Practical Benefits of Meditation
The practical application and benefits of meditation show up in our interpersonal relationships. As our inner peace and positivity are restored by regular practice, we find it easier to resolve conflict, remain open, communicate honestly with others and ultimately be of help to others through the quality of the company we are able to give. There are also many physical benefits, which can result from the sustained practice of meditation. Meditation has a deeply relaxing and calming effect on the nervous system, balancing physical energies, allowing the body to function more effectively while improving its ability to heal itself. This can result in reduced blood pressure, an increase in vitality, better sleep patterns and greater pain control.
Peaceful Listening
To be a peaceful listener:1. Be peaceful within, calming the mind in order to listen deeply.2. Listen with your heart by keeping an open posture, a receptive and calm expression, and a kind, non-judgmental attitude. 3. Listen with your full attention.4. Only if the person finds it difficult to speak, be curious, encouraging them by making gentle, open-ended enquiries.5. Be aware that interruptions (making comments, noises or facial expressions) are not necessary; sometimes they can influence or detract the person from expressing their feelings or telling their story in their own way.
The Impact Of Being Positive At Work
Being positive does bring individual gains and this in itself can create or facilitate change. Any individual change will have a positive impact on others around us in the workplace, including clients, colleagues and the broader organization. Examples of some specific benefits of positivity at the workplace are: 1. Health and effectiveness at work – having more energy, better workload management.2. Relationships with clients and subordinates – able to listen more receptively and provide a sense of hope to them.3. Relationships with colleagues – more open to collaborating on problem solving.
શુ શિક્ષણ એ યાદ શક્તિની કસોટી છે. ? ? ? ?
શિક્ષણ વિશેનો આપણો સામાન્ય ખ્યાલ એવો છે કે વષૅને અંતે જે પરીક્ષા લેવાય છે એમાં પાસ થવા માટે બાળક ભણે છે.બાળક જે કંઈ ભણે છે એ તેણે યાદ રાખવાનું છે અને યાદ રાખી પરીક્ષામાં લખી શકાય એ માટે બાળક ભણે છે. ટૂંકમાં આપણે માનીએ છીએ કે ભણતર પરીક્ષા માટે છે અને પરીક્ષા એ યાદશક્તિની ગોખવાની શક્તિની ક્સોટી છે.આ માન્યતા આપણા સૌ વાલીઓના મગજમાં એટલે ઊંડે સુધી ઘર કરી ગઈ છે કે બાળકની અભ્યાસસંબંધિત પ્રવૃતિને નામે આપણને માત્ર પરીક્ષા અને યાદશક્તિ આ બે જ શબ્દો યાદ આવે! બાળક અભ્યાસમાં નબળું હોય તો 'તેની યાદશક્તિ નબળી છે' એવું લેબલ બાળકને લગાવી દેવામાં આવે છે. બાળકના અભ્યાસને યાદશક્તિની સમસ્યા તરીકે ખપાવી દેવામાં આવે છે. અભ્યાસમાં નબળાં બાળકોને ખરેખર યાદશક્તિની સમસ્યા હોય છે ખરી ????મોટા ભાગનાં બાળકોની યાદશક્તિ તેમનાં માં બાપ કરતા ધણી તીવ્ર અને સચોટ હોય છે. અભ્યાસમાં નબળાં કહેવાતાં બાળકો પિકચરનાં આખાં આખાં ગીતો શબ્દશ: યાદ રાખી શકે છે. ફિલ્મો અને સિરિયલની સ્ટોરી તેમને બરાબર યાદ રહે છે. ક્રિકેટમેચના સ્કોર તે ઝીણવટભરી રીતે યાદ રાખે છે.ફિલ્મનાં ગીતો યાદ રાખનાર બાળક કવિતા મુખપાઠ કરી નથી શક્તું. ફિલ્મની આખેઆખી સ્ટોરી યાદ રાખનાર બાળક નિબંધ કે સમાજવિધાની ટૂંકનોધ યાદ રાખી નથી શકતુ. જે બાળક વન-ડે મેચની છેલ્લી ઓવરોમાં કેટલા રનરેટથી રન કરવાના છે એ તરત ગણી કાઢે છે એજ બાળક ગણિતનો દાખલો ગણી નથી શક્તુ. અહીં સવાલ યાદશક્તિનો નથી, સવાલ રસ પડવા વિશેનો છે, મજા આવવા વિશેનો છે. બાળકને ફિલ્મો અને મેચોમાં જેટલી મજા આવે છે એટલી મજા ગુજરાતી કે ગણિતમાં નથી આવતી. મજા આવતી હોવાથી બાળક એકાગ્રતાથી ટીવી જોઈ શકે છે. મજા ન આવતી હોવાથી બાળક એકાગ્રતાથી ભણી નથી શકતુ. આ એક જ વાકયમાં મોટા ભાગનાં બાળકોની શિક્ષણવિષયક સમસ્યાનો ઉકેલ છુપાયેલો છે.'અભ્યાસમાં પણ મજા આવી શકે' એવો અનુભવ બાળકને પ્રથમ વાર મા-બાપ કે શિક્ષક જ કરાવી શકે. બાળકને આવો અનુભવ કરાવવામાં મોટા ભાગનાં મા-બાપ અને શિક્ષકો કરુણ રીતે નિષ્ફળ જાય છે, છતાં બાળકની નિષ્ફળતાનો ટોપલો કોઈ પોતાને માથે નથી લેતું????'અભ્યાસ' અને 'મજા' એ પરસ્પર વિરોધી શબ્દો છે એવો ભાવ બાળકના મગજમાં ઉત્પન્ન કરવામાં મા-બાપ સૌથી મોટો ભાગ ભજવે છે. બાળક બાળપણનો સાહજિક આનંદ લેતું હોય, રમતું હોય, મોજમસ્તી કરતું હોય ત્યારે સતત અભ્યાસ માટે તેને ટોકી-ટોકીને તેના મનમાં ભણતર વિશેનો નકારાત્મક અભિગમ ઉત્પન્ન કરવામાં આવે છે.
Meditation
Instead of adopting this obvious bodily identification, identify yourself as a soul, a subtle star without any physical form and dimensions, a point source of light energy and consciousness. Whatever you do or say, it is you, the soul, who is performing that action through the body. The soul is like a driver and the body is the car. To be in complete control, the driver has to sit in the place where he has access to the controls and also can collect all the necessary information to make decisions. The soul is located in the centre of the forehead in the vicinity of the brain.The soul has innate, peaceful, positive qualities. In meditation create an awareness of yourself as a soul. This naturally leads to an experience of these peaceful, positive qualities. This is what is called 'soul-consciousness'. It is not just something to experience while in meditation alone, but also as we perform actions.
Stress Ballooning
This exercise is designed to help you free yourself from habitual stress responses and to programme new responses to the situations that trigger your stress. You can perform this exercise in your imagination also.1. What do you think are the triggers of your stress – work, a relationship, a change in domestic circumstances, worries about ageing, etc.2. Think about the most powerful stressor. Remember your usual stressful response and imagine you are blowing it into a balloon. 3. Now take a large pin and burst the balloon. In the explosion, the old response has gone.4. Take a second balloon and blow it up. Imagine positive energy filling it breath by breath. Write your new response (action or thought pattern) on the balloon's surface. 5. Now tap the balloon gently into the air and keep it afloat a while as you fully absorb its message. Next time you face the situation, recall this balloon and the positive message you put on its surface.
Temper Tantrums
Habits go deep. It's been estimated that eighty percent of our lives are lived by habit. That means somewhere in the past we learned to become easily upset or angry. Probably a parental influence, perhaps some friends at school. Just as we may have enjoyed building with our Lego set as a child, or placing pieces into our jigsaw, we built a place for short temper into our temperament. From there it grew into one of our prized habits. If so, now is the time to dismantle, break apart and rebuild our temperament or our personality. It's much easier than we think and does not require specialist help. It requires only our interest, some understanding and the intention to change how we respond to the world around us. Never believe anyone who says, "I can't change... I've been always been like this.... this is the personality I was born with." We didn't inherit our current personality, we grew it.
Open Spaces of Silence
One of the aims of meditation is not to stop your thoughts but to slow them down so that you may find and enter the silence between and behind your thinking. This is a little challenging at first but the more you practice the easier it becomes. Think of your thoughts as trains, just as in the saying we sometimes use, 'train of thought'. Each thought is a carriage and in between the thoughts/carriages is a small gap, a space. The train can arrive at varying speeds. Our aim is to slow the train down and become aware of the space between the carriages, in other words between your thoughts. You may even be able to expand that space so that there is the experience of no thought. In this moment you reconnect with the silence that exists always between and behind your thoughts. Don't try to hold it or grasp it, or you will lose it.
Remaining Relaxed During An Interview
A state of relaxed alertness will yield optimum results in an interview or an important meeting. To relax, you need to defuse all sense of confrontation, instead see the meeting as a friendly fact finding exchange and an opportunity to talk quietly of your achievements. 1. Think of your interviewer as someone with whom, very soon, you might find that you have a great deal in common – perhaps not a friend, but someone you enjoy talking to.2. If the questions become difficult, think of the Supreme Being in the form of a person who is spectrally in the room (visualization) – perhaps standing behind the interviewer. Imagine him as a friend urging you on, applauding your handling of the situation, willing you to succeed. 3. If the interviewer seems unfriendly, say to yourself: it is because he or she has difficulty with the situation. Respond calmly and pleasantly.
Anger Management
Creating Your Inner Peace Room (Visualization)To overcome anger, visualize a house and in that house there is a 'peace room'. See the room as an empty space. Then, step by step decorate and finish the room with the colours and objects, which symbolize peace to you. See the sun streaming into the room, filling the room with light. Then see yourself sitting in the room and filling the room with your vibrations of peace. This is now your 'inner peace room'. Whenever you see yourself succumbing to emotions like anger, irritation, frustration etc. - you can go visit this room using the power of your mind and intellect (visualization) - it takes only a second - and peace awaits you. To keep it fresh in your mind write a description of your peace room.
The Rules of Attraction
If we are alert to opportunities that will satisfy our most serious vision in life, it is surprising how often these opportunities will tend to present themselves in front of us. These are the rules of attraction - the most mysterious ways by which your need and its fulfillment are drawn together. Create your vision. Identify your goals, objectives and tasks.Make yourself a magnet. This means having faith that you will encounter the relevant opportunities and recognize the signs they are giving you - which may not be direct. Look out for such signs with patience, and act on them when they come. In order to fulfill our vision, we must not become too "attached" to our targets. This is not a sign of weak-mindedness or a lack of commitment: rather it is a sign of wisdom. By "letting go" of our goals or objectives, we become more relaxed in our attitude toward them. The journey is no longer burdensome and stressful, because we don't have to strive, life's circumstances will present us with the right opportunities.
The Five Powers of a Focused Mind
The power of perception allows us to see into things and truly understand them, with neither complication nor confusion. The power of mindfulness, by which we absorb ourselves into any action or thought without distraction or complication, further energizes us by allowing the power of our mind to become concentrated, freeing us from frustration, stress and anger. The power of injection can permit us to energize others with our own positivity. As we help them to feel positive, good energy bounces back towards us to perpetuate (maintain) the positive cycle.The power of choice requires us to distinguish right from wrong, good from bad. Having done so, we can select our option, and at every moment choose to be positive.The power of inner energy can spur us on to new things, encourage us to change where we feel uncomfortable with ourselves and help us to enjoy life to the extreme.
Innate Values and Acquired Values
When we look at ourselves from outside we can only see the surface of what we have become. We can't see or perhaps cannot even imagine the inner core, which, like in the example of the coconut, is the only part that really can sustain and nourish us. The shell serves as a protection but we certainly can't consume (eat) it. The core consists of inner or innate qualities (IQ's) such as peace, love, power, truth, happiness and so on. The shell is the ego which consists of aspects we have acquired through the course of our lives such as experiences, abilities, memories, learning, habits and beliefs – in short, all that is implicit (implied) when we say: 'I am so-and-so, from such-and-such an organization'. While we are limited to these acquired aspects, our true qualities remain inaccessible. Through deep reflection and meditation we can break the shell and activate our inner qualities from which our values are born.
Stress Management
Often when faced with stress at work or at home, we can feel quite drained. Indeed, we may have noticed how certain individuals or particular situations are draining. We feel as if all our energy has been drawn out of us and it leaves us tired and exhausted. Although this sort of energy cannot be measured in the scientific sense, we can use the power of imagery to stop us feeling drained. E.g. we can visualize that we are encased in a sphere of golden light, so any negative feelings or energies cannot affect us. In a detached way, we can view what is happening and can act appropriately, but we are not touched by the stress. This method of using your power of visualization to create protective shields can be used in stressful situations e.g. before or during an important meeting.
Erasing the Details
The following visualization is designed to progressively free your awareness from everything that is not the essential self. It is not the intention to escape or avoid ourselves but an opportunity to be free of everything to which we surrender our awareness and our attention. The paradox within the exercise is simple, when you discriminate and detach from everything outside yourself you do not lose the world, it will always be there, but you regain yourself, which was also always there, but was lost in the world! Sit comfortably...Visualize an eraser in your hand...Take the eraser and imagine yourself rubbing out the desk in your office...Then rub out the building, which holds your office...Erase your car... Then the surrounding streets and homes...Then be aware of everything outside your own home...rub it out...Then inside .. your bedroom, the kitchen, the lounge...Erase them all one by one...Until you are sitting in your chair floating in space... Now rub out the chair...Then look down and rub out your entire physical body and facial features...There is now nothing left...except you, a sparkling being of conscient energy...floating in empty spaceIt's not that you are no longer...As you float there you are very aware of yourself, very focused on yourself, powerful, serene and quite content... ...just to be...
Letting Go Of The Past
The influence of the past on our personality, hopes and fears is complex, and difficult to trace. The past is by definition a collection of memories. It is also the journey on which we have picked up our life-skills; accordingly we tend to believe that it will sustain and protect us. There are certainly great benefits in learning from our past mistakes. But excessive attachment to the past can threaten present fulfillment. Many of us are preoccupied with avoiding past disaster, even to the extent that we forget how to enjoy the present or how to hope for the future. e.g. If we have been badly hurt by someone in the past, we may allow this to damage our self-esteem. We become worried that the sorrow will recur, and project this negative consciousness into our current relationship, where it is reflected back at us. The relationship fails, which strengthens our belief in the past, and heightens negative feelings about the future.
To be detached yet loving is to be mature. The lotus flower is both detached and loving. It is untouched by the dirt it is surrounded with and is beautiful and loving at the same time. In the same way, whatever the situations or the people around us, maturity enables us to be untouched by their negativity. Then we will become the one who is loving too under all circumstances. When we are faced with a negative situation, instead of blaming the situation, maturity lies in working at our own inner strength. The problem could have been created by someone else, but we have to make effort in bringing about the solution. Then we will be able to make things better without having negative feelings towards anyone.
