find your bliss

In order to succeed in every aspect of life, motivation is a prerequisite. Whether you're trying to excel at work, pursue a hobby, or achieve a personal goal, it can be difficult to stay motivated over time. However, by cultivating certain habits, you can improve your motivation and increase your chances of achieving your objectives.   Incorporating yoga into your daily routine can be a great way to support and enhance the habits that keep you motivated. Yoga can be useful in the following ways:   One habit that can help keep you motivated is SETTING CLEAR GOALS . Having specific, achievable goals gives you a sense of purpose and direction, and helps you stay focused and motivated. It's important to set both short-term and long-term goals, so that you have both immediate and long-term motivation. The SMART criterion might be useful for establishing goals. Ensure that your targets are:   S-Specific M-Measurable A-Achievable R-Relevant T-Time-bound   Yoga can help you set clear goals by providing a sense of focus and purpose. Each yoga practice is an opportunity to set an intention or goal, such as working on a specific pose or focusing on your breath.   Another habit that can boost your motivation is CREATING A POSITIVE MIND-SET. Believe in yourself and your abilities, and focus on the progress you've made instead of dwelling on setbacks. Surround yourself with positive influences, such as supportive friends and family, and seek out inspiring role models who can motivate you to achieve your goals.   Yoga can help you cultivate a positive mind-set by teaching you to stay present and let go of negative thoughts and emotions. Through regular practice, you can learn to cultivate a more positive outlook on life.   A fantastic technique to maintain motivation is to find an ACCOUNTABILITY PARTNER. It keeps you driven and on track to have a buddy you can check in with and evaluate upon your success together. This may be a friend, a family member, or even an experienced trainer.   Many yoga studios offer classes with a teacher who can serve as an accountability partner, providing guidance and support as you progress in your practice. You can also find an accountability partner within a yoga community or through a friend or family member who practices yoga.   It's also important to CELEBRATE SMALL VICTORIES along the way. Recognizing and celebrating your accomplishments, no matter how small, can help keep you motivated and encouraged. It's easy to get caught up in the grind and focus only on the end result, but taking the time to appreciate your progress can help boost your motivation and confidence.   Yoga can help you celebrate small victories by providing regular opportunities to recognize and appreciate your progress. Each time you try a new pose or hold a pose for longer, it's a small victory to be celebrated.   In addition to setting goals and creating a positive mind-set, it's important to TAKE BREAKS AND PRACTICE SELF-CARE. It's easy to burn out if you're constantly pushing yourself, so make sure to take regular breaks and recharge. Taking care of yourself can also help you feel more motivated and energized. This could involve activities like exercise, meditation, or simply taking some time to relax and unwind.   Yoga itself is a form of self-care, as it helps you relax and recharge. Taking regular yoga breaks can help you stay motivated by providing much-needed time to rest and rejuvenate.   Finally, STAYING ORGANIZED AND MANAGING YOUR TIME effectively can help you stay motivated. Having a clear plan and staying organized can help you make the most of your time and stay focused on your goals. This might involve creating a to-do list, setting aside specific times for work and breaks, or using productivity tools like calendars and task management apps.   Practicing yoga can help you stay organized and manage your time effectively by providing structure and discipline in your daily routine. By setting aside dedicated time for your yoga practice, you can create a sense of balance and prioritize your well-being.   Overall, cultivating these habits can help you stay motivated and achieve your goals. Remember that motivation is a journey, not a destination, and it's normal to have ups and downs along the way. By focusing on your progress, creating a positive mind-set, and taking care of yourself, you can stay motivated and achieve your objectives.

Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word katharsis, meaning "purification" or "cleansing". It is most commonly used today to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions, and to a resulting emotional state that results in renewal and restoration.   Holi is a festival of playfulness, where the colors can help us get out of our identities. In the play of Holi, we no longer care about how we are looking with different colors on our face. If we truly go with the flow we are able to become children again and let our body and mind go with doing things that we are not able to do in our normal course of life, as we are so caught up in our ego identities and are living our lives to appropriately reflect our identities through the judgement of others.   Holi is unique as it gives us an opportunity to move beyond our normal identity and behaviour and become one with the vibration of playfulness. This festival comes in the spring season when there are flowers blooming in different colors everywhere and everyone is at their playful best. If we notice just an hour of Holi playfulness, that is enough for us to get attuned to the vibration of Holi and can get us going.   It's an ultimate meditation where we are not trying to act on anything but rather are able to flow with the vibes of Holi and express ourselves through the hugs we give others and the colors we put on others. We are able to see the divine in everyone, and love and celebration are the tone of this festival.   This festival has the power to make enemies into friends again, as when ego dissolves, people come together, we become one, and we wash away harmful thoughts and emotions.   For Holi to become the ultimate catharsis, let's play Holi like it's the last day of our lives and give 100% of our playfulness. Let this child of ours come out of the veil of seriousness and the fear of being judged, let the color and joy of Holi cleanse us, purify us.   Have a Happy Holi!   

The mind is something that is very mysterious. Without mincing any words, we can safely say that it is the mind that rules our very world; and yet if you ask someone to define what actually this mind is, one would be at a great loss!   When you think or brood, you can either be remembering something from the past, the near past, or the future, or you may be feeling, which is a subtler form of thinking; you may also be planning or imagining something.   But if we ask you where exactly this whole process is happening, you will be in great difficulty. Normally, we associate logical thoughts with our head and feelings with our heart (the middle of the chest). But, factually speaking, is it true? Is it true that our thoughts originate in our head and our feelings originate in our heart?    Biologically speaking, the heart is just the mechanism for pumping blood in our body; it has no concern with either thinking or feelings.   Psychologists have experimented and found that the left part of the brain is actually connected with logic, reasoning, mathematics, speech; basically, with all things that are practical to life, while the right part of the brain is connected with our feelings, imaginations, intuition, creativity, music, and so on.   Looking at it, it seems very obvious that if psychologists and brain scientists are right then, both parts of the brain are necessary for human existence, and both of these parts have to actually work together to give us a meaningful existence.   Even if we accept that the human brain is the seat of all internal activity that we perceive as the mind, we will still find it difficult to understand how the brain conjures and plays with all this stuff of thinking, feeling, and imagining. How does the brain store images? How does it replicate them? How do we identify people? More importantly, how do we plan intelligently, and what makes us creative? How is it that we have certain likes and dislikes?    Do we have some programming inside our brain and the body at large due to which we are the way we are? What is it that gives us thoughts that go on changing from time to time when institutions change, when human society comes into play, when we create religions and castes, when we respect certain human beings as sages and seers, when we collectively give authority to a few people and accept their power? Going a little deeper gives birth to what we call spiritual thoughts in our life, when we question our very existence(perhaps human being is the only creature on this planet earth who explores his own existence and is able to examine himself). In this sense the human mind also has the capacity to turn inward and attempt to look at this source.   Human brain is something physical, but is it just the power of the human brain that it has such mighty powers and strength or is it the interplay of something else with the human brain which makes us what we are!    What gives us the power to focus and concentrate? By and by, we can go on posing newer questions, thanks again to the great power of the human mind!   Again, without bothering much about defining the human mind, let us focus on the role of mind in our lives and how our individual mind patterns play in our lives on the whole. We will discuss how our state of mind essentially defines who we are and how we can transform the mind to become better and happier human individuals!   Conversations going on in the human mind!   dialogue   Conscious, subconscious, and unconscious Experiments Ways to enhance intelligence (the power of intelligence)

Have you ever experienced a failure, and felt like you just wanted to give up? Have you ever felt like you were stuck in a rut, unable to move forward?   It's natural to feel this way after experiencing failure. But it's important to remember that failures are actually stepping stones to success. In fact, many successful people attribute their success to the failures they experienced along the way.   This may seem counterintuitive, but think about it: when we fail at something, we are given the opportunity to learn and grow. We are given the chance to figure out what went wrong and how we can do things differently next time. We can use our failures as a chance to reflect and improve, rather than letting them hold us back.   Yoga in the Face of Adversity: This idea can be connected to the practice of yoga, which is all about finding balance and acceptance. In yoga, we learn to embrace our imperfections and let go of the need for perfection. We learn to be present in the moment and accept whatever comes our way. This can be challenging, as our society often places a heavy emphasis on achieving perfection and success. But in yoga, we practice letting go of these external expectations and instead focus on our own personal growth and development.   In the same way, we can learn to embrace our failures and use them as opportunities for growth and learning. Rather than getting caught up in the idea of perfection, we can let go of the need to be perfect and instead focus on the journey and the progress we are making. This shift in mind-set can be incredibly freeing, as it allows us to let go of the fear of failure and instead embrace it as a natural part of the learning process.   Yoga can be a helpful tool for coping with failure in a number of ways. Here are a few ways in which yoga helps us to;   Cultivate mindfulness: Yoga can help us to approach failures with a more balanced perspective. When we are mindful, we are more aware of our thoughts and emotions, and we are better able to approach challenges with a sense of clarity and calm.   Let go of perfectionism and embrace our imperfections: By practicing yoga, we can learn to let go of the need to be perfect and instead focus on the present moment and the progress we are making. This can help us to approach failures with a sense of acceptance and self-compassion.   Foster self-awareness and self-acceptance: By practicing yoga, we can become more aware of our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and we can learn to accept ourselves as we are. This can help us to approach failures with a sense of self-acceptance, rather than self-judgement.   Manage stress and regulate our emotions: Through the practice of yoga, we can learn to manage stress and regulate our emotions in healthy ways. This can be particularly helpful when we are facing challenges or failures, as it can help us to stay centred and focused.   So next time you experience a failure, remember that it's not the end of the road. It's just a stepping stone on your path to success. Embrace it, learn from it, and keep moving forward. And remember, the practice of yoga can be a helpful tool in cultivating this mind-set of acceptance and growth.

Human life is a very temporary phenomenon-more temporary than we can often conceive. What you and I hold as very important holds no real importance in the vast eternity of time.   It’s like a dew drop that appears in the morning and disappears as the sun sets. What is “ego”? Ego is the feeling that “I” am a special entity separate from the universe. “I” am “someone” who has his or her own private goals to manage and accomplish. “I” always have an individual journey that stands apart from the “whole.” This “I” has been called “ahankara” in the Indian system of philosophy, and it is this “I” that is attributed as the root cause of all misery. Maharshi Patanjali , the father of modern yoga, explicitly calls this “ahankara” the root cause of human misery.   The concept of us being an island cut off from the rest of the universe and life inspires various attachments and aversions.These attachments and aversions lead us to constantly hunt for pleasurable experiences and avoid those that we don’t want to experience, which we find undesirable.   Speaking again of the great Maharshi Patanjali, who spoke of the five “kleshas” (miseries), the cause of ego, or “ahankara,” is “avidya.” Apparently, the term “avidya” seems to mean lack of knowledge. However, if we look a bit deeper, the lack of knowledge here does not refer to what we normally consider and understand knowledge to be. Knowledge, as we normally refer to it, fundamentally means information. However, Patanjali used this term in a very specific reference. “Lack of knowledge” here means a state of non-awareness.  Non awareness of what? It's a lack of understanding of our true essential nature. This needs a little discussion.   This is something very interesting and peculiar to Indian philosophy (in its varied forms). Indian philosophy is not a system of thought. It is rather an outcome of a direct encounter with life and the subsequent vision. Surprisingly, various sages and seers arrived at the same fundamental vision,  and that vision is that man, as he is naturally born, is unaware of his true inherent nature. This is what Patanjali refers to as “Avidya.” It is this ignorance, this lack of awareness of our true inherent nature, that is being talked about. This lack of awareness leads us to impose a fictitious identity that we label “I.” No one knows what this “I” fundamentally is, and yet the whole of human life revolves around this central idea of “I.”   The great Indian seer, Maharshi Raman, when asked as to the basic cause of human misery, said that: the basic cause of human misery is the fact that he is not aware of his true nature. One can see that Ramana  is perfectly aligned with Patanjali. Maharishi Raman suggests one fundamental solution to get out of perpetual human misery, and that is to question this very “I.” One needs to ask oneself, “Who am I?” What is this “I” that we take for granted?   The second, most striking and unanimous discovery of all the great seers that happened in India is the fact that the true nature of a human being is the eternal, pure, undifferentiated consciousness. Different seers used different labels for it, but all of them without exception agreed on this one thing that-the true nature of man is not “limited” but “eternal.”   This is a mind boggling discovery indeed! In this sense, a human being is not a temporary phenomenon that is apparent. A human being, on the other hand, is "God" personified. This is a very striking observation and it is not easy to come to terms with it. How can a human who is a bundle of miseries come to realise that he  is, in fact, God personified, that he is “God” or “eternity” having a human experience!!!   The whole journey of yoga and the entire science of meditation are an effort to realise this fundamental mystery. One has to validate this fundamental hypothesis: You are not the petty “I” that you believe yourself to be; you are “eternity” itself. Believing this does not help, blindly accepting it does not help, realising this is the only way out. Realisation needs inquiry, realisation needs effort, and realisation needs a pathway. Fortunately, the great seers have provided different pathways. All that is needed is an open mind, an honest curiosity and the desire and will to learn and find out!