The Power of Practice

When I first attended Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health back in 1990, the instructor of my yoga class invited everyone to commit to doing their yoga practice for 30 days after returning home. I thought to myself that is going to be easy. Then I thought again and again and had lots of reasons why not to commit. Some of them were: I have to be on my mat and do the yoga postures for 30 days straight and how is that possible. How am I going to do that? It will interfere with work, my kids and my social life. Will I have time to eat? How will my house get cleaned? What if I fail? It will be a waste of time. How can being on my yoga mat for 30 minutes a day for 30 days do anything, much less transform my life as suggested by the instructor?

I decided to make a commitment to 30 days. The first 3 to 4 days were just fine. Then my mind told me that this really was not making a difference. I decided to keep at it anyway.
Then came day 10 and there was no major changes going on. I had a cold on the 12th day and really thought I would skip a day, but I was reminded about my commitment from a friend. So a cold, dripping nose, aching body and all, I got on the mat and practiced my yoga. I was now to my 16th day and there were still no major changes. I thought to myself, I have been wasting a lot of time and could be spending it doing something else. Then on the 19th day, a friend who was a chiropractor stopped me while I was working out at the local YMCA and he asked if something had happened to me. I asked, “What do you mean?” He said, “you look much more centered and relaxed than I have ever seen you before, you seem to be standing much straighter and you seem more confident.” I told him that I had been practicing yoga everyday for the last 19 days and then he understood. I continued to my 30th day and by then, I had noticed major changes in my mind, my heart and my body. I had transformed. I was truly a different person.

I continue to practice my yoga, but not on a daily basis. I wonder sometimes if I should make another 30 day commitment. The lesson I learned from this experience is the value of practice. Practice in and of itself is transformative. I have used this lesson in other areas of my life, from starting a business, to studying for an exam, to meditation, to loosing weight and to learning a new skill. I realize that practice is and of itself transformative. I have come to learn that I have to be willing to go through long periods of practice with no visible results. I call them the plateaus. Then one day, I transform.

I see this also in my executive coaching clients. We can go weeks and never see any measurable results, and then one day, all of sudden, there is transformation. I encourage everyone to commit to a practice. Do it today.

States vs Stages: Ken Wilber

“You cannot, however, be introduced to all the qualities of higher stages of consciousness without actual growth and practice. You can have a peak experience of higher states (like seeing an interior subtle light or having a feeling of oneness with all of nature), because many states are ever-present, and so they can be “peek”-experienced right now. But you cannot have a peak experience of higher stage (like being a concert-level pianist), because stages unfold sequentially and take considerable time to develop. Stages build upon their predecessors in very concrete ways, so they cannot be skipped: like atoms to molecules to cells to organisms, you cannot go from atoms to cells and skip molecules. This is one of the many important differences between states and stages.

However, with repeated practice of contacting higher states, your own stages of development will tend to unfold in a much faster and easier way. There is, in fact, considerable experimental evidence demonstrating exactly that. The more you are plunged into authentic higher states of consciousness-such as meditative states-the faster you will grow and develop through any of the stages on consciousness. It is as if higher-states training acts as a lubricant on the spiral development, helping you disidentify with lower stage so that the next higher stage can emerge, until you can stably remain at higher levels of awareness on an ongoing basis, whereupon a passing state has become a permanent trait. These types of higher-states training, such as meditation, are part of any integral approach to transformation.

In short, you cannot skip stages, but you can accelerate your growth through them by using various types of state-practices, such as meditation, and these transformative practices are an important part of the Integral Approach.”

--Ken Wilber

The Power of the Question

The questions that we ask ourselves everyday are very powerful. What we are actually doing is asking our other than conscious mind to give us an answer. The other than conscious mind is actually infinite and unlimited and will provide us with an answer if we ask the right questions. It has been estimate that this part of our mind has the processing capacity of 16 billion to one of that of the conscious mind and we own both. Asking the right questions are very important in getting the answers we want. The most important thing to remember when working with powerful questions is to focus on the positive and try to stay away from questions that start with ‘why” because they lead to analysis and do not provide solutions. We also need to be patient and not force an answer. When we are facing a challenging or complex situation, all we need to do is gently ask ourselves a powerful question. Agonizing will not solve the problem. The information needed will be revealed.

The following are some powerful questions that you can use in your life, your business and your career:

1. What do I want in this situation?
2. How can I ………………………? Add whatever you are trying to do.
3. Who is a good prospect?
4. What am I focusing on?
5. What action can I take?
6. What can I learn today?
7. Whom can I serve today?
8. What is working in my life?
9. How can I move forward?
10. What am I willing to let go of?
11. Who am I?
12. Where am I?
13. Why am I here?

Using questions helps others take their focus off of what they do not want and put it on what they do want. It creates a change in perception. It allows them to dream about fresh, new possibilities for their lives or their business. They focus on what they want and not on what they do not want or the past. This is the real power of conversation. It provides a space and a place for miracles.

Ask yourself powerful questions everyday.

Is Transformation a Necessity?

Is transformation a necessity? What do you think?

I like the words of Eckhart Tolle, in his book Stillness Speaks.

“The transformation of human consciousness is no longer a luxury, so to speak, available only to a few isolated individual, but a necessity if humankind is not to destroy itself. At the present time, the dysfunction of the old consciousness and the arising of the new are both accelerating. Paradoxically, things are getting worse and better at the same time, although the worse is more apparent because it makes so much ‘noise.’”