Basic exercises
These practices have a general mental health significance. They are especially suitable for settling an emotionally disturbed state of mind, which is extreme mood swings, irritability, periodic depression, and it manifests itself in the symptoms of disintegration of the daily rhythm of life, haste, hurry and lack of focus.
We must emphasize that with the help of the exercises a symptomatic result can be achieved, therefore, the causes that create a troubled state of mind do not disappear.
The harassment elimination of creating and maintaining causes is only exploratory psychotherapy or as it can be realized during the journey of introspective self-knowledge to be described later.
This often leads to a change in the entire way of life. The maximum result of exercises can be that the person increases tolerance and resistance to the everyday stresses of life. Therefore, it is primarily psychological instability caused by external life circumstances suitable for termination. In addition, however, it is not to be underestimated nor should be their developmental effect.
The basic exercises are also suitable for maintaining mental balance and they very sensitively indicate when the established balance is in danger of being disrupted.
These simple, few-minute exercises cover five important areas of the spiritual life affect:
- Focusing of thinking;
- Development of the will;
- Self-control in the expression of emotions and moods;
- Attitude towards positives;
- Impartiality of judgment and the ability to change perspectives for the sake of objectivity.
The exercises are structurally related, they help and control each other. Therefore it is not right to single out one of them and do only those. There are two conditions for achieving a suitable result.
One is the prescribed cyclical one compliance with shifts.
The other is consistent regularity, over a longer period of time across.
There is no point in rhapsodizing about these exercises so we only do haphazardly, some days we do, other days we forget about them.
All the irregularity, as well as starting and then stopping the exercises can also have a negative effect on our psychological stability. That’s why it’s only worth getting involved if you can commit to doing it, consistently for at least six months.
Let’s do these exercises that don’t take more than five minutes a day on average.
At that time, we will definitely experience their intense positive effects. In fact, it would be desirable if the five basic exercises were incorporated into our everyday life, and it would become a constantly recurring activity like keeping our body clean.
To develop the effect of the basic exercises – as we will experience two phases are characteristic. Accordingly, the function and meaning of the exercises are twofold.
First phase
The period of learning the exercises until we get to the point where we can execute all of them flawlessly.
From our abilities, psychic state, there are extremely large individual differences here: learning some it can take weeks or a few months.
In this development period importance there is no failure! From the point of view of the spiritual effect, the essence is the effort, which we spend on exercises. If all exercises were to succeed immediately, we would not need them.
We will also experience that some exercises fail after a while that they are already successful, while others stubbornly fail.
This indicates in which area of our spiritual life are disorders manifested, disabilities.
Nevertheless, problematic exercises should not be prioritized. After the prescribed time, we must stop even in case of failure and move on to the next exercise.
When the the cycle of unsuccessful practice returns, we will likely achieve a better result.
Second phase
Regular continuation of learned exercises. In this period we can already successfully perform each exercise, which takes a few minutes and performing them becomes a daily habit. Now for the basic exercises they have a control function. Stresses and life situations may arise, which take a heavy toll on us spiritually.
If our exercises are also at this time are successful, there is no reason to worry about our psychological state.
It can happen however, we notice: it has been successfully completed for a long time one or another of the exercises starts to get stuck.
This is a very sensitive and early indicator that our psychological condition is deteriorating, we have exceeded the limit of our carrying capacity.
About that too we get information in which area of our spiritual life is decreasing our performance. This is a serious warning: about our lifestyle. Our way of life needs to change; our conflicts and problematic situations cannot be repeated without endangering our psychological health. We must look for the solution options. Through these exercises, our psychological state is therefore permanent we get the opportunity to control it.
Each of the five exercises is done for one week. After that regardless of how they went-we move on to the next exercise. Again in the sixth week we return to the first exercise – the cycle begins again.
(There is such a thing also a methodological concept, which in the sixth week carries out each of the daily shift exercises, and after a two-day break, you return to the beginning of the cycle in the seventh week. Everyone should try which method is more suitable for them.)Exercise 1. Focusing of thinking
Once a day, in quiet, calm conditions – preferably when we are alone and do not fear that within a few minutes they will disturb you – we put a simple object in front of us, e.g. a pencil, sewing needle, glasses, etc. In our mind – so silently, but to ourselves expressed in precise sentences – we say everything that we see an essential feature of an object.
Example of successful practice:
‘Pencil. It is used for writing and drawing. Inside there is a soft graphite rod placed in wood.. it easily leaves a mark on the paper. However the graphite is fragile, so it is enclosed in a softwood case. It needs softwood to be easily sharpened. The softwood covering is squared to prevent it from slipping in the hand. They painted, varnished and the hardness of the graphite is indicated on the outside. This is necessary because graphite of different hardness is used for different jobs, and this way we can always buy the right quality pencil. ‘
Example of failed practice:
‘Pencil. I really like pencils and erasers, I had a whole collection when I was a student. All my money was spent on pencils and erasers. My father was very angry about it… The interior is graphite. What is graphite? I don’t remember, even though we learned about it at school… Its cover is soft wood. The soft wood actually a pine tree. Last summer I saw the extraction of pine trees in the mountains. It was interesting how they were knocked out and put down. The logs are cut by a crawler tractor dragged him down into the valley:… etc.’
So the point is not to let our thoughts wander. Let’s try and to come together in a purposeful way is otherwise free to disperse our association.
Exercise 2. Development of the will
Something of the sort is often experienced in our psychological public thinking ‘myth of will’. Many internal problems are said to be caused by a weakness of will. Man’s volitional functions appear to be indeterminate. we think that its development only requires ‘strong determination’; nothing other.
In reality, the voluntary life of a person has an extremely complicated organization function system that is not at all independent of personality from its organization, emotional balance, value system, etc. – in fact, it largely depends on them. The development of the will is only the complete can be imagined together with personality development. That is why the so-called voluntary exercises can not be performed organically among the others, independently.
The basic exercise is as follows:
At the beginning of the week, we firmly decide that every day is always the same at a time – e.g. exactly at three o’clock in the afternoon – we will do a certain action.
It’s about simple things: we spin our ring, inside ourselves we will recite a lovely line of poetry, etc.
It is important not to interrupt what we are doing well in advance. So don’t sit staring at the clock at a quarter to three. The goal is that while we are what we need to do in life, this practice will let us remember our resolution and do the scheduled action.
In the beginning, this is the exercise that will, probably, cause the most difficulties. We are mindful of it at ten minutes to three, but by the time we look at the clock again, it’s already a quarter to four.
The most important element of the exercise is perfect, minute accuracy.
It makes it even more difficult, if we set a random time, like 5:13 pm. (If we are very zealous, we can record the number of successes and failures. This way we can track that in five weeks, when we do this again we can see if our performance improved, or not?)
Exercise 3. Self-control over the expression of emotions
First, we need to clear up a possible misunderstanding. This exercise’s purpose is to reduce the intensity of our emotional reactions. It is not to be happy, instead encouraging us to not get bitter, not get angry.
It is to encourage the complete person in us. It teaches us to nurture and develop the complete person in us. The complete person who experiences the widest possible range of emotions. That for a complete person there is anger, jubilation, sadness and ecstasy.
The purpose of the exercise is to to control the outward expression our emotional state.
We should achieve that while experiencing them deeply the emotions that are evoked in us by the events of the world and our environment, while nothing of these should be visible to the outside world, or only what we want to express intentionally, with which we want to communicate something, with which we want to have an effect we want to achieve.
The expression of emotions should therefore become intentional communication as a tool.
With this intentional communication tool, we can achieve that our emotions match exactly what we have inside.
This is very important if we want to have a harmonious relationship with our environment, from the point of view of judging each other.
Every day we naturally experience joy, sorrow, success, failure, kindness and hurt.
In the week of practicing self-control we attend to the emotional impact of these. We address what is going on inside us from reactions, while none of it should be spontaneously noticeable to the outside observer. (Except when thanking or reprimanding, when we want others to know what we feel. In the beginning, for the success of the exercise, it is better if we also handle this sparingly.)
It is especially important that the indifferent environment does not notice our current mood.
For example, at work we don’t show that we feel weighted down or bothered with problems at home. That we don’t burden our family members with our troubles at work.
There are several possibilities for the outward appearance of our emotional state.
Primarily our facial expressions, behavior and verbal expressions. So you need control these.
During the week of practice, let’s control our facial expressions, in our behavior, and in our speech. So let’s not grimace, lash out, swear. Also don’t laugh, don’t cheer uncontrollably. Above all, take a break from complaining, or from a detailed explanation of the reason for our mirth. In short refrain from unnecessary chatter.
Nowadays, it is a common practice to have a suitable audience before, or several others ‘confidentially set aside’. We have a habit of reporting on our grievances and joys.
Let’s put this on hold this week as well. Instead, rather observe our environment and adapt our behavior to others, to their mood. Let’s allow them to talk to us in a positive way about their negative tensions, about the events that preoccupy them.
It is ancient wisdom that before we start talking, it is worth considering how what we want to say
–
is it true?
is it important?
is it out of goodwill?
Exercise 4. Attitude towards positives
During the week of the practice, about the inconveniences that befell us, those events and we must pay attention to communications that cause fear, disapproval, and annoyance in us. So, first of all, our negative emotions and the unfavorable ones they cause we have to establish opinions and judgments.
The point of the exercise is to try the disapproving, negative judgment to think through a triggering event or communication from another point of view, looking for it some positive content. We should be aware that most events not only bad and not only good, but favorable and unfavorable aspects, it consists of a complex web of possibilities and consequences.
The one that offends us decision may be favorable from the point of view of another, important case. Just a moment an event that causes annoyance may later have good consequences, or something else can also be useful in terms of We have to make an effort for it during practice in order to mentally find negative events for us positive aspects as well.
In order to do this, we often have to give up our usual point of view, our prejudices, our own points of view, mechanically trained judgement our system.
During the exercise, we must avoid a possible misunderstanding: no it’s about lying about being favorable and valuable for the sake of positivity bad things; that negative phenomena and events in their entirety paint it pink! There is no question about that. The task is precisely that while we clearly see the negative nature of the event or phenomenon in question, within that let’s try to discover some value in it.
Again, it’s very simple stuff. We can notice the finisher of our frame also the beauty of a cat’s movements. An ugly, shriveled old man the openness and gentleness of his gaze. During the thunderstorm that soaks us to the skin, it pops up the beauty of bubbles. The charm of the confusion of our young colleague who made a mistake. One we can also recognize an unpleasant person as having such an order around him that we are not able etc.
Exercise 5. Impartiality of judgment
When we come face to face with the small and large events of the world every day, with people, animals, plants and minerals, news and information we hear – our thinking, our judgment is a certain habit. It is characterized by familiarity and repetitive thought processes.
It is primarily about things we remember what we have learned, heard, and experienced about them so far. From our childhood starting from – through our upbringing, schooling – ready-made judgments, verbal we acquire a system of formulations, which in the end are almost closed they surround us like a shell.
Therefore, in the rarest of cases, we experience things, the events in their pure reality. It is our perception and experiences through the filter of previously formed opinion and prejudice systems and attitudes it is shaped by received – often distorted – impressions.
During the impartiality exercise week, we should aim to one thing every day. One phenomenon or event to look at with the eyes of a small child, to look at it with amazement.
We should look at the thing itself in its reality, regardless of what we know or have learned about it.
THE the essence of practice is not to take anything as self-evident. Obvious to understand, let’s not put anything in a box, but use our own judgment, our vision of the problem.
One of the prerequisites for this is to try to abstract it from our own person, we observe and evaluate the phenomenon in itself, regardless of whether it is pleasant or unpleasant for us, and how it creates feelings and associations in us.
Many discoveries in science stem from this ‘childlike wonder’. For thousands of years, people have taken it for granted that objects fall down, until Newton was surprised by this phenomenon. It has been discarded by many hundreds of researchers angrily the moldy medium from which the bacterial culture has died while Fleming saw a problem in this. Gravity, the discovery of the antibiotic impartiality of judgment was an essential element. In the beginning, we have to set ourselves simple tasks.
Take for example look at a matchstick, let’s take a good look at what it looks like and try to think how what else could it be used for besides lighting a fire. We can do the same with other simpler objects as well – if we leave aside everything that is already customary we know about them. Gradually increase the difficulty of the exercises until the level we arrive at an unbiased assessment of humans and human actions.
These exercises are a bit more difficult.
Let’s try to listen to one human speech to temporarily suppress our reflections, our approval and objection. Let’s leave his voice, his facial expression, a to affect its movement on us. We try to reflect him mentally still.
Surprising we will get to know the amount of fine, until then hidden information. One of the biggest obstacles to our human understanding is that our attention is divided between the person speaking to us and our own reactions. In fact, we often only pay attention to ourselves. He is still talking to us, what about the dissent we are thinking about its formulation.
Let’s try the behavior of a person – at least once a day to judge impartially. If someone is nice to us, they are nice to others may. Let’s try to empathize with his situation, to understand the driving forces of his behavior.
And in the same way: let us be influenced by the sunset, a mountain, a tree, flowers, animals. When listening to music, temporarily forget the composer, a conductor, the parts of each instrument, let’s surrender ourselves only to the to sound.
The biggest obstacle to the success of this practice is egocentrism and prejudice.
The result is the development of independent thinking and empathic skills.
If you’d like to donate your support to develop and guide these exercises so you can begin to become all you can become… and independent thinking and empathic skills, concentration, etc. the skills you learn in this phase are requirements.
Without them you cannot possibly climb the tree of life.
For now this ‘article’ should suffice, but we endeavor to create a booklet that mainly has the exercises.
I remember almost twenty years ago I bought another self-development program that was mainly a bunch of exercises. It came in a huge heavy binder and a dinky little small format booklet with just the exercises.
The booklet fit my pocket or my purse… and was the reason I did the exercises daily. So yeah, that is what we want to do.
If you want to support this effort, please consider donating.
Get the book and help us so we can help youPS: one more thing: this is a rough translation.
If you find areas where it doesn’t make sense, please email me sophie at yourvibration.com. thank you.
PPS:
Just a few words about the Healing Codes and the Success Codes: what the creator of those programs doesn’t tell you, because he doesn’t know, is this: they do what they do, if the do anything, is because they direct the attention on areas of life, areas of inner happenings, where you normally don’t go. And the program does that regularly, promising you outward results, healing or success.
Ultimately it is a different path to the same result: getting you out of your prison, out of your ditch, out of your complacency, etc.
I paid for the two programs more than five thousand dollars in 2005. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. For me it was worth it. Why? Because I used the programs the way they were meant to be used, daily, thoughtfully, with full concentration. My level of concentration at the time was about 10%… It is still not 100%… but it has been steadily rising, and it’s 70% now.
So if nothing else, you can learn to concentrate your attention, your will, your intellect in these exercises. Will you? We shall see.
