March 2015

25 March, 2015  by

Can Technology Aid Your Meditation Practice?

As the science of contemplation develops, there are many ways to leverage technology in practice. Here are some tools and ideas you may want to consider.

The intersection of technology and meditation can be a difficult crossroad to navigate. Constant connectedness is a facet of modern life that often comes at the expense of our ability to reflect and create mental space, and therefore the use of technology to aid contemplative practice may be counterintuitive and is sometimes controversial.

Soren Gordhamer, founder of Wisdom 2.0, a conference that explores the relationship between contemplative practice, technology, and business, recently told Anderson Cooper in an interview on 60 Minutes, “What people are realizing is that constant connectivity is great for part of the day, but if you do it your entire day you’re more stressed, you can’t sleep, you’re less present with your kids, and they’re hungry for … some kind of contemplative space in [the] day.”

When Vincent Horn, host of the Buddhist Geeks podcast, started meditating, he says his teachers viewed technology and the world of technology as, in some ways, antithetical to the contemplative life. “[In their view] these technologies just distract and fragment you; that’s all their good for.” It was an “act of rebellion” on Horn’s part to begin to explore the ways that Buddhism, science, and technology converge.

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama is an advocate for bringing science, technology, and one’s spiritual path together, going so far as to say that Buddhism should change its claims when science can conclusively demonstrate them to be false. Neuroscientists have researched meditation for many decades, starting primarily with Transcendental Meditation in the 1960s and 70s. Since 1987, momentum in the field has increased thanks in part to the Mind and Life conferences, which facilitate collaboration between academic scientists, the Dalai Lama, and other Tibetan monks and scholars to help build bridges between meditation and biology, neuroscience, and cognitive science. Out of the basic scientific research into meditation’s effects has naturally emerged a wave of technological applications to help people learn to meditate or enhance their practice.

Some of these products are fairly straightforward adaptations of the time-tested structures for meditation instruction and practice. For example, using videos to teach to people online and message boards for communities to gather and discuss their practices. These are old foundations of practice, now given an extended reach. Other applications however, are more novel and technologically involved. At the institutional level, for example, Judson Brewer and his lab at the University of Massachusetts have developed fMRI and EEG tools to measure brain activity in real-time and provide feedback to help optimize contemplation. Consumer enterprises like Interaxon and HeartMath, offer affordable EEG and heart rate-sensing hardware and software with instructions for using them to improve meditation.

Related: A Simple Guide to the Complex World of Meditation

Outside of commercial and institutional enterprises, amateur technologists and hackers are also active in this space. Mikey Siegel, an engineer and graduate of the MIT Media Lab, and the cofounder of the Transformative Technology Lab at Sofia University, hosts “Consciousness Hacking” Meetups in the San Francisco Bay area and has recently expanded to New York City to organize, develop, and promote the community of techno-yogis.

For consumers, mobile apps are some of the most prevalent and easily accessible meditation products on the market. If you search the Apple App Store, you will find 360 “meditation” apps and 447 for “mindfulness.” Many of them are timers that use sounds and visual elements to represent the how long you have been meditating. Some remind you to weave in mindful moments throughout your day. Others help you start and maintain a committed meditation practice. Here are a few standout programs that you may find useful:

Insight Timer (Free): This app features a variety of high-quality recordings of meditation bells to help you begin and end your practice. It also features guided sessions by many well-known meditation teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, and Eckhart Tolle, and it “gamifies” your progress to encourage continued practice. You can also use the app to connect to other users all around the world.

Mind (Free): This is “just” a meditation timer but its simple design and elegant aesthetic make it a standout in the app marketplace.

Headspace (Free to download, $7.99 per month): Ideal for beginners and casual meditators, this app features meditations of different lengths for health, relationships, and performance, written and recorded by former Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe. The program is free to start, but a subscription allows you to access longer courses and additional techniques.

Omvana (Free to download, $1.99+ per meditation): This app offers thousands of guided meditations for various situations produced by an array of independent experts from diverse backgrounds. Omvana also lets you record your own meditation or relaxation tracks set to background music.

While many applications may offer an entry point for new practitioners, some of the experts we spoke with had doubts about whether technology-aided meditation could ever be as powerful as classical meditation “technologies”. According to Jon Mitchell, managing editor at Burning Man and author of In Real Life: Searching for Connection in High-Tech Times, a new book on mindfulness and technology, the tools available to consumers are still too simplistic to accurately represent and feedback information more useful than that of your own rich sensory experience. He is also concerned with what he calls the “dependency drawback.” Traditional teachings are internalized through texts and personal instruction. When your meditation practice requires an Internet connection, electricity, a digital community, and an iPhone, it’s harder to practice independently. “If your analytics become your mantra, then how can you practice without them?” he asks.

We will find out in time whether technology-aided meditation can overcome these hurdles. It’s clear that there is a great deal of creative energy in the space, and pioneers in the field say that neuroscientific applications for meditation may soon make dramatic leaps in their effectiveness and widespread use.

This is the first of a two-part examination of technology-aided meditation. Check back next month to learn more about its potential risks and benefits.

www.choki.org

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Pinterest!

By 

in Choki's art 1 comments
18 March, 2015  by

How Music Benefits the Brain

Music has played an important part of every human culture, both past and present. People around the world experience universal responses to music. We’re all familiar with how certain pieces of music can change your mood, get you motivated, or help you concentrate. And now, advances in neuroscience enable researchers to quantitatively measure how music affects the brain.

Their discoveries are exciting — and good news for music lovers.

Music is a fantastic brain exercise that activates every known part of the brain. Music can make you smarter, happier and more productive at all stages of life. Let’s take a closer look at some of the latest findings on the many ways both playing and listening to music can enhance your brain.

Musicians Have Better Brains

If you want evidence of how music affects the brain, it makes sense to look at the brains of people who play a lot of music — professional musicians. Brain scans show that their brains are different than the those of the rest of us. Their brains are noticeably more symmetrical. Areas of the brain responsible for motor control, auditory processing, and spatial coordination are larger. They also have a larger corpus callosum, which is the band of nerve fibers that enables the two hemispheres of the brain to communicate with each other.

Change Your Mood with Music

Science has now proven what music lovers already know, that listening to upbeat music can improve your mood. Listening and playing music reduces chronic stress by lowering the stress hormone cortisol. Music can make you feel more hopeful, powerful, and in control of your life. And listening to sad music has its benefits, too. If you are going through a tough time, listening to sad music is cathartic; it can help you get in touch with those emotions to help heal them. If you listen to a lot of music, make sure you have the right listening equipment so that you don’t sacrifice on quality. Look out for the Graham Slee HiFi logo when choosing, to see how you can really improve your listening experience.

Even if you aren’t a professional musician, listening to music can still enhance your work performance. Listening to music at work can make you a happier, more productive employee — especially if it’s music you’ve chosen. Office workers allowed to listen to the kind of music they like complete tasks more quickly and come up with better ideas than those who have no control over their musical choices.

Music Boosts Brain Chemicals

One of the ways music enhances brain function is by stimulating the formation of certain brain chemicals. Listening to music increases the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is the brain’s “motivation molecule” and an integral part of the pleasure-reward system. It’s the same brain chemical responsible for the “feel good” states obtained from eating chocolate, orgasm, and runner’s high.

Playing music with others or enjoying live music also stimulates the brain hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin has been called the “trust molecule” and the “moral molecule” since it helps us bond with and trust others. There’s evidence that the oxytocin bump experienced by music lovers can make them more generous and trustworthy.

Music Helps You Learn

Many schools have cut music programs due loss of funding, and this is widely believed by parents and educators to be a big mistake. Music, whether taught in or outside of school, helps students excel in the following ways:

  • improved language development
  • small increase in IQ
  • improved test scores
  • increased brain connectivity
  • increased spatial intelligence

The last item on this list — spatial intelligence — helps students understand how things go together. This skill is critical in careers like architecture, engineering, math, and computer science.

The Effects of Musical Training on Young Brains

In the 1990s, the effects of music on the brain were popularized by the Mozart effect. This theory purported that listening to music composed by Mozart can make you smarter. Parents had their babies listen to the music of Mozart to give their brains a jump start — often even before they were born.

The accepted theory now is that taking music lessons as a child enhances brain function and structure, but that there’s nothing uniquely beneficial about the music of Mozart. Early music lessons enhance brain plasticity — the brain’s capacity to change and grow. Children with musical training do better in subjects like language, reading, and math and have better fine motor skills than their non-musical classmates. Kids who sing together in a choir report higher satisfaction in all their classes, not just music.

And if kids don’t stick with their music lessons forever, that’s OK. There’s evidence that a little bit of music training goes a long way. Just a half-hour music lesson increases blood flow in the left hemisphere of the brain. As little as four years of music lessons were found to improve certain brain functions, even when tested 40 years later! When exposure to music training begins before age seven, the brain enhancement that takes place can last a lifetime.

Most studies on music and the brain have been done on older kids, but it looks like it’s never too young to start. In another study, music lessons of sorts — playing drums and singing nursery rhymes — were given to babies before they could walk or talk. Babies who had music lessons communicated better, smiled more, and showed earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.

Just as it’s never too early to start, it’s also never too late to benefit from music. Playing music and dancing protects seniors against memory loss and cognitive decline when compared to other brain exercises such as playing cards, doing the crossword puzzle, or walking for exercise. It will be interesting to see how popular online brain training programs like Lumosity fare against music in future studies.

How Music Therapy Improves Quality of Life

Anyone can play or listen to music for “recreational purposes only” and still gain brain benefits. But when professional health care help is warranted, you can enlist the aid of a musical therapist. Music therapists are trained to use music therapeutically to address their patients’ physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs.

There are measurable changes in certain neurotransmitters following music therapy. Music therapy has proven useful for treating people with autism, dementia, Alzheimer’s, pain management, emotional trauma, and a variety of mental disorders including depression. Potential benefits from working with a music therapist include improved mood, concentration, and motivation, and decreased anxiety, anger, stress, and frustration.

The Amazing Way Music Therapy Helps Alzheimer’s Patients

One of the most remarkable successes of music therapy is the impact it has on the lives of Alzheimer’s patients. Advanced Alzheimer’s patients lose their ability to have interactive conversations with others and eventually stop speaking completely. But music therapy has been very successful at getting through to patients where nothing else has.

When hearing familiar music, patients often visibly “light up” and sing along. It seems that musical memories far outlast other kinds of memories. Caretakers and family members report that for most patients, music therapy is the best part of the day.

Music therapy does more than help patients remember. It helps alleviate depression, anxiety, and agitation while improving brain function and overall quality of life. To learn more about how music therapy is changing lives of the elderly and infirmed, I highly recommend the documentary Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory. Winner of the 2014 Audience Choice Award at the Sundance Film Festival, this movie chronicles the astonishing experiences of nursing home patients whose brains have been reawakened by listening to the music of their youth.

www.choki.org

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Pinterest!

Author: Deane Alban / Wake Up World

 

in Choki's art 5 comments
10 March, 2015  by

10 Psychological Studies That Will Change What You Think About Yourself

Why do we do the things we do? Despite our best attempts to “know thyself,” the truth is that we often know astonishingly little about our own minds, and even less about the way others think. As Charles Dickens once put it, “A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other.”
Psychologists have long sought insights into how we perceive the world and what motivates our behavior, and they’ve made enormous strides in lifting that veil of mystery. Aside from providing fodder for stimulating cocktail-party conversations, some of the most famous psychological experiments of the past century reveal universal and often surprising truths about human nature. 
Here are 10 classic psychological studies that may change the way you understand yourself.
We all have some capacity for evil.
Arguably the most famous experiment in the history of psychology, the 1971 Stanford prison study put a microscope on how social situations can affect human behavior. The researchers, led by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, set up a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psych building and selected 24 undergraduates (who had no criminal record and were deemed psychologically healthy) to act as prisoners and guards. Researchers then observed the prisoners (who had to stay in the cells 24 hours a day) and guards (who shared eight-hour shifts) using hidden cameras.
The experiment, which was scheduled to last for two weeks, had to be cut short after just six days due to the guards’ abusive behavior — in some cases they even inflicted psychological torture — and the extreme emotional stress and anxiety exhibited by the prisoners.
“The guards escalated their aggression against the prisoners, stripping them naked, putting bags over their heads, and then finally had them engage in increasingly humiliating sexual activities,” Zimbardo told American Scientist. “After six days I had to end it because it was out of control — I couldn’t really go to sleep at night without worrying what the guards could do to the prisoners.”
We don’t notice what’s right in front of us.
Think you know what’s going on around you? You might not be nearly as aware as you think. In 1998, researchers from Harvard and Kent State University targeted pedestrians on a college campus to determine how much people notice about their immediate environments. In the experiment, an actor came up to a pedestrian and asked for directions. While the pedestrian was giving the directions, two men carrying a large wooden door walked between the actor and the pedestrian, completely blocking their view of each other for several seconds. During that time, the actor was replaced by another actor, one of a different height and build, and with a different outfit, haircut and voice. A full half of the participants didn’t notice the substitution.
The experiment was one of the first to illustrate the phenomenon of “change blindness,” which shows just how selective we are about what we take in from any given visual scene — and it seems that we rely on memory and pattern-recognition significantly more than we might think.
Delaying gratification is hard — but we’re more successful when we do.
A famous Stanford experiment from the late 1960s tested preschool children’s ability to resist the lure of instant gratification — and it yielded some powerful insights about willpower and self-discipline. In the experiment, four-year-olds were put in a room by themselves with a marshmallow on a plate in front of them, and told that they could either eat the treat now, or if they waited until the researcher returned 15 minutes later, they could have two marshmallows.
While most of the children said they’d wait, they often struggled to resist and then gave in, eating the treat before the researcher returned, TIME reports. The children who did manage to hold off for the full 15 minutes generally used avoidance tactics, like turning away or covering their eyes. The implications of the children’s behavior were significant: Those who were able to delay gratification were much less likely to be obese, or to have drug addiction or behavioral problems by the time they were teenagers, and were more successful later in life.
We can experience deeply conflicting moral impulses.
A famous 1961 study by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram tested (rather alarmingly) how how far people would go to obey authority figures when asked to harm others, and the intense internal conflict between personal morals and the obligation to obey authority figures.
Milgram wanted to conduct the experiment to provide insight into how Nazi war criminals could have perpetuated unspeakable acts during the Holocaust. To do so, he tested a pair of participants, one deemed the “teacher” and the other deemed the “learner.” The teacher was instructed to administer electric shocks to the learner (who was supposedly sitting in another room, but in reality was not being shocked) each time they got questions wrong. Milgram instead played recordings which made it sound like the learner was in pain, and if the “teacher” subject expressed a desire to stop, the experimenter prodded him to go on. During the first experiment, 65 percent of participants administered a painful, final 450-volt shock (labeled “XXX”), although many were visibly stressed and uncomfortable about doing so.
While the study has commonly been seen as a warning of blind obedience to authority, Scientific American recently revisited it, arguing that the results were more suggestive of deep moral conflict.
“Human moral nature includes a propensity to be empathetic, kind and good to our fellow kin and group members, plus an inclination to be xenophobic, cruel and evil to tribal others,” journalist Michael Shermer wrote. “The shock experiments reveal not blind obedience but conflicting moral tendencies that lie deep within.”
Recently, some commenters have called Milgram’s methodology into question, and one critic noted that records of the experiment performed at Yale suggested that 60 percent of participants actually disobeyed orders to administer the highest-dosage shock.
We’re easily corrupted by power.
There’s a psychological reason behind the fact that those in power sometimes act towards others with a sense of entitlement and disrespect. A 2003 study published in the journal Psychological Review put students into groups of three to write a short paper together. Two students were instructed to write the paper, while the other was told to evaluate the paper and determine how much each student would be paid. In the middle of their work, a researcher brought in a plate of five cookies. Although generally the last cookie was never eaten, the “boss” almost always ate the fourth cookie — and ate it sloppily, mouth open.
“When researchers give people power in scientific experiments, they are more likely to physically touch others in potentially inappropriate ways, to flirt in more direct fashion, to make risky choices and gambles, to make first offers in negotiations, to speak their mind, and to eat cookies like the Cookie Monster, with crumbs all over their chins and chests,” psychologist Dacher Keltner, one of the study’s leaders, wrote in an article for UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.
We seek out loyalty to social groups and are easily drawn to intergroup conflict.
This classic 1950s social psychology experiment shined a light on the possible psychological basis of why social groups and countries find themselves embroiled in conflict with one another — and how they can learn to cooperate again.
Study leader Muzafer Sherif took two groups of 11 boys (all age 11) to Robbers Cave State Park in Oklahoma for “summer camp.” The groups (named the “Eagles” and the “Rattlers”) spent a week apart, having fun together and bonding, with no knowledge of the existence of the other group. When the two groups finally integrated, the boys started calling each other names, and when they started competing in various games, more conflict ensued and eventually the groups refused to eat together. In the next phase of the research, Sherif designed experiments to try to reconcile the boys by having them enjoy leisure activities together (which was unsuccessful) and then having them solve a problem together, which finally began to ease the conflict.
We only need one thing to be happy.
The 75-year Harvard Grant study –one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies ever conducted — followed 268 male Harvard undergraduates from the classes of 1938-1940 (now well into their 90s) for 75 years, regularly collecting data on various aspects of their lives. The universal conclusion? Love really is all that matters, at least when it comes to determining long-term happiness and life satisfaction.
The study’s longtime director, psychiatrist George Vaillant, told The Huffing ton Post that there are two pillars of happiness: “One is love. The other is finding a way of coping with life that does not push love away.” For example, one participant began the study with the lowest rating for future stability of all the subjects and he had previously attempted suicide. But at the end of his life, he was one of the happiest. Why? As Vaillant explains, “He spent his life searching for love.”
We thrive when we have strong self-esteem and social status.
Achieving fame and success isn’t just an ego boost — it could also be a key to longevity, according to the notorious Oscar winners study. Researchers from Toronto’s Sunny brook and Women’s College Health Sciences Center found that Academy Award-winning actors and directors tend to live longer than those who were nominated but lost, with winning actors and actresses outliving their losing peers by nearly four years.
“We are not saying that you will live longer if you win an Academy Award,” Donald Redelmeier, the lead author of the study, told ABC News. “Or that people should go out and take acting courses. Our main conclusion is simply that social factors are important … It suggests that an internal sense of self-esteem is an important aspect to health and health care.”
We constantly try to justify our experiences so that they make sense to us.
Anyone who’s taken a freshman Psych 101 class is familiar with cognitive dissonance, a theory which dictates that human beings have a natural propensity to avoid psychological conflict based on disharmonious or mutually exclusive beliefs. In an often-cited 1959 experiment, psychologist Leon Festinger asked participants to perform a series of dull tasks, like turning pegs in a wooden knob, for an hour. They were then paid either $1 or $20 to tell a “waiting participant” (aka a researcher) that the task was very interesting. Those who were paid $1 to lie rated the tasks as more enjoyable than those who were paid $20. Their conclusion? Those who were paid more felt that they had sufficient justification for having performed the rote task for an hour, but those who were only paid $1 felt the need to justify the time spent (and reduce the level of dissonance between their beliefs and their behavior) by saying that the activity was fun. In other words, we commonly tell ourselves lies to make the world appear a more logical, harmonious place.
 
We buy into stereotypes in a big way.
Stereotyping various groups of people based on social group, ethnicity or class is something nearly all of us do, even if we make an effort not to — and it can lead us to draw unfair and potentially damaging conclusions about entire populations. NYU psychologist John Bargh’s experiments on “automaticity of social behavior” revealed that we often judge people based on unconscious stereotypes — and we can’t help but act on them. We also tend to buy into stereotypes for social groups that we see ourselves being a part of. In one study, Bargh found that a group of participants who were asked to unscramble words related to old age — “Florida,” “helpless” and “wrinkled” — walked significantly slower down the hallway after the experiment than the group who unscrambled words unrelated to age. Bargh repeated the findings in two other comparable studies that enforced stereotypes based on race and politeness.
 
“Stereotypes are categories that have gone too far,” Bargh told Psychology Today. “When we use stereotypes, we take in the gender, the age, the color of the skin of the person before us, and our minds respond with messages that say hostile, stupid, slow, weak. Those qualities aren’t out there in the environment. They don’t reflect reality.”
Source: Huff Post
in Choki's art 6 comments
9 March, 2015  by

Creating Your Future – Arise Great Warrior, Arise!

Are you doing what you always wanted to do? Are you doing what you believe in? Do you live the life that was meant for you to live? From where do you seek approval? Are you looking inward?

There are millions of people around the world who eagerly wait the weekend every week, the summer vacation every year, and later on, long before the age of retirement, they fantasize about that good free time during retirement.  If you ask these people how much they like what they are doing for a living, they will typically answer that their work “pays the bills.”

On the other side of the river, there is a different community of people. When you ask them what they will do on the weekend or after they retire, they will simply state that they are already on an eternal weekend and timeless retirement, that their summer vacation and their vocation are both 365 days long every year. These people do not have to prove that what they are saying is true about themselves. Every time you meet them, they radiate joy and truth. They are content. They have time for others, not just outside their work time, but any time. Interestingly enough, all of their bills are paid and in fact, some of these people are financially rich.

The way of the heart is not limited to leading us to enjoyable and fulfilling work, it is also the way for making every major or minor decision in our lives.

Creating Your Future

You can cross the river from the cloudy, muddy and rocky shore to the shore of sunshine and green pastures. You can make that trip, just as not only famous people have done, but also as simple every-day people have done and are continuing to do every day. If you sense that there is something missing in your life, and you do not look forward to going to work when you wake up in the morning, your chosen vocation very likely does not fulfill your needs. And you can change all that.

First, there are several questions which need to be answered, because the answers will encourage and direct us towards the path we would like to be on. By examining critically the different causes which on a daily basis keep our bodies weak and tired, our minds confused and restless, and our hearts sad and fearful, we will learn how to avoid such a way of living and see the alternative, the green pastures on the opposite shore.

Next, we should examine how and with what materials we will construct our own boat to be able to cross the river. We can gain wisdom by meditating on the words of the wise people of the past. We can see how they also crossed the river, and we can be inspired by their examples.

What are the reasons why some people are so content in life while others are not? Why do some people seem happy when they are very absorbed in their work but lonely and miserable when they are away from their workplace? As for the people who are radiating timeless joy, not just at the work place but also everywhere else, were they born that way or did they become that way? How? What is the way of thinking that causes people to do work which doesn’t use their talents and which does not express their individuality, or their values and ethics? Where does this way of thinking – which enslaves people – come from? Is it possible to adopt a new way of thinking which will enable us to break loose from our enslavement?

Coming to know ourselves in order to create an enjoyable future is not a process that takes days, weeks, months, or a few years. It can take our whole life, but we should always remember that being on the right path and aiming for our distinct identity and distinct role in life is what makes us happy. Enduring and timeless joy is not found only upon reaching selfhood, it is planted and harvested in the process of trying to achieve it. You will have to act in order to place yourself on the right path towards self-realization.

From a Small Seed…

Take as an example a farmer who has just one olive seed in his hand. He looks at it, knowing it is strong and healthy, and he looks around and sees the majesty of nature. With awareness he accepts the fact that the same power that has brought him into existence has also provided the seed and the soil, the sun and the water. That is, the farmer knows himself; he knows who he is and what he has for use at his disposal. How wise that farmer is when he looks at the seed and he sees not only one, but thousands of seeds. That is imagination. Now he must take out the weeds and prepare the ground, and trusting the powers of the universe, he then buries the seed in the soil. Before he sees the grown tree and is rewarded with its precious olive oil, most likely he will often experience some fear and doubt.

How does he know if the weather will help the growth? How does he know if an animal will not eat the seed while it is in the ground? He must simply wait and believe for the best. He has no other choice but to act, and then wait. This time of waiting and wondering while the seed is buried in the ground could be the most frightening experience during the process.

Nevertheless, a farmer who knows himself and trusts other people for help if something goes wrong will enjoy the whole process, not just the olive oil he will obtain. He finds reward in every step he takes, from observing to preparing to gathering. At this point, the farmer has created his future; simply, in this case, he has produced his physical food. Finally, he will truly enjoy the product of his labor — the olives and the olive oil.

The same cycle of observing, preparing, and gathering will again take place the next year with even more joy and less fear. Now he has in his hand not just one seed but many.

It is essential to realize that this is our everyday life. We gather what we plant. If we plant in joy, we will gather it with more joy, and by knowing and trusting ourselves, the powers of the universe, and other people, we continue the cycle of planting and gathering with increasing joy and satisfaction for every new cycle of life-planning.

The Materialization of Fear

It is characteristic of our industrialized societies that it makes us lose our individuality, and so we become only a tiny part in the social machine. It is therefore of great importance that we keep in mind that such a way of living is foreign to human dignity and to our own happiness. By working just to pay our bills, we are missing the meaning of life. Sooner or later, we will have to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves, not for the sake of the machine but for our own sake, and therefore, for the sake of the whole world.

The increase in violence and environmental degradation observed in our days is the materialization of our unfulfilled hearts and unjustified fears. Only happy people, content with themselves and in harmony with others and nature, can lead the world to peace and environmental sustainability. The world needs more happy people. It needs more people who work using their talents, who earn their living by doing what they love, and are passionate about. These people have found their true self, peace, and joy. They are fulfilled and in harmony, knowing who they are and what they do in their life.

Spiritual Poverty

During my teaching experience at several colleges and universities in North America and Europe, I have met hundreds of students and I have heard their stories. The statement “I am working on this degree because of my parents” is so common and illustrates a degree of tragedy — because we should not live the unfulfilled dreams of our parents. Most of us mistakenly choose careers based on status, salary potential, or the pressure we receive from our well-meaning parents. Unfortunately, this is not usually what we are most capable of doing or what is the most fulfilling for us.

My heart goes out to all these young boys and girls who are filled with beautiful dreams and who need encouragement to fulfill them, and to all those people who already have a career but who would also like to make a transition to fulfill their dreams. I wrote these words for you.

Deciding early on the right training for the right vocation for healthy living in the future has now become even more crucial than in the past. There is an apparent trend in many work places for longer work hours, yet more people feel less secure now because many are losing their jobs overnight. But people who have realized their inner strength and unique talents can create or see opportunities for work any time, and stay above the water.

With every passing day, it is becoming more obvious that those who will have job security and peace in the future will not be those who are working for corporations; it will be those who have realized their inborn abilities and not just the skills acquired through education. As computers continue to replace more workers every day and as unemployment rises, people will be forced by the need for survival to do work much different than they were educated and trained to do. Thus it is crucial for people to become more active and decisive in seeking a personally satisfying career.

I myself had felt the urgency and had heard the clear inner voice years ago telling me to change the type of work I was doing, to go from research to teaching. I waited for many years before taking that little step onward, for reasons that each one of us would find very justifiable based on our world’s standards and fears. But our soul is eager to find full expression and to devote itself to serving others by using the gifts and talents that have been bestowed on us. Suppressing that force can lead us not only to inner turmoil and unhappiness, but even to the loss of our health. Not only was my mind in confusion and my mood bad day after day, but also my body was experiencing terrible pain. I was simply miserable all that time, trying to avoid the calling of my heart. I was in spiritual poverty and I was creating spiritual poverty for those around me.

Jumping Into The Unknown

Do we have to reach the bottom before we awaken and realize the meaning of life? It need not be that way. Quitting my role in government nuclear labs and jumping into the unknown transformed my inner life and influenced many of the people around me in a beautiful way. Searching for the truth and speaking it is our first vocation, and without it, we can never fulfill our destiny. Following the inner voice to abandon familiar waters and false security is no less than speaking the truth to the whole world and to ourselves.

The decision to work on what seemed to me as natural as breathing – teaching – was the best decision I could have made for my whole life span on this planet. To revise my career has been the most frightening experience I could ever have imagined; nevertheless, it has also been the most elevating and exciting experience that I could have possibly expected. I know that this is also true for many people who have dared to try the experiment.

The road to happiness is always the road towards the unknown. Our culture today promises security, but we know well that what we need is inner security, which comes only from knowing our true selves and from knowing our magnificent talents, potential, and abilities. The path we need to travel is not reached by receiving security from the work we do at the command of others, but instead, from the work we do at the command of our deepest yearnings for self-expression, by simply doing what we most enjoy. It is the way we can never fail.

Our motto should be, “We work for ourselves in order to serve others” instead of “We work for others in order to serve ourselves.”

After you finish reading these lines, what will you do about the calling of your heart? Will you postpone the day of your freedom? You are not alone. Ask the advice of a wise friend; it is the easiest and most inexpensive way. Or read another book on this subject. Perhaps, visit a counselor and pay attention to his/her advice. Attend a lecture or a workshop where an inspiring speaker could provide the spark you need to take the step. Usually speakers on this subject are people who have done just that in their own lives. At an early age, they may have stood up strong before family, friends and society to choose their own destiny, to do what they enjoy most, or maybe later in their life, they took the leap of faith to change careers and do what they really love. Allow them to transfer their flame to your heart so you can also take the leap of faith you need to take.

Just as a car needs to have gas in order to keep moving, you may need a good counselor, a good book, and a good friend to stand by you, inform you, and encourage you. But for a car to start moving, it needs a spark; even with the tank full of gas, it will not move without it. As important as the gas is, so is the spark. A great inspiring lecture or seminar will take you emotionally to higher places, but soon you will feel hopeless and flat again. That is why you must patiently and constantly strive for the change in your life.

Arise Great Warrior, Arise!

People without career satisfaction can hardly be in peace. It has been said that the grand total of peace in the world is the total sum of the peace of its people. For thousands of years, many cultures have used the olive branch as a symbol of peace and goodwill.

Wars will continue to take place, machines will keep breaking down, things will keep getting lost, and many people will keep becoming more fearful of the future. But butterflies will still keep moving from flower to flower, and the fragrance of basil and orange blossoms will still give inspiration to anyone of us who want to live with joy. Only happy people can lead the world to peace.

During your lifetime on this planet, you are like a warrior in a battle against all kinds of cultural barriers and spiritual wounds, which prevent you from reaching selfhood. Fear no more, for endless joy is your final end. You must “fight the good fight” in your lifetime in order for your inside to come into harmony with your outside. Therefore arise, great warrior, arise!

www.choki.org

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Pinterest!

Author: Andreas Toupadakis / Wake Up World

in Choki's art 0 comments
3 March, 2015  by

10 Choices That Lead to a Happy, Fulfilling Life

“Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.” – Aeschylus
I asked myself one question: “Do I want this year to look like the last one?”
The answer was an immediate and very solid no. I frantically began to analyze what I was doing with my life to get this reaction. I was unhappy, romantically, professionally, and socially.

1. Don’t sweat the small stuff; don’t sweat the big stuff.

I learned this after I had my wallet, passport, and camera stolen. Every day you will be faced with challenges that are both in and out of your control. Either way, there’s no sense in worrying about them.
If the situation is uncontrollable, whatever is going to happen, will. If you can control it, then take a deep breath and face it with a calm mind to make the process much easier. Worrying gets you nowhere. Hakuna Matata.

2. Do something every day that pushes you out of your comfort zone.

Order and routine give us a sense of security. It feels nice to have familiarity, but it’s also hard to grow into the person you’re meant to be without pushing your limits and trying new things.
At one point, everything is new to us. The more experiences you expose yourself to, the higher probability you’ll find one your passionate about.

3. Live fully in each moment.

Yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not promised. The only certain thing we have in life is right now, this very moment.
This is an important lesson I’ve learned when meditating with the monks throughout Thailand. They teach the significance of remaining mindful and the importance of acknowledging our senses.
By smelling, tasting, feeling, seeing, and hearing everything in our surroundings, we’re able to stay in the present, resulting in insight, a crucial stepping stone on the path to happiness. Life is incredibly beautiful when you slow down enough to enjoy it. Live in the moment, live for right now. This very moment is life.

4. Give gratitude any chance you can, and lots of it.

I really learned about gratitude when traveling through Indonesia. When once I would have complained about a bad Wi-Fi connection, I saw people just grateful for clean drinking water. It really puts things into perspective.
Take the time to remember how lucky you are. Even if it doesn’t feel this way, it could always be worse. Share love and gratitude every chance you can, and you’re left with an overwhelming feeling of abundance and happiness.

5. Remember, life is what’s happening while you’re busy on your cell phone.

Dining solo, I was left to master the art of people watching. What I observed was this: the happiest, loudest, and liveliest tables were those with cellphones tucked away. They were making memories and sharing stories and experiencing what life is all about.
They ate more slowly and stayed longer because there wasn’t anywhere they’d rather be. On the contrary, those with eyes glued to bright screens were quiet and quick to eat with emotionless expressions.
Next time you’re out, try leaving your phone in the car to thoroughly enjoy your company. If you can’t imagine a meal without technology, at least take a few moments to observe the difference between people on their phones and those who aren’t, and ask yourself, who’s table would you rather be sitting at?

6. Listen to your gut.

I’ve never been so in tune with myself as when I was on the road with no travel companion to interrupt my thoughts. There have been countless times when I’ve gotten myself out of sticky situations (or avoided them altogether) by listening to my “gut feeling” as a reliable and trustworthy source.
Silence the mind and listen to the body. Our gut is widely acknowledged as our second brain. If it feels wrong and you can’t exactly pinpoint why, it’s your intuition in physical form telling you it probably is. Listen to what it has to say.

7. Look for similarities.

Same same. In Bangkok, I probably heard this phrase nine thousand times, which inevitably led me to ponder its significance.
No matter where you go in the world, as different as we appear, we are much more similar to one another. We all have human emotions. Sadness and excitement are genetically programmed in us, and we all have the same end goal of happiness.
A smile and laughter are universal. When you meet someone new, look for similarities and it will form an intimate bond. You’ll begin to feel compassion and a connection to them. A feeling of connection gives you a sense of home no matter where you are.

8. Let go of the fear of not being accepted and let your true self come out.

Living abroad alone, I really embraced my inner weirdo. I laid out all the things I was hesitant to say and do before because I assumed no one would “get” me. The results? Confidence and self-respect.
You owe it to yourself to celebrate your uniqueness and be the truest version of you. Those who are meant to stick around will love you even more for it. Besides, weird people bring a lot to the table. Just saying.

9. Make time to reflect on relationships and make changes.

Being on a twelve-hour time difference and half a world away makes communication to home difficult, and perfect for relationship reflection. I really began to analyze the quality of my relationships, asking, “Do they feed my soul? Do we really have that much in common?”
Life is too short to spend time with anyone who exhausts you. Be selective with where your energy goes. For those who you decide to keep in your life, it’s important you show them how much they mean to you. Love and respect leads to quality relationships, which are the only ones worth having.

10. Know that no matter how far you travel in search of happiness, it can only be found in one place.

A monk at the Wat Mahathat in Bangkok said something I will never forget. “Why are you here in Thailand? To find happiness? You won’t find it here. I can’t give it to you. You can travel the world to find it, but there is only one place it can be found. It is found within.”
I had left home and traveled across the world to find happiness, but I never felt it until I became fully connected with myself.
Somewhere along the way I lost sight of the important things by forgetting my relationships, ignoring my gut, and worrying too much about the past and the future. None of these things served me.
True and lasting peace is found within. When you learn to be appreciative for what you have, embrace the present moment, and love fully, this is happiness. 

www.choki.org

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Pinterest!

Author: 

in Choki's art 0 comments