"One who sees all living beings as spiritual sparks, in quality one with the Divine, becomes a true knower of things. Such a person no longer experiences illusion or anxiety."
--Mantra Seven from Isha Upanisha
This quotation makes me think of another idea (although I cannot remember where I read it, so I won't be able to cite the source). Essentially, the idea is that when we are experiencing anxiety or worrying, we are as far away from God (or the Devine, or Allah, or Spirit, or whatever you personally believe in) as we can be. I come from a family of worriers (at least on my Mom's side--sorry, Family, if you're reading this, but you know it's true), and a few things have helped me lessen my tendency to worry and then experience anxiety:
1. Practicing Yoga (I bet you guessed this one) and yoga philosopy.
2. Believing that 95% of what we worry about NEVER happens (I think this one came from Dr.
Phil)
3. Trusting that the 5% that might happen is ok because I am strong enough to deal with it--
with the love and support of family and friends and the strength within me from God.
4. And finally, this idea that when we are worrying we are as far away from God as we can be.
We have let our ego and human brain take over our spirit, soul, and faith.
On another note, in the spirit of Valentine's Day (although I don't buy into this holiday much--What's with loving each other and expressing it on this one particular day of the year? Shouldn't this be more of a daily activity?), I'm going to share a modified metta (love) meditation or loving-kindness meditation. Essentially, the idea is to focus on an important person in your life, close your eyes, visualize them, and let your mind focus on these 4 phrases:
May you be free from danger.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
Kind of nice, huh? Eventually, in metta meditation, you're supposed to focus on someone you don't particularly like, close your eyes, visualize them, and let your mind rest on the above phrases. In the spirit of Valentine's Day, we can just start with those we love, though...
Finally, I wanted to share what "Namaste" means for those of you who may not be familiar with the word since I always end my blogs entries with it. Namaste is the Sanskrit word used to end most yoga classes, and loosely translated means: The Divinity within me bows to, recognizes, and honors the Divinity within you. With that being said,
May you be free from danger.
May you be happy.
May you be healthy.
May you live with ease.
Namaste'
Yogagal
1 comment:
What a lovely blog you have here and I particularly love your kind thoughts on this Valentine's Day post. Feel free to come visit me at www.spiritualthingsmatter.com, if you feel to do so.
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