I love it when you come across something so perfect that it gives you an ah-HA moment. This video of Guru Dev Singh is one of those. A little background on Guru Dev Singh: He’s the only student of Yogi Bhajan whom Yogi Bhajan called a master. More accurately, Yogi Bhajan called him a living saint.
Guru Dev Singh is the master of Sat Nam Rasayan, a yogic healing technique which Yogi Bhajan passed to him and asked him to create system, a method, a way to teach it to others. Very simply, Sat Nam Rasayan is a healing modality wherein the healer gets into a deep meditative state known as Shuniya or Zero State and in doing so, creates a state of oneness with the patient, which creates a state of healing.
If the patient has the capacity to receive the energy, then they can heal themselves through the interaction. Complicated stuff, but this video explains it in one way. This video is bigger than that though. It applies to all of life. IT sums up why we meditate and why we practice kundalini yoga… because in a relaxed state we become compassionate, and when we’re compassionate as a simple state of being, then our presence works. Our presence simply uplifts the others we come into contact with, simply by being there. Yet another example of how being excellent and living up to your best and brightest self helps the world around you.
This morning during the end of Sat Kriya, I had this notion about the subtle difference between reaching for excellence and pushing. I think we’re all taught that since life can be tough, we have to be tough with ourselves and push, push, push. Sometimes this can be helpful, maybe when it’ a really tough day and you have to push, like if your car were to break down and you’d have to get out and push it. Not comfortable, but necessary. Pushing, when you think about it is a more aggressive mindset. It also implies resistance and opposition. We push things that can’t move themselves, that have no ability to motivate themselves.
Reaching for excellence however, is a desire to go higher with whatever it is that you do. You’re reaching for a little better part of yourself than you expressed the last time. Reaching implies that you want to do what it is that you’re doing. Your psyche is behind it and you’re inspired. It may take some time to get started, but once you’re there you’re into it. You reach and you pull yourself up because you want to. Then you reach again. Each time going a little higher, being a little more excellent. Each day you get up to do whatever it is that you do, you should try to do it a little better than you did the last time. This is not without its challenges. Resistance is a problem of the mind that affects everyone.
It’s a subtle difference, this reaching versus pushing but it’s a good one to meditate on. Reaching is going for the inspiration and the victory of creating something excellent where as pushing can be a mundane getting through of the unpleasant things. Sometimes this is necessary as there can be some unpleasant things in life and they have to be gotten through. When we recognize the subtle difference between this, then we can choose to reach for excellence and push through when we have to. In This way we create a habit of reaching for excellence and when you do that you can get higher and higher until you’re in orbit. A satellite has to expend a lot of fuel to get into orbit, but once it’s there in the earth’s gravitational pull, it can just ride that gravity around the planet at great speeds with a little thrust to either side to stay on course.
Reaching for excellence creates a habit of being excellent. If you create the habit of being excellent, soon you won’t have to push yourself as much.
There are two words to describe todays world: Too Much. Too much information, too much input, too much stimulus. With all the activity in the information age it’s getting increasingly difficult to focus the mind and find that flow which only one-pointed focus can bring.
In the face of this flood of information, as we try to multi-task and get everything done all at once it’s easy to become over-burdened with stress and burnout. Here’s ten ways to get ahead if you’re feeling stuck… or even if you’re not feeling stuck.
10 ways to get ahead in the information age.
“I get up in the morning. I do everything I have to do that day to the best of my ability and then I go to sleep at night.” –Harijiwan
Set your intention: create your manifesto
Figure out your next step
Pull back and make a plan
Take your next, next step
Make a realistic to-do list
Review your manifesto once a week
Accept that you may not achieve your dreams
Try with all your might to achieve your dreams
Follow your bliss
Remember the meaning of life
SET YOUR OVERALL INTENTION
Make it broad and simple. One compound sentence that describes your manifesto. What is it in your destiny that you came here to create? It’s okay if you’re not sure what that is. It’s also okay if you doubt it. If there’s something you’d just like to do then that’s it. Don’t think about it, just accept it.
“I’d like to be a writer.”
That’s enough. If you want to take that further perhaps…
“I intend to write children’s books which enrich growing minds. “
This is the seed of your manifesto. You’ll come back to it and add more to it but just take a moment to know what you’re on the planet for.
Now forget about that and get back to the present.
“All you really need to know is your next best move.”
That’s it. That’s the number one way to counteract the craziness of the times. Just know what your next step is and do that with 100% of your focus and energy. That keeps you in the present moment, where all the power is. It’s also an act of faith.
When you focus completely on the task at hand, you start to flow because focus of the mind is like meditation and it brings you into a neutral space where your soul pours through into your focused action. When the soul comes through, the universe comes with it. Things just line up.
Everyone’s experienced this at one time or another. The reason we don’t experience it all the time is our minds are not strong enough to “hold the space.” With practice (meditation) you can strengthen the mind to focus when and how you want it to.
The “best next step” strategy is very helpful if you’re in a tough spot. In these times of constant media crisis (the sky is falling, the economy is crashing, swine flu’s gonna getcha,) this can be a useful tool. If, however, you’ve got things somewhat together, then you can pull back and just…
And the other point is, if you follow your bliss, you’ll have your bliss, whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose money, and then you don’t have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way. –Joseph Campbell, An Open Life
MAKE A PLAN
Make a plan by ensuring that you’ve first got your life under control. It’s like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. If your basic needs aren’t taken care of: rent paid, food on the table, clothes for the kids, then you’re not going to be able to write that proposal for your children’s book.
Once your needs are covered then the plan becomes about carving out time after work and responsibilities to do what gives you bliss. What is it that makes your heart sing? Give yourself time to do that. Follow your bliss.
TAKE ANOTHER STEP
Things should be a little clearer now that you’ve stopped the freak out because of the stress, focused on your next step, then stepped back and made a preliminary plan. Now follow the next best thing on your plan. What is the number one priority on the list? Do that.
MAKE A REALISTIC TO-DO LIST
Make a realistic to-do list based on your initial plan, and do that with great focus, to the best of your ability then rest. Relax. Chill out. Break. Another priceless thing I got from Harijiwan is how he lives his life. He says:
“I get up in the morning. I do everything I have to do that day to the best of my ability and then I go to sleep at night.”
Sounds simple but how many times have you flooded a to-do list with unrealistic goals just because there’s too much to get done? All that does is stress you out when you don’t get everything done!
Working overtime rarely brings anything but need for massive amounts of red bull and caffeine. Often staying at the office is just hoping something will happen. Once in a while you have to work late to get something done or to meet a deadline, but if it’s happening five days a week then you should re-examine your life.
If on the other hand, your workaholism is driven by a corporate chain of command whose unrealistic demands are driven by the recent downsizing, then you have to find something to counteract that stress. Get a new job. If that’s not possible you’d better start doing some yoga and meditation to balance the weight of that pressure.
ONCE A WEEK, CHECK IN WITH YOUR MANIFESTO
Look at your manifesto and work on it a little bit. Just a little bit. Turn that sentence into a paragraph. It’s still okay if you’re not sure what it is but the more your return to it, the more your soul will speak to you and it’ll come out. Let it come out and keep reviewing it, because like a Polaroid picture, it’ll eventually come into focus.
Don’t worry if it seems like it’ll never happen. It might not.
ACCEPT THAT YOU MIGHT NOT ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS
“What? I can’t believe you said that!?!?”
Yes, I said it. Your dream might not come true. All the best-selling self help books will tell you that you can get everything you want by following their formula– their secret. And while they might be good principles it’s simply not true that everyone can instantly manifest the life they want after spending $24.95.
But you should try.
TRY WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT TO ACHIEVE YOUR DREAMS
With all your might, you should try and you should finish what you start at all costs. Most people let their own negativity stop them before they even begin. Sometimes people begin and then they stop out of fear generated by the negative mind. Consider the fact that you may fail and then decide to succeed. You may not reach your goal, but you will come out the other side having had the experience of giving it your best. Often times the result is something much better than you had even planned. But you must give it your all. Often we want one thing, but the universe is pushing us toward something better.
The big crime that all these self help books inflict on everyone is that they only give you one side– extreme positivity and that is unrealistic. We live in a world of opposites, of dualities. If there’s pleasure, there’s going to be pain at some point. If you enter the ring, odds are you’re gonna take one in the nose!
You can’t succeed without failing at some point. Unless you accept the possibility that you might fail, you’ll never succeed. So accept that forces beyond your control might set the stage where you don’t get to your dream and look around at what is being offered you as it just might be an even better opportunity.
FOLLOW YOUR BLISS
What’s that the Rolling Stones once said?
“You can’t always get what you want, but if your try sometimes, you get what you need.”
Here’s the big question: Can you be happy whether or not your expectations in life come to pass? If you can’t then you’d better start. That’s why Joseph Campbell always said: Follow Your Bliss.
And the other point is, if you follow your bliss, you’ll have your bliss, whether you have money or not. If you follow money, you may lose money, and then you don’t have even that. The secure way is really the insecure way and the way in which the richness of the quest accumulates is the right way. –Joseph Campbell, An Open Life
REMEMBER THE MEANING OF LIFE
There is no big purpose to life.
What? What about all those books at Barnes and Noble?
It’s just you and your manifesto. What is it that you will decide to manifest in this life? I really like Joseph Campbell’s take on it:
“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” –Joseph Campbell
That’s it. Being alive is the meaning. Can you be happy just being alive? If not, you’d better get there quick. We come into this life naked and naked we go. All that stuff you create can’t be taken with you and it doesn’t mean a thing. But can you create something on this planet that will outlive you? Can you create something that will live on long after you’re gone?
If you can’t be happy just being alive then you’re already dead. It’s fine to have passion and desire… please, have alot of it and make it true. But just remember:
“Desire is like wood. You the more you put on the fire, the bigger the flames, but in the end you are still just left with ashes.” –Yogi Bhajan
I get a lot of beginners in my classes and I find myself explaining the basics a lot. Here’s the info on the mantras that are used in Kundalini Yoga Practice.
Feel free to DOWNLOAD A COPY of them and send them to students or anyone who needs them.
BASICS OF KUNDALINI YOGA MANTRAS
These are the most frequently used mantras in the practice. People new to the practice quickly learn that chanting mantra is not singing, it’s vibrating sound to create a quantum effect.
Sound is a form of energy and used specifically can change one’s state. In Kundalini Yoga we use mantra (man=mind, tra(ng)=projection) to project the mind into focus. Think of it as dialing a security code… you punch in a code and the door opens. That’s the use of mantra.
HOW TO CHANT: Begin with a full breath and focusing on creating the sound at the navel (just below the belly-button,) Let the sound radiate from there, up and out. Play with the sound, experiment until it feels like the sound puts you in a groove– you’ll know it when you get it, then it’s like riding a bike.
THE MANTRAS
ONG NAMO GURU DEV NAMO Known as The Adi Mantra, it’s the mantra we use to tune in at the beginning of class. (at least three repititions)
ONG= Creativity of the universe coming into form NAMO= to bow (infinitely – to the formless consciousness) GURU DEV= The subtle force of the teacher within (gu=darkness, ru=light; Guru is that force that brings you out of the dark into the light) NAMO= to bow (to the finite– to the form, yourself and the other)
The mantra vibrates the mind and tunes the whole system in to the wisdom that’s brought about by meditation.
AAD GURAY NAMEH
The optional, second chant after the Adi Mantra above, is a protective mantra known as “A Mangala Charan Mantra.” Its sound current creates a buffer of light around the person chanting it. The idea is that while you can’t control time, you can affect the space you occupy within time and thus chanting this mantra gives you space to avoid danger– by up to 9 seconds coming and going.
AAD GURAY NAMEH = I bow to the primal wisdom
JUGAD GURAY NAMEH = I bow to the all emcompassing power and energy
SAT GURAY NAMEH = I bow to that through which God creates
SIRI GURU DEV EH NAMEH = I bow to the creative power of the kundalini, the divine mother power.
LONG TIME SUNSHINE
To End we sing The Long Time Sunshine Song which is an old Irish folk song that Yogi Bhajan made a part of kundalini yoga to end all classes.
May the long time sun shine upon you
All love surround you
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on
SAT NAM
Sat Nam basically dials the person chanting it in to the highest truth for them.
SAT= Truth (universal) NAM= Identity (the applied identity– individual and universal, from infinite to finite and back)
Imagine that your life is like a big ship. It takes a lot to maintain and sail that ship. When you steer your ship, it has to be done with certain calculations and planning in order for you to set a course and stay on that course to get where you’re going in your life.
So one has to map out where they want to get to then constantly readjust. Each new day brings new circumstances and information like changes in weather, wind or sea conditions. Just like life, each day brings new things that must be contended.
IT’S OKAY TO MAKE A FEW STOPS ALONG THE WAY
Sometimes to get to that ultimate destination we have to stop along the way. Maybe it’s for food, fuel or supplies or simply because we’ve gotten lost, but often there are stops along the way. That’s fine and it’s to be expected. We have to have patience though, because getting to our ultimate destination can be a long trip sometimes. You have to enjoy sailing. It helps if you’re enjoying the trip. If not then try. Try to appreciate the things you experience along the way. Sun and wind burn included.
CAN’T SEE THE OCEAN FOR THE TREES
One of the problems we face is that after we set out for some distant shore, once we’re out on the ocean, it’s all ocean for a while. Nothing but ocean and we’re unable to see the next destination for that vast ocean is the only thing around. This can be very disorienting. Getting up and going to the same job everyday can be like being out on the ocean. Sometimes you forget where you set out for.
When this happens it’s natural to doubt the course. It’s very easy to doubt the planning that was done along the way. After all, at this point all you’ve got is the big ocean in front of you, the ship and the course that you’ve set. That’s when we start wanting to change course. A new destination becomes more attractive than where we were going. Suddenly we’re convinced we can get there quicker if we change things up a bit… and so we start to steer the ship in a new direction.
STAYING THE COURSE
Our lives are like big ships and it takes a lot to steer them. There are so many factors going on in our lives, seen and unseen, that changing course changes all of those things. It’s no small thing to steer a big ship. Every time you change your course because you doubt where you going or where you are now, you change everything about the trip you’re on. This also affects everyone on the ship. That is why you have to see things through. Have patience.
Some people are good at staying the course, but for other people, it becomes a lot of jerky steering and that takes you on a pretty rough ride.
THE FIRST ONE WAS THE RIGHT ONE
When I was in the army, often on training exercises I was leading a whole battery of men and equipment. 120 plus men plus dozens of vehicles and I was at the helm, navigating. When the pressure is on like that, time and distances and landmarks start to become different. The mind, under pressure tells you that you’ve gone too far down one dirt road. Maybe I should’ve turned back there. The terrain isn’t an exact match to the map. Maybe I haven’t gone far enough.
The thing about having so many people and such a large cache of equipment depending on you is that if you mess up, it’s a big deal.
The biggest lesson I learned from those situations was to stay the course and trust the initial plan and initial impressions I had. Trust your gut. It was true every time. I stayed the course and the landmark appeared to let me know I was on course. I waited instead of hesitating under the mind’s pressure and the next turn appeared.
It’s the same for the individual life. You’re generally right the first time. Trust your gut and stay the course and you’ll get there. Stick with your decision until you’ve seen it through. And don’t jerk the ship around by changing course every day.
Everybody wants to change themselves for the better. It’s a natural human inclination to want to go higher. So why is it so hard? Why are some people able to change while most others suffer their habits, constantly pulled into routines that make them unhappy?
HOW CHANGE WORKS
When you set out to change something in your life, you wake up ready and full of fire.
“I’m going to go on a diet and lose 20 pounds once and for all.”
“I’m going to quit drinking, drugs, smoking, etc.” Whatever.
Most people, after a few days, weeks or months, find that the habit returns. The next natural reaction is to get discouraged and engage the negative mind, beating oneself up–
“I’m weak, I can’t do it, I’ll never quit smoking.”
This is a vicious cycle that just reinforces the mind’s hold on the soul.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now.” –Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
IT’S ALL IN YOUR MIND, KID
Thoughts are powerful things. Even though you can’t see your thoughts, you know they exist because you experience them. In fact, you experience 1000 thoughts with each blink of your eyes. Only it’s so fast, and most of those thoughts are so subtle, that you only register a few of them consciously. This makes it hard to get a hold of them, let alone change them.
Thoughts are actual things– electrical impulses, in fact. And when electricity is flowing, it creates a magnetic field of energy. So all these chains of subconscious thoughts create a magnet of energy. It’s that magnet of energy that allows your habits to keep a hold on you.
FRIENDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER
Your most frequent thoughts cluster together into thought-patterns. This creates a magnetic pull that is the basis of a habit. The thought patterns hold your mind hostage and backed by emotion, they trigger behaviors. So whenever a thought enters your mind that is closely related to your habit, it can trigger an avalanche of subconscious thoughts which trigger the established thought-pattern and viola! You’re back in the grip of your habit. Even your thinking becomes habitual.
Take smoking for example. Let’s say you smoke in social situations. You may not even notice it, but being shy or uncomfortable around strangers might be what triggers you to smoke. All your thoughts and insecurities are tied to that behavior of smoking, which then links you to the habit. The habit becomes addiction when the substance, nicotine, gets into the cells and the body becomes dependent on it. Then you have a physical reaction if you don’t consume nicotine.
The current problem in treating addiction is that it’s almost always done on the physical level. Many people quit one addiction only to fill the hole that’s left by it with another addiciton. That’s why you’ll see so many people at AA meetings drinking coffee and chain smoking. The energy is just ends up going to a different addiction. To truly tackle change you have to work on the level of the mind, which is the energetic level and you do that with intention.
THE POWER OF INTENTION
To beat habits and addictions and to manifest real change, you have to leverage the mind, which is constantly processing your thoughts and giving you your perceptions and experiences of this life.
When you decide to change yourself you are setting an intention. Intention is an impulse of your soul – it’s an aspect of the psyche that allows you to use the source of you to create your life and make it manifest. It gives you inspiration. Intention is powerful. It’s how all change is made manifest.
When you decide to make a change, the whole universe lines up to back your decision because you are in this body, on this earth, to manifest yourself. How you do that and what your manifesto is, is completely up to you. Intention is like a shiny new sports car – you get it and you’re all excited that it will get you where you want to go… and fast. There’s only one problem. The new car doesn’t have enough gas.
WHY IT’S SO HARD TO CHANGE
Your habits already have energy because they’re backed by lots and lots of subconscious thoughts. Not only that but they’re well established. They’ve got behaviors all set up and inter-twined and some of these behaviors, a good many of them, are actually addictions. Addictions further the hold that the habit has on you by linking it to a material substance. It doesn’t matter that you don’t smoke or drink or do drugs. Almost everybody has some form of behavior that they’re habitually addicted to. Some people seek constant approval, some are after sex, others go for shopping or food.
“No matter what your habit, custom or addiction, you have one thing in common with everyone else: you want to make yourself a little better by not doing whatever it is that slows you down from doing what you really want to do.”
When you set your intention to change it causes a split in your psyche between the old habits and the new intention. That’s why changing yourself is like going to war. When you intend to change it becomes a show down in your psyche between the old and the new.
IF YOU’RE GONNA GET ANYWHERE IN LIFE, YA GOTTA PUT GAS IN THE CAR
Intention gets you down the road a ways, but most of the time, something goes wrong and the habit ends up coming back. You need to put energy behind your intentions, because the new intention has to have the power to change the current structure of the mind. When the new healthy intention is strong, it will cause the competing habits to fall away.
I used to smoke and I enjoyed it some of the time. Most of the time though, it made me feel shitty and I wished I could get away from the habit, but I always found myself going back to it. I knew one thing though: one day I would change. I had a belief that one day the habit would just fall off and I wouldn’t want to do it anymore and that’s pretty much what happened. I got into yoga and smoking didn’t mix well with the practice. After a while I added more and more yoga and I felt better and better. I simply lost the desire to smoke. What really happened is that Kundalini Yoga magnified my energy. So my higher intentions were empowered by the increased energy brought about by the practice.
IN WITH THE NEW, OUT WITH THE OLD
The idea is to start putting as much energy behind your new intention as possible. Your intention needs to become more powerful than your habits are for at least 40 days. Then the old habit breaks it’s hold on the mind, while the new intention flourishes.
I remember my grandfather deciding to quit smoking. He was in his 50s, a blue-collar worker, he refinished wood floors for a living. He was a tough old guy. One day he came home from work and as he walked up the steps to the Bronx tenement apartment we lived in on the fourth floor, he found himself severely out of breath for the first time in his life. So, that day he decided to quit smoking. He set his intention and in order to reinforce that intention, he put some energy behind it. After each cigarette he smoked, he would chew on the ashy butt to give himself a distaste for the habit. This is an extreme way to go, but it’s an example of putting energy behind intention to overcome the established energy of your habit.
The bottom line is that change is entirely possible but you won’t get it from reading a book or watching a DVD. How can you change the mind when you’re using it all the time? You can’t, really. At least not forever. You have to have a way to leverage the mind. You have to do something to back it up your decision to change. You have to put energy behind your intention and make it solid so it can go up against the negative forces of resistance that the mind throws at you.
Kundalini Yoga is my game. The exercises and meditations in Kundalini Yoga allow you to tap into pure energy at the soul level and that is why it is so powerful in effecting change. It puts great energy behind your intentions.
It’s funny that it’s called getting high, because that’s exactly what you do in yoga, particularly Kundalini Yoga. You raise the energy in the body and that takes you higher. The truth is, all anyone wants is a look over the fence to the other side. When you set out to get high, you just want to feel good. You want to feel something more than what you’re getting as you go through the day to day life. Why do we do that? What are we looking for? Soul, I think. We’re looking for that powerful part of ourselves that has the universal, undying energy. We know it, because we are it. Inside us there’s a constant longing for it, which creates in us a constant desire to get high(er). In the absence of any real method of accessing it, we turn to substances that try to get us there artificially. So what is getting high? It’s a taste of ecstasy and we go after it using food, sex, drink, drugs or any substances that we think will get us there.
Then there’s the backlash. You get high, but you feel crappy after and you have to recover from it. If it becomes a habit then the body gets weighed down with the residues of the substances (toxins) and then the body craves the substance backed by chains of subconscious thoughts and viola, you’ve got addiction. While this doesn’t happen to everyone, it happens enough to be a concern.
The truth is, you’ve already got everything you need inside you. The human system is perfectly designed to live in a blissful, happy state– even a high and ecstatic state. The trouble is, until now there’s never been a roadmap to get you there. I fell in love with Kundalini Yoga, because it gives you a way to that feeling on a regular basis without the backlash. It’s a direct technology for getting the body and mind high naturally, and as a result, connecting to the soul through direct experience. Many people think of yoga as a kind of airy-fairy practice but that’s not at all the case. It’s pure science of the human being. There’s only one major problem with it… you have to do it. You have to practice.
When you’re overwhelmed it’s because the mind is making too many over-calculations based on past experience. The sub-conscious throws up fears, the mind calculates infinitely and you become overwhelmed. The basis of every block is simply thinking too much. The way to digest a problem is to break it down into bite sized chunks and when you’ve had your fill that day, rest and come back the next day.
The first thing to do when overwhelmed by a problem is step back and air it out. Breathing is the core of all meditation, so breathe deeply and if you know some breath exercises (pranayam) then use those techniques. Take everything associated with the problem and put is aside… outside the door, as it were.
All problems are finite because they relate to the finite world of this and that. When you close the eyes and breathe slowly and deeply, you have an opportunity to induce the infinite vastness of your spirit. The breath is a charge of life (prana) and it is the connection with the infinite part of you. So as you air out the problem by breathing, contemplate a few things:
The earth spins… how? Who does that? What does that?
The sun burns out there 93 million miles away. It keeps us and all things alive. How?
You’re alive… how did that happen?
Your soul assimilated to this world through the womb of a woman. Pretty incredible.
You were born helpless and somehow you made it to this moment okay.
It may have been bumpy up to this point, but you’re alive.
You have the privilege of being human.
You can create, unlike animals and plants. You have a mind.
Once you’ve aired out with these things, come back and grab that problem from outside the door. Chop it up into do-able, bite sized chunks. One way to do this is to make a list– a two column list of the following:
Things I can do
Things that are beyond my control
Most of your problems come from obsessing about #2. So make a black and white list and make it clear as day. Put it where you can see it. Make it a disciplined practice to accept the things that are beyond your control and have faith.
You can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it. –Albert Einstein
One time I was applying for this job I really wanted. It was the perfect position and it payed a lot of money. Several things happened that screwed it up. One was an email that mysteriously disappeared from my outbox, making me think I forgot to send them my references. A week later I called the recruiter and left a message saying, “The darndest thing happened, I never sent the references.” Later I found that the email had somehow gotten switched to a different folder. I was kicking myself repeatedly. I was sure the recruiter thought I was a nut, desperate and trying to force his hand.
I told my teacher about it. He shrugged very effortlessly and said, “I wouldn’t spend any time on it.” He looked me in the eye and continued: “It’s no longer in your sphere of control.”
I never forgot that.
If it’s beyond your sphere of control, release it, let it go. Get back to the list of things that you can do… and eat some good food. Why not?
I often tell classes when I have them in a rest period, to drop all tension from the previous exercise. What happens after a tough pose or movement is that the mind wants to stay ready, so the student’s body stays tense in anticipation of another tough exercise.
In kundalini yoga kriyas there are calculated rest periods. This is by design. The word kriya means “completed action.” Just like in science where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, a kriya is a set of exercises, including relaxation periods, when done as prescribed creates an effect that’s more than just the sum of the exercises that are done. It has an overall effect.
When you’ve finished something– an action, a job, an exercise, whatever, then you should drop everything associated with it and become neutral. There’s a time for action and a time for rest. The applies to everything in life. The mind is, in part, infinite and we often carry around much more than we need, anticipating the next tough thing in our lives. Carrying that tension around all the time is quite a burden.
The main thing to remember is that when you’re in the world, you’re in duality– a world of opposites. Everything has a complement and as in Newton’s third law, “Each and every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”
In our fast paced, information filled world, the tendency is to try to keep up with the illusion of time, which seems to be speeding up. The truth is that going fast is fine but slowing down when something is done, also has its place and creates a much needed balance.
I remember going and going on caffeine and energy drinks until I was so stressed out that I had to blow off some steam by going out drinking and all that came with that. I look back on this as insane, but as we used to say at West Point, it seemed like the thing to do at the time. When you overload on stimulants, you blow out the glandular system, particularly the adrenal glands. There’s a whole list of things that this does to the body, none of them good. If you’re in the habit of following that with alcohol, which is a depressant, then you destroy the self-sensory system, which is the human’s link to real power.
Get in the habit of going all out and giving your best at what you do, but when each action is done, then learn to and make a habit of relaxing powerfully until the next thing comes and in this way you use all your god given energy to the fullest.
Making homemade yogurt is very simple. You’ll only need a few things. Anybody can do it and the rewards far exceed the efforts.
What you will need:
A dairy thermometer– (you can get it at any cooking supply store like bed bath and beyond, williams sonoma or online. )
Milk – preferrably raw (half gallon)
Some yogurt with active cultures
Clean and disinfect bowl and pot you’ll be using to make the yogurt. (see note at end for this)
Take the milk (about half gallon – 8 cups) and bring it to a boil slowly. You have to be careful boiling milk, it will foam over. Best to stir it and when it starts to foam shut it. (this is where you add the turmeric if you’re making golden yogurt.
Pour the boiled milk into a clean glass bowl (washed with hot hot water and preferably sterilized)
Place the thermometer into the bowl. There is a marking on there for the correct temperature to add the “starter” or yogurt. It’s at about 110 deg F I believe. When at the proper temperature add about a cup of the yogurt to the milk.
Place the bowl in the oven (gas oven with pilot light keeps it warm) overnight for at least 7 hours. In the morning you will have yogurt. You can leave it in longer if you like it tangy… the longer it sits the more the probiotics will do the work and the stronger the yogurt.
***Greek style strained yogurt:
Additionally you can strain the yogurt with a fine strainer (make sure the
grid is fine) or use a fine sieve/seine. Just put the yogurt in the strainer with a bowl underneath and let it sit for a while. The whey will drain out and you’ll be left with greek-style creamy yogurt. Keep the whey and drink it or make a smoothie out of it. The whey is very high in vitamins (particulary b-12) and also has the probiotic cultures in it which are good for the digestion.
Variations:
Golden Yogurt– add a tablespoon of ground turmeric powder to the milk while boiling and continue the recipe as otherwise directed. You’ll be left with “Golden Yogurt.” an amazing dish which you can sweeten with honey. It’s very good for
Finished Golden Yogurt
you. Turmeric lubricates the joints and is very good for the colon (prevents colon cancer according to some studies.)
Hot Golden Yogurt– in addition to the turmeric, puree about 6-8 fresh jalapeno peppers and add to the boiling milk mixture. You’ll be left with a spicy golden yogurt which Yogi Bhajan says is a very high potency food for men.
***Note to disinfect equipment: It’s best to boil some water in the pot you will use to boil the milk in, first. Then dump that water into the glass bowl you’ll use to ultimately make the yogurt to disinfect the pot and the bowl. (you can also add 1 tsp of chlorine bleach to the boiled water and then fill the bowl to top and let sit for at least two minutes, to further disinfect.)
There are two words to describe todays world: Too Much. Too much information, too much input, too much stimulus. With all the activity in the 
SET A COURSE AND SEE IT THROUGH
When you’re overwhelmed it’s because the mind is making too many over-calculations based on past experience. The sub-conscious throws up fears, the mind calculates infinitely and you become overwhelmed. The basis of every block is simply thinking too much. The way to digest a problem is to break it down into bite sized chunks and when you’ve had your fill that day, rest and come back the next day.
I often tell classes when I have them in a rest period, to drop all tension from the previous exercise. What happens after a tough pose or movement is that the mind wants to stay ready, so the student’s body stays tense in anticipation of another tough exercise.
Making homemade yogurt is very simple. You’ll only need a few things. Anybody can do it and the rewards far exceed the efforts.
