Recently I received an email from a reader who requested help on how to stop procrastination, as this was causing him innumerable problems in life.  Procrastination, as we all probably know, can affect our lives negatively at many levels.  It can prevent us from moving ahead in the manifested world, as well as certainly prevent us from breaking free from the endless stream of ego centric thoughts and desires in the spiritual world.  So in this article I would like to share with you some of the tips I gave him, and expand on the spiritual aspect of this important topic as well.

1-2.  Energy & Character:

The first 2 keys for putting an end to procrastination is Energy and Character.  I have bundled them together because there exists an excellent solution which helps with both these issues.  Essentially, our energy comes from our core region which is governed by the Third Chakra (Navel or Solar Pluxes Chakra), and this very same chakra is also responsible for building our character and willpower.  So one of the first things to do, in order to break free from the habit of procrastination, is to work on this center.

Below, let me give you several great options for developing your core energy and balancing the Navel Chakra.  I suggest to rotate the sets that are given and to include the Breathing exercise as well for maximum benefit.  The body, especially muscles, get acclimatized to repetitive routines over time, so change ups are necessary to challenge and thus insure continuous muscle development and physical improvement.

Abdominal Set 1:

Core Abdominal Power Yoga Exercises

Abdominal Set 2:

Ab Yoga Exercises to Shape and Tone Stomach

Pranayama Set to Develop Third Chakra and Overall Energy:

Kapalbhati Pranayama for Optimum Health

The above combination will prove to be very potent in developing your core energy and developing your character. 

3. Mood Mastery:

The other factor which often engenders procrastination is the inability to do what needs to be done because of mood.  You simply feel lazy or are not in the mood, so you procrastinate.  The number one technique for helping you master your mood and do what needs to be done right away is without a doubt, Zen Meditation or Zazen practice.  This practice is very effective in teaching you how to live in the moment and perform the action required by life at that given moment.  The ideal practice to achieve this mastery I have found to be 20 minutes, 2 times per day.  Here is the link to this profound technique:

Zen Meditation Technique - Zazen

4. Momentum:

Another key, I want to mention is the role that momentum plays in breaking the habit of procrastination.  What I have found is that the more I do in time, the easier it gets to continue this approach and attitude.  It is like a snowball affect, where getting started in the hardest part, and then it gets easier as you build momentum.

5. Don’t Try to Do Things Perfectly - The Golden Rule:

The final key is really very important to helping you break this habit (thanks for the reminder Debra ).  In fact it is so important that I call it my Golden Rule.  It is the 70% rule, which says that don’t try to do things perfectly, instead if you can do them even 70% of max that is fine, just begin.  I have written about this previously in the ever popular article The Golden Rule to Stop Excuses and Start Meditation Now.  The benefit of this attitude should not be underestimated, it has helped me accomplish a great deal in life, including this very blog . 

Importance of Urgency:

Procrastination essentially means that there is a lack of urgency, and to break through the false reality of dualistic thinking, urgency is a must and procrastination is one of the biggest obstacles.  Time is not a factor for breaking through.  You can do it right now, in fact you can only do it right now.  Thinking in terms of time is illusionary and false.  Psychological time is a fabrication of thinking and has no reality, so what must be done, must be done right now.  So if you want to transform, transform now. 

Here are 2 articles where I discuss this in greater depth:

Insight Meditation Tips - The Power of Urgency

Silent Mind Meditation Program - Chapter 11 - Urgency

To inspire you further, here are J. Krishnamurti’s own words on stopping procrastination and breaking free:

Be a light to yourself. Stop procrastination. Throw away the content of consciousness. There has to be pure consciousness, pure awareness, pure listening.

It’s Now or Never.

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• 10 Keys for Turning Ideas Into Reality
• The Golden Rule to Stop Excuses and Start Meditation Now
• How To Live Your Own Life
• Surprising Meditation Survey Results: 90% of You Meditate
• Promising Survey Results for How Much Time Do You Meditate

Yoga Therapy for Anger

The wide range of applications for yoga therapy is really quite remarkable and in this article I will give you some nice techniques for anger management, with which you can release and be free of your anger.   Anger is really just energy in motion, and yoga has some great techniques on how to effectively deal with this often overwhelming burst of energy.  Of these techniques, I am going to focus on one in particular which comes from the timeless school of Kundalini Yoga and has a very unique way of helping you manage your anger problems.

This anger management technique, is designed to help you consciously release any pent up anger or frustration, so that it does not remain suppressed within you, waiting to explode like a ticking time bomb.  The technique also helps you learn to become a witness to this energy, so that it is not able to influence your thoughts negatively.  Many times previously I have spoken about developing this Witnessing Consciousness to help you in your emotional mastery, and indicated that difficult times, such as when you are angry for example, are a perfect opportunity for developing this potential.  This technique gives you a chance to create such an opportunity in order to practice and develop this profound aspect of yourself.

Yoga also provides some other excellent techniques for anger therapy, which I have detailed previously and I will also show you how to combine them effectively with the anger management technique I am going to detail for you today.  As mentioned, this therapy comes from the school of Kundalini Yoga and will be part of our Free Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises E-book, here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.

In addition, as I had mentioned yoga therapy has a wide range of applications and some of the previously detailed programs which might interest you as well are the following:  4 Effective Treatments for Stress and Anxiety Disorder and Depression and Anxiety Help with Yoga.

Below you will find illustrations and complete practice details for this anger management technique.  If you are new to yoga, please also follow the guidelines on how to practice yoga which I have detailed in the following 2 articles, Beginner’s Guide to Yoga Practice and Guidelines for Kundalini Yoga Practice.

Anger Management Yoga Therapy

Illustration #1 Starting Position - Get Angry

 

Illustration #2 Anger Management Therapy

 

Illustration #3 Anger Management Therapy

Illustration #4 Anger Management Therapy

Anger Management Yoga Therapy:

a. Instructions for practicing Anger Management Yoga Therapy:

• This technique is relatively simple to do and is quite effective as well.  To start, lie on your back as show in Illustration #1.  Then close your eyes and raise your arms straight up towards the ceiling.  Make a fist.  Now inhale deeply and really get angry.

• Now, tense your arms and clench your fist and slowly start to bring your hands down towards your chest, as shown in Illustrations 2 and 3.  Pretend as if you are pulling an immensely heavy object down towards you.  Continue to let angry flow as you do this.  Any anger that come up just allow it to come up.  Remain angry.

• Once your fists reach your chest (Illustration #4), exhale forcefully from the mouth and with the outgoing breath release all the anger consciously.  Then inhale again, raise your arms and repeat 2 more times for a total of 3 repetitions.

• After completing your three repetitions, relax completely in corpse pose for 1-3 minutes.  Just observe any remnants of anger which might come up and allow this energy to run it’s course and then let it go completely.    

b. Duration for Anger Management Yoga Therapy:

• 3 repetitions total.  Make sure you are slowly pulling your hands down.  Corpse Pose for 1-3 minutes afterwords.
  

c. Benefits of Anger Management Yoga Therapy:

• Helps release suppressed anger and frustration.
• Helps one consciously learn to release and be free from anger.
• Helps develop the art of observing feelings and thoughts without judging or interfering.
  

d. Practice Tips for Anger Management Yoga Therapy:

• Don’t be afraid to really get angry when doing this practice.  Also, if you notice certain thought patterns coming up repeatedly during this exercise, learn to detach yourself from them, let them run their course and allow them to finish.

• In general, don’t judge yourself when you get angry.  We all get angry and there is nothing wrong with that, it is ok.  Just learn to observe this anger and don’t get swept away with the ego empowering, hateful, negative thoughts that anger ignites.  Instead, try to use this opportunity to practice forgiveness and develop your Witnessing Consciousness.

More Anger Management Yoga Therapies:

1. Another great technique, which can be used to balance a system disposed to anger and irritation is Sheetali Pranayama for Stress and Anger Management or the Cooling Breath.  You may wish to practice this after corpse pose, if you feel the anger mangement technique has left you overheated or irritated.

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Relaxation Meditation Technique for Immediate Stress Reduction
• Hatha Yoga Sheetali Pranayama Video - The Cooling Breath
• 10 Keys for Turning Ideas Into Reality
• Best Treatments for Stress and Anxiety Disorder
• Free Online Yoga Breathing Exercises (Yoga Pranayama) E-Book

Advanced Yoga Pose

For the power yoga fans who have been enjoying the high powered sets such as Core Abdominal Power Yoga Exercises and the Yoga for Full Body Fitness, here is an advanced yoga pose that is sure to challenge and test you as well.  Of course, if you are a beginner yogi looking to learn yoga or if you are looking for more gentle yoga sets, you will find plenty of those on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga as well, such as the Yoga Poses for Beginners Set and the Kundalini Yoga Best Beginner’s Yoga Set, to name a few.

The following power yoga pose, Elbow Platform, comes from the timeless school of Kundalini Yoga and is designed to help you build grit and willpower.  Along the way to developing these and other intangible assets, the pose will also of course strengthen your body and muscles.  Specifically, it will work on your hamstrings, back, abs, buttocks and arms.  More on those benefits in the practice section below.

Although the basic version of this pose should be sufficient to challenge most yoga enthusiasts, I have also provided an advanced version of this advanced pose, for the real power yoga fanatics .  Needless to say, please be careful when coming into this pose, and don’t hold it for longer that you feel comfortable.  This posture is part of Kundalini Yoga Warrior’s Kriya, which I will upload in the future.  It can also be integrated into your routine as per your needs.

This pose will be part of the following 2 free online e-books: Free Hatha Yoga Poses & Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises, where you will find a huge collection of other yoga poses and postures, fully illustrated and detailed.

Below you will find illustrations of this power yoga pose and complete practice details.  Please also follow the guidelines on how to practice yoga which I have detailed in the following 2 articles, Beginner’s Guide to Yoga Practice and Guidelines for Kundalini Yoga Practice.

Power Yoga’s Elbow Platform Pose

Illustration #1 Elbow Platform Pose Basic

 

Illustration #2 Elbow Platform Pose Advanced - Left Leg

 

Illustration #3 Elbow Platform Pose Advanced - Right Leg

Power Yoga Pose - Elbow Platform:

a. Instructions for practicing Elbow Platform:

• Come into the position as indicated by Illustration #1.  Essentially you are going to support your entire body with just your elbows and heels.  No other parts of the body should be touching the body.  The toes should be extended and the entire body should be kept straight.  The eyes can be either closed or if kept open, they should be focused on your toes.

• While doing this yoga pose, you should be doing powerful Breath of Fire Breathing exercise, to reap the full benefits of this posture.

• In the advanced version of this power yoga pose, you are going to raise one leg about 12 to 18 inches above the ground, so you will then only be holding yourself up with your elbows and 1 heel (Illustration #2 and Illustration #3).  Do one leg at a time (unless you have mastered levitation ).  Start with your left left and then switch to the right.  Keep the toes pointed throughout and your body straight. 

b. Duration for Power Yoga Elbow Platform Pose:

• 15 seconds - 3 minutes.  If you are doing the advanced version, split the time between each leg.  Again, don’t push too hard, remember that as the muscles tire, the chance of injury rises.
  

c. Benefits of Power Yoga Elbow Platform Pose:

• Excellent exercise to strength the upper and lower body simultaneously.  Good for shoulders, triceps, back, abs, hamstrings, buttocks and calves.

• Great for building willpower and grit.  This exercise builds character and the ability to overcome challenges and obstacles in life.

• Good for your nervous system.
  

d. Practice Tips for Power Yoga Elbow Platform Pose:

• It is important to do some warm-ups before attempting this pose.  Specially warm-up your back, hamstrings and shoulders.

• Use the Breath of Fire to carry your through as you become more proficient at this pose.  Forget about the body and mind, and just breathe powerfully.

Online Yoga Sets Using Elbow Platform Pose:

1. For now you can use the 6 Guidelines on How to Create Yoga Sets to help you integrate this advanced pose into your routine.  But coming soon this exercise is going to part of some key yoga sets including Warrior Kriya, which is perhaps the mother of all Power Yoga Sets, be on the lookout for that.
   

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Yoga Positions for Beginners | Basic Yoga Poses
• Yoga Exercises for Men’s Sexual Health
• Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose for Sexual Health
• Yoga Plank Pose for Arms & Upper Body Strength
• Free Online Hatha Yoga Poses Galleries

Forgot my standard disclaimer when I write on this topic, so am adding it now .

This topic of making money always causes all sorts of knee-jerk reactions, so I have learned to put a disclaimer before I write such articles, and here it is.  I am very happy to offer my website in it’s free format, and this article is not a request for money, and I am not against those making money from their spiritual work either.  Now onto the survey…

Here is an interesting question which I am very curious to learn your thoughts on. Do you think spiritual services, such as yoga, meditation, reiki, ayurveda, etc, should be provided for free or do you think it is ok for practitioners and teachers to charge money for such services?  I will discuss my thoughts on this interesting, and sometimes controversial topic, after I collect your responses.

You can find other interesting surveys we have run here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga under the Survey Category.

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• 5 Money Making Ideas for Spiritual Professionals
• Important Life Lessons to Learn from Biggest Mistakes In Life Survey
• COPYRIGHT
• Survey Results: God Wins! Health, Money & Family Do Well
• Spiritual Transformation Underway | 70% Say Yes

I just rolled back into good old New Jersey late last night after a trip across our Northern border to attend a wedding and give the kids a chance to experience the raw power of nature at Niagara Falls.  So now you know why I was missing in action last week .  It was simply a magnificent vacation and not just because of all the fun we had at Niagara Falls, or all the endless dancing we got to do at the wedding, that would have made it a great trip, but it was a magnificent trip, because I found myself spiritually uplifted and recharged after it.  Today, I would like to share with you some tips on how to make a vacation great for your spiritual dimension as well.

Of course, if your vacation is a yoga or meditation retreat, there is no question that you will come back inspired and eager to deepen your practice, but even if your vacation is just a regular one, I think it can be useful to helping you with your spiritual evolution and here is how…

1. Perspective Change - Enlightenment Experiences:

In the past I have written about the danger of vacations in that it can disrupt a burgeoning practice in the article, It’s Wonderful But Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice, but the opposite is also true.  If you are overly caught up in the rat race and have lost the right perspective in life, then a vacation is great for disrupting that madness as well.  In other words, if you have gotten too involved in the drama of your little life and little ego, stepping away from it all for a few days will give you a chance to zoom out and put things back in their right place.

We all get caught up in the hustle and bustle of life from time to time.  When this happens our practice tends to suffer as our energy and time get sucked up by whatever it is that we are chasing and we lose sight of what is important.  The only thing that is really important is your spiritual work, the rest then flows in the right way from there.  If your spiritual practice is gone, you are lost.  You will run endlessly after things that you believe will make you happy, and like a rat on a wheel, you will just spin endlessly from desire to desire.  Meditation is the realization that there is nothing to chase, that everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is.  That you are already complete and lacking nothing, and stepping away from your daily life, at a minimum, gives you a chance to see this rat nature of yours .  In fact, if you are lucky, sometimes in a relaxed state during vacation, not only do you realize you have been chasing meaningless outward rewards, you may even end up having the realization of the perfection of life just as is.

This is exactly what I experienced the second day into my vacation.  As I lay in bed, for an afternoon nap with my two boys, reflecting on the perfection of the scenario, suddenly the endless perfection of life overwhelmed me.  Awareness simply shifted into another dimension, which was saturated with great indescribable beauty and depth.  As is common with such experiences, it was unique, blissful, came on it’s own and belonged to a dimension completely divorced from mind and matter.  It stayed for a while, allowing me to bathe in the great mystery of this thing we call life.

Lesson Learned:  Find some time during your vacation, when you can be completely relaxed, free of all your worries and tensions and simply allow yourself to be in the moment and reflect on the perfection of the here and now.

2. Nature Time:

As I mentioned in the article, 10 Things to Do Daily for a Happy and Meaningful Life, requirement number 4 is to spend time in nature.  Nothing is better for helping you reconnect with life and break free from the material rat race than spending some time in the beauty of mother nature.  I have also mentioned the importance of including such time in the article 3 Simple Tips to Invite Enlightenment, and if you have not managed to do this during your everyday life, certainly use your vacation time to re-establish this connection.  As many masters have pointed out, if you cannot relate to nature and it’s rhythms, you will never be able to relate to your fellow man, or to God.

3. Love:

Perhaps I need to write more on this topic for in the end, Love and Truth are one and the same.  Being of the intellectual disposition, my approach has always been of awareness and intelligence, but that is not to say that I don’t realize that in the end, it is all about Love.  Love is an energy far more than passion, lust, attachment, etc, it is an energy beyond mind and matter.  Vacations are a great time to give this energy a time to emerge and flow.  During your vacation, be open, kind and sensitive.  Normally, due to fears and insecurities we build walls and shields around ourselves to protect our egos; take a chance during your vacation to lower these defenses and allow life and others to reach and touch you.  Yes, it is more dangerous, as you will now be exposed, but it is the only way to find love.  Without being vulnerable and innocent, you cannot know Love.

A wedding is a celebration of Love, and in an Indian Wedding, believe me there is lots and lots of celebration , so for me, in this case, it was easy to make love and joy a focal point of my vacation.  In Zen, they call this practice Loving Kindness Meditation, and learning to integrate it into your life will bring the sweet fragrance of Love into your heart and others.

So next time you go on vacation, find some personal time for relaxation, find some time to reacquaint yourself with mother nature and make sure you just let the love flow…

Here is one of my favorite love songs. I love you all .

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Its Wonderful, But Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice
• My Vision for & Some Additions to Mastery of Meditation
• SM Meditation Program Daily Yoga & Meditation Practice: Chapter 3
• Silent Mind Meditation Program Overview: Chapter 2
• Role of Money, Pleasure & Career in Spirituality

Meditation Instructions with Illustrations

Learning how to meditate is the most important part of being a human being.  In fact, to uncover and embrace all that you are, meditation is key.  Meditation reveals to you the Truth of your infinite, divine nature, and there are absolutely no material equivalents to these discoveries.  Along the way to Self-Realization, many other priceless benefits are also bestowed by meditation practice, and I have detailed those in the following article to help motivate you even further:  Top 10 Benefits of Meditation.  So given how important meditation is, in this article, I would like to teach you step by step how to learn and practice this great art.

Preparation for Meditation:

One of the most important aspects of learning how to meditate and reaping the rewards of this spiritual science, is to develop a consistent, daily practice.  Without such a practice, you are unlikely to master this subtle art.  I have previously discussed some tips on how to accomplish this in a few articles such as, Tips and Tools for Daily Meditation Practice and How Much Time Should You Meditate for Daily, and I would like to summarize all that wisdom for you here today.  So below are guidelines of what you need to set-up in order to maximize your chances of learning and succeeding in meditation.

1. Meditation Time:

To really increase the chances of meditation becoming an integral part of your life, set a particular time of day when you plan to meditate.  Preferably this should be early in the morning if possible (See: How to Become an Early Riser), but if not, then some other time of day when you can do your meditation consistently is also fine.  For beginner’s, the optimum configuration is 2 times per day, 20 minutes each session, once in the morning, once in the evening.  This configuration has been proven time and again to be the best for those just learning to meditate.

2. Meditation Space:

Not far behind Meditation Time, is Meditation Space, if you want to learn meditation and establish a long-term, consistent practice.  Having a space put aside for meditation, will make it much easier to do your daily meditation, and also help induce the right state of mind for meditation.  The space should be inspiring, clean and simple, so that once you enter it, your mind reflects the outer order, thus making it easier to concentrate and penetrate beyond the superficial levels of consciousness.

3. Meditation Tools:

Don’t underestimate the importance of simple meditation tools to help you learn and master this art.  A good meditation cushion, or Zafu will help you with your posture and relieve you of back pain.  Proper meditation attire, will keep your blood circulating and prevent your legs from falling asleep.  A stop watch will help you stay focused during meditation, as it will relieve the need to constantly check the time.  Some incense, or a candle, will help help calm the mind and inspire your spiritual nature.  So put these items in place, as they will not just inspire, but also help prevent some of the common pitfalls that derail an early meditation practice.  The Tips & Tools article above, gives you more information on this.

You can purchase such items at your favorite yoga and meditation supplies store, or by visiting one of my partners if you like (YogaAccessories).

Meditation Posture:

Once you have established your place and time.  The next step is actually getting down to meditating.  Although you can meditate sitting up straight on a chair or lying flat on your back, the traditional postures of meditation are sitting cross legged with certain mudras (hand positions in place).  These postures are the best for meditating and if you are learning how to meditate, I strongly suggest trying one of these sitting postures first.

Below I am going to show you three postures that are excellent for meditation.  One is a basic posture, the second is a typical Hindu meditation posture, and the third is a typical Buddhist meditation posture.   

How to Meditate Illustrations:

Basic Meditation Posture

Hindu Meditation Posture

Hindu Meditation Mudra - Gyan Mudra

Hindu Meditation Posture

Buddhist Meditation Mudra - Cosmic Mudra

Buddhist Meditation Posture

How to Sit for Meditation:

For all the postures above, following is common.

1. Sit up nice and tall, keeping your spine straight.

2. Pull your chin back slightly, like a soldier at attention, to align the back of the neck with the spine.

3. If possible sit in Burmese Style (or Full Lotus if you can).  In Burmese Style fold your left leg in, and then place your right leg in front of it.  The knees are touching the floor as shown above.  This forms a very strong base, and also with the legs not on top of each other, prevents common leg issues, when meditating for longer periods of time.

4. For the hand position, there are 3 variation I have given above.  Here are the details for those.

• Drona Mudra:  In this position (First Illustration), simply place your hands on your knees as shown.

• Gyan Mudra:  This is typically used in the Hindu/Sikh traditions, where your thumb tips and index finger are meeting and the other three fingers are extended as shown.  This closes a particular subtle energy circuit in the body, and helps the mind go inward for meditation.

• Cosmic Mudra:  Place your right hand on your lap, and then gently place the left over it and have the thumb tips gently touching as I have demonstrated above.  This is another excellent mudra for inducing a meditative state of mind. It is used in Buddhist meditation, especially Zen.
  

How to Meditate:

Now that you have got yourself into your meditative space and taken the right meditation posture, it is time to actually start meditating .  To do this, the final step is to choose what type of meditation you are going to practice.  I have given a wide range of meditations in the Free Online Guided Meditation Techniques E-book and I have also broken down meditations with regard to benefits, in the article Meditation Techniques | the Ultimate Guide, but for those who are just learning to meditate I would suggest starting with Breath Meditation first.  This is a simple technique with profound benefits.  It is the meditation of Lord Buddha.

I have given details of this meditation in the article Zen Meditation Technique, but I will offer them here as well.

• Once you take your posture, you can either close your eyes, or as it is in traditional Zen practice, keep them open with an unfocused gaze on the floor in front of you.  Also, once you take your posture you should remain absolutely still, as if frozen in time.

• Next bring your awareness to your breathing and begin to count your breaths from 1 to 10, with each inhalation and exhalation incrementing the count.  Once you get to 10, come back to 1 and start over.  So you would do 5 completes breaths to get from 1 to 10.

• If your mind wonders during this time, simply see your thought, let it go and return to your count.

• If you get lost in your thinking, then again, simply see the thoughts that carried you away, let them go and return to 1, and start over.

Above are the basic instructions for breath meditation practice and it is a great way for you to learn how to meditate.  The simple act of watching your breath in this way, will teach you great concentration, expand your awareness and give you mastery over your mind and body.  As your meditation practice deepens, you can expand your awareness to be mindful of not just your breath, but of any sensations that arise in your body, any feeling or emotions that come up, and finally develop the art of watching and comprehending your thoughts from moment to moment.  Perceiving your thinking mind and having direct insight into the false nature of duality and thoughts, is the ultimate goal of meditation.  For this advanced version of Insight Meditation, see the article Silent Mind Meditation Technique.

How to Meditate Summary:

One of the most important goals of this website, is to help you master the art of meditation.  As I mentioned at the very beginning, this is where the real treasures of life are found.  Once you learn how to meditate, you will learn about your true infinite nature and see the perfection that is inherent in every moment of your life.

One final resource I would like to mention to help you learn to meditate if you are just get started, is the free online meditation class offered here on Mastery of Meditation and Yoga.  Below is the link to this class… enjoy!

Learn How to Meditate | Beginner’s Meditation Class

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Promising Survey Results for How Much Time Do You Meditate
• Surprising Meditation Survey Results: 90% of You Meditate
• Is Mindfulness Meditation Right for You? | An Excellent Test to Find Out
• Brain Health Benefits of Meditation Making the News
• Learn How to Meditate | Beginner’s Meditation Class

Personal Development & Spiritual Growth Articles - Edition #31

Thank you everybody for making this one of the largest and best personal development and spiritual growth carnivals in the blogsphere.  I would like to invite all my fellow bloggers, webmasters and readers to feel free to network with me on any of the Social Media sites below.  Let us use these emerging mediums to develop long lasting friendships and business partnerships .

Network w/ Anmol on Stumble Upon

Network w/ Anmol on Twitter

Network w/ Anmol Facebook

Network w/ Anmol YouTube

Below, in addition to yoga and meditation articles, you will find lots of information on fitness, diet, weight loss, positive thinking, mind power, faith, confidence and more.  I really hope you enjoy the collection of articles, and find some to help you with your personal development and spiritual growth.

Yoga

Kat Marchin-Tomlin presents Green Yoga posted at YogaMar - contemplating Yoga and Life, saying, "Green Yoga - How can we incorporate earth consciousness with yoga??"

Shuna Gould presents Science and Yoga posted at Lab Rat, saying, "A scientists view on the philosophy of yoga" 

Meditation

Oz presents The Origin Of Meditation And Evolution Of Meditation Techniques posted at Meditation Techniques: The Blog, saying, "I have used insight meditation and 1,100 of the books out there to track meditation to its ultimate origin. You can read the summary here."

WP presents Free Yourself from the Prison of Your Mind posted at The Conscious Life, saying, "Stories from the past and worries about the imaginary future often leave us exhausted and disenchanted with life. Learn how to transcend the constant chattering in your mind and live a life of freedom and tranquility with breathing meditation."

Celes presents How To Meditate In 5 Simple Steps posted at EmbraceLiving.Net, saying, "To meditate is to sharpen our saw. However, not everyone knows exactly how to do so. Here’s a detailed ‘How To’ guide on how to meditate :)"

Gary Mullen presents Origins and History of Singing Bowls posted at Green Man, saying, "Exploring the history of the Tibetan Singing Bowl." 

Health and Wellbeing

Den Levin presents Top Causes of Anxiety and How to Handle Them posted at Battle Anxiety, saying, "There are many common causes of anxiety."

Ashley Cook presents How to Get a Good Workout on a Treadmill posted at Healthy Living Tips, saying, "Tips to get a good workout on a treadmill."

Darryl Kimball presents Weight Loss 4 Dumb Asses - My Dumb Ass Work Out Book - Are You Mentally Conditioned to Stay Overweight? posted at www.weightloss4dumbasses.com, saying, "Has the constant advertising of the diet, weight loss, and fitness industry convinced you that losing weight is difficult. Have you been convinced that it takes a lot of time, or that it is just too hard, or that it takes money to lose weight? Perhaps you have allowed yourself to become mentally conditioned to stay overweight!"

Lucy presents Uncovering the True You posted at Lucy’s Life, saying, "Why do so many of us not truly know ourselves?"

SwissTgallery presents Sticking With Your Home Workout Routine posted at healthy diet, saying, "You can often find motivation in dedication. When you truly make up your mind to see something through, it can be motivating. However, on days when the motivation isn’t there, dedication needs to be present to carry you through. Don’t give yourself an option to workout, make it a necessity, a daily requirement. More than likely you will find that you will never regret a workout after the fact."

Jack presents Urban Fitness posted at Urban Lover, saying, "Some tips for getting fit while living in the inner city."

Chris presents How to Feel Your Chi Energy in Just Ten Minutes posted at Martial Development.

Farid presents Puffiness Around Eyes - Treat, Reduce Under Eye Puffiness posted at Puffiness around the eye, saying, "If you’re predisposed to under eye puffiness, or you just find yourself looking in the mirror and seeing bags under the eyes, there are several different types of remedies and treatments to fix it. From cucumbers and tea bags to eye masks, there are a number of temporary, short-term solutions. But when you have puffiness around the eyes that occurs more regularly, you may want to explore other, more effective long term treatments available out there." 

New Age

Nancy Miller presents The Top 50 Mormon / LDS bloggers posted at Online University Reviews.

Personal Development

Alvaro Fernandez presents Book Announcement: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness posted at SharpBrains: Your Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution, saying, "While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to maintain brain function and fitness. Here’s the story on how my interest turned into a blog and now a book!"

FitJerk presents Build Self Confidence In Mere Weeks! The Newbie Self Conscious Drill posted at FlawlessFitness, saying, "Do you feel you lack confidence or self worth? It’s a hard thing to admit. Here is an awesome technique to boost self confidence in weeks! A more confident you will be respected & admired no matter WHAT you look like."

Daylle Deanna Schwartz presents Find Your Mountain posted at Lessons from a Recovering DoorMat, saying, "To climb a mountain, you need to take your first step. Let past successes motivate present challenges. Here’s how."

Ella Moss presents ABOUT HAPPINESS « Zodiac Times posted at Zodiac Times.

Dawn Abraham Life Coach presents Power of positive thinking posted at Qualified Life Coach.Com, saying, "What Everybody Should Know About The Power of Positive Thinking … Does it sound simple? The power of positive thinking? Is it something you wish just came naturally? Having positive thoughts? It’s important to let the Universe know what you want. Not everything in life that is good just happens."

Scientific Living presents The Key to Personality Development Is Remembering Death posted at Scientific Living.

Axel presents Consumed By Collective Fear posted at axel g.

Marisabel presents How to create your own miracles: Life on Canvas posted at Life on Canvas.

Broderick Allen presents Overwhelmed? posted at Broderick Allen - Personal Growth and Enjoying Life’s Journey.

Spiritual Growth

Akemi Gaines presents Creating Your Life And The New World posted at Yes to Me.

Joe Tichio presents The Greatest Inspirational Spiritual Quotes posted at Inspirational Quotes Blog, saying, "Inspiring thoughts and quotes on living a spiritual life."

Catherine VanWetter presents To the Heart of the Matter - Inner Peace Tip: Choosing Faith over Fear posted at To The Heart of the Matter, saying, "At times I think about what faith is too much and discover that is a way to get hung up in the details of faith rather than trusting the divine unfolding. How to enter your day with intention."

Other

Rebekah Fraser presents Shift the Global Focus to Peace? posted at Solstice Sing for Peace.

Brain Blogger presents What is Free Will? posted at Brain Blogger, saying, "This post continues my discussion of free will and determinism in neuroscience. Due to the relatively brief nature of these posts, this discussion is incomplete. However, I hope it spurs additional discussion. I believe addressing free will and determinism allows us to understand the underlying theories and implications of neuroscience and social science research as well as the practical application of that research."

Ross presents How to Alkalize On-The-Go posted at Energise for Life, saying, "I have been alkalising for five years and running the world’s largest alkaline diet resource for just as long - and in this blog post I am going to share my biggest tips on how to stay alkaline when you’re on the go"

Lucky Balaraman presents How To Find Happiness, Step 1: posted at Calm and Cool.

Terry Holliday presents Creativity Devotional - Make Me a Channel Meditation posted at My Creativity Blog, saying, "Terry Holliday writes a weekly devotional which includes a photograph, quote, thought and prayer."

Steven presents Mindfulness: What’s In It For Me? posted at The Emotion Machine.

Andy presents 100 Weight Loss Tips & Tricks posted at Personal Hack, saying, "The following 100 weight loss tips are divided into 4 sections: Get Moving, Adjust Your Eating Habits, Adjust Your Thinking, and Additional Tips."

Paula Kawal presents Angels Speak posted at Journey Inward Productions, saying, "The Angels are giving me more and more information. They say that the world is in desperate need of healing and the call of every human being currently on the planet revolves around this in some way or form."

Alvina Lopez presents 25 Scientifically Proven Ways to Make Yourself Smarter posted at Psychology Degrees.

Nina presents Ten Powerful Inspirational Quotes and Reflections About Success posted at Metaphysical Teachers, saying, "Sayings and quotes about success can have a powerful effect on you. If you take the time to think about the deeper meaning behind the words, you’ll realize how easily you can apply these sayings into your own life to achieve the success you desire."

Joel Gray presents Illness Prevention It Could Save Your Life posted at Health Tips 101.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of meditation, yoga and spiritual growth carnival using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Comments Temporarily Disabled as www.AnmolMehta.Com Moving Hosting Service
• Archives
• Its Wonderful, But Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice
• Mastery of Meditation Weekly Publication Schedule & Improvements
• 10 Best Personal Development Articles

Many popular articles on Mastery of Meditation expound on the benefits of meditation, such as Top 10 Benefits of Meditation and 10 Amazing Benefits of Meditation for Students and Young People, but today I want to present you with another view of meditation.  I want to explore the dangers of not meditating.  I want to discuss what happens when you don’t meditate and what are the signs that are yelling at you to start meditating immediately.

5 Dangers of Not Meditating:

1. Anger:

Every time you lose it.  It does not matter what the reason is, this is a clear signal to you that you need to start meditating.  Meditation means residing deep within, in your center, where you are infinitely at peace and have great composure, and the more you live from this center the less the storms on the periphery disturb you. 

This goes for irritation as well.  Getting irritated with the children, co-workers, other drivers, spouses, etc., all mean the same thing.  You are not meditating enough.  Not that meditation alone will cure all irritation, as there can be bio-chemical reasons for this as well, but it will certainly help a whole lot.  So next time you feel that anger creeping up, don’t react, watch the energy carefully and set your alarm clock thirty minutes earlier for the next morning .

2. Jealousy:

Clearly a sign that you are on the wrong track, with the wrong perspective and wrong attitude is if you are a frequent victim of jealousy.  In fact, this is so good an indicator of you not meditating enough, that I felt it was a good way to actually test your spiritual level.  You will find the details of how to test yourself using jealousy in the article, How to Test Your Spiritual Growth.

3. Stress:

Are you and Mr. Stress the best of buddies?  Inseparable are you?  Well if you want to end this relationship with Mr. Stress you have to start meditating.  The key to a long, healthy life is to live stress free.  An Ayurvedic Doctor I recently met told me that 80% of the problems that patients came to see her with were stress related.  So a big danger of not meditating is ending up hanging out with Mr. Stress.  And where Mr. Stress hangs out, Mr. Disease is not too far away.

To help motivate you and give you some solid techniques to live stress free, here is a great resource: Best Treatments for Stress & Anxiety Disorder.  You will notice I grouped anxiety along with stress, and I just want to mention that this is another sign that you are not meditating enough.  If you suffer from panic attacks and anxiety, you need to start a meditation program.  There is ample evidence showing the benefits of meditation with regard to anxiety as well.

4. Restlessness | Insecurity | Fear:

Are you feeling your life is meaningless?  Feeling you are not doing anything special in life?  Feeling you are not achieving your true potential?  These are signs that you are not meditating.  Meditation puts you in touch with your infinite nature, and from there you realize that there is nothing lacking whatsoever in you.  You are perfect and life is perfectly fine just the way it is.  This realization is the reward of meditation, and the further you are from this realization, means the further you are from meditation.

Related signs to restlessness are the feelings of self-doubt, insecurity and fear.  These are other dangers you will have to face if you decide to not meditate.  The ego is insecure.  It endlessly seeks security and safety.  Meditation helps you de-emphasize your egocentric mind, and instead reside in your simple witnessing awareness.  This living in the witnessing consciousness, in the here and now, weakens the ego and thus, relieves you of the feelings of insecurity, fear and self-doubt.

5. Hatred:

As Yogi Bhajan puts it, "If you don’t see God in all, you don’t see God at all."  I love that saying, and can’t put it any better than that.  Hatred is born of fear and is only possible when you emphasize differences.  The more you break up Reality and side with different fragments, the more you open the door to hatred and fear.

Eyes that see the world and humanity as one big family, in fact, eyes that see the whole world as just your family, are eyes that are going to be full of compassion and love.  Meditation is responsible for opening your eyes to this view.  So if you are filled with fear and hatred, the red flag is up, you need to start meditating.  Looking around at the state of world today, I wish along with prescribing a daily multivitamin, everyone was prescribed thirty minutes of daily meditation as well.

Dangers of Not Meditating Summary:

I can always tell when I have drifted away from my meditation practice.  Invariably one of the signs above will light up and remind me of what is the most important thing in life - meditation.  I suggest the same for you.  Keep an eye out for these danger signs above, if you notice their presence getting stronger, you know it is time to get back to meditating.  If you are new to meditation and are looking to start this profound practice, whose rewards have no material equivalent, I suggest you try some of the free online meditation classes offered here on this site.  Below are some helpful links in this regard.

Free Online Yoga & Meditation Classes

Free Beginner’s Meditation Class | Learn How to Meditate

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Related Articles at Mastery of Meditation, Kundalini Yoga and Zen:

• Its Wonderful, But Dangerous to Your Meditation Practice
• Kundalini Yoga Bow Pose for Eternal Youth
• SM Meditation Program: Yoga for Meditation: Chapter 4
• How to Meditate
• Dangers of Kundalini Yoga

Full Body Yoga Workout

Yoga, as I have mentioned previously, is not just for stretching and flexibility, but is perfectly capable of giving you a complete full body workout.  Thus, if you are looking for fitness, strength and muscle tone, along with the added benefits of mental and emotional balance, yoga is an excellent solution for you.

In this article today, I will combine for you several key exercises and sets, which when put together give you a complete fitness routine.  This workout will target your upper body, stomach and abs, as well as help you tone and strengthen your lower body.  On the way to doing this, it will even give your important heart muscle a bit of a workout.

The techniques and exercises in this comprehensive set come of the school of Kundalini Yoga.  I have found that Kundalini Yoga, because it uses so much dynamic movement, is especially good for routines geared towards fitness and dynamic strength.  Don’t get me wrong, other types of yoga also use flow and movement, and will deliver quite a workout as well, but in general, Kundalini Yoga fits the needs of a full body fitness routine very well.

Your will find the exercises, poses and postures used in this Yoga for Full Body Fitness Set in the  Free Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises E-book and the Free Illustrated Hatha Yoga Poses E-book.  In addition, this set will make up Chapter 17 of our popular Free Online Kundalini Yoga Sets E-book.  Soon it will also be a part of a even more complete yoga fitness program via the Free Online Yoga & Meditation Classes held here on Mastery of Meditation & Yoga.

Benefits of Yoga for Full Body Fitness:

I suggest visiting the exercises and sets in particular to see all the benefits and other details for these exercises, there are too many to list here.  Below I will just give the highlights of what this delivers:

• Helps you achieve full body fitness and health.
• Good for the digestive system, nervous system, circulatory system, immune system and nervous system.
• Increases your level or energy and vitality.
  
• Helps tone your abdominal muscles, shape your stomach and gives you core strength and power.
• Helps with weight loss. 
• Significantly develops full body strength and flexibility.
• Tones legs, arms, chest, shoulders, abs and buttocks.
• Helps improve health and well being.
• Helps develop sexual fitness and virility.

Yoga Exercises for Fitness Preparation:

The following two articles are important to read as they provide guidelines on how to practice yoga intelligently and safely:

Essential Beginners Guide to Yoga Practice

10 Important Guidelines for Kundalini Yoga Practice

Remember the golden rule is please do not overdo or over strain.  Especially if you are new to yoga, please use the beginner’s version for the difficult exercises and back off if you feel uncomfortable or dizzy.  For all the poses in this set illustrations have also been provided.

You will also need to learn the Breath of Fire breathing exercise, which is taught in the following video:  Breath of Fire Kundalini Yoga Pranayama.   This breathing exercise is a fundamental breathing technique in Kundalini Yoga and is used in conjunction with the yoga poses in the set below.  If at any time you feel it is difficult to keep up with breath of fire during the exercise, please switch to long deep breathing or normal breathing instead.  Breath of Fire will play an important role in helping you achieve the level of fitness you seek, by adding an important respiratory and circulatory component to the workout.

Yoga Set for Full Body Fitness:

To meet the requirements of full body fitness, this set obviously utilizes a wide range of exercises and sequences.  All these are illustrated and detailed below, but I want to give you a quick summary of them here first for easy reference.  To get more details, you can scroll down to the particular section or head over to the article for that particular technique or pose.

Do each exercise as per your strengths and weaknesses of your body regions.  If your abs are already fit and strong, you can do more repetitions of the abdominal exercises, while if your legs are strong already you can do more Kundalini Yoga Froggies.  If you are new to yoga or just getting started with your fitness program, do the beginner times for the exercises as I have detailed below.

Fitness Yoga Sequence:

- Cobra Push-ups - Upper Body Fitness

- Yoga Ab Exercises Set - Core Fitness

- Yoga Chair Pose - Lower Body Fitness

- Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose - Lower Body Fitness

- Rest & Rejuvenation

I have broken down this routine into 4 sections.  First is upper body training, second is core abdominal fitness, the third is lower body strength and toning, and finally a relaxation section at the end.

Fitness Yoga Section 1: Upper Body Training:

Cobra Push-ups for Upper Body Fitness

Illustration #A Starting Position

 

Illustration #B Yoga Cobra Pose

 

Illustration #C Yoga Plank Pose

Cobra Push-Ups:

a. Instructions for practicing Cobra Push Ups:

• Start in the position as indicated by Illustration #A.  Essentially this is the down position when doing simple push-ups (except toes are extended).  You are lying flat on your stomach with your hands near your shoulders.

• Now come up into cobra pose and inhale deeply as you do so (Illustration #B).

• Next exhale as you bring yourself up into Plank Pose as indicated in Illustration #C.

• Then lower yourself back down to Illustration #A down as you Inhale.  Finally, exhale in this down position and then repeat by coming back into Cobra pose and inhaling deeply.

Cobra Push-Ups Variation #2:

• In this variation you will essentially skip Plank Pose, or Illustration #C.  So come into the pose as per Illustration #A, exhale, then come into Cobra Pose (Illustration #B) as you inhale deeply.  Continue to move between these 2 positions.  Even though this is a simple movement, I guarantee you will feel this in your arms and chest very soon .

Cobra Push-ups Variation #3:

• A slightly different variation to this exercise, is that when you bring your body up into Cobra, have your thighs come up off the floor as well (Upward Facing Dog Pose).  The rest is the same. 

b. Duration for Cobra Push-ups:

• 15 seconds - 7 minutes.
  

c. Benefits of Cobra Push-ups:

• Excellent yoga exercise for upper body fitness.  Good for chest, arms and shoulders.
  
• Good for training your back and abdominal muscles as well.  Essentially you enjoy all the many benefits that Cobra Pose and Plank Pose bestow.
  
• Good for your digestive system and nervous system.
  

d. Practice Tips for Cobra Push-ups:

• A smart way to build up your strength and train these important muscles is to use simple start stop tactics.  Do 30 seconds, then take a break in the down position, and then start again and do 30 seconds more.  Keep up this pattern, you will soon see marked improvement in your strength, muscle tone and upper body fitness.
• Since the toes are kept extended as show in the illustrations above, be careful as this can put extra pressure on your lower back.

Fitness Yoga Section 2: Core Abdominal Training:

Yoga Ab Exercises & Workout for Core Fitness

1. Yoga Single Leg Lifts:

Illustration #1: Yoga Ab Single Leg Lifts - Starting Position

Illustration #2: Yoga Ab Single Leg Lifts - Left Leg Up

Illustration #3: Yoga Ab Single Leg Lifts - Right Leg Up

Description:

For this exercise lie on your back with your palms underneath your buttocks, to support your lower back, as shown in Illustration #1.  Then lift your left leg up to 90 degrees and then back down (Illustration #2).  Follow that by lifting your right leg to 90 degrees and then down (Illustration #3).  Repeat with left leg and continue on.  You will feel your abdominal muscles working to raise each leg.

Breath:

Inhale as leg goes up, exhale down.

Duration:

1- 3 minutes.

2. Yoga Double Leg Lifts:

Illustration #4 - Yoga Ab Double Leg Life - Starting Position

Illustration #5 - Yoga Ab Double Leg Lifts - Ending Position

Description:

For this exercise remain on your back with your palms underneath your buttocks, to support your lower back.  But now lift both legs smoothly up to 90 degree and then back down.  Try to keep your knees straight and keep the motion controlled and smooth (illustration #5).  This exercise work your ab muscles much harder than the single leg lifts, so be ready.

Make sure to take a break between exercises to let the abdominal muscles recover a little before moving on.

Breath:

Inhale as legs goes up, exhale down.

Duration:

1- 3 minutes.

3. Yoga Criss-Cross Legs:

Illustration #6 - Yoga Ab Criss Cross Legs

Illustration #7 - Yoga Ab Criss Cross Legs

Description:

Again for this exercise remain on your back with your palms underneath your buttocks, to support your lower back.  Now lift both legs up about 12-18 inches off the floor and have your toes pointing forward.  Now begin to criss-cross your legs at ankle level rapidly (Illustrations 6 & 7).  At first one leg will be on top, and then when you cross back have the other leg be on top. 

This exercise will give the side ab muscles (obleques) a workout,and is excellent for shaping your stomach region.  Energy for fitness comes from your core, so when this gets tough remember all the good you are doing for yourself.

Breath:

Do the Breath of Fire Breathing Exercise as you criss-cross your legs.

Duration:

1- 3 minutes.

4. Yoga  Piston Legs:

Illustration #8 - Yoga Ab Piston Legs

Illustration #9 - Yoga Ab Piston Legs

Description:

Remain on your back with your palms underneath your buttocks, to support your lower back.  Again lift both legs up about 12-18 inches off the floor and have your toes pointing forward.  Now begin to piston your legs back and forth rapidly (Illustrations 8 & 9).  As one leg bends in (knee coming towards the chest), the other goes straight out and the motions reverse. 

Be sure to not bicycle the legs, the legs should move parallel to the floor for this exercise.  This exercise will ensure that if any parts of your stomach muscles were left out of the workout, that they get a chance to now participate .  Six-pack abs here we come…

Breath:

Breath out as you fire each leg out.

Duration:

1- 5 minutes.

5. Add Stretch Pose or Boat Post (Optional).

The above 4 ab exercises provide a great workout to tone and develop your stomach, but if you feel ready to take it to the next level, then add Kundalini Yoga Stretch Pose to this set.  If you feel really strong and would like to set the bar even higher, then add Kundalini Yoga Boat Pose to enhance this set further.  You will find me demonstrating Yoga Boat Pose in the Core Abdominal Power Yoga Set Video and description also in that article.

Illustration #10 - Kundalini Yoga Stretch Pose

Fitness Yoga Section 3: Lower Body Training:

Illustrations of Yoga Chair Pose

Side View Picture of Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose

Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose Practice Details:

a. Step-by-Step Instructions for Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose:

• Stand and place your feet shoulder width apart, with toes pointing outward.
  
• Lean forward till your back in parallel to the ground.
• Reach down and grasp your ankles, such that the elbows are passing from the inside of your knees.
  
• Keep your head up and begin Breath of Fire Breathing Exercise.
  

b. Duration for Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose:

• 15 Seconds - 3 minutes.
• Start slowly and build up your time steadily from there.
  

c. Benefits of Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose:

• Great for lower body fitness.
• Excellent yoga posture for toning your thighs and buttocks.
• Improves sexual health and builds sexual virility and vitality.
• Helps the body burn fat to promote healthy weight loss.
  

d. Practice Tips for Kundalini Yoga Chair Pose:

• Use the modified versions illustrated above.
• Take a break, if the legs start to burn too much and then restart the exercise again once ready.
• Be careful with your knees and only go as far down as comfortable, regardless of whether you are doing the modified posture or the full pose.
• If Breath of Fire is too much, then switch to long deep breathing or normal breathing which continuing to hold the pose.
• You can also do the modified version of chair pose by standing against a wall and working your way lower as your legs get stronger.  This is the technique used in physiotherapy in general.
  

Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose for Fit Legs

Picture of Starting Position of Yoga Frog Pose (Eyes Closed)

Picture of Starting Position of Yoga Frog Pose (Eyes Open)

Picture of Ending Position for Yoga Frog Pose

Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose Practice Details:

a. Step-by-Step Instructions for Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose:

• Squat on the floor on your toes, with your feet apart and your heels either touching or very close together.
  
• Have your knees spread out and your arms inside your knees with your finger tips touching the floor.  The elbows are straight.
  
• Look up, you can have your eyes opened or closed.  Inhale.  This is the starting position for frog pose.
  
• Rise up now by straightening your legs.  At the same time bring your head towards your knees and keep your fingers touching the floor.  Your heels should move down towards the floor.  Straighten your legs as much as possible.  Exhale.  This is the ending position for frog pose.  This completes 1 repetition.
• Come back down to the starting position and repeat the cycle as many times as indicated.
  

b. Duration for Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose:

• Beginners, start with as many as you can do and work up to 26 froggies.
  
• Intermediates, work up to 54 froggies.
• Advanced, work up to 108 froggies.
• Fanatics, keep going :-).
  

c. Benefits of Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose:

• Shapes, tones and strengthens the legs and lower body.  Specially the thighs muscles.
  
• Good for cardiovascular fitness and stamia.  Promoting better circulation and better respiration.
  
• Promotes flexibility in the hamstrings and calves.
• Overall, builds one level of fitness and endurance.
• Builds sexual potency and virility.
  

d. Practice Tips for Kundalini Yoga Frog Pose:

• Careful with your knees.  If you have bad knees, approach this exercise with caution.
  
• Take breaks in between if your legs are burning too much.  Once they recover continue on.
• This yoga exercise will get your heart rate up, so careful not to get dizzy.  If you feel breathless, light headed or faint, stop and take a break.
  
• Here is a secret.  Doing froggies slowly is harder.  Some kundalini yoga kriyas (sets) demand you go slow, but in general a brisk pace will allow you to do more.  Just don’t push too hard.
• It is ok to be sore in the legs the next day.  It means the muscles got a much needed workout.
• It is beneficial to stretch the hamstrings before doing frog pose.

Fitness Yoga Section 4: Rejuvenation and Assimilation

Corpse Pose:

• Once you have completed the Yoga Set for Full Body Fitness, make sure you relax on your back in corpse pose.  For corpse pose just lie comfortably on your back and have your hands out to the sides or on your chest.  Just let go during this time and let the Universe take care of you.  Have no worries, anxieties or goals, and simply surrender to Infinity.
  
• Duration: 3 - 11 mins.
• Breath: Relaxed

Yoga for Full Body Fitness Summary:

As I mentioned above, this set is going to eventually be part of a more complete yoga fitness program, which will then become part of the online classes that are offered, but in and of itself it is an excellent routine to develop total body fitness and health. 

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• Tough Power Yoga Pose - Not for Beginners
• Free Online Kundalini Yoga Kriyas E-Book
• Hatha Yoga Pose for Brain Fitness - Shoulder Stand Asana
• Great Articles on Spirituality & Personal Development - Edition #2
• Articles for a Better Life & Better Living (Carnival #29)

Improving Your Yoga Practice

Previously, in the series Clever Yoga Tips for Busy People, I gave some handy tips on how to incorporate some useful yoga techniques into your everyday life.  These included doing the wonderful Kapalbhati Pranayama for Weight Loss and Health while walking or driving, and doing Toe Touches (Padahast Asana) while in the shower.  But, today I want to share with your some very good tips which you can easily integrate right into your yoga routine, in order to get a whole lot more out of it.  After all, you are doing your practice anyway, might as well get the most out of the time you spend on the mat.

These simple yoga tips will help you awaken your Third Eye, release stress, increase the vibration of you energy, heal better, improve concentration and also help you develop the great yogic mind or witnessing consciousness.  So let’s get started…

5 Simple Yoga Tips to Enhance Your Yoga Practice:

Yoga Tip #1.

Practicing Mula Bandha - Root Lock:

Apply root lock at the end of any exercise(s).  To apply root lock, once you are done with your exercise, sit up straight, inhale deeply, then exhale completely and holding your breath out pull your rectum, sex organ and lower navel muscles up and in.  Hold these three muscles up and in as tight as you are comfortable doing with your breath held out.  When you need to, release this lock and inhale.  Then repeat two more times for maximum benefit.

Mula Bandha or Root Lock is excellent for activating the three lower chakras (root, sex and navel chakras), and it has the added benefit of redirecting energy generated by the previous exercise(s) back into the spine for further use by the body.  I strongly suggest using this tip to help raise the level of your energy and level of your practice.

Yoga Tip #2.  

Adding Relaxation Periods:

After doing a few exercises (and now after applying Mula Bandha ), take a minute or so to relax.  This relaxation period, whether done on your back, sitting or even standing is very important to give the body a chance to assimilate the energy that is now circulating as a result of the previous work.

During this relaxation period, the body rejuvenates, heals and charges itself, especially in the regions that were targeted by the previous poses and postures.  When doing this relaxation on your back, use yoga corpse pose and if doing it while sitting try to keep your back straight.  In addition, just do long deep slow breathing during this relaxation time, which helps deepen the level of relaxation.  This practice is also excellent for stress and anxiety relief.

Yoga Tip #3:

Practicing Shambhavi Mudra:

As you start to sprinkle the relaxation periods into your workouts, you can enhance their value further by adding the following aspect to it, Shambhavi Mudra.  This is to turn your eyes upwards, while closed and look through the center of your forehead.  This is called Shambhavi Mudra, and it helps stimulate and activate the Third Eye or Ajna Chakra.

The Third Eye is the seat of intuition and awakening this center is a key aspect of making progress in yoga and kundalini awakening.  Shambhavi Mudra is a very useful technique in this regard.  One important caution with regard to applying this mudra, is to apply it for only as long as comfortable and releasing it when you feel you need to (and applying it again when ready).  In other words, don’t over strain your eyes when practicing this mudra.

One final note with regard to this tip, is that you can use Shambhavi Mudra during the active portions of your practice as well, whenever the opportunity presents itself.  So when holding certain postures or during certain movement, apply the mudra as best as you can.  If applying the mudra is difficult, then you can just bring your attention to the Third Eye region, without the mudra, as that too will help stimulate the activate this important center.

Yoga Tip #4:

Practicing SAT NAM Mantra:

Another excellent way to enhance the relaxation period more and use it to develop your concentration and spiritual energy is to mentally chant a mantra while in relaxation.  This is also perfectly compatible with practicing Shambhavi Mudra and therefore can be done in conjunction with that mudra in place as well.

Mantras of the nature of SAT NAM work very well during these periods, where you think the sound SAT as you inhale slowly and think the sound NAM as you exhale.  SAT NAM is a fundamental mantra which means True Identity or True Self, and practicing it helps you journey back to your infinite, divine nature.

Again, if during the active portions of your practice, the opportunity is there to do mantra work, you can integrate it in and thus get more out of the session.

Yoga Tip #5:

Developing Witnessing Consciousness - Yogic Mind:

This is not just a tip, but I feel should be an essential part of your practice and I although I have included in the important Beginner’s Guide to Yoga Practice, I would like to remind everyone of this very important aspect of yoga practice here, which is that you should do your entire practice with full awareness.  The purpose of yoga is to develop your witnessing consciousness or Yogic Mind, and the best way to develop this mind is by constant awareness of the here and now.

So watch your mind, body, breath and feelings with as much awareness as you can muster right though your session.  Then your yoga pracitce will actually become meditation in motion.  When this witnessing aspect matures, there will no doer, just doing taking place.  This is why when people would watch masters like J. Krishnamurti do yoga, they would say that it is like there is no personality there, just yoga being done.  So aspire for that level of awareness, where it is so complete, that the thoughts required to assert the sense of separate identity do not have the opportunity to rise.  This is then real yoga.  This is Unity.

More Meditation & Yoga Tips:

For more meditation and yoga tips you can head over to the following articles:  Essential Tips and Tools for Daily Meditation Practice, Meditation Help & Tips for Beginners and 3 Simple Tips to Invite Enlightenment. 

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• Best Spiritual Books

How to Make Money Doing What You Love - Part 1

This topic of making money always causes all sorts of knee-jerk reactions, so I have learned to put a disclaimer before I write such articles, and here it is.  I am very happy to offer my website in it’s free format, and this article is not a request for money, and I am not against those making money from their spiritual work either.  Now onto my money making ideas for you…

Although making money should certainly not be the primary goal for those dedicated to the spiritual arts and sciences, it is nevertheless a necessary energy for surviving in the manifested world.  As I have pointed out previously, money’s most basic value lies in providing you and your family with food, clothing and shelter, and beyond that it is a resource that can buy you leisure, which is essential for self study and Self-Realization.  I have discussed some of these views in the articles, Money Money Money and the Path to Enlightenment as well as the article, Role of Money, Pleasure and Career in Spirituality.  In this article series though, I am going to share with you some good ideas for how to make money if you are a professional in the spiritual arena.

As you are undoubtedly aware, this website is free, well 99% anyway , and I plan to keep it that way.  But, since we do not live in the olden times when society was built to support those dedicated to the spiritual path, we who are dedicated in this way, have to find a way to support ourselves within the framework available.  This is a learning experience for most of us, for generally those of us who are passionate about spirituality, tend not to be very business minded.  That is Ok.  We have life here to help us, teach us and give us the necessary opportunities in order to make the money we need to support ourselves, even as we continue our relentless march back to the One Source. 

What I would like to do in this series, is share with you what I have learned in this journey so far, with regard to making money and building a successful spiritual practice, so that you too can employ that knowledge to earn a good living doing what you love to do.  So below are 5 money making ideas for those eager to follow their passion and for each of these ideas I have added what I have learned though experience, to help guide you further.  In this part I will cover Money Making Idea #1 - Offering a Spiritual Service.

5 Money Making Ideas for Spiritual Practitioners:

1. Offering A Spiritual Service:

This is the most common way to earn money for a spiritual practitioner.  This is pretty much what we do.  Whether that be teach yoga and meditation, or practice healing arts like Reike, acupuncture, Ayurveda, homeopathy, TCM, massage or offer other spiritual services like psychic readings, akashic readings, numerology readings (very good ones ), etc   This is what we do to earn our daily bread.  With regard to this method of earning money I would like to share with you 3 important thoughts, and then offer you more ideas on how to moneterize this service further.

3 Important Aspects on Making Money from Spiritual Services:

1. Get Proper Training:

   Make sure you get properly trained first and know in your heart of hearts that you are qualified to offer a high quality, valuable service before charging money for it.  Reading a few chapters on Pranic Healing and then charging $100 / minute to do distance healing is not only going to bring you a boat load of bad karma, it is also going to create some very angry and disappointed clients.  So take some time and put in the hard yards to really get top notch training and certification.  Then you will have the confidence and skills needed to truly help others, and charge money for doing it.

2. Making Money Guilt:

   This is undoubtedly something true spiritual practitioners all have to deal with at some point.  The taboo of charging for your services.  Nothing would make me happier than to see donation based exchanges in the spiritual marketplace, or have society back to where it was, designed to support spiritual aspirants unconditionally.  But unfortunately, these two mechanisms are currently not viable, so to survive you have to charge.  With regard to this guilt I feel there are 2 solutions.

   The first is or course if these donation/support mechanisms enjoy a revival.  Perhaps 2012, when we move into the Age of Aquarius, and the consciousness of mankind rises, we will see this shift taking place again.  A de-emphasis of materialism and a re-emphasis of spirituality.  Then again spiritual aspirants could enjoy doing service and practice without any worry for how they are going to make money to meet their financial obligations.  I am certainly one who is hoping for this to happen .

   The second solution to overcome making money guilt, is to not offer shoddy service and really be an expert in your field of choice.  Knowing you are actually helping others and offering a valuable service, will justify the exchange of energy that comes when you charge your clients money.  So don’t be a con artist, a fake, only out there to make a buck and feed on the fears and superstitions of others.  Like I said earlier, this is a sure way of ruining your life.  Both this one and the next few as well .  So follow the advise I have given above and really master your art, that will go a long way to solving this guilt.

3. Offering a Free Option: 

   A strong motivation for creating Mastery of Meditation & Yoga for free, and for teaching donation based yoga and meditation classes was because I strongly feel that no one should not get to learn these profound sciences on account of not having enough money.  So along with charging for your services, I suggest always having an option available for those who are interested, but unable to afford it.  Whether that be pro bono work, or a work exchange of some other kind, I think having this option is very important.  After all the whole point of spirituality is to do good and be good.

Moneterizing Your Service Further:

1. Mentoring & Teaching:

   If you have mastered your field, you can do no greater service than teach others to become masters and teachers as well.  Offer them your knowledge and experience and in exchange you can request donation based payments or set fees for classes you organize and teach.  This is one of the noblest ways to earn a good living and uplift the world doing it.

2. Be a Life Coach:

   A closely related and now well established profession, for those who have mastered their life, is to be a life coach to others.  Here, you will not necessarily be teaching others your specific spiritual art, but instead will be using your experience with success to help other excel in their lives.
   

In the next part of this series I will continue to share with you my thoughts and ideas on how to make money doing what you so dearly love to do.

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Simple Yoga for Body Muscle Training

Yoga is much more than just physical exercises and body postures as I have pointed out in the article Introduction to Yoga.  Furthermore, this physical aspect of yoga (hatha yoga), is not just for flexibility and stretching either.  Yoga is more than adequate for helping you train and strengthen almost every muscle in your body, and build a system which is fully fit and healthy.  This is especially true with Kundalini Yoga, and I am going to show you how even simple yoga sequences can give you great physical results.

Kundalni Yoga has many sets which are designed to give you a full body workout, and I will be uploading some of those sets in the near future.  For now though, I want to teach you a simple sequence of exercises which will really help strengthen and build your arms, chest and shoulders.  This training will prepare you for the more advanced sets that I plan to upload in the future.  This exercise is a variation of Cobra Push-ups and is excellent for upper body strength and power.

This sequence combines 2 very simple yoga poses, Cobra Pose and Plank Pose to help work on your upper body and arms .  Here on Mastery of Meditation & Yoga, it will be part of the following 2 free online e-books: Free Hatha Yoga Poses & Online Kundalini Yoga Exercises.

Below you will find illustration of these body positions and full details of how to practice this excellent exercise.  This is not a complex sequence, thus suitable for beginner’s as well.  There are also several variations for this sequence and I will present them below as well.

Cobra Push-ups for Upper Body Training

Illustration #1 Starting Position

 

Illustration #2 Yoga Cobra Pose

 

Illustration #3 Yoga Plank Pose

Simple Yoga for Upper Body Training - Cobra Push-Ups:

a. Instructions for practicing Cobra Push Ups:

• Start in the position as indicated by Illustration #1.  Essentially this is the down position when doing simple push-ups (except toes are extended).  You are lying flat on your stomach with your hands near your shoulders.

• Now come up into cobra pose and inhale deeply as you do so (Illustration #2).

• Next exhale as you bring yourself up into Plank Pose as indicated in Illustration #3.

• Then lower yourself back down to Illustration #1 down as you Inhale.  Finally, exhale in this down position and then repeat by coming back into Cobra pose and inhaling deeply.

Simple Yoga: Cobra Push-Ups Variation #2:

• In this variation you will essentially skip Plank Pose, or Illustration #3.  So come into the pose as per Illustration #1, exhale, then come into Cobra Pose (Illustration #2) as you inhale deeply.  Continue to move between these 2 positions.  Even though this is a simple movement, I guarantee you will feel this in your arms and chest very soon .

Simple Yoga: Cobra Push-ups Variation #3:

• A slightly different variation to this exercise, is that when you bring your body up into Cobra, have your thighs come up off the floor as well (Upward Facing Dog Pose).  The rest is the same. 

b. Duration for Cobra Push-ups:

• 15 seconds - 7 minutes.
  

c. Benefits of Cobra Push-ups:

• Excellent exercise to strength the entire upper body.  Good for chest, arms and shoulders.
  
• Good for training your back and abdominal muscles as well.  Essentially you enjoy all the many benefits that Cobra Pose and Plank Pose bestow.
  
• Good for your digestive system and nervous system.
  

d. Practice Tips for Cobra Push-ups:

• A smart way to build up your strength and train these important muscles is to use simple start stop tactics.  Do 30 seconds, then take a break in the down position, and then start again and do 30 seconds more.  Keep up this pattern, you will soon see marked improvement in your strength and muscle tone.
• Since the toes are kept extended as show in the illustrations above, be careful as this can put extra pressure on your lower back.

Online Kundalini Yoga Kriyas Using Cobra Push-ups:

1. For now you can use the 6 Guidelines on How to Create Yoga Sets to help you integrate this simple, but effective sequence into your workout, but coming soon this exercise is going to part of some key yoga sets for building overall body strength and fitness.

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Since there were several important updates to Mastery of Meditation, Yoga & Zen recently, I though it would be best to bundle them together and communicate them out to you all in one announcement… so here it is.  This update is relevant to both readers, as well as fellow bloggers and webmasters.

Network With Anmol on Facebook, Twitter and More:

The traffic levels for AnmolMehta.Com are growing rapidly and so I need to use some more of the available internet tools to help communicate better with all of you.  My inbox has 700+ unanswered emails :-P, and it is getting harder for me to keep up with all these e-mails, so to better communicate and help take Mastery of Meditation & Yoga to the next level in her evolution, I have taken the plunge into Social Media more seriously.  So, if you use Social Media and would like to network with me, please reach out to me on the following sites.  I would be happy to work with you on them. 

Connect with Anmol on Stumble Upon

Connect with Anmol on Twitter

Connect with Anmol on Facebook

Connect with Anmol on YouTube

Comment Links Updated to DoFollow:

I noticed that by default the Wordpress comment links were set to no follow.  So I have installed the popular Lucia Link Love plugin.  I have configured the spam setting for the minimum requirements, so your comment links will become DO Follow instead of NO follow, after just your third comment.  Most of you already have this many, so you should be receiving lots of link love now from AnmolMehta.Com.  I am happy to say that many of the pages now have solid Page Rank (PR3, PR4), and judging be the recent increase in search volume I anticipate moving higher in the near future.

I am happy to support your efforts by making this change and I really do appreciate all the links I have received and continue to receive from all of you.  Please keep them coming !!  Let us continue to help each other grow.  Reach out to me if you wish to network further.

AnmolMehta.Com Moves to Faster Server:

Again to keep up with traffic growth and bandwidth consumption, Mastery of Meditation, Yoga & Zen was moved to a faster server.  Hope this helps make your experience here even better .  As I mentioned in the article earlier (Mastery of Meditation Crosses 2 Million Page Views), the website is now well past 2,000,000 hits and growing quite fast.  Thanks again to all of you for your love and support.

God Bless You All !

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Developing the Spiritual Mind

Undoubtedly, you have repeatedly heard that for enlightenment, one of the keys is keeping your awareness in the here and now, keeping it in the present.  This can be stated in many ways, such as observe your mind, body and feelings, or maintain your witnessing consciousness, or remain mindful, or practice choiceless awareness, or develop your spiritual mind, etc, etc.  For those who don’t just care to read, but are interested in discovering for themselves the Truth, know that maintaining such awareness from moment to moment is easier said than done.  Thankfully though, there are lots of nice tips and techniques for helping us live with such awareness and in today’s article I would like to share with you one such a technique.

The goal here is to develop the mind which is highly intelligent, the mind which sees the false in the false, or simply put simply the mind with can perceive the Truth of Non-Duality.  Ordinarily, our mind is constantly jumping from one thought to another, and wandering all over the place, thus preventing us from maintaining moment to moment awareness.  Being able to maintain this awareness, is a very important aspect of developing the spiritual mind.  So what can we do to help us stop this monkey mind, the mind that is jumping around? 

Keep a good posture.  Yes such a simple thing, but I assure you it will prove to be very helpful.  No matter what you are doing, keep a nice posture while doing it.  Take this up as an awareness test and try to maintain your posture for the entire week ahead.  You will then learn for yourself, how helpful and valuable this simple tip is.  To inspire you in taking this test and rising to the challenge, let me give you Zen Master Shunryu’s Suzuki’s own thoughts on the importance of posture.

Shunryu Suzuki on Posture, Awareness & Spiritual Mind:

Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind: Right Practice

The most important point is to own your own physical body.  If you slump, you will lose your self.  Your mind will be wandering about somewhere else; you will not be in your body.  This is not the way.  We must exist right here, right now!  This is the key point.  You must have your own body and mind.  Everything should exist in the right place, in the right way.  Then there is no problem.  If the microphone I use when I speak exists somewhere else, it will not serve its purpose.  When we have our body and mind in order, everything else will exist in the right place, in the right way.

But usually, without being aware of it, we try to change something other than ourselves, we try to order things outside us.  But it is impossible to organize things if you yourself are not in order.  When you do things in the right way, at the right time, everything else will be organized.  You are the "boss".  When the boss is sleeping, everyone is sleeping.  When the boss does something right, everyone will do everything right, and at the right time.  That is the secret of Buddhism.

So try always to keep the right posture, not only when you practice zazen (Zen Meditation Technique), but in all your activities.  Take the right posture when you are driving your car, and when you are reading.  If you read in a slumped position, you cannot stay awake long.  Try.  You will discover how important it is to keep the right posture.  This is the true teaching.  The teaching which is written on paper is not the true teaching.  Written teaching is a kind of food for the brain.  Of course it is necessary to take some food for the brain, but it is more important to be yourself by practicing the right way of life.

…

The state of mind that exists when you sit in the right posture is, itself enlightenment.  If you cannot be satisfied with the state of mind you have in zazen it means your mind is still wandering about.  Our body and mind should no be wobbling or wandering about.  In this posture there is no need to talk about the right state of mind.  You already have it.  This is the conclusion of Buddhism.

Awareness Test:

So your test this week, and hopefully one that you will take up for the rest of your life, is to be mindful of your posture no matter what it is you are doing.  Like Master Suzuki said, whether you are eating, reading, meditating, walking, taking, sitting, driving, don’t allow yourself to slump.  Keep your posture tall, keep your spine straight, your abdomen free and see the immediate affect this has on your state of awareness.  You will notice the flame of moment to moment awareness burning much more brightly and this state of being in the here and now, is in fact the Spiritual Mind.

By making this simple adjustment, not only will you find your being more mindful, you will also be surprised by a bevy of other important benefits that it will bestow.  You will find yourself breathing better, eating and digesting your food better, feeling more confident and courageous, having more willpower, feeling more composed and of course, feeling much more aware and alive. 

Be on the lookout for more spiritual tests and tips in the near future to help you increase your awareness and develop your spiritual mind.  In the article series section below, you will find other tests to help you with your awareness and spiritual growth.

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List of Best Spiritual Books  

The goal of this article is to compile a list of the best spiritual books out there and this will require your help to do .

Mahesh Says:

I got and read some books regarding enlightenment.  Now I feel same like Anmol.  I did not do even a continuous meditation.  I got kundalini pressure in my spine too.  I got only love, all other are same like before. Happiness but no reason. I have told to my wife.

You know, I feel more happy and I never felt before.

My question is: “is it possible to have the awakening without any effort?”  Because I never tried or wanted that. I even never heard of Kundalini.  Only thing which I think might have contributed to it was resigning from my job (from World Health Organization) and sitting at home and reading Bhagawat Gita. Though I don’t know whether I did that consciously.  It was very unlike me.

Stewart says:

Anyway after my friend left, for about the next two weeks i started reading my bible and borrowed an old cassette tape with songs on… On a sunny day in April 1994, i was walking throw a park listening to this tape, the song was ”Breath of God Breathe on Me” as i listened to this acappella song and the harmony unity in all the singing, something inside me broke, gave up, i started crying and as i did i was suddenly overwhelmed with this amazing love, heat, and i felt something travel up through and out of top of my head. For the next 3 weeks or so, i felt this burning ball of energy in my navel/stomach area, and was in love with everything, i mean a deep divine love and i felt so pure.

Nyporter says:

(I get) Intense pressure/energy in crown head area when in temples/religious places and reading religious scriptures.

• Think on These Things - J. Krishnamurti (other books by JK are great too)

• Krishnamurti’s Notebook - J. Krishnamurti

• Courage, The Joy of Living Dangerously - Osho (other books by Osho are great too)
  

• I Am That - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

• Ease of Being - Jean Klein
  

• Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind - Shunryu Suzuki

• Everyday Zen, Love and Work - Charlotte Joko Beck
  

• Autobiography of a Yogi - Paramhansa Yogananda

• Aghora, At the Left Hand of God - Robert E. Svoboda
  

Best Spiritual Books Summary:

From the reader testimonials above, The Bible and the Bhagavad Gita have been mentioned as well,  which I am sure is not a surprise .  So what other books have you found to be great?  What other books do you feel you were lucky to come across and have been helpful to you in your spiritual and personal growth?  Which spiritual master pieces are your favorites and you feel should make the Best Spiritual Books List?  Please do share these with us in the comments section below.  

If you are interested in purchasing any of these books from Amazon, you will find easy and quick links on this page using my affiliate account .  Thanks and Happy Reading!

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