Friday, January 17, 2020

15 practical steps Thich Nhat Hanh says we can take to bring mindfulness to our work:

1. Start your day with 10 minutes of sitting in meditation.
                                           
2. Take the time to sit down and enjoy eating breakfast at home.

3. Remind yourself every day of your gratitude for being alive and having 24 brand-new hours to live.

4. Try not to divide your time into "my time" and "work." All time can be your own time if you stay in the present moment and keep in touch with what’s happening in your body and mind. There’s no reason why your time at work should be any less pleasant than your time anywhere else.

5. Resist the urge to make calls on your cell phone while on your way to and from work, or on your way to appointments. Allow yourself this time to just be with yourself, with nature and with the world around you.

6. Arrange a breathing area at work where you can go to calm down, stop and have a rest. Take regular breathing breaks to come back to your body and to bring your thoughts back to the present.

7. At lunchtime, eat only your food and not your fears or worries. Don’t eat lunch at your desk. Change environments. Go for a walk.

8. Make a ritual out of drinking your tea. Stop work and look deeply into your tea to see everything that went into making it: the clouds and the rain, the tea plantations and the workers harvesting the tea.

9. Before going to a meeting, visualize someone very peaceful, mindful and skillful being with you. Take refuge in this person to help stay calm and peaceful.

10. If you feel anger or irritation, refrain from saying or doing anything straight away. Come back to your breathing and follow your in- and out-breath until you’ve calmed down.

11. Practice looking at your boss, your superiors, your colleagues or your subordinates as your allies and not as your enemies. Recognize that working collaboratively brings more satisfaction and joy than working alone. Know that the success and happiness of everyone is your own success.

12. Express your gratitude and appreciation to your colleagues regularly for their positive qualities. This will transform the whole work environment, making it much more harmonious and pleasant for everyone.

13. Try to relax and restore yourself before going home so you don’t bring accumulated negative energy or frustration home with you.

14. Take some time to relax and come back to yourself when you get home before starting on household chores. Recognize that multitasking means you’re never fully present for any one thing. Do one thing at a time and give it your full attention.

15. At the end of the day, keep a journal of all the good things that happened in your day. Water your seeds of joy and gratitude regularly so they can grow.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh
"15 Practical Ways To Find Your Zen At Work", Jo Confino - The Huffington Post.


Saturday, January 11, 2020

Abhinivesha ~ Dealing with fears and unwanted thoughts!

Litany against fear ~

"I must not fear
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."


Contemplation~
  • When any kind of the fear arises...make sure you attend to it
  • Be accepting and being non judgmental 
  • Observe it with curiosity,
  • Observe what is going on in your body, mind and thoughts.
  • Attend to the feelings.
  • With attention inwards notice where in body is it arising from.
  • Trace back into the feeling of fear and see what is causing it.
  • Gently, observe the sensations caused by fear. 
  • With self love, understanding and compassion tell yourself, Its ok..I am here for you! 

Peace, Love n Grace
Shikha

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

If you think you are free- you are free, If you think you are bound- you are bound! It’s all in the mind!!!

Be empty of worrying
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
When the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
Widening rings of being

~ Rumi

Our thoughts, opinions and judgements about ourselves and and others limit our potential and how we perceive others. We see ourselves and others with the limitation of labels we have created. We can, we can’t, they are, they aren’t etc
Our thoughts, opinions, feelings, judgements are not the truth, but just a passing state created by our fleeting emotions. Our thoughts and opinions are changing all the time, depending on how we feel!

Try this today ~
Observe how every time we are meeting someone, talking to someone or even seeing a stranger on the street how our mind is popping opinions.
Observe how, we are only believing what we think is true and creating a false reality around us.

Now that you are aware of thinking, judging and limiting mind...detach, practice and see~

Thoughts as ‘just thoughts’
Feelings as just ‘feelings’
Emotions as just ‘emotions’
Judgements as just ‘ judgements’

This awareness activity can help you to access greater freedom from  the limiting thoughts!


Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Food for thought~ for all the teachers around the world!!!

I have come to a frightening conclusion. 
                                         
I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make
A child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration.

I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations it is my response that decides
Whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated.
And a child humanized or dehumanized

~ Haim Ginott 

Monday, December 16, 2019

Stressed!

Stress never gets over..      
We have to learn to get over it!!



Tuesday, December 10, 2019

On a positive note ~ Can’t agree more!!! Things I absolutely love about winter:))


And..watching with love, wonder and curiosity as our daughters build their snowman every winter ~ followed by the tradition of freshly baked cookies and hot cocoa!

Sunday, December 8, 2019

Acceptance is the key for handling life well!!

When we don't accept an undesired event.
It becomes Anger;...
When we accept it,
It becomes tolerance...

When we don't accept uncertainty,
It becomes Fear;
When we accept it,
It becomes Adventure....

When we don't accept other's bad behavior towards us,
It becomes Hatred;...
When we accept it,
It becomes Forgiveness....

When we don't accept other's Success,
It becomes Jealousy;...
When we accept it,
It becomes Inspiration....

Acceptance is the key for handling life well...

~ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar




Saturday, December 7, 2019

Arjav~ Living in harmony with ones thoughts, words and actions!

Whenever we are not in harmony with what we are thinking, saying, and doing, we end up causing more friction in our mind, thoughts and heart. This ultimately leads to conflict, agitation, anger and tremendous suffering.

Arjav is a Sanskrit word that means living in harmony with ones thoughts, words, and actions.

Incorporating the knowledge of Arjav in our self care yoga practice everyday provides with  a wonderful opportunity to dive deeper and look within ourselves. 

Checking- in with ourselves, our thoughts and feelings without applying any filters of judgements. Keep asking yourself again and again (Punah Punah)- 

What is it I really want? 
How am I feeling? 
What’s causing me suffering? 

Reset, again n again! 

🌹Peace, Love n Grace
Shikha

Nourish ~Knowledge and handout from my today's self care workshop

Friday, December 6, 2019

Settle into stillness with self Inquiry!

Tune into the present moment awareness!
~Close your eyes
~Take a deep cleansing breath in and relax as you breath out. 
~Become aware of the feeling of breath coming in to your body...as the air becomes your breath. 
~Become aware of the feeling of breath leaving your body..as your breath becomes the air.

When you feel settled and still ask yourself~

Who am I?
Why am I here?
What is the purpose of my life? 
Where am I going? 
Am I happy? 

This inquiry into self is a very simple act of contemplation and introspection which can take you to experience deep stillness. Don’t be in a rush to look for the answers, carry the questions with a wonder in your awareness, just stay with the questions and let the answers reveal.

Monday, December 2, 2019

Sunday, December 1, 2019

Be an architect of your future!

Take a moment everyday to pause and reflect if your thoughts, words, actions and choices in alignment with the person you want to be?


Monday, November 25, 2019

Drive all blames into one!

This is advice on how to work with fellow beings. Everyone is looking for someone to blame and therefore aggression and neurosis keep expanding. Instead, pause and look at what's happening with you. When you hold on so tightly to your view of what they did, you get hooked. Your own self-righteousness causes you to get all worked up and to suffer. So work on cooling that reactivity rather than escalating it. This approach reduces suffering-yours and everyone else's
 ~🌹Pema Chodron

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Be grateful to everyone!

Others will always show you exactly where you are stuck. They say or do something and you automatically get hooked into a familiar way of reacting-shutting down, speeding up, or getting all worked up. When you react in the habitual way, with anger, greed, and so forth, it gives you a chance to see your patterns and work with them honestly and compassionately. Without others provoking you, you remain ignorant of your painful habits and cannot train in transforming them into the path of  awakening.
🌹~ Pema Chodron