Positive Thinking: A Monk’s View

Positive Thinking: A Monk’s View

A good book is a good companion of a person. In this lockdown, I got a chance to read the book “Think Like a Monk” written by “Jay Shetty”. The book is a journey of the author when he joined an ashram for becoming a monk and the learnings he had in that process. I would like to summarize the learning I had from this book in this blog. Other thoughts are also added in the blog.

There are mainly three sections in the book:

1. LET GO

This section helps us to deal with our PAST.

A person has GOOD as well as BAD memories of the PAST. As per human tendency, we don’t feel happy again and again for our achievements or happy moments, but get hurt every time we remember being victimized, hurt, abused, tortured, for failures in relationships or career. A person keeps stuck in life because he/she is not able to forget the hurts of the past and keeps analysing “WHY ME?”. The solution to this is only in LETTING GO the past. The experiences are due to some old karmas which we carry along with us from many incarnations. These are for learning something in this life and MOVE ON.

It’s all upto us what we want to FOCUS ON. Good moments or Bad moments? The CHOICE is OURS. If we feel victimized, that feeling will always be with us. If we forget and forgive the person/situation making us feel that way, we ourselves relieve ourselves from it.

The author gives a very good remedy for handling negativity: “SPOT, STOP and SWAP”.

Spot the cause of negativity, stop thinking from that view and swap it with a positive view.

Breathing exercises are a good way to meditate and ‘Let Go’ the anxiety, anger, depression, negativity and fear.

There are 3 techniques suggested in the book:

a. Breathe to calm and relax yourself:

i. Breathe in for a count of 4 through your nose in your own time at your own pace

ii. Hold for a count of 4

iii. Exhale for a count of 4 through your mouth

b. Breathe for energy and focus:

i. Breathe in through your nose for a count of 4

ii. Exhale powerfully through your nose for less than a second

iii. Breathe in again through your nose for a count of 4

c. Breathe for sleep:

i. Breathe in for 4 seconds

ii. Exhale for longer than 4 seconds

2. GROW

This section helps us to deal with our PRESENT.

The past cannot be changed and the future is unknown. Even if the future is predicted by some astrologer, it can change. It can be changed to GOOD if predicted bad by working hard and changed to BAD if predicted good if we stop working towards it.

The only thing in life to be LIVED and UTILIZED fully is PRESENT. Just be in present moment.

Set a purpose for your current day/week/month/year. Start with just a goal for coming 1 hour and try your best to achieve. Learn to focus your MIND in present. POMODORO is a very good technique that helps to get focused for some time (25 minutes) and for break (5 minutes) after regular interval. Sometimes you lose interest and the reason is absence of APPRECIATION for what you have done so far. Remember, there may not be someone watching for your progress and keep appreciating you. This is the NEED of your MIND. Patting yourself after small intervals after completing the tasks is the best FOOD for mind. Positive self-talk and telling yourself what you want to achieve is a good technique to transfer your goals to your sub-conscience mind.

Author suggested to try different locations and select the best where your productivity is the most. Every person has highest efficiency in different timings of the day. If you do same task at same time and same place, it automatically may increase the speed for that task. For example, same place and time to meditate helps get focused quickly.

“Location has energy. Time has memory”.

After focusing on yourselves and filled with sense of accomplishment, you need to be with all your relationships. Harmony in all is important for removing all distractions in work and towards making a day as peaceful and productive. Promoting love in relationships is in your hands too. Exchanging gifts, preparing and eating food together are simple and loving ways to improve relationships. A heartful conversation without judgement or criticism can pave long ways to love in lives of us and all around us.

Visualizing yourself as a happy and successful person is the best way to meditate.

In the book, the following method is suggested to create a sacred space:

i. Visualize yourself in a place that makes you feel calm and relaxed. It might be a beach, a nature walk, a garden, or the top of a mountain.

ii. Feel the ground, sand or water beneath your feet as you walk in this space.

iii. Without opening your eyes, look left, observe it and keep walking.

iv. Without opening your eyes, look right, observe it and keep walking.

v. Feel the air and wind on your face.

vi. Breathe in the calm, balance, ease, stillness and peace.

vii. Breathe out the stress, pressure and negativity.

viii. Go to this place whenever you feel you need to relax.

3. GIVE

This section helps us to deal with our FUTURE.

A seed sown today is going to be a plant in future. Selection of the seed is our choice. Wecan plant seeds of good deeds for our growth and for helping others only we have strength within. Being dependent on someone outsider may leave us handicapped in being good today and getting good in future too. Be a FRIEND of ourselves is the key to success. The first pillar of giving strength to our mind lies in being ‘GRATEFUL’ for every little thing what we have got till date in life. Saying a THANK YOU to God for blessings fills us with loads of energy from inside.

“Service is the direct path to a meaningful life”.

Being ready to work for a cause is always paying. Do your work and add some work for someone else as well. Places we can serve can be work, school, social event with friend(s), online community, religious or other community group, or requests for help from any other cause we support. This gives inner strength that we have the power to help someone else.

Chanting is the best mediation technique for getting power from within. Start your day be re-energizing yourself

Three mantras suggested for chanting are:

1. Chanting “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya” It helps in cleaning and empowering and connects one with divinity in everything.

2. Chanting “Om Tat Sat ” meaning “The absolute truth is eternal” and invokes powerful blessings and divine energy.

3. Chanting “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” meaning “May all beings everywhere be happy and free and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all”.

I hope you enjoyed reading the blog. The intention of writing this is to share good points with the readers. It’s a good book to be read again and again. My sincere thanks to the author for sharing his valuable experiences with us.

Its never TOO late to Start Thinking and Acting in a Positive way. Let’s Start NOW.

- Shivani Goel