Principle 14

14- 'If we cling to anger or hatred, we will suffer. It is possible to respond strongly, wisely, and compassionately without hatred.'

I don't feel complelled to disect this principle too indepth, its rather self explanitory =) its very evident that negative thoughts, feelings, responses and reaction create more suffering for ourselves and those around us, and no one enjoys suffering. We all must learn to relax, breathe, notice our anger, and then let it go, responding rationally and intellegently by our own choice, instead of succubing to the wave of negative emotions. =)

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Principle 13

13 - 'There are both healthy desires and unhealthy desires. Know the difference. Then find freedom in their midst.'

Now when we talk about desires in this context, they are desires in the realm of wanting a chocolate day vs eating healthy, or staying up late verses sleeping properly, this is not a post about obvious unhealthy desires such as hurting ones self or others in a violent fashion. Within the realm of day to day thoughts and desires, we have heathy and unheathy wants, some are border each other so closley it can be a challenge to disern which is which. We go around wanting and wanting and wanting, all we ever really think about is what we want, from life dreams and goals, down to whether or not we want to get off the couch and wash our teeth after dinner.
Step one: just observe the thoughts that fly through your head all day long. To begin, just notice all your thoughts for 1 minute, then in your meditations practice noticing your thoughts (aka your wants) for 20 min, then 30, the 45 then 60. Soon you'll be able to just notice your thoughts through out your day.
Step 2- once you are able to notice your thoughts, without judgement, you'll start to pick up on the patterns of what is healthy (for yourself and others) and what is not. Again a visual: the difference between healthy and unhealthy is as subtle as your mood. For instance, we often get cranky, or fussy, bitchy, moody, pissed off, depressed, and when we get in these emotional states we tend to stay there for hours, maybe days, why? because we want to! Let's face it, we are only as happy or as miserable as we want to be (refer back to my hospice post). If we didn't want to be upset, then we wouldn't be. We find ourselves 'stuck' by our own doing. This is an example of an unhealthy desire, the desire to just 'sit there and take it' to not 'get over it'.
Step 3- freedom! Once we have accepted we have desires all day everyday, when we can observe them and decern one from the other, then we can free ourselves from their grasp and control!

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Principle 12

Back to the 26 Principles of Buddhist Philosophy =)
No. 12 - 'The unhealthy patterns of our personality can be recognized and transformed into a healthy expression of our natural temperament.'

What this is saying is do not judge yourself, blame yourself, beat yourself down or punish yourself for your negative thought patterns. Example if you get cut off in traffic and think 'that jerk', then fine ok, you had a reaction, you don't need to make the situation worse by making yourself wrong for it. Then once we accept our humaity, accept our 'flaws' and love ourselves with them, (going back to that acceptance post) then you can make healthy changes if you wish.
So if you would like to shift what's naturally occuring, allow it to still be natural, when a 'negative' though comes up like 'i feel bloated today' you can then say right after 'my eyes look really stunning' or 'i am strong and confident, and will rock my meeting' or simply 'i am beautiful'. Or if you think 'that jerk' you can continue on with positive thoughts like 'maybe he didn't see me' or 'this road leads to the hospital, maybe they are in a hurray there to help someone' or 'maybe they are having a bad day, I want to wish them love and kindness, hope they find what they are looking for soon.' And on and so forth.
We go to the Dr. for body health and the dentist for oral health, keeping our thoughts postive will keep our minds in better health!

Much love everyone, keep it positive, stay healthy!

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Happy Fall!

Hurray, September 1st! Thank you all for allowing me to take a month off, have a little summer vacation =)
I'm excited to be back!
For those of you who haven't heard yet, I'm working at Breathe Yoga and Massage Vancouver, first week of yoga is free, some stop on by and check it out, the space is lovely and the people become instant family! =)

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New Month- July Summary

So for this past month and continuing this month I have been slash will be covering The Principles of Buddhist Psychology. So far last month I got throught 1 to 11. In between there were 5 other posts made.

First was Firework where for the 4th of July I posted the Katy Perry lyrics and video.

Second was Curing Disease where I posted a quote from Amy L. a Rolf Gates student sharing how her fibroystic breast disease was cured through practicing yoga.

Third was I Was At Camp which was a life update of mine.

Fourth was Meditations From the Mat Day 209 covering the importance of working with things as they are.

The last was Acceptance where I highlighted what acceptance really means.

So thank you for following..and on to the remaining 15 Principles =)

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