Happy New Year

I liked an email from Nisarg Soni, which runs as follows:
Any day can be a Symbolic day to start afresh. So why not the New Year when the whole collective consciousness of the Universe works for you. When most human beings think that something nice is going to happen with them, then the collective consciousness is in rising upward direction. So all one has to do is ride this.

So here are two powerful techniques for a great year around:

1. Closing the past year: Before you open to the New Year one has to close the Past. Technically speaking the past does not exist except in the mind. But as it exists in Mind it can be playing havoc because your Future can be created with this Past. Generally events, which are negative, register more in human beings minds than the positive. So in the year gone by there may have been many incidents, which did not work in your favor. It could have been a loss in terms of money, time or effort, it can be relationship issues, it can be health, it can be loss of job, it can be loss in stock markets or the so many incidents that human beings have to face. These incidents have happened and are over but you may be still carrying the memories of pain, frustration or any other feeling in your mind. When such feelings exist you are fighting with yourself, life around and the situation. You also create a tendency unconsciously that you will keep attracting similar incidents in the Future that actually you don't want. The truth is: Whatever your inner mind keeps thinking will happen. To ensure that your Future is joyful then these memories have to be erased. Like in a black or white board, you erase what is written to write new and fresh.

This exercise is best done in the evenings or night where the energy is of "Closing". Take a notebook and review the complete year from the recent events to the past events especially those, which you have not been able to accept. It is better to take each incident separately. Keep writing your feelings of the events as it comes.
So from your mind you are getting the painful memories to the book.Please be honest with yourself. Write the feelings as it comes.Don't analyze or judge the feelings. Simply you are throwing the clutter from your mind out. As you write you might experience feelings of pain, grief, sadness etc. These are beautiful expressions so just allow it to flow out, do not control. Once you have written down the feelings of each incident, you will feel lightness as though you have got rid of a huge burden or block. It is important to remember that every incident that happens in our life is "good for us". Every incident is " Whole complete and perfect". Only one has to learn what is the incident is teaching to us. So pick up the learning to go ahead in life. For eg. You lost money in Business means that your awareness of Money and certain
aspects of Business should increase.

Once you have written down as many incidents as possible. Take the book, remove each page and meditatively burn it. Symbolically you are getting rid of such incidents from your life forever. You are disassociating with your own past thereby creating a future that can be fresh and new. As you burn each page just think that you are erasing this from your mind too. After this sit in silence for few minutes, then take a good fresh bath, and change to a new clothes.This is like saying to god or a greater power or to your own self,
Yes, Now I am now ready.

2 Opening Up to the New Year:

a) This Exercise is best done in the Mornings when the whole Energy of the Universe is Opening to the new possibilities.
b) Take a fresh bath, wear new clothes and be ready within the opening up for a bright new year ahead.
c) Sit in a clam and comfortable place that is clean and full of positive energy.
d) Light a lamp or candle symbolizing brightness and light in your life.
e) Light a good incense stick to spread the fragrance enhancing your mind.
f) You can keep a meditative music on as you do this exercise.
g) Take a small effort to create a beautiful space for doing this exercise so that you get best results all through the year.
h) Do anything like keeping gods photograph, or gurus photograph to enhance the space and your energy.
i) Be creative to create an uplifting atmosphere that is most essential.
j) We have done this exercise a number of times in our Money Workshops over these years with best surprising results. So this simple technique is fully proven and it works wonders.
k) Take a new pen or your lucky pen and a new notebook.
l) On the first page you can draw an "Om" or "Swastik" powerful symbols, which will create auspiciousness in your life.
m) Write the date 31 of December 2008, which is the end of the coming year.
n) Then write, "Thank you Universe, or Thank you God" for all beautiful events to unfold this year. It is great to "Thank" in advance thereby enforcing your faith.
o) Now you are going to write a letter to your dearest friend
or well wisher, so write Dear________ ___
p) The most important part of this exercise is to describe all your desires, events as though it has happened. Means you are writing this remember from 31st of December 2008. In the Present Moment you are choosing to create a whole new year.
q) Once you start writing just let go, do not think if it is possible not possible, keep looking at every aspect of life like material things, money flow, work or business, family and relationships, places you going to visit, sports or hobbies, new
learning, new ventures, marriage, love, children, health and whatever is meaningful to you. Just allow your desires to flow from your mind to the paper. Have powerful Intentions of looking at life from a grand perspective, getting into leading a life first class.
Think a little beyond and think Big. Keep on writing till your inner voice allows you to do it. You can take an hour, two hours or more.Get into the full joyfulness and positive feelings as though the events have taken place. Be relaxed and playful, like a child creating something beautiful.
r) Let me give a small example: As of now, you do not own yourcar but have a desire to buy one. So when you do this exercise you will write, now I have this wonderful Zen car, blue in colour (be specific) and I have toured so many wonderful places along with family and friends. Everyday I am enjoying the pleasure of going to
work in my own car……
s) Pour all your energy while writing your desires. Now you are "Opening Up" to the New Year the way you want.
t) Just keep this diary or notebook and watch through out the year whatever you wrote will happen in an amazingly perfect manner.Whenever this happens just have thankfulness and register that you created this event in your mind first and then it happened in reality.

Wishing a year full of joy, bliss, profits and a wonderful Money Flow for you and your family.

Seven principles of life

Huna Kupua is Hawaiian method of good lifestyle. The seven principles of Huna Kapua are:
1. The World Is What You Think It Is.
2. There are no limits.
3. Energy Flows Where Attention Goes.
4. Now Is The Moment Of Power.
5. To Love Is To Be Happy With (someone or something).
6. All Power Comes From Within.
7. Effectiveness Is The Measure Of Truth.

Come out of depression

Managing your mind is a difficult task especially when you are not aware of its activities. You have to periodically reassure yourself and guide your mind in certain cheerful and positive pathways so that it does not get into depressed state. Mind can callously go into depressed state as a reaction to or reflection of uneasy and unpleasant happenings around you.
Depression may be temporary of short duration that passes off unnoticed or may be nagging longer duration. Enduring depression may be your own creation as result of brooding over whatever sour thing that happened around you and deeply affected you. Prolonged depression decreases your energy level and reduces your potential to achieve optimum results.
First you have to realize that you are depressed and recognize the necessity to save yourself by coming out of it. If you simply sympathizes with your self apologetically, or silently suffer or masochistically enjoy your depression, it is more likely you would not come out it easily. You may lead yourself to further unpleasant complications.
Next step would be to change your routine style of functioning for sometimes at least so that you shall forget the images that bruises your mind and thereby get rid of depression. Change of place or environment may helpful in many cases. Or change the usual style of attending to your work or alter the timings for a few days till you invigorate yourself. Mix up with pleasant and selfless friends. Try to enjoy some harmless jokes with your friends.
Volunteer yourself for some selfless social service activities and engage in it wholeheartedly.
Try to be like an innocent child that enjoys pondering over various small and minor things. Possibly because of your own depression you have forgotten to see around yourself or totally oblivious of the beauty and charm of the nature around you. Take pleasure in observing minor aspects of nature intently and unassumingly like a small child. Bathe in the healing powers of the fresh air, the greenery, the expansiveness, the warmth and the pleasantness the nature bestows upon you.

The importance of Relaxation

Relaxation of the body and mind are the key factors that make the art of breathing a successful exercise. Unless you are really relaxed you cannot enjoy the benefit of the art of breathing or the pranayama. Any hidden stress or tension or tiredness unknowingly pull you down and you cannot achieve the optimum results during the systematized breathing or the pranayama.
Therefore it is important and mandatory that you should expel all feelings of built in stress and strain in your mind and body and get yourself into a pleasant and cheerful mood before you embark on the breathing exercises.
Under such optimum conditions only, the ‘foul air’ or the carbon dioxide accumulated in the myriad cells of your body systematically gets expelled and the rejuvenating oxygen- rich fresh air fills up its place.

Art of breathing

Breathing is a natural but essential phenomenon in animals designed to supply a fresh dose of oxygen to the body and the mind and at the same time, remove the carbon dioxide accumulated inside the body. However, it is such a simple process that in the course of our routine life, with its usual dosage of ups and downs, we often tend to take the importance of this natural process for granted.

Breathing is absolutely an art and it should not only be cultivated properly and practiced regularly but also be remembered again and again when we tend to disregard or forget it.

India has a long history of civilization and along this path there has been number of sages who analysed and codified scientific attitudes of life, long before the modern, systematic science was formulated. Pathanjali, who lived ca.3^rd century BC, is credited with showing the path and codifying the principles of Yoga and Pranayama.

Pranayama is a systematic approach to the process of breathing. The oxygen we intake with breathing in is credited with the title of praaNa, the life. Thus, it defines and explains the importance of breathing in a nutshell.

The art of breathing is divided into two parts: Uchvasa, the breathing in and Nishvasa, the breathing out. The pranayama regulates you to breathe in slowly and steadily till your lungs are filled with the fresh air. You are supposed to keep that inhaled quantity of fresh air for some comfortable duration of time. This ensures that the fresh air you sucked in is distributed to various parts of your body including the brain; and simultaneously all the stale air (carbon dioxide) is collected back to the lungs. And then, when you slowly breathe out, the accumulated carbon dioxide is released to the outer world, the atmosphere. The breathing exercise is repeated for several cycles of inhaling and exhaling.

Thus, the art of pranayama is a systematized method to regulate distribution of (oxygen rich) fresh air to various parts of the body and at the same time extricate (carbon dioxide rich) stale air out of the body. The supply of fresh air to the body and mind ensures a fresh lease of energy that invigorates your actions. Similarly, the removal of stale air from the body increases your comfort levels and soothes your reactions.The art of breathing simply changes the way you live and react to the world.

Well, there is nothing new, we all know it, you may say! Yes. It is true that we all, or at least most of us, know about the pranayama, thanks to the teachings of various Swamis and Rishis in our society from time to time.

But, the fact is that the art of breathing is such a simple unassuming natural exercise that we tend to disregard it with passage of time and preoccupation with our joys or miseries. We neglect the art leading to lack of energy, motivation or direction and above all poor status of physical and mental health.

Therefore the message is reactivate yourself if you are down in energy, proper spirits or health. Remember the ancient art of breathing and start practicing it.

And if you had taken quite a long break from the art of breathing, start with cleaning your internal system: begin with exhaling the stale air accumulated in your body and mind. Then continue with systematic breathing in and out comfortably. See the physiological and psychological changes for yourself.

Vegetarianism

It has been generally considered that the early prehistoric man was a meat eater. He learnt from carnivorous animals that meat of other animals can be consumed as food. He must have eaten raw meat in the beginning like animals. Sooner he also found that some animals also survive on grass, leaves, fruits and tubers. He must have realized that this is a more sober way of quenching the hunger than hunting and eating other animals. After he learnt the art of cooking food, as well as the agriculture, he had ample choices among meat and vegetarian food and combination of the two types.

In the last million years, the man has evolved in several directions. As far as the preference of food is concerned, I think the basic attitude of the individual mattered most. Those societies with ebullient, rash and raw habits went after the meats and those with considerate attitudes who felt humane towards other animals preferred and adopted vegetarian way of life. According to many opinions, even the Vedic communities, considered to be about 1700 BC old, were a meat eating groups by general choice.

Thus, vegetarianism is a way of life by choice, like Mahatma Gandhi’s ahimsa or nonviolence. And with hundreds of years of practice of vegetarianism we have found that it is better and safer way of living style than that of meat eaters who are generally more prone towards cholesterol related problems.

But human attitude is a peculiar thing. It can often be biased, chauvinistic or partisan. It can conveniently forget the original principle driving behind a life style.

I read an interesting article on vegetarianism today. The author cautioned vegetarians about foreign chocolates and sweet meats that may contain, obviously, very small amounts of non-vegetarian material. Cakes should be avoided, he advised because they may contain products of egg. He said that even the unfertilized farm eggs, which many people advocate as vegetarian food should be classified as non-vegetarian food. Some scientist has reported that these eggs require oxygen for growth. Since it consumes oxygen while growing, it should be treated as living animal and should be shunned by vegetarians!

At this point I stopped here, to breathe my quota of oxygen! What a great thought! The gentleman thinks that a farm egg should be classified as non-vegetarian food since it consumes oxygen for growth!

I felt shocked at his discrimination but consoled myself that he may not be aware of the fact that all plants, the basic stuff of vegetarians, are also living beings which breathe and grow like animals. He thinks that a farm egg is a living being but is ignorant that all those vegetables, fruits and potatoes also contain living and breathing cells!

But this is nothing; I consoled myself, compared to certain individuals who carry vegetarianism to the extremes. These vegetarian extremists avoid onion, garlic and some other vegetables, possibly under the pretext that they were introduced by foreigners! Probably these extremists are not aware that most of our vegetables including the ubiquitous chili are introduced by the Portuguese only five decades ago.