USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Dear Friend,
While doing something, at times, you will feel like not being able to recall what you already know. You will feel desperate to recall and frantically concentrate all your energy to be able to bring it to your mind. Why does it happen?

Sometimes, things come automatically to your mind and you are at liberty to use them according to your requirement. It also happens quite often. What is the reason? There is a third situation too. What you are not able to recall at one point of time, springs to your mind all once at some other point of time. You once again feel like asking yourself- why does it happen at all? Sometimes, you just wonder and on other occasions, get nervous as you are unable make out the phenomenon that takes place at the mental level. The same mind which forgets something recalls it the next moment.

Your mind has extremely large and huge capacity. Use it or lose it. Practice enables you to keep your knowledge at your fingertips. You can use all your knowledge at will, if you constantly practise it. However sharp a knife may be, it is not used for a long time, its edge gets rusted and the knife becomes blunt. You knowledge is just like that knife. Disuse keeps it far from your conscious mind and further, into your unconscious mind which is like a lumbar room where all your impressions lie in untidy heaps. You should try to keep your knowledge in orderly manner. All your knowledge can remain tidy, if it is in current use. Continuity can do wonder. It can enable you to understand even the inexplicable aspects of everything. If you do not succeed in your first attempt, do not give up. Keep doing and the victory is ultimately yours. Your continuous effort has the power to change the seemingly impossible into possible.

Your mind has immense power. All it needs is training. Training will empower it to solve intricate riddles effortlessly. Once you achieve this capacity, you will have easy access to all that you know. You can draw upon your knowledge in a fraction of a second.

Always remember that it is not enough to start doing something. You have to continue until you accomplish this task.

WE have before us the example of the new Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO), Chief, Dr.R.Radhakrishanan. His continuous effort played a key role in a number of our country’s ambitious space projects including Chandrayan-1. Now, he is getting prepared for sending Chandrayan-2 which will launch a rover on the Moon as well. All his knowledge has been at his fingertips that has helped him change the seemingly impossible tasks into possible ones.

Use him as a Role Model and march towards success.

TRY, TRY, TRY AGAIN

When nothing seems to help,
I go and look at a stonecutter
Hammering away at a rock
Perhaps a hundred times
Without as much as a
Crack showing in it.
Yet at the hundred and first
Blow, it splits in two,
And I know it was not
That blow that did it –
but all that gone before.

(Source: Competition Success Review December, 2009.)

Images: www.scienceclarified.com/Io-Ma/Machines-Simpl...

www.engineeringtoolbox.com/gears-d_1307.html

FRUSTRATION- A POSITIVE FORCE

Everyone experiences one kind of frustration or another everyday. Whenever we are crushed under it, it becomes a chronic type of negative feeling. But when we derive some stimulation from it, it helps us solve a problem, not to yield to it. So, frustration can be turned into a positive force.

We have a servo-mechanism within us which can create ideas and find solutions to problems transforming us into creative artists. Instead, too many of us jam our creative mechanism with worry, anxiety and fear. This jamming of the creative servo-mechanism doesn’t serve us at all. It inhibits us from our goals, putting a road-block of negation in front of us, creating frustration.

The road blocks of frustration are: We worry not only before making decision but after we carry this in our minds all day. The cure? Express anxiety before, but not after making a decision. Once we choose a road to take, we must stop worrying and call upon the confidence of past successes to guide us in the present.

We must stop the worry and feel about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Think of only TODAY. Treat everyday as complete lifetime. Do your best, respond to the present. Try, Try, Try, - now, now.

Don’t clutter your day. Do one thing at a time. It frees you from the burden of hurry and failure.

Relax well. Put aside everything. A good night’s rest brings a beautiful and hopeful day back. Don’t wrestle with your problems twenty-four hours. So relaxation helps you overcome frustration. Don’t think of it. Work for it. Do it – Now. Remember these words of Plato- “Nothing in the affairs of men is worth worrying about.”

(Source: Wisdom November 2009)

Images: enviroaction.com.au

danscartoons.com

BRETHING FOR ENERGY AND HEALTH

Svami Vivekananda says, “Human body needs breathing and eating. It generates energy. Energy is depleted 95% in thinking and 5% in doing.” Everybody breathes but lately, I have experimented with myself and discovered “how to breathe for energy and healthy mind.”

And in lighter vein, half the time of life is wasted in ,"thinking without work" and rest half is wasted in "working withouth thinking."

Fast Breathing:

1. Look in the mirror and observe your face.
Stand up or sit down comfortably.
2. Clench your teeth as tightly as you can.
3. Breathe in through nostril in the beginning slowly.
4. Breathe out through nostril in the beginning slowly.
5. Breathe in through nostril as fast as you can.
6. Breath out through nostril as fast as you can.
7. Repeat this exercise for 15-20 times.
8. Now again look in the mirror and observe your face.

Benefits:

You will find that your face is glowing.
Blood and oxygen has acted to do this.
Skin glows. Toxins decrease. Digestion improves.

SLOW BREATHING:

Sit in a comfortable posture.
Keep your spine erect.
Now put right thumb on left nostril and block it.
Inhale through left nostril slowly, slowly as if you are watering the plants with a hand-held fountain.
Hold the breath in the body for some time and closing eyes see what is happening.
Observing the breath is a beautiful experience. Do this.
As the breath moves from one organ to another organ, that organ gets new energy.
More you can do. While your eyes are closed and breath is in the body, meet your all organs. You may call each and every organ by name. For Example: Hello my brain, how are you. Hello my ears, how are you. I am thankful to you because you are serving me for all these years.
Keep on meeting with every organ using the same phrase but changing the name like eyes, lips, nostrils, throat, gall bladder, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, kidneys, appendix, pancreas, bladder, genital, knees, feet and go out through feet. Feel your breath going out of the feet.
In the next attempt move your breath meeting head, hair, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and go out after the hands.
Now exhale by blocking the left nostril with third and fourth finger of your right hand and lifting the thumb from the right nostril.
Inhale and exhale as slowly as you can.
Energized. It improves your immune system and elevates your low-order intelligence.

RIGHT WAY TO BREATHE:

Lord Krishna in Srimad Bhagvat Gita says, “ Man is like a tree upside down. He has his roots on the top i.e. head and branches down wards i.e. trunk.” Breathing is like watering the plant or tree. Do we water the tree from top i.e. through leaves and fruits? No, we don’t. We water the plant through roots and only then the plant grows into a tree well.

For right breathing:

Inhale through nostrils closing your eyes.
Now feel as if your breath is going to your head, ears, eyes, throat, heart, stomach and downward towards your genitals.
Now turn your breath from genitals to your back i.e. back bone and feel as if it is going upward.
Move it up to you head.
You will feel as if your blocked mind is opening.
Repeat it as many times as you can.
You can do while sitting, lying on bed while going to sleep or any other comfortable time.

Benefits:

1. Relaxes mind.
2. Manages anger.
3. Improves blood circulation.
4. Reduces stress.
5. Improves decision making.
6. Leads low-order thinking to higher order thinking that in general parlance called, “ Sieving the grains from the chaff.”
7. More you can practice, experience, observe and add.



Images: http://idealityincorporated.com/idealities/?p=261

FIT ZONE

FIT ZONE

By Bharat Thakur*


It’s all in the mind.

Out of the million inhabiting every corner of the world, there are only a few who catch our eye and appear to be different from the rest. Something about their personality seems to draw us to them and makes us want to believe every word they say: whether true or not.

What is it about some people that make them so charming? Usually it has nothing to do with looks. How a person on the outside does not affect his inner true self. It is all about how you carve yourself mentally and emotionally. You need to control your mental and emotional being. You may do numerous asanas to work on different parts of the body, but you reap the true benefits of yoga when you are also able to work on your mind and your attitude. After all, in the words of the great sage Patanjali, “yohag chitt varitti nirodah” or Yoga is a technique of control of mind.
The eight-fold path to yoga or Ashtang yoga comprises yama, niyama, pratyahara, asana, pranayama, dharana, dhyana and Samadhi.
The first three yama, niyama, pratyahara help one to gain control over mind. They teach the basic principles of leading a good and peaceful life, something that we often choose to ignore and hence make our lives complicated. Having a set of values to abide by, good physical mental hygiene and control over senses makes one strong and fearless and source of inspiration for others. You will become so independent that you will not be affected by the world around you. You will not have to look any where for solutions to problems. The solutions will come from within.
You will have not to depend upon anyone for happiness. You will be the source of your happiness. If you look at the world around you, this is what most people lack and this also what only a few possess that makes them charming and magnetic.
A good leader is one who has the clarity of mind and control over his senses. Trataka helps in balancing the nervous system and develops a strong will power, memory and concentration. Nadi Shodhana Asana balances and harmonises the flow of energy in the body. Moorcha Pranayama takes this balance to a higher-level cutting out distractions from the outside world and helps attaining high state of mental tranquility.

NADISHODHANA PRANAYAMA
· Sit in any meditative posture.
· Bend forefinger and middle finger of your right hand.

Close your eyes and practice deep breathing.
· Close right nostril with thumb place ring finger between eyebrows and inhale through left nostril to count of 15.
· Exhale slowly through left nostril to count of 20.
· Do the same for 10-15 times.
· Now close your left nostril with ring and little fingers. Place thumb finger between eyebrows and inhale and exhale through right nostril.
· Do it for 10-15 times.

TRATAKA
Part A.
Raise your arm keeping fist clenched and thumb at eye level.
Focus on the tip of thumb without blinking.]
Now, keeping the eyes focused on the top of the thumb, move the arm to one side.
Now move to the other side.
Repeat 3 to 5 times.
Part B
Now, rub the palms of both hands together till they feel warm.
Place the palms over both eyes and feel the warmth spread from the palms to the eyes.
Feel the eyes relax and focus for a minute on the soothing darkness.
Hold the position until the warmth of the palms has been transferred to the eyes.
Repeat three times.

MOORCHCHA PRANAYAMA

Sit in the comfortable meditation asana(Preferably padmasana)
Keep the head and spine straight.

Relax the whole body.

Observe the breath until becomes slow and deep, then slowly inhale through both nostrils with ujjayi pranayama, while gently and smoothly bending the head slightly back.
Perofrm Shambavi mudra (eyes steady looking in the void and keep the mind focused in the heart.)
Keep the arms straight by locking the elbows and pressing the knees with the hands.
Retain the breath inside for as long as is compfortable.
Exhale slowly while relaxing the arms. Close the eyes and bring the head back to the upright position.
Relax the whole body for a few seconds, keeping the eyes closed. Expereince the lightness and tranquility in the mind and body.

Source: Saturday EXTRA, The Tribune, November 7, 2009

Image: http://www.yogatohealth.com