Give your self time to be you!
You need to give yourself time to be you. I am not sure if every one goes through this, but I definitely fall into life traps – Following what people want me to do, or follow the pre-defined paths around me by society or the so called society norms.
It funny how I go out of my way sometimes to find and learn these defined structures which I could follow. Once I get them, I am busy disipining myself to adapt them wholeheartedly. Guess what, I lose my self. My creativity is totally lost. Then I am sad and upset withmyself for letting the system trap me like this.
It was me more than anyone else.
Even if following set ways is good, we still need to give ourselves off days.
I am so busy following fixed ways – at least I am busy trying. But it just dawned on me, that I need to give myself time to be me. Time where I can flow freely – at least somewhat. I can not feel trapped all the time.
Let me tell you why I am thinking of all this today.
Our every day is so defined
I meditate everyday. I do Sadhguru’s taught shambhavi kriya, then meditation by shri mataji (Sahaj Yog). If I have time I go for pranayam by Ramdevji – kapalbhati, anulom vilom, sarvang asana and then halal asana.
I take care of my business, family (kids, husband, dog) . Work work work. Eat. Go to sleep.
In business, I am busy trying to find the best processes and disciplines to follow for success. Routines and habits of successful people. Always striving to be best version of myself – at least that is what I think I am doing. On a side note, its not easy… Anyway.
At home, always trying to have a defined health regime and environment for a smooth sailing. Balancing kids, husband and a dog in itself is not less then fighting a battle. Finding the ideal practices say for example what time to eat and sleep. Another example is, Clean kitchen in the night before you sleep so next morning is happier for everyone. So on and so forth.
This whole takes a toll on you
I should say on me for sure. Its my story so I will talk about me. I am sure others around me or even you must be going thru something like this or may be not. On a separate note, we all think we are all different, but we all are very much alike… anyway.
Back to the point I was trying to emphasize.
Give yourself time to be you.
With all the stuff going on around us, we forget to be us –
I forget to be me. No creative juices flowing.
I just don’t allow myself, “this time”, this free-flowing time.
A few days ago, I decided :
I am not going to working on saturdays and sundays at all. Like, really put my foot down. I mean no business or business related activity. Be more peaceful and Spend time with the family, without thinking work in the background. It started working great except for the fact that I realized I am not feeling the immense happiness or peace still. Felt like things are still pulling me in different directions.
I used to love writing, painting, singing, dancing etc when I was little. Hmmm what happened to all that now. Not sure. I thought to myself, can I do that on saturday or sunday now that I am not technically working.
Guess what, its still sounding like work. Not sure why
First there is no time inspite of calling it my off days.
Second, the moment I say I will set up my easel for painting or bring out my electric tanpura for riyaz, I feel I am limiting myself to a structure. This day this thing this time, this is what I will do. Trap!
Don’t decide beforehand when is “this time” and what exactly will you do
So today, infact, since past 2 or 3 weekends, I am trying to create time “unknowingly” – not clearly defining exactly what time. Only thing I have defined is “any time” “sometime” on the weekend. “this time” will happen when it happens, of course I had to clear out my weekend, in my head.
I will do what I feel like and just be
It could be my riyaz, painting, writing, playing with bubba, or sitting in my backyard just admiring the nature……. It could also, me meditating in the way iI really feels like at that moment. Not in the way I have prescribed for myself.
Like today:
since its my day when I allow myself to be. I sneaked a few minutes for meditation right before breakfast. I started with kapalbhati (for 15 to 20 min – i think) focusing on the mooladhar chakra and then just saw myself going into mediation easily focusing on my sahastrara chakra. Taking my energies from mooladhar to sahastrara chakra.
I took care of household things after that, feeling already happy from inside.
Then I sneaked a few moments to “write for me”. Which is like now. I am trying to write more freely and in more enjoyable way…
This is where I am headed
My plan is to try to keep finding “this time” at least on some, sorry to say, “defined” days. So I know I can allow me some time to be.
Hope you make an effort too to give yourself “this time” to be you too!!
Which in my case seem to be weekends.
Don’t be shocked when you actually get to this time
Let me tell you one thing, you might realize when you get to “this time” where you just be – you might first feel lost first.
you might be like – wow – i have this time and i can do whatever “i want”.
See what you “really want” “now”.
Remember, do not try to plan this time in advance
Your wants will also want to trap you. You might have an urge to “define” this “time” to do the long desired “activity” since your childhood. But again, do not fall for that trap either.
Just go to “this time” and flow.
You might want to just play guitar for a few minutes and then read a book or just sit quietly with a warm cup of tea in your hand and not interact with anyone.
Dwelling on w’s of “this time” before taking the plunge
First be clear on what, why etc. of “this time”.
First you have to be aware and know – you need this time
To be aware, you might have to dwell on :
What is “this time” –
“This time” is a “required” time for an everyday person for sanity. Its a must.
Why you even need “this time”
To feel happy and alive. To let real creative juices flow.
What exactly do you do in this time –
This is the time is where u don’t do anything defined. You Just Be.
Only after dwelling on the above,
You will go out of your way to extract “this time” where you can be you!!
This is just a little hack to alive, without going into the jungles or the Himalayas in discovery of you.
Let me know if it this helped you in any way.
Good Luck my friend!
Happy Sailing!
The One Thing – Shambhavi Kriya by Sadhguru
If you want to get started on the spiritual path, the One thing I would recommend is Shambhavi Kriya by Shadhguru.
Idea is start somewhere. There are a lot of meditation technics. Different gurus have their own styles and tips to start on the path to enlightenment.
Even though I had many starts, I feel I really am more disciplined and progressing with Shambhavi kriya by Shadhguru.
I don’t question it anymore. I did in the beginning. I was taught some very simple technics and I started doing it blindly, right from the day one. Something made me gravitate towards the kriya. So it kind of just sucked me in. I would do it one day, feel peaceful and come back the next day to get some more peace. So continued day after day. True, I had questions but since end result was good, I started and continued. Again, had to start somewhere. I feel I got lucky to have found this program.
It gives us step by step process, from warm up, meditation, to cool down.
Program tells us when to do this and what precautions to take.
Another beautiful thing which the program instilled in me was the discipline. So it got me started with, prep work, actual kriya and discipline to make sure I continue. Of course no one can force you, but they show you the way and then its to us.
It comes from a Credible Source – Coming from Sadhguru is good enough factor to give it a chance (wholehearted chance – otherwise it will not work).
So just like any meditation technic, it gives you so much peace and it gets easier to deal with things around. I am moving to the next level or not, I dont know. Definitely I am on my spiritual journey. I do feel like I make a new discovery about myself every day.
I would highly recommend this to all my fellow people who are like me. Who dont know where to begin, what is going on, plus still are in search of the better world.
Why I recommend Shambhavi kriya or I should say the whole Inner Engineering program from Sadhguru is, it not just gives you the Shambhavi Kriya but also gives you the do’s and don’ts and lay out a plan for you, so you know exactly what upa yoga asanas to do before that to prep for the shambhavi kriya also.
The other day I was just researching for some answers and came across Tatadmananda’s video how he went thru Kundalini yoga. He explained the process very well, even though he is more into “advaita vedanta” using process of “self inquiry” i think. Please pardon me if I am not very accurate or misunderstood things…… I am saying as i remember …..
I noticed Sadhguru already incorporated bhastrika for the mooladhar chakra awakening in the upa yoga technics which we do before starting the shambhavi kriya practice. When we do the butterfly exercise, we are supposed to do bhastrika kind of breathing. When we do the shishupal asana, we again do the bhastrika breathing technic. Focus staying on the bottom of the spine. So looks like these few asanas we do before the shambhavi kriya prep us and try to awaken our kundalini in the mooladhar chakra.
I do research more on kundalini and other terms but my practice for shambhavi continues like a sacred prayer every day.
Guys I feel personally, after whatever I have been thru so far, that if we do this one thing Inner Engineering Program from sadhguru which is “Shambhavi Kriya” – that is enough for us to get started.
I am doing it regularly and it helps in amazing ways.
I get more clarity issues or points I am stuck on. Feel more confident about the decisions I make. I feel more equipped in dealing with people around me. My mind is more at peace than ever before. Just life feels better.
Downside is, if I skip or miss shambhavi for more than 2 days in a row, I am in a mess. My mind gets more clogged than ever. It takes me a while to realize that it could be because I did not do my shambhavi for the day. Another problem i noticed is, you would go back a few steps in your progress. What i mean here is, every day when you do shambhavi, you will be progressing and feeling you are attaining some higher stat or discovering something new. So if you dont do shambhavi for a few days, you kind of go back to the beginning and struggle with the original base problems like too many thoughts, not able to focus etc.
So short story is, I would say there are so many different practices available around. I feel Sadhguru has taken into consideration all different aspects of life and people, and what is required to awaken our kundalini.
Don’t waste a single more minute and just join this program. This one program is enough I feel, to get started on the path of enlightenment. Its safe to say its the first step.
Once you start with this, your inner self will guide you what to do next. Idea is to practice it consistently and properly. You are on the path then.
There might be other ways, but this definitely works.
I am at this stage so I can speak about it.
Please do let me know if you have any questions about this.
I have been doing it for years now, and i feel like i am finally getting started….. can’t say beyond that. But i am proud to say I got started.
Hope to see you all get started too!
Don’t hesitate to ask me anything about this. I will try my best to answer your question.
Questions Answered on Kundalini Yoga and Advaita!
A lot of us are gravitating towards spiritual light and trying to understand what is what.
We have Questions
We wonder, why we have so much unrest within and what are the answers to all our (not so silly) questions. Why is not everyone around us talking about it.
What is non-duality, yoga, kundalini yoga, hatha yoga, meditation, pranayama and so on… everything is there in our heads all jumbled up. We end up going from one yogic practice to the other, in search of answers.
I got so many gurus on the way. Honestly 90 percent of my questions remain unanswered. I question myself, what am I doing and why am I going thru this or that practice by any guru.
In Search of Answers:
A few days ago I was forced to dwell more into non-duality. Who else will force me but me. I was hearing this term too much. I had heard this a few times before, but it never hit me, until a few days ago. I started researching on it and came across an amazing sage “Swami Tadatmananda” from “Arsha botha Center”.
I am getting somewhere:
I was blown away by his clarity and depth of his video teachings. I am not sure if I had heard him a few years ago, I would have appreciated him so much. Today it’s a different story. I heard him and was speechless. I felt so much light and excitement inside me, and thought everyone should know about him.
I do feel, if you hear him absolutely in the beginning when you are not even close to the spiritual journey, you might not feel the same way as I do. Or may be you would. Most likely, you should at least have been stricken by the lightning of spiritualism in some way. Should have felt lost and want to find your way. Have heard the various terms been thrown at you like non-duality or advaita, kundalini yoga, chakras, shiva shakti, and the list goes on.
There should be a confusion and you should be looking for clarity. Wonder why do we need to know all this. Who can really answer this.
So this is where I was and am today. Its very confusing.
Blessed to have found his great work!
I love this world 50% of the times and 50% I want to run away and just be. Short story is I am lost.
1. Researching on advaita aka non-duality the other day.
I started following random leads, in the search of trying to make sense out of things.
Here is why I like Swami Tadatmananda’s work:
- Not all information is available in one place.
- No teacher is directly addressing all our questions and explaining in reference to the ancient scriptures and its validity.
I stumbled on this amazing one video from Swami Tadatmananda where he explains very nicely what is advaita or non-duality. I am not saying I get if fully now. I did quite get something when I heard it at that time. I just have to dwell on it, I guess.
Point is, it was explained so beautifully and clearly that it got to me.
Then today, I wanted more clarity on my other terms I have been hearing or reading about like kundalini yoga. In my head I was even practicing it but since no one is clearly explaining or making sure our doubts are at rest about its history or significance I am still not really dwelling on it much.
2. Wondering if there is information on Kundalini Yoga
So back to what I heard today. I stumbled on another video from Guruji – as I have started calling him since today. I have accepted him as my teacher.
In the video, he explains where did the technique of kundalini yoga come from, how its different from advaita or non-duality and still connects to it. He explains how he is more inclined towards advaita but wanted to experiment with this parallel path of kundalini yoga. He shares his each day of how he practiced Kundalini Yoga and what he felt as a result.
He clarifies a lot of myths and false beliefs around it. It’s a must hear video if you are at the place where I am today. If not, I would say still hear it, because, if you have not even started your spiritual journey, you will listen and ignore it, but will come back to it whenever you are ready. Or, if you are way up there and totally understand things, it’s a good perspective to grow.
See, I am not saying what he is saying is the right thing. But he does seem very on the point and clear about things.
For me it’s a blessing to have found him. Specially for my spiritual journey. I am sure you will appreciate his effort too.
3. More information?
Just search up all his work on various topics and you will get a lot of insight if not complete clarity.
A few of the videos I heard today
I will highly recommend you to go through his work, so you can fill in some more gaps in your knowledge.
Being Inspired by Dr Wayne Dyer – Little more divine every day!
Today I listened and got inspired by talks from Dr Wayne Dyer. I did hear his name every now and then, while going through YouTube videos. Never gave it a chance.
I guess I was not open to listening to anyone new in my life.
Dr Wayne was being interviewed by a woman ( don’t remember details), some one kind of famous person too, but not known to me.
He is talking of how
Attitude is everything, so pick a good one!
Being inspired means being in spirit……..
And so many other great lessons.
I felt them all, but don’t remember all too well.
Note: Just remember, whatever i say here is my version, my understanding of his words. I might have to listen the same talk over and over to really get it completely.
The real essence of the entire video “for me” meant,
Learn to give.
Be a little more divine every day.
Questioning myself:
Sometimes i wonder how i can be so mean and selfish, but still be it.
Also, How and why do I transform myself in this mean world. But then I listen to these talks like the one from Dr Wayne. It makes me feel better and somewhat at rest.
We don’t have to transform in one day. We could do it gradually. As I heard and understood – little more divine every day!
I want to learn how to give in my own way. I want to help and love people unconditionally. I want to start from people around me. I want to be a little more divine every day.
I am writing this, so I can not take it back. I am just so inspired by Dr Wayne’s interview. He was speaking like a human. Just a better one. So thankful to Youtube for showing him in my search.
One more thing was mentioned over and over was to :
Let go of your EGO
and understand :
You have to go back to where you came from
All these talks are mentioned by all the gurus. I think what it boils down to is
Understanding the true consciousness, the real you.
I am no where close to even the bottom of the surface, but I do feel like a journey has begun.
In a nutshell
You know how they say, “Rome was not built in a day”. We have to just start….
Just wanted to share my little sweet lesson I learnt this weekend.
My take away (since this part of me could use a lot of work, to begin with)
Be little more divine every day – I want to start by giving to people in whatever possible way I can – Start with my loved ones and then spread from there.
Keep people in my prayers and be a little less selfish every day!
By Upasana Gupta
You can listen to the video directly to have your own version and take away.
Click Here to watch the video from Dr Wayne Dyer mentioned above.
Follow the recipe first!
Guys, follow the recipe first! I don’t just mean in cooking, but in all walks of life. See, we spend time and effort in researching the best recipe or solution to a problem. Once we narrow down to our final recipe, we need to stay focused – we need to follow the recipe to the core. That is, if we want the results as per the recipe.
We always tend to take shortcuts and still want the best results.
We keep the recipe in front of us and think we are following it but do our own tricks to it. How can we expect the results mentioned in the recipe if we don’t do exactly as told.
Yes, Recipe gives exact steps to follow
I learnt this the hard way. I was trying a pancake mix recipe – very simple and clean recipe. But my pancakes would come out tasting horrible. Tried different brands and same thing. One day, I was looking at the recipe at the back and realized I was not really following exactly as they told me to – 1, 2 and 3. I was doing 10 steps 🙂
Followed the 3 steps and there it was. Best tasting Buttermilk pancake.
What is the big deal here?
Point is to realize what is really happening:
When someone gives us a formula or a recipe – for success in business, cooking or anything for that matter, we have a tendency to tweak it and add our own flavor to it. We think we are following it but technically we are not. We need to realize this if we want the results mentioned in our recipe for success.
What did I finally learn?
My lesson learnt is, first use the recipe as it is and get the desired results, then start adding your own style to it and be super creative you.
This way we know its a sure success – which further helps us:
- It boosts our morale and we know we can do it.
- Otherwise, we might lose a lot of time in testing.
- It might cause a lot of heart ache also.
This might seem like the most obvious thing, but trust me, we all tend to make this mistake over and over.
Just do me a favor, try your best to remember "follow the recipe first!" and it will be a smooth sailing...
Ginger Tea Is Magical
I work for hours at a stretch and need something to hydrate myself. My answer was this “Magical Ginger Tea”. Simple recipe with great positive vibes!
Not sure what it is, but while working if I sip or eat something (simple of course), it keeps my creative juices flowing. Also, keeps me from dozing off.
Now that I don’t like to put just anything in my body, I keep looking for healthy options. My problem is I still need things to be yummy.
Earlier I used to just start putting something together – I mean cooking/baking/cutting etc and create something out of nowhere. Now I recently, unknowingly, started following recipes and even started working on lesser ingredients to feel the taste of each one of them and see what I like.
Great example of this is – My Magical Ginger Tea. It’s honestly a very simple recipe. Its exactly what the name suggests – Ginger and water. Tea because I drink it hot and sip it like a tea. Magical because – its got a very positive and beautiful vibe to it. May be because I know its healthy and once i drink it, its soothing…
How to make this Healthy and Magical Ginger Tea?
- Take about 1 1/2 cups of water in a pot
- Fresh ginger – wash it properly
- Grate the fresh ginger directly into the water
- Boil the water with the ginger in it – let it boil for say a min or 2 or even 3 depending on how spicy you want your ginger tea to be. I like it spicy so I put more ginger and boil it for longer time. Try it for a few times to see what levels of ginger spice do you like by changing the proportion of ginger to water and boiling.
- Turn off the stove and strain the tea into your favorite cup (it matters which cup you pour into). You will feel the magical aura of the tea!
It just calms you down.
I hear ginger has amazing anti-inflammatory properties, water is hydrating and so if your body gels well with this tea, you will be really blessed. It just has a magical affect on you. It wakes you up, calms your system and does all those things which a good cup of tea does. On top of that its super healthy.
I can not emphasize enough how this tea can help. Try it and let me know what you feel. It has become a part of my everyday, all time routine. Well, that is another benefit – you can drink this as many times as you want, without the guilt that its dehydrating you or inflaming your internal system.
Hope you make it part of your daily life, like I did, and feel great!
We Need To Be Financially Independent!
We all need to be financially independent. Here I am talking about the importance of how we all, especially women, should make sure we save up some funds individually along with common family funds.
1. What is the “Importance” of being Financially Independent:
This might seem like a small and very obvious thing but for me its huge. I will like to expand on it, as to why I am emphasizing on it so much.
After completing my engineering degree, I took up a few IT consulting projects. Together with my husband, I successfully ran an IT business for more than 15 years. In the end, I personally still had “Zero” bank balance.
As a family and as a couple, we did have assets and bank balances but I personally did not save up anything. All good, no issues really.
But then I wanted to start my passion project – launch my jewelry brand. I realized all the money is common. I could not really pull out anything without a proof that things will work out soon and the way I predicted.
It was not so bad on the surface, but made me feel horrible.
Result was, I had to start over. I took up more IT projects and started building some new cash-flow for the new business I wanted to start.
2. Need to plan our financial independence:
See, we are earning and we think we are financially independent. That is not enough. Just like how we plan financial security for the family, we need to do it for ourselves too, in a very subtle way, if not the whole nine yards.
The point is, early on everyone (specially we women, who are so naive ….) should know that as a family we all are “one”. In this oneness, there should be a little bit of “me” there. Just in case that me needs some breathing room. Just so it can survive and be creative.
So, if you guys are at the phase of your life that you have already learnt the lesson like I have, I guess you will be nodding your heads and agreeing with me. If you are starting out and are where I was few years ago, then hope I can make you think a little. You can just have some “me” funds set up on the side so you can call some of your own shots, if need be.
Don't lose yourself on the way!
3. Make sure family understands our needs:
Guys, just remember, we should not feel guilty about it. This is for sanity and is very important aspect of our life, we cannot ignore.
Making the family also aware of our needs, be it financial or any other, keeps things stress free from the get-go.
Hope you take this seriously. Idea is not to cause family issues, in fact it’s the opposite. It will also protect family future by not keeping all funds in one common bucket – managed by two different people – complete backup!
Don’t Just Wing it! Try To Feel it – An Epiphany a day
My Goal is to be here – meditating on the beach!
Every day when I wake up there is at least one thought in my mind which just sticks with me and brightens me up. I want to share that experience with everyone. If you can relate to me, that is.
Today, Just like every other day i was about to meditate and do yoga in my room behind closed doors (mostly for peace and quiet, of course). For some reason, i did not feel like and was not sure what do about the feeling. Went downstairs to my living room and saw this bright sunshine through the large sliding door of my living room opening into my backyard, filling up the entire room with bright light. I felt so calm just looking at it. Sat down on the center rug on the floor. Crossed my legs in the ardh sidh aasan and wow. It was just beautiful. I can not express the difference between what I was doing every day vs this beautiful mesmerizing experience in my living room- almost like outdoors.
So guys take away is, don’t just try to wing it, feel it. If you don’t feel it, find a way to feel it 🙂
Mango Lassi (Smoothie) with all Natural Sugars!
Lassi with natural sugar was the desire. I am sure this discovery was already made, I discovered it today.
Wanted to have the Mango Lassi to hydrate myself while I was going about the day but did not want to add processed sugar at all. You know how they say necessity is mother of all inventions (or discovery). Lassi with dates happened! Replaced Sugar with Dates. Simple and clean but just what I needed.
- Yogurt – about 2 tbsp
- Water – 1 cup
- Dates – 4 pitted dates
- mango – 1 cup of frozen mango chunks (optional)
*Note: I honestly dont remember exactly how much proportion I took of the above as I always just prepare food by guesstimating. I should probably change that and know exact. Soon I guess that will happen too.
Blended all the ingredients to get what I wanted – Mango Lassi with natural sugars!
Disclaimer: I am posting personal experiences without detailed nutritional/ health/ medical knowledge.
Going into silence with noise around!
Every day I learn something new when I meditate. Today I realized something very interesting. It was so noisy around me. People talking on phone, Bubba barking, and what not. I decided to get to work too just like the other people in my house. Interestingly, I just couldn’t resist meditation to get away from the hustle and bustle I should say. Just to balance my self and be more aligned. Without realizing just closed my eyes. The more noisy it got, more peaceful was my meditation. This must sound funny, but its true. This has happened before also, just realized today as I am paying more attention to what is really going on and when I am doing what.
I wonder if anyone else also experienced a thing like this…..
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