Morning Mindfulness - Two Positive Minutes To Start Your Day

I started practicing Hatha Yoga in 1983, and had been teaching since 1986 until about 2008. The number one reason I stopped was time limitation. In 1980s and early 90s I could practice one hour of Yoga and four hours of martial arts every day. But I don’t have this luxury at this time. Since the foundation of my practice has always been martial arts, I chose to take that Path.

We are so programmed by the society to say negative things that we don’t even think. And if we say them, then we program our brain to say and to hear that. As I said before, our brain does not care. If you say you are not doing good, guess what? You won’t. Brain will make you feel not so good even if you were doing great. Now you get a vicious circle. The only way out is to start saying positive things even if it sounds weird first. 

Our brain does not have moral judgment. It simply believes what it hears long enough. There’s an old saying I heard as a kid: “Tell a man 100 times he is a pig, and he will oink.”  So, what are we allowing to go into our ears? You might have heard the saying that our success is found right between our ears. And we are responsible for programming what is there. And if we don’t, then somebody else will do it for us. 

Our life is a sum total of what we put into our brain. There’s so much junk around us: internet, TV, news, you name it. There’s something constantly in front of our eyes. What is it?    One of my coaches taught me to learn to control three gates to my life. Today we’ll talk about one of them: the eye gate.

Our mind has ability to draw our attention to whatever we are thinking about. Moreover, if we don’t possess what we’re thinking about constantly, our mind will find ways to get it.  I think this phenomenon has been used in every religion and philosophy I am aware of. It is also used as the main mechanism for personal transformation and achieving goals. Any goals, basically.

My friends, there’s no such a thing as drifting without a goal. If I go for a stroll with no specific destination, then my goal is just to have a walk. If somebody is drifting in life, then it was their decision, conscious or unconscious. However, this can be changed practically at any time. This week I will talk about that. Until then, answer one questions for yourself: are you honestly in life where you want to be? Financially, Spiritually, Health-wise, etc.

What I found out, in most of cases we are given a freedom of choice. If I like to see the World a better place, I better become the change I want to see. If I want something better in my life, in most of the cases I have a choice to make it happen. If I like a better job, it is up to me to get it. How? I will talk about it in my episodes about personal growth.

I’ve learned many years ago a simple mantra: for all things say thanks. Not just for things that are pleasant. Not just for something we like. And the reason I am grateful for everything, is that I doubt I will ever know the alternatives.      I’ve learned not to complain about things I don’t have, but be grateful for the things I do have. I may not have something I like, but somebody somewhere is happy with much less than what I have.

The teacher said, “Always do the best you can, take what’s available of what you want, don’t say YES or NO, study what can be studied and know the balance in everything. This should be enough to understand the rest."     This is a foundation of the Middle Path the way I am trying to follow it. How do we know when enough is enough? I know, my border line has been changing for the past 30 years. And it keeps changing.

Perfectionism often gives up easily on things that cannot be achieved with a straight line approach. As a kid, I did not do many kid’s activities, maybe because I was not perfect at them, and I was so afraid being criticized by other kids. So I’d rather do something that I was sure I was perfect at. And I rejected everything else.     Perfectionism is an Ego trip. It sets unrealistic expectations and blinds people not letting them see other opportunities. 

Einstein wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its life believing that it is stupid."     Remember, whatever you learn to do, there will be always somebody who will do it better than you. Except one thing: nobody will ever be better than you in being you.

My friends, we are going through a life-long learning experience. Everybody and everything in our life can become a teacher. We will never have a deficit of training material and examples. Just look around and pay attention.      The main question is what are we learning?

I like comparing our mind with a child. When we tell kids not to do something, they will either do it when we’re not watching, or it may create a conflict.     The same happens to our mind. Sometimes we may get a thought. Especially a negative thought. And it just stays in our mind, we cannot get rid of it. The more we try not to think of it, the more we think. Like, don’t think about pink elephant.

I see so many people following traditions not even knowing why they do what they do. It does not necessarily mean bad. Many schools have very structured approach. They have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years. I’ve been learning several very structured traditions myself. But I'm always trying to figure out how each element of tradition came about and why. Is it still relevant today?

If you are on the Path of mindfulness, if you are developing your mind, body & spirit, there’s one the most significant, in my opinion, question you have to answer: are you just fooling yourself unintentionally?

One of the main issues I see today is that we live in a fast pace “microwave” society. We want everything yesterday. Many people look at meditation as a headache pill: take it now and it starts working five minutes ago. 

Water. Look at it: it is soft and flexible enough to run around even tiny obstacles, but it is powerful and persistent to create a Grand Canyon. 

We do things mechanically, we trust our previous experience, and subconsciously we expect a certain outcome. But what if we miss something?    - BANG! - we throw ourselves out of balance by using our own intent. This may cost us a lot, and not just money.

There’s a concept of lateral thinking. It suggests that we explore all possible solutions. Even sometimes they may sound like total bizarre. You don’t have to go in depth, just think so you exercise your creativity. Or at least you may be able to identify and prevent possible problems if only you ask yourself one question: "what if…?” 

In my classes I am teaching about being the Water. What am I trying to get out of it? To me, being like water means don’t over-react, don’t resist, be flexible, take any shape you need, but still be who you are.