Remove Fear – Meditate

Fear is an emotion that it is so powerful and overpowering that it controls many people. How can you remove fear from your mind and life, though….

Well let’s start by using meditation techniques.

If you aren’t familiar with, or new to meditation, I would describe it as just a simple way to harness the strength and power your mind and energy so that you can focus it on more positive, productive things.

Fear has a way of overpowering and scattering your thoughts, so meditating can be extremely helpful in easing fear.

To begin with, it is important to remember when meditating to focus on anything that is calm and peaceful to you. The purpose of meditating is to bring your thoughts under subjection. When you focus on something that makes you feel calm will help you do this.

Then, practices saying positive affirmations as you meditate. Repeating these positive affirmations assist in keeping your focus on those good things again. These affirmation help in bringing the focuses of your attention onto those things that make you feel warm, happy, at ease and peaceful. It keeps you and your mind from thinking and focusing about the things that cause fear in your mind.

Next, grant yourself permission to be placed in a fearful situation for a small amount of time. By placing yourself in that situation where you feel afraid, you help yourself to see that there is actually nothing to be afraid of.

Finally, visualize yourself in a fearful situation. Imagine yourself being calm and in control through the entire thing. See yourself in that place in your mind. Go there and find out exactly what makes you so afraid. As you begin to feel that fear rising, start to imagine yourself being calm. Focus on those calming images you overcome your emotions that have created the perceptions that you call fear.

Fear has been said to mean

False Expectations Appearing Real.

Fear is a powerful force and you are the only one who can overcome it.

The Creative Powers of a Mantra or Two

Do you know that mantras are a powerful way to generate the focus and energy necessary to create something in your life.

It is recommended that mantras should be short and sweet – one word or a simple phrase. Here is a generic mantra to increase the flow of money into your daily life. You can sat this in your mind when you are doing everyday jobs such as driving or cleaning, or if you want you can speak it aloud for even stronger effect.

Remember that self-created mantras are more powerful, than ones that are not created by yourself because they may lack the passion, or urgency that a self created mantra can relate to. Therefore feel free to change or alter this in any way that relates to you and your situation. One of the mantras that I personally use is :

Money flows easily and effortlessly to me.

When I verbalize this, it seems to flow from the end right back into the beginning. A self-perpetuating mantra would be ideal, because then you can think or speak it for awhile, and so set it on like auto-pilot. The way to do it is to focus conscious energy on your mantra for awhile, and then set it as a background. This engages both your conscious and unconscious mind, and has powerful effects.

As I speak that, if I feel the sudden urge to change it. I may feel the need to say it louder, or softer, or accent and stress certain words. I may begin to speak in a way that goes around the central mantra. For example:

Money flows easily and effortlessly to me. Huge sums of money flow to me with ease. Now, money is flowing to me, even as I think and speak. Money flows to me easily. Greater amounts of money flow in than ever flows out. I have more money than I need, and I can now give when I want to. I have freedom of time and energy to do the things I want because money flows to me easily and effortlessly. Now, money is flowing to me even as I speak.

As always, you must be patient as you begin something new, assume patience and assuredness that your efforts will yield your desired results. The beauty of a mantra, more so than other methods, is that you can do them anytime, anywhere, as often as you think. Mantras can be used during parts of your daily life when you don’t have time for visualization. You can do mantras at home, in the bath, in the yard, in the car, while eating dinner, at work, in meetings, while waiting in line… Just about anywhere that you have the freedom of thought.

This time of the year can bring about a brain overload which can result in burnout, exhaustion, and fatigue. These may arise from the mental pressure of the focused concentration necessary to arrange all matters that have to be done to make this holiday time a success. What with the business closing down all reports, ordering etc have to be finished before you can have that break. All of the arrangements for the break, food, travel, presents the list just goes on and on. Then there are the functions, why oh why has no one realised that there are only three weekends in December to have the Christmas functions? Brain overload, if gone unchecked, can result in depression, stress, and even anger if you continue to push after the drain has set in. So even though you need to keep your things going non-stop, you would be much more productive if at the first sign of brain overload, you took a break and did something about it.

Here are some of the signs you might be suffering from brain overload.

* Mental exhaustion.
* Annoyance when thinking about what you have to do.
* Putting off certain tasks because they are “too hard to think about.”
* Snipping at other people who are not moving fast enough.
* Feeling as if the harder you work, the farther behind you get.
* Feeling depressed, stressed out, or as if you can’t keep up mentally with your task list.

In a future article I will offer my suggestions as how to cope with or even handle this brain overload.

The Purpose of Life, Part 2: Obstacles to Fulfilment

The jigsaw puzzle of modern life is complex, and the discussion group in Cambridge included people of a number of different cultures and nationalities.  In view of this, it might be expected that there would be quite a diverse and lengthy list of potential ‘external’ obstacles to achievement of our purpose.

Factors such as lack of financial resources were mentioned, as were societal and family pressures, and these can certainly be important in affecting our actions.

But the greatest discussion was about things much closer to home: Ourselves.

Amongst the ‘internal’ issues which people cited as being potential obstacles were regret, fear, anxiety, self-doubt, feelings of inferiority and indecision.

While some might feel that there is a certain ‘heaviness’ about this list, I felt that it was both illuminating and encouraging.

Illuminating because it showed that that the people taking part had a good degree of insight into themselves, and this is not usually something which is taught in school or by parents – and, indeed, not something which is widespread in the general population, where blaming others is often the view taken of problems.

I found it encouraging because the first step to developing and growing is becoming aware – it is for good reason that an important part of many meditation practices is the development of ‘mindfulness’.

The other thing which is encouraging is that, unlike many external factors which influence our lives, what is in our mind can come under our control, once we know how.

I will write more about this in Part 3 of this series.

Until then

Warmly,
Chris

Mantras, Chanting and the Law of Attraction

Many spiritual traditions include mantras and chanting as part of their practice.

The world of Tibetan Buddhism is replete with many mantras, usually in the ancient language of Sanskrit, each having a different purpose. At the Siddha Yoga ashram in India, Elizabeth Gilbert spent many hours chanting in search of personal insight and spiritual enlightenment, as described in her book Eat, Pray, Love which I wrote about yesterday.

In most of these religious contexts, the words of the mantra have a specific meaning, although we may not be able to fully understand it (even in English translation). In many cases the words are an affirmation of devotion to a deity or sacred spirit, or they are a request for assistance or solution to a problem.

But, for the sake of discussion, let’s consider the possibility that there is no deity who is will respond to our prayers. If that is the case, why would these practices be so common, and would they have any value?

I am agnostic in the religious sense – open to the idea of there being a higher deity, but not fully convinced – yet I can see how chanting mantras and prayers can have a positive effect in life.

When done properly, they require mental focus and the suspension of other thoughts which clutter the mind. This can bring about great benefit in terms of our mental well-being and also give us clarity of vision. By so doing, we develop the right mindset and openness to possibility that allows the Law of Attraction to come into effect.

Maybe this Universal Law is in fact a manifestation of a higher deity, and certainly its origins are beyond our comprehension. But, whether or not that is the case, the important thing to appreciate is that it works, especially if we use our focused mind to hold a vision of what it is we are trying to manifest.

I would be interested in your comments on how the Law of Attraction relates to traditional spiritual beliefs and practices, and how you apply it in your life.

Until next time,

Warmly,
Chris

“Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert

This is one of the most enjoyable and uplifting books I have read in a long time.

Autobiographical but reading like a novel, it tells the story of the author’s internal and external journey in search of spiritual enrichment and meaning after a difficult divorce and disillusionment with her life in corporate America.

She first travels to Italy, where she enrolls in a language school, not because of any need for a knowledge of Italian but in order to immerse herself in the beauty of the language and the passion of the country and its people. The ‘eat’ part of the title comes from her appreciation of the Italians’ love of good food and understanding that preparing meals and eating them in good company feeds the soul as well as the stomach. Reading this section of the book made me want to visit Italy again very soon.

After a number of months of la dolce vita, the author takes on a very different lifestyle at a meditation ashram in India. Although not named in the book, it is clear that she spent her time at Ganeshpuri, the centre of Siddha Yoga meditation under the female guru, Gurumayi. Here she spends much of the time on her knees, not praying but scrubbing floors – but, just as the young protégé in The Karate Kid, she comes to realize that such mundane activities can be an important form of self-development and meditation. She also develops her mind through chanting, a fundamental part of Siddha Yoga practice.

The last section of the book is set in Bali, where Elizabeth seeks and ultimately finds a village medicine man she met on a previous visit. His life could not be more different from the one she left behind in the US, yet she finds that they have a strong spiritual connection. His pronouncements on life and love are couched in language which seems both strange and funny, but it is clear that this simple man has insights which are deep and relevant to people from all cultures.

In Bali, the author also finds romantic love where she least expects it, and the book ends in a very heartwarming way as she finds completeness in her life, perhaps for the first time.

All this might sound rather sentimental and slushy, but the style of writing is very witty and humorous and I laughed out loud several times while reading it. It was also thought-provoking, and I found it hard to put down.

Highly recommended.

If you’ve read it, your comments would be appreciated.

Until next time,

Warmly,
Chris

BREATH IS LIFE

Life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing. “Breath is Life.”

To breathe is to live, and without breath there is no life. Not only are the higher animals dependent upon breath for life and health, but even the lower forms of animal life must breathe to live, and plant life is likewise dependent upon the air for continued existence.

The infant draws in a long, deep breath, retains it for a moment to extract from it its life-giving properties, and then exhales it in a long wail, and lo! its life upon earth has begun. The old man gives a faint gasp, ceases to breathe, and life are over. From the first faint breath of the infant to the last gasp of the dying man, it is one long story of continued breathing. Life is but a series of breaths.

Breathing may be considered the most important of all of the functions of the body, for, indeed, all the other functions depend upon it. Man may exist some time without eating; a shorter time without drinking; but without breathing his existence may be measured by a few minutes.

And not only is Man dependent upon Breath for life, but he is largely dependent upon correct habits of breathing for continued vitality and freedom from disease. An intelligent control of our breathing power will lengthen our days upon earth by giving us increased vitality and powers of resistance, and, on the other hand, unintelligent and careless breathing will tend to shorten our days, by decreasing our vitality and laying us open to disease.

Man in his normal state had no need of instruction in breathing. Like the lower animal and the child, he breathed naturally and properly, as nature intended him to do, but civilization has changed him in this and other respects. He has contracted improper methods and attitudes of walking, standing and sitting, which have robbed him of his birthright of natural and correct breathing. He has paid a high price for civilization. The savage, to-day, breathes naturally, unless he has been contaminated by the habits of civilized man.

The percentage of civilized men who breathe correctly is quite small, and the result is shown in contracted chests and stooping shoulders, and the terrible increase in diseases of the respiratory organs, including that dread monster, Consumption, “the white scourge.” Eminent authorities have stated that one generation of correct breathers would regenerate the race, and disease would be so rare as to be looked upon as a curiosity. Whether looked at from the standpoint of the Oriental or Occidental, the connection between correct breathing and health is readily seen and explained.

The Occidental teachings show that the physical health depends very materially upon correct breathing. The Oriental teachers not only admit that their Occidental brothers are right, but say that in addition to the physical benefit derived from correct habits of breathing, Man’s mental power, happiness, self-control, clear-sightedness, morals, and even his spiritual growth may be
increased by an understanding of the “The Science of Breath.” Whole schools of Oriental Philosophy have been founded upon this science, and this knowledge when grasped by the Western races, and by them put to the practical use which is their strong point, will work wonders
among them. The theory of the East, wedded to the practice of the West, will produce worthy offspring.

This work will take up the Yogi “The Science of Breath,” which includes not only all that is known to the Western physiologist and hygienist, but the occult side of the subject as well. It not only points out the way to physical health along the lines of what Western scientists have termed “deep breathing,” etc., but also goes into the less known phases of the subject, and shows how the Hindu Yogi controls his body, increasing his mental capacity, and develops the spiritual side of his nature by the “Science of Breath.”

The Yogi practices exercises by which he attains control of his body, and is enabled to send to any organ or part an increased flow of vital force or “prana,” thereby strengthening and invigorating the part or organ. He knows all that his Western scientific brother knows about the physiological effect of correct breathing, but he also knows that the air contains more than oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen, and that something more is accomplished than the mere oxygenating of the blood.
He knows something about “prana,” of which his Western brother is ignorant, and he is fully aware of the nature and manner of handling that great principle of energy, and is fully informed as to its effect upon the human body and mind. He knows that by rhythmical breathing one may bring himself into harmonious vibration with nature, and aid in the unfoldment of his latent powers. He knows that by controlled breathing he may not only cure disease in himself and others, but also
practically do away with fear and worry and the baser emotions.

We hope to awaken the minds of the Western world to the value of the Yogi “The Science of Breath”, a soon to be released publication, will give concise explanations and instructions. We hope this will assist in awakening the minds of the Western world to the value of the Yogi.

Developing Personal Resilience

Last weekend, I attended a day-long personal development
workshop in a meditation and retreat centre down by the
River Cam here in Cambridge.

There were about 20 participants, so the atmosphere was very
different from some of the big-ticket personal development courses
I have attended in the past. The small number of people
made for some good discussions within the group, and I’d like to
tell you a bit about our conversation on the subject of
resilience and dealing with adversity.

Difficult situations affect all of us at various points in our
lives, and for some people they get to crisis point. At these
times, such strong emotions are swirling around that it is often
difficult to be sufficiently in control of ourselves to take the
actions required to best manage the situation. I know from my
own experience that it be really hard to meditate or do
relaxation exercises to ‘calm down’ under such pressure.

A ‘lightbulb moment’ for me was when someone in the workshop
suggested that our emotional resilience (and so our ability to
cope with adversity) is like a muscle which grows stronger with
use. It’s not that we are de-sensitized to these situations
– most of us will always be reactive to some degree – it’s just
that we can learn to better regain control of our emotions
and therefore are able to do what needs to be done to address
the problem.

Now, here’s the key point: It is when things are generally going
*well* that we should consciously practice these techniques of
self-mastery. This has the dual benefits of making everyday life
less stressful,but, more importantly, it strengthens our ‘resilience
muscles’ so that they are up to the task of dealing with more
demanding issues.

So what does this mean in practice? Well, it means consciously
dealing with the trials and tribulations of everyday life in a
different way from how we might have reacted instinctively before.
For example, when someone cuts across us in traffic, we can
practice self-restraint and calm instead of swearing at them.
When we spend too long talking to a colleague and so miss
our train, we can practice calm and acceptance. I’m sure you
can think of many other examples.

We may not consciously ask for these irritations, frustrations
and annoyances to come into our lives, but they will happen anyway.

Why not use them to build up your power of resilience for when you
really need it?

Until next time,

Warmly,
Chris

The Law of Attraction and Meditation

I am currently visiting Cambridge in the UK and last night I
attended a talk on “finding happiness” at the magnificent
St Catherine’s college.

The speaker was a remarkable and very wise 91-year-old
Indian lady, Dadi Janki. She is a leader of Brahma Kumaris
Spiritual University (often known by the name of their
meditation practice, Raja Yoga).

Speaking in Hindi through an interpreter, she covered a lot of
ideas which were in one way or another related to the
Law of Attraction. I’d like to relate one of them.

If a building is demolished leaving an empty piece of land,
then, more often than not, after a while someone will come
along and dump an old settee, TV set or some other piece
of junk.

Once that has occurred, very quickly other items will appear,
then others, dumped by other people. It’s as if the presence
of the first item ‘gives permission’ for others to be dumped
there, and place becomes more and more untidy, unpleasant
and potentially dangerous. Junk attracts junk.

So it is with our minds. If we allow ourselves to harbour
negativity and unhelpful thoughts, then we will attract
people and situations which are undesirable and unhelpful
to us. These will lead to further negative thoughts
and emotions, and the cycle will continue. Junk thinking
attracts more of the same. Unfortunately, some people live
their lives this way.

The answer to this dilemma is two-fold. On the one hand,
we need to develop a mental and spiritual routine which protects us
from the development of the negative thoughts and emotions
in the first place.

Second, when we detect that negativity is creeping in
(and it will – life can never be perfect!), we should take
steps to neutralize it and not become attached. In other
words, we should observe it but keep it at a distance and
find once again our mental balance.

Both of these steps are achieved through meditation, or
purposeful relaxation, which in Raja Yoga is undertaken
with the eyes open (useful for practice in difficult business
meetings!).

I am by no means an expert meditator, but I have found that
practice makes it easier, and I am able to keep a more
positive outlook and ‘get over’ adversity more rapidly with
these techniques.

Not being a ‘natural’ at this, I find that external tools such
as the Attraction Accelerator help greatly – I have developed
an almost automatic relaxation response to the audio, which
makes things a lot easier.

If meditation doesn’t come easily to you, I suggest you
give it this proven audio a try and surprise yourself at
what you can achieve.

Read more about this and how you can obtain the audio
in the free Attraction Acceleration Report
Comments on the above and on your experiences will be welcome.

Warmly,
Chris

PS You will also discover how you can bring material
abundance into your life just by giving away the free Attraction Acceleration Report and when others do the same…