Saying Thank you

The upcoming season of Thanksgiving is round the corner. A wonderful time to sit with family and at the dinner table enjoy turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, yams, wines, perhaps carrots and salads too. Polished off with warm pumpkin or apple pie and cream ( or even better ice cream!) makes for a rewarding 4 day weekend. What is so special about this holiday? Is it the infinite number of sales that are available at the stores? Is it the joy of sitting down with the family for dinner? It is the delight of making vast quantities of food to fill everyones tummies? I am not so sure about this last one since all I hear is complaining about the work involved in making the meal ! Or is it about giving thanks for all that we have, as our forefathers did when they first met up with native Americans and had a thanksgiving feast as the legend suggests?

Giving thanks or a simple thank you is not restricted to this season. Gratitude is one of the fundamental paths to feeling good and wholesome. Gratitude to the universe, our God, each other and to ourselves brings us in vibrational harmony with the divinity within, and allows us to connect on a simple spiritual level with the universe as a whole. If you are so busy thanking and being grateful there is no time left to be ungrateful or unappreciative of matters going on in your life that can weigh you down and sink you to a hole of negativity. 

Thank God for bringing you into this world. Thank the universe for bringing you to this planet and providing this solar system in this plentiful galaxy. Thank the planet for providing the gravity that supports you. For the air that sustains you, the water and the earth provided food  that nourishes you, the sun that warms you and illuminates your days and nights by brightening the moon. The beautiful seasons that are every changing. Be thankful  for your house, car, neighbors, good friends, your parents, your spouse, your children, your home and its contents. Thank this body for all that it does, its well perfusing organs, the brain that controls them. The eyes that can see, the ability of sight and the wondrous things to see. The ears that can hear, the ability of hearing, and the melodious music of nature. The nose that can smell, the ability of olfaction, and the sweet aromas of foods and flowers. The tongue that can taste, the ability to taste and the delicious foods to eat. The skin to touch , the ability of pure sensation, and the infinite nice pleasant things to touch. The mind that can think, and the intelligence to know what is right and wrong. 

There is an endless list of things, people, events, circumstances to be thankful for, as everything is based on attraction. The more you are in  a state of gratitude the more things come to us as we sync up to the powerful vibrations of goodness all around us.  It is easy to become skeptical and fall into ungrateful thoughts or expect results prematurely. But if we keep at it the results will become instantaneous. It is only the ego that in its effort to survive and prove that it is right that dissuades us from this gratitude and so hindering our true self, the true spirit from progress. Being thankful is not only very personal but it is very universal. If the universe and God started thinking in non grateful ways, we would not have gotten very far as the creative process is linked to this gratitude. Being genuinely  grateful is also very healing and peaceful. A superficial "thanks" does not cut it. A simple thank you and letting go of the need for a response leaves the ego high and dry without the chance for thoughts of "he or she did not reply, so i will never thank them again" or "why should i thank them they never help me " Such thoughts will never let us move out of our ego driven lives to a more stress free purposeful life. 

Look around you and you will find plenty to be grateful for, and look with in you and be thankful each day and each moment. Gratitude is a state of life not just a statement in life. To Whom  or what are you going to be thankful today?

Being a Leaf

This season the leaves are everywhere. Mostly on the ground, but the beautiful fall foliage is very  much part  of the New England scene. A time for warm apple cider, pumpkin bisque soup, and butternut squash ravioli ahh ! the delight of the fall harvest season. However much as we appreciate the season and the foods and the sights do you ever stop and examine the nature of leaves that spurns the excitement of the post summer era? 

A leaf is born to plants and trees, a young bud at first then gradually with the passage of time gets greener, filled with chlorophyll and fulfills its duties of helping in nourishing the plant, bush or tree through its photosynthetic properties. It provides shelter to birds, and little creatures, and nourishment to bigger creatures when eaten. It weathers the wind, the scorching sun rays, and the torrential rains. If ever torn away from its branch it floats effortlessly and aimlessly in the wind hither and thither, but if secured with strong roots it does not resist the winds or the rains, and lets them blow and wash over, yet mostly remaining as it was. As the seasons progress and as fall approaches it automatically knows when to stop producing chlorophyll and sometimes releasing other chemicals thereby inducing the change in color. When its time is done it falls from its branch by its own volition and rests on the ground where it will wither away and be reclaimed into the ground as compose, into its elements. 

Yet we will always remember its life if we observe a plant, bush or tree in our back yard, as it completed its life cycle and provided the brilliant colors to the tree as part of the fall foliage. Just one leaf but with out its job, it could not be with out the collection of leaves that did theirs to provide life, and the colorful splendor of the overall botanical structure. So how does this simple leaf apply to us?

We are all born to parents. We are members of something greater, the human species, the human civilization, the eternal consciousness. We all have a duty and purpose to fulfill. First in a child bud like state  we grow and flourish and then as we grow up and become contributing members of society we get educated, we work and play and eventually have a family. Provide sustenance to our young through nourishment, and shelter. There are times when just like rain, heat, and wind beat down on us in the forms of resistant thoughts. If we like the leaf neither give in nor yield nor resist them, we weather the storms of our thoughts, emotions, and restless minds and with strong roots and bonds hold on to our branches. The roots are our education, our true sense of purpose and  our values. The branches are our foundations, our belief systems and our faith. If we do not have a good root system then our bonds easily break and we fly away from our branches and like loose leaves succumb to the weather or the storms of the madness of the mind. We must be mindful of these roots and be strong enough to withstand the weather.

As we continue to progress and eventually come towards the end of our careers and lives we should be able to look back on a colorful splendor of accomplishments similar to the fall foliage. These are not necessarily financial or fame seeking endeavors but more a plethora of  mental and spiritual milestones that have advanced us and the state of human evolution in the areas of kindness, creativity, beauty,  love, abundance and gratitude. We connect to the rest of the universe and nature when we trust our instincts, our inner knowing and push forth these characteristics. Eventually our bodies change, like the leaves  and fall to the ground. From ashes to ashes dust to dust, isn't that how the saying goes. But remember we are more than the sum of our bodies. It is our spirit, our vibrant essence that drives this process. 

Everything is exactly as it is meant to be as it is in nature so too are we the same. We follow the same laws of nature of birth, old age, disease and death.Four truths that we as our bodies cannot escape, but our bodies are the ones that are born of this nature, our essence or spirit is not, and it is neither born nor destroyed. So why fear? Why worry? how do we not feel that we are the leaf itself ? Surrender to what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be. By being ever present in the moment and awakening to our true nature and self we can transcend this material nature.

Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change. So enjoy the fall season and realize that another season is coming. It has to. It is what you do in that season that counts. Ready to snowboard ??

Brushing your Teeth

There are several morning ablutions that we all perform. It is a necessity. But when do we find the time to carve out moments for ourselves when we can be in silent contemplation. Such moments are rewarding and get us back into sync with our true selves even if it is for a few minutes before the drudgery of the day sets in. Some people find the time at the beginning or end of the day to meditate. A valiant effort by any stretch of the imagination, especially when being pressed for time. Similarly some try to exercise and are quite persistent about it, and make sure that it is not missed out. This too can be considered a form of resyncing with yourself as both meditation and exercise require you to be focussed on the unwavering moment of the present.

I find trying to seek out the in between moments in my day equally rewarding. Such as at lunch time, in between seeing patients at the hospital or office, sitting in the car at the red light or stop sign, or till recently while brushing my teeth ! What do you do while brushing your teeth? 

You can start thinking about your day, plan your meetings, engagements, what clothes you are going to wear, what chores need to be done,  what meals need to be prepared, replies to conversations from prior conversations, identify your flaws or perfections about yourself in the mirror, or you can simply use that time to be fully engaged in the moment, mind forcibly focussed on the present while doing nothing but  this mundane routine motion of  dental care. 

I was fortunate to purchase this dental apparatus by Oral B which is an electronic toothbrush with a wireless monitor that sits next to the sink showing the time. It also immediately either counts up or down ( depending on your setting) for 2 whole minutes. There is a little circular marker that goes around every 30 seconds indicating that you are to start brushing the next quadrant of your teeth. 4 quadrants, 30 seconds each, 2 minutes !! How lazy can one get you might proclaim. But 2 minutes is the minimum by dentist guidelines to brush your teeth. Then there is the eternal and painful flossing, there goes another 2 minutes ( at least) presuming you are facile with flossing thread. Then a total of a minute to rinse, and wash your face. But thats 5 minutes a day, 35 minutes a week, 140 minutes a month, 1820 minutes a year. Wow i just bought myself alot of minutes of quiet time with out rearranging my day.

 Now multiply this by the number of times a day you can spend in being in the moment, replacing the numerous moments of idle conversation, wasted arguments, pointless discussions, and futile actions that we take on a daily basis. And add this to the frequent "gaps" between "things that we do" like driving, walking, eating, showering, talking, and you gain alot of quiet time. Time that can be spent observing your breathing, and allowing you to rechannel and realign yourself by refocussing your energy to the moment where you can cummulatively collect all these minutes in your day to a more useful endevor, the betterment of you.

Feel free to brush your teeth more frequently, and dont forget to floss, you are just spending more time being present with yourself!

Giving and Receiving

How often do we spend our days frustrated, angry, irritable at someone or something or at a situation that has  occurred ? Perhaps far too many times in the day. Why do we let others take our good disposition and allow us to have a bad day? why do we let others steal our joy? 

I would submit that no one can steal your joy or do anything to you without you allowing it to happen. We have to take responsibility for what we give away. Are we giving away our joy too easily? Are we giving away our happiness, our pleasantness, our lighter side?  Perhaps it is to those who are closest to us that we feel hurt us the most, friends or family members since we care more deeply and create personified relationships with these individuals that we let our guard down and give away our emotions to them. And when they do not meet our expectations then we feel betrayed. If we however continue to build these wholesome relationships with each other, and share our joy, our happiness and peace with them and do not expect anything in return then we are not subject to this endless action and reaction. 

Mahatma Gandhi once mentioned that "it is when you give of yourself that you truly give." I think he is meaning that if you give yourself to others through true genuine kindness that you truly are giving. It is only through giving that we receive. So if we give to others unconditionally with love, kindness, trust, and gratitude that we receive this back infinite fold. If we are giving without expectation then we are giving with out fear of reprisal or failure, and so are free of the action and reaction. But in the very act of giving we are taking responsibility and so I think that no one can take anything from you, it is you on the other hand who are allowing a connection to be soured by not being careful in what is given. 

We all love to open gifts during holidays or receive gifts from others. The pleasure of unwrapping a gift, and the delight in the surprise. But have you ever looked up at the person who gave you the gift and see the twinkle in their eyes as they watch you opening what they have given ? They have unsurpassed happiness in the act of giving, just as much as you have receiving the gift. Similarly do you not have joy in spending the time carefully picking out a gift for your friends or loved ones with no idea what someone else will or will not get for you? It is probably because deep inside it is the pure joy of selfless giving that you are actually experiencing. 

Now expand this idea to every aspect of your life, every interaction you have with others. Giving to all, your goodness, your kindness, your love, and your gratitude without reservation and in an instant you will see the other person receiving these traits through your interaction or communication. It is quite a good disarming tool to use. So the next time you meet a negative individual who is ranting or behaving angrily, send them a silent blessing of good will. Do not let them negate your positivity. Just smile peacefully while they are getting angry as their anger is theirs,let them keep it, because in the end all anger has no where to go but be gone, and it will be gone. Show the other person kindness as they cannot steal your disposition, and by not partaking in their negative conversation you are not harming yourself. 

Every day every moment should be like the holiday season,  full of giving happily. Is that not why we are happy during these times? One might say oh the holidays are stressful. We can make it stressful by putting conditions on that what we give but by giving of ourselves we avoid the stress. You will be surprised by what you receive by the very act of giving. 

What are you planning on giving and receiving today?