Spirituality
Vinyasa Yoga and Breathing expert, Adrian
Cox, tells Business Fit readers how using ancient
practices can help you become happier and
more effective.
Using Ancient Wisdom to Find
Your Balance
In one way or another, we are all looking for
happiness and pleasure. Whether you are
chasing after something, someone, or an
achievement - perhaps a certain amount of
money or a certain status of relationship.
Maybe a better car or house. A business, job
title, thing, or experience. When you look into
what is really driving you, it comes down to
achieving a state you desire.
While it is great to explore, learn, interact
and have meaningful achievements, it’s also
important to know that none of those things will
be the complete answer to your happiness. It
all comes down to the experiencer, the ÝOU in
the deepest possible sense: your soul and the
extent to which you can connect with it. When
you know who you are, when you know your
soul, you can have peace and bliss regardless
of whether you win or lose. You will even enjoy
what you do have much, much more.
That’s why, when you’re in a great space,
anything can be a route to an experience of
bliss. The sight of a stunning vista, the sound
of beautiful music, the feeling of a pleasant
breeze or the taste of good chocolate.
We all know what it’s like to be surrounded by
the best of everything, but still have a terrible
time. That whatever “is” at that moment,
is not enough to fill the hole of loneliness,
dissatisfaction and meaninglessness. When
we forget or have yet to discover ourselves at
a deeper level, we tend to think that happiness
is going to come from the outside.
But it’s never about the thing, it’s about the
consciousness of the person experiencing
the thing. The “you”. Work on who you are,
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and your perception needs little evidence to
construe the things in your life for the positive
or optimistic. And it’s better to feel good for
nearly every possible reason, unless say, you
are doing accounting!
Left unattended however, our consciousness
looks outwards more than is ideal. Happiness
appears to our perception as being about
getting someone, or something or some
condition that fixes it all, makes us feel loved,
important and never ever lonely again. Living
in our modern world, it is easy to get seduced
to look outside. We swim in a sea of messages
which tell us: “Buy this, otherwise nobody will
want you!” “Get that large house and then
you’ll be happy!” “Get a sexy car then you will
feel good about yourself!” The message is that
you always need a certain thing that someone
is selling you in order to be complete. That
you’ll be happy when you have a certain thing
or degree or person or status.
The ‘things’ we fantasize about can never really
deliver the long-term happiness we hope
for, because the answer isn’t there, precisely.
But if we knew more about who we are, this
dissatisfaction would not happen. If we could
regularly experience our true Self, the YOU in
the deepest possible sense, there is little that
can happen that will throw us off for very long.
This knowledge and experience of our intrinsic,
eternal “Self” is the true aim of yoga and can be
experienced when you have a good teacher
and right knowledge. The many tools of yoga
can truly bring us to richer satisfaction in life,
but they are not often taught in most yoga
classes that you would know of.
The Ancient Perspective
While knowledge alone will not change your
consciousness, it can help to serve as a map
and tell you which tools to use. One particularly
useful map comes from a yoga text from the
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