Life becomes wonderful when one progresses in all the major
areas of life in a well paced and balanced way. There is a sense of fulfillment
in life when the four pillars of life namely health &
fitness, wealth, relationship and spiritual development are very well taken
care of. But, the majority of us lack development in one or more of these above
areas. We need to have a well defined process that monitors the development in
these areas and yoga is one such monitoring tool.
Abundant information:
In today’s scenario, each one of us is bombarded with a huge amount of
information due to the massive technology development. Just to name a few:
Internet, social media, TV, mobile communication, virtual online gaming etc.
One can get distracted easily by the overwhelming pool of information. As per
the research, the entire human race suffers from a rare disease called ADT,
Attention deficit trait. Our brain is not sufficiently trained to enhance this
attention faculty due to the distractions in the form of abundant information.
Yoga enables the attention faculty to train this part of the brain in a more procedural
way.
Social Mirror: If
I ask a question, “How much water does one need to consume/day?” The
instantaneous answer from most of us is 8 glasses/day. How come each one of us
knows this answer? Obviously, most of us
would not have tested it ourselves by drinking different quantities of water to
arrive at this magical number. This is an idea of someone which has been
implanted into the mind of others so strongly. Such is the effect of social
mirror. We just mirror what the society does. We simply follow what the
majority of us practice. In this case, we are under the influence of the
external force. We are driven by the external force but not by our internal
calling. We naturally take up the identity of the society once we take the path
of social mirroring. But, practice of yoga builds up unique identity within us as
it teaches us to go by the internal influence which is lot more powerful than
the external force.
What & How? :
Most of us know WHAT we do in life, say for example, what kind of job that we
are involved in. And, we know HOW to do this job also. But, if I ask a question,
WHY we do what we do then the answer from us may not be as crystal clear as the
answers to “WHAT & HOW”. We somehow ended up here in life doing the things
in life without knowing clearly WHY do we do what we do. The ideal successful
path is to begin with WHY then followed by WHAT & HOW. Yoga shows this path.
Competition:
Competition is healthy if it is time limited to a fixed short duration. That is
the essence & purpose of sports. We are in competition during the duration
of sports and we have to get out of this competition once we come out of the
sports. Some of us take everything in life as competition and in that process
life itself becomes a competition. Competition by definition is stimulating us
to a higher energy level to achieve some desired results. Practically, it is
not possible to stay in the higher energy level for ever. That leads to break
down on long run when we deal with life as a competition. Yoga teaches us to
stay stimulated and relaxed in a rhythmic way.
In other words, a Win-Lose situation as in competition is a
shorter affair where as we need to lead life in a WIN- WIN situation. To lead
life in WIN- WIN situation, we need to develop the abundance mentality. There
is everything for everyone. Yoga cultivates this mindset within us.
Spiritual development:
Do not confuse spiritual development with some religion or gurus or meditation
etc. In simple terms, spiritual development is to know our growth path clearly from
our present situation that gives a sense of fulfillment in life. Spiritual
development is the one that gives a higher meaning to our life and defines a
bigger and better version of us with higher goals in life. This development is
not about our promotion in the job, achieving certain wealth or fitness
targets. We should have a clear answer to what we plan to achieve in life? For
most of us, the answer may not be crystal clear. Yoga provides a path to define
your higher goals.
Holistic integration:
We are a product of the holistic integration of body, mind and emotion. We can’t
separate and do specific exercises for body fitness, mental and emotional
development discretely. Our system does not work in discrete ways. System is
highly integrated and extremely coordinated. We should have a clear practicing
tool to handle these highly coordinated functions to monitor physical, mental
& emotional aspects of the human system simultaneously for overall holistic
growth & yoga preciously fits into this category. In today’s life scenario,
it is a must to have a physically healthy body, mentally a strong mind and to
be emotionally well balanced and yoga can offer all of those at one go.
Now take your time & reflect yourself with the above
points. If you feel that you are trapped by the whirlpool of distracting information
very often or under the influence of the social mirror or if you are not clear
why do you do what you do in your life or if you think life is highly
competitive or if you are not clear about the higher goals in your life or if
you think body, mind, emotions are discrete entities then it is high time for
you to start any form of body mind exercise now.
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