Transforming Life with Positive Thinking: Insights from BK Shivani & Rajan Navani

a very warm welcome to think right podcast on mindfulness and mental health I think both of these are words that one can relate to in different ways at different times and we are here with our ever radian sister Shivani to discuss these two specific words and really how they can apply to the lives of each person you know that we have pretty much in India but around the planet it's a very generic way of living uh in with mindfulness and good mental health so in simple terms uh how would you define mindfulness mindfulness like we say be mindful of what you're saying be mindful of how you're behaving which means take care that your words are right your behavior is right so mindfulness means be mindful of how you're thinking because we were always taking care of our words and behavior we are aware when we've spoken a wrong word when we've not behaved perfect but this is not one place which we were checking or aware because we beli that the thoughts are just coming on their own even the fact that I'm creating my every thought is not everybody's understanding he was say oh that thought just came to me you know so when I say the thought just came to me it's as if it's coming from somewhere outside so if it's just coming to me how can I be mindful of what thoughts are coming to me or I'm just reacting to situations and so blaming the situation for my thought so again I don't feel that I have the power to choose which thought but once we understand that I'm creating my thought second is be mindful what thought you are creating so in Hindi we say you know so we learn spiritually so even be aware that whether your thought is correct so once you are aware of that you would gradually start creating right thoughts and the minute you create a not perfect thought you'll be aware you know so like if I experience a first thought of jealousy I will immediately know I have created this first thought so that is mindfulness and then I just have to switch and change but if I am not aware I could be creating jealousy as an emotion for years and I wouldn't even know that I am the one who's creating it so mindful means Soo is a very powerful phrase I would think because we always said but this source of mindfulness or when you are in that state of mindfulness and observing your thought or you know building your thoughts you are coming to it from a a a field of all possibilities or you know of a Zone which is the source of creation and nature so why how how is this part heart of you right where where does it reside in you you know these are things and questions people ask right where is it in me because when we say me we'll talk of more my even my body my thought my so where is this me and my you so we are human beings so it's two words human plus being so human comes from humus which means MTI the m so we so this is the human part humus and here is the being so being means the energy which is using this body so we can call it the being we can call it Spirit we can call it power we can call it Consciousness light Soul Atma that's just a word understanding is that we are not just a body it's not just the brain there is someone who is using the brain the brain is only it's like a robot a computer and an operator of the computer so robot is this physical costume computer is the brain and the operator is the eye so I will give an instruction the brain will process the instruction get it executed from the body but today we know about the body we know about the brain but we're not in the awareness of the eye so whatever is mine we are calling it I so I am not just a body but I am a male I am a female I a husband I'm a wife I'm a doctor I'm a leader everything we've called I I am a Hindu I am an Indian everything has become I it's not I everything is mine everything is mine everything of these labels is mine I am that being and all this is mine so once I'm aware of that I know that I am the creator of those thoughts and it's like it's your interest where you start paying attention you will start seeing it but if I've never looked at that part of my life I'm just living out of an auto mode and that's why everybody says be aware be aware of what you're thinking go inside so people get very confused where to go inside and where am I supposed to go inside so inside go inside means there's nothing to go inside it just means inside is where you're creating your thoughts so just go inside means look at that don't look at always outside our focus is on everything happening outside go inside means be aware here is the creation and so when we meditate daily for a few minutes we're only looking at the so there starts the practice of looking at that part which I've not looked at throughout the day and once we start meditating then even during the day I can start looking at it it's like a corner of the house which was not taken care of we were just taking care of everything else so here is that eye the energy it is in the brain between the hypothalamus and the pitutary gland that energy point and from there the thoughts are created a thought is like a vibration it will trigger a phenomena in the brain and then the rest of the thing is happening through the body so that eye is creating those thoughts so just be mindful of the thoughts we are created so you made a very good uh you know Point here you meditate and you can become more mindful or you become and then you can stay that way through the day so so how is meditation different from mindfulness you know how much should one meditate any thoughts and all that uh not that there's any fixed time that everybody chooses their own and it's not something that I have to meditate for this time but you need to start creating a discipline because I might sit for 2 minutes and say I can't meditate so I might just get up and walk off I can't do it so put a time frame that I will sit for 5 minutes because initially even disciplining your mind and your body to sit straight in a world which is so pulled by distractions is not easy for everybody so the first step is just sitting forget meditating don't think of meditation right now even just sit 15 minutes without picking up the phone a book talking to just sit even just do deep breathing you've started being with yourself that self discipline that nothing around me is pulling me that is my first achievement because people won't even sit for 5 minutes without picking up something so 15 minutes just sit just sit and do nothing that's why even children can do this 5 minutes just sit don't do anything that itself you have brought your mind to become the master of your life your mind is not getting pulled then second the meditation that I do which is called Raj yog meditation you bring your attention to the center of the forehead and you start two things power of affirmation plus power of visualization because when you are affirming and visualizing now you will not get pulled anywhere else so the soul is mind intellect and sansar three faculties so the mind creates the thought intellect visualizes it and then when you keep on repeating it it becomes your suncar the third thing so that is the three aspects with which we are working in meditation so if I take only one thought I am a peaceful being so if I create only the thought within a few seconds there will be some other thought so to create a concentration the mind and the intellect should be together so visualize a little point of light now create a thought I'm a peaceful being so now what we're doing with meditation we consciously creating our thoughts not that thoughts are just coming to me I'm consciously creating my thoughts and when you are creating a thought of who you really are the truth your strength that Soul power starts increasing and what we will see during the day is my number of waste thoughts all those other it just automatically starts minimizing you can't remove Weight it's like like if my body is weak I cannot remove weakness I have to strengthen the weakness will automatically fall off so meditation is that you do the meditation strengthen the soul being mindful during the day will be a outcome of that strength I think that that it's so scientific also in a way that you know the more aware you are for concentrated period you will become meditative or you know mindful you know through a meditative lifestyle and you know once you're in that Journey or on that Journey then you maintain good mental health because the big term today which you know the world is beginning to cope and deal with is we always addressed Health as physical health which doctors can resolve but the larger challenges I think for Human Society going forward is mental health so how how is mental health you know uh different from Mindful and meditation and the correlation between the two so mindfulness will help our emotional health okay so these words stress fear worry irritation anger if I'm practicing meditation in the morning and then I'm mindful during the day which some people are practicing meditation but not taking care during the day so then for them peace is only a beautiful experience during their meditation in the morning so they are not translating it into action so many many people will say I'm very peaceful during meditation but stress is normal part of life they've chosen to keep it that way but even that will benefit because at least for a few minutes you've strengthened your mind but ideally it should be meditate and then mindful during the day that what you are doing has to come into your behavior and action so automatically your emotional health will start getting better so you will start shifting from stress to being calm and stable you will start shifting from anger to being more compassionate at empathetic it doesn't mean it's today you're angry and tomorrow there's no anger but it is a shift that five out of 10 times you're not reacting so which means your emotional Fitness levels are increasing and that is that means that you are becoming more powerful than your situation basically that is what it's making you you're becoming more powerful than your situation so earlier you say something to me I get angry that means I'm getting over overpowered by the situation so I'm emotionally weaker situation overpowers me something happens around me I experience fear situation overpowers me so these are signs that I'm emotionally weaker now when I start practicing this someone says something I don't react that means I overpower the situation so now I understand that I'm becoming stronger my strength level my emotional Fitness levels are rising now it's not just small situations that there's suddenly a crisis in my life I have better strength now to cope with that crisis so I will not say depressed depression because I've built that emotional Fitness levels and so it's easier to cope up even with a crisis or a tragedy depends on what is the cause of the mental health issue they are various causes sometimes you because there are also people who have been meditating have been leading spiritual Lifestyles and yet that yet they experience depression so because there are other reasons we are still in that process where we are understanding sometimes it's even a vitamin deficiency even a vitamin B12 vitamin D3 deficiency the doctor says can lead to and other things when that's best for a doctor to say sometimes it's also because it's genetic it's there in our family and some situation in my life and I but if anybody has been meditating and taking care of their emotional health even if they go towards a mental health issue they will be able to come out of it FAS yeah they will be able to heal themselves faster or someone is experiencing a mental health issue is experiencing a depression and they start practicing now maybe not so much meditation because ideally we will not ask those who are going through an issue to meditate because if they sit in silence then those number of thoughts you know it's a racing mind then so ideally not to meditate when we are going through a depression but even if you just consume listen you know high energy words and you start taking that spiritual content basically it's only going to change the way you think and the way you going you're perceiving your situation or you're perceiving your crisis and those people are able to come out along with their medication going on so we are not stopping the medication for those who are taking it but along with that if you integrate another tool here it's easier for you to heal and to come out of it so it definitely goes hand in hand but the best is to focus on prevention of mental health that is very important focus on prevention of mental health take it's like take care of your body even physically I say take care of your body every day so 90% chances you will remain fit 10% chances there will be a disease because there are so many other factors but because you've been taking care you know that me me ISM and that strength is there to fight that disease and to come out of it so same thing will apply for the mind I think both preventive and it also applies yes you know in a Curative manner but it's best addressed if it is done and also also why reach up to depressed you know why not finish at stress like why should I reach to 105 fever why not finish it when I saw that it was how do I know that you know because many times people reach a stage in mental health or you know link through stress because there's a lot of denial right I think you feel oh no no this is normal or you know this was something so are there any like early signs you know more from a a body tells us something emotions tell or something uh if for over 15 20 days or a month you are not feeling your normal enthusiasm you know without a situation in your life if there is a situation we can attribute that emotional change to the situation you know a job loss a loss of a family member so then you can attribute it to that but there also you have to give yourself a time frame you know the grief period that it can't just go on forever otherwise then that grief has shifted into a depression so but if there is no crisis and you are not experiencing your normal enthusiasm you are not feeling like meeting people you are having to be pushed to going somewhere you don't feel like working because you're not able to apply your mind there your mind creates a lot of thoughts sometimes you cry and very important symptom is not good sleep you're not able to fall off to sleep you tend to stay awake or you sleep but you have a very poor sleep cycle you wake up early some people lose appetite some people ovat some people lose sleep some people sleep so anything that is shifted from your personal normal in your personal mood your personal sleep cycle your personal eating habits it's not in comparison to anybody else week 10 days fine 15 days 1 month after that pause check talk it out with somebody and of course if anybody has a suicidal thought even if it's come just once or twice like that then it's a short short thing that you need help immediately because most of the suicides that yeah we he we've lost people only because we were not able to diagnose that they were going through a depression and they didn't know about it and so they are alone and those thoughts come to them which are not their thoughts of suicide but are a symptom or a cause of depression but at that time there was nobody there with them and so that's why so if anybody ever experiences a suicidal thought now you don't have to think about it you really need to talk it out to somebody else and just take a little help and come out and I think it's for the other family members colleagues at work to notice these changes and some of compassion also to understand actually what is happening we are leading lives with stress and fear so if even if somebody sees it on my face they say ah so they will just leave it as a mood you know that this is just a mood because maybe they're also not sensitized to the idea that you have to so it's where we have reached a time where this has to be sensitized in schools in colleges in organizations because we don't know who around us or even we ourself are experiencing that and we're not aware of it we're losing people because of lack of information you know what guilt a parent goes through yeah yeah it's because one is the losing the child a pain forever but the guilt that I how did I not come to know that my child was going through something like that so we just need to know more about it maybe so one is awareness of mental health that's very very important but taking care of the self prevention of M and it's difficult right because see like even at corporates or even in families you can go for a Executive Health checkup for example and you'll get all your parameters you know your blood pressure you know your diabet you know sugar levels your vitamin levels and all and you think you're perfect you know what we don't have those kinds of tests for mental health holistically and you might be able to like what you rightly said if there is a physical manifestation of that you might be able to you know correct it right but more more often than not it is beyond that yeah nowadays there are uh you know just tests which which means you answer certain questions yeah so you answer those certain questions there are psychology tests that are there and many corporates and organizations have that that you answer those there's so much stigma yet now in a corporate life because if in your organization when someone comes to know then you fear that you would because everybody's in that competitive Race So if I have that label then people will feel I won't perform that much I cannot manage so there's still it's important for organizations to provide that Comfort space to to its people to employees because that very important person who's suffering with mental health when they go back home you know it's it affects the other family members so I think you know it can probably best be tackled you know there yes awareness about it handholding if somebody is going through it and to remember it's just an illness and they're going to be back from it and they're going to do everything and even now even once somebody's on medication they're actually able to do normal work we won't even know who around us is is on a medication so there's no need to put that tag like you know oh they won't be able to do it that's not true but of course the person does need handholding handholding just compassion like you would do for a physical health issue the same thing but important is that even those who are going through it don't just depend on a medicine that's not enough do something for yourself so that you heal yourself and automatically your transformation will allow your doctor to taper down your medicine and you will come out of it so even if you're on a medicine integrate healing methods with spiritual principles yoga pranayam you know well-being discipline your lifestyle our sleep cycle has a lot to do with our mental health issues not sleeping at the right time consuming a lot of content before sleeping see what is happening I'm consuming crime shows I'm consuming violence I'm consuming even the world news before going to sleep what all is happening in the world even otherwise it's so harmful to watch all those visuals but if you watch it before going to sleep now you go to sleep and all that has gone into your deeper subconscious so obviously it will create fear and anxiety in people so then people today the most common thing you say anxiety I'm experiencing anxiety I'm experiencing anxiety but then that anxiety can translate into an anxiety disorder so we just need to take care just if people start taking care of sleep cycle and don't consume before going to sleep that's one time after 8:00 don't consume don't consume all these Cals all this anything which is heavy for the mind in that era when we didn't have content if we ever watched a movie at night and it turned out to be a thriller or a crime movie everyone woke up in the morning as and my sleep was not very good last night Dre but we were aware of that because it used to happen rarely so we could make out that my sleep daily and my sleep now we're doing it daily so we are not aware so anxiety is a lot to do because of so much of that content consumption and also are pressure that pressure to perform is also getting a little challenging with everybody so those are part of our life just strengthen yourself daily no I think this is a very good specific practice right any other specific practice for better mental health that you think people should do one is disconnect from content disconnect from work also allow your mind to heal we are sleeping to heal we're not just sleeping we sleeping for healing for energizing so you have to sleep with the relaxed mind not with a troubled mind you know if there is a difference of opinion see what happened today both the husband and wife are working they will come home late evening there is a difference of opinion now after dinner before going to sleep they will sit and argue about it so now having an argument before going to sleep sitting and sending heavy messages to each other before going to sleep this is a simple method to ensure that pain and Trauma is going to go into your sub conscious now when you're going to go to sleep so as children we used to hear don't take your fight to bed don't take your fight to bed because once it goes to bed then it's going deep inside but that seems to be the only time we're getting with each other so simple changes that no before going to sleep the mind has to be in its best frame absolutely peaceful anything that's troubling you sit and right so you like think right but maybe have that Daily Journal WR means release it out even if there is a crisis release it out even with a simple thought everything will be perfect tomorrow you know everything is not perfect tomorrow just tell your mind everything will be perfect tomorrow so that it doesn't think about it till tomorrow morning we will think about it tomorrow morning but I don't want to think about it in my sleep sleep is a very big thing today we're just going falling off to sleep sleep hygiene it's called so like we shower physically we need to shower here clean everything forgive people before going to sleep seek forgiveness before going to sleep clean and then go to sleep so that your mind is not churning any traumatic content in your sleep that's very important no I think it's a super formula the way you've articulated it on a daily basis daily basis you know you you in the morning when you wake up you charge your mind you know through meditation you be more mindful through the day and whatever is needed to keep triggering that and then in the evening you know as you reflect upon your day you know really go into a zone that enables you to get go sleep and think right daily journey and the discipline to do it every morning and night most important morning and night is most important that it's going you know there are a lot of people now who keep a diary and they write out their affirmations Because by the end of the day there's so much clutter here that even saying it is there a lot of other thoughts coming there when we write and we write it's even deeper coding so if somebody can't do it in their mind they should either say it out or they should write it out it's helping into just sorting your thoughts and whatever affirmations are not just what we are recording and what we are sharing on the app everybody needs to learn how to do it for themselves now because everyone's situations will be different everyone's crisis is different so learn the vocabulary of the affirmation whatever is your personal situation create an affir for that so whatever is the difficult situation you only have to write the answer what you want the reality to be and you have to say it has already happened you know so suppose tomorrow there is an exam or tomorrow there is I have to give an interview whatever and that's on my mind don't go to sleep with questions what will happen tomorrow what if this does not happen now the mind is going to be troubled for the next 6 7even hours just right tomorrow is going to be a beautiful experience I'm going to come out successful that is certain there is absolutely no doubt about you are just instructing your mind what is going to stay with what thought before going to sleep so before going to sleep is the most powerful time we all take care of the morning time you know everyone has their own they will get up they will pray they will meditate they will listen to some before going to sleep we don't take care so that part we and since the time we have technology this one is getting affected more in the night and and and that shift in vocabulary as you're saying is so much more critical in the night because otherwise you sleep with that because we've consumed a lot during the day even in terms of like we talk to doctors what all they consume during the day they are seeing death they seeing crying people they are seeing crisis in the OT and after all that they will come home and they will just go to sleep all those scenes will go that's why burnout numbers are higher different numbers are higher just because what they have witnessed during the day they are not clean before going to sleep now we all are witnessing something people in media they're all witnessing throughout the day something do not go to sleep without a shower your that's very important then that deep sleep energizes you for the next day then begin your morning with 15 20 minutes for yourself everything is perfect yeah perfect so a perfect mindful meditative mental health situation we're going to move into our you know a mindful minute segment and we'll have a short one uh today but you know just some crisp ansers to certain questions uh what's the mindfulness mantra for our listeners so being one way to be mindful throughout the day now is create the right thoughts consciously in the morning when you create the right thoughts the waste thoughts will automatically start and you will become mindful in a very natural manner you cannot sit and check your every thought throughout the day it's like just Eat Right health will automatically happen so create consciously create right thoughts also repeat them every hour so I've experimented with this meditation in the morning lot of change during the day 1 minute every hour magnitude of change goes much higher because you are repeating those higher thoughts every hour the next 59 minutes your number of waste thoughts will be l so it's like that compounded exponential growth so the power of one minute is yeah so you know the mindful minute what we do every hour let's do it very powerful everyone should do this if you have a set of your affirmation keep four or five short ones for this one minute and uh you can record it personally for yourself but ideal is to just take that one minute break and say those thoughts wherever you are except for when you're driving anything we're doing we take that one minute break advice for someone starting out starting mindfulness uh to be begin with few minutes in the morning first you won't be able to be mindful during the day unless you've paid attention to your mind when there's nothing much going on around you because taking care of the mind while you are doing something requires a little practice so at least start looking at your mind when you're not doing anything so start in the morning and then eventually it will translate into you being aware even while you are in Activity one misconception about mindfulness huh many people feel this will make me more passive I will not have that drive to be able to achieve my goals it will make me contented and so I will slow down so people fear the word contentment they feel contentment means I will no more have the drive contentment If you experience it it's an asset it means you are perfectly spiritually emotionally mentally healthy and now now going out into the world to do so I don't know why people fear contentment they feel contentment means that I was going to stop doing anything contentment only means you're very rich here and now you go out and radiate that one instance where mindfulness has had a transformative effect on someone's life everyone I to listen to experiences every day so see thoughts create our world you start taking care of your thoughts your world changes so there are people whose depression is healed there people whose physical health issues they are been able to heal they were going through a crisis but they were able to H manage that health issue much better relationships get resoled doing everything your srti is going to change your world is going to change because you went to the root so anyone who starts taking care of the mind will experience change in every aspect of their life because that is the foundation what we were doing before that was we were not taking care of the foundation we were taking care of the world take care of it's like this room AC lights camera everything but there's a control room somewhere control room is not visible no one knows where it is it is one dingy Corner taking care of this whole hotel our life we just kept looking at the hotel we never went to the control room that's from where everything is happening so that is the sun cult take care of thoughts everything in your life will start changing everyone starts experiencing change within a month you will start seeing changes the last one you know we live in a instant world right everything everyone wants instantly and we find people get into Panic people get into a mod of you know discomfort and say I want instant calm so what can somebody do to get instant calm perfect just have your four or five affirmative thoughts written with you and you're experiencing that stress or anxiety just take it out even if you're not you're not able to think of it have it on your card take it down just keep seeing it just keep saying it I'm a powerful Soul I'm happy I'm comfortable everything is perfect my life just keep saying it say it from here because you're not going to be able to do it there just keep saying it here and while you're saying it the other thoughts are just automatically filtering off and you will deep breathe and say those thoughts so strengthening the positive it IM see you're just substitute you're just substituting your wrong thought with the right thought which means your Panic thought with the thought of strength your thought of distress with the thought of Faith your thought of everything is going wrong to everything is happening for my benefit just replace the thought your feeling will change we can't heal the feeling the root causes the thought the thought will change the feeling so if I'm feeling uncomfortable I have created some uncomfortable thought I changed the thought the feeling was okay even if someone around you is doing it you know feeling that you can do it for just hold their hand and start saying those affirmations for them they will just well perfect I think that is a great thing that someone can do when you see someone else going through a panic attack we meet so many people throughout the day we're meeting people who've lost family eting people who've lost a child what Gan you're going to share with somebody who's lost a child any amount of logic that Soul has moved forward please radiant blessing they want to but they can't they can't but I've experienced spend lot of it takes a little longer with them other people talking 5 10 minutes things are better I just sit with them I'm not going to get up till they're going to feel better you know at least for that time so that that then gives them the courage to even start a journey because they firmly believe they can never feel fine that's their deep belief system that I can never feel fine now nothing can bring me out of this pain it's a very strong affirmation nothing can bring me out of this pain so we just sit with that them first listen to them let them say it all out after that now don't allow them to speak because they are going to repeat the same thing which is going to only increase their pain after that just hold their hand that okay and now we will start talking with a different vocabulary where every word will be different every word will be different it's not going to create any solution but the energy of the word is different so just I have to hold their hold their hands deliberately so that the vibration is also radiating to the other person and just keep talking to them even if it's about what you're doing at work how you can start working again how you can change the just keep work I will talk you 15 minutes 20 minutes 30 minutes after 13 minutes I will see a change in their face every time with everybody because now doesn't mean that they're going to be happy after going home it's just that they need to experience for that sometime that first calm down and then we tell them that you know what just come daily for 1 hour half an hour you will strengthen yourself but then they get the courage to say oh it is even you know they don't even have the courage to say yes first earlier but we see a shift in the vibration of people even there even there they can literally after half an hour have a half a smile on their face only because it's like charging the other person's phone with your phone it won't last forever it's very temporary I know it's very temporary but I need that temporary charging for them to take a decision to come for that charging every day only before that they're not ready for that they say it's not possible no meditation can help nothing and once they come to the center two months two months half an hour their faces are completely change the vacuum will always be there but the grief has to be healed and it's Miracle it's nothing less than a miracle and that's the toughest situation of life if anyone can heal in that everything else is now what you rightly said I think in the end of the day it is you know being able to pass on and our ability to heal others to be able to make an impact in others to charge others which is only possible when we stay that's the benefit of mindfulness if you are doing something in your life it will automatically then go to people around you the first people who will benefit will be your family then it'll be your friends it'll be your colleagues and very soon you can do it with anyone you can be on a train and someone around you is not feeling well just hold their hand talk to them your energy with anyone can do this everyone can do this those who are doing it for themselves they'll be able to do it for everybody else no and therefore mindfulness meditation mental health for yourself first and then the ability to transmit that to others thank you so much for this wonderful conversation this very very important and critical subject thank you thank you so much you to can start or enhance your mindfulness Journey using the think right app on IOS and Android store it's got a huge number of daily affirmations daily Journeys daily meditations that will enable us to hold your hand as you move in this transformative journey of life

Channel: ThinkRight

Views: 55,107

Keywords: Thinkright.me, positive videos, motivation, mindfulness, how to think positive, motvational speakers positive thinking, bkshivani how to control mind, practicing mindfulness, mindfulness practice, brahma kumaris positive thinking, affirmations for positive thinking, affirmations for positive energy, positive affirmations for success, motivational speech for positive thinking

Id: m9V2QwGSQrw

Length: 37min 47sec (2267 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 07 2024