Practise the pause

Here's a story (for the first time on my blog :D)
Once it happened that I was watching random vedios on YouTube. I hit upon a 'painting' vedio. The painting looked quiet simple and easy to make yet very beautiful. The process of making it was very calming and therapeutic to watch. Painting always interested me as a kid, and I did paint too, then. It quiet faded away with years, later, though. This vedio evoked that long forgotten love I had for painting. As this painting was simple, I decided that it wouldn't be very difficult to make for a beginner that I was. So without thinking more, I went onto give it a try. I bought water paint, 3 brushes and a pallette! All the tools surely made me feel like a pro and I did fancy being one! I began to paint. The first stroke of paint on the paper, and what I saw is that it had turned out to be different from what the lady on the vedio had produced. Now that wasn't very promising. I was now going to give up my project. But before I could let that happen, I decided to pause. To become aware of the stream of thoughts flooding In. I figured out that I was I was afraid. I now inquired into 'fear'. I found out that I feared failure. So if I had to go ahead with the painting, only to end up with a not so satisfying result, it would be very hard to take it. So my mind, on it's autopilot mode, jumped into taking a safer decision.
We are on an autopilot mode always. Science approves that our brains are wired to react in a certain way when faced with a certain situation. Such reaction happens spontaneously, or should I say, monotonously and more unconsciously. These patterns of reaction need to be broken. That's why it is always good to pause before we react habitually, become aware, so that we become capable of responding consciously. In awareness we know why we are going where we are going. When everything is happening in our notice, everything is more in control. When we are in control of what is happening, we choose what should happen. It doesn't happen as a consequence of our unconscious patterns. This process forms part of what the yoga sutras call, chitta vritti nirodah.

I'm attaching a picture of my complete painting. It surely looks like one from an amature. But what is beautiful about it is that it is complete :D So practise the pause, your life shall feel more complete and fulfilling :)

Change

Albert Einstein said, He is a fool who does the same thing over and over again, but expects to get different results.

The third law of Newton says that, for every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. In similar lines goes another age-old saying, "As you sow, so you reap". So long as we continue to do what we have been and are doing, we shall as it's consequence, keep getting what we are getting. In this article, we shall keep aside the nuances of how the statements of the two geniuses work at the physical level, and explore it's intricate depths at psychological level and beyond.

Our thoughts guide our actions. Thus the action-reaction relationship is established. Our actions come with their consequences which we may label as pleasant or unpleasant. If the consequences remain the same over a period of time, it implies that our action has remained the same. But in many-a-instances we curse our fate for the way the same consequence is being served to us (when the consequence is unpleasant in our perspective). We fail to realize that it is our actions that are producing such consequences. This means that what happens to us depends on what we do. But the question is, can any change be brought about in our actions without working on such change at the psychological level i.e without correcting our thoughts?! A teacher demands a student to start doing his homework which he simply doesn't seem to like. There is a demand for change in action, but if it is not supported by change in the thought process of the child, such demand of the teacher would merely act as a temporary superficial imposition of orders, and would never pave way for real transformation within the child. Some of us procrastinate. We curse and criticize ourselves for doing so. We try to be harsh with ourselves and discipline ourselves into not procrastinating. A superficial change in action can be ensured, in this way. But for lasting transformations, we will need to understand the thoughts and feelings behind such procrastination.

This is the key to change: Understand your thoughts first. Why are they the way they are, is a question we must ask. Find out why it became the way it is. Then look at the thoughts objectively. 'Objectively' is THE word! And then slowly will change happen.

Happy transformation!

Concentration or awareness?

Concentration is the directing of attention to a specific object, to the exclusion of everything else. A single object becomes the only point of focus.
Awareness is a state of being conscious of everything around you, and within you. It is a process of watching everything. It includes everything.

Being informed, not opinionated!

"Perception is awareness shaped by belief. Beliefs control perception" - Bruce Lipton Ph.D., Cellular biologist

"People do no see their beliefs. Instead their beliefs tell them what they see" - Matt Kahn

Beliefs control and decide how one perceives a given situation. One's perception of the situation decides how one responds to that situation. And what one makes out of a situation depends on how he responds to it.
Our beliefs are a product of external influences, our past experiences, mental conditionings and a variety of other such forces. Most beliefs and formed unconsciously. We don't always consider the hows and whys, rationally process it,(not on the basis of our prejudices but on actual, real facts of reality) to arrive at a conclusive belief, do we? We usually jump to conclusions, many external factors could be contributing to it. Whatsoever be the nature of our beliefs, the truth lies in the fact that we still hold onto those beliefs and be led by them. (Here it must be understood that every belief we hold may not be true) When once we have held a certain belief, we look at every situation in the light of that belief. So, what we understand of that situation is an opinion, that comes as a byproduct of processing, what meets the senses, with our previously held beliefs. The reality always passes through the filters of these beliefs.
Opinions stand on a shaky base called belief. Now, the question, can we always trust our opinions? The answer surely is, no! In such a case, crying over them or otherwise, is quiet meaningless. This could also mean, half of our problems are illusory!
Before doing more talking, let's understand that we must first stop being opinionated. We don't need baseless opinions to run our lives, by any chance!
To understand how an opinion is formed is the first step to stop forming it. We must first become mindful of the stream of thoughts that run in our minds, before they stop at an ending point called an opinion. Start mindfully watching these thoughts. Simply watch. Don't judge, because to judge again is to compare and critically analyse on the basis of beliefs. Keep watching. As you watch, more and more, your beliefs will no longer come your way. You will now see the reality as it is!
A sure shot way to mindfully watching your thoughts is to start with watching your breathe. Watching is different from concentrating. (Will be discussed in the next post) Don't concentrate on the breathe, be aware/mindful of the breathe. Though, initial concentration can eventually lead to being aware.
This can help lead an informed life, not an opinionated one.

Be mindful. Be peaceful. Be the true you.

Why is Self-knowledge necessary?

"Man know thyself; then thou shalt know the universe and God" ~ Pythagorus, a mystic, mathematician, scientist

How many times have you found yourself saying, 'I don't know why I'm feeling how I'm feeling'? How often do you get disappointed all of a sudden for no specific reason that you can identify? Has it ever happened that you switched from being the happiest to being the most frustrated ever, in less than a split second, but you had no clue why?
In all of the above mentioned cases, there is one thing in common - that we do not know what is happening, how and why it is happening.
Reason? We are lost in the chatter of our cluttered minds. We are so caught up in the stories, our minds are cooking up. (Though we know that something is constantly running in our minds, we are not consciously aware of them most of the times. Thoughts come and go. They also leave their trail behind - we feel pleasant or unhappy etc. But we don't know why they came, where they came from, and how they silently left, without our notice)
Then what do we do? We just need to stop for a while, and look into our own minds and consciously see what is Happening.
How would it help to see what's happening? We would become aware of what our monkey minds are upto.
Then? When once we know what is happening in our minds, it becomes easy to navigate thoughts, to our advantage. And to see things just as they are, with greater clarity, without giving them our individual definitions. And this is what it means to be mindful!

Here's it's spiritual side: The deeper we know the mind, the more we begin to know who we truly are, because we are now looking at ourselves through clearer eyes. Our vision is no longer blurred by the cooked up stories of the mind. We simply begin to see things just as they are, less and less filtered by the mind's messed up perspectives.

Here's a little exercise: Watch your mind consciously everyday, while you are cooking, brushing, driving, and until my next post! ;)

Be mindful. Be peaceful. Be the true you.