Celebrate Life!

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"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection."

-Buddha

Modern society has changed the meaning of living for many people. Everyday, we are running around to fulfill our immediate needs or some goals of life. Everyone seems to be rushing through life and short on time. We don't find it important to pause and think "Are we really Living or just Existing?" Because of society's pressures and some forced upon needs, we have somehow forgotten to lead a meaningful life experiencing every little moment in our journey through life.

There is a common saying that we only live once, but to be able to feel Alive we have to experience every moment of our life every single day. Each moment of our life is very precious, so instead of dwelling in the past or being anxious about our future, we should learn to enjoy in the present only. Every present moment is quickly going to move into the past, and we have to be always present here and now to be able to experience each moment of our life. 

"It is better to travel well than to arrive."

-Buddha

We constantly keep thinking that we will be happy when we get so and so, but the truth is that we can get happiness only by feeling happy in the present moment. "Like attracts Like" is the Universal Law of nature. Only our positive vibrations sent out to the Universe can bring back the same to us. Sometimes, when our goals are not being met or we have to bear some financial or personal loss, we loose hope in our future and start feeling anxious or depressed. Such feelings either keep dragging us into our past or keep us  constantly worry about  our future. We perceive such situations as difficult and challenging, but actually this is God's way of giving us the opportunity to grow and learn. Life is a Learning School, and we have to constantly keep learning from our experiences throughout our life. We must have full faith in His decisions and lead our life with love and wisdom. 

Life is a precious gift from God Almighty. When we rush through it, we miss on the Joy of Living. Let's Celebrate every moment of our life irrespective of our surrounding environment or conditions. Let's be present in each moment and enjoy every step of our journey without thinking about the destination.

 "Let us be Alive in every moment of our life" 

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Everyday Spirituality

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"Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue."

-Buddha

Spirituality is considered as a journey to our own inner self. The essence of spirituality is the search to know our real self and to discover the true nature of our consciousness. It emphasizes on development of positive virtues like unconditional love, compassion, tolerance, forgiveness, contentment, harmony, and empathy towards others. Spirituality helps us to develop inner peace and discover the essence of our own being. It is possible to look at spirituality another way, as something free of institutional structures and hierarchies. It is centered on the deepest values and meanings by which we live, regardless of our faith and religion.

Everyday we can take small steps on this path to discover more about our inner realities. We can explore new ways to attain inner peace, joy and fulfillment. Meditation practice helps us to relax our body and calm our mind, to be able to achieve deep states of inner peace. When we follow the guidance of our inner self, change becomes a natural part of our being  and we change gracefully, step by step. Without change, there can be no growth, and self-improvement should be our life long mission. Every living thing either grows or dies, that's the law of nature. So, we have to make a continuous effort to know our self better, and bring about change in order to realize our full potential.

Each one of us is gifted with special talents and unique characteristics. We were all born as instruments of God, and we have to use our special talents for the growth of others. God made each one of us to serve a special purpose contributing to the growth and evolution of humanity. We are a unique creation of God, and we must spread the fragrance of our being in the world around us. Earth is a spiritual battleground, and everyday we have to make choices. We must be strong enough to be able to choose light when darkness is overwhelming. Our destiny is shaped by the decisions we make and we are completely responsible for the creation of our life's circumstances.

Spiritual blessings come to us in the form of loyal friends, a loving family, special talents, psychic abilities, healing powers, good health, inner strength, inventions and discoveries for the service of mankind etc. We should be grateful to God for all the blessings and bravely make the right choices in our daily life. Spirituality is not gaining paper knowledge, rather it's a way of leading our life wisely every single day. It's about realizing the Divinity within our self and connecting with all fellow beings at the same level. Each moment of our life should be filled with joy and happiness, regardless of the external circumstances. A Spiritual person is the one who is always joyous and grateful to the Almighty for His blessings.

"May we always feel the Joy of living !"

 

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How to Meditate Effortlessly

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"Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."

-Buddha

Meditation is a state of intense awareness achieved by stillness of our thoughts. It's a journey to the center of own being, and experiencing our natural state of expanded awareness. Meditation helps us to relax and allows us to discover truths about our own nature. Meditation is all about being completely in the present moment and letting go of any past or future. We simply have to drop all our thoughts and put aside the mental tendency to constantly worry and plan. 

We all possess three states of thinking - conscious thinking during the waking state, subconscious during sleep and super-conscious during self awareness.  Meditation is not a passive state of daydreaming or drifting in a subconsciousness state, rather, it brings us in touch with the super-conscious state of intense awareness. When we are able to internalize the energy of our senses during meditation, it awakens a tremendous flow of energy in our whole being. We are able to deeply relax our body and mind, and expand our sense of identity until we realize our unity with all creation. 

Meditation has great health benefits and gives us a respite from excessive stress of daily life. As we relax, our blood pressure lowers and our response mechanism slows down. We become more centered and don't react as strongly or negatively to adverse situations. Meditation has been found to strengthen the immune system and enhance the activity of "telomerase" enzyme that protects genetic material during cell division and enhances cellular viability.  Consistent meditation practice fosters improvement in emotional well-being and helps release of negative mental states such as fear, anger and worry. We inculcate more positive attitudes and show love and compassion towards every creation of God. We are able to experience the love and joy present within our self, and share it with the world around us, bringing peace and harmony. 

Meditation Techniques

Meditation can be performed any time and anywhere we can be quiet and free of distractions. If possible, it's good to meditate at some predefined place everyday, as over time the special place gets filled with the positive vibrations generated during meditation. Next important thing is the correct posture during meditation. It is essential to keep the spine straight and our body must be able to relax completely without any aches/pain. We can either sit in a straight-backed chair or on the floor in cross-legged position or lotus pose. We can use a soft cushion underneath for support and while sitting in the chair, we have to sit away from the back of the chair, placing our hands palms facing upright at the junction of the thighs and abdomen and our shoulder pulled back slightly with chest up. Our feet should be touching the ground completely and the whole body should feel relaxed and comfortable.  It's beneficial to face east during meditation as it helps to align our body's magnetism with that of earth.

Meditation is an active process and requires energy and self-discipline.  It's a process where the practitioner goes through stages of relaxation, interiorization and expansion. During the "Divine Energy Yoga"  classes, we perform very gentle exercises to relax, energize, and internalize flow of energy, followed by a guided meditation to experience healing and expansion of awareness.  It does not require any physical or mental effort, but we have to focus on relaxing our muscles and let go of all the chatter in our brain. Before beginning to sit for meditation, we can do some Yoga postures or stretching exercises to relax all the muscles of the body. Next important thing needed is to free our self of all thoughts and emotions. Many people try to focus on some outside object of concentration, so that they do not focus on their own thoughts. They make an effort to suppress their internal thoughts and try to focus single-pointedly on the chosen object of concentration. This may help to quieten the mind, but involves a constant effort trying to meditate, and may dis-hearten the new practitioner who is trying hard to sit quietly to be able to meditate.

Research has shown that about 70% of our daily thoughts are carried over from the previous day. The very same thoughts and emotions keep coming back again and again because they are circulating in our mental-emotional body as partially-processed or undigested thoughts and emotions. For example, if we were subjected to deep insult sometime and we could not take any action to correct it, the emotions of anger, rage, despair and thoughts like "what we should have said" or "what else we could have done", keep coming back to us whenever we face a similar situation. Now, stopping to think them by focusing on something else will not remove those thoughts and feelings from us. As our physical body digests the food everyday, our mental-emotional body also needs to digest everyday thoughts and emotions. Every thought has a life-cycle of birth, survival and death. Whenever, we let go of any thought/emotion, it brings it to its end. Initially, we have to train our self to be able to do so, but eventually, through consistent practice it becomes a natural part of our being.

Technique to Cleanse Mental-Emotional Body 

  

Here is a small exercise that can be performed everyday to relax our mind and let go of our stored thoughts and emotions. 

Sit comfortably in any meditation posture as described earlier. 
Close your eyes and internally look at the point between the eyebrows and imagine a big screen in front of you. Now, keep watching this screen and let your thoughts be projected on this screen slowly one by one. Try not to judge any of them and completely and honestly feel all the sensations they bring in your body. If you feel shortness of breath, pain in the chest, tears in your eyes, pain in neck/shoulder or any other unpleasant sensations, just don't be afraid to experience them completely. Embrace them as a small part of you and, without denial feel them completely. Never try to judge any of the thoughts/feelings, as this will interrupt the process by activating your conscious mind. You are  just being with your self and trying to discover your true self. As soon as you focus on any thought completely and feel all the sensations associated with it, that brings it to it's end. Keep repeating this process for every thought or sequence of events being projected on your virtual screen.
You can do this exercise everyday for 10-15 mins or more, and it will help you explore many new things about yourself as well as cleanse your mental-emotional body for complete wellness.

                                  "Oh God! help us see Your light in us"

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Unconditional Love

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"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."

 - Buddha

Love is considered to be the most basic emotion that our consciousness can feel. While experiencing love, we allow the free flow of life force energy in our whole being. We are all searching for true love every moment of our life. Whenever, we get glimpses of such deep love and bonding, we cherish those moments throughout our life. When we share our love with others, we give positive energy to them and also to our self. It is in the sharing and giving of love to others that we receive the same. Express love to the world around you and the world will reflect back to you the power of love. 

However, the greatest power known to man is that of unconditional love. We were taught by consistent experience that love was conditional, and we had to buy love from the people around us with our words and behavior. However, unconditional love is a natural expression that does not expect an outcome. It is not determined by the one being loved, but rather by the one choosing to love. This is not the type of love we give to earn favors or love in return, rather, it is giving just for the sake of giving and sharing something that lies within us.

Pure Divine Love is what we all are. It's the unconditional love of God passed on to all His creations. God is always giving love unconditionally to each one of us all the time without judging our actions. Whenever, we receive God's Divine love in our deep prayers, it makes us feel empowered and fills our heart with joy. It's the most powerful and Rejuvenating  energy  that can be felt by our consciousness. Mere thought of love brings smile on our face and we do not always need another person or thing to experience love. It is not to be derived from any outside source, but we all our self are an infinite source of it. Divine Unconditional Love is our essence and it is the eternal wealth that we all inherited from God. We were all made in His image and possess the same qualities. We can perceive our soul/self as a drop from the ocean of omnipresent super-consciousness/God. As the drop has same constituents as the ocean, so we are also same as the God. We have to realize our true nature to be able to experience this powerful force.  The easiest way to start experiencing this boundless love energy is to take our attention inwards and start giving unconditional love to our self. We are a unique creation of God, and we should honor God’s decision by loving our self without any judgment or conditions. We just have to let it flow freely through us, and the more we share, the more it empowers us.      

Let’s realize the presence of Divine Unconditional Love within our heart and share this boundless energy with everyone around us.                                   

           "I love myself Unconditionally."

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Divine Energy Yoga

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Yoga is a Sanskrit word that means union. It is a set of practices and techniques which originated in ancient India, with a view to attain the state of  union of oneself with the Divine Energy, also referred to as the Super Consciousness. The meditative science of "Raja Yoga", as outlined by the great sage Patanjali, consists of eight stages. According to his Yoga Sutras, the path of Enlightenment embraces the following eight stages of spiritual yogic practices:

Sanskrit	English
Yama	moral codes(the don'ts)
Niyama	self-purification and study(the do's)
Asana	posture
Pranayama	energy control
Pratyahara	withdrawing of the mind from the senses
Dharana	concentration/contemplation
Dhyana	deep meditation
Samadhi	Union/oneness

The  "Divine Energy Yoga" classes have been designed to incorporate this eight-fold path to Enlightenment.
The first four stages —yama, niyama, asana and pranayama—are considered external cleansing practices and help to cleanse and detoxify our physical body. The stages of pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi—are considered internal cleansing practices that remove our mental and emotional blocks, and help us move further on the path of Self-Realization.
The exercises performed in these classes have no religious bearing, and transcend the idea of any religious following. The exercises performed during these classes are very gentle, and can be practiced by everyone, regardless of their age or fitness level. All the exercises can be performed in a comfortable standing pose, or while sitting in a chair, or on the floor. The one hour class is divided into four sections as:

1. Relaxation Exercises

These exercises focus on stress reduction by reducing tension in all the muscles of the body. The practitioner becomes more calm and at ease with the external environment. This results in reduced level of anxiety, stress or anger. When we change our physiology, our thoughts and feelings also begin to change. We feel more relaxed and peaceful.

2. Energization Exercises

These exercises aim to recharge the body through the infinite cosmic energy. These focus on first releasing the stored energy from the body, and then recharge the body by channelizing the Universal Life force Energy through it. This strengthens the flow of energy in our body and rejuvenates each and every cell.

3. Pranayama (Breathing Exercises)

The word "prana" refers primarily to the energy itself, and because of close connection that exists between the breath and causative flow of energy in the body, it is sometimes perceived as breath. Pranayama means control of energy, and is often effected with the aid of breathing exercises. By practicing these techniques, we try to reach the state in which the energy in the body is harmonized to the point where its flow is no longer outward toward the senses, but inward toward the Divine Self. 

4. Guided Meditation

By prolonged concentration on any stage of consciousness, one begins to assume to himself its qualities. by concentrating on the inner light, one gradually takes on the qualities of that inner reality.

The meditation practice fosters the inward realization of Divinity. The mind loses its ego identification, and begins to merge in the great ocean of consciousness of which it is a part.  

Everyday practice of these techniques may result in cleansing of our physical, mental and emotional body. There is free flow of life force energy in our whole being, resulting in body, mind and soul wellness as a whole.

The pure Divine energy flows through us all the time bringing immense healing to our self as well as to others around us. This also progresses us towards Self-Realization, when we are able to experience the Infinite Divine Energy residing within all of us and merge our self with this energy as pure love.

"Let's Awaken The Divine Within Us".

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Energy Healing

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The word "heal" comes from the same root-meaning "whole, complete" and "holy". Our body is strongly connected with our internal health maintaining intelligence, that constantly keeps repairing and healing the body. It originates in a space within our innermost being and is the common basis of all healing. We think that we are healed by various systems of medicine and therapy, whether modern or traditional, but, the truth is that the real healer lies within us only. All these healing systems just create the environment where the internal healer gets the best possible conditions to do the healing work. No doctor ever caused a cut on the skin to repair. The inner healing intelligence directed the clotting of blood, the development of scar tissue and new skin. However, the physician may act as a facilitator and by his care some complications in the healing process may be avoided.

Our body tries very hard to put everything back in rightful place and we have to understand that the disease is not a random event, but a distinct message that we deviated from the path of connecting with our true self. Whenever, we are not in compliance with our environment, or we don't feel at ease with some external conditions, we start putting stress on our internal system. Slowly we start developing some illness, which is simply our body's natural effort to get rid of some unwanted internally felt dis-ease. So, whenever we feel physically unwell, there is some obstruction in the internal energy flow of our body. These obstructions are created when some biochemical products start accumulating in the body   at a specific area. This happens because every emotion generates a biochemical energy in the body, and these end-products of emotions affect the internal functioning of the body.

The wisdom of Vedas identifies pain as an obstruction to the free flow of joy/energy within and source of all disease is indigestion. This indigestion is physical as well as mental and emotional. So, whenever, there is any stuck emotional input in our mental-emotional body, it manifests itself as pain in our physical body. So, we have to process(digest or eliminate) all such stored emotions to attain the state of good health and wellness. Without releasing such stored energies and just taking medication for physical relief, may result in better physical health for short time only , since the problem still exists in the emotional body. For example, if there is an emotional problem within, it manifests itself as a coronary heart disease. Now, when we perform surgery, it repairs the physical body and creates more suitable conditions for us to understand the underlying emotional distress and deal with the root cause of the illness.

We have to understand how emotional energy works and how Energy Healing deals with it. Ancient healers also explored these areas and shared their findings based on their observations. Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan rediscovered the art of energy healing which is known as Reiki meaning Universal Life-force Energy. Through the regular practice of Energy Healing, we slowly dissolve the blockages present in our mental-emotional body, which results in manifestation of peace and harmony in the whole being.


        "Let's know and embrace our true self"

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