Daily Positive Thoughts: July 31, 2016: Co-operation

Daily Positive Thoughts: July 31, 2016: Co-operation

Co-operation

Co-operation is perhaps one of the least recognized but most valuable of human virtues. So, for a person to be co-operative means for them to have a quiet eye for what is needed to bring success, and to supply it (and no more) at the right time, in the right place and then to be off. Someone who co-operates, offers their services and then splashes their name on the achievement is not co-operative. It requires invisibility and precision to do and then to go without waiting for results. It also takes a discerning eye to see exactly what is needed, to be removed sufficiently from your own approach to a task and just to contribute one ingredient. Sometimes not even an idea but, however clever you may consider yourself to be, just lend a hand, a support.

Yoga - A Lifestyle (Part 2)

All of us are living beings with a mind and an intellect, which we use to connect to various objects, people and events throughout the day. This is called our mental energy. This mental energy travels extremely fast and can reach another person in much less than a second. Very often we focus our mental energy on the physical body for mental peace and physical fitness through the medium of yog asanas or yogic postures to attain the desired purpose. That for us is a way of letting go of our stresses and negative energies stored in the body. It makes our mind and body healthy. We also focus our mental energies on our breath through the medium of pranayama whereby flawless and smooth breathing is experienced which benefits our physical body immensely and also gives us mental energy.

If you are new at the Brahma Kumaris, and if you are practicing yog asanas and pranayama for their physical and emotional health benefits, from before, you don’t need to stop them. This is because both these are extremely important mediums for this purpose and widely acclaimed and proven successful techniques which have saved many people from the most serious of illnesses and also reduced the intensity of many illnesses. There are lakhs of people all over the world who share their experiences confirming this. But the Brahma Kumaris add another dimension to this physical side of yoga – a spiritual yoga i.e. connecting the mind and intellect to the supreme source of spiritual energy or God, which is also called yoga or connection with a non-physical pure entity - God. So those who have been practicing yog asanas and pranayama, if they desire, can continue to do the same but add the spiritual yoga in their lifestyles. Those who have not been practicing yog asanas and pranayama concentrate only on the spiritual yoga, which not only purifies the soul but also has immense benefits for the physical systems of the body and helps in purifying them. This is because a pure mind means a mind full of the seven qualities of peace, joy, love, bliss, purity, power and knowledge, which in turn influences the main systems of the body and makes them free of illnesses. The mechanism of how the mind affects the different body systems, in further detail, will be explained in tomorrow’s message.

I Can!

If you find it difficult to have effortless attention for long periods of time, 

you need to build up your focus endurance, just as athletes push past their point of exhaustion.

Gradually expand your attention span by working for slightly longer stretches.

Regularly give yourself short attention breaks. Every couple of hours, mix high focus intense activity with less intense activity.

When your attention begins to waver, stop telling yourself that you can't focus. 

Start telling yourself: "I can focus." "I can do a bit more."

Message for the day

To make effort and get the fruit is to ensure real progress. 
Thought to ponder: Sometimes, things come easy and sometimes they don't. When we put in a lot of effort and then get the result of it, there is double benefit. One is of course the result as a positive outcome and the satisfaction is much more because I have earned it. The other is the many trials that I had to make would let me gain many experiences and I end up getting richer with these experiences. 

Point to practice: Today I will take up something I had started with enthusiasm or wanted to start. I will give my thought, time and energy to it and make sure that I make it happen. I will take a thought today not to leave it mid way but see it through till I succeed. 

In Spiritual Service,
Brahma Kumaris