MyLifeYoga

Two birds lived in the same tree. One sat on the higher branch and seemed happy and serene. The bird in the lower branch was a restless one who ate the fruits of the tree. Sometimes he got sour fruits that made him cringe, and sometimes he got sweet ones that made him happy. Every time he got a sour fruit he looked up at the bird above who seemed happy. He began moving towards it by hopping on to the higher branches. One day he reached the uppermost branch where the bird sat. As he moved closer to the other bird he realized that there was only one bird. What had seemed like his former self was an illusion and it was really the self same bird that observed everything from the higher branch.

This is based on ideas in a passage from Mundaka Upanishad and a commentary by Shankara. It illustrates the idea that at the mundane level we are a restless self involved in the day-to-day, but within us is a divine blissful self that is the quiet observer of everything.

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Credits:This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah.

Are we happy because we have things? Or are we happy because we are grateful and satisfied? In this wonderful talk Brother David Steindl-Rast invites us to open ourselves to gratefulness. He shows us how we can be grateful and transform our consciousness by using a simple technique. His vision for the world is a world of joy and peace. He visualizes a world where people live in structures not of a power pyramid but of a network where joy, love, and caring is shared.

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Eighty percent of girls in the US have been on a diet even before they are 10 year old! Neuroscientist Sandra Aamodt talked recently at TED about the dieting frenzy in the western world and the problems associated with it. This article is based on her talk:

1. Know your inner thermostat

An “Internal Thermostat” inside our Hypothalamus in our brain regulates our hunger and energy use. If we try to cut our intake by eating less, this thermostat brings down our energy use to balance this. It works just like the thermostat in our homes. If we open the window on a cold winter day, the temperature drops temporarily. The thermostat detects this drop and kicks in the furnace and soon brings back the temperature to its programmed level. In the same way when we diet the weight loss is temporary- till our body adjusts its internal cycles of hunger and energy use and brings the weight back to where it was.

2. Dieting does not work

Because dieting does not change the “internal thermostat” settings no weight loss due to dieting is ever permanent. You could go on for many years on a dieting program but sooner or later your body will figure out a way to get back to where it thinks it needs to be. Five years after a diet most have regained their weight and 40% have regained more than where they started with.
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