Spiritual Magazine | Wellness Magazine

September 2019, Taste of life / 01 Sep 2019
Orderly chaos
AN ART ESSAY Abstract art is an ideal way to express matters of the spirit that can’t be easily verbalized. It transcends the boundaries of language, drawing viewers into an internalized space where they can experience the artwork in a personal, subjective way, extracting whatever meaning it stirs up inside them. I generally don’t assign any specific meaning to my abstract art, because I prefer the viewer to interpret each piece in his or her own unique way. The colors and chaos paradoxically induce a quiet mental stillness, as I allow my eyes and mind to travel across the many details without assigning meaning to what I’m seeing. I just let the art take me for a ride. My abstract art explores how color, pattern, composition and personal symbology express the mystery and delight of our existence. It manifests the intangible elements of everyday existence – emotions, thoughts, energy – by translating them into colors and patterns. It is often highly detailed because of my desire to achieve balance through multiplicity, in order to reflect the complexity of human consciousness and our shared experience in the multiverse. The result is a whimsical concoction of color and form, interwoven into a lyrical, visual harmony. This style of abstract art can be described as “orderly chaos.” My first abstract art was in 2003, experimenting with a variety of tools and surfaces, as well as various methods of mark-making. It wasn’t long before a personal style naturally emerged, with an innate tendency towards bright, eye-popping colors and intricate detailed designs. I am particularly influenced and inspired by folk art from cultures around the world, such as Persian miniatures, Mexican huichol and alebrije, Aboriginal dot painting. Modern art influences include Hundertwasser, Klee and Kandinsky. These abstract paintings range in size from a tiny 3″…

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Be inspired, September 2019 / 27 Aug 2019
Yogic psychology
DAAJI continues his series on the fundamental principles of psychology, with its foundation in the ancient wisdom of Yoga, as compiled in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. But the discussion on consciousness and mental well-being goes much further back, at least to the time of the Ramayana. Lord Ram’s recorded dialogues with his brother Lakshman focused on consciousness, the same is true of the dialogues between Ashtavakra and Raja Janaka from the same era, recorded in the Ashtavakra Gita, and the dialogues of the Rishi Vashishtha with Lord Ram and Lakshman, recorded in the Yoga Sangeeta. Obviously consciousness was an important topic of discussion among the thought leaders of the day. Patanjali was a researcher par excellence, and was able to curate all the knowledge available into the Yoga Sutras. That was thousands of years ago, and today we can take Patanjali’s elegant framework to a new level of understanding thanks to the practices that have evolved in Yoga in the last 100 years to correct these imbalances. Ashtavakra was very direct, and forthcoming, saying, “Know yourself as Brahm, know yourself as perfect consciousness,” while Patanjali takes us step by step in the most practical way. The void is felt in the first approach and the seeker remains clueless as to how to recognize the inner as Brahman. Although Patanjali provides such well-defined steps in his Ashtanga Yoga, it remains to be seen how a seeker can confidently and masterfully enter the state of meditation and Samadhi. It is easier to follow the first six steps of Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara and Dharana, as they are at a physical and mental level. The last two steps of Dhyana and Samadhi belong to the spiritual realm, partly also relating to the subtle bodies. Only through Heartfulness practices can one fully appreciate the…

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In the Field, September 2019 / 27 Aug 2019
Consciousness in management
From the 1 to 3 August 2019, an international group of academics, thought leaders, Yoga and meditation practitioners, and corporate consultants and managers came together at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, the premier business school in India, to address the topic of “Elevating Consciousness Through Meditation for Global Harmony.” ELIZABETH DENLEY shares some insights on the activities and ripple effect this conference had on the participants and the field of management, and interviews a number of the presenters and delegates. At this pivotal time in human history, we are seeing the winds of change sweep through management schools around the world. While the existing paradigms of business and management have been successful in many ways, they have never been sustainable. We now realize that a significant shift in human consciousness is needed for us to continue to survive on Earth. Without this shift, management schools are no longer serving any useful purpose; in fact they will only cause more harm. Dr. Ramnath Naranswamy, Professor of Economics and Social Sciences at IIMB, had this to say during his keynote address: “Management as an academic discipline developed during a dynamic period of knowledge growth and expansion in the western world, evolving out of Fordism and Taylorism. To enrich and balance that perspective, today the need to incorporate heart-based principles of leadership, service and character ethics has become increasingly vital. In particular, meditation offers a way to cultivate emotional, social and spiritual intelligence, and a way to elevate and expand consciousness. Nowadays the mainstream business community acknowledges that meditative life skills are fundamental to well-being and happiness.” But there is more to the story. These life skills also provide us with the elevated consciousness to embrace a new set of paradigms; those needed to solve the current problems facing humanity and take…

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Interview, September 2019 / 27 Aug 2019
Spirit is the foundation for everything
BOB BOISTURE speaks with JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 1 June 2019. He shares with us the vision of the Fetzer Institute, and the need for personal transformation and love to bring about the changes necessary today to address the most pressing issues of humanity and our planet Earth. Q: Welcome sir. One of the lovely things I read about the Fetzer Institute is its approach to life and the fact that it comes from a foundation of love. Can you tell us more about the Institute and this principle of love? How does it work? BB: I’ll start with John Fetzer, the founder. He was born in 1901 and died in 1991, so he lived in every decade of the 20th century and his life had this amazing trajectory. He was born in a very small town in the American Midwest, into a fairly conservative, narrow, religious environment. The course of his life was an opening to a global spirituality, beginning fairly early in his life when he became a student of world religions and practiced within a number of traditions. He was always perhaps grounded in his Christian beginnings, but was very open to eastern traditions. It was really extraordinary because in his public life he became a very successful businessman and entrepreneur in the early days of radio and television. He then bought one of the major league baseball teams and was a pioneer in putting broadcasting and sports together. He did all this in a culture where if you were a businessman you didn’t talk about spirituality and, if you did, you talked about it in the context of the Christian tradition. But his passion was this global spiritual vision. As he got older and accumulated a significant…

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September 2019, Thought in action / 27 Aug 2019
Your brain on night shift
JAMIE NOTHSTINE is an emergency room nurse, a certified Primal Health Coach, with a Bachelor Degree in Kinesiology and Bachelor Degree of Nursing. She also has a passion for fitness and nutrition. Here Jamie shares her personal tips for working night shifts as a health professional, and still getting regular rejuvenating sleep. If you work the graveyard shift, do any of the following sound like you? Brain fog Tired Cranky Always hungry Often sick Overweight Headaches Depression Anxiety After working the night shift for nearly 11 years, I definitely checked most of those boxes, and as an RN in the emergency room you do not want any of them. You need to be alert, on your feet and ready for an emergency at a drop of a hat. You have lives in your hands! As years went by I noticed how my mood and health was changing. I had to figure out why. I kept telling myself, “I’m not me anymore.” Yes, the stress of the ER can definitely change a person, but this was something more. I would notice that my sleep was not optimal, and the worse it was the worse I felt. Even my days off were spent lying on the couch like a slug. I didn’t want to go to social gatherings, visit family, or do anything but sleep and eat. The more I researched, the more I learned the three big words that were making me feel the way I was, and those 3 words are “Disrupted Circadian Cycle.” Why is our circadian sleep cycle so important? Getting adequate sleep is essential to weight loss, peak performance (physically and mentally) and longevity. For billions of years, the evolution of nearly all life forms on Earth has been driven by the rising and setting of the…

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Focus, September 2019 / 27 Aug 2019
The science of sleep
DR NATWAR SHARMA shares some thoughts on our current sleep crisis, and why it is a good idea to get a good night’s sleep. Sleep is defined as an altered state of consciousness wherein the sensory and motor systems are relatively inhibited. Why do we need sleep? Most of us living in cities have a lot of mental activity, but our physical activity is almost zero. Especially with all these gadgets available, there is no need to travel and we can sit at one place and work. At the same time, the mind is hyper-stimulated. There is so much to do today, so much to catch up on: movies, TV, social media. And how much time is consumed on WhatsApp! Why do we need sleep? Now when we look at the animal world, we see how beautifully they’re aligned with nature. By sunset they fall asleep, and with the first rays of the sun you can hear the birds chirping. As human beings what has gone wrong with us? We too have a circadian clock, which helps us to wake up and sleep. The hormone melatonin is responsible for this, and light basically inhibits the secretion of this hormone. We are exposed to a lot of artificial light today. Even after sunset, there is light all around. Also, most of us don’t follow sleep hygiene: we are awake – on our mobile phones, watching TV or just surfing. Imagine the amount of light entering our eyes, not allowing the melatonin hormone to be secreted and function properly. What happens as a result of all this? Gradually stress builds up. We use our mobile phone throughout the day, recharge it at night, and the next day it is ready to be used again. The same is the case with our body:…

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THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

It changes everything

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in It changes everything, September 2019

JOANNE LAM is a personal health coach by day and thought-provoker by night. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she has since lived in the United States, the Netherlands, and...

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in September 2019, Thought in action

JAMIE NOTHSTINE is an emergency room nurse, a certified Primal Health Coach, with a Bachelor Degree in Kinesiology and Bachelor Degree of Nursing. She also has a passion for fitness...

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in Be inspired, September 2019

DAAJI continues his series on the fundamental principles of psychology, with its foundation in the ancient wisdom of Yoga, as compiled in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. But the discussion on consciousness...

Yogic psychology

Taste of Life

Interview

Spirit is the foundation for everything

in Interview, September 2019

BOB BOISTURE speaks with JUDITH NELSON at the Spirit of Humanity Forum, held in Reykjavík, Iceland, on 1 June 2019. He shares with us the vision of the Fetzer Institute,...