{"id":849,"date":"2012-02-11T03:44:03","date_gmt":"2012-02-11T10:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/?p=849"},"modified":"2012-02-11T03:44:03","modified_gmt":"2012-02-11T10:44:03","slug":"practical-ways-to-change-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/life\/practical-ways-to-change-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Ways to Change Your Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is easy to read a book on self-improvement, but it is much more difficult to actually implement the concepts into your life. If you really want to change your life, why not try some of these simple exercises.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/smiling-people-vietnam-unmesh.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-850\" title=\"smiling-people-vietnam-unmesh\" src=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/smiling-people-vietnam-unmesh.jpg\" alt=\"smiling people\" width=\"500\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/smiling-people-vietnam-unmesh.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/smiling-people-vietnam-unmesh-300x226.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 85vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Meditation<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Do you want to change the world?<br \/>\nThen change yourself first.<br \/>\nDo you want to change yourself?<br \/>\nIf so, remain completely silent<br \/>\nInside the silence-sea.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8211; Sri Chinmoy [1. Sri Chinmoy, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoylibrary.com\/books\/0507\/36\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Ten Thousand Flower-Flames, Part 40<\/em><\/a> Agni Press, 1982. ]<\/p>\n<p>Find 20 minutes in the day, and make a commitment to meditate whatever else is happening. In these 20 minutes, you are going to try and clear your mind of thoughts and become aware of your own heart, your own soul. Meditation is essential to self-improvement, because in meditation we learn there is more to our being than our mind and thoughts. If we want to transform our life, we have to use the qualities of our soul. If we can bring the soul to the fore, all the situations we find ourself in, will change for the better. The great thing about meditation, is that we don&#8217;t have to mentally work out difficult situations, we just need to change our consciousness. If we can access a little peace and joy through meditation, this consciousness will permeate the rest of the day and help in every situation and personal relationship.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/meditation\/how-to-meditate\/\">How To Meditate.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>A Day Without Criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The human mind has an almost addiction to criticism. It always see what is wrong with the world and with other people. Just for a day, try to live without criticism. Let go of any judgement and see how it affects your state of mind.<\/p>\n<p>See: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/life\/life-without-criticism\/\">Life without criticism.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Gratitude Exercise<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Throughout the day, see how many occasions you can be grateful. They can be for the smallest things. From the beauty of nature, to your good fortune in having enough to live on. The more you look for things to be grateful for, the more you will be able to appreciate life. This can go hand in hand with the exercise to avoid criticism. If we are grateful for the positive, then we can easily forget people&#8217;s failings and limitations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/inner-peace\/the-unexpected-power-of-gratitude\/\">The Power of Gratitude<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Physical Exercise<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A commitment to physical exercise helps us in so many ways.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Helps to clear the mind.<\/li>\n<li>Helps avoid boredom and listlessness.<\/li>\n<li>Creates\u00c2\u00a0 positive mental energy.<\/li>\n<li>We will feel stronger and more dynamic.<\/li>\n<li>We will sleep better and have a better appetite.<\/li>\n<li>It can be fun!<\/li>\n<li>It can help us keep in shape.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/productivity\/why-a-healthy-body-means-a-healthy-mind\/\">See: Healthy Mind and Healthy Body<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Don&#8217;t Rush.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Rather than rushing through life. Take time to appreciate what you are doing. Also, before doing anything, try keep a moment of silence to feel what is the right thing to do. For example, if you are buying food, take a moment to feel the vibration of the food. If you look at food and pass your hands close to it, you can see the different kind of vibration it gives. Just compare a deep fried takeaway and something healthy and tasty.<\/p>\n<p>This moment of reflection helps us to make better choices, which we really benefit from. It takes discipline to stop rushing into everything, but ultimately you will save time, as you spend less time dealing with your wrong choices. It will also show you that you have much better intuition than you might have thought. The more you practise intuition, the stronger it becomes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Treat Others How you would Want to be Treated.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Try\u00c2\u00a0 seeing life from the other person&#8217;s perspective. Are you treating other people how you would like to be treated yourself? This simple golden rule can be life changing, if we actually implement it. It is the key to sympathy, oneness and helping others in a positive way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Smile<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The simplest exercise is for the last. Just because it is so simple, don&#8217;t devalue its importance. Smiling makes us feel better, but also changes how we present ourselves to the world. If we grimace and scrunch up our face, it is a completely different world to offering the world a smile. To smile is to automatically choose the positive and avoid the negativity we are trying in many other exercises.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/life\/how-to-avoid-negativity\/\">How To Avoid Negativity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/life\/small-things-big-difference\/\">7 Small Things that can make a difference<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Photo credit: Unmesh Swanson, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is easy to read a book on self-improvement, but it is much more difficult to actually implement the concepts into your life. If you really want to change your life, why not try some of these simple exercises. Meditation &#8220;Do you want to change the world? Then change yourself first. Do you want to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/life\/practical-ways-to-change-your-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Practical Ways to Change Your Life&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849\/revisions\/853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.srichinmoybio.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}