multiple choice

There are zillions of things you could do now.

Allow that to sink in.

You can do anything you want to, right now!

But for some reason, for some unfathomable reason, you choose to do the same limited things over and over again, everyday.

Of course you will justify this behaviour, you have to, to justify the life you have chosen to live.

Are you happy?

I'm saying this, but isn't it true? We do don't we, we become limited in our choices. We find what's familiar and comfortable and we stick to it.

But we have to work, we have to buy things, we have to be happy, and be nice to people in order to get on in the world, or not.

Which helps us to see that it really is a choice.

It is either a conscious game, or an unconscious nightmare?

If it's not good, then it's because you have stopped choosing. You have fallen victim to the conditioned mind - (ego).

There are many ways to escape its clutches.

Detach and breathe.

Open your eyes and look around - become present.

Stop thinking.

Affirm, I am going to stop thinking now - then just stop - it's easy.

Wait and watch the breath - wait for the next thought.

Open the eyes - look around.
Breathe.
Relax the body.
Feel the energy in your hands.
In your body.
Breathe some more.

Is there any reason why you can't do this for several hours per day?

Oh yea - there's that stuff called work, relating, communicating, living. Hmmm.

Then take little breaks - often.

Choose.

More of nothing.

Doing nothing is where it's at.

It's funny, but a whole industry has built up around the concept of 'doing nothing.'

It's a strange world.

Or more succinctly put; people are strange, and not just when you're a stranger.

"Island Universes" we are. Floating around in space thinking our thoughts. Each of us living on our own little bubble.

It's great when we find someone to agree with our version of reality, because we have now found a 'partner'.

Then the fun begins.

"I'll love you as long as you conform to my version of reality."

That is kind of how it goes isn't it.

We can easily notice the obvious differences. For example, people that believe in monogamy probably think it's wrong to have more than one lover, and people that come from cultures that allow more than one wife can see no problem at all with it!

It is conditioning.

YOU have yours.

And

I

Have mine.

But once we 'both' know that this is the case we'll have less problems and will probably laugh more.

Being a father and a son I straddle two worlds. Looking one way I see how my parents input shaped me for the road ahead, and on the other, I can see how my input into my children's lives probably shaped theirs - a bit.

Be honest.

At least with yourself.

doing nothing.

Can you do nothing?

It's not easy.

But try it.

It is the real answer to all of your problems.

Lie down and do nothing.

Try it now!

Lie down and do nothing for twenty minutes.

You are allowed to breathe and you are allowed to feel your heart beat
but that's all.

Try it.

See if you can 'not think' ------- :))

Its the 'power of now' in a nutshell.

trigerring suffering

We have a part of us, which I call the conditioned self, that is like a ghost - it keeps haunting us.

We do a lot of good work, we try to be more peaceful, more balanced. We try to overcome our destructive habits, and self centred behaviours. Then, out of nowhere, there is an explosion, or in this case and implosion. A trigger of some kind occurs, a catalyst of some kind causes our ghost to come and haunt us.
And in this moment, or the moment just after the explosion, we feel very bad.

In this time of regret and remorse it feels as if we had never done anything worthwhile, as if the pain and tension of our whole life is flushed up and displayed for all the world to see.

This thing is called many things, the ego, the mind, the conditioned mind, the pain body.

Until we acknowledge this thing it will keep haunting us........

Yoga shines light into the body mind ................

Thinking.....

Einstein was a genius, and apparently he was able to think in an abstract way.

How do you see yourself?

What impression do you get when you meditate on yourself?

Is it pos or neg?

Can you let go even more and surrender to a sense of yourself that is beyond judgement?

Can you be who you are, and not worry about it.

Conditioning has shaped the way you are, this is karma, and the awakening from this conditioning is another, more conscious journey, a journey that takes you 'consciously' into the past to release the conditioned memory programmes.

We store memory in the body/mind and it stays there like a fossil until we dig it out and set it free.

Self enquiry takes us inward.

Replace the old programmes with a fresh image of yourself.

Yoga will help you do this - but  do it everyday ---- please :)

suffering.

As I've got older, I've become more aware of the 'nature of suffering', as the Buddha calls life.

The world according to the news, the people I talk to, is in a mess.

But it's the people in it, and not the world itself that causes the mess.

We all live in our own bubble, 'one man's meat is another man's poison,' so to speak.

If I do some Asana practice I seem to be more tolerant of so called differences that appear to exist within the great human family.

It's not easy.  But it helps.

Being here and now - is the answer, but that's not as easy as it seems.

My mental conditioning, my physical conditioning, shape the world I create. If I do some physical Yoga, I become 'more' relaxed and therefore more aware of my condition. I can then see myself and the problems I cause myself, because of my raised awareness, then I do something about it, or not. :)

That makes more sense to me.

See it and do something about it - stop complaining!

Holding the space.

The brain wave patterns are significant in our everyday functioning.

Beta wave; is normal function - this is where we spend most of our time. At the higher end of Beta we find anxiety. At the lower end we move into a more relaxed state.

The question is, can we, or do we want to, move into deeper states of relaxation/awareness?

If we have lived in a a stressful environment in early life, we have to a certain degree been programmed to be this way later on. We may then re-create a stressful life as an adult because we understand the 'game' of stress and anxiety. For those of us that are this way inclined it may be quite disturbing to feel relaxed, and we may resist relaxation, albeit unconsciously, because it feels alien to us.

Think about it!

Of course this theory is based on the assumption that stress is 'bad' for us, and that relaxation is good for us.

Perhaps our natural state is stress. If we were comfortable all the time we would have no need to do anything to make our lives better, would we?
In the macrocosm, the evolution of the human race is partly due to trying to make life better and more comfortable for ourselves - we strive for a better world.
In the microcosm as individuals, we try to solve our problems rationally, we adapt and change according to our needs and desires - we strive for a better quality of life.

Whatever the case there are times when it is appropriate to relax, a time when we need and/or want to shut off the mind chatter.

In the previous blog I talked about how we can do that.

Now you've been there how do you stay there? And what is the point of staying there?

important information.

I think it's important for us to think about what we are.

Are we here to work, eat, sleep, and otherwise indulge ourselves, or for another reason?

And what could that other reason be?

If we take the hypothesis that we are evolving, and that we have been evolving since our arising from the primordial slime zillions of years ago, we have to acknowledge that we are, at this point in time, at some kind of peak experience.

We only have to look at the way technology has advanced in the last ten years, let alone since the birth of the industrial revolution, to realise that we are speeding up.

But what about 'us' in all of this? And by us I mean our physical selves, our bodies.

The human body makes even the most advanced super technology pale in significance.

We are consciousness - we have the ability to think and create consciously.
We have a nervous system and a hormonal system, the balancing of which creates our reality.

What we have in our mind, as thoughts, ideas, beliefs, fantasies, dreams, illusions, delusions, etc, will affect our nervous system and our hormonal system. This is a fact!

The question; Do we have a choice about what we put into our mind? Becomes even more important when you realise that the way we think shapes our reality.

We need to find a neutral position for our mind. We need to be able to reset our nervous system into neutral. When we do this we can look more clearly, in a more detached way at what it is we spend our time thinking about.

We have now begun the job of sorting the real from the unreal - an important task.

Finding the neutrality of the mind is not that difficult - holding it for long periods however is another matter.

More on this later .....

Sometimes it all goes wrong.

Let's be honest.

Sometimes, no matter what we do, life seems to be difficult.

With so much available to us now, it's easier to feel less. Because in some ways, we have so much to be grateful for.

We have so many outlets for our frustration, and creative expression, that if we feel bad, it's almost, not okay to feel this way.

There's an unspoken message, almost, as it to say - 'it's not okay, to be not okay.'

Especially in the yoga world.

You must be positive. You have no excuses.

And it's true - you have no excuses.

But sometimes our mind, my mind, for no apparent reason, seems to become very negative. Strongly negative.

But it is at these times I see what it is I'm up against.

Powerfully negative thought processes are flushed to the surface, and it's never easy when this happens, but I see it as a sign of forward motion, of illumination.

Ignorance is Bliss, or so the saying goes.

But ignorance is a life not lived.


Through my journey with Yoga, I have been through many 'dark nights of the soul' and on the other side there is usually clarity, and peace.

You either go deeper into yourself.

Or

You try to maintain a grip on what you think life is meant to be.

Either way you're going to find out who you really are.

When you relax.

When you relax properly - you reset the nervous system - you reset the nervous system's default setting.

If you have never been relaxed, it will take some time to reset the settings.

It's an oxymoron of sorts, but sometimes you have to work hard to relax.

Relaxing is not easy to do. For example if your sympathetic nervous system is set to 'full on' you will find it extremely difficult to think your way into relaxation.

Do some Asana.
Then do some pranayama.
Then do some more Asana.
More pranayama.
Relax.
Breathe.
Stretch.
Think.
Don't think.
Do some more Asana.
More pranayama.
And.
Suddenly.
You may find.
You
Are
Relaxed.

Not a miracle - more and act of conscious effort, and intelligence combined.

external pressure.

Much of the time we are trying to deal with life.

The life we live 'out there' is the world, of making money, establishing relationships, etc.

It can be very demanding, it makes us tired, and it makes us stressed.

What can we do?

Those of you that practice yoga regularly, know that it help - right?

It seems to me that if you practice everyday, you tend to deal with what life brings to you in a more efficient way.

We carry within us a muscular system, or more precisely the muscular system carries us. We hold ourselves up, we lift ourselves out of gravity.

Do you ever feel sometimes it's harder to do - as if you feel heavier?

I keep saying that Yoga will help you, and I think it can help you. But it isn't magic. It will help you to become clear - then you can see your way forward in a more effective and empowering way.

But it won't do the work for you!

You! Whoever you have decided you are, will have to take action if you want things to change.

Do you want things to change?

Is there something you are finding difficult to deal with?


Then wake up to the idea that you 'can' change.

Use Yoga to empower yourself and others.

Our addictions, the habits we have evolved with, the habits that help us to feel some comfort in the face of an uncertain world, will become exposed. We will see ourself, and what we are doing to avoid facing certain truths.

This can create tension, friction and fear.

But breathing in a calm way, over a period of ten or fifteen minutes can help a great deal..........

Try it!

As an experiment, make yourself anxious, think about something that is certain to make you anxious. Then do some breathing - do some postures, see what happens.

chicken or egg.

Is it the mind that affects the body?

Or is it the body that affects the mind?

What is the answer?

Bit of both?
Neither?

Well it appears to me that the effects of what we think about, have a direct effect on the body, via the processes of the hormonal system.

We think of scary things - the adrenal glands start to pump adrenaline into the system, our heart rate goes up, we sweat, we panic, we become anxious, and in extreme cases a panic attack may occur.

In the long term, the effects of the mind on the body may not be so noticeable. In other words we function fairly okay most of the time and rarely tip over the edge into outright panic - this is chronic tension. It's there, but not so acute.
We get used to it and eventually accept it as normal.

And perhaps in the greater scheme of things it is normal. For example, when in the history of human evolution has there ever been a time when stress in not evident or necessary?

Complete non-stress is a rare event. (I think).

But we can manage our functionality through Yogic techniques.

And there you go!

You either do or you don't.

Inertia.

Inertia is a mighty force. When we are in the grip of it, it's hard to move, let alone do anything creative.

Pranayama is the answer.

Inertia can sometimes be mistaken for tiredness. Tiredness, if it's genuine, will exist as a result of hard work or lack of sleep. Doing Pranayama will soon let you know if it is tiredness or inertia that is making you feel dull.

If you do some kapabhatti and alternate nostril breathing and you feel better, it's because your energy was low because of inertia. If you still feel tired after doing Pranayama you may need to have a sleep.

You can't lose...

It is an absolutely certainty, to me at least - that if I do practices which enhance my energy levels - I will feel better - I will think more positively, and I will enjoy all of my life.

The only reason I will not practice is if I have become gripped by negativity.

The answer to negativity - is Prana!

Prana!

Prana - we need it.

Compulsive busyness, thinking, working, and doing too much in general, keeps us occupied, and allows us to forget about our issues.

Being still, not being busy, allows the 'stuff' that is normally in the background, to come up. This 'stuff' is literally just that, it's 'stuff'. It may be anxiety related to the unknown future, or it may be misery, related to the past.
Either way it's not real.

Well what is real then?

If you read any of the Yogic philosophy it will tell you that 'it's all an illusion'. But to the logical mind this is rubbish, mystical nonsense. How can it be an illusion when people die in car crashes, or from cancer, or that life is not very nice, because people are not very nice - that's not an illusion that's what the world is like - we think. Our experiences have taught us that life is like this.

But then along comes this strange thing called Yoga and that makes a difference.

Yoga is not an existentialist nightmare, and it doesn't lead us into a
cul-de- sac of despair with nowhere to go.

It gives us techniques to use, to help us look deeper into this thing we call reality.

The only real issue, as far as it goes, is whether we choose to use these techniques or not!

And as William Shakespeare said: There's the rub .........

the only question is ....

Are you happy?

Based on time and experience, and many years of study, I have come to the conclusion that happiness is, like everything else, something we have to work for, or not.

Eating, drinking, playing, working, sleeping, making love, or not. All the things we do have an effect on our lives, our energy, and our ability to think, and create.

What goes in has an effect on us! That is mental, emotional, and physical experiences have an impact on our view of life.

Sometimes - perhaps more now than ever before, it's hard for us to be clear about who we are, and what we are doing, or want to do.

So we get confused, tired and miserable.

Take some time out.

Relax.

why don't you just do it?

Why do you procrastinate?

Why do you keep focusing on what's wrong all the time?

When are you going to understand that nobody can help you?

It's a hard fact, but it's true! Nobody can help you.........

Finding the part of you that is peaceful, is the only real job there is.

If you have peace, do you need anything else?

We've been through our lives. We've been affected by the things that have happened to us. We can become a martyr, and keep looking back at our suffering, or we can wake up to the fact that we have a choice.

You can, if you want, stop acting out old boring patterns. You can, if you want, stop complaining about how difficult your life is, and wake up to the fact that you have a choice, that you are no longer a child.

Now there's a thing to do!

What the first thing you do when you wake up? If you 'don't' wake up and do pranayama - you are missing a very important point!

you may need help

In most, if not all of the older Yoga books, it will tell you - in no uncertain terms, that you will need a teacher of some kind to help you.

In this time, we have such a wide choice of teachers, that the mind boggles. Who are we going to choose to be our teacher, and more importantly, in this age of 'we know it all', do we even need one?

If you want to keep fit, there are certain things you may need to be aware of; blood pressure, working at a level to suit your needs, knowing what your needs are, not overdoing it, what to do if you injure yourself, in other words finding a program to suit you. After a quick visit to the doc's, and a few basic instructions, you're on your way! Then depending on how far you want to go ,the requirements vary.

However, with Yoga it's slightly different. And if you think by Yoga, I mean the stuff taught in most Gyms, and some so called Yoga centers , I'm not.

Please look at Hatha Yoga Pradipika!
And.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali......

Yoga is radical.
It can/will have a profound affect on your levels of energy, on your awareness, and your general levels of consciousness.

It can be very disturbing.

It can show you things you may not want to see.

At times like this you may need someone to talk to!

Or, on the other hand, if stuff starts to happen that you find disturbing, you may think, 'Oh I'm not gonna do that no more, it's too disturbing! :))

Ask questions.
Question authority.
Trust yourself.

If you think it's wrong, it probably is ------ for you!

And this is where a good teacher comes in - a more or less objective observer of your process, someone that may be able to show you something you couldn't see for yourself is a necessary reqirement.

"Sort the Real from the Unreal."

choice is real.

Many people that I speak to are struggling in various ways. Struggle has been with us since our arising from the primordial slime way back in darkest history. In recent years, perhaps since the industrial revolution, we have been fooled into thinking that life 'should' be easy. It 'should' be easy, but for many of us, it is not easy.

As I mentioned, we have, if we choose to find it, a place inside of us that is peaceful. In order to find this peace we have to bring the mind under control. This thing called the mind is only doing the job that we set it to do. The job we set it to do was to 'think.'

I have no idea when the power to, think rationally, evolves in humans, but it does. It serves a purpose. It helps us to work things out, to process information, to be rational/objective about life and the things that happen to us within it.
Then one day we realise that we can't live without it, or more to the point, it can't live without us.

This is a strange realisation; we have a mind, our mind, and yet we cannot seem to control what it does. It wakes us at three am and reminds us we are 'not very happy' or that the world is not such a great place after all. Or that we are in a job we don't like, in a relationship that does not fulfill us, or some other such dissatisfaction. We push it to one side, tell ourselves it's a passing phase, that we will do something about it soon, but not today because we are too busy.

And so it goes, on and on and on........... 


Some of us seek an answer to the problem, perhaps we go to therapy, church, or some thing else that brings us a sense of peace and/or belonging. !2 step groups serve the wonderful purpose if uniting us with like minded sufferers - we identify with others that are struggling and it makes us feel better to  know we are not alone.

According to Yoga it is the mind itself that is the problem. The mind, which is a tool, has taken over the whole operation, it now runs the show, and 'we' have become victims of it's bullshit.

Pranayama helps to energise the brain and nervous system, it helps the brain and nervous system to relax. We relax, we feel better. Ah lovely. But wait, soon the mind comes back in again to remind us that we need it, it needs us. We do more pranayama and we once more relax and feel good. We do some yoga postures, we feel out aches and pains, we breathe deeper, we feel better.

We do this more often, the mind starts to become desperate, it scares us, by telling us we need it or we may go mad! We laugh, we cry, and slowly we begin to see the light of reason.

Why should we be unhappy?
Why should we suffer and struggle, to do what, live?

Yoga is hard rewarding work ............

sorting the 'real'

I try to write what I think is true. And that's not as easy as it sounds - not for me anyway.

What is there to say about Yoga - that it works? I think it does.

But it's a mess too. There are too many people, saying too many things, about too many subjects. It gets complicated, especially in the world of health and healing.

We live in complex times, the boundaries are shifting day by day - the boundaries of time/money/information merge and blur. Life is fast and complicated.

We are inundated with information, and it's up to us to decide, what's real and what's not, amongst it all.

How do we do that?

There is no doubt in my mind that a place exists within me, that is still, peaceful and silent. When I am in that place, I have no problems. This place is inside all of us.

This place has no need to be proven, it's not about contacting God, or a spiritual messenger from another dimension, it's inside of us, it's ours.

If you have never contacted this place, then you may need to be convinced of it's existence. I'm can't do that.

If you suffer, who's fault is it?

If you are peaceful and content, who made that happen?

I'm convinced that sometimes, good luck and good weather make a difference to our well being. But on the whole I think it's our effort in finding contentment, peace, and whatever else you want to call it, that counts the most.

BUT - if we are programmed to be negative and miserable, then we are less likely to be able to find the inspiration to change ourselves. This is why people seek out therapies, to help them, to become inspired.

You are only a victim if you want to be. If you have been conditioned to be a victim, you first have to be honest about that, you have to wake up to that fact. After that you will be more aware of, the, 'victim making' decisions,  you make, and stop doing it.

If you do Pranayama it will give you energy, it will make you 'feel' better. Have you ever tired to be positive when you have flu? Impossible.

You have to get your energy up, it will help you to feel better, give you a head start into thinking more positively, more optimistically.

Yoga Pranayam and Asana will definitely do that. 

Stop moaning and don't let them get you down - who ever they are :)

OM

There is more to life than living inside your head!