Our beautiful world offers profound ways of learning and growing that allow us to make our lives delightful and ourselves to be more at peace, in harmony with our existence.
From amongst these are the rich exquisite texts of Vedas and Yoga that are timeless. These are nothing but guide books towards living well, with ease and allowing growth along the way. The peculiarity being that these cover the subject in a holistic manner. When we truly want to develop our whole life, our whole selves, without compromising any other aspect, there are no shortcuts.
The shortcut or ‘quick fix’ and ‘take a pill’ attitude ends up affecting some other part of us, that, in a hurry, we might not have considered. Take for example, a case of a person having frequent headaches. This person takes an Aspirin and continues working long hours, also into the night, with better work results and a promotion. Now the cause of the headache was an improper sleep routine. So, the person ends up getting a chronic Migraine issue with a sleep disorder by the side. Eventually effecting his work.
The holistic methods specify many ways, numerous techniques. Amongst the simplest and more popular are the Yamas and Niyamas of Yoga Sutras penned by Sage Patanjali. I’ve found these quite handy towards beginning a journey of self-development and growth, which eventually result in growth in every area of ones’ life as a whole! The first amongst these, that I cannot stop rooting for is Knowing Oneself, or the Study of Oneself, the Sanskrit word for which is Swadhyay. When we know ourselves well enough and we know which way we want to go, we have point A and B and can draw a line between them. Without knowing A or B, we are directionless, hapless, at the mercy of every wind and squall to take us wherever it wishes, with no say to where we are heading.
You see, we are very dynamic entities, changing with every moment for better or worse. We are not static, as our physical appearance might deceive us to believe. Even the physical body changes by the day and hour – a stomach ache on hour, blisters in the foot or acne and hair fall in another! When we consider our thoughts, beliefs and energy, these subtler aspects are much more dynamic and ever-changing within us. The mind is not a very good tool to be able to study our behaviours, habits or thought processes over time, independently. It is designed to be in the present, carrying merely impressions or our interpretations and projections of the past and future that it believes are true. Hence it requires assistive tools. Some of these are:
Journaling and Diary Writing
Breath Observation Technique
Antara Mouna
We’ll be elaborating on these, as well as other self-development techniques in the coming articles. Stay posted!
Ruchi is a Holistic Therapist, Yoga Teacher and Wellness Coach. Based out of New Delhi, India she provides wellness services across the globe - known under the umbrella of Holistic Wellness with Aikya.
