Choose to Live Life in Sheer Bliss

Consider the image of any regular person living this planet. Their life is their family, their work, their dreams, and above all their worries. One sees people proudly proclaiming, that they have a thinking mind, which is generating thoughts by the second. But the question you need to ask yourself is, are you generating these thoughts or is your mind generating them. Many of us fail to distinguish the subtle difference between who “you” are and who “your mind” is. The first sign of caution is when you fail to carry out this distinction.


Do you identify with any of the following?
• My mind always generates a variety of thoughts.
• Most of these thoughts are involuntary and beyond my control.
• Some of them are good and some bad both generated due to the environment external to me.
• While I enjoy and nurture the good thoughts, the bad thoughts bog me down and I am unable to do anything about it until they get resolved or die down themselves.

If the answer to majority of the above is a yes, then “you” are a slave of your thoughts or better said your thoughts have complete control over you and has the capability to govern your mood. Remember incoherent collection of thoughts in your mind is not a symbol of a thinking mind. It’s a symbol of an uncontrolled mind. Let’s take an example of your hand. It does not continue moving when you have finished bowling a cricket ball or when you finish waving goodbye to your friend where as your hand stops moving once these activities complete. The brain controls this activity. But who controls the activities of the mind. Who would stop the mind from uncontrolled thinking? That’s what we are trying to achieve here.
So the question remains how do I free myself from this rut of uncontrolled thinking?

Here are some three simple tips that worked for me.

1. The first step is to be aware that you are separate from your mind. The best way to do this is to constantly put yourself into a habit of watching what your mind is doing. Initially it may sound a bit weird and even foolish. We have many occasions that can be used to build this habit, our most hated moments, when we are driving alone, driving and stuck in traffic jams, waiting for a friend or acquaintance, waiting at airports, bus stands or railway stations, long winding travels, the possibilities are enormous. In case these locales are too disturbing sit in a quiet room and watch your mind.

2. Once you are aware what the mind is doing, the next step is to pay attention to the contents of what the mind is processing. This step is distinct from the first step which just concentrates on watching the actions of the mind. Be aware of each thought as they come in, watch as they linger on and multiply, watch them as they die down or surge. At every stage of this step you should be aware of all the thoughts that are crossing your mind

3. Now that you are aware of all these thoughts, start off by segregating the good and bad thoughts. The interesting part is that there are no good or bad thoughts. It’s our reaction to each thought that makes it good or bad. For a human mind if the reaction to a particular thought makes us happy then it’s a good thought and if it makes us sad then it’s a bad thought. For the ease of writing and understanding, let’s still call these as good or bad thoughts. We obviously don’t want to remove good thoughts from our mind, as for the bad thoughts there are 2 ways to work around them.

a. One way is to watch the thought that invokes a sad reaction within you. Be aware of that thought, identify with it, watch it grow and fall. The power of this process is that the moment you become aware of a thought that makes you sad, and watch its rise and ebb, it starts getting weak. If you are able to do this replace this thought with a good thought, now that’s your key to bliss.

b. The second way and one that worked for me, is to write down that thought which invokes a bad reaction within you. The act of simply writing down this thought makes it weak. The good part of the writing process is that you need not replace the bad thought with a good one. The moment you write the precise thought, it vanishes. In short the moment you associate with a bad thought either by watching it intensely or by writing it , the thought dies off.

By consistently practicing these 3 steps you can rid yourself of what we call “persistent worrying” and so called uncontrolled thinking of the mind. With time we would be able to gain mastery over our minds and eventually replace the uncontrolled thinking of the mind with a free thinking mind. A free thinking mind, constantly searches for thoughts that depress us, and replaces such thoughts with nice and pleasant thoughts , leading to a an enriched life of sheer bliss.

Healing and Health Benefits of Solo Travel

Indians as a rule are used to travelling with their families; hence the idea of a solo traveler seems quite extreme to say the least. While the rest of the world has been enjoying the benefits of travelling solo, Indians are yet to come to terms with why someone would want to undertake a solo travel. Granted that we as a nation are obsessed with an intense affinity towards our families and this does trickle into our travel plans which is great, a happy family holiday leads to great bonding. But it is good for the mind and soul for one to travel alone at least occasionally.


Having personally undertaken 2 backpacking trips in India, I am a firm believer that one solo trip in a year is healing and can earn you rich health benefits. The standard benefits associated with solo travel are a great sense of freedom, ability to meet new people (which you would not like to do during a family outing), decide your own schedule, (decide what you would see and for how long), spend as much money as you feel like, the list is endless. There are numerous cons associated with solo travel. The loneliness can get to you, causing you to put your entire journey at risk by deciding to terminate it before you complete your route. You are responsible for your own safety so need to be extra cautious, can’t think of telling someone to watch your back. You need to plan your baggage and travel light, its you after all who has to manage and carry your baggage. Safety of your baggage is your responsibility, so letting it down for even a few moments may turn out to be disastrous. Despite all the cons the health and soul healing benefits of solo travel does not stop to intrigue the human mind. Many creative personalities like painters, poets, writers etc have known to take off to a solitary location where they found their creative juices flowing better.

One of the greatest gains from solo travel is your ability to absorb and retain what you see and hear. This is important, because travelling with a partner can cause you to spend time talking or more correctly acknowledging his/her presence around. Another key healer is it allows you to introspect on your life, on what has happened till date, what were the hits and misses in life. Some of the greatest ideas have occurred to me when I was alone, away travelling (on work mostly). Like Jim Morison of Doors said in one of his songs “People are strange when you’re a stranger, Faces look ugly when you’re alone”. When alone mind concocts strange ideas and some of them so oblique bordering on madness. But many of these ideas can be converted to reality and can bring huge benefits to our lives, be it work, business ideas or our relationships with friends, family, colleagues etc. Strangely these ideas only crop up when the mind is left alone and best when you’re travelling alone. Also a solo travel helps purge ones thoughts , helps better mind control and acts as a great de-stresser.

Human beings are social animals but in todays stressful times, it is important to take time off for yourself and to spend it alone so as to commence a journey of self-discovery. The best way to do this is to undertake a solo travel to an unknown destination for an unknown period.

Au revior ………

Control of the mind leads to positive thinking and soul searching

The soul searching exercise continues to deliver more and more results. The means of soul searching changes , it moves in the direction you let it. If you force, it moves no where because your mind is in control and tells you only what is real and logical. Its the sub-concious or as i call the "you" , which is the real you which should help you do the soul searching exercise.This led me to my back packing trip , meeting new teachers (some very surprising discoveries) etc. Here we come to the point on what is the real you. Well , my own soul searching exercise made me believe that the human body consists of 3 parts
a. The physical body
b. The mind which controls the body and
c. The "You" which is an unconcious instintinctive force that resides (in my belief) at the end of your diaphragm right in the centre , near that "V" shaped bone.
Traditionally its the mind that drives the body , the mind convolutes a series of thoughts and what eminates is what we call feelings.These are based on wither past or current circumstances and we have no control on what the mind think. Previous to this revelation i was of the opinion that a constantly thinking mind is a sign of a thinker , someone who is constantly seeking something and i was under the impression that more the thoughts more you are better off. Now i realise that i was no longer in control oif those thoughts , they just used to flow and i was a mute bystander to these thoughts.
Well , now going back to how i came out of this so called "normal" thinking human tendency. Here are some steps to better and happy living
Step 1 - Get control over your Mind: When the "You" tries to control the mind , you find the mind revolting. Say "you" tell the mind "Have zero thoughts for the next 15 min" do you think the mind would do it? no it wont , it will protest , bring in all kind of wonky thoughts and you would have to fight it out ot get the mind in control of the "you".
Step 2 - Get the mind to think Positive: Lets say you achive Step 1. Go on to Step 2. The "You" is now in control of the mind. the next step is to say i would allow only positive thoughts to come to the mind. Its easy is it not. For any thing think positive. Think bright.Instead of thinking this is not what i want , think this is what i want. The "You" would make the mind think this way. Eventually, when ever you encounter a negative thought , just push it out of your mind.Also when you hear someone telling you negative thoughts just block them . And who will help you do this , the "You". You are doing great....
Step 3 - Stay in the "NOW": Now we have the mind in control , we think positive and block negative thoughts from our mind and others. Ok.. great... tell the mind to enjoy every moment of "now". Its this momenet we live in but its the future or the past that our mind lives in. LIke "I have to go for this party tonight , what should i wear" , "this guy was bad to me yesterday" , "i had a bad day today". Think ":Now". Like..... What about "the lunch you are having at this moment" , "the time you are spending with your family at his second" , "the air you are breathing during your run" , "the drive you are enjoying to your office now". Stay in the "NOW" and use the "You" to ask your mind to do that every second.
This is what i have encountered till now. More as nature reveals...

Regards

Pradeep
04 Jul 2009 , 1424 IST