The biggest problem most people have

The biggest problem most people have is not that they don’t have enough, it is that they take for granted what they do have.

When you take something for granted you ignore and forget what is already there. You have huge blindspots to the very very good things that are already there.

Sometimes it takes a disaster to wake up.

I read about a girl who lost her legs in an accident. On waking up she decided to be grateful just to be alive, rather than the loss of limbs.

She said it was on that day that her life truly started. She only really started living when she lost her legs.

I must admit I’m not always that grateful on waking every single morning. I do like sleeping in.

But I think perhaps you knows what I mean.

Don't wait for something huge and disastrous to wake you up.

Spend more time seeing what you do have and not focusing on what is missing.

One path leads to greater and greater joy, health and abundance.

The other leads to misery, depression, fear, lack and scarcity.

Ever felt like that? I have. Yuck.

Such a simple way out.

Just notice what you do have. Get rid of your blindspots.

And you know what?

Gratitude is an essential part of the second Ascension meditation technique.

You don’t have to imagine something or create a mood or anything fluffy like that.

You just use the technique as I teach you and it undoes all the beliefs and conditioning that cause you to have these blindspots in the first place.

Effortlessly undoes it all, just by you closing your eyes.

By chance, I have a course to assist you in this very matter! 15-17 April. £200 for the whole thing - and you can resit for free, forever.

Email me for a very comfy seat - learn to meditate properly, and have the best weekend you’ve had for a long time.

Have a good one! - Arjuna

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FREE ebook on meditation and mindset for ending stress and self-sabotage, and living an exceptional life:

http://www.arjunaishaya.com/discovermeditationandmindset

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Smoking weed for peace: Why some Facebook advice is not what you really want

Smoke weed every day? As an answer to being calm, clear and content?

I was just looking on my Facebook page and someone left a little comment saying to the effect that the answer to being clear, calm and content lay in smoking marijuana.

Now I’ve smoked some before and as fun as it was in its own way, marijuana wouldn’t be my go to practice for clarity.

Calm maybe, horizontal more like. But clear? I was more fuzzy headed than anything. And hungry.

But the fact of the matter is that I got to the point in life where I didn’t want anything to be the “middleman” to my peace and focus in life.

I didn’t want to rely on anything anymore.

Not drugs, not kayaking, not adventures, not music, not reading inspiring books, not yoga, not other people.

I wanted to be able to choose to clear, calm and content - to be the best version of myself - without needing anything external in order to do that.

See I wasn’t able to simply “reset” myself and be present. Sometimes I just couldn’t get out of my own head.

I would do some yoga and breathing as a means to “de-stress” but it could take an hour and a half of yoga to step outside my own looping thoughts.

That was too much time.

I wanted to come to a point where I had a means of just remembering what was beyond my small mind in seconds, not minutes or hours.

Having freedom of choice, I believed, needed to be fast, and without conditions.

It needed to be an internal thing, independent of “stuff”, otherwise I was just relying on something else … do you get me?

You don’t need anything to choose, awareness is all, and you have that already. You are that.

You just need to remember to be it.

Now, if you’re like me, a tool, or a technique to help you remember, to get you out of your mind (in the best possible sense) is very very very useful.

But it needs to be an internal tool that will mean you can choose and be aware without relying on anything but what you have within.

It needs to be simple, because simple is quick.

It needs to be something that you can use with your eyes open - because you spend your life with your eyes open.

An eyes closed meditation practice is excellent, but a tool you can also use eyes open, superb.

And if it’s not illegal then you are away laughing.

If you are the same as me, you may well want to join me on the next Ascension meditation course. We are on 15-17 April.

I’ll give you everything you need to become completely present and aware quickly, whenever you want, without any unnecessary "fluff" or anything “external”, or the chance of being arrested.

If you want a (comfy) seat, email me before too long.

Take care, and have a superb day

- Arjuna

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FREE ebook on meditation and mindset for ending stress, struggle and self-sabotage:

http://www.arjunaishaya.com/discovermeditationandmindset

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When stopping means you actually go forward

I've got a five day Ascension retreat on here at the moment, and I’m loving it. We - the fiance (I only use that word as it rhymes with Beyonce) and I and a few good men - are doing the whole thing, teaching, cooking, cleaning. I’m doing more dishes this week than I’d usually do in a month.

Loving it.

Because it’s so good to give people the space just to do nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Amazing things happen from periodic spells of doing nothing.

You can see the retreaters unwinding, their faces literally changing, softening, becoming lighter.

They come into the kitchen and share their discoveries - had a lady find me this morning as I was tackling a particularly sticky pot:

“Look what I’ve been doing all my life” she said and then proceeded to laugh her arse off, as she realised she just didn’t need to do that thing any more, ever again.

All of them, ditching narrow reactive habits for freedom and awareness and choice.

Being worry and doubt free for perhaps the first time since childhood.

Getting clear and focussed on what they want from life, and setting real plans to go get it.

I love it.

You want that too?

You can have it.

Stop.

Sometimes to retreat is to advance.

You need little spells in your day, time outs. Even if you just sit somewhere quiet and simply breathe - deep and slow.

Close the eyes, notice the breath. Coming in, going out. Keep it easy.

Doesn’t make your problems go away. But it gives you clarity and perspective.

Lets you stop worrying unnecessarily.

Gives you insight into what you can do, and what you need let go for the moment.

If you like a good, productive, enjoyable, stress free life, it’s got to be done.

It’s got to be done.

Why meditate?

"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." - Henry Miller

The result of meditation is the ability to not attach to the stuff in your head. It is the ability to be mentally fit, fluid and free.

You develop the ability to purely witness, to allow thoughts and emotions to come and go.

You develop the ability to choose what to focus on.

You gain the ability to enjoy every - every - aspect of your life.

Perhaps there is a negative thought or a worry or a doubt. Meditation isn’t about banishing it, it is about simply letting it be there but not getting wrapped up in it.

It is there, but it isn’t you. You don’t get lost in it anymore. Or if you do, you can choose to let go, simply, effortlessly, immediately.

Meditation in action is when you take this ability to not react to things in life.

So something doesn’t go the way you want it to. You are able to not be affected, to remain calm and clear and see what you can do about the situation - if anything.

You don’t get wrapped up in drama any more. You develop the awareness that being calm and at peace is much more enjoyable, and you know how to choose for it.

You give up your ticket to the rollercoaster - life becomes one steady, super enjoyable, very effective moment. Joy and contentment is the overwhelming response to life.

This is good, that is good, all is good.

From that calmness and clarity comes the ability to live the very best version of yourself.

All through a little practice. A little commitment to being that version of you.

You can do this, it is who you have been all along.

Stop, take a moment from trying to work stuff out or trying to control. Be present and alive to this moment. See the beauty that is here, see the good that is already in your life.

Why would you want to set aside time to meditate?

So you become aware, and in doing so, totally and completely alive.

It's worth it.

Be the change...

“Be the change you wish to see in the world” - Gandhi It is a fascinating and inviolable certainty of this world:

What you give tends to be what you get.

If you are smart, and you are smart otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this, you may come to the following conclusion:

If you get what you give it would be a good idea to give what you want to receive.

It works at the most basic level: If you want more hugs, give more hugs. If you want happier people around you, be more happy. If you want more love, give more love.

But it even works at a more subtle and abstract level.

If you want more understanding, give more understanding.

If you want more honesty, be more honest.

More clarity? Be clearer.

More patience and tolerance and mutual respect? Be all of that.

It’s the coolest thing once you see it. Loving, open, happy people have a whole world that is loving and open and happy. They attract very similar people. Scared and anxious people tend to create events and people that make them scared and anxious, giving them more reason to be scared and anxious.

Now: If you find yourself pointing the finger at people and insisting that they are more x, y or z, for whatever reason, it's an excellent sign you need to look at yourself.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. That single act, bringing the focus of change to within yourself changes more than you can possibly imagine. It all starts with you.

Ever tried to actually change someone? In fact, do you realise you try and change all your loved ones? Stop, its futile. People dig their heels in deep when they feel someone is trying to change them. But they do respond to a) openness and b) change in others. It all points back to you.

But don’t take my word for it, do it. Even if you disagree, try it. Prove me (and Gandhi) wrong by putting your money where your mouth is.

Save the world starting with yourself. You are the one person you can change. Might as well get going.

The world owes you nothing

What a difference your attitude makes.

Some people live this life believing they deserve more. They are right - everyone continually deserves more - but they demand more, stomping their feet like a small child, unappreciative.

When you demand, ungrateful, the whole world turns its back on you.

The world does not owe you anything. On the contrary, you are absolutely blessed to be here.

Every moment that you are simply alive is nothing short of a miracle.

Realise that and you will be so filled with gratitude and awe you will never demand anything ever again.

You continually fill your attention with presence and stillness, nothing is lacking. Filled up, needing nothing, demanding for nothing, the whole world throws its treasure at you.

The stillness responds to your attitude. Don’t demand it comes to you; go to it, empty, giving everything of yourself. In that way, and only in that way, you will be forever filled.