Don't give up

With practice, you come to realize that our life experiences relate directly to our psychological wellness, habitual consciousness and our understanding of the purpose of life. Practicing meditation takes you closer to your inner self and makes way to live life with the higher understanding and maturity.    

However, many times we tend to go back to the old patterns of crying and wining and worrying i.e. shifting attention from 'now' to that unreal moments of 'what ifs' or 'whys'. Our lives and minds are trained to go back to the relentless circle of worry, regrets, chaos, sadness, fear. Being on the path of spiritual awakening can be a continuous struggle. But don't give up. 

When the world says, ‘Give up,’ Hope whispers, ‘Try it one more time.’ ~ Unknown. 

There are so many energy flows around us that can cause us to sway away to the 'easy mind trick' to go back to the comfortable and those familiar feelings of anxiety and helplessness. One of the things I have noticed to influence me is the health of the body. Hunger, thirst and lack of sleep seem to be obvious reasons but are easily ignored. Attend to the health of the body. 
Negative influences and or people who always complain or never find time to talk about good things. If possible we could try and talk to them to help them know their true potential. But until you get to yours and if they are affecting your progress, better to avoid them.
Believe it or not but full moons and new moons can cause enough energy to make you loose 'your center'. Ever felt restless for no reason? Check the lunar calendar :)
And of course hormones! Do I say more? 

Know that you can get back to your inner core as quickly as your next breath. Breath-in to connect to the Life Source and breath-out and relax all the thoughts that cross your mind. By nature, we are at peace. We are full of love. We have got a small shot at life (earthly life, don't know what is after). Live every now and breath every moment. Separate out the situations you are in, from your true nature. Whatever are those situations, be present.
If you know the situation that you are in will continue for some more time, will you wait to be happy after it changes? Then it may be your whole lifetime because you are trusting your mind to decide if you are happy; and mind keeps changing the definition of happiness with situations.

"The meaning of life is to find your gift, the purpose of life is to give it away."
~Joy J. Golliver

This post is mainly to say that Life's gift is right next to overcoming small barriers. Don't give up. 

Flying Utah to SFO

The best part of the whole trip was the flight back from Utah to SFO. Our flight was around 8:30 pm giving us perfect view of the canyons, valleys and the great salt lake. Here are pictures I took from my iPhone.

The view outside the window seemed all a dream, something I've never seen, not known and completely unreal. Magnificent, huge, marvelous!

"It is good to know our universe. What is new is only new to us." ~Pearl S. Buck

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Short trip to Salt Lake City

"Learning the gentle art of going nowhere in particular and bumping into things can help spark your creativity-wherever it is you find yourself." Picked this line from Unleash your creativity (52 Brilliant Ideas).
Our short trip to Salt Lake City last weekend turned out to be this definition spelled out loud.

We had to use some of our air miles before they expired on July 31. We did not know what place to pick or what to plan. Somehow, with the fixed air miles in hand we randomly picked Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mind you, this place is many many miles away from the Zion National Park or the great Yellow Stone. We had two choices, either to drive out of Salt Lake City to visit the National Parks which meant we will be on the road for 2 out of 3 days or stay local and see what we can find. And we are glad we chose the later.

The small town of Salt Lake City is a beautiful, well planned city with gorgeous mountains surrounding it on one side. The Winter Olympics 2002 was hosted here and you can see that event has managed to make the city well organised with good public transport services. I can imagine what a sight it would be during the winters.

First day we walked out of the hotel to find the temperatures soaring to the high 95. Travelling from San Francisco, this could be killing. We wanted to get back to the room, but saw a big farmer's market/art festival in a park middle of the city. I am so glad, I convinced Navin to drop the idea of going to the same old restaurant joints but instead eat at the park. We enjoyed some yummy Indian chicken stuffed dosas and yummy Caribbean grill.

There were all kinds of things at the art fest. There were jewelry, wall hangings, glass artistry, paintings. I bought a cute apple coral necklace at the fair. When I bought it, the owner tells another lady, now this necklace has reached the right house. Spooky!? I don't know what she meant but I was surprised the way she was referring to the accessory as a pet.

The best part of the day was watching a group of college students performing a form of Martial Arts; called Capoeira; it is a Brazilian Martial art that is based on the rhythm of music and is more like a dance combined with physical moves. Here are 2 videos I managed to take (with the Caribbean food plate in one hand and Navin getting angry that I may spill the food; but I managed to do both; shoot as well as savor the food later).
The music was very captivating and addictive. I was humming the song all day long. It has this special strong energy that can lift and energize you.



The other attraction of the city is the beautiful Temple Square and the beautiful Assembly hall.
One of  the days, we enjoyed some yummy momos and authentic Quanty Masala in a Nepali restaurant called Himalayan Kitchen. BTW, you'll be surprised if I tell you, going to this restaurant was the only agenda we had in our Itinerary. One of our friends who had been to Salt Lake City had mentioned the restaurant and of course other things to do; but we etched the dinner plan even before we started out from San Francisco.

Overall a short and sweet visit to a new unknown city with loads of memories. 

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Meditation - what to expect

Meditation is the ability to be in a state of awareness which is beyond place, whats going on around you, thoughts in your mind and beyond time. With practice, you have the ability to meditate anytime and any place. This meditative state is inherent to everyone of us. But gets lost somewhere amidst the train of thoughts approaching and leaving our mind.

The whole idea is to focus on one thing such that you stop the flow of thoughts and completely relax and get connected to the inner stillness. It could be looking at an object while concentrating on the breath. Somebody told me how cooking was meditative to her as it relaxed and calmed her mind. In the Art of Living Silent course, there was a meditation session that used physical pain to focus. For some people it is praying and chanting while for others it is cooking or exercising or going out for a walk. Everything is a theory, so if something works for you, go with it.

How do I meditate?
I usually start with Art of living short Kriya or the last breathing rounds. That way I am able to relax and become aware of the thoughts. I imagine 'me' as a being who is beyond the thoughts and just acknowledge any thought that comes to my mind. I can listen to the silence around me. Then I use one of this below techniques.
Become aware that you are in a room, which is part of the house, your parking lot, your city, all trees you saw during your walks in the parks, the mountains. You then slowly move your awareness of your being in the country, the other side of the earth, the relativity to sun, the moon, planets, solar system, galaxies and so on. As I do that, my mind becomes so quite that I feel I am part of the space in the universe.

All this sounds fiction. Isn't it? I am finding it funny as I type this but this is what I do and works for me. I picked this process (or like process) from Love yourself like your life depends on it, by Ravikant. There is a some special power you experience when you imagine yourself being part of the bigger part of this universe.
I keep my mind focused on my breath all the time.
Sometimes I try the other way round, where I imagine my whole body, the organs, blood, the cells, the particles in the cell and so on till I get to the electrons. That energy, the space between those particles. I feel part of that.

Do I get cut out from everything in this state?
Not at all. I don't know about others, but I don't. I can still hear if my phone rings. I can still hear if the water tap next to my room is opened. But I am relaxed to a point where I just want to continue breathing. I just want to continue observing the stillness, the quietness. The breath is so slow, like a baby.

How can I make use of meditation other than the time I actually sit to meditate?
Well, its the honey you have tasted. You have been in touch with the innermost core of yourself; which I have believed to be love.
As I breath in, I tell myself how much I love myself and think of the meditative state I know of. As I breath out, if there were any other thoughts I say 'OK'. I know I don't have to deal with them at that time. But I don't want to stop them either.

What is the Success Rate of this whole process?
There are times I sit for 1/2 hour and I feel I was in there for 5 minutes. Other times I sit for 5 minutes and I feel it is 1/2 hour.
The success depends on how much you work hard. No, no. You don't need to work hard to meditate; in fact it should be just the opposite; effortless. The effort is in getting yourself to spare some time of your day to meditate; those 10 minutes you want to invest on yourself. To leave the bed of laziness and sit on the floor of meditation.

It was challenging for me to make meditation as a everyday process. I still don't get time everyday. I had promised myself that I would make it regular and used to get very disappointed if I missed a schedule. But with practice, I am learning that we don't have to be over critical to ourselves. Just listen to the moment. Make sure you have a comfortable and quite place to meditate and the will to. If not, no point wasting time, you rather do something else.

The power of being in the moment of 'now' is magical. If I struggle and keep getting distracted, I simply observe the frustration and my reaction to that situation. And slowly I am learning that this process can be applied to everything in life. Every situation, emotion, interactions, likes, dislikes, communication and so on.

Key is to keep the light of life alive through love and being in the now. Through meditation or other ways. It could be thanking small things in life, awareness meditation where you focus on everything you do like while eating, taste the food, bite every piece of food. Be aware of every moment like walking, hugging someone, talking and so on. Observing the trees and birds when you go out for a walk. Watch a baby laugh or cry.
Nature gives us all the opportunities; we just need to be present. 

Men's Cycling Race - Olympics 2012

We are in Salt Lake City and guess what we spend the morning doing? Well, watched the Mens Cycling Road Race (Olympics, London). Well, I would never have spent time watching these races if I was in home in SF. I would have been busy watching DID Iil Masters!
But I was so luckty to catch the glimpse of this 39 year old win the gold.
While Navin is in line to get the car rental, I got time for internet!! And could look up the statistics for VINOKUROV Alexandr Race from Rank 61 to 1!!! It was time well spent experiencing the moment and feeling happy for him.

Rank Bib Athlete Time + 1 87  VINOKUROV Alexandr 5:45:57 - Distance Rank Time TBL Split Lap 1 - 74.7 Km 61 1:51:42 +5:27 1:51:42 Lap 1 - 90.3 Km 64 2:14:17 +5:14 22:35 (9) Lap 2 - 105.9 Km 24 2:37:37 +6:00 23:20 (14) Lap 3 - 121.5 Km 17 2:59:24 +4:25 21:47 (4) Lap 4 - 137.1 Km 36 3:21:50 +3:48 22:26 (112) Lap 5 - 152.7 Km 42 3:42:35 +1:56 20:45 (19) Lap 6 - 168.3 Km 52 4:04:18 +1:24 21:43 (12) Lap 7 - 183.9 Km 37 4:25:50 +0:53 21:32 (15) Lap 8 - 199.5 Km 26 4:47:27 +1:04 21:37 (6) Finish - 249.5 Km 1 5:45:57 0:00 -

Source - london2012.com

The Secret

In the last few days there has been a major shift in the way I look at life. Importance and impact of living in the present moment has not been more revealing and rewarding. So what changed or what caused this change? Frankly, I don't recall exactly what and why, but want to share my learning here in the hope that someone will benefit just the way I did.


Quite frankly I don't know where I should begin this post. So let me tell you of a book I came across Tim Ferris FB feed. He shared a book by an Indian author Kamal Ravikant; book name was 'Love yourself like your life depends on it'.
Indian Author, 5 star rating to this book and 99 cents download on Amazon, I thought to myself, sure!
What is in the book? Well, just what the title says - love yourself like your life depends on it. I would highly recommend this book to everybody.
The Author has described things he did to get out of rut; to bring changes in his own life; for miracles to work. And believe it or not, those things have definitely helped me get aligned with 'my being' and get 'on track' on my journey to happiness. I don't want to give out more details from this book; it is just some 50 odd pages I think and takes less than an hour to finish. Only advice I can give is keep your mind open and try out some of the things. I am sure you will see a change; anyway there is nothing to loose.

Our minds are busy all the time building false dreams, fear of uncertainties or remembering times of despair, sadness or simply going back memory lanes explaining self, how beautiful life was (which means it is not now or less now) or worse telling what bad things can happen to us.
This chatter has such an impact on our subconscious mind that it creates life patterns and situations that follow the feelings and emotions our thoughts produce. So then, one way is to break those patterns. Correct? And the answer to that is my secret. Actually the secret opens roads wide open to endless possibilities. Bringing 'magic' back to your life, the freedom and innocence and happiness your childhood mind had.

So as you may have guessed secret lies in being in the present moment; being in the now. There are many ways to achieve this not-so-easy task. Such an obvious fix to Life's problems, we may think. But took me this long to figure out. Some people don't even get that chance or opportunity.

And why would you do this? Why would you want to bring about this change? Because of Love! We our this source and it is our very nature. Goes back to the book 'love yourself like your life depends on it'.

The more I talk about this, I feel I am being repetitive. But that is what it is. Every explanation of Life's meaning, findings and truth leads to this simple state of Now.

What is Life? What is our part in this life? I have often been struck by this question.We are born, cared for, get education, make friends, go into relationships, earn big bucks, fulfill dreams of big house, big car, big business, get married, raise kids, get them married, get retired, travel places.
But before we get to each of this, there is so much anxiety, fear of failure, sadness of loss, bad memories.

What if I get to all this sooner than I planned? What if I don't get to this at all?

What I have began to realize is that all this doesn't matter. Because if you want something this Life is going to get you to it anyways. You just need to have the intention. As simple as that. Then what's the fear about? What's the hurry?
Problem is like I said before. The mind has so much fear, worry, sorrow and negativity going on already, the universe thinks, that is what you want and gives it back to you.

Living in the present moment has taught me many things I want to share. 

• Life's achievement is how you can make your life simple. Sacredness lies in simplicity. 
• Happiness is in 'mindful' living. Mindful - as in present - being in the now.
• Have faith in God - the Life Force - the super being, whatever you want to call it. It knows what is best for you. Surrender to the present moment. 
• Meditate to connect to the innermost magical Life force. Feel the connection to the Universe. 
• It is not easy to change the habits; you will be bogged down and will go through tons of emotions. It's OK, just part of the process. 
• Find abundance in all small things you would otherwise ignore. 

I would love to continue writing but got to go. But I will continue to share my experiences and how I learn to make these changes. 

Look what I bumped into this evening

The path down that parking lot seemed dull and mundane. Until my eye caught yours.
I will look for you again little birdie. Suddenly that parking lot feels warm like someone's home.