We all face challenges in life, some of which can be incredibly difficult to overcome. But it’s often through these challenges that we learn some of our most valuable lessons.

As I look back on my own journey, I’m struck by how much I’ve evolved over the years. Each experience has taught me something new about myself and the world around me.

In this post, I’d like to share some of the most important lessons I’ve learned, in the hopes that they might inspire and uplift others on their own journeys.

Joy is not found in What we Do. It is found in the HOW and WHY we do it!

Over the years, I have learned that happiness is not solely derived from what I do or the outcomes of my actions, but rather from the way I approach them and the reasons why I pursue them.

Whenever I undertake any work with a grateful mind and a sense of purpose, I always find fulfillment.

I believe that the key to finding happiness and fulfillment in any work I do is to approach it with a sense of purpose and passion, and to always stay true to my values and motivations.

With this new way of looking at life, I find meaning and fulfillment in even the most challenging or mundane of tasks.

NO ONE in this world BELONGS TO US!

It took me many years to learn the most obvious truth – I cannot control other people’s thoughts, speech or actions, and ultimately, everyone is responsible for their own journey in life.

No one belongs to us- not our partner, our kids, or our parents. No one owes us anything.

All our loved ones are here to explore and experience the mystery of life, just as we are!

There is a wonderful teaching on Non-Attachment (Aparigraha) in Yoga. Diving deep into this teaching over the years has helped me learn to let go of possessiveness, release expectations and focus on cultivating healthy relationships based on respect, compassion and support.

Living with JOY and Gratitude; FREEDOM from Escapism!

There was a time in my life when I always looked forward to the weekend, a gathering, or a getaway. I didn’t realize at the time that it was a form of escapism; I subconsciously must have seen my day-to-day life as unenjoyable.

Through my study and practice of yoga, I feel blessed now with the ability to approach each day with a grateful mindset. Now I know that I can find joy and fulfillment in even the most mundane activities.

I still enjoy gatherings and vacations, but taking a break or going on a vacation is no longer about escaping my daily precious life but rather about exploring new experiences and perspectives.

HOME is where the MIND is!

To me, there is nothing more important than cultivating a healthy and peaceful mindset, which is essential for creating a sense of well-being and belonging. I have come to realize- Home is where the mind is, so I have to practice taking care of it every day.

The practices of meditation and journaling have helped me to notice my thought patterns and habits, and transform those that are destructive to my physical health, emotional health, and my relationships.

I am now committed to practices that will create a nurturing and supportive environment within me.

MEDITATE on DEATH every morning!

Although it may initially sound scary or negative, this Buddhist teaching is very inspiring to me!

I have spent many years worrying about things that ultimately didn’t really matter. When I took the time to look deeply within myself, I realized that 95% of my worries were merely delusions that were passed down to me through generational trauma or society.

Meditating on death every morning for the past 10 years has tremendously helped me to live mindfully and cultivate a deeper appreciation for the time I have and use it more wisely.

EMBRACE our BODY and all that comes with it (including aging and illness)

This past year was challenging for me. I used to lead a very active lifestyle, but after contracting COVID-19, many things changed for me physically.

Overnight, I lost the ability to do many yoga postures that were once easy for me, and this caused me a lot of initial distress. However, I have come to realize that when something troubles me, it is an opportunity for growth.

I strongly believe that the purpose of my life on earth is to grow and experience the divine presence through all that I may encounter.

Owning any health condition, including illnesses and aging, can be difficult, but I am beginning to see how it can also be a source of strength and resilience to make the necessary changes.

I am learning that I can live a fulfilling and meaningful life, despite any limitations that may exist.

As I reflect on the lessons I’ve learned, I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the experiences that have shaped me. Each challenge has taught me something new and helped me to grow stronger, more resilient, and more compassionate.

I’m learning to embrace the journey, with all its ups and downs, and to trust that everything happens for a reason. As I move forward, I carry these lessons with me, knowing that they will continue to guide me on my path

The post Looking Back, Moving Forward: A Personal Year in Review appeared first on Third Eye Fitness.

I still make mistakes and say or do seemingly unintelligent, inappropriate or silly things. However; in the present, the feeling of embarrassment or inadequacy comes like a wave and is gone within seconds. It has lost its power to dictate my future thoughts or actions.

This transition in my thinking occurred when I recognized I am merely a costar in everyone’s life- my family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances or even virtual connections.

As glamorous as it seems to be the main star, you and I simply are not; at least not to the rest of the world. In their minds, they are the main star where you are always a supporting character.

This is indeed a liberating thought!

As the main star, I was consumed with making an impression on others; being loved, respected, validated and praised. But now, residing in this new awareness, I no longer succumb to the desire to make a certain impression.

The awareness of this new reality I believe has made me a better person overall as my focus has shifted more towards participating and helping. Everyday life has become more about serving and less about making an impression.

As a matter of fact, it is quite a relief to recognize this truth because the burden of carrying the whole world I create in my mind is no longer on my shoulders.

Perhaps, I am a costar to all things in this universe.

The post Loving My Life As A Supporting Actress appeared first on Third Eye Fitness.

In my early days of college, I remember having an enthusiasm to attend my classes not because I thought my destiny was to be an Engineer but because I enjoyed the science and Math classes I took.  There was also a swaggering satisfaction of sitting in a Chemical Engineering class knowing that you were one of the 19 women in the entire graduating class.

As preparation for climbing up the corporate ladder, while not focusing much on learning or enjoying the scientific or mathematical principles of Engineering I once did, I decided to pursue an MBA.  

The interesting thing about life is God knows when we need a change in our direction but we can only hear and feel this shift in silence. At the time, I knew nothing of silence. I was always too busy asking God to fulfill all my earthly wishes and ignorant to the idea of being still and knowing.

As I began studying for GMAT in 2000, I found out I was to become a mother.  My career, as I saw it at the time, took a back seat.  Looking back I would not have it any other way.   I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to stay home every single day in their younger days; playing with them, being able to pick them up from and drop them off to preschool, taking them to the recreation center, and my all-time favorite (which I believe most moms would agree), taking naps with them on top of my chest.  

My kids started school full time and I was ready to get back into my ‘career’. Going back to work after a long break, I felt like a recent college graduate; however, what felt like starting over quickly turned into acquiring a senior position at a Pharmaceutical company within 4 years time frame.  

My first engineering job was also at a Pharmaceutical company as most Chemical Engineers did after graduation. I thought I had it made as we all know the power of Pharmaceutical industries in this country.  

Around the same time I was promoted to a senior position, I had started the practice of Meditation and Yoga to cope with certain events in my life.  An interesting fact about Yoga is, you may begin the practice to release stress but that I believe, is just the tip of the iceberg. It truly is a transformative experience because in these practices of stillness we begin to know.  

Right Livelihood

n my search to make sense of confusion and suffering in my personal life at the time, I began dabbling in the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhist Philosophy.  As I stated earlier, one may begin meditation and Yoga to find peace with a broken heart or a loss of a loved one, but gradually it will begin to touch all aspects of your life.  

One day in meditation, as I contemplated one of the Eightfold path known as ‘Right Living or Right Livelihood’, I began to question what “Right Living” truly meant.

Which industry I worked in and where I was placed as a result of my degree in Engineering began to trouble me.  Drugs are tested on animals in clinical studies, as money gets poured into researching for a new drug.  No industry shows much interest in researching the benefits of meditation or water fasting. It would be lovely to see FDA regulating ‘junk food’ which I believe will cure half of all our chronic illnesses, but I digress…  

The word engineer (Latin: ingeniator) is derived from the Latin words ingeniare (“to create, generate, contrive, devise”) and ingenium (“cleverness”).  The work of engineers forms the link between scientific discoveries and their subsequent applications to human and business needs and quality of life.

Unsure whether or not I was part of a system that enhanced a human’s quality of life, I left the industry.  As a yoga instructor, I felt safer. I was under the impression, in teaching Yoga I am only helping everyone.  I also learned a new skill learning to develop websites; once again in the hopes that I will be able to share my new skill only in a positive manner.  As I concluded ‘This’ must be Right Living, I also hoped to be a role model for my kids; to contemplate the consequences of our choices on other fellow humans, other species and our planet.  

Without trying too hard, I was offered an engineering job almost a year and a half ago back in the industry by a wonderful person I had kept in contact with. I couldn’t help wondering why I was being pulled back in.  I began to wonder if it was Karma; perhaps there was no escaping a recurring situation, I had heard, until you have learned from it.

I love the principles of Engineering, the driving force of so many amazing changes in this world; yet I wanted to run away from the corporations and industries that applied the principles of Engineering.

Then one day, it occurred to me; I am no different than a religious monk trying to run away from civilization, not that there is anything wrong with that if that is how you wish to live your life.

As you get wiser, you realize you will never have the Absolute answer to most questions.  

Yet, I contemplated: What is ‘Right Livelihood”?

Pharmaceutical companies are alleviating the suffering of many.  Perhaps the system is not perfect, but I have met many in this industry who genuinely have concerns and compassion for their fellow humans and the planet.  Is there really an ideal ‘Right Living’ for a human?  Perhaps not; and I don’t mean that in a discouraging way.  This perception only encouraged me to dig deeper.

A farmer on the outside seems to be helping those who need food, yet many living organisms die in farming.  Just by placing my Yoga mat on the floor, I am unaware of the many insects I perhaps kill.  I will never know the true intention of a person’s website I am building. We drive, walk, clean our sheets, cook our food, all the while constantly harming many microorganisms.  

All is Yoga

Although I cannot stress the importance of inner peace one begins to experience with Yoga, I couldn’t help wondering why I enjoyed reading about the recent scientific research and findings on Yoga more than perfecting an asana. I had created a Self-Love Quiz that ended with a Self-Love Development Life cycle similar to a product development life cycle in the world of Engineering.  

I realized there is no running from the way my mind works; it is analytical, perhaps that is why I loved Buddhist Philosophy because the teachings are mini experiments I get to work on and come to conclusions.

I decided to stop running away from my analytical mind and embraced it one day in meditation.  And it occurred to me after many days of sitting in stillness;  the word ‘Yoga or Yug’ is translated as Union.  We are ALWAYS in union but most of us only feel the union when we are alone in a church, temple, in nature or on our yoga mat.  

Perhaps we don’t have to attain perfection in “Right Livelihood” to experience the union.  When we awaken to the union, it doesn’t really matter whether we are washing dishes, checking a pulse or verifying the pressure in a vacuum oven.  All is Yoga!  

Whether we are an instructor in a Yoga class, a cook at home, a janitor or an engineer in a company, with the right intention, we all are in the process of teaching and learning Yoga.  

On some level, I think I now grasp Michael A Singer’s life and his book – The Surrender Experiment. I now embrace my analytical engineering mind-set with much joy and fulfillment, but no longer to climb the ladder but to be a part of the engineers who dream to design a world optimal for our planet and all beings in it.

As I continue to teach Yoga even more purposefully now than before, I suppose my testimony here with this blog post is, Yoga can lead to an enlightened way of living; the kind of joyful living you may think is impossible.  It is possible!

Love & Light,

The Engineer Yogi

The post Confessions of An Engineer Yogi appeared first on Third Eye Fitness.

For most of us, our first teacher on the topic of love is our parents.  Their views, opinions, and ideas of love, becomes ours as a child. 

As we get older, we meet many more teachers along the way who teach us directly and indirectly about love. As a result, most of us unconsciously create a version and feeling of love without ever really contemplating the true sense of the word ‘love’.

If you have read or heard about the five love languages, you know you could be the most affectionate person on this planet, but it means not much to the person whose love language is ‘acts of service’.  If someone doesn’t feel loved, the reciprocation of love is unlikely unless they are an enlightened being like Jesus or Buddha.  And if we don’t feel loved, we will stop expressing love because unconsciously ‘loving to be loved’ was always our end game.  

Some of us spend our entire lives craving this feeling from a parent, partner, sibling, friend or even a child; to hold on to the feeling all the time because, in that feeling, we feel validated, purposeful, significant. 

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. – 1 Corinthians”

In the above biblical verse, notice that there is no reference to feeling love; the type of feeling most of us are accustomed to desiring and craving.  What I take away from reading the above verse is that love is made up of virtues. Without certain virtues, love does not exist.

Love is like a cup of Chai!

Imagine a cup of chai. Chai does not exist independently of the tea bag, milk, water, sugar and heat.   When the appropriate amount of these ingredients come together under the right heating conditions we have that delicious Chai.

Love is no different; love cannot exist independently of virtues.

If we genuinely wish to understand love, we should learn to Be Love.

We should stop focusing on feeling love or loved, and instead focus on cultivating the ingredients of love.  As stated in 1 Corinthians, we focus on cultivating the virtues of Patience, kindness, humility, forgiveness, truthfulness, trust, perseverance along with many others such as mindfulness, contentment, equanimity, gratitude and wisdom.

Cultivating these virtues takes effort and time, but as we learn to cultivate these virtues, our old version of love will begin to disintegrate, and the true essence of love awakens within us. 

If you are someone who thinks I already have all these virtues within me and I don’t have to work on it, maybe you are right.  But then I assume your days are filled with inner peace and contentment with no issues with your spouse, kids, parents, friends, colleagues or your own self.  If that is not the case, then many of us are on the same boat.  We could all benefit from making a commitment to cultivating these virtues where we begin to apply it daily in every situation.

How do we cultivate these virtues?

One of the many reasons I am drawn to Buddhist teachings has to do with its methodical approach to cultivating virtues.  The teachings propose meditation as a method for acquainting our minds with virtues. 

The two meditation practices that go together that can help us develop virtues are known as analytical meditation and placement meditation.

The practice begins with reading or listening to an instruction on a specific virtue we wish to develop.  Sitting in silence, we then begin to contemplate the meaning of this instruction. This contemplation is analytical meditation.

By deeply contemplating the instruction, eventually, we reach a conclusion or cause a specific virtuous state of mind to arise. This conclusion or the virtuous state of mind then becomes the object of placement meditation.

Having found our object through analytical meditation, we then concentrate on that object single-pointedly for as long as possible to become deeply acquainted with it. This single-pointed concentration is placement meditation.

Often, analytical meditation is called simply ‘contemplation’, and placement meditation simply ‘meditation’.

How to meditate?

Find a quiet space in your house and sit in a comfortable position with your back straight.  Then find a reading that focuses on a virtue you wish to cultivate.

*For example, if we are meditating on compassion, we begin by contemplating the various sufferings experienced by all living beings until a strong feeling of compassion arises in our hearts. When this feeling arises, we meditate on it single-pointedly. If the feeling fades, or if our mind wanders to another object, we should return to analytical meditation to bring the feeling back to mind. When the feeling of compassion has been restored, we once again leave our analytical meditation and hold the feeling with single-pointed concentration.

Or if we are trying to develop trust, read a verse in the scripture that helps develop that virtue. Example: **“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD And whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.” 

Contemplate this verse until a strong feeling of trust arises in our hearts.  When this feeling arises, we meditate on it single-pointedly. If the feeling fades, or if our mind wanders to another object, we should return to analytical meditation (by reading the scripture again if needed) to bring the feeling of trust back to mind. When the feeling of trust has been restored, we once again leave our analytical meditation and hold the feeling with single-pointed concentration.

You can see how we can take this meditative approach to cultivate virtues regardless of our faith.

The way we end a meditation session is also important.  Close the session with gratitude and dedication; gratitude for this precious human life that has the capability to develop virtues and dedication to remind us that the fruits of the meditation are not intended primarily for us, but to be of benefit to others.

On this journey of cultivating virtues, perhaps our need to feel love or be loved becomes irrelevant.  Instead, we awaken to the true nature of all things in this world from a place of compassionate understanding.

* Geshe Kelsang Gyatso ** Jeremiah 17

Love & Light,

Simi

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