DESTRESSIFYING in those little moments

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”
— HENRY DAVID THOREAU

April is Stress Awareness month. And, we are at the halfway point of our 30-day exploration of tools, tips, and techniques to move us beyond the distractions, constrictions, projections, and disturbances that hijack our peace of mind. The goal is not simply to live our lives in bliss (although that would be nice) – but to cultivate our ability to connect to present-moment awareness and then come into the next moment with greater awareness, calm, clarity, creativity, intuition, and fulfillment.

In these blogs, I’ve spoken and written about the value of meditation from a physical, emotional, and spiritual perspective. I’ve shared proactive tools with you such as RPM, SODA, 16 seconds to bliss, the 40-day Feast for the Soul, the ten-day rejuvenation series, and the weekend meditations. Intellectually, we understand the scientific benefits of introducing a pattern interrupt into our non-stop flow of thoughts, words, and actions. And if you practice on a daily basis, the results are effortlessly circulating through your life right now.

But if we can integrate in-the-moment STRESS BREAKERS throughout the course of our day, we will diffuse potential stressors as they unfold.

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In the morning at home: ideally you’ve already completed your first meditation of the day using RPM. Creating stillness as the starting point for your next 24 hours sets a powerful trajectory. But the unknown stress can lurk right around the corner. As soon as you feel stressed, implement any of these ten steps to bring you back into the moment:

1) Spend five minutes holding your child, your lover, or your pet, which will instantly ease your blood pressure.
2) Take a 10-minute walk connecting to nature to ease anxiety and replace it with calm. Leave your phone home and don’t plug in any music. Just drink in everything you see, hear, touch, and smell as you walk at a leisurely pace.
3) Practice 15-minutes of yoga. Start with 5 minutes of pranayama. Then gently move through a classic sun salutation flow to awaken your prana, release tension and rejuvenate your body. And then lay in savasana for 5 minutes.

At work: Ideally you are walking into the workplace with stillness and silence already flowing through you. But as soon as you notice frustration, irritation, or intensity starting to build, take these steps.
4) Upon feeling the spark of your emotional tell, reach for SODA. Stop, Observe, Detach, and Awaken to the best version of yourself.
5) Pour some lavender or sandlewood-based oil or lotion gently into your open hand. Massage your palm with your thumb, then massage each finger from the base to the tip, and then the webbed area between your thumb and index finger.
6) Step away from your desk and go outside or to an unoccupied place where you can sit. Close your eyes and breathe in and out deeply through your nostrils ten times to lower your heart rate and reduce your blood pressure.
7) Take 3 minutes and chew a piece of gum to loosen the stress in your jaw. While you chew, roll your neck around to ease out any tightness.

After work: You’re carrying the past 12 hours of the day inside every cell in your body. So either as the very last thing you do before you head home or the very first thing you do when you come home, take time to release the day.
8) Shake the tension right out of your body. Roll your shoulders backward and forward. Reach your arms to the sky and stretch and elongate your whole body from your toes to the tips of your fingers, then do a few arm circles. If you’re feeling sprightly finish off with ten jumping jacks
9) Shake the tension out of your mind with recapitulation. Spend five minutes playing your day in fast forward from the moment you woke up – don’t linger for more than one second on each activity or event that unfolded throughout the day – don’t harp on the drama or the words. Just keep processing at high speed.
10) After dinner, SLOW down. Light a candle, brew some tea, take a bath, or nibble on some chocolate.

“There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein

If you can follow these ten DESTRESSIFYING steps from Monday through Friday, you will soar into the weekend with greater grace, ease, and lightness of being. This afternoon, I’ll share more stress busters on LIVE! From the SweetSpot on Hay House Radio. So keep destressifying and your life will continue to blossom and bloom. I’ll see you in the gap! –davidji

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Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion
or cultural system.

I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up
from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all.

I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or in the next,
did not descend from Adam and Eve or any
origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,
first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being.

From Essential Rumi
by Coleman Barks

Prana is the Sanskrit word for life force – our vital energy that flows into us with each breath and out of us with each word, thought, and action.

Every time we inhale, we fill our bodies with this life force infusing every cell with renewed purpose. triggering transformation at the deepest level, and connecting to the universal source of all life.

Just like blinking our eyes – every breath we take often flows by without our knowledge. We breath between 4 and 24 times every minute and each inhale triggers a transformation at the cellular level – nourishing our blood with oxygen, fueling our brain and organs, and sparking the metabolism of food, chemicals, information, and thought.

And yet hours often go by where we are not even aware that we are breathing. We’re also not aware how often we hold our breath in those stressful moments …denying our body and withholding our mind from access to this magnificent vital energy which has the power to move mountains.

This week, let’s begin the celebration of our breath. Let’s make a conscious effort to put some attention…some awareness on the simple act, which we can so easily take for granted. Our breath is holy. It connects us to our body, slows the swirl of our mind, creates union with those around us, and brings us to the sacred, precious, present moment where we are whole, and pure, and perfect, and abundant, and infinite. We just need a gentle reminder.

We can start by writing the word BREATHE on a few pieces of paper or post-it notes and place them on your monitor, the dashboard of your car, your bathroom mirror, your kitchen counter…even the corner of your TV!! Whenever you see the word – no matter what you are doing – breathe. Change your screen saver to BREATHE so every time you return to your computer you are subtly reminded to pause for a moment and nourish yourself with an inhale.

When you find yourself in a stressful situation and you begin to feel overwhelmed or emotionally charged – BREATHE. Whether you practice 16 seconds to bliss, quiet continuous breath, heart breathing, nadi shodhana, belly breathing or the technique we practiced today in the meditation, you can shift the energy of the moment simply by activating your own vital energy.

Make a commitment to breathe this weekend, and email me at info@davidji to share how it makes you feel. Have a beautiful weekend and keep breathing. Peace. -davidji

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“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” – Rilke

Welcome back to Stress Awareness month!!!

This week, we continue our journey into Stress Management by exploring stress in the workplace. Leading edge business owners, HR directors, and departmental managers cite practices such as meditation, breathing, and yoga as practical tools to help employees:
• Increase efficiency & productivity
• Awaken creativity & intuition
• Develop interpersonal communication & cooperation
• Manage daily stress & anxiety
• Improve attendance and job satisfaction

If you can enter your workplace from a space of stillness & silence, then every conversation, phone call, email & meeting will carry less reactivity, less conditioned responses, and less emotional charge and melodrama.

Here are a few ways for you to weave healing pattern interruptions into your day to help you balance and ease stress from your worklife.

1) Breathing – Observe your breath as you breathe in through your nostrils, hold it inside, exhale through your nostrils, and hold it out. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/davidji/meditation-tips_b_2993829.html
2) SODA – as soon as you hit a wall and either get frustrated, irritated, or angry, STOP, OBSERVE, DETACH, AWAKEN
3) Mindful – Roll back from your monitor. Close your eyes. Breathe gently and let every sound in your work environment vibrate without judgment. Listen to the copier, the phone ringing, your breath, the whirl of your hard drive, conversations in the distance, etc. Do this for a solid minute and place your awareness on your ability to accept the unfolding of life.
4) Make your screen saver an uplifting photo, something that makes you smile, or a soothing image of nature. Anything that calms you.
5) The BIG shift – breathe in deeply through your nose until your belly is totally full and then slowly release the breath until all the air is released. Do this ten times with each exhale progressively lasting one more second than the inhale. For example: in to the count of four; out to the count of five; in to the count of five; out to the count of six. After you have done this ten times, you will feel renewed energetically, emotionally, and intellectually.

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See if you can weave these five steps into your daily life and for the month of April – meditate in silence for five minutes at noon EVERYDAY. As May rolls around, your work life will be filled with less stress and greater happiness. That could be one of the most profound shifts you’ve ever made. Peace. -davidji

The Dalai Lama, when asked what surprised him most about humanity, answered “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

If we can take a deep breath in and first acknowledge that we have over whelming stress every day – then that’s the first step in awareness.

Once we are aware, then we can take powerful steps in managing it; easing it; eliminating it; and moving beyond it!!!

First let’s define it – STRESS is how we respond each day to not having our needs met.

There are four main emotional needs:
• attention
• affection
• appreciation
• acceptance

And then there’s our inability to embrace uncertainty. For most people, this is their biggest stressor. Often, we need to gain some clarity or certainty on something and our lack of certitude drives us crazy. Sometime – even if it is unpleasant news – once we have a bit more information – our stress subsides. But that’s not so easy when things aren’t going the way you anticipated.

We have three options:

1) Force things into the way they were “supposed” to be. (It rarely turns out well.)

2) Gain greater clarity, control or influence over the situation (It helps a bit, but once we adapt to the new situation, we have a new, evolved stress.)

3) Accept the moment as perfect and part of the divine plan (This one is the hardest, but the most rewarding.)

When we can access a state of deep relaxation, tension is released from the body on a physical level and our mind begins to use less power and ultimately switches off, creating a pure state of restful awareness.

As we dip into stillness and silence each day, we release less stress-hormones namely adrenalin, glucagon, and cortisol; our heart rate and blood pressure slow; and our immune system elevates. We have an increase in serotonin (a natural feel-good chemical) and in growth hormone which nourishes and repairs cells and tissue.

The reality is that we don’t need to feel stress every day – even when life is overwhelming. We can proactively, lower the impact stress has on our bodies and minds. And through daily meditation, we will return to our most whole, relaxed, grounded, healthy, and healed state.

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Feel free to use today’s meditation to begin the process or take you back to your most genuine harmonious balanced self. Enjoy!! -davidji

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Okay – now that we are aware, what do we do?

First let’s define stress so we can better understand it. Stress is how we respond when our needs are not met. And how we respond to unmet needs determines the fabric of our life.

We know that daily meditation can be an antidote to stress. Not just after the fact…but in a proactive, pre-emptive way so that we experience less of the suffering of life.

“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
- William James

Every day, technological advances and modern scientific studies reveal more about the workings of our brain, the development of our cells, and the responses of our emotions. And recent data points to the transformational value of the pattern interrupt – any break we can take in the non-stop flow of activity. And the latest research is finally validating the claim that silent meditation is a powerful source of mindbody rejuvenation – increasing your growth hormone, your sex hormone, and your immune system.

Most people on this planet don’t meditate every day. They don’t avail themselves of a daily re-boot, re-set, or pause in the wild swirl of relentless activity. They wake up in the morning and burn through the day dodging one challenge after another as stress builds up in their cells, their tissues, their brain, and their heart. They hold onto that stress and it permeates every fiber of their being – even if they are skilled at concealing it. And with each passing day, it weighs on their physiology and their emotional state.

Check out my upcoming Secrets of Meditation Healing Immersion!
http://www.davidji.com/ai1ec_event/secrets-of-meditation-healing-immersion-workshop-2013/?instance_id

“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.”
- Lily Tomlin

They respond to life’s twists and turns by lashing out or shutting down. They struggle with awakening their most creative, intuitive, and purposeful self. They often feel rushed and over-whelmed. And when they do have the opportunity to surrender to a few moments of stillness and silence, instead they reach for a distraction – another activity to fill the empty space.

But there is a magnificent wave of new thought that is bringing the timeless teachings of meditation into schools, offices, homes, and into the outdoors where so many spend their days. Once unthinkable, those in more traditional jobs, conventional work environments, and mainstream careers are inviting stress management training into their lives. In the past three months, I’ve trained over 1000 new meditators in the world of business, finance, law enforcement, insurance, publishing, politics, and entertainment to be the calm amidst the chaos.

Only meditation can deliver STILLNESS, and only a healing heart can awaken SILENCE. Which is why I developed a Teacher Training to help people from every walk of life connect to these teachings at a deeper level, cultivate a daily practice, and learn the timeless wisdom that has guided me through my own constrictions – from darkness, sadness, and loss to self-compassion, gratitude, and fulfillment.

Join me for my Masters of Wisdom and Meditation Teacher Training!
http://www.davidji.com/ai1ec_event/masters-of-wisdom-and-meditation-teacher-training/?instance_id=

The world is embracing the “new” science. And now that spending time in meditation every day has been scientifically proven to lessen your anger, ease your anxiety, cultivate camaraderie, and elevate your emotional intelligence, those once resistant to dipping their toe in the water of stillness are embracing the practice.

You are ahead of the curve. You are riding the wave. Keep meditating and your life will continue to unfold with greater grace, greater ease, and LESS stress. And each week, as we are joined by thousands more seeking inner peace and personal transformation, this sweet planet of ours will transform as we transform ourselves.

See you in the gap! Peace. -davidji

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
- Anais Nin

Weekend Meditation

“A great goal in life is the only fortune worth finding.”
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis

So, here we are…inches from the end of the first quarter of the year…25% through 2013. Oh yeah…we’re moving right along!

It’s not too late to double down. It’s certainly not too late to change course. And it’s definitely not too late to CELEBRATE your accomplishments.

The key to reflection is to review the past without emotional charge – to play each moment in fast forward.

This process, known as recapitulation, allows us to absorb every moment of the past at the cellular level. In latin, capit means head; ulation is a process; and re-means do it again.

A Recapitulation
by Emerald Shatto

By recapitulating at the cellular level, we consciously begin living experiences and behaviors that nourish us and unconsciously drift away from the experiences and behaviors that don’t.

If you can recapitulate the past 90 days during this weeks meditation, and then recapitulate your day right before you go to sleep, you will unconsciously – - ever so subtly – - begin the process of staying “in-check” and present with our actions, goals, and desires.

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”
- Earl Nightingale

It’s so easy for some of us to gravitate towards the negative – the woulda, shoulda, coulda’s – so when you find yourself going there, be sure to gently nudge yourself back towards the positive…the highlights. They all count…no matter how small or large. Maybe you offered a hand to a stranger in need, donated some time to charity, rescued a pup, started journaling, have meditated every day since January 1st, began a project that you’ve been thinking about for years, had that conscious conversation that you’ve been wanting to have for awhile, or even something as simple as smiling at a stranger.

If you can combine this practice with daily meditation (meditation is key), the shifts will happen and you’ll begin leaning in the direction of your DREAMS.

“You must recognize, embrace, and be honest about what is real for you today and allow that understanding to inform the choices you make. Only then will you be able to build the future of your dreams.” – Suze Orman

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Write to me at info@davidji.com and let me know how these last 90 days have been for you. Remember that the good and the bad bring balance – making it all A-MAZ-ING! As long as we keep evolving, anything is possible!

Peace, davidji

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“It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.”
- Ralph Ellison

As March comes to a close, it seems the perfect time to reflect upon the intentions, desires, resolutions, and commitments we made only 90 days earlier as we began 2013. How much has your life shifted in these last 3 months? How many of the seeds that you’ve planted have sprouted and how many have withered? Are you on the same trajectory that you so hopefully embarked on those first few weeks in January or have you strayed…gotten distracted…found yourself stuck in the karmic hamster wheel of life?

In Vedanta, there’s a magnificent tool to help you shift from where you are to where you would like to be. It’s called the software of the soul and it works like this:

Every action creates a memory
Every memory creates a desire
Every desire creates an action

So our actions lead to our memories, which in turn lead to our desires, which in turn leads to our actions. The cycle goes on forever; and the software of the soul can either keep us stuck in a rut reinforcing non-nourishing behaviors over and over again or it can be the catalyst that breaks us out of stagnation and into our new life.

LOOK FOR THIS WEEK’S MEDITATION IN YOUR INBOX THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 29th!

What’s the key? The key is to get clear on our desires, plant them inside, release them into the universe, and let go of the outcomes. THEN, go into the stillness and silence – the perfect incubator for your new seeds of intentions to take root.

Remember the FIVE REALMS – physical, emotional, material, our relationships, and spiritual? By asking ourselves what we truly want in these five areas of our life before gliding into meditation, we can establish greater clarity and set solid intentions.

Listen to davidji & peaches LIVE from the SWEETSPOT every Wednesday at 3p PST/6p EST on hayhouseradio.com

It’s so easy for us to get sidetracked, so we must return back to these core practices…to these timeless rituals…the aspects of our life that keep us moving in the direction of happiness and fulfillment. It’s the minority of people that follow through on their dreams, hopes, intentions, and desires. The majority of the people in the world are either paralyzed and procrastinating or second-guessing their choices.

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This week join me in making the commitment to take our power back; to rededicate ourselves in taking our lives to the next level. There are several areas of my life where I have gotten stuck, distracted, or second-guessed. This is the week that I bust out of those constrictions. So, you’re not alone. Many from around the world will join you this week as we all make the shift to a better version of who we are.

Join me on Hay House Radio today and let’s transform the world by transforming ourselves.

Peace, davidji

Weekend Meditation

“We loiter in winter while it is already spring.” – Henry David Thoreau

So often we tell ourselves that we simply don’t have the time, even to do the things that we love or the things that are important to us. By taking just 5 minutes a day to connect with the stillness that rests within, we can create the fertile garden and plant the seeds for the things in life that are fulfilling. Bean by bean the bag gets filled, so just take a few minutes right now to get clear on what you love, invite it into your heart, and drift into stillness and silence with me.

When this short guided and silent meditation is over, you will have all of the time in the world and your life will begin to blossom and bloom. Spend the weekend getting clear on what you really love and spend the week inviting those things into your daily living.

See you in the gap!

Peace – davidji

MEDITATE NOW

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Where has the time gone?

So many people say they don’t have time to meditate . But each of us begins each day with 24 hours to fill with what we choose.

We wake up in the morning with sleep in our eyes and that is as close as we get to our awareness of the stillness and silence that rests within. As the seconds unfold, each subsequent moment is a little faster than the moment before. As our physical body begins to move, the fluctuations of our mind accelerate…and before you know it, the daily jumble of routines, rituals, regular activities, conditioned behaviors, commitments, intentions, and desires takes over. Couple that with all the unknown, un-planned, and unexpected uncertainties that unfold with every text, email, phone call, conversation and action and … before you know it… you have no time!!

But that’s a myth. It’s simply not true.

Everyone gets a 24-hour countdown from the moment we open our eyes until we do it again the next morning. So if we can ritualize our morning meditation practice, we will lock it in and every thought, word, and deed will carry just a bit more stillness and silence as it enters the world.

The technique that I have taught people for years is RPM. Rise. Pee. Meditate.

It sounds simple. Yet that simple ritual has allowed me and hundreds of thousands of meditators to never miss our morning meditation. EVER!

Here’s how it works. Each of us begins our day looking at the clock. Then we flow into 8 to 15 morning ablution rituals – and we do them all in the same order…the same way…every day. We pee, poop, shower, brush our teeth, cook food, make a liquid, watch TV, read a newspaper, check emails, visit our favorite online site, walk the dog, prepare our children for the day, have sex, do our hair, put on makeup, and get dressed. Our Monday through Friday ritual usually differs from our weekend ritual. But simply having the awareness of the flow of our morning ablution ritual will jumpstart this process.

So close your eyes right now and walk yourself through your typical morning ritual and become aware of how your day flows. Pretty cool right?

Now if you can push RPM to the very front of your morning ritual train, within 35 minutes of you opening your eyes, you will have a solid half hour of stillness and silence that will greet every moment throughout your day.

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If you want to start with five minutes of silent meditation, start there, and build on that – adding one more minute each week. Within a few weeks, you will have integrated this sweet practice into your morning flow. After 40 days, it will be a part of you. Your sleep will be more restful. You’ll find you have so much more time in the morning. And your days will unfold with greater grace and greater ease. As the Sufi poet Rumi said, “What nine nourishing months in the womb does for a fetus, 40 early mornings does for your spiritual practice.”

I invite you to join me every morning and the millions throughout the world who start their day with meditation. We get to choose what fills each moment. Isn’t it magnificent that we get to spend it together each morning in the gap?

Try RPM for a week and email me with your feedback. Peace. -davidji

Listen to davidji & peaches every Wednesday at 3p PST/6p EST on hayhouseradio.com

The Seven Love Steps

“Where there is love there is life.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi

This week, we explored opening our hearts a bit more so we can truly feel the magnificence of life and become the best version of ourselves. The theme of Letting Love Into Your Heart seems to have hit a powerful chord with so many members of the SweetSpot Community – as I received so many calls on LIVE! from the SweetSpot this past Wednesday on Hay house Radio. And the emails continue to pour in!

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See you in the GAP!

Many members of our tribe have expressed that they want to take these teachings deeper, and I’m in the process of developing my Secrets of Meditation Teacher Training in September as well as a new weeklong retreat to explore and immerse in the teachings of the great Masters who have influenced me – from the Bhagavad Gita to Pantajali to Deepak to Pema Chodron. So stay tuned for details! And feel free to email me at info@davidji.com if you would like to find out more.

Opening our heart is never easy – especially when there’s been a heartbreak that has shut us down and allowed us to build walls to protect the tenderness of our heart. But RIGHT NOW, we can take some easy nourishing steps to feel again…to love again…and to let love BACK in!!!!

“The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love.” ~ Henry Miller

MEDITATE NOW

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I mentioned these seven steps on HayHouseRadio during our guided meditation, but I’d like to share them again for those who were too deep in the gap to implement them.

1) We need to give ourselves permission to begin the process. You don’t have to give in or forgive someone (or even yourself) – but simply granting yourself permission to go to your heart is a HUGE STEP.
2) Accepting that you are entitled to receive unconditional love is critical. You are so worthy…so deserving to receive the love of the divine creator…the love of the universe…the love of others.
3) Acknowledging that HERE YOU ARE in this precious sacred moment and whatever broke your heart or continues to ache it…have brought you to this moment where you can love again…and feel love again.
4) Appreciating your environment – having gratitude for the world around you allows you take your attention off of the “poor me” mindset and allows you to ask, “How can I serve others?”
5) Having compassion is empathy plus rooting for someone’s pain and suffering to end. Having self-compassion (yes, rooting for yourself) and willing to forgive yourself for any big or little sins you’ve been beating yourself up over will allow you to step through your current pain which is holding you back.
6) Sharing love with others…flowing love into the world in every moment…living life with a Namaste mindset offers you an opportunity to BE THE CHANGE with very little risk to your tenderness.
7) And lastly…celebrate! Celebrate your little wins…your small successes. Party! And congratulate yourself for leaning in the direction of LOVE.

Use these steps to re-awaken love in your life and listen to today’s meditation to help you get a bit lighter. Have a sweet weekend. See you in the gap! -davidji