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I have just come back from spending six nights away at a Vipassana Retreat.  Vipassana  is a Buddha teaching, which believes that the end to your suffering is in knowing yourself and gaining insight into your true nature.    In the hectically busy lives that we lead we miss out on the time for self discovery and self observation.  The retreat is an opportunity to take the time out to go deep within and explore by direct experience your inner terrain.  

I noticed how the fear factor came into play prior to my leaving.   Knowing that this retreat was for six whole nights and that I would have to shut up for the entire time – it’s a silent retreat… I was worried.  Even having meditated for many years now, I had never experienced complete days of silence and introspection.

The first day was difficult.  I felt resistance rising in me to everything from the schedule to the many sitting mediations (I sit once a day as a practice – 20 minutes , not for hours…), to the way the dishes were washed in the dining room (you don’t want to know – save water we did), and on and on.   I still had another five days and my back was already straining.   I did sleep well which was a bonus.

The second day I rose at six and the resistance had dropped.  I love it when that happens…one of my favorite phrases when the going gets tough  is “This too shall pass”.   I enjoyed the direct contact with myself.  I let myself ease into the schedule and skipped one or two of the many meditation sittings without any guilt, rather listening to my inner voice and stopping resisting. 

There are many kinds of retreats.  Most of us, “friends” or “yogis” participating are attracted to a common goal – transformation, awareness,  and depth within our lives.   It may be an idea to find the retreat that best suits you.  This retreat I did was in Israel and combined walking and mediation in nature.   You may want to ruff it like I did and sleep four in dormitory quarters, or you may want a more up market retreat where you have more privacy and sleep alone.      I was privileged to have had three Dharma teachers at our retreat.  I hope to visit Martin Aylward, one of our teachers in France, and combine silent practice with dialogue also have my own private room.  See http://www.moulindechaves.org, it’s really worth checking out.

 The retreat is an amazing time out for intensive learning about oneself and having said this I also truly believe in bringing the practice in various ways into our moment by moment living experiences.

Samantha Amit

October 24th, 2008 | Tags: Vipassana, Vipassana Retreat | Category: Personal Growth | Comments (1)

As Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year nears,  you may want to reflect on your life and your year.   How do you spend your days?  Do you live the life you desire?  Are you happy, fulfilled, and content? Do you experience inner peace?

If you had to stop for a moment and reflect on the happiest times of your life - What would those be?  If you chose three different instances or times where you felt truly happy, perhaps the happiest times of your life, what were they?  Please STOP reading for a minute and think about these happiest times or days of your life and write them down.  

What was there?  What in each instance made this time a happy one for you?  What value or principle was there or what need was met?  Is this principle, value or need a dominant part of your life today?

On this Rosh Hashanah, think about how you would like to make a difference.  Start with one step and by making a commitment whether it is to yourself, your family, or your community.  These small steps make a difference to your world which is also our united world.

For the full article please visit www.ask-your-coach.com/RoshHashanah.html

September 25th, 2008 | Tags: Life Coaching, Personal Growth, Rosh Hashanah | Category: Life Coaching | Comments (1)

Are you able to pause the on-going doing-ness of your life, even for one moment? What do you think would happen if you did?

In our society, time has become one of our greatest stressors. At some stages of our lives -frequently for many of us - there is never enough time to do what we need to do. Often we don’t know where the time has gone; the years pass by so rapidly. At other stages, time may go by slowly, with us not knowing what to do with all the time available to us. Whether you are suffering from too much or too little time, try intentional non-doing. This may sound absurd. My challenge to you however, is to test this proposal in your own life, to see for yourself whether your relationship to time can be transformed through this practice of non-doing. You may also find that you are more present to the journey of your lives, from moment-to-moment.

It is not easy to fit this pause-action into our lives. You may find that most of the time you are really on “automatic pilot,” functioning mechanically, without being fully aware of what you are doing or experiencing. It is as if you are only half awake. Non-doing has nothing to do with being languid or sedentary. Quite the contrary. It takes a significant amount of determination and willingness to cultivate non-doing, both in stillness and in movement. Non-doing simply means letting things be and allowing them to unfold in their own way.

It may sound strange my challenging you to not-do when either there is too little time or alternatively you have “more time on your hands” than you wish. How does this work? Well, the answer to this is quite simple- inner peace exists outside time. There is no salvation in time. You cannot be free in the future.

“Presence is the key to freedom, so you can only be free now” – Eckhart Tolle

Committing yourself to step out of time during the day, whether it is two or five or ten minutes, allows you to transform your experience of time when you go back into it. You then provide yourself with the opportunity to flow along with time rather than feel driven by it or fighting against it.

The more you practice making some time in your day for non-doing, the more your whole day becomes non-doing; in other words your doing becomes infused with an awareness grounded in the present moment.

Compare non-doing to a pause in music. A pause is not a lack of music; it is an integral part of the composition. If a conductor does not hold a pause to its full value, it is like a gunshot firing through a silent night. As Claude Debussy has said, “Music is the space between the notes”.

There is one certain criterion for which you can measure your success in this practice: the degree of peace you feel within.

September 15th, 2008 | Tags: doing, Life Coaching | Category: Life Coaching | Leave a comment

Welcome to our new blog – yours and mine.   In this blog I am going to concentrate on areas which in my experience are the foundations of personal growth and development.  You can coach yourself to reach a higher self by practicing these base principles.   As a Life Coach to yourself you may want to be encouraging and positive, challenge yourself to reach greater heights, reflect  back on your day gently as an observer and with curiosity rather than judgment.

How this blog came about is that I wanted to share my present life journey with you.  Like most of us, I have experienced some heavy storms, rain, thunder and lightening, and walked through dense bush and shrub.  I have come out of this to reach open fields filled with wild flowers and clear skies.   Today I live with an inner peace, that encompasses joy and bliss, and a curiosity for what lies ahead.  

Storms may come again,  I am ready for them and welcome them in for this is my opportunity for greater personal growth.  How do I do this?   Let’s start with some basic principles that I will be discussing throughout the blog and would welcome your insights: Meditation, Clearing the way, Doing the things you love, Being the Observer of your life, Breathing Life and more.

 I love to learn through others and to keep an open mind and inquire.  So please be active and share with me your experience and what your principles are.

1.       Meditation

This is the first principle that will be discussed throughout the blog.  Meditation for me is a way of life.    If I want to experience inner peace then this for me is one of the essential foundations of getting there and maintaining it. 

I am adding something that I think is so very important.  Mediation is sometimes thought of in a negative light as something “shanty” or not relevant for you.   This couldn’t be farther from the truth.  In our blog we can share studies of how meditation influences human beings.  For example it influences the frontal cortex of the brain and creates more positivity, creativity, intuition and more.  There are a lot of known scientific facts available today….

In order to know what we want and make the right decisions we want to be able to listen to our inner voice and be intuitive.   Our inner voice is like a compass.  Through meditation practice I have learned to tune into myself.

We can do this when our mind is not overactive with so much thinking.  This thinking is the same as external noise only it’s internal.    I believe that if our there was a competition of “mind noise”  in other words whose mind thinks the most, I think I could have stood a good chance of winning. 

When I started meditating there was no way I could still or empty my mind and I didn’t even try to.   I just sat with my purpose in mind – personal growth and faith that this would help me.   I think that this also indirectly taught me to not resist.  I just sat in meditation.   I will also discuss resistance in this blog under the principle being the observer.  Non - Resistance is a jewel to learn.  With me  it has lead  to acceptance and loving what is.  

I wanted to create a new and healthy habit, meditating almost daily.   In my meditation practice in the early days I sat in silence sometimes for as little as five minutes.  Mostly I managed ten to fifteen minutes and no more as my patience for wanting to get on with my day was very strong.     Adyashanti in his approach to meditation is completely relaxed in the respect of just sit.  That’s what I did.  What I started to notice was the movie in my head and I found it so intriguing.  I will write more about my experiences in meditation in this blog and also about mindfulness.  Kabat-Zinn says  ” Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” 

I have found that even if we don’t  silence the mind and our thoughts we do manage to quieten them.   The less inner noise there is the easier it is for us to gain insight and to be in touch with our inner voice that is our internal guide towards what is true and whole and best for us.

I have evolved in my Meditation practice.  Since I was sixteen,  I did this on and off without sustaining it and making it a part of my everyday life.  Every course I went on taught me a different meditation and I practiced yoga at times.   When I internally made the decision to commit to almost daily practice,  which was only almost 3 years ago, I connected very strongly  to Vipassana mediation.  http://www.dhamma.org/en/vipassana.shtml  “Vipassana, which means to see things as they really are”  

There are over 750 kinds of different mediation practices.  Which one is best for you?   I will discuss the various types I have tried and my experiences as a result of the meditation in this blog.  There is also something called informal meditation which I love.  This is something that you can do in your car at work or wherever you are.  What meditation do you practice?  What’s your experience with meditation? 

2.       Clearing the Way

There are many things  we can work on that will all help us clear the way to uncover our peaceful, loving and joyful selves that are underneath some number of layers  and within us.  One of the biggies is removing disturbing thoughts which we can think of as mental clutter.   In this blog  we can also explore physical clutter which is in our homes, cars, and offices and also let us not forget our bodies.   A healthy body is much better than a neglected one.  Spiritual clutter is another aspect of clearing the way.

Negative thoughts and beliefs are like weeds in a garden.   It’s important to remove negative thoughts ongoing.  Wayne Dyer when he sees one come along says “Next” -  I love that.  I often used to say to myself  “That’s a lie”.  For example if I had a negative thought of disbelief in myself  “you cant do this Sam”  I would say back to my thought “That’s a lie”  As the truth I know is that I can. 

In this blog I intend to continually write about real examples I have experienced myself in  the past and present and how I clear the way and maintain.  Again there are a number of ways.   The trick is to learn a few.  

I would love to hear your comments on how you clear your way and get rid of those weeds.   What are you doing for your body, mind or soul?

Sam Amit

September 12th, 2008 | Tags: Personal Growth | Category: Personal Growth | Leave a comment