Meditation Secrets Revealed

Habits are a reflection of our thoughts, manifested through repetition of actions. Right habits can be our greatest aid on the path to freedom from desires and fears, but bad habits can become obstacles. They can bind us, constricting our mobility, limiting our choices and our thinking. The challenge in being awake, aware, and present is to watch our own actions and analyze them. Ask yourself the question, “What in my life do I do by habit, and how are these habits serving me?”

Awareness is the essence of of our being, our birthright. But sometimes we forget, get distracted with life and the many responsibilities that take up our time. Here are a few ways that we can change bad habits by brining awareness onto the present moment.

1. Memory triggers

A memory object is a place, person, or thing which we designate as a trigger for the immediate assessment of our internal state. For example, lets say there is a painting hanging over your desk, whenever you look at that painting that is the trigger to stop and bring awareness to thoughts, emotions, and the surrounding environment. Awareness is objective, it is without blame or judgment – a simple observation of the facts. Paradoxically, we are building a habit to become aware of our own habits.

Doorways are a good memory objects because we go through hundreds of them every day. Upon walking through the doorway, immediately come into the present moment and bring awareness to the five senses to soak in the new surroundings. Remember to notice!

2. Breath

We must breath to live, it is something real, concrete and ever present within ourselves. Breath awareness is one ofthe fundamental steps to raising awareness, learning meditation, or any other internal study. Take a moment right now to focus on the breath. Notice the subtle qualities of depth, speed, location in the body, and even the texture. As often as possible throughout the day, remember to bring attention to the breath. Become curious to discover what is the quality of the breath when there is anger, sadness, joy, excitement, or calm?

Explore, have fun, be playful in figuring out what works best for your life and circumstances. Keep in mind that for these techniques to be effective one must be vigilant to remember to practice consistently, frequently, and for a long time util awareness becomes a natural state of being. Many negativities can be compared to shadows, they are a the darkness outside that stem from within. Awareness and mindfulness is the sunlight that has the power to drive away this darkness. Simply remember and let the sun shine.

“Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they lead to actions.
Watch your actions, they create habits.
Watch your habits, they build your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

~Upanishads

From my favorite yoga book, the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, comes a few gems of wisdom that help me retain my happiness and inner peace when deal with people. By putting these attitudes of mindfulness into practice I have saved myself a lot of emotional pain and built many wonderful relationships. In order to maintain our peace of mind we need to consider the four types of people in the world that we may encounter and the four ways to approach them.

When encountering a happy person, be kind and friendly to them. Often when people see someone who is happy, their initial reaction is to feel jealousy and dislike for that person. They may even blame that person or “that type” for their own problems. This attitude never does us much good. While that person may walk away, we are burning up inside with hatred and rage against that person. Instead, be friendly and think, “Wow, how nice it must be to be that happy, isn’t it wonderful. I want to be that happy also.” Frequently, people think of emotions as something that just comes up, as if they have no control over them. But like anything else in life, the more we practice something the better we become so always strive to practice positive emotions of joy, friendliness, and kindness.

The next type of person that we may meet is the unhappy. When we meet such a person, we can practice compassion for their situation and perhaps try and help them if this is within your means and appropriate for the situation. I am frequently astounded at how much I can do just by acknowledging somebody, offering them a smile or a helping hand. Somebody may be having a bad day or upset about something and they may be very focused on the story going on inside their head. Just a bit of compassion can snap them out of their mental misery and bring them into the present moment. Sometimes it takes just a little – to do a lot.

Then there are the virtuous, these are people that we can learn from and look up to. With these people we can show delight and admire them for their virtuous qualities. Don’t try to criticize them or pull them down, you will only cause yourself mental turmoil. Instead, find the qualities that you wish to possess that they have and use that person as your role model. They will be flattered and might even offer you some guidance or advice.

And lastly, there are the wicked people. Every once in a while we will meet such a person and the best thing to do is to stay away from them and disregard them completely. There is a story of a small sparrow that has built a warm and cozy nest in preparation for the rain and across from it is sitting a monkey. As the rain starts, the sparrow is dry and happy in it’s nest while the monkey is getting drenched. The sparrow decided to offer the drenched monkey some advice on how to build a nest but instead of gratitude, the monkey becomes enraged thinking that the sparrow is proud of it’s position and proceeds to tare the sparrow’s nest apart. The sparrow has to fly away and it too gets drenched in the pouring rain. When you recognize such a monkey, do not try to help it or offer it advice, it will always result in disaster. The best thing to do is to disregard them – they must learn on their own.

With these four keys of friendliness for the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard for the wicked, we can approach any situation with a peaceful mind and maintain our calm.

Sitting in a chair all day can be hard on the body and frequently leads to stiffness in the neck, legs, and lower back. Remember gym class in school when we had to do those pesky stretching exercises. Well, guess what, they are actually crucial to keeping your body relaxed and ache- free. For every hour that we sit in a chair, at least a few minutes should be spent taking some time to relax the body, and clear the mind. Here are a few simple ways to do this without looking like a fool in front of your co-workers. In fact, doing these exercises in public, in your office just might inspire others do them too!

Start by looking away from the compute. Ahhh, isn’t that nice. Take one deep breath and let it out as slow as possible. Rotate your neck, moving it up, down, left right, side to side, and add in some circular motion. Make sure that you are breathing long, deep breaths as you do this, keep the motions in sync with the breathing to prevent injury. Now, with another long inhalation, stand up and let your whole body straighten up. Make sure that you don’t do this too fast, letting the spine, shoulders, and neck fall into their natural and comfortable alignment.

With another long inhalation, begin to fold forward from the hips letting your whole upper body relax completely until you are hanging. If your hands touch the ground, great, if not, no big deal. Now, as you hang there, take a moment to notice the backs of your legs, are they tight? If so, you can bring your attention, your thoughts, and your breath to the spots that are tight and begin to breath into the tightness. After a few moments you should feel the hamstrings relaxing a bit and loosening up. The legs are the key to the back, if they are tight, the rest of your upper body will be also.

Try to notice when you have sat for too long, and take a few moments to work with your mind, breath, and body to relax and release some stress. Because all three are linked, when you change one, you will effect them all. There are of course thousands of ways to stretch, just remember to synchronize and let the breath do the moving. Get creative, have fun, start a conversation at work about this topic. I bet you will have much to talk about with your co-workers regarding this subject.

See Part 1 for beginning of article.

The sole purpose of yoga poses as they were developed in India, was to work the body to make it strong and healthy to enable the yogi to meditate for a long time. Few of us can claim that we have completely healthy bodies. Even those that eat well, get plenty of physical exercise, and have little stress are still effected by outside conditions and our modern lifestyle. When the body is not healthy, meditation is difficult because people will experience shaking, sweating, disturbed breathing and other discomforts.

Yoga poses help cleans the body by squeezing, stretching, crushing, and massaging the body until all toxins are shed off. Different poses were designed for different health purposes. Some stretch and strengthen muscles while others effect blood flow to different body parts and organs. Certain poses work to massage internal organs helping wash toxins our of the body or aiding with digestion. Many of the poses also have additional benefits to our lymphatic system and support our bodies in fighting off disease and infection.

When practicing yoga poses, we use our breath and focus our mind so that we can remain calm and strong in the pose. The Sanskrit word for yoga pose is asana which means comfortable and steady pose meaning that our bodies should not be undergoing stress or shaking while in the pose. Practicing poses with this in mind, we will quickly begin to experience the cleansing benefits on a mental and physical level. Thus, after a good yoga class, it is common to feel light, clear headed, and focused. It is like turning of an annoying buzzing radio that we have been forced to listen to for much too long. And when the silence comes, there is that AHHHHH moment. When the mind is clear, calm, and focused, our spirit is set free and our heart can open up.

This is the beauty and simplicity of the yoga system.  Even the most materialistic and concrete minded yogi in the first camp, will come to realize and feel the mental and spiritual effects of yoga given enough time and regular practice. That is why yoga has endured and thrived in many cultures, over many centuries, and continues to inspire even in the face of modern commercialization and materialism.

Yoga has evolved, shifted, and changed dramatically in its long history but never has it seen the type of growth and explosion of interest as in the last decade. As a philosophy and a physical practice, it has spread throughout the globe, far from its original home in India. It has taken the United States by storm and millions of us practice on a regular basis.What is the explanation for this sudden interest?

Did we reach a tipping point when yoga became the new fad, the new cool? Or maybe, people are truly interested in becoming more enlightened and self-aware? What does yoga represent to the people that practice it and did we pay a price for making it mainstream?

Of the people that do yoga, there are two large camps that people may have unknowingly settled into. The first is people who see yoga as a form of physical exercise done with the intention of getting more fit, stronger, and of course more flexible. In this camp there is little room for the spiritual, mystical, and esoteric side of yoga and certainly not much reverence for its long history or its profound and subtle effects on the mind of the practitioner. Out of this camp come strange remixes of yoga poses combined with acrobatics, cardiovascular routines, and strength building exercises.

In the other camp, we find people who are aware of the spiritual side of yoga. These are folks who study the scriptures, know about the history, practice meditation, mantras, breathing exercises, and sanskrit chanting. With this group, spiritual retreats are common and journeys to India and ashrams are talked about as if they are regular and even necessary aspects of life.

Obviously, these two camps are the extremes and many people fall somewhere in between but it amazes me how few people in the first camp realize that there is more to yoga than the downward dog and the headstand. This is extremely unfortunate because yoga is not only a physical practice with a spiritual aspects, it is a complex and multi layered system of developing the human body, mind, and spirit for the journey of self exploration and transcendence of the mind into higher realms of consciousness. This is a bit hard to swallow at first, but its actually pretty simple.

Click here for Part 2

We have all experienced stress and tension at one point or another in our lives. It is the feeling of our thoughts racing a thousand miles a minute that keeps us up at night. It follows us no matter where we go. And just when that stress becomes unbearable, as we prepare to break – a magical epiphany appears. A resolution to the tension becomes clear. This stress and tension is actually part of the resolution, it is the motivator and the force behind the need to change.

Tension can also form around the unknown future, leading to anxiety and stress. In the grips of fear, the road ahead seems dark and long, yet in this darkness we may find our greatest motivation. The law of tension and resolution will work in creating this tension and inevitably manifest the energy and drive necessary to change, grow, and progress.

Frequently, people see these situations as unpleasant, frightening, and anxiety provoking. We run, we hide. Avoiding even the mundane uncomfortable moments of uncertainty we miss the lessons and opportunities to grow and learn. Instead, we can look ahead and embrace these experiences as a necessary step towards personal growth. Embracing our fears, we become resilient and strong, both mentally and emotionally.

Take a rubber band for example, while it is still and laying on a table it is a plain and static object. But, put to use, this rubber band can be stretched and tightened to perform amazing feats of agility. It can propel objects, spring across rooms, and create momentum energy where there was non before.

Look at your life and find the places where there is tension and stress, and ask yourself, “how can I creatively utilize these moments? Where can I propel my future? Am I avoiding this situation for the wrong reasons?” As a catalyst for growth and change, moments of high tension and uncertainty are most important and even necessary. Treasure them for they are gateways to the future you!

In the science and philosophy of yoga it is said that, “whether pain or pleasure, both are the product of the mind.”  A friend related his sad and inspirational story bringing this axiom to life. He is going through a tough time in his relationship, experiencing much pain and anguish. As I listened and comforted him in his pain, I realized that he is looking at the situation as a means to remain motivated and focused on his life goals.

In Kriya Yoga there is a notion of tapas which literally means to burn or purify. While it is easy to to run away from pain, and the mind tries to do so constantly, what would happen if we were to accept it and learn from it? Performing tapas means to see that pain as a burning fire, consuming our inner impurities and weaknesses, purifying our spirit and making the mind stronger. In doing so, we can practice acceptance welcome these “negative” emotions with open arms and the warm embrace of a long lost friend. Tapas provide us the means to practice mental discipline and self-restrain in situations where that choice is the hardest and most challenging.

Sometimes, a thing can be pleasurable but eventually lead to something painful, however in this practice, we are taking something painful and turning it into something positive and good. This form of yoga can only be achieved in the active state, in our daily lives and through our interactions with the outside world. May we all strive to see the deeper lessons and practice a little yoga in our lives.