As You Breathe, So Shall You Live

Tuesday, September 18, 2007 by stained

This post is a beautiful article which I read in today's edition of The Times of India, under the "Speaking Tree" column. Read it, I am sure it will surely be of some to you.

The simplest way to build a harmonious relationship with life is to develop a loving, joyful and a friendly relationship with your breath. Understand your breath, its ways of working and develop a friendly relationship with it. Breath is the carrier of vital life force within us that makes our body-mind organisation function and survive.

If you look at breath as life itself, your landscape will change. The love, sanctity and value you give to this great spontaneous phenomenon called ‘breathing’ will tend to completely change the way you breathe. Then if you breathe slowly, just 20 times with a smile, your eyes closed, you will experience deep within a feeling of joy in all those organs where you perceive the smooth touch of breath.

When you look at your breath as if it were your constant and unfailing friend, that quality of relationship brings about a profound change in any breathing method you practise. You will soon realise that the way you breathe, is the way you live. This is how complex life turns simple.

Eight factors that change your relationship to life with reference to the way you breathe are: the flow of breath you allow in your body, the pace with which you breathe, the rhythm you follow, the number of times you breathe or frequency of breath, body posture you hold while breathing, vibrations you produce, the attention and serenity with which you breathe, and finally, your sensitivity to experience the touch of breath in every organ it touches as you breathe.

The way you learn to synchronise all these aspects into one compact process of breathing is what will change your relationship with your body and mind. It is simply profound as well as profoundly simple.

You will begin to like yourself as you feel the pleasing, calming sensation deep breath brings about. You will experience a deep sense of undisturbed peace within. When you pay attention to the beauty with which life rests within you, for the first time, you will experience what it is to feel alive.

Our relationship with breath tends to be simple, direct and proportionate. So if you breathe slowly and attentively you feel the touch of breath as you breathe in and out. You will experience a deep sense of peace.

If you breathe with great satisfaction, you will feel the grace of life. When you breathe selectively into each of your organs like kidneys, intestines, heart or head and feel the touch of breath, you will experience great healing. How many times you breathe and how regularly you do it directly decides the proportion of well being you will feel.

If you think of life as a great struggle, or the world as a battlefield where you have to compete with and overcome others, you will turn yourself into a warrior who has no room for peace or reconciliation in life. Then if you seek freedom or happiness, you will look for it beyond this life, not while you are living. The world that appears outside you is in fact a reflection, a mirror image, of how you feel within.

A simple way of changing the way you feel is to learn how to change your relationship with life in your daily half-hour breathing session. You will soon experience that as you breathe, so shall you live.

Labels:

Share this post:
Sphere it Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools BookmarkingTools

England 316 - India 317 : India Win by 2 wickets

Thursday, September 6, 2007 by stained

This match was exhilarating and it was by far the finest performance by the Indian team after the TV breaking-nerve twitching-hair pulling disaster that the Indian team had shown during the World Cup. Hope you and I (sorry, just I) can forget the past and move ahead to the present and dream of India winning this tournament and also the 20-20 World cup happening within the coming week.

The Match was a total rip off of a Robert Ludlum or Frederick Forsyth novel. It kept me glued to my seat, didn't even budge to answer nature's call. After the dismissal of dada (Saurav Ganguly) and Sachin Tendulkar, I felt the match was over but a brave comeback by India through Robin Uthappa and Dhoni was far from over...

Robin Uthappa's performance deserves a standing ovation and also the Man of the Match award. A player with just 13 matches of experience and who played his first match in the tournament, played with amazing composure, grit and temperament. A few innovative shots (he's planning to improvise them during the coming world cup next week ! That will surely boost the TRP's !!) helped the team a great deal because the English bowlers were firing on all guns. Yorkers and full pitched deliveries could only be put to the boundary if improvised shots were implemented and that's what Robin Uthappa did.

Until the finals this Saturday, it's time to celebrate. It won't surprise me if dada considers removing his shirt yet again!

To the Indian team - Chak de India!

Labels:

Share this post:
Sphere it Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools BookmarkingTools

i believe

Sunday, September 2, 2007 by stained

  1. We are here for a reason and the reason is to learn. We learn in this life, we've learnt in the past and we will learn in the future (lives) until we have completed with our 'education' and then... (I haven't reached there yet, but once I do I will surely let you know).
    And to add to this belief of mine, our five senses is what helps us in our learning and enriching of our self. It is our window to the world.
  2. It's very easy to do the wrong thing but it is a lot difficult to do the right thing. That is what makes it all the more interesting and challenging because it's always this right that is never wrong.
    For eg. It is very easy to go to the nearest 'paan' shop, buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke them, knowing that it is harming you and the people around you but it is not easy to go to the same 'paan' shop and convince yourself in not buying another pack of cigarettes. But, at the end of the day, you've won... you've won a fight against yourself and have become more positive since you've just overcome one of your weaknesses and are well on the way to perfection.
  3. It's very easy to suspect someone, distrust someone even if that person is one of your family members but it's a lot difficult in understanding and figuring out how to change this negativity into positive energy.
  4. It's easy to complain and find problems but it's the person who finds solutions in such situations a true winner.

Labels:

Share this post:
Sphere it Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools BookmarkingTools

Tips on How to Save

by stained

  • When you start slow and keep at it, it's a snowball that'll get bigger and bigger.
  • It's better to borrow from yourself than to rely on a credit card and feel as if you can never get ahead.
  • The key is to reverse the habit of spending first and paying later, with interest. We need to get back to the old-fashioned way: saving the money, then spending it. That costs less and causes less stress and anxiety, than using debt or going without.
  • One should understand the difference between "need" and "want". Before putting your money into buying something, ask yourself "is this a need or a want?"
  • For free strategies and motivational stories from fellow savers check out www.betterbudgeting.com
  • For hard-copy tips on how to wring extra expenses out of your budget, take a look at:
    - Live your life for half the Price by Mary M Hunt.
    - Pay it down by Jean Chatzky.

Labels:

Share this post:
Sphere it Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools BookmarkingTools

The Nine C's of Leadership by Lee Iacocca

Saturday, September 1, 2007 by stained

Mr. Lee Iacocca is a former CEO of Chrysler

  1. A leader has to show curiosity. He has to read voraciously because the world is a complicated place.

    Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter - Thomas Jefferson

  2. A leader has to be creative, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different, think outside the box. Leadership is all about managing change. - whether you are leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt.
  3. A leader has to communicate. Communication starts with telling the truth, even when it may be painful.
  4. A leader has to be a person of Character - knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing.

    If you want to test a man's character, give him power - Abraham Lincoln

  5. A leader must have Courage. Courage in the 21st century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at a negotiating table and talk.
  6. To be leader you've got to have conviction - a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done.
  7. A leader should have Charisma. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire.
  8. A leader has to be Competent. You've got to know what you're doing. More importantly, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing.
  9. You can't be a leader if you don't have common-sense.
Technorati Tags: , ,

Labels:

Share this post:
Sphere it Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools Bookmarking Tools BookmarkingTools