Elevate instead of Medicate

Looking outside of ourselves to feel better is more common than white on rice.

Before I came to yoga and meditation, that was my old operating system, complete with lots of software to train my focus outside of myself rather than looking inward for answers.

Whether it's in our DNA or from family or environmental conditioning, that way of living is a dead-end road to never feeling happy or fulfilled.

Medicating comes in many forms: alcohol, drugs, smoking, shopping, gambling, food, video games, iPhones, surfing the web, TV, controlling, gossiping, and co-dependency, to name a few.

We all have our way of checking out when we don't want to feel or face life.  Until we become aware enough about when and how we are "medicating," we're asleep at the wheel.  Sometimes these habits become issues in our life that eventually give us a wake-up call.  Sometimes in a small way; sometimes they bring us to our knees.

When we're sick and tired of feeling sick and tired and done with the drama and chaos being created in our life because of our habits, we may develop the courage to change.

Yogi Bhajan and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi are some of the spiritual teachers that came to the west to help wake us up.  They taught us through yoga and meditation how to feel "higher" than any outside substance could take us.  When we're medicating artificially, we're usually feeling empty or spiritually bankrupt.  That can manifest as depression, anxiety or panic attacks.

There's a natural and wonderful way to fill our emotional tank:

The technologies of yoga and meditation create a yoke or a merger with something bigger than ourselves.  This is a huge support on this path called life. We can get bogged down by thinking we're all alone when we have to deal with day-to-day challenges or what I call the life exercises we are given.

Inside us radiates a light, a joy, a power beyond anything we could imagine.  We are not tapping into it nearly as much as we could.  As we clear and purify the body, mind and spirit through yoga and meditation, we open the channels to so much infinite energy, knowledge and wisdom.

We do yoga or meditate and immediately feel better.  Because we do yoga or meditate, we can solve problems and make better decisions.  Because we do yoga or meditate consistently, we have better health, feel uplifted and lighter.Because we do yoga or meditate, we have better relationships.

You get the point. The poses aren't the yoga; the yoga (or union with our higher power) is the result of the poses and daily spiritual practices. We are fulfilled from within.

Daily practice is what keeps us "up."  We can sustain a higher vibration and have far fewer highs and lows.

Let's elevate instead of medicate!

xoK