“Sure Win “New Year Resolution -Part2

This blog is in continuation of my earlier blog on “sure win “New Year resolution .If you are contemplating on a “sure win” health & fitness goals, here are few more points that you should be aware of to achieve the goals.

Important bridge: Many of us SET the goals but only few of us ACHIEVE the goals. A goal stays as a dream for ever when it is set but when it is not achieved. The distance between setting goal and achieving goal is miles apart. Your ACTIONS based on the set goal act as a bridge between setting a goal and achieving a goal. When the actions are not taken, the set goal started as a dream, continues as a dream and ends as a dream. The desired results of the goal come in reality only when the appropriate actions are taken in time.

Important Mechanisms: Your action or inaction is based on your thoughts from your mind. Mind has two important characteristics that need to be used for achieving the goals.

1.       Mind operates like an auto servo goal machine. Mind revolves around your ideas and your interests. If don’t have a real vested interest on the set goals then most likely the mind will be focussed on something else and hence your actions that follows will have a different focal point. So, it important for you to have a GENUINE interest on the set goals. The best way to develop interest is to have a kind of vision board in your visibility. Vision board portrays the pictures in advance the desired end results of your goals.

2.       Mind what it focuses on that gets expanded. This is the power of focus. Say for example, if you focus on losing the weight and as the mind starts to think in that direction, the world related to losing weight expands. This could be in the form of meeting the relevant people who help in solving your problem, seeing the fitness equipment’s, spotting fitness related articles in the newspaper etc. So, focus on the goal for it to open up a new world to you.

Secret formula: Here is the secret formula for you to stay on track in achieving the goal. I have learned and experienced this technique personally myself. The biggest drive for us to take ACTION is the motivation. Motivation comes by the REWARD of your action. It is important to activate the reward center of your brain to stay on track in achieving the goals. The best strategy is to split a goal into micro goals that are CERTAINLY achievable based on your current available resources. The small rewards of these micro goals compound together in hardwiring your brain to achieve the bigger goal. So, make it a point to keep a journal in writing at least five small progresses that happened in a day by your actions for the micro goals to generate a compounding effect in achieving a bigger goal.

So develop the habit of not only setting the goals but also achieving the goals.

“Sure win” New Year Resolution

Each New Year passes by and so our New Year resolution as well. Do you wonder why your resolution at the beginning of the year gradually loses its momentum with the passing months? Do you need some ‘’sure win’’ strategies to make things happen in your favour for your growth? I suggest some of my strategies which I follow for years which work like a charm. Feel free to follow these simple procedures if you plan to have certain goal for your Health & Wellbeing or any other goals in other areas of the life.

Be kind to yourself: Set a goal which is realistic based on your available resources. After all, you have only 365 days in a year. If you plan to lose weight then it is ideal to target for 10% drop in weight in comparison to an unrealistic 40% drop. Each one of us has infinity power and anything is possible if we really progress our goals mindfully. Your goal should neither be easy nor difficult.

Out of Comfort Zone: Whenever you set a goal, be prepared to come out of the comfort zone. Brain works in the least resistant path. Any new change drives you out of your comfort zone and it is not an easy for the brain to handle the change at the earlier stage. Mind throws “stories and excuses” for you to buy those so that you continue to stay in the comfort zone. You need to make a conscious decision to overcome the stories given by the mind. Remember that your growth is in direct proportion to the extend you move away from your comfort zone. If you go by your old habits, doing the same things in life and meeting the same kind of people but expect a different result then it is an utter ignorance from your part. So, break this pattern to achieve your goal.

Create the right ambience:  We, human being are influenced by the external circumstances. We become the victim of circumstances when we don’t know how to manage the circumstances. So, it is important to design a suitable ambience for your resolution to nurture. If your ambience is setup to have a negative influence then you encounter a setback. For example, you may want to lose weight but if you have an ambience without the right kind of people, workouts plan and the equipment’s then you won’t progress very well on your goal. The ambience has to be carefully designed to have a positive influence on your goal.

Role Model: Pick the right role model who already exceled in the field where your goal is targeted. This person has already seen the ups and downs, used all the trials and errors to achieve the goal. Simply, model his pattern and you will become successful. The best strategy is to paste his picture in some easily noticeable areas such as your desktop screen, mirror and your workplace so that he becomes a source of energy for you to achieve your goal.

Coach/Mentor:  Be prepared to travel in the new path the moment you set your new resolution /goal. The fact is that you have not travelled often in this path. The surprise elements and disappointment pull you back to the point where you started. You need education, motivation and clarity to move towards your goal. So, wisely get a right mentor/coach to take you safely in the path less travelled by you.

Try the above strategies and let me know how you have progressed in achieving the desired result that you deserve.

Self Management Exercises

One can manage others only when he has the capacity first to manage himself. Self management is an art & a learnable skill. Self management is all about managing our body, mind and emotion. Thoughts come from the mind. Thoughts lead to action/inaction that gives rise to emotions. The emotions are expressed as feelings in the body.

Art of listening: You may want to touch your feet with your palms in a forward bend posture. This is your intention. But, the body may not be listening to your intention and you may able to touch only the shins or knees. Why the body is not listening? The simple reason is that we are not listening to the body. So, in order for the body to listen to us, we need to listen to the body first.

Exercise 1 : Mindfulness dynamic exercise such as yoga helps in developing the art of listening to the body. This is one such reason that why you see the practitioners of yoga do some fancy postures which a common men wonder about.  The simple guideline is to use the movement of your breathing as a tool to move your body. This way, one can feel the body sensations clearly with the body movement.

Mind & Emotions: Similarly, the mind when it is not managed gives rise to random thoughts. We are overwhelmed with the stream of thoughts and we eventually become the prisoner of our own mind. When emotions are not effectively managed, conflict arises which disturb the relationships with others.

Exercise 2: So, if we need to manage our mind & emotion, it is important to divert our awareness to the mind first. One can use some concentration exercise such as paying attention to the flow of breathing. Simply, become aware of the rise and fall of breath. The mind likes rhythm and the rise& fall of breath is a rhythm which silences the mind. With the silent mind, the emotions can be easily monitored as bodily sensations.

Exercises 1 & 2 help us in connecting to our body, mind & emotion.  We not only self manage but we get the ability to connect with others easily. We need this level of connectivity to really connect ourselves to our spirits. Without the connection to our spirit, it is difficult to identify the real purpose and meaning of life.

Self manage yourself by managing your body, mind & emotion so that you can connect to your spirit and the universe.

A Modest Mind shift to ease the enormous STRESS

We are solely accountable and responsible for the actions that we do in our life on a daily basis. There is no argument to this. When we cross the set limit and become over responsible and over accountable then the problem starts. You know what I am talking about? You live and take some heavy actions as if the entire world is operating just because of you. You operate as if nothing moves forward in this world without your presence.

Examples: One can see the above pattern especially when it comes to jobs, kids’ education, our own health and also the welfare of the children. When it comes to work, some of us take up the job and proceed as if he only can do the job in perfection as he believes in his own ability. He is worried to delegate the work to others because of the fear of the end result when it is executed by someone else. Similarly, parents overprotect the children when it comes to their welfare and literally lead the kid life in a direction that the parent’s desire and in that process they shadow the individuality and the freedom of the kid. When it comes to the health of the individual, again we use all the possible means to reach the ideal perfect health state but in the end we lead a miserable unhealthy state because we miss the simple art of listening to the body.

Fact 1: All these over accountability and over responsibility are simple acts of delusion.  The thought that leads you to cross the boundary is just there ONLY in your mind. It is valid only for you but NOT for others. You have created a world that exists just in your mind and it doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Fact 2: The plain fact in reality is that all things in life will be carried on and executed beautifully even without your presence. Even without you, the kid’s welfare will be taken care by default. In your work, even if you go on a month holiday and then after a month, you will be surprised to know that the work was done seamlessly even without your presence.

Fact 3: The greater fact is that the world was functional before you came here. It is functional as you live now. World will be FINE after you leave this place also. The simple thing, all that we need to do during your stay here in this short interval is to ask a  simple question,” what is the value that I can add up that transforms the life’s of others?”

Overstepping: How does one know that he has crossed his boundary? All that one needs to know is to see whether his action/inaction is causing the unnecessary worries, fears, doubts and anxieties. If you see any of the above symptoms then simply you know that you are crossing your limit. Don’t become over accountable and over responsible.  In fact, this is the main cause of the most of lifestyle diseases such as back pain, diabetes, migraine, etc.

One can drop tonnes of weight from his shoulder if one comes in terms with the above mentioned facts and that alone provides the right mind shift in him to blow out that unnecessary stress. Let us not the play the role of Hercules who carries the entire weight on his shoulder.

No Tension Formula:

Intention + Action = No Tension

Have a clear INTENTION in life and take the right ACTION keeping in my mind the positive outcome without any doubt then there is no tension in life.

SECRETS to RETAIN & MUTIPLY your Perfect WELLNESS state

Setting a Health & Fitness goal and achieving our desired goal is one part of the story. But, to retain the health in the same good state is another part of the story. On many real life cases, those who achieved the good health and fitness level fall back again to that imperfect health state from where they originally started from. Weight management is one such case where many of us use certain methods to achieve the perfect fitness level but in a matter of a year fairly a substantial set of those achievers fall back to the undesired fitness level again. This not only demotivates us but has a nasty effect on our emotional wellbeing. But, on a positive note, there are some who not only set& achieve health goal but also have the ability to maintain the desired state. This is really GOOD. To add to this, there are some who not only maintain but they move on to reach the ultimate of their health & fitness level. This is really AWESOME. Want to know the SECRET of these AWESOME club members?

Constant flow:  Perfect health fitness level is a high energy state. The energy in this state is awe-inspiring. It has great influence in all other dimensions of our life such as wealth, money, relationship & spiritual growth. The first set of rule is to allow the energy to flow from you to others.  Let this good energy gets in through you and flows out of you seamlessly. All we need to do is to act as a MEDIUM for this energy to flow immaculately without any blockade.

It multiplies: As we stay in the constant flow mode, we act as a water spring. As one takes more of the water from the spring, the spring generates more of the fresh water. All we need to do is to give the wisdom to as many people as possible for our goodness to multiply.

Go Giver: We work on ME-MINE-OTHERS dimensions. Initially, we act as a GO GETTER to acquire the desired wisdom in the ME & MINE dimensions. “ME” is the dimension where we upgrade our skills & “MINE” is the dimension, we upgrade our environment where we spent our energy. Once when we cross this stage, it is important to act as a GO GIVER in passing on the acquired wisdoms to OTHERS. This completes the cycle. So, we have to be a GO GETTER as well as a GO GIVER.

Higher Penetration Level: We have to make it as our duty to talk about this wisdom the people to whom we meet and feel about the goodness & be gratified. The magical world opens up beautifully for us to stay there for ever. The penetration level is really deep with the simple act of the above said duty.

Energy Booster: We have our own great moments and sometimes even dull moments. In our dull moments, surprisingly with no logical explanation, the right source of positive energy from the external world hits us to take us back in the right track. This external energy is nothing but the positive energy that we threw out to the external world in our past. It is now coming back to us to put us back in the desired state.

Become a Transceiver: A transceiver is a transmitter and a receiver. Let us simply stay as a transmitter in passing on the wisdom to others and that is our duty. And, stay as a receiver when we need the energy from the external world to uplift us in our dull moments of our life. A beautiful human wellness network is formed when each one of us follow this simple pattern. So, here is my request for all my old clients who have achieved their perfect Health & Fitness level. Become a transmitter of the goodness that you acquired to at least TEN people to create a RIPPLE effect and form this powerful Human wellness NETWORK. This simple act of you not only retains your wisdom but it MULTIPLIES your wellness.

Journal: Experience the power of FOCUS

Journal: Writing Journal and Diary are different. Journal is written with explicit things in mind. It is like writing the experiences very specific to an already predefined goal. This tracks your progress towards that particular objective. For example, if you have decided to set a goal to lose weight by certain amount in certain period of time then the journal defines the experiences of the actions that you have taken on daily basis to achieve the desired objective. For example, a gratitude journal specifically defines the relevant experiences and the relevant persons to whom one wants to express their gratitude.

Words: Word is powerful. Words reflect the internal dialogue, our own self talk that happens inside our head. For example, if someone says, “I can’t do it”. This means that the person is under the gun at work. The language made out of the words is the label of our experience. We judge the experience as good or bad.  For example, “This practice is not going anywhere. What a waste of time?” This creates plasticity in the brain. Words create impression and psychological effect.

Emotionalise with words: While writing journal, it is important to pick up the right words that provide the positive vibes and positive emotion to us. Emotionalise our experience with the words. For ex, use words such as awesome, great, love, wonderful & beautiful. The deeper level of the mind can understand the picture and hence to make greater impression of our experiences, one can also draw pictures of the experiences in the journal.

Set the direction: Journaling is nothing but a selective memory retrieval mechanism of our experiences that have taken place in a day and reinforcing and storing the experiences back again in the brain by writing with the carefully crafted words and pictures. This practice when done on daily basis as rituals, it not only programs your brain with specific experiences but also tunes the brain to automatically look for such specific experiences that would happen in future.

Power of focus: Over a period of time, as we develop the habit of journaling, we get to become more focused on the specific task that has the priority in life. As per the recent research, our brain can’t able to multitask. So, doing one thing at a time is much smarter way than doing many things at one time. The habit of journaling makes us more focussed and keeps us in compliance with the natural design of the brain. The power of focus allows us to concentrate all our energies 100% for a single task than distributing the energies 20% to five different tasks.

Childish play: Many times, we think we operate life at pro level but in reality we deal life at kindergarten level. Initially, when I was introduced the concept of writing a journal, I thought it was a childish play & waste of time. But, after having my first-hand experience, all I can say is that we operate really at a pro level in real life with the development of such a new habit.

So, just a give a try for a month of this practice & if it works then inevitably it becomes your new habit.

Monitor to manage you

In the fast paced life, we are bombarded with too many information, experiences and events in any given single day. At any given time, we are overwhelmed with too many tasks. This leads us to have a feel that we are scattered all over the places. To overcome such an issue, I practice a monitoring/centring exercise as part of my daily rituals.

ME Time: Set aside five minutes of our time in a day as your ME time. ME time is nothing but giving an appointment to yourself. It is centring practice that asks the two questions. What is happening in my life? What is happening within me? All the information, experiences and events of the day are stored in the body, mind and also as emotions. During this practice, it is our duty to throw away all those craps that do not serve us.

Disturbed state: One experiences a disturbed mental state only when he concentrates too much on one particular area of the life for too long and for too many days. This causes a mental blockage. The four major areas of life are Health& fitness, wealth, relationship & spiritual development. The best way of the practice is to divert the awareness equally to the experiences of all the major areas of life. Such is the simplicity of this practice and one doesn’t need to go a trained meditative state to become aware of the experiences in the four major areas.

This way, it allows a person to centre by introspection of the experiences in all the major areas of life each day for few minutes. This monitoring process provides a handle to manage the life in a better way.

Mimic the internal centring process: The entire systems inside of our body such as the digestive, blood circulatory systems maintain balance by working in close loop by monitoring the signals. For example, the blood sugar level is maintained constant in a stable state by means of the receptors in the pancreas & the management is done by the secretion of the insulin. This is an automatic subconsciously controlled loop. We simply need to mimic this mechanism consciously when it comes to life experiences.

Most of the health issues, relationship issues are due to the mismanagement of this centring process.as a result of it, life slips form the balanced state without our conscious knowledge.

Preset values: It is important to organise the mind with right set of good values defined by the universal laws. In such case where the values are predefined, by default the right monitoring, correction and management happen in a right way. We move with the positive energy.

As a part of the daily rituals, spending five minutes of your time in practicing this centring/monitoring exercise is analogous to the filling up of the gas to the car. By this practice, we drive and move forward in life with vigour.

Strategies to achieve a perfect Health

We all have good intention to have a great health. But, reality is always different and sometimes, health is just the polarity opposite of what exactly we intend to have. In some cases, we even suffer poor health. What is the reason to have such an opposite effect or not to have a desired perfect health condition? In many cases, when it comes to health, our behaviour is different than our intention. Behaviour and intention are not in alignment. For example, we may want to lose weight but our behaviour in dealing our daily life activities such as exercising, diet may not be in alignment with our intention. So, on long run, our resolution does not yield the desired result and hence, we fall back to the same original state where we originally kick started.

Conscious mind: Intention, goal setting and desire are the conscious decisions from the rational part of the mind controlled by the left hemisphere of the brain. This is such an easy part do it in the whole of setting and achieving the goals. This is what exactly we do when we set our goal such as New Year resolution. We human are innately programmed to set our life in an evolutionary path that seeks growth and hence setting a goal is always easy. The next step to have a perfect health is to have some sort of planning, strategies & processes. This second step is also under the complete control of the left hemisphere of the brain. So, our health goal setting, planning & strategies put together are all part of the conscious mind.

Subconscious mind: Our action based on the planning is also a decision controlled by our conscious mind. Now, we may have to take series of actions to achieve the desired perfect health. This is a phase where most of us fall apart. We don’t get the momentum to carry forward with the same intensity as we have had at the beginning. This is the phase where most of us fail and we fall back again to the same original state. Our old HABITS which are engrained deep within us become the root cause for such a failure. Our habits determine our present behaviour patterns. We are habitual animals and our habits are determined mainly by our own BELIEF system. These two components namely the HABIT and the BELIEF are controlled by our subconscious mind. We really need an enormous energy to change our belief and habit patterns.

Success of Health: We can only prosper very well to have a perfect health only when we keep our belief, habit, and our action plan & health goal all in perfect alignment to one another. If we work on the same old belief and habit then we may expect the same old result. We need to break this old habit patterns.

Two tactics: To break the old pattern, we need to have a good start point to achieve the goal and secondly the right momentum is required to take us in the right direction. A good start point can be achieved by means of affirmation and visualisation techniques. Our desired health goal needs to be affirmed and visualised very often to generate the essential happy emotion within us. All we need to do is to creatively visualise the feeling of having achieved the desired health & fitness?

Secondly, to gain the momentum, we need to develop a reward procedure where we intentionally look for a small positive result out of our action. In general, it is normal and natural that we tend to lose momentum as we move towards in achieving our health goal. Searching out for the small positive progress helps in building up the momentum. On long run, all those small positive results when compounded together yield the desired big positive result.

Effective ways of handling the Information:

We live in the information age. We are bombarded with millions of information every day. The process of extracting the relevant information from this vastness by itself is a big challenge. In fact, it is an art to deal with the vastness of the information and it demands specific expertise.

The virtual media like internet is the greatest invention of this century. Internet has become the greatest source of information. We are blessed with such a powerful technology that gives the right information instantaneously with a click of a button. The technology has advanced to a level where the accessibility of such tool becomes not only easy but cost effective.

In present day, we face two major disadvantages. The technology has to work in our favour and for our growth. There is a chance that we become addictive when the technology is not handled in a seasoned way. Good examples are the usage of social media such as Facebook & mobile phone. Excessive usage of such technologies leads us to addiction. Secondly, information due to the very nature of its vastness leads to the distraction. We spend hours together in the internet without high level of productivity. We not only lose our precious time but also waste of our own energy while handling the technology.

In order for the above two disadvantages not to descent upon us, let us consider the following points while accessing the information.

Value: There is a natural law which states that the value that one gets from an action depends on how much value that he gives to that action. What you value is the one that gives the value to you. If you value the food that you eat then the value of the food comes to you. Same way, if due value is given to the information then the information gives the value to you. So, let us treat the information and give due respect like how we treat the information when we get it otherwise in a hard way. So, treat the information even though the information is easy to access and cheap to get it with a click of a button.  We stay in moderation by valuing it and hence the excessive usage is limited.

Become a “Giver”: Information is not limited to just taking out. But, we should act as an information channel to put it back. Our browsing history tells the true story. If we browse too much without proportionate contribution to the virtual media then it is the time for us to do the correction. Let us contribute in the form of writing a blog on your favourite subjects, commenting on the already existing favourite article etc. We have to be a “giver” as we play the role of a “taker”. This law applies to the information management also. This has the added advantage of stamping our identity in the virtual world.

Know the specifics: Many of us jump into the virtual media without knowing exactly the specifics of what they really want. This is the source of distraction and the productivity is lost. Let us make it as specific as possible before jumping into the vastness of this virtual world. This conserve the energy as the distraction is minimised.

Static exercise and its therapeutic effect

This blog is an extension of the blog on the power of static exercises. In the modern days, many people approach yoga for its powerful therapeutic benefits. Yoga cures almost all the modern lifestyle diseases like diabetes, arthritis, back pain & migraine etc. Predominantly for most of the lifestyle diseases, the source of the problem stays at the mental or/and emotional dimensions. Yoga has the ability to bring balance to both the mental and emotional faculties.

The therapeutic effect is due to the role that yoga plays in the physiological as well as the psychics of the practitioner.

Physiological aspects:  To get the maximum therapeutic benefits, one needs to consider the three main aspects of the static exercises in the physiological plane. These are

·         Each posture has the effect of pooling the blood to certain parts of the body. Say, for example in the bow posture, the blood pools to the abdomen. The practitioner should be aware of the posture as well as the energy centring point corresponding to the posture.

·         The awareness of the body sensation at the energy centre point. The therapeutic effect is proportional to the level of this awareness.

·         Nice oxygenation by means of deep breathing. The oxygenated blood moves naturally to the part where the blood pools in and it rejuvenates the particular internal organs.

The keywords for these three aspects are Circulation, attention & oxygenation respectively. As a process, the effected internal organs get revitalised by means of nice oxygenation and the posture aids in pooling the blood to that particular body part and the attention plays a crucial role in feeling the sensation of the body.

Psychic aspects: At a deeper level, we are just a form of energy even though we appear to have a solid body at the gross level. The internal organ functionality is affected mainly due to the blockage of such life force. There should be a clean flow of energy throughout all the parts of the body to keep our health at the optimal level. The strength of the attention faculty plays a major role in opening up the energy channel in the blocked area.

So, we need to train ourselves into a state of expanded level of awareness or a simply a meditative state in the static posture to get the maximum therapeutic benefit.

Considering the above physical as well as the psychic aspects of the static postures, it has become quite recognizable that the attention plays a crucial role in getting a quick result. This is just one simple reason which explains why that some practitioners get the results so quickly while others struggle to achieve the desired result.

Now, I ask you a simple question. In case, if you are not getting the desired result then ask yourself where you miss the link in the above said four aspects while practicing static exercises?

Clear Life Direction: Two magic questions

The experiences and events of our day today life are simply not accidents. There is a purpose and meaning to each of such event that delivers a learning experience for us. The life experience is simply a measure of the return energy that is directed from the external world to us.

Law of returns: For every action, there is an equivalent and proportionate return energy that comes from the external world. This is called law of returns. The quality and the magnitude of this return energy are simply determined by the quality and the magnitude of our action. A good action that helps immensely others has the return energy which is equally good and helps immensely us. There is no logical explanation to such a divine intervention but this is the way it works in each and every one of our life.

Identify the return energy: identifying the quality and intensity of the return energy is the measure of the result of our action. If the experience and event around us are not conducive and hostile then it is important to change our actions. The process of change in our actions has to be continued as long as the event and experience turn out to be encouraging to us. It is ME and MY action that I need to change when the events around me are not functioning in my favour.

Practice: Ask the following two magic and profound questions for any particular life experience. 1. What is that I learned from this particular experience/ event? 2. Moving forward, what I do differently in my life based on this learning? That’s it.  This is such a simple task but gives tremendous clear direction to your life.

 As a practice, everyday recollect three of our life experiences for that day. Ask the above two questions and write down the answers to the two questions as well as the associated experience/event. Do this practice for a month & see the wonder that it does to you by yourself. You will be amazed by the result and the direction that you get in life. Purely, you will be lot more focus in life than one month before.

Commitment: Key to the success

We discussed in the earlier blog, the role of action which acts as a bridge between the intention and the success. In this blog, let us cover “our commitment” in executing an action. Commitment is one of the greatest characteristics of the successful people.

Energy flow: Obviously, the energy is directed when one commits to his action. It is like focussing the energy for a particular action. As known to all, the energy within every individual is infinite. So, with the commitment, the energy within him will not be scattered and wasted instead it will be streamlined to the action.

Right momentum: Commitment to an action plays a key role in building up the momentum. Momentum moves all the actions towards a desired goal. It is like building up & uplifting the untapped energy that is already present within us. To achieve our goal, a right momentum is important. We are naturally moved towards our goal once the momentum is set in place.

Distraction: Distractions set in only when the importance provided to our commitment diminishes. We should set a high priority to our commitment so that other insignificant tasks automatically take low priority. So, we take action without an excuse to our committed tasks irrespective our external circumstances. We can ensure that by setting high priorities, we allow the energy within us to get focussed.

Declaration: It is good to declare at the start of the day, the various actions that we are committed to and stay for the rest of the day by our declaration. By regular practice, one can develop such a new habit that serves very well for our growth in life.

Level of commitment: It is important to define the level of commitment to the level within the practically possible limit. This ensures that the tasks can be finished off in a stipulated time frame. This means that the level of commitment should be in direct proportion to our available resources. All that small steps at the initial stage add up to the final stage in achieving the goal.

So, build-up the right energy by a firm commitment and set a high priority for the energy to get focussed. Ramp up the energy level by carefully selecting the level of commitment based on the available resources and take the entire flow of energy towards the direction in achieving the goal.

Distance between the intention and the success

We all need success in the field in which we spent our energy as we venture in life. But, the success appears to be far away and does not come to us as easily as we wish to have. There appears to be a planetary distance between our intention and success. This blog covers my perception and personal experience of how to convert intention to a sure success and generate the results that we desire.

The bridge: The gap between our intention and success is filled with our own actions. Any wishful intention without proper actions does not take us to the end result and hence we don’t experience success. One can equate to his own life experiences to validate the above statement. When proper actions are taken then the gap between intention and success narrows down. In most of the cases, the unsuccessful result is related mainly due to the lack of actions. The lack of actions is caused by the various distractions that defocus our final goal. So, it is important that our mind and energy should be completely focused on the actions.

Strong desire: Our intention should take its birth from our desire that has to be really strong. Strong burning desire is the key to generate right actions. The result and action will not be strong when such great intensity is not there to our intention. One should have a good fondness to have such intention for the intention to yield the desired result. When the strength of our desire is not that strong then there is a good chance we slip & the intention fails to take a shape to give the desired result.

Success: The goal that we have in mind should not only benefit us but it should also have global impact on others. When the goal and the associated success are self-centred, the energy built in achieving the desired result is also limited to a small circle of energy field. To widen this energy field, it is important that the goal should influence and benefit others. In this case, one gets a sense of importance for his work from others. This is an important criterion in setting up the goal.

Momentum: Most of us do not get the right momentum to carry out the actions required in achieving the end result. This is mainly due to the lack of strength in desire and action to penetrate into the world of opportunity. The world opens up and explodes with opportunities only when we have strength in our intention and action.

Alignment: There should be a single line of alignment our intention, action and success. All these three components should be aligned to real “purpose and meaning of our life”.  In order to gain importance, all the above components should have global influence for others and society.

Fire of breath breathing technique

This blog is in continuation of my previous week blog on the benefits of deep breathing practice. This blog covers the physiological and psychic aspects of the ‘fire of breath’’ or kapalabathi breathing practice. Please refer elsewhere to a right source of information if you would like to learn how to perform the practice.

Stage 1: If you have learned the fire of breath breathing technique then you must be aware of the four stages of this breathing practice. The forceful exhalation is like a saw tooth waveform where we consciously force our exhalation without paying any attention to the inhale process. There is a good chance to move on to stage two (automatic stoppage of breath) if one maintains above 120 strokes. Stroke rate is the number of forceful exhales in a given duration of time. Personally, I feel that 60 strokes/minute continued for 2 minutes take us to the stage two.

Stage 2: The automatic process of breathing is controlled by Hypothalamus. Even now, the hypothalamus controls our breathing involuntarily as we are engaged in reading this blog consciously. The brain experiences surplus oxygen due to the stage 1 practice. This is due to the piston movement of the diaphragm muscleof stage 1 breathing practice. Hypothalamus stops the breathing process due to the surplus oxygen in the brain cells. This automatic stoppage of breath is technically called as Kevala Kumbak . This is a beautiful meditative state and one experiences a glimpse of Samadhi. Really a power state!!

Stage 3: The third stage is the recovery of breath and the hypothalamus tries to reconstruct the breathing process as it experiences the decrease in the level of oxygen from its maximum level. Again, one can experiences strikingly the period of reconstruct which is really slow with a long duration and gradual increase in the amplitude levels. It is as good as experiencing the characteristics of the hypothalamus. What a wonderful way to experience our own internal device which controls our involuntary breathing mechanism??

Stage 4: Stage four is building up of periodicity with rhythmic sinusoidal wave with raising and falling of breathing by successive inhale& exhale. Once , we reach this stage , the awareness on natural rhythm of the breathing heightens up & hence the clarity of the breathing appears to be lot more better after the fire of breath practice.

Physiological effects: The respiratory system functionality is optimised by this breathing practice. This is mainly due to the piston movement of the diaphragm muscle that is involved in the practice. An effective respiratory system improves the endurance level mainly due to the increased oxygen intake. Also, the energy level is higher due to the good supply of oxygen to the every cells of the body.

Physic effect: Both the automatic stoppage of breath as well as the recovery phase take us to a kind of meditative state. The awareness as well as our own attention faculty improve in this state. This allows one to stay in a “present moment of awareness”.

Are you experiencing all the four stages of this practice clearly and distinctively? Please try it out. It is a powerful energising breathing practice.

My experience on breathing techniques

I try to cover in this blog the power of breathing techniques and my personal experience of these techniques. Again, I would like to iterate that this is purely my personal experience and in no way becomes the description of the techniques.

Deep breathing: The most powerful muscle in the human body is the diaphragm muscle, a dome shape muscle just below the rib cage. Deep breathing makes use of this diaphragm muscle. Most of us breathe from the chest using the intercostal muscle. Lungs are triangular in shape with majority of the lungs capacity comes from the lower part of the lungs. The diaphragm muscle activates the lower lobes of the lungs.

Endurance level: I personally have seen a great energy level with my deep breathing. My long run pace has improved considerably with deep breathing. Also, I could able to run nonstop at higher pace easily for more than 10Km. Endurance level improves once if we push the lactic threshold level. We touch upon lactic threshold region when there is a depletion of oxygen and the body moves to anaerobic zone. Deep breathing helps in oxygenating the body that keeps us in aerobic zone that helps in higher endurance level.

Breathing rate: Typically, the breathing rate for an average adult is 18/minute. Our breathing rate reduces with the regular practice of deep breathing for 10 minutes per day. In my case, breathing rate has reduced to 10/minute. This has tremendous psychic as well as the physiological benefits that can’t be undermined.

Perception: The first psychic effect is the change in the perception towards the life. Few of my experiences due to the changed perception have provided a greater confident in leading the life to its full. The slower breathing rate creates a space in the mind. In such case, mind is not fully occupied. This gives an opportunity for a renewed thinking & that leads to a better perception.

Relaxed state: The long exhalation of the deep breathing helps us to relax the body and the mind. This is mainly due to the toning up the parasympathetic nervous system that relaxes our body and the mind.

Anti-aging effect:  Each thought is an energy impulse. Too many thoughts mean too much of energy expenditure. A relaxed body and mind keep us in an energy conserving state. Personally, I have enjoyed immensely in this area.

Improved immunity system: An acidic body is the breeding ground for cancer and all other kinds of diseases. Deep breathing helps in oxygenating the body nicely and keeps in alkaline mode. Because of the alkaline state, we seldom catch diseases. Personally, I have not visited the doctor for the past six years.

Your turn: Deep breathing technique is a very subtle technique and please do not take it for granted. Most of us do not have patient to do the exercise regularly for  at least for a month. Hence, they lose the immense benefits of this technique. Please look for the two parameters if you plan to practice deep breathing.

a)      Initially, start to do the practice consciously and with regular practice, this breathing pattern becomes your second nature. It becomes your habit and you start to breathe with the changed pattern subconsciously. So, keep an eye of this change.

b)      Look for the duration of inhale and exhale and consciously, try to keep the exhalation longer. This has the ability to relax your body and the mind.

Let me write in my next blog on ‘’fire of breath’’ and bellow breathing techniques.

The power of static exercises

Physical exercise creates movement in the body. Static exercises such as asanas stop the movement of the body. This blog explains my view on the power of such static exercises.

Speed of the exercises: When we engage in a physical exercise, we use the speed as one of the parameter to judge our improvement. We consider the result is improved when the same set of exercises is done in a shorter duration. But, there is a flip side of increasing the momentum of the exercises. When we add the momentum, because of the speed, our awareness window begins to narrow down as the time to observe the effect of the exercises on us at any given instant of time becomes short. Even though, one can see and appreciate the net effect after exercise but the effect at a given instant of time during the exercise is as not as good as static exercise. In other words, static exercise because of its very static nature that provides a wider window of opportunity to feel clearly the strength and weakness of the body by subjecting it to different static postures. This way, one can become lot more aware of the body and with this developed awareness, one can effectively manage in adding the strength & and eliminating the weakness of the body.

Subtle movement: At the background, there are set of very subtle movements that happen within us. These are the involuntary movements without our conscious control. They run in a kind of auto pilot mode controlled automatically by the subconscious mind. There is a very less chance to observe these subtle movements when there are lot of gross movements caused by the physical exercises in the fore ground. So, it is significant to reduce or stop those gross movements in the fore ground to watch the subtler movements at the background. On reaching this level of awareness, one develops the ability to watch the movement of mind & emotions.

Still Mind: Mind becomes still only when the body retains the stillness. As known to us, the body and the mind are one and the same. Mind is the subtler form of the body and the body is the gross form of the mind. The practice of static postures allows us to train the body to become still.

Subconscious access: We are habitual animal & 95% of our activities are subconsciously controlled. We get to develop an access to this subconscious power when we develop the awareness on these subtle movements as well with the practice of static postures.

Piecewise work: Due to the high complexity of the body, it becomes a paramount task to target the entire body at one go. Each posture targets the different centers of the body. Practice of static postures allows us to work piecewise on the different centers of the body. This provides an opportunity to clear the energy block of a particular center. We get a free flow of energy throughout the entire system when all the blocks are removed.

Therapeutic effect: The static posture allows pooling of energy at one particular center as well as pooling of blood to one particular part of the body. A particular center of the body can be rejuvenated by pooling the blood to the center. A better therapeutic effect can be achieved by oxygenating the center by means of deep breathing. This activates the healing effect and hence the practice of static exercises becomes therapeutic.

So, in nutshell, practice of static exercises clear all the blocks of the different centers of the body and having a free flow of energy flawlessly within.

Exercise mindset:

It is a known fact that we live inside the body irrespective of who we are and what we do in life. First, one needs to take care of their body for the spirit to operate at its highest energy level. Regularly exercising the body makes every cell alive and active. A person can achieve a healthy lifestyle by means of regular exercise.

Body Mind relationship: Anyone who exercises regularly would agree that physical exercise not only influences the body but also the mind. A runner enjoys not only many physical benefits like a great cardiovascular system, an improved respiratory system, and stronger legs but also achieve a calm and relaxed mind. Such is the effect of the physical activity on the mind. This is because the mind and the body are one and the same. The mind is the subtler form of the body and the body is the gross form of mind.

Movement: There are movements in the body when we exercise. Exercise and movement are synonymous to each other. At the core level, the basic fundamental movements are the breathing movement and the movement due to the beating of the heart. Exercise becomes a lot more productive and enjoyable if we build the movement of the exercise in relationship to these core cardio-respiratory movements.

Exercise Rhythm: We can build a rhythm in any form of physical exercise. For example, a runner can match his strides to his breathing rate. The exercise becomes a lot easier and effortless once the movement is aligned to the cardio or respiratory rates. The exercise becomes effortless as the mind gets locked to the rhythm that one generates during the exercise. The Mind has unique characteristics of locking to the periodicity or rhythm.

Pain-Pleasure Windows: When we perform physical exercises, we experience pain or pleasure depending on the intensity of the exercise. We should perform the exercise precisely in the zone which is at the brink of the pleasure zone and the beginning of the pain zone. One cannot achieve the desired result when he exercises completely in the pleasure zone. The regularity and sustainment of the exercises cannot be achieved if one exercises in the pain zone.

Start point: Let there be a good reason for working out. As per the law of association, naturally we tend to associate the reason while we perform the workouts. If our reason for doing the exercise is to lose weight then that is the association which comes in the foreground of our mind whenever we perform workouts. This may become a bad association especially when we operate unknowingly in the pain zone of the pain-pleasure windows. On the other hand, when one associate workouts to “becoming healthy” or “changing lifestyle pattern” then those workouts yield better sustainable result due to the positive association.

So, the attitude towards the workouts has tremendous impact on the end result. A simple understanding of body-mind relationship, building an exercise rhythm and working on the precise point of pain-pleasure windows & good association to the workouts yield a greater and a more sustainable result.

Go with the right mind set when you attempt to work out and more importantly do the type of workout which you enjoy.

Money contribution and growth

In general, our growth depends on our contributions to others as well as to the society. More the level of contribution, greater would be our growth. Contribution is like an energy that flows from a source to a target. Continuity is established when the energy moves subsequently from old target to next target and so on.

Form of energy: Our energy field is said to be at higher level when the total universal cosmic energy seamlessly flows through us without any sort of obstruction. Money is also one such form of Prana, the energy field which flows through us effortlessly. In yogic science, an unbalanced state is a state which prevails only when there is a blockage of Prana. This unbalanced state can also be defined as dis-eased state where the energy does not flow easily from one point to another point.

Instrument: Money is a kind of an instrument. It is like a hammer, an instrument which can be used either for constructive or destructive purpose. We can use the hammer to constructively build a wooden box. Also, we can use the same hammer also to destruct the box. It is just in our hand to decide the purpose. It aids in our growth when we use money as an instrument for the constructive purpose in the form of contribution.

Money contribution: We donate to orphanage, less privileged people and so on and as a good human, it is a great accomplishment to continue such service. The money that goes for the contribution should emanate out of our pure will and good intention. Our intention should not be forced by others. We tend to add marketing element of our contribution only when the intention is forced externally. When our perception on this contribution is viewed in the context of seamless flow of energy, we contribute out of uncontaminated will that happens innately within us.

Practical method: From my personal experience, I would like to share certain practices that I follow. Our money inflow comes from many different sources. Most of these sources are known and expected. But, there are some unexpected and unknown sources that sometimes come as surprises to us. These could happen in the form of some unexpected profits in our business, stocks or from some unexpected deals from the clients. Keep aside such unexpected revenues and these become a reserve and start point for the money to flow.

Once, we develop such a mind-set that there is a reserve for contribution that exists in us then surprisingly, multiple outflow paths open up for this reserve. These paths around us open up so automatically and there is no need for us to go and hunt for communities, charities or organisations for the outflow to happen.

Effectively, with the development of such a mind-set, we simply become a medium where the money, the form of energy, flows seamlessly through us. Thus, we contribute and hence we grow.

Three dimensions of our life

Present state of our being is determined by the present state of our body, mind and emotion. The physical, mental and emotional states combined together provide the required foundation for our spiritual state. There is a purpose and meaning to our existence and we have not come here by any accident. A person who has realised this fact lives in a highly spiritual state and he sees a fulfilment in life.

3D Dynamics: To keep the foundation stronger, it is important to understand the dynamics of the body, mind and emotion. All these three components should act in such a way to work in our favour and aid in our growth. Stress is nothing but a state where these three components work against us. If you feel that you are stressed out in life then it is high time to become aware of these three components to turn those to your favour.

Managing our three dimensions:  Can we able to control our mind, body & emotion? No, it is not possible to control these components but can manage in certain ways in order to exploit the benefits. For this, the start point is to become aware of these three components in detail. In order to manage, the first and foremost stepping point is “to become aware”. Once the awareness is established then it is easy to manage. So, management follows after awareness.

Simple tests: Just perform a simple test of forward bend of our body and keep the palms by the side of the feet. Our intention is to keep the palms to the ground but the body may or may not allow that to happen. Here, we want to control the body but the body is allowing/not allowing us to control it. We are said to be under the influence of the body when we can’t manage the movement of the body. Similarly, a diseased state is a state where we lose the ability to manage and we come under the control of the body. A test of closing our eyes and observing the thoughts in the mind reveals the status of our mind dynamics.  Poorly managed mind has too many random thoughts. A test on our emotional state with the occurrence of too many negative emotions is an indicator of poor emotional state.

Strong 3D foundation: Yoga practices offer a strong foundation by working three dimensionally on our body, mind and emotion. Asana (static posture), pranayama (breathing practices) and meditation enhance our awareness of our body, mind and emotion respectively. We don’t feel completeness in life until we identify the purpose and meaning to our life. A person gets clarity on this if and only if he establishes a strong 3D foundation.

Fundamental components of Yoga practice

Yoga practitioner should keep the yoga practices effective and result oriented both of which should help in handling the challenges of the life. Regularity of the practice and sticking a disciplined schedule depend primarily on the benefits that one gets from the practice of yoga. We become irregular and muddled when we don’t see the desired results.

To make yoga effective, it is important to understand and apply the key fundamental components of the yoga practice. Broadly, there are four such components namely a) awareness b) breathing c) body sensation and d) movement.

 Awareness: Yoga practice is all about awareness i.e. awareness on breathing, awareness of movements and awareness of body sensation. During the initial days of the practice, mind is so strong that it just takes over our awareness within a split of a minute.  But, with regular practice, awareness gradually gains strength and a stage comes where it stays on top of the mind and the body. In this expanded state of awareness, one can observe both the movement of my mind i.e. the thoughts as well as the body sensations. Expanded state of awareness improves our sensitivity.  With increase in sensitivity, one gets the ability not only observing the gross body sensations but finer and subtler sensations too.

So, mind is stronger than our awareness during the initial days of practice and awareness becomes stronger than the mind with prolonged duration of the practice.

Breathing: Breathing is a combination of inhalation, retention and exhalation. Inhalation is an energisation process, oxygenating the body triggered by the sympathetic nervous system. Exhalation is a relaxation phase activated by the parasympathetic nervous system. In effect, breathing is a cyclic variation of stimulation followed by relaxation. By definition, yoga practice is nothing but this cyclic movement of stimulation and relaxation.

It is good to manipulate breathing by keeping the duration of exhale slightly longer than the duration of inhale during the practice of yoga. So, the net duration of relaxation becomes longer than the stimulation phase. A new breathing habit will be formed with the regular practice of this manipulated breathing technique that has tremendous benefits.

Body sensation: We are on an autopilot mode and 95% of our actions are subconsciously controlled. Subconscious mind communicates through the body sensations. As we divert our attention to our body sensations and with consistent practices, our brains become sharp enough to pick up finer and subtler sensations. This helps us to become aware of our emotions which are channelized as body sensations. We, now have the capacity to manage our emotions once we gain the ability to become aware of our own emotions.

Movement: The ideal way to practice yoga is to synchronise the body movements with the movement of breathing. This is a good start point to reach the ultimate goal of achieving the stillness of body and mind through yoga practices. A trained yoga practitioner keeps this fundamental so clean and given any other form of activities like weight training or running, he naturally applies this fundamental subconsciously in each of these practices. For example, he keeps the strides of his running automatically to match his breathing pattern.

Our automatic rhythm of our breathing is such a divine energy, the life giving force, a basic fundamental movement based on which all other movements are constructed.

So, understand the above fundamental key components of yoga practice in order to exploit the full benefits of yoga.

Tune in to the power within: Our adaptability factor

We humans, as evolutionary beings have hidden evolutionary energy within. We need to tap this energy that is manifested in many different forms. Super computers which find its applications in many different areas, run at a faster speed in the order of nanoseconds. The speed of the neurons in the brain is in the order of milliseconds and not as fast as computer. But humans are more powerful than computers and that power comes from our capability to adapt. This adaptation capability of the humans is one such form of the human evolutionary energy.

Adaptation:  When there is a change that happens in our external or internal situations and the situations prevail continuously for a longer period of time, we tend to adapt to the new situation especially when there is no other option is provided to us. We slowly start to adapt to this new situation irrespective of whether the situation is good or bad to us. For example, our situations change when we start a new job and when the situation prevails for a long duration, we start to adapt automatically.

Our history: Simply by looking back at past experiences, one can see how the adaption plays a crucial role in shaping up his life. The level of adaptation varies from person to person and with their experiences. For example, consider the scenarios like a child learning a new language, jetlag due to long flight, moving to a new job, getting used to the back pain or knee pain or any chronic ailments, etc. In all the above scenarios, we adapt to the newly developed situations.

Law of self helplessness:  There is a trend which I observed with the clients who came to me for therapy programs. Most of these clients suffer from certain chronic ailments like asthma, back pain, high blood pressure etc.  Most of them tried to find many different ways to come out their unbalanced chronic state and when the methods did not yield the desirable result, they slowly started to accept the unbalanced state. This is a kind of adaptation that does not work in our favour and such negative development is called self helplessness.

To work in our favour: We are empowered to create a new situation. Consciously, one can define a new situation that works in his favour. Of course, there are challenges with the newly developed situation. With little perseverance, one can crossover his comfort zone and explore the new possibilities defined by the new situation. With time, the adaption power derived from our evolutionary energy helps us in moving towards our life goals. Such is the power of adaption, a form of evolutionary energy.

So, tap the evolutionary energy within us and tune in to the power of adaption from “self helplessness”  to “self helpfulness” to achieve our goals.

Practice stillness: An approach to a holistic lifestyle

In our fast paced lifestyle, our mind is occupied with too many things. Our brain is loaded with too much of information. We become less effective when our mind occupied with too many things. Any form of stillness practices even if practiced for a short period of time in a day creates free space in our mind which makes us a lot more effective during the day.

Fourth State: All of us live in one of the following states during a day. A wakeful state is the state where our mind and body are active, a sleep state is the state where the body and the mind are resting and a dream state is the one where the body rests while the mind stays active. There is a fourth state, technically called as ‘Turiya’ in yoga, where the body and mind stay in a very relaxed state and simultaneously we become aware of this relaxed state. Practicing stillness allows us to reach this fourth state where one can introspect the internal world within him.

Mind & Awareness: In general, most of us are under the strong influence of the mind. In this case, the mind stays on top of our awareness. While we practice stillness, we direct the awareness to stay on top of the mind. By doing so, the mind slowly loses its strength. Ego is the false identification of SELF to the mind. So, we are under the influence of ego as long as the mind has a strong hold on us. We experience our true SELF when our awareness expands with the stillness practice.

Postures: Any sitting posture which keeps the spine vertically upright with the root chakra at the base and crown chakra at the top. These are the potential and kinetic energies respectively within us. With continuous practice of stillness, a stage comes where one can tap and experience the inherent evolutionary energy which has infinite potential.

Process: A physiological effect of still body in the sitting posture has psychological influence on the mind. Awareness on the mind and the stillness of the mind can be experienced when one maintains a still body. So, the first and foremost requisite to gain access to the deeper layer of the mind is to establish a still body. It becomes easy to observe the involuntary subconsciously controlled automatic functions such as breathing, heartbeat, etc. once the stillness of the body is achieved. Our awareness laid on these involuntary functions improves our own sensitivity. Improved sensitivity allows us to feel the subtle body sensations activated by our nervous system. Our nervous system is the storage medium of the so-called, our conditioned mind. Stillness of mind happens as we become aware of these subtle sensations and as we continue to stay in a non-judgemental detached state. A pure expanded state of awareness can be achieved with a still body and a still mind.

First step: The first and foremost prerequisite for practicing stillness is to establish a perfectly still body. That is to have a still body in the sitting posture. During the initial days of practice, one may experiences very subtle movements in the body like forward backward movement of spine, the movement of head etc. So, do become aware of these movements and try to establish a still body. A still body lets us gain access to the subconsciously automatic involuntary functions.

Practicing stillness even for few minutes a day allows us to stay in a pure state of awareness. This has profound impact of our entire day. Personally, I feel it is powerful tool of the ancient wisdom which has now become a necessity in the fast paced modern world.

Get your freedom – that is your right

Mind layers: The mind is a layered structure. The structure of mind in itself is fascinating as there is no limit to identify the bottom most layer. It becomes endless as we try to reach the deepest layers of it. The simplest representation of mind has two components namely the conscious mind in the upper layers and the subconscious mind in the lower layers. The subconscious mind’s layers consist of the layers related to our survival as well as the parts related to our habits. Both the layers of survival and habits govern our autopilot mode. The survival part of the subconscious mind controls all our involuntary actions such as breathing, heartbeat, reflexes etc. The layer that defines the habits is also automatic and spontaneous by nature. Habits are the effect of our conditioned mind.

Difference between an adult and a child: As a child, we have our survival layers defined which aid in basic operations such as breathing, heart beat etc. But, as we progress as a grown up adult, the layers of habits began to take shape based on our life experiences. The mind is conditioned and the conditioning of the mind varies from person to person based on an individual’s life experiences.

Flexibility of the body: As a child, the body system which operates on the layer of survival has greater body flexibility. There are greater movements of muscles and joints. Greater the movements, better is the blood circulation in the body. This aids in oxygenating each and every cell of the body which puts the child in a highly energetic state. This is the freedom given to us at the time of our birth.

For an adult, conditioned mind may be more rigid or less rigid based on his life experiences. There is a direct correlation between the rigidity of the conditioned mind and the flexibility of the body. The body becomes less flexible when the conditioned mind is rigid.

Test: In mind body exercise, the static postures (asanas) are good to test the flexibility of the body. A simple flexibility test is to do the forward bend posture. The level of flexibility can be determined by the palms of the hands to reach the ground. The flexibility is good if the palms touch the ground by the side of the feet’s. Remember not to bend the knees as this test is performed. Also, to retain balance, one needs to perform the complimentary back bend posture.

Unconditioning the body: The body as well as the mind can be unconditioned with regular practice. The habits can be unconditioned with the unconditioning of the body and the mind. A simple concentration of focusing on your breathing does the trick. In the above test, do exhale with the forward bends with a simple mental chat,” My body id relaxing”. Similarly, do inhale with the backbends with a mental chat, “I am energised”.

With the regular practice of the above mindful exercise, considerable changes can be noticed in the body, mind and habits. Get back the freedom given at the time of birth and that is our right!!

Listen to your body

Our conscious choices, the ‘efforts’ that we put in create ‘causes’ in our internal world as well as our external world. In fact, the experience of our external world is nothing but another representation of our internal world. Our internal world is nothing but our subconscious programming of our conscious efforts. Majority of our behaviors and actions in life are automatically governed by our own subconscious programming. It is said that 95% of our daily actions are subconsciously programmed and we are programmed to react or act in specific ways. We act consciously only 5% of the time and the rest of our actions are on an autopilot mode governed by the subconscious mind.

Subconscious communication: Since, we are majorly controlled by our subconscious mind, it is important to understand the communication media of this subconscious mind. The communication of this subconscious mind appears as bodily sensations. The degrees of the sensations vary from gross to subtle. Now, we know why we need to listen to the body so that we have better understanding of our internal world and hence better external life experiences.

Sensitivity: The sensitivity of picking up the body signals varies from person to person. Those with better sensitivity have better control of their life. They stay in a balanced state which is by definition our default state. Those with good sensitivity have ability to capture not only the gross signals but also the subtler signals from the body and those with less sensitivity have ability to capture only the gross sensations from the body. In a way, sensitivity defines our closeness to our subconscious mind that governs our internal world.

Let us take for example that we develop cold. At the beginning stage of the development of cold, the body signals out subtle signals. We either do not have the sensitivity to pickup these signals or we simply ignore those signals. Over a period of time, this unbalanced cold state moves to a different level and this time, our body signals out gross signals like runny nose, blocked nose etc. Now, even if one picks up these signals, it is going to take a long time for him to get back to his balanced state.

So, developing sensitivity keeps us close to our default balanced state.

Advantages: There are many advantages of listening to our body. It helps in

-          Improving the self healing capacity

-          To stay in a balanced state

-          To understand our internal world

-          To improve our performance in the activities that we get involved in.

Techniques: Any form of mind-body exercise like Yoga helps in developing a better sensitivity. If you are wary of doing yoga then let me suggest two simple practices to improve the sensitivity. First, develop a simple habit of listening to your breathing rhythm. You may pick up this rhythm at your tummy, tip of the nostril etc. After few days of regular practice, move on to listen to the rhythm of your heart. This can be felt easily by touching the thumb and the index finger. The meeting point between the thumb and the index finger gives the sensation of your heart rhythm. These two practices help in developing your sensitivity that keeps you in a balanced state.