Tag heart | CHOKI

10 September, 2015 by Choki team

15 Reasons to Give Your Love Away, Today

1) It helps someone else, and this alone is enough. Any other good reasons are just gravy. Each day there are many appropriate ways to open your heart as well as many that are unsafe. Use discretion, but find a way!

2) When you act from that place inside that says “yes” and naturally reaches out, you join something larger than yourself, which is as close to the essence of religion as we might ever come.

3) When someone is generous to us it makes us feel good. Something inside us, in our heart of hearts, wants to give back, which also feels good. Most of us (save for psychopaths) are hard-wired for it. To hold it back makes us feel bad. So, give it and enjoy!

4) To risk giving what you (think you) don’t have enough of puts you in the arms of trust, leaving you open to receive from others, all of which is crucial spiritual practice and Loving it Forward.

5) Life is short. We never know when, or if, we will see each other, or what we love, again. Share your heart today, now, any way you can. It’s all we really got.

6) Climate change and other disgraces are out of control, and we nor the beautiful world we inhabit stands to be as beautiful as we are today and yesterday. So, expose yourself to what’s beautiful and care deeply for what has no voice of its own.

7) We often think having things means that we automatically can enjoy them. Not true. We enjoy what we have and what we give based on how much we are also able to receive. Let yourself receive love from your self and others. Working through our emotional blocks to receiving and giving makes life more worth living. This practice helps!

8) When you give from your heart, you receive in the very act of giving. The more you notice and embody your joy of giving, the more joy you receive it because you are being it!

9) When we say “thank you” and mean it, we honor what has been given to us, and the person who gave it. We also increase gratitude and appreciation in the one who gifted us. In addition to teaching children to say thank you, we can help them learn to appreciate what’s been given and awaken their realization of where it came from and what went into it, which fosters true love rather than guilt and obligation.

10) None of us walks out the end of life with any of our stuff. But the love we gave away keeps on giving long after we are gone. How we touch others affects how they touch the world, which keeps loving it forward, round and round.

11) Some forms of love come in the way of wake-up calls. Speaking our truth, letting others know our limits, fighting for what’s right, true, and beautiful are all love in action that help foster goodness and mitigate senseless waste and suffering.

12) Loving is a risk, a passionate surrender, because we open our hearts and thereby stand to feel more intensely and deeply. This means we might have to feel difficult things more intensely too, which might be scary. But feeling the bad with the good leads to more love, more capacity to give and receive, when we stay open through our biggest challenges and hurts.

13) We need each other. Helping each other makes the world go ‘round. It’s what the heart does naturally, so join the flow and let it go.

14) At the end of the day, at the end of life, what matters more?

15) Even if we couldn’t name 14 good reasons to give our love away, we need no reasons. So have at it…

“Eventually we will abandon our bunker mentality and understand that the only security comes through giving, opening, and being at the center of a flux of relationships, not taking more and more for self; security comes not from independence but from interdependence.” ~ Charles Eisenstein

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Author: Jack Adam Weber – Wake Up World

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21 July, 2015 by Choki team

Why We Should Bring Meditation Into Schools

“If every eight year old in the world is taught meditation, we will eliminate violence from the world within one generation.” ~ Dalai Lama

Imagine if meditation was a regular part of school life for children. Just think how different the world would be. If every child was able to connect to the ocean of consciousness that permeates all that is, the desire to do wrong by others would dissolve.

Meditation allows us to discover through experience the truth of who we really are. The problem in today’s society is that we are constantly running from ourselves, and consequently from the truth. We’re so occupied with work and social events that we never take the time to discover who we truly are at the core of our being.

Most of us learn to be something we are not. We learn to fit in, to conform and to abide by social norms. We learn how to put on a mask in front of other people. We learn how to be slaves to our own ego. We become so good at running from ourselves that we can’t stand the thought of ever taking off the mask we’ve become comfortable wearing. So we betray ourselves and we let our ego roam free. We become numb to the world and every living creature in it. We sell our soul for an illusion of who we are, and deep down, a part of us knows that we are on the run. Many of us have no hope of ever reconnecting with the self as we have run too far…

What if we never started running from ourselves in the first place? What if we learned to be at peace with ourselves from an early age? If schools taught meditation, children would unearth their own passions, their own interests and their own creative potential. They would not be so bothered by their own insecurities and would learn to live for the moment instead of always reaching for somewhere where they are not.

Meditation helped me find meaning in my own life. I would not be following my heart and trying to change the education system if it weren’t for meditation. It connected me to the deepest yearning of my own soul, and aligned me with my life’s purpose. Likewise, children who practise meditation on a regular basis are not so prone to stress, worry and illness. They also develop stronger bonds with all living things and have less of a need to compete with their peers.

I believe it is crucial for us to give children this gift of mindfulness. It is my hope that one day the practice of meditation will become as commonplace as cleaning one’s teeth.

The Benefits of Meditation

Many clinical studies have proven that meditation increases the brain’s cortical thickness, protects the body from disease, and significantly improves focus and concentration.

Schneider, Grim & Rainforth et al. looked at 201 men and women with coronary heart disease who took part in one of two groups: a transcendental meditation (TM) program or a health education program. After five and a half years, the TM group showed a 48% risk reduction for heart attack and stroke.

Another study by Pagnoni & Cekiccompared gray matter in the brains of Zen meditators and non-meditators over a long period of time. Though gray matter ordinarily reduces with age, the gray matter of the Zen meditators did not reduce at all.

In the report, Pagnoni & Cekic stated:

“The finding of a reduced rate of decline with age of both global and regional gray matter volume in meditators may in fact indicate the involvement of multiple mechanisms of neuroprotection.”

Lazar & Kerr et al. reached a similar conclusion in a study on the impact of meditation on cortical thickness of the brain.

They found:

“Regular practice of meditation is associated with increased thickness in a subset of cortical regions related to somatosensory, auditory, visual and interoceptive processing. Further, regular meditation practice may slow age-related thinning of the frontal cortex.”

Goyal & Singh et al. studied 3515 participants in mindfulness meditation programs and found evidence of decreased anxiety, decreased depression and decreased pain.

Just imagine how much future generations of children would gain from this regular practice. The benefits are truly extraordinary. We need to do everything we can to bring meditation into schools. If we’re going to learn to live peacefully with one another, we must first discover that peace within ourselves.

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Author: Will Stanton / Wake Up World

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7 April, 2015 by Choki team

What Science Is Telling Us About The Heart’s Intuitive Intelligence

The wonderful and brilliant scientists over at the Institute of HeartMath have done some amazing work in shedding light on some very significant findings regarding the science of the heart.

The Institute of HeartMath is an internationally recognized nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to helping people reduce stress, self-regulate emotions and build energy and resilience for healthy, happy lives. HeartMath tools, technology and training teach people to rely on the intelligence of their hearts in concert with their minds at home, school, work and play.

A large portion of their research has investigated heart and brain interaction. Researchers at the institute have examined how the heart and brain communicate with each other and how that affects our consciousness and the way in which we perceive our world.

Their research has shed light on a number of facts, one for example, is when a person is feeling really positive emotions like gratitude, love, or appreciation, that the heart beats out a very different message. They’ve been able to determine this by the fact that the heart beats out the largest electromagnetic field produced in the body, and they can gather data from it.

“Emotional information is actually coded and modulated into these fields. By learning to shift our emotions, we are changing the information coded into the magnetic fields that are radiated by the heart, and that can impact those around us. We are fundamentally and deeply connected with each other and the planet itself.” – Rolin McCratey , Ph.D, Director of Research at the Institute.

This is very important work, as again, it shows how the heart plays an important role far beyond what is commonly known. Did you know that your heart emits electromagnetic fields that change according to your emotions? Did you know that the human heart has a magnetic field that can be measured up to several feet away from the human body? Did you know that positive emotions create physiological benefits in your body? Did you know that you can boost your immune system by conjuring up positive emotions? Did you know that negative emotions can create a nervous system chaos, and that positive emotions do the complete opposite? Did you know that the heart has a system of neurons that have both short term and long term memory, and that their signals sent to the brain can affect our emotional experiences? Did you know that in fetal development, the heart forms and starts beating before the brain is developed? Did you know that a mother’s brainwaves can synchronize to her baby’s heartbeats? Did you know that the heart sends more information to the brain than vice versa?

All of these facts, published researched papers and more can be accessed at heartmath.org

This Is Why It’s Important For The Human Race To Change The Way We Feel Inside

The Institute of HeartMath does a wonderful job in furthering the importance of why it’s critical for many of us to change the way we feel inside. Not much can be accomplished from a place of sadness, angst, sorrow and depression. Our current human experience, the everyday life we all seem to participate in does indeed take its toll on many. A lot of people are feeling that living the lifestyles we do, struggling to pay bills, constantly working and more is not a natural type of existence for the human race. It’s an experience which makes it hard to maintain a “high frequency” or positive state for some. What makes it even more perplexing is the fact that it doesn’t have to be this way, we are capable of so much more.

At the same time, we have a large number of people struggling to feed, clothe and shelter themselves. The Earth is being destroyed and our time to turn things around seems to be limited. This hard reality is still present on Earth, despite the number of solutions that have been identified which could alleviate these problems. It can be difficult to maintain a positive state of mind when we see so many things on our planet that need to change, but we cannot change what we would like to change unless we do it from a positive peaceful state.

Despite all of these experiences, many people experiencing them do manage to find inner peace and moments of joy regardless of their experience, which is quite remarkable. It’s all about perspective, seeing the bigger picture and changing the way you look at things.

Happiness is no doubt an inside job, but with a human experience that is not resonating with many it can be hard to maintain. This is evident in a variety of different areas where people are starting to stand up and demand change. More and more people are wanting to change this entire human experience on multiple levels, one where everybody can thrive, one where everybody can feel good, one where nobody has to suffer or feel negative emotions. If one is suffering, we all suffer, that’s the way we feel here at CE and it’s clear that many are resonating with that feeling.

The funny thing about our feelings is that, for the most part it’s a choice. We can change the way we feel just by changing our thoughts. Negative emotions about a person, place or certain experience in our lives or the planet are usually a result of the thoughts we have about them. At the end of the day, in the grander scheme of things it’s just a human experience, and all experiences are serving us proving opportunities for growth.

Bottom line, positive emotions, feelings of love, gratitude, compassion and more have a larger impact than what we could have ever imagined. These are all characteristics of consciousness, and as quantum physics is showing us, consciousness plays some sort of role in the creation of our reality. If this is true, how we feel certainly plays a large part, and with the research coming out at the Institute of HeartMath, it’s clear that feeling good and positive emotions (gratitude, love compassion) play a very important role when it comes to the nature of our reality and could be the fundamental key for global change.

A fundamental conclusion of the new physics also acknowledges that the observer creates the reality. As observers, we are personally involved with the creation of our own reality. Physicists are being forced to admit that the universe is a “mental” construction. Pioneering physicist Sir James Jeans wrote: “The stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; the universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears to be an accidental intruder into the realm of matter, we ought rather hail it as the creator and governor of the realm of matter. Get over it, and accept the inarguable conclusion. The universe is immaterial-mental and spiritual” – (R. C. Henry, “The Mental Universe”; Nature 436:29, 2005, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Johns Hopkins University)

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Author: Arjun Walia / Collective Evolution

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