What Are You Hungry For? (29 page)

Follow through: As you continue with your day, contemplate this centering thought:
With awareness, I create healthy habits. With awareness, I create healthy habits.

Wednesday, Day 4
Breathing for Balance

All living beings are enlivened by breathing, the exchange of life-supporting atoms in the atmosphere or ocean. In the Indian tradition, breathing has a subtler level connected with the life force, or
prana.
In this ancient model, prana pulses through the body and gives us life. In Sanskrit,
prana
simply means “breath,” and on that basis—without needing to accept the underlying notion of a life force—many exercises have been devised that use breathing to make a person feel calm, centered, and balanced. These subjective feelings have also been connected to physical benefits such as lower blood pressure and heart rate.

People also report that prana exercises give them increased energy during the day. In the West, studies of the “subtle body” are rare, because there isn’t a match between ancient and modern models. Even so, yoga is based on an ancient model, and thousands of people benefit from it without having to adopt a different worldview. Prana is thought to activate all the life forces in the body. And, while prana energizes us in the form of breath, any form of energy—light, heat, electricity—is associated with prana, just as in modern medicine the brain’s activity depends on a merging of chemical and electrical processes, with nourishment derived from food and oxygen.

In the yogic tradition there are elaborate practices for controlling the flow of prana, but in Western terms, the whole point is to provide better input into the mind-body connection. Mental clarity and energy are essential to listening to your body. So prana functions in the Indian system as a kind of biofeedback. As you’ve discovered in this book, awareness serves the same purpose. There is a link with meditation here. The more you practice being connected with your breath, the more spontaneously you move into a settled state of awareness—conscious breathing brings the mind back to itself.

Here’s the centering thought for today’s meditation:
I am one with the breath of life.

Begin the meditation, following the instructions from Day 1.

The mantra: Now, gently introduce today’s mantra. It is
So Hum,
which means, “I am.”

Follow through: As you continue with your day, contemplate this centering thought:
I am sustained by the breath of life. I am sustained by the breath of life.

Thursday, Day 5
Eating for Balance

Eating is a daily activity, but there is a deeper significance to food. In the West we’ve studied food in terms of measurable nutrition—calories, proteins, fats, vitamins, and so on—while from a holistic viewpoint you are what you eat. Food is just about the energy our bodies extract from it. The body converts food into thoughts, feelings, sensations, moods, and everything else in the complexity of the mind-body system. Therefore, food is merged with consciousness, intelligence, and every choice you make in a day. When you eat natural, whole foods and drink clean, fresh water, you enhance the life-giving energy that knits thousands of processes into a whole person.

In the medical system of Ayurveda from India, nourishment is approached holistically to reach a state of dynamic balance. Centuries later, Western research confirms the chemical bond that unites food and the brain, giving physical proof that in terms of the messages circulating throughout the body, “you are what you eat” was right all along. The most basic message that food sends comes from the act of eating. If you eat in a rush, paying no attention to your food, offering no gratitude but merely stoking your engine, there is no effect on the calories and nutrients that the food contains. There’s a big change, however, in your experience. When you take the first bite, your body receives a rush of information, primarily
through taste but also through your thoughts, feelings, mood, and expectations. “I really shouldn’t be eating this” sends a different message from “I’m really doing myself some good.”

You can make eating an optimal experience, and when you do, not just your food but the whole experience gets metabolized.

It’s important to appreciate and celebrate food for its holistic value. Eating with awareness, sitting in a warm atmosphere with loved ones, and making the meal a zone for positive exchanges will set the stage for the best experience. The meal will be in harmony with your body. You will be eating for fulfillment.

Here’s the centering thought for today’s meditation:
I choose foods that help me thrive.

Begin your meditation, following the instructions from Day 1.

The mantra: Now, gently introduce the mantra,
Om Vardhanam Namah,
which means, “I nourish the universe and the universe nourishes me.”

Follow through: As you continue with your day, contemplate this centering thought:
I eat to nourish mind, body, and spirit. I eat to nourish mind, body, and spirit.

Friday, Day 6
Moving for Balance

Your body wants to move, and if you move in accord with your own nature, you will receive almost all the benefits of organized exercise. Movement is personal. The most advanced research in sports science reveals that not everyone benefits the same from doing exercise—improvements in blood oxygen and added strength vary enormously. For the most part, your body will tell you how to be active. There’s a natural fit between people who love to go to the gym and people whose bodies are set up to get the most benefit.

Yet everyone should move at least once an hour per day. If you sit still for an hour, blood fat and blood sugar levels mount. Just by getting out of your chair, standing up, and moving a bit, you help restore these levels to balance. If you add some walking, even moving
at a slow pace will almost double your metabolism. Add a few minutes of vigorous exercise, enough to make your muscles warm, and you do even more to balance blood sugars. In other words, medical science supports the fact that our increasingly sedentary lifestyle isn’t in harmony with how the body is designed to operate.

Yoga, which has become popular in the West, is a much broader regimen than physical conditioning (properly called hatha yoga). Its overall aim is to unite body, mind, and spirit into a harmonious whole. You can begin anywhere, because the whole system is interconnected. Settling the mind also settles the body, and vice versa. As long as you pay attention to the theme of “balance,” you are benefiting every cell, allowing it to swing back and forth between rest and activity, pressure and release, high function and low function. The one thing that throws balance off the most is stasis. It may seem as if you are doing nothing when you sit around, but neglect isn’t nothing. You are forcing your body to maintain low function all day, when what it wants is a dynamic balance of activity and rest.

As a program for balance, yoga can encompass any activity that helps bring a sense of peace and unity into your life. You deserve to relish the experience of being in a body. There are many ways to deepen the experience. Dancing, swimming, running, walking in the park—if they bring enjoyment, these activities can be like moving meditations for your body. Allow yourself to experience the richness of the natural world, strengthening your cardiovascular system, releasing endorphins in the brain, and clearing your mind. The ultimate purpose of yoga, in all its forms, is to enliven awareness and expand your understanding of the true self. So change all your preconceptions about exercise as a duty. Exercise is whatever body movement makes you feel more in touch with yourself and happier to be in the world.

Here’s the centering thought for today’s meditation:
I am flexible, strong, and balanced.

Begin your meditation, following the instructions from Day 1.

The mantra: Now, gently introduce today’s mantra:
Om Varunam Namah,
which means “My life is in harmony with cosmic law.”

Follow through: As you continue with your day, contemplate this centering thought:
When I move, I enjoy being physical and the well-being this brings. When I move, I enjoy being physical and the well-being this brings.

Saturday, Day 7
Your Well-Being

Congratulations! You’ve spent six days shifting your awareness to a more holistic view, not just intellectually but in practice. The goal of the Indian spiritual tradition is compatible with a holistic lifestyle. The word
yoga
means “unity,” and yet the concept behind the word—being at one—is universal. Despite the differences in language and culture, every generation has contemplated how to reach fulfillment. The solutions they found were meant to be shared as a common inheritance. It would be a triumph of the human spirit if we ignored walls and boundaries, looking at
Aham Brahmasmi,
“I am the universe,” as a vision applicable to everyone, not just the Vedic culture that flourished thousands of years ago. In the same way, Jesus’ teaching about seeking the kingdom of heaven within is a solution that doesn’t deserve to be sealed into a compartment only accessible to Christians.

You are seeking to find your own state of well-being, and yet in countless ways you are not alone. Every man and woman who has preceded you gave you a silent gift: the evolution of the brain. It has taken tens of thousands of years to create the mind-body connection as it exists today, balancing the primal impulses we share with reptiles, the emotions that began to appear among primates and early hominids, and the rationality and insight of the neocortex, the latest stage of the evolving brain.

In modern terms these daily meditations have been a new way to train the brain, but in the end, mind and spirit count the most. The brain is their physical interface, bringing purpose and meaning into the physical world so that each of us can write our own story. Meditation isn’t an end unto itself. It brings your awareness to a place
where you can make choices that determine how your story turns out, day by day. If you want lightness, balance, energy, and purity to be part of your story, writing them in begins now—they belong to the present moment.

You have all the tools you need to find your own fulfillment. What these daily meditations have added is a boost of inspiration. Today, we add the final grace note, which is gratitude. Gratitude is an important part of living in perfect balance. When we’re grateful for everything we have in our lives, the ego steps out of the way, and we’re completely open to the dynamic exchange of the universe. If you’re not doing so already, begin keeping a gratitude journal and take note of everything you’re grateful for each day. Take stock of how “awareness living” manifests in your life. Ask yourself how making conscious choices has created a difference. Thank yourself for all the changes you’ve made—large and small—and appreciate how they benefit you.

Remember, too, that we thrive in communion with others. So, share your new self-awareness, reach out to help others on their journey, and ask for support on yours. You are part of the collective consciousness, a wave in a vast and beautiful ocean. Acknowledge and celebrate your sacred connections.

Here’s the centering thought for today’s meditation:
I write my life story. I create my well-being.

Begin your meditation, following the instructions from Day 1.

The mantra: Now, gently introduce today’s mantra. It is
Sat, Chit, Ananda,
or “Being, consciousness, bliss.”

Follow through: As you continue with your day, contemplate this centering thought:
My story is being perfected at this moment. My story is being perfected at this moment.