Grant is an American cartoonist, comic strip artist, writer, and orthodontist. His strips have been
featured in The New York Review of Books and The New York Times Magazine, and in books like The Shape of Ideas and I Will Judge You by Your Bookshelf. His latest books are The Art of Living and One Boy Watching.

Grant-snider.jpg

Grant Snider

A closed book

<hr><h4>GRANT SNIDER began drawing and writing before he knew what he was doing. His comics have appeared in The New York Times Book Review,&nbsp;The Kansas City Star,&nbsp;The Best American Comics 2013, and all across the internet. You can explore his work at <a href="http://www.incidentalcomics.com/">http://www.incidentalcomics.com/</a>. Here he is interviewed by KASHISH KALWANI about what inspires him and brings him such success.</h4><hr>Q: So, Grant, how are you doing?GS: Good, I just got my daily run in, went through some puddles, my socks are wet. Good feeling for the middle of the afternoon here.Q: Nice. When I first saw your comics, I was curious about you – they are not necessarily humorous, but they are so relevant, so thoughtful. When I see the thoughtfulness behind your work, your intentional seeing of the world, it makes me feel very relevant, like, “Yes, I see you, and I feel you.” So could you tell us more about this style of comics?GS: Well, a lot of comics come from that first person perspective, basically because it’s easy to draw a single character moving through the panel and encountering the world. Over time, that’s how I started drawing them. It became like a conversation with myself in the form of my character avatar, walking around thinking deep thoughts or not too deep ones, coming up with various conflicts, usually internal, and hopefully resolving them by the last panel.Ever since I started in single comics in 2009, I’ve had the goal to draw a single page comic strip per week. And most weeks I have achieved that goal. I’ve done a few that are more than one page, some I don’t quite get to the page, but it’s been a nice recurring conversation with myself.It’s nice to hear you say that you can find some relatability in them because I don’t want to just be a solo conversation, you know?Q: Yes, absolutely. I know so many people from the Heartfulness community who follow your page on Instagram, and it’s fun to pick it up and share the comic with one another.GS: That’s much appreciated. It’s the cool thing about the internet – if you like something you retweet it, or send it to somebody on Facebook, or Instagram message, and it’s really powerful how social media can be a force for good if the artist’s message is worth sharing.Q: Truly, yes.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy2_325ffec609.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:55:01.576Z" alt=""><hr><hr><h4>I think with anything,&nbsp; like a writing practice,&nbsp; a meditation practice,&nbsp; a spiritual or non-spiritual practice,&nbsp; it’s really about consistency.</h4><hr><hr>Q: I know you already touched upon one comic per week, but could you share more about your drawing routine? What does your process look like?&nbsp;GS: It really changes based on where I am in life. I used to cram it all in on a Saturday, when I had not as many work or family obligations. That got to be pretty exhausting. When my kids were a little bit younger, I would wake up really early in the morning, which you’ll see because a lot of the comic strips reference those early morning hours, like looking out the window to see the sunrise, because I was literally sitting at the drawing table watching the sunrise, you know, a couple cups of coffee down. And now that my work schedule is different, and my youngest child is two, so he’s not quite waking up at the crack of dawn anymore, I do more in regular hours, a few hours a day, a few times a week, which is much more mentally healthy.I really think it’s about finding that balance of the practice. It doesn’t really matter when I’m doing the work, it’s that I’m revisiting it and doing it consistently. I think with anything, like a writing practice, a meditation practice, a spiritual or non-spiritual practice, it’s really about consistency rather than, “Oh, I’m going to do this amazing thing once a month,” then the next month you’re not doing it at all.Q: I really like the word “consistency,” because even the Heartfulness meditation practice that I follow requires consistency. Even though it is recommended that we meditate for an hour every morning, if that’s not possible, it’s still good to show up for five minutes every day and be consistent about it. That works wonders.GS: It’s about showing up. I’m speaking mainly from a cartooning standpoint, but this could be applied to a lot of other practices. Some days, it feels like “Man, I really want to get to the drawing table.” I have so many good ideas that are bursting with possibility. Other days it feels like a chore. But inevitably, like I had to do yesterday, I sit through the drudgery until it eventually drops away. And even if it isn’t the most pleasant experience, I get a good day’s work done. Obviously, it’s more fun when it is joyous, but that’s not going to be every single time you show up. Unfortunately.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy3_23914ae203.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:56:19.298Z" alt=""><hr><hr><h4>Something important is an openness to experience,&nbsp; to your own thoughts and feelings, and a willingness&nbsp; to share those thoughts and feelings with others&nbsp; – in my case through art, for others it might be a different form.&nbsp; I hope people see that attitude of openness&nbsp; and can be inspired by it in their daily life.</h4><hr><hr>Q: I truly understand that.So what are your sources of inspiration? How do you sustain your motivation?GS: It depends on what kind of project I’m working on. To be generic about it, my sketchbook is the source of all the ideas. But what I put in my sketchbook varies.At times I’ll be into life drawing, so I’ll go out on my lunch breaks or on a weekend with colored pencils and do detailed drawings. And they eventually get filtered into the comics in a scene in a panel. Sometimes I’ll be reading an amazing book, and it’ll be like, “Oh, this is such a great insight, I need to put this down.” I’ll do a little spin on it, maybe have my character commenting on it somehow. That’ll work its way into a comic strip.Occasionally, it’ll be my daughter or one of my sons doing something ridiculous: “This is just too good, I have to make this into a drawing.” It’s finding those little snippets of interest in my daily routine, capturing them in the sketchbook and then taking that sketchbook with me later to the drawing table when I’m working. “Okay, what piece of this can I turn into a part of a bigger project? What is really speaking to me today?”And sometimes it’s a matter of combining things. I’ll have an idea from a couple years ago, with a spin on something I came up with last week, and together that makes something completely new.Q: I really like how you bring your kids into the process. How do they view you as an artist?GS: I’ve probably shared this anecdote before. My son Trent is eight and he’s really into comics. He always compliments my work and says he likes to read it, but then he puts a caveat, “Dad, you need to do something funny.” I do sometimes feel like I’m a little serious or lacking that sense of humor that I look for when I read comics. But I really liked that feedback, and I’ll try to put something funny in my next book, especially for Trent.Q: I love honest feedback.&nbsp;<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/comic_joy4_37e0f4a2dd.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-26T07:57:39.996Z" alt=""><hr><hr><h4>When people get busy with everyday obligations,&nbsp; a lot of times their art or their writing falls through the cracks and is lost.&nbsp; Just keeping that consistent routine of writing or drawing,&nbsp; of being alone with your thoughts, is a really powerful thing.</h4><hr><hr>Q: What message do you hope people can take away from your comics?&nbsp;GS: I don’t want to limit it to a single message, but something important is an openness to experience, to your own thoughts and feelings, and a willingness to share those thoughts and feelings with others – in my case through art, for others it might be a different form. I hope people see that attitude of openness and can be inspired by it in their daily life.I’ve never thought about the broader reason why I’m doing it. I do get a lot of joy out of it, and I hope other people do too. Really, finding those small pieces of joy would be another overarching goal for my comics.Q: It’s wonderful that you have chosen happiness and joy.GS: Yes, and I’ve tried the other way as far as the art style goes. Occasionally I’ll do a comic from a space of negative emotion that doesn’t have an ending that is uplifting or hopeful. And when I show it to my first readers, my wife Kayla and my brother Gavin, they say, “This is falling flat; it doesn’t really work for me.” While it’s good to capture those negative emotions honestly on the page, I always want to leave the reader, and more so myself, with hope at the end, even if I’ve still not quite resolved that negativity.Q: What is your advice for a beginner in this field?GS: Just keep doing it and sharing it. I know that if at age 20 I had seen where I would be with my comics now at age 37, I might not recognize that person. But I would be really happy that they’d been read by a lot of people, that they were still doing it, and still finding the motivation and the time to make it a big part of their life. When people get busy with everyday obligations, a lot of times their art or their writing falls through the cracks and is lost. Just keeping that consistent routine of writing or drawing, of being alone with your thoughts, is a really powerful thing.Q: Thank you.<hr><hr><h4>Comics by GRANT SNIDER</h4><hr>

Comic Joy

Greta

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Greta Thunberg

Hope Versus Action

Guila was appointed UNESCO Artist for Peace in January 2012, in light of her commitment to promoting and defending human rights through art. She has taught at Sciences Po, Harvard University, Boston and Oxford Universities, University of Geneva, and the St. Petersburg Conservatory, amongst others.

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Guila Clara Kessous

<h4>
 GUILA CLARA
 KESSOUS
 is a member of Harvard University’s affiliated Institute of Coaching,
 the UNESCO artist for peace, and an art therapist.&nbsp; Here she
 writes about the recent paradigm shifts in leadership and how
 present-day leaders require subtle collective skills rather than being
 super humans.
</h4>

<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 In recent years, we have challenged the narrow vision of a leader as
 someone “strong, knowledgeable, and a great communicator,” someone who
 can leverage their expertise to mobilize and create followership. Behind
 this heroic fantasy leader stands a human being who has spent their life
 accumulating knowledge, without worrying too much about its application
 and, especially, without worrying about relationships. For a
 super-leader, managing relationships is the manager’s prerogative (those
 nice facilitators who spend their time managing ego conflicts). So as
 soon as the leader faces the reality of also being a manager, trouble
 starts.



 Without managerial skills, a leader is not really up to the task. Even
 the most technical management position involves cross-functional
 interactions with other departments, and connections with other teams.



 The key to success in this delicate transition from controlling
 leadership to equitable management is behavioral skills, particularly
 the so-called “subtle” skills.


<h4>
 From Ego to
 Eco
</h4>

The word “subtle” derives from Latin and refers to two notions:

<ol type="1">
 <li>Something difficult to perceive, and</li>
 <li>Finesse and delicacy in realization.</li>
</ol>


 Subtle skills are twofold: if they are difficult to perceive because of
 their intangible nature, they are also highly accurate and incisive for
 those who can apply them.



 Let’s take the example of an executive expert promoted to a managerial
 position. When an organization uses the function of management, it means
 either “management of” or “management over.” Panicked by the new level
 of coercive power they have, the executive often seeks refuge in the
 skills they acquired during their years of study, however, this is not
 what is expected of a leader, who must not only inform which direction
 to take (a GPS can also do that) but also be the direction.



 Here is the subtlety: those who follow will no longer follow the
 information, but will seek to emulate a leader. They will be inclined to
 follow someone who knows how to use emotional intelligence and
 relational management to utilize the power of the collective.



 This is what Professor Otto Scharmer presented in his Theory U at MIT,
 highlighting the five necessary stages of collective intelligence:
 observation, perception, being present, crystallization, and deployment
 to bring about a stage of collective consciousness.



 The subtle skills required by the new manager are to meet the team,
 listen to the directions of the different participants, and understand
 what directional synthesis is proposing about the concerns of the system
 by comparing them with the reality of the market.



 Theory U is based on the success of the collective synthesized by the
 sagacity of an open-minded leader to be completely present to others.
 “New leaders will have to be able to drive attention on change without
 driving too much attention on themselves,” said Ronald Heifetz, director
 of the Harvard University Leadership Education Project. Subtle skills
 invite us to shift from egocentricity to eco-centricity; they reflect a
 greater maturity of leadership compared to a top-down pyramidal system.


<h4>
 New Leadership
 Subtleties: How to Systematize Enthusiasm and
 Embodiment?
</h4>


 The most remarkable subtlety happens when leadership is paired with
 concepts that seem to be at odds with a traditional view: progressive
 leadership, emotional leadership, situational leadership, and benevolent
 leadership. Spiritual leadership is the best example of two juxtaposed
 notions, because any form of spirituality is suspect in the management
 sphere, immediately evoking a religious figure who wants to lead their
 flock like a guru. And for the followers of spirituality, the word
 “leadership” distorts the very essence of a transcendental idea, so much
 so that the implied resonance of profitability is offending.



 Spiritual leadership is an apparent paradox because it brings the
 material and the immaterial together, but there is a genuine craze for
 the term in business nowadays and it can be explained by the need to
 include more subtle criteria among the indicators of managerial success.



 Far from being an incursion of religion into the corporate sphere,
 spiritual leadership explores an “energetic” dimension of governance,
 with the concept of followership no longer subject to a simple
 technocratic hierarchy, but instead to a charismatic figure who embodies
 its messages. First mentioned by Professor Louis Fry at the University
 of Texas, this approach to leadership insists on the importance of
 intrinsic motivation through the leader’s values, attitudes, and
 behavior. It is based on a schematic model in the form of quadrants,
 just like emotional or situational intelligence.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<img alt="authentic-leadership2" width="525" class="lazyload has-img-center" style="width: 525px !important"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/authentic_leadership2_f72db6b182.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T08:03:16.075Z" />


<hr class="vertical-space1" />


 As with presencing, the starting point is always a leader’s awareness of
 their relationship with self, which allows them to be fully available to
 build cohesion through three main components: vision, hope and faith in
 the future, and benevolence toward others.



 There is a growing interest in France in spiritual leadership, thanks to
 the debate on enthusiasm and incarnation. Both enthusiasm and
 incarnation imply a transcendental relationship based on a charismatic
 rather than an intellectual energetic presence. Therefore, the subtlety
 is to understand the importance of self-giving in a leader who wishes to
 inspire followership. Self-giving is fundamental to spiritual
 leadership.


<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">
 The subtlety is to
 understand the importance of self-giving in
 a leader who wishes to inspire followership. Self-giving is
 fundamental to spiritual leadership.
</h4>

<hr />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<img width="700" alt="authentic-leadership3" class="lazyload has-img-center" style="width: 700px !important;"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/authentic_leadership3_9a79b9173b.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-11T08:04:03.853Z" />

<hr class="vertical-space1" />

<h4>
 Leadership at
 Heart: Heartificial Intelligence
</h4>


 Self-giving does not mean “forgetting yourself in others.” Today’s
 leaders cannot afford a sacrificial posture that is lost in a kind of
 wild empathy. Instead, it involves a heart-to-heart resonance with
 followers, which allows them to better understand the ecology of their
 system.



 It involves the principles of Social Permaculture and the Symbiotic
 Economy, linking intellect and personal responsibility to the
 collective. As Isabelle Delannoy advocates in
 The Symbiotic Economy, it is based on the symbiosis of human
 intelligence, the power of ecosystems, and tools. The leadership
 challenge is in finding the right balance to regenerate them instead of
 exhausting them; to create a system that works without burning out
 either the leader or the followers. This is also what Gunter Pauli
 advocates when he talks about the
 <a href="https://www.theblueeconomy.org/en/">Blue Economy</a>.



 How to apply this level of subtlety to the very heart of inspiration at
 the corporate level? How to re-consider what we think is at the bottom
 of the ladder in our systemic worldview and, instead, make it the engine
 of a humanistic recycling economy?



 In this sense, the leader and the follower are two sides of the same
 coin in a circular economy. Restoring a person’s pride can have benefits
 for everyone in the system since all are intimately connected. This is
 what we call leadership from the heart: not only human and benevolent
 leadership but also courageous leadership of being oneself in front of
 others, and especially for others.



 Could this subtle Heartificial Intelligence save leadership from the
 dehumanization of Artificial Intelligence, while we wait for leaders to
 have an NFT rating? This is highly possible!


<hr />

<h4 class="has-text-align-center">Illustrations by Мария Гисина</h4>

<hr />

Subtle skills for authentic leadership: heartificial intelligence

<h4>GUILA CLARA KESSOUS, UNESCO Artist for Peace and art therapist, uses drama therapy to help people “let go” of their suffering through a cathartic process. It is a way for people in Rwanda, Bangladesh, Congo, and Afghanistan to find solace. Guila paints the portrait of four people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who she accompanied to their respective countries. She has also designed a course on “Theatre and Humans Rights” that is taught at Harvard University.</h4><hr><h4>The Prince and the Poor Man</h4>The woman with black eyes has a wonderful way with French words. Intimidated, she clicks her tongue against her teeth and looks up to me. I reassure her and make it clear that I will not ask her to talk, but to express what lies within her, deep within her, to let it out. I know about her story: Martha lives in Ngoma, in Rwanda’s eastern province, near the women’s prison. This mother of five witnessed the slaughter of the Tutsis in 1994. She, too, once sincerely believed she could kill “for the good of humanity,” as the saying went back then on the waves of Mille Collines radio.I suggest we perform the exercise of “The Prince and the Poor Man” that Peter Brook used to teach a person to find “the right posture.” Asking her to portray a noble personality, I see the body of the septuagenarian straightening up and I watch her as she finds a glorious way to hold her head, so typical of faith in oneself and faith in humanity, found only in people who have not lost the beauty of their ingenuity. I try to spur her on, suggesting she tries to walk like a queen, taking care to slowly spread her feet on the ground, heel first and then toes. I notice the effort of her leg. It carries the history and muscles of thighs that were strong enough to drag themselves out of this hell. She looks around her with an air of Banyiginya haughtiness; the Nyiginya clan, who represent the nobility of the Batutsis.I then submit a text to her from Hamlet:… I know not “seems.” ’Tis not alone in my inky cloak, good mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forced breath, No nor the fruitful river in the eye, Nor the dejected haviorof the visage, Together with all forms, moods, shows of grief, That can denote me truly. These indeed seem, For they are actions that a man might play; But I have that within which passeth show, These but the trappings and the suits of woe.Before it even ends, I see her body shrivel up, withdrawing from the bliss of forgetfulness to return to what Peter Brook called “the Poor Man,” the human broken by their condition. She utters each and every one of these words distinctly while facing me. She concludes with a whisper, “Mu-ra-ko-ze,” which is the Kinyarwanda word for thank you, and then she curtsies!<h4>I have no hatred in me</h4>Francesca is repeating the sentence to me. She emphasizes every word and makes sure I’m jotting everything down. “How could I only explain that to my family? Since they’re rejecting me and think this is all my fault. I’m a disgrace to them.” I ask her if she’s willing to work on this feeling of shame with acting. She nods. Francesca was raped in the Congo, as so many other women have been, since rape is a weapon of war in the DRC.When she talks to me, she blinks a lot, just to be absolutely sure that she is still alive. So often have men imposed their will on her that at some point she was not sure of anything anymore. “I felt this predator had no desire, he just wanted to dominate.” Francesca lives in Bunia, the capital city of the Ituri province. She has endured many sexual assaults since she was a little girl, including in school where this kind of punishment is common. I suggest trying a body awakening exercise that will allow her to slowly come back to herself and to possess her sore body again.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_therapy_human_suffering2_700x480_e35c0c82ad.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T06:54:35.060Z" alt="art-therapy-human-suffering2"><hr>The “Energetic Shower” exercise involves “stretching one’s arms toward the sky” while imaginary drops “run” from the ceiling by moving one’s fingers and slowly bringing them down to micro-massage the forehead, the eyes, the cheeks, the chin, the back of the neck and then the neck. I watch her as she proceeds meticulously. I can feel the skin untighten on her forehead, the wrinkles fade out. Once the neck area has been reached, it’s time to switch to soft right-hand taps on the left side of the body. She talks to me: “If my daughter saw me doing this, she’d tell me ‘Mom, stop, you’re almost fifty now.’” She pats her left shoulder with her right hand and then the full length of her left arm. Then, the opposite. I can see her body stretch out and ready itself to “embody” a role that will help it healing. Francesca is looking at me, intrigued.I hand a poem to her: So long as the blade has not&nbsp;   Cut off that brain …These lines from Rimbaud make her smile. And I see her surrendering to the role, a sheer force getting hold of her. She now hits me with verse: That white, green and fatty parcel,  Whose steam is never fresh…At the end of the poem, she repeats to me, “He won’t get his hands on that one.”Clearly, he won’t get his hands on that one.as if, for a fleeting moment, she had managed to break free from tragedy.<h4>I would have preferred not to choose</h4>The interpreter is looking at me because he doesn’t know whether he must translate what has just been said. Hossain is a twenty-four-year-old father who doesn’t understand why he should stay with his child since his wife is there to look after him. As the others, he has fled and tries to live here in Cox’s Bazar under this makeshift tent strapped to bamboo pegs.Despite humanitarian aid, the Rohingyas’ situation has not really evolved, and Hossain is nervous. The interpreter resumes his translation: “I would have preferred not to choose. If I had known, I never would have done this. I would not have chosen to get her pregnant. She shouldn’t have kept the child.” I ask the interpreter to tell him that I’m not here to judge him but to offer him a way to explore the emotions he’s experiencing through drama-therapy. “Now is not the time for drama. How is drama going to help me find a solution?” he says, rolling his eyes. He seems exasperated.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_therapy_human_suffering3_700x480_1ebb3b3b2c.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T06:55:06.212Z" alt="art-therapy-human-suffering3">I suggest we perform a breathing technique called “the sniper’s breathing.” He listens to me, suddenly showing interest. “Sniper?” he asks. I smile, “Yes, snipers do this to calm down and enter a state of great focus. Try and you’ll see. Close your eyes.” I teach him this deep, abdominal breathing, taking in the air for four seconds, holding your breath for another four, and then breathing out for eight seconds. I see his puny body carrying it out. Then, after three times, I tell him he’s free to open his eyes.He has calmed down; his chest isn’texpanding as much and his eyes have narrowed. “Now, let’s play,” I say. He raises his eyebrow. “You’re going to be your pregnant wife and you’re going to tell me what you think of Hossain.” He laughs and sits immediately, pretending to cover himself with something. “What are you doing?” I ask. He tells me that his wife always wraps herself in a coat to protect her child from the damp atmosphere. This delineation brought by the coat is symbolic, but it will eventually help him realize, while impersonating her, how difficult it is to be a mother. And when the role play ends, he will agree to try to stay by her side.<h4>All the faces in the world</h4>I’m on the phone with Sabba and I ask her if she wants us to start working together using art. In precarious English, she tells me that yes, she does: “I want to become other, different roles, different faces. I’d like to be all the faces in the world today.”She lives in the small town of Charikar where she hasn’t had the opportunity to go to school for over a month now. She listens to the radio fervently because it’s her only way to stay connected with the world and to catch educational broadcasts. I suggest we do a little focusing exercise by describing her radio set. “It is small, rectangular, black.” I encourage her to speak in a louder voice and dare her to be more confident.And she follows up. “The radio set has buttons to choose the frequencies.” I now ask her to insist on some words, which she does willingly. “This radio is BEAUTIFUL, POWERFUL, and MINE.” This last word comes with a bang, and I can hear the pride that emanates from it.I tell her what we will do next: “Now Sabba, try to become this radio set and to speak out about what you’re going through on a daily basis and how you’re here to comfort Sabba.” Silence. Absorption of the information, then an imaginative effort. There’s a dilemma in the mind of this fourteen-year-old girl. I can hear her questioning herself, “How am I supposed to do this, I, who don’t have a professor anymore, to know if I’m following the instructions correctly?” And then she lets go, a breeze of courage ushers in the role play.She’s a symbol of courage and a symbol of hope.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/art_therapy_human_suffering4_700x480_5f564ad18a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-12T06:55:54.845Z" alt="art-therapy-human-suffering4">

Art therapy for human suffering

Guy is from Montpellier, France. He is a retired psychotherapist and trainer, who retains the youthful spirit to learn through the heart. Under the pseudonym of ‘Papiji l’escoutaire’ he is our storyteller, retelling beautiful tales from different traditions about love, the different shades of love, and the qualities of the heart. This issue has the last of the stories from King Vikram. We can’t wait to see what Papiji will share with us next!

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Guy De Montpellier

Guy Finley is the best-selling author of more than 40 books and audio albums on self-realization. He is the founder and director of Life of Learning Foundation, a non-profit center for Spiritual Development located in southern Oregon where he gives talks four times each week open to the public. For more information visit www.guyfinley.org.

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Guy Finley

Victory over our own lower nature is now or never.We can’t end conflict later. We can’t stop being sad, cruel, angry, scared, or anxious later. Thinking, or hoping, that any destination we have in mind is going to be superior to where we’re presently standing is exactly why we’re still standing in that same place where we have to hope that some tomorrow will be better.Later does not exist in reality.Only to the lower self does the concept of ‘later’ have any merit. This self-created, false concept of time allows it to create yet another ‘you’ in another time when you’ll be wiser, stronger, and generally superior.But your higher nature knows for you to experience the miracle of real <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/where-loves-camels-lead-from-the-nile-to-the-mountain" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inner transformation</a>, to step up to a superior life level, you must no longer think in terms of how you’ll be next time. It understands, as we must, that a change in nature is immediate; it is now, or it won’t be at all.And so it’s imperative to meet each moment of your life with this realization: it’s only what you do right now that is the seed of change. And in the endless beauty and mystery of what is the now, this same seed of change is also the seed of a New Self.Here’s why this is true: If you choose to change right now, then you won’t have to worry about how to be different next time!In fact, choose to change now and your conscious choice for real change in the present moment automatically cancels the need for a better you in a better future. All will be better for you now, which is the only time it really matters!Make it your moment-to-moment practice to stay awake, and to watch for all the opportunities that your own now presents. Keep your efforts personal, practical, and to the point. If your inner work doesn’t transform the whole of your life into a more relaxed, amazing, and uplifting experience, then you’re dreaming, not changing.Your awareness of the power of the present can transform each challenging life moment into a new and true beginning for you. Learning how to use these moments leads to real inner change, which is the same as being in command of your own destiny.From Guy’s 1994 book, Freedom From The Ties That Bind, Llewellyn Publications, USA.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by GUY FINLEY</h4><hr>

Change is now or never

Guy is an energetic healer who also wrote Transforming Autism about how his family enabled their son to transform from a highly autistic toddler to a happy six-year-old, living a full contented life. He proposes a radical inspiring way to understand autism.He is also a Heartfulness trainer.

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Guy Shahar

<h4>GUY SHAHAR embarked on a career in energy healing with little understanding of what it entailed, after experiencing Dr. Bradley Nelson’s method, The Emotion Code. The results spoke for themselves. After becoming certified as a healer, Guy is now watching with wonder how the method is unfolding and evolving, and how he is growing through the process.</h4>I never gave energy healing any serious consideration until after my first visit to Kanha Shanti Vanam Ashram in 2020.&nbsp; The idea of sitting in a room and being able to heal another person in another town or on another continent seemed interesting but fantastical to me.A few years before that, I’d had a health breakdown following a long difficult situation at work. I was housebound for 3 months, and one of the things I’d been doing was receiving online energy healing with a practitioner. I didn’t really know what it was or how it worked, but I figured it was worth a try.It was during one session after that visit to Kanha that I heard a voice in my own head saying, “You should do this!” I almost dismissed it because energy healing was so far from anything I ever thought I’d do, or would be able to do.<h4>The Emotion Code</h4>But having heard the voice, I couldn’t ignore it. So I half-heartedly looked up the method I’d been receiving, The Emotion Code. It is based on the idea of releasing “trapped emotions” that come up at various points in our lives but are not fully processed. Perhaps it is because we are too overwhelmed or triggered at the time, and instead repress them, so they lodge as excess and disruptive energy in our system, and lead to all sorts of physical and mental issues.I discovered that it was actually a very simple method, and very easy to do, but required an ability that I didn’t think I had – “muscle-testing” to obtain clear yes or no answers from the subconscious mind of the person being treated.The man who created The Emotion Code, Dr. Bradley Nelson, has written a book of the same name which guides people how to do it. It includes a chapter on how to muscle test. I had zero confidence that a written chapter in a book would enable me to learn this important new skill, but I picked up a copy and by the end of the chapter, doing the exercises he suggested, I was surprised to get some reasonably clear answers.So I persisted with learning the method, using it on myself and my family, without any expectation of results. None came until one day when I was suffering from severe back pain and inflammation, and my wife suggested I try The Emotion Code to help. I wasn’t hopeful but had nothing to lose, so I went upstairs and released a number of trapped emotions. By the time I had finished, I was surprised to find that the pain had halved, and it continued to diminish as the day went on. When I told my wife, she took a look at my back and exclaimed that the inflammation had also gone down. That was the first time I genuinely felt there was something in <a href="https://heartfulness.org/magazine/brigid-goddess-of-the-gaels" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">energy healing</a>.I had similar results when working with others in need. People’s pains disappeared in front of my eyes on Zoom calls. People who’d been depressed started smiling with an inner joy they’d not felt for ages. Children’s issues started to be resolved when we worked on them through their parents. Even pets showed dramatic improvement. And each time, it was me who was more surprised than the other person, as if I couldn’t quite believe the results that were happening.&nbsp;I had the good fortune to record&nbsp;<a href="https://youtu.be/HZ8zQVgOuvc">an interview with Dr. Nelson</a> recently, where he said that he shared the same surprise at good results, even after many years of practicing his own system. When asked how his approach brings about changes, he just shrugs and says, “I just work here.”My surprise at the results was a little ironic, however, because I’d been a Heartfulness trainer for nearly 20 years, and I was used to sitting at home giving meditation sessions to people far away, which I had no doubt were effective. But for some reason the idea of working in the same way to bring about more material health benefits hadn’t occurred to me.I was starting to field calls from people who’d been referred to me by friends and family, and I realized I needed to start doing this professionally. So I got certified in The Emotion Code, and then in a vastly expanded version of it known as The Body Code, and then launched a company, <a href="https://heartfulhealing.co.uk">Heartful Healing</a>.<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Perhaps it is because we are too overwhelmed or triggered at the time, and instead repress our emotions, so they lodge as excess and disruptive energy in our system, and lead to all sorts of physical and mental issues.</h4><hr><figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/energy_healing2_98cae58348.jpg"></figure><h4>How does energy healing work?</h4>One of the questions I’m often asked is how energy healing actually works, and I’m no closer to having an answer. But having reflected on it, there are now 3 steps I always take at the start of a session:&nbsp;<ol style="list-style-type:decimal;"><li>Connect to a Higher Power Make a deep connection to a higher power, whatever that means to you. Dr. Nelson advocates this. As a Heartfulness practitioner, this is an easy step: I bring my attention to the constant inner presence in the heart that we’re gifted when we meditate with Heartfulness regularly and sincerely. It becomes an ever-present and vital part of our existence. That way, I’m not dependent of my own ultra-limited capabilities.</li><li>Connect with the client I focus my attention on them so that the answers I get from muscle testing reflect their own responses. I do this with as much love and prayerfulness for their well-being as possible.</li><li>Positive intention Together with the client, we set a positive intention for the results of the work. This is really important, as dwelling on problems actually exacerbates them. As the old saying goes, “Where attention goes, energy flows.” I invite them to put their attention on the positive outcome that they want, rather than the current negative situation they don’t.</li></ol><figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/energy_healing3_a799de95aa.jpg"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I bring my attention to the constant inner presence in the heart that we’re gifted when we meditate with Heartfulness regularly and sincerely.</h4><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/energy_healing4_b0a3ffd2e3.jpg"><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">“Where attention goes, energy flows.”</h4><hr>For example, if they can’t sleep, we don’t focus on “I want to be free of these sleeping problems,” but rather, they picture themselves waking up happy and refreshed in the morning, full of positive energy. They connect with how that will feel, and experience joy and gratitude as if they have it now. If they do this while the work is going on, it is especially powerful. The more they keep this changed perspective through their daily lives, the better.Then the session begins. We identify the imbalances in the person’s system which need to be released, and use a simple technique to release them. But I can’t help feeling that this and other healing methods are a little superfluous, as the essentials of the work are established in those initial 3 steps.&nbsp;Those 3 steps are a sort of prayer for a particular manifestation, and perhaps it is the ultimate destination of any healer to end up in a place where the healing occurs through prayer alone.I’ve started to move in this direction with some more pioneering clients, using a method I call “Accelerated Healing,” which bypasses the need to identify each individual imbalance. It uses the release technique to release or rebalance whatever needs it, to bring the result they want. I find the results to be at least as effective as an established modality. It’s a step in the direction of where I suspect healing will ultimately take me.<figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/energy_healing5_53a3332abf.jpg"></figure><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Illustrations by JASMEE MUDGAL</h4><hr><img>

Energy healing

Chancellor of S-VYASA University, Bengaluru, and President of the Indian Yoga Association, Dr Nagendra has been at the forefront of research into the benefits of Yoga on health and well-being since the 1980s, combining the best of the western scientific approach with the Yogic and Vedic traditions of ancient India. He has received many awards and honors, both in India and on the international stage, including the Global Peace Award from the World Peace Council in 2015 and Padma Shri from the Indian Government in 2016.

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H.R. Nagendra

<hr><h4>DR H.R. NAGENDRA, Chancellor of S-VYASA University and President of the Indian Yoga Association, speaks about International Day of Yoga and the impact Yoga is having globally.</h4><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/nagendra_img_0bdc8e2a17.jpg" alt="nagendra_img">Q: Good morning sir. We would like to start with a very personal question. You were a scientist with NASA, and chose to come back to India to dedicate your career to spreading Yoga. What really prompted you to do this?HRN: The search for Reality. When I started doctoral research I asked, “What is the real purpose of the research that we are doing?” We talk about a Doctorate in Philosophy, a PhD, but are we doing philosophy? What is the whole idea? And it all came down to the idea that the search for Reality is the objective of the research being done.Are we really moving towards Reality with all the research that we do? The immediate answer was, “No.” So what was the way out? These were the questions that were being raised among the faculty and students.Then I got in touch with a professor of chemistry who was very well-versed in Sanskrit, the Upanishads etc. Through these interactions, I started getting a new direction from the Upanishads. They tell us that you have to go beyond the physical. What we were doing in science is essentially all about the physical world. And now a time has come where science is moving beyond the physical, to understand&nbsp;the deeper dimensions of this creation. What is prana? What is the mind? Can the mind exist without the brain and the body? What is the intellect? What is the relationship among the mind, the emotions, the intellect and consciousness? Do gods and goddesses exist? Into this field of subtlety and causality, science has started moving, and it was all here in the Upanishads thousands of years back.I found the complete answer to all my questions, the Upanishads attracted me and I entered into this field. I had gone abroad to see what were the best institutions and the directions science was taking, how technologies were moving, and what I wanted to study. After that I came back to India to continue this process. I joined the Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari to train people in this direction. The head of the organization, Eknath ji Ranade, told me, “Now your direction is here, and you have to train youngsters.” That is how I became the director of training, and I stayed there for fourteen years before my current work started here at S-VYASA.Q: So it was the quest for Reality that drove you.HRN:&nbsp;Yes, from mechanical engineering to human engineering.Q: What role do you see Yoga playing, especially in health and education, in the years to come?HRN:&nbsp;Thanks to our Prime Minister, Yoga has now spread all over the world. One single speech by him at the UN Assembly, giving the holistic position of Yoga, not just as a physical exercise or other individual things, but as the science of holistic living, was&nbsp;presented so nicely that it almost hypnotized everyone. 183 countries approved his suggestion that 21 June should become the International Day of Yoga. He was telling me that the most surprising thing was that 45 Islamic countries came forward offering their support. This global support opened up the possibilities for Yoga throughout the world in an unprecedented way. Now the scope has spread everywhere.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">I feel that health and education will be very much impacted by Yoga. Swami Vivekananda said that the entire education system has to be remolded.</h5><hr>&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;There are a lot of Yoga institutions in India and abroad, and he wanted to synergize their efforts, as they were all working in isolation. Therefore we formed the Indian Yoga Association, of which I am the President, and here you will find most of the main sansthas of India. This is how the synergy started growing.<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga2_img_cf28bb7eca.jpg" alt="yoga2_img">I feel that health and education will be very much impacted by Yoga. Swami Vivekananda said that the entire education system has to be remolded. What is happening today is essentially Britannic education. There should be man-making education and nation-building education and for that Yoga is the right way. Meditation is the right way of doing it. So we must build this dimensionally into our education system.So our Prime Minister said, “It should not be just one day of practice on 21 June by the largest number of people, but it should go into our education system.” So we work with all the main government institutions to integrate Yoga with education at the center. For example, in India the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) is training 1,300,000 teacher educators every year in pre-primary education. Then we have the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), for primary and high school level, and the University Grants Commission (UGC) for higher education. In all these organizations, the committees have welcomed us, and we have gathered a number of Yoga masters to develop a syllabus, a curriculum, which will be compulsory.Initially there was some resistance, and a group of people took it to the courts. But the Supreme Court ruled that Yoga is good for everyone, and has now approved a Yoga syllabus for schools. The Yoga syllabus aims to bring about the total development of the personality, at all levels.The second dimension is the health scenario. Modern medicine deals very effectively with infectious and contagious diseases, but the noncommunicable diseases like arthritis, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, epilepsy, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome and cancer have ruined the possibility of bringing health for all by 2010. So the WHO did not succeed in its endeavor.Why is this so? Because these modern ailments are not really physical. Our knowledge base in the physical may be total, but these diseases result from mental restlessness, emotional disturbance, and deep-rooted psychological conflict. It is a set of lifestyle diseases. So unless you bring about a totality of lifestyle normalization, you will not find the solution. Yoga and AYUSH systems have been doing that over the last 40 years and publishing their findings with wonderful results. It has been put into the framework of modern scientific research.Swami Vivekananda said: combine the best of the East with the best of the West. The best of the West is modern scientific research, and the best of the East is our wisdom way. The two have to be combined. This is how we started our movement and we started publishing papers in the best journals of the world. In 1986 we published the results of a four-and-a-half-year study on the&nbsp;effect of Yoga on bronchial asthma, and all of a sudden there was acceptance worldwide that Yoga could be used to treat asthma.<hr><hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">And now a time has come where science is moving beyond the physical, to understand the deeper dimensions of this creation. What is prana? What is the mind? Can the mind exist without the brain and the body? What is the intellect? What is the relationship among the mind, the emotions, the intellect and consciousness?</h5><hr><hr>Then we brought out a book, Yoga for Common Ailments. So for 18 different ailments, how do you bring Yoga in its full perspective? When that book came out it was published simultaneously in London, Sydney and New York. Then it was translated into many languages and became a bestseller. Now it has become a sort of textbook. Now we have produced almost 500 publications like this. Comparing all the institutions, no one else has been able to do this amount of research. In the field of Yoga worldwide, our contribution is probably between 50% and 70% of the total. That is why we call this organization Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana or S-VYASA, as it is a research organization.Q: How well is the age-old tradition of Yoga being received by the modern scientific community ?HRN:&nbsp;Earlier there was a lot of resistance, because people&nbsp;thought Yoga is Hinduism,&nbsp;Yoga does not have a base, and&nbsp;Yoga is some sort of physical exercise, and they started distorting all sorts of physical&nbsp;exercise into Yoga and bringing in animals as well,&nbsp;with dog yoga, cat yoga and what not.So there has been a great need for revamping and bringing the essential language of Yoga to the world at large. And that is what our Prime Minister did in such a big way. So three years back, on International Day of Yoga, 21 June, around 1,800,000 people practiced this common protocol in India, and throughout the world people practiced in almost 130 countries. Last year in India we had around 2,800,000 practicing and this year our target is 4,000,000. And we hope that all countries will participate.Our Minister of External Affairs has been very bold in following up to promote Yoga Day abroad. We want to share our tradition.<hr><hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">Swami Vivekananda said: combine the best of the East with the best of the West.</h5><hr><hr>Q: Can you speak more about the impact of Yoga on non-communicable diseases, like diabetes, cancer etc.? Can Yoga offer a solution ?HRN:&nbsp;What we did was to develop collaborations with the topmost institutions in the world, so that acceptability is easy. First of all with the Royal Free Hospital in London we worked on diabetes in the 1980s. Then at the Middlesborough General Hospital in the UK we worked on arthritis. After this, at the University of California, San Francisco, we worked on pre-diabetes and HIV. Then in Los Angeles we worked on irritable bowel syndrome. The biggest center for cancer research is the MD Anderson Cancer Center, so there we have our work on cancer, especially breast cancer.In this way we spread our wings throughout and went to the best research institutions in the world to establish the efficacy of Yoga as an adjunct to conventional medicine. This is how Yoga was&nbsp;brought into the health field, particularly in cities. We have also been doing the same in India, with all the institutions here. In all the hospitals we have our Yoga teams supporting patients and doing research. Recently we wanted to bring this work into the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). So I gave a talk and they said they were very fascinated and would start working with us. Fortunately there was some space available in their tower, so they gave us around 4,000 square feet to establish an advanced center for integrative medical research. When we started, all the departments came with so much enthusiasm, so now there are 24 research projects going on there. In the next two to three years, AIIMS will produce a lot of research findings in this field. It will be a wonderful result.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h5 style="text-align:center;">That’s the beauty of Yoga. If you are a computer engineer, it helps you to become more effective as a computer engineer, because while doing Yoga you will reduce your stress.</h5><hr><hr>AIIMS is the topmost research institute in the country, with the best brains, the best equipment, the best infrastructure, and the largest number of patients. When I asked them, “Are you producing papers in the best journals? How many papers have you published in good international journals?” they said, “None.” So I told them, “This is what you have to do.” Recently we have started publishing papers in the top journals, and now they are all inspired. So the entire thing has to be brought with modern scientific research because everywhere people want evidence.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/yoga3_img_74ddb078c0.jpg" alt="yoga3_img">&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;Diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in India now; China is number one and India is number two. But we are racing to go beyond China, and the expectation is that by 2024 we will become number one in the world. Can we prevent that? We were very keen to find a way. So I said: let the government join hands with Yoga institutions and bring about a positive change, and we took up a project about two years back where we screened around 250,000 people in six cities all over the country and gave them three months of Yoga. Their medication started coming down, sugar levels were getting normalized, and there were wonderful results. Based on this study, we are going to take the Yoga module that we have developed as a national program. The Minister for Health and Family Welfare announced that this program would be taken up nationally.Now he wants us to focus on cancer control, which he has given as a mandate for this year. It is called the integrative cancer project, and it is much bigger. We will be doing this in 125 districts, scanning 20,000,000 people. So we are seeking the help of all the different Yoga institutions because we have to scale up. We need the entire country to benefit from what we have found here in a small way. Once we do that, it will be a direction to the whole world on how Yoga is useful for health. There is a holistic vision to see that it brings about the delivery of a proper health care system. We should be very efficient and give immediate relief to people, with no side effects and, most important, cost effectively.Q: I was reading somewhere, sir, that Yoga practitioners don’t need proof; it is only for the external world that we need to provide the impact analysis to convince them.HRN:&nbsp;Many people think that way. Yoga and the Vedas are thousands of years old, whereas a western allopathic medical center may only be 400 years old. That is one way of thinking. But we also have to update our tradition, and to go on updating according to the times. There are things that were relevant 5,000 years back, 1,000 years back, 300 years back, which may not be so relevant today. Our requirements will be quite different. So we have to tailor our approach to the requirements of modern society, with the types of modules and other things we offer. This is what we are trying to do.Research is very necessary, and once we show the results of the research the whole world is going to accept. Otherwise, many people will not accept. For example, now Yoga has been accepted, meditation has been accepted, but Ayurveda and Homeopathy are not yet accepted. So when we start integrative centers in different parts of the world, people have no problem with Yoga but some still do with Ayurveda. So we have started doing a lot of research in Ayurveda and other systems also, to see that they also come to the forefront. That is the dimension today.Q: One last question, sir. Do you have any message for the younger generation ?HRN:&nbsp;To youngsters I would say that Yoga has a message for all. I invite them on International Day of Yoga to take up the simple module offered and practice it. Once they do the practice they will start growing very nicely in their own respective field. That’s the beauty of Yoga. If you are a computer engineer, it helps you to become more effective as a computer engineer, because while doing Yoga you will reduce your stress. So all the IT companies have started using Yoga to help their employees relax. Like that, Yoga has its application in all fields. So the youth of today are welcome to start doing the practice by participating in International Yoga Day. Start doing the practice for yourself, and it will bring about changes. It will bring about real transformation.&nbsp;<hr>&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Interviewed by PRASANNA KRISHNA</h4><hr>

Yoga

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Han Van Den Heuvel

<hr><h3 style="text-align:center;">A PHOTO ESSAY</h3><hr><h4>HAN VAN DEN HEUVEL is an avid naturalist and photographer, and here he shares with us his love of the local native birds.</h4><hr>Ever since my retirement in 2016, I have been able to spend more time in nature doing what I enjoy – taking photos of birds and bees. I am very lucky to live in a house that borders on Allenby Park Reserve in the northern beaches district of Sydney. The variety of birds visiting our backyard is enormous. I sit on the back veranda with my camera and wait for the birds to come by. Believe me, it is not as easy as it looks to get a good picture!Planting natives like grevilleas in our backyard attracts birds like the Rainbow Lorikeet and the Red Wattlebird. Even at night I get visits from the nocturnal Tawny Frogmouth.Allenby Park is home to a flock of about 30 Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. They fly graciously through the park and make a lot of noise. Walking through the reserve, I come across the Eastern Yellow Robin, the Eastern Spinebill, and the Variegated Fairy-wren. I have also taken photos in the Pilliga Nature Reserve about 300 kilometers north of Sydney, and at Dee Why beach not far from our home.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Eastern_Yellow_Robin_ebcde668b3.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:35:26.143Z" alt="Eastern Yellow Robin">/p&gt;<h5 style="text-align:center;">Eastern Yellow Robin</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Eastern_Spinebil_7f5243476f.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:35:26.393Z" alt="Eastern Spinebil">/p&gt;<h5 style="text-align:center;">Eastern Spinebill</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Sulphur_crested_cookatoo_2e64ec2c1e.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:43.130Z" alt="Sulphur-crested-cookatoo"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Sulphur-crested Cockatoo</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Laughing_Kookaburra_28cf2f143a.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.537Z" alt="Laughing Kookaburra"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Laughing Kookaburra</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Rainbow_Lorikeet_8c9b4866d3.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.487Z" alt="Rainbow Lorikeet"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Rainbow Lorikeet</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Australian_Magpie_0cac3bc876.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.554Z" alt="Australian Magpie"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Australian Magpie</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Baby_Butcher_Bird_fd540456bb.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:35:26.284Z" alt="Baby Butcher Bird">&gt;<h5 style="text-align:center;">Baby Butcher Bird</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Wattlebird_ec71cf9f77.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.579Z" alt="Wattlebird"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Wattlebird</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Royal_Spoonbill_fb3498cfe4.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.140Z" alt="Royal Spoonbill"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Royal Spoonbill</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Laughing_Kookaburra_closeup_198582e616.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.115Z" alt="Laughing Kookaburra closeup"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Laughing Kookaburra close-up</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Seagull_b1289b2aa9.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.278Z" alt="Seagull"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Seagull</h5><hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/Birds_of_Northern_Sydney_Variegated_Fairy_wren_db55346e14.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-05T12:38:44.373Z" alt="Variegated Fairy-wren"><h5 style="text-align:center;">Variegated Fairywren</h5><hr><hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">A Photo Essay by HAN VAN DEN HEUVEL</h4><hr>

The birds of northern Sydney, Australia

Hans Christian Andersen 

The Most Wonderful Fairy Tale

Hari Venkatesan

<hr><h4>HARI VENKATESAN takes the approach of self-compassion towards self-improvement and managing emotions. Here he shares some tips from his own experience.</h4><hr>The pace of life has greatly increased with the advent of smartphones and wireless high-speed internet. Along with the convenience that these means bring, they also bring heightened expectations in terms of efficiency. We are expected to respond to messages and mails within hours, and sometimes even minutes. As human beings get used to this fast pace of life, it is all too easy to make mistakes.There is an ancient Chinese saying that says, “Hold on just a little and the winds and waves die down; take one step back and you are no longer in a corner.” In this age of 3-in-1 coffee, fast food, and instant messaging, one virtue that we are fast losing is patience: patience in the face of trials and tribulations, and patience in the face of our own emotions.Let us take the latter first. For example, you receive an unreasonable email about work, or someone makes a snide remark about you. You are compelled from inside to hit back instantly, and the matter quickly escalates. It is precisely at the moment when you are in the grip of emotions such as anger, rage, disappointment, frustration, and really feel justified to react sharply. Let a night pass and see how you feel about the whole thing the next morning. Very often, you will thank yourself for not having been too quick to react, and might actually see things differently. This might not seem possible at times, but even then, it would be well to make it a rule to never speak or act until the heart is calm. Heartfulness Meditation makes this possible naturally by making us aware even before we are about to act on impulse and presenting us with a choice to alter course.Just like an arrow speeds forth, words spoken cannot be recalled. As for those sent out in retort and reaction, chances are that they will do no more than challenge the ego of the receiver. The result cannot be anything other than two egos clashing and trying to prove the other wrong. When this happens, even if we see some point in the arguments the other makes, our egos will simply not permit us to admit it, making the conversation wholly useless. Especially when it comes to close relationships, awkward as it may be, it is much better to cut such a conversation short politely and let a night pass, with the promise to revisit it again. Once the grip of emotions is loosened, we will be in a much better state to forgive and understand. <a href="https://heartfulness.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Heartfulness Cleaning</a> helps enormously in pressing that inner reset button that makes this possible.When we feel depressed, frustrated, or disappointed about things, it is equally necessary to remember that if there is anything permanent in the universe it is change. This also means that whatever we face is equally destined to change. It is important not to give into the feeling of despondency, and focus our energies instead on what we can do. A lot of the time, problems are enormously magnified because of the amount of attention we give them.Is it not be better to focus energies on what we can do rather than wasting time on thinking about possible outcomes or mentally struggling with resentment and frustration? It is precisely these that tire us and enhance the struggle.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/sleep_over_it3_bb3ad59a14.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T04:53:56.619Z"><hr>&nbsp;In place of this tiring struggle of the mind, a much more positive vibratory input would be prayer. This does not refer to a formalized religious ritual, but to an appeal to the wisdom of the higher Self within to bring forth a wider vision of things. Since we have done our best, all we need to do is await the result. If there is more to be done, we can go ahead, but just remember to remove the struggle from the heart. It is this struggle that attenuates focus, weakens efforts, and tires us. The state where we simply focus on doing our best, and let things fall where they do, comes naturally as a result of prayer-meditation.As for how to be sure you did your best, accept that all you did yesterday was the best you could do yesterday. If there are a few hours remaining today, see what you can do to address the problems you face. But once the day is over, consider that you did your best today.Whenever you really feel like hitting back, reacting, or you feel like the world around you is going dark with little hope or relief in sight, sleep over it. You will not feel the same tomorrow.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/sleep_over_it2_607070d911.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-06T04:55:52.536Z"><hr>&nbsp;&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Article by HARI VENKATESAN</h4>&nbsp;<hr>

Sleep over it

Harpreet Bhan

<h4>HARPREET BHAN experiments with some simple plays on words in order to explore the profound meaning that words can sometimes offer us.</h4><hr>The veil is lifting and all that is evil or vile in me is being expunged. As I am refined, transformed by the live transmission pouring into me, I finally begin to live.<hr>The above sentence has an interesting word play. The words “evil,” “veil,” “vile,” “live (rhyming with alive)” and “live (rhyming with give)” are all various constructs of the same four letters – e, l, i, and v.Just like these words, we are born with the same ingredients, the same alphabet letters. Yet we live different lives and create very different destinies, which can range from evil or vile to coming a-live and living life to its fullest potential. Just as a small difference in the arrangement of letters can change the meaning of a word completely, so the smallest of choices can lead to a series of consequences that completely alter the course of our lives.Drilling deeper into this word play, it is interesting to note that while we can find words that start with e, l, and v, there are none that start with i. And none of the words end with i. Isn’t it truly meaningful that nothing can start or end with i? There is clear inspiration for the i to find its right place within something bigger than itself, and place itself in a way that makes the whole more significant, powerful, and consequential. The final destination has no place for anything that starts or ends in i.Reflecting on other word plays, it is fascinating to see how something apparently small can have such a large impact on the entire meaning of a word. For example, in Sanskrit, Brahm means Reality, while Bhram means illusion, which is diametrically opposed to reality. Similarly, Brahman refers to someone who is realized, who has reached the ultimate destination, whereas Bhraman describes someone who is wandering. Just a small change in the order makes a monumental change to the meaning.<hr><img src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/word_play_1_b17034a813.jpg" alt=""><hr>Let me share one final reflection on the prefix “de.” Generally, we assume that adding “de” to a word will somehow reduce it. For example, value becomes devalue, and construct becomes deconstruct. In a strange way, an extremity of evil is “the evil” or “d’evil” or indeed devil. Then again, if you look more closely, there is a wonderful positivity that “de” can bring to certain words. “Vote” indicates we have a choice amongst several options, whereas “devote” is normally used to describe worship or something similar. Another way to look at “devote” is when it alludes to a “willing choiceless-ness” – an affirmation of “I choose not to vote. I choose to do so most willingly and joyously, as I remain de-voted to my beloved.” The choice is simply not ours anymore. Try this with another word “serve.” Deserve can be interpreted as “de-serve,” indicating a state of mind when we don’t even know we are serving, thus becomes deserving.<hr>

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