Only if there is alertness and presence of mind can your life improve. For this, you need to cultivate the habit of listening. Most of us are not good listeners. When you are listening to somebody, the speaker's very first sentence triggers some conversation within you.
You are constantly agreeing or disagreeing with the speaker. Have you ever wondered whether you can listen without any thoughts or pre-conceived notions? To cultivate the habit of listening, you have go to a place where everything is beautiful. Where is the place? That most beautiful place is within you.
When you come to this place, then any place is beautiful. Then, wherever you go, you add beauty there. Learning something about our breath is very important. Our breath has a great lesson to teach us, for every rhythm in the mind, there is a corresponding rhythm in the breath, for every rhythm in the breath, there is a corresponding emotion.
So, when you cannot handle your mind directly, through breath you can handle the mind. Neither at school nor at home does anybody teach you what to do when you are upset or angry or depressed. The first thing we did when we came to this planet is that we took a deep breath and then we started to cry.
The last thing we'll be doing : we'll breathe out and make other cry. In between, the whole life, we are breathing in and out, but, we have learnt very little about our breath. No breath, no life, know breath, know life.
We need to learn a little bit about our breath. We need to know a little bit about all the layers of our existence body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and the self. This is what I call Art of Living, learning a little bit about ourselves, the seven layers of our life.
Then that makes you be in the present moment, and it helps us to maintain the innocence that we are all born with and feel at home with everybody, anywhere. What I would suggest is, take one week off every year for yourself, like you take your car for servicing.
During that time, align yourself with nature, wake up with the sunrise, do some exercise, eat proper food, just as much food as necessary. Also some exercises, a few minutes of singing, and then some silent moments, enjoying the creation. Book yourself on a trip to this most beautiful place in the universe. Then you find that every day is a vacation and a celebration.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
WAYS TO A BETTER LIFE
