Basic Energy Healing

In this article I provide a simple method you can use to heal yourself, your loved ones, or a group of which you are a part (a problem at the office or disharmony in your family for example). The method involves conscious life force control, or pranayama, a term that is derived from two Sanskrit words – prana (life force) and ayama (control). Anyone can learn pranayama and use it effectively to have an immediate, measurable effect on their health and the wellbeing of others.

Pranayama has its roots in eastern medicine, and in the west, it is now an established scientific fact. The Rishis of India taught that all of creation is a manifestation of prana – force or energy derived from the infinite spirit of god, which permeates and sustains everything in existence. In China this energy is called Qi and the art of controlling it is Qigong . In Japan, the energy is called ki and the art of controlling it is Reiki . In the west, the existence of life force and our ability to control it has been proven using advanced instrumentation and controlled scientific studies. There, the force is called biofield energy or subtle energy, and the methods used to control it are called biofield therapies or subtle energy medicine respectively.

The method I teach here is one I use in my own work: effective and easy. First, draw in a breath. As you do, become aware of the back of your head and imagine the energy flowing inward through the brain stem at the base of your brain (where prana enters the body). When the in-drawn breath pauses, focus your attention on your target: your own health, another person in need of healing, or a relationship you are in – any situation that is proximal to you. Now, push your breath out, and as you do, imagine the captured energy flowing from your head into your target. That’s the method, start to finish.

You can tailor this method to suit your learning style and goals. For example, feel free to imagine energy flowing into your head with the indrawn breath in any way that works for you. The indrawn breath creates a vacuum or “pull” inward. When you feel that pull, all you have to do is “think” energy is flowing into the back of your head, and it will. Visual people might prefer to imagine a cloud of white light flowing into the base of the head. Any combination of these techniques will allow you to take in huge amounts of energy.

The same holds true for the exhaled breath and how you focus it. If the target is your own health, focus the energy on a diseased body part (your heart for example) or on your whole body if you have a systemic problem like diabetes. As you exhale, just “think” that energy is flowing into your illness, and it will. Or you can “imagine” energy as a flow of white light that’s washing into the body or diseased body parts. Some people send the energy “through” the body and others stream the energy “laser-like” from their head directly to afflicted areas. Any of these techniques or a combination will work. The method also works on emotional issues. If this is you, as you saturate your whole body with energy, focus some of it on your sternum and stomach (where we tend to hold negative emotion).

The same applies if you want to heal another person. You must be physically close to them to use the method. Then, focus energy on them just as you would for yourself, per the above instructions. This is also a great technique to use if you have a problem with another person – a boss, acquaintance or family member. In this case, imagine channeling the energy from your head through your heart into your antagonist, along with feelings of compassion. This will have the effect of calming them (and you too). The same technique works for a group – perhaps your family members or your colleagues at work aren’t getting along, or just need help to achieve a shared goal. While you’re with them, use the method to channel energy into the entire group. Prana is a force of God’s own nature that will act to calm, heal, and unify them.

Frequency matters: regular small doses of energy will have the desired effect. The great thing about this method is that you can use it anytime, anywhere, without anyone else knowing, so practice it often. If you do, you will be able to move extraordinary amounts of energy and you will actually perceive energy flowing into the back of your head and into your target.
www.drricklevy.com

Logic of letting go

When we are children, and someone tells us to 'let go,' it is usually in reference to something material, and when we let go, we can either feel empty, as if we are being deprived of something, or we can feel full, knowing that we have allowed someone to have that something, and s/he must really need it.

As adults, letting go can still leave us feeling empty or full. Both feelings may occur simultaneously. Ultimately, letting go will allow us to feel free, unburdened, healed, happy, even joyous. I intend to address how we can reach these ultimate feelings. The concept of letting go is very complex. For the sake of this discussion, i will divide the various aspects of letting go into three categories: 1) physical, 2) psychological, and 3) spiritual.

When i discuss the physical realm, i am talking about anything tangible, whether it is our bodies or our environment. Our environment can often be cluttered, so purging of much of this stuff can be truly liberating. Our bodies may not please us, so we can choose to let go of extra weight. We can choose to let go of bad habits and addictions. We can choose to free ourselves of the indiscriminate materialism and consumerism that requires constantly acquiring more and more of anything.

Moving from the physical to the psychological, we move to the why of those items that we could let go of physically. For example, why do we have all of the stuff that needs to be purged? What has caused the rampant materialism that has allowed us to fill up our lives with objects and beings? I almost wrote 'inanimate,' but there are those who fill up their lives with pets and children and casual acquaintances rather than real relationships. All such acquisitional behaviour is symptomatic of a psychological need that longs to be filled, but which should be purged. The same is true of other unpleasant emotions, like anger, fear, jealousy/envy, even hate; when a psychological need exists, it causes these emotions to manifest in an attempt to satisfy that need. Guess what? The very same is true for any bad habits and addictions we want to let go of; while there may be a biochemical component to these, they also are indicative of some sort of need or self-perceived deficiency or pain that, in turn, is symptomatic of needing to spiritually let go.

Truthfully, one could argue that if one lets go and purges at the physical and psychological levels, spiritual level purges and progress will automatically follow. Instead of dealing with those two arguments, i am going to run to one common expression: Let Go; Let God. When we consider the spiritual level, by definition we are dealing with the Divine by whatever name we wish to call Him. Also, by definition, we are exiting the scientific arena that forms the foundation of most of my work, and moving into the realm of faith, which happens to form the foundation for the remainder of my work. Most spiritual advisors argue that happiness and joy are the natural state of our souls. Therefore, if these are not what we feel, what must be purged from the spiritual realm? Because every single major faith has reincarnation as one of its major tenets, and the purpose of reincarnation is for the spirit to achieve a higher state. Ridding ourselves of karma is the ultimate purge!

Now that we have seen the different levels of letting go and purging, how do we begin the process? Try beginning with just one small step in one aspect of your everyday life. Identify something that you don't need, and let go of it. Perhaps it will be your décor? Even though i embrace much of Mies van der Rohe's 'Less is More' philosophy, one does not have let go of an overall personal style that you might enjoy more in order to simplify and streamline your life. However, it may help to examine "Why" you have a particular décor, and whether it might merit letting go in order to have a more lifeenhancing physical environment. Mostly, this is about just getting rid of accumulated material items that aren't needed any more.

Think about the motivations you have for selecting a career, a hobby, a car, a house, even a spouse. Are those motivations from your own internal dreams and drive, or are there some external pressures? This is moving beyond the realm of everyday activity, and into the realm of special activity; these special events are most often psychological in nature.

Remember, though, that there are many ways to get an education, so temper all external pressures with your internal dream. Loosen the influence of external pressures, learn what your choices are, listen to your own internal dream, and then let go of what isn't part of that internal dream. Now that you have identified your internal dream, what is holding you back from achieving your greatness? Money? Fear? Inhibitions? Overwhelming anger? Frustration? Laziness? Whatever it is, you must start to let go of what is holding you back. For instance, i have a beautiful relative who is very intelligent and artistically talented; she once told me that her dream was to write children's books. When i asked her why she didn't 'just do it,' she said she was afraid of failing. I urged her to let go of her fear of failure, but that fear had its hooks in too deep.

Once you start letting go of what you don't need, and loving all, you will have fewer blocks in your spiritual Path! As you begin to 'Let go,' you automatically begin 'Letting In.' Both are processes, so please don't expect overnight success. Start small, and change will occur incrementally. Let go of the need for perfection and the physical, psychological and spiritual baggage that embodies. Let in the goal of self-improvement throughout your life. Let in Love. We are all works in progress. Make a pact with yourself to show just a little more love every day. Let in the Divine.
by Bret S Beall

Thank you for Not Smoking

A cigarette is many things to many people. For some, it's their cool quotient. For others, a relaxant. But for most, simply an addiction. What's constant is that smoking is injurious to health! On World No Tobacco Day (May 31), say sayonara to smoking ...

Journalist Shashank Mitra promises himself that come tomorrow, he'll quit smoking. But, as they say, tomorrow never comes. That wasn't the case with one-time chain-smoker Manish Bhatia. "I used to smoke at least 40 cigarettes a day. One day, my son came up to me and said I looked cool with a cigarette. That's all it took. I gave up," he says. It's been two years since, and Manish hasn't stolen any puffs. Smoking is an addiction—easy to get into, bloody tough to get out of. But help is at hand.

PATCH UP

A nicotine patch is the very first measure every quitter tries. It's like a small plaster strip that you paste on yourself. It releases nicotine into the body through the skin. Ananya Jha who took to the 'cancer stick' to fit in with her peer group tried one and it sure helped her patch up her habit. But experts say patches are of little help as they don't really cure the addiction or nicotine dependence.

MIND OVER MATTER

Most people will tell you to go cold turkey. Once you decide to quit, it's all about will power. But experts suggest that tapering off is better, as the chances of you reverting to it are then much lower You can opt for many behavioural therapies and medicines. While the former includes practises like not buying a full packet, not smoking a full cigarette and not giving in to peer pressure, the latter involves intake of medicines, which act on the neural pathway where the nicotine affects, thus curbing cravings. Happy quitting, and before we forget, thank you for not smoking!

WHY QUIT?

Because smoking is the maker of many maladies. Here's the list:
Lung cancer Damage to the mucous membrane, loss of taste, ulcers, poor oral hygiene and pyorrhea Coronary artery disease Atherosceloris (narrowing and thickening of the blood vessels) Buerger disease (a vascular condition where the arteries in your lower limbs get blocked, causing gangrene) Impotence (absence of blood supply to genital organs, rendering them dysfunctional!)

PUFF OR STUFF!

Myths and facts about smoking.. .

When you stop smoking, you tend to gain weight.

Fact: Absolutely! Because your craving for cigs increases and to curb it, you end up bingeing.

A morning smoke regulates your bowel movement.

Fact: True! Because the smoke that you inhale goes into your stomach and causes gastric colic reflux, which stimulates the colon. However, a healthier way is to take natural laxatives, drink lots of water and eat vegetables for roughage.

Smoking improves your mood.

Myth: Yup, it may give you a kick but it's quite short-lived and puts you at a higher risk of depression, hyperactivity as well as attention deficit disorder.

Smoking only a few cigarettes in a day is ok!

Myth: Every cigarette contains about 1 to 2 mg of nicotine, which reaches your brain within approx. 10 seconds of your inhaling. Immediately after that first puff, you get a rush of adrenaline that may increase your blood pressure, your heart rate and your breathing. So, even one ciggie is risky!

ABHIRUCHI CHAND

Not your true self

If all is God, why is there imperfection in the world? Negative emotions like lust, pride, attachment, anger, ego, greed and jealousy are distortions of love। These distortions manifest in animals also, but they have no way to go beyond them as they are bound by Nature. Endowed with the power of discrimination, human beings can move from these distortions to a state of pure love. Every sincere seeker wants to get rid of anger and reach a state of perfection. What can you do when anger rises in you? You may remind yourself a hundred times that you shouldn't get angry, but when you feel the anger, you are unable to control it. It comes like a thunderstorm. Emotions are much more powerful than your thoughts and the promises you make. Anger is a distortion of our true nature. It is part of this creation, but we still call it a distortion because it doesn't allow the Self to shine forth fully. And this is what sin is. Anger is a sin because when you are angry, you lose your centredness; you lose sight of the Self. Anger is a sign of weakness. A strong man doesn't get angry easily. When you focus on other's mistakes, you are bound to get angry. The cause of anger is the lack of total knowledge of what is happening inside that person. Showing anger itself is not wrong, but being unaware of your anger only hurts you. There is a place for showing anger, but when you get angry yourself, you are shaken completely. Are you ever happy with the decisions you have made or the words you have spoken when you are angry? No, because you lose your total awareness. If you are completely aware and you are acting angry, that is fine. In fact, anger is an instrument. It is useful when you are able to control it. It can work wonders when you know how to use it and where to use it. Spiritual practices help you maintain your centredness. This is where a little knowledge about ourselves, about our mind, our consciousness, and the root of distortion in our nature will help. It is when you are exhausted and stressed that you lose your nature and get angry. Breathing techniques and meditation are effective in calming the mind. Meditation is letting go of anger from the past and the events of the past. It's accepting this moment and living every moment totally with depth. Often anger comes because you don't accept the present moment. You look for perfection; that is why you are angry at imperfections. Even when someone commits a mistake, know that she is not the culprit; the stress inside is causing her to make that mistake. Just this understanding and a few days of continuous practice of meditation can change the quality of our life. Usually, you give your anger freely and your smile rarely as though a smile is expensive. To the ignorant, anger is cheap and a smile is costly. To those of knowledge, a smile is free - like sunshine, air and water - and anger is expensive. Make your smile cheaper and anger expensive.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Recreating ourselves

To create is to bring into being or existence। And to create something new, we have to die to what is. Something has to die for something new to emerge, and our soul is constantly taking quantum leaps of creativity. What is a quantum leap? It's when a subatomic particle moves from here to there without going through the space in-between. So it's here, then it's there. In between where was it? Nowhere. How did it get from here to there? Don't know. And it got from here to there instantly. There was not time for it to get from here to there. That's a quantum leap. Every death is an opportunity for a quantum leap of creativity. Through death, we recreate ourselves at every level: the material level of the body-mind, the intellect, the personality. All of these have to die in order to recreate ourselves. With every death we store the wisdom of our experiences since the beginning of time and take quantum leaps of creativity so that we can look at ourselves again as if for the first time. Cycles of birth, transformation and death keep us ever fresh so that we can imagine new realms for our existence. In biology there's a term called apoptosis, which means programmed cellular death. In the absence of apoptosis, cells forget to die and this condition is called cancer. Cancer cells don't know how to die and in their quest for immortality, they kill the host body upon which they are dependent for their life. Death, therefore, is the ticket to life and it is happening right now in our body-mind. Where is our two year-old body? It's dead. The body, thoughts, emotions and the personality of the two-year-old are dead. We traded all these in for the three-year-old by dying to the two-year-old. Birth and death are happening all the time at all these levels.

Deepak Chopra

Peace is the way

Don’t lose yourself in conflict, obsessiveness, anxiety over the future, and feelings of guilt and inadequacy, says Deepak Chopra.

Want to get to peace consciousness. Here are 10 steps for you.

1. Change doesn’t start on the surface. It is generated from consciousness. This has been true throughout history. If both Buddhism and Christianity could begin with one person, let us not think in terms of numbers and odds. It may sound grandiose to compare ourselves to great spiritual guides, but we act collectively, as an alliance. Our strength comes from critical mass.

2. We aren’t here to make the world evolve. We are here to evolve as individuals and then to spread that influence. In the wisdom tradition of Vedanta, the stream of evolution is known in Sanskrit as Dharma, from a root verb that means ‘to uphold.’ This gives us a clue how to live: the easiest way for us to grow is to align ourselves with Dharma. We don’t have to struggle to grow - that would be unproductive, in fact. The Dharma has always favoured non-violence. If we can bring ourselves to a state of non-violence, and connect with others who are doing the same thing, we have done a huge thing to reinforce Dharma.

3. Societies get into the grip of their own self-created story. It is helpful to realise that we can choose not to participate in that story. Realise that national and tribal stories are limited, self-serving, based on the past, reinforced by orthodoxy, and therefore opposed to real change. Stories are incredibly persuasive. Wars are fueled by victimisation that runs deep, for example. So let us not try to change anyone’s story. Let us only notice and observe ourselves when we buy into it and then let us back away from participating in it.

4. Let us not demand of ourselves that we alone must be the agent of change. In a fire brigade everyone passes along a bucket, but only the last person puts out the fire. None of us know where we stand in line. We may be here simply to pass a bucket; we may be called on to play a major role. In either case, all we can do is think, act, and say. Let us direct our thoughts, words, and actions to peace. That is all we can do. Let the results be what they will be.

5. Let us realise that engagement and detachment aren’t opposite - the more engaged we become, the more detached we will have to be. Otherwise, we will lose ourselves in conflict, obsessiveness, anxiety over the future, and feelings of guilt and inadequacy. Keep in mind that we are pioneers into the unknown, and
uncertainty is our ally. When our minds want closure, certainty, and finality, let us remind ourselves that these are fictions. Our joyous moments will come from riding the wave, not asking to get off at the next station.
6. Since most misery is born of failed expectations let us learn to minimise expectations so that we will feel far less guilt and disappointment.

7. We aren’t here to be good or perfect. We are here as the antennas for signals from the future. We are here to be midwives to something that wants to be born. Good people have preceded us. They solved some problems and created others. As one wise teacher said, “You aren’t here to be as good as possible. You are here to be as real as possible.”

8. I know this sounds difficult, but let us try to be tolerant of intolerance. This is a hard one at times, but if you try the opposite - showing a hard heart against those with hard hearts of their own - all we have done is expand the problem. It is helpful (but often difficult) to remember that everyone is doing the best they can to form their own level of consciousness. Trying to talk a terrorist out of his beliefs is like trying to persuade a lion to be a vegetarian. All we can realistically do is seek openings for higher awareness.

9. Let us resist the lure of dualities. These include us versus them, civilised versus barbarians, good versus evil. The good, civilised people of Europe managed to kill millions of themselves, along with millions of “them”. In reality we are all in the same boat of human conflict and confusion. Sometimes it helps to admit that the doctor is not far from being a patient.

10. Let’s create an atmosphere of peace around ourselves. Imagine that we are like a mother whose children come home crying about fights at school. Would it be her job to soothe their wounds or to arm them for fighting back tomorrow? Simplistic as it may sound, the male principle of aggression can only be healed by the feminine principle of nurturing and love.

What is True Success?

The Art of Supportive Leadership :
Part 1

The definitions of success are legion, as are also the techniques for reaching it. Perhaps the most important "rule" of all is this simply principle: The outcome of any project always reveals, however subtly, the kind of energy that went into its development.

A work of art reveals not only the skill, but also the consciousness, the basic attitudes, the philosophy of life, of the artist.

A place of business reveals the general attitudes of its workers: their happiness or unhappiness, their confidence or frustration.

A leader who leads truly, and never drives others, will create in his subordinates the most constructive possible attitudes, and will ensure the best possible long-range results for his and their labors.

The true success of an undertaking depends, more than anything else, on the spirit of the people involved in it. And the spirit of those people is a reflection, always, of the spirit of its leader.

In your role as leader or coworker, consider practicing the following principles:

1. Think of your position as an opportunity to serve, not as a trumpet call to self-importance.

2. Hold always to the principle, “People are more important than things.” If you hold to this principle, those who work with you will always give you their best.

3. Give loyalty to those under you, instead of demanding it first of them. Be loyal to those who work for you, whatever their position on the “totem pole.” Loyalty inspires loyalty. By demanding loyalty of others first, you’ll develop “yes men,” and the burden of every decision will rest on you alone.

4. Share with others the credit for any work well done. You will then have their support in all you do. Support is given grudgingly to the leader who claims, “I did it all.” Take from others the burden of blame. For even if the fault was theirs, in renouncing responsibility you renounce your leadership.