“You’ve got to work on getting happiness”, or “You’ve got to work to make that dream job happen.” I have often heard people say such things, and make other such strong affirmations. Although, they can be empowering and can even help set goals to achieve in one’s life, there’s an underlying assumption that these things are currently non-existent in our lives and that we have somehow got ‘to work’ to make them appear and stay long-term.
Sitting quietly, it struck me how grateful I am to have heard the phrase “Be your own experiment.” It had been Daaji, Heartfulness Guide, who I heard say this. I recall it being like a breath of fresh air; a wonderful and unique idea I had never heard or considered.
I meditate because I enjoy being still in a volatile world. I enjoy seeing the connections between the thoughts and feelings that come during meditation. I enjoy the refreshing blankness without thoughts and feelings that come for a few seconds or many minutes of a meditation. I enjoy dipping for 30 minutes into the Eternal Stream, always accessible but unseen.
We asked two Heartfulness meditators to reflect on what they gain from practising Heartfulness. Bhupinder Pal Singh began Heartfulness meditation in 2000, and Alka Patel in 2006. Why do you meditate? Bhupinder: When I started meditation, my aim was to improve my interpersonal skills… now the reason is totally different. The main reason to meditate […]
I’m sitting in the Colonsay hotel in front of a warming wood burning stove, and in typical Highland form, rain is lashing against the windows, making it seem like 4pm rather than 10am. I am reminded of our fuel stop outside the Green Welly Boot at Tyndrum on our way to Oban to ride on […]
Having received treatment for breast cancer at the age of 38 years old (and that was in 2016), I realised that life has a lot more to offer. So I left my very stressful job after dedicating 22 years of my life to it – and believe me, it had been a total dedication to […]
I’ve been practising Heartfulness for 3 years now, since moving to Bristol. Previously I was a sceptical of meditation and I’m afraid I had all sorts of pre-conceived ideas about it. But, over the past few years, I’ve found myself drawn to practices involving stillness and silence and have realised that there is a deeper […]
How do you explain feelings to someone who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word? Though they know the word, it is not part of their everyday vocabulary. They don’t ‘do’ feelings. They ‘do’, and do it very well thank you! That was me a few years ago when I attended a course on Non […]
The last two months have been surreal, with ninety per cent of the human population under lockdown. We as humans are not used to remaining confined within our homes. This has led to varied emotions in response to these restrictions. Most of these emotions are negative and quite counter-intuitive to the logic – that this […]
