How Do You Make People Feel?

"People will forget what you said, People will forget what you did, But they will never forget how you made them feel."  - Maya Angelou.

How many times have you been inspired or expired as a result of what someone said to you? But check, was it really what they said, or the feeling you were left with as a result of their presence and words?

And have you ever stopped to ask yourself how you make other people feel? We are conscious of the feeling we are left with as a result of peoples words and behaviours, but how often do we reflect on the impact we have on others?

Kindness and hostility are not words they are feelings. As we recollect our childhood memories, what left the greatest impact? It was perhaps the teachers reassurance or the bullys taunt. All words have flown away, yet those feelings have stayed locked in our soul til today.

It is often said that words are only 7% of our communication. Tone, intonation, body language, a persons presence and their reputation etc. are so many other aspects that speak to us at the same time as their words.

When throngs of people come to listen to a famous guru or a management pundit, that is not his or her time to impress the people. He or she has done that work beforehand which is why the followers have arrived; wanting to soak in more. And impress is a key word a positive impression has been left on the followers souls.

But how do we deal with negative impressions being cast our way? There was another very powerful lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who claimed: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. So this raises the question: Is the one throwing the feeling more powerful, or the one catching it?

I tend to agree with Eleanor! No one can make us feel anything because consciously or unconsciously we choose our responses. It is us who give our power over to the other party, like tossing over our heart to them for them to play with the strings as they wish.

I believe that when Maya spoke her wise words, she was intending for us to take heed of our deeds and to ensure that we leave good feelings in others at all times. And when Eleanor spoke hers, it was to safeguard us against what others are throwing our way. Both are equally important.

Our actions and our aura speak louder than our words. One way to check this would be to ask: are people happier when we arrive, or when we leave? If we are always giving others respect, honor and a good feeling in general, then who would not want to be around us? If on the other hand we always condemn and criticize, people will run a mile. If our words are sweet but our thoughts are not, guess what is being picked up most of the time?

We also need to remember that we are all mirrors for one another. What I see in others is a reflection of what is within myself. This is one of the reasons why the yogi will always aim to see the positive in others rather than look at their faults. It helps us to be more positive and allows them to rise to that vision for themselves.

It is our duty as spiritual beings to choose to create the highest vibration at all times to create good feelings and benevolent wishes for all. It begins with ourselves.

In the end, everything is about feelings. We all do what we do because we want to feel something powerful, peaceful, loved, appreciated, honored. The essence of life is to express and experience the highest and most uplifting feelings.

Its time to check: Are people happier when we arrive or when we leave? People will not remember what you say, but they will remember how you make them feel, glad or sad!

- By Aruna Ladva, London

Raksha Bandhan Celebration - 2014

Today's Step To Become REAL Human Being - 'No Task Too Difficult'

If you do everything with the feeling of happiness, there will be no task too difficult to perform.

Stability

When we are faced with difficult situations, we usually tend to have a feeling that we have no resources or are not able to make the best use of the resources within for best results. Thus we are not able to experience real progress. On the other hand we only tend to experience a lot of negative feelings. When we learn the art of being stable in the most negative situations, we will know how to use the treasures that are hidden within ourselves. Our mind is no longer disturbed with waste or negative thoughts and we find it easy to face and learn from each and every situation.

A Spiritual Perspective Of True Love

Emotional love can flower into true love when the fire of emotions cools down and is substituted by a wiser and more mature relationship. True love needs a fresh and renewing atmosphere, without fears. When you feel spiritually full, you feel flowing over with pleasure, happiness, wellbeing, and that state helps you to accept the one whom you love as they are, because from your fullness you give and share and you don't need or expect anything from the other. While you need something that you want the other to satisfy, you will have expectations and the fear that those needs might not be satisfied, and you will get frustrated more easily. When you feel like a being of peace, a being of love, a tranquil being, a being that is spiritually full and satisfied, your relationship with others is a relationship of sharing on a level on which fear is not generated. You are not asking for or taking anything from the other. An elevated sharing of love, of happiness, of knowledge, of wisdom takes place, in which you do not generate a dependency on the other.

Attachments and dependencies, fears and insecurity, block our experience of love, of peace, serenity, freedom, happiness. When you have a feeling of love that takes you to a state of joy, to wholeness, but then you attach yourself to the object of your love, be it a person, or a property, automatically the feeling changes into fear: you fear to lose the object of your love and, instead of feeling wholeness and enjoyment, you feel fear.

Over time that attachment turns into a dependency and you start to become inwardly empty: that is, your energy level goes down. Love in its purest form is a like a spring that pours forth for the benefit of others. Learn the art of loving, being free and allowing to be. Pure, true, love is an unconditional love that flows freely. Do not cling (hold on to). Love does not cling.

Soul Sustenance

Creative Visualization

The incorporeal (non-physical) soul, situated in the centre of the forehead consists of three energies. Although each energy can be given a different name, it is actually the same energy, the soul, functioning on three different levels at the same time. These are the mind, which is the thinking faculty (energy) of the soul; the intellect, which is the decision-making and visualizing faculty (energy) of the soul and the personality characteristics, commonly called sanskaras.

In the practice of meditation, on one hand, the mind is used to create pure, positive and powerful thoughts or affirmations based on the basic qualities of the soul like peace, contentment, happiness, love, joy, power, etc. Along with that, the intellect is used to create visual images of the same thoughts, which is called creative visualization. This process brings about a positive change in our sanskaras. This is the basic principle used in the Rajyoga meditation taught by the Brahma Kumaris. Creative visualization may be used in various ways to experience true relaxation of the mind.

Message for the day

With benevolent feelings and good wishes we can free people from worrying.

Projection: When we come across someone who is faced with a difficult situation because of which he is worrying, we too usually tend to think about it. Instead of helping the other person to be free from worrying, we too begin to worry. This doesn't help either of us in anyway but only adds to the negativity of the situation.

Solution: We need to develop such benevolent feelings for the one who is going through the situation that the power of our positive feelings will spread to them too. It will act like the light of the lamp, which helps to dispel the darkness around. Only when there is positivity in the mind will they be able to think of some solution.

Talk By Brother Charlie: A Future without Fear

The Anatomy of Change

Change happens on three levels. First - within our self, over which we have total control. Second - in the thoughts and behaviors of others, over which we have no control, but perhaps some influence. And third - in the big wide world out there, over which we have no control and almost no influence.

Obvious Truth: An obvious truth is that we can never control any event in the world more than three feet away from us. We certainly cannot change other people. And yet, almost all of our feelings of stress arise from our perception of others’ behaviors and our attempt to control other people’s behaviors and the world.

The Enlightened Soul: An enlightened soul realizes that the ‘emotional reaction’ to others’ behaviors is a sign of weakness and as such he does not respond to a ‘remote control’ (others behavior or change thereof) out there. Our belief shapes our perception. If we change our belief, we will keep our remote control in our hand instead of in others’ hands. So, in a world of rampant changes, you need to ask yourself 3 question. Are you READY? Are you WILLING? Are you ABLE?

Are you READY? The first principle of ‘change readiness’ lies in an easy to understand but hard to practice insight which reminds us that, “I cannot control anything or anyone in the world, all I can do is control my response to others and the world”. When fully inculcated, this basic truth begins to restore our self control and sets us free from the energy draining futility of constant failure. It’s this failure that creates the stress, not realizing that we are trying to do impossible task – change others!

Are you WILLING? Most of us want others to change first and when that does not happen, it creates stress in us. But if we can put a metaphorical arm around them, walk with them, listen to them, understand them, gain their trust and respect, we will remain stress free and the opportunity to influence them will inevitably arise.

Are You ABLE? There are many skills and capabilities that we can develop to ‘enable’ us to deal with a changing world. Being resilient when that changing world serves up ‘the unexpected’ means being able learn from adversity, apply the new-knowledge quickly and bounce back strongly. The capacity to stay light and optimistic, to forgive easily, turn any apparent problems into opportunities, help others and inspire others, are all recognized competencies of the change agent. But it still leaves us with one particular question.

Question: What are the key changes that you see are likely to impinge on your life in the near future?

Reflection: What skills, qualities, abilities etc. do you think you will need in order to navigate your way forward?

Action: Take five minutes three times every day this week and practice slowing your mind and just being still. Notice the effect it has on the quality of energy that you give to others.

Adapted from Mike George’s article “The Anatomy of Change” © 2012

Meditation is...Life Enhanced II

Last month, in the first part of this 2-part series, we discussed how meditation enhances life. This month, let us see how meditation enhances brain development and help us achieve higher grades in school, better career advancement and healthier living.

As we discussed last month, meditation can have positive mental and physiological effects on anxiety, stress (which in turn lowers blood pressure), depression, chronic pain, etc. In fact meditation is a sort of self-directed neuroplasticity, that is, effect of thoughts on the brain. We humans do not use the full capacity of our brain. What this means is that you can teach an old brain new tricks. For example, prisoners of war who were placed in solitary confinement (no distractions) developed unusual cognitive capacities that they did not have before because the only activity they were allowed to do was to think. The POWs were essentially exercising their brains. Similarly, when you meditate and focus on Jyotirbindu, a point of light, even for a few minutes a day, you eliminate all the distractions, thereby by placing your brain essentially in a solitary confinement for a few minutes, your brain develops increased capacity for functions such as memory and understanding complex problems and relationships.

As you continue to practice meditation and focus your attention to Jyotirbindu and inner consciousness, you will have a growth in the number of physical neurons and neuronal connections in sections of your cortex. Those sections are: the right frontal cortex, related to concentration; the right insula, related to emotions; and the right parietal and temporal lobes related to touch and sound. A recent study also showed that after eight weeks of meditation, brain imaging showed reduction in the volume of the amygdala related to anxiety and stress and an increase in the number of neurons and neuron connectivity in the hippocampus, related to emotion, learning and memory, thus increasing the brain function capacity. Amygdala is an almond shaped mass of nuclei located deep within the temporal lobe of the brain that performs a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions. A very recent study showed that meditation increased connectivity in centers of cortex, spinal cord and cerebellum as well. What’s more, the longer people practiced meditation, the more the increased cortical surface area. Another study showed that the meditation decreased the Default Mode Network (DMN) activity. DMN is responsible for daydreaming and non-focused internal thoughts which can include memories, thinking of the future, thinking about others and reliving past experiences. This implies that the mind wanders less during meditation. More significantly, a new type of Default Network appeared that not only increased focus and decreased daydreaming, but also increased self-monitoring.

In other words, advanced meditators had a new type of “Default Mode” with more ability to control thoughts and emotions, and greater ability to stay focused on the present. What this means is that if you make Raj Yoga your way of life and meditate regularly, you can get better grades, advance your career, improve your relationships and enjoy healthier living.

Tao of the Traveller

Meditation is ... Life Enhanced I

In last month’s article, Take Care of Your Self Holistically, we discussed three elements of holistic care of yourself. Meditation is so crucial and intertwined with our life that we will discuss it in a series of two monthly articles; this is the first in the series of two articles.

Just as we get school and college education and learn pleasure and pain of our physical body while growing up, we need to learn stability, non-reactiveness and calmness of our mind from inner consciousness of our soul. Meditation gives us this control over our self which in turn enables us to eat well, exercise and face and embrace even the unpleasant or painful aspects of daily life. The stability and non-reactivity we develop through meditation elevates us to be more compassionate human beings, with pure non-reactive, non-judgmental presence with awareness of the present time in the present time. Meditation gives us the awareness of our thoughts which in turn enables us to disentangle ourselves from our habitual and toxic thoughts, words, and behaviors and connect with our experience, with ourselves, and with others in a healthier and detached way. Twenty three studies conducted in early 2000’s show that meditation is intimately linked to improvements of attentional functions, cognitive flexibility, working memory capacity and some executive functions. These improvements may lead to better grades in school, advancements in your career and better understanding and therefore relationships with family, friends and co-workers!

It is natural for our mind to wander frequently at all times. We are often lost in daydreams about the past or the future, completely oblivious of the present moment. Most of these mental distractions often produce stress, anxiety, fear, worry, and all sorts of emotional suffering. Similarly, have you noticed that sometimes you wake up in the morning all stressed out because of a bad dream? Daily practice of meditation develops our ability to pay attention to our present time – The Now Experience – helping us to overcome pre-occupations and attachments so that we can clearly see what is happening in our actual experience of the present moment. Instead of finding ourselves at the mercy of worry, fear, anger, bad dream and the like, we grow in our ability to choose how we want to act in situations, often in ways that might have been beyond our reach before.

Brahma Kumaris practices meditation with eyes open, being mindful and aware of our thoughts in the same way we practice homework examples of math and science. In meditation, we use Jyotirbindu, the point of light, as an object of awareness and focus. And soon after we focus on Jyotirbindu, all sorts of thoughts, feelings, and sensations are likely to distract our attention and we could find that we’ve forgotten all about Jyotirbindu and mentally moving along with these thoughts and feelings and ready to respond to sensations. When we realize we’ve been distracted, the appropriate response is to simply and gently return to awareness of our focus on Jyotirbindu. As for sensations, delay your response as much as possible. As you continue to practice meditation, you will gain enhanced control over localized (alpha rhythms in the primary somatosensory cortex where) sensations from different parts of body (are "mapped" by the brain). Thus you reach a stage when the sensation fizzles away without you needing to respond. In a newly published neurophysiological review, Brown University scientists propose that meditation enhances control of alpha rhythms and helps people overcome persistent stimuli such as depressive thoughts and chronic pain signals.

Practice meditation daily for a few minutes and gradually increase the meditation time to a fixed amount that suits your lifestyle. Meditation will enable you to get more out of your life than you ever imagined! When you teach your children tradition, culture and lessons of life, make Brahma Kumaris' value system, teaching and meditation a part of your teaching.

Take Care of Your Self Holistically

Have you taken time out to take care of yourself today? Know that if you don't prioritize taking care of yourself, your self will be taking care of you! Your lack of care for you will manifest itself in small ways at first – in the form of fatigue, stress, anger, frustration or getting lost in thoughts and worries. Then, over time, if your self is not cared for properly, serious health problems such as high blood pressure and cholesterol, diabetes and even heart disease could ensue.

So, how do you take care of yourself? Good diet, exercise? Well, therein lies the secret. Take a holistic care of your self to achieve that perfect or near perfect balance between you and the environment you live in. This approach requires eating well, exercise AND meditation. Eating well and exercise keep your body healthy but unless your mind is equally healthy, you are only partially taking care of your self. In fact, unlike food and exercise, meditation is an invisible curator of your health, your consciousness, your being. With mind unhealthy, you will not be able to take care of your complete self.

Eat Well: Eating well is a vital part of looking after your self. Eating well maintains immune system of your body. A balanced diet includes fruit, vegetables and wholegrain bread or cereal.

Cut back on salt and sugar. Ditto for saturated fats and trans fats. They can push up your cholesterol levels and increase your risk of heart disease. Unsaturated fats, on the other hand, can reduce your cholesterol levels and provide you with essential fatty acids.

Exercise: Exercise is vital for your physical and mental health. It strengthens your body’s immune system. It helps you deal with stress and lifts depression. Physical activity also helps boost your energy level, self-esteem and posture. It makes your heart stronger, keeps you supple and reduces all sorts of diseases including heart attack, stroke, diabetes undesirable blood lipid, cancer, osteoporosis, etc.

Meditate: What eating well AND exercise are to your physical body, meditation is to your mind and hence to your entire being. Meditation is the crucial component of the regime of taking care of your self. Make meditation part of your daily routine. It is the easiest activity and requires a least amount of physical effort. If you cannot eat well or exercise - both of which require preparation and equipment - due to your busy, fast track life, you can easily and must take time out of your routine at least for meditation which can be done anywhere including a crowded place where you can neither eat well nor exercise. Just as you drink coffee to break your work routine, meditate to break your hectic routine to calm and reset your mind and to enable it to invoke built-in immune system of your soul that helps develop positive thinking.

While the immune system of the body works automatically, the one for soul needs to be consciously and mindfully activated every day and that is exactly what meditation does. It is the immune system of your mind that keeps your mind healthy, allowing you to think positively, eat well and do daily exercise. Meditation empowers you to take care of your self holistically to restore your consciousness, your being, to a state of consistent wellness!

What has been established by Brahma Kumaris for decades on meditation is only recently – in 21st century - being re established by the western institutions such as the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Massachusetts that meditation induces faster physical recovery from a stressful situation and it can reduce employee stress and burnout respectively. In fact, if you cannot bring yourself up to eating well or exercise, start with meditation to reenergize your mind which in turn will empower you to eat well and exercise leading to your overall wellbeing. Meditation is power within you. Deploy it.

Is YOUR 'Other' Immune System Working?

In the year 2011, for which the data is available, Americans spent 17.9% of its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) on healthcare. That is more than $8,608 per person. By comparison, we spend next to nothing on the wellness of our being. While intimately connected, good physical health is different than serenity of wellbeing. Our education never teaches us how to understand our self, how to think, why we feel what we feel and what impact many of our decisions will have on our wellbeing. 

Symptoms of an UNWELL being might include - stressed, grumpy, critical, resentful, defensive, resistant, closed, depressed and frequently unhappy for no apparent reason! 

While the signs of a WELL being would probably include - contented, easy, open, warm, accepting, flexible, enthusiastic, and upbeat with a sunny attitude regardless of what is occurring. Some people with ill health may remain well in their being while others with perfect health may almost always remain unwell! 

• The Root Cause of Illness and Unwellness: We grow up without being able to recognize our feeling beyond crude measures of pleasure or pain, good or bad, high or low of our physical body devoid of the knowledge of their causes. We never learned to manage mindfulness of our mind, that is, to guide our mind to think and act to cultivate inner peace and wellbeing, and we arrive in adulthood without the ability to recognize how our ‘belief systems’ are causing all our moments of mental and emotional misery. However, just as our body has a built-in immune system to maintain its health, our being, our consciousness, our soul also has a built-in immune system. While the immune system of the body works automatically, the one for soul needs to be consciously and mindfully activated every day. 

• It is All About Energy: Imagine a group of you sitting around in harmony and enjoying the company of one another; laughing, excited, joking and suddenly Mr. Grumpy walks in angry, moaning and complaining; on his way to this cheerful get together, he was cut off by the same red hot M3 BMW driver who had cut off Mr. Grumpy last month. The group exuberance instantly converted into the dis – ease with a silent thud! 

• Body AND Consciousness: When a deviant energy such as Mr. Grumpy enters our consciousness we suffer from dis – ease, called our ‘belief’ and it deviates or distorts and weakens our consciousness similar to a deviant energy in the form of a disease or virus finding its way into our body and affecting our physical health and making us feel pain. In order to be able to identify the exact belief that causes each dis - ease within our soul there has to be a clear recognition that the energy of our body is different from the energy of our ‘self’. One is a visible and tangible energy and the other is invisible and intangible. 

• Three Phases: The immune system of the body has, in essence, three phases in the healing process; the recognition of the symptoms, the diagnosis of the cause and the healing effect of the cure. Similarly, the immune system of the soul has three stages; awareness of the feelings of dis - ease, realization of the cause and cure of the dis - ease and the transformation of the energy back to the consciousness when the cure is implemented. 

By activating the immune system of our soul it becomes possible to eliminate our dis - ease and restore our consciousness, our being, to a state of consistent wellness. We know we are well again when we are able to relax at will, be at peace with the world, respond openly and compassionately to others, fully accept the way life is unfolding in the world drama around us, and be able to give selflessly of our self. So how do we activate immune system of our soul? Practice to become mindful of your surrounding and thoughts in your mind at all times. Then guide your mind to get rid of all wasteful thoughts soon after they occur and stay calm under all circumstances even if you are cut off by red hot Me BMW – perhaps, the driver was playing his role by cutting you off. Mindfulness about the drama around you and maintaining calmness is the immune system of your consciousness.

 Adapted from Mike George’s article “Is YOUR 'Other' Immune System Working?” © 2013

Maha Shivratri: 2014

How Present Are YOU?

You’re attending a Thursday night Murli, the teacher calls your name and you suddenly notice you haven’t heard what she has been saying for a few minutes and what she is asking you. In a split second your attention is back in the room and you realize you had drifted off to your text message and then to email and then to an aggressive driver in the red BMW M3 who had cut you off in the morning and were going through the analysis and living the experience all over again. Sunday Murli... ditto! During the moments you were mentally absent in the Murli class, you missed Baba’s message of vital importance that the teacher was teaching you as to how to be mentally present in the Murli and for that matter anywhere you are physically present. The teacher called your name because she noticed your mental absence, in other words, you were not mindfully present. 

Drifting away happens to all of us. When we are not speaking, we tend to think 650 – 1000 words a minutes. What is important is to recognize that our mind has drifted away and tell our mind to come back to the Murli, where you need to focus. Repeat this exercise every time you drift away and soon you will be mindfully present wherever you are. 

The Deepest Addiction! We live in the age of increasing distractions from text messages, apps, phone calls, emails, daily family chores, work, friends, nasty boss, meetings, stock market fluctuations and so on. Here again, we need to be mindfully present where we are physically present. Mindful presence can also enable you to clear your mind of thoughts to seek inner peace. 

Resisting Reality! We sometimes notice that our feelings of sorrow, irritation, frustration and all our fears are arising from all those moments when we lose our self in our mental compendiums of fictional tales leading us to constantly go astray with thoughts. The inner signs of being fully present include a quiet mind which is no longer busy running stories of our past or future, or of other people’s lives. The full presence can be achieved with the practice of mindful presence – notice the thought that comes to mind and then tell the mind to refocus where it needs to. 

Seeing Through the Illusions! When you are watching an action movie in a theatre while gobbling up popcorns and soda, you are fully aware at all times that you are sitting in a chair in a theatre and that there is no reality in the movie, it is just a movie, an illusion. You are therefore not moved by the characters, plot, action or the images on the screen. You are a detached observer! Not because you do not care but because you are resisting the movie maker’s attempt to manipulate your emotions....you are mindfully present in the theatre for enjoyment. 

Discovering Inner Peace! There normally comes a moment in the lives of those who consciously search for real relaxation, otherwise known as inner peace, when they realize that actually their real world is within their self. The ‘real’ world is the inner world of our consciousness. It’s just that it’s not even ‘inner’; it is the self, itself! 

Action: Consciously practice being a detached observer of things happening around you and in your mind and be mindfully present where you chose to be physically present and tell your mind to refocus where you need your mind to. Repeat regularly in different environments so you get a hang of it. 

Adapted from Mike George’s article,” How Present Are YOU?”© 2012

Happy New Year: 2014

Meditation changes Gene Expression

Image Courtesy: http://handbookofawesome.com

Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind to enter self-consciousness, either to realize some benefits or as an end in itself. Some of the earliest references to meditation are found in the Hindu Vedas. With evidence growing that meditation can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body. 

A study by researchers in Wisconsin, Spain, and France, believed to be first of this kind, investigated the effects of a day of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet, non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation. 

"Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs," says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS) where the molecular analyses were conducted. The study was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. 

Mindfulness-based trainings have shown beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders in prior clinical studies. The new results provide a possible biological mechanism for therapeutic effects. The results show a down-regulation of genes that have been implicated in inflammation. The affected genes include the pro-inflammatory genes RIPK2 and COX2 as well as several histone deacetylase (HDAC) genes, which regulate the activity of other genes epigenetically (that is, through changes in inherited gene function that do not involve changes in DNA sequence; epigenetics is the study of heritable changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence) by removing a type of chemical tag. 

Gene is the fundamental physical and functional unit that contains the inherited information that is found in the DNA. Genes are actually a subset of a cell's DNA. DNA is the material inside the nucleus of cells that carries genetic information. 

Perhaps surprisingly, the researchers say, there was no difference in the tested genes between the two groups of people at the start of the study. The observed effects were seen only in the meditators following mindfulness practice. In addition, several other DNA-modifying genes showed no differences between groups, suggesting that the mindfulness practice specifically affected certain regulatory pathways. 

However, it is important to note that the study was not designed to distinguish any effects of long-term meditation training from those of a single day of practice. Instead, the key result is that meditators experienced genetic changes following mindfulness practice that were not seen in the non-meditating group after other quiet activities -- an outcome providing proof of principle that mindfulness practice can lead to epigenetic alterations of the genome. 

"Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression," says study author Richard J. Davidson Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "The regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways may represent some of the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic potential of meditation-based interventions," Kaliman says. "Our findings set the foundation for future studies to further assess meditation strategies for the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions." 

 Adapted from University of Wisconsin-Madison News article, “Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation” © 2013

Have YOU Realized Your Power, Passion and Principles?

Do you feel powerless as you engage with whatever life throws at you? On a scale of one to ten, how passionate do you feel on an average day? Do you feel guided by consciously chosen principles or you feel rudderless? You see, there is an intimate connection among power, passion and principles which arise from within you and they diminish over time in absence of self-awareness and consciousness. 

The Power to Change: A simple definition of power is ‘the ability to influence future change’. That ‘change” can be internal within your consciousness or external as applies to anything in the world. Most people try to change others but eventually realize that they cannot, and end up with frustration and stress. 

Ending the Habit of Disempowerment: In order to become powerful, you need to eliminate ways in which you give away your power. That means, restore your awareness of the truth that you are totally responsible for what you think, feel and act in response to others behavior. Your cholesterol goes up over time not because someone gives it to you but because what you think, feel and act in response to others’ behavior. Every time a situation comes up, take a deep breath and remind yourself, “I will not react to others, I am my own master and I will exercise complete control over my thoughts, feelings and actions.” 

Measuring Your Passion: Often, passion is confused with desire, lust and even anger. But the true passion is the natural enthusiasm for doing something that you are consciously and joyfully choosing to do. Passion involves a ‘want to do’ attitude as opposed to ‘have to do’ attitude. When in passion, you are motivated, you are fired up, you are never tired and you find every reason to pursue what you are passionate about. Real passion emerges when we are creative and that is when we lose sense of time.

The Values that Guide: Once our purpose is discerned, it’s our values that will guide our creative purpose into actual action. Those values will either enhance or sabotage the quality of our creativity.

The Values Question: When asked what they value (care about) most, the majority of people immediately respond with family, friends and health. The underlying reason for family and friendship is the value of love at its highest form and for health, they value peace within. Thus the presence of ‘love’ and ‘peace’ within our consciousness make us genuinely and sustainably happy. And when love is our guide, our purpose will automatically serve to nurture and sustain others in benevolent ways. 

The Deep connection between Power, Passion and Principles: The thread that connects these three characteristics at consciousness level is, of course love; love is the highest vibration of the energy of our consciousness. Love is a creative force of relationship and connection. It creates the intention to serve, benefit, give and nurture others free of any desire for anything in return. Love is the state of consciousness and you are most powerful when your consciousness radiates love. As we direct the energy of love, you will find yourself ‘influencing future change’ in creative and benevolent ways ...inside and out! ! Love is our power, it is our purpose, it is the cause of our passion and it is what gives us the capacity ‘to value’, and principles. We only need to untangle all the inherited illusions about what love is and is not, in order to be it and do it ...once again! 

Action: End disempowering yourself by consciously reminding yourself that you are in control of your thoughts, feelings and actions while dealing with others, especially those who you think are difficult to deal with. Influence their thoughts, feelings and actions with your benevolent ways. 

 Adapted from Mike George’s article “Have YOU Realized Your Power, Passion and Principles?” © 2012