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.