"It is hard to attain Peace. Sincere, intense longing is essential." – Sri Swami Sivananda
This was taken from today's Sivananda Daily Quotes* newsletter. The Daily Quote can always be seen on the Sivananda "Om" page. Namaste.
Happy New Year
from Yoga2You
It can be discouraging to keep New Year spirits bright with reports of dismal year-end financial reports and new strikes of violence bubbling over in the Middle East. There are even some who suppose the violence as a necessary part of "End of Days" mentality. Please, DON'T THINK THAT WAY. Keep your mind inspired during troubled times by all of life's beauty. Be daring to think about how peace might look. Use your mental energies to visualize a better reality--DO NOT become fatalistic.
If this is a struggle, you find yourself glued to CNN coverage, your mind spinning into negative thinking, or worries, give yourself a time limit. After that, if you can't stop on your own, try a mantra. By saying a mantra, vocally or mentally (suggested in repetitions of three), you take back control of your mind. Yes, that's what I said--when we become too all-consumed with news coverage and/or worries, we give up control of our minds to those events and/or media reports. Not a good thing for you or for the mind, really.
God does not want us to worry, and if you don't believe in God, then simply think how little it serves you to worry. Either way, let it go.
Think of peace. Visualize peace. (Join a peace movement!) Feel peace in your own heart, in your own life, and feel that inner peace expanding outward as you contemplate on it.
If you don't have a mantra, know what they are or how to acquire, simply repeat the universal mantra "om" (considered to be the sound of creation) in your mind until you have your mind back, or in other words, until the negative thoughts/reports stop running rampant through your thought waves. People of a particular faith, may repeat names of God or saints. A powerful yoga-based mantra, one that employs the ancient language of Sanskrit for vibrations suggested to support peace is "Om Namo Narayanaya [Om na-moh na-ry-ya-ny-ya]. (Please feel free to email me if you want to know more about this.)
If you cannot find that inner peace, try the chants. Or, download my relaxation therapy--this is not a shameless plug but a helpful suggestion. Sages have written extensively and more intelligently than I could ever hope to be able to do, but simply said: Don't let outside influences take control of the inside of your head. Period.
Why yoga works—simply
Ancient yogis knew the benefits that came with regular yoga practice. Today, advancements in technology enable scientists to show precisely how these ancient practices work to benefit the mind and body. Yogis have been passing on the teachings of yoga for nearly 5,000 years.
Most simply, using proper breathing, especially during asana practice, enables the average person to develop the breathing apparatus and strengthen the vital life force. Once that begins, everything else flows from it. Why yoga works is really that simple. Any time you lie on the mat and breathe, the benefits of yoga begin.
There is a saying in yoga that when we control the breath, we control the life force, and when you think about that, it's really true.
We'd like to hear from you!
Simply type your feedback below.
(Include your email if you'd like a reply.)
Yoga Poetry
Attention Yogi Poets: Please submit your Yoga Poetry for publication in this corner--share your artistic light with others. (Poet keeps all rights.) Meanwhile, please enjoy these prayers and chants that follow. Namaste.
I first became aware of this prayer during Yoga Teachers Training. It is one of my favorites, and it is also a call-and-response chant that is sometimes sung during satsang. Enjoy!
A Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may
not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive--
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
.gif)
“Health is wealth, peace of mind is happiness. Yoga shows the way.”
