You don't need to trust.

Funny thing trust.

Life is here, right in front of you. Life is what is here.

In this moment, now, all of your past can be just a story. All of your future, an idea, a hope and a dream. Impossible to tell or control.

When you embrace the experience of being present, everything gets simple. You realise what you are in control of and what you simply must accept as being beyond control.

Trust isn’t necessary here. Reality becomes so clear. Trust is only necessary when you are trying to control the future, when you are trying to control the uncontrollable.

And I hope you soon come to experience how stressful control is, because it is wicked.

Trying to force through what you want in life is tough. It means you are constantly referencing your plans for the future, trying to juggle balls you have no control over, attempting to manipulate others to your preferred way, and absolutely missing out on the simple joy of this moment.

The answer?

As always - simply return to now. Become present and alive to here.

The more you do that, the more you will see that any fear, any control comes from a thought about the future. That the thought is the terrifying thing - not the reality of right here.

If you can distinguish the difference between the reality of your situation, right now, and the fear of a future, life will be so much simpler for you. One you can control, one you cannot.

You must let go, because anything else is crazy. Worrying about what you can’t control is fruitless.

Become super present, become super alive to here and see that.

You only need trust when you aren’t present. When you are present you become trust itself.

And you can all be present.

Let any attempt to control or worry for a future be an alarm so you return.

The experience of fully being here is so much better than any idea of what might or should happen. Trust enough just to let go to now and find that for yourself.

Experience now and you will find you want to spend more and more time here. You’ll come to a place where you don’t need trust anymore.

Keeping the important things truly important.

I got an email from Brasil (spelt with an ’s’ of course) the other day.

I’m impressed about that, and I’m probably showing off by mentioning that the writer is from Brasil. It might appear that I'm attempting to impress upon you that I’m very international, but I am telling you of this, fundamentally, because the writer asked a very cool question.

On the back of the blog of the other day about non-seriousness, what do you do when you are in a serious situation, like when you are fighting an injustice or saving lives (not from death, but from less than optimal conditions)? Which she is - she’s not just posing a hypothetical “what if?”

How do you take action but not be affected by these very serious, very real things?

Well, it depends what the bottom line is for you.

The core of any solution will be the thing that is most important to you.

Do you know what that is for you?

At the end of your life, when you look back, what do you wish your life to be filled with?

Chances are that most important thing is something like peace and happiness and love.

If that is the case, then no matter what you do - in everything you do - have your priority as peace and happiness and love.

It doesn't mean don't take action, but don't lose sight of what is the most important thing. Otherwise you lose everything.

Don’t lose yourself in the circumstances of life, even when the circumstances of life appear important, crucial even.

The true test of a lady or a gentleman of the highest standing is their ability to hold the important things truly important, and not let seemingly urgent things take precedence instead.

To do so, it can help to treat life like a game.

Play to win, but know it is a game. Seriousness only comes in when you could win or lose. Play well and play fully, but the fact is that in the great game of life the only time you lose is when you forget your connection with what is truly of the highest importance to you.

And so keep peace and happiness and love as a priority in all things, have a smile and a light heart, and see what happens from there.

The right course of action always reveals itself from this foundation.

It's mastery in action so don't worry if you forget. You will get better at remembering. The only thing that is truly important is that you remember in this moment.

________________

By now you probably heard that I’m having a meditation weekend here in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

I’m excited about it, I love sharing this stuff. To be able to teach the Bright Path Ishayas’ Ascension over a whole weekend is even better. A privilege.

You see the techniques are so simple, yet so powerful. The truth always is. If it’s not simple, it simply isn’t the truth. I would like to claim that quote but a much wiser colleague of mine got there first.

But these techniques have given me so much, and continue to do so, that to be able to teach them to others is a supreme joy.

If you want to live the best possible life, I recommend booking on the weekend. You won’t look back.

20-22 November 2015 - Friday 7-10pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am - 5pm.

It’s closer than you think too - by fast train 2.5 hours from London and 2 hours from Edinburgh, and then a little drive out to the venue.

And you can come stay if you want (necessary I would have thought if you live down south or up further north) meaning your bed is 30 seconds from the course. Awesome. Roll out of bed, coffee/tea and then the day begins.

For more details click here, or email me, I’d love to chat.

How do you stay calm and present in stressful situations? Part two.

When you've gone through a stressful situation the most important thing is to let it go as soon as you can. The sooner the better. Let go of all the mental reviewing of what just happened. Just don't even get started on that track.

Tough times mean you have to stay present otherwise the critic in your head is going to give you a good kicking. What happens is we stumble through an argument, for example, and then we look back and replay the whole thing with what we "should" have done or said.

Hindsight is a valuable thing, but you did what you did and that is that.

If you need to go apologise you go and say sorry, but again, the most important thing is to let it go. Know that you did your best, give it another shot next time. You can't do anything about it, so give yourself a break and start fresh.

There is no value in endless recycling of the past - but that is what will happen unless you are super present, alive to this moment.

Also...

Don’t be afraid of emotion. The inner critic can judge us harshly for being emotional. But anger, for example, can tell us a lot about ourselves, about what is important.

Don’t assume calmness and happiness means never getting excited or passionate.

The only problem with something like anger is when we don’t say what we need to say. Then it builds and builds and really explodes. When you feel it coming be very aware and see what it is all about. Be as clear as possible with your communications, don’t hold back what you need to say, and then… let it go.

You’re not going to master this straight away, but keep doing it and you will. Treat everything in life as one big journey of self-discovery, of what works best for you. Throw the critic and perfection out the window and embrace the idea of constant improvement.

You’re always going to discover more about yourself, and sometimes the tough times show you the most. The best attitude when you see one coming? Say to yourself: “Excellent! Bring it on.”

Have fun with this, ok?

The zone of awesomeness.

There are times in life, no matter what you are doing, where you are captivated, absorbed, transfixed by what you are doing.

It is a very enjoyable experience, and it is a universal experience, one that many have had a taste of and long for more of.

Everything you do has this potential zone of awesomeness within it. It’s probably called something else by those who study such things, but as amateur researchers in the good life I’m sure you can grasp what I’m referring to.

Classic names given to it are the “runner’s high”, being in “the zone”, or a state of “flow”. It doesn’t matter what it is called, the fact is that it exists, and within it performance and enjoyment are maximised.

The people at the top of their fields - whether it be sports, art, music, business, parenting, whatever - they all know how to access this zone with relative ease.

Here’s what you need to know about it:

It need not be something you touch upon. It is possible to live life continuously in the zone. That is the whole point of meditation. Meditation is training to be Alive.

Second, the zone exists within you. It is not about the activity. You have favourite activities that you love, and you love them at least partially because they bring you closer to absorption in the zone. But it’s not about the thing, it's always about where your attention is.

The ability to control your attention is everything. It is the ability to be focussed and relaxed at the same time. Too much arousal and you become stressed. Not enough and you are bored. There is a sweet spot in any activity, and that sweet spot is the zone.

The easiest way to be in the sweet spot is to be completely absorbed in this moment.

How do you do that?

Notice what is going on in your mind. Bring it back to to now, bring it back to what you are doing. Ignore everything else. Constantly and gently do this and your mind will learn to stay here, in the same place as your body.

Absorption and flow, the zone - it's all right here, right now. Where are you?

I can’t encourage you enough to learn to meditate. A simple tool like the Bright Path Ishayas’ Ascension is worth its weight in gold because it makes the return to presence of mind and relaxation of the body so effortless. It makes living a life in the zone inevitable. It makes everything awesome.

Good luck! Enjoy, always enjoy. After all, that is the purpose of life, is it not?

- Arjuna

___________________________ How to be mentally fit, fluid and free www.arjunaishaya.com

Regrets? Why not make a life so you don’t have any?

I saw an article the other day - it’s from a few years back, but it’s still really fresh.

The author interviewed elderly people on their death beds as to their regrets. Although its about people who are dying, it is really advice for people who are living.

Read it here:

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying

It’s a quick read, but something you might want to come back to again.

What did you think?

What I see is that the basis of all those regrets is not having balance, of not seeing what is important or making time for it until it is too late.

Not surprisingly, at least to me, the list contains many of the things that the people who come to the Ishayas’ Ascension meditation classes say they want from life.

You see, the people that I meet already know what is important to them, its just that they don’t prioritise it, or they don’t know how to prioritise it.

Actually I think everyone already knows these things, we just don’t do them.

Don’t wait until its too late.

You have to live a life so that when you look back on your deathbed you are filled with joy. That you don’t have a single “I really wish…”

You deserve the fullest of lives, in every sense.

Part of that comes from an attitude of finding the good in everything, of being present and not looking back.

The other part comes from making choices that are fulfilling, of finding a way to prioritise what is really important to you.

Meditation - to me the Bright Path Ishayas' Ascension is the simplest and most powerful of all meditations (I could be biased) - is the thing that enables both. It really does. It changes your approach to life, it helps you be the very best version of yourself.

Take the time every day to stop and go within. Close your eyes, rest. Discover what is there and how when you nourish it, it nourishes you.

It is the secret to living life versus Life.

Just practice - five, ten, fifteen minutes every day. Set a time, sit and don’t come up until the time is done.

You won’t regret it.

Any questions, send them to me, I would love to help.

A guide to living the best life possible, part 2

How do you live your life? Here's part two of Arjuna's guide to a rich and fulfilled life:

Find ways to be of service

Give more, in all ways. This life isn’t about getting. Your peace and happiness stems from the ability to openly give.

Stop complaining

Don’t complain, whine, whinge, bitch or moan. Don’t blame anyone either. It is the fastest path to misery ever.

Appreciate and be grateful

Go out of your way to speak about your appreciation and gratitude for everything. Through this your experience of life will be that the glass is not only half-full, but continuously over-flowing.

Seek for contentment, always

Your path in this life will be different from every body else’s. Rest assured, all will turn out fine. Don’t compare, live your life as it comes to you. Set lofty goals, but live now content in what you have.

Your purpose is intertwined with your passions

Do as much of what you love as possible. It is closely related to your purpose for being here.

Be full-on

Don’t be half arsed. Don’t wait for life to be given to you. Take 100% responsibility and make this how you want it. Someone once said: “When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced. Live a life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.” Sounds like good advice to me.

Your natural state is freedom

You are a limitless being. Your awareness is unbounded by time or space. You are more than just your body or your beliefs. You are perfect, exactly as you are. Rest in the heart of your infinite being, be well, live, be free.

Eat your greens

Sleep well, exercise and drink lots of water too…

Excellent. Don't take these seriously now. Enjoy!

Freedom of choice.

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could choose how you felt? Wouldn’t it be great if instead of reacting and firing off that you could choose to be all zen, and just flow through? Or if you did react to something, if you got angry or mad or sad, then you could just choose to drop it when you wanted to?

Actually it is cool to live like that.

It makes life so much easier. Instead of carrying anything, you are able to just let it go and get on with what is in front of you.

It’s much more fun. Being overwhelmed by your emotions or being pulled this way and that by what life brings you, holding grudges and maintaining arguments - that isn’t much fun. But living with complete choice is very very fun.

Living a life of constant free choice is possible for you, if you want it. It is also simple. All it takes is practice, the right kind of practice. That is all.

The right practice is one simply of being as present as you are able. Be alive to now. Absorb yourself in now.

When you fall into the habit of going into the past or future, choose to gently bring yourself back.

The only reason you carry anything is because of a habit. The only reason you react to anything is a habit.

Why not create a new habit?

Aristotle said something wise about this:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

It doesn’t require hard work. It does require commitment, but then so does anything. Getting to the shops requires a certain maintenance of focus long enough to reach the store and purchase what you want.

Same here with this experience of being free of being yanked by the chain of the mind.

Life is your choice. Exercise your freedom of choice. Do it until it becomes second nature.

Well, actually its your first nature, as in it is the way you were meant to live so there is nothing second about it, but you know what I mean.

As I sit here eating cheesecake, I realise all of this is an easy thing to say. I get that.

Cheesecake is good, and easy, though not often plentiful, at least in my house. Life is different sometimes. I know.

But here’s the thing - start now. Practice when life is easy, when the going is good. Then when you need it most, you won’t need to work at it. It’ll be as simple as I say it is. You'll become like human teflon, laughing all the way to experiencing heaven on earth.

If you want it, and do what is necessary, you’ll become it.

Let me know how you get on.

Let me know too if you are interested in learning the Bright Path Ishayas' Ascension. This one guy I taught last week described it as "sneaky", in that it comes and gets you. He's right. Choice comes and gets you. Can't make it any easy that that.

Where are you?

The greatest way to live the best of lives is to spend as much time in the same place as your body as you can. That may sound funny, but humans are the best time travellers. We are anywhere but here in this moment, we are always in the past or future. We live everywhere but in our bodies, we spend an awesome amount of time in our heads.

That is the reason why you enjoy what you enjoy so much, whether it is golf or knitting, climbing rocks or making music, exercising or just sitting, watching.

When you do these things you become very present. You get out of your head, your senses broaden, you become aware.

You become absorbed in the task, and in this moment. It captivates you, invigorates you, you become alive.

But this experience isn’t task or situation specific. I always thought that kayaking brought me so much joy because it was being in nature, it was exciting and it was physically challenging.

It is all these things, but critically I enjoyed it was because it was an escape, and being an escape I let go of my life. My life was somewhere else, but now was now. This was ‘me’ time!

It wasn’t because I was up a river, it was because I let go and focussed on the here and now.

It is the same with everything - It isn’t about what you do, it is always about how you do it.

I realise now that I am better at being present I can have the same buzz from washing the dishes. Being in the outdoors may give me an extra sparkle, but the sense of being alive and absorbed, completely and utterly present to this moment is available no matter what I do.

Letting go of what has been and what will be is the key.

Just now - be awake. Be here. Notice. Be involved in now.

You may live the busiest of lives but you can only do one thing at a time - do that one thing. Be totally absorbed in it. Don’t half-arse do it whilst thinking about what you have to do next.

You will find you become much more efficient, and perhaps more importantly, enjoy yourself much more.

Be alive!

The way to happiness, part 2.

Happiness. Why are so many people searching for happiness? Why doesn’t it come naturally to humans? Well, it does, actually. It is your true nature to be happy. It is very easy to be continually happy when you know how. Honestly, I speak the truth as one who has experienced unhappiness, stress, times of depression, anxiety, fear, all of those things that we don’t like. If I can find constant happiness, you can.

Life does not need to be ups and downs. That is not part of being human, it doesn’t have to be part of the deal. Suffering is not necessary, I promise.

If you like that idea, then you are in the right place. Just assuming it as a simple possibility is the first step to experiencing complete happiness and contentment, in every aspect of your life.

Last blog (see here if you missed it) I talked about how people expect that people, things, possessions, careers etc., etc., will make them happy. It’s not true. Make happiness an inside job, make it about not getting but being. Happiness is an attitude. First be happy, make it a foundation, then live your life.

The second reason why you aren’t continuously happy is this:

• You don’t make it a priority.

What is the most important thing to you? If you could give your loved ones one thing, anything at all, what would you give them?

Everyone I ask this question tell me some version of happiness. When it comes down to it, happiness is the most important thing to everyone. Everyone just wants to be happy.

But they don’t prioritise it.

It is well down the list of things to do.

Their lists are full of things to get and to achieve and to do, and then, right at the bottom, last on the list, when they have time to get to it, is to be happy.

Only because we believe after I do x, y or z, then I can be happy. Work first, finish things to do, and then be happy.

Nope, doesn’t work, you never get there.

If you are interested in being happy you have to be like an Olympic athlete of happiness.

Focus.

Make happiness the core of everything you do. Make it first and the middle and last. Train to be happy. Make everything about internal happiness.

Then, and only then, it comes and gets you. You realise that you are happy for no reason at all. Nothing can give you happiness, you just choose it. Nothing can take it away either. You prefer things go a certain way, but either way you are happy.

Practice. You need to prioritise and practice. Close your eyes every day and meditate. Keep it simple and joyful. If you want it simple, and joyful then learn the Bright Path Ishayas’ Ascension. Fastest path to happiness ever. I promise.

Be happy!

Know Thyself

Are you aware that you have voices in your head? If you thought “what voice?” that’s the voice I’m talking about. Talking to yourself is nothing to be ashamed of, the fact is people do it all the time. However: In terms of peace of mind, freedom from stress and living the best life possible, you need to be aware of what the voice in your head is telling you.

When you aren’t aware you have no choice. You follow and do and feel and react accordingly to the voice. We’ve lived with the voice in the head for so long we more or less follow what it says.

It’s one result when you go with the voice that says “I’m hungry”, completely another path when you believe the voice that states “I can’t”. Perhaps even more insidious is the voice that goes “I should”.

In awareness you have choice.

In knowing the voice you can create a space of freedom and exploration of what happens when you don’t automatically go with it. The next step stops being a reactive, “what you have always done” movement and starts becoming creative - the consciously living of your life. You can be aware of restrictive or limiting patterns and habits and make other choices.

Choice is the key word, always.

Even just for a couple of minutes, stop and observe your thoughts. In watching you can see what there is in your own head. Let them come, and let them go. If it helps, maybe count them. Assign each one a number as simply as if you were counting clouds in the sky as they pass by.

For each thought there doesn’t have to be a reaction. Every thought can just arise and then fall away to where ever it came from.

Equally, just because you think it, it doesn’t mean it is true. A thought can simply be an idea, a label, an interpretation or an option. Does that make sense?

For example, there doesn’t need to be a link between a “bad” thought and feeling bad - it can simply be an option to choose to feel bad that you don’t take, you just observe and let go.

Just because you have thoughts it doesn’t mean that you are the thoughts. Because you can be aware of the contents of your mind, it means you must be more than those contents. Your thoughts need not define or be the limit of you.

If this is so, if you aren’t your mind, if you aren’t your beliefs, if you have choice, then what are you? Be aware and find out. Know thyself.

It’s worth doing because the most important question to me is always “how do you want to live?”

However that is, don’t live blindly. There is always more beyond the voices. There is always choice. Always.

Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans

“Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” - John Lennon It’s a funny old thing, life. It’s happening here and now and more often than not, most people aren’t aware of it. They miss out on life itself, thinking and planning about some other moment, some moment in which they believe life will happen.

Do you do that? Is your life going on right under your nose while you are elsewhere?

Unless you are present and alive to life, to this moment, you will miss out. And no one has an infinite amount of time to get to the task of really, truly living. It’s something you need to get onto very very soon.

If I may be so bold, I would ask:

What do you think it’s going to take for you to wake up to this?

What is it going to take for you to realise that your life is ending one moment at a time, and you are somewhere else, lost in your head?

When are you going to stop wasting a single moment adrift in the past or future or some other location, wishing, dreaming that you were anywhere but here?

When are you going to make the most of each and every moment?

Please do. Please wake up to your own life, take it and go. Live it fully. It requires so little, just your attention applied now. Such a small, simple sacrifice, and you get so much.

If you don’t, who will? If not now, when?

ps. if you don't know how - just ask. It really is a simple thing.

Just pretend that this moment is the only moment that exists

A friend of mine - an Ishaya teacher of meditation - loves to tell his students to pretend that this moment is the only moment that exists. It simply means to be completely alive and present here, now, assuming that no other moment in time exists.

How about that? How about just letting go now, and being present to this, what is here, what is now.

To do it means to assume that everything else is beyond your control. It means you assume you only have what is in front of you.

The thing is we spend so much time trying to change the past or control the future. Life gets extraordinarily simple, not to mention easy, when you take it one moment at a time. Just now. And now. And now.

Here you are. Really be here. Don’t worry about anything else.

When you do that you can meet the need of the moment, free of the burden of the past and the future.

Really, honestly, if I could give you one thing it would be to realise that a peaceful, happy, enjoyable and efficient life is right here.

Bring yourself back and you will find it easier and easier to stay.