Personal satisfaction and joy are inside you. You alone may choose happiness, sadness, or despair. True serenity comes from harmonizing body and mind, exploring spiritual places, and being present.
Our need for a mental peace grows as the world grows faster and our minds work tirelessly to catch up. Many do yoga to escape the daily grind. Unfortunately many people think yoga is mostly a workout to stay fit.
Yoga is more than a workout. Yoga is a prayer and philosophy. Yoga strengthens energy centers and the psyche.
You can find lasting fulfillment by doing yoga the right way.
many hyper-successful individuals are unhappy, but have you thought why ?
The short explanation is that sacrificing yourself for work only works temporarily. It doesn’t deliver enduring fulfillment.
A chicken told a bull, “my wings are so weak I’ll never reach the top of this tree and take in the view.” The bull advised the chicken to consume a little waste daily. It would strengthen and allow the chicken to reach the top branches.
The chicken followed the bull’s advice and succeeded. After strengthening, the bird could fly and perch on the treetop. One day a farmer was passing by. After seeing the enormous, juicy chicken on the branch, he shot and prepared it for dinner.
Bullshit only gets you so far with people.
Notice how you experience the world inside yourself to obtain fulfillment. This is important because individuals prefer to focus on the outside world, believing it contains all their experiences and feelings, positive and negative.
But this is delusion.
You can shape your life
You can shape your life since perceptions and emotions are self-generated.
Have you noticed that you sometimes love hugs and sometimes hate them? Many individuals share this contradiction, which reveals much about human existence.
It indicates that human perceptions, sentiments, and emotions are self-generated. It’s not simply books, food, and homes you sense inside. The same goes for your emotions.
When yelled at, you may react with dread or rage. Your body produces such responses instinctively, but you may regulate them.
Humans may customize their lives this way. Despite the fact that many individuals rely on drink or drugs to feel happy, Israeli scientist Raphael Mechoulam has revealed that humans may spontaneously generate their own “bliss molecule.” Anandamide activates the neurological system like marijuana.
If the body releases this chemical, it gives perfect pleasure without negative effects. Simply exercising or working smoothly triggers its creation.
But yogis may go beyond. By controlling their bodies very well, they can manufacture anandamide via attention and willpower.
You may choose to react deliberately to life situations, unlike most individuals.
A bitter divorce makes people obsess. Many of us relive terrible events in our brains for months or years.
You may often envision a cheating companion. Due to our inclination to replay painful memories in our brains, some individuals thoroughly connect with them and cannot trust a new relationship.
However, there is a more deliberate method to handle past and current life situations. It requires thorough reflection and learning from these experiences. Such an attitude lets you develop from hardship.
Take the author. A lady he knew was a youngster in Austria during WWII. Nazi troops raided her family’s house, removed her and her brother from their parents, and transported them to the train station.
When they boarded the train, she saw her brother had lost his shoes while playing with other boys.
She called her brother stupid. They split immediately, and the girl never saw her brother again. She subsequently learned he perished in a detention camp.
She chose to learn from her sadness and fury rather than let it kill her. When given the chance, she avoided speaking anything she could regret. She realized each discussion may be her last with a person.
This choice changed her viewpoint. It led to a better existence. Many individuals spend their lives holding grudges and remembering embarrassing situations, but it doesn’t help. By recognizing your responses, you may break this pattern.
Responsible people are more free, contrary to common assumption.
Responsibility probably doesn’t mean purchasing a little bus, traveling the globe, and abandoning your family.
It may seem counterintuitive, yet responsibility provides you freedom. Responsibility is taking a step back, considering your alternatives, and choosing the best course of action.
Think about that imaginary round-the-world trip. If you carefully considered your alternatives, you would find you had various possibilities. You might depart alone or with your family. Just acknowledging and actively considering your options increases responsibility, not decreases it.
Thus, accountability is not what you imagined. It’s not necessary to act. Responsibility allows you to act, but you decide.
People are overwhelmed by the number of conflicts and famines in the news. As responsible citizens, they feel obligated to act. Responding deliberately to everything is feasible, but solving every situation is impossible.
Imagine learning about a storm abroad. Assessing your ability to contribute is responsible. Do you have the money, skills, motivation, or flexibility to leave your daily tasks without disappointing others? It’s better to intentionally react if you can’t help than to ignore it.
Body, mind, emotion, and energy must align for enlightenment.
You surely know that success requires teamwork. Similar things happen inside an organism. Your body must work together to operate effectively.
Thus, enlightenment requires close coordination between your body, mind, emotions, and energy. Another Indian tale brilliantly demonstrates this idea.
Walking in the wilderness were four yogis. The first believed in physical yoga, the second in mental yoga, the third in prayer yoga, and the fourth in chakra yoga. Each thought his way was best.
All the yogis hid in an old temple when it started raining. This roof on pillars had a god in its center and no walls. Yogis surrounded the god and embraced it as the storm increased and rain battered into the shrine.
God appeared to them then. But they were confused. Why did God arrive now after their lifetime of praying and serving him? God chuckled and said it was because the four had united.
Enlightenment requires unification of body, mind, emotions, and energy, which yoga helps attain.
Yoga says that if the body is balanced but the mind seeks food or sex, the body will quickly fall out of equilibrium. The same goes for energy and emotions. To attain balance, meditate, perform physical yoga, pray, and conduct energy center exercises.
Powerful forces surround the human body and the planet and cosmos.
People regard the world as unclean, therefore we must maintain everything clean and sterile. What about our bodies? Are they filthy?
Indeed, the human body is part of the cosmos and earth. The nourishment we ate as embryos in the womb makes it. This meal is earth-like since it originates from and returns to it.
Our bodies are part of the planet and closely related to it. Whatever happens to Earth or the environment affects us.
This leads us to comprehend that the planet and all humanity are part of the universe. Thus, cosmic phenomena like star, sun, and moon movements impact humans.
The body can sense the cosmos and earth. When in India, the author encountered Chikkegowda. Since he was half deaf, nobody would employ him, so he worked on the author’s farm.
Chikkegowda plowed the fields early one morning. When asked why, he said it will rain that day. Indeed, it poured.
We can educate our bodies to feel meteorological changes, which may seem ridiculous, yet rural inhabitants know it.
Our intelligence limits our life experiences.
Most people now believe in science, yet it has human limits. Our knowledge might sometimes keep us from enjoying life.
A Greek myth excellently shows this.
The philosopher Aristotle walked on the seashore. The sunset was lovely, but Aristotle was too preoccupied to observe. He suddenly observed a guy digging a hole in the sand with a little spoon. The guy stated he was excavating a hole to drain the ocean when Aristotle questioned.
Naturally, Aristotle chuckled and remarked, “how will you fit the entire ocean into this little hole?”
Heraclitus, the philosopher, said, “You mock me for attempting to put the ocean in this little hole, but you’re big-headed enough to think you can fit all the universe’s mysteries in your brain, which is likewise small. Which of us is crazier?
To live, we must first realize our insignificance in the cosmos. Additionally, we must realize that whatever thinking we have is insignificant.
Intelligence may make us think we can understand life, which is dangerous. Unfortunately, we cannot.
When we think, we miss the huge universe, the planets in space, and the complicated and delicate balance of the cosmos, which appears to work by magic! Only by letting go of our mind and realizing that truth is bigger than us can we completely experience life.
Visit spiritually charged places to start a spiritual journey.
Many think spirituality is surreal and high. Even serious spirituality seekers worry where to start.
Travel is good starting point. There are spiritual energy centers on Earth.
Years of frustration over people’s disregard for their wisdom plagued yogis and mystics. They transferred their spiritual wisdom and energy onto distant but accessible sites like high mountain peaks before departing earth out of frustration.
Most Eastern cultures revere Mount Kailash in Tibet, which has a large spiritual library. Hindus and Buddhists believe it the gods’ dwelling.
Also sacred is Kedarnath, a modest Himalayan shrine. This temple honors Shiva.
Thus, visiting spots with mystical energy might help you heal and discover enlightenment. Imagine discovering the world’s knowledge and vitality.
The author visited Mount Kailash in 2007 for that reason. Doctors struggled to identify his ailment, which seemed to be malaria, typhoid, and cancer, for years.
After landing at Kailash, the author connected with the mountain’s vitality. Very quickly, he healed. He looked younger within hours of coming as energy returned to his physique.
This is the path to spirituality for many seekers. You only need a sacred spot and a guru to help you spiritually.
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