STABILIZE: Focusing the power


It should be fairly obvious by now that even on our best days mind chatter can be difficult to deal with. And when fear and self-hatred raise their ugly heads, it seems impossible. The harder we try to control the chatter, the more it fills the mind. Try not to think for 15 seconds. Don’t think about not thinking, as this is still thinking. You will quickly find how difficult this is. The mind is a field of intelligent energy in constant motion. Like a crazed monkey jumping around in a tree, the mind hops from one thing to another, often making unexpected and undesirable leaps and turns.
We try all sorts of things to control the mind – positive thinking, sleep, and drugs. Unfortunately, many of the things not only don’t work, they create even bigger problems for us. Our inability to control the chattering monkey mind is exceeded only by the frustration and suffering it creates for us.
There are times though, when the mind behaves perfectly, and seems to be under almost complete control. Remember when you became so focused on your work that even time seemed to disappear? Psychologists call this “task absorption,” or a “flow experience.” It often leads to a “peak experience,” a time of great personal fulfillment and expression.
Now contrast this experience with the time when you had a lot of work to do, but sat around and worried. How did you feel after several hours of working like this? More than likely, you couldn’t concentrate, your mind and body were out of sync, and you feel frazzled, tense and irritable.
Unfortunately, we have far more of these experiences than the peak experiences of task absorption. Work, relationships, and leisure activities don’t always fascinate us to the point that we become completely focused on them. We need something for times when we aren’t completely absorbed in the task before us.
What if you had a simple, effective technique to control your mind chatter, one that could be used anywhere at any time, and was effective the moment you used it? And what if this technique, when refined to a high degree of skill, would provide you with absolute control over your emotional reactions? Would you practice until you become very skilled in its use?
Well, get ready to practice because there is a technique that will provide all of this and more. The more skilled you become, the greater benefits you gain. This technique is called breath awareness and is one of the most powerful self-management tools that you will ever use.
In either case, by remaining in control of yourself, you take control of the situation. Your thoughts remain clear and focused, and you solve the problems presented to you more effectively and efficiently without giving yourself high blood pressure or an ulcer.




BREATH AWARENESS


When you inhale you will feel a slight touch of coolness right at the opening of the nostrils. When you exhale, you will feel a very subtle touch of warmth. You may have a little difficulty feeling warmth, but you will feel the air as it moves through the opening of the nostrils. Now don’t think about the breath, concentrate on feeling it as it enters and leaves the nostrils. Whenever you find your mind wandering off into thought, bring your attention back to the feeling of the breath. At the same time, be aware of how you feel, and what happens in your mind. But keep your attention focused on the coolness of the inhalation and warmth of the exhalation.
What happens to your thoughts? Does your breathing change? Do you feel anything different in your body when you focus your attention on feeling your breath?

Three things happen when you focus on feeling your breath:

The chatter in your mind stops and your mind becomes clear and calm.
Your breathing slows and becomes more stable, creating balance in the autonomic nervous system.
You feel a slight release as your body relaxes because there are no longer any demands being made by your mind chatter. The body’s natural state is one of relaxation. The more focused, calm, and quite your mind, the more relaxed your body.

MIND and MASTERY: Taking on the dragons.


It’s apparent that the real power and control lie within the mind, not the body. It’s time to face the real source of our miseries, the dragons of the mind. If we don’t take control of the creative force we call the sensory mind, all the breathing and relaxation in the world wont keep the dragons from breathing fire and creating unhappiness. We saw in previously how the dragons of fear and self-hatred disturb the co-ordination between mind and body, which leads to stress. The greater cause of stress is fear. It sets off the fight-or-flight alarm response, and we worry ourselves to death. When we identify with all the hurts, mistakes, and disasters of the past, we react with the possum response and suffer from depression and guilt. This is the second greatest cause of stress. Many of us are quite capable of doing both at the same time. Because we are not skilled in using our inner resources, our habits dominate the mind and we become victims of our own misdirected creative forces.
When we use the sensory mind skillfully, we solve problems, create new possibilities, tap our instinctual knowledge, and bring balance and harmony into our lives. But left unmanaged, this creative force is disrupted by emotions, made by rigid habits, and limited through beliefs. Instead of visualizing solutions, we fantasize harm and failure.
We all know someone like Shirley, a middle-aged, very attractive and intelligent woman. She spends a great deal of emotional effort just trying to cope - not with the world, but with her own fears of rejection and thoughts about how stupid and unlovable she is. Sadly, like many others, Shirley had a difficult childhood. Her father was rejecting and cold, and her mother was incapable of providing the love and security every child needs. It’s easy to see how these early patterns of rejection created such strong feelings of fear and self-hatred. Shirley understands this, but this analysis doesn’t change the habits of her mind. She still accepts these early judgments that continue to play in her mind as her identity. Even though she practices relaxation and breathing exercises, she still feels fearful and unloved. Shirley must and can learn to distance herself from these habits locked in to her sensory mind. If she learns to quiet her mind and take control of her inner chatter, she can free herself from these old patterns.

To take command of the sensory mind, we must master four steps:

1. Stabilize our emotional reactions by taking charge of mind chatter. In this way, we cut the circuits to our past emotional reactions and redirect our emotional energies.
2. Carefully choose our language to create the realities we want and not waste time and energy on non-productive thinking and emotional reactions.
3. Develop effective strategies to eliminate fear and self-hatred. With the right techniques and practice, we can overcome our fears, clear mind and even in the face of conflict and attack.
4. Refine our perceptual sensitivity and develop our instincts to provide us with a better sense of timing and the ability to make more effective decisions.

SWEEPING BREATH EXERCISE


Begin by lying in the Relaxation posture. Breathe with the diaphragm, allowing your breath to become very even and smooth.
Now visualize the body as hollow reed. Then breathe in as if inhaling through the toes and filling the body with breath to the crown of the head. Exhale as if you are breathing back down the body and out the toes. Breathe easily and gently, without any effort. Do not try to force your breathing: let your body decide how much air you need.
Focus your concentration on feeling the entire body breathe and imagine every cell and pore in your body breathing in and out. It’s as if you are feeling your entire body expanding in and out. It’s as if you are feeling your entire body expanding on the inhalation and contracting on the exhalation.
After a few moments, visualize the breath as a wave washing upon the shore on the inhalation and receding back into the sea on the exhalation. Maintain this imagery as long as you wish.


SLEEP EXERCISE

All breathing is 2:1. Exhale for twice as long as you inhale.
Use a comfortable count such as 6:3 or 8:4. You are not trying to completely empty or fill the lungs. The 2:1 ratio should be effortless.
Pay close attention to your breath. There should be no stops, pauses or shakiness during either the inhalation or the exhalation. Minimize the pause between inhalation and exhalation.

The exercise goes as follows:

8 breaths lying on your back.
16 breaths lying on your right side.
32 breaths lying on your left side.

BENEFITS:

It helps in getting a restful sleep.
Effective to minimize chronic fatigue and insomnia.
Excellent exercise to teach children who suffer from night terrors or sleepwalking.
If you don’t fall asleep the first time, repeat the exercise; practice every night until you can fall asleep easily and stay asleep all night.

TAKING CHARGE OF POWER

Self-discipline doesn’t mean self-punishment. Self-discipline is about accessing inner strength and developing the ability to do whatever we choose to do. The beauty of this is that we already have everything we need to become skillful human beings. All we need to do is understand a few simple things about the mind and body, and we can use power in creative and useful ways for ourselves and others.


Our Habits: Channeling the Power

A habit is like a groove that channels the energy of the mind in a certain direction. The more often the mind’s energy travels down that channel, the deeper the channel, and the stronger the habit becomes. We form these groves, or habits, through a process called conditioning, repeating behaviors associated with pleasure and avoiding behavior associated with pain.
We also build habits through association. The cause and effect may not be related to each other but occur close enough in time that we make a connection. Like my brother had stomach flu just after eating Prawns ten years ago. Even though he knows intellectually that the prawns was not the cause of his illness but the feeling is so strongly associated with prawns that he can’t force himself to eat it again.
When habits are practiced and refined, they are called skills. If we do something well or easily, it is because we have the habits that support the behavior. When something is difficult, it means we don’t have habits to support the behavior. We become skilled at driving, brushing our teeth, eating healthy or having good posture. We also become skilled at worrying, self-criticism, self-doubt and poor health habits because we practice them. Every time we worry, we are practicing worrying. No wonder we become so skilled at worrying.
The most powerful and subtle habits are those learned in the first five or six years of our lives. But we didn’t choose these habits they developed unconsciously as a result of our interaction with parents and society. Once these habits are established they become part of our personalities and guide our behavior for rest of our lives. If we grow up thinking we are not important or smart, it becomes difficult in later life to experience ourselves as important or smart. And we will probably spend a great deal of effort trying to prove that we really are important and smart. As long as we remain unaware of these built-in biases, we don’t have any effective way to counteract them.


Bad Habits Bring Bad Outcomes

We are all familiar with those habits that create emotional reaction for us. Let’s say that you walk into a crowded room and see two people together. One is a stranger, the other is someone you don’t like or trust. Your eyes meet this “enemy,” and you experience the moment of mutual recognition. Then the person smiles and drops his gaze. You see him whisper into the ear of the person sitting next to him. The next moment the stranger looks in your direction, smiles, and quickly looks away. Now, what does your mind do with this? Are they talking about you? No doubt! Are they saying what a wonderful person you are? Very doubtful! And what is your emotional reaction? Does the term “paranoia” fit?
Did you make a conscious decision to be upset? Highly unlikely. You walked into a situation and unconsciously interpreted actions along the lines of your past experience (Habits). The consequence was an emotional reaction, not a choice. Very few of us consciously choose to be disturbed!
It is the consequences of these physical habits created by our emotional reaction that we often call stress.


The Unconscious Power

The key to self-control is to take charge of our habits. Habits develop in many ways and for many different reasons. But all habits share one critical aspect – they only operate in, and because of, the unconscious mid. We may consciously build our habit, such as when we practice playing guitar or proper breathing and relaxation techniques. The whole point of practice is, in fact, to build a habit, to have a certain behavior that we don’t have to think about. Not a single habit function as a part of the conscious mind. According to the late B.F. Skinner, the “grandfather of behaviorism,” we are products of our environment, and are controlled by our environment.
Just think about the last time you became furious. A few moments before you exploded, I’ll will bet that you did not consciously and rationally think: “ hey this individual’s behavior call for an drastic expression of anger. I better scream and demonstrate some anger here.” Instead, you just felt an explosion of anger that came right out of the unconscious emotional reaction. This person pushed one of your triggers, and all your repressed emotional energy got channeled into your reaction. You didn’t really had a choice, you simply reacted. When we react to such emotional stimuli, we lose the power to act and our environment governs our behavior.
For example, let’s say you have acquired the deep-seated habit of feeling incompetent. This attitude learned in childhood, lies in the unconscious, where you are not fully aware of its power.
However, whenever anyone questions your judgement, you react with anger or aggression, and overwhelm your questioner with intense, logical argument. The intensity of your response indicates that one of your triggers (your old habit of believing yourself to be incompetent) was pushed, and you react to this with fight-or-flight reaction. When your inquisitor backs down, both the effectiveness of your reaction and the old habit of feeling incompetent are reinforced. More than likely you rationalize your reaction,, never really aware of the reason behind your action.

Nasal Breathing

Sigmund Freud found that menstrual cramps were often related to an inflammation and discoloration of specific areas in the lining of the nose. When these are anesthetized, the menstrual pains disappeared until the effects of anesthesia wore off.
Modern research is also finding that emotional states are related to an over dominance of either right or left nostril activity. For example preliminary research indicates that some forms of depression are related to over-activity in the left nostril, while excessive airflow in the right nostril has been found to be associated with hyperactivity. This does not necessarily mean that a constantly overactive left nostril causes depression, or that an overactive right nostril leads to hyperactivity. What it does show is the connection between the way we breathe, certain neural conditions, and physical and emotional states.
Yoga science states that when you are doing active work, the right nostril should be open and dominant. Consciously working with your breath in this way gradually allows you to establish control over your breathing with your mind. The goal is to be able to establish sushumna, the ability to willfully direct both nostrils to be open equally at the same time.
The purpose of sushumna is to allow the mind to be deeply concentrated without effort.

THE COMPLETE BREATH

In this exercise all three mechanisms for breathing – diaphragm, chest, and collarbones – are brought into use. When you first practice this exercise, place your right hand on your upper stomach area and your left hand on your upper chest. When you breathe with the diaphragm, the right hand will rise on the inhalation and fall on the exhalation. The left hand will rise when you inhale with the chest mechanism. Once you are sure of the proper movement of the diaphragm, chest and clavicles, you can do the breathing without using your hands.
Inhale first, using the diaphragm and expanding the belly; then continue the inhalation by expanding the chest; then let the inhalation continue to the very top of the lungs. At which point a slight upward movement of the clavicles may be experienced. The exhalation is done in reverse motion, letting the clavicles drop slightly then letting the chest wall collapse slightly, then letting the belly collapse as the diaphragm moves upward, pushing the air out of the lungs. The breath should be slow and smooth, without any pauses or jerks.

BENEFITS:

The complete breath is a very useful technique to use when you are sitting at your desk and feel a lot of tension in your shoulders.
A few minutes of practice will be very helpful in reducing not only muscle tension but also mental fatigue.
The complete breath is an energizer and can be used any time you feel mentally dull, or need to be more alert. For instance, when you have been driving for some time and are beginning to feel a little tired, you can energize yourself by taking six or seven complete breaths.

RETRO: THE SENSORY MIND

Don’t confuse the mind with the brain. The brain is the physical organ, part of the body, which serves as the control room for the mind. Brain changes the subtle energy of the mind into biochemical and neurological events that move the body. Of course the quality of the mind’s expression is greatly influenced by the condition of the brain. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your software program is – if the circuits are damaged that program will not run properly.
We call the third dimension of the personality the sensory mind because it collects, organizes, and interprets sensory data. The sensory mind is a busy, noisy place filled with sensory stimulation, emotions, wants and desires, habits and feelings. Its primary job is to interpret the world around us, and to create a personal sense of reality, the context through which we view the world. The sensory mind makes meaningful patterns from sensory input. It does this through four power functions:

1. Perception –

Two people sitting in the same room, having the same experience, will see and interpret that experience in highly individual ways, and will not always agree as to what really happened. A favorite story of mine:

In the clubhouse, three umpires were discussing the pending World Series game. The youngest, proud of being selected to participate in the World Series, bragged to his colleagues: “ I never worry about mistakes. I call them as I see them.”
The other two umpires started laughing, and the middle-aged umpire retorted: “ Well, you are still a little wet behind your ears. I call them as they are!”
The old umpire smiled and looked out the window.
“What are you smiling at?” the middle aged umpire finally asked his elder.
“Well,” said the old wise one. “It seems as if there are two here who are still little wet behind the ears. They are what I call them.

A particular event in our life can be good or bad, exiting or dull, awful or wonderful. We don’t actually describe the actual event but what that event means to us.

2. Language –

Language is the tool we use to create meaning. Once we use language, we are stuck with the consequences of our interpretations. Much of the unhappiness that we create for ourselves happens because we don’t realize the impact that our language has, nor do we know how to use language as a tool to help ourselves.

3. Emotions –

The interpretations we make determine our emotional reaction. In turn, our emotional reactions distort our perceptions, interfere with thinking, lead to conflicts and create disease. Many of feel victims of our emotions and yet we alone create them. We need emotional energy to succeed in life. Our emotions stimulate, challenge and motivate us to accomplish what we want. But all this depends where we channel our emotions.


4. Habits –

Whether we use our emotions to help or to hurt ourselves depends a great deal on our habits, the fourth function of sensory mind. Habits are the most deep-rooted and pervasive functions of the mind. We express our entire personalities through habits. It’s easy to see the enormous impact habits have in your life. Try shifting a habit when you get dressed tomorrow morning. As you put on your slacks, stop, and put the other leg in first. Most people fall over as they alter this simple, almost meaningless pattern of behavior.
Habits dominate the three outer levels of the personality – sensory mind, energy, and the body. We have habits of driving, eating, walking, and talking. How we react, feel, whether or not keep our muscles tense, even how we think are all regulated by the power of habit. All our skills – typing, playing cricket, managing, building a fire – are determined and controlled by habit. The friends we choose, the work we do, and the clothes we wear are all controlled by habit. Of course there are other factors involved in behavior, such as the power function of the mind, genetics and the environment. But habits provide the structure of what we think, what we do, and how we react. Habits allow us to live skillfully and usefully. Habits can also kill us.
As we shall see later, habits are the power behind our skill. But we didn’t consciously choose most of our habit, and many of them are destructive because they feed the three dragons of the mind. However, if we know how to take control of the powerful function of the mind, we can build habits that help us create a healthy body and mind instead of chronic conditions of stress, unhappiness and disease.

ALTERNATE BREATHING:

Close your eyes and sit comfortably, with your head, neck and spine in straight line. Rest the index and middle fingers of the right hand on the space between the two eyebrows. Determine which nostril is active. (The active nostril is the one in which the air is flowing freely. The passive nostril is the nostril in which there is some natural blockage due to the natural cyclic swelling of the mucosa.)

1. If the right nostril is active, press your ring finger against the left nostril, closing it, and gently exhale through the right nostril, counting to six (or about six seconds) mentally as you exhale. Then inhale immediately through the same nostril for a count of six.

2. Now press the thumb gently against the right nostril, closing it off and at the same time release the pressure on the left nostril. Exhale for a count of six, and then inhale for a count of six through the left nostril.

3. Now press the ring finger gently against the left nostril closing off the flow and at the same time release the pressure from the thumb on the right nostril. Exhale for a count of six, and inhale for a count of six through the right nostril.

4. Close the right nostril and open the left. Exhale and inhale for a count of six in the left nostril.

5. Close the left nostril and open the right. Exhale and inhale to count six in the right nostril.

6. Close the right nostril and open the left. Exhale and inhale for count of six through the left nostril. You have just done three rounds. This completes the exercise.


BENEFITS:

· It enhances your power of concentration.
· It should be practiced three times daily.
· It strengthens the ANS and leads to increased lung capacity.
· It maintains balance, and helps in developing control over emotional reactions.
· It is recommended in resolving depression.

CAUTION:

· Notice that you begin this exercise with an exhalation, not an inhalation.
· Length of inhalation and exhalation should remain the same.
· Maintain the same count until you can breath comfortably and effortlessly without any bumps, jerks or pauses.

Coined By Your ownself

The Deceptive Mind

We may not have the power to change our situations, but we certainly have the freedom to change how we define them. It is our language and consequent emotional states that reinforce fear and self-hatred and make them stronger. The words we use rob us of our own strength and give it to the two dragons.
The first mistake that we make over and over again is to accept whatever the mind tells us as the “truth” instead of calmly evaluating the usefulness of our mind chatter. The sensory mind was never designed to tell us truth, but to provide us with a perspective, a consistent way to interpret our perceptions. Its function is to collect and present sensory data, all of which are organized by the unconscious habits that control our perceiving and thinking. Our unconscious emotional habits can create many disturbing and unproductive lines of thought that have little to do with reality. Our emotions aren’t the only source of misleading information. The mind can offer us completely arbitrary thought, images, and sensations.


Let’s try an exercise:

THE GREEN FROG EXERCISE

Sit-back, close your eyes, and relax. Focus on an even, smooth breath and clear your mind as best as you can. Let your face muscle relax, and follow that relaxation down to your toes, relaxing the whole body. Now imagine yourself as a great green bullfrog, sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a beautiful, small clear pond. Over to the side you can see red-winged blackbird building a nest. Picture a blue sky with puffy white clouds. It’s about ten o’clock in the morning of a beautiful October day. The sun is shining and you feel the heat of the sun on your back. The sunshine feels very warm on your back. Now jump off the pad into the water. Glook! Ahh, the water feels cool and nice on your warm skin. Swim down under the lily pad. You see the stem coming up from the bottom, attached to the lily pad. As you look up to the surface of the water, you see the sunshine filtering through the water. Beautiful sight!
Now come to the surface, swim over to the lily pad, and climb back on. Feel the pad moving underneath you as you climb on. Now the sun feels really good on cool wet skin. Life is wonderful!
Now open your eyes. Do you really believe that you are a large, green bullfrog? If you do then you need more help than this single article can give you. Most of us distinguish easily between our imagination and what is real…or do we? These imaginations are all nothing more than mind forms. You determine which ones you will believe and accept, and which you won’t.
You may not be able to stop your mind from telling you things, but no one says you have to believe them! You don’t have to accept everything that the mind chatter says. You probably have some particularly troublesome thought that keeps gnawing at you. You may not feel smart enough, or you may feel that what you accomplish is second rate, or worry that someone will find out just how incompetent you really are.
The same thought pop into our mind day after day and we keep proving ourselves that this is not true. But then very next day the thought is back. Every time we have to prove ourselves, we reinforce the underlying negative thought by paying attention to it. This is the second mistake: trying to use language to control the consequences of language.


THE LIMITS OF POSITIVE THINKING

The sensory mind builds on opposites. In other words, there must be a “right” to have “left” and “good to have “bad.” If we think positively, then somewhere in the mind we have negative thinking. As long as we deal with opposites, we cannot eliminate just one side of them. When we stand in front of a mirror, smile, and say. “Today is going to be a wonderful day in every way,” just guess, what the mind is saying on an unconscious level? Probably something very much like “Wanna bet?” or “Yesterday sure was lousy.”
When we deal only with positive statement, that means we are forcing our negative feelings into the unconscious mind. In fact, the very motivation to think positively comes from a negative condition. Why would you need to think positively unless you had already created a negative state? If you didn’t create any negative feelings about yourself, you wouldn’t have to think positively. Your mind would be free to focus on problem solving. No matter how many times you repeat positive affirmations, they only subtly reinforce the negative, and you never gain freedom.
As we shall see later on, we can access the deeper levels of the mind and neutralize the power of our emotional and language habits when we eliminate the need to be positive, we will find that we already are.

Until now we have been trying to know about Self-knowledge, which is only the first necessary step. Knowledge has power, but without skill, we have nothing. We know where the power lies within the different dimensions of the personality, but unless we know how to use that power, unless we become skilled human beings, nothing happens.

2:1 BREATH AWARENESS EXERCISE

One of the easiest ways to stay relaxed is 2:1 breathing in which you exhale twice as long as you inhale. The extended exhalation provides a greater stimulus to parasympathetic discharge, leading to a deep and balanced relaxation. You should always be comfortable when doing breathing exercises.
During your practice of diaphragmatic breathing, when your breathing is balanced and even and has become very smooth with no jerkiness stops or pauses; gently slow the rate of exhalation until you are breathing out twice as long as you are inhaling. It might be necessary to shorten the length of inhalation very slightly. You are simply changing the rhythm of the breath, not trying to fill the lungs completely or empty them completely. The purpose is to alter the motion of the lungs in a very systematic way. You may count to six on the exhalation and three on the inhalation or eight on the exhalation and four on the inhalation – or whatever is most comfortable for you. After you have established this gentle rhythm, stop the mental counting and focus on the smoothness and evenness of the breath flow. Eliminate all jerks and pauses. Maintain 2:1 diaphragmatic breathing for as long as you wish. Pay attention to what happens to your heartbeat and any other changes in your body.

BENEFITS:

The exhalation stimulates the parasympathetic system twice as long as the inhalation stimulates the sympathetic system.
This rhythm greatly reduces tension and creates a deeper state of rest for your heart and vascular system.

CAUTION:

Do not practice, if you suffer from chronic depression. In chronic depression, the PNS is already too dominant, and you don’t want to emphasize its dominance with long exhalations.
For depression and low energy states, alternate nostril breathing exercise needs to be done.

DIAPHRAGMATIC BREATHING

Use the relaxation posture and practice diaphragmatic breathing for a minimum of ten to fifteen minutes twice a day.
The easiest time to practice is when you go to bed and when you first wake up in the morning. Doing it before you sleep will help you have a restful sleep.
In the relaxation posture, place your right hand on your navel, and left hand on the upper part of the chest.
Now inhale, as you inhale, your right hand will rise and as you exhale your right hand will fall.
Instead of chest going up and down, the stomach moves out and in as if you are filling a small balloon in your stomach.
This should be very gentle, no effort or work is required. Don’t try to completely fill or empty your lungs; let your body decide how much air it needs. There should be no movement at all in the left hand.
You should feel a slight movement in the lower portion of the chest cavity but the upper portion should remain still.
(Within a few moments you will become more rested and quiet.)
Do not try to force the breath.
Allow the motion to be gentle and effortless.
Notice how easy it is to breathe deeply and easily, without any effort.
Practice being an observer, or witness, allowing the body to do the breathing for you.
The evenness and balance of the breath will balance the nervous system.

BENEFITS:

It leads to autonomic balance and a relaxed state.

You will be less tired at the end of the day.

After a few moments of even, rhythmic diaphragmatic breathing, the feelings of pressure will disappear and you will feel more balanced and calm.
Chest breathing is our body’s emergency breathing.

Breathing techniques are used to solve a variety of problems, ranging from stress and anxiety and anger management to post-surgical care and treatment of stuttering.
Next time you feel pressure, or you are beginning to get tense, sit back and take two minutes to practice diaphragmatic breathing. Focus on your breath becoming very even and steady. Watch what happens to the pressure you feel. The situation will not have changed – the deadlines are still there, people are still making demands, problems still need your attention – but the pressure you felt have dissipated. Whenever you feel stressed or under pressure, you can use breath to restore your inner balance. The more you do this, the more skilled you become, and the greater benefit you gain.

EXERCISE

Exercise is necessary to maintain a healthy body. There are many forms which people follow like the cardiovascular, aerobics, & tai chi etc. here our focus will be to use exercise to increase inner awareness as well as to enhance flexibility.
These simple sets of exercises will strengthen mind and body, build balance and co-ordination as well as strengthen and enhance concentration and confidence.
If you exercise regularly, you will recognize that there are times when your exercise doesn’t seem very helpful. It happens only when the mind is not properly engaged. Whenever the body is exercising but the mind is not involved, the exercise yields fewer benefits.
If we want to use the exercise as a tool to increase our self-mastery, we must pay attention to how the exercise affects the body and mind. We must co-ordinate mind, body and action and this takes attention, which is the key to successful exercise.
With concentration and comfortable breathing you will be able to stretch much farther than you thought. By moving gently and relaxing in to the posture, you begin, you begin to develop the most important skill that comes from exercising. By paying close attention to the internal feelings and movements, you become conscious of the subtle feedback cues of the muscles and the systems involved. This increased sensitivity leads to a greater conscious control over these muscles and systems.

When you exercise, it helps to keep several points in mind:

Be consistent. Set a specific time each day for your practice and practice at least a little each day. Don’t rush – take the time you need to do them properly. Consistency builds very helpful habits.
Morning and evening are the two best times to practice. Morning exercise helps you remain calm and alert during the day. In the evening, the exercises help relieve the days tension so that you can enjoy a peaceful night’s sleep.
Do the exercises in a clean, quiet and well-ventilated room. Wear loose, comfortable clothing.
Always practice on an empty stomach.
Do not become discouraged if your body does not respond the same way each day. Just practice regularly and don’t compete with others or yourself.
Study your body and its movements. Be aware of your capacity and learn not to go beyond it. Your capacity will increase with practice.
Let the body movement’s flow evenly and gently with the breath. Do not hold your breath at any time unless specifically instructed to do so.
Follow any exertion with relaxation. However, do not allow the mind to drift toward sleep while you relax.

Breath – vital force in our body

Breath is the most powerful tool we have for achieving self-mastery. Yet we don’t pay much attention to breath until it isn’t there. Because of its unique relationship to the autonomic nervous system, the powerful nervous system that controls organ systems, breathing plays the critical role in determining whether or not we suffer from stress. Breath is part of both the voluntary or sensorimotor nervous system and the involuntary or autonomic nervous system. We can either consciously control the way we breath or let it run on automatic. This dual connection allows us to use the breath as a doorway to the autonomic nervous system, giving us the control we need to regulate autonomic balance and eliminate stress.

ACTIVITY:

Let’s explore the relationship between breathing and the autonomic system. Take a finger and find a place where you can feel your own pulse, either on the inside of your wrists or in your neck. Pay attention to your pulse for a few moments. Notice that your pulse doesn’t tick like a clock. Instead it fluctuates slightly. There is a slight slowing and speeding up of your pulse. This gentle rhythm is related to another process going on in your body.
As you keep track of your pulse, pay attention to your breath. As you inhale, notice how your pulse begins to speed up, and as you exhale, your pulse begins to slow down. (This is called sinus arrhythmia, and is a healthy and natural rhythm or fluctuation in your pulse.) Your pulse is controlled by the autonomic nervous system, the control system that controls your organ systems. The sympathetic arm of the autonomic system, which creates arousal in the body, speeds up the heart rate. The parasympathetic arm, which creates rest for the body, slows the heart rate.
Taking charge of your breath is the crucial “first step” to self-mastery. If you know the secrets of breathing, you learn the secret to controlling the physical reactions to fear and self-hatred. Not only do you now have control of your stress reactions, but also have a powerful tool to begin to take control of your emotional reactions and the two dragons - fear and self-hatred.

RELAXATION

To be relaxed at work doesn’t mean you walk around like a wet noodle, but rather you work without tense shoulder muscles, a clenched jaw, or a hectic mind. Practicing deep relaxation quiets your organ systems, eliminates chronic tension, strengthens your immune system, and helps you stay calm and focused during daily activities.

Deep relaxation: Exercises Recommended by stress management professional.

The best time to practice relaxation is when no one will disturb you at for at least fifteen minutes. At the end of a workday go to a quite room and take 15 minutes to clear your mind and body of stress and tension, and all the pressures from work. At first, it may be difficult to take this time when your family wants attention. But if you persist, you will find that you feel more refreshed and calm, and your interactions with your family and friends will be much better.
Obviously, the more you practice, the more skillful you become. Start with fifteen minutes a day; as you gain skill, the time required shortens dramatically. After you have built your skill, never spend more than five minutes doing relaxation.
You will soon realize that the harder you try to relax, the tenser you become. Relaxation is like floating; simply lie back and allow it to happen.
People often tell me that their favorite relaxation technique is to listen to music. Obviously, certain kinds of music and sounds will help you to relax; but listening to music or whales communicating with each other does not teach you the skill of deep relaxation, nor will the relaxation be as complete or as deep. Also you won’t always have the opportunity to turn on your stereo or plug in your earphones. If you have the skill, you can relax any time, in any situation.

DIET

In our culture many of our eating habits can only be called abusive. Although we have become much more sophisticated about nutrition, our knowledge and practices are primitive and our attitudes are disrespectful. We forget that diet is the basis for physical health and has a profound impact on our emotional health.
Our special attention to our food should be in terms of freshness and quality. It should be simple yet nutritious. We don’t pay attention to the quality of food we eat, and we allow junk food to dominate. We don’t prepare or cook our food properly. We eat too fast. We eat when we are tense and under pressure. The stress that all this creates is evident in the high and increasing incidence of digestive diseases such as Crohn’s disease, ulcers and diverticulitis.
Our dietary problems are serious, but we can do a great deal to minimize them with a little understanding and a few simple practices. The digestive system involves two complementary processes – nourishing and cleansing. If we don’t build the proper habits, the body gradually builds up toxins, which lead to mental and physical diseases. To prevent dietary misery, we have basically three areas to manage: what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat.

THE QUALITY OF FOOD WE EAT

The foods most conducive to health are fresh, simple and nutritious. But amazingly enough, fully 60 to 70 percent of the average Indian diet of sub optimal nutritional value. This is because what we eat is of little or no value. Refined sugar, for instance, which contains absolutely no nutrients, makes up about 25 percent of our diets. Fats, which also contain no nutrients, make up about 45 percent. For many, this combination of fats and refined sugar constitutes as much as 70 percent of their food intake. However, to process refined sugar and fats, the body must utilize nutrients.
Besides increasing our nutrient debt, refined sugar leads to a number of other serious problems, such as obesity, a serious and prevalent problem in our society.

What happens when we take refined sugar in our body?

When sugar is refined, the body does not need to process or digest it in order to absorb it in to bloodstream. The sugar is immediately absorbed, leading to a quick increase in blood sugar levels. If, for instance, you eat a chocolate on an empty stomach, this precipitous rise in blood sugar keys a high insulin release to break down the sucrose so the body can use the sugar. This large insulin output reaches the bloodstream just as the blood sugar is dropping; it causes the blood sugar level to plummet below normal levels; and we feel depressed and enervated. Since we don’t like to feel that way, we take another sugar hit, creating the same blood sugar spiking and over production of insulin as before.
The precipitous rise and decline in sugar often leads to a strain on the lives, which has to clear the insulin from the blood stream, as well as imbalances in insulin production. This in turn can lead to both hypoglycemia and diabetes. A more serious consequence is the danger posed to the nervous system- such as a diabetic coma. Low blood sugar can also intensify emotional problems, anxiety, and restlessness as well as tiredness and depression. Physical problems related to high sugar intake include kidney irregularity, fluctuations in blood pressure, and adrenal imbalances.
If instead we eat an apple, which has to be digested before the sugar is available, a very different process occurs. The sugar in an apple consists of both sucrose and fructose. You don’t need insulin to process fructose inside the body as you do with sucrose. Second you must take apple through a digestive process to get to the sucrose. Not only the level of sucrose lower, but the sucrose is released over a period of time as you digest the apple. This keys a much smaller production of insulin, creating less work for the liver. Unlike the chocolate with its refined sugar, an apple satisfies your nutritional needs without stressing your system. Blood sugar is a the major fuel for our cells, but we can usually get enough naturally occurring sugar in fresh fruits, vegetables and grains. When we need a break, a relaxation or breathing exercise would be far more helpful. These reduce stress, clear our minds and leave us feeling wonderfully refreshed.
Since independence the consumption of soft drinks has gone up by 80 percent, pastries by 70 percent and potato chips by 85 percent. On the other hand, the consumption of dairy products has decreased by 21 percent, vegetables by 23 percent and fruits by 25 percent.
How we eat is just as important as what we eat. Unfortunately, most of us are in too much of a hurry to take the time to really chew and taste our food.
After two, three or four quick chews, we swallow it, expecting the rest of our overworked system to break it down further. But contrary to popular belief, neither the stomach nor the liver has teeth. Neither can adequately break down pieces of foods that have been reduced in size just enough to be swallowed.
There are several important consequences of gulping down food. First, the digestive process is incomplete. Gulping food prevents the proper mixture of digestive enzymes with the food and interferes with the absorption of nutrients that is supposed to occur in the mouth. This creates stress within the entire digestive system. And when gulping food becomes a habit, the stress becomes chronic.
Further when we gulp our food, we don’t really get an opportunity to taste it. We only experience a few strong flavors- sweetness, saltiness, and sourness. The more subtle flavors (which require a more complete breakdown of the food as it mixes with the digestive juices) are not tasted. Thus, we don’t allow our taste buds to tell us what is good for us and what is not.
Most processed food and in particular snack or junk food is intentionally designed to appeal to the obvious tastes- sweet, salty and sour. These products contain either sugar or salt as a major ingredient, and eating quickly will leave this taste in the mouth. Their real appearance, odor and flavor are disguised by a variety of chemicals. The word enhanced or imitation on the label usually indicates the addition of chemicals.
While artificial coloring can fool the eyes, it is much more difficult to fool the nose – and even more difficult to fool the taste buds. Our taste habits are primarily conditioned by a few strong flavors and gulping food reinforces our dependence on them. But if our olfactory and taste capacities are given a chance to do their work, it is very difficult to hide or enhance the real flavor or smell of what we are putting in to our mouths.

Here is an experiment, which will give you an opportunity to discover your potential for tasting food. You will need two pieces of bread. One should be the fluffy white kind made from highly refined, enriched white flour, complete with all sorts of artificial additives. The other should be a piece of fresh whole grain bread made without any additives or preservatives. Rinse your mouth with water. Then take the white fluffy bread, hold it to your nose, and sniff several times to get a good smell. Put it in to your mouth and chew until it becomes liquid. Spit it out, rinse your mouth and repeat the same process with the whole grain bread. Do your senses of smell and taste tell you anything about which bread you should be eating?

Another reason to gulp food is that when we chew completely, we generally eat about a third less than if we wolf it down. Approximately one-third of digestion is supposed to take place in the mouth. When we bypass it by chewing only two or three times, we also bypass about a third of the nutritional value in our food. Consequently, we will eat about a third more than what we really need. When we thoroughly chew each bite, digestion takes place more efficiently, hunger is satisfied more quickly and thoroughly, and we require less intake. Compulsive eaters, or overeaters, rarely if ever chew their food. If this is a problem for you, taking the time to chew your food will be very helpful. If you are on a weight-loss diet, take particular care to chew thoroughly.

Eating when you are calm and quiet is also helpful. The emotional disturbances of anger, sadness, and fear create an impossible internal environment for the digestive process. Even the most perfect food creates serious digestive difficulties when eaten under these conditions. When you pause for a moment of silence before meals, it gives you time to clear your disturbing emotions – and thus calm your body – before you eat. In the growing pressure and hurry of our lives, we have lost track of this simple wisdom.

We can solve the problem created by poor diet if we pay attention to what we eat, how we eat, and when we eat. There is no one diet for everyone. We can discover what we need by paying attention to how food makes us feel not just immediately, but four hours later after we eat it. Again the key is relaxed awareness. The more sensitive we become, the better choices we make, and the fewer problems we create for ourselves.

MASTERING SELF-DISCIPLINE

Just as we begin our journey with self-knowledge we can only complete it with self-discipline. It doesn’t matter how many resources we have if we don’t know how to use them.

There are no easy answers in life---a magical crystal, the right book, a powerful teacher----that will solve our problems and make life beautiful. Answer to all problems lies with us “only we have that magical power to do that.” But to become skilled is not enough, its only when we can ‘walk the talk’, we gain that freedom from the dragons of mind and open the power and strength of the personality and spirit.

We will learn a number of different exercises and techniques that will help us take commands of our inner resources. Don’t try to become expert at any of them at this point, and don’t worry about which ones to focus on. We will see as what we have come to regard as normal breathing leads to heart diseases and discover how to return to our natural breathing motion.

Learning and doing these exercises is not meant to be work, but an engagement of intention, effort and joy. Learn to play, to experiment, to see what you discover as you systematically explore your capacities with the exercises. The great traditions of self-mastery are very systematic, taking care to build the foundation so strong that it can support any height that we can achieve soon we will begin to master all dimensions--------physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.


BODY SKILLS: RELAXATION, DIET, & EXERCISE

Human body is very sacred, it lets us know when we are in danger, what kind of food is healthy for us, & it even signals when we are making a wrong choice. We seldom think of the body as an instrument, a tool to develop and use. Instead we let our bodies suffer from stress and disease and they become obstacles, instead of tools. Not only do we suffer from pain and discomfort, but also we do not think clearly or creatively, our relationship suffer and we waste incredible amount of money on drugs to relieve symptoms but do nothing to change the cause.
There are three key elements that are found in every system, whether it is hatha yoga or martial arts and are essential to the achievement of self-mastery:
· Relaxation
· Diet
· Exercise

Self-Awareness – Taking Charge of Power

What Skinner and other behaviorist never realized is that the laws and principles that define habits only apply as long as the habit remains on the unconscious level. The moment that we become conscious of the habit, it no longer has the power to control the behavior. We can control any habit, and the behavior it evokes, if we are fully aware of its entire pattern.

Our awareness, however must be complete and constant. We all know how hard it is to change habit. Someone looks at us in a “funny way” and we react. We know that our reaction isn’t helpful, we even know why we do it, but we find ourselves doing what w don’t want to do. The problem is that we are only partial aware of the entire pattern of the habit, most of which still lies hidden in the unconscious mind. Partial awareness only gives partial control. As long as we must struggle to control our habit, it means that we still aren’t fully aware of the habit.

Intellectual understanding has little power to control unconscious habits. Let’s take an example:

If a compulsive eater gains some awareness of his compulsive behavior and realizes that he is eating mostly to relieve stress, he recognizes intellectually that his behavior is not healthy for him. What then follows is a constant battle between healthy for him. What then follows is a constant battle between his good intention and willpower on the one hand and his habits of snacking driven by suppressed sexual feeling on the other. He will continue to have conflicts until he takes the next step in dealing with repressed sexual feeling directly.

Paying attention makes us aware. Awareness leads to conscious choices. This immediately weakens the habit. The compulsive eater has several options. He can continue to eat and suffer the consequences – or he can decide to eat at certain times. Instead of eating between meals when he feels the urge, he practices a relaxation or breathing exercise. The more relaxed he is, the easier it is to deal with the compulsion to eat. The more skilled he is at relaxing, the more sensitive he is to the thoughts and feelings that drive the compulsion. This gives him even greater insight into the real reasons for the compulsive behavior. The more awareness, the greater the opportunity for choice, and the more control he has.

Becoming aware of your unconscious patterns is not just an exercise in counting symptoms. It means that you become more sensitive to the thoughts and feelings that accompany and even precede your actions. If we pay attention to your body as you exercise, becoming more aware of your heart’s behavior, which muscles are moving, the changes in your breathing, you become more sensitive to what actually is happening in your body. As you become more aware of your internal states, you understand the cause/effect relationships between thoughts and behavior. The more aware you are, the more able you are to choose a different behavior as well as choose different ways of thinking.

CHOICE, NOT STRUGGLE

The emphasis must be on choosing the habits we want to build, not struggle to eliminate the old habits. Most of us think of self-discipline as making ourselves do something we don’t want to do. If this is the case, very few of us will ever succeed. We can successfully learn to be self-disciplined if we remember three key points:

1) Inspiration is 90 percent of the success for self-discipline. Work on building habits that you really want to have.

2) Practice makes perfect. Once you decide on the habit or pattern of behavior or the thinking that you want, practice that behavior or thinking pattern every day. You won’t create change by wishing something would happen, or by imagery alone. You must act on your choices in order for the choices to become deeply grooved in the mind.

3) Determination and persistence will always lead to success. There is no failure, only premature stopping. A habit takes time to establish itself in the mind. Once you decide on a particular behavior that you want to build, allow at least three months to begin to groove the habit into your mind.


ABOVE ALL BALANCE

To be successful, self-discipline must be tempered with balance. We don’t grow much as human beings if we become over developed in one area and remain retarded in everything else. Genuine balance is not a static condition, but a dynamic process, constantly evolving as we grow and evolve. When we are balanced, we are spontaneous instead of programmed, relaxed instead of tense, responsive instead of reactive, and in tune with the world around us. Balance involves the integration of all dimensions of the personality. But physical balance must involve emotional balance. Even the best of food becomes toxic and our exercise just another pressure if we don’t know how to balance our emotions. Emotional balance requires that we build our relationships with others with the same care that we build the relationship with ourselves. Both emotional and social balances emerge from our increasing spiritual awareness.

The same tools and techniques that give us control of ourselves also help us to become balanced human beings. But along the way there would be times when we allow ourselves and others the freedom to think in different and unusual ways and to make mistakes. We need only to be patient with ourselves and with others. The practice of patience is just as much apart of self-mastery as anything else we may do. Like other skills patience takes sincere practice and effort.

Laziness: The Path to Nowhere

Like any organization, the personality resists change. This resistance comes mostly from our habits. Laziness is one of the most pervasive ways in which we experience this resistance.
It’s easy to rationalize laziness, we are action oriented society but with heavy dose of couch potatoism. The most common complaint is, “I don’t have the time to do the relaxation exercise (or anything else).” While we will find enough time to watch an average of two hours f television a day, the time to waste on idle chatter, the time to have a couple of cold ones. We find time to clean our bodies, our cars, our homes, but we don’t take time to clean our minds.
The great danger of laziness is that it turns us into victims with guaranteed life of misery. If we are unwilling to make the effort necessary there is no way we can take the power away from our dragons or solve the problems of stress.




Self-Training: Taking the Steps to freedom

It is upto each of us to make the choices necessary to be free. No one can be aware for another, and no one else can slay our dragons. When we blame others or ourselves for our behavior, we end up with even greater weakness and fear. Our habits are ultimately our own responsibility. If we choose to ignore them, no therapist, doctor, friend, spouse, teacher, or even God can help us. We choose to be unaware, we alone allow habits to remain in power, and we alone suffer the consequences.
The path to self-mastery and freedom lies in our conscious decision to use our own power to create and sustain balance, to develop and use our inner resources. Everything we need is sitting right there within us, hidden only by our ignorance. Take the next step. N one asks that you believe, only that you experiment, practice, and become strong. We can take back the power. We can become masters.



I hope by now we know the importance of self-awareness, let’s continue with Self-discipline along with the techniques to achieve both as to gain Self-mastery.

SKILL: TAKING CHARGE OF POWER

Self-discipline doesn’t mean self-punishment. Self-discipline is about accessing inner strength and developing the ability to do whatever we choose to do. The beauty of this is that we already have everything we need to become skillful human beings. All we need to do is understand a few simple things about the mind and body, and we can use power in creative and useful ways for ourselves and others.

Our Habits: Channeling the Power

A habit is like a groove that channels the energy of the mind in a certain direction. The more often the mind’s energy travels down that channel, the deeper the channel, and the stronger the habit becomes. We form these groves, or habits, through a process called conditioning, repeating behaviors associated with pleasure and avoiding behavior associated with pain.
We also build habits through association. The cause and effect may not be related to each other but occur close enough in time that we make a connection. Like my brother had stomach flu just after eating Prawns ten years ago. Even though he knows intellectually that the prawns was not the cause of his illness but the feeling is so strongly associated with prawns that he can’t force himself to eat it again.
When habits are practiced and refined, they are called skills. If we do something well or easily, it is because we have the habits that support the behavior. When something is difficult, it means we don’t have habits to support the behavior. We become skilled at driving, brushing our teeth, eating healthy or having good posture. We also become skilled at worrying, self-criticism, self-doubt and poor health habits because we practice them. Every time we worry, we are practicing worrying. No wonder we become so skilled at worrying.
The most powerful and subtle habits are those learned in the first five or six years of our lives. But we didn’t choose these habits they developed unconsciously as a result of our interaction with parents and society. Once these habits are established they become part of our personalities and guide our behavior for rest of our lives. If we grow up thinking we are not important or smart, it becomes difficult in later life to experience ourselves as important or smart. And we will probably spend a great deal of effort trying to prove that we really are important and smart. As long as we remain unaware of these built-in biases, we don’t have any effective way to counteract them.
Bad Habits Bring Bad Outcomes

We are all familiar with those habits that create emotional reaction for us. Let’s say that you walk into a crowded room and see two people together. One is a stranger, the other is someone you don’t like or trust. Your eyes meet this “enemy,” and you experience the moment of mutual recognition. Then the person smiles and drops his gaze. You see him whisper into the ear of the person sitting next to him. The next moment the stranger looks in your direction, smiles, and quickly looks away. Now, what does your mind do with this? Are they talking about you? No doubt! Are they saying what a wonderful person you are? Very doubtful! And what is your emotional reaction? Does the term “paranoia” fit?
Did you make a conscious decision to be upset? Highly unlikely. You walked into a situation and unconsciously interpreted actions along the lines of your past experience (Habits). The consequence was an emotional reaction, not a choice. Very few of us consciously choose to be disturbed!
It is the consequences of these physical habits created by our emotional reaction that we often call stress.

The Unconscious Power

The key to self-control is to take charge of our habits. Habits develop in many ways and for many different reasons. But all habits share one critical aspect – they only operate in, and because of, the unconscious mid. We may consciously build our habit, such as when we practice playing guitar or proper breathing and relaxation techniques. The whole point of practice is, in fact, to build a habit, to have a certain behavior that we don’t have to think about. Not a single habit function as a part of the conscious mind. According to the late B.F. Skinner, the “grandfather of behaviorism,” we are products of our environment, and are controlled by our environment.
Just think about the last time you became furious. A few moments before you exploded, I’ll will bet that you did not consciously and rationally think: “ hey this individual’s behavior call for an drastic expression of anger. I better scream and demonstrate some anger here.” Instead, you just felt an explosion of anger that came right out of the unconscious emotional reaction. This person pushed one of your triggers, and all your repressed emotional energy got channeled into your reaction. You didn’t really had a choice, you simply reacted. When we react to such emotional stimuli, we lose the power to act and our environment governs our behavior.
For example, let’s say you have acquired the deep-seated habit of feeling incompetent. This attitude learned in childhood, lies in the unconscious, where you are not fully aware of its power.
However, whenever anyone questions your judgement, you react with anger or aggression, and overwhelm your questioner with intense, logical argument. The intensity of your response indicates that one of your triggers (your old habit of believing yourself to be incompetent) was pushed, and you react to this with fight-or-flight reaction. When your inquisitor backs down, both the effectiveness of your reaction and the old habit of feeling incompetent are reinforced. More than likely you rationalize your reaction, never really aware of the reason behind your action.

The Misleading Mind

We may not have the power to change our situations, but we certainly have the freedom to change how we define them. It is our language and consequent emotional states that reinforce fear and self-hatred and make them stronger. The words we use rob us of our own strength and give it to the two dragons.
The first mistake that we make over and over again is to accept whatever the mind tells us as the “truth” instead of calmly evaluating the usefulness of our mind chatter. The sensory mind was never designed to tell us truth, but to provide us with a perspective, a consistent way to interpret our perceptions. Its function is to collect and present sensory data, all of which are organized by the unconscious habits that control our perceiving and thinking. Our unconscious emotional habits can create many disturbing and unproductive lines of thought that have little to do with reality. Our emotions aren’t the only source of misleading information. The mind can offer us completely arbitrary thought, images, and sensations.

Let’s try an exercise:

THE GREEN FROG EXERCISE

Sit-back, close your eyes, and relax. Focus on an even, smooth breath and clear your mind as best as you can. Let your face muscle relax, and follow that relaxation down to your toes, relaxing the whole body. Now imagine yourself as a great green bullfrog, sitting on a lily pad in the middle of a beautiful, small clear pond. Over to the side you can see red-winged blackbird building a nest. Picture a blue sky with puffy white clouds. It’s about ten o’clock in the morning of a beautiful October day. The sun is shining and you feel the heat of the sun on your back. The sunshine feels very warm on your back. Now jump off the pad into the water. Glook! Ahh, the water fells cool and nice on your warm skin. Swim down under the lily pad. You see the stem coming up from the bottom, attached to the lily pad. As you look up to the surface of the water, you see the sunshine filtering through the water. Beautiful sight!
Now come to the surface, swim over to the lily pad, and climb back on. Feel the pad moving underneath you as you climb on. Now the sun feels really good on cool wet skin. Life is wonderful!
Now open your eyes. Do you really believe that you are a large, green bullfrog? If you do then you need more help than this single workshop can give you. Most of us distinguish easily between our imagination and what is real…or do we? These imaginations are all nothing more than mind forms. You determine which ones you will believe and accept, and which you won’t.
You may not be able to stop your mind from telling you things, but no one says you have to believe them! You don’t have to accept everything that the mind chatter says. You probably have some particularly troublesome thought that keeps gnawing at you. You may not feel smart enough, or you may feel that what you accomplish is second rate, or worry that someone will find out just how incompetent you really are.
The same thought pop into our mind day after day and we keep proving ourselves that this is not true. But then very next day the thought is back. Every time we have to prove ourselves, we reinforce the underlying negative thought by paying attention to it. This is the second mistake: trying to use language to control the consequences of language.

THE LIMITS OF POSITIVE THINKING

The sensory mind builds on opposites. In other words, there must be a “right” to have “left” and “good to have “bad.” If we think positively, then somewhere in the mind we have negative thinking. As long as we deal with opposites, we cannot eliminate just one side of them. When we stand in front of a mirror, smile, and say. “Today is going to be a wonderful day in every way,” just guess, what the mind is saying on an unconscious level? Probably something very much like “Wanna bet?” or “Yesterday sure was lousy.”
When we deal only with positive statement, that means we are forcing our negative feelings into the unconscious mind. In fact, the very motivation to think positively comes from a negative condition. Why would you need to think positively unless you had already created a negative state? If you didn’t create any negative feelings about yourself, you wouldn’t have to think positively. Your mind would be free to focus on problem solving. No matter how many times you repeat positive affirmations, they only subtly reinforce the negative, and you never gain freedom.
As we shall see later on, we can access the deeper levels of the mind and neutralize the power of our emotional and language habits when we eliminate the need to be positive, we will find that we already are.

Until now we have been trying to know about Self-knowledge, which is only the first necessary step. Knowledge has power, but without skill, we have nothing. We know where the power lies within the different dimensions of the personality, but unless we know how to use that power, unless we become skilled human beings, nothing happens.

Self Mastery and the Whole Person

We cannot separate ourselves into parts. We come as a complete package. Any action we take involves all dimensions of the personality – physical, mental, and spiritual. Let’s go back to the Travelling Exercise we did earlier and do it again. This time, be aware of the different power functions at each level. Don’t try to change them, or use them I any particular way. Just pay attention and become more familiar with how they operate within your personality.
As you go through the exercise and become more relaxed and focused, feeling of loneliness, anxiety, or self-criticism will disappear. This is because we are most natural when we are relaxed and focused. We were not born fearful, self-critical and lonely. These are products of mind, not innate functions. These dragons are hidden in our habits and strike at the most inconvenient times. In confronting our dragons, we will see how to take their power away, and use it to create harmony, joy, and love in our lives.



OUR HUMAN MIND HOME OF DRAGONS

Mark Twain said, “I am an old man with many troubles. Most of which never happened.” Most of the time the things we worry about never take place. But even knowing that doesn’t stop us from worrying and creating problems for ourselves. Even when our past experience tells us that everything will eventually work out, we spin our wheel, stress our bodies, and become irritable with our friends and family. All for very little reason.
But while you were worrying, it didn’t seem that it was inappropriate. It seemed that like all the hell was going to break loose. Who was telling you to be frightened? Who was telling you that you wouldn’t be able to handle it?



The Chattering Mind (Ashant Mann)

Pay attention to what is happening inside your head at this moment. Notice you are constantly talking to yourself. We give this mental activity a very generous name, “thinking.” But actually most of what goes inside our head is not thoughtful at all, just on idea setting off another, one image leading to other. Mind chatter can be thoughtful, creative and productive. But left unmanaged, it can be endless source of unhappiness, stress and disease.
In fact the first thing you will notice about the mind that it can move in time and space. Your mind can take you anyplace, anytime and in any situation. But the brain and our body stays in present. The brain does not discriminate between thoughts or images of the past, the present and the future. To brain every thought happens in present. To the brain, every thought, every image, is as real as the next one. So every thought is immediately translated into biochemical and neurological events so that the body can respond. When your mind anticipates the future or dwells on the past, your body responds as if the event were happening in the present. Mind and body are no longer coordinated, creating a state of imbalance. This lack of coordination is insignificant if our thoughts are emotionally neutral. If say at this very moment your mind drift and you think about the milk you have to buy before going to home. The moment you have this thought, your body gets programmed to do the task. If you were hooked to sensitive medical instruments, like an EEG (electroencephalograph) to read brain waves, an EKG (electrocardiograph) to measure heart rate, and a GSR (galvanic skin response) detector (such as a lie detector), we would be able to measure subtle changes in your body as it responds to the thought.
Since you were not emotionally involved with the particular thought, you invest little energy in that programming. The changes in your body are subtle. But if the thought would have been, say about losing your job or being in an accident, the emotional energy associated with these thought would dramatically increase and set off an alarm reaction inside your body. When we worry, we constantly create this imbalance between our mind and body. Much of this mental activity is useless – consisting of endless speculations on future events and reconstruction of past events. When we constantly program ourselves with fear and negativity, our bodies have no choice but to respond with tension and stress.
Take a moment to become aware of your chatter. Don’t get involved with it, just be a witness and watch the different thoughts, images, and sensations that arise in your mind. Now let us try this short exercise;

1) Close your eyes and visualize your mind like a room, with thoughts and images coming in one door, passing through the room, and going out the other door. Notice how one thought leads to another in a seemingly endless progressive of thoughts, images, and sensations. As you do this, be aware of how your body feels.
2) Close the door the thoughts are going out, and let the thoughts pile up in one the room for a few moments. Then pay attention to your body. What differences do you notice?
3) Now open the door and let the thought clear from the room. How does your body react as the thoughts depart the room?
4) Then close both doors, and picture an empty room. What do you notice in your body?

Which was most comfortable: watching the thoughts pass through, letting the thoughts pile up, or having just the image of the empty room? How did it feel when you let the thought pile up in the room? Isn’t that very similar to how you feel on a busy, rushed day?


Each and every thought has some direct impact on the body. That is where the dragons live – the uncontrolled thoughts and images of the sensory mind.

Fear: the most dramatic of the dragons is fear. It colors our perceptions, distort our thinking, and destroy us as individuals as well as our families and neighborhood, even our nation. We are not born with fear. We are born with a primitive biological drive for self-preservation. But this biological drive has expanded to include more than just our physical being, it also includes our ego-self, i.e. “mein.”
Many of us have experienced the difference between fear and self-preservation.
Have you ever had a close call in your automobile or faced some other danger or crises. If you recall the instance clearly, you would remember that things began to happen in slow motion. You were relaxed, clear minded, and focused and had time to take small action to protect yourself. It’s not unusual that during a crisis you will act with self-preservation. Then once the crisis is over, all of sudden you feel weak, your heart races, and you become fearful as you realize what might have happened. There was no experience of fear until your mind began to chatter about what might have happened.
We create fear when we speculate about future. We never fear from what is happening, we only fear or worry about what might happen. Fear is a projection of “what if.” We are dealing with a fantasy, an expectation of some future event, not an event that is happening at the moment. The mind perceives possible future harm; the body acts as if it is happening now; and Jhuu Mantar, we have fear reaction.
Fear always involves the ego, our personal sense of identity, which expands to include the people and things with which we are emotionally identified. Instead of simply having a problem to solve, we have a problem that potentially will harm “me.” Listen to and compare the language of someone who worries about a certain event and someone who faces the same event with confidence. Along with pessimistic references to the future, the worrier will also have a number of self-references, all reflecting some kind of pending tragedy or harm that he will suffer. The individual with confidence will speak about the problem that must be solved, and probably already planning some action. His ego is not on the line in any negative way.
We train ourselves to fail by the worries and fear we imagine. The greater the imagined threat, the more energy goes into the imbalance between mind and body, and more diseased we become. Fear has no value other than to create stress, misery and cloud our intellect.

Self-hatred: It isn’t difficult to create a chronic pattern of failure and misery. All you have to do is constantly remind yourself of how awful, weak, or incompetent you are, and brood on your past mistakes, hurts and failures. Just as unmanaged chatter about future creates fear, unmanaged chatter about the past crates self-hatred. But instead of fight-or flight reaction, your body becomes passive and goes into retreat. Again you lose touch with the present, and cannot deal with it effectively and joyfully. The consequences are that you become withdrawn, weaken the immune system, make more mistakes, and feel even more incompetent.

The language of self-hatred is just as destructive as the language of fear, and much varied. In The Quite Mind, Dr. John Harvey identifies several different categories of destructive inner chatter that feed the dragon of self-hatred.

THE FIRST DIMENSION: OUR PHYSICAL BODY

Our health and wellness depend a great deal on how skillfully we care for our body. The relationship between the body and our happiness is simple and direct: when you aren’t healthy you don’t enjoy life and you don’t function well. The body is an extremely sensitive barometer to both the mind and the world around us.
The more sensitive we are to the body’s messages, the easier it is for us to stay healthy. The body always lets us know when we are out of balance. For example, high blood pressure is most often a clear signal that we are not handling pressure well. If we don’t know that we have high blood pressure it can lead to a disaster, such as stroke or heart attack. Once aware of the problem we can easily take steps – deep relaxation, proper breathing, the right kind of exercise, greater emotional control – to correct it.
When we ignore the signs or symptoms of our bodies – or worse, eliminate the symptoms without dealing with the cause – we only create a bigger problem. Taking pain medication for a tension headache relieves the symptoms, but it doesn’t change the underlying cause, the chronic tension in our muscle. As a consequence, we end up taking the pills over and over again because we didn’t solve the real problem of chronic tension.
The main control of our body is our brain and the nervous system. There are two types of nervous system, voluntary nervous system (sensori-motor nervous system), which controls our sense organs and our muscles. The other is called the autonomic nervous system and regulates our internal organ systems, such as cardiovascular functioning and digestion.

The Balancing Act
The autonomic nervous system is made up of two distinct nervous systems called the sympathetic and parasympathetic. Together these two systems regulate the activities of our organs. The sympathetic system creates arousal in the body, while parasympathetic does just the opposite. When we are healthy, these two systems work together like right and left-hand work together to accomplish a task. They balance each other, exchanging dominance as the need requires, and maintaining equilibrium as dominance shifts.

THE SECOND DIMENSION: ENERGY – THE MISSING LINK

When we touch these pages (or whatever), they feel substantial, thing that you can touch and see, even smell, hear and taste. That’s because you are using your body senses. From physics, we know that what appears to our senses as a solid object is really not solid At all, but a complex patterning of atomic and subatomic energy particles. If we put this page under an electron microscope, we would find nothing solid, only pattern of energy. The body is no different from any other physical object. If we could look at our body beneath an electron microscope, we would find only patterns of energy. This energy substructure is the foundation of our material reality, and forms the second dimension of our personality. Western science and medicine approach the body on the physical level, as if the only reality is biochemical. When you go to a doctor, she doesn’t talk about the energy, she prescribes medication to create a biochemical change. Even the physicist whose entire professional career involves studying energy forgets his knowledge when he is sick, and treats his body as if the chemical (physical) level were the only reality.
This life force has been the intense study of our Indian meditative and self-mastery disciplines as well as other eastern yogic traditions like Zen, Reiki and the martial arts. In spite all the differences these tradition universally understand energy to be the connecting link between body and mind. These energy channels are referred as “Nadis” in yogic tradition, as “Chi” in china and are known as “Ki” in Japanese tradition.
We get energy from variety of sources – food, sleep, sunlight. But the most important source of energy is our breath. We can go without food for weeks, without water for days, but we can live only a few moments without breathing. Because of its critical power function, our breathing has become so much a part of us that as long as we aren’t deprived, we pay little attention to it. We don’t realize that the way we breathe plays a critical role in self-mastery. Each tradition has an extensive repertoire of breathing exercises, which are used to develop a sophisticated control over the breathing process and, through these exercises, a high degree of control over what happens in the body.
Elmer green and his wife Alice green in their book “beyond Biofeedback” reported on laboratory research on Swami Rama, the yogic master. In different experiments, he
· Consciously and intentionally stopped his heart from pumping blood by creating arterial fibrillation in which his heart fluttered at 300 beats per minute;
· Lowered the temperature at one point on his hand by 5 degrees Fahrenheit while simultaneously raising the temperature by 5 degrees at another point on his hand only millimeters away;
· Voluntarily controlled the production of different brain waves;
· Was fully conscious of the surrounding while sleeping as was evident by the steady stream of delta brain-wave rhythms.
Whether or not we learn the remarkable control of this great Yoga Master is not the point. The critical issue is whether or not we learn how to use our breathing to gain greater self-mastery. While may not reach the degree of skill demonstrated by a yoga master, we can certainly learn to use the subtle energy dimension to maintain physical and mental balance regardless of the situation in which we find ourselves. Unfortunately, most of us have a habit of breathing that causes more work for our heart, leads to chronic stress, and often causes hypertension.

THE THIRD DIMENSION: THE SENSORY MIND

Don’t confuse the mind with the brain. The brain is the physical organ, part of the body, which serves as the control room for the mind. Brain changes the subtle energy of the mind into biochemical and neurological events that move the body. Of course the quality of the mind’s expression is greatly influenced by the condition of the brain. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your software program is – if the circuits are damaged that program will not run properly.
We call the third dimension of the personality the sensory mind because it collects, organizes, and interprets sensory data. The sensory mind is a busy, noisy place filled with sensory stimulation, emotions, wants and desires, habits and feelings. Its primary job is to interpret the world around us, and to create a personal sense of reality, the context through which we view the world. The sensory mind makes meaningful patterns from sensory input. It does this through four power functions:

1. Perception –
Two people sitting I the same room, having the same experience, will see and interpret that experience in highly individual ways, and will not always agree as to what really happened. A favorite story of mine:

In the clubhouse, three umpires were discussing the pending World Series game. The youngest, proud of being selected to participate in the World Series, bragged to his colleagues: “ I never worry about mistakes. I call them as I see them.”
The other two umpires started laughing, and the middle-aged umpire retorted: “ Well, you are still a little wet behind your ears. I call them as they are!”
The old umpire smiled and looked out the window.
“What are you smiling at?” the middle aged umpire finally asked his elder.
“Well,” said the old wise one. “It seems as if there are two here who are still little wet behind the ears. They are what I call them.

A particular event in our life can be good or bad, exiting or dull, awful or wonderful. We don’t actually describe the actual event but what that event means to us.

2. Language –
Language is the tool we use to create meaning. Once we use language, we are stuck with the consequences of our interpretations. Much of the unhappiness that we create for ourselves happens because we don’t realize the impact that our language has, nor do we know how to use language as a tool to help ourselves.

3. Emotions –
The interpretations we make determine our emotional reaction. In turn, our emotional reactions distort our perceptions, interfere with thinking, lead to conflicts and create disease. Many of feel victims of our emotions and yet we alone create them. We need emotional energy to succeed in life. Our emotions stimulate, challenge and motivate us to accomplish what we want. But all this depends where we channel our emotions.


4. Habits –
Whether we use our emotions to help or to hurt ourselves depends a great deal on our habits, the fourth function of sensory mind. Habits are the most deep-rooted and pervasive functions of the mind. We express our entire personalities through habits. It’s easy to see the enormous impact habits have in your life. Try shifting a habit when you get dressed tomorrow morning. As you put on your slacks, stop, and put the other leg in first. Most people fall over as they alter this simple, almost meaningless pattern of behavior.
Habits dominate the three outer levels of the personality – sensory mind, energy, and the body. We have habits of driving, eating, walking, and talking. How we react, feel, whether or not keep our muscles tense, even how we think are all regulated by the power of habit. All our skills – typing, playing cricket, managing, building a fire – are determined and controlled by habit. The friends we choose, the work we do, and the clothes we wear are all controlled by habit. Of course there are other factors involved in behavior, such as the power function of the mind, genetics and the environment. But habits provide the structure of what we think, what we do, and how we react. Habits allow us to live skillfully and usefully. Habits can also kill us.
As we shall see later, habits are the power behind our skill. But we didn’t consciously choose most of our habit, and many of them are destructive because they feed the three dragons of the mind. However, if we know how to take control of the powerful function of the mind, we can build habits that help us create a healthy body and mind instead of chronic conditions of stress, unhappiness and disease.

The deeper we go into the personality, the greater the calm and quiet will be regardless of how stormy the sea of life becomes. The three deepest, most subtle levels of the personality are never disturbed no matter how intense the dragons become. If we can access the resources of these deeper levels, and use them skillfully, we maintain control of ourselves no matter what kind of crises we face.

THE FOURTH DIMENSION: DISCRIMATION AND POWER OF INNER WISDOM

Deep within every mind is the capacity to know the truth, to understand reality as it is. This capacity is known as the discriminating mind. Discrimination is the quite realization that, for all the promises and planning, the project you are working on is not going to get off the ground, or that illusive contract will be signed even though it appears unlikely now. This is the power of knowledge, our capacity to know the truth, to understand reality as it really is, not as we have learned to think it is.
The discriminating mind allows us to think things out, to analyze situations effectively, and to make choices. When we don’t use it, we act solely on habit. For instance if we go to a movie every Saturday night, we don’t really make decision, we act of habit. We use our discrimination only to pick the movie. However, if we make conscious decision about where to go – visit friends, go to relative’s place, or take in a movie – then we use our capacity for discrimination. It allows us to make decisions on the basis of information and reasoning rather from habit.
On the deeper level, discrimination provides us with intuition: insight into the real consequences of our actions. Our inner wisdom allows us to make the right kinds of choices, avoiding regret and guilt often created through hasty action. We have all had the experience of taking an action that we are convinced was right. But before we did it, a small, quiet voice inside said, “better not do that.” We pause for a moment, but reassure ourselves that haven’t all been planned and go ahead with the plan. Three days later everything fell apart, which led to the thought, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that.” And we did know. We just didn’t know how to listen to our discriminating mind.
This dimension of the mind is very subtle and quiet. When the sensory mind is noisy and active, it can easily bury the subtle voice of our wisdom. Distracted by our desires and fears, and locked into our habits, it becomes difficult to access and listen to that still, quiet, inner voice. The more disturbances we have, the more difficult it is to think things through, to discern the subtle cause/effect relationships in our choices and actions.
The key to wisdom lies in the ability to create a deeply calm and quiet mind through concentration. In the yogic tradition, as in other tradition of self-mastery, we first learn to bring balance and flexibility to the body, stabilize our energy systems, and calm the noisy sensory mind. Then the emphasize of the training begins to shift as we learn to develop our insight into the nature of things. Variety of techniques and approaches are used to develop the power of this pure intellect. As we become more aware of this power of discrimination, and more skilled in its use, we make better decisions and avoid many of the troubles that we would normally create for ourselves.

THE FIFTH DIMENSION: BALANCE AND CONFIDENCE

At the center of the mind lies the fifth and even more subtle dimension, the balance state. Here, the mind’s energy is in a state of pure harmony and balance, and not yet modified into patterns of thought and knowledge. In this condition of purity, it is beyond the influence of language, emotions, and habits, and totally unaffected by any external disturbances. At this level of the personality, we are at peace with ourselves and the world. This center of tranquillity is the source of genuine self-confidence. Much of the stress that we experience stems from fear and worry. In other words stress is often the result of failure of self-confidence. The less confident we are, the more we worry and berate ourselves. The more worry and failure we create, the less confident we feel and hence get caught up in this vicious circle negative reinforcement. And yet every human being is born with center of self-confidence that lies unaffected by failures and disaster. However, distracted by the noisy sensory mind, we often don’t recognize it, nor do we learn how to tap this enormous resource.
We all have this experience of pure confidence from time to time. Sometime when you are alone, taking a walk. All of a sudden, you felt as “God’s with you – all’s right with the world,’ an overwhelming experience of contentment. The experience is for short time, but for that time you were completely free of any worry and self-doubt. You felt absolutely wonderful and content. This didn’t happened because you won a lottery, or taking some drug. In fact world was same with all the same problems to resolve. The magic was all you. You did it by relaxing, quieting the noisy chatter in your mind, and allowing your mind to focus inwardly. You became conscious of your own calm center, which was always there. What if you could access this strength anytime you needed it? How would the ability effect your stress level and performance?

THE SIXTH DIMENSION: THE SPIRITUAL CENTER 0F CONTROL

The human mind and body are complex instrument with great many resources. But there is a spiritual core beyond the mind and body that we must acknowledge, experience, and learn to use. The mind/body complex has tremendous resources, but the final power lies in Self, the spiritual force which uses the personality as a tool. Depending upon your perspective and belief you may call it the soul, higher power, or center of consciousness. We in this program will mention as the spiritual self. Unless we access and experience this indomitable spiritual core, we cannot gain our final freedom from the dragons of the mind or achieve self-mastery.
When we act in ways that are counter to our own human spirit, we create the most subtle and pervasive kind of suffering. We seldom recognize the price we pay when our actions are inconsistent with our values and beliefs. This inconsistency affects not only the relationship we have with ourselves, but also with others. Our inner strength depends on personal integrity, the ability to be consistent with our own values. When we stand up for what we believe, not only do we strengthen the will, but we also experience self-respect and inner strength. On the other hand, if we act in ways inconsistent with our own humanity and beliefs, we create inconsistencies in the mind that lead to feelings of guilt and weakness.
We all have experiences that allow us to touch this spiritual core in some small way. For some, it happens when they have close brush with death, often referred as “ near death experience,” and have actually experienced dying and being brought back to life. For others, it happens during a religious retreat after long days of silence and prayer. Still others seem to have them by accident, not knowing what precipitated the experience. Probably the most known and famous incident is the experience gained by “Buddha.” When he saw the three stages of life and the never-ending circle of life with all kinds of suffering. After seeing which, Lord Buddha meditated under the Banyan tree. There he was able to gain what we call self-mastery, which lead to enlightenment.
Fortunately, the meditative traditions provide the systematic methodology where anyone who makes the effort can develop the capacity for this experience and the knowledge it brings. The yogic tradition is dedicated to the personal mastery of this spiritual core. Because it is the highest of our human experiences, there are no simple and quick exercises or techniques on the way to enlightenment. But as we gain in self-mastery, as we become more balanced, stronger, and achieve greater insight, we acquire the capacity to experience this powerful spiritual core.