Yoga can change your life

Millions of people have joined the Yoga revolution since last few years. Hundreds of scientific results have been published all acknowledging the tremendous impact yoga and meditation can have on our life. It has become the new "healthy practice" popular enough to make you feel guilty if you aren't doing it.
Though, good health is just one of the benefits of Yoga, it was developed as a means to achieve something much more - To free ourselves from our compulsive nature of our mind and finally be peace with existence - just as it is and in the process, health improvement is just a fancy byproduct.

The philosophy of meditation is simple. If you realize who you truly are, you will be happy and satisfied because there is nothing more important in life than that. Meaningless desires disappear, ego disappears because you now see yourself as something much more than them. You become more in tune with existence, to the extent that your personality which comprises of ego, perceptions, prejudices, negative mindset just disappears. You become this independent mind free from any conditioning and ever-fresh!

Okay wait, how is that possible? For that lets observe this quote -

The more I am involved in doing something, the more I realize I am not the doer.

Remember the times you were so engrossed in working on a project, that you forgot where are you sitting, whether you ate or not or how much time has passed. You enter in a all-together different zone of single-pointed focus and your mind gets fully engrossed. You may have observed in this state, ideas just flow naturally. You automatically know what to do and  your hands just move in that direction, a lot of EUREKA moments happening without any conscious tail of thoughts as if in a leap. A lot of sportsmen and  artists have experienced this, scientifically this state is called flow or zone. I have talked about this earlier in my blog posts as well for example when I experience this while playing  basketball, coding, etc.

The point though is, people do realize in this hyper conscious state that a LOT of thinking process is actually happening automatically. You have no control over it. Mind creates an illusion that you are the one carrying out all the process but you really are not and we live in this illusion all the time except for those tiny little moments of zone or flow when we actually come to experience the reality. Meditation lets you see just that. You allow yourself to calm down and not interfere with anything what mind is doing. With some practice, you will see all your jumbled up memories, thoughts, fears simply popups up without your permissions and float around. We know this ofcourse by books but after experiencing it live, we finally learn how to control it.

When you realize you are not the one doing most of the things you think you are doing, you are automatically freed from the worry of doing it right. It might come as a setback to the ego but honey you are in this world to do lot more meaningful stuff instead of day-dreaming whole day!

The stress levels increase when we can't accept what is happening and instead desire to make things happen the way we want it. Stress is either worrying about something you can't control of or it is worrying but doing nothing useful as in order to sort that problem. Stress inside body is a safety mechanism to tackle with life and death problems. Imagine you are sitting inside a cave and you hear the voice of a lion. You get afraid, you get stressed, butterflies in your stomach. That's your body signalling to do something about it. So you run. In the present world though, we don't have survival stress very often but body does not know how to react differently to survival stress or emotional stress. It basically lifts up your energy levels preparing you to run. That's why mental capacity becomes decreased and you are unable to concentrate or are easily irritated. That is why it is great to exercise while feeling stressed because it acts as an outlet for the extra energy.

A much bigger problem though is that many people today have become addicted to stress. You don't need to tell them what's wrong. They will see what is there and will automatically find out what's wrong and then stress about it. Yoga/Meditation allows you to observe these mind patterns and to have an ability to control it. Also since you now know you are not the doer again you are freed of most of the stress you feed yourself.

Since meditation improves employee producitivity , corporates are also picking up the trend and actively promoting it. Lot of companies have in house Yoga sessions, instructors and a conducive environment. More and more doctors are recommending Yoga/Meditation for all kinds of diseases. Lot of artists, sports person meditate in order to increase focus. It is also extremely useful for students to beat their exam fear and to increase concentration. 

For full read of all the benefits, kindly go through this amazing compilation.

This life-transforming quality of meditation is not all that mysterious – just imagine how your life would change if you spend 45 minutes a day in the greatest relaxation you have ever known, resting more deeply than sleep, giving your body, nervous system, and brain a chance to tune for action.

So when are you going to start including Yoga in your life?

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Introvertedness vs shyness

Social interactions are powerful. They increase your capacity to love, overall life satisfaction and the sense of completeness in your life. They are the basis of forming relations with other people and are also the first yardstick for someone to judge whether to show interest in you. There is no limit to what you can achieve in your life with social interactions. You don't know who, when and where somebody might help you out with a situation. The more contacts you have the more jugaad you can do. Despite so many benefits, there are two types of people - introverts and shies who "shy" (pun intended) away from social interactions.


First of all, lets clear the definitions. Introvert is someone who naturally avoids social interactions in a sense that s/he does not like to stay with people (or many people) for a long time and avoids small talk in general. But shy people, on the other hand may want to interact with people but are unable to do so due to XYZ factors. Its this difference which most people are not able to separate and deal with a lot of unnecessary stress in life.

My idea when I say "social interaction" can be anything from small talks, light hearted talks, poking fun at each other, discussing about weather, stripping each other's clothes off for fun. Well, maybe you can skip the last one. But my point is social interactions are any conversation which are not much meaningful at first but can turn out to be, if given a direction. People tossing away small talks as completely "meaningless" doesn't seem to understand how it works. No random conversation at all can be instantly meaningful unless you have decided to initiate in such a way. It has to start with something petty. It is the stage you need to get across to get to the real fun but many people arguing against it often say that they choose only those who are already close to them since years or share large number of interests which is completely fine. Introverts generally find people sharing same interests and can live as fulfilled life compared to "extroverts" with far less number of people in their life. But shy people have a problem. They are unable to interact even if they want to. If you don't want, that's a different thing, If you are happy in your life alone, its fine but there are people who actually find themselves incapable to go and bloody talk with someone even when they are attracted to them or think they can have a meaningful relation with them. Now, this definitely is a problem.

My argument in the favor of actively participating in social interactions lays some fundamental foundations. First one is that it builds contacts. The more contacts you have, the more easily you get admission in a engineering college. Oops. Or may be not. But having multiple contacts in a country whose national slogan is "mere chacha vidhayak h" can quickly turn into a boon. You don't have any idea how quickly  you can have a network of well connected people if you are able to please people socially, and that's a very good thing.

Second thing is they are a very good way of emotional catharsis. Do one thing, make a friend or two of yours to whom you can share every small detail of your life. Be it, if your bike got punctured yesterday, or you almost were to meet an accident, or you had to stay in a long line at ATM today or any stuff like that. If your friend is close to you, he/she will listen patiently (atleast for some days) and you will notice your self as being literally more happy. It is the best way to release small frustrations of life which we consider as very petty and swallow which although might not be the best thing to do because they gradually build toxicity inside you.

Third thing is very obvious. It builds your communication skills. We all, at some point have to deal with clients/customers/partners in our jobs and businesses where very good communication skills can earn you a lot of respect. A technically strong person with good communication and inter personal skills is a killer combination. So just go for it!

The advantages of social interactions are an added bonus to life. They are not a neccessne thougt. You may go just fine without them but life is much better if you have it. We introverts are missing out on something really amazing probably by merely relying on our first instincts. Ofcourse I am not telling you to completely change your own nature, but given proper attention and good practice, we can train ourselves to enjoy conversations even with strangers (the worst nightmares for introverts and shy people). The arguments towards social interactions even those which does not include small talks are frowned upon in introvert communities. One more trend which is coming up these days is the glorification of introvert as someone being intellectually superior just because they like to tuck into a blanket reading a book instead of going out and meet with people. I would like to ask, how many of them are actually reading some really productive, mind expanding books?

Large number of memes which are mostly shared by teenagers on social media as being relatable to introverts are somewhat a sad phenomena. For example -

                                     

Being anxious about hanging out with someone you want  to hang out with is NOT something to laugh at. Humor is repeatedly used to hide personal vulnerabilities to avoid directly dealing with it. Instead of actually trying to work on the problem, if you simply create a meme on it and laugh it off, you are merely delaying the problem. Well, atleast we are being honest with ourselves but lets take this a step forward, lets start working on it. Lets not be captived by the so called "introvert" image which we carry ourselves in our head and try to be as open as possible. Because, there is a wonderful world filled with wonderful people out there. Even if we literally don't like to deal with people (which is fine anyways) lets not be so hell bent on being so closed inside our selves that we forget what its like to connect with people. Afterall, having that warm feeling with someone with whom you can share anything or hang around is precious and probably worth the effort.

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What is the most valuable advice you can give in life?

Once upon time a man was suffering from existential crisis from long time. He did not find his materialistic life worth living. Day by day his frustration increased and one day he decided to leave everything and go out for a spiritual training under a  perfect master. Leaving his job, wife, family and everything else, he packed two pairs of clothes and some food and set off on the journey. He was a very ruthless person and he wouldn't settle for any saint. He decided he will find a perfect master in the world for himself and then ask him the questions. Only the best and not anything less than that.

He first went to Chicago, there he asked local people who is the most perfect master in the world. People directed him to a famous and reputed church priest. He went there and asked him questions. The priest asked him to stay at his residence, follow a priestly life before answering the questions one by one. The man stayed there and  everyday on instructions he used to sing songs in God's glory. At the end of the prayer sessions, he used to ask the priest his own questions and to every question the priest used to simply read a passage from Bible which he seemed relevant. This did not satisfy the man at all and he left the place.

Then he went to Saudi. There also he searched for the most perfect master and he was sent to a wise Sufi saint. The locals first attempted to answer his questions but he refused to listen saying that he will only receive answers from a perfect master. He went to the place of residence of the saint.There every time he asked a question, the saint will simply start to say stories for the praise of the Lord and suggested him to do the same. He said the God will help to find the answers from himself. He tried that for many days. After everything he did, he had to say words of praises for God in hope to get some answers. One month passed without any answers and he got frustrated. He then asked the Sufi why are there still not answers to which the saint started to again tell stories in praise for God. Furious at this, he left the place.

Then again in search of a perfect master, he went to Japan. There he met a master who told him to learn deep concentration which according to him was the best spiritual life. The man agreed but for every small mistake the master used to beat him a lot. If he was late in bringing food for even a minute or if he disturbed his concentration even for a bit, the master used to beat him a lot. He could not tolerate this and after few days he ran away from the place.

Then, he came to India. There in search of the perfect master he came to a rishi who used to always meditate. He appeared wise, gentle and didn't ask to do any religious tasks as well. He decided to stay there hoping that he have found the perfect master. He asked one day "Guruji what is life?"

The rishi opened his eyes and said, "Life is like a beautiful flower." The man again asked, "But a Christian priest once told me that life is like a thorn!" to which the rishi replied, "Well, it must be his life!"

The man got amused at this and he wanted to ask more but the saint went back to meditation. The man used to cook food, clean the house for weeks but he got very little time to ask the questions as the saint was always meditating and whenever he used to ask, the saint will reply with just a one-liner like above and go back to meditation. This did not satisfy him so he decided to leave the place.

Then, he went to Tibet. There he said to the people that he have travelled across the world in search of a perfect master but could not find any. There also he went to several monasteries but none of them satisfied him because there the monks already had many disciples and they remained busy. There a monk suggested him to visit this one particular monk who lives in solace and do not have any disciple. They told him that he is the wisest among all of them, too gentle and also remains completely free because he haven't had any disciple for years!

He ran towards the place. This time he thought he have found it. The most perfect master of the world. He didn't eat or drink anything for 2 days straight travel. He finally arrived at the place and saw the monk sitting in silence. He asked one question to which the monk answered brilliantly in complete detail filled with logic. It was the best answer till now for the question.The man got heavily impressed and asked the monk to accept him as a disciple to which the monk refused. The man fell on the floor,

"O monk! I have traveled the entire world in great frustration only to find a perfect master for myself. I have gone through great pains and effort and when I have finally found you, you are going to refuse?"

"Yes, because", the monk replied, "I only accept perfect disciples!"


This is the most valuable advice. Never look for perfection. The man couldn't find any master because he was looking for a perfect master and that Tibetan monk couldn't find any disciple because he was looking for a perfect disciple. Life is beautiful in its own imperfection, don't compromise it in the context of logic or intellect. Nobody is perfect but the thing is, it is not required at all!

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