Tag: Meditation

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Daily Inspire – 3 Steps to Discover the Purpose of Your Life

Determining what our purpose is in life can be one of the hardest questions that we as humans must try to answer. In this article we will be going through a step-by-step process, exploring your feelings and options, and by the end, you should have a fairly solid tool you can immediately employ in your life to help give it a meaningful direction!
There are three steps to the process of discovering the purpose of your life:

  1. Understanding the principle of choice
  2. Creating your “underlying principle”
  3. Aligning your life with this underlying principle

Understanding The Principle of Choice
Norman Vincent Peale has this to say about the power of choice. “The greatest power we have is the power of choice. It is an actual fact, that if you have been groping under unhappiness, you can choose to be joyous, instead. And, by effort, lift yourself into joy. If you tend to be fearful, you can overcome that misery by choosing to have courage. The whole trend and the quality of anyone’s life is determined by the choices that are made”.
“Choosing” is the most important activity of your mind, because by making a choice, you are proclaiming your desires to your subconscious mind. Once the subconscious mind gets to know your desires, it is going to do anything to manifest them in your life. The choices you make in your life become your goal. And, if you are sincere in pursuing them, there is no reason why you should not accomplish them.

Indecision, on the other hand, not only creates frustration and anxiety, but can also confuse the subconscious mind about what you want. But it is important that the choices you make are made by you, in accordance with your true desires, purposes and aptitude. A lot of us let others make choices for us, or make our choices according to what we think is ‘correct’, even if that means that we go against our wishes. What is right for someone else may not be right for you, and the way to know this is listening to what your heart says.
So, to begin with, make a list of things which interest you; things which you have always enjoyed, which make you feel better, which inspire you to surge ahead, no matter what obstacles you face. Do you like doing something creative, or something artistic? Do you enjoy nature? Do you like the sea? Do you enjoy helping others? Do you get pleasure out of making a difference in other people’s life?
Whatever it is that interests you, write it down and answer these questions:
What thing do you love to do?
What is it that you love about this thing and why?
How could you do this for money, and make a living out of it?


Creating Your Underlying Principle
The next step is to examine the list you just made. Whatever it is, try to identify the central theme of the things you love to do, and try to put it in a short and precise statement. This will be your ‘Mission Statement’. It may even be a quote by a famous person, or a philosophy that has influenced you. Of course, as you grow up, this statement could evolve, but its soul will remain the same. Now, write down your Mission Statement.

Aligning Your LIFE With Your Underlying Principle

The final step in this Journey is to Map your Path to your ultimate purpose and to begin
implementing changes that help to align your daily life with your underlying purpose. By
making these little changes in your lifestyle, you will start to be able to begin living this principle out each and every day. It might take a few days, but by becoming aware and intentional of this underlying principle of your life, you will certainly start to feel the difference in your enthusiasm for life as a whole. If you realize that you love being amidst nature, plan out your holiday. Maybe an outing with your children could be enough to recoup with your energy. If you discover that you enjoy helping those in need, start to look for opportunities to volunteer in your community. On the other hand, you might even want to change your job, or start a new business that is
more in line with your mission.

So there you have it! By following along with the steps outlined above, you will be on your way to finding and living out your purpose.

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Your Daily Buddha

Yoga is much more than the physical movement of our bodies on the yoga mats. Yoga also offers us insights into our motivations, our desires and the ways in which we think and feel about ourselves. We can broaden our experience of yoga by exploring yoga philosophy and mythology. This approach is called Jnana (NYAH-nah) Yoga. The Sanskrit word jnana means wisdom and jnana yoga means the yoga of wisdom. In our lives as yoga practitioners, we can cultivate an intelligence of both our bodies and our minds. Wisdom can be found in every corner, whether we are moving on our mats, practicing meditation on a cushion or reading ancient texts. Yoga is wisdom.

from…Yoga 365 – Daily Wisdom for Life on and off the Mat

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Sunday’s Sutra

Buddha Hand Statue

Tonight I will be focusing on Sutra No. 5 from book one (which is the portion on contemplation) from The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. They are a collection of 196 Sanskrit sutras (aphorisms) on the theory and practice of yoga. The Yoga Sutras were compiled sometime between 500 BCE and 400 CE by the sage Patanjali in India who synthesized and organized knowledge about yoga from much older traditions.

Best translated to English it read...”There are five kinds of mental modification that are either painful or painless.”

Some thoughts bring us pain. Others do not. A good way to look at them as either being selfish or selfless thoughts. And if you’re thinking….I thought the whole point of the Sutras was to quiet the mind, remember this is number 5 out of 196. And while we try, this is the beginning and it takes time. So in book one, we’re learning and becoming an analyst of our mind….silently watching. This is part of the process. Books two, three and four will deal with Practice, Accomplishment and Absoluteness, respectively). So for know we simply acknowledge our thoughts and training us to have selfless thoughts.

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The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

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When Science Meets Mindfulness

Intriguing article from the Harvard Gazzette

Researchers study how it seems to change the brain in depressed patients

BY Alvin PowellHarvard Staff Writer

DATEApril 9, 2018SHARE 

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First of two parts

In 2015, 16.1 million Americans reported experiencing major depression during the previous year, often struggling to function while grappling with crippling darkness and despair.

There’s an arsenal of treatments at hand, including talk therapy and antidepressant medications, but what’s depressing in itself is that they don’t work for every patient.

“Many people don’t respond to the frontline interventions,” said Benjamin Shapero, an instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Depression Clinical and Research Program. “Individual cognitive behavioral therapy is helpful for many people; antidepressant medications help many people. But it’s also the case that many people don’t benefit from them as well. There’s a great need for alternative approaches.”

Shapero is working with Gaëlle Desbordes, an instructor in radiology at HMS and a neuroscientist at MGH’s Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, to explore one alternative approach: mindfulness-based meditation.

In recent decades, public interest in mindfulness meditation has soared. Paralleling, and perhaps feeding, the growing popular acceptance has been rising scientific attention. The number of randomized controlled trials — the gold standard for clinical study — involving mindfulness has jumped from one in the period from 1995‒1997 to 11 from 2004‒2006, to a whopping 216 from 2013‒2015, according to a recent article summarizing scientific findings on the subject.

Studies have shown benefits against an array of conditions both physical and mental, including irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. But some of those findings have been called into question because studies had small sample sizes or problematic experimental designs. Still, there are a handful of key areas — including depression, chronic pain, and anxiety — in which well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments.

“There are a few applications where the evidence is believable. But the effects are by no means earth-shattering,” Desbordes said. “We’re talking about moderate effect size, on par with other treatments, not better.

Continued….

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/

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Daily Buddha

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Take some time each morning to ground yourself and reminds yourself of the direction in which you wish to go. I simple journal can be helpful. You can also use that same journal when you go to bed to reflect on the day.



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Daily Buddha

Yoga is much more than the physical movement of our bodies on the yoga mats. Yoga also offers us insights into our motivations, our desires and the ways in which we think and feel about ourselves. We can broaden our experience of yoga by exploring yoga philosophy and mythology. This approach is called Jnana (NYAH-nah) Yoga. The Sanskrit word jnana means wisdom and jnana yoga means the yoga of wisdom. In our lives as yoga practitioners, we can cultivate an intelligence of both our bodies and our minds. Wisdom can be found in every corner, whether we are moving on our mats, practicing meditation on a cushion or reading ancient texts. Yoga is wisdom.

from…Yoga 365 – Daily Wisdom for Life on and off the Mat

1452145008

Yoga 365

1585423246

365 Yoga

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Daily Buddha – Deep Dive into Tree Pose

The name comes from the Sanskrit words vṛkṣa (वृक्ष) meaning “tree”, and āsana (आसन) meaning “posture”.

History of Tree Pose

A 7th-century stone carving in Mahabalipuram appears to contain a figure standing on one leg, perhaps indicating that a pose similar to vrikshasana was in use at that time. It is said that sadhus disciplined themselves by choosing to meditate in the pose.

The pose is described in the 17th century Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā.

Description of Tree Pose

From Tadasana, weight is shifted to one leg, for example, starting with the left leg. The entire sole of the foot remains in contact with the floor. The right knee is bent and the right foot placed on the left inner thigh, or in half lotus position. In either foot placement, the hips should be open, with the bent knee pointing towards the side. With the toes of the right foot pointing directly down, the left foot, center of the pelvis, shoulders and head are all vertically aligned. Hands are typically held above the head either pointed directly upwards and unclasped, or clasped together in anjali mudra. The asana is typically held for 20 to 60 seconds, returning to tadasana while exhaling, then repeating standing on the opposite leg.

Benefits of Tree Pose (Vrikshasana)

  • Improves balance and stability in the legs.
  • Strengthens the ligaments and tendon of the feet.
  • Strengthens and tones the entire standing leg, up to the buttocks.
  • Assists the body in establishing pelvic stability.
  • Strengthen the bones of the hips and legs due to the weight-bearing nature of the pose.
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