as a survival instinct millions of years ago, as our ancestors focused much more attention on avoiding potential threats than on rewards. Stopping to savor a delicious meal or admire a Paleolithic sunset would have used valuable attentional resources, leaving our ancient ancestors more vulnerable to attack by a predator. Those who survived to pass on their genes paid a lot of attention to danger. Their legacy is a brain that is primed to focus on negative experiences and has a tendency to get stuck in conditioned patterns of thinking, returning again and again to thoughts of anxiety, depression, and limitation.</p>
<h2>The Healing Benefits of Meditation</h2>
<p>Meditation is one of the best tools we have to counter the brain’s negativity bias, release accumulated stress, foster positive experiences and intentions, and enjoy the peace of present moment awareness. A large body of research has established that having a regular meditation practice produces tangible benefits for mental and physical health, including:</p>
<ul>
<li>Decreased blood pressure and hypertension</li>
<li>Lowered cholesterol levels</li>
<li>Reduced production of “stress hormones,” including cortisol and adrenaline</li>
<li>More efficient oxygen use by the body</li>
<li>Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA</li>
<li>improved immune function</li>
<li>Decreased anxiety, depression, and insomnia</li>
</ul>
<p>Let’s look in more detail at how meditation benefits the body, mind, and spirit.</p>
<h2>Meditation Reduces Stress and Burnout</h2>
<p>Chronic, unmanaged stress can make you sick and accelerate aging. As many scientific studies have found, prolonged stress can contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease, stomach ulcers, autoimmune diseases, anxiety, cancer, insomnia, chronic fatigue, obesity, depression, and accelerated aging.</p>
<p>In meditation, your body releases stress and reverses the effects of the flight-or-fight response – that ancient instinct we all have to either run from perceived danger or take it on in battle. Intended as a short-term protection mechanism, fight or flight causes our body to speed up our heart rate, increase our blood sugar, suppress our immune system, reduce insulin production, pump out stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, and reduce the blood supply to our digestive organs. All of these reactions happen so that our body can focus on either running away as fast as it can – or staying to fight. Although few people reading this face daily threats to their bodily existence, many live in a prolonged state of fight or flight, generating stress in response to bad traffic, criticism from a spouse, or a disagreement.</p>
<p>Regular meditation dissipates accumulated stress and cultivates a state of restful alertness. There are many compelling studies showing the power of meditation to relieve stress and promote inner calm. For example, a 2011 <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3118731/?tool=pubmed">study</a> published in the <em>Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Journal</em> found that full-time workers who spent a few hours each week practicing mindfulness meditation reported a significant decrease in job stress, anxiety, and depressed mood.</p>
<h2>Meditation Enhances Your Concentration, Memory, and Ability to Learn</h2>
<p>As researchers have found, meditation can help you tap into your brain’s deepest potential to focus, learn and adapt. While scientists used to believe that beyond a certain age, the brain couldn’t change or grow, we now know that brain has a quality known as <em>plasticity,</em> enabling it to grow new neurons and transform throughout our lives. Meditation is a powerful tool for awakening new neural connections and even transforming regions of the brain. A recent <a href="http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/">study</a> led by Harvard University and<strong> </strong>Massachusetts General Hospital found that after only eight weeks of meditation, participants experienced beneficial growth in the brain areas associated with memory, learning, empathy, self-awareness, and stress regulation (the insula, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex). In addition, the meditators reported decreased feelings of anxiety and greater feelings of calm. This study adds to the expanding body of research about the brain’s amazing plasticity and ability to change habitual stress patterns.</p>
<p>Many other studies provide evidence for the value of meditation in improving the ability to stay focused in world filled with increasing distractions and demands on our attention. For example, research conducted by the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center showed that teenagers and adults with ADHD who practiced various forms of meditation for just eight weeks improved their ability to concentrate on tasks, even when attempts were made to distract them.</p>
<h2>Meditation Helps You Create More Harmonious, Loving Relationships</h2>
<p>When you’re feeling balanced and centered, it is much easier to respond with awareness rather than have react in a knee-jerk way or say something that creates toxicity in your relationships. Meditation cultivates equanimity and compassion, allowing you to be present with a loved one, client or co-worker and really listen to what they are saying and what they may need.</p>
<p>As you meditate on a regular basis, you develop what is known as “witnessing awareness” – the ability to calmly and objectively observe a situation, notice when you are being triggered, and consciously choose how you want to respond. The ability to be present and aware is extremely valuable in every relationship.</p>
<h2>Meditation Improves Your Creativity and Problem-Solving Skills</h2>
<p>We each have an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day – unfortunately, many of them are the same thoughts we had yesterday, last week, and last year. The mind tends to get stuck in repetitive thought loops that squeeze out the possibility for new ideas and inspiration. Meditation is a powerful practice for going beyond habitual, conditioned thought patterns into a state of expanded awareness. We connect to what is known as the field of infinite possibilities or pure potentiality, and we open to new insights, intuition, and ideas.</p>
<p>The world’s great innovators, athletes, and other high achievers have described this state as “being in the flow,” being in the right place at the right time, or a state of grace. Time seems to stand still and instead of struggling and trying to force things to happen, everything you need comes naturally to you. You do less and accomplish more. You aren’t burdened by the past or worried about the future; you’re flowing in the ever present eternal now. This higher state of consciousness is the birthplace of all creativity. The mind is in an open, receptive state and is able to receive flashes of insight and fresh perspectives. As Marcel Proust wrote, “The real journey of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in seeing with new eyes.”</p>
<h2>Meditation Decreases Depression, Anxiety, and Insomnia</h2>
<p>The emotional effects of sitting quietly and going within are profound. The deep state of rest produced by meditation triggers the brain to release neurotransmitters, including dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. Each of these naturally occurring brain chemicals has been linked to different aspects of happiness:</p>
<ul>
<li>Dopamine plays a key role in the brain’s ability to experience pleasure, feel rewarded, and maintain focus.</li>
<li>Serotonin has a calming effect. It eases tension and helps us feel less stressed and more relaxed and focused. Low levels of this neurotransmitter have been linked to migraines, anxiety, bipolar disorder, apathy, feelings of worthlessness, fatigue, and insomnia.</li>
<li>Oxytocin (the same chemical whose levels rise during sexual arousal and breastfeeding), is a pleasure hormone. It creates feelings of calm, contentment, and security, while reducing fear and anxiety.</li>
<li>Endorphins are most commonly known as the chemicals that create the exhilaration commonly labeled “the runner’s high.” These neurotransmitters play many roles related to wellbeing, including decreasing feelings of pain and reducing the side effects of stress.</li>
</ul>
<p>Meditation choreographs the simultaneous release of these neurotransmitters, something that no single drug can do – and all without side effects. A growing body of medical research is providing scientific evidence that meditation and mindfulness alleviates depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mood-related disorders. A pivotal study (published in the April 2012 issue of <em>Emotion</em>) led by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, found that participants who underwent a short, intensive meditation program were less depressed, anxious, and stressed, while also experiencing greater compassion and awareness of others’ feelings.</p>
<p>Meditation also can benefit people suffering from chronic pain, potentially decreasing or eliminating the need for medication. A study conducted by Wake Forest University School of Medicine (published in the April 2011 issue of the <em>Journal of Neuroscience</em>) found that participants who attended four 20-minute training sessions over the course of four days experienced a sharp reduction in their sensitivity to pain. In fact, the reduction in pain ratings was significantly greater than those found in similar studies involving placebo pills, morphine, and other painkilling drugs.</p>
<h2>Meditation: The Birthplace of Happiness</h2>
<p>Beyond the substantial benefits meditation creates for the mind-body physiology, the greatest gift of meditation is the sense of calm and inner peace it brings into your daily life. When you meditate, you go beyond the mind’s noisy chatter into an entirely different place: the silence of a mind that is not imprisoned by the past or the future. This is important because silence is the birthplace of happiness. Silence is where we get our bursts of inspiration, our tender feelings of compassion and empathy, and our sense of love. These are all delicate emotions, and the chaotic roar of the internal dialogue easily drowns them out. But when you discover the silence in your mind, you no longer have to pay undue attention to all the random images that trigger worry, anger, and pain. When you meditate on a regular basis, all of your thoughts, actions, and reactions are infused with a little more love and mindful attention. The result is a deeper appreciation and a profound awareness of the divine quality of existence.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.chopra.com/ccl/why-meditate">http://www.chopra.com/ccl/why-meditate</a></p>Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wondertag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-03-21:505106:BlogPost:376032014-03-21T06:03:18.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><b>"In<i> Thrive,</i> Arianna Huffington makes an impassioned and compelling case for the need to redefine what it means to be successful in today's world."</b></p>
<p></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393674265?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393674265?profile=original" width="232"></img></a></span></p>
<p><span> </span><br></br><span>"Arianna Huffington's personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye -- the result of a fall…</span></p>
<p><b>"In<i> Thrive,</i> Arianna Huffington makes an impassioned and compelling case for the need to redefine what it means to be successful in today's world."</b></p>
<p></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393674265?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393674265?profile=original" width="232" class="align-center"></a></span></p>
<p><span> </span><br><span>"Arianna Huffington's personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye -- the result of a fall brought on by exhaustion and lack of sleep. As the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group -- one of the fastest growing media companies in the world -- celebrated as one of the world's most influential women, and gracing the covers of magazines, she was, by any traditional measure, extraordinarily successful. Yet as she found herself going from brain MRI to CAT scan to echocardiogram, to find out if there was any underlying medical problem beyond exhaustion, she wondered is this really what success feels like?</span><br><span> </span><br><span>As more and more people are coming to realize, there is far more to living a truly successful life than just earning a bigger salary and capturing a corner office. Our relentless pursuit of the two traditional metrics of success -- money and power -- has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress-related illnesses, and an erosion in the quality of our relationships, family life, and, ironically, our careers. In being connected to the world 24/7, we're losing our connection to what truly matters. Our current definition of success is, as</span><i> Thrive </i><span>shows, literally killing us. We need a new way forward.</span><br><span> </span><br><span>In a commencement address Arianna gave at Smith College in the spring of 2013, she likened our drive for money and power to two legs of a three-legged stool. They may hold us up temporarily, but sooner or later we're going to topple over. We need a third leg -- a third metric for defining success -- to truly thrive. That third metric, she writes in </span><i>Thrive</i><span>, includes our well-being, our ability to draw on our intuition and inner wisdom, our sense of wonder, and our capacity for compassion and giving. As Arianna points out, our eulogies celebrate our lives very differently from the way society defines success. They don't commemorate our long hours in the office, our promotions, or our sterling PowerPoint presentations as we relentlessly raced to climb up the career ladder. They are not about our resumes -- they are about cherished memories, shared adventures, small kindnesses and acts of generosity, lifelong passions, and the things that made us laugh.</span><br><span> </span><br><span>In this deeply personal book, Arianna talks candidly about her own challenges with managing time and prioritizing the demands of a career and raising two daughters -- of juggling business deadlines and family crises, a harried dance that led to her collapse and to her "aha moment." Drawing on the latest groundbreaking research and scientific findings in the fields of psychology, sports, sleep, and physiology that show the profound and transformative effects of meditation, mindfulness, unplugging, and giving, Arianna shows us the way to a revolution in our culture, our thinking, our workplace, and our lives." </span></p>
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<p><span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Redefining-Success-Creating-Well-Being/dp/0804140847">http://www.amazon.com/Thrive-Redefining-Success-Creating-Well-Being/dp/0804140847</a></span></p>
<p>Courtesy: Amazon.com</p>Does a Good Leader Have To Be Tough? - by Deepak Chopratag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-02-13:505106:BlogPost:374142014-02-13T11:30:00.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><span>In modern business and government, leaders are expected to behave in a peculiar way. Success depends on adopting the model of warfare.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688717?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688717?profile=original" width="639"></img></a></span></p>
<p><span>To describe someone as tough, ruthless, a winner in the battle for supremacy - these are compliments. We've become used to toughness as a desirable attribute for success. What's peculiar about…</span></p>
<p><span>In modern business and government, leaders are expected to behave in a peculiar way. Success depends on adopting the model of warfare.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688717?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393688717?profile=original" width="639" class="align-full"></a></span></p>
<p><span>To describe someone as tough, ruthless, a winner in the battle for supremacy - these are compliments. We've become used to toughness as a desirable attribute for success. What's peculiar about this is that the same warriors, if they are normal people, don't apply the war model to their personal life. "I love you, Daddy, because you're so ruthless with me" isn't something a young child would say.</span><br><br><span>I realize that there are successful people - traditionally men - who exude toughness in every aspect of their lives. But the real question is whether toughness actually produces success or whether the war model is actually ineffective. Do you have to make yourself tough if you want to be a leader? Each of us has natural tendencies that we can build upon or avoid - the choice is ours.</span><br><br><span>Here are the positives and negatives of a tough leadership style, which are well worth considering in your own career path.</span><br><br><span>Positives:</span><br><br><span>Toughness provides sharp focus.</span><br><br><span>You quickly know who is an ally and who is an enemy/rival.</span><br><br><span>You can use intimidation as a competitive tactic.</span><br><br><span>If people fear you, they will respect you.</span><br><br><span>Weaker people will submit to your will.</span><br><br><span>Time isn't wasted making friends - what counts are results.</span><br><br><span>You will be labeled a winner in the eyes of other warrior types.</span><br><br><span>You won't have a guilty conscience about hurting others - this is war, after all.</span><br><br><span>Negatives:</span><br><br><span>Other warriors will gun for you.</span><br><br><span>Loyalty based on intimidation can't be trusted.</span><br><br><span>Setbacks will be labeled as defeats.</span><br><br><span>Tough minds are generally closed minds.</span><br><br><span>Constant vigilance is called for, since everyone is a potential enemy.</span><br><br><span>The lack of friends eliminates the possibility for personal connections.</span><br><br><span>Tough leadership generally thrives only in an atmosphere of crisis.</span><br><br><span>There's a long tradition of ignoring the downside of toughness and overvaluing the upside. Notoriously tough generals like Patton were not as effective in WW II as a conciliator like Eisenhower, for example. The attitude of "you're either for me or against me" that is the code of tough leaders is quickly interpreted by others as "This is all about me," and that is the opposite of how good leadership works. Good leadership is about fulfilling the needs of those you manage and oversee.</span><br><br><span>The bottom line, however, is whether you view life - and business, which is part of life - as a battle. Many people do. They deeply believe that success requires constant struggle against the odds. There is little joy in such a worldview; at its worst, it is soul-killing. As you consider what kind of leader to become, it's valuable to know that there are workable alternatives to toughness - not the opposite, which is to be soft. An entirely different model takes you out of the hard-soft, tough-weak scheme.</span><br><br><span>The model I have in mind breaks needs down into a hierarchy, where the leader examines the kind of need the situation presents and then adapts the tactics that fit that need. There are seven basic needs a leader must confront.</span><br><br><span>1. Safety and security. When people don't feel safe, your tactic should focus of reassurance, providing security, pushing back against threats, and bringing a dangerous crisis to a safe conclusion.</span><br><br><span>2. Achievement and accomplishment. When people crave material success, your tactic should focus on rewards for good work, effective competition, and providing an avenue to personal success.</span><br><br><span>3. Community and cooperation. When success depends upon a group effort, your tactic should focus on loyalty, forming alliances, establishing esprit de corps, and creating a work atmosphere where every member can make a contribution.</span><br><br><span>4. Being understood and valued. When people are being asked to push to the limit, your tactic should focus on appreciation, bonding at the personal level, showing that you care ,understand, and listen.</span><br><br><span>5. Creativity and discovery. When a situation calls for creative breakthroughs, your tactic should focus on giving everyone free time and an open space, tearing down barriers between workers and managers, and opening the door to many viewpoints and approaches.</span><br><br><span>6. Inspiration and values. When people need to feel inspired by the challenges that lie ahead, you can't adopt a tactic. Inspiration comes by living the values you preach, making yourself a beacon of light for others to admire and follow.</span><br><br><span>7. Higher purpose and enlightenment. Finally, there is the deep need to feel an allegiance to God or a spiritual goal that will bring fulfillment to the soul. You can't plan in advance to fill this need. If you are called on, there will be a transformation within yourself.</span><br><br><span>In this model of leadership, toughness is only one of many qualities that a leader must possess. No one can expect to be a universal leader; situations change, and when they do, specific leaders rise to meet the challenge. But you will hold an enormous advantage if you have seen the whole landscape. Life is unpredictable, and chaining yourself to toughness as your only response is a narrow strategy, one that may succeed in a crisis while failing miserably in many other areas.</span></p>10 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Incredibly Happytag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-01-21:505106:BlogPost:370972014-01-21T07:59:59.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p>Try one. Try them all. They work. Science says so.</p>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="entry-byline">By <a href="http://business.time.com/contributor/jeff-haden/" rel="author" title="Posts by Jeff Haden">Jeff Haden</a></span>
</div>
<div class="entry-meta"></div>
<div class="entry-content"><p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691692?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691692?profile=original" width="360"></img></a></p>
<p>It’s easy to think of happiness as a <em>result</em>,…</p>
</div>
<p>Try one. Try them all. They work. Science says so.</p>
<div class="entry-meta">
<span class="entry-byline">By <a href="http://business.time.com/contributor/jeff-haden/" title="Posts by Jeff Haden" rel="author">Jeff Haden</a></span><br />
</div>
<div class="entry-meta"></div>
<div class="entry-content">
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691692?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691692?profile=original" width="360" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>It’s easy to think of happiness as a <em>result</em>, but happiness is also a <em>driver</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>One example: While I’m definitely into finding ways to improve personal productivity (whether <a>a one-day burst</a>, <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/7-qualities-of-uber-productive-people.html" target="_blank">or a lifetime</a>, or <a href="http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/8-things-you-should-not-do-every-day.html" target="_blank">things you should <em>not</em> do every day</a>), probably the best way to be more productive is to just be happier. Happy people accomplish more.</p>
<p>Easier said than done though, right?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Actually, many changes are easy. Here are 10 science-based ways to be happier from Belle Beth Cooper, Content Crafter at <a href="http://www.bufferapp.com/" target="_blank">Buffer</a>, the social media management tool that lets you schedule, automate, and analyze social media updates.</p>
<p>Here’s Beth:</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>1. Exercise: 7 Minutes Could Be Enough</strong></p>
<p>Think exercise is something you don’t have time for? Think again. Check out <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/why-exercising-makes-us-happier" target="_blank">the 7 minute workout</a> mentioned in<em> The New York Times</em>. That’s a workout any of us can fit into our schedules.</p>
<p>Exercise has such a profound effect on our happiness and well-being that it is an effective strategy for overcoming depression. In a study cited in Shawn Achor’s book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307591549/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307591549">The Happiness Advantage</a></em>, three groups of patients treated their depression with medication, exercise, or a combination of the two. The results of this study are surprising: Although all three groups experienced similar improvements in their happiness levels early on, the follow-up assessments proved to be radically different:</p>
<p><em>The groups were then tested six months later to assess their relapse rate. Of those who had taken the medication alone, 38 percent had slipped back into depression. Those in the combination group were doing only slightly better, with a 31 percent relapse rate. <strong>The biggest shock, though, came from the exercise group: Their relapse rate was only 9 percent.</strong></em></p>
<p>You don’t have to be depressed to benefit from exercise, though. Exercise can help you relax, increase your brain power, and even improve your body image, even if you don’t lose any weight.</p>
<p>We’ve explored <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/why-exercising-makes-us-happier" target="_blank">exercise in depth before</a>, and looked at what it does to our brains, such as releasing proteins and endorphins that make us feel happier.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/03/how-can-you-feel-better-about-your-body/#ixzz2b2yfplh7" target="_blank">study in the <em>Journal of Health Psychology</em></a> found that people who exercised felt better about their bodies even when they saw no physical changes:</p>
<p><em>Body weight, shape and body image were assessed in 16 males and 18 females before and after both 6 × 40 minutes exercising and 6 × 40 minutes reading. Over both conditions, body weight and shape did not change. Various aspects of body image, however, improved after exercise compared to before.</em></p>
<p>Yep: Even if your actual appearance doesn’t change, how you <em>feel</em> about your body does change.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>2. Sleep More: You’ll Be Less Sensitive to Negative Emotions</strong></p>
<p>We know that <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need-to-work-productively" target="_blank">sleep helps our body recover from the day and repair itself</a> and that it helps us focus and be more productive. It turns out sleep is also important for happiness.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0054U5ENY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0054U5ENY&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20" target="_blank"><em>NutureShock</em></a>, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman explain how sleep affects positivity:</p>
<p><em>Negative stimuli get processed by the amygdala; positive or neutral memories gets processed by the hippocampus. Sleep deprivation hits the hippocampus harder than the amygdala. The result is that sleep-deprived people fail to recall pleasant memories yet recall gloomy memories just fine.</em></p>
<p><em>In one experiment by Walker, sleep-deprived college students tried to memorize a list of words. They could remember 81% of the words with a negative connotation, like “cancer.” But they could remember only 31% of the words with a positive or neutral connotation, like “sunshine” or “basket.”</em></p>
<p>The BPS Research Digest explores <a href="http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com.au/2011/03/afternoon-nap-tunes-out-negative.html" target="_blank">another study</a> that proves sleep affects our sensitivity to negative emotions. Using a facial recognition task throughout the course of a day, researchers studied how sensitive participants were to positive and negative emotions. Those who worked through the afternoon without taking a nap became more sensitive to negative emotions like fear and anger.</p>
<p><em>Using a face recognition task, here we demonstrate an amplified reactivity to anger and fear emotions across the day, without sleep. However, an intervening nap blocked and even reversed this negative emotional reactivity to anger and fear while conversely enhancing ratings of positive (happy) expressions.</em></p>
<p>Of course, how well (and how long) you sleep will probably affect how you feel when you wake up, which can make a difference to your whole day.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-04/osu-guo040411.php" target="_blank">Another study</a> tested how employees’ moods when they started work in the morning affected their entire work day.</p>
<p><em>Researchers found that employees’ moods when they clocked in tended to affect how they felt the rest of the day. Early mood was linked to their perceptions of customers and to how they reacted to customers’ moods.</em></p>
<p>And most importantly to managers, employee mood had a clear impact on performance, including both how much work employees did and how well they did it.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>3. Spend More Time With Friends/Family: Money Can’t Buy You Happiness<br></strong></p>
<p>Staying in touch with friends and family is one of the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying">top five regrets of the dying</a>.</p>
<p>If you want more evidence that time with friends is beneficial for you, research proves it can make you happier right now, too.</p>
<p>Social time is highly valuable when it comes to improving our happiness, even for introverts. Several studies have found that time spent with friends and family makes a big difference to how happy we feel.</p>
<p>I love the way <a href="http://bigthink.com/users/dangilbert#%21video_idea_id=5143">Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert</a> explains it:</p>
<p><em>We are happy when we have family, we are happy when we have friends and almost <strong>all the other things we think make us happy are actually just ways of getting more family and friends</strong>.</em></p>
<p>George Vaillant is the director of a 72-year study of the lives of 268 men.</p>
<p><em>In an interview in the March 2008 newsletter to the Grant Study subjects, Vaillant was asked, “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” Vaillant’s response: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”</em></p>
<p>He shared insights of the study with Joshua Wolf Shenk at<em> <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/2/?single_page=true">The Atlantic</a> </em>on how men’s social connections made a difference to their overall happiness:</p>
<p><em>Men’s relationships at age 47, he found, predicted late-life adjustment better than any other variable. Good sibling relationships seem especially powerful: 93 percent of the men who were thriving at age 65 had been close to a brother or sister when younger.</em></p>
<p>In fact, a study published in the <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/01/what-are-your-relationships-worth-in-dollars/#ixzz2b33s2ANx">J<em>ournal of Socio-Economics</em></a> states than your relationships are worth more than $100,000:</p>
<p><em>Using the British Household Panel Survey, I find that an increase in the level of social involvements is worth up to an extra £85,000 a year in terms of life satisfaction. Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness.</em></p>
<p>I think that last line is especially fascinating: <em>Actual changes in income, on the other hand, buy very little happiness</em>. So we could increase our annual income by hundreds of thousands of dollars and still not be as happy as we would if we increased the strength of our social relationships.</p>
<p>The Terman study, covered in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0452297702/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0452297702">The Longevity Project</a></em>, found that relationships and how we help others were important factors in living long, happy lives:</p>
<p><em>We figured that if a Terman participant sincerely felt that he or she had friends and relatives to count on when having a hard time then that person would be healthier. Those who felt very loved and cared for, we predicted, would live the longest.</em></p>
<p><em>Surprise: our prediction was wrong… Beyond social network size, the clearest benefit of social relationships came from helping others. Those who helped their friends and neighbors, advising and caring for others, tended to live to old age.</em></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>4. Get Outside More: Happiness is Maximized at 57°</strong></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307591549/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0307591549" target="_blank"><em>The Happiness Advantage</em></a>, Shawn Achor recommends spending time in the fresh air to improve your happiness:</p>
<p><em>Making time to go outside on a nice day also delivers a huge advantage; one study found that spending 20 minutes outside in good weather not only boosted positive mood, but broadened thinking and improved working memory…</em></p>
<p>This is pretty good news for those of us who are worried about fitting new habits into our already-busy schedules. Twenty minutes is a short enough time to spend outside that you could fit it into your commute or even your lunch break.</p>
<p>A UK study from the <a href="http://www.thejournal.ie/sea-sun-happiness-study-973774-Jul2013/" target="_blank">University of Sussex</a> also found that being outdoors made people happier:</p>
<p><em>Being outdoors, near the sea, on a warm, sunny weekend afternoon is the perfect spot for most. In fact, participants were found to be substantially happier outdoors in all natural environments than they were in urban environments.</em></p>
<p>The <a href="http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/WCAS-D-11-00052.1?journalCode=wcas" target="_blank">American Meteorological Society</a> published research in 2011 that found current temperature has a bigger effect on our happiness than variables like wind speed and humidity, or even the average temperature over the course of a day. It also found that<strong>happiness is maximized at 57 degrees (13.9°C</strong>), so keep an eye on the weather forecast before heading outside for your 20 minutes of fresh air.</p>
<p>The connection between <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-science-of-how-room-temperature-and-lighting-affects-our-productivity" target="_blank">productivity and temperature is another topic we’ve talked about more here</a>. It’s fascinating what a small change in temperature can do.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>5. Help Others: 100 Hours a Year is the Magic Number</strong></p>
<p>One of the most counterintuitive pieces of advice I found is that to make yourself feel happier, you should help others. In fact, 100 hours per year (or two hours per week) is the<a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/simple-productivity-tips-science" target="_blank">optimal time we should dedicate to helping others</a> in order to enrich our lives.</p>
<p>If we go back to Shawn Achor’s book again, he says this about helping others:</p>
<p><em>…when researchers interviewed more than 150 people about their recent purchases, they found that money spent on activities–such as concerts and group dinners out–brought far more pleasure than material purchases like shoes, televisions, or expensive watches. Spending money on other people, called “prosocial spending,” also boosts happiness.</em></p>
<p>The Journal of Happiness Studies <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/04/is-there-a-way-to-create-a-positive-feedback/#ixzz2b2m2LMBe">published a study</a> that explored this very topic:</p>
<p><em>Participants recalled a previous purchase made for either themselves or someone else and then reported their happiness. Afterward, participants chose whether to spend a monetary windfall on themselves or someone else. <strong>Participants assigned to recall a purchase made for someone else reported feeling significantly happier</strong> immediately after this recollection;<strong>most importantly, the happier participants felt, the more likely they were to choose to spend a windfall on someone else</strong> in the near future.</em></p>
<p>So spending money on other people makes us happier than buying stuff for ourselves. But what about spending our <em>time</em> on other people?</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/11/is-being-selfless-the-smartest-way-to-be-self/#ixzz2b2lnKKci" target="_blank">study of volunteering in Germany</a> explored how volunteers were affected when their opportunities to help others were taken away:</p>
<p><em>Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall but before the German reunion, the first wave of data of the GSOEP was collected in East Germany. Volunteering was still widespread. Due to the shock of the reunion, a large portion of the infrastructure of volunteering (e.g. sports clubs associated with firms) collapsed and people randomly lost their opportunities for volunteering. Based on a comparison of the change in subjective well-being of these people and of people from the control group who had no change in their volunteer status, the hypothesis is supported that volunteering is rewarding in terms of higher life satisfaction.</em></p>
<p>In his book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439190763/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439190763" target="_blank"><em>Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being</em></a>, University of Pennsylvania professor Martin Seligman explains that helping others can improve our own lives:</p>
<p><em>…we scientists have found that doing a kindness produces the single most reliable momentary increase in well-being of any exercise we have tested.</em></p>
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<p><strong>6. Practice Smiling: Reduce Pain, Improve Mood, Think Better<br></strong></p>
<p>Smiling can make us feel better, but it’s more effective when we back it up with positive thoughts, according to <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/msu-sfa022211.php" target="_blank">this study</a>:</p>
<p><em>A new study led by a Michigan State University business scholar suggests customer-service workers who fake smile throughout the day worsen their mood and withdraw from work, affecting productivity. But workers who smile as a result of cultivating positive thoughts–such as a tropical vacation or a child’s recital–improve their mood and withdraw less.</em></p>
<p>Of course it’s important to <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-science-of-smiling-a-guide-to-humans-most-powerful-gesture" target="_blank"><strong>practice “real smiles”</strong></a> where you use your eye sockets. (You’ve seen fake smiles that don’t reach the person’s eyes. Try it. Smile with just your mouth. Then smile naturally; your eyes narrow. There’s a huge difference in a fake smile and a genuine smile.)</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/06/10-hidden-benefits-of-smiling.php" target="_blank">PsyBlog</a>, <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/the-science-of-smiling-a-guide-to-humans-most-powerful-gesture">smiling</a> can improve our attention and help us perform better on cognitive tasks:</p>
<p><em>Smiling makes us feel good which also increases our attentional flexibility and our ability to think holistically. When this idea was tested by Johnson et al. (2010), the results showed that participants who smiled performed better on attentional tasks which required seeing the whole forest rather than just the trees.</em></p>
<p>A smile is also a good way to reduce some of the pain we feel in troubling circumstances:</p>
<p><em>Smiling is one way to reduce the distress caused by an upsetting situation. Psychologists call this the facial feedback hypothesis. Even forcing a smile when we don’t feel like it is enough to lift our mood slightly (this is one example of embodied cognition).</em></p>
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<p><strong>7. Plan a Trip: It Helps Even if You Don’t Actually Take One</strong></p>
<p>As opposed to actually taking a holiday, simply <em>planning</em> a vacation or break from work can improve our happiness. A study published in the journal <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/18/how-vacations-affect-your-happiness/?_r=0" target="_blank">Applied Research in Quality of Life</a> showed that the highest spike in happiness came during the planning stage of a vacation as people enjoy the sense of anticipation:</p>
<p><em>In the study, the effect of vacation anticipation boosted happiness for eight weeks. </em>After<em> the vacation, happiness quickly dropped back to baseline levels for most people.</em></p>
<p>Shawn Achor has some info for us on this point, as well:</p>
<p><em><strong>One study found that people who just thought about watching their favorite movie actually raised their endorphin levels by 27 percent.</strong></em></p>
<p>If you can’t take the time for a vacation right now, or even a night out with friends, put something on the calendar–even if it’s a month or a year down the road. Then, whenever you need a boost of happiness, remind yourself about it.</p>
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<p><strong>8. Meditate: Rewire Your Brain for Happiness</strong></p>
<p>Meditation is often touted as an important habit for improving focus, clarity, and attention span, as well as helping to keep you calm. It turns out it’s also useful for<a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-rewire-your-brains-for-positivity-and-happiness" target="_blank">improving your happiness</a>:</p>
<p><em>In one study, a research team from Massachusetts General Hospital looked at the brain scans of 16 people before and after they participated in an eight-week course in mindfulness meditation. The study, published in the January issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, concluded that after completing the course, parts of the participants’ brains associated with compassion and self-awareness grew, and parts associated with stress shrank.</em></p>
<p>Meditation literally clears your mind and calms you down, it’s been often proven to be the single most effective way to live a happier life. According to Achor, meditation can actually make you happier long-term:</p>
<p><em>Studies show that in the minutes right after meditating, we experience feelings of calm and contentment, as well as heightened awareness and empathy. And, research even shows that regular meditation can permanently rewire the brain to raise levels of happiness.</em></p>
<p>The fact that we can actually alter our brain structure through mediation is most surprising to me and somewhat reassuring that however we feel and think today isn’t permanent.</p>
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<p><strong>9. Move Closer to Work: A Short Commute is Worth More Than a Big House</strong></p>
<p>Our commute to work can have a surprisingly powerful impact on our happiness. The fact that we tend to commute twice a day at least five days a week makes it unsurprising that the effect would build up over time and make us less and less happy.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/09/27/where-is-the-grass-greener-the-economics-of-happiness/" target="_blank"><em>The Art of Manliness</em></a>, having a long commute is something we often fail to realize will affect us so dramatically:</p>
<p><em>… while many voluntary conditions don’t affect our happiness in the long term because we acclimate to them, people never get accustomed to their daily slog to work because sometimes the traffic is awful and sometimes it’s not.</em></p>
<p><em>Or as Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert put it, “Driving in traffic is a different kind of hell every day.”</em></p>
<p>We tend to try to compensate for this by having a bigger house or a better job, but these compensations just don’t work:</p>
<p><em>Two Swiss economists who studied the effect of commuting on happiness found that such factors could not make up for the misery created by a long commute.</em></p>
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<p><strong>10. Practice Gratitude: Increase Happiness and Satisfaction</strong></p>
<p>This is a seemingly simple strategy but I’ve personally found it to make a huge difference to my outlook. There are lots of ways to practice gratitude, from keeping a journal of things you’re grateful for, <a href="http://blog.bufferapp.com/how-to-rewire-your-brains-for-positivity-and-happiness" target="_blank">sharing three good things that happen each day</a> with a friend or your partner, and going out of your way to show gratitude when others help you.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/08/was-grandmom-right-about-counting-your-blessi/#ixzz2an4gw6vR" target="_blank">an experiment</a> where participants took note of things they were grateful for each day, their moods were improved just from this simple practice:</p>
<p><em>The gratitude-outlook groups exhibited heightened well-being across several, though not all, of the outcome measures across the three studies, relative to the comparison groups. The effect on positive affect appeared to be the most robust finding. Results suggest that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits.</em></p>
<p>The Journal of Happiness studies <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2011/04/how-to-quickly-and-easiy-feel-happier-and-mor/#ixzz2b36XGs00" target="_blank">published a study</a> that used letters of gratitude to test how being grateful can affect our levels of happiness:</p>
<p><em>Participants included 219 men and women who wrote three letters of gratitude over a 3 week period. Results indicated that writing letters of gratitude increased participants’ happiness and life satisfaction while decreasing depressive symptoms.</em></p>
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<p><strong>Quick Final Fact: Getting Older Will Actually Make You Happier</strong></p>
<p>As we get older, particularly past middle age, we tend to naturally <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120106135950.htm">grow happier</a>. There’s still some debate over why this happens, but scientists have a few ideas:</p>
<p><em>Researchers, including the authors, have found that older people shown pictures of faces or situations tend to focus on and remember the happier ones more and the negative ones less.</em></p>
<p><em>Other studies have discovered that as people age, they seek out situations that will lift their moods–for instance, pruning social circles of friends or acquaintances who might bring them down. Still other work finds that older adults learn to let go of loss and disappointment over unachieved goals, and focus their goals on greater well being.</em></p>
<p>So if you thought getting old will make you miserable, it’s likely you’ll develop a more positive outlook than you probably have now.</p>
<p>How cool is that?</p>
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<p><strong> </strong></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://business.time.com/2014/01/14/10-scientifically-proven-ways-to-be-incredibly-happy/">http://business.time.com/2014/01/14/10-scientifically-proven-ways-to-be-incredibly-happy/</a></p>
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</div>Mindfulness: 5 Simple tricks to Stay Relaxed and Stay Alerttag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-01-19:505106:BlogPost:371642014-01-19T08:57:47.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393696387?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393696387?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="480"></img></a></p>
<p>Most of us go through our lives generally thinking about the past or worried or anxious about what is to come in the future. In this we lose the very precious essence, which is, this very moment. Practice of Mindfulness basically teaches us how to live this moment and be aware of everything that is happening around us NOW.…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393696387?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393696387?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="480" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>Most of us go through our lives generally thinking about the past or worried or anxious about what is to come in the future. In this we lose the very precious essence, which is, this very moment. Practice of Mindfulness basically teaches us how to live this moment and be aware of everything that is happening around us NOW.<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/09/mindfulness-meditation-gene-expression_n_4391871.html">Research</a> shows that Mindfulness works positively in cure of Depression and Anxiety and increasingly it is becoming a part of the treatment plan of various ailments From Depression to Addiction to even blood pressure.</p>
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<p>Following are the 5 easy ways you can help yourself to be more mindful. This not only makes you more aware of this very moment, but also puts your brain in much relaxed and calmer state.</p>
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<ol>
<li>Multiple times of day (4-6 times), Spend 60 seconds consciously thinking about the present moment. Try and avoid any thoughts about Past or future.</li>
<li>Spend 5 minutes of your day focusing on your breathing with your eyes closed. Don’t try and alter anything, just try to be aware of how your body breathes. It does on its own, it doesn’t need your mind to do it. So just be an observer</li>
<li>While eating your meals, Try and focus on the taste and your bodily senses that it affects. Do it whenever you can remember.</li>
<li>While seated in your office, often remind yourself about the physical contact that your body makes with the chair underneath. On how the weight is distributed and if there is any discomfort in any part of your body. Again, just observe for couple of minutes, no need to change anything.</li>
<li>When in conversation or discussion with anyone, try and focus on what the other person is saying. Try and keep your mind open to all possibilities and opinions.</li>
</ol>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.curejoy.com/content/mindfulness-5-simple-tricks-to-stay-relaxed-and-stay-alert/">http://www.curejoy.com/content/mindfulness-5-simple-tricks-to-stay-relaxed-and-stay-alert/</a></p>The ‘Busy’ Traptag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-12-11:505106:BlogPost:371532013-12-11T12:00:00.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691686?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691686?profile=original" width="592"></img></a></p>
<p>by Tim Kreider, from Opinionator - The New York Times</p>
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<p>If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “<em>So</em> busy.” “<em>Crazy</em> busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691686?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393691686?profile=original" width="592" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>by Tim Kreider, from Opinionator - The New York Times</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you live in America in the 21st century you’ve probably had to listen to a lot of people tell you how busy they are. It’s become the default response when you ask anyone how they’re doing: “Busy!” “<em>So</em> busy.” “<em>Crazy</em> busy.” It is, pretty obviously, a boast disguised as a complaint. And the stock response is a kind of congratulation: “That’s a good problem to have,” or “Better than the opposite.”</p>
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It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this; it’s something we collectively force one another to do.<br />
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<p>Notice it isn’t generally people pulling back-to-back shifts in the I.C.U. or commuting by bus to three minimum-wage jobs who tell you how busy they are; what those people are is not busy but <em>tired. Exhausted. Dead on their feet</em>. It’s almost always people whose lamented busyness is purely self-imposed: work and obligations they’ve taken on voluntarily, classes and activities they’ve “encouraged” their kids to participate in. They’re busy because of their own ambition or drive or anxiety, because they’re addicted to busyness and dread what they might have to face in its absence.</p>
<p><span id="more-130759"></span><br> Almost everyone I know is busy. They feel anxious and guilty when they aren’t either working or doing something to promote their work. They schedule in time with friends the way students with 4.0 G.P.A.’s make sure to sign up for community service because it looks good on their college applications. I recently wrote a friend to ask if he wanted to do something this week, and he answered that he didn’t have a lot of time but if something was going on to let him know and maybe he could ditch work for a few hours. I wanted to clarify that my question had not been a preliminary heads-up to some future invitation; this <em>was</em> the invitation. But his busyness was like some vast churning noise through which he was shouting out at me, and I gave up trying to shout back over it.</p>
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<p>Even <em>children</em> are busy now, scheduled down to the half-hour with classes and extracurricular activities. They come home at the end of the day as tired as grown-ups. I was a member of the latchkey generation and had three hours of totally unstructured, largely unsupervised time every afternoon, time I used to do everything from surfing the World Book Encyclopedia to making animated films to getting together with friends in the woods to chuck dirt clods directly into one another’s eyes, all of which provided me with important skills and insights that remain valuable to this day. Those free hours became the model for how I wanted to live the rest of my life.</p>
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<p>The present hysteria is not a necessary or inevitable condition of life; it’s something we’ve chosen, if only by our acquiescence to it. Not long ago I Skyped with a friend who was driven out of the city by high rent and now has an artist’s residency in a small town in the south of France. She described herself as happy and relaxed for the first time in years. She still gets her work done, but it doesn’t consume her entire day and brain. She says it feels like college — she has a big circle of friends who all go out to the cafe together every night. She has a boyfriend again. (She once ruefully summarized dating in New York: “Everyone’s too busy and everyone thinks they can do better.”) What she had mistakenly assumed was her personality — driven, cranky, anxious and sad — turned out to be a deformative effect of her environment. It’s not as if any of us wants to live like this, any more than any one person wants to be part of a traffic jam or stadium trampling or the hierarchy of cruelty in high school — it’s something we collectively force one another to do.</p>
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Our frantic days are really just a hedge against emptiness.<br />
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<p>Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day. I once knew a woman who interned at a magazine where she wasn’t allowed to take lunch hours out, lest she be urgently needed for some reason. This was an entertainment magazine whose raison d’être was obviated when “menu” buttons appeared on remotes, so it’s hard to see this pretense of indispensability as anything other than a form of institutional self-delusion. More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary. I can’t help but wonder whether all this histrionic exhaustion isn’t a way of covering up the fact that most of what we do doesn’t matter.</p>
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<p>I am not busy. I am the laziest ambitious person I know. Like most writers, I feel like a reprobate who does not deserve to live on any day that I do not write, but I also feel that four or five hours is enough to earn my stay on the planet for one more day. On the best ordinary days of my life, I write in the morning, go for a long bike ride and run errands in the afternoon, and in the evening I see friends, read or watch a movie. This, it seems to me, is a sane and pleasant pace for a day. And if you call me up and ask whether I won’t maybe blow off work and check out the new American Wing at the Met or ogle girls in Central Park or just drink chilled pink minty cocktails all day long, I will say, what time?</p>
<p></p>
<p>But just in the last few months, I’ve insidiously started, because of professional obligations, to become busy. For the first time I was able to tell people, with a straight face, that I was “too busy” to do this or that thing they wanted me to do. I could see why people enjoy this complaint; it makes you feel important, sought-after and put-upon. Except that I hate actually being busy. Every morning my in-box was full of e-mails asking me to do things I did not want to do or presenting me with problems that I now had to solve. It got more and more intolerable until finally I fled town to the Undisclosed Location from which I’m writing this.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here I am largely unmolested by obligations. There is no TV. To check e-mail I have to drive to the library. I go a week at a time without seeing anyone I know. I’ve remembered about buttercups, stink bugs and the stars. I read. And I’m finally getting some real writing done for the first time in months. It’s hard to find anything to say about life without immersing yourself in the world, but it’s also just about impossible to figure out what it might be, or how best to say it, without getting the hell out of it again.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body, and deprived of it we suffer a mental affliction as disfiguring as rickets. The space and quiet that idleness provides is a necessary condition for standing back from life and seeing it whole, for making unexpected connections and waiting for the wild summer lightning strikes of inspiration — it is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done. “Idle dreaming is often of the essence of what we do,” wrote Thomas Pynchon in his essay on sloth. Archimedes’ “Eureka” in the bath, Newton’s apple, Jekyll & Hyde and the benzene ring: history is full of stories of inspirations that come in idle moments and dreams. It almost makes you wonder whether loafers, goldbricks and no-accounts aren’t responsible for more of the world’s great ideas, inventions and masterpieces than the hardworking.</p>
<p></p>
<p>“The goal of the future is full unemployment, so we can play. That’s why we have to destroy the present politico-economic system.” This may sound like the pronouncement of some bong-smoking anarchist, but it was actually Arthur C. Clarke, who found time between scuba diving and pinball games to write “Childhood’s End” and think up communications satellites. My old colleague Ted Rall recently wrote a column proposing that we divorce income from work and give each citizen a guaranteed paycheck, which sounds like the kind of lunatic notion that’ll be considered a basic human right in about a century, like abolition, universal suffrage and eight-hour workdays. The Puritans turned work into a virtue, evidently forgetting that God invented it as a punishment.</p>
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<p>Perhaps the world would soon slide to ruin if everyone behaved as I do. But I would suggest that an ideal human life lies somewhere between my own defiant indolence and the rest of the world’s endless frenetic hustle. My role is just to be a bad influence, the kid standing outside the classroom window making faces at you at your desk, urging you to just this once make some excuse and get out of there, come outside and play. My own resolute idleness has mostly been a luxury rather than a virtue, but I did make a conscious decision, a long time ago, to choose time over money, since I’ve always understood that the best investment of my limited time on earth was to spend it with people I love. I suppose it’s possible I’ll lie on my deathbed regretting that I didn’t work harder and say everything I had to say, but I think what I’ll really wish is that I could have one more beer with Chris, another long talk with Megan, one last good hard laugh with Boyd. Life is too short to be busy.</p>
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<div class="w75 left">
<img src="http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/03/30/opinion/kreider.jpg" alt="Author photo"><br />
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<p><em>Tim Kreider is the author of “<a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/We-Learn-Nothing/Tim-Kreider/9781439198704">We Learn Nothing</a>,” a collection of essays and cartoons. His cartoon, “The Pain — When Will It End?” has been collected in three books by Fantagraphics.</em></p>
<p></p>
<p><em>Source: <a href="http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?_r=0">http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/the-busy-trap/?_r=0</a></em></p>How To Fail At Almost Everything And Still Win Bigtag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-12-10:505106:BlogPost:371492013-12-10T12:00:00.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">"Most people aren’t lucky enough to have a flexible schedule. I didn’t have one either for the first sixteen years of my corporate life. So I did the next best thing by <strong>going to bed early and getting up at 4: 00 A.M. to do my creative side projects.</strong> One of those projects became the sketches for Dilbert."</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">- Scott Adams</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Energy, not…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;">"Most people aren’t lucky enough to have a flexible schedule. I didn’t have one either for the first sixteen years of my corporate life. So I did the next best thing by <strong>going to bed early and getting up at 4: 00 A.M. to do my creative side projects.</strong> One of those projects became the sketches for Dilbert."</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">- Scott Adams</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p><img class="aligncenter" title="how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big" alt="how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big" src="http://bakadesuyo.bakadesuyo.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big.jpg" width="500" height="200"/></p>
<p></p>
<div class="entry-content"><p>Scott Adams created a multimillion dollar empire. That empire is more commonly known as”<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740777351/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0740777351&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">Dilbert</a>.”</p>
<p>I mentioned him on this blog before because he gave some of the simplest, most profound advice for getting along with people that I’ve ever heard:</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/08/are-you-a-conversational-narcissist/" target="_blank">Be brief and say something positive.</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p></p>
<p>If you’ve read <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0740777351/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0740777351&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">Dilbert</a>, you know Adams understands a great deal about human nature.</p>
<p>(Then again I probably relate more to Calvin and Hobbes than most of the western canon.)</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>His new book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>, has a number of useful insights about life.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>And what’s really fascinating is they line up with a lot of the research I’ve posted about before.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>Here are 5 great life lessons he gives and the research I’ve posted that backs them up:</p>
<p> </p>
<h2>Have A System, Not A Goal</h2>
<p>This is such a powerful distinction. <strong>Losing 20lbs is a goal, eating right is a system.</strong> Which one do you think provides a better path to success?</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>…one should have a system instead of a goal.</strong> The system-versus-goals model can be applied to most human endeavors. <strong>In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system.</strong> In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A system provides a method and requires activity on a regular basis. That’s how successful people operate.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>For our purposes, let’s agree that <strong>goals are a reach-it-and-be-done situation, whereas a system is something you do on a regular basis with a reasonable expectation that doing so will get you to a better place in your life. Systems have no deadlines</strong>, and on any given day you probably can’t tell if they’re moving you in the right direction. <strong>My proposition is that if you study people who succeed, you will see that most of them follow systems, not goals…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Oliver Burkeman pointed out research that made a very similar distinction in <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/11/the-art-of-negative-thinking/" target="_blank">my interview with him</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>The best thing to do is to set process goals rather than outcome goals. Stop telling yourself you’re going to write the great American novel, and tell yourself you’re going to do 500 words a day. </strong>Step back from focusing on the outcome and focus on process.</p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<h2>Success Creates Passion More Than Passion Creates Success</h2>
<p>Many people are passionate about things but don’t follow through. Passion is great — but it’s not everything.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>…my boss taught us that you should never make a loan to someone who is following his passion.</strong> For example, you don’t want to give money to a sports enthusiast who is starting a sports store to pursue his passion for all things sporty. That guy is a bad bet, passion and all. He’s in business for the wrong reason. <strong>My boss, who had been a commercial lender for over thirty years, said the best loan customer is one who has no passion whatsoever, just a desire to work hard at something that looks good on a spreadsheet…</strong> <strong>Passionate people who fail don’t get a chance to offer their advice to the rest of us…</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dilbert didn’t start out as a passion project. Adams describes it as another get-rich-quick scheme he had.</p>
<p>But once it became successful he <em>developed</em> passion for it.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>…<strong>Dilbert started out as just one of many get-rich schemes I was willing to try.</strong> When it started to look as if it might be a success, my passion for cartooning increased because I realized it could be my golden ticket. In hindsight, it looks as if the projects I was most passionate about were also the ones that worked. But objectively, my passion level moved with my success. <strong>Success caused passion more than passion caused success. </strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This sounds a lot like <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/04/interview-author-cal-newport-on-how-you-can-become-an-expert-and-why-you-should-not-follow-your-passion/" target="_blank">what Georgetown professor Cal Newport said</a> in our interview:</p>
<blockquote><p><b>I set out to research a simple question: <i>How do people end up loving what they do? </i></b>If you ask people, the most common answer you’ll get is, “<i>They followed their passion</i>.” So I went out and researched: “<em>Is this true?</em>” <b>From what I found, “Follow your passion” is terrible advice… </b>My advice is to abandon the passion mindset which asks “<em>What does this job offer me? Am I happy with this job? Is it giving me everything I want?</em>” Shift from that mindset to Steve Martin’s mindset, which is “<em>What am I offering the world? How valuable am I? </em><strong><em>Am I really not that valuable? If I’m not that valuable, then I shouldn’t expect things in my working life. How can I get better?”</em></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<h2>Focus On Energy, Not Time</h2>
<p><strong>Scott Adams determines what activities to engage in by his energy level.</strong> To be creative he needs peak energy, so he draws Dilbert in the morning.</p>
<p>By the afternoon, his brain is fuzzy. That’s a good time for busy work.</p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>The way I approach the problem of multiple priorities is by focusing on just one main metric: my energy. I make choices that maximize my personal energy because that makes it easier to manage all of the other priorities.</strong></p>
<p><strong>One of the most important tricks for maximizing your productivity involves matching your mental state to the task… </strong><strong>At 6: 00 A.M. I’m a creator, and by 2: 00 P.M. I’m a copier… It’s the perfect match of my energy level with a mindless task.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>How can you do this if you’re not a rich and famous cartoonist? <strong><a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/10/productivity-ninja/" target="_blank">Wake up early to work on your own projects first</a>.</strong></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Most people aren’t lucky enough to have a flexible schedule. I didn’t have one either for the first sixteen years of my corporate life. So I did the next best thing by <strong>going to bed early and getting up at 4: 00 A.M. to do my creative side projects.</strong> One of those projects became the sketches for Dilbert.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Sounds like my main takeaway from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743226755/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743226755&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">The Power of Full Engagement</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p> </p>
<h2>Fake It Until You Make It</h2>
<p><strong>How do you overcome shyness? Out and out acting.</strong></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>I credit one of my college friends with teaching me <strong>the secret of overcoming shyness by imagining you are acting instead of interacting. And by that I mean literally acting. It turns out that a shy person can act like someone else more easily than he can act like himself.</strong> That makes some sense because shyness is caused by an internal feeling that you are not worthy to be in the conversation. <strong>Acting like someone else gets you out of that way of thinking.</strong> When I fake my way past my natural shyness, I like to imagine a specific confident person I know well.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And what are other tips to conversational expertise? <strong>Focus on making others feel good and act interested (even if you’re not.)</strong></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Your job as a conversationalist is to keep asking questions and keep looking for something you have in common with the stranger, or something that interests you enough to wade into the topic… </strong><strong>The point of conversation is to make the other person feel good.</strong></p>
<p><strong>So how do you get a stranger to like you? It’s simple, actually. It starts by smiling and keeping your body language open. After that, just ask questions and listen as if you cared, all the while looking for common interests.</strong>Everyone likes to talk about his or her own life, and everyone appreciates a sympathetic listener. Eventually, if you discover some common interests, you’ll feel a connection without any effort.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And scientific research on “<a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/03/fake-it-until-you-make-it/" target="_blank">fake it until you make it</a>“ agrees.</p>
<p></p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0061QAS3G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0061QAS3G&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20">The As If Principle</a>, Richard Wiseman shows how <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2012/04/is-improving-your-life-as-easy-as-changing-ho/">your actions might determine your feelings</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Researchers told people to smile. What happened? They felt happier.</strong></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0061QAS3G/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0061QAS3G&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20">The As If Principle: The Radically New Approach to Changing Your Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>More than 26,000 people responded. All of the participants were randomly assigned to one of a handful of groups and asked to carry out various exercises designed to make them happier… When it came to increasing happiness, <strong>those altering their facial expressions came out on top of the class</strong>— powerful evidence that the As If principle can generate emotions outside the laboratory and that such feelings are long-lasting and powerful.</p>
<p> </p>
</blockquote>
<p><img class="aligncenter" title="how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big" alt="how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big" src="http://bakadesuyo.bakadesuyo.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big-1.jpg" width="500" height="200"/></p>
<h2>Increase Your Happy Thoughts Ratio</h2>
<p>Good things happen to all of us all the time. But we often fail to keep them “top of mind” and to appreciate them.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Scott Adams recommends making an effort to increase the number of times you think about the positive things.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COOFBA4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COOFBA4&linkCode=as2&tag=barking-20" target="_blank">How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>A simple trick you might try involves increasing your ratio of happy thoughts to disturbing thoughts.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>This lines up perfectly with <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/09/how-to-live-a-happy-life/" target="_blank">Seligman’s 3 blessings exercise</a> — the most powerful happiness booster out there.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Via <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439190763/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=spacforrent-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1439190763" target="_blank">Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><strong>Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well</strong>…<strong>Writing about why the positive events in your life happened may seem awkward at first, but please stick with it for one week. It will get easier. The odds are that you will be less depressed, happier, and addicted to this exercise six months from now.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/12/how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big/">http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/12/how-to-fail-at-almost-everything-and-still-win-big/</a></p>
</blockquote>
</div>Top 7 Tips for How to Be Happytag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-12-03:505106:BlogPost:372472013-12-03T09:35:00.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393685272?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393685272?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>1.) Let go of negativity.</strong></p>
<p></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Learn to forgive and forget.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">See every challenge as an opportunity for further growth.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Express gratitude for what you have.</p>
</li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Be more…</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393685272?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393685272?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-center"></a></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>1.) Let go of negativity.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Learn to forgive and forget.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">See every challenge as an opportunity for further growth.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Express gratitude for what you have.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Be more optimistic about the future and your ability to accomplish life goals.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Open yourself up to success and embrace failures or mistakes that happen along the way.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Know that none of us are perfect, we are all here to entertain and be entertained.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Don’t worry about the little things. Take plenty of “worry vacations” where you train your mind not to worry for a certain lengths of time.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">If you want to be more positive, surround yourself with positive energy and people. Nurture the positive relationships that you have, seeking out more of those relationships that help uplift you.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Accept and love yourself for the unique gifts and talents that you bring to life. Spend less time trying to please others and spend more time trying to please your higher self.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">See the humor in life and in our experiences. Take life less seriously and learn to laugh at yourself.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>2.) Serve and be kind to others.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Treat everyone with kindness. Not only does it help others to feel better, but you will notice that you too feel good after having a positive interaction with others.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Speak well of others. When you speak negatively of others you will attract more negativity to yourself, but when you speak positively of others, you will attract more positivity.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Truly listen to others. Be present and mindful to what others are really saying when they speak. Support them without bringing yourself into it.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Be careful with your words. Speak gentler, kinder, and wiser.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Respect others and their free will.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Put your trust in others and be trusted in return. Enjoy the sense of community and friendship that comes from this openness and faith in one another.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Work as part of a whole. See others as partners in your efforts. Unite your efforts with them to create a synergy more powerful than anything you could do alone.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Practice generosity and giving without expecting anything in return. Get involved with service opportunities and offer what you can to a greater cause.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Smile more– to family, to co-workers, to neighbors, to strangers– and watch it not only change how you feel but also how they feel too.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>3.) Live in the present.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Don’t replay negative events or worry about the future.</p> </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Accept and celebrate impermanence. Be grateful for your life, for each moment of every day. Observe the constant and natural flow of change that surrounds us, and your small yet important part in the natural, divine flow of life.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Observe yourself in the moment. Work on your reactions to outer circumstances and learn how to approach life harmoniously.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>4.) Choose a healthy lifestyle.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Keep a daily routine. Wake up at the same time every morning, preferably early. Setting yourself to a natural biorhythm will make it easier to wake up and feel energized.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Get enough sleep. Proper sleep is linked to positive personality characteristics like optimism, improved self-esteem, and even problem solving.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Expose yourself to cold temperatures (especially first thing in the morning with perhaps a cold shower). It increases your circulation, helps minimize inflammation in the body, enhances weight loss, and energizes and invigorates you to start your day.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Turn off the TV. For every hour of TV you watch, you reduce 22 minutes of your life expectancy.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Eat properly. What you eat has a direct effect on your mood and energy levels. Eat plenty of organic, locally grown fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and dairy products that are both vitamin and mineral infused. Don’t overeat and try to practice healthy self-control.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Exercise daily to the point of sweating. It not only helps to purify the body, but also releases endorphins which help to prevent stress, relieve depression, and positively improve your mood.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Laugh more. Laughter is the best medicine. Like exercise, it releases endorphins that battle the negative effects of stress and promote a sense of well-being and joy.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Practice deep breathing and yoga. The body and mind are connected. Emotions affect the physical systems in the body, and the state of the body also affects the mind. By relaxing and releasing tension through the breath or yoga practice you feel more calm and centered throughout the day.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>5.) Take care of your spirit.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Strive to always learn new things. Constantly expand your awareness and discover new ways of expressing your divine gifts.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Get creative. This will not only challenge you to learn new things, but will also help to keep your mind in a positive place. Practice living in the present moment and being a channel for the divine flow of creativity.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Practice meditation. Research has proven that even as little as 10 minutes of meditation a day can lead to physical changes in the brain that improve concentration and focus, calm the nervous system, and help you to become more kind and compassionate, and even more humorous. Then bring the joy and peace you receive from meditation into your daily life and activity.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Be honest. Telling the truth keeps you free inside, builds trust in relationships, and improves your will power and the ability to attract success.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Surrender to the Universe Divine and allow it to take care of the littlest things in life to the greatest and most important.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>6. ) Be inwardly free.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Live minimally and simply. Often extravagant living brings more stress not more satisfaction.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">De-clutter your home to de-clutter your mind. Clutter is an often unrecognized source of stress that promotes feelings of anxiety, frustration, distraction, and guilt. Feel good in your own home. Make it your sanctuary by keeping it clean, organized, and uplifting.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Go without certain things you think you need. Travel to new places where not everything is as easily accessible or readily available, and learn to appreciate what you have by expanding your world.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Take some time away from life’s complicated outer involvements to get to know your family, your neighbors, and your loved ones better; and to get to know yourself.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>7.) Reconnect with Nature.</strong></p>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Take some time every week to recharge your body battery. On the weekend, escape to nature or a place where you can feel peace in time for a fresh start to the work week.</p> </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Get outside whenever possible to breathe in the fresh air and feel the sunshine. Both of which studies have shown to have a positive effect on our health and our mood.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Take some time to be silent. Be silent and calm every night for at least 10 minutes (longer if possible) and again in the morning before rising. This will produce an unbreakable habit of inner happiness to help you meet challenges in life.</p> </li>
<li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Observe the natural beauty that surrounds you and feel a sense of connection. Appreciate the details and miracles that can be found in nature.</p> </li>
</ul>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr"><strong>Taking the Next Steps to Finding Happiness:</strong></p>
<p dir="ltr">Ask yourself what makes you happy, and find ways to restructure your life so that you are able to do more of those things.</p>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p>Then ask why you struggle to do the things that you know will make you happy. Why are you not yet happy? Why haven’t you taken the next steps to find your happiness? Why are you here? And what do you need to do to feel a sense of accomplishment in this life?</p>
<p></p>
<p dir="ltr">Visualize yourself happy, doing the things that will bring you inner and outer success in life and write down the things you need to do to create a <em>Happiness Bucket List</em>. Start with the little things you know you can do each day that will bring you joy. Then move on to accomplish greater and greater things on your happiness bucket list.</p>
<p dir="ltr"></p>
<p dir="ltr">Source: <a href="http://findinghappinessmovie.com/happiness-tips/">http://findinghappinessmovie.com/happiness-tips/</a></p>
<p></p>How to Become a Great Leadertag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-11-30:505106:BlogPost:372442013-11-30T08:07:14.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p>by Deepak Chopra</p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">Leadership is a hot topic and will always be one. We seem to linger in a perpetual leadership vacuum. Today's Presidents and CEOs, generals and coaches, don't stand in comparison with the great leaders of the past - or so we are told - and in times of crisis, people cry out for someone who can show them a way to escape the looming threat.</div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<p><img alt="How to Become a Great Leader" class="shadow-5" height="389" src="https://www.deepakchopra.com/images/blog/639x389/76363324eb2509199c73ce1ced04422e_1322.jpg" width="639"></img></p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">There’s a general myth that…</div>
<p>by Deepak Chopra</p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">Leadership is a hot topic and will always be one. We seem to linger in a perpetual leadership vacuum. Today's Presidents and CEOs, generals and coaches, don't stand in comparison with the great leaders of the past - or so we are told - and in times of crisis, people cry out for someone who can show them a way to escape the looming threat.</div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<p><img src="https://www.deepakchopra.com/images/blog/639x389/76363324eb2509199c73ce1ced04422e_1322.jpg" alt="How to Become a Great Leader" width="639" height="389" class="shadow-5"/></p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">There’s a general myth that leaders are born rather than made, that somehow Nature produces a peculiar species of human being who is bigger, more powerful, smarter, braver, and more charismatic than the rest.<br/><br/>But waiting for such a rare bird is futile, for there are many crises that never find the natural born leader it needs. The real challenge in leadership is to find a way to build leaders. The main way that business schools and government departments attempt this is by studying the past. Learning from history has its advantages, naturally. There are lessons to be learned about how World War II was won, why the Chicago Bulls were such a successful basketball team, and why Wall St. banks, led by greed and short-sightedness, created the financial collapse of 2008.<br/><br/>But today's crises never completely mirror yesterday's, and it would be better in the first place to build leaders who can prevent crises before they arise. In my view, a great leader is inspiring, uplifting, a uniter of differences, and someone who brings out the best in human aspirations. I named this model "the soul of leadership” and set out to see if leaders with a soul could be trained.<br/><br/>Knowing that business, politics, and the military are not spiritual enterprises, I didn't formulate the training along "soft" or idealistic lines. Instead, I used a "hard" criterion: what groups actually need. If you aspire to be a great leader, the first requirement is that you look and listen, so that you can find out the true needs that a situation demands to be fulfilled. There are seven such needs:<br/><br/><strong>1. Safety, security</strong><br/><br/>Situations of threat and instability. People feel insecure. Discontent is in the air. You can see nervous faces, feel the prevailing anxiety. Who is going to make the situation feel safer?<br/><br/><strong>2. Achievement, success</strong><br/><br/>Situations of unrealized achievement. People feel unsuccessful. They want to be more productive, but there’s not enough fire or passion. Who is going to step up and provide the motivation so sorely needed?<br/><br/><strong>3. Cooperation</strong><br/><br/>Situations that are incoherent and fragmented. There’s no team spirit. The group disintegrates into bickering and petty wrangling. Meetings go on forever but reach no conclusion. Who’s going to be the glue that brings coherence to the situation?<br/><br/><strong>4. Nurturing, belonging</strong><br/><br/>Situations mired in bad feeling and apathy. Everyone is going through the motions, doing what they need to do but inside feeling totally disengaged. The atmosphere is stale and routine. There’s no personal support or trust. Who’s going to bring heart to the situation and make others feel that they belong?<br/><br/><strong>5. Creativity, progress</strong><br/><br/>Situations dominated by old solutions and stale ideas. People feel stymied. The atmosphere has no creativity; it feels like yesterday’s news. Everyone agrees that something new is needed, but all that emerges are small variations on the status quo. Who’s going to bring the spark of creativity to the situation?<br/><br/><strong>6. Moral values</strong><br/><br/>Situations that are spiritually empty and corrupt. The weak feel hopeless, the strong are cynically taking advantage. People talk about righting wrongs and bringing back the right values, but no one knows where to start. The future feels like wishful thinking; the present is oppressive and suffocating. Who will bring hope and a renewed sense of innocence?<br/><br/><strong>7. Spiritual fulfillment</strong><br/><br/>Situations that symbolize the human condition. People are asking the big questions: Who am I? Why am I here? Many are seeking for God. There is talk of a higher reality, yet faith is lacking. Who can bring the light and demonstrate that holiness is a living reality?<br/><br/>Having looked and listened, you will know the situation you are in and the need that is crying out to be fulfilled. As you can see, the "hard" criterion that shaped this model of leadership eventually leads to moral values and spirituality, because in reality those aren't "soft" needs. Every human being has a yearning for them. But unless the basic needs are fulfilled, appealing to a group's ideals is usually futile.<br/><br/>In the next few posts I'll detail how each need arises and how you as a leader can bring about change in other people's lives. The most common cause of leadership failure is ego, which means that someone is looking out for number one rather than the group. Ego is a legitimate basis for action - it's the second need above safety and security. We all want the good things in life; our instinct is to provide for "I, me, and mine." But the collapse of Wall St. and many disastrous wars have resulted when leaders get stuck on ego. You can be a great leader, with all the rewards this carries, while still serving the needs of the whole group. In essence, that's what the soul of leadership is all about.<br/><br/>This article was originally published by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130828015352-75054000-how-to-become-a-great-leader?trk=mp-reader-card">Linkedin</a></div>How to Handle Difficult Peopletag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-11-29:505106:BlogPost:373322013-11-29T09:55:06.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p>by Deepak Chopra</p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">The path to success can be derailed by clashes with difficult people, and even if the clash isn't disastrous, it can make your life very unpleasant. Everyone has a store of coping mechanisms that we resort to when we find ourselves in stressful situations.</div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<p><img alt="How to Handle Difficult People" class="shadow-5" height="389" src="https://www.deepakchopra.com/images/blog/639x389/2b315b8faf28150b7d23ad342988093b_1317.jpg" width="639"></img></p>
<div class="editor"></div>
<div class="editor">Difficult people force us to fall back on our coping mechanisms. Some of us placate, others…</div>
<p>by Deepak Chopra</p>
<p></p>
<div class="editor">The path to success can be derailed by clashes with difficult people, and even if the clash isn't disastrous, it can make your life very unpleasant. Everyone has a store of coping mechanisms that we resort to when we find ourselves in stressful situations.</div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<p><img src="https://www.deepakchopra.com/images/blog/639x389/2b315b8faf28150b7d23ad342988093b_1317.jpg" alt="How to Handle Difficult People" width="639" height="389" class="shadow-5"/></p>
<div class="editor"></div>
<div class="editor">Difficult people force us to fall back on our coping mechanisms. Some of us placate, others confront. Some balk, others become aggressive. When these first-response tactics don't work, when a difficult person makes you tear your hair out in total frustration, you have to dig deeper into yourself and find a better strategy.<br/><br/>First of all, not every difficult person is the same. There are tyrants, curmudgeons, aggressors, the viciously competitive, and control freaks. A psychologist can outline how each beast might be tamed, but on a day-to-day basis, one can adopt a general approach that's the same. It's quite a simple strategy, actually, based on asking three questions.<br/><br/>1. Can I change the situation?<br/><br/>2. Do I have to put up with it instead?<br/><br/>3. Should I just walk away?<br/><br/>When you ask these questions in a rational frame of mind, you will be able to formulate a workable approach that is consistent and effective. Most people are prisoners of inconsistency. Think about the most difficult person in your life and how you have reacted to them over time. You'll probably find that you sometimes put up with them, sometimes try to get them to change, and other times simply want to stay away. In other words, three tactics have merged in a messy way. You wind up sending mixed messages, and that's never effective.<br/><br/>So let's consider each of the three questions in turn.</div>
<div class="editor"><br/><br/>1. Can I change the situation?<br/><br/>Not all difficult people are beyond change, even though they are stubborn and stuck in their behavior. But there's a cardinal rule here that can't be ignored. No one changes unless he wants to. Difficult people rarely want to. If you have a close rapport with the person, you might find a moment when you can sit down and have a candid discussion about the things that frustrate you. But be prepared with an exit strategy, because if your difficult person winds up resenting you for poking your nose where it doesn't belong, trying to effect change can seriously backfire.<br/><br/>Your best chance of creating change occurs if the following things are present.<br/><br/>- You have a personal connection with the person.<br/><br/>- You have earned his respect.<br/><br/>- You've discreetly tested the waters and found her a bit open to change.<br/><br/>- You've received signals that he wants to change.<br/><br/>- You aren't afraid or intimidated.<br/><br/>- The two of you are fairly equal in power. If the difficult person is in a dominant position, such as being your boss, your status is too imbalanced.<br/><br/>A final caveat. Difficult people aren't going to change just to make you feel better. The worst chance of getting someone else to change occurs when you're so angry, frustrated, and fed up that you lose your composure and demand change.<br/><br/></div>
<div class="editor">2. Do I have to put up with it instead?</div>
<div class="editor"><br/>When you can't change a situation, only two options remain, either put up with it or walk away. Most of us aren't very effective in getting someone else to change, so we adapt in various ways. We are experts at putting up with things. Adaptation isn't bad per se; social life depends upon getting along with one another. It's a reasonable assumption that if you have difficult people in your life right now - and who doesn't? - you've learned to adapt. The real question is whether you are coping in a healthy or unhealthy way.<br/><br/>Look at the following lists and honestly ask yourself how well you are putting up with your difficult person.<br/><br/>Unhealthy:<br/><br/>- I keep quiet and let them have their way. It's not worth fighting over.<br/><br/>- I complain behind their backs.<br/><br/>- I shut down emotionally.<br/><br/>- I don't say what I really mean half the time, for fear of getting into trouble or losing control.<br/><br/>- I subtly signal my disapproval.<br/><br/>- I engage in endless arguments that no one wins.<br/><br/>- I have symptoms of stress (headache, knots in the stomach, insomnia, depression, and anxiety) but have decided to grin and bear it.<br/><br/>- I know i want to get out of this situation, but I keep convincing myself that I have to stick it out.<br/><br/>- I indulge in fantasies of revenge.<br/><br/>Healthy -<br/><br/>- I assess what works best for me and avoid what doesn't.<br/><br/>- I approach the difficult person as rationally as possible.<br/><br/>- I don't get into emotional drama with them.<br/><br/>- I make sure I am respected by them. I keep my dignity.<br/><br/>- I can see the insecurity that lies beneath the surface of their bad behavior.<br/><br/>- I don't dwell on their behavior. I don't complain behind their backs or lose sleep.<br/><br/>- I keep away from anyone who can't handle the situation, the perpetual complainers, gossips, and connivers.<br/><br/>- My interaction with the difficult person has no hidden agenda, like revenge. We are here for mutual benefit, not psychodrama.<br/><br/>- I know I can walk away whenever I have to, so I don't feel trapped.<br/><br/>- I can laugh behind this person's back. I'm not intimidated or afraid.<br/><br/>- I feel genuine respect and admiration for what's good in this person.<br/><br/>If your approach contains too many unhealthy ingredients, you shouldn't stick around. You're just rationalizing a hopeless situation. Your relationship with your difficult person isn't productive for either of you.<br/><br/></div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<div class="editor">3. Should I just walk away?<br/><br/>Difficult people generally wind up alone, embattled, and bitter. They create too much stress, and one by one, everyone in their lives walks away. But it can take an agonizingly long time to make this decision. The problem is attachment. The abused wife who can't leave her violent husband, the worker who is afraid he can't find another job, the underling who serves as a doormat for his boss - in almost every instance their reason for staying is emotional. Life isn't meant to be clinically rational. Emotions are a rich part of our lives, and it's mature to take the bitter with the sweet - up to a point.<br/><br/>Too many people stick around when they shouldn't. The main exceptions are competitive types, who can't bear to be dominated or made to look bad. They instinctively run away from situations that hurt their self-image. The other main personality types - dependent and controlling - will put up with a bad situation for a long time, far beyond what's healthy. The point, in practical terms, is that you can't wait until you've resolved all your issues with a difficult spouse, boss, boyfriend, buddy, colleague, or employee. Vacillation doesn't make you a better or nicer person. You are treading water, hoping that the dreaded day will never come when you have to sever ties. The thought of separation causes you anxiety.<br/><br/>But as anxious as you feel, sometimes a rupture is the healthiest thing you can do. That’s the case if you have honestly confronted questions 1 and 2. If you know the difficult person isn't going to change, and if you've examined the unhealthy and healthy choices involved in putting up with them, you have a good foundation for making the right choice: Do I stay or do I walk? I'm not promising that your decision will feel nice. It probably won't. But it will be the right decision, the kind you will be able to look back on with a sigh of relief and recognition that moving on was healthy and productive.</div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<div class="editor"></div>
<div class="editor">Source: <a href="https://www.deepakchopra.com/blog/view/1317/how_to_handle_difficult_people">https://www.deepakchopra.com/blog/view/1317/how_to_handle_difficult_people</a></div>Yoga - Obliterating Boundariestag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-06-12:505106:BlogPost:350952013-06-12T12:45:13.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393634034?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393634034?profile=original" width="640"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><em><strong>"Yoga means, in every possible way, preparing a human being to slowly obliterate his boundaries so that he can simply be. You need to understand this, if you create a boundary, one thing is you have to define it, next thing is you have to defend it – if the boundary becomes large you have to build an army." - Sadhguru…</strong></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393634034?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393634034?profile=original" width="640" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><em><strong>"Yoga means, in every possible way, preparing a human being to slowly obliterate his boundaries so that he can simply be. You need to understand this, if you create a boundary, one thing is you have to define it, next thing is you have to defend it – if the boundary becomes large you have to build an army." - Sadhguru</strong></em></p>
<p></p>
<p>Essentially, yoga means the science of erasing boundaries. From the simplest creature to the human being, in their most basic state of existence, their whole life is about fixing boundaries. You will see a dog is going about peeing all over the place, not because he has a urinary problem, but because he is fixing his boundaries. Like this, every creature is fixing their own boundaries including human beings, all the time.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>In the ashram, we kind of try to obliterate the boundaries but even within that people fix their own boundaries because they have to pee around a little bit, otherwise they’ll feel homeless. Most human beings, unfortunately, cannot simply live in this universe. They want to live in a cubicle. They want to live in a prison. They do not want to live in the vast cosmos, which is available for them to experience and dwell in.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Yoga means, in every possible way, preparing a human being to slowly obliterate his boundaries so that he can simply be. You need to understand this, if you create a boundary, one thing is you have to define it, next thing is you have to defend it – if the boundary becomes large you have to build an army. Every nation has an army not just for fun, but because once you have a boundary you have to defend it otherwise someone will try to breach it. That boundary is important for you, you have to defend it, you have to fight for it, you have to die for it. All these things will come. So yoga means to become free from that, where you obliterate the boundaries. If you sit here, you simply sit here in this universe; you don’t need a boundary of your own. You do not need that so-called your own space. Anyway there is no “your own space.” You may think it is yours, it is delusional.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The physical has a boundary, that is not the issue – that is the basic trait of physicality. However, that has seeped into your psychology. Now your mind wants a boundary, your emotions want a boundary. Because you have invested in creating many boundaries, that which is boundless within you is out of your reach, out of your experience. This is all it is. Because you are investing time and energies and whatever intelligence you have into how to build a boundary of your own, that which is boundless slips out of your experience.</p>
<p></p>
<p>It is all your doing, it is your own karma that you are separated from the universe. You feel lonely in something that is so alive and inclusive. When we talk about Adiyogi, we call him a yogi, we call anyone a yogi because he has breached the boundaries or wiped out the boundaries within himself. And as we know, he is the first one to do that, so we call him Adiyogi. When we establish him, that will be his energy. If people come and sit there, slowly their lives will start moving towards obliterating the boundaries in their life and journeying towards the boundless. That is the only goal; there is no other goal always whatever we do.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Now that we are in the process of creating Adiyogi Shrines in various places across the world, it is important that we make people understand the true context of this. He is the one who for the very first time reminded and offered methods for effectively going beyond the boundaries set by nature. The idea life can evolve is his; that evolution need not be limited to physical form alone, one can consciously evolve, is the most liberating possibility opened by him. The whole science of yoga is His. It is my endeavor that such a great being should be acknowledged for the phenomenal contribution that was made. Stand by me in fulfilling this as these will be a powerful means to raise human consciousness.</p>5 Steps To Harness The Power Of Intentiontag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-06-11:505106:BlogPost:350892013-06-11T07:00:00.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633890?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633890?profile=original" width="399"></img></a></p>
<div><p></p>
<p>Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Everything that happens in the universe begins with <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/tag/intention.html" title="">intention</a>. When I decide to buy…</p>
</div>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633890?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633890?profile=original" width="399" class="align-center"></a></p>
<div>
<p></p>
<p>Intention is the starting point of every dream. It is the creative power that fulfills all of our needs, whether for money, relationships, spiritual awakening, or love.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Everything that happens in the universe begins with <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/tag/intention.html" title="">intention</a>. When I decide to buy a birthday present, wiggle my toes, or call a friend, it all starts with intention. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The sages of India observed thousands of years ago that our destiny is ultimately shaped by our deepest intentions and desires. The classic Vedic text known as the Upanishads declares, “You are what your deepest desire is. As your desire is, so is your intention. As your intention is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>An intention is a directed impulse of consciousness that contains the seed form of that which you aim to create. Like real seeds, intentions can’t grow if you hold on to them. Only when you release your intentions into the fertile depths of your consciousness can they grow and flourish. In my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Spiritual-Laws-Success-Fulfillment/dp/1878424114/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?tag=mind0a3-20" target="_blank" title=""><i>The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success</i></a>, the <a href="http://www.chopra.com/laws/intention" target="_blank" title=""><i>Law of Intention and Desire</i></a> lays out the five steps for harnessing the power of intention to create anything you desire. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>1. Slip into the gap.</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Most of the time our mind is caught up in thoughts, emotions, and memories. Beyond this noisy internal dialogue is a state of pure <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/tag/awareness.html" title="">awareness</a> that is sometimes referred to as “the gap.” One of the most effective tools we have for entering the gap is meditation. Meditation takes you beyond the ego-mind into the silence and stillness of pure consciousness. This is the ideal state in which to plant your seeds of intention</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>2. Release your intentions and desires</b><b> </b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Once you’re established in a state of restful awareness, release your intentions and desires. The best time to plant your intentions is during the period after <a href="http://www.mindbodygreen.com/tag/meditation.html" title="">meditation</a>, while your awareness remains centered in the quiet field of all possibilities. After you set an intention, let it go — simply stop thinking about it. Continue this process for a few minutes after your meditation period each day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>3. Remain centered in a state of restful awareness</b><b> </b><b>.</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Intention is much more powerful when it comes from a place of contentment than if it arises from a sense of lack or need. Stay centered and refuse to be influenced by other people’s doubts or criticisms. Your higher self knows that everything is all right and will be all right, even without knowing the timing or the details of what will happen. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>4. Detach from the outcome</b><b> </b><b>.</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Relinquish your rigid attachment to a specific result and live in the wisdom of uncertainty. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity, while detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><b>5. Let the universe handle the details</b><b> </b><b>.</b></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Your focused intentions set the infinite organizing power of the universe in motion. Trust that infinite organizing power to orchestrate the complete fulfillment of your desires. Don’t listen to the voice that says that you have to be in charge, that obsessive vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally. You have released your intentions into the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and they will bloom when the season is right. </p>
<p></p>
<p>- Deepak Chopra</p>
<p> </p>
</div>The Role of a Gurutag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-05-31:505106:BlogPost:350732013-05-31T10:22:25.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633918?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633918?profile=original" width="640"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<div class="question"><div class="q-title"></div>
<div class="q-title">Question:
</div>
<p></p>
<p>Sadhguru, what is the role you are going to play as a Guru in our lives?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Sadhguru:</p>
</div>
<div class="answer"><p>As the word Guru suggests – <em>gu </em>means darkness, <em>ru </em>means dispeller –…</p>
</div>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633918?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393633918?profile=original" width="640" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p></p>
<div class="question">
<div class="q-title"></div>
<div class="q-title">
Question:<br />
</div>
<p></p>
<p>Sadhguru, what is the role you are going to play as a Guru in our lives?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Sadhguru:</p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p>As the word Guru suggests – <em>gu </em>means darkness, <em>ru </em>means dispeller – dispelling darkness. How to dispel darkness? You cannot kick the darkness out of a place because darkness is not an existence by itself. Darkness is absence of light. We value light for the clarity that it brings us. If you were an owl, darkness would bring clarity to you; light would be disturbing and blinding; this is also true for many other creatures in the wild.</p>
<p></p>
</div>
<p>No matter in what stage of life you are, what aspect of life you are addressing, <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/sadhguru/masters-words/confidence-vs-clarity/">the most important thing is to have clarity about it</a>. You want to be able to see it the way it is. Whatever it may be – whether it is a simple physical thing or mystical dimensions of life – you can deal with them sensibly only if you have the ability to see them the way it is. Seeing everything the way it is, is clarity.</p>
<div class="shortcode-pullquote right-quote">
<em><strong> </strong></em><br />
</div>
<p>If someone tells you, “You are not the body; you are not the mind; you gathered this body from the planet,” your mind agrees with it, but experientially, it is not true for you. You still feel, “This is me – that is you.” What you need is experiential clarity. When there is pain, disease, or whatever kind of physical suffering, you may wish you were not the body. But it is not what you wish, it is not your reactions to situations that you face or suffer; it is not what you see in moments of compulsion; it is what you see in moments of utter clarity that really matters if you want to move ahead in life.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Suppose you are in a dark room and you are not able to see anything – suddenly, you feel alone. If the lights go on, you feel the world is with you again. Everything is the same, but just because you can see clearly, the world has changed in your experience. This is my work – to make you see everything the way it is. If you see it clearly, everything will change. We do not have to change anything because the existential cannot be changed. You can change psychological situations; you can change physiological situations; you can change social situations, but you cannot change the existential. If you see it the way it is, everything about you will change.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If I was a <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/sadhguru/masters-words/going-beyond-morality/">moral teacher</a>, I would try to change you. Because I am a Guru, I do not try to change you. I do not ask you to be good; I do not ask you to be peaceful; I do not ask you to be nice to others, because I do not intend to change you like that. That would be just a pretention which would build up over a period of time and implode at some point.</p>
<p></p>
<p>My intention and my work are to bring clarity. If you see things clearly, <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/yoga-meditation/demystifying-yoga/what-is-yoga/">if you know that the whole universe is one</a> – not because someone says so, but because you see so – everything will change. If you see existence the way it is, not the way you think it is, everything about you and your relationship with existence will change.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Essentially, the work of a Guru is not to bring morality to you but to bring <a href="http://blog.ishafoundation.org/sadhguru/masters-words/exploring-your-ultimate-limits/">spirituality</a> to you. The difference is just this: one is an imposition, another is a natural blossoming. This is about seeing to it that this human nature reaches its ultimate possibility. If human beings blossom into their ultimate nature, they are naturally the very source of creation, because that is the seed. You did not create yourself; the source of creation is functioning within you.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you plant a seed, it becomes a plant. When it is a plant, you cannot believe it was a seed, but if you wait and it flowers, once again a seed will come. In between, there are many processes. We are not against the sprout, the shoot, the leaves, and the flowers – it is just that we do not want you to be caught up in it. To understand the nature of the seed means you can create life the way you want it.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Creating life the way you want it does not mean building a particular kind of home, building a particular kind of career, having this much money, dressing this or that way, even though we have nothing against all that. Making this life the way you want it means that this life will function at its best if it is kept the way the Creator intended you to be. If you go back to your original nature – we call it the seed – if you are conscious of the seed nature within you, you can become a sprout; you can become a plant; you can become a tree; you can become whatever you want, but it will not entangle you.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So what role will I play as a Guru? I have a strong sense of aesthetics. Because of that, only if you strive to keep yourself open, depending upon how much openness you create, that much of an active role I will play. If you allow me, I will even decide what you should eat for breakfast – not as an imposition but as a natural choice. It can even find expression in the most mundane things. That does not mean I will come and choose for you between <em>idli</em> and <em>dosa</em>.</p>
<p></p>
<p>When you are walking on the street, whether you step into a pit or on the road or on the pavement is essentially determined by the sunlight, not by you. In that sense, a Guru can influence every aspect if you are willing. If you want me to only influence your spiritual life, this is fine with me too. Some people see sunlight only once a year, when they go on a vacation. Some people wake up early every morning, just to welcome the sun. That is your choice.</p>DESIREStag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-05-21:505106:BlogPost:352692013-05-21T13:00:29.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
<h2 align="center" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686898?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686898?profile=original" width="409"></img></a></h2>
<p><strong><em>"Now, should one fulfil the desires or eliminate them? The first principle is that one should fulfil one's desires. The second law is that desire cannot be satisfied. Therefore, the third principle is that one must practise both. If possible, one should aim for fulfilment of desires and for desireless-ness at the…</em></strong></p>
<h2 align="center" style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686898?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393686898?profile=original" width="409" class="align-center"></a></h2>
<p><strong><em>"Now, should one fulfil the desires or eliminate them? The first principle is that one should fulfil one's desires. The second law is that desire cannot be satisfied. Therefore, the third principle is that one must practise both. If possible, one should aim for fulfilment of desires and for desireless-ness at the same time."</em></strong></p>
<p></p>
<p>by Paramahamsa Satyananda</p>
<p></p>
<p>Desires are a necessary part of life because to desire is to recognise life. It is through desires that you can get to know your personality and your situation in life. There are some people who cannot desire and there are others who desire all day long.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you analyse this properly, you will come to know that desire is an innocent force in the mind. In childhood we desire toys. When we grow up we desire friends, then a job and money, then family life and children. Later, we start to desire political position, name and fame, and then mental calmness, peace, relaxation, meditation, God, Yoga and so on. Now, which of these desires can be satisfied and which cannot be satisfied? What is the ultimate form of desire?</p>
<p></p>
<p>Vedic philosophy believes that life is based on four things: dharma (duty), artha (motivation or purpose), kama (desire) and moksha (liberation). Desire is one of the basic elements of a good life. Without it you cannot evolve. In the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita it is written that desire is born out of one's association with the objects of life. If you do not desire, it means there is something wrong somewhere. A person who is not able to desire is either a liberated sage or abnormal.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you want to attain something in life, you must have one aim all the time, no second aim. I will give you an example. If you want to earn money, think only of that. You must not allow attachments to interfere. No attachments to children, to husband or wife, nothing. Develop detachment and one-pointedness. Personal relationships and involvements should not divert you. Detachment does not mean you should not have relationships with anyone. You can live with people and love them, but by keeping your one desire in mind, you can remain detached.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Rather than talking about good and bad desires, you can say that instead of having negative or destructive desires, it is better to have desires which are beneficial and fruitful. A positive desire is unselfish; you are more concerned about the welfare of others than of yourself. A negative desire is selfish; you are only concerned with your own welfare and do not consider anyone else. It is very simple. If desire is selfish, it is negative; if there is no selfishness, it is positive.</p>
<p></p>
<p>What causes people to run after pleasures? It seems that somewhere far within the depths of our being a person is crying. We have never seen this inner person; we only know the outer one. We have seen the person who presents himself during sleep, and in our dreams, but we have not discovered that person who is beyond sleep.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The awareness of man extends over these three bodies, but beyond them you also exist. You have not established the communication between this awareness and this mind. If you had, you would have seen a sad little soul sitting in a corner crying. Why? Because his promise has been unfulfilled, and what we have been doing up to now has not brought him any satisfaction. However, once you withdraw your mind and go deep into the depths of your life and see the beautiful things there, then that little soul becomes very happy. Life comes to it. It is because of inner unhappiness that we have been constantly running after external pleasures. By indulging in them, we try to cover up this inner sadness.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Many great thinkers have spoken about this subject. Ramana Maharshi always used to say, "Think it out well. Who am I?" But people do not understand; they do not know what self-realisation is. Self-realisation means that you know the depths of your mind, of your being. You should know your complexes, your inhibitions and your ulterior purposes, and you should understand why you are weeping.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Now, should one fulfil the desires or eliminate them? The first principle is that one should fulfil one's desires. The second law is that desire cannot be satisfied. Therefore, the third principle is that one must practise both. If possible, one should aim for fulfilment of desires and for desireless-ness at the same time.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Desire is an expression of one's own personality. If you keep a dirty rag in your room, you cannot kill the foul smell by spraying it with perfume, because the source of the smell is still there. You have to remove the dirty substance. In the same manner, you should not try from your side to reduce the desires. Instead you should try to transform your consciousness, the very frame of your mind, in such a way that it is automatically desireless. Desire is a manifestation of a particular state of mind. When the mind is sick, insecure or hungry, there will be more desires. When the mind is satisfied, healthy and secure, the desires will be less.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So, instead of trying to eliminate or avoid desires, it is better to change the quality of desire. Desires are relative; they keep changing according to your situation, your development, age and experience. When you grow tired of one, you automatically go to another. However, there should be one desire which holds you permanently, and that is the desire for self-realisation.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1995/ajan95/yearsago.shtml">http://www.yogamag.net/archives/1995/ajan95/yearsago.shtml</a><br><br></p>Fortune - A Poem by Sadhgurutag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-05-01:505106:BlogPost:352402013-05-01T11:13:15.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p style="text-align: center;"><br></br>Fortune is not found by<br></br>the diggers of gold or by those<br></br>who scavenge the marketplace</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Fortune is not theirs who dive<br></br>into oceans to find what those<br></br>before them could afford to lose</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In search of fortune, the pittance<br></br>that has enslaved too many…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393683880?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393683880?profile=original" width="320" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><br>Fortune is not found by<br>the diggers of gold or by those<br>who scavenge the marketplace</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Fortune is not theirs who dive<br>into oceans to find what those<br>before them could afford to lose</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">In search of fortune, the pittance<br>that has enslaved too many lives<br>Bodies bent in search of fortune<br>Minds filled with madness of fortune<br>Souls enslaved in search of fortune<br>Lifetimes gone by in pursuit of fortune</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">It is in giving away what the slaves<br>of fortune value, One becomes fortunate</p>
<p style="text-align: center;">Fortunate are those who are blessed with giving<br>Fortunate are those who have lost need to hoard<br>Fortunate are those who do Shambho’s bidding<br>Fortunate are those who mingle and merge in Him.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p style="text-align: center;">-By Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev</p>Creating and Manifesting What You Wanttag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2013-03-23:505106:BlogPost:351062013-03-23T16:29:38.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p></p>
<p>Your mind can be in five different states. It can be inert. That means it is not activated at all -- it is in a rudimentary state. If you energize an inert mind, the mind becomes active but scattered. If you energize it further, it is no longer scattered, but oscillating. If you energize it even further, it becomes one-pointed. If you energize it still…</p>
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<p></p>
<p>Your mind can be in five different states. It can be inert. That means it is not activated at all -- it is in a rudimentary state. If you energize an inert mind, the mind becomes active but scattered. If you energize it further, it is no longer scattered, but oscillating. If you energize it even further, it becomes one-pointed. If you energize it still further, it will become conscious. If your mind is conscious, it is magic. It is a miracle; it is the bridge to the beyond.</p>
<p>Inert minds are not a problem. Someone who is very simple-minded and whose intellect is still not effervescent has no trouble. He eats well, he sleeps well. It is only people who think that cannot sleep. Simple-minded people perform all the activities of the body far better than the so-called intellectual people because it needs some intelligence to cause disturbance and chaos. But an inert mind is closer to animal nature than the possibility of what it means to be human.</p>
<p>The moment you pump some energy into an inert mind, it becomes active, but it could be scattered. For some people with inert minds, after they begin certain yogic practices, they become much more disturbed than before. They were sleeping and eating better before they came to yoga. Now their mind is thinking all kinds of things. They were never troubled by such things before, because the mind was inert.</p>
<p>Those who had a very scattered mind will come to a place where the mind is not so scattered, but it is oscillating -- one day this way, another day that way. This is a huge improvement over being scattered moment to moment. If the mind was already oscillating and you energize it further, it slowly becomes one-pointed -- that is far better. But the most important thing is the mind should become a conscious process. The most miraculous thing in this existence is the human mind. In terms of instruments, it is not the computer, car or spacecraft that is the most miraculous thing, but the human mind. It is the most miraculous thing, if only you could use it consciously.</p>
<p>The reason why success comes so easy and naturally for one person and is a struggle for another is because one person thinks the way he wants to think and another person thinks against himself. There is a beautiful story in the yogic lore.</p>
<p>A man went for a walk and accidentally walked into paradise. After the long walk, he felt a little tired and thought, "I wish I could rest somewhere." He saw a beautiful tree, beneath which was wonderful, soft grass. So he went and slept on the grass. After a few hours, he woke up well-rested. Then he thought, "Oh! I am hungry. I wish I had something to eat." He thought of all the nice things he wanted to eat and all of them just appeared in front of him.</p>
<p>After he had the sumptuous food, the man thought, "Oh! I wish I had something to drink." He thought of all the drinks he wanted and all of them appeared in front of him. In yoga, the human mind is referred to as "markata," or monkey, because of its nature. The word "monkey" has also become synonymous with imitation. If you say you are monkeying somebody, it means you are imitating someone -- this is the full-time job of your mind. So, an un-established mind is referred to as a monkey.</p>
<p>When this "monkey" became active in the man who went to paradise, he thought, "What the hell is happening here? I asked for food, food came. I asked for drink, drink came. Maybe there are ghosts around." He looked and there were ghosts. The moment he saw them he got terrified, he said, "Oh there are ghosts around here, maybe they will torture me." And the ghosts started torturing him, and he started screaming and yelling in pain. He said, "Oh these ghosts are torturing me, they are going to kill me." And he died.</p>
<p>The problem was, he was sitting under a wishing tree, or a Kalpavriksha. Whatever he asked for became a reality. A well-established human mind is referred to as a "Kalpavriksha." In this mind, whatever you ask for becomes a reality. In life, you are also constantly sitting under a Kalpavriksha, so you need to develop the mind to a point where it becomes a Kalpavriksha, not a source of madness.</p>
<p>Once your mind gets organized, the way you think is the way you feel -- so your emotion will also get organized. Once your thought and emotion are organized, your energies will get organized in the same direction. Once your thought, emotion and energies are organized, your very body will also get organized. Once all these four are organized in one direction, your ability to create and manifest what you want is phenomenal.</p>
<p></p>
<p>by Sadhguru - <em>Mystic, Yogi and Founder of Isha Foundation</em></p>Meditation - Food for the Soultag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2012-05-12:505106:BlogPost:317102012-05-12T12:46:27.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p>By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar</p>
<p>Meditation is the journey from movement to stillness, from sound to silence. The need is present in you to meditate because it is your natural tendency to look for undiminished joy and love that doesn’t distort or turn negative.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Is meditation alien to us? That’s not true because you have been in meditation…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393641386?profile=original" target="_self"><br><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393641386?profile=original" width="480" class="align-center"></a></p>
<p>By Sri Sri Ravi Shankar</p>
<p>Meditation is the journey from movement to stillness, from sound to silence. The need is present in you to meditate because it is your natural tendency to look for undiminished joy and love that doesn’t distort or turn negative.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Is meditation alien to us? That’s not true because you have been in meditation even before your birth. In the womb you were doing nothing. You didn’t even have to chew food; you were fed directly and you were happily floating in fluid, turning and kicking. That is meditation or absolute comfort. You did nothing, everything was done for you. Isn’t it natural for us to crave for that state of absolute comfort? And getting back to that state which you have had a taste of, just before entering the hustle and bustle of the world is very natural because everything in the universe is cyclic, and wants to go back to its source.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The natural tendency is to recycle all that we’ve collected in life as impressions, getting rid of them and getting back to the original state we were at birth is what meditation is all about. Becoming fresh again, alive, is what it is. Getting back to that serenity, your original nature, is meditation. It is absolute joy and happiness; pleasure minus excitement. A thrill without anxiety is meditation. It is love without hatred or any of its opposite values.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Meditation is food for the soul. When you are hungry, spontaneously you eat something. If you are thirsty you drink water. Similarly, the soul yearns for meditation and this tendency is in everyone. Hence, there is not a single individual who is not a seeker. It’s just that they don’t recognise it. The problem is that we try to look for that food where it is not available. It is like going to a grocery shop when you want to fill fuel in your car. You keep going around the grocery store saying, ‘I want fuel for my car.’ It won’t work because you need to go to the petrol station. So, find the right direction. Meditation happens in transition. Actually meditation happens, you can’t do it. You can only create a congenial atmosphere for it to happen.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Meditation is uplifting energy and mind and spreading it out. When you’re happy, you associate it with a sense of expansion. And whenever you have felt miserable, you associate it with a sense of shrinking or contraction. There is something in you which expands when you’re happy and contracts when you’re unhappy. But we never pay attention to what is contracting and expanding. We only keep our attention outside; we have not paid attention to the reason.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Sage Gaudapadacharya said, “There is something in you that is expanding that is worth knowing.” Even a glimpse of this consciousness, this energy inside you, can make the smile on your face so strong that nothing whatsoever can take it away from you. Nobody can make you miserable or take away the joy from your life. Life assumes another dimension suddenly once you glimpse something inside that is expanding. You don’t have to leave things here and go. Just being amidst all the noise and still recognising that beauty is so wonderful, so fascinating, right here and now and that is meditation, which is supreme prayer. All powers are hidden within the Self and everything will manifest when you connect to your consciousness.</p>Be in the Center, Be in the Spine - A Poem by Bijay Rauttag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2014-04-12:505106:BlogPost:316042014-04-12T16:41:26.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span>Be in the Center,</span><br></br> <span>Be in the Spine,</span><br></br> <span>There is Everything,</span><br></br> <span>From Worldly to Divine,</span><br></br> <span>Live with Detachment,</span><br></br> <span>Live with Joy,</span><br></br> <span>Everything is God's Leela ("play"),</span><br></br> <span>Detach and Enjoy!…</span><br></br> <br></br></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><span>Be in the Center,</span><br> <span>Be in the Spine,</span><br> <span>There is Everything,</span><br> <span>From Worldly to Divine,</span><br> <span>Live with Detachment,</span><br> <span>Live with Joy,</span><br> <span>Everything is God's Leela ("play"),</span><br> <span>Detach and Enjoy!</span><br> <br> <span>- Bijay Raut</span></p>A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilbertag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2012-01-19:505106:BlogPost:297142012-01-19T12:54:19.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Everything-Ken-Wilber/dp/1570627401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326975237&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Read on Amazon.com…</a></p>
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<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393641076?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393641076?profile=original" width="313" class="align-center"></a></p>
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<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Everything-Ken-Wilber/dp/1570627401/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326975237&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Read on Amazon.com</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.co.in/books?id=c9shMX7HLY0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=a+brief+history+of+everything&hl=en&sa=X&ei=BugXT5TdLIbZrQe_uOmqDA&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=a%20brief%20history%20of%20everything&f=false" target="_blank">Read on Google Books</a></p>
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<p><span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Wilber examines <b>the course of evolution as the unfolding manifestation of Spirit, from matter to life to mind, including the higher stages of spiritual development where Spirit becomes conscious of itself</b>. In each of these domains, there are recurring patterns, and by looking closely at them, we can learn much about the predicament of our world—and the direction we must take if "global transformation" is to become a reality.</span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-5"><strong>Read also:</strong></span></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><strong>A review by Copthorne Macdonald that appeared in</strong><br><i>Integralis: Journal of Integral Consciousness, Culture, and Science</i>, Vol. 1, No. 0</font></p>
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<p align="left"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><b><font size="5">A Theory of Everything:<br></font></b><font size="5">An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality<b><i><br></i><font size="3">by Ken Wilber</font></b></font><b><br><br>Published by Shambhala Publications, Inc., Boston, MA.<br>2000. $21.95. ISBN: 1-57062-724-X</b></font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">If you have been following progress in theoretical physics, you know that a “theory of everything”—from which could be derived “every known particle and force in the cosmos”—has been the physicist’s holy grail for some years now. Unfortunately, although such a theory would shed light on primary physical processes, it would do little to help us understand the complex milieu that developed out of those processes. In his latest book, <i>A Theory of Everything</i>, Ken Wilber draws on several decades of insightful model building (his own models and those developed by others) to create a much more comprehensive “theory of everything.” Wilber’s map of reality embraces the entire mental-physical “Kosmos,” not just the particle-physics aspect of it. Wilber uses this word<i>Kosmos</i> because it meant for the Greeks “the patterned Whole of all existence, including the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual realms. Ultimate reality was not merely the cosmos, or the physical dimension, but the Kosmos, or the physical and emotional and mental and spiritual dimensions altogether. Not just matter, lifeless and insentient, but the living Totality of matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit.”</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">A <i>Theory of Everything</i> should interest two very different groups of readers. For those new to Wilber’s ideas, it provides a short (189 page) summary of his model of the Kosmos and his current thinking about it. For those who have been following his work for years, it represents an expansion into new territory. In this book, Wilber links his explanatory schemata to real-world problems and situations, and in doing so presents a convincing case that only an integral approach to personal and societal development will get humanity through the difficult times ahead. </font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">The basic realities that Wilber addresses in his theory building are a primal ground-of-everything reality that he labels Spirit, and the progressive development of mental and physical expressions of Spirit. Wilber has grouped Spirit’s manifestations into Interior-Individual I, Exterior-Individual IT, Exterior-Collective ITS, and Interior-Collective WE. As shown in Figure 1, crossed X and Y axes provide the basic framework for presenting this. </font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">The point where the two axes cross, the graph’s origin, also represents the origin of all development. And progressive development in all quadrants can be pictured as a series of ever-larger concentric circles having the origin as their common center. Wilber often represents different levels of this outward, developmental, evolutionary movement by using diagonal lines with tick marks on them. An example is Figure 3-1, an illustration from this latest book. It relates one aspect of inner development—a gradually-broadening sense of self—to Don Beck and Christopher Cowan’s color-coded “memes,” “waves,” or stages, of human development, and relates them to social and cultural development. </font></p>
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<p align="center"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><i>Figure : Some Examples of the Four Quadrants in Humans</i></font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">No single graphical expression is able to tell the entire story that Wilber wants to tell, but by using multiple graphs of this kind, and tailoring the details to suit the situation, he is able to help us understand a variety of Kosmic truths. (For a more detailed look at this approach, Wilber recommends his books <i>Integral Psychology</i> and <i>A Brief History of Everything</i>.)</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Beck and Cowan’s “Spiral Dynamics” model of human development is one of the core elements in <i>A Theory of Everything</i>. Concerning it, Wilber says, “Memes (or stages) are not rigid levels but flowing waves, with much overlap and interweaving, resulting in a meshwork or dynamic spiral of consciousness unfolding.” Wilber points out that the overall developmental spiral involves many developmental “streams, lines, or modules” and that “this added dimension gives a new richness to the developmental landscape.” Among the most important of these lines and streams are the self-identity stream illustrated in Figure 3-1, and streams involving cognition, morals, and socio-emotional capacity. </font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Development in the various streams does not necessarily occur at the same rate. A problem that Wilber calls<i>Boomeritis</i> occurs when a high level of development (green—sensitivity) in the cognitive and moral streams is accompanied by a low level of development (red—egocentricity and narcissism) in the self-identity stream. Regarding the green stage or wave, he refers to Paul Ray’s study which estimates that there are some 45 million “Cultural Creatives” in the U.S.—people who resonate with integral values. Wilber believes that the great majority of these people are at the green meme stage in tier 1 of the developmental process, not at the yellow “autonomous or integrated stage” in tier 2. Research indicates that less that two percent of Americans are at tier 2, leading Wilber to say, “Almost anyway we slice the data, the ‘integral culture’ is not that integral.” Yet Wilber goes on to say, “<i>But it can be</i>. And that is the crucial point. As the cultural creatives move into the second half of life, this is exactly the time that a further transformation of consciousness, from green into mature second-tier awareness, can most easily occur.”</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Wilber identifies four factors that facilitate personal transformation: fulfillment, dissonance, insight, and opening. “<i>Fulfillment</i> means that the individual has generally fulfilled the basic tasks of a given stage or wave.” When this happens the person “is open to transformation” which is then facilitated by some sort of <i>dissonance</i>. “The new wave is struggling to emerge, the old wave is struggling to hang on, and the individual feels torn, feels dissonance, feels pulled in several directions.” Eventually, out of the dissonance comes “<i>insight</i> into the situation—insight into what one actually wants, and insight into what reality actually offers. … Finally, if all of those factors fall into place, then an <i>opening</i> to the next wave of consciousness—deeper, higher, wider, more encompassing—becomes possible.”</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">What those who are “already poised for an integral transformation—who already have tasted green to the full and are ready to move on, who already feel some sort of dissonance with their present state, who already are looking for something deeper, wider, more meaningful—can do to facilitate this ‘momentous leap,’” says Wilber, “can be summarized in two parts: we need an <i>integral vision</i> and we need an <i>integral practice</i>. The integral vision helps provide us with insight, and thus helps us overcome dissonance and face toward our own deeper and wider opening. And integral practice anchors all of those factors in a concrete manner, so that they do not remain merely abstract ideas and vague notions.” </font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Regarding integral practice, Wilber says, “Even if we possessed the perfect integral map of the Kosmos, a map that was completely all-inclusive and unerringly holistic, that map itself would not transform people. We don’t just need a map; we need ways to change the mapmaker.” He calls for a practice that exercises “physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual waves in self, culture, and nature.” Regarding the <i>self</i>, he suggests such practices as “physical exercise (weightlifting, diet, jogging, yoga), emotional exercises (qi gong, counseling, psychotherapy), mental exercises (affirmation, visualization), and spiritual exercises (meditation, contemplative prayer).” Moving to<i>culture</i>, he suggests getting involved in community service of various kinds, and making use of “mutual respectful dialogue” and relationships in general to further our own growth and the growth of others. In the arena of <i>nature</i>, Wilber suggests getting involved in activities which respect nature such as recycling, environmental protection, and nature celebration—activities which both honor nature and promote our own capacity to care. Regarding the importance of meditation, he says, “It has been shown…that meditation increases the percentage of the population who are at second tier from less than 2 percent to an astonishing 38 percent.”</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">While Wilber strongly recommends integral practice and inner development toward second tier consciousness, the larger goal is to maintain the health of the entire developmental spiral. As Wilber notes, “Even if every society on earth were established fully at second tier, nonetheless every infant born in every society still has to start at level 1, at beige, at sensorimotor instincts and perceptions, and then must grow and evolve through purple, magic, red and blue myth, orange rationalism, green sensitivity and into yellow and turquoise second tier (on the way to transpersonal). All of those waves have important tasks and functions; all of them are taken up and included in subsequent waves; none of them can be bypassed; and none of them can be demeaned without grave consequences to self and society. <i>The health of the entire spiral is the prime directive, not preferential treatment for any one level</i>.”</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3">Wilber also deals in this book with a variety of other issues. In a chapter devoted to the relationship of science and religion he advocates a “broad science” which would not only investigate “the exterior, physical, sensorimotor world” but also “interior domains and their correlations with the exterior.” At the same time, he also advocates a “transformative” or “deep” spirituality that “involves the direct investigation of the experiential evidence disclosed in the higher stages of conscious development.” In a chapter entitled The Real World, Wilber deals with the application of integral theory in specific life arenas. The chapter has sections on Integral Politics, Integral Governance, Integral Medicine, Integral Business, Integral Education, Consciousness Studies, Relational and Socially Engaged Spirituality, Integral Ecology, and Minorities Outreach. In that chapter Wilber announces the formation of <a href="http://www.integralinstitute.org/" target="_blank">Integral Institute</a>: a nonprofit organization dedicated to the development of comprehensive, systematic, encompassing and integral approaches to the world’s problems—a coordinating center and source of funding for integral research in the above (and other) fields.</font></p>
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<p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="3"><i>A Theory of Everything</i> does not disappoint. Like Ken Wilber’s other works, it is a stimulating, informative, and inspiring read.</font></p>
<p><span><br></span></p>How to Stop Absorbing Other People’s Negative Emotionstag:bodymindheartspirit.ning.com,2012-01-12:505106:BlogPost:292322012-01-12T09:49:36.000ZBijay Rauthttp://bodymindheartspirit.ning.com/profile/bijayraut
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<p><br></br><span>I emphasize the importance of learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it’s vital to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s negative emotions or…</span></p>
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<p><br><span>I emphasize the importance of learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it’s vital to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s negative emotions or the free-floating kind in crowds.</span><br><br><span>Here are some strategies to practice. They will help you to stop absorbing other people’s emotions.</span><br><br><span>To detach from other people’s negative emotions:</span><br><br><span>- First, ask yourself: Is the feeling mine or someone else’s? It could be both. If the emotion such as fear or anger is yours, gently confront what’s causing it on your own or with professional help. If not, try to pinpoint the obvious generator. For instance, if you’ve just watched a comedy, yet you came home from the movie theater feeling blue, you may have incorporated the depression of the people sitting beside you; in close proximity, energy fields overlap. The same is true with going to a mall or a packed concert.</span></p>
<p><br><span>- When possible, distance yourself from the suspected source. Move at least 20 feet away; see if you feel relief. Don’t err on the side of not wanting to offend strangers. In a public place, don’t hesitate to change seats if you feel a sense of depression imposing on you. </span></p>
<p><br><span>- For a few minutes, center yourself by concentrating on your breath: This connects you to your essence. Keep exhaling negativity, inhaling calm. This helps to ground yourself and purify fear or other difficult emotions. Visualize negativity as gray fog lifting from your body, and hope as golden light entering. This can yield quick results.</span></p>
<p><br><span>- Negative emotions such as fear frequently lodge in your emotional center at the solar plexus. Place your palm there as you keep sending loving-kindness to that area to flush stress out. For long-standing depression or anxiety, use this method daily to strengthen this center. It’s comforting and builds a sense of safety and optimism. </span></p>
<p><br><span>- Shield yourself. A handy form of protection many people use, including healers with trying patients, involves visualizing an envelope of white light (or any color you feel imparts power) around your entire body. Think of it as a shield that blocks out negativity or physical discomfort but allows what’s positive to filter in.</span></p>
<p><br><span>- Look for positive people and situations. Call a friend who sees the good in others. Spend time with a colleague who affirms the bright side of things. Listen to hopeful people. Hear the faith they have in themselves and others. Also relish hopeful words, songs, and art forms. Hope is contagious and it will lift your mood.</span><br><br><span>Keep practicing these strategies. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you’re on emotional overload. With strategies to cope, you can have quicker retorts to stressful situations, feel safer, and your sensitivities can blossom.</span><br><br><span>- Judith Orloff, MD <a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393621917?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/393621917?profile=original" width="182" class="align-center"></a></span></p>