Tag: Worry

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When you resonate Existence, it will simply keep giving you what you need for that moment, even before you seek it!

Sri

When you are not so concerned about your ego getting hurt, you will have the courage to take any jump. All your so-called worry is actually about your ego getting hurt. When you are free from ego, you will act with more freedom and courage. You will be more willing to explore.

When you are full of wonder for Existence, you can create. On the other hand, when you are full of ego, you cannot create. Even if you do create, your creation will be a dead creation. It will be like a plastic rose that looks perfect but lacks fragrance and life. When an artist creates out of love, he gives a certain special quality to the creation. If he creates out of ego, the creation is lifeless.

When you are able to resonate with the whole of Existence, you can see every single thing in life as a manifestation of Existence. When you are in this state, you get whatever you seek, because you are moving in tune with Existence. Life then becomes a miracle. This is what we call the synchronicity of Existence. Continue reading “When you resonate Existence, it will simply keep giving you what you need for that moment, even before you seek it!”

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Worries are the knots in the handkerchief. When we look at them with awareness, we will know how to dissolve them

Sri

Worry is a deeply embedded pattern in us. It happens independently, without any solid, valid embedded pattern in us. It is an addiction like smoking and drinking. I read about some recent research conducted at the American College of Chest Physicians. It said that the proportion of people classified as highly nicotine dependent has increased by thirty two percent in the last eighteen years!

Any addiction happens because we want to maintain our patterns. The same is true with worry. You worry to maintain patterns. It becomes your nature.

Understand that the mind is like a piece of hardware programmed with the software called ‘worry’. For example, let us say you experience depression, or worry, every morning at ten o’clock when thinking of all your unfinished office work. Ten o’clock gets recorded as a low mood time for you. Everyday at exactly ten o‘clock you will experience a disturbance in your mood. Many of you might have experienced this. The same low mood happens on Sunday when there is no office to go to. Then you tell yourself, ‘No, today is a Sunday. I don’t need to go to the office. I don’t need to think about those things.’ Then you have relief but the mind goes back again and again to the same mood, because our mind is programmed hardware. Continue reading “Worries are the knots in the handkerchief. When we look at them with awareness, we will know how to dissolve them”

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If you have too many fears, the possibility for enlightenment is more. So many doors are available to you!

Sri

Fear is a deeper dimension of worry. Worry can cause ulcers. Fear on the other hand can even destroy life. However, unlike worry without which life is possible, fear seems woven into our lives. It is possible to face fear without fear. A person who we call courageous is not one without fear, but one who has learnt to face fear without fear.

Fear is a form of energy inside us. That is why it cannot be destroyed. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can only be changed from one form to another. Understand, your fear is directly connected to your life energy. Whenever you are facing a survival threat, you will see your fear rising and the adrenalin release happening in your body. That adrenalin release gives you so much energy that you can almost fly. We call it the fight or flight response – either you face the fear and fight, or you run away. There will be so much energy in your body the moment you face a survival threat. Whenever that threat is real, the swadhishthana chakra, the seat of life, gets completely shaken!

When there is pure desire or pure greed in you without any object in particular, it becomes the overflowing energy of creation, expansion, or Big Bang! For no reason, you simply explode with energy. In the same way, when there is pure fear in you without any object in particular, it becomes contraction, black hole. Fear is your nature, but don’t direct it towards any object. Having fear is natural. But connecting the fear to an object is societal. Pure fear helps in survival and it is spontaneous. Continue reading “If you have too many fears, the possibility for enlightenment is more. So many doors are available to you!”

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Drop your judgment about yourself, people around you and situations, you will be free of stress!

Sri

We all have a part of our brain that controls our actions such as breathing, digestion and such activities that the body does automatically, involuntarily. Nature has designed a fail-safe system in a part of our brain called hypothalamus. This part of the brain also includes what biologists refer to as the reptilian brain. Behavioral scientists often talk about the fight or flight response. When the body-mind system perceives a danger to our survival the hypothalamus is alerted by our unconscious mind. The unconscious mind functions at speeds a million times faster than the conscious mind. So even before we consciously become aware of danger, we instinctively become alert. The hypothalamus activates the pituitary gland, the master gland, which then activates the adrenalin glands that secrete the adrenalin hormone, which is pumped into our extremities, the hands and legs. We then get ready for the ‘fight or flight’ reaction – either the energy prepares us to fight the threat or to run away from the threat. The unconscious reptilian brain takes the decision to release chemicals into our body to protect us. This worked very well in the days of the caveman when he faced lions and tigers. He had to be ready even without thinking to fight or run away.

To study the effect of adrenalin on human beings today, experiments were carried out on athletes. Sprinters were lined up at the starting block and moments before the pistol was raised to signal to them to start running, the umpire lowered his arm. So, the sprinters had to fall back and reposition themselves. This was repeated six times. Without even running a meter the sprinters collapsed at the starting block! The adrenalin level in their bodies had become dangerously high. The life saving adrenalin can become a killer when it is produced without reason.

The chances of our meeting a tiger or a lion are quite slim these days. Nevertheless our unconscious mind keeps sending signals of such danger. I call them ‘fear strokes’. Psychologists estimate that we face at least half a dozen such fear strokes every day. These fear strokes produce large quantities of adrenalin in us. It has been established that depression is a direct result of such adrenalin production. Depression in turn is considered to be the main cause of many chronic and fatal illnesses. Medical research has found that many young people in rich countries, even teenagers, have arteries so badly blocked that their arteries are similar to sixty-year-old people! Doctors have established that the physical condition is only one part of the problem. A much larger part is the emotional condition. It is now fairly well established that an emotional trigger causes the immediate onset of a heart attack or stroke, even though the physical condition may have been present for a long time. Nowadays, cardiac physicians routinely request people to fill in a questionnaire on stress factors in addition to conventional tests to determine how prone they are to cardiac problems. Doctors have found that major traumas in life such as death of a loved one, loss of job, loss of money and even transfers in job and moving houses can be serious stress factors that can lead to heart attacks.

What is true of heart attacks is true of many non-life threatening but highly debilitating ailments such as backaches, migraines and ulcers. The underlying emotional or psychological factor is far more relevant than the superficial physiological causes.

Continue reading “Drop your judgment about yourself, people around you and situations, you will be free of stress!”

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What you think as your identity is not required for you to run your life. You have an automatic intelligence to run, to maintain, to live and to expand life!

Sri

The identity that you project to the outer world is called ahamkara. The identity that you believe as you internally is called mamakara. Again and again vedic psychology says that you are beyond these two. You are not just these two. According to Western psychology you are just these two. That is why so much of work is done to protect your identity. So much of attention and energy is given to hold on to your identity.

The reality, the real you, is much more than these two identities. You are beyond these two identities.

Above all, you need to understand that your mind is not a machine. It is not connected as you think. Because you do not experience the gap between two thoughts, you start believing it is connected. You go on repeating that you are disturbed and tensed. No. You are not disturbed. You are a disturbance. You need to understand the basic root where the problem starts, where the problem is created. The first basic root is you believing yourself to be a shaft or a thing. You are not a thing. Your idea about pleasure, your idea about pain, your idea about life, everything is built on that one lie, that you are a thing. Continue reading “What you think as your identity is not required for you to run your life. You have an automatic intelligence to run, to maintain, to live and to expand life!”

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You are not in worry but You are worry and mind is not a thing but a process!

Sri

Worry and stress are closely interrelated. They are like parent and child. One cannot exist without the other. What works for one works for the other as well. However, given that stress is considered the biggest destroyer of health in today’s world, it is worth going into more depth on this subject.

Four hundred years ago Rene Descartes declared, ‘I think, therefore I exist.’ This has formed the basis of modern thinking. Billions of people in this world have followed Descartes* for generations believing that unless each one outthinks the other they cannot succeed in this world. Descartes was right, and he was wrong. He was right in that that the human system does not know how to live without its mind, without thinking. As a result human beings become slaves to their minds. They live in bondage.

Many centuries before Descartes, a vedic sage declared that man does not begin to exist till he stops thinking. Adi Shankara, at the age of eight, faced his future master across the waters of the holy Tungabhadra river. The master asked him, ‘Who are you?’ In response Adi Shankara- said  ‘I am not the mind, I am not the intellect, I am not the ego and I am not the senses. I am beyond all that. I am pure consciousness.’

We are merely a bio-machine as long as we think we are mind and body. We are just a shade better than the animals we ascended from as long as we allow our senses to guide us. But the true potential of human beings is not merely to think and prove that we are superior to animals.

The purpose of human life is to transcend the mind and ascend to a higher state of consciousness.

In that state we are truly in the divinity that we descended from. Till we reach that state of unity with what we truly are, we are in turmoil. This turmoil, this confusion between our true nature and what we pretend and strive to be is what we call stress or tension. Continue reading “You are not in worry but You are worry and mind is not a thing but a process!”

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A blissful person’s life is so rich that there is no space or time for worry!

Sri

An eternal worry for people is the worry about money. Even your money problems get sorted out if you get up and get into right action. There is a famous saying, ‘If you can’t find a solution, you are the problem.’

If making money is the worry, then it clearly means that somewhere laziness is pulling you back into the comfort of worry. If you discard laziness and move, you make money. There are a million opportunities in today’s world to make money. Ifsustaining the money is a worry, then again you should either take steps to reduce spending or be in the ultimate surrender to Existence, knowing it will sustain you. The worry of sustaining money might not be a great problem in your life after all. So relax and just remain with the right action.

Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita*, ‘A person whose mind is contended because of spiritual knowledge, who has subdued his senses and to whom stone and gold are the same and who is satisfied with what he has, is said to be established in Self-realization and is called an enlightened being.’

When you create more thoughts inside you through worry, the load on the navel region increases. It is from the navel region that thoughts or worries arise. When you create more and more thoughts, you feel the heaviness in your stomach. There is an energy center in the navel area called the manipuraka chakra*. This energy center starts shrinking with the heaviness of worry. This energy center responds directly to worry, and affects the stomach. That is why when you worry about something, your stomach starts becoming uneasy. Or when you hear shocking news you say, ‘I can’t digest it…’ Any disturbing news causes your stomach to churn. The stomach is very sensitive to thoughts. Continue reading “A blissful person’s life is so rich that there is no space or time for worry!”

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Whenever your mind suffers with worry, immediately be aware that somewhere you are interpreting the ways of Existence with your own ignorant mental setup!

Sri

When you clearly understand that you are part of the grand plan of Existence, no worry can take root in you. Existence is a live energy being. It has tremendous intelligence with which it runs the whole show. We are all part of it. The same intelligence that conducts Existence is available to us too. If we tune in to it, our actions will be fluid and spontaneous like the happenings of Existence. If we don’t tune into it, we will harbor worry and fear and remain closed.

There is so much to learn from Existence!

Take animals, for example. Have you ever heard of worried sheep or cows? No! They conduct their lives like you. They are born, they reproduce, they find food, and they face death, just like human beings. You may say, ‘They don’t have to face the challenges that we have to face.’ What about their other activities like reproduction, facing death, etc.? Are they worried about all that? No! But these things happen to them too. So understand that Existence is running this whole macrocosm. It can surely take care of you as well! Surrendering to the laws of Existence is the greatest relaxation from worry. Once you surrender, you start seeing that everything that happens is auspicious! Nothing causes you any worry. You find blessings in everything. Either there is surrender or worry, never both. Once you surrender, you see that Existence plans even the small things beautifully, only we don’t see it.

The Isavasya Upanishad*, an ancient vedic* text, says, ‘The one who sees all living entities as spiritual sparks, can never have anxiety on any account!’ Continue reading “Whenever your mind suffers with worry, immediately be aware that somewhere you are interpreting the ways of Existence with your own ignorant mental setup!”

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Let us create a blissful future by enjoying every moment with the truth that Existence is running the whole show!

Sri

Another major cause for worry is when we constantly try to conform to another’s opinion of us. The funny thing is that while we are worried about others’ opinions of us, they are worried about our opinion of them! Society conditions us to worry about others’ opinions all the time. That is the problem. When you are worried about what other people think, you unconsciously weaken your efforts in whatever it is you are doing. You divert a major part of your energy toward suffering and worry.

Why do you worry about others’ appreciation?

Don’t bother. Just do anything totally and to the best of your ability. Leave it at that, that’s all. Only then will what you do be the best that you are capable of. In the end, you are your only stronghold. You should be clear from the beginning that you are your only stronghold. Then there is no need to worry about what others think of you. If you observe closely, you will see that goals always create worry in us. When we move toward any goal, we move only with the worry about the results.

Krishna, an enlightened master from ancient India, beautifully says in the ancient Indian scripture, the Bhagavad Gita*, ‘The person who does not expect gain or loss from anything works happily with no need even for motivation.’ When you are worried about the results, the very worry affects the results. Because when you worry, your doing is affected. Work should always be done out of inspiration, never out of worry. The motivation for any work should be inspiration, not worry. Inspiration is an overflowing energy that expands your capacity to do things. It is completely energizing. Worry, on the other hand, is something that shrinks your capacity. It limits what you are capable of really doing because it takes away your energy. Continue reading “Let us create a blissful future by enjoying every moment with the truth that Existence is running the whole show!”

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Life itself is a beautiful self-sustaining mechanism but we worry and miss the miracles of Existence that are continuously happening around us!

Sri

Worry is an unwanted legacy passed down from grandparents to parents to children. Children are like sponges. They simply absorb the body language and attitude of the parents. The parents are not even aware this is happening. For example, if a child hears the mother repeating a certain worry four or five times, the child simply internalizes the habit. He grows up repeating statements unnecessarily, which is one attribute of worry. Ultimately he carries the worry with him into marriage and then both he and his wife must deal with it, even though it was originally his mother’s concern. They will then hand it down to their children, unless they stop naming it and learn to live with what IS. When parents express constant worry, children grow up thinking life goes on only because of worry! Understand that life goes on not because of us, but in spite of us! This is how we are trained to worry!

The other day, I read a survey about worries. It said that forty percent of the things we worry about never happen, thirty percent are in the past and can’t be helped, twelve percent concern the affairs of others that are not our business, ten percent are about illnesses that are mostly imagined, eight percent are worth worrying about but they are also not worth the energy to worry. They can be overcome by simply putting faith into action. So really, zero percent of our worries are worth the effort!

People will believe anything that is said with statistics! So I am talking with statistics. Otherwise, just one line is enough: don’t worry, just do. Things will happen as they should!

The problem is that parents expect their children to worry! If they don’t worry, they brand them as uncaring. It is possible to care without worrying. Care is doing, worry is chattering. There is no use chattering. Chattering is like trying to cross a bridge before it comes.

There are two things to understand: chronological planning and psychological worry. Chronological planning is needed to set up a schedule for tasks or projects to be completed. For example, you decide, ‘I will wake up at six a.m., do my meditation, then take a shower at seven a.m., and leave for the office by eight a.m. I’ll finish work by five p.m. and return home by six p.m.’ Continue reading “Life itself is a beautiful self-sustaining mechanism but we worry and miss the miracles of Existence that are continuously happening around us!”

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When you live close to Existence, without any opinion, seeing what is as it is and finding the blessings in it, you will carry heaven in you!

Sri

Everyone has his or her own set of worries! If I ask you what you worry about, you will tell me, ‘I don’t have a job, that’s my worry.’ Your neighbor will say, ‘My job is my main worry!’ Someone else will say, ‘My children are my worry.’ Another person will say, ‘I don’t have children, that’s my worry!’ One person’s dream is another person’s worry! You will not find any logic in it at all.

What is meant by ‘worry’? Worry arises whenever things are not happening as you want them to happen. It is the discrepancy between your expectations and reality. For example, you feel your son should stay at home with you, whereas he feels he should be by himself, away from you. You feel your salary should be a few thousand dollars more. Your boss feels otherwise. You want to finish your project by a certain time. But things are happening too slowly and it seems an impossible task. These are all causes for worry. What you want and expect does not match what others want and expect.

You continuously expect things to happen in a certain way. Whether it is as big as your career or as small as what time your husband should come home for a meal, you continuously impose your will upon what is happening and worry about it.

Worry takes root from your own thoughts or words. There are two things that continuously happen in you. The first is dialogue, and the second is monologue or what I call is ‘inner chatter’.  You either talk to people outside or you continuously chatter within you. In any case, words and thoughts are the ‘building blocks’ that make up worry. When you speak to others, what you say is strictly governed by societal rules. You automatically don’t use prohibited or ‘politically incorrect’ words. But what you say inside yourself, no one except you knows. The thoughts that you generate inside constitute your real worries. Continue reading “When you live close to Existence, without any opinion, seeing what is as it is and finding the blessings in it, you will carry heaven in you!”