You are only a smile away...

I am not sure if it’s the weather, the gray sky or the change of the clock but I have been speaking to a few people and we all shared the feeling of anger, frustration, not feeling like doing anything and generally being a little low for our usual self.

I am normally not a down person and during my low day my younger son did or said something that maid me smile. I felt the immediate change in my mood and did a little research about it. I knew about the effect of the smile on the mental state and I am sure a lot of the readers know it as well but here is a little reminder to us all.

The muscles we use for smiling send our brain a message of what mood we are in. So even if we are not happy and we put an imposed smile on our face it will put us in a happier mood and even make a joke seem funnier. This is a self help medicine when you are at work or in a position that you have to keep at what you are doing.

When you have the time meet up with people that you are likely to have a laugh with, watch a funny movie or remind yourself about funny past events you’ve experienced.

When combining the smile with slow breathing you can lower the level of stress you are in.

And one more thing about smiling…it is a king of exercise to your facial muscles and therefore prevents aged looking face. It also relaxes the people you will meet and will attract them to you. Smiles are contagious so you will end up being surrounded with smiley people. And there is nothing like a positive environment to feel generally uplifted.

Try it! What can you loose? Maximum you’ll feel better!

Charity

Nearly everyone knows how important charity is. The one that have gives away to the one that don’t have. Sound simple enough and most common is to give 10% of your income, as long as it doesn’t turn you into a needy person of course. And yet, not a lot of people collect regularly in a charity box or give regularly money to charity organisations. 

According to an interesting theory I have read when one gives charity there are three benefiters. The first one is the recipient who gets the charity and fulfils his needs. The second is the donor, as by giving donation one benefit spiritually. By giving away from what one has the donor is actually saying that he is rich. He can spare from what he has and therefore he must be grateful for his situation. And the more grateful you are for what you have the more you’ll have. But the third benefiter is our world. By giving away from what we have we make sure that the ones that do not have will rise to a higher step than they are at the moment. We might even save life!

In my home we have a charity box. We collect money on a regular basis and when we have what we think is substantial amount, we pass it on to a charity for the poor. But there are all kinds of ways to be charitable. You can volunteer in places that are based on charity; you can donate to an organisation you believe in or that helped you or a member of your family in the past, and recently I found that you can also donate via recycling. Amazing! You have all the tree benefiters in one J

It might be worth it to look around for things that have been with you for a long time and were not in use. It might be really useful for someone else. It might dramatically improve someone’s life.

The Whirlpool

Change in general is perceived as stressful. Change can occur out of conscious decision to change one or several things in one’s life. This is usually a controlled situation and just like anything else in life, as the idea comes from within the feelings towards it is predominantly positive. It doesn’t mean the process will be easy, but as the first step was done out of free will then usually the steps that follows will be a natural progress.

Change can also happen due to changed circumstances in ones life.  A lot of people take this change as stressful as they have no control over it and they didn’t plan for it in advance. The feelings are mostly of wanting to cling to the familiar past. It is like someone is pulling the carpet under your feet; you can try and constantly steady yourself but you will probably be better off jumping off the carpet.

In both type of change nothing can be planned to perfection. A planned change can also get you into situations or conditions that you didn’t envisage in advance. 

Change can bring challenges that some people may perceive as difficulties. It is all about looking at the half full or half empty cup. If you look at the half empty cup it will be difficult. If you see the half full cup you will see the endless possibilities of filling the cup to the brim. It will turn into an adventure, a learning process that will end in personal growth and will bring with it positive changes.

Every few years I find myself in the process of change. Some times it is planned and others it isn’t. As I said in my post ‘Try something new’ (http://lifeintransformationuk.blogspot.com/2010/10/try-something-new.html) I see change in a positive way. I feel excited about it but there are moments that I simply let go. I let external powers take me to wherever I should be. By doing so it leaves me in a position that I can engage in all the options that come my way and choose the right one for me. By viewing all the options I can also shape better what I want from my life. It is like a chain reaction. One opportunity can take you to places you have never dreamed you will get to. To me it looks like a whirlpool where everything is pulled towards the same spot, which is the target you aim for, in perfection.

How do you percieve change?

Right here, right now!

Most people do not live in the present.  They are either experiencing the present with the influence of the past or experiencing the present with thought about what the future would bring. Both ways spoils the experience of the present.

The past is no longer here, so there is no point of thinking about past experiences and let them affect your present. It is like the business man who failed in the past and carries the feeling of failure to his current business. If he feels worthless as a business man because of his past, that is exactly what he will be!

The same goes for the business man who keeps worried about his possible failure in the future. You can plan your future growth in your business but if the situation changes you would only be able to act to the best of your ability if you live in the present.

When we are living in the present it means we are living life to its full potential.  It is very similar to what I was writing about in my post ‘The pink glasses’ (http://lifeintransformationuk.blogspot.com/2010/10/pink-glasses.html) regarding the people who gets to their target unhappy and the ones that do not achieve their target but are happy with the path they took. Living in the present allows you to see the opportunities along the way. Children are living in the present naturally. You can see them sometimes playing alone and they are so engrossed in their game they wouldn’t here when you are talking to them. They really do enjoy themselves!

For adults, with past experiences, this is a bit more difficult to do but you can take time in the day and try and be just in the present. You can do that by meditating.

Meditation is not easy for most people as our minds are like monkeys who keep jumping from one thought to another. The best way is to concentrate on one thing only. Some look at a flame of a candle, other concentrate on the sensation of the air coming in and out of the nostrils while breathing you can even do your gardening or your Yoga practice. The most important thing is that you will concentrate on that only. This frees you from thoughts about the past or the future and allows you to enjoy yourself. Once you have master that try and apply it to the rest of your life.

In the book Yoga Mind & Body (Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre) you can read more about meditation techniques.

Enjoy the journey! 

The pink glasses

The definition for optimism by Oxford English Dictionary is "hopefulness and confidence about the future or successful outcome of something; a tendency to take a favourable or hopeful view”. To have this attitude a person must be able to visualise the outcome and focus on the possible options of get there.  The optimist must have self confidence, enthusiasm and determination but also confidence in the operation of this world. It is that trust that really helps to get the optimist to the target as it omits stress. Once a person is relaxed he can make the right decisions after weighing up all the options.

The good news is that optimism can be taught. You may need to practice a little but if instead of choosing to look at what is the worst thing that can happen you’ll opt to view in your imagination what is the best thing that will happen you are already half way to success. By imagining the positive outcome you are setting yourself the target you wish to get to. Once you have a target you can just lay the steps of how to get there.

I read once in The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield that there is no coincident. According to this book the world is based on energies that are attracted to similar energies. The most common example is how many times you thought of a person and then the phone rung and that person was on the other side? If that is the case (today you might heard it is called ‘The Law of Attraction’) then as the optimist start to plan his way for the target the whole universe will connect to the plan and make it work.

I am sure some of you know people that are super motivated and enthusiastic and have positive thinking and they still didn’t get what they wanted.  How can this be explained? This is where I personally believe that your target or your way didn’t agree with operating system of this world and that is why no collaboration was formed. But most important, I truly believe that it is not the end target that is important but it is the way you got there. If you got to the end of your journey in a positive and stress free way it is a lot better than getting there with the target under your arm and no joy in your life.

I knew a very brave woman who used to say that she is always looking at the world through pink glasses and then everything looks fine. She was my mum and today is her memorial day.

Today’s post is dedicated for her soul elevation.

Amen.

Our Fabulous mind

A few posts ago I mentioned that I found Yoga by pure luck. This is not true! At the time I wrote the post that was what I remembered about getting to my first Yoga class. The truth is slightly different.

Seven years ago a friend of mine, who at the time was writing his novel, praised a book call The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. He told me the book was written mainly for writers who suffer from writers’ block but that he thought it could help anyone in their life.

Once I bought the book and had a look at it I realised this is actually a twelve weeks course with weekly tasks. One of the basic tasks that start from the first week and continue throughout the course is the ‘morning pages’. Those are pages a person who is taking the course upon himself commits to write every morning before he does anything else. 

I remember struggling at first with the idea but slowly it became apart of me.

One of the tasks was to explore something that was new to me. This is how I got to my first Yoga class.

Now it is my turn to praise the book! Although it is a twelve weeks course for artist who suffer from creativity block, and I do not consider myself an artist, the results of the course for me were life changing.

I was a little lost in my life at the time and stayed in the same place as I wasn’t sure where I wanted to be.  I truly believe that it is because I followed the course not only did I found Yoga but I also applyed for a job I wouldn’t have dare to before. That alone improved my social, personal and spiritual life.

I have no idea why my mind wondered there today but suddenly I realised that me writing the blog, although not first thing in the morning, resembles a little the ‘morning pages’ and me trying new recipes, taking up new hobbies is all too similar to the tasks in the course I took about seven years ago and didn’t even remember doing it.

I think it is amazing how our mind adopt things to itself and uses it later as its own. I also think it must be a very powerful book to be able to influence in such a way.

Healthy habits for better life

I’ve been reading an article recently about 13 healthy habits to improve you life (http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/13-healthy-habits-to-improve-your-life?page=4). I must say that most of the habits mentioned in the article are either already part of my life or I am in the process of improving myself.

There was one thing that strike me and that is that I do not have a hobby!
Wikipedia definition for hobby ‘… is an activity or interest that is undertaken for pleasure or relaxation, typically done during one's leisure time.’

I always put down as hobbies Yoga, reading, dancing and gardening. If I am being honest with myself, Yoga is more a way of life and so is reading. I can’t remember the last time I went out dancing and I couldn’t really call the few plant pots I have "gardening"… so I got to the realisation that I actually don’t have a hobby.
As I am trying to improve my life, and this is the idea behind this blog, I decided to think of a hobby I can incorporate into my life. It didn’t take me long to figure out what it will be. About a month ago I got myself a beautiful Singer sawing machine. I was planning to do something with it but one thing led to another, and then I had a small accident and needed new material for the idea I had. Up to this moment, apart from shining it, as it is a very old machine, I didn’t do anything with it. So this will be my new hobby! I need to do a lot of learning as one can probably count on one hand the sawing I was doing on my mum’s sawing machine, but I don’t mind it at all. In fact, I love the fact that I have something new to learn about.
Once I’ll finish my first little project I will post it on the blog.

How about you? Do you have a hobby?