Difference between Yoga and Aerobics

Yoga is all about your inner....inner stillness, inner silence or inner strength.
It helps you to cope with stresses of life emotionally. Aerobics will help you to build external physical strength like building muscles or strength etc which is all external.

I am a soul

I was listening to a lecture by Brahmakumari...and it says

"I am not my profession
I am not my dress
I am not my name"
But
I am a soul. Soul is a part of higher power. God is your soul.
Your body is a temple where your soul ( God) resides.

Real you called SOUL

There is your physical you ( whatever your name is ) and then real you or subtle you that is inside your physical body , called your soul or your spirit. I am known by the physical name Rita but then real me lives inside my body called Rita's soul who resides inside my physical body.

Hardware of the computer is called the Brain. Brain creates thoughts.
But the software of the computer is called the soul.
Hardware needs software and vice versa.

When to Meditate

Earlier in the day you meditate, better it is.
Air is undisturbed at that time. More people wake up, more negativity in the air, more traffic, more noise, mind is less active in the morning and you have to put less effort and you achieve better results.

Connecting with yourself

I was reading Oprah's newsletter, "Sandra Magsamen" had expressed that everyday is an opportunity to learn something or discover someplace, try new foods at dinner time, play new games, keep learning and keep growing and get to know yourself.

This is what YOGA is, getting to know yourself or connecting with your inner self.
Since you are a part of Higher power, it means your self is making connection with the higher power.
Get to know yourself
Make connection with yourself.

Feed your soul

We have a physical body and a subtle body inside our physical body called your spirit or soul. We feed our physical body the food ( pizza, dinner, lunch...) but our soul needs to be fed too. Lots of time we do not listen to our body and we end up over eating thinking that we are hungry.. We do not make connection with our body but we keep eating thinking that we need food. We need to feed the soul sometimes rather than the physical body. I know it is very hard to do but may be we can recognize that this is what is happening. May be we can start taking baby steps and start feeding the soul by admiring someones garden, looking at a flower, appreciating others..., meditating etc......... You will loose lot of weight without even trying. Try not to feed the physical body when you need to feed the soul.

Excellant source of energy

According to Dr Oz , pineapple is an excellant source of instant energy and vitamin C. Try eating it for quick energy when feeling tired or drained.

All IZZ WELL

I was watching this indian movie called "Three Idiots" and I was so impressed by the phrase they were using " All izz well" any time they were in a stressful situation or they did not know what to do or solve the problem. It goes so well with the yoga philosophy that you should be sending positive energy to your brain cells all the time specially when life is tough. Try not to say negative words out of your mouth as it will affect you more and bring you down lot faster, which is something we do not want. Let us all sing " ALL IZZ WELL" 3 times right now.

Meditation is a skill

When you have fever or you get hurt, you go to a doctor and he heals you by prescribing medicines and shows you how to prevent it too. Same way you learn meditation to heal your inside. It is a skill. The earlier you learn, better off you are. Then you are better skilled to handle situation in life. we do not offer courses in high school which teaches us how to think inside. if we learn the skill to meditate, we can heal ourselves.

Eat Without Distractions

We feed our soul as we eat. Eat when you are fully present and pay attention to the food. Remember you are eating and then you are feeding your soul which means you are feeding your higher power as soul is a part of God just like a drop is a part of the ocean. Be in the present moment. It is like giving 100% attention to your food. Remember eat to live not live to eat.

Petroleum jelly

Use petroleum jelly to moisturize your body. Put lots of it on your heels before you dry them and then put socks on and go to work. But not on lips as you would eat the jelly which is not good for our body. Get lip balm with bees wax, it is Ok if gets eaten.

Emotionally Tired

We can be physically tired and emotionally tired. If physically tired, we can go soak your feet in sea salt warm water or have hot shower, take a stretch class. But for emotionally tiredness, sit in silence and connect with your self or with your subtle body or with your soul for a minute. Not for too long, just practice stillness and silence for a minute by sitting quietly with your spine straight and closing your eyes. It will slow down your thoughts in your mind which will give relax your mind. Practice stillness and silence today.

Power of Negative Words.

If you made a mistake or something bad has happened, do not repeat all the time actually not to repeat at all. As I said before that 60,000 thoughts go through our mind everyday and 95% get repeated the next day. Train your mind not to bring those negative thoughts. All you are doing is feeding your mind with that negative energy and you are the one who is getting affected the most. Chant the word "OOOMMMM" to help you come out of those thoughts.

Exfoliate

I was watching Dr. Oz today and he said that crushed grapes are excellent to exfoliate your skin, especially dark color ones like red and purple grapes. Crush them in your hands and massage your face with seeds and their skin. You will see the results later on. Another one is lemon essential oil is also good.

Happiness in small things

You hear people saying "If only this happens, I will be very happy". We are so used to looking for happiness, actually, happiness could be right under your nose and you may not even know it. Try to find happiness in small things. Actually look for the happiness within you.

People are so important

" Never throw anyone out of your heart" is a quote written by Ed and Deb Shapiro on Oprah's website. People need to be restored, renewed, redeemed, revived and reclaimed. People are so important and especially their feelings are veeerrrrryyyyyyyyyyy
important. If your good friend end up saying something one day and your feelings are hurt, remember it is all about you. Your friend may be the messenger but they are your feelings. Look inside and see why are they hurt. Try to make connection from within. Were those feelings were hurt when you were a child. Try to make the connection. It may take few days. As soon as you make the connection, you will have no anger towards your friend. You sort yourself out and then go back to your friend as good friends again.

Tumeric(Turmeric) Haldi

Yellow spice that all indians use in their homes for all curries is anti inflammatory. It has an active ingredient curcumin which is act as an antiseptic and antibacterial. When we had lot of cough and it will not stop then we mixed tumeric in warm milk and drank at night. It made cough go away. It does heal cuts too. There is less Alzehimer in India also because of the tumeric use. But yellow stain from your whites is hard to come off.

All life is Yoga

An Indian sage "Sri Aurobindo" says that "ALL LIFE IS YOGA". Yoga practice and life are not two seperate things. They merge. Life for the purpose of other people is a yogic life.

Energy

We are always emitting energy. When you meet someone, you find you kind of get along with that person, the meeting may increase your energy level. You feel very happy to meet that person again as his energy elevates your energy. Try to increase your energy everyday.

Buying Happiness

When I was young and upset at home with a family member, they would usually buy us something and expect us to be happy. One time, upset again for some reason, I went out and bought myself a nice pair of sandals expecting myself to be happy. I noticed that the happiness lasted for a day or so and I was sad again. That was the time I realized that happiness cannot be bought. But I did not know how to be happy. I wish what I know now I new at that time.
Developing relationship with God will bring you happiness. Read "Beyond Yoga" for more info.
I hope you enjoy using the book.

Happy Mothers Day

Today is Mother's day. Let us give thanks to the Mother Earth for giving us energy when we need it and taking away our stresses when we do not need it. It gives us food , flowers etc and whenever we do gardening, get your hands into the ground, it grounds you. It is like meditation , you may feel physically tired but you are emotionally not stressed. Try gardening today. Plant a tree and watch it grow.

Drink warm water

I was watching Dr Oz and they were talking about drinking warm water when exercising because it is better absorbed by the body than the cold water. Though you will consume more calories if you drink cold water because body will have to warm up the water first for absorption. It was suggested that a pinch of salt should be added to replace the lost electrolytes from the body.

According to the Ayurvedic doctor, if you are a person who develops lot of gas in the stomach, then make sure you always drink water at room temperature, even the juice etc because you are eating lot of cold nature foods which are creating gas in your body. Do not eat anything very cold. Always lightly warm it up.
Problem solved. Try it.

Too Busy

Everyone is busy these days. It seems not normal to be not busy. Even when we have time, we find other things to keep us busy. Actually we are very afraid to slow down and may be scared about what we will fill out time with.
We may find that we have a kind of a hole or kind of emptiness inside and we do not know how to fill it. Best is to practice stillness and silence. Connect with yourself i.e connect with your higher power. After that you will not feel any emptiness or hole inside you. Practice...Practice.... Try to do it everyday. The more you do, the better you will feel. There will be no emptiness . You will feel quite willing to spend time with yourself . You can date yourself now.

Fix your mistake.

"Fix it if you made a mistake" were the suggestions of one of the person I used to respect a lot. According to the Yoga philosophy, we have a role to play, we have a part to play if we want to get things done. We should be truthful to our words and actions. Accept your mistake, apologize from your heart but promise yourself to fix it. No hard feeling left either way and just imagine how relieved you will be at the end of it. Pat your back and say to yourself " Well Done"

Child born in a poor family

A new born baby has done no karmas( any physical act of harming anyone) yet but is born in a poor family. It is very important that the parents fulfill his needs lovingly because that child has an account with his/her parents and debts needs to be settled from the previous life.
Past life accounts needs to be cleared.

Drink water at room temperature

Always drink warm water. Drinking cold water will lower your internal heat energy. It may solidify fats and oils which will lower your digestion.

Eat fruits alone

Fruit should be eaten alone as it gets digested faster than the other food and then it cannot pass through your system as passage is blocked by the other food. So food can rot there causing bloating or gas.

Give more than you receive

Giving does not have to be with money but by listening or helping, supporting emotionally can be done. Try to give more than you receive, this way you make nature indebted to you. You may not get the stuff back from this person that you just helped but you may get help from some total stranger. Create positive karma. Collect as many blessings from God as possible.

Train your mind

Our mind goes through 60,000 thoughts per day. It is always thinking about something. I would be up in the morning but still in bed and I noticed that my mind would start to think about past (good, bad or neutral). Somethings I did not want to be reminded of. It went on for few years and this act of my mind will leave me with sadness sometimes. I started to replace it with the word "OOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM". Though it took me time to train my mind, anytime I caught my mind wondering off I would repeat the word OM few times in my mind to break the train of thoughts. Try it and see.
No harm in trying