Articles with explanations, tips and additional resources

Namaste. "Say it again."

2/5/2014

Here's a fabulous video explaining the meaning of Namaste from maybe an unlikely figure: Click

Not only does Bobby have some God in him, so do you. And so too does the person nearest to you, as well as the person farthest from you. We all do. We usually just don't realize it.

As an aside: by God I mean something that truly can't be expressed adequately in words, but never the less is that which is infinite, eternal and inherently perfect. God is the non-physical essence that permeates all things. It is the absolute Truth, as compared to the relative truth.

What would make you happier than to know that you've gotta a little God in you?

And I don't mean "know it" in an intellectual sense. I mean it in a "feel it resonate so deeply that you have less than no doubt."

That'd be some pretty good stuff, wouldn't it?

You can feel exhilaration beyond words, completeness so profound effort and desire dissolve into joy.

And this experience can be yours at any moment, like right now. That would be through grace. Maybe it's your time, you're fated to become illumined right about now. Wouldn't that be cool? Hey, just don't rule it out.

You can also pursue it. All upward paths lead to the same mountain top. I'll tell you about one, which is not by any means to exclude others.

If I told you that the God in you, the inherent perfection, the bliss and indescribably awesome aspect of existence comes as a whisper from your heart and all you have to do is quiet your shouting mind, could you do it?

Just because you can't do it now, at the drop of a hat, summon it any moment you choose, doesn't mean you can't learn to do it systematically. Enter: Raja Yoga.

Raja Yoga is an 8 step system for realizing that you've got a little God in you and for realizing that Bobby does, too. It's so old you'd have to agree that it's a discovery, not an invention. Like gravity. It works. It just does.

Here's a link to an explanation of Raja Yoga from one of the indisputable masters of recent times: Click.

One read through is definitely not enough. But suffice it to say, it'll put you in the ball park. Just do that, follow the 8 steps, one by one, in order. Don't stop at 3 or 7. Try to reach all the way to 8.

All I can say it that I've dipped my toes in step 7 by following steps 1 thru 6 and not even to the letter. That has been sufficient to remove all of my doubts, to know the real Truth, apart from the relative truth about myself, and you and this experience. I can only imagine what the rest of step 7 and any part of step 8 are like. Holy cow!

I'm really looking forward to very old age when perhaps my body won't want to move around quite so much. Because with the body still, all there is left to still is the mind. And I'm pretty sure I've been taught how to do that. If you'd like to come over to Bhakti Yoga Lounge for my 3, 4, 7 Intro to Meditation class, or the new 3, 4, 7, Deeper class, it'd be my pleasure to show you what I've been shown that has been so beneficial to me.

Yoga chitta vritti nirodha

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Exercising for optimum physical condition

5/19/2013

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Virtually every aspect of a person's life experience is enhanced by being active and fit.

If I had a chisel I would set those words in stone.

Exercise helps keeps you healthy longer. It strengthens the immune system. Exercise increases your vitality making you look and feel years younger than if your lifestyle is sedentary. The benefits are far, far too many to list here, but you can follow some of the links in this post to find out more.[1]

Exercise is a very broad term that means physical effort above resting levels, so there are countless ways to get some.

What exercise is best?

While all exercise is good for you, some forms are more beneficial than others.[2]

Here are a few issues to consider:

1. Time:

The current consensus opinion among exercise science experts is that around 3 hours of moderate exercise per week is necessary to get noticeable health benefits.[3][4]

These three hours can be broken up into smaller segments. Even little 10-15 minutes chunks of exercise support fitness when added together.

Here are a few ways to understand what the term "moderate exercise" really means.[5][6]

The Talk Test: If you can talk normally while you’re working out, then you’re not yet working at a moderate level.
Sweat: Unless your environment is so hot that you sweat while resting, perspiration is a strong indication that you're exercising hard enough to get health benefits. Also note that wind and cold temperatures can reduce perspiration. So this rule requires some practical experience to apply effectively.
Heart Rate Monitor: These sophisticated electronic devices offer an array of features to measure and report on various aspects of your exercise, including exertion.[7]
Moderate exercise uses approximately 50% of your aerobic capacity, or a 5 on a 1-10 scale where 0 is the level of effort of sitting and 10 is maximum effort.[8]

In comparison to moderate exercise, vigorous exercise is unsustainable for more than a few minutes, except for persons with very high levels of fitness. At a vigorous level of effort, you can't speak normally, breathing is labored and sweating can be profuse.

The health benefits differ between moderate and vigorous exercise by a factor of two. For an equal amount of time, say 90 minutes, vigorous exercise produces twice the benefits of moderate exercise. In other words, you can get the same benefits of 90 minutes of moderate exercise in 45 minutes if you work at a vigorous level.[9]

2. Health Benefits:

Science says the best form of exercise for health is cardio-metabolic, meaning that it works your muscles, heart and lungs.

Harvard Medical School published the spiffy chart below, which quantifies the cardio-metabolic benefits from various forms of physical activity, including tennis, raking the lawn and sex. (Click on the chart to make it bigger.)

From a health and fitness perspective, the aim of exercise is to increase both endurance and strength. Increase endurance by exercising moderately for at least 20 minutes at a time, or vigorously for at least 10 minutes. The key is to keep your heart rate elevated above resting for an extended period of time while you exert yourself.

Increase your strength by bearing weight or otherwise working against resistance, such as your bodyweight. It's important for good health to strengthen all of your major muscle groups, e.g. legs, core, back, chest and arms. The key is to fatigue your muscles. Just before you finish strength training you should need help to move the weight.

Cardio-metabolic exercise chart, Harvard Medical School

3. Efficiency:

Who among us isn't pressed for time from time-to-time? That's a great reason to develop an active lifestyle.

An active lifestyle is often the easiest way of getting exercise. Integrating exercise into your lifestyle is also an efficient use of your time and money, aside from the health benefits.

By viewing the way you interact with your physical environment as a source of opportunity for exercise you will find that physical fitness and the health benefits that come along with it are easily attainable. Circumstances you once viewed as inconveniences can be seen, instead, as opportunities in disguise. For instance, having to park several blocks away from your destination or encountering a slow-to-arrive elevator when you're in a hurry gives you the opportunity to walk, and walking is one of the healthiest forms of exercise.[10][11] The opportunities for enhancing your fitness are limitless if you choose to look at your environment as a gym. Plus, this outlook can reduce the stress associated with viewing these aforementioned situations in a negative light.

4. Safety:

Safe exercises are better choices than those involving a high risk of injury because injury defeats the purpose of exercising for fitness.

Some risk can be mitigated by the use of safety equipement, training and discretion. Rock climbing, for instance, is fantastic exercise for both endurance and strength. But there's a saying, "There are old climbers and reckless climbers, but there are no old, reckless climbers." Apply the essence of that aphorism to your choice of exercise and you'll potentially spare yourself the pain that erases gain.

You should also consider your current state of fitness when evaluating potential exercise options. Running a half-marathon may sound awesome. But you have to be quite fit. So if you currently can't play with your dog without being winded you're setting yourself up for failure and possible injury.

Pushing the limits of your fitness is a way to expand them. But be realistic about where those limits are. As every exercise disclaimer says, "Consult your physician before you begin a new exercise." That's a bit extreme because risk-averse lawyers wrote it, but the core idea is valid. If you have concerns about how much strain your body can tolerate you'd do well to visit a doctor.

* * * *

The bottom line is that some exercise is better than none and more is better than less. That said, the absolute best exercise for you is the one that you are willing and able to do.

Regular exercise is a pillar that supports optimum physical condition. Exercise is amazing because you will often get more out of it than it seems you had to put into it and the benefits increase exponentially with time. Combine exercise with proper nutrition as part of your lifestyle and in short order you will be radiating vitality.

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BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Flow: The perfect experience

4/14/2013

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Britney Spears once expressed a truly brilliant insight (seriously!) that applies to us all: “I wanna get in the zone.”

The Gatorade commercial from the 1990s featuring Michael Jordan that had people saying “I’d like to be like Mike” was sensationally popular because it tapped into the same thing: our desire to get in the zone, which during that era was embodied most visibly by MJ on the basketball court.

Likewise, the comparably popular Nike golf commercial where a diverse group of people spoke the same line “I am Tiger Woods” targeted exactly the same psychology. Tiger dominated the game of golf so thoroughly in the early 2000s that he single-handedly made golf cool – almost. No mean feat. So how did he do it? Because in Tiger Woods the golfer we saw someone completely in the zone, dominating not just the golf course and the field but also the apparent limitations of body and mind. It's a deeply alluring trait.

The zone, known as flow in psychology circles, is so attractive that we will happily live vicariously through someone who we see in it, like Tiger or Michael. Flow liberates the spirit from the confines of the body and mind so completely that people often describe the experience as out-of-body and as being unconscious. The result is nothing short of euphoria. Even when the experience is second hand we still feel it and love it.

But we don't have to rely on others to feel that thrill. Everyone can get in the flow, not just ultra-elite performers. In fact, there are as many entry points to the flow as there are individuals.

Enter flow by following your passion. Search your past and identify an activity you have found so engaging that minutes passed like seconds or hours like minutes. It will have involved these four elements: 1. your skills, 2. values, 3. interests and 4. a challenge.

Finding your entry to the flow is that simple. However, there aren't very many qualifying experiences. That scarcity contributes to its value, so appreciate it.

Where Flow Lives

Then commit 100% to experiencing it again. Eliminate distractions. Focus intensely. Look for that elusive, magical quality in the details of whatever it is you’re doing and you’ll find it.

For more insights from science and experience read Flow: The Psychology of Optimum Experience.

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BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Who am I? When was the last time you asked yourself?

4/7/2013

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Many spiritual teachers and philosophers have emphasized the value of finding the answer to this question, or at least seeking to answer it.

Some have even said that within the answer to this question lie the answers to all others.

If you haven’t sought to answer it, the world has probably attempted to answer it for you. But the only label that really matters is the one you give yourself.

Usually our label or identity speaks to the way our bodies look and the things it can do, or our minds – our personalities and ideas, and/or our relations to others.

In defining ourselves we rarely consider our spiritual identities. That's because it's just not practical. Or is it?

Unlike a body or mind-centered identity, which reinforces the idea of separateness and individuality, having a strong spiritual identity expands the notion of who we are.

Spirit has an ethereal quality that permeates the fibers from which the sense-based world is woven. It is the underlying essence of all that appears to be real.

Connecting with this makes us also feel more connected to each other and the rest of creation. It helps us to appreciate that some part of us is also a part of everything else.

Experiencing life through the lens of a spiritual identity helps us understand Ramana Maharshi, a spiritual luminary, when he said, “There are no others.” He is directing our attention away from our apparently separate existences to point out that we are just different leaves on different branches of the same tree of life. True separateness is merely an illusion.

What does this mean in day-to-day life? There can be no loneliness, even in times of being alone. There are no true adversaries. There is only unity in diversity, a common ground from which we’ve grown and are sustained.

If you want a rational, Western explanation of the Self as spirit, I highly recommend Fritjof Capra’s classic, The Tao of Physics.

Or connect with some of your contemporaries to learn their thoughts and feelings on the matter. TED Conversations: The Age Old Question: “Who am I?”

So who are you?

I’d love to hear how you answer that question.

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BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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You become like the company (and environment) you keep – filter out all but the positive

2/8/2013

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There’s no doubt that we take on some of the characteristics of our environments. It’s actually an exchange; we influence and change our environments and our environments influence and change us. It pays to consider whether that’s always a good thing.

In a positive environment we thrive. In a negative environment we struggle. Usually, there’s a mix of positive and negative influences in our surroundings. Ideally, we’d do well to expand, imitate, and eventually embody the positive influences and ignore, avoid, and eliminate the negative influences. But we can’t do this effectively unless we selectively filter our environment to let in what serves us and block out what disturbs us.

Consider the places, spaces, and company you spend your time among: which aspects are most beneficial and which are a bother? After you identify these key influences, use your creativity and resourcefulness to create the ideal environment for your purposes out of whatever situation you find yourself in.

Your environmental filter will accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative in your surroundings. You can minimize whatever negative influences manage to get through by consciously focusing your attention elsewhere. The result will be that you find yourself more often than not in surroundings that support your health and happiness.

BODY – MIND – SPIRIT

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Namaste. "Say it again."

Exercising for optimum physical condition

Flow: The perfect experience

Where Flow Lives

Who am I? When was the last time you asked yourself?

You become like the company (and environment) you keep – filter out all but the positive

Popular Posts

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Namaste. "Say it again."

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

Exercising for optimum physical condition

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

Flow: The perfect experience

Where Flow Lives

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

Who am I? When was the last time you asked yourself?

Get The PATH² Good News delivered right to your inbox

You become like the company (and environment) you keep – filter out all but the positive

Popular Posts

Topics