3. Introduction
We are living in an age when good health – both physical and mental – is more
important than ever before. Every day new diseases are being spread and people get
more distressed with the crazy lives they are living. While 20th century was the century
of AIDS and cancer, 21st century will be the one of mental illnesses. The reason? We
are accumulating a lot of emotional and mental tension throughout the day but don't
know how to release it. Sitting in front of the TV, reading newspapers or merely
sleeping isn't real relaxation. Оur inability to adapt to quickly shifting social and
economic lifestyles has reflected on our own health. The number of ill people is
steadily growing around the globe. For example, each year the media choose one
trendy virus and try to scare us all. The result? We get panickеd, tensed and terrified.
Suffering from mental problems for a long time now has been afflicting not only the
so-called "crazy people". Even "normal" people experience anxiety, depression or
suicidal thoughts from time to time as well.
The statistics alone are alarming: one out of four people faces a mental problem. It
means that there are over 450 million people with mental issues in the world.
And what about physical diseases? Are they any different from psychological
disorders? Modern medicine has already proven that 98% of all disorders are
psychosomatic. This means that the treatment of any disease, be it mental or
psychosomatic, must be done on a deeper level. Relying only on medicines is like
signing your own death sentence – the symptoms are being repressed but the real
problems remain unsolved.
Our medical system doesn't help us either. It only revolves around producing and
supplying us with medicines from multimillion-dollar pharmacy companies which
don’t benefit at all from healthy people. The responsibility for our own health lies
solely on our shoulders. No doctor, institution or government will do it for us - we
have to make ourselves healthy.
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4. Why good health is so important?
Health is the prerequisite for all our endeavors: financial, personal, career-oriented,
etc. I simply cannot imagine achieving anything without good health. Mind you, I am
speaking from personal experience.
I feel that when someone writes about self-help and advice lists, they must speak
from their direct experience and prove why they are reliable experts in their field.
Who am I?
When I was 18 years old, I experienced severe neurosis and was on the edge of
developing psychosis. I took medicines for about a year and a half and had to drop
out of high school. I had been very concerned with my health when I had an inner
awakening. It was a very scary experience at first. Somehow, my fear got separated
from me and I was able to see it face to face. Then my energy was released and my
awareness heightened. It wasn't the normal sense of awareness we experience daily
but an expanded awareness. The poison, which was killing me instantly, became
nectar of bliss. Shortly after this experience, I realized that our obstacles, neuroses
and psychosеs are the only way. They are in our lives to help us set our mind working
in its higher states – the subconscious and the unconscious.
The result of my inner experience was amazing: I stopped taking medicines (a thing
which had seemed impossible to me prior to that), graduated from high school and
started working. But still, I didn’t feel I had achieved total health. I was somewhere on
the borderline.
Shortly after this particular experience I started asking myself, "How did this happen?
How can I experience more things like this?"
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5. I started going to meditation classes, tried Qigong once, etc but it didn't feel right. I
was beginning to feel entangled in our material world. Everything changed in 2007
when I began practicing yoga daily and I’ve been doing it ever since. Everything
changed in 2007 when I began practicing yoga daily and I’ve been doing it ever since.
Then, for four years now I've been also visiting India and my Guru’s ashram. It took
me years to develop and enlist these 50 tools or, as I am calling them in the title,
"shades" of a healthier life. I hope you'll find these life hacks useful and that they’ll
help you and eventually change your lives for the better.
P.S. Don't forget to look at the end of the report. I have a surprise for you!
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6. Do you want to turn your gray grind into a colorful and joyful life experience? Are you
tired of bad time management, spending your nights watching Netflix or meeting
crappy, negative people who only waste your time and energy?
Then you need to carefully read this free report as I will list various important holistic
tools and present concrete techniques for self-help which are free, priceless and
have an immediate effect. Some of them have yogic and tantric roots while others
don’t. What's common for all of them is that once you decide to change your life you
have to implement them quickly.
Let’s start with the list:
1. Make the firm decision to change your life. Stick a note on the wall
above your desk that summarizes your ultimate goal. For example, "I am
healthy", "I am happy" or "I am wise". When an inspirational message or a
quote is always in front of our eyes it's impossible to escape from it; it
influences us deeply. Bonus tip: keep a similar message in your wallet. When
you are uncertain about the solution of a problem or a creative issue, write
questions in your notes and sooner or later your subconscious mind will give
you the answers.
2. Repeat the same simple, brief and clear resolve every day using the
same words in the same language. The crucial part is to repeat your resolve
when your mind is calm, peaceful and not polluted by stress and worries. The
perfect time is either early in the morning or before going to bed. You have to
be very consistent. It takes time but one thing is for sure – your resolve will
eventually come true.
3. Practice relaxation. My recommendation is yoga nidra. A lot of relaxation
practises and ancient meditation techniques are available on iTunes. The
main thing is to be persistent. If you do it once a week or only once a month
you won't achieve the desired results or it will take much longer for them to
be obtained.
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7. 4. Once you’ve prepared the ground, it's time to get creative and
remove all the obstacles on your way. Each week write down the three
things you think hinder your personal development such as bad habits, non-productivity
or procrastination. Observe yourself and your day-to-day life
impartially. Start with the most important issues you need to fix. As you
progress you'll see how by working on yourself and being patient and
consistent, you will evolve.
5. Draft creative ideas on a daily basis. Start with three and gradually add
more until they reach ten. It's best if you can come up with 20 ideas daily. Not
all of them have to be good: if you create 10 ideas, two or three will be good
while the rest - mediocre or even bad. The important thing is to keep your
mind and imagination ready to experiment and see new ideas and the
connections between them.
6. Discover your inner passion. It can be cooking, gardening, knitting, reading
or any other activity. This is the first point in the hedgehog concept: your
work must be driven by passion, not by money.
7. Do something creative. Paint, write, play, compose… It doesn’t matter what
as long as you expresses yourself. According to Hindu philosophy, all arts and
knowledge represent and originate from the Goddess Saraswati. I’ll tell you a
secret: when you use any negative quality within you which you cannot
negate and you express it through creativity, soon it won’t bother you – it will
be transformed for a better purpose.
8. Transform your limitations into potential through faith and surrender to
the Higher Will.
9. Pray! Pray to God, to your Guru (if you have one) or simply to a person who
you consider exceptional. It is a proven fact that prayer and faith improve
one’s health and that religious people are happier than non-believers.
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8. 10. Follow your intuition! From the yogic perspective, intuition is the intellect
refined. Due to our ignorance and unconsciousness we suppress, bypass or
ignore our inner voice only to regret it afterwards. Whatever your intuition
tells you, even if the logical mind rules the opposite, that’s the right thing for
you.
11. Fear, phobias, anxiety: face them. Try as often as you can to do one thing
you are afraid of. For example, if you are afraid of airplanes, fly on one. If you
have fear from dogs, get closer to one on the road. Stop being a slave to the
fear! This may be a bit difficult at the beginning but let me tell you a secret: if
you manage to do it, your body will produce hormones such as endorphin,
dopamine etc. You’ll feel as if you’ve done something very brave and this
feeling is as good as, if not better than, eating a whole bunch of chocolate.
After all, everybody prefers to eat chocolate when feeling happy rather than
distressed.
12. Follow a spiritual path. It doesn't matter whether it is yoga, Zen, Тai Chi or
Аikido. Be part of such a community and attend its meetings. Make friends
with people from the community and try meeting with them outside of it.
13. Engage in helping people in need, especially those who are strangers to
you and there’s no relationship between you and them. Do not expect to see
them ever again. When we perform service to others, we forget our own
troubles and little egos. This is the most effective tool for purifying the mind
in our age.
14. Spend money on supportive and positive causes. This will not only
reduce our selfishness and pride but will also keep us in connection with
other people and charitable organizations.
15. Be grateful to the universe and to the Lord. We tend to always complain
and be unsatisfied. Instead, we should develop the daily habit of thanking the
cosmic powers for all the abundance they’ve given us.
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9. 16. Stay detached from the results of your work. Be only work-oriented:
each day think about how you can improve the quality and quantity of your
projects, duties, etc without associating yourself with their results. Having an
attitude "This action x will bring me xx money" is not right. Instead, think of
performing those actions as your uttermost duty and obligation. In the
ancient scripture Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna convinces the warrior Arjuna to
fight because it's his duty to do so. Arjuna simply wants to flee the battle
struck by fear but Krishna encourages him to do his duty as a warrior without
thinking of gain or loss, praise or censure, pleasure or pain.
17. Learn to discriminate. That’s the quality of the mythical swan, according to
the legend. When given one liter of milk mixed with water the swan can
extract only the milk and leave the water. In the same way we have to learn
which things are really essential for us and which are just mediocre.
18. Think and plan in long-term perspective. We tend to act on momentary
impulses but this is not the way we should behave. Impulsive decisions are
neither good nor healthy for us.
19. Set goals. Divide them into two groups – material and spiritual. For example:
“I make a new product till the end of xx month”; “I write a story or paint a
picture today” and so on. Or, “within one month, I get rid of my anger,
attachments or fears”. Keep your mind busy; this way you'll never allow it to
wonder what to do.
20. Always, always keep your mind busy! You know the proverb “An empty
mind is the devil’s playground”. The more deadlines, goals, tasks and duties
you impose on yourself – the better. Yet, try not to burn out.
21. Avoid time travelling. I myself know how difficult this can be. Sometimes
time traveling has a creative benefit in that we come up with new ideas but as
far as our day-to-day life goes, it's advisable to live in the present.
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10. 22. Take advice from people who are successful and ignore the
murmuring of those who aren't. Only those who are prospering are
eligible for trusting and listening to.
23. Avoid unnecessary talks and meetings with friends that don't share your
interests or beliefs.
24. Try speaking less. We speak an average of 16 000 words a day, so try to
reduce this amount. Why? We lose too much time in unnecessary chatting
that only drains our energy.
25. Meet interesting people with a unique and colorful personality. Allow
people with new and unconventional ideas to influence you and help you
along your path.
26. Develop a steady discipline: get up early, make daily to-do lists, restrict
your unproductive time and manage your free time better. If you struggle
with the too many distractions we face nowadays, use apps such as Strict
Workflow, Website Blocker, Time Tracker etc.
27. Reduce your time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube, Quora, Pinterest, Google+, etc. They grow more and more powerful
as they form a life on their own. The truth is that social networks have
become an essential part of our lives and we waste too much time on them.
Of course, if your work requires the use of social media, because you are
building a platform or trying to reach a mass audience, for example, that's
something else, but again, be cautious! My advice is not to lose more than an
hour on social media sites.
28. Stop watching TV and news. All news outlets are full with negativity,
drama, accidents, etc which are happening somewhere else. There is a
purpose behind it – negative emotions such as anger or states like poverty or
suffering are viral and people pay attention exactly to this kind of news. Don't
fall prey to such manipulation.
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11. 29. Give up reading newspapers. They are polluted with false news,
advertisements and lies. Instead, buy practical, useful and interesting books.
They are better in keeping you up with the latest tendencies.
30. Never take yourself seriously! There is a quote by Sonia Simone, the CEO
of copyblogger, which I’ll cite here: "Always take work seriously, never take
yourself seriously".
31. Test everything, whether it’s an e-book, a project, a new employee or even
your partner. Test things and people before committing to them.
32. Try to accomplish at least one single thing during your working day.
One thing properly finished is better than a whole bunch of projects which
are not accomplished.
33. Live simply, think higher! Reduce your daily, weekly and monthly budget.
We spend too much money on things we actually don't need. Give up fancy
clothes, cars, houses, etc. This may go against our fashion-centered culture
but I really prefer being simple and old-fashioned than trendy but not myself.
As Tyler Durden loudly proclaims „You’re not your job. You're not how much
money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents
of your wallet {…} the things you own end up owning you." You don't want to
end up like the narrator in Fight Club, do you?
34. Go outside in the nature on a regularly basis. For example, once a week
or once in two weeks head to the parks or the mountains. Interact with all
nature's living creatures. Dogs are known as people's best friends and,
indeed, animals sometimes make better friends than people.
35. Do daily exercises. Hatha yoga and especially surya namaskara are
especially helpful but any other practice is fine as well.
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12. 36. Do sports! Go bicycling, running, playing tennis or hiking in the mountains.
Physical tiredness calms one's thoughts and emotions and, eventually, one's
mind.
37. Go to an ashram and stay there as long as possible. This is a place of
solitude where yoga aspirants labor hard in order to remove their blockages
and dross. If you are undisciplined and your mind controls you, not vice-versa,
ashram life will be your true life-saving boat. Try at least once a year to
spend some time and energy in an ashram environment.
38. If there is anger, lust, jealousy, hatred, greed, anxiety or other
negative passions inside you, don’t kill them. Accept these qualities,
because they are all in YOU. At the same time, try not to express them or by
doing so you’ll find yourself even more entangled in their sway and
possession. That’s one of the primary points of tantra. It accepts you at the
level of your evolution not asking you to hate or kill any part of yourself as
that may lead to personality splitting , i.e. one part of you plays the sinner and
the other plays the punisher. Instead, tantra advises us to accept and
spiritualize our negative qualities and thus exhaust the karma.
39. Don’t follow the whims of your mind. Do things the mind doesn’t
want you to do and don’t do things your mind tells you to do. This is a huge
task but gives your mind strong discipline. However, be careful not to fight
with your own mind. Simply observe it. This is the milestone of yoga
philosophy.
40. Mind what you feed your body, mind and soul. You need quality
nourishment, enough time for digestion and a working method for waste
treatment at all levels – biological, intellectual and emotional.
41. Pay attention to the food you take. I recommend a vegetarian diet as I
myself have been vegetarian for 8 years. It's not necessary to give up meat,
simply reduce it together with all dairy products. Develop a steady discipline.
Having a food regime is an advantage. At the same time, don't get too
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13. stressed if you have failed to observe your daily routine. No rule is shaped in
stone!
42. Have some millet and buckwheat meals at least once a month. These
foods contain high levels of alkaloids and strengthen our immune system.
43. Start fasting. If you can’t fast, then try not eating meat and dairy products
for a longer period of time
44. Listen to the voice of your body, spirit and soul. When we are on the
wrong path disasters and diseases don't come up overnight or out of a
sudden. Usually we have been receiving signals and warnings for a long time
but have failed to pay attention to them. Develop the sensibility to determine
what kind of foods, exercises, thoughts and lifestyle are good for you and
follow them. Be honest in determining what's harming you and as soon as
you’ve realized it, start erasing the harmful patterns.
45. Develop the good habit of observing yourself at least once a week.
Then move on to observing yourself once a day. By doing so, you'll notice
your shortcomings and strengths, as well as the way you appear to others
more easily. Be a silent witness. In yoga this method is known as drashta.
46. Read inspiring literature about great sages and saints like Bhagavad
Gita, Ramayana, Vedas and Upanishads. If you think these books are old-fashioned
or irrelevant, I have some shocking news: they have been
referenced in the works of all modern scientists from Deepak Chopra to the
great Robert Oppenheimer.
47. Surround your work desk, your living room and environment with
bright colors such as yellow, orange, blue and green. Psychology studies
show that these colors have a direct impact on our mood, creativity and
productivity.
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14. 48. Find more time to communicate with children as they are really
innocent and not attached to the world the way we are.
49. Stay tuned to my blog and its articles (sorry for that shameless self-promotion).
50. Now, with all said above, follow your heart and take action! It's better
to try one thing than read tones of theoretical stuff with no practical
implementation.
It’s your turn!
The time is now...
I would love to hear your thoughts on how to live healthier and happier lives.
P.S. If you have come so far and read everything above, I congratulate you! Please, let
me know at antaraman9@gmail.com whether this piece of advice helped you or if you
tried anything from this report.
Antara Man
http://www.antaraman.com/
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