Trusting Your Body’s Wisdom Over The Intellect

Monday, August 17th, 2009 09:13 pm GMT -5 . Posted in Personal Development

We have made rapid strides in technology and the human brain has proven beyond doubt the enormous potential that resides within it.

Are you aware of the fact that on daily basis there are two kinds of intelligence that are operating within you? One is your intellectual intelligence utilizing the knowledge and experience you have garnered so far and the other is the body’s instinctual intelligence or body wisdom.

When you inadvertently jump out of the way of a speeding car, it’s your “body intelligence” at work. When you decide your food preference based on your mind conditioning it’s your “intellectual intelligence” operating. What we call “common sense” is a small aspect of our intellectual intelligence. For some people it is common sense to invest in a house while for some it would be ridiculous to do so. The way you were brought up, and your mind conditioning, will dominate your intellectual decisions and attitudes.

Now more than ever there is an urgent need to develop trust in our body’s wisdom and overcome the unwholesome practices developed by our mind conditioning and intellect. We have to consciously take this step to overcome the challenges facing the human race today.

How did we develop intellect?

In order to make a clear demarcation we can say that intellectual intelligence stems from the knowledge we gather from three sources

1. Study materials or Media
2. Word of the mouth
3. Self experimentation

Study materials such as books, internet, Tv (yeah that too!) have an huge impact on influencing our beliefs. Academic knowledge and know-how learnt through other media like magazines and newspapers, serve as references for our decisions.

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Word of the mouth is what you hear from people around you and is the single largest source of your information on day to day basis. Most of your mind conditioning comes from what you hear from other people as you grow up.

Self experimentation is quite rare because it entails a lot of hard work and an open mind. If you are willing to test a belief for your own, before accepting it, you fall in the relatively minor category of “open minded” people. For centuries it has been the norm to accept blindly what has been told to us, or what we have read, without any self experimentation on our part.

Our intellectual intelligence is close to nothing compared to the immense wisdom of our body. In fact many scientists who use their intellectual intelligence to determine the source of our body’s wisdom have failed. It is not possible to understand the infinite using the finite. We can come to certain ambiguous conclusions but can never know the whole truth – only a subset of the whole truth can be understood using our intellect. But we strive nevertheless to fathom the unfathomable.

Where does this immense body wisdom arise from? No one knows for sure. Does it come from the cells or the cell matter? Does it come from the DNA present in our cell matter? If so what activates this intelligence? What is this thing called life force? There are too many questions which can’t be answered with confidence. The limitation being that the brain itself is just a small part of the body.

What is the purpose of our intellect?

Frankly our intellect serves a very limited purpose – that of living in a society. That’s all. Nothing more than that. Using your intellect you can go about your business on day to day basis – you can catch the right trains, use the right presentations, influence the right people, operate with individuality, procure food/shelter based on society norms and meet your needs for entertainment.

Unfortunately our need to be a part of the society has limited our reasoning powers. We blindly follow the herd. Take for instance the habit of coffee drinking. Your body clearly opposes coffee. The stimulation you feel after you guzzle a cup of coffee is actually the nervous disarray the body goes through to cope with the toxin. But we drink coffee because everyone drinks coffee. If I were to ask a kid to drink coffee for the first time – he or she would spit it out due to the bitterness and foul after smell. The other apparent side effects of coffee are stained teeth, bad breath and fatigue (due to enervation). So why do we drink coffee even after knowing all this? Because it’s a society thing.

Misguided Intellect

Misguided Intellect

Most addictions became popular as a “society thing”. Cigarettes were in the vogue back in the early nineties. It was considered a manly thing to do. So most men would start smoking quite early; some even in their childhood. The first few cigarettes feel disgusting but then they “acquire” a taste (I can speak from my own experience). It took several lives to determine that cigarettes were causing all sorts of problems in the body starting with heart problems, digestive problems to cancer. But even then we still continue smoking, influence by our peers and role models; in many cultures it’s even considered a “normal” thing to do.

Our body has a keen sense for what is toxic and what is beneficial. It revolts immediately when something toxic is introduced. It violently coughs out the toxins of cigarette smoke the first few times but once the person start smoking regularly it becomes numb. It has not adapted, it has just been beaten into submission. Our intellect makes us believe that we can make our body adapt to any of our bad habits but the truth is far from it. The body does not adapt to toxins it just loses the vitality to fight back. It’s comparable to hitting a drowning man on the head to stop him from struggling!

Our intellect pushes us to work late into the nights, imbibing coffee to keep us awake, when the body is clearly shouting for rest. We think we know better. It’s only after we have a nervous breakdown do we understand that it would have been prudent to follow the body’s instinct.

The tremendous wisdom within the body

We breathe unconsciously but we do it without fail. Who does it? The body’s intelligence

Our heart pumps continuously close to 2,000 gallons of blood everyday. Who takes care of that? The body’s intelligence

10 million blood cells are created every second. Who does that? The body’s intelligence

If a piece of glass pierces through your body, it will be removed on its own without any manual intervention. What ensures this? The body’s intelligence

I could go on, because there are close to one million processes being performed in our body in a very methodical and precise manner to ensure our survival. One million processes!

In fact the chemical processes that take place within each cell in your body would put the most complex chemical factories to shame. Each cell is an organism in itself and coordinates with 125 trillion other cells to keep the body functioning. In fact the brain, composed of specialized cells, takes care of the coordination part using nerve paths.

Ever wondered about the speed at which impulses are transmitted to the brain and received back? How long does it take for you to remove from hand when you touch a hot stove? If the transmission was slow you would end up burning yourself badly. Signals are sent back and forth continuously in the form of electric impulses. Your body is the most complex electric grid you will ever encounter.

If you want to get a visual picture of the amount of coordination performed by your brain on day to day basis just imagine 36,000 earths each with a population of 4 billion being controlled by a person and operating with lucid efficiency. There is no room for error inside the body and there never is an error. Everything works in coordination and perfection.

I’ve not come to close to doing justification to the enormous intelligence of body. The complexity is mind boggling and the perfection of operation can only be looked at in awe. Suffix to know that compared to our intellect the body’s intelligence is equivalent to infinite.

Why do we offend the body’s intelligence?

In spite of knowing that our intellect is far inferior (not even comparable) to our body’s inherent wisdom, we sometimes arrogantly assume that we know better. We think that our body needs our intellectual help to function properly.

You might argue that there are times when the body does need our help. If you are talking about procuring food and shelter as a help you are providing, you can rest assured that the body can manage well without a nice apartment and car. If you are hinting at the medicines and drugs you pump into your body in the name of healing, you’re are wrong – the body is hampered rather than aided by your efforts at curing it (shocked?).

A good part of our intellect is geared towards helping the body meet its needs like food, warmth and security. These basic needs can easily be met without disturbing the fabric of the universe, but then there is the “other part” of the intellect that operates based on mind conditioning and cultural influences. This “other part”, in most cases, is the culprit responsible for the disarray of our body inside and our world outside. Using our keen intellect we have messed up even the basic intakes of food, water and air. Most people eat against a human body’s biological adaptations, drink sweetened water and breathe carcinogenic fumes of cigarettes.

Metaphorically speaking our intellect is like a babe in the woods. Our body’s intelligence is like a mature old man’s wisdom. There is no comparison. A person who has the common sense to leave the body’s intelligence alone will fare much better than the one who thinks he knows better.

Do you honor your body’s intelligence or are you steeped in the arrogance of believing that your learning is far superior to your body’s inherent wisdom?

Answer a few questions below

1. If you are not feeling hungry would you skip your dinner or would you have something to eat because you think you should not sleep on empty stomach?
2. If you have a cold or fever, would you let your body take its time to heal or would you rather pump it with antibiotics or other new age medicines in an effort to expedite the cure?
3. If you are feeling tired and enervated would you take rest or have a few shots of alcohol to feel better?

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Unless you are well aware of the healing power and intelligence of the body you would have answered on the “side of intellect” for all the above questions. You will eat because you “think” you should; you will partake of medicines “believing” in their curative powers over the body’s self healing powers; you will take a shot of alcohol because you “assume” your body needs a boost. And you would be acutely wrong in taking each of the steps you took.

Learn to trust your body’s intelligence

May be you never considered this perspective – What if you stayed in tune with your body’s instinct and stopped imposing your intellectual will upon it? How drastically would that change your well being?

For starters you will enjoy a great health. Take for instance, your habit of drinking alcohol. You can clearly see that your body hates it. It causes nervous depression. The slurring of speech, the un-coordinated movements, and the irrational behavior is due to loss of motor control. If you drink beyond a certain limit the body vomits it out to keep itself safe; that’s because alcohol in your body had reached fatal levels. If you follow your body’s instinct you will stop torturing it this way.

What about the junk food you are addicted to? Does your body give out warning signals that it is highly toxic? Digestive disorders, flatulence, acidity, ulcers and constipation are your body’s cry for help. When you don’t listen to any of it the final result is something fatal like a tumor or cancer.

Your intellect cannot assist the body it can only hamper it. By realizing this truth you will earn the gratitude of your body. You will stop eating foods which cause negative reactions, you will stop overworking yourself and listen to your body’s need for rest, you will stop subjecting your body to medicines and supplements in the name of assisting its healing process and you will respect its self-healing, self-preserving, self-maintaining and self-sustaining wisdom. It’s this wisdom that has helped the human race survive for so many years against several challenges that threatened extinction for other species.

The intellect has its place and it is a beautiful gift. It helps you reason out logically and pursue creative endeavors. But if your body is not healthy the intellect would be just as incapable or perverted.

There are several myths and wrong perceptions which are prevalent in our culture today. If we just look around us and see the various levels of degradation setting into our society, it would confirm our instinct that something is not right. Listening to people who are misinformed or who are intentionally feeding you wrong facts, like the agents of the milk industry and medical industry, will lead to disastrous consequences. Your only protection against them is your intellect coupled with the body’s wisdom. Use your intellect to think keenly, perform self experimentation and develop an open minded attitude. Close minded thinking will keep you enslaved to your mind conditioning. If you come across any information that resonates as the truth, have an open mind to test it and if it’s beneficial accept it.

Following my body’s instinct helped me move from an acutely degenerative lifestyle to a very wholesome one. The benefits I have accrued along the path are what I intend to share with you through this blog. I hope this post serves as a base for the future posts to come. Have an open mind, test everything for yourself before rejecting, follow your body’s instinct and don’t be hostile towards a new perception.

Your journey towards life requires a foundation that is securely built on the model of trusting the body’s intelligence over influences of misinformed mind conditioning.

The Light Path Towards Law Of Attraction

Sunday, August 16th, 2009 06:00 am GMT -5 . Posted in Personal Development, Success

The title was not a typo, I did mean “light path” though I could easily also call it the “right” path.

If you are having a hard time convincing the universe to manifest your intentions, you are not alone. In fact you are in the majority.The universe it waiting to help you but you keep blocking the guidance by giving out conflicting signals. People who are good at intention manifestation are the ones who consciously avoid making this mistake. As you read this post you will start unearthing a new perspective that you might not have considered before.

Your present reality is your making

Whatever you have right now in your life is perfect for you. In other words it couldn’t be different. Don’t get angry with me for saying that, I am just stating a fact. Your life exists in accordance with a simple law – what you believe on the inside becomes your reality on the outside. In fact, this is what “law of attraction” is at the core. So you are always directly responsible for your external reality. If your life is messed up, you are responsible for the mess. Blaming circumstances is a cope out. Look at the example below.

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They are both right. The chap on the left will keep getting evidences in his reality to prove his belief – he will get suffering and loneliness. The chap on the right will be flooded with proofs attesting his belief – he will get love, happiness and abundance. The universe is a mirror and it reflects back what you believe.

Your present belief structure or thought pattern has resulted in your current reality. If your reality sucks, you can change it. Real fast. Real quick. The solution is to change your mental model. Change your beliefs and your reality will change on its own. Don’t worry about the outside. Start with the inside; have a hard look at your beliefs and thought patterns. Your beliefs are well within your conscious control. They are in your circle of influence.

Look at the scenario below

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This chap, I call him “Hardworking Joe”, will never become rich. Now why would I say such a heartless thing? Two reasons

1. He is working so he can make money. His belief is that the more you work, the more money you make.
2. He thinks that there is a final destination to be arrived at. He says “Once I have a million I don’t have to work”.

It’s common for most people to fall into the trap of “work for money”. I know that’s what we were taught as kids – to get a job so we can earn money. But this model of thinking is highly inefficient. If you are stuck in a job you hate then ask yourself the big question – WHY? Because its pays your bills. But it also chokes you on the inside. What about a Win/Win situation where you love your job and it pays your bills? You might scoff at this suggestion as “impractical”. On the contrary it’s the most practical thing to do.

Two simple rules of reality will show you why “Hardworking Joe” up there will never become rich.

1. If your intention comes from place of desperation, you will have a hard time manifesting it.
2. You can never reach “a state” in the future, you can only be in that state in the present moment.

With respect to rule number 1, “Hardworking Joe” is obviously desperate for money. He thinks the harder he works the more money he gets. So guess what happens. He keeps getting more work because he believes that more work will get him his million. Indirectly he is saying “I need more work so I can make more money”.

The second rule states that there is no final destination to be reached in the future. If you believe something to be true, you will start living it in the present moment right now. The only time when you can exercise your power of choice is in the present moment – in the reality. Future is just a mind projection.

Stop “hoping it” and start “living it”

The past and the future are figments of your imagination. They don’t exist, except as a thought. The only thing that is “real” is the present. If your intent is to be a millionaire, you need to start behaving like one right now. Your reality may be the opposite of what you intend to be, for example you might be extremely poor or in debt. Nevertheless, start making small changes. Follow certain manners and habits of a millionaire. For instance, you can consciously stop thinking about the debts and the bills, a millionaire would never think about financial problems. To make a change in the external reality you have to first change your internal behavior. It has to be done very consciously and very deliberately.

The reason why you are not manifesting what you desire is because you don’t practice the above step. Anyone who is good at intention manifestation will agree that you can’t hope to get something in the future without making radical changes in the present. Start living in the present the way you want to live in the future. You can’t change your present reality completely, but work at small changes which are in your control. Your thoughts are in your control, so stop thinking thoughts which contradict the reality you want. Thinking thoughts of financial scarcity, while intending for financial abundance, will ensure that you never manifest abundance.

Enter the “law of fairness”

Now we dive into a perspective of law of attraction based on the model of “Self serving” VS “Serving the greater good”. Are you a naturally “giving” person or is your nature more inclined towards “getting” things for yourself. In simpler words are you a giver or a moocher? May be you are a bit of both. The nature of your intention may be towards “getting” or towards “giving”. For example, “I want a million” is an intention directed towards “getting” – it’s “self serving”, on the other hand an intention like “I want to write better so I can give value to people” is directed towards “giving” – it’s “service towards greater good”. Law of attraction will work the same way for both types of intentions but the consequences in each case would be different.

An intention of “getting” will result in a scenario where you would need to make a “pay back” to the universe for what you get. An intention of “giving” will result in a reality where you would be “paid back” by the universe. Are you able to detect the difference? It’s not subtle, it’s a major difference.

My financial disaster

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Not long back my primary intention was to “get” money. I was stuck in a job I hated because of the pay check. Money was very important to me; all my decisions and behaviors were based on acquiring more money. Books like the “Science of Getting Rich”, influenced me to use law of attraction to get more money into my life. It worked a charm. I was promoted, my pay was hiked, I bought a car and started living lavishly just as I had intended. I also became a spend thrift. It wasn’t long before I realized that I was no more happier now than I was before. In fact it got worse. My finances seemed to go downhill. My spending habit ensured that I ended up with huge debts. The reality became quite tragic – there was a lot of money in my life but most of it was debt and credits.

That’s when my life was all screwed up to the core. Back then, I was not aware of a simple law that you may not be aware of yourself. This law, I call it the “law of fairness” states – “You cannot get something without paying for it”. There is a link between the law of fairness and the law of attraction. Most people who advocate the “law of attraction” for intention manifestation forget to mention the “law of fairness”. Understanding this link is critical to manifesting your intentions.

In fact, I came across the “law of fairness” for the first time while reading “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen Covey. Something just clicked in place while I was reading about it. I suddenly realized the actual cause of my financial disaster.

The “law of attraction” says you can get whatever you want but the “law of fairness” states that a balance will be maintained between the “inflow” and the “outflow”. There seems to be a contradiction if you look at both the laws together; but in reality there is no contradiction at all. It is just a balancing mechanism. Everything in universe works in balance. If you get something you will have to give something back. If you give something it will naturally follow that you get value back.

The reason why most people fail with the “law of attraction” is because they forget the “law of fairness”. That’s the reason why their life feels all imbalanced even after their intention manifests, like it happened in my case. I got a lot of money but then I also entered into debts which I had to pay back. I hated my job and was not “giving” any useful value through my work; hence the condition of financial imbalance. The balance mechanism just operates naturally.

There is no getting around the “law of fairness”

The law of fairness governs our reality day in and day out without us even realizing it. It states simply that – “you can’t get something for nothing”. It looks unfair if you have a mooching mentality and believe in getting something without paying for it. But in truth, no matter how deviously you work your ploy, everything gets balanced quite quickly. What goes around comes around.

For example, let’s say I cheat someone off $100,000, or I got the money without giving an equivalent value in return. Now I start enjoying my life and think I’ve gotten away with it. I even believe that I deserve the money. Everything looks good for a few days and then the day of reckoning comes bounding by. I either learn my lesson and start paying back or enter into a loop of suffering and loss. The universe can be a harsh collector.

This may look negative from the perspective of “getting”. But it’s has disastrous consequences only when you are a “moocher”. The problem is that most people who use law of attraction for “getting” start exhibiting the “moocher” mentality.

You will get your million if you dedicate yourself to intention manifestation exercises of visualization and affirmation and when you start living congruent to your intention. You can fulfill all your desires, but when the time comes for pay back will you commit to it without any grievance? Or are you afraid of committing to such a thing? It’s a contract you have to sign naturally. You don’t get anything here for free, you pay back for every penny you receive – either by giving value or by losing your peace of mind. I wish I could have sugar coated what I said but am sure you realize the truth in it.

The analogy of “Star Wars”

Now I am going to draw an analogy to help you understand better. Have you seen Star Wars? You’ve not!!!! That’s ok, neither have I. But I know the concept of Star Wars, and it’s interesting because the principles depicted in this movie apply perfectly to real life. The movie shows the presence of “The Dark side” and “The Light Side”. I got this analogy from Steve Pavlina’s blog on polarity.

In simple words, you can belong to either the dark side or the light side as a person – but each side has its pros and cons (depending on the way you look at it). The dark workers are the greedy ones who want everything for themselves, all the pleasures and riches. They don’t mind trampling and killing others to get what they want. They are very powerful because they are clear in their mind about their purpose. They want something and they get it, because they do whatever it takes to attain it. But they suffer the consequences. That’s the reality of life also. You can’t get something without also accepting the consequence of what of you get.

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When you ask for a million (for self service or out of greed), you automatically end up on the dark side. You want something for yourself, for satisfying your pleasure quota, and demand it from the universe. You become a dark sider. If you are courageous enough to accept that you will have to face the consequences of such a demand, then you will get what you want almost immediately, in a few days or weeks. The universe will test you and see if you stay true to the commitment. You might even be asked to pay big prices such as losing a relationship. But you as a dark sider will honor the agreement and pay no heed to the consequences.

If you are reading this article, I have believe that you are not a dark sider (at heart) to start with. I’ve known dark siders, they are ruthless and they never care for a friendly conversations let alone a one-sided one. So rest assured, if you have read this far you are definitely light sider material. Look at the strip below, it shows the attitude of a light sider towards universe.

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Three essential characterstics of a light sider are illustrated clearly. He is full of Gratitute (no complaining), he loves Giving (when his heart resonates with the cause) and he receives the gifts of universe with grace and much appreciation (without a sense of apprehension).

A light sider is a giver. He gives value to people. He gives because he believes that he is one with the universe. Consider the example of all the open source developers. They give away their work and value for free for the betterment of others like you and me. I made these comic strips using Inkscape – which is a free software, developed, no doubt, by a community of “light siders”.

A Light sider inherently believes in the concept of “Oneness”. That we are the one consciousness not separate from each other in essence. Its like each of us is a cell forming a part of the larger body; so we are different in form but essentially we are part of the same body. When you resonate with this paradigm you will stop feeling hostile towards others because you realize that hating anyone is like hating yourself.

You are consciousness; you are not your body or mind. You are just pure awareness or being. That’s all there is. The one collective consciousness. When you give value to others, you are giving value to yourself. Would you ever give yourself something “second rate”? Wouldn’t you always want the best to yourself? Then why do run away from giving your best to others?

When you give, you are giving to the universe. Since you are part of the universe its like you are giving to yourself. The “best of me” is a very personal thing. What is “best” according to you may not be the standard of best for someone else. It does not matter; you should just look at giving your best. You can give your best value when you do something you are passionate about. It is impossible to give good value while working at a job you hate. If you are skeptical about the scenario that anyone would really want to give value to others without expecting something in return then you have not understood the principle of oneness.

How does law of attraction work for a light sider?

It works beautifully. The major difference between a dark sider and a light sider lies in the nature of the intentions. When your intentions come from the core paradigm of – How can I give more value to people? you operate on the level of a light sider or a giver. Now you are not looking to ask for more but you are intent in giving more. Humans are creative beings and we love to create. We are the happiest when we are creating from our heart. Any creation of yours is a value add for people around you if it comes from your heart center. When you give abundance and value to people you automatically start getting abundance in your life. But you primary intention is always “to create” not “to get”.

You can have a look at the articles on polarity and law of attraction that Steve Pavlina has written. His insights are what lead me on this “light sider path” in the first place. He is a light worker himself and believes in giving. He writes are lot of good content and everything is free on his website, even the podcasts. In fact once you become a light sider you will be stunned at the number of light siders you will encounter. May be its just that you are more aware of the giving qualities in others because of its predominance in you.

Don’t worry about getting just start giving

What if I give and get nothing in return? This fear stems from a scarcity mentality and it’s typical for you to be skeptical about it till you give it a try. Once you become a giver you will live in abundance everyday. Money will come along just to add to the abundance. Financial prosperity will not be your primary source of motivation at all. You feel abundant within because you are living creatively and you are contributing your best towards adding value to everyone.

This attitude brings a quality of richness in your life. Financial abundance will naturally follow. If you are worried about money, you are yet to become a complete light sider. The law of fairness works for the light sider this way – “If you give something you will definitely get it back (many times over)”. The giving has to come from your heart, else the whole purpose is defeated. You shouldn’t crib and complain about your giving. If your heart does not resonate with giving value to others then you are still stuck in the scarcity mentality.

Everyone has a potential to contribute

You might say “I think I am gonna have a hard time being a light sider. I don’t know what to give, I don’t have anything of value”. You think this way because you have set an external standard for yourself. Don’t compare your capacity to give. Each person is unique in his creative abilities. Use your potential for creative expression. For starters you can always do some community service.

When you give love, you are giving value to others. When you give information, you are giving value to others. When you entertain, you are giving value to others. Telling a good joke and bringing a few smiles is value. Start small. Then ask yourself the big question “How can I give my best value?” The natural question to follow would be “What is my best potential, what is it that I am really good at or what is it that I really love doing and how can I use it to give value to others?” The answers will come if your intentions are genuine. If your intentions are tainted with the ulterior purpose of making more money for yourself or being greedy then be assured that you won’t get the right guidance.

The path of a light sider

There is a joy in giving. You will be amazed at what is waiting for you out there. May be you don’t have a penny in your pocket right now but you will still feel rich when you follow this paradigm. You have the capacity to give so how can you be poor? In fact once you start giving away from the heart, financial abundance will follow as a natural consequence. Money will not even be important to you anymore and you will look at using the money to give better value to people. The bottom line is that your life becomes one of abundance and richness. You will realize that feeling rich and happy has nothing to do with money.

So have you made up your mind on what type of intentions you will send out from here on?

You have to decide or else you will go through a life of oscillating between the two sides and that’s a lot of suffering. Does the paradigm of helping people by giving them the best of you make you feel immensely motivated? If it does, then you are a confirmed light sider. You know what to do from here. Remember that your source of guidance is the universe itself.

Are You Steeped in Food Lust

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 10:51 am GMT -5 . Posted in Natural Hygiene, Personal Development

Eating has become an entertainment, an addiction, a pain-reliever, an emotional cushion and a severe form of lust – few will pardon the sacrilege of calling their food consumption a carnal greedy sensual indulgence, they will put on an expression of injured pride and might even threaten physical violence at such an idea, but if they keep a log of how they are pigging away every moment on foods which serve to satisfy nothing more than their perverted sense of taste, developed through years of numbing their delicate taste buds on highly spiced and salted foods, they will find it hard to come up with an excuse to dispute this allegation.

We eat when we are bored, we eat when we are depressed, we eat when we have nothing else to do, we eat while socializing, we eat when we are not hungry, we eat while watching TV, we eat while talking on the phone, we eat while watching a movie, we eat while waiting, we eat in anger, we eat for stimulation, we eat to suppress loneliness, we eat to forget a break up, we eat because we think we should, we eat because our parents ask us to… the list can go on. We, in our present mental condition, would rather eat than live healthy. It is not rare to hear an addicted snacker (the typical overeater of junk) scoff at the idea of eating healthy food using self sabotaging expressions like – who the heck wants health, it’s for morons. The truth is, and anyone who is still in touch with their inner voice would agree, that we want to be healthy, we want to live a long life, we hate being ill, we hate being depressed and most of all we hate feeling ugly inside (and outside).

Stop making excuses

So why are we making shameless excuses to cloak the evident truth that we are a generation steeped in the practice of what might be called “food lust”. We hardly ever eat for nutrition; the very act of eating the various pungent, spiced up, salt laced, sauce rich foods can be compared to a lusty indulgence or craving for stimulation. Aren’t we naturally supposed to eat what’s tasty? Yes of course, provided your taste buds have not been perverted through years of eating salted and stingingly spicy foods. I have not personally tested the authenticity of this fact but it has been said that a baby spits out salted food the first few times it is fed. Of course, with time, the infant realizes that it has to make a choice between eating this salt laden and artificially sweetened food or starving to death. So it starts eating the unnatural food, processed powdered foods and other concoctions that the modern day health industry shamelessly calls baby food, only to develop a perverted sense of taste as time goes by.

Spices, sauces, herbs, salts and other condiments like vinegar are essentially responsible for cheating our taste buds into accepting foods that are unnatural to us humans; it’s no surprise that we are a generation that looks reverently at doctors, seeking medical consultation for disorders brought upon through subjecting our body to toxic substances eaten in the name of “tasty food”. In our ignorance we consume pills, tablets, tonics and powders prescribed by our family physician, whose very profession thrives on unhealthy people, only to end up taxing the body further. Now the already ill body has to content with chemical salts (we call medicines) along with toxic food. You can overcome the symptoms of an illness through numbing the vitality of the body by taking strong medicines but doing so will terribly weaken it in the long run. Disease is not what the body inflicts on you, it’s the other way round – you inflict the body with disease (in the name of food). It is only trying to get rid of the toxins; this activity manifests in the form of a fever, cold, diarrhea, vomiting, head aches, acnes and other types of inflammations – its best not to suppress this act of elimination.

Are you waiting for statistics?

You don’t need statistics to prove that overeating is deadly. But the medical research industry, that has plenty time to conduct painful experiments on rats, has confirmed that overeating is easily the single largest reason for cancer. If we were to overeat on natural foods the conditions would be far less alarming, but unfortunately we find ourselves gorging on extremely unhealthy processed and spiced up cooked food. Anything which is processed, either through cooking or drying, is already denatured on top of it we add layers of unhealthy spices and seasonings to make it worse. Cooking removes the natural flavors of the vegetables and denatures most of the nutrients. Naturally it would be impossible to eat cooked food in the absences of add-ons salts and spices – but in essence we are just cheating our systems. No sane person would consider eating a mouthful of spices or table salt, but he wouldn’t mind consuming several ounces of the same when mixed with his food. There is essentially no difference – a poison stays a poison even if it is well cloaked in the name of taste.

I moved from eating animal foods to eating a purely vegetarian cooked food diet a few months back. I realized that though it was less harmful to eat vegetarian cooked food compared to non-vegeratian food it was still far from optimal because I was still eating denatured cooked food combined with unhealthy spices. I moved over to a complete raw food diet consisting purely of sweet fruits, dry fruits, nuts and a small portion of raw vegetables. It’s a fact that our body does not digest vegetables well (we are starch eaters), we are essentially frugivorous (fruit eaters). I saw a huge boost in my well being with each change I made. Before I started out on raw food I was suffering from severe acid reflux problems, joint pains and back aches. After a few weeks of detox, that I had to tolerate, my body regained its vitality and I have been healtier. I have feeling that my mental clarity has reached new levels as has my immunity and strength. I can subsist easily on small amounts of food because these natural foods, fruits and vegetables, are packed with living energy. Do I have cravings for cooked food? Certainly; it takes time to get over the addiction of cooked food, but I have a pretty strong motivation to never succumb to these cravings – the benefits I am enjoying while eating natural far out weight a few uncomfortable cravings every now and then, which I am sure will subside with time – I have only been on a complete raw food for the past one month.

Just because everyone does it…

Why do we depend upon unhealthy food to help us through when we feel emotionally low? It could be an expression of self sabotage or it could be because it helps us numb our brain. Digesting junk food takes a huge toll on the body with most of the blood draining from our brain towards the stomach – this results in a feeling of numbness or light headedness. It’s akin to taking drugs or alcohol to escape the pain caused by an emotional situation we’d rather not face. In the long run, these escape mechanism do us more harm than good as we end up developing life threatening addictions. Overeating may look harmless on the surface due the fact that we find evidence of this behavior in most of our peers, friends, family, causing us to believe that it’s normal. The common argument being – I love food, everyone overeats, why should I be left out? Its like saying since everyone is jumping off the building so will I. Most Romans practiced food orgies where it was common to self induce vomiting to eat more food – just because everyone followed this practice did not make it normal.

If you value your well-being start eating consciously and conscientiously. By consciously I mean – eat when you are hungry, and by conscientiously I mean – eat healthy. Stop making eating into a habit. The body needs nutrition and it can well be served by eating small quantities of natural foods like fruits, vegetables and nuts. Not only is it easy to digest but its also free of toxins.

You will never overeat on natural foods, eating a small portion of fruits is filling because of its high water content. Fruits quickly restore the sugar levels in the body as they are made up of units of glucose, called fructose, that are easily assimilated. It is far easier to eat several pounds of meat than to eat a few ounces of nuts or fruits. The former is toxic and yields very little nutrition, the latter is natural, highly nutritious and easily digested.

It’s your life

Most people who are emotionally attached to their food will certainly feel resistance welling up inside them at the very thought of accepting the truth about the toxicity of their daily consumption. The truth is often bitter, especially when we are close-minded, but with time it makes its point evident. Do you really need scientific statistics to convince yourself of the deadly effects of eating fried, spiced and fermented foods? Is it not evident in your own body or in the body of the others around you? Isn’t the onset of diabetes, high blood pressure, rheumatism, arthritis and cases of cancer of various forms rising alarmingly enough for us to stop and take stock of the real cause? For how long will you stay blinded to the truth and blame factors like genes for the condition you have brought upon yourself. Every body, if taken care of properly, has the immunity to survive any disease but when we allow the body to rot inside, by eating wrong, it won’t be long before we succumb to the onslaught of degenerate ailments.

Your digestive system was meant to last for as long as you live. Allow it some rest and recuperation time by declining food when not hungry and eating healthy natural food as much as possible if not entirely. Some people have no idea why the surgeon is talking about cutting off a few inches of their colon or stomach, due to tissue putrefaction or cancer; if you are wondering how this condition came about I will give you a little hint – overeating. The choice is yours.

Creative Self Expression – Following the Path of Heart

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 10:39 am GMT -5 . Posted in Personal Development, Success

Have you noticed that most people who seek spirituality, to attain permanent bliss, are the ones who are dissatisfied with their career? The pursuit of spiritual happiness is no different from that of materialism. The end goal of both pursuits is to attain a state of joy and inner peace. It’s been said that mind causes our suffering. Is it possible for humans to be free of their minds? Well, enlightenment points to exactly such a state. In truth, the only time we ever achieve no-mind is while sleeping or after death. There is one more condition in which we exist in a no-mind state – when we are completely engrossed in what we are doing oblivious to time. Seeking a state of no-mind is akin to pursuing happiness. No-mind is just a metaphor for the state of bliss that is attained when incessant suffering caused by negative mind activity comes to an end. The state of no-mind is that of pure happiness. Wouldn’t all of us love to attain that state?

A good ten years of my life were spent chasing inner peace or enlightenment. I constantly felt a deep sense of meaninglessness in my life. In my quest for enlightenment, I read several books on spirituality and watched many videos by spiritual gurus – in fact the only thing I did not do was end up in an ashram or a retreat. I experienced a lot of peace while listening to these gurus. Their inner peace radiated from their being and touched everyone in their presence. We have the capacity to sense peace, just as we can sense anger, in another person. The people who visit spiritual gurus are mostly addicted to this experience of peace. Unfortunately it is pseudo-peace they experience, because this peace is not emanated from within but from an external source. In fact we can feel the same peace while listening to a bird singing or watching a sunset. In essence there are two ways that you can experience peace – from inside and from outside. Most of us go through our lives seeking peace that emanates from “the outside” because we lack an understanding of how to realize our inner peace.

Have you noticed that each one of us seems to have a way of expressing ourselves creatively? I’ve not met one person who does not possess something creative inside him/her. A few means of expressing creatively are – talking, singing, writing, painting and creating music. Let’s take the example of talking as a means of creative expression. Have you ever heard Eckhart Tolle or Adyashanti talk? There is a power in their speech and it’s peaceful to hear them. They are also people who are completely at peace with themselves. So what is the rationale behind their peace or inner calm? Have they become Buddhas? What does it mean to be a Buddha? Most of us are aware of the symptoms of enlightenment but few of us are aware of the cause. If I were to ask you – What causes enlightenment? You will most probably talk vaguely about entering a state of no-thought and no-self. As far as the definition of enlightenment goes it’s just about feeling at one with everything around us and existing in a state of pure awareness. It’s not a state to be achieved but a state to be lived in. Buddha mentioned that mind is the cause of suffering. Tolle points to this state as pure awareness. Adyashanti talks about the emptiness within. Can we mere mortals achieve this state at all?

Let’s look at it a little logically instead of accepting all these claims on blind faith. The only way to know you are enlightened is to experience enlightenment. Without the actual experience everything is just theory or concept, a mass of words. The only way we can experience anything is through thoughts, feelings and sense perceptions. If enlightenment is the absence of thoughts or detachment from thoughts then we must experience enlightenment through our feelings. Our most natural state is that of pure awareness and that is what enlightenment points to. Have you ever, at any point of your life, experienced this state of pure awareness or emptiness? I think you have. Remember the time when you were so immersed in a novel or so deeply involved in a project of your liking that you forgot the world existed? What did it feel like? I am sure you were so engrossed in what you were doing that you lost track of time, the past and the future stopped to exist, there was a complete detachment from the body and mind; you existed as pure awareness itself – the state of enlightenment.

So there you have it? Next time someone asks you if you have experienced enlightenment you can tell them you have. You don’t need to go to a spiritual teacher for this. For most spiritual gurus this is more or less a business; but there are definitely a few teachers who are actually following their true calling. In my own experience it’s easy to find out the fake gurus – just listen to them and see if you can feel peace within, you won’t. On the other end of the spectrum, teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Adyashanti are just following their inner calling – this was their life’s purpose. They creatively express their teachings in words that are soothing to the soul. They are adding tremendous value to people’s lives. It is not even important that you agree to what they are saying; their words convey a sense of peace by themselves. They receive due value back, but they are not in this business for money. It’s just that they are following the path of heart. Are they truly enlightened – Yes, its hard not to be enlightened when you are following your heart.

Have you got the secret to enlightenment yet? These gurus are not kidding you when they say that enlightenment is a state were there is no mind, a state where you stop existing as a body mind entity, a state of pure awareness. Unfortunately people are out there trying to achieve enlightenment using the outside-in approach. They are trying to simulate a state of no-mind through practices like meditation and Jappa. There is nothing wrong with these practices at all but they can only provide temporary peace – may be you experience bliss for a few moments when you become intensely immersed in your practice but you lose it the moment you open your eyes. You really don’t need to do so much meditation – in my dictionary the best meditation is a peaceful sleep, no meditation experience can get better than that for sure. Stop deluding yourself that you can achieve enlightenment by practicing discipline, that’s nonsense. If you hold your breath and go deep inside your body, you will get nothing but pain. Most spiritual teachers who are at peace with themselves have no clue why they feel that way and so they fail to convey the cause to their audience – the reason why there at peace is because they one with their life’s purpose.

Let me ask you a simple question, if you take a spiritual guru, who is completely at peace, and put him in a software development firm, ask him to learn programming, give him project work and deadlines and hold one-on-one meetings with him every few minutes to discuss his progress – would he feel at peace? No way. He’ll find the environment too hostile for peace and would be petrified at the prospect of spending his life coding and fixing software bugs. Most spiritual gurus specify that enlightenment has less to do with “doing” and more to do with “being”; I would like to modify this statement a bit, the way I experience it – Enlightenment is all about being one with what you are doing. This becomes even more important when we consider the fact that most of our adult life is spent “doing” our work. That’s why we can be looking for enlightenment outside our work. We all have an inherent need to create and we can’t be at peace unless we are creating from the heart.

When you follow your heart, you will have inner joy as a constant companion. If you don’t agree I will prove you wrong with just one example from your own life – Tell me the one time you lost track of time and got detached from your body-mind identity – wasn’t it when you were immersed in doing something you loved? You always had the secret of enlightenment right there. You have been pounding on a door which was never locked in the first place. Enlightenment happens when you are totally immersed in creatively expressing yourself. It could be anything even wild dancing, as long as your heart is immersed in it. Stephen King, the famous author, said that he felt a natural calm and peace while writing. Writing becomes the medium through which Stephen King experiences enlightenment. He is at peace with himself when he is writing because that is his calling. So what about when he is not writing? Well the peace that flows through you when you are in alignment with your purpose rides you through most other aspects of daily living – in fact everything else becomes secondary.

Why are so many people pursuing enlightenment these days? The answer is simple – they are out of touch with their inner calling. They don’t know what they have to do and so they keep themselves busy pursuing “something” called enlightenment which promises bliss. They want to achieve a state of no mind to escape the voice of their heart. Instead of just listening to the heart they want to shut down their mind. Lot of people on drugs would tell you they feel bliss; in fact there are several so called “wise men” in India who take drugs to feel spiritual. Drugs help you reach a state of semi-consciousness, where the voice of your heart becomes quiet or numb – and they mistake it for inner bliss. Today we have found several means of trampling our inner voice like – watching TV, drinking and eating junk food. Don’t shut your heart down; it’s your only guide to bliss and happiness. Creative expression will take you along the path of joy, but it has to be something that your heart wants not what your conditioned mind has been programmed to want (metaphorically speaking).

How do I find my calling? Ok here is a small tip – find out what you enjoyed doing as a kid and you might get a clue towards what your true calling is. Did you enjoy doing math as a kid? No? Then why are stuck in a bank doing finances? That’s self torture. You will never experience inner joy even if you visit a thousand gurus unless you first quit your job as a banker and find something you love doing. Forget what the so called career gurus talk about – work should be fun. More than 60% of your adult life would be spent working, do you really want to be stuck doing something you don’t love, something you don’t enjoy or feel passionate about?

Ignore the sadistic practical minded career-oriented people who ask you to chase money. They are living a miserable life themselves and they want you to suffer along with them. Most of them scoff at the words “creative expression”. Career according to them is a long path of boredom and monotony where you fulfill your responsibilities as a mature adult. That’s just pure nonsense. The best way you can ever contribute to people around you is through creative self expression. Find out what you would love doing and try to pursue it without fear – expertise will come with time. I have known people who make a fortune selling T-shirts – you know how? They put their creativity into it; they come up with really funny or thought provoking one-liners to paste on the T-shirts. They add value to people’s lives by entertaining them. No work is small or big, it’s just what you make of it. The one true way of living happily is to follow your heart – nothing else will ever bring you a semblance of joy, money won’t, relationships won’t, pursuit of spirituality won’t.

All that’s fine Senthil but I really don’t know how to listen to my heart, I don’t know what its saying. Let me answer you bluntly – you are just afraid of listening to what your heart is saying. Most of us have gone so far down the wrong road that a U-turn and a long ride back is inevitable – but I assure you the ride back is worth it. You just need to be present listening to your heart’s voice instead of switching on the TV or popping a can of beer? When was the last time you truly sensed your inner feelings? Stay “in the now” at least for a few minutes and you will get a glimpse of the suffering within you. Live with it longer and it will start speaking for itself. It takes a few weeks to get good at it; initially when you try to stay present your mind will immediately take over and give you a thousand reasons “why you cannot stay in the present for a few seconds”. Ignore the mind and just stay present. You don’t have to think about solutions – you will be guided by your higher intelligence. How do I know this works? It worked for me. I shifted close to 5 careers before finding out that all I wanted to do was write and give value to people through my writing. I may not be an expert at writing right now, and I might have to work on several drafts before getting a post right, but I will get better with time. Few months down the line I would be a much better writer than what I am today, but that is not important. The important thing is that I am following my heart. I don’t worry about critics – they are doing what they love, so let them. You just carry on doing what you feel passionate about and everything else will fall in place with time.

I have been chasing enlightenment like mad for most past of the past 2 years, I’ve had all the over-the-mountain experiences as well as the experience of non-duality, I totally agree with the spiritual teachers when they say that we are pure awareness. That’s what we are and we are creative. Awareness always wants to create – It created a very beautiful universe to start with, I think that’s a small clue towards our own urge for creative self expression. We are nothing but pure awareness and so we feel the happiest when we are creating beautifully. Follow your heart because it is the compass which will point your mind in the right direction. Once you find your true calling or true passion, you will never seek enlightenment again – joy will be a part of who you are.

The Courage to Stay in the Now

Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 10:37 am GMT -5 . Posted in Personal Development, Success

This post will make more sense to people who have read “The Power of Now” and are on the path of practicing it. If you have never heard of the practice of staying in the now, you must read this book. It’s written by Eckhart Tolle and has some powerful insights on how to overcome the delusion created by mind. The message is very straightforward and can be summarized in a few words – “The mind is delusional and most part of human suffering is caused by our habitual identification with thoughts and emotions. Once we disassociate from thoughts we become pure consciousness. This is a state of true power. Staying present frees you from the hold of thoughts. Past and future give power to the mind. Staying present gives power to your being and this is our most natural state.”

People who practice “presence” soon realize that it is far from easy. The mind has a way of sneaking in through the back door. Initially it is difficult to stay present for more than a few seconds even in a relatively peaceful setting. Our preoccupation with ego or the mind, and its induced negativity, is so strong that we feel terrified in its absence. It feels abnormal not to be continually engaged in thinking about the past and the future. We even rationalize our negative thoughts defending them as necessary for survival; of course this is only the mind talking. Most people eventually give up practicing the power of now because they think it’s too tiresome and draining, they fall back into their unconscious way of living. There is a sense of foreboding and lack of identity which quickly bring them back to their thoughts when ever they try practicing staying in presence. Living in the mind can feel secure due to our life long association with it but it is also the root cause of our suffering and pain. For most part the mind is busy churning of negative thoughts – there is either an anxiety about the future or resentment of the past. This leads to inaction and a state of numbing fear. Some people convert their fear into anger and cause suffering to others around them while some succumb to their fears and withdraw into their sanctum of downing unhealthy food, alcoholic drinks and narcotics.

I went through these stages when I started practicing staying in the now. It was a major shift for me and it was extremely powerful to stay in consciousness but it was also very difficult to break the habit of continual thinking. I would stay present for a few seconds and then drift into thoughts without even noticing the transition; it was very frustrating initially but I realized there was no way around it. Any new skill requires practice and we get better at it with time. Staying in the now was no different, it was an extremely powerful transformational tool but it required persistence to break the old habits of dwelling in the secure realm of negative thoughts. I persisted because of the acute suffering I was surrounded in, the peace I felt while staying in the now was like a haven amidst bogs. I was getting better at staying in the now more frequently even if the interval I actually stayed present was not more than a few seconds. I saw myself making some massive changes in my life, breaking old behavior patterns. That most significant change I started noticing was that I was less prone to anger and frustration especially while driving through the chock blocked roads to my office – this was a major change for me because I would usually indulge in road rage, cursing and swearing at each traffic jam. It was becoming a habit to enter into the now whenever I felt negativity rising within me even while working in the office. With time I started getting better at staying present for a couple of minutes or more. I would sit in complete awareness of my surroundings and stay in that state for a few minutes without thoughts rushing through my mind. I started practicing staying in the now while walking through crowded malls and public places – before I used to get irritated walking through crowded avenues but now there was a sense of oneness with the people around me because there was no voice in the head complaining about how slowly the bloke in front of me was walking. I realized through my own experience that we tend to find negatives in the best of situations. It’s not the situation itself which is ever the problem, situations are neutral, and it’s just our interpretation or thought about it which makes us suffer. We feel it’s normal to think negatively in certain circumstances, but that’s just ego talking. When we resist the present we resist life itself, suffering is the only end result.

I had no idea how unconsciously I had been living till I started practicing the power of now. This did not make my life easy though because now I came face to face with the fears which I had so conveniently pushed under the rug. Most people stop practicing the power of now sooner or later because they lack the courage to confront the fears that are exposed while staying conscious. When you stay in the now you cannot run or hide from your fears any longer; confrontation is the only deal available. A fear you decide not to confront will lower you conscious and take you back to the sphere of unconscious living. The most massive fear that reared its head in front of me was to come to terms with the fact that I had no interest in continuing my job. I was totally dispassionate about the field I was in (software engineering) and this feeling was dragging me down everyday. I had no idea what I really wanted to do but I was certain that software engineering was among the things I really did not want to do anymore. Staying fully present in the office made me realize just how energy-sapping my job was, the negative energy I felt while working became too evident. I tried to suppress my consciousness because the thought of quitting my job was too terrifying but little did I know that there was no getting back now. Once you become conscious of your fear, the only way you can stay in the present would be to face that fear everything else you do would push you into unconsciousness. I had to make the choice of going back to my state of unconscious living (if it was possible) or to accept the challenges of staying conscious. I went for the latter, its one thing to stay unconscious and totally different thing to stay unconscious after you’ve become conscious. I started considering the various options I had beyond working at this job. Around this time my brother started his own business in the field of internet marketing, I had no idea what this field entailed but I was ready to try it out as it would give me an opportunity to quit my present job. I followed through on my decision, it was tough and there were several fears to face along the way but staying present was becoming easier for me and it gave me the courage to make it through. It’s a paradox that it takes a lot of courage to stay in the present but once you accomplish it life gives you the courage to break through the inhibiting patterns that hold you down, it’s a positive cycle – a snowball effect if you will.

Are you having a hard time staying rooted in the present? You might want to ask yourself a hard question: Am I avoiding confronting a certain fear? It could be that your consciousness makes you aware of a dead relationship you need to end and move on, but you find it terrifying to take this action. We are so used to negative patterns in our life that we start deluding ourselves thinking that it’s normal. The truth is that it’s not normal to suffer; sooner or later you will have to face the consequence of continuing the negative patterns in your life. Just by ducking your head in the sand like an ostrich will not make your problems go away. The fears will haunt as long as you let them. When you decide to confront them you realize they were just harmless phantoms of your imagination with no concrete substance. Staying in the now is a power transformational tool because it helps you face your fears. The liberation and sense of joy you get when you finally break through the energy sapping fears of your life is well worth the courage you must invest in facing them. Staying in the now is not easy because it questions the negative patterns you had built in your largely unconscious life. Staying present will guide you back to the path of heart but you must have courage. It takes the same energy to suffer as it takes to build the courage to take action. What will you choose?

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