How to Come out of ( Bad ) Habits

Freedom and Joy  are deep rooted desire in every human heart. But still it surprising that many of our actions are those which will eventually might  lead us to Pain and Suffering.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar  says ‘ Habit are  those activity which while Performing it  does not give any great pleasure, but Stopping it gives a lot of Pain’

'Bad' Habits are those habits which affect our Physical /Mental /Emotional or Financial Health. We realize it is bad for us and want to stop it but are unable to do so. 

For eg Smoking doesn’t give any great pleasure ...but stopping smoking will give a lot of pain.   

Whenever we indulge in any bad habit we get a certain stimulation/ pleasure ( at least at the starting ). Evolution has programmed our brains to run behind pleasure and avoid pain . ( more in this blog link What does the Mind Want?)

 Thus brain will  create a program in our BME system . The program compels us to repeat itself irrespective of the cost to our body /mind/ emotions. We might thus know intellectually smoking is bad  but we are helpless in face of the program ( habit) which occupies our BME system.

Its very difficult to remove the Habit by itself as its a deep rooted program in our system. Trying to remove it will give a lot of pain.

However there is Easier way to lessen the  impact of the Habit on our system, that is as given below

If we install 3 more programs in our BME System that is Awareness , Knowledge and Discipline, the force of the Habits comes down

Knowledge – Gathering Knowledge about effect of the bad habit   on our self and others is very important. Information is widely available due to the internet on any topic under the sun.  . The general tendency is to avoid information which we think we will find uncomfortable ( i.e goes against our habits). However if we actively start collecting information about our habits and assimilate it into our memory it can work wonders.

For eg Regarding smoking the below information has been collected

  One in two smokers will die from a smoking-related disease. Smoking damages your heart and your blood circulation, increasing the risk of conditions such as coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, Your lungs can be very badly affected by smoking. . Smoking causes 84% of deaths from lung cancer and 83% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The good news is that once you stop smoking, your health improves and your body will begin to recover.

More info at link  Smoking Health Issues

  Awareness –   As we have discussed the program of habits is deeply embedded in our Body Mind Emotions. Most of us deeply identify with our Body Mind Emotions and when the temptation to smoke comes for a smoker comes or eat sweets for a diabetic he gets carried away with the force of the programming of BME and all knowledge disappears.  He might regret later after indulging but by then its too late...

Just this Awareness ( at the crucial moment)  that its a program in my BME which is tempting me to Indulge and its not Me ( I have the Knowledge that the Habit is bad for me)  can reduce the force of temptation dramatically and can help the person overcome the temptation to  indulge.

The whole purpose of Spirtuality or Spiritual Practices is to make a person Aware that he is just not the Body Mind Emotions ( which are in grip of so many habits) .

As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says ‘ Once the Sun Rises, Candles Loose their Charm’.

 Similarly once Awareness dawns in a person the habits loose their force.Regular practice of  Meditation /Sudarshan Kriya go a long way in Developing this  Awareness easily. More info on Meditation on Sudarshan Kriya and Meditation at link below
Sudarshan Kriya

Discipline-  

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says  ‘Freedom without discipline is like a country without a defense. Discipline protects freedom’

As a country is protected by a Strong Defense force ( Army) , we are protected by a Strong Discipline.

We have got the techniques to overcome Bad habits above. But we should also know the habits have a strength of their own due to repetition over many years.

Thus to come out of habits a two fold discipline is required

1. Time Bound Vows - Every time we indulge in a habit it becomes stronger in our conciousness. It is like charging a Phone. So to come out of habit . We should not indulge in it regularly. Thus we should Take a vow to at least temporarily discontinue the habit for a limited time.  
 For Eg -a smoker can vow to stop smoking for 90 days. More on this in this link Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar on Vows

2. Implementing   Knowledge Collection ( regarding impact of the  habits ) and Awareness Building . If this Discipline is not there all our Good Intentions will be swept way in force of the habits.

 Start Building Discipline Today by starting to take the first steps to build up Knowledge and Awareness. Best of Luck...

Winning Over The Mind

In my 17 years of career in The Personal Sales field, both In Life Insurance and Health Insurance, I  have met  and interacted closely with thousands of customers and hundreds of insurance professionals. 

One thing which I noticed was there would be some people who would be happy and satisfied irrespective of outside circumstances and some would be unhappy despite the best of circumstances.  The same was with success. The People who were successful in the life insurance field the same were successful in health insurance field . The people who used to crib and complain about various issues in the life insurance company continue to crib and complain in the Health Insurance company ( about different issues).

For Eg when we went for a company sponsored Thailand tour which as per me was very good, at the end of the tour many of my colleagues were complaining about the hotel , the food etc etc. Dissatisfaction was pouring out of them and  I really sympathized with them...

I pondered deeply about this and realised that Happy /Succesful people have one thing in common, they have won over their mind.  Their minds are in their control rather than vice versa.

As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji says ‘ If You Win over your Mind, You can Win over the entire World’

Based on this theme, I have written the following 6 chapters, based on my journey/ learnings over the last 17 years, the learnings which I  got from reading various books, and my experiences after practicing Yoga/ Pranayam/Meditation given by the Art of Living foundation.

I welcome you to read the 7 chapters, ( by clicking the below link) which start from understanding what the Mind wants, what it comprises of, how to Manage and Clean up the Mind, and Being Free of Burden of Doershipand Ultimately find The Contentment Deep within Us. You can say it starts from the Pyschological and end with a more Spiritual concept. Winning over the Mind is a difficult concept, not at all easy, but the Ultimate Result that is a Unshaken True Happiness is well worth the effort... I wish you all Success in this Interesting /Amazing journey. Best Wishes...

Contents Chapter 1 -7

The Pleasure of Seva

         Inspired By a Talk by Sri Yadhava ji             (Senior teacher Art of Living)

Suppose God came to us one fine day and gave us a boon so that we instantaneously achieve all our goals , each and every one of them ,  what further role would we have then?   We would have missed those rich experiences we would have undergone in the process of achieving those goals, the joy of a minor success, the pain of a small failure , the struggle of analysis, self analysis and analysis of the situation, the development of the skills which are required to deal with that situation...Thus when we achieve our goal after a challenge, a struggle , the satisfaction we get is much deeper than if someone just hands it over to us ... We also develop into a much more skillful and balanced person in this process .

The purpose of human existence is to have more and more varied experiences. At the end of your life, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji says you will have a minute of flash back of your entire life , in that minute you will ask yourself only 2 fundamental questions, how much knowledge you have got and how much love you have given. The purpose of human existence is to have more and more varied experiences, as they say the joy is in the journey and not just in the destination

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji says

 A willingness to share what we have and to help others is called Seva. Seva connects us to others and makes them a part of us. The barriers dissolve that separate our happiness from their happiness. Lingering moods of unhappiness or depression dissipate when our focus is on helping someone else.

 While doing Seva, though we might be helping the people / situation for whom we are doing Seva for , the main beneficiary is our self.

The skills we learn by overcoming the challenges we face in doing the Seva , the qualities we develop will help us be successful in all spheres of life. As Sri Yadhava ji says  so beautifully, many corporates spend lakhs on training programs to teach their employees to develop the skills, like goal setting /communication/ team management . These qualities we naturally develop when we do Seva . So we should be grateful to Guruji for creating such a wonderful platform like Art of Living where in we get the opportunity to do Seva.

In doing Seva we should not develop a ego that we are helping the person concerned . If not thru us the person concerned would have got the help from some other source. Rather we should be grateful to the existence that we got a chance to contribute a small bit in Gurujis great work of bringing smile to every face.

We can only spread what we have. To spread joy we need to have joy in our heart first. This Joy we can easily cultivate within ourselves by doing spiritual practices like Yoga/Pranayama/ Meditation.

All of us have vehicles and we regularly check the tyre pressure   on a weekly or monthly basis. Its a   easy task to fill the air regularly in the tyre. Suppose we neglect to fill air regularly when we become busy in our work the chances of a tyre puncture increase dramatically and then its a much more difficult task to repair the puncture. And at that time we also have to stop using the vehicle for some time.   If Punctures start happening in a regular basis the tyre if of no use to anyone and we will be forced to replace the tyre itself. 

By doing Sadhana ( daily practices like Sudarshan Kriya/ Meditation) / by being in Satsang regularly i.e.  being in knowledge by reading Books/Hearing Talks  given by Guruji, singing Bhajans, chanting stotras etc we are maintaining our tyre pressure ( balance ) of self and ensuring the journey of our life goes smoothly. A puncture in form of a big problem can still happen but the chances/frequency reduces dramatically if we regularly maintain the tyre pressure.

So whenever we ourselves notice that there are issues creeping up in our life, we can just be aware that are we neglecting our sadhana/satsang and make the necessary changes.

When we have got so much joy /wisdom in life from The Guru it is but natural that you would want to spread it to other  people . Secondly when you see the Guru and how much he is tirelessly working for the upliftment of the world, naturally we will get inspired by him and want to at least do a small part of what he is doing.

Even when we are doing Seva we should develop the habit of taking challenging goals. All limits are kept in the mind, what the mind can conceive it can achieve. Thus whenever we plan to do  Seva we should take some Seva projects which are challenging , put our 100% best efforts and then surrender the results  to the divine...This will help us overcome our self limiting attitudes which might be hampering us in all spheres of life...

 Everyone who regularly does  at least a little Seva knows that joy in Giving is much more than the joy in Taking.  Even in our homes the elderly people find so much joy in giving gifts / making tasty food for the younger lot. The Joy in Giving / in bringing a Smile in some ones face is Mature joy, it gives a Pleasure which is indescribable in words and which is long lasting.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji says

Service is the expression of love. Serve in whatever possible manner you can. Ask yourself, “How can I be useful to people around me, and to the whole world?” Then your heart starts blossoming and a completely new level begins. Otherwise we’re always thinking, “What about me, what about me?” It’s nothing! Ask, “How can I be useful, how can I give to the world?