Lucid Practice Notes on The 5 People You Meet In Heaven

While traveling China, I found The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom on a hostel bookshelf. *Side note: Isn’t it funny the books that you find in hostels while traveling?

Paz and I had enjoyed Albom’s beautiful short book, Tuesdays with Morrie so I decided to read this book as well. When reading, I like to take notes so I can go back years later and essentially reread each book. I had found that it was difficult to remember all concepts and themes of books unless I diligently took notes and made a habit of going back every few months to reread. Do you utilize this practice while reading books?

Lucid Practice Notes on The 5 People You Meet In Heaven:

• Heaven is where you get to make sense of your yesterdays. Make your yesterday’s count.
• Strangers are just family you have yet to come to know.
• All lives intersect in heaven.
• Heaven is where you spend and live your life. You cross paths with people you affected.
• Always forgive.
• Life has to end. Love doesn’t.

Certainly interesting and beautiful concepts. What did you learn from reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven? Let’s discuss the book in the comments section below.

“There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and wisdom you didn’t know you had…”

~John Steinbeck

Last night, our electrician came over to help install a sound system. His son Max is a smart, jovial 11 year old who lost his mother to cancer at a young age.

Max usually chills on his iPad playing video games while his dad works his electronic magic in the basement.

My friend and I asked the youngster if he’d like to go fishing on our boat. Max’s eyes lit up with excitement, the iPad was history, and we were on our way.

It was a beautiful summer night, around sunset, perfect time for fishing. The wind was pushing us one way while the tide pushed us the other, granting us the perfect “slow drift” along the calm waters of the coast of the Long Island Sound.

Fifteen minutes went by and we hadn’t caught a thing.

Max looked perturbed as this was his first time fishing. It seemed as if he was thinking, “Aren’t we supposed to catch a fish every cast?” Nick and I explained that fishing is about patience and enjoying the water and each other’s company.

Twenty+five minutes…. nothing.

Twenty+eight minutes…. nothing.

Thirty+four minutes…. BANG!

A fish hit my lure and Max leapt to his feet. I handed him the rod and he reeled for his life until the fish had reached the boat. “Did I catch him, did I catch him?” Max yelled in excitement.

As I brought the beautiful striped bass on to the boat, I felt God smiling down on us. I felt God’s love. We took two pictures before we threw Max’s fish back in the water and I felt a deep sense of awareness in the moment. Bringing not just a smile ~ but a whole new experience ~ to a kid’s life, was a privilege.

Max’s first fish. He will never forget that night out on the water. And neither will I.

Some refer to the airport as the worst place on Earth. Airports are often associated with bad food, dirty facilities, rushed travelers, and awful customer service from TSA.

But if you cut through all of that, you’ll find love and positive energy all around you. I recently returned from a trip to Europe and here is what I saw:

1. Tears of sadness as a mother and father said farewell to their son and daughter in law. This is love in its purest form.

2. Tears of joy at the arrival gate as two young twin girls ran up to their dad (a returning soldier) and hugged him simultaneously. Again, pure love.

3. Two backpackers sparking up a passionate conversation about their travels. A trip to Madagascar, a yoga retreat in Thailand, a story about a bizarre market in Bangladesh. The travelers were sharing their love for meeting people and experiencing new cultures. That’s the essence of learning and loving.

This is the type of energy that the lucid practitioner can feed off of. In these three instances, I could feel the love. It almost brought me to tears.

We don’t need to be in the Himalayan Mountains in meditation to see that God, love, and positive energy are all around us.

When we put the iPhone/iPad/etc. down and begin to observe, the lucid practitioner can see beyond the negativity.  We then realize that love is all there is.

In the comments section, please share with us an unexpected place where you have been able to find peace, positive energy, and love.

~Paz

PS Here’s a May 31 2018 update to this post:
http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/23662715/packers-rb-aaron-jones-lauded-airport-act-kindness-photo-goes-viral
Good to see kindness & positive energy spreading at the airport 🙂

Positivity and Relationships

People often ask how they can bring positive energy into their lives.

The answer is that it begins with common interactions we all have on a daily basis.

Interacting & conversing with people without a conscious plan can lead to negative conversations that consist of complaints, insults, and overall negative energy.

So, how can we have positive interactions with people?

4 Ways to Have Positive Interactions with People:

1. Start with a positive greeting.

We use greetings during every interaction we have (sometimes subconsciously). Choose positive greetings over neutral & negative ones.

Examples:

Negative greetings: “This weather really sucks, huh?” Or “Hey what’s up, I don’t know about you but I feel like shit.” You’ve set the tone for the convo without even meaning to do so. Complete negativity will likely persist.

Neutral greetings: “What’s up?” “How are you?” I’m sure these greetings meant something at one point in time but now they’re overused. The “canned” greeting gets a “canned” response. “Not much, you?” Or “Good, you?”

Plus, the greeter has less control over the direction of the conversation which can allow for toxic negativity.

Positive greetings: “What’s the good word, my friend?” (This statement is likely more accessible to males.) Or Girls (and guys) can use: “What a beautiful day, we’re so blessed.”

Or you compliment the other person on a quality you admire about them. “Good to see you Brian, your smile always makes me feel at ease.” These greetings set the tone for the conversation & make it difficult for your counterpart to complain or bring negative energy to the interaction.

2. Set the tone by beginning the engagement with a genuine smile & hold the smile.

Make sure the other person sees that it’s not the customary phony smile — instead it’s a distinct smile — a differentiated smile — a smile that could only be generated by a lover of life.

As a result, your counterpart will most likely smile (since humans mirror each other) and the interaction will begin (and likely continue) in a positive light.

3. Don’t add negativity.

Refusing to say a negative word about anyone or any situation is like smothering a small candle w/ a gallon of water. This is passive resistance at it’s finest. This non action extinguishes the negativity immediately. for a more aggressive approach, try to change the subject to something positive.

Example:
Frank (negative energy): “I can’t stand Greg. He’s so selfish, boring, and ugly.”
Francois (positive energy): “Tell me about your night last night, it sounded like you and ______ were having such a great time at dinner.”

If Francois had continued to insult Greg, it would have been like throwing gasoline on a fire and nothing good would have come from the conversation. Instead he changed the subject to a positive topic.

4. Talk “Good” Behind Someone’s Back

We’ve all heard of “talking shit” behind someone’s back. One of my favorite practices (hopefully lucid) is flipping that around.

Scenario 1 (social norm, what usually happens):

Caroline: Emma is such a bitch. I can’t sand her

Steph: Yeah, you’re right. (Thinking to herself: Jeez I wonder what Caroline says about me behind my back.)

Scenario 2 (destroying the social norm, changing status quo of negativity/gossip):

Karolina: Emma is such a great friend. She’s so trustworthy & she’s always helping others. We’re all lucky to have her.

Steph: Yeah, you’re right. (Thinking to herself: It’s pretty cool that Karolina constantly uplifts everyone around her.)

Next time you have the opportunity to converse, how can you bring positive energy to the interaction?

~Paz

“I traveled throughout India trying to find someone who knew God. Such souls are rare. All the teachers I met told me about their beliefs. In spiritual matters I was determined to never be satisfied with words about God. I wanted to experience Him. What I am told has no meaning for me unless I experience it.

Once I was talking with a friend of mine, a broker, about the saints of India. He did not share my enthusiasm. “All these so called saints are fakes,” he said. “They don’t know God.”

I didn’t argue, I changed the subject, and we started to talk about the brokerage business. When he had told me quite a great deal about it, I said smoothly “Do you know there is not a single reliable broker in Calcutta? They are all dishonest.”

“What do you know about brokers?” he retorted angrily.

“Exactly,” I replied. “What do you know about Saints?” He couldn’t answer. “Don’t dispute what you don’t know about” I went on good naturedly. “I know nothing about the brokerage business, and you don’t know anything about saints.”

….Most people become self-satisfied about what they read of Truth, without ever having experienced it. In India, we do not seek spiritual guidance from someone just because he has a theological degree, nor do we seek from those who have studied the scriptures without experiencing their truths. We are taught to recognize the difference between a man’s sermon and his life; he must demonstrate that he has experienced what he has learned.”

-Paramahansa Yogananda

http://www.dailycupofyoga.com/2013/06/11/when-good-enough-is-excellent/

Contentment.

Santosha.

Life is beautiful and the best part about it is this current moment. A lot of people who came before us would love to be here now.

Outstanding pictorial & textual guide to beginning & advanced asana backbends:

http://www.mryoga.com/backbends

Benefits of backbends: Improves spinal flexibility and strength creating better posture, stimulates the central nervous system, abdominal organs and aids in digestion, tones the adrenal glands, kidney, pancreas and liver thyroid gland, abdominal organs and lungs, stretches the chest, lungs, upper and lower back, throat, shoulders, hip flexors, can relieve menstrual cramping and menopause for women, and calms the mind.

1. Expressing Gratitude

2. Cultivating Optimism

3. Avoiding Overthinking and Social Comparison

4. Practicing Acts of Kindness

5. Nurturing Social Relationships

6. Developing Strategies for Coping

7. Learning to Forgive

8. Increasing Flow Experiences

9. Savoring Life’s Joys

10. Committing to Your Goals

11. Practicing Religion and Spirituality

12. Taking Care of Your Body: Meditation + Physical Activity + Acting Like a Happy Person

Via Entheos.com and Sonja Lyubomirsky’s book The How of Happiness