Every Question Is Answered

Silence is an answer, too. Thinking back on all the questions I had that led me to this journey with the Art of Living, it was the questions which I truly wondered at and held closest to my heart that were met with silence but propelled me forward to experience the answer for myself.

 

At 16, I thought to myself, “I just want to be like Buddha. What does it take to be like Buddha?” and at 17, during a stressful research paper, “Is this really all there is to life? Right now I feel like pulling my hair out and crying, stressing over this essay. And what after this? I graduate, start a family and die while my children follow the same cycle? …Is life truly a never ending conveyor belt of going through stress to have kids so they can also go through stress and die? Really?” Silence.

At 20, I had the realization that I did not actually have to go through suffering; it was all a choice. “But how? How to stop suffering through these emotions?” again, silence. At age 21, a series of questions happened just months before coming into the Art of Living.

These questions, too, were met with silence while I quietly pondered to myself briefly before resuming whatever I was doing at the moment.

Walking through campus, I stopped for a moment and asked myself: “How will I show my fellow students that they don’t have to suffer through college?” I had recently completed a yoga teacher training which educated me a great deal about awareness and being present. Even in my stress management class, students would talk about how they’d be so happy once they finally graduate. “How will I tell them the secret is in the present moment?”

Some less existentially pressing, but still deeply curious questions came as well. I really wondered, “What would ever make me stop smoking? Having a highly professional career and dynamic team? Being a CEO or working right under a CEO? Nope. Even having a child would still allow me this habit. Was there anything in the world that would get me to stop?” I really didn’t think so.

Relaxing alone one day after a long day at campus, I saw a group of students sit at a table not far from where I was inside of a campus library. They seemed so jovial and happy. Laidback, fulfilled, even. I was fascinated. What was it they were talking about? What kind of jokes did they make? Did they use foul language even a little bit? What would it be like for me to interact and converse with them? Probably extremely delightful. I suddenly wanted to hang out with Indians and have happy Indian friends. How would I do that? Silence.

And right around the same time I had taken my first Happiness Program with the Art of Living, again at age 21 a thought occurred, “Should I spend some time at an ashram?” This was before I knew ashrams existed in the modern world, not only as a far-off reach somewhere in the mountains of east Asia. Within a short span of a few months, I discovered that ashrams exist not only in North America, but right here with the Art of Living Foundation in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

Today I am living at a 180 degree angle to where my questions originated. I have not only received an answer, but experienced and witnessed each answer with my own eyes.

Every question has an answer. And if you’re lucky, the answer will be silence.

Alicia Nelson (B.A.) studies Global Studies at Arizona State U. With a deep interest in experiencing what’s more in life, she is dedicated to volunteering and helping others do the same.

Medication? Meditation (Part 2)

Now that I have gotten you stoked about the prospect of meditation (hopefully!), here’s what I tell people who ask me how to meditate. Quite simply…

1. Prep yourself – Give yourself no excuse to get up once you’ve finally settled into a meditation. Listen to mom’s advice and go to the bathroom, drink water, eat a light snack, wear comfortable clothing (yoga pants/ sweat pants, etc.; not tight jeans and a corset). Do not eat a huge fatty meal because you will sleep, not meditate.

2. Exercise (yoga is a fantastic segue into meditation) – You will be sitting very still for a while so let loose any ants in your pants. Set a gentle alarm if you need to restrict time. There are plenty of meditation apps to help. Don’t startle yourself into consciousness with loud, sudden sounds; that defeats the purpose of relaxation. The best duration is around 20 minutes—not too much, not too little (though your perception of time can vary each and every instance!). But you can meditate for as little or as long as you damn please. As mentioned above, breathing techniques are amazing and simple ways to ease you into zen mode.

3. Keep your back straight – This can be uncomfortable to begin with because we’re a species that loves to slouch, but hang tough the first few times and you’ll even begin to see a change in your daily posture. Do your best—otherwise, soon you’ll be drooling on your shirt and sleeping, not meditating. Big difference. Use a backrest, pillow or wall. If you can without a wall, you’re already semi-enlightened… oh wait, this is about being UNDERenlightened. Scratch that.

4. Sit symmetrically – This means both feet on the ground, seated on a chair, or cross-legged on the floor. Essentially, both left and right sides of your body should look the same. Palms facing up (preferred personally, but try both) or down on your lap.

5. Set the mood to be relaxed and comfortable – You can’t meditate if your body is not where it wants to be. Snuggle up in a blanket, don’t sit cross-legged if it’s not comfortable, turn off or dim the lights. Keep your cellphone on silent or locked in a safe on top of the fridge.

6. Pay attention to your body and breath – Literally what those words mean. We often don’t even realize how much tension we carry physically. I often have scrunched up brows or tightly pursed lips or my shoulders are up to my ears. When you stop and just be with yourself, you’ll start to notice these things, trust me. It’s wild. Loosen up those parts taking deep breaths.

7. Here’s where you can go two ways: you can continue to just be mindful of your thoughts and body, and every time you get too wrapped up in your head, remind yourself to bring yourself back to the breath and focus on that. No need to get mad at yourself for your brain wandering. It’s got a PhD in it! Or, alternatively, when you feel calm and settled after step 5, you can walk yourself through all your body parts gently and take deep breaths as you do so.  To give you an idea of an order to follow, this is what I do (you can say this in your head slowly as you go along): Take your attention to your right foot, right knee, right thigh and hip. (Follow that with the same on left side, and don’t forget to keep breathing; also, if needed, feel free to pause and stay on any body part as long as you wish.) Abdomen, stomach, chest, right shoulder, right arm and hand. Left shoulder, arm and hand. Neck, face, cheeks, top of the head. Throughout, you can be as detailed as you like. And finally, just take your attention to your whole body.

Now. ‘Take your attention to’ does not mean ‘pay attention to.’ You don’t need to focus like it’s two hours ‘till that O Chem exam you’ve stayed up all night cramming for. It’s just a gentle awareness, like, “Hey foot, how’s it hanging? Say hi to your mother for me, alright?” It’s really more of a “Oh, that’s my foot. Deep breath.” And if you feel like moving on to your next bit… swell. If not, just listen to what your body is asking you to pay attention to.

NOTE: You may experience tingling, lightheadedness, have a movie of thoughts, or even the dreaded… nothing. Nirvana wasn’t achieved in one day. Practice is key to going deeper. Even if you do it 5 minutes a day, the quality will begin to shift. Even if you don’t experience a life-changing shift right away, maybe you’ll see a change in your energy levels or mood. Give it a fair chance before declaring yourself a meditation squib (inside joke for you Harry Potter junkies).

8. Once you’re far away in Blissville or Zenlandia, you have two more options… to stay there or to lie down on your back (bed, floor, whatever is closest and requires the least movement) until you’re happy to get back to the real world or until your alarm goes off. Or you may just fall asleep and wake up 8 hours later.

9. Repeat steps 1 – 8 as often as possible. There are apps to remind you of these too. I use a free basic meditation insight timer.

And there you have it! I like to say that meditation is my medication—my cure-all. I sure you hope you try out a dose or two to see if it’ll change your life like it did mine. If you do, I’d love to hear about it.

Your first step toward enlightenment is now complete. Your first step toward UNDERenlightenment is understanding irony. May the force be with you.

Originally published by the UNDERenlightened at www.theUNDERenlightened.com.

Medication? Meditation (Part 1)

I always love when people ask me what my favorite position is. Why, lotus, of course. What were you thinking?

It may seem like everybody and their mom is meditating these days. And, well… my mom just took a meditation course after seven years of my incessant nagging, so there you have it. Yet I meet so many people who are wowed by the fact that I’m a longtime meditator (7 years and counting, son!) and that I have a daily practice at the tender age of 25. So often, I hear the sentence “I wish I could meditate…” and I’m always stunned by it. I seriously mean this when I say it: anyone can meditate. You don’t need to be a monk, hermit, or even have a guru or teacher to learn to meditate (though it can help).

Simply put, meditation is being still: physically, verbally, and mentally still (eventually at expert level). It is not a Buddhist practice (though it can be.) It is not a Hindu practice (though it can be.) It is literally just sitting with an intention for stillness. There are many types (even standing and walking ones), but the two most basic ones are:

  1. Mindful meditation – Taking your awareness to different parts of your body, breath, thoughts.
  2. Concentration meditation – Actively trying to concentrate on a thought, sensation or a visualization and bringing yourself back to that when your mind wanders.

There is no poster child for meditation. I am a rowdy hockey fan whose favorite band since 16 has been Tool and I grew up in a third world country. None of those facts have any relevance to my ability to meditate. If I can do it… so can you.

When I first started, I wondered what good could possibly come of me being still sitting in silence doing absolutely nothing. Well, let me tell you—one UNDERenlightened to another UNDERenlightened friend. I can only speak from my own experience but a lot of research backs up my positive experience with meditation.

  • I feel more energized.
  • I feel calmer and less stressed.
  • I feel more focused and clear minded.
  • I can control my emotions better (e.g. not throw my drink at the TV screen when the San Jose Sharks make a terrible play).
  • I am more aware of my own self and others around me. (This one sounds pretty new age-y and I apologize for that. What I mean is, for example, if I feel angry, it’s easier for me to pick up on the fact that I’m angry and stop to think before saying or doing something hurtful. Similarly, I am more aware of how others around me are feeling and, honestly, sometimes they don’t have to say a darned thing for me to know.)

I’m a true believer in this preflight safety message across the board: Put on your own oxygen mask before tending to others.

How did I get into this life-changing practice? A 5-day course called YES Plus. I took my first freshman semester in college. I had just moved back to the United States after 12 years and was having a tough time adjusting to suddenly not having any friends. After attending an introductory meeting for a meditation group, I signed up. Initially, I believed it would just help me de-stress and show me the ropes of yoga. But little did I know that it would change my life. YES Plus is a course offered to college students and young professionals to learn meditation, gentle yoga, some simple, effective life skills and finally (and mainly) breathing techniques. It ended up being the best thing I’ve ever done for myself and since then I’ve assisted with at least 10 seminars at various universities (including Stanford University’s own YES Plus chapter—my main YES Plus community, since I work at Stanford.) I learned to manage my emotions better (which we know is most difficult at the dramatic age of 19), learned to be happier and more energized, and gained a huge ever-growing group of incredibly inspiring friends. I’ve never looked back since.

The most impactful thing I learned in YES Plus was breathing. Sounds silly, right? Different breathing techniques help segue into meditation—the ones I learned helped me breathe deeper (Pro Tip: use more lung space; if you’ve taken a biology class, you know that respiration is an act of energizing and detoxing your body so breathing deeper means more of that), and made me feel awake yet calm afterwards.  It’s like having caffeine without the anxious jitters. For people like me who think it’s incredibly difficult to just sit and be… breathing as an active and engaging process helps the transition into peace of mind tremendously. I’ve found that I can get to a deeper space of meditation faster.

To this day, I have trouble meditating sometimes—I have been conditioned to be on-the-go and I feel like I’m wasting my time sitting and ‘doing nothing.’ But the fact is that you are doing something in meditation. You are giving yourself peace of mind (a mini brain vacation, if you may) and that will translate into everything you do. Trust me. You can’t knock it till you try it! Perseverance is key. Set a bar for yourself: ‘I will meditate for 5 minutes daily for a month.’ If it feels good, up the ante by increasing the time or number of times you do it in the day. If it doesn’t, then you learned what doesn’t work for you and are one step closer to realizing what does.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article next week!

Originally published by the UNDERenlightened at www.theUNDERenlightened.com.

To Paradise, and Not Back

Meditation and Freedom

Sitting in my living room, I watch the beautiful lake outside, the willows waving a friendly hello, the ducks quacking, the fish and turtle coming to shore for sun.

I am sipping my morning tea in ecstasy.  Life is about enjoying little things right ? I may not need the silence course after all. I am happy.

I watch my 3 year old with such amusement.  I am wonderstruck with the actions of this little person.  I can watch and listen to her all day long. I cannot be grateful enough for her. I am a mother, I am happy !

I announce to my friends I signed up for the Silence Course with Sri Sri.  My friends are super excited for me. I am not sure what to feel, or expect.? Will I change?  Will something change ? Will I know the purpose of my life ? Does the Guru even know I exist ? My mind is a tangled ball of hair.

Here’s how it went:

December 25

I am in Boone, in the third row of the main meditation hall waiting anxiously to set my eyes on Guruji for the first time.  I can sense him from a distance with my eyes closed, as if there is a fragrance that entered before him.

Silence Course Day 1

The chaotic day.

I wake to a cold winter morning . . . I to come out of the warm blanket.

I become generous enough to let my roommates shower before me.

I shower in ice cold water.

I cry.

I am thinking of my little daughter who was ill when I left home.

I push myself through the day with a splitting headache.

I skip my dinner.

I want to scream my head off !

I feel like a prisoner making plans to escape.

It is nearly 10 pm when I head to the dining room. To my surprise  I see freshly steamed rice and other dishes laid out inviting me to eat. My throat is choking with gratitude. I eat the most delicious meal of my life.

Day 2

Missing home.

I wake up with tears.

Cold wind hits my sinuses.

I want to run back home.

In the afternoon, during the advanced meditation, something changes. A sense of calm comes. I am assured everything is fine back home and my daughter is feeling better.

Day 3

Silence has started .

It is so natural to me.

I am feeling lighter physically and mentally due to the yoga, meditations and light,  nutritious food.

I am enjoying it.

A million questions pop into my head, waiting for answers from the guru.

Day 4

I am patting myself on the back for having reached this far.

What a beautiful winter morning it is . . . not so cold.

It is Paradise.

I am breathing in every moment . . .  filling my senses.

Breathtaking blue ridge mountains . . . as far as my eyes can see.

I wonder why my camera cannot capture what my eyes see.

The sky is very special this morning . . . it has a message for me . . . “My child there are greater things than the view from your patio.”

I realize I am just an atom in this vast creation . . . one particle in the many galaxies.

Words are inadequate to express my first Silence Course with Sri Sri himself.

Every question is answered.

My entangled hairball mind is detangled with the comb of knowledge.

When the guru wants to meet his disciple then “all is taken care of.”  Yes!

Addiction Free

This story took place in Iqaluit, an Inuit Community in Northern Canada. The names have been changed to preserve privacy.

When the Art of Living Course ended, I returned back to the home where I was staying with my two hosts. Emma and Jessica were both participants in the course. Jessica was addicted to drugs; Emma was an alcoholic.

I told them I wanted them to become completely drug and alcohol free – not just for the 6 days of the course, but for life.

Right away Jessica got up, opened the fridge, and gave me her last beer can. She said: “Here you go.  I don’t want this anymore.”  She went to her room and brought a plate with drug paraphernalia and a lump of weed.

I turned to Emma . “Your cousin did a brave thing. Is there a bad habit you want to surrender as well?”

She went to the kitchen under the sink and brought 4 bottles of liquor. She couldn’t let go of them. Eventually, she gave me 3 of the 4 bottles. She wanted to keep the bottle of Kahlua for her birthday.  I looked at her and said: “In that case, keep them all.  It’s no use.”  She quickly changed her mind and gave up the Kahlua.

I turned back to Emma.  She went back to her room and brought back a large Ziploc bag filled with weed.

The two started talking to each other in their native language, Inuktitut.  After some time, they said, “We promise we won’t smoke it, but we can’t give it to you. We would rather get our money back by selling it on the streets.”

“What good is it if you improve your health by destroying the health of others?”

They agreed, and handed everything over.  I put everything on the kitchen table and asked them if they were ready to throw it away themselves. Their breathing was heavy; they trembled; Emma held back tears.

She got up, took the liquor and flushed it down the kitchen sink. She sniffed the vapor above the sink one last time as it was going down the drain.

Jessica felt inspired by her cousin’s heroic move. She took her weed, walked to the toilet, emptied her stash and flushed it down.  She went to her bedroom and returned with a crate of liquor she had ordered during the summer. “This is all I have left,” she said as she surrendered it. “There’s $500 worth of alcohol in here.”

“What will I do on my birthday if I’m the only sober one?” she asked. I said, “This year on your birthday, you will not waste yourself. Your birthday should be an occasion to grow in wisdom. You will invite Art of Living people for your birthday and you will have a nice time.”

Her cousin agreed to support her in organizing the birthday get-together. Emma poured the alcohol down the drain, three bottles at a time.  Jessica went to her room and returned with a stash of magic mushrooms to flush.  She exclaimed, “I feel so much lighter now! This house will be drug, cigarette and alcohol free from now on.”

I expressed my pride.   “Today you took a stand and became leaders in your community. Now you can inspire others to do the same.”

I warned them that the days ahead would be difficult, but assured them I would be there for them. It  was apparent that they were not confident in their strength to let go of their addictions forever, to be addiction free.

I took out a picture of Guruji, lit a candle, and invited them to come sit with me. Now, we will sing a very ancient prayer. It brings strength, blessings, and protection to those who hear it.  I chanted Guru Puja  as they sat near me, holding hands with their eyes closed.

They had tears of gratitude.  The atmosphere in the house changed. Peace dawned. We sat in silence for a long time as we meditated together. I gave them each a blessing and sent them off to bed telling them what Guruji often tells us –  sleep as though covered with a blanket of grace.

To this day, they are doing well.

Improve Your Health

This is a true story that occurred from September to December, 2013.

In September 2013, my lab results showed:

Triglycerides over 280 (normal range 0 -125).

Total cholesterol 191 (normal range <200).

Liver SGOT (AST) 71 (normal range 0 – 40), Liver SGPT (ALT) 111 (normal range 0 to 32).

Vitamin D deficiency 24.7 (normal range : 30 to 100).

I wondered, how is that possible for a 35 yr old vegetarian?

After the blood work, I was asked to take ultrasound of the liver and neighboring organs. I was diagnosed with fatty liver. Typically, medication is recommended for such triglyceride levels. I asked my doctor if I could try 6 month’s time without medication and try life style change instead. The doctor agreed and prescribed only vitamin D. I was desperately looking for some miracle that would improve my health. After hearing an earful from my husband about Art Of Living, I decided to give it a try.

I registered for a 5 -day Art Of Living course in October . On the third day of the course, I suffered from severe headache and nausea during the class. I interrupted the class several times to use the restroom and felt embarrassed. The instructors were wonderful and very accommodating. I was almost ready to give up, drop the course and go home, but the instructors persisted that I finish the Sudarshan Kriya that day.

It was almost 12:30 p.m. It was Saturday. I thought, ‘I can’t see my regular doctor, so why not do Kriya? it will only take about 45 minutes’. I informed the instructors that I might not be able to do the Kriya 100%. They told me to do what I could.

Those 45 minutes brought a miraculous change. After the Sudarshan Kriya, my pounding headache and nausea subsided. That moment, I was convinced that performing Kriya would improve my health. Lunch with ginger tea, provided by the course volunteer, helped me recover the fluids and energy drained earlier that morning. By the end of the day I was feeling normal.

I completed the Art of Living course.

In December, 3 months later, lab tests were redone . The results were astonishing. Triglycerides were down to 127. It’s not normal yet, but the change from 280 to 127 without medication is remarkable. Total Cholesterol is down to 178. Liver SGOT is 42, and SGPT is 62. Vitamin D level is normal.

All the numbers have improved considerably. I was hoping for little improvement but was shocked to see such a huge change. I believe the Sudarshan Kriya, combined with well-balanced diet, created the difference.

Would you like to improve your health? Commitment is the first step for achievement. If you are committed to improving your health, I hope this article will inspire you to take the next step.

This is my personal experience. Everyone’s experience is different and results vary. This article is NOT substitution for any professional medical advice or benchmark.

Your Inner Transformation – IT

While I on a social networking site, I saw my friend’s status as “Evolution is the Divine’s Way of Issuing Software Upgrades.” My reply to her was, “What about bugs?” She said very aptly, “We have Meditation.”

Her reply ignited the thought in me that so many people work in IT (Information Technology), but how many of us feel responsible for our IT (Inner Transformation). Both ITs have parallels. I reflected on them relative to the symbols of Navaratri.

Our mind may have so many impressions– strong, mild, not so strong – and the nature of our mind is that it clings to negative. If we really look at it, suffering or peace is all our state of mind.

Negative impressions include: mahishasura (inertia), shumbha-nishumbha (pride and shame) and madhu-kaitabh (extreme forms of craving and aversion). Inertia, deeply ingrained negativity and obsessions (raktabeejasura), unreasonable logic (chanda-munda) and blurred vision (dhoomralochan). All these negative impressions have been mentioned in Aarti (worship) sung in front of the symbolic deity.

All the years I was growing up and singing the hymns every Navaratri, I used to think of all the impressions as real demons in physical forms. When they are hidden, or if we are oblivious to their existence in our system, they are even more dangerous. Our seers were so intelligent, they gave us knowledge in form of stories, symbols, idols, so it is easily remembered.

What does Navaratri really mean?

Navratri is an inward journey that nullifies negative impressions. It’s a journey back to the Source. What does going back to Source mean, especially to an IT professional? It simple means doing your Inner Transformation.

As I am both in Art of Living and IT , I can definitely testify that tools and techniques learned in Art of Living have been supporting my work in IT. I urge people working in stressful conditions in IT, to go deep within and look at their own Inner Transformation first. It’s like a bow and arrow. The more we pull the arrow inwards, farther it goes.

Day in and day out, being in IT, we deal with new requirements, product owners, application developers, deployments, bug fixes at UI, Services and Database level, Managers and directors.

To all folks who work in IT and have not yet attended the Art of Living Happiness Program, it is similar to a big Production Release that brings big Inner Transformations. These are followed by daily maintenance of Sudarshan Kriya and meditation.

Meditation is like finding the bug ( self reflection) and Sudarshan Kriya is like cleaning the bug from the database level.

In the IT world, if new requirements arise, project managers, directions, developers and testing team work together for another major release. In the Inner Transformation world, if “something is going on”, teachers and volunteers work together for the next course. In IT, after so many iterations, the product is released with minimal bugs, or none at all. For Inner Transformation, we start to live life more fully and deeply as we learn to drop more and more negative impressions from our system.

Our life is not just this present lifetime. Life is a continuum of years of lives to come and thousands of birth that we have already been through. In order to be absolutely bug free ( Enlightenment ), one has to do this Inner Transformation again and again. It’s an iterative process.

We have best deployment tools available to us in the form of precious Sudarshan Kriya and meditation.

Are you just an IT person or IT person? It’s time to upgrade!!