Life Goodness : Excuses of the mind

Goodness of life originates from your good habits. Forming a new habit requires an effort irrespective of whether a habit is good or bad. One needs to repeat the action/task related to the habit over certain period of time in order for the action to become second nature of him. Recurrence is the key in generating a new habit.

In this blog, we are focussing on activities such as regular exercises, getting up early morning, yoga & meditation. These are the daily activities that are good to form as habits for a healthy life style. Without doubt, every one of us knows clearly the benefits of these activities. In spite of that innumerable list of benefits, only a handsome of people put an effort in generating these new habits. WHY??

Inherent nature: Evolutionarily, human are designed to live in the comfort zone. It is the characteristic of the mind which restricts us & makes a choice to stay in the comfort zone. No extra effort is required to stay in this comfort zone. But, forming a new habit such as getting up early morning or doing regular exercises demands for an additional effort. This means, one has to work against his inherent nature.

Contradictory Mind: Mind plays a vital role in making the choices. The same mind that motivates you to put an effort to form a new habit also withdraws you form the very effort where you transfer your energy into. Such is the conflicting nature of the mind. It gives excuses for you to stay in your safer familiar mode.

It is up to the individual to overcome this inherent force while forming a new habit. Unlike the western world, daily dose of physical exercises is not part of our culture at all. So, if one goes by the mass psychology, he will derive some good excuses to skip the daily routine. But, in the recent years, a new trend is getting in place where people spent considerable time out in the sun.

Summary:  New habits demand new activities. All those activities demand regularity. The inherent nature & the contradictory mind give excuses that evade you to perform the activities. So, you miss the goodness. Think twice before passing judgement on those excuses of the mind which hinder your progress.

"GOODNESS IN LIFE GETS HIJACKED BY THE EXCUSES OF THE MIND”. Be aware!!

Art of Living in the Present moment

Living in the present moment is bliss. It is a complete integration of you into your experiences and experiencing the very integration as it transpires. Experience this from moment to moment, on and on is harmony. Time transpires as one abides into this present moment reality.

Reality: what you have right now is this present moment. As known to you, a person cumulative past experiences, good or bad shape him as a character. Individual perception to a large extent is shaped by the individual definition of his own character moulded over many years. A person neither has control of those past experiences that have given him his definition nor his future. If one becomes aware of this fact then that gives him an opportunity to change his experience /perception right now, this very moment. This is liberation, a start point of his new transformation.

Two dynamics: What is the definition of living in the present moment? There are two distinct features to the present moment experience. The time perception & space perception take a new meaning. In other words, you will get lost in time & space dimensions while you live in the present moment awareness. For example, when you read an interesting book, you would have noticed hours fly in minutes. Such is the change in the time perception when you are into this present moment integration. Similarly, when you experience a beautiful sunset and when you are completely into this integration of this tranquil scene unfolds in front of you that dent you with a different perception of the space.

So the key for you to experience your life to the fullest is to understand the above reality & the two dynamics and learn the art of living in the present moment continually or at least, very often as achievable.

“You will get lost in the space & time dimensions in your present moment experience”

Life purpose & Living process

We have an opportunity to live in two different spheres. Eventually, whatever the energy & time that spent in your life on daily basis go to either one of these spheres. It is important to become mindful of these spheres and see how one diverts his energy towards these spheres.

Two Spheres:  The two spheres are the “Life purpose” sphere & the “Living process” sphere. Your existence in this world is not simply an accident. There is a well-defined reason of your existence. In other words, you are here for a reason. This reason becomes your life purpose. If you spend your energy for this reason then you are directing your energy into the life purpose sphere.

Also, every one of us spend energy in our regular responsibilities such as our professional & career development, children education, marriage, wealth management etc. These are the living means. More and more energy spent in enhancing these resources direct our energy to the living process sphere.

The key here is to clearly identify how you spend your energy in diverting your energy to these spheres on a day today basis. If your life energy is utilised for your life purpose then you will see a clear trend in your life. On the other hand, if your life energy is completely engulfed in the living process then you will see distress in life in certain period of your lifespan.

Misinterpret: Where you focus on & that gets magnified. Say, for example if you emphasis on your child education then the details associated with your child education get magnified. When one starts to spend more of his focus on the living process, all of the details relevant to that get magnified to an extend where one lose the sight of the life. In other words, the living process takes such a bigger shape that it overshadows the visibility of the life. So, we end up spending energy in the living process on a daily basis and we start to falsely assume that sum of all these living processes as Life. So, many miss their life in their living process because of this false assumption.

Delink: So, make a clear distinction between these two spheres & delink the overlapping of these two spheres by doing a simple exercise of auditing your daily activities. If you spend your entire day in uplifting your child education, taking care of their welfare, upgrading your house, managing your wealth, improving your job opportunity etc. without knowing the reason & purpose of your existence then you are into this false assumption.

So, delink this association Life= Living process & direct more of your life force towards the life purpose. By doing so, your life gets SIMPLIFIED!!

Summary:

Life purpose: You exist in this world for a reason. That reason becomes your life purpose.

Living Process: Your regular responsibilities such as your professional development, marriage, children, wealth management etc.

Simple strategy: Many miss their life in the living process because they falsely assume. Life =Living process. Delink this association.

LIFE GETS SIMPLIFIED WHEN YOU DISTINGUISH CLEARLY YOUR LIFE PURPOSE & THE LIVING PROCESS AND DIRECTING YOUR LIFE ENERGY MORE TOWARDS THE LIFE PURPOS

Art of Listening to the body

If you are into the endurance sports such as marathon running then you must be well aware of the level of injuries that the beginners agonize. It is a overwhelming 65% injury rate for the novices. The early enthusiasm that one has in developing the endurance skill diminishes at the later stage due to the injury factor. One of the main reasons for the cause of injury is the inability to focus and listen to the warning signals that spring out from the body. Yes, body has an inbuilt intelligence that breeds warning signals when one surpasses his own resource capabilities.

Mechanism: So, it is a common recommendation in this arena to “listen to the body”. What exactly does it mean listening to the body? For example, you are trying to run much faster than what your limits are. Your breathing is the one that distresses first. You may start to breathe faster. Since, you consume lot of energy in the faster running; your body naturally calls for more of oxygen to burn. As a consequence, Lactic acid forms in the body when there is depletion of oxygen. This lactic acid induces fatigue & hence, the brain generates pain signal in order for you to stop or slow down the running process.

When the distress occurs, the signals can be picked up at various levels such as breathing sensation, faster heart beat sensation, pain signals, heat sensations etc. These are the combinations of signals varying from the subtle to the gross sensations. Some of us feel the signals at the subtle level whereas others feel at the gross level. Some even ignores the signals.

This process is not only transpires during the process of running but it is always there and can be witnessed for every normal happenings such as walking, sitting & sleeping.

Levels: Ignoring the warning signals is the worst thing and one can cause harm to himself. Pain, heaviness, warmness are gross sensations. One should able to acknowledge & honour these gross sensations. Throbbing, tickling, pulsating feelings are the subtle sensations. These are the finer signals that keep you in close proximity to yourself.

Power: Do increase the level of awareness & stay closer to you by tuning into the subtle sensations. By doing so, you will have the power to tap the whole gamut of the involuntary systems such as your respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous system etc. It is magical. It is the body intelligence that runs in an autopilot mode for which we have no control. Now , you get this power.This power changes the way you perceive your internal world. Obviously because of this same power, you start to experience your external world very differently.

Techniques: There are multiple levels of techniques defined in the yoga culture that gives you an opportunity to tap this power. The art of listening to the body gets enhanced by the practice of these techniques mindfully.

Summary: Pain, heaviness, warmness are gross sensations. Throbbing, tickling, pulsating feelings are the subtle sensations. Art of listening is simply tuning to the subtle sensations in the body by which you will gain access to your involuntary system (autopilot mode). Simple strategy: The art of listening to the body gets enhanced by the practice of yoga mindfully.

"LISTEN TO YOUR BODY FIRST IN ORDER FOR THE BODY TO LISTEN TO YOU”