Simple, but important, and good, healthy lifestyle solutions don’t cost you anything.

It is, for me, all a question of adding a fruit to your morning bowl of cereal/oat breakfast, keeping your car farther away from the parking lot, walking 250 feet to office, or climbing the staircase to reach your desk.

This done, you are already making changes, and getting better and healthier!

However, if you think it sounds difficult, there’s no need to fret, or frown.

Here’s my simple plan you can practice – for better health and a healthier you. In plain terms, what you need to do is follow my easy-to-achieve practical programme to heighten your body and mind quotient.

Join me, and let’s start, right away!

You should, to begin with, not just think of merely a physical-health plan; think of it as a workable mental-health and nutritional-health programme too. This is not as complex as it sounds.

It’s an achievable prospect. All you need to do, again, is provide – not merely invest – just a little bit of your time and attention to what you do, or want to do.

8 effective strides to good living

1. I challenge my mind often. You should do likewise – always challenge your mind with simple things in life. If you are a right-hander, try doing a few things like writing with your left-hand, as and when you can [it’s difficult, but not impossible!]. This will indirectly help you get a big confidence boost like it does for me! Try to also eat sometimes with your less dominant hand. You will think it is funny – but, it helps.
2. Most people don’t have time for themselves, even when they eat the food they relish. One easy and best way of giving time to oneself, as I do, is by making lunchtime your very own personal time. To think of yourself as a person as you chew your food. This helps you to connect yourself with yourself. It also gives you the room to unwind and gives you the time to make personal phone calls, may be go for a quick walk, or window shopping. In other words, it endows you with a few simple tricks – easy tricks that help you “pump-in” more energy into your post-lunch session work and, thereafter, at home.
3. Savour the warmth of the sun [provided it is not summer time in Mumbai!] – go out and face the sun for a few minutes each day – but, not for too long. Do not look at the sun directly. The warm rays of the sun are a natural mood-booster. They lead to the channelling of vitamin D. The nutrient, as you know, not only prevents but also eases major health affections, including bone disorders.
4. Try to maintain healthy relationships, especially with people you get along well with. A warm smile, and a good hug, from friends are essential for happiness. Not sharp words – overt or covert – of those who have an open or closed agenda to bring you “down” in front of others. Remember – unwanted verbal skirmishes have a deleterious effect on your emotional wellbeing. Though it may sound tough, it is often worthwhile for you to “keep off” from relationships with people who deplete your energy levels. This is actually a big step to harmonious mental health and wellbeing.
5. When you reach home, don’t you allow yourself to be an instant slave of technological glitz. You need to unplug yourself – unless you’re aware of something urgent in the offing. When you keep yourself away from your laptop, TV, or PC, andalso the ever-present cell phone, or telephone, you are better able to relax in your psyche, and enjoy the calm of your home. Most of us have an addiction for E-mail – to quickly check messages late at night. This is an “unknown” invite to stress. You don’t think so, but it is. When you avoid the urge, and get on with something more comforting, you will sure feel calm and more family-centred.
6. You should eat to live, not live to eat. Eating is a tradition – if you are the clean-plate type, it won’t do you good. It was okay when you were a kid; not when you are an adult. Eat well, but just enough to satisfy you. When you go to a restaurant, eat half of what you normally eat at home. You need to be choosy and fussy, too – limit your portion size, and avoid over-indulgence as if your entire life depended on it.
7. Avoid smoking, and alcohol, for your health’s sake and your family. This includes passive, or second-hand, smoke. For non-smokers, sharing a home or living with a smoker is evidenced to be harmful. It is also damaging for your eating habits. Research testifies that non-smoking women who live with smokers consume more total and saturated fat. They also consume less fibre, vitamin A, and folates, than do co-habiting non-smokers. In addition to this – avoid your plentiful cups of coffee. Use green tea, instead, without sugar and milk. Studies suggest that drinking green tea improves the functioning of cells that line our blood vessels; it also helps reduce your levels of stress, blood sugar [especially, in diabetics], high blood pressure/cholesterol and, therefore, the risk of heart disease. Green tea is also said to be a great phytonutrient [nutraceutical], or functional food; it has several anti-cancer properties.
8. Meditate. Meditate. Meditate. Listen to music, mantras, and Vedic chants or hymns. Do yoga. Or, any other exercise you like. Go for a walk.

Other useful tricks

Try to experiment, gently – but, do not embark on “whimsical” experiments. Simple experiments are good for you. They also make things easy and uncomplicated.

Try a substitution diet, for one – without doing away with flavour, while improving your diet. Use lemon juice, instead of salt, on brown rice [avoid white rice], and pasta. Substitute low-fat yogurt for mayonnaise, and applesauce, or mashed bananas, for butter or oil, especially in baked foods. Also, add a lot of greens in your salad.

Introduce a new healthy supplement into your diet. Take a natural multivitamin pill. Take two teaspoonfuls of Chyavanaprasha, the ancient ayurvedic anti-aging tonic, every morning – preferably before sunrise.

But, remember – it is imperative that you consult your physician/therapist before taking any food/herbal supplement.

The post Small Steps, Big Benefits appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

When I first took up golf I was fortunate to have my first lessons with Mitchell Spearman, a world-class instructor. He couldn’t believe how quickly I was able to understand and take on board his instructions.

Apparently, many people who are taught golf have no awareness of their bodies and the space around them. So, giving them directions becomes very difficult because they cannot get a sense of how they need to adjust their body as they are instructed to. It does have to be said here that everyone does learn differently; some of us are more visual. We need to see a stroke and then mimic. I myself like to see it, but the real ability to make it comes when I close my eyes and feel the swing in slow motion a few times. No wonder, I’m also a great believer in visualisation.

I put the ease that I was able to take instruction down to the fact that my yoga and meditation make it easy for me to correlate movement with awareness, not to mention the natural flexibility I have.

Power of yoga

Yoga means union. When I teach a yoga class I put a lot of focus on feeling the movement and being aware of how the body feels in each asana [posture]. When I practice alone I often keep my eyes closed for a good deal of time, taking the time to breathe deeply and be aware of how my body is feeling. This develops an ability to be aware of the body, and its own innate intelligence.

If you are in the learning process of golf, from a novice to a good player, it seems that a lot of practice is a pre-requisite. But, even then you can hit balls for hours on the range, but when you endeavour to take what you have learned out onto the golf course it can go horribly wrong, not only for the beginner, but for all level of players.

There are many obstacles to overcome on the golf course: hazards, sand traps, and trees, to mention just a few. This is the physical aspect, but very interestingly for me there is also another – of how you deal mentally with each shot.

There is no game where it is more important to be able to be totally in the moment. One that is greatly challenged by the fact that there is time in-between each of your shots for you to think. For instance, when you walk from one shot to the next. How are you to be expected not to let your mind run riot in-between if you have just hit a bad shot?!

Golf lessons

After I’d had a few lessons with Spearman we started to discuss yoga and meditation and we realised how beautifully golf is complemented when you have the skills that yoga and meditation bring to you. We also considered the idea of working together. At this point I had already met Deepak Chopra and was studying under him.

Spearman decided to head out to California to attend one of Chopra’s courses. Whilst on the course Chopra asked him for a golf lesson. They hit it off well, and the started to discuss the possibility of putting a programme together that showed the benefits mind-body and spirit lessons could have on the game. Chopra, like myself, found himself able to absorb instruction quickly, and had no problem dealing with the mental side. Shortly afterwards, the three of us ran a programme called Golf for Enlightenment. I taught the yoga and meditation part, Chopra leadership skills and Spearman golf per se.

Most important: you need to have goals. More so, when we expect ourselves to be true spiritual masters, there is no substitute to practice. We need to do our yoga, practice our meditation and do breathing exercises, and be aware of who we are, and work at it.

It helps to have desires, or goals, that we are working towards. But, at some point, we need to detach and let everything to just flow. A true master learns his/her trade and the body becomes a finely-tuned instrument that will carry out at our bidding the best we can without worrying about it.

This also creates the ability for us to be in the zone of things, or the “flow.” In others words, become the Masters of our Destiny.

When we practice our meditation and our yoga on a retreat, or alone at home, we can be very calm but when it comes to taking what we practice out into the world and, perhaps, to be amongst our family or workplace [which can be a hazardless place for many of us], the truest test of whether we are spiritual masters comes about. You probably know what I mean: you think you are doing really well with your practice and someone shows up who makes it very difficult for you to hold your sense of peace and tranquillity, and all sense of peace goes out the window. You can find you’ve lost your sense of self and are simply being reactive. This has the effect of removing you from the flow of life.

I think there is a beautiful correlation to be made between golf and life. In life, if we have a goal, something that we are aiming towards. It can help us to overcome hurdles and problems we come across on the way. Also, if we cultivate the ability to not hold on to the past to always come afresh to our experiences we can create more of a natural flow in our lives.

One more thing. You need to have a sense of detachment from the outcome because if we think about it, every moment, it becomes difficult for us to allow ourselves to make mistakes. I really don’t think any of the most successful athletes are constantly thinking about winning that would have the effect of detracting from the power of being in the moment.

This is also where we can clearly see the correlation between golf and spiritual life. When we can master the ability to be in the present we can truly become masters of our destiny. The game is set up for the one who has the ability to come to every shot with a fresh approach and no attachment to what has just been. The intent to succeed also needs to be there for if any doubt is allowed to creep in, itcan quickly diminish the performance of the player.

The post My experiences with the game of golf appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The questions are endless and they can vary a lot in importance; however, no matter what the question is when we find ourselves unable to give an answer, it can place undue stress on our system. It can also take us away from a state of wellbeing.

I want to share with you some guidelines about possible ways to help you find answers. Naturally, we would like to be in a position that enables us to make the decision that will have the most beneficial outcome to our health and wellbeing in the future. It is not only the big decisions that can affect us – all decisions that we are called to make on a daily basis can affect the quality of our life, if we are unclear how to proceed.

Sometimes, we know intuitively the answer, or we can figure it out very quickly with our mind, but when the mind does not have an automatic answer, how can we make the most conscious decision at any given time?

No one wants to admit that a decision has been made as a result of being pressurised by an external factor, or because our conditioning makes us think we should do a certain thing. Wouldn’t it be great if we could tune our mind, body, and spirit, and made decisions that enable our personal growth and create more abundance in our life?

I need to add that sometimes even a decision that seems incorrect at one time may prove itself as a necessary stepping-stone on the path to discovering who we really are. It can be through the supposed wrong turns that we take in life that we receive the most gifts of understanding and abundance. When this realisation becomes a part of our reality it takes a lot of pressure off the decision making process.

There is never a right or wrong decision. There is only the best that we can do at any given moment with the information that we have at hand. However, there is an inner knowing that exceeds our rational thought and expectation, and this is our own innate inner wisdom and intelligence. When we are able to nurture the part of ourselves that is the witness to all that goes on rather than being the one who reacts, there comes an ability to make more conscious decisions in any situation that arrives.

For example: we often hear the expression, “I feel sick to my stomach,” when people are contemplating doing something they really don’t want to. Or, on a positive, yet nervous note, we can have butterflies in our stomach, when we are excited about something. Or, when we are dreading something, it can seem as if we have a dead weight in our stomach!

Exercise 1

Go for a good long walk, or savour Nature. The very act of physically moving the body helps the energy around us to start shifting. The next practice that can really help shift and aid you in becoming aware of your inner wisdom is meditation. With meditation you can tap into your own deeper wisdom, and also develop the ability to dive into the creativity and infinite knowledge of the Universe.

There is a very fine line between being the Creator of your Universe and allowing the Divine Grace of God to come in to help you manifest it. When the burden of our present situation becomes too heavy, it can have the affect of holding us in a pattern that is detrimental to our self. When I say God I mean the highest power in the Universe. You can call it the Divine Power, or Universal Intelligence, or whatever you feel most comfortable with. This advice was given to me by a wonderful Swami I had the good fortune to meet, HH Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswati.

This was a few years ago and I took his words to heart and have used the practice often. It always helps.

Exercise 2

Every night, before you go to sleep, hand over all your worries to God. If you don’t believe in God, hand them over to the Divine Power of the Universe. Wait to be relieved of your worries. The decision you need to make will now become clear to you.

Address Yourself

It is wisdom to believe the heart.

— George Santayana

Bring to mind a question that you want to address in your life right now. Start to focus on your breathing. Be aware of the breath as you breathe into the abdomen. Inhale, your belly rises; exhale, it goes down again. Consciously, slow the breath down. Now, place your awareness and your attention in your body, notice how it feels, close your eyes and scan yourself internally. Now, move your attention into your heart. Your heart is where you have the ability to make decisions that will be for your highest good. Breathe into your heart and ask yourself the question again. Wait and see if an answer comes to you. Now, scan your body again and see if there is any discomfort anywhere.

Basically, comfort in the body means you are okay with your decision and discomfort is a sign that you are not. The more you are able to tune into your body and use it as a way of knowing what is the best decision for you, the more clear is the message you receive.

What if this still does not seem to help you and you are at a loss how to proceed. I’m sure we all have those moments, or even periods, in our life when things become so uncomfortable that knowing what is the next step forward can almost seem too much of a struggle. It seems as if the confusion is so great that there is no path of clarity available to you. What should we do when this is happening? Sometimes, if we wait things will change on their own as everything is constantly changing and evolving, but occasionally it can help us to take some very basic steps in the right direction. Nothing in reality is unchangeable and even quantum leaps are possible, but it helps to know how to put yourself in a situation where this reality is available to you.

The post Believe Your Heart appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Summer is considered a time of renewal both in nature and at home. It is a perfect time to clean out your home, purify the body and mind, and start new projects. It is also a great time to let go of the negative emotions of winter and allow refreshing and new ways of thinking and being able to arise. “Everything changes, nothing remains without change” said the Buddha. When we embrace the change of the seasons they can help us in transforming our life.

We’re going to approach this idea from three different perspectives. Our mind, body and spirit. They are all, in fact, part of the whole, but we can address them separately for the sake of convenience. When we consider the body we must also encompass the environment, as it is a direct extension of the physical.

Let’s start with our environment. Take some time to look around where you live now. Does it need an influx of new energy? May be. We’re going to start with a “clean-up:” a very thorough cleaning of your home. Get rid of any unwanted clutter. Clean behind all those hidden spaces that don’t usually get your attention. Go through your wardrobe; give any clothes you no longer like or wear for charity. File or throw out any paper or papers you have lying around. When we clear our surroundings it creates the room for new things to come into our life.

Essence of summer

How can you bring the essence of renewal into your space? A good way to do this would be to give your home some colour, brighten it up, may be with a new coat of paint, or some new curtains. Or, you could simply rearrange the furniture; may be, you could buy a plant or two, pick some flowers. I want you to somehow bring this feeling of newness and colour into your life. This doesn’t mean we have to actually move house; we can just freshen up and rearrange the one we have. When we create a home that enables us to enjoy our surroundings it brings good and healthy energy to us.

Now, as our surroundings are feeling warm, let’s take a look at our physical body. If we’re going to refresh and revitalise our body we need to look at our diet. There are many cleanses out there and you could try one of them. A wonderful one is an ayurvedic cleanse supported by herbs. Speak to an expert as to what is good for you. This is known as panchakarma. In ayurveda, there are three distinct body types and what may be a healthy cleanse for a kapha type may not be necessarily good for a pitta or a vata. This is why it is important to find out which cleanse would best suit your body type.

Here are some simple guidelines that are universal you could try. Try them for a week and see how you feel. You are the only one who ultimately knows what is good for you. I have tried various cleanses. I once tried a raw food diet. Well, let’s just suffice to say it did not suit my body type. I felt awful. The friend I did it with felt fantastic. We are all so different, therefore, it is important to be gentle with ourselves and not force ourselves to be too stringent with a cleanse. Just simple changes can be enough for some of us. Sometimes, when we begin a cleanse we may feel a little rough as the toxins clear out, but in a few days you should feel much more vital and energetic.

Energised renewal

Start your day with a squeeze of lemon in a cup of warm water. Increase the amount of water you drink, cut out sugars and limit the amount of wheat and dairy you consume. Avoid all fried foods for the week. Drink no caffeine, alcohol or sodas. If you normally eat a lot of white rice, try limiting it for a week or at least switch over to brown rice. Increase the amount of fruits and vegetables that you normally would consume.

Next, we need to address the subject of exercise. While doing a cleanse you don’t want to take up any strenuous activities, but some movement is good as it helps clear the toxins out of your body. Gentle yoga and walking are fine. When your body is adjusting to a new diet don’t over-tax it with too much exercise.

After you have done a week of the cleanse and you resume your normal diet there should be more energy available to you. You can now increase the amount of exercise that you do. Choose something that you enjoy if you find going to the gym boring. You could take up a new sport such as tennis, yoga, golf, climbing, or swimming. I personally find a good brisk walk very helpful and enlivening – awakening my energy.

We are coming out of winter so do not do anything too active. Let’s acclimatise the body and mind. If you can walk, where there is nature around, you will absorb extra energy from nature. You can write a diary, or journal your thoughts on a day-to-day basis, and burn your entries. It cleanses your mind and body.

Spirit

Finally, we come to the Spirit – a different expression of the Spirit of Summer. Thank goodness, for wouldn’t it be boring if we were all the same! Therefore, all of us will have a different experience of what we need to cleanse our soul. However, the practice that we can all use is Universal: meditation.

If you embrace meditation fully it acts as the most powerful inner healer and restorer of individual power in your life.

Summer is a wonderful time to go on a retreat to renew your meditative practice. The Spirit of Summer can be also be described as Grace; it bring more Grace into your life by being thankful for what you have now. When we send blessings and offer gratitude for what we have in our lives, right now, Grace begins to shine on us and we will be able to live a full and abundant life.

Take the time when you go for a walk to admire the Spirit that is present in the beauty and wonder all around us. Remember: just as a bud opens slowly and a flower insidiously, try to be gentle with yourself as this is a season of growth and change.

Nurture yourself through it, and you will find yourself renewed and refreshed, and ready for the season.

The post Season of Freshness appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

As your last breath passes so too will your last thought. It has been said many times that breath mirrors the mind. When we are breathing fast and short due to excitement – either negative or positive – the mind tends to be overactive and hasty with many thoughts.

So, when we consciously slow down our breath, our mind also becomes slower and tranquil and it feels as if we are being given more space to think clearly, or even be released from our thoughts – momentarily.

It’s easy to take our breath for granted. In our normal healthy state, it flows in a natural cyclical manner, without drawing our attention towards it. However, when we find ourselves struggling to breathe, we are made aware of the true value of our breath.

I’m sure you’ve had one of those moments when you’re so scared that you’ve held your breath. What exactly are we doing that for? May be, to stop time, in a moment of fear, we unconsciously realise how completely our breath is related to our life! If we hold our breath, may be, we can stop life, and also stop something that we don’t want to occur from unfolding.

Breath relaxation

The holding of breath when associated with fear can send us into flight or fight mode, where the body goes into a state of stress, causing all those problems that are so prevalent in our world today – high blood pressure, weakened immunity, the release of stress hormones, and, of course, short shallow breathing.

When a person naturally breathes, deeply and fully, their whole system is in a relaxed state and, therefore, much more able to deal with stress. This also helps reduce the full-blown effect of the flight or fight response. If you know anyone who is a very relaxed person, or you are yourself, you will know that they find it natural and easy to breathe with slower, deeper breaths.

In this day and age when things are moving so fast, it can help to be reminded that there are very simple things in life that can come to our rescue and help us keep a balanced perspective and healthy life, even when chaos ensues around us. The world is changing at such a rapid pace, it is easy to get caught up in the speed of it all. So, how can we slow down? Quite simple. Stop and take a deep breath! Hasn’t anyone ever said to you, “Calm down, and take a deep breath.” It usually helps, right?

There are some fundamental practices we can keep with us in order to maintain a state of balance. What if there were ways you could use your breath to have more control over your life, even if some stresses can be beneficial as they spur us on to do things? But, since stress is becoming accumulative, it results in leaving more and more people susceptible to illness and loss in the quality of their life.

Return to stillness

Breath awareness can be a wonderful tool to take us to the stillness that is waiting to unfold in our lives.

Try it right now: sit up with your spine straight, take a smooth deep breath and observe yourself as you do so. Follow the breath as it comes in through your nose, and travels down through your body into your abdomen.

Can you feel as it travels through your body? Take time to close your eyes and try to focus on following the breath – as the breathing in the abdomen expands and rises, and breathing out relaxes you again, you’re not doing anything to change the breath. Just be present with it. Take a few breaths this way. There is no need to force, or strain; this is a very relaxed exercise. Sometimes, when we take our attention to something, it can momentarily cause us to tense up; so, just be aware of the possibility and allow your jaw to unclench and your shoulders to relax.

Now just reflect on this experience a moment. Did you notice that as all your attention went on the breath and there was no time for thoughts, you were, therefore, able to access the silent space between your thoughts – the gap? This is the silent space where pure consciousness resides, and as we start to go there more often, it can start to expand and come back into our everyday life.

When we combine our attention and breath, there is no room for the mind and its thoughts. If we can just learn to incorporate the simple practice of breath awareness into our day, we can start to unfold the magic of presence in our life. As you go about your day, try to remember to do this practice, just bringing your attention to the breath, and start making a difference in your life.

There is also something more you can do. Think of yoga. In yoga, there are various breathing exercises that can be learnt. These can be very powerful in balancing and healing the body. Primarily, the yogi learns breathing exercises so that s/he can bring more prana [energy] into the body, energising, cleansing and purifying the body – mentally, physically and energetically.

Most of these exercises are best learnt in the presence of an instructor. However, there are a few exercises that you can practice at home safely. They can radically aid you in improving your wellbeing.

Yogic Breathing: More than a Lungful of Air

Let’s talk about yogic breathing—the complete breath. Find a space to lie down on your back, preferably a quiet space. Bring your attention to the breath.

Relax your body. Release the jaw, and the shoulders. Let the palms of the hands face upwards, arms relaxed to your sides, the legs about hip-width apart. If you have a lower back problem, you can step the feet in and gently bring the knees together. Place one hand on your abdomen. This will aid you in following the breath. Breathe in through the nose, keeping the mouth closed. Inhale into the belly feeling the belly inflate like a balloon, and as you exhale release it back down again. Take a few breaths in this way.

Now, we’re going to do the “three-parts” breath. First inhale into the belly, then bring the breath up into the ribcage [expanding the ribs] and finally up into the chest. Expand your chest. Use your hands to help you follow the breath. Keeping one hand on the belly, bring the other to rest on your upper chest. Use a nice, long smooth breath. Hold it there for a moment and then release the breath — first from the chest, then the ribcage, and, finally, exhale all the air out from the belly. We want the breath to flow through the body, so do not exert force. Be conscious of allowing the breath to be smooth and gentle. Try this a few times on your own and maintain a fine slow pace. When we breathe through the nose into our belly, the effect is calming to the system.

The full yogic breath is a wonderful way to bring more air into our system, and if we exhale fully, it aids in releasing all the toxins from our body. Always make the exhalation longer than the inhalation. This gives us the benefit of really cleaning out the stale air in our lungs.

Also, there’s a medical perspective to all this – as we exhale, the brain sends a signal down the vagus nerve to relax the cardiac muscle. With each inhalation, the signal gets weaker and your heart revs up a little. Inhalation beats faster. Exhalation beats slower. It’s a rhythm that sustains our hearts, and is deeply rewarding – physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

The post Breathe Free appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

When we take the time to ask ourselves these questions on a regular basis they can assist us in detaching from our every day drama and aid us in reaching a deeper understanding of who we are, and how we could envision our life better.

“Who am I?”

A common response I hear is: “I’m not sure who I am.” Although we can all define ourselves in a descriptive manner by name, where we live, where we come from, or what our job is, this can feel like a limited perspective. The description of who we are in this way is our ego profile, and it does not manage to encompass the full reality of who we are. Most of us realise that we are so much more than our ego description.

Exercise

As you read my column I want you to take a moment and just think about who is reading it? Observe yourself as you read. Now, slow down your reading and listen to the words as you read. Can you feel an awareness that, perhaps, you weren’t noticing before I mentioned anything. Who or what is this presence, or awareness? Now, look at your hands as they hold the magazine. Close your eyes for a second and see if you can feel awareness in your hands? Do you, perhaps, feel some tingling as the energy there comes to life? Now, as you notice this presence can you get a sense for how long it has been with you? Has it always been there?

What is the point of these questions? Well, firstly, it is to establish and experience the possibility that there is, in fact, a part of you which is beyond the mind that is reading this page. A witnessing awareness, a presence – a beautiful part of you that is able to witness your thoughts, feelings and actions.

One of the reasons we sit in meditation is to be with that presence. It has certain qualities that you may have noticed — silence, all-encompassing, stillness, non-judgmental, creative, and infinite.

As we become more aware of this witnessing presence we are able to start to realise that we are more than our thoughts, feelings and actions. This allows us to detach from the drama of our life. When we come only from the ego perspective, it places a restriction on our experience of who we are and how we operate in the world. As we expand our awareness of who we are, our reality shifts and we can become more creative in the choices we make and the roles we play.

If we can go beyond our ego and our drama to get in touch with that part of ourselves that is Spirit and which is connected to everything we can access the infinite creative power of the Universe. In doing this, we are able to manifest a life that is much more fulfilling.

So, now that we have explored the fact we may be more than our ego, let’s delve into the more subtle, deeper levels of ourselves and, once again, pose the question: “Who am I?”

Remove the armour

Sit quietly and start by focusing on your breathing, in and out through the nose; feel your body relaxing. Inhale, exhale, and let go of any tension. Close your eyes. Imagine that your body is covered in a suit of armour. As you become more relaxed, feel the armoured suit falling to the ground. First, the front, the back, and then the sides. Hear the clanking noise it makes as it falls on the ground. Finally, remove the protective armour from your head.

Take sometime to breathe and feel the sweetness of the silence within you. Now, silently ask yourself the question, “Who am I?” Keep repeating the question. You’re going to do this for five minutes leaving a gap between each question to allow an answer to come. If you have a friend or partner available you can ask them to whisper the question in your ear. Take your time and see what comes. It could be something like this. Who am I, “Peace,” Who am I “Light,” Who am I “the Ocean”, Who am I “Anger.” Don’t judge your answers; just observe them.

I like to practice this exercise as it helps us to access that part of ourselves that is so much more than the ego self image. When we are able to access this deeper part of ourselves, we can start to bring more of the creativity and magic of the Universe back into our lives.

“What do I want?”

So, you’ve read all about manifesting your dreams and desires, and you think you know what you want but it’s not happening. Because, nothing ever happens that you want? Or, although it works for other people it doesn’t work for someone like you. Or, may be things are happening but now you’re becoming unsure of what it is that you really desire.

What we think we create. So, even if we work at manifesting our true desires, if we keep falling back into the rut of believing that we’re not capable of receiving what we truly want, this will become our reality. We can believe that we desire something new, healthier, in our lives but sometimes we have become conditioned to be more comfortable with what we lack. We can have negative thought forms and beliefs that are so deeply ingrained within ourselves that it prevents us from creating the life we truly want.

Imagine that you are like a computer that has been programmed in a certain way. The problem is that once we become programmed we do not know how to find the erase button to get rid of the ideas, thought forms or ways of being, that are not supportive. This can hinder us on our path to manifesting our dreams. The first step in changing any of these is simply by becoming aware of them. Awareness, on its own, is enough to transform any situation. It holds the key to life itself.

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