The fastest way to improve your meditation practice is to see everything you do during the day as an opportunity to cultivate pristine awareness. Show up for life with eyes wide open! Show up for the small stuff especially. That’s where you want to fall asleep. It’s easy for the mind to wander when you feel bored by a small task.
Meditation in action also known as mindfulness, is an opportunity to practice continuum awareness. To stay connected to the present moment, you want to turn every activity of the day into an opportunity to deepen your practice.
Meditation is not just about sitting on a cushion with your eyes closed. It’s about being alert, awake and open to the moment you are living in. When you meditate on the task at hand, you are creating a conscious relationship with your experience as it arises.
These are the six areas we advise would be beneficial to train yourself not to let your mind wander off.
1) Dishes – Pay attention to how you scrub the food particles and the order of which dishes you wash first and how you stack the dishwasher. Are you slouching? Are your feet squarely grounded on the floor? Are your body and spine straight? Notice if you are resisting the task.
2) Taking a shower – Activate your sense of touch and feel the temperature of the water. How do you touch and wash your own body. Slow down and be present to the foam, the bubbles and how you scrub yourself. Are you rushing to get to the next moment?
3) Folding laundry – Practice precision awareness. Make elegant folds and breath into the experience. Learn to master space in your closets and feel how different textures require different handling.
4) Driving a car – Practice multi-directional awareness. Be aware of the space in front, behind, left, and right – Pay attention to your breath as you inhale and exhale. When your mind wanders, gently redirect your attention back to the breath and the road. At every stop sign and light, take a conscious breath. Are you rushing to get somewhere?
5) Sweeping – Find your flow. Connect the body to breath. We call this the dancing meditation. You aren’t sweeping. You are dancing with life and with every swish of the broom, the past is being released.
6) In Conversation (advanced practice) – While talking or listening, focus on their eyes primarily but look at their lips once and awhile. Be aware of your heart when you speak and your inner ear lobe when you are listening. Pay attention to how ideas, opinions and words cause emotional reactivity and stay cool. Keep returning to insight questions: Do I have all the facts? Is this true? What is this person really wanting to share with me?
by Evangelos Diavolitsis and Nishta Matarese
Evangelos and Nishta are international Dharma, meditation and movement teachers and the founders of Four Ways to Freedom.
Recently, we have had a massive earthquake in Turkey. Due to human greed and negligence, the aftermath of the natural disaster was devastation. A few days after the tragedy, I went to teach at a Mandali Experience and a very dear friend of mine went to the devastation zone to help. After we both returned, we shared experiences.
What he told me about being a disaster victim, shook me to my core. Because he himself had been a victim of the ’99 earthquake, he was able to see in others what he himself had experienced so many years ago. This is how he described the human condition in a disaster zone:
“One night you go to bed and you have everything. Even if you are not wealthy, you still have a roof over your head, you have your family, you have your belongings and most importantly, you have your life. The next day, you have almost nothing. You are in need of even that one glass of water that someone is going to give you. You see, the ego is slow. It does not catch up with reality so fast. It is so difficult to accept that within a matter of seconds, you have gone from having everything to needing everything. And it is very challenging to come to terms with accepting help from others.”
Meanwhile, I was teaching yoga during a Mandali Experience and before one of our practices, I asked my fellow yogis, “What is beautiful?”. I was trying to draw our awareness to a completely different perspective and for the question I could have picked any adjective or noun, any word basically but coincidentally I chose beautiful. One of the participants came up with a definition that resonated deeply with all of us: “Beautiful is being taken care of by the ones you love”.
From what I observe, for most of us, giving comes more naturally than receiving. We define our roles as mothers, fathers, partners, siblings, daughters, sons, friends, employers, employees mostly in terms of what we give. But when it comes to receiving, we are mostly amateurs. I know I am. I am so used to being strong and capable and self-sufficient that when I am not so, I find it difficult to ask for support from my fellow humans. So as I am writing these lines, I am not preaching. I am sharing a vulnerability that I am currently and constantly working on. Listening to the heartfelt sharings of Mandali Experience participants and to the stories of earthquake victims, I know I am not alone.
We all have a lot to learn on the beauty of being taken care of. And maybe, we can fine tune ourselves to learn to see and experience this beauty without needing dramatic life circumstances like natural disasters or illnesses.
Can we learn to ask for and receive support from others in the more ordinary moments of life when all we need is a simple hug, or someone’s undivided and non-judgemental attention for a few minutes, or just the comfort of sitting with someone without a need for words?
Can we learn to ask for and receive support from others before unmet simple needs amalgamate to bitter scorn?
What I have come to observe on the art of receiving is that where we come from is what makes all the difference. The ego is capricious and unbendable. When in need it becomes bitter and scornful. It expects but cannot communicate. When disappointed, it screams and scolds. When receiving it is uncomfortable and critical. The heart on the other hand is generous and malleable. When in need it is communicative, receptive and rewarding. There is not a human being who will not be touched and transformed by responding and giving to another human asking and receiving from the heart. It is a mutually enriching experience.
We are all living in an ego driven and ego rewarding global society. Within such a challenging social environment, the art of being human lies in mastering to keep an open heart. A heart that is not only generous in giving but also gentle yet courageous in asking and receiving.
In this inquisitive and open conversation with George, we learn about his journey of becoming a young father, building his life and family according to his vision of a world more connected to the earth. He is also an integral part of our Mandali family, passionately taking care of our gardens and grounds. All the stunning photography in this article are by also by George.
Has becoming a father changed you, and contributed to your spiritual growth?
Yes, definitely, and at an intense speed! What comes to mind first is about being a man, stepping into my masculinity and embracing what it means to be a father and the want to provide, to create a safe space for growth, with a child on the way and arriving. I revealed myself, put my true self forward, rather than showing a mask.
Then also, seeing how nature, the garden, has been showing me how it mirrors being a parent. How natural the kids are, like an open book. Each page is so authentic and real, they don’t ask anything in return, you are just able to receive them as children, as they are. It is like the garden, the forest, they just are, it’s the same.
Everything I learn by being a parent, I can take to other areas of my life, my work, my relationship with my partner, my friends and the way I see the world. I see my kids interact, share their love with others, not just mum and dad, and completely trust people of different ages, and that has shown me a lot about possessiveness, and giving acceptance and freedom, to them and my partner.
I grew in every aspect, being a conscious parent, better partner, friend and having a sense of purpose in the way we are creating our life.
What are some things you do differently than from the way you were raised, discipline, for example?
When the kids arrived, I saw how deeply ingrained our social conditioning is about what it means to raise a family, even though I knew that the ‘traditional’ way is not how we wanted to do things.
Working in the garden shows me that getting away from social conditioning is simply growing new branches, going off into different directions, expanding, in a different and better way, naturally. The kids too, are new branches, different to us, and if we let them grow uninhibited, we can learn from them too. We just have to give them time and space, and be curious about who they are.
When it comes to ‘discipline’ it’s a challenge, because I experienced it in the ‘traditional’ sense. I try to cancel out specific words from my vocabulary, the word ‘discipline’ itself, as I don’t think it necessarily needs to exist. It closes doors and space kids need to develop, to push barriers and grow. If one of them is doing something wrong, like say, drawing on the walls, I check first what he is trying to create, to be interested in what he is doing, try to listen and understand his project, before I try to save the wall.
It’s also so important to just be able to have a conversation, father to son, like a friend. The other day one of the boys experimented cutting his own hair for the first time, and when he realised what he had done, many hours of intense emotions followed (as you can imagine). We gave him the space to explore those feelings, and at the end I was able to talk to him, ‘Hey man, that’s what happened, you did it to yourself, it’s gonna be fine.’ It’s important to create that trust.
As an artist yourself, how do you encourage creativity in your kids?
One of the boys is great at languages, so my first instinct was to push him, are you good at that? Let’s get better. Then I caught myself, wait, do you want to get better? Or are you just good at that? And then having the confidence to say, ‘Ok, you’re good at that. And if you want to do more, we do more. But you’ve reached a level which was enjoyable for you, so if you want to stop, that’s ok too.’
You have to be the parent, it’s our job to guide them and give them the field in which to be creative and then look after the boundaries, like the shepherd. Just provide the field, and they will grow. I can’t go into the field and start pushing them too much in any direction they need to explore it. I think we’re able to see that in everything that they do.
You are very connected to nature and the outdoors, what are some things you do with your kids to share that passion?
We go into the forest all the time, it’s just part of who we are. It’s so normal, that sometimes they push back a little, they would rather go and hang out in the supermarket (to my dismay) 🙂 , do something that’s the polar opposite. But the moment they are in the forest, it’s obvious that it’s part of their inner language. Their nature is to be outside and the forest their home. They go with the flow and know how to play and have fun, which is really nice to see.
Do you wish, as a family unit in your own way, that you can help change the world a little?
I think that as a family we can be a blueprint for others, an example of how easy it can be to live in a simple way, where less is more, where we live in tune and with nature’s rhythm.
Our traditional way of doing things is very ingrained in us, our consumer life-style where our values are based on economic growth is what’s ‘normal’. So a more holistic and wholesome approach seems like something very far removed, impossible to achieve. But it isn’t, we are doing it, and others around us too. It is much easier than it seems!
If we continue to prioritise providing money, and busying ourselves with work and projects, we are actually missing the biggest opportunity for our family’s and the world’s growth.
I really think that the most important thing that the world needs is examples of how easy it is to do what we once did so naturally. I feel we have just overslept and we all have to wake up eventually.
There’s no separation between anything that we do whether it’s in an office, outdoors, or any job you have. Let’s question ourselves, if it’s not aligned with the benefit of the planet, our people and all creatures of the natural world, then why are we doing it?
About George:
George Maddick is a passionate horticulturist with a deep understanding of the role nature plays in all aspects in today’s world. Seeing how nature gives, and also what it needs, is a reminder and reflection of ways that we can improve our physical and mental health, in turn providing a healthier and more vibrant environment. He enjoys exploring boundaries in both his work and personal life, in how deep we can go in better understanding the clear messages nature is providing us everyday. In this way, we can learn to fall back in line with our most important rhythm – the one nature has provided for us.
What’s the most rewarding thing about getting older?
I experience that time has more space. I can breathe deeply, I experience more space inside my container, like it is getting bigger inside. The capacity of including more things, situations are less black and white. There is an understanding that brings grace, and I am more patient and accepting.
I have more of a 360 degree point of view, and better able to see the bigger picture. It might have to do with the fact that I have been on a spiritual path for 40 years, it could be a result of that. I feel open, spacious. Also, a big bonus, I don’t have to worry about what men think anymore!
Who was the most influential person in your life?
My father. He was always supportive of me, whatever I was interested in, encouraging me, making me feel I could do anything, he never said no. This gave me so much independence and freedom to be myself. We had a lot in common about philosophy and literature. He had so many ideas, he even built a theater for us as kids, he taught us how to express emotions without violence, he was an amazing story teller. He was my first teacher. He taught us how to paint with our hands and feet, he was wild and fun. We loved Nietzsche, Dostoievsky, Kirkegaard, and poetry, because of him.
Later on, Osho was my spiritual teacher, and funnily enough – the first book by him was given to me by my dad. He was proud of me choosing the spiritual path.
As a 40-year-old, what advice would you give me?
Don’t choose your path in life because of a man!
When you think of ageing, what emotions does it trigger?
I feel gratitude and happiness, because I have experienced a lot of love in my life. I had beautiful love stories and friendships, each relationship the right one for my age at the time. It is so important to feel loved, to do what you do in every age.
What’s your favorite invention that was released in your lifetime?
I was very excited by my first mobile phone, for sure! My ex-husband and I both got a phone at the same time, and we loved calling each other randomly. It was the first banana Nokia. It struck me to realize that I could reach someone on the street at any time.
How has your definition of beauty changed?
When I was young, I was glowing, very beautiful and I had a lot of attention from men. I was so bothered by the attention, and also, a part of me enjoyed it. On the other hand, it also made me feel vulnerable. I am happy that I am free of all that; I had the love I wanted, I felt desired so I don’t feel like I regret anything.
Now I feel what makes me beautiful with age is my inner space, my capacity to be comfortable with myself, forgiving myself and others. It makes me feel beautiful, and I don’t need others to tell me that.
My body is changing, my face is changing – I’m very different. So the outer look is not the same, but the beauty I feel inside is immense. I feel so good, I see wisdom, openness and my cup is full. I have a great understanding of others, I see people, and I feel proud of that. I also feel the true love I receive from people is from those who really see me for who I am, and it comes from those who truly count. Sometimes that makes me a little sad, and I recognize the need to confront that.
I really love what I see when I look at myself.
If you could go back to any age, which would it be?
Between 25-35, for sure. At 25 I joined a commune, and I felt that I found the reason for coming into this world. I dove into inner seeking completely, and it became very clear that my life would be dedicated to service of my own inner realization and that of others. I don’t see those two as separate things, so a communal setting is my way to go, it is where inner transformation can happen.
I’m not in a commune anymore, but that’s where I realized the impact of a buddha field a group can create.
One of my favorite quotes: “The next Buddha will not take the form of a person.
The next Buddha will rather take the shape of a community, a community that practices understanding and loving kindness, a community that practices a way of conscious living.
This may be the most important thing for Earth’s survival.” -Thich Nhat Hanh
What should we not waste time on, as 30/40 year olds?
Making others happy, caring too much about what others think. I did it for a while, and I regret it, I felt I wasted 6 years of my life. It’s like I took a pause in life from the age 37-43, I didn’t follow my own gut and was living in a dream, wanting to fulfill other people’s expectations.
As you enter this new season of life, how has it impacted your relationship with spirituality?
It has changed a lot. I’ve been very fortunate to meet great masters in my youth who gave me the foundations to my spirituality. This was important, I really learned the art of surrender. It is different now, I am not anymore focused on someone else, a teacher, a master. My spiritual world is much broader now, and since then I feel that on this path I’m truly on my own.
Even though I still have great realized teachers now, people I seek out for consolation, I do not call them my guru and I am not in search of masters. Things are happening on a different level now. I see my own wisdom, which is inside all of us. After all these years, I feel like I have a opened a door to this wisdom, which I can access when I need to and it is always available to me to dive into. When I listen to spiritual teachers now, it just deepens my connection into that door, that space, which is myself.
The biggest gratitude I have for a master is when I sit in front of them and I see myself.
What do you most value at the age 65? Who are you most interested in spending time with?
I love spending time with very close women friends and I enjoy deep intimate talks. I love to talk about life, how we are walking through it. I love listening to stories from others, both men and women. I’m not interested in superficial small talk, except for when it comes to clothes and shoes 🙂
I also love spending time in silence with people, going on walks, to a cafe, not necessarily talking all the time. I like spending time with people who enjoy silence.
And, I enjoy my own company very much, I love being by myself. Its necessary for me to have my own space.
I do love a good party, but with the right people. What I value the most is true friendship.
About Prema
Prema Bellucci is the Vision Holder of Mandali, and oversees the Mandali Experience Programme. Her passion for self-discovery and helping others find their home within themselves is her life’s purpose, a purpose shared by Mandali. Her care and dedication is felt in all the details of your experience as a retreat participant.
We are living in some unprecedented times. Many people are struggling and words like pressure, rush, mental health, suicide, social media, addiction, drugs – these are almost the new normal. As a result, more and more people have trouble with finding themselves in a good place emotionally and mentally.
What is that feeling that something is not right?
It is easy to lose the connection with ourselves and our feelings, in a world where we are over-stimulated 24-7 by work, social media, expectations, etc. We are not aware of our thoughts and our behaviours, se we lose touch with our inner world. We live our lives the best we can, we go go go. Many people have trouble saying no and with standing up for themselves. In these hectic times we have so many options and choices, it’s hard to know where to go. We continue to run and we don’t stop.
So what can we do?
Press the “pause bottom”, as Prema from Mandali always says. We are looking for happiness and peace and balance but we don’t know how to get there. Because we have not learned how to deal with emotions and feelings and we are not self-aware, of our behaviors as well as our thoughts.
This is where journaling comes in. Taking time out to sit down and think and write down your thoughts is extremely healing, and also empowering. That moment to pause. Writing is literally letting go. Letting go of our thoughts is like an instant relief. Like a tire that loses its pressure. We feel safe when we write, and a bonus is that we are in the present moment while doing it 🙂To be in your own mind in your own time is just an incredible feeling. It gives ourselves the attention that we so much need, we put ourselves first. It is an act of self-love, real Me-Time.
There are many ways of journaling
Intuitive writing (writing what-ever comes to mind), a story that needs to be told
a life plan, wishes and dreams
writing about your behavior and feelings,
writing about day-to-day life, your daily thoughts.
writing when you are sad or angry
All of these forms are good. They allow us to release what is burning inside of us, and by letting it go, we start to look at our thoughts and patterns in a different, more lighter and neutral way.
While writing, we begin to see things more clearly and honestly, and “open for change”. We can change perspective on the way we see our own lives and the world – which has often been distorted. We start really being our own best friend, and take control of our lives. Like in an aeroplane, we need to take the oxygen mask first before we can help other people. Once we are there you will understand that your thoughts are not true, often on repeat, we can change them into new and better ones. So we can start to live our lives authentically – YOUR dream life that you always dreamt of.
After a difficult time in my life, going through a depression, and finding my way slowly again in new and better circumstances, I was looking for a way to share what I learned to help others. I especially wanted to help young people living in these times, where it’s so easy to get overwhelmed and lose touch with themselves, by giving them tools which will help make their life easier through self reflection. That’s why I came up with a simple and fun 4 step method that I have combined with a journal, called MY JOURNAL. It guides people to reflect, write and find themselves so they can create their own manual and start doing what is right for them so they become balanced, whole and happy. Because we all want to feel peaceful and in the present moment, because that is where the magic happens. The reactions up till now have been really impressive.
I wrote this book with the purpose to heal the world a bit. Since I believe, as all the teachers at Mandali do too, that if we like and love ourselves (self love) we will automatically be kind to others. So let’s all do that, in our own way, let’s spread some love.
”Let’s allow journaling to be our meditation. Nothing more, nothing less.” – Beth Kempton
About Maggie Maris
Maggie is a friend of Mandali and shares our vision being a point of light in the world, helping others through her work. She is the author of MY JOURNAL and MY WAY, beautiful journaling tools to help to self-reflect and grow in your journey of self discovery. Her books are published in Dutch and soon in English, for more information please go here: www.maggiesway.n IG: @maggies.way
When we start a new project or interact with new people, relationships in general and intimate relationships, we need a certain ground, a certain degree of self-confidence that we will be able to handle what comes up and can deal with potential difficulties and unforeseen events. We need to feel relaxed, settled in ourselves and ready to embrace success, failure and all the possibilities in between so we can engage with the vicissitudes of life with ease.
Self-confidence is not a thought, not a belief, not an emotion but something more subtle, almost innate, not something that is coming from anything but ourselves.
Self-confidence is also not the guarantee of success, success is a desirable outcome but is not the real drive, the drive is the desire of being fully engaged with life, to fully participate.
When self-confidence is not present, we don’t feel capable, we are uncertain if we want to venture or not, and we feel the absence of the underlying, innate sense of confidence.
“Self-confidence isn’t a thought or an emotion, it’s something innate and subtle that comes from within. Cultivate it by staying present in the moment and letting go of the need to control outcomes.”
When that happens we develop all kinds of psychological maneuvres to avoid the underlying sense of deficiency and inadequacy stemming from the idea of potential failure and the fact that we cannot foresee all the possible outcomes and twists to our venture.
Some try to summon self-confidence by simply believing that they will be able to succeed, and some summon self-confidence by seeking confirmation about the belief that they will make it through others around them, especially people close to them. That strategy can work for a while but it can easily be shaken by just a simple comment from someone we trust, a remark, or even a simple joke. When that happens we feel deflated and collapsed or in certain cases, we react and start to attempt to prove that we are capable, we might even get into an argument about it. We can engage in endless internal conversations in an attempt to find evidence to support that belief but often the perceived certainty can be shaken very easily.
So what is Real Self-confidence, where is it arising from, and how come it is there, we are not even thinking about it? How can it be so obvious when we see it present in others that we almost envy them for it?
In our work, we have seen that self-confidence stems from our connection to ourselves, in our capacity to stay focused on our current experience, with what is really happening now. That connection will inspire us, gauge our capacities in real time and inform us on how much we can do, when, and what we might need to learn to be able to continue in our journey. Sometimes we might need to slow down, sometimes we might need to push, it all depends on the circumstances and our actual capacities and resources available.
How do we connect with ourselves to the extent that we find our innate self- confidence?
We find out that we need to actually relax into ourselves, and when we stop trying, we will naturally do what we are capable of and learn how to do what we are not yet capable of. We also learn how to stop when it’s not really worth the effort. It’s a kind of inner wisdom that is arising from being a human. Sometimes we fail, and sometimes we succeed, all that is part of our learning experience and we welcome both. The losses are not seen as such, but are actually necessary learning experiences that will help us be the best version of ourselves.
In practice, we basically need to learn how to be present, be in the moment, relax and wait for the innate impulse to arise spontaneously. Sometimes we might lose faith and go back to trying, not out of the love for that action but to escape the uncomfortable feeling of the absence of self-confidence. In those cases, we might peruse things that are not actually close to our hearts just to fill the sense of lack.
Self-confidence is not arising from our mind, so thinking about success or failure is just a way to disconnect from our gut’s wisdom and consequentially feel insecure, the head cannot do the job of the gut. Like when we are going for a hike and come across an obstacle, if we think about it too much, that is if to jump or not, we end up misgauging our step and stumble. When we trust our instincts, so to say, we mostly make it without any problem and if the gap is too big we just jump inside it or find a way around it.
Our gut does not work only for physical situations but also for life direction and our sentimental life, we need guts to start a new business and to tell someone we love them. So, the simple practice to be present in the moment can awaken our connection with our gut and as a consequence our innate instinctual capacities. We can then trust ourselves, experiencing that as an innate sense of capacity and confidence.
In conclusion, self-confidence is not something that can be summoned or faked. It comes from a deep connection to ourselves and the ability to stay present and focused on our current experience. It is not about striving for success at all costs, but rather about fully engaging in life and embracing all the ups and downs that come with it. By learning to relax into ourselves and trust our innate wisdom, we can find the self-confidence needed to face any challenge and embrace our journey with ease.
Remember, the next time you find yourself lacking self-confidence, take a moment to connect with yourself and trust in your own capabilities. You may be surprised at just how capable you truly are.
Emilio Mercuriali is a teacher of the Diamond Logos. Join him for his study retreat series ‘Journey to Essence’
Freedom is a word, a practice, an action, a feeling, and a state of mind. We often speak of our right to live in a free environment but what exactly does this mean? There are precious moments where individual decisions can really make a difference to society at large. The wrong word or action can destroy everything in an instant. Where do you personally lose your awareness and kindness when it’s most needed?
Do we believe that implementing government policies focused on freeing a country of injustice, prejudice, violence, or poverty will miraculously heal a community and empower us to make healthy decisions on an individual moment-to-moment basis? Countries and governments are made up of individuals who make countless decisions. Many of them are irrational and destructive. What state of mind are these powerful decision makers in when deciding the fate for all of us? Using war as a solution to life’s problems reflects a group of leaders who are at war with themselves. How many wars (arguments) did you start this week with your lover, neighbour, friend, or work colleague? Were you equanimous or acting out old story lines?
Is it possible in a world where people have very little time for inner work, for socially conscious policies to change a person’s ability to make virtuous decisions in the heat of the moment? Even if changemakers are full of altruistic motivations, can they implement individual change from the outside in? Thus far it seems that global decisions keep sliding into ‘me” versus ‘you’ psychic warfare. The common struggle is the unaware ‘me’ versus the emotional ‘reactive’ me. In this dialogue, the conscious self gets buried in a battle of unconscious inner dialoguing. If people were truly aware and digging, they would not be ignoring how inner conflicts between body, speech and mind waste time and energy. Admitting the inner discord is the heart-core of our work at Four Ways to Freedom.
The truth is that we are a planet in pain, and we must get to work. The planet is one day away from mutually assured destruction. We know it but many of us feel helpless. How do we change the world? How do we create a road towards loving one another, working together, and living in peace? It starts with individual responsibility. We all have a responsibility to first heal ourselves and help heal the hearts of the many wounded walking on earth, lost without a path or an understanding of ultimate freedom. We keep putting political band aids on societal pain without an understanding of the fundamental causes. Human pain is the result of an unexamined life. As Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living”. The road to freedom requires radical self-honesty before any type of outer freedoms can be successfully implemented by a collective.
America is supposed to be the land of the free but if you pay close attention, with all their freedoms written in legal code, what freedoms are being enacted? Thus far in 2022 there have been 576 mass shootings. Without deep inner work, can a society free itself from the madness of one another’s entrapped anger? We are a species in deep hurt.
Step one – Admit it.
Step two – Do something about it and don’t dwell on being a victim, a rescuer or pointing the finger at the perpetrator. On the road to freedom the most precious resource is time! Spend the time cultivating a loving heart of creative compassion.
The road to freedom requires profound investigation. Many of us live in a state of frantic self-imprisonment and even when our outer conditions change for the better, we barely notice because we are so busy fighting our own agitation. We’ve inherited an old world of egocentric tribal values through our parents and a myriad of outdated organizational models. We barely recognize that how we choose to respond to a world of conditioned phenomena is painfully predictable and not at all in the spirit of free choice.
Stated differently, our ingrained conditioned negative habits create our perception of a hostile outer world. Of course the world is often hostile but that does not mean we need to behave the same way. Worldly material conditions might be improving but do we take notice given our simultaneously inner mental stresses are dramatically increasing due to over stimulation. The news and social media are a good mirror for our madness which is why we recommend that people take time for retreats and practice digital detoxes. The solution to alleviating the endless struggles…Practice continuum awareness without reacting or adding to the madness.
The road to freedom requires that you show up with eyes wide open
We work with a lot of people who are not so certain of the path they are on and where it is supposed to be leading them. Some will say: “I just go with the flow of life”. This is dangerous as mob mentality can easily influence directionless people on a road to the lowest common denominator. Some say to us: “I have not really thought about a path to freedom and don’t really have the time”. A sound piece of advice – Make the time now! The world needs you.
If we really pause and contemplate our personal road to freedom, we have been trying to free ourselves since conception. We free ourselves from the womb, we free ourselves from our parents at two years old because they keep saying no, we free ourselves from the constraints of schools, governments, countries, ideologies, challenging habits, from our bodies at death… The list could go on, but we are freeing ourselves from the habit of overly stating the obvious. There is a road to freedom that we are all walking, running, dancing, and skipping towards. The road is paved with tests, challenges, temptations, betrayals, rewards, triumphs, enemies, and allies. Where is this road leading us? Some say death because death, for some, is the ultimate freedom from life, but is it? We might free ourselves from the burden of the body, but will we free ourselves from disturbing thoughts, emotions, and perceptions? People who have had near death experiences would argue that in death there is recognition, emotion, and old stories to resolve and release. The road to freedom requires a solid look at how we liberate ourselves in life so we can die with dignity and a lightness of our being. This is one of the many benefits to doing inner work now. It paves an unobstructed wondrous road through life and death.
What inner delusions and attachments need to die on your road to freedom and what needs to be nurtured? Death is a transition point and the ease with which that happens depends on our ability to free ourselves of as many things as possible… freeing ourselves from anger, greed, confusion, jealousy, pride, unexamined beliefs, outdated concepts, the inner critic, and unreasonable expectations. Letting go of something we really want is the road to freedom because you can’t be free or happy unless you are able to surrender here and now to the mystery. To be free, one must learn the ancient skill of interrupting their wild mind, their volatile emotions, and their reactive speech.
Life is an opportunity to master death. Most of our intimate relationships die, our jobs die, ideas die, our neighborhoods die, our beloved pets die… We are in a constant training of letting go without much awareness or gratitude. A good state dies, a difficult state arises to take its place and vice versa. The road to freedom requires that we keep our positive states flowering for longer periods of time. These wholesome states need to be nourished and protected with love and practiced with others doing the same work.
The Road to Freedom requires 6 Essential Ingredients:
1) Learning to Pause – Our ability to stop the train of overwhelm and resetting our nervous system. It means getting up off the work chair and breathing or going for a walk. If you can do this, you start to free yourself from the pressure of always ‘doing’ and move towards ‘being’.
2) Meditation – This is the art of watching your inner world without reactivity
3) Physical Exercise – If your body is full of tension and pain due to inertia, you need to sweat it out. Don’t expect to feel free even if the world is conspiring to give you all your material demands. You have a body that wants to be used in every way possible.
4) Compassion – Learning to be kind and caring for yourself under pressure filled situations. How you talk on the inner plane matters. The subconscious is kicking up a cocktail of various inner critics, so you need to counterbalance this with a loving voice. You can’t be free if you are beating yourself up. Remember the journey is to fall in love with everyone and everything, including yourself in every moment. If you can do this, the natural result is liberation from angst.
5) Curiosity – This means being able to ask questions rather than drawing unexamined conclusions about a situation: What is going on here? What am I missing? What is the truth? What are all the angles? What am I misunderstanding? Freedom needs investigation. Freedom from what? Freedom from whom?
6) Tranquility – If we are social justice warriors but go home to a hostile home environment what do we bring to work the next day…and the day after that?
If you follow the 6 essential ingredients to freedom, you will have mastery over yourself. You will feel free when the rest of the world is creating division and compartmentalizing. Eight billion people are waiting for political change to happen to live freely. If you look deeply, freedom on the inside, means you start to have a positive impact externally one person at a time and that can spread like a social wildfire.
“By abandoning unhealthy inner views and attachments, you change how you act in the world and consequently you transform how you see it.” ~ Four Ways to Freedom
Having mastery over oneself is what we call Absolute Freedom. This requires training and recognizing the truth of the present moment…not spiritually by-passing selective things like money, sex or power but learning to feel and face the sticky truth, integrating it and moving on gracefully. Great freedom also comes with overcoming our own self-obsessed bullshit. The path to freedom is moving from ME to WE to US to THIS moment.
This moment is where freedom lives and ignoring it is a betrayal to our most evolved self. Implementing political policy is a dicey and unpredictable road to freedom but doing individual inner work on oneself with a group of determined practitioners is the shortest path to mutually shared freedom.
Be Well!
Evangelos Diavolitsis and Nishta Matarese
Evangelos and Nishta are international Dharma, meditation and movement teachers and the founders of Four Ways to Freedom. Join them for their next retreat at Mandali:
Every creature on this planet has at least one superpower. Ants can carry 50 times their own bodyweight, hummingbirds can fly backwards, humans can express gratitude. This may sound trite, but gratitude is our superpower. A superpower we know about, pay lip service too, but don’t fully take into our hearts and honour.
There is plenty of scientific research, proving what the wisdom traditions have always known to be true: Gratitude makes us happier, healthier, and kinder. How does our superpower work? Science has found that gratitude both triggers the release of dopamine and serotonin and reduces cortisol levels.
This translates into gratitude:
Improves the quality of sleep Strengthens the immune system Alleviates physical pain Optimises blood pressure and cardiac functioning Improves digestions Leads to greater emotional intelligence and resilience Improves communication and interpersonal relationships Deepens ones sense of connection with others and the planet. Promotes empathy and self-love
Sounds like a superpower to me. Let’s take a moment to explore this superpower. Is it possible to sense it for ourselves? To feel it in our cells?
Take a few breaths and see how you are feeling at this moment. Notice where you are reading this. At home, in transit? Is it quiet or loud? Are you at ease, stressed, a mix of both? What are your internal vibes like? Notice your breath and how your body feels. Take a few more breaths to fully feel into all of this.
Now take a moment and think of five things/people/places/etc you are grateful for. Count them on your fingers. Breathe each one in and on the exhale offer it your gratitude. I will breathe along with you. I am grateful for: My eyesight and the colour blue. The sound of water. The taste of cinnamon. The smell of a cedar forest. The feeling of sunshine on my belly.
How do you feel now? Was there a shift in your body or mood? Each time I take a moment like this, where I pause and truly feel in freshly what am I grateful for in the moment, I do notice the shift. Something, I hadn’t realised had frozen in me, always melts. My shoulders drop. There is a sense of more space in my chest. I feel a little lighter and more capacitated.
Of course, the beat passes. Life continues. Things get complicated, stressful, messy.… Our superpower needs cultivation. There are three circumstances where we need to focus on building up our capacity to be grateful:
When things are going badly
When things are fine
When thing are doing great
Let’s start with “when things are going great.” For example, you are on holiday or a retreat. Many years ago, while I was on retreat, Luis, a volunteer at the center taught me a precious grift. He taught me to say, “Yes thank you. That would be great.” Time after time, Luis came up to me offering me things: an extra pillow, towel, hot water bottle (I was camping and its was raining and cold). My reflex at first was to say, “no thank you. I’m okay.” Each time I did, he looked so disappointed. When I changed my mind and said, “yes please,” his face lit up. He practically ran off and to get me whatever extra treat it was he wanted to share with me.
On the last day of the retreat, Luis was still eating lunch when I was bringing in my dishes. He turned to me and asked, “Would you like chocolate covered strawberries?” “That sounds amazing Luis. I would love some.” He jumped up with the biggest smile and ran into the kitchen. A moment later, he was there with a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries.
Luis taught me to delight his generosity. To accept it fully. To be grateful for the beauty and comfort that is there and be open to even more. A favourite film always comes to mind when I think of Luis. “Thankyouhappymoreplease.” That’s the title of film and such a great way to meet life when thing are going well. “Thankyouhappymoreplease.”
What about accessing gratitude, “when things are going badly?” Like this summer, when visiting my family after four years, I got an ear infection and ended up in the emergency room in a lot of pain. It is natural at moments like this to give out. Equally natural is to feel grateful. Lying in pain, I did my gratitude practice. I counted on my fingers what am I grateful fir in this moment? Thankful for the hospital. Thankful for my access to it. Thankful to all the people working in it. Thankful for the antibiotics and their superpower magic. Thankful for my body. Yes thankful to my body that was in a lot of pain.
It’s so easy to blame and judge our bodies. To beat them up when they don’t work as we want them to. My poor ear got attacked and it was doing all that is could to fight off the infection. Bodies get injured and sick. Bodies age. That’s what bodies do and usually they are blamed for it. In reality, they are doing their best with what they have got to keep us alive and ticking. I think that deserves recognition and a whole lot of appreciation.
Of course it’s not easy to do when we are sick and in pain. But when we can, the pain, the sickness, is so much easier to bear. Remember reading above, science has proven that gratitude alleviates physical pain. It does. There is still pain but instead of being in conflict with the pain, fighting the pain, we are befriending it. We are turning towards the difficult sensations with our superpower. “Thank you body for doing your best. I know it is really hard right now.”
Finally, how do we cultivate more gratitude “when things are fine?” This is the neutral flavour, which I find can be the most tricky. We tend to tune out when things are just flowing along. We distract ourselves and don’t fully pay attention to what is going on. This leads to more automatic pilot living, which is a duller, more disconnect life.
One way to remember to practice gratitude in the normal moments is with a gratitude stone. I love collecting tiny smooth stones from beaches or river beds. I often gift them to others. Inviting people to keep them in the pocket of a favourite jacket or bag. Each time your hand comes in contact with the stone, you pause and think of one thing you are grateful for. Then you move on with your day.
It is a simple act and can read as cheesy, but I swear it makes a difference. The more we practice gratitude, the more me make this a neural pattern. Changing it from a trait to a state. Hebb’s Law states, “neurons that fire together, wire together.” Making happiness easily accessible in our day to day living no matter what we currently encountering. I will leave you with one last bit of science pertaining to our superpower. Expressing and feeling gratitude affect the brain differently. There is more activity in the medial prefrontal cortex when one expresses gratitude.
So feeling grateful is one thing, but expressing it is something that much more powerful. So I invite to do all the above out loud. Or if that is not your style, write it down. It’s pretty awesome knowing you have a superpower. It is even more fantastic using. Enjoy!
I never really understood the practice of Loving Kindness, metta, until recently. Sure, I had read about it, heard about it in my trainings, practiced it, and even taught it, but somehow I didn’t ‘quite get it’. That is until I read Christina Feldman’s book Boundless Heart, The Buddha’s Path of Kindness, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity. In her book Feldman presents practicing Metta as a verb: befriending. It is an attitude rather than a practice you turn ‘on and off’. She writes: [metta] “is said to be the necessary foundational attitude underlying all meditative development.”
Loving Kindness is not so much an emotion or state, but a way of approaching all experiences with boundless friendliness. We can learn to befriend all people – including ourselves – and all events and circumstances; the pleasant and the unpleasant, the beautiful and the ugly. This doesn’t mean we have to like everyone or everything, but we can care about it and befriend it.
Insight practice allows us to gain insight into impermanence, ‘unsatisfactoriness’, and the awareness of no-self. As an Insight practice, the cultivation of metta is directed toward uncovering aversion, which is a symptom of unsatisfactoriness. Aversion can show up in many ways: irritation, impatience, jealousy, hatred, belittlement, anger, etc. I don’t have to tell you there is a lot of that in the world.
Loving Kindness is not so much an emotion or state, but a way of approaching all experiences with boundless friendliness. We can learn to befriend all people – including ourselves – and all events and circumstances; the pleasant and the unpleasant, the beautiful and the ugly.
Aversion leads to depression and anxiety as there is no room in our heart for joy and appreciation. From a Buddhist psychological perspective aversion, or: ill will, is rooted in fear – the fear of loss, the fear of harm. When we are gripped by fear, we create in our mind the sense of ‘other’ that we want to run away from or attack. We don’t want to feel this way so we blame the other, or our circumstances. This blaming can become such a habit that we don’t even notice we are doing it, nor the effects of it. Moreover, we often feel justified in our aversion; we feel we have every right to hate people that are doing wrong in our eyes. Unfortunately, we don’t realize the negative effects of that. As a Tibetan teacher said:
Do not take lightly small misdeeds, Believing they can do no harm, Even a tiny spark of fire Can set alight a mountain.
So, we need to befriend aversion. Aversion is suffering that we can only end through our willingness to be intimate with the landscape of it, in order for it to be understood. Ill will truly holds the power to make us ill, as the body carries the burden of aversive thoughts and emotions. Metta is intended to interrupt these negative thoughts and emotions.
Metta is a quality of mindfulness. It doesn’t ask for an ambitious desire to save the whole world, but simply to rescue the mind and heart from moments of compulsive ill will. When we commit to kindness in each moment, we stop feeding the habit of aversion and bring the tendency of ill will to an end. It is a rotation of consciousness: rather than waiting for aversion to disappear for there to be space for kindness, it is through cultivating our capacity of befriending adversity that affliction will be eased and healed.
The conscious cultivation of metta as a meditation practice uses simple phrases that give words to the intention of metta. The keyword here is: intention. The words are less important, as long as they are meaningful and feel easy. Each phrase is repeated slowly – either out loud or in your mind – allowing space between each phrase to listen to the inward response.
There is no right response, however. We are not looking for a specific feeling or state of mind. All responses are welcome and a reminder that we are practicing befriending. Through sustaining our attention within the felt sense of befriending, we learn to deepen and sustain the capacity of our hearts to abide in kindness. In doing so new neural pathways are being laid in our brain and slowly we can reverse our habitual ways of reacting.
Traditionally, metta practice is offered first toward ourselves, then to a benefactor, a friend, a neural person, and lastly to a difficult person. For example:
May I/you be well in the midst of difficulty. May I/you be at peace. May I/you rest with ease and kindness in this moment.
In the western world befriending oneself seems to be the most difficult for most people. Metta practice should never be forced though and should be kept free of striving and expectations. It is always an invitation and a conscious cultivation of intention and inclining our hearts toward kindness.
As a practical application during your day, you could ask yourself these questions:
What does this moment need?
What is needed to free this moment of ill will and fear, and to rest in a boundless heart?
And as you practice loving kindness, remind yourself that you do not have to be ‘God-like’ to fully embody it. It is through practicing that we strengthen our ability to be more kind. And that is worth the effort; the world needs it.
In this inspiring and captivating talk with Thea, she shares with us her story of her discovery and initiation of Mantra singing, her love of ancient Vedic philosophy and her passion of sharing it with the world through her beautiful music and teachings. At the end of the article you will also find a short Mantra practice to do at home.
Mandali: I’d love to hear about how you started your journey into music and performing at a such a young age. You began as a Jazz vocalist, having studied professionally at the conservatory, before you started singing Mantras?
Thea: I did indeed! I attended the music conservatory in Italy and won a few scholarships, both to attend the conservatory in Amsterdam for a full year. Following a big musical project in Italy for my thesis, and my graduation, I won another scholarship for the conservatory of Java, India.
It was during my time in Java that had the opportunity to meet and study with some of the great spiritual masters of the island, which has a musical tradition that is very connected to shamanism, animism, Buddhism and others that are rare to get in touch with! I had the opportunity with these masters to learn to use my voice to transmit spirituality.
How did this transition feel for you? Was this the first exposure for you to the world of Eastern spirituality? It must have been the beginning of a whole new chapter for you.
I have always been a spiritual baby since I was a kid, I’ve been spiritual in nature since I can remember with lots of questions and insights. We had a difficult family situation growing up, and while my parents were great, there was a lot of absence. My curiosity about something greater was a kind of a salvation, helping me deal with having to mature so quickly and the trauma of my short childhood.
Shortly before going to Amsterdam, I was officially introduced to spirituality by a master and spiritual writer in Italy. Through his guidance and insights, my life completely changed, I was inspired, energetic, with a whole new vision of life. This opened the door to curiosity about Eastern traditions and by the time I was studying in Java, our friendship had developed and it prompted me to seek out spirituality in a different way, merging it with my passion for music, eventually discovering Mantra singing there.
What was your first experience with singing Mantras?
One day while in Java, I was sitting experimenting with a beautiful local instrument called the Gender (see picture), and suddenly I spontaneously began to chant Om Namah Shivaya, Om Namah Shivaya, and fell into a deep connection with it, without really knowing why, just being called to sing, it came out of me.
Thea with the Gender, traditional Javanese instrument
Around the same time I was getting to know many spiritual people through the conservatory, and got to know some inspiring meditation teachers, authentic shamans and spiritualists in the community.
Later on during that same day as I chanted my first mantra, coincidentally, I was invited by a Shaman to attend the festival of Shiva! His name was Bhima, and he said, ‘You are one of us, you have to come to this Shivaratri festival, there will be thousands of people, we had to ask permission to have you come with us, you are one of us, you must join.’
I went to the temple of Shiva, joined by a few other prominent people during the festival, and we were invited to a ceremony involving a psychic who was singing mantras, meditating, and other rituals, all very new and exciting to me. At one point she turned to me, looked me in the eyes, and I saw her eyes change, becoming big, almost cat-like, like a puma. She told me, ‘YOU have to do the ceremony, in the centre, here, sit and meditate. I feel you very close to Shiva’s energy right now.’ So this was my first initiation into this world, the day I chanted Om Namah Shivaya, and attended this ceremony, also in honour of Shiva.
You also went to India and studied Vedic philosophy and to deepen your knowledge on Mantras, how was that experience for you?
I spent quite some time in India. While in Varanasi, I spent time studying and diving myself deep into the Indian culture, history, and philosophy, which became very dear to me. I had a lot of beautiful experiences with different mystics and Sadhus there.
I attended many ceremonies and rituals, and made some beautiful friendships. Everywhere I went, I felt I was accepted by the Sadhus, and invited to be a part of their activities.
One day that remains really special to me, is a day I went to the other side of the river Ganga, where there is just sand, no city, which is the place some Sadhus go to do ceremonies, meditations and spiritual practices as it is very connected to Shiva. I met a group of them there who recognized my spiritual energy without knowing me, and I was so touched by their reception – they saw me as one of them.
For the whole day they explained to me their practices as healers, shared their knowledge and insights, and introduced me to their guru. In the end, it was just myself, the group of Sadhus and their Guru, a young man my age (I was 28 at the time), and he asked me to sing Mantras for them. At first I was so nervous, as this guru also happened to be an expert in Mantras. They all took a meditative position and closed their eyes waiting for me to sing! I was so emotional and nervous, and I began to sing in a traditional way, and then something opened inside me and I just let it flow. I let the Mantras come out spontaneously, I wanted to sing as I do. I connected with something very deep right then.
In the end they gave me their blessings, which was a huge deal – they were all strong, powerful men, and they hugged me and told me I had the Divine Mother in me! This kind of thing happened regularly while I was in India, and really put me on the path to share Mantras with the world.
You can hear the Mantra I sang to them in this video:
I am imagining you there, in your 20s, a European young woman in the midst of Sadhus, healers, mystics in India, as peers and equals, what a journey! Was it then it became your mission to transmit this wisdom to make it relatable to the Western world, and did you feel a responsibility to keep it pure, or original?
Yes, I have always been encouraged by the spiritual masters whom I practised with to pronounce the mantras correctly, which was easy in a way because the right pronunciation comes naturally and intuitively to me. For the musical style itself I was always told I can be more creative and choose, which you can see in my songs. Because I toured with different serious spiritual teachers from various traditions, and they all confirmed the same thing to me, so I keep many traditional melodies but also create more contemporary sounds.
Many of the traditional melodies were passed down orally from generation to generation, and they stay very similar even when I sing them, but the instruments, the flow of the song, can change, as you see with many different other Mantra singers.
Looking at the way you transmit Mantras right now, and with the wide public reach that you have, do you feel it is your mission to transmit this beautiful tradition to westerners, bringing the two worlds together in a way that is beneficial?
Yes definitely. My mother always told me I was a good communicator and speaker, and that I should become a politician 🙂 I love to talk about subjects I am passionate about, and to take ancient knowledge like Mantra and Vedas and transmit them here, I could talk about it all day. It comes easy to me to translate and to simplify a topic to explain to others.
So I think in a way I was structured for this to make mantras easy, but remaining respectful of the deeper meaning and knowledge that is behind them. There is also a joyful way to get in touch with that, so I want to stay with this strategy, we could call it a spiritual strategy, to help people to get in touch with this.
When you came back to Italy and first started your career after all these spiritual experiences in India and after University, how did you first start performing Mantras and get into this world?
The first time I sang Mantras in public in Italy was when a well known classical pianist asked me to do vocals with him for a concert deep in a mountain cave ( he is known for his peculiar choices in venues). He was living there in this large cavern with a grand piano and wanted me to perform with him, with just spontaneous vocals, spiritual sounds, etc, not mantras specifically. A friend of mine who is an Italian dancer I had met in Java was also there, so that made it even more special. During the performance every cell of my body was asking me to sing mantras, so they spontaneously began to emerge. And from that moment I knew I had to sing Mantras in my life.
It was in this concert that I met a spiritual teacher who was in the audience and approached me afterwards, and asked me if I wanted to perform and give a workshop on Mantras in a holistic centre he was leading and I accepted. This was the first of many workshops, performances, and spiritual events that I have been a part of. It was amazing, like all the dots connected.
Your workshops include talks, performances, how do they look like now, what do you enjoy the most?
I have many ways of doing it. I give Mantra concerts, which are very immersive, deep experiences for people. They touch on something deep within themselves receiving the music and sounds. Some attendees have told me that my face changes, like I become another person while I sing. Someone even once told me I looked like a man while I was singing, like a Mongolian monk! It is like I am channeling someone else.
I also hold talks where I put a lot of emphasis in encouraging people to understand the history and full panorama of the world of Mantras, where they came from, and how meaningful they are to Indian culture.
What is Indian culture, why does so much spirituality come from there? It is so important to me to talk about the historical roots of Indian philosophy as so much of it has been destroyed by religious conflict and colonialism, and then of course also distorted by the West. India has been attacked over and over in history, and not only has knowledge been lost, but also manipulated to its people.
So this is one of the reasons why we see such a variety of ways of looking at spirituality in India. We see Indians that are vegetarian and non-vegetarian, or we see Indians that are Christians, we see Indians that are Hindus but have a Christian approach to Hinduism. It’s all very mixed up. And so this Brahman Vedic tradition, the tradition of the masters, the traditions of pure yoga, is really a treasure and if you have good fortune and karma, you might get in touch with them. But of course it’s something that it’s not easy to find anymore and it’s easy to get confused.
So I try to help people understand the strength of this tradition, this civilization and culture, which I hold very dear to me.
Do you find it is important for people to understand the exact meaning of the Mantras, or will they still receive the benefits just by listening to, or repeating the sounds?
The meaning is important, but the effect is the real miracle. And at the end, at the very end, the most important is that with the repetition of these sounds, our consciousness, our brain, our ecosystem, our subtle body and our whole being receives the effects of the Mantras. They can create an effect that changes and improves our life and helps us to be more determined, lucid, positive and connected with some invisible energy that gives us nourishment, gives us food, in a non-material way. For it is truly a spiritual food, spiritual nectar.
Is there one mantra who you feel you always go back to if you’re going to sing to beginners? Or do you have a favourite Mantra?
It’s not easy to say because I love many Mantras! But of course Om Namah Shivaya is a big one for me because it opened my initiation, so I love to sing that. When I am starting to get closer to people for the first time, also Maha Mantra Hare Krishna, because it’s a mantra that helps our inner masculine and feminine energy to balance with each other.
Thank you for all these beautiful insights, Thea, and sharing some of your story for us. Your message is clear, pure, and positive. Is there any one tip in using mantras that you would recommend to our readers, a way to use it in practice that can benefit them in daily life?
If you have at least fifteen minutes and want to repeat Sanskrit Mantras or other positive affirmations, I recommend:
a) Find a comfortable position that can be maintained for at least 10 minutes. It is essential to maintain absolute stillness to favor a flowing energetic communication between the conscious and subconscious mind.
b) While breathing, in addition to oxygen, we also absorb Prana, the cosmic energy present throughout the universe at various levels. Prana activates the seven Chakras, the energetic vortices that make up our vital field.
Close your eyes, breathe deeply three times (referring to the first three chakras), and repeat mentally:
ENERGY IN – during inhalation.
PROBLEMS OUT – during exhalation
After these three purification breaths we continue our meditation on Prana with another four deep breaths (with reference to the four upper Chakras), repeating mentally:
ENERGY IN – during inhalation
LOVE OUT – during exhalation
c) After breathing, repeat the Mantra “Om Shanti Om”. This sacred sound vibration is the Mantra of Peace. It creates the emotion of peace in our cells, thoughts and emotions. Each word must be pronounced slowly and a pause shall be made between one word and another. This kind of pronunciation, slow and smooth, allows the reception of the message both by the left and right hemisphere of the brain.
d) In addition to the Mantra recommended here, everyone can create personalized liberating phrases, made to amplify our good qualities and life goals, the important thing is to choose simple and effective words, without ever changing their sequence. Like you would do with a song or a prayer, the phrases must be repeated regularly, so that their essence can be absorbed with serenity and awareness.
