Positive Attitude

Here are some tips to develop positive Attitude:

• Believe that your performance, health, behavior and success depend on your attitude.
• Believe your attitude can be changed.
• Take Personal responsibility to change/ improve your attitude. Do not blame circumstances, things or person.
• Develop friendship and acquaintance with people with positive mind.
• Set your values and priorities right and be clear about them.
• Be aware of your attitude in different situations; be introspective-think " Why did I behave the way I did"- Be critical and analyze whether your attitude or response was appropriate in a given situation.
• Delay your response triggered off by negative emotions like anger, jealousy, greed, helplessness, cynicism, ego and fear.

• Your physical state greatly affects your attitude. Take care regarding dietary habits, exercises, hobbies, correct way of breathing, relaxation techniques, posture and other life styles.
• Develop positive self talk.
• Seek feedback from others regarding your attitude and be positive and thankful about it.
• Develop congruency in your attitude, thoughts, behavior, expression, speech, and action.
• Have patience, attitude takes time to change.

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help man with the wrong mental attitude"-   Thomas Jefferson

Attitude

Your attitude is more important than your aptitude. A positive mental attitude is key to success.

We cant tailor make the situations of life, but we can tailor make an attitude to fit into them - before they arise. That is attitude control.

• When boiled carrot becomes soft, losing its hardness; as egg becomes hard when boiled loosing its fragile nature; but when coffee seed boiling in water changes the flavor of water with its rich aroma.
• Same way during any crisis the way you respond matters.. either like carrot, egg or coffee.

The Pencil Story:

Before making Pencil, the pencil maker speaks to the pencil, "There are five things you need to know before I send you to the world. Always remember them and you will become the best pencil you can be".

1. You will be able to do many great things, but only if you allow yourself to be held in someone's hand.
2. You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but this is required for you to become a better pencil.
3. You have ability to correct any mistakes you might make.
4. The most important part of you will always be what's inside.
5. No matter what the condition , you must continue to write. You must always leave a clear, legible mark no matter how difficult the situation.

The pencil understood, promising to remember, and went into the box fully understanding its Maker's purpose.

"It is our mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. The whole world is in our minds".-Swami Vivekananda

Mind Traits

Habit:

• The mind is a creature of habit. It is prone to habits; it does not matter what kind of habit it is, it likes to form them.
• If you feed good habits, it will learn the same, if not automatically it will learn bad habits.
• So one should be careful and work towards feeding good and positive thoughts and habits always.

          "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence therefore is not an act but a habit." - Aristotle

Character:

• Like a cycle the samskara makes the person perform the same action again and again. This gets stronger and becomes a tendency and later a habit. Such a bundle of habits determine the character of a person.
• If they are good, a person's character is good and if they are bad its bad.
• We never work alone, all the forces of good are due to our good efforts and all  the forces of bad are due to our evil deeds.
• Character is then made up of the cultivation of moral virtues plus some other virtues. In any kind of life - material, intellectual or spiritual - all these virtues are very necessary in order that we can grow.

"True nobility lies not in being superior to others but being superior to your former self." - Swami Vivekananda

•       Neither money pays nor name, not fame, nor learning, it is character that can cleave through the adamantine wall of difficulties.
• Character is established through a thousand stumbles. Arise and awake.
• What matters it if this little life goes? Everyone has to die, the saint or the sinner. the rich or the poor.
• The body never remains for any one. Arise and awake and be perfectly sincere.
• What we want is character, that has steadiness and make a man cling on to a thing like grim death.

Meditation

Meditation is different from the concentration. In meditation there is relaxation and the mind is comparatively free. We shall discuss the art of meditation, not as spiritual practice but as a process of sobering the monkey mind.

• In meditation you have to sit quietly in a well ventilated and dimly lit place, in a steady and comfortable posture with eyes closed, head and back straight.
• Unless you are guided by teacher, you can allow normal,  more relaxed and conscious breathing. And refuse to get disturbed by the body senses.
• You have to allot a specific time frame at least for 20 minutes either in dusk or dawn.
• Select a good place where are there are less distractions.
• Face towards an empty wall or towards poster of God you like.
• For the beginners music is not recommended while meditating.
• Be particular for the timing for meditation with cool mind and not in a hurry. Be patient.
• When you sit, remember you are different from  your mind, body and senses. Witness the mind as you do a kid playing, and take a note of what it does when its given free time.
• After some time, you will find various tendencies of mind. Which/ what thought plays a dominant role in it. And what thoughts cause you agitation, irritation, excitement, peace, happiness etc.
• Then you can compare all of them in relation to the goal you have set before.
• Now you may slowly switch to a practice of applying your will power on your mind and trying to change it as you like it to be.
• Those who are trying to evade some bad thoughts from recurring have to cut down the old thoughts again and again as they come again and again, then the roots will die.
• When you practice meditation, there may be a period of stress, but surely there comes a period of stability.
• When you meditate deeply, you feel someone is pouring energy into your body, you become calm by eliminating mental disturbances.
• Love the practice, it is very paying. You will be  a very integrated personality.

Concentration

Concentration is nothing but attention. It requires quiet mind and not a scattered mind. The mind becomes unified when concentration takes place.

We have so many layers of mind, we have to know where the mind has gone and have to know how to gather the scattered pieces.                                                                           

  

Two factors which help develop concentration are:    

1. Living a very restrained and disciplined life.

2. Regular practice of observing the ways of  the mind.                                                                                                             

For example, if you are focusing on one point/thing, full attention should be given to it with a correct straight posture whether you are sitting on chair or cross legged.

• Concentration with discipline should be taught during the childhood which can help your child for a bright future.
• For example when they eat, play or read or doing anything, insist on their full mind to it.
• Never allow their mind to be divided, whatever they do let them give full attention to it.
• For instance, try to concentrate on the image of sun, you see sky & clouds around it,  then a picnic, then who all attended the picnic, and the car..... gone!
• Your mind is taking you far away from the point of concentration in just matter of seconds.
• Hold it there and try again and again till your are able to see only sun.
• You need to practice concentration first before going for meditation. Once you gain the concentration power you are in the first step of controlling mind.

Functions of Mind

                                  

There are two Functions of mind roughly:

• To concentrate and to detach or restrain, both are very necessary.
• For instance if you need to do any piece of work like reading a book, you need to concentrate on  the book and the subject
• the senses should no longer register any noise from the street, but they do carry all that noise to your mind and you may get disturbed.
• Really, if you bring interest in the street noises to zero, our senses cannot go there. We don't hear the sound at all.
• It is truth that we don't even perceive a thing if we are not at least to some extent interested in it.
• If you have that power to concentrate nothing in the world can disturb you. You are the master and the mind is slave.
• No sentiments, no emotions, no problems can disturb you.
• Restraining is a beautiful art which yields tremendous good to individual as well as society.
• If there is no restraint there is no culture, no civilization, no progress, no control on the feelings, emotions or temper.

                                                                                                                       

Your Mind

Mind control is such an art that we do not have to wait till end  before the results come, every step we take in this discipline gives us joy in living, makes feel more tune with ourselves and with the rest of the world.
•  Mind control is very essential discipline for all of us to have to cultivate. without this we are lost.
• We have to know how to make the mind strong, harmonious; how to keep it under control, how to apply it in day today life from our own point of view and from the view point of the society as well.
• The mind is often compared to monkey or the wild elephant in a fit of madness.
• We will know what is the nature of the mind is when we sit for some time in silence

Problems of Mind

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

World Mind                                                                            

• Today people have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time;
• We have more degrees but less common sense; more knowledge less judgement; more experts, but more problems, more medicines but less wellness.
• People spend more recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get angry too soon, stay up to late, get up too tired, read too little and pray too seldom.
• We spend more but enjoy less, we conquered outer space but not inner space. We learned to rush but not to wait; we have higher income, but lower morals.
• These are the times of fast foods but slow digestion and less nutrition, steep profits but and shallow relationships.
• Two incomes, but more divorces; fancier houses but broken homes.
• We don't think we are presenting a cynical view of the world. But this is happening around the world and this is the fact.