Category: Personal Development

Creation and Manifestation / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized

10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking from Copyblogger

Here is an interesting article from Copyblogger.com titled, “Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?. Though this article’s main focus is on creative thinking, it’s content has relevance to many areas of our lives. This article directly relates to aspects of mastering ourselves and our view of the universe which is the ultimate creation. For example, putting ourselves in boxes like “I am not spiritual,” “I am spiritual,” “I am an atheist,” or “I am a Hindu/Christian/Muslim” is very limiting. Breaking these boxes and realizing that we are that one unified life and the creators of this...

Enlightenment / Healing / Health / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

A Powerful 3-Part Deep Abdominal Breathing Technique

In yOga (see sanskrit transliteration scheme), prANAyAma (control of life-force through breath) is an important and ancient conglomeration of techniques to promote physical, mental and spiritual well-being, and enlightenment. In this article, I will discuss a powerful deep breathing technique that is very healing by itself. This can be used whenever you feel stressed, or just want to get into that calmer state of mind. This breathing technique can be done in either “sitting up” or “lying down on back” positions. 3-Part Deep Abdominal Breathing If you observe babies and very young children, you will notice that their abdomen expands...

Coaching / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

9 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Way to Enlightenment

In the article, On gurUs and Disciples, I described the true characteristics of a guru and a disciple. In this article, I will discuss some of the most important mistakes made by spiritual aspirants. Instead of being disciples they become devotees. There are gurus who are genuine and probably are enlightened. There are also con-men (and con-women) posing to have been enlightened and building their financial empires. I hope that by reading this some devotees become real disciples. Why did I choose the number 9? I didn’t. It just happened to come out that way, when I finished writing this...

Balance / Coaching / Daily Living / Healing / Health / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Simple Techniques for Busy People to Help Access Inner Peace and Joy

Most of us are incessantly bombarded with random thoughts. We end up connecting these random thoughts to create a story. We create an identity for ourselves based on these stories. We don’t even realize that we derive our identity from these stories. The stories could be coming from feelings of dejection, rejection, defeat, fear or those of elation, happiness, victory and courage. Still they are thoughts. Some we label as good and others as bad. We do not realize that our true identity is not, “I am happy, I am sad, I am courageous, I am lonely.” We identify ourselves...

Health / Nature / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Travel / Uncategorized / Yoga

Mother Nature as Teacher—My Trip to Olympic National Park

I left, with my family, for Olympic National Park on May 26, 2007 around 2 PM, from where we live (Issaquah, WA, U.S.A.). Olympic National Park, is located near the city of Port Angeles in the state of Washington, U.S.A., northwest of Seattle on Highway 101. We reached the location around 6:30 PM, including the wait time for boarding the Edmonds-Kingston Ferry. We stayed overnight at the hotel. Hurricane Ridge We started off first to Hurricane Ridge (about 5200 ft from sea level) from where we got a closer view of the peaks of the Olympic Mountain Range. It was...

Coaching / Healing / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Human Animal and Oneness with the Universe

Merriam-Webster Online defines Human as “a bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens)“—a large monkey, if you will—a part of the animal world. Why are we so gung ho about being a human anyway? I hear some of you saying, “It is because we can think logically and animals cannot!” Yes, animals cannot think logically, they have instinctual thoughts. If they are hungry they eat grass, plants or hunt and eat other animals. But, that’s it! Once they are done eating, and are sated they are done! They don’t go around killing indiscriminately to make a business out of it. At least,...

Coaching / Daily Living / Healing / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Fear

You must be the change you want to see in the world. —Mahatma Gandhi There are self-help books and articles that talk about courage and how to live courageously, but very few of them really talk about the significant role fear plays in our daily lives. There is more fear in us than courage. If we want to live courageously, then we must first clear fear and make room for new energies to come in. We are like a house full of clutter. If we want to bring in more valuable items to beautify our house, we must first clear...

Coaching / Healing / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Yoga Nidra or Yogic Rest

In this article, I present a technique for yOga nidra (See sanskrit transliteration scheme) which not only produces great relaxation, but also gives other benefits discussed later in the article. Originally, a technique was taught to me during my kriyA yOga initiations. During my practice, the technique discussed in this article evolved from within, as a modification of the original technique. The technique discussed here is only one of many techniques, just like there there are many meditation “techniques.” The goal is not the technique itself, but entering the state of tUriya (discussed below). Even though the technique itself is...

Coaching / Healing / Health / Personal Development / Productivity / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Health, Productivity and The Power of Presence

(See sanskrit transliteration scheme) In The Power of Presence, I discussed the essence of staying present in the Now. In that I discussed, how being bound to the past, and jumping to the future and back to the past were causing us to loose the beauty of the present moment and how it was draining our vital energy. I also briefly discussed how staying present, improved my day-to-day work and productivity and overall physical and mental health. In this article, I will elaborate more on how I achieved this and give some of the examples of my own improvements in...

Coaching / Daily Living / Healing / Health / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Self-Mastery / Spirituality / Uncategorized / Yoga

Breathing and Visualization Techniques for Self-Healing

In yOga (see sanskrit transliteration scheme), prANAyAma (control of life-force through breath) is an important and ancient conglomeration of techniques to promote physical, mental and spiritual well-being. In this article, I will discuss simple breathing and visualization techniques, I often use to heal myself of minor ailments like headaches and pains or when I am stressed from dealing with day-to-day issues. Learning and becoming comfortable with these techniques beforehand is better, so you can use them right away when you are in need. CAUTION: This breathing technique or any other technique is not a substitute for proper medical care. This,...

Daily Living / Personal Development / Self Improvement / Uncategorized

How I Failed to Give Up Coffee

I am sure that there are articles written about how to give up coffee, but I am going to talk about how I failed to give up coffee. 🙂 My son just loved the title—he should, since he suggested it. 🙂 As you may know, I am from Southern India where drinking coffee, several times a day, is the norm. While growing up there, all our family members drank two or more cups of coffee, the size of Starbuck’s Grande. When we visited friends or relatives they would offer coffee as well, and out of courtesy we had to drink....