Essence Of Life...Essence Of Geeta Saar.

Geeta Saar (Essence of the Geeta)

• WHATEVER HAPPENED WAS GOOD
• WHATEVER IS HAPPENING IS GOOD
• WHATEVER WILL HAPPEN WILL ALSO BE GOOD
• WHAT HAVE YOU PARTED WITH THAT MAKES YOU CRY ?
• WHAT DID YOU BRING WITH YOU THAT YOU HAVE LOST ?
• WHAT DID YOU CREATE WHICH IS NOW DESTROYED ?
• WHAT YOU HAVE TAKEN, YOU HAVE TAKEN ONLY FROM HERE.
• WHAT WAS GIVEN WAS GIVEN ONLY FROM HERE.
• WHAT IS YOURS TODAY, WAS SOMEONE ELSE'S YESTERDAY, WILL BE SOMEONE ELSE'S TOMORROW.

CHANGE IS THE LAW OF THE UNIVERSE

Things To Give Up....

>15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Happy--by Dana Saviuc, Original Story, May 10, 2012

>Here is a list of 15 things which, if you give up on them, will make your life a
lot easier and much, much happier. We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering – and instead of letting those all go, instead of allowing ourselves to be stress free and happy – we cling on to them. Not anymore. Starting today we will give up on all those things that no longer serve us, and we will embrace change. Ready? Here we go:
> 
>1. Give up your need to always be right. There are so many of us who can’t stand the idea of being wrong – wanting to always be right – even at the risk of ending great relationships or causing a great deal of stress and pain, for us and for others. It’s just not worth it. Whenever you feel the ‘urgent’ need to jump into a fight over who is right and who is wrong, ask yourself this question: “Would I rather be right, or would I rather be kind?” Wayne Dyer. What difference will that make? Is your ego really that big?
>
>2. Give up your need for control. Be willing to give up your need to always control everything that happens to you and around you – situations, events, people, etc. Whether they are loved ones, coworkers, or just strangers you meet on the street – just allow them to be. Allow everything and everyone to be just as they are and you will see how much better will that make you feel.
>“By letting it go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try. The world is beyond winning.” Lao Tzu
> 
>3. Give up on blame. Give up on your need to blame others for what you have or don’t have, for what you feel or don’t feel. Stop giving your powers away and start taking responsibility for your life.
> 
>4. Give up your self-defeating self-talk. Oh my. How many people are hurting themselves because of their negative, polluted and repetitive self-defeating mindset? Don’t believe everything that your mind is telling you – especially if it’s negative and self-defeating. You are better than that.
>“The mind is a superb instrument if used rightly. Used wrongly, however, it becomes very destructive.” Eckhart Tolle
> 
>5. Give up your limiting beliefs about what you can or cannot do, about what is possible or impossible. From now on, you are no longer going to allow your limiting beliefs to keep you stuck in the wrong place. Spread your wings and fly!
>“A belief is not an idea held by the mind, it is an idea that holds the mind” Elly Roselle
> 
>6. Give up complaining.  Give up your constant need to complain about those many, many, maaany things – people, situations, events that make you unhappy, sad and depressed. Nobody can make you unhappy, no situation can make you sad or miserable unless you allow it to. It’s not the situation that triggers those feelings in you, but how you choose to look at it. Never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
> 
>7. Give up the luxury of criticism. Give up your need to criticize things, events or people that are different than you. We are all different, yet we are all the same. We all want to be happy, we all want to love and be loved and we all want to be understood. We all want something, and something is wished by us all.
> 
>8. Give up your need to impress others. Stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not just to make others like you. It doesn’t work this way. The moment you stop trying so hard to be something that you’re not, the moment you take off all your masks, the moment you accept and embrace the real you, you will find people will be drawn to you, effortlessly.
> 
>9. Give up your resistance to change. Change is good. Change will help you move from A to B. Change will help you make improvements in your life and also the lives of those around you. Follow your bliss, embrace change – don’t resist it.
>“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors for you where there were only walls” Joseph Campbell
> 
>10. Give up labels. Stop labeling those things, people or events that you don’t understand as being weird or different and try opening your mind, little by little. Minds only work when open. “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.” Wayne Dyer
> 
>11. Give up on your fears. Fear is just an illusion, it doesn’t exist – you created it. It’s all in your mind. Correct the inside and the outside will fall into place.
>“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Franklin D. Roosevelt
> 
>12. Give up your excuses. Send them packing and tell them they’re fired. You no longer need them. A lot of times we limit ourselves because of the many excuses we use. Instead of growing and working on improving ourselves and our lives, we get stuck, lying to ourselves, using all kind of excuses – excuses that 99.9% of the time are not even real.
> 
>13. Give up the past. I know, I know. It’s hard. Especially when the past looks so much better than the present and the future looks so frightening, but you have to take into consideration the fact that the present moment is all you have and all you will ever have. The past you are now longing for – the past that you are now dreaming about – was ignored by you when it was present. Stop deluding yourself. Be present in everything you do and enjoy life. After all life is a journey not a destination. Have a clear vision for the future, prepare yourself, but always be present in the now.
> 
>14. Give up attachment. This is a concept that, for most of us is so hard to grasp and I have to tell you that it was for me too, (it still is) but it’s not something impossible. You get better and better at with time and practice. The moment you detach yourself from all things, (and that doesn’t mean you give up your love for them – because love and attachment have nothing to do with one another,  attachment comes from a place of fear, while love… well, real love is pure, kind, and self less, where there is love there can’t be fear, and because of that, attachment and love cannot coexist) you become so peaceful, so tolerant, so kind, and so serene. You will get to a place where you will be able to understand all things without even trying. A state beyond words.
> 
>15. Give up living your life to other people’s expectations.  Way too many people are living a life that is not theirs to live. They live their lives according to what others think is best for them, they live their lives according to what their parents think is best for them, to what their friends, their enemies and their teachers, their government and the media think is best for them. They ignore their inner voice, that inner calling. They are so busy with pleasing everybody, with living up to other people’s expectations, that they lose control over their lives. They forget what makes them happy, what they want, what they need….and eventually they forget about themselves.  You have one life – this one right now – you must live it, own it, and especially don’t let other people’s opinions distract you from your path.

Meditation.

Why Learn to Meditate

Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness; but if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions. If we train in meditation, our mind will gradually become more and more peaceful, and we will experience a purer and purer form of happiness. Eventually, we will be able to stay happy all the time, even in the most difficult circumstances.

Usually we find it difficult to control our mind. It seems as if our mind is like a balloon in the wind – blown here and there by external circumstances. If things go well, our mind is happy, but if they go badly, it immediately becomes unhappy. For example, if we get what we want, such as a new possession or a new partner, we become excited and cling to them tightly. However, since we cannot have everything we want, and since we will inevitably be separated from the friends and possessions we currently enjoy, this mental stickiness, or attachment, serves only to cause us pain. On the other hand, if we do not get what we want, or if we lose something that we like, we become despondent or irritated. For example, if we are forced to work with a colleague whom we dislike, we will probably become irritated and feel aggrieved, with the result that we will be unable to work with him or her efficiently and our time at work will become stressful and unrewarding.

By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind

Such fluctuations of mood arise because we are too closely involved in the external situation. We are like a child making a sandcastle who is excited when it is first made, but who becomes upset when it is destroyed by the incoming tide. By training in meditation, we create an inner space and clarity that enables us to control our mind regardless of the external circumstances. Gradually we develop mental equilibrium, a balanced mind that is happy all the time, rather than an unbalanced mind that oscillates between the extremes of excitement and despondency.
If we train in meditation systematically, eventually we will be able to eradicate from our mind the delusions that are the causes of all our problems and suffering. In this way, we will come to experience a permanent inner peace, known as “liberation” or “nirvana”. Then, day and night in life after life, we will experience only peace and happiness.

Breathing Meditations

Generally, the purpose of breathing meditation is to calm the mind and develop inner peace. We can use breathing meditations alone or as a preliminary practice to reduce our distractions before engaging in a meditation.

A Simple Breathing Meditation

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid. This can be accomplished by practising a simple breathing meditation. We choose a quiet place to meditate and sit in a comfortable position. We can sit in the traditional cross-legged posture or in any other position that is comfortable. If we wish, we can sit in a chair. The most important thing is to keep our back straight to prevent our mind from becoming sluggish or sleepy.

The first stage of meditation is to stop distractions and make our mind clearer and more lucid.

We sit with our eyes partially closed and turn our attention to our breathing. We breathe naturally, preferably through the nostrils, without attempting to control our breath, and we try to become aware of the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. This sensation is our object of meditation. We should try to concentrate on it to the exclusion of everything else.

At first, our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that the meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath.

Benefits of Meditation

If we practice patiently in this way, gradually our distracting thoughts will subside and we will experience a sense of inner peace and relaxation. Our mind will feel lucid and spacious and we will feel refreshed. When the sea is rough, sediment is churned up and the water becomes murky, but when the wind dies down the mud gradually settles and the water becomes clear. In a similar way, when the otherwise incessant flow of our distracting thoughts is calmed through concentrating on the breath, our mind becomes unusually lucid and clear. We should stay with this state of mental calm for a while.
Even though breathing meditation is only a preliminary stage of meditation, it can be quite powerful. We can see from this practice that it is possible to experience inner peace and contentment just by controlling the mind, without having to depend at all upon external conditions.

So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind

When the turbulence of distracting thoughts subsides and our mind becomes still, a deep happiness and contentment naturally arises from within. This feeling of contentment and well-being helps us to cope with the busyness and difficulties of daily life. So much of the stress and tension we normally experience comes from our mind, and many of the problems we experience, including ill health, are caused or aggravated by this stress. Just by doing breathing meditation for ten or fifteen minutes each day, we will be able to reduce this stress. We will experience a calm, spacious feeling in the mind, and many of our usual problems will fall away. Difficult situations will become easier to deal with, we will naturally feel warm and well disposed towards other people, and our relationships with others will gradually improve.

Asanas to relieve back pain.

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The Bow Pose (Dhanura-asana) Instruction:

1		Lie on the stomach with the head turned to one side and the arms alongside the body with palms facing upward.
2		Turn the head and place the chin on the floor. Exhale, bend the knees, reach back with the arms and grasp the right ankle with the right hand and the left ankle with the left hand.
3		While inhaling, slowly raise the legs by pulling the ankles up and raising the knees off the floor while simultaneously lifting the chest off the floor. Hold the inhale breath. The weight of the body should be resting on the abdomen.
4		Tilt the head as far back as possible. Hold the posture as long as you can comfortably hold the inhale breath.
5		Slowly exhale bringing the knees to the floor, release the ankles, slowly bring the legs and arms straight down on the floor and turn the head to one side, assuming the prone posture you began with.

Comments:

The most obvious benefit of the dhanur-asana is that it restores flexibility to the spine. Regular practice will relieve lower back pain and release tension and strain in the upper back and neck area. The alternating stretching and releasing of the abdominal muscles increases blood flow to this area and aids all sorts of digestive disorders and discomforts. Strain or fatigue in the legs is also released after a few repetitions. Extended practice will help develop upper-body strength.

Durations/Repetitions:

The dhanur-asana is either held for the duration of the inhaled or between one and three minutes while breathing gently through the nostrils. Repeat it two or three times.

Variations:

The two variations of the dhanur-asana have to do with the method of breathing and the amount of arch of the back. As one progresses with this asana and is able to hold the posture for a longer period of time, the posture can be held while slow, rhythmic breathing is maintained through the nostrils. As the spine becomes more flexible try drawing the feet closer to the head. Some are able to join the top of the head to the soles of the feet although this is certainly not necessary to accomplish the dhanur-asana.

"Let the body, from navel to toes, touch the ground, the palms placed upon the ground, and raise gently the upper part of the body (from navel to head) like a snake. This posture increases the gastric fire; it destroys all diseases and by constant practice leads to the awakening of Kundalini." 

The Cobra Pose (Naga-asana) Instruction:

1		Lie on the stomach with the head turned to one side and the arms alongside the body with palms facing upward.
2		Turn the head and place the chin on the floor. Inhale then exhale slowly through the nostrils and swing the arms around until the hands are placed just below the chin with the palms down and the finger tips of each hand almost touching and the elbows on the floor.
3		Inhale slowly through the nostrils, press down on the hands and lift the torso from the waist up off the floor, arching the spine backwards and straightening the arms. Keep the hips on the floor.
4		Tilt the head as far back as possible and hold the posture for the duration of the inhaled breath.
5		Exhale and reverse the process to return to position #1.

Comments:

If you find it uncomfortable holding the breath while the posture is held, breath gently through the nostrils. Some may find that they are able to arch the spine back even more than in the initial arch in step 3. In this case try "walking" the hands toward the pelvic region and stretching the head further back.In addition to the obvious benefits to the spine and lower back, the standard variation of the naga-asana strengthens the wrists and stretches the muscles in the chest. By maintaining a constant exertion to create a greater arch in the spine, the stomach and pelvic muscles are strengthened. Greater strength in these areas can be cultivated by performing the variation where the arms remain on the ground. B.K.S. Iyengar, a renowned expert in yoga-asanas, claims that displaced spinal discs can be placed back in their original position by practicing the naga-asana.

Durations/Repetitions:

Hold the posture for either the duration of a held inhaled breath or from one-half to three minutes. Repeat the naga-asana two to five times.

Variations:

The are two variations to the naga-asana. For the first, keep the arms alongside the body with the palms facing down and lift the head and chest off the ground. This variation requires a little more strength in order to get the full arch of the spine. The second variation is for those who have a great deal of flexibility in the lower back. At the peak of the naga-asanabend the knees and attempt to touch the top of the head with the soles of the feet. "Posture should be steady and comfortable. By relaxation of effort and meditation on the "Endless" (ananta) posture is mastered." Fish Pose (Matsya-asana) Instruction: 1 Lie flat on the back in the shava-asana. 2 Keeping the buttocks on the floor, inhale and raise the head, shoulders, back and upper arms off the floor arching the back and raising the chest up. Tilt the head back and place the top of the head flat on the floor. 3 Raise the elbows off the floor bring your hands up just below the chest and join them at the palms with the fingers pointing straight up (form the anjali-mudra or salutation hand gesture). Hold for the duration of the inhale breath or breath gently through the nostrils to remain in the posture longer. 4 Return to the shava-asana. Comments: The matsya-asana creates a great expansion and stretching of the chest which helps relieve upper respiratory congestion as well as benefits the heart. Additionally, the sinus are drained and opened from the inversion of the head, stretching of the neck and pressure placed on the top of the head. The thyroid and parathyroid glands are stimulated as well. Durations/Repetitions: Since this is not a difficult posture, it is recommended that you breath while holding it for between two and four minutes. If you are uncomfortable breathing, hold the posture for the duration of the inhaled breath. Repeat two or three times. Variations: There is one major variation in the matsya-asana and it is a bit more challenging than the one described above (illustrated above). It calls for beginning the posture in padma-asana or the full lotus seated posture and then lying flat on the back while the legs are still locked. From there on the posture is done the same way as described above. The Half Moon Pose (Ardha-chandra-asana) Instruction: 1 Stand in the tada-asana (Stand with both feet touching from the heel to the big toe, keeping the back straight and the arms pressed slightly against the sides with palms facing inward. 2 Bring the hands together at the chest with palms lightly pressed against each other (the Anjali-mudra). 3 Inhale and raise the arms straight up keeping the palms pressed lightly together. 4 Arch your body backwards keeping your arms alongside your neck and head, tilt the head backward and hold. Keep your knees straight while holding posture. 5 Slowly return to the tada-asana. Comments: The ardha-chandra-asana is a basic stretching and balancing pose that benefits principly the lower back, abdomen and chest. It is equally suitable for use in your stretching routine as well as formal asana practice.This pose is also one the postures that are are sequenced in surya-namaskar (the Sun Salutation). Durations/Repetitions: Repeat ardha-chandra-asana two to three times. "Keeping the abdominal region at ease like the back, bending the left leg, place it on the right thigh; then place on this the elbow of the right hand, and place the face on the palm of the right hand, and fix the gaize between the eye-brows. This is called Matsyendra-posture."  The Half Spinal Twist Pose (Ardha-matsyendra-asana) Instruction: 1 Sit in any comfortable cross-legged position. 2 Straighten the legs out in front. Bend the right knee and bring the heel of the right foot close to the left hip. 3 Inhale and bend the left knee upward and place the left foot flat on the floor to the right of the right leg with the ankle touching the right thigh. 4 While turning the spine to the left straighten the right arm bringing it around to the outside of the left knee and grasp the left foot with the right hand. 5 Turn your head as far as possible to the left and bend the left arm behind your back. Keep your spine, neck and head aligned and continue to exert effort at turning to the left. 6 Repeat the posture the other side by reversing directions 2-6. Comments: The Half Spinal Twist is one of the best Yoga postures for cultivating flexibility and strength in the spine. It sooths stiff necks and upper back tension caused by stress, poor posture, or prolonged periods of sitting in one position. The alternating compression and release of the abdominal region flushes this area with blood and massages the internal organs. Muscles of the stomach and hips are also toned from repeated practice of the Half Spinal Twist. Durations/Repetitions: The posture can be held for as long as you are comfortable. (One repetition consists of performing the posture on each side. Two to three full repetitions should be done at each session. The Triangle Pose (Trikona-asana) Instruction: 1 Stand in the tada-asana (Stand with both feet touching from the heel to the big toe, keeping the back straight and the arms pressed slightly against the sides with palms facing inward. 2 Separate the feet slightly further than shoulder distance apart. 3 Inhale and raise both arms straight out from the shoulders parallel to the floor with the palms facing down. 4 Exhale slowly while turning the torso to the left, bend at the waist and bring the right hand down to the left ankle. The palm of the right hand is placed along the outside of the left ankle. The left arm should be extended upward. Both legs and arms are kept straight without bending the knees and elbows. 5 Turn the head upward to the left and gaze up at the fingertips of the left hand. Inhale and return to a standing position with the arms outstretched. 6 Hold this position for the duration of the exhaled breath. Exhale and repeat steps 4 - 6 on the opposite side. Comments: The trikona-asana is an excellent posture to do early in your routine. The forward bending and lifting stimulates blood flow and helps to stretch and relax the back, shoulders, legs and arms as well as increases the flow of blood to the head. The muscles of the thighs and calves as well as the hamstrings are stretched. The slight twist of the spine creates suppleness in the spinal discs and relieves lower back discomforts.The posture can be held longer by breathing gently through the nostrils rather than holding the breath. Another variation is to perform thetrikona-asana rapidly thereby giving it a slightly aerobic effect. Durations/Repetitions: Remain in the forward bending position for the duration of the exhale breath. Do two or three repetitions (one repetition consists of bending forward on both sides).