relying on nothing.

The more familiar you become with nothing, the more support you'll feel from it.

De-conditioning is an event that occurs through ongoing committed practising.

What you practice, is very personal. It may be Tai Chi, Yoga, Qui gong, it really doesn't matter. This is a Yoga oriented website, so we refer to Yoga a modality for letting go.

You are conditioned by your past, and you are hypnotised by it. The past is gone, but only if you let it go. You are anxious about the future, but you have no idea what's coming next, you may think you do, but really, you have no idea.

The personality, this thing we identify with as us, is a condition. It is not really you!

Look at some of the things you think you need in order to survive as an ego. The way you dress, this thing that gives us so called individuality. The things you eat, and drink.

The people you feel 'comfortable' with are the people that live roughly within the same belief system as you do.

This is conditioning.

It's strange but true, that the very thing you 'think' you need, is the very thing that keeps you prisoner of the illusion you probably refer to as reality.

Everything comes from nothing and returns to nothing.

Let go.

connect...... make a point of it..

Eyes closed - sitting up straight - or lying down relaxed - breathe.

Breathe deeply into yourself.

Fill yourself with breath.

Watch the mind disappear and/or become clear as you keep breathing........

The more often you do this, the easier it becomes.

Soon you won't need any special preparation, just a thought will be enough to remind you to - let go.

And because you know how it feels to be deeply relaxed, the body/mind remembers and will take you there.

If you are very far removed from peace, and stressed, then a little more effort may be required, or should I say a little more focus may be required.

But now you know what peace feels like, you'll be able to return to it more easily. And more importantly you won't let yourself stray too far from it in the first place.

Peace between the ears is the only thing you need.

relevant or not?

The past has happened, it affected us, it affected all of us to some extent. Psychotherapy will look at you, as you are now, and in relation to the past. It will take you back into the past, to help you uncover some of the things that affected you. It will allow you to analyse the past and your relationship to it.

This seems to help some people, and it's a blossoming profession.

Alternatively, there are those who tell us to let go of the past, to forget about it altogether.

In a sense, the past has no power of us. Unless we choose to give it power over us. People also, have no power over us, unless we choose to give our power away to them.

The reason we may give our power away is usually because we are conditioned to do it, from our past.

Hmmmm, so if we do not do in depth psychotherapy we will always be a victim of our unconscious, an unconscious that has been shaped by our past conditioning?

There are some that are more damaged by the past than others. Some have been seriously traumatised by abuses of various kinds. Psychotherapy would be helpful to these people, probably, as would all sorts of support.

What do we do then?

Who do we believe?

Well, if you have a problem, usually you'll try to sort it out. You can only sort out a problem once you recognise that you have one. That's the first step.

But then again, all problems stem from the mind.

So if we can get rid of our mind, then all of our problems will go away. In effect this too is true.

We all need to eat, sleep, go the the toilet, have company, warmth, and water to drink.

What else is there?

How complicated does your life need to be?
What is your problem?
What do you need to do?
What do you want to do?

Your Yoga mat, is the interface between conscious and the unconscious.

Let go of the past.

Let Go Of The Past.

Let Go

Can you let go of the need to be something other than what you are right now?

Lay down on the floor, part the legs and arms, and let go.

See the way your mind keeps pulling you into different shapes, different perspectives, and realise that it's all and illusion.

As you continue to surrender, the mind begins to quieten, and in the silence you feel what it's like to be free, to be open and free, right here right now.

There is no future, there is no past. There is now.

This is what all the teachers are telling us, some in very convoluted ways, but this is it!

You are Here and Now and always will be.

What are you doing with this moment? Are you thinking ahead, trying to work out what you're going to do next, having imaginary conversations with people that aren't here. Rehearsing your life inside of your head? Wondering what it will be like when you have a new job, house, or boyfriend?

Forget it and enjoy being here.

Relax.

If you can't relax do twenty rounds of Sun Salutation.
Do Five rounds of Kapabhatti.
Do Ten or Twenty rounds of Alternate Nostril breathing.

If that doesn't work, do it again.

What have you got to lose?

If you are in the grip of a personal crisis, you may find you'll have to work a bit harder.

If you have an intelligent and sane friend to talk to that helps.

But ultimately letting go is the best you can do.................

So learn how to do it now.

Yoga as technique, not cult.

Yoga - and the system of Yoga, was never meant to be captured and made into a 'thing' that belongs to someone.

Yoga is a system of techniques, that may help you to to see through the illusions/delusions of your own mind.

It seems so much easier sometimes, to have a drink and relax, to smoke a cigarette, and tell yourself you are free.

How free are you?

And what is freedom anyway?

'Within the mind there are no limits'. So says John Lilly, in his famous book, 'The Centre of the Cyclone.'

The mind 'is' a limit.

Pranayama - can help you move beyond what you 'think' are your limits.

Do you even do Yoga?

Would it ever occur to you to get up in the morning and do, Five, Ten, or Twenty, rounds of Kapalbhatti - just to see what happens?

Would it occur to you to get up and do, Fifty rounds of Sun Salutation, just to see what happens?

Ten, Twenty, or thirty rounds of alternate nostril breathing?

What have you got to lose?

Your mind? :)

I suppose you may think it's easy for me to say all this. Why? Because I made an effort to get here?

Sometimes it seems so easy, and why not enjoy it, why shouldn't it be?

Enjoy.

Before you know it, it may be seriously hard again.

Breathe and relax. Stretch out, and relax. Sit still, and look within

Do what you want, and see where it takes you. If it takes you into a shit place, at least you will have learned something.

Procrastination means, putting off till tomorrow the life that you could be having today

Peace.

our teachers.

It seems to me, when you look a little closer, our teachers seemed to be flawed in some way - all of them.

Could that be because they are human? :)

If you look, you will discover that you are a victim, to a greater or lesser degree, of your past.

Your personality has been formed, consciously, and/or unconsciously, via, education, religious input, or the lack of it, parents views and biases, accidents, illnesses, experiences in general, and more.

This is a fact, and by now it should be pretty obvious.

Freud, Jung, and all the psychologists, have told us what we need to know. There is more than enough information available now, for those of us that are interested, to look at and discover something about ourselves.

If you can't be bothered to do that fine, but stop complaining.

Bookshops are full of old, and new books, on all the varying subjects to do with the mind, the body, the universe, and everything in it.

What's the problem?

People have been going on about the 'new age' the 'age of Aquarius' since the sixties! Well it's here - if you can't see that, you must be seriously asleep, or stupid, or both.

I believe, Eckhart Tolle, and, Tony Parsons are telling us something interesting. You may need to hear it, they seem to make it sound simple. Unlike Krisnamurti, and others like him. They made it too complicated for me. And some of the stuff written by Alice Bailey, et al, is beyond comprehension.

Why did they need to make it so complex?Perhaps that's the best they could do with the mind sets of that era. Perhaps the 'esoteric' made it more interesting for people.

To be honest, we have to ask, what are they all saying anyway?

The Guru system seems to be irrelevant, and outdated to me. I know there are some that still kow-tow to the need to be special and different, and pretend they know something none of the rest of us mere mortals know, but now it's clear, it's a game!

We are here now, and what we 'choose' to do with his gift is personal.

We have knowledge at our fingertips - if we don't choose to look at it, who are we going to blame?

What's the problem? Oh yea I forgot, the world is in a mess! People are still killing each other.

This is not good.

There are many people with serious struggles, I know that. But with some determination and willingness to see more clearly, most things can be made better.

The mind needs to be examined, looked at. That's it!

Your own mind, and the things you 'choose' to think about, will determine the way you feel, and the way you view the world around you.

Stop and look within.

Breathe and try to stop thinking for five minutes.

Let the light come in.

Yoga can help you.

do as you will.

I'm 60, and I'm talking about Yoga.

I was washed up on the shores of Yoga in 1994. I went to my first Yoga class on my 44th birthday, and the number of the house I entered to do my first Yoga class, was number 44.

I saw that as significant at the time!

I wasn't overly enthralled by the sun salutations or some of the postures, but I liked the breathing.

I was taught, what was explained to me at the time, as Kriya Yoga. These were a set of breathing exercises, that made me feel very good - and that was all I really wanted.

The year previous to this I had undergone a series of treatments for Leukaemia. I wasn't happy, and the breathing helped.

After some time I moved on. I went to a Sivananda hybrid class, and I liked it. It also involved a lot of breathing - Kapalbhatti pumping, and alternate nostril breathing.

It made me feel good, so I went back many times for more for several years.

Then I felt the need to move on again, and began to do self practice. This is where I learned what Yoga was all about. During this period I experimented with different styles of Yoga, but I always came back to the breathing.

Last year I did an advanced teacher training with Sivananda, it was very difficult!

But, at 60 I feel great.

In my early life, in the 60's and 70's, I took lots of drugs - who didn't?

I took my last drug in 1974, and I stopped using alcohol 12 years later, in 1986.

Now what?

The one thing I can say with complete honesty is, I have always done what I 'thought' I wanted to do, and it is this has led me to where I am now.

It took a while but I got here.

Are you doing what you really want?

If not you'd better start.

Hadn't you?

Yoga helped me :)

is it that difficult to keep still?

"Be still and know that I am God" - comes from the bible - what does it mean?

Well, let's try keeping still.

How hard is it?

When you try to keep still, you will immediately notice something, your mind.

When the body is kept still it becomes easier to look at your mind.

Thoughts......... float past..................like clouds passing through the sky.................they arise, and they disappear.................this one...............the next one....................here comes another one...........wow!

Thoughts are meaningless, unless you attach meaning to them.

There is another part of us that knows, it just knows. This knowing part doesn't need to process information, it knows immediately what it has seen or felt.

Stop thinking and see..............

simple not so easy.......at first.

Becoming more present is an ongoing job. The mind or the ego, or whatever you want to call it, will not just go away.

It's difficult to stop thinking. So the first thing to do is to, see, that 'you' are thinking. Once you see that you are thinking, you have activated this other level of mind, which we can call 'the witness'.

The witness is normally dormant, but with ongoing practice it becomes more accessible. In fact it is always there, it's just that we have over-identified with the voice of the ego, and lost touch with it.

So you see, it's simple. But in practice is not so easy.

This is why we do Yoga, it's why I do Yoga.

Thousands of years ago the Rishis were apparently informed by higher consciousness entities/God, and from this evolved the Vedas, a highly complex philosophy on Yoga.

I'm no scholar, but I get the gist of it.

We are now thousands of years forward in time, and have been through many years of social and material development. The ego, in this era has been king, we needed it.

Do we now?

Why are you unhappy?
Don't you have everything you need.
Yet you are still unhappy.
Why?
What is it you think you lack?

Stop looking outside of yourself for answers. The new house, car, boyfriend, girlfriend, boat, whatever, will make you happy for a while, then the ego will look for something else to be miserable about.

You have become so enamoured with your own mental discombobulations, that you can't see it's your mind/ego that's causing the problems in the first place.

Peace

the mind.

Someone once did an experiment on someone that suffered from multiple personality disorder. This is a condition whereby a person can have two or more co existing personalities in one body, that do not relate to one another.

In the experiment it was found that one aspect of the multiple personality could be allergic to something, but whilst in another aspect of the multiple personality the allergy did not exist.

Interesting. That the person could manifest symptoms in one part, and none in another.

I think most of us have experienced that we have different elements of mind or personality, parts that exist more or less at different times. For example, in one part we may relate in one way, in another part we may relate in a completely different way.

To the logical it becomes a paradox, the the multi faceted it is an expression of another element.

If you adhere to the mono-mind theory, this can be very confusing. But if you allow yourself to expand into the idea of a multi-faceted mind, it all makes perfect sense.

:)

Anyway, we may have to admit, that we are acted upon by external forces most of the time; the weather, people, places, etc, can have an influence on us. Some of these external forces can affect us deeply, but only if we have a mind to be affected. The weather for example can destroy someone's day, week or month, and we now have a syndrome synonymous with changing weather patterns, known as S.A.D.S, seasonal, adjustive, disorder, syndrome. In this case, as the weather changes so does mood and the ability to operate.

I digress!

What I am getting at is, if we can sink into the silent mind, we are not going to be affected by anything. When we are in silence, we are relating to the void, to nothing, to the 'no mind' of the Zen philosophers. And from that space nothing can affect us.

Deepen this connection everyday.

Relate to nothing and become free.

In Yoga we are kind of creating a new part of the personality 'the inner yogi' if you like.

This 'inner Yogi' is connected or relating to silence and stillness.

The inner Yogi becomes less affected by the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

informed.

We have a vast 'literal' network of information at our command.

We can for example Google the word, Vedanta, and get many answers.

It is only our resistance to surrender that keeps us hooked into the drama games that we play, games that keep us tense and miserable, locked into our position of 'little me'.

What a waste of energy!

Relax.

What we hold in our mind affects the body's function. The body's function, likewise affects the mind.

Structure governs function.

Health is wellness.

Feeling good is surrender to now, always.

Resistance to the present is denial.

Stop pretending and set yourself free.

When you look in the mirror you see the cause of, and the solution to, all of your imagined problems.

Relax a bit more.

How far can you go?

Infinity ..................?

:)

a hard won peace

Recently, due to a few mishaps and upsets, I have tried to look at myself a little more honestly.

................and I admit - it feels difficult to be peaceful.

My conditioning is reactive.

Something happens - I react.

In this watching I realise more than ever, that I am not my thoughts.

I detach, and feel a deeper presence.

I respond rather than react.

It feels good.

Surrender and enter the present.

If you need help, try Yoga.

when seeking is gone....

When seeking is gone.

We have what we have.

Surrender.

And accept.

Feel it.

Let it.

Sink 

In.

Then breathe deeply.

Into the self.

And realise.

You are here.

Now.

And always will be.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

what is and isn't......

There is stillness, everything arises out of stillness.

There is chaos and disharmony too, which things also arise from.

There is (in my opinion) the infinite intelligence of the infinite, that which is all and nothing. It is this indescribable source that we desire to connect to, and that we feel separate from, but we are not separate from it, we are it.

It is said that the ego keeps us separated from this source, and there are some that are connected consciously to this source as a gift of grace. If you are not one of those you will still be looking for a way to find it, and that is your problem.

There is nothing to find and nothing to connect to.

Relax..........

I think yoga can help :)

Calm and storm.

Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's not.

When it's not so easy, we have to work a bit harder, we have to try to see through the cloudy mind.

The mind is a clear sky, and the thoughts are clouds, that's all.

You really have to understand this, if you don't you'll waste your energy chasing another ego trip.

You are not your mind.

Yoga can help you see.

Asana - Pranayama and Meditation.

Try it sometime.

Alternatively, smoke some dope, drink some wine, and pretend it's all okay.

Okay? :)

peace not pieces.

If you keep looking outside for satisfaction you will not get it.
If you look within you may feel uncomfortable for a while.


Where do you turn?

Keep looking within and begin to realise that you are not your mind.

The thinking mind is an illusion based on the past.

The past is gone, let it go!

The future is not here yet, forget about it!

Breathe deeply into the self.
Meditate deeply on the self.
Here and now.

Follow your bliss.

awareness not neurosis.

When you practice (if you practice) - look within.

As you move deeper into the aching muscles, the stiff joint(s), the busy mind, a transformation occurs. The transformation is caused by the fact that (you) are getting some space between you and you.

You are taking yourself into a practice that is undoing who you think you are.

Crazy no?

YOU are what you are, and YOU may be relatively unhappy with who YOU think YOU are. So it is best to see that who YOU are is not a fixed thing at all. It is a condition at best, and a condition can be changed.

Detach and watch what the mind does. It panics. It needs to survive and it cannot survive without you.

The BIG YOU and the little you are not the same thing. You need to see the difference.

Chasing money, or desiring the perfect relationship is the forlorn hope of the ego. 'Thing will get better' it tells us.

WHEN?

 How can things get better in the future when the future does not exist?

'You' only have 'now' to make a change and the only change 'you need' is the one that lets 'you' see that 'you' are not 'your' thoughts.

In the silence that follows there is peace.

Reality is here and now.

If you are lost in your mind, you are not here.

If you are not here, then where are you? You are not here, that's for sure.

It's not much use not being here is it. And spending time thinking, or worrying about the past is such waste of time.

Spending time projecting into the future, is also a waste of time.

If you need help becoming more present, do some thing that will help you do that.

Yoga helps.

Breathe deeply with your eyes closed. Get a rhythm going with the breath. Focus on that rhythm and detach yourself from thinking. Keep doing it. The thoughts may appear to get stronger and more demanding. This is what the ego does. It needs you to survive. When you get away from it, it will become cunning and powerful

I know it sounds as if I am talking about the ego as an alien entity, but if you look at it in an open hearted way, that is exactly what it is.

Of course it is useful to think intelligently and consciously sometimes. But allowing the mind to dominate us, allowing it to jabber away endlessly, is pointless and a complete waste of energy.

By becoming aware that you are thinking, you are slowly waking yourself up.

You can do this anytime and anywhere.

Be awake, or carry on sleeping, it's up to you - isn't it?

In the mind......

The mind is an idea.

How can you describe the mind? You can't, it is unfathomable.

What we know for sure is that we use part of this thing we call the mind, to think!

We think therefore we are. This is the worldview given us by Descartes, way back when. Well we've done enough thinking. Now it is time to stop, and perhaps look at what we think about.

We worry. There is always something to worry about. We share our problems, and as the saying goes, 'a problem shared is a problem halved.' Untrue! A problem shared is a problem compounded and doubled in volume. Your problem is now somebody else's problem, and before you know it your problem is the cause for discussion by people you don't even know.

What is your problem exactly?

Are you unhappy?

Why?

Look within.

If that's too painful, keep distracting yourself. Someday it'll get so bad you won't be able to do that anymore.

Yoga is designed to show you the way!

Try it sometime...........

mind over matter

When you use Yoga intelligently, in other words, when you understand the purpose of yogic practices, you will find that sometimes it is easy to overcome the discombobulations of the mind, and sometimes it isn't.

You need to know the difference.

What you did yesterday may not work today. Each practice session you do, whether with a teacher or on your own is completely unique.

Stay present!

Yogic practices can very easily become another piece of equipment in your arsenal of remedies and fixes, something to make to feel better for a while.

Be aware of this.

Become clear, why are you doing the practice. What does it give you? Is it helping you? It may not be right for you to do it now etc.

You have a choice, and although you may not believe it yet, you will be able to see more clearly over time that the choices you make every minute of everyday lead to consequences.

Consequences are what we generally refer to as Karma.

If you are more intelligently informed, your choices are more conscious. Therefore you will create less (bad?) karma for yourself and others.

What makes you more intelligent?

It might be a good question to ask, what makes you less intelligent..........

What are you 'really' doing?

unhappy?

Have you ever asked yourself, why are you unhappy?

If you do, and if you have to strength to be truly honest with yourself, you may find that you are unhappy because you are choosing to be.

Make a note of how many times in the course of a day you find a really good excuse to be angry, and or miserable.

It may make you laugh.

When you see that it is the the mind, or more precisely, the conditioned mind that is doing this, you have got to laugh.

You are not your mind....

Become quiet and enjoy it. If you can't do that, at least become aware of the nature of your thoughts, and the way these thoughts are making you feel.

Once you do this, you are acknowledging that 'you' have the capacity to 'see' your own thoughts.

This can provoke a serious question; If I can watch myself thinking, then who am 'I'?

Am I the thinker or the watcher?

Going further. If you are captured by your thoughts, if you have no way of detaching from and/or seeing that you are not your thoughts, you will then identify with them. When you identify with your thoughts, 'you' or who you think you are, have become your thoughts.

This is where the 'prover' comes in. The 'prover' has to prove what your thoughts are telling you, is real.

If someone in authority told you something as a child, you may have believed it, you may still, at some level, believe it. If you were told you were stupid or something, you may go around proving to yourself that you are stupid/miserable/ugly/fat/horrible/not a nice person/bad/good/ whatever, whatever, whatever.

So there you go.

By becoming still, and more conscious, you will see these little dynamics ticking away in the background. These 'beliefs' have become so ingrained that they become part of you, they have become a living reality of who you think you are.

When you do yoga etc, you are waking up the power of concentration, and the ability to become more present, more often.

Becoming more present more often is all you have to do...........

mental condition position.

In the last blog I said, 'how do 'we' keep going when all of our conditioning is asking to give up?'

You may have to look at what 'your' mental conditioning is telling you, and the only way to do that is to keep looking at it - all the time.
.
Instead of becoming more neurotic, become more peaceful, as you realise over and over again, that you are not your thoughts.

Can you do that?

Relax.

Then relax a bit more.

How far can you go?

I find if I have had a particularly bad reaction to something, and my head drama has kicked in,  some serious asana practice helps me get clear, and helps me to relax.

Then I can breathe.

And there is nothing like several rounds of strong Kapalbhatti to wake one up from the deep slumber of mental discombobulation.

Peace lies within.

The mind is a clear sky. The clouds are thoughts. Clear the clouds and see the true light of reality.

the body stiff.....

Mental
Physical
Breath

We may think our way into a poor posture.

Take a look at the way someone holds their body when depressed. Usually they'll have slumped shoulders, and a neck hanging forward. Probably a miserable countenance too.

How will this person ever stand up straight?

It depends. If he/she has held this position for a long time, it will probably be a difficult and long process. The musculature at the front of the body will have shortened, and at the back it will have lengthened.

As this person begins to straighten up, a certain level of anxiety will be felt as the chest is lifted and opened.

This is a rather brief description of a mental/postural attitude of a depressive, and what they are likely to feel over a period of transformation.

In a sense, the world has literally got this person 'down'. So, in another sense, they will need to 'face the facts' of their circumstances squarely, they will have to 'stand up' and 'see' the world exactly as it is.

Conditioning in early childhood may have shaped this persons attitude, perhaps that life is unfair, and they are not 'good enough' to deal with it.

So not only a mental, but a physical change may be required.

Asana's then, are an integral part to a holistic recovery. Another more expensive route, may be through extensive bodywork sessions. In fact there now exists a modality called body psychotherapy.

But how do we keep going when our mental conditioning has also become a physical problem, when out total conditioning is towards giving up and going under?

This is where we need a good teacher, an inspiring teacher.

First; we realise we are 'not' our thoughts, we Meditate and Relax.

Second; we see that thinking is the cause of our attitude towards life - We Breathe and concentrate.

Third; We relax the body as often and as much as we can. We become more aware of ourselves, more fully aware of ourselves more often. We do Asana and Relaxation.

Before all of this comes the profound realisation, and I reiterate, that "WE" are not "OUR" thoughts.

It's already here.

Enlightenment is here, do you want it?

Can you handle it.

It must be here, it can't be anywhere else can it?

Wake up now!
Not tomorrow.
Not next week.
Now.........

Why not, what is stopping us?

'Well it's err, well it's all these things I've gotta do, the job, the relationship, the mortgage, the car, the bills, argh!'

We need to find a clear definition of what we think is missing from our lives. What is that thing that we do 'not' have, what is it that is preventing me from being?

The mind is as conditioned as an out of date computer, an out of date computer that can't handle information. The information that is coming in at you from every angle is likely to blow your mind.

But.

If you let go and become completely aware that there is only 'NOW' to deal with, you'll be able to relax - won't you?

Unless there is a direct threat on you right here and right now, you have nothing to worry about - do you?

It's a bad habit!

Enlightentment.

What is enlightenment?

The descriptions I've read are rather confusing. It's as if the enlightened person can't describe what he or she has seen.

A bit like trying to describe a colour to a blind person.

But what is enlightenment?

If we look with clear eyes, what do we see? We see the world, we see the things in front of us.

Without clear eyes, in other words, when we are lost in our thoughts we see nothing.

Enlightenment then, could be described as 'seeing' with clear vision, i.e, when we are 'not lost' in our thought processes, and when we are able to stay present with whatever is happening, within and without us.

Perhaps we could call that enlightenment.

Why not?

However, we may have to assume from the very few people that seem to have achieved it, that it is not an easy thing to become - to be present.

Not all the time anyway!

So from this perspective we could have levels of enlightenment, that we are, at any given point, more or less present.

So what prevents us from being present, our thought processes, our pain?

Indeed, it may be very painful to be fully awake to the moment, there may be issues that we would rather not deal with right now, would rather leave them till later.

But later somehow never seems to come.

I'm no expert. I just look at the evidence of my own experience. We can read about someone else's experience, and we may identify with it. But there is nothing like 'knowing' from one's own truthful experience what it feels like to, feel sad through loss, joy through realisation, misery through pain, laughter through fun.

We come back to trying to explain a colour to a blind person.

How do we do that?

not seeing.

What I have found is that we can get so caught up in trying to 'be' something, that we miss what we really are.

What are we?

Be honest.

Look at yourself truly and admit that you are 'not' perfect.

But

That you are perfect in your imperfection.


Where you are now, is where you are now - right?

What are you going to do about it?

Do you need to do anything about it?

If you are unhappy, or if you think you are unhappy, accept it.
Surrender to that feeling, see where it takes you.

This voice that tells us we are not good enough as we are, is the ego. It tells us we are not good enough as we are and that we can be better than we are. It can also tell us that we are too good, too good to be bothered with the mundane things in life, such as working, earning money, eating, sleeping and etc. (Or is that just me? :)

It seems that the world has been set up so that we don't have enough time. Prices, living in London especially, make it so that we have to work pretty hard just to make the rent. We do some Yoga, it helps us to manage our time a bit better. It shows us we need to relax, as well as work and play. We need to eat good food.

A balance is struck now we have activated our intelligence, and our greater awareness.

If you know yourself, you will understand what you need, and when you need it. If you know yourself, you will be better able to understand others. We are human after all, and in some ways very similar to one another. So instead of getting resentments and making enemies, we can better understand why people behave the way they do and become more forgiving. This helps us!

Peace is what we want and need.

We have a choice.

breathing.

How hard is it to breathe?

How hard can it be to sit still for 10, 15, 20 minutes or longer, and concentrate on breathing?

The 'probable' reason you don't, and there can be many, is that you do not understand something.

You are 'probably' too busy listening to your mind chattering.
It will tell you that you are too busy, it's a waste of time, it doesn't work, and many more things.

YOU really need to realise that YOU are not YOUR thoughts.

Sitting and/or lying, and focusing on the breath is 'one way' to help you do this!

Eventually YOU will be able to let go of thinking. YOU will look around and feel good.

'If you have one foot in tomorrow and one foot in yesterday you are not here.'

ASANA
PRANAYAMA
MEDITATION.

trapped in the head?

A thought is an electrical impulse inside the brain. If you think the same things everyday, if you worry all the time, it causes the brain to form a habit, it causes you to form a habit.

We think habitually and chronically about the same things, over and over again.

Crazy isn't it?

I received a letter recently that may affect where I live. I may have to move, and I really don't want to move. As a result, I felt anxious and uncertain about everything. It was as if the foundations of my life had been rocked. It lasted about three weeks. I felt anxious, and on top of that I had this rather harsh voice telling me that, 'because I'm a yogi I 'should' not be bothered by anything,' which of course just compounded the problem.

I have to say that the 'observer' aspect of my mind was still functional, I could 'see' this was happening. But because it was such a strong 'thought form' loaded with anxiety, it had become a physicalised issue by now too. In other words the thought related to the situation had caused an adrenal response in my body and increased the anxiety levels.

Anyway, I'm okay now, as they say. I managed to get things back on track by constantly reminding myself that this was 'not' as bad as my mind was perceiving it to be. I was using what, in 'cognitive behaviour therapy' they call 'disputing'. Such as; 'although this situation is quite upsetting, it is not going to kill me!' :))

So I used my mind, my positive mind, to dispute all the evidence that my 'conditioned mind was telling me. And I breathed, and stretched to cause my body to relax. I breathed consciously and deeply whilst disputing the chatter of my conditioned negative mind.

Once I had reset my nervous system, and felt more relaxed, I was able to get current time perspective again.

So it depends on the strength of the catalyst that causes you to go into an anxiety dream, fantasy, or whatever you want to call it. In other words the strength of the reactive thoughts, will determine the action you may need to take to get you back to the present.

The bigger the catalyst the harder you may need to work - so start with the small things, notice more.

Practice more and more becoming present to what you happen to be thinking about at any given time.

Do some some Pranayama as often as you need to.......
Same with Asana.

And don't let your practice become a neurotic routine.

What??

What are we doing?
Why do we do Yoga?

More to the point - do we do yoga?

What makes us happy?
What makes us unhappy?

Why is it so difficult to be happy?
Is it difficult to be happy?
Is it really difficult to be happy? Have you ever thought about it?

Aren't we making ourselves unhappy by the choices we make?

Are we conscious or unconscious?

Are we awake or asleep?

Are we free?

Or

Are we in a prison of our own making?

How can we be more free - more happy?

These are some serious questions.

What purpose does worrying serve?

Are you attached to being unhappy because you don't think there is another option?

Do you know how to relax?
Do you know how to relax very deeply and let go?
Do you know how to relax very deeply and let go of yourself?

When will you be ready to make some effort to wake up?

ps.

I don't think we need to use anything other than our own intelligence to become happier and healthier.

You can become more present by simply looking at the nature of your own thinking habits and questioning them.

Pranayama will improve your health, and the function of your brain.

Asana will improve the flow of blood through the body, and release tension from the muscles.

Meditation will help you relax the brain, and mind.

You should really try it sometime.

Yoga is NOT magic.

If you enjoy being miserable that's a choice you've made.

I don't enjoy being miserable, and still find myself, on occasion, being miserable.

The mind is a very strong and cunning adversary. It will not let go without a fight.

Do you know what I mean?

The mind, the ego, the conditioned mind, call it what you like. I'm talking about the voice in the head that tells you things, the one that tells you you're better than everyone, or worse than everyone, or whatever it needs to tell you to fit the occasion.

If you can detach from this little voice, it's fascinating to see what it will tell you.

Do I sound like a madman?

Well anyway if you understand, you understand, if you don't, you don't. It's not my problem really :))

I've decided, for the time being at least, to use every moment possible to become more aware of the present moment.

It seems like the only sane thing to do.

The alternative is to think about how I can make my life better, because it seems to be so crap at the moment. Hmmm, maybe even have a drink or a smoke to help myself feel better - only joking!

You are whatever your thoughts tell you you are, until you realise the you are not your thoughts.

Simple and effective remedies available from your own intelligence. Use it!

Why am I alive?

The mind is like a wild horse. It needs to be tamed.

As soon as you 'see' yourself thinking, you have awakened from a dream.

Events occur in the world, small things, big things happen all the time.

Things happen to us personally too, big things, small things.

If someone says something to us that is personally upsetting, whatever it may be, we will react, we will take offence. In the world this is what is expected of us, it is the stuff of movie legend. The person insulted will enact revenge on the perpetrator, and we all feel satisfied.

However, if you 'see' that your thoughts are nothing more than habitual forms of nothing, then you will be less affected by so called external events.

How much time do you spend thinking about, what happened yesterday, last week, last year, and what 'may' happen tomorrow, next week, next year?

If you look at this you have to admit that it is a waste of time.

We are here.
You are here.

Pinch yourself - it's true.

What are you doing with this moment?

'The course in miracles' - a book written a few decades ago, was a very long and complex book. It is a course designed to free you from the mind. It (in my opinion) is a very complicated and difficult book, and also a very complicated and difficult process.

Later we have 'The Power of Now' a shorter and much less complicated book, designed to do the same thing, i.e, to show you that you are not your mind, and that you have been conditioned to live the way you do.

To detach from thinking, you just become aware that you are thinking.

And watch it.

Keep doing this.

Spend more time learning how to be present.

Yoga Asana and Pranayama will give you a head start, especially if you have difficult challenges occuring.

Be in your body.

And

Try not to be in your head.

Keep breathing.

Keeping focused on the breath rhythm is another way to give yourself a break from thinking.

And when you choose to think about something, do it with awareness.

WHO?
What?
WHY?
Where?
When?
How?
What?

and then have a laugh ...............

Multi tasking - thinking and breathing

Breathing is something we all do all the time, when we are alive.
Thinking is something most of us do all the time - come on admit it.

When breathe consciously something important happens - we become embodied awareness. In other words we become aware of ourselves as a human being, breathing, heart beating, here and now.

The same is true for thinking, when we become aware of what we are thinking about, we see the thinker. Then we have a choice - to either continue thinking, or step back and observe ourself thinking.

We become the the seer and the seen, one is real and permanent the other is not.

Simple but effective.

Create or Miscreate ...

As time passes, we practice Yoga more regularly, and what we see, what we realise is that the mind is a very powerful thing.

We make a commitment to become more present, and twenty minutes later realise we've been thinking for the whole time.

Should we give up trying?

In a way we don't have to try, because we 'see' we are thinking, and this is enough to show us that the thinking mind is not who we are.

We are the 'seer' and we are much more than the mind thinking.

This is a shocking realisation. We see that all the thoughts we have, are illusions.

We 'think' we can see into the future by projecting self made images of what we think will happen. These projections, if done positively and creatively, are possible futures based on conscious choice.

If, on the other hand, they are fear based worries, projecting a negative outcome, then that is what they will do.

There is an old saying; 'be careful what you pray for, you just might get it.'

Conscious thought is like a prayer, but unconscious thought is just as strong, and just as likely to create an outcome of some kind.

So; be careful what you think about, be aware of what you are projecting forward.

Unless we wake up to this fact, we will keep bringing the past into the present.

If we have come from a negative past it is easy to project a negative future.

Post traumatic stress is replaying a stressful event over and over in our mind. We re-live negative experiences. 

If we go back to the past and see a positive event, it comforts us. A negative event upsets us.

Being present takes practice. And if we are mired in the past, Yoga, or some other form of psycho/spiritual practice can help us let go of it, and can give us some perspective of a life without fear and tension.

Yoga as Oasis.

Your Yoga practice should not become another neurotic routine. A Yoga practice is a time to connect within. It is a time to connect to something beyond to the everyday mind, to something sacred.

When I practice I notice my thoughts and I see my resistance to going beyond thought. It is in this instant I 'see' my Ego's attachment to its own survival.

I believe the ego is a necessary thing, in time.

We need to think, and we need to make plans - if we are choosing to live in this world.

But there are times, many times I would say, when we don't need it, when it is a nice thing to switch it off.

The rest of the time we abide in peace.

So this is what the practice for me is for. Because sometimes it feels difficult to let go, and sometimes it seems hard to get 'out of my head' - so I do some Pranayama, some Asana, and some meditation.

Yoga is a tool.

Ego is a tool.

We are human.

What does it mean to be human? What do we do? What are we supposed to do?
What is life for?

We breathe. We eat. We go to the toilet. We drink. We sleep. We have sex. We laugh. We cry. We feel sad. We worry. We are grateful. We are ungrateful. We dance. We sing. We fight. We argue. We want to be something. We can't be bothered. We are tired. We have too much energy.

We think........ too much.

Relax.
Enjoy this life.

Yoga can help.