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• Personal Growth

By Life Positive

April 2005

by Bharat and Shalan Savur

Five meditations to help you be fit and happy everyday.

The first truth: You have a great talent
Everybody deserves to be fit, to be happy everyday. EVERYBODY! To be fit and happy is to experience a complete sense of joyous well-being. Everything in you feels good. Everything around you glows. Everything about you feels vibrantly right.

Being fit and happy is spiritual. You feel at peace with yourself. You feel in sync with your surroundings, your people, your profession, your studies, your circumstances. There’s a lovely assurance in you that life won’t let you down. That things will always turn out right. That miracles will happen. A great feeling of the quiet power of the universe co-operating with your needs, your deeds, your existence, stays with you.

Being fit and happy is physical. You don’t feel your body as a burden since it is so supple, so relaxed, so effortless in its movements. You sit down naturally, simply. Every joint in your knee, in your hip, in your back bends smoothly with sweet obedience to your will to sit. Your stomach does not get in the way, does not feel ungainly or pressed. It is as deep, as flat into the chair as you are. You stand up fluidly, your body-language limber, loose, e-a-s-y.

Being fit and happy is mental. Your mind is light, throbbingly alive to the beautiful possibilities of your day-like a musician about to compose the best, the sweetest, the most divine music anybody has ever heard and will ever hear.

And this, sweet one, brings us joyously to the first truth ringing in all of us: just as the musician has a great talent to compose music, so do you have a great talent to compose fitness and happiness in your being.

What is talent? It is a divine ability to express great love. A musician listens to the wind as it blows through the trees and feels a beautiful stirring of love inside. Then, he expresses that love through music. The whoosh of the wind is composed by love into music. The rumble of thunder is composed by love into music. The patter of rain is composed by love into music.

So, when you feel this stir to lose weight, to get fit, to get healthier, to be better in every and any way, know that it is your love yearning to express itself. Know that it is your talent wanting to compose harmonious notes of fitness and happiness in your body, your mind, your spirit. Know these stirrings as those of your inborn talent coursing through you and open your heart to them willingly, joyously. Expose yourself to these stirrings. Give in to these stirrings. Act on these stirrings. And miracles will happen!

The second truth: This talent is forever
And here is the beautiful thing about talent. You can compose fitness and happiness in normal times when you are healthy. And you can compose fitness and happiness in bad times when you are unhealthy. Your talent to compose fitness and happiness is exactly like the talent to compose music, to write, to paint, to sculpt, to teach, to cook, to play sport… A talent never fades, never dies. It remains forever-the hallmark of your greatness. It beckons and brings you back again and again to your greatness all your life. That’s why Beethoven composed music though he was deaf. His deafness did not kill his talent to compose music. So will your talent drive you to compose fitness and happiness. You cannot ignore it because it never ignores you. You cannot forget it because it never forgoes you. It tugs until you allow yourself to be pulled into composing. As Beethoven was born to create music, so were you born to create fitness and happiness. It’s a talent that resides in you all your life. It can never stale, never wane, never vanish. This talent, this ability to express love, to compose fitness and happiness remains as a steady murmur, ready to be stoked into flowing music. This is the second truth.

The third truth: Nothing is a drag
Being fit and happy is a personal thing. You commit yourself to your well-being. You pay attention to your well-being by exercising, eating right, thinking lovingly every day. Only you can decide to reach your highest personal harmony in body, mind, spirit. You don’t compete with others, you complete yourself day after day. That’s why we say being fit and happy is a personal thing.

The secret lies in not thinking, ‘Exercising is a drag.’ The musician never thinks, ‘Composing music is a drag.’ The teacher never thinks, ‘Teaching is a drag.’ The artist never thinks, ‘Painting is a drag.’ A talent never drags you down, your negative attitude, your negative thoughts, your negative language drag you down.

The talent to be fit, to be happy keeps you charged, keeps you going because this talent gives you the divine power to create more stamina, more strength, more enthusiasm, a leaner body, a keener mind, an uplifted spirit. Why demean this inborn talent that gives you the divine means, the divine power to create a wealth of health and happiness for yourself and others?

To demean, to depreciate your talent is to negate yourself and think in self-deprecating, self-defeating ways. No, no, no, that’s no way to live. You deserve something much better. You deserve love. To this end, learn to love your talent. Appreciate your talent. Decide to make the most of this divine ability to express love. Do not doubt it, love it. Doubt scatters your mind. Your attention gets fragmented by many shrapnels of scurrying thoughts. You feel incoherent, restless, unsure, unhappy, weak. Instead, choose to love. Love pulls your thoughts together. Your attention gets sweetly focused by loving thoughts. You feel coherent, restful, happy, confident, strong. So, never doubt your power to create fitness and happiness. A loving smile from you kindles a fellowship in another. A kind word from you creates happiness in another. An encouraging word from you inspires courage in another. A sweet act from you creates comfort in another. Can you then doubt your ability to create with love? Can you doubt your identity as loving creator?

Let the realization ‘I am creator’ sweep through you. Let the realization ‘I can create’ imprint itself in your brain’s neurological pathways. Now, feel the difference between yesterday and today, between being created and being creator.

You begin to think like a creator. You live up to your calling, your self-commitment to create by cheerfully, lovingly, consistently, persistently nurturing your talent to be fit and happy. Not in starts and stops, but every day for the rest of your life. A creator never stops creating. A creator never retires, he tirelessly re-fires. A creator’s consistent commitment to his talent seals a healing live-and-help-live friendship with life.

As this friendship strengthens and grows, beautiful things begin to happen. All energy directed towards sickness gets re-directed towards health. All energy emptied in negativeness gets continually replenished in this loving urge to create. Some effort in the beginning leads to pure effortlessness over the days. The harmony between mind and muscle grows and grows… The rhythm between body and spirit vibrates more and more…There is no stop, no finishing-line to this creation. It is endless, it is infinite in its joyous reverberations. The more consistently you create, the more you experience the richness of being fit and happy. The more consistently you create, the more you experience the abundance of your being. Nothing feels like a drag to one who creates. This is the third truth.

The fourth truth: You can re-create yourself
Realize this: negative thoughts undo, ‘un-create’ all possibilities. When you see no possibilities, you see no meaning to your life, only meaningless drudgery. It makes you feel heavy, tired, sick. Loving thoughts create all kinds of possibilities. You think lovingly, ‘This is what I can do. This is what I can create.’ It’s pleasing, it’s meaningful.It fills you with a childlike expectancy. While creating fitness, happiness, health in your being, you are a child with building blocks-intensely focused, intensely absorbed. In creating, you come soaringly alive as do your instruments-body, mind, spirit.

When you exercise, you strum your sinews to strengthen and tauten them until all off-key notes re-compose…re-compose…re-compose into beautiful, effortless, pure motions. Off-key crookednesses straighten. Off-key bulges smoothen. Off-key hormones balance harmoniously. Off-key organs rhythmise. Off-key aches ease out. The aah of release at being physically aligned, the aah of relief at being in your natural painless state are your compositions. The aah experience is the joyous vibration of the successful creator.

When the body is as balanced as you can make it, you will find it much easier to be loving. Lovingness is the ultimate creation of the creator. Lovingness is the food of the spirit. When the spirit swirls in loving spirals of energy, beautiful inspirational powers arise that help you reverse sickness to wellness or keep you as fit, serene and charged as possible even amidst setbacks, shocks and disorders.

When lovingness is continually expressed by loving thoughts, your mind widens. Loving thoughts overcome all negative declarations such as ‘I am broke'; sad declarations such as ‘I am lonely'; destructive declarations such as ‘I want to die.’ Loving thoughts affirm the life-generating, life-enhancing ‘I have everything I need’ attitude and strongly, unthreateningly encourage you to create better circumstances. Lovingness offers unlimited scope for the highest, most healing thoughts, the most beautiful, empathetic ways of viewing people and situations; for new concepts and fresh ideas about yourself that you’d never dreamt of earlier. Lovingness is godliness. It has the combined texture of balming, cleansing spring water and the fresh fragrance of mountain air. As lovingness grows, gradually, a pleasing fullness enters the widening mind. This is happiness, joy, contentment-all compositions created by you. And this is the fourth truth: when you create with love, you re-create yourself.

The fifth truth: Each day is your day
As you grow into your identity and role as creator, you feel a distinct change in you. Slowly, unobtrusively, outside stimulants cease to tyrannize your senses and control your actions. You don’t need to go to a movie everyday to be entertained because your dancing senses are already entranced. You don’t need a chocolate pastry daily to satisfy your craving because your mind is already sweetly, lovingly full. Ah yes, a craving is purely from the mind. Craving arises when the mind feels empty, deprived, hollow, hopeless, jittery or fearful. It yearns for food to attain the fullness it craves. It becomes implosive-trying to draw in and suck in as much as possible.

But the mind of the creator is different. It is full of ideas, possibilities and the eagerness to create. It is explosive-it wants to give out, like a bud opening every petal of possibility to feel itself as a flower.

In this mental vibrancy arises strongly your Do-It-Yourself spirit. A compelling need to take charge, to create that feeling of fitness, happiness, alertness. It’s a strong urge. It’s an overwhelming urge. It has the force of a tough uncoiling spring. It is the urge to move, to act, to exercise. Follow this urge. Walk, run, cycle, swim. Do not mistake this sense of urgency for impatience. The two are poles apart. Urgency is for the process of creating fitness, freshness, happiness. Impatience is for the results-weight-loss, becoming slim, attaining a better skin, looking muscular.

Do not waste your energy in impatience. Impatience causes frustration, restlessness. Remember, the creator enjoys the process of creating and is not particularly concerned about the results. Impatience hinders the easy flow of action. Impatience curbs enthusiasm. Impatience makes your attention wander to the future and robs you of the delight of the present. The creator revels in creative exercising, in the aah of the stretched and fresh feeling NOW. The creator is grateful he can express his ability to love and feel complete and fulfilled. Bring to each day your quality of lovingness.

Trust your body’s positive responses to your efforts. Tend to it by working out everyday so that you create fitness. Train your mind. Fill it daily with good thoughts, lofty thoughts so that you feel uplifted and peaceful.

Respect your spirit. Free it from the tethers of wasteful rituals and negative habits each day to surge and swell with loving resourcefulness so that you feel the grace, the glory, the grandeur of being alive as yourself-the creator creating…and creating…and creating… This is how each day becomes creative. Each day becomes a blessing. Each day is your day. This is the fifth truth.

The everyday workshop of five truths
How do you establish these five truths in yourself? By re-affirming and practicing them every day until they become a living part of you. The secret is to take each day, every day as a workshop to practice and live out these five truths. It is a worthwhile pursuit, a high calling. What can be greater than using each day to express love and get increasingly fitter and happier? So… MAKE THIS YOUR DAY. As you read this, it may be a Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It does not matter. Set a fit and happy tone for today. Affirm, ‘This is my day. And I shall be fit and happy today.’ Make this your daily mantra. Repeat it in good or bad situations. When you know it is your day, you want to do what is right, what it good. Your day has to be a good day, a great day! Now, decide to spend your day with the best companion in the world-your highest self, your most loving self.

Who is your highest, most loving self? It is not your mind. It has nothing to do with the thoughts in your mind. Your highest self is a beautiful loving entity. It is a benign, godlike, sweet being. It is there, it is always there behind your thoughts. You feel its loving, comforting presence in you when you strip away your thoughts. For one day, today, rid your mind of all thoughts-all those teeming thoughts of wanting to do this or that, wanting food, clothes, equipment, money, seeing a film, paying bills, envying others, fears, worries, prejudices, memories, speculations, analyzes, criticisms, rituals. Discard them. Forget them. Think of yourself as a free being with nothing to do, nothing to think about, who has no demands, no responsibilities, no duties.

For one day, today, don’t think of the money in your bank account, cupboard, wallet. Be in the wealth around you-unlimited air, loads of sunshine, the endless sky-space.

For one day, today, smile with your lips and eyes and mind and heart at everybody and everything around you. For one day, today, spend all your time to cheerfully improve yourself, create health, fitness and happiness. Don’t waste a single moment criticizing, reproaching, blaming, judging. Just be. If somebody wants to quarrel with you, don’t react likewise. Think nothing. Be detached. For one day, today, feel the sweetness of being alive. Don’t sour it with uncharitable, unkind or sad thoughts. Just be in the sweetness. For one day, today, refrain from all chores and rituals. Sit. Or lie down. Or walk as if you are floating.

For one day, today, erase all your errors from your memory. Live in peace without guilt, without self-blame. For one day, today, don’t ask for attention from your spouse, parent, colleague, friend, neighbor. Be attentive to yourself. Be your own spouse, parent, colleague, friend, neighbor, companion. For one day, today, accept that if you didn’t get what you wanted, it is because you didn’t really need it. For one day, today, if some seem against you, don’t feel cornered or isolated. Feel free of their company. Feel free of their prejudices. Feel free. Feel the freedom of being in the vast universe. See the positive messages it sends you through a kind smile, words, actions, using good people as its medium. For one day, today, do not cloud your eyes with tears. Keep your vision clear so that you may see the brightness that is always around you.

For one day, today, be non-egoistic so that you feel your highest self; be kind so that you feel your goodness; be humble so that you are in greatness. For one day, today, be calm, be tolerant, be nonjudgemental. This brings a relaxed, restful, loving silence to your overworked, restless, critical mind. For one day, today, put all your burdens at the altar. God has a broad back called the universe that can carry it easily. For one day, today, don’t see anything as an obstacle. See it as a stepping stone to something bigger. For one day, today, rely on nobody and eliminate all scope for disappointment and disillusionment. For one day, today, don’t change your mood because somebody changes their mind. For one day, today, don’t fear the future. Enjoy every present moment as it exactly is. For one day, today, exercise your body gently. Stretch it gently. Bend it gently. Do no exercise that pains it, but frees it. For one day, today, eat only pure food. Some steamed rice, some low-fat curd, some raw vegetables, some fresh fruit. Feel full, yet light; not heavy and lethargic. And be assured, on this one day, today, your body will feel a spring in it. Your mind will shimmer with luminous peace. Your spirit will soar in love. You will feel the magic and beauty of your highest self. You will feel awakened in a larger, brighter, more loving way. Now, you know how it is to feel fit and happy. Now, you know how it feels when you make each day your day. Daily, the mind needs a sense of loving solitude. Daily, the body needs gentle, loving training. Daily, the spirit needs the freedom of love, to love. There is no discipline, only the calling of love. There is no imposed self-control, only the discernment of love. There is no enforced sacrificing of ‘pleasures’, only the loving rhythm of healing routine. This one day, today and every other day is your day. The day of your highest self. The day of miraculous manifestations of your higher desires. The day all the five truths come together and you realize your wholeness.