“What you repeatedly think and say is what you get”. Your inner conversations, words, thoughts and feelings determine the kind of life and reality you experience. If you occupy your mind with negative thoughts and expect difficulties and problems, you will draw them into your life. If you constantly think of success you will achieve success. If you find it difficult to think positively, affirmations can help you change the way you think. It is a powerful method to transform the thinking patterns.

Affirmations are positive statements, which use the power of words to program the subconscious mind, and build new habits, free from negative habits, motivate and attract success.

The greatness of the human mind is that it can think and imagine what does not exist right now. It can envision situations and circumstances that are different from the current reality, and in this way create better situations and circumstances. By focusing frequently on certain thought or affirmation, you make it an important part of your life, and will therefore start acting and behaving in such a way, as to make it true.

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Building self confidence is important for everyday life and for achieving any task or goal. How can you build self confidence, especially if you lack self confidence?

Stop judging yourself and comparing yourself to others, especially comparing yourself to strong and successful people. You might feel that you don’t measure up with them, and this will further weaken your self confidence. Accept yourself as you are, don’t compare yourself to others and start working on building self confidence. If you lack this ability it won’t appear suddenly. You need to develop it.

Self confidence is the way you look at yourself, and has nothing to with what people think of you. It is an attitude, and attitudes can be changed.

Here are a few tips for building self confidence:

1. Never tell yourself “I can’t.”

2. Always tell yourself “I can.”

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Written by Mouni Sadhu
Excerpted from www.hinduism.co.za

The great Rishi, Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi - unlike most yogis and many saints of the present day, does not recommend yogic practices as a condition for the highest and perennial spiritual achievement, called by him ‘Self-realisation’. He dismisses from that aim, all the cumbersome postures, breathing exercises, control of the pranic-currents (currents of the Prana in the human body and so of Nature itself), and so on. In fact, he seldom even mentioned them in his talks.

So the Direct Path to spiritual attainment, as shown by the Maharshi, does not require any unnatural body postures, often so difficult to perform for the majority of people; none of the efforts of Hatha Yoga, which can be dangerous unless practised under the direct supervision of a competent teacher, and no artificial mental practices of concentration. All such things lead nowhere unless accompanied by the elements of spiritual enlightenment, a fact which is firmly underlined by Sri Shankaracharya in his ‘Viveka Chudamani’.

Now I see clearly that these things belong to a closed and bewitched circle. For years, I and some of my closest occult friends practised many kinds of ‘outer-yogas’ but without any results worthy of our efforts. Of course, some of these exercises were good for our physical health, especially for stilling the nerves, cultivating a beautiful voice, and so forth. But these advantages only remained with us as long as we continued regularly to perform the exercises. A pause for even a few weeks deprived us of all the hard earned benefits we had gained at the cost of such effort and waste of time. No true and permanent peace of mind could be obtained, although for that purpose I made intense use of Japa (repetition) with the best mantras.

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People starting to practice concentration exercises, sometimes experience certain peculiar sensations, and wonder about their cause, and whether they should keep exercising.

Several days ago someone asked me about these sensations, and I decided to share with you this information, as I believe many have probably experienced these or similar sensations.

Here is the question:
“I started concentration exercises some time ago, and I know I have improved, but the question is regarding the after effects of concentration. After a 15 minutes session I feel a kind of heavy numb feeling in my head and face at the front. It is not bad (not painful), but it is just there and it goes away later. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing in my head. I feel really light and have a lot of clarity. I am more concerned of the first feeling, is this common or is it just me?”

These, and other similar experiences, such as headaches or physical tension are not uncommon, and there is nothing to be concerned about. Years ago, when I first started to work on improving my concentration, I had the same exact sensations and feelings.

There are several factors that cause these sensations:

1) When beginning to practice concentration exercises, the brain is not accustomed yet to focus intently on one thought or object, and this puts some strain on it. The mind and the nerves in the brain are not able to stay quite, and it takes time to discipline them and teach them new habits.

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Last evening I went to see a performance of the Irish dance group Spirit of the Dance. As I understand, Spirit of the Dance is not one dancing group, but several groups under the same name, which are touring the world, and giving the same performance in various places around the world.

Spirit of the Dance in action

I have read that more than thirty million people around the world have seen Spirit of the Dance, and that it is the winner of nine Global Awards, including “Best Choreography” and Best International Production. (more…)