1oz Practice Maha Lakshmi (Bryana)

Om Namo Narayanaya sweet practitioner,
Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for joining me for the practice on gratitude, the most noble virtue. It's a win-win practice in which we fill our heart with love and our mind with humbleness and give another person to be helpful and kind to us.

Swami Sivananda says "Gratitude is a duty which ought to be paid."

We take look in the obstacles which disallow us to be grateful and other to be benefactors to us. We explore the relation between gratitude, love, kindness as well as independence and self-reliance. We stay alert for the egoistic tendencies which keep us away from our true nature.

We start our meditation at 12:14 with Analoma Viloma, Alternate nostril breathing (3-6-6) to settle the mind. We then imagine someone who we want to express our gratitude more fully and share with them words of appreciation and kindness. We close with a thank-you note to ourselves for taking the opportunity to be grateful 🙏

Be a blessing and have a lovely Thanksgiving.
May every day be a day full of gratitude, love and kindness 🙏
Om Namo Narayanaya

OM Namo Narayanaya sweet practitioner!

Today we dive into the third method to overcome adversity and practice generosity - we get inspired by our heroes, heroines, idols, saints and sages and find out how they overcome challenges so we can too apply it in our situation, in our lives.

We hear about the true incident when swami Sivananda was physically attacked with an axe by one of the ashramites. Swami Sivananda's hand did get scraped on the axe but thankfully that was the only injury during the attempt. The assailant was protected and saved by Swamiji, guided with techniques to overcome the negative thought tendencies, initiated into yogic mantra and send with a blessings and many gifts.

We get inspired by the love, kindness, generosity, gratitude, grace, worship and mercy swami Sivananda embodied and manifested towards him in a moment of a life-threatening situation.

At 19:36 we start our meditation with centering our mind on a chosen teaching moment. We plant mental affirmations for positive patterns to grow.
We visualize all the people in our life and how we take the strong resolve to be generous with them in our thoughts, words and actions.
Our meditation concludes with chanting of the mantra:
Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu
May the whole world be in peace and harmony. May every being be happy.
Stay blessed my friend!
Om Namo Narayanaya 🕉 🙏

🙏OM Namo Narayanaya sweet practitioner!
In this practice session we explore 3 methods to overcome adversity and allow ourselves to practice generosity at times of adversity.
1. We recognize our true Self in the one who present the challenge to us.
2. We see the silver lining and practice the opposite positive quality.
3. We get inspired by our heroes, heroines, idols, saints and sages and find out how they overcome challenges.
At 10:08 we contemplate and meditate on the teachings and make strong resolve to bring the affirmations into our day.
May we all see the silver lining and the blessing in disguise, overcome our challenges and become an inspiration for those around us.
Stay blessed my friend!
Om Namo Narayanaya 🕉 🙏

Om Namo Narayanaya sweet practitioner,
In this practice we further establish and grow our character in the virtue of generosity and its subtle aspects. We continue to grow our positive thinking and purify the mind through the virtue of generosity, beneficence, munificence and treating others kindly and with resect and equanimity.
We share some inspiring stories on true generosity from Swami Sivananda's life before he became a monk as he was true embodiment of generosity.
We choose a centering thought and at 17:00 we start contemplating and meditating on the teachings. We close with a firm determination to embody munificence and smile kindly to everyone we meet.
Remember to take the practice to your day and reflect on the opportunities you took and the ones you missed so you can improve tomorrow.
May we be embodiment of generosity as Swami Sivananda was. 🙏
Om Namo Narayanaya

Om Namo Narayanaya sweet practitioner!

In this practice we embark on the cultivation of a specific virtue - self-reliance. I read a short story from Swami Sivananda's book "Inspiring stories" to illustrate the importance of self-reliance. We then dive into the meaning, the value and the wisdom of self-reliance and independence.

At 10:13 we start the meditation. We breathe. We visualize. We feel how it feels to possess the virue. We notice how the mind feels when we rely on others. We contemplate on the advantages and we complete the meditation with a strong resolve.

May all beings be peaceful ☮️
May all beings be happy 🙏

Om Namo Narayanaya 🕉

Om Namah Sivaya!
Let's double our lungs capacity by breathing rhythmically for the count of 4.
Usually we breathe for the count of 2 so by inhaling for the count of 4 and exhaling for the count of 4 we cleanse the lungs of stale air and double their capacity.
We'll practice 10 rounds but feel free to return to normal breathing at any point. Your body knows best.
Clear lungs, clear mind! 🙏🕉