Ravim's Notes

In Capitalist economy, two words are important: Growth and Profit.  Each organization passes  through good and bad times. Your career may also see ups and downs depending on performance of your organization.  Ms Sunshine’s company  is losing market share and profit margins. Ms Sunshine is result oriented, hardworking, and a good leader. Yet, she is likely to get fired. What  should she do in tough time ahead ?  Want to know..  read the attached ppt  Managing-Career-in-Turbulent-times

Do we do our work  or even a mundane task with “awareness” or “consciousness”?  Are we even aware of  “ourselves”  when we are awake?  Take this example. A man is waiting for hours for his “beloved” and dreaming about all kinds of things. And, soon   after she arrives, he starts thinking for someone else .. rather than enjoying her company.  Similarly, when we eat food, do we really enjoy each and every grain of the food.  When we take a walk, do we feel joy of walking?  Are we doing “multitasking” all the time? No.

I think, we are fragmented because our mind starts thinking “something else”. So example, when we do any task say “taking your lunch”, our mind takes us to all the places … home, office, boss, friends..or  memories of the past …or worries of future..and so on.  These thoughts can connect to each other in infinite number of ways.  So, you may start thinking about your boss..then your mind goes over to forthcoming appraisal cycle.. then you start thinking about your colleague who is likely to get better rating.. then  your mind jumps over to some incident when you accidentally met this colleague with his girlfriend..and now you start thinking of his girlfriend instead of enjoying hot sumptuous meal.

Clearly, the cause of our fragmentation is our mind. How can we see actions of our mind with our mind   How can we continue to remain focused on “Now” or “Action we are doing at that moment”? 

Think of 16 hours a day when we are awake. What percentage of this time, we remain engrossed in our work (when mind is just on the object) ? I guess it is not even 20% ?  It means, we think of the past or future or something useless, for almost 80% time. Clearly, we are wasting 80% of our life on useless thoughts.

So, let’s try to do any very simple task (say drinking a glass of water with full consciousness).  Try “walking” on grass for 10 minutes with full awareness of each and very part of our body.

I am sure life will be different if we can bring “consciousness” or “awareness” to whatever we do ! Let me also try.

cheers!

Frogs, turtles, and snakes can hybernate. They remain alive in severe cold season or very hot summer by hybernating themselves. They don’t eat and reduce their body processes to very low level.

The question is: Can we hybernate?  Surely, an advanced Yogi or Monk can hybernate themselves for weeks or months.  Can an ordinary person hybernate oneself for few minutes – to relax oneself ? Try Yoga Nidra.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati reseached on this technique and wrote an excellent book:

http://www.vedicbooks.net/yoga-nidra-p-916.html 

I found this technique to be very useful when you are extremely tired or unable to sleep due to extreme stress.

Yoga Nidra is a state of sleep with a trace of awareness. It is a state of mind in between wakefulness and dream.  There are many  Yoga Nidra techniques. Try the following steps:

1. Lie down on your back on the floor or hard bed.
2. Adopt the pose called Savasana (like dead body). The body must be straight from head to toe, the legs slightly apart and the arms little away from the body. Palm of the hands  are turned upwards.
3. There should be no physical movement like that in a dead body.
4. Keep your eyes closed during the process
5. Take a deep breath and as you breathe out, feel that your worries and stress is flowing out of you.
6. Bring a feeling of inner relaxation to the whole body.. be completely still.
7. Now, start the rotation of consciousness by taking a trip from the toe to the head through all body parts. Repeat the following steps for 20-30 minutes.
8. Bring your attention to “little toe” of your left foot. Relax it. Bring attention to the next toe .. relax it. Relax next toe.. relax big toe.  Bring attention to the heel. Relax it.  Relax sole of the left foot. Bring attention to calf muscle .. relax it..feel as it your entire left leg is sinking to the floor. Relax knee, Relax entire left leg. Relax left thigh, Relax left hip.
9. Repeat the same process for Right foot.
10. Relax back, entire spine,  stomach, left shoulder, right shoulder
11. Bring attention to left hand. Relax all fingers one by one, Relax palm of the hand, back of the hand, the wrist, the lower arm, the elbow, the upper arm, relax shoulders.
12. Bring attention to right hand. Repeat step 11. Relax all body parts of right hand.
13. Relax heart, chest, neck, throat
14. Relax chin, the lower lip, the upper lip, the tip of the nose, entire nose, left ear, right ear, left cheek, right cheek, left eyelid, right eyelid, relax entire face. Relax left eye, right eye, back of the head, relax forehead, both sides of head, and the top of the head
15. Become aware of your breath. Relax.
16. Bring your attention back to your left foot, and repeat steps 8 -15.
17. Rotate your consciousnes 5-6 times following steps 8-15.
18. Watch your breath for 10 mins. Become aware of your breath. Don’t try to change the rhythm. Let it be natural. Now, watch movement of your navel area.  Watch it rising and falling. Count it backwards from 27 to 1.  Now focus your attention on your chest. Watch it rising and falling. Count it backwards from 27 to 1. If your attention goes away, bring it back to your chest’s movement. Restart your count from 27 to 1.
19. Become aware of your relaxed body. Become aware of your surrounding. Open your eyes and sit up slowly.

http://www.sivanandaonline.org/graphics/ebooks/swami_sivanandaji/introduction.html

Book by Swami Sivananda

1. Thoughts travel like waves. Imagine your thoughts travelling like sound waves (a succession of concentric waves in all directions).  Thus, thoughts generated in your mind will create impression in the mind of a receiver (another person).
2. You are surrounded by an ocean of thoughts. You receive some thoughts depending on your internal state at that time.
3. Thoughts are living things. Thoughts never die even after the death of the generator (person who generated the thought).  Similar to radio waves, each thought produces a vibration in every particle. Thus, your noble and good thoughts have power to influence billions of people – who  receive your thoughts.
4. Thoughts travel like “wireless packets”.  These packets are received by those whose minds respond to such vibrations. Telepahty is one such use-case. The life time of these thought packets is very long.
5. Thoughts have tremendous power. All creations start with a simple thought.
6. Each cell of your body is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system. Thus, every thought of your mind is conveyed to each cell of your body. If you are confused, nervous, fearful, or depressed, these thoughts are transmitted to every cell in the body.  This results into your soldier cells becoming panic-stricken and the corresponding body parts are unable to function properly.
7. Every thought has got weight, shape, size, form, colour, quantity, and power.
8. Thoughts boomerang. Whatever you send out of your mind, comes back to you. If you hate another, hate will come back to you. If you love others, love will come back to you.
9. People of gloomy moods attract to themselves, gloomy things and gloomy thoughts from others. Similarly, people with hope, confidence, and cheerful spirits attract thoughts of similar nature from others. So, avoid company of people who are  always ‘negative’.
10. Develop individuality: Resist suggestions.

Hi All,

Morning walks are very useful. On positive side, it helps me to reduce my blood sugar, but it is also gives opportunity catch up with  friends.  After 30 minutes of walk while  listening to my commentry on “Spirituality”,  a friend suggested me to start blogging – to help him to have a peaceful walk (without my discourse).  Surely, I honoured his suggestion.

cheers

Ravim