Just read this quick book from Swami Dayananda Saraswati the other day – “The Problem Is You, The Solution Is You.” It is one of a series of short books being published by Arsha Vidya that each cover specific topics in ~50-60 pages (some are less). You can get through the books pretty quickly and they leave you with a few nuggets to think over for a while. Visit the bookstore and look for the “Moments With Oneself” series if you want to pick up a copy for yourself.
This book talked about the nature of problems we face, and that for a entire class of problems, the solution lies within oneself. One class of problems are called “external problems,” these are things like not having food, shelter or proper medical treatment. These external problems require external solutions – in terms of proper nutrition-rich food, housing or medicines.
The other class of problems are “internal problems.” This class is the focus of the book. These are problems due to complexes of the mind, and not accepting situations as they are.
For example, yesterday I was in a pretty challenging yoga class, and couldn’t wait for the class to end. I had a problem and that problem was yoga! However, this evening, I didn’t have time to make it to yoga class, and really wanted to go. I still had a problem, and that problem was yoga again! However, the reason completely changed. This time I didn’t have enough while yesterday I had to much.
In the same way, some mornings I feel like I don’t have enough of the proper clothes to wear, and other days I feel like I have too much stuff and can’t decide what to put on! In fact, most money problems (outside of cases of poverty where basic needs aren’t met) are internal problems. If you are in your late 20’s or early 30’s (like me) – think about when you were a teenager – and try to remember what stuff you thought you wanted when you “grew up.” The stuff that if you had it, you were sure you would be happy.
Chances are you have achieved enough financial success to get whatever you would have wanted when you were that young. For me it was some cool clothes, nice bikes, electronic gadgets and a car. I can buy any of that stuff right away if I wanted it, but it’s not like that would make me jump for joy with glee.
10 years from now the same thing will be true. There are countless stories of people winning the lotto and still not being happy. This is the issue with internal problems, they can only be solved with internal solutions.
The book has some valuable advice for dealing with internal problems. I’ll let you read the book and discover for yourself. For me, meditation is a big tool to deal with this class of problem. It gives you enough “inner space” to see problems objectively and get out of a cycle of action –> reaction –> action. When you see things objectively, the objects have less of an affect on you. It then allows you to be at-cause for creating a new way of being, instead of being the dog wagged by the tail of some crazy thought or desire.
I am on day 3 of my 30 day meditation challenge. The first two days went incredibly well. Today was tougher. My allergies were acting up and I hardly slept a few hours last night. Sitting for meditation, my mind would start going crazy. Here’s a sample of about one minute of crazy mental dialogue:
Ahhh…..finally relaxing. Just focusing on my breath………..wow, I’m hungry! I wonder what I should eat for dinner? Do I have any groceries…maybe I’ll go out instead. Falafel? Nope, Chinese!!!! Yeah, I could go for some Chow Mein right now….ok back to breathing……..wow, my allergies are really acting up…it’s hard to breath…ok I’ll breath through my mouth. I’m thirsy, where is my water? don’t open my eyes, just sit tight….I wonder if 20 minutes is up? let me check….no don’t the eyes!!!! ahh….back to breathing….etc…
When you shut your eyes and sit still, you realize how crazy your mind can be and how much energy it expends on useless stuff. This reminds me of a great proverb:
No matter how far down the wrong path you go, turn back!
The whole point of meditation is to keep bringing the mind back to a single point of focus, no matter how much it wanders. The next few weeks will be interesting.
Every now and then I do challenges to either learn something new or re-commit myself to something I already do – but not enough. They say that 30 days is just enough time to make a habit and from my experience it is long enough to get “over the hump” that usually comes with any kind of change in routine – and actually start to see the benefits.
Bellevue Buddha
I have been meditating on and off since late 2003, having learned a technique from John McAffee at the Relational Yoga Mandiram. You can read about one of my fasting and meditation retreats a few years ago. Since that time I maintained a regular twice-a-day meditation routine. 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening. On occasion I would sit longer, but this was the typical day.
However, for the past couple years I’ve been slacking. Sometimes I will sit for just five minutes before getting distracted. Sometimes a week would go by without sitting at all! While I do practice yoga regularly (and during 90 minutes I do experience a heightened flow-meditative-state), there is still nothing like sitting still for a few minutes. It is perhaps the most challenging of all aspects of a well-rounded yoga practice.
So, I’m starting a new 30 day challenge. Here it is:
I commit to, starting today and for the next 30 days, meditating twice a day for 20 minutes each. Once in the morning and once in the evening.
I’ll blog about my experience as the days go on. I sat already for my two sessions today. They went by surprising quickly, and my mind was quite still. I’m guessing not all days will be this easy . If you have never meditated before, here are a few tips:
Find a spot that is flat and firm, use this spot consistently for all of your sessions. Don’t meditate in a bed or on a cushy couch. If you get cold in the morning wrap yourself in a shawl.
Try to sit cross-legged, but if your legs and hips are two stiff, fold up a blanket and sit on it, allowing your ankles to rest of the floor with crossed legs. Use as many blankets as you need! If this doesn’t work for you, find a stiff backed chair to use.
Set an alarm clock for the allotted time. Start with 5 minutes and build up to 20 minutes. Do not open your eyes until the alarm goes off. Resist the urge to peek!
Find your spine in a position where it is erect, with natural curvature. Avoid the tendency to slouch. This will just induce sleepiness! Imagine that you are balancing an apple on your head
Rest your palms on your knees face down. Alternatively, you can rest your palms one on top of another in your lap.
Breath in and out through your nose. It doesn’t have to be a loud and audible breath like they teach in some yoga classes. Just breath normally. Allow your mouth to close and bring the tip of your tongue to the upper palate, and rest it there.
Continue to notice your breathe, if you mind wanders, bring it back to your breath. No matter how many times your mind wanders, keep bringing your awareness back to your breath.
Try to remain motionless, no matter what! Even if your body tingles or tickles. This is the point, don’t get distracted. You can do pretty much anything for 20 minutes.
That’s it! There are other techniques that people use as part of a meditation practice, but this is the most simple approach. It is highly effective and infinitely challenging. Give it a shot!
Realized my blog was hacked last night. I couldn’t login to my administrator panel to change anything. The landing page was just taken over by some creep. I fumbled around for a while and eventually decided to backup my SQL database and then blow away my entire Wordpress installation and re-install. That didn’t solve the problem. So I then deleted everything in my server directory through an FTP client.
This worked…partially. I was able to re-install wordpress, re-active my database and I could login and see all my content through my admin center in Wordpress. That made me stop worrying so much – at least my content was there. However, the public facing page to this blog just appeared blank. After a little monkeying around – I decided to change themes and see if that would do something. Viola! It did. I have no idea what exactly I did to make the site work….but glad it did.
I re-installed some of the plug-ins I uses (like Contact Form 7, Tweet Meme and the YARPP Related Posts plug-ins). Now everything looks to be back to normal.
What did I learn from this experience?
First of all – this is the second time my Wordpress blog has been hacked in the past 18 months. Hackers are smart, so assume that if it hasn’t happened to you – it is only a matter of time.
Be sure to make regular backups of your Wordpress database. You can grab the backups from the control panel of your hosting account or use one of several plug-ins that will do it for you automatically. If you have done any customizations to your blog and want to save the pain of having to re-install plug-ins and redo any custom code, take a full backup of your entire site directory once in a while as well.
If you are hosting your blog on Wordpress.com – you are guaranteed to have the most current builds. If you are using a hosting provider – don’t delay when you see the notifications that new updates are available! Make sure your Wordpress builds are current.
There are a few security plug-ins that you can use to detect funny-business going on in your blog, and take out some info that hackers look for (e.g. Wordpress version info in the header files).
If you have other tips to keep your blog safe and secure, please do share!
I’m not usually into pomp and show but boy is this video by Eric Horner incredible. Sometimes you just gotta acknowledge your own power and give yourself a kick in the but to do what you’ve gotta do. This video includes scenes from one of my favorite movies “Snatch” with audio from Muhammad Ali and Rocky and a music soundtrack spliced from the Transformer’s movie and Gladiator (another one of my favorites!).
Some of my favorite quotes from this short video are:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
I’m gonna show you how great I am! Only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick – I’m so mean I make medicine sick! – Ali
I’m gonna show you how great I am! Last night I cut the light off in the bedroom, hit the switch, was in the bed before the room was dark! – Ali
I’m gonna show you how great I am! I’d huv wrestled with an alligator, I’d huv tussled with a whale, I’d huv hand-cuffed lightnin’, put thunder in jail! – Ali
Nobody is gonna hit as hard as life, but it ain’t about how hard you can hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep movin’ forward. That’s how winnin’ is done. – Rocky
If you know what you’re worth than go out and get what you’re worth! – Rocky
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We were all meant to shine as children. Not just in some of us, but in everyone. As we let our own light shine, we give others the opportunity to do the same.
One of my favorites sayings (not sure who to attribute it to):
“Who you are speaks so loudly, I can hardly hear a word you are saying”
When you have nothing to prove and are acting out of sheer joy, interest, kindness and support – you end up making a far bigger impact than you could ever try to make. Think about that the next time you are trying to create a change at your place of work, home or in a relationship.
(note: I edited the quote after I published this….had the first part wrong)
What you (or a customer, or a partner, etc.) do is far more powerful than what you say. We know in marketing that the best form of marketing is a referral from someone who has actually used and can vouch for a product. In family situations, kids learn best not by being told what to [...]
Discipline is probably the single biggest factor to personal success in anything. Back in high school I knew quite a few friends who seemed to do pretty well in school and sports by doing the bare minimum – or at least a pretty modest amount of work. They did just enough homework, just enough studying, [...]
Listening to the audio book for How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Read Part 1 and Part 2 for insights from the earlier portions of the book. Here are some insights from this evening’s listening:
See things always from another person’s point of view – always, try as hard as you can [...]
Listening to “How to Win Friends and Influence People ” by Dale Carnegie again. Here are some stream of conscious nuggets I’m picking up while listening. Read Part I for more nuggets.
The best way to win an argument, is to avoid it.
Quit telling people they are wrong, after all, how do you really know? You [...]
Listening to “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie (again). There are thousands of books on self-help and business leadership out there but this is definitely the one that matters. I like listening to the audio book version. It forces me to take in every word whereas in print form I end [...]
Heading home from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Plenty of cool stuff to see, some useful (some great mini-laptop devices and eReaders) and plenty of nonsense (the hype over 3D tv was ridiculous, it has a long way to go before it hits primetime).
The biggest value in these shows is not [...]
As you start setting your intentions and aspirations for the new year, don’t fret if you can’t pinpoint the exact things that you want to do, places you want to visit, people you want to meet or other experiences you want to have. Try as best you can to make your intention something that is [...]
If you’ve watched this video from my last post, you probably picked up on this theme. It’s a clue into one of life’s great mysteries. Success depends on both talent and skill. They are similar but radically different at the same time. One is a gift you have been given. The other is completely up [...]
Came across some notes from from a few Tony Robbins programs I attended. As we emerge from the holiday’s and the overeating that typically goes along with it, these will come in handy to help us get back on track.
Eight Key Principles for Maximum Nourishment….as taught by Tony Robbins
I’ve always been a big fan of Will since Fresh Prince days. Even his cheesier movies (“Men in Black” anyone?) were at least entertaining.
Lately, he’s had a string of films (Legend of Baggar Vance, Pursuit of Happiness, Seven Pounds, I Am Legend) that are far deeper than the typical blockbuster. Touching on themes one might [...]
It’s so much easier to go with the flow. If you have ever been on a rafting trip, you know what I mean. You can spend all your energy paddling against the current and not go anywhere. You can also decide to go with the current and move with hardly any effort at all.
Sometimes going [...]
We are always changing. In fact, science shows that the very cells in our own body are constantly regenerating. Every day our skin is regenerating itself. Our internal organs are recycled every few months. Bones are replenished. Blood is create. Old cells are broken down and replaced with new cells. In fact, our entire bodies, [...]
Quick post – it’s been a while since I last wrote and I’ve recently discovered something so simple that I just have to share. Sleep. I’ve been very busy of late, with a new job at work, a bunch of travel, teaching yoga and taking some workshops, and getting ready for an upcoming trip to [...]
. If you have never meditated before, here are a few tips:
