When we experience balance, but it is negative

 

I have lost my balance so many times that I lost count.

In terms of health, I still remember living for years with a deep headache. It was not occasional. It was not “from time to time”. It was all the time. For years.

Balance is part of our nature. So much so that when we lose it, we try - consciously or unconsciously - to create another form of balance, sometimes an unhealthy one. It is what I call a negative balance: an adjustment that keeps us functioning, but at a cost.

Later, a doctor helped me understand what was happening. My body was compensating for an internal imbalance. It had created its own “solution”, one which was painful. That moment brought a deep realization: in human life, balance is not always immediate. When we lose it, we may take years to rebuild it. This is why, the negative balance comes in, as a way to compensate, until - and if - we recover the normal positive powerful balance we lost.

But, beyond myself, when I look around today, I feel many people are living in this same kind of negative balance, lives increasingly out of sync with natural rhythms, body, mind and soul.

Let’s look at how this works more closely:

• The body. We move less. We eat food that nourishes less. And then sickness appears - not as punishment, but as a messenger, a signal that something is out of alignment. The body is constantly trying to bring us back to equilibrium. When we ignore those signals, the compensation becomes heavier, more painful and more persistent.
• The mind. Overthinking, anxiety, endless worries... These are no longer exceptions - they are becoming the norm. The mind tries to compensate for inner emptiness or lack of direction by producing constant activity. Thoughts replace silence and noise replaces clarity. For a moment, this gives the illusion of control or purpose. But deep inside, it only creates more exhaustion. Another form of negative balance.
• The soul. In the past, people practiced their religion. Then many only spoke about it. Now, for many, even truth itself has become blurred. The soul needs silence, meaning, connection and that inner fire from those times. Without nourishment, the soul looks for substitutes: constant distraction, external validation and an endless consumption of information.

A negative balance makes the system to work, but not in harmony. How to fix that? A topic for the next post…

Controlling your mind, control your destiny

Mind control was a term used quite often at certain levels not long ago; in fact, there was even a (very expensive) course dedicated to teach people how to control their minds!

First, let’s understand the mind. From a spiritual perspective, mind is a part of the being responsible for generating ideas, thoughts and feelings, emotions and sensations.

Mind is considered by many a crazy horse, with no means to refrain or to detain. Others appreciate the power of the mind, generating, well, all we see around us! Except nature, of course.

So, how to REALLY control the mind? Probably that is the wrong word; instead of CONTROLLING, we need to handle or to manage it.

There are two ways to accomplish that. The first way is to look for silencing the mind, totally. Even though that is not possible, it is the aim of many spiritual practices, including certain types of meditation. As a clarification, it is not possible because there is always a white noise in the mind, sound or image.

However, with a proper meditation, like the Raja Yoga Meditation, you may reach a point in which your thoughts – voice, images – are replaced by feelings and it will be almost as if there is total silence. In that case, the mind will be under control and whatever experience is desired, it is possible to get it, especially if it is positive and powerful.

And what about managing the mind when things go wrong or under pressure. It will be much more difficult, but it is feasible to do it when things are quiet; in many people’s practices, meditation is done early in the morning so there is silence all around.

A final consequence of that positive management is a better control over one’s life. After all, what we do is a direct fruit of our thoughts; by managing their creation, we manage our own life.

What is the difference between what we think we are and what we REALLY are?

Your mind is like a studio: scenes take place, emotions rise, decisions are taken, lots of joy… But as in any studio, what is happening there is not necessarily… real… For instance, if you see a news anchor reading today’s news, you wouldn’t know what is going on around them as lots of people moving in a rush, confusion, cables all over; nothing that reflects the elegant person you are watching. And let’s not talk about the fact that maybe they are not well-dressed off-screen frame… Hoping they ARE dressed.

Now, let’s say you are going to work and your mind starts to show images of how things will be there, mixed with the commuting and, of course, yesterday night fight with your partner and the fact you are still using an old cell phone. But of course, that is not the reality you are living and even though a part of it is real, most of the things are not.

So, when you or I think about the self, it is just a piece of the reality, and there may be a huge difference.

Beyond the frame of mind there may be talents, skills, values, virtues and powers you don’t even imagine! They would be so useful to solve that problem at work or family, to give a different perspective on what is going on in the world, and much more.

What we REALLY are is there, beyond what we think we are and it is very, very deep and beautiful, powerful and gentle.

By meditating, contemplating or reflecting, you can break the frame of your mind and experience the whole thing. When you do that, naturally those things you find there will become part of your life. After all, they are already part of life, you just don’t know it…

Peace and prosperity

The connection between peace and prosperity is obvious; if you look the world map, the peaceful is a country, the richer would be… more or less. In fact, one of the most violent regions in the world is not that poor and some of the poorest countries do not lack peace.

However, in terms of an individual, the peaceful the person is, the more prosperous he will be… right?

Again, it is not a definite affirmation; I am sure you know many people who are EXTREMELY peaceful and they are in bankruptcy too!

However, in a subtle level, when you are in peace, your mind works in a different way… it is more concentrated, focused and thoughts come not as a storm, but as a soft breeze…

The more peaceful someone is, their perception will be clear and so, to make decisions will be much easier than without that feeling of peace.

Besides, because the person is peaceful they will have a tendency to spend less time, energy and money, saving the most they can.

That’s right, at least in a subtle level, prosperity comes with inner peace.

So if you feel you have not found the key to prosperity, or you have lost it, just give it a try and experience meditation or other techniques that help you to be peaceful.

Mind games

OK, check this video first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tf0XBkpCnwI

Magic is mind blowing, because it is a mind game, deceiving the mind. However, even though you are not someone with those skills, you can be playing those games too… or being played.

When you try to sell something or you are convincing someone to do what they don’t want to do, that’s a mind game.

Let’s comprehend our mind, not the brain … we need to understand more about the intangible process that takes place within.

First, anything that happens outside is an input to your mind and, on the basis of your valuable experience; the mind will generate thoughts or emotions, ideas or feelings.

Besides the experience, the mind takes into account the present situations: environment, how the person is feeling, whatever is going on.

The game that plays in the mind comes from two main factors: either the experience does not apply to the present input or the situation is influencing negatively the mind.

Two examples:

• Let’s say you want to resume your friendship with another person, but by seeing them, your experience with that person emerges again and it is not positive. Even though you want to be friend again, your mind will tell you that is a waste of time because of what the other person did.
• Same example, but this time you are able to winning over your experience. Yet, the person is not attentive to you, they are focused on other things and they are doing things you don’t like; there again goes your intention to continue the friendship.

How to go beyond the games of mind? Just as in the video, the best thing is to UNDERSTAND…

• When you see the person you want to be friend again and you start remembering old experiences, understand they did happen, but you are willing to give another try, by opening the doors of your heart and mind again.
• Maybe the person is doing THAT THING that annoys you, so it is time to remember the reasons why you want to be friend with them again, which I am sure will be stronger than those things.

In fact, the biggest trick is that you are not a player in the mind games; you are the owner and the one who defines the game.

Enjoying a peaceful state of mind

The crisis caught us all… but, has it got into our minds too?

Wise words from something I’ve heard many years ago: you may get sick in your body, but don’t let the sickness reaches you into your mind. The same applies to the uncertainty we are living.

Our minds are fragile in a sense, as it comes very easily under the influence of the circumstances. If the situations are peaceful, so will the mind; if the environment where you are is hostile, then the mind will suffer for it.

However, by detaching your mind from the circumstances it is possible to experience peace even though the situations themselves are not peaceful. And by experiencing peace within, it isn’t impossible to be able to affect the external environment.

It requires some (lots of) self-control and a certain level of discipline to prevent mind to be influenced by whatever is happening around.

Meditation is one of the ways that enable the individual to experience peace, no matter what is going on around them. Just try it:

Sit down with no other reason but to experience a few moments of meditation…Let yourself feel your thoughts decreasing in quantity and speed… gradually, going from a storm to a rain and then to a few drops…Let yourself feel instead of thinking words… just feel your own peace… there, inside you…It is peace… a sensation of calmness and tranquility… a feeling of satisfaction and the absence of worries… a creative energy that subtly fills the being…It is peace… like a shield that protects you and your environment…It is peace…

When you meditate for some time in a regular basis, naturally you will start to feel the benefit of being peaceful, you will see changes in the scenario of your life and you will be able to change deeply.

You may not prevent the crisis to take place, but it won’t enter inside you.

A magic lamp!

It's like Aladdin's, but brighter. This lamp is called mind.

To activate this lamp, just rub it, that is, use your mind with a purpose instead of just letting it wander around... Let the hand of your best intentions touch your mind, making the best of it emerge.

In this magic lamp that we all have, there are unlimited treasures; really, you can achieve everything, not only for yourself but for people who are connected to you. When there is a clear purpose and focus, everything is possible.

But check your intentions while using your mind. One tip: the more selfless you are, the more powerful the outcome will be.

Like every lamp, there is a hidden genius waiting to be released, which is the force that your mind will use to bring about what you need and want to achieve. Actually, your magic lamp is so broad that it contains THREE GENIUS. The first and most important is that of a determined thought.

Sit peacefully and focus your mind on what you need, touching it gently with pure intentions. Now, let your mind generate the thoughts that can make the impossible become possible.

And do not be diverted! A determined thought is the match that transforms a candle into light... Think, speak and act.

The second genius is very special and important, helping you to overcome the obstacles of the path, because it will MOTIVATE you all the time. It's about constructive emotions.

One of the key reasons why we do not achieve what we have in mind are obstacles and adversities in general, which take away our desire, and frustrate and discourage us.

Therefore, fill yourself with positivism by talking with optimistic people, watching news that helps you increase hope, and discussing topics related to love, peace and happiness... The more you feed your constructive emotions, the more easily you will overcome obstacles.

The last genius is related to a process of introspection and reflection necessary to process what is happening. They are the feelings that exist on a deeper level than the emotions.

From time to time, stop along the way, look in the mirror of your own existence and recognize what exists within you, the feelings that come before emotions and even thoughts.

They come from your beliefs and serve to turn into memorable the incredible effort that your lamp will make: change your reality.

I am here, what about you?

A typical scene nowadays, anywhere in our very modern world: a group of friends sitting together, all of them looking into their own cell phones, apparently ignoring the rest of people around them, even though they are very good friends.

We live in a world of people who are not present. A few are working at one place different than the place they are sitting or standing; others, are looking for fun somewhere else and in many cases, they don’t even know where their actions are taking them to. Many others are trying to evade and escape the present reality.

But, I am here. Even though I am so busy, I am still here…

Maybe I can’t be present all the time, but I chose and decide to make that special effort to be where I am and to be what I really am, along with others.

Would you like to try? Try to disconnect yourself for a while from the whole world and be present at the small space you occupy. Try to look into the eyes of others and appreciate the nature around you or the wonderful city you where you live.

That will generate an alignment, enabling your mind to perform better and helping you to make better decisions. That will improve your life in general, and I am sure it will help others to appreciate you even more…

Meditation changes your reality

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Modi persuaded United Nations to declare June 21^st as the International Day of Yoga. Since then, important celebrations are held worldwide.

I practice yoga since I was 18, but… there is a but here. Almost all the times we talk about yoga, the image in people’s minds is of crossing legs or doing impossible poses. That is not my type of yoga.

Yoga is not only physical; its area is broad and wide. Its practice will depend on what you really want to do with your body, mind and spirit.

For the body, yoga gives a self-control that it is almost impossible to get from anywhere else. It is healthy, but it is not only healthy, it is a healing process. I know many people who practice a physical type of yoga and I tell you, it is wonderful, and even though I don’t, raja yoga also works for my body and I have experience healing many times.

For the mind, the best part of any yoga practice would be the meditation – would be as many people don’t meditate, they just jump into the exercise. That is the reason all great masters of yoga went to very isolated places for their practice, as meditation is revered as key to their success; the first stage of yoga is meditation – and that is what changes reality, as perceptions shift and the person experiences a renew in their lives.

For the soul, meditation reconnects you, after all so much is happening at present and although we are fully connected to the world, very often we find ourselves zero connected to the inner core: what do I really want? Ikigai, other philosophies and techniques try to make people stop and reflect, going back to their source, and so they act as a type of yoga.

When yoga helps you to connect with your own self, reality changes… well, reality will probably be the same, however as you are connected to the purest energy that exists within you, that energy pours through your life, changing your reaction to situations and helping you to focus on the good side of circumstances.

A yogi will look at reality with love, determination and courage, even though reality looks at them in a frightening way…

On this special day, and as much as you can during the year, spend some time in yoga and meditation…

A leader can easily remove clouds from another person’s mind – Reason 69

What do you do when someone comes to you with sadness, confusion or weakness in their mind?

Probably you will try to give assistance, helping them to face these difficult period, which is very good and it shows an important feature of our human society: solidarity.

Along with doing that, leaders will give others an opportunity to see beyond the clouds in their mind and to perceive the sun that shines over and above the situations.

Leaders inspire, and inspiration works to enable people to understand there is hope.  More than hope; leaders will also show others their real potential, helping them to start a new path in life.

A path to which clouds are not going to hang over them…

(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)

I was thinking…

One of the things that touched me about 30 years ago was to find out how thoughts are processed and lived.

I am not talking here about a scientific point of view, but from a humanist and spiritual point of view. It was so impressive that a consultant friend of mine during many years used to give that information to his clients.

It should be obvious that by understanding how the thinking process works, we could have innumerable benefits, such as: better decision-making, enhancing the leadership capacity, innovation, etc.

However, we don’t hear about people looking into that so much. Last time I heard a leader talking on the need of thinking (reflecting, contemplating), it was just before Obama was elected for the first time, during a talk with the French president of that time.

Our society as a whole acknowledges actions and results, instead of reflection and contemplation. Children receive marks when they are right, not when they are still thinking… And just try to tell your boss you are thinking of what to do about that project, in which you are delayed!

And that is really a mistake. Perhaps by jumping into action and solving things In a Ramboish style we have got many results, but as Peter Senge said in his first book, The Fifth Discipline: problems of today are yesterday’s solutions. By not giving time to human reflection, we were unable to prevent deterioration or the misuse of ideas.

If you really want to be a leader and provide long-term solutions, just do one thing: THINK!

The general process

Every human being has three main functions, in relation to the thinking process:

·         Archive. We store all experiences we have in our lives. These experiences will help us to make decisions when the same situations or similar ones come in front of us.

·         Mind. It is the “screen” where our thoughts and feelings are projected. It is the area of thoughts and emotions. When we say I am thinking, it means our minds are working on something.

·         Intellect. It decides what our next action. It takes into account whatever the mind has, your present state of awareness and your knowledge.

The internal process is easy to understand:

1.       An input comes from outside, sometimes unknowingly.

2.       This awakes an old experience, stored in the archive.

3.       That experience is taken by the mind; in relation to the present circumstances and consciousness, thoughts and emotions are generated.

4.       Whatever the mind has is given to the intellect, which has to make a decision in terms of a response to the input.

5.       The response is acted out. That turns into another input and is archived along with the experience for future references.

Our archive

It is easy to realize the archive is out of our hands. It stores what we experience and that is it.

But we can conduct our experience in a better way. For instance, we can learn from a bad experience, turning it into a good one and the opposite is also true, as due to a bad day we can make our experience going back home as bad as possible.

The trick is in one point specifically: to manage better our intellect.

The effect of making a conscious effort in terms of which experiences I really want to store is impressive:

A bad project can be the birth of a wonderful business. That is the case of Post-It, a glue that didn’t work.

Bad marks in school can generate a genius. Einstein, anyone?

A divorce can give you your best friend back. Look at your neighbor!

When the experience is polished, next time the same situation emerges, no need of thinking of a response, as it will be stored in the self already.

Controlling your mind

At a time where distraction is omnipresent, controlling the mind can be an advantage in pursuing success in life, and it doesn’t require much.

First of all, it is important to understand that at the extent we can control our mind, we can control our thoughts and their quality. Better thoughts create better words and actions. If we don’t control our mind, it will weaver according to the circumstances, giving happiness and sorrow despite what you desire.

The higher the quality of thoughts we want, more control we need to exercise.

·         Relaxation. It is the basic point in terms of controlling our mind. An easy trick is to create a nice physical environment, with some soft music playing, and thoughts will go towards it.

·         Reflection. The art of thinking purposely. Take a good thought, a book or even a quote and let your mind work on that, analyzing, synthetizing of just experiencing in the laboratory of your mind.

·         Contemplation. It means silence, in its deepest sense. Although it requires discipline, it works as a balsam for the mind, cleaning it of unnecessary and sometimes hurtful thoughts and emotions.

·         Meditation. Making your mind creative is very useful, and that is one of the roles of meditation. It helps to create a flow of positive thoughts and generate an impact in our inner archive.

·         Yoga. It means concentration and focus. Although it requires as much discipline as contemplation, it is extremely useful as it helps to change your inner archive. In a stage of yoga, you have total control on your thoughts, feelings and emotions.

Focusing your intellect

The intellect is probably the most important faculty we have.

First of all, it manages our consciousness, which means it manages our own experience. It is the intellect that really creates our archive and helps us in our future experiences.

But consciousness comes as a fruit of knowledge and experience, and that is the key to focus your intellect and generate better decisions, and so better files in our archive.

·         The knowledge that comes to the intellect is not so much the literal knowledge of letters and numbers, but the deduction and inference that come from it. So, it does not work to know something by heart… It has to touch your heart.

·         Many times we assimilate a knowledge that is incoherent. For instance, your mother can tell you it is bad to tell lies, but she seems satisfied when you lie by telling her friend she is not at home. That creates a form of corruption, and so via reflection, it is very important to clean it up.

·         It is common we have an interesting experience we fully don’t understand. By going after a knowledge that explains that experience in a coherent way, we help our intellect to strengthen or even create another stage of consciousness.

·         Sometimes we have experiences that go against our common knowledge. That may happen with the knowledge we receive from our relatives or religion when we go for work. Reflection and contemplation can help to conciliate experience and knowledge, giving a sense of confidence.

Thoughts of a leader

·         They are based on reflection.

·         A leader’s response is not emotional, but it comes from the depth of their heart.

·         All experiences are good, either because they create pleasure or they teach the leader something different.

·         Every day the leader works on cleaning his or her mind, polishing thoughts and emotions.

·         Whatever the situation is, the leader’s intellect is making the best decisions possible as her or his consciousness is in a very high position.

·         Because the leader’s response is the best, his or her archive also is in optimum state, helping to solve critical scenes in life.