A little something from the Upanishads...

I was waiting for the bus today and noticed a beautiful poster for meditation lessons. On it was a quote from the Upanishads, which I just have to share here:

Smaller than the smallest, larger than the largest soul breathes in the hidden heart of man. Many, though they hear of the Self in the lotus of the heart, do not understand it. Wonderful is he who speaks of it. Intelligent is he who learns of it. Blessed is he who, taught by a good teacher, is able to identify with it.

Here's to all the great teachers out there and here's wishing that anyone who is searching finds the right teacher for them! I've certainly been blessed to have amazing teachers in my life and I'd certainly encourage anyone to search for the right teacher. They're definitely out there.

My top three happiness habits

Yesterday a friend of mine asked me what I thought were the three most important "happiness habits". I found the question so intriguing that I decided I would answer it on this blog :-)

Obviously I -- and nobody else, for that matter -- can say what the three definitive happiness habits are. But what I can say is what the top three are for me - at least at this stage of my life. So here we go, in no particular order:

1) The DAILY BAG exercise! It consists of asking and answering the following three questions:

• what are some of my blessings? (what am I grateful for in my life?)
• what are some of my accomplishments? (what am I really proud of in my life?)
• what are my goals, dreams, ambitions? (for today, this month, next five years?)

This exercise comes from the book "The psychology of winning" by Dr. Denis Waitley, and I like this daily exercise so much that I do it at least once a week :-) Personally for me, I find that it's reminding myself of the things that I am grateful for that has the greatest impact on my happiness.

2) Regular daily exercise or movement routine. Every morning I make sure that I get at least five minutes of my favorite physical exercises before continuing with the rest of my day. If possible, I try to get in at least 10 or 15 minutes. What I think is important is experimenting with and discovering a routine that works well. For some such a routine can be based on yoga, others may prefer one based on martial arts. I like to base about 70% of my daily exercise routine on Dan Millman's "Peaceful Warrior Workout" and I flexibly add the other 30% based on however I am feeling that morning. I also think that even if you can do just one minute, than it's worth doing. As Dan says, "one minute every day is a lot better than an hour zero times per week" (or something like that :-)

And if anyone's interested, this routine is a part of my larger "start the day right" routine, which also consists of a meditation, hot/cold shower and at least one piece of fruit for breakfast. I think such a "start the day right" routine is extremely useful, but likely somewhat different for everyone - experiment, experiment, experiment.

3) And finally, I am not sure it this last one is a habit -- perhaps it's more of a principle -- but I find it so important that I want to include it here: Recognize that being happy means being generally happy, and not all the time happy. I am not sure who said it, but "if we were happy all the time, how would we know?". I personally have the feeling that there is a general consensus in society that we have to be happy all the time, otherwise something is wrong. Well I don't buy that. I don't think there is anything wrong at all if we are unhappy, sad or angry once a in a while. In fact, I actually think that being unhappy, sad or angry occasionaly is a sign that we're healthy! It's all about what feelings predominate our lives, and that feeling should hopefully be happiness. I've found that approaching life in this way releases a lot of pressure and, lo and behold, increases the percentage of time that I am happy, AND increases the intensity of this happiness.

Well, I could write about this for hours, but I think I'll stop here. After all, blog entries should be brief. But enough about me. What are your top three happiness habits?

Some breathtaking art for the sometimes gloomy autumn days

Yesterday and Sunday I saw two amazing art exhibitions. The first one was a retrospective exhibit -- as well as a probe of the soul -- of perhaps the most famous Czech painter, Josef Capek (brother of Karel Capek, the man who gave us the word Robot in the play R.U.R.). I was absolutely blown away by the range of the man's work and by the range of the emotions he was able to express on the canvas - from the pure joy of a child at play all the way to the fear and anxiety of an adult during a war. The exhibit takes place until January 17 at the Prague Castle so if anyone is in the area during this time, I highly recommend visiting it.

And yesterday we went to see the Impressionism exhibit that is now being held at the Albertina Museum in Vienna. If I say that the Josef Capek exhibit was a probe into the soul of a man, then the Impressionism exhibit is a probe into the soul of the impressionist style, which is my favourite painting style. I like impressionism so much because the impressionists were the first painters to find the courage to abandon efforts to depict reality as precisely as possible and instead they tried to convey a feeling with their work. They were also the first ones to step out of the studio and into actual nature to paint their paintings. Of course at first they were heavily criticized, but they perservered and as a result ended up producing some of the most breathtaking art of all time.

And as a sort of bonus, not only does this exhibition present some breathtaking paintings from the likes of Monet, Renoir or Van Gogh, but it also presents fascinating insights into how they went about their work. This exhibition is on until January 10, I believe, so if you're in the Vienna area at any time between now and then, I again highly recommend visiting it.

But even if you will not be anywhere near Prague or Vienna in the next couple of months, perhaps there is an interesting art exhibit somewhere near your home. Especially in the sometimes gloomy autumn days viewing beautiful works of art can have a tremendously positive impact on our mood and optimism. At least it certainly works that way for me. Happy art seeing!

A little bit of adrenalin...

It's time for another Friday "from the lighter side" video. I'd never do something like this, but it's sure fun to watch:

The source of unlimited happiness is INSIDE each one of us

The July 20th issue of the Czech magazine Respekt brought a very interesting interview with renowned Czech psychologist and psychotherapist Lubomir Kobrle. The final question was about what chances a person has to attain full satisfaction in life. Kobrle's answer is one that speaks straight from my heart too: "Each being has an internal source in it that makes it possible for the being to be happy. And the question is whether one is successful in activating this source or not, which is a somewhat mysterious matter."

I love that quote and I personally believe that every being on Earth has the source of unlimited happiness right inside him or her. Yet paradoxically most of us do so much looking outside of ourselves for happiness - just take a look at how well the entertainment, pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol industries, just to name a few, are doing. But how do we begin looking inward and how do we activate this source?

Kobrle offers the following suggestions: "work on oneself, psychotherapy, important meetings with people...", "...also experiences during altered states of consciousness during holotropic breathwork." In short, begin by searching inwards, ideally with the guidance of someone who has plenty of experience in this type of work. Btw, earlier in this blog I had written that PBSP is one of the techniques that has totally transformed my life. Well, now I'd like to add that Holotropic Breathwork is the other technique. I am planning to write about this amazing technique soon. Meanwhile you may wish to check out its official website. Or read my posts on TaKeTiNa, Rolfing, Drama Triangle or Dynamind - all techniques that I have found extremely useful on the journey towards unlimited happiness.

I wish you much insight and joy on your journey towards the inner source of unlimited happiness!

Great things are sometimes built on simple but solid foundations

I love the video below. It contains several messages I really like, including the one in the title of this post. I also love the power of Wintley's presentation style!

Brilliant presentation on the excesses of Western culture

The link to this video came in Dan Millman's e-newsletter today and I liked it so much that I want to repost it here. Startling statistics, brilliant presentation. Even though the presentation is specific to the United States, I am quite sure it is applicable to virtually the entire Western world.