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50 Shades of a Healthier Life by Antara Man

http://www.antaraman.com/ 50 Shades of a Healthier Life Copyright © 2014 by Antara Man. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. Reviewers may quote brief passages in reviews. Disclaimer and FTC Notice No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, or transmitted by email without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Introduction

We are living in an age when good health – both physical and mental – is more important than ever before. Every day new diseases are being spread and people get more distressed with the crazy lives they are living. While 20th century was the century of AIDS and cancer, 21st century will be the one of mental illnesses. The reason? We are accumulating a lot of emotional and mental tension throughout the day but don't know how to release it. Sitting in front of the TV, reading newspapers or merely sleeping isn't real relaxation. Оur inability to adapt to quickly shifting social and economic lifestyles has reflected on our own health. The number of ill people is steadily growing around the globe. For example, each year the media choose one trendy virus and try to scare us all. The result? We get panickеd, tensed and terrified. Suffering from mental problems for a long time now has been afflicting not only the so-called "crazy people". Even "normal" people experience anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts from time to time as well. The statistics alone are alarming: one out of four people faces a mental problem. It means that there are over 450 million people with mental issues in the world. And what about physical diseases? Are they any different from psychological disorders? Modern medicine has already proven that 98% of all disorders are psychosomatic. This means that the treatment of any disease, be it mental or psychosomatic, must be done on a deeper level. Relying only on medicines is like signing your own death sentence – the symptoms are being repressed but the real problems remain unsolved. Our medical system doesn't help us either. It only revolves around producing and supplying us with medicines from multimillion-dollar pharmacy companies which don’t benefit at all from healthy people. The responsibility for our own health lies solely on our shoulders. No doctor, institution or government will do it for us - we have to make ourselves healthy.

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Why good health is so important? Health is the prerequisite for all our endeavors: financial, personal, career-oriented, etc. I simply cannot imagine achieving anything without good health. Mind you, I am speaking from personal experience. I feel that when someone writes about self-help and advice lists, they must speak from their direct experience and prove why they are reliable experts in their field.

Who am I? When I was 18 years old, I experienced severe neurosis and was on the edge of developing psychosis. I took medicines for about a year and a half and had to drop out of high school. I had been very concerned with my health when I had an inner awakening. It was a very scary experience at first. Somehow, my fear got separated from me and I was able to see it face to face. Then my energy was released and my awareness heightened. It wasn't the normal sense of awareness we experience daily but an expanded awareness. The poison, which was killing me instantly, became nectar of bliss. Shortly after this experience, I realized that our obstacles, neuroses and psychosеs are the only way. They are in our lives to help us set our mind working in its higher states – the subconscious and the unconscious. The result of my inner experience was amazing: I stopped taking medicines (a thing which had seemed impossible to me prior to that), graduated from high school and started working. But still, I didn’t feel I had achieved total health. I was somewhere on the borderline. Shortly after this particular experience I started asking myself, "How did this happen? How can I experience more things like this?"

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I started going to meditation classes, tried Qigong once, etc but it didn't feel right. I was beginning to feel entangled in our material world. Everything changed in 2007 when I began practicing yoga daily and I’ve been doing it ever since. Everything changed in 2007 when I began practicing yoga daily and I’ve been doing it ever since. Then, for four years now I've been also visiting India and my Guru’s ashram. It took me years to develop and enlist these 50 tools or, as I am calling them in the title, "shades" of a healthier life. I hope you'll find these life hacks useful and that they’ll help you and eventually change your lives for the better. P.S. Don't forget to look at the end of the report. I have a surprise for you!

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Do you want to turn your gray grind into a colorful and joyful life experience? Are you tired of bad time management, spending your nights watching Netflix or meeting crappy, negative people who only waste your time and energy? Then you need to carefully read this free report as I will list various important holistic tools and present concrete techniques for self-help which are free, priceless and have an immediate effect. Some of them have yogic and tantric roots while others don’t. What's common for all of them is that once you decide to change your life you have to implement them quickly. Let’s start with the list:

1. Make the firm decision to change your life. Stick a note on the wall above your desk that summarizes your ultimate goal. For example, "I am healthy", "I am happy" or "I am wise". When an inspirational message or a quote is always in front of our eyes it's impossible to escape from it; it influences us deeply. Bonus tip: keep a similar message in your wallet. When you are uncertain about the solution of a problem or a creative issue, write questions in your notes and sooner or later your subconscious mind will give you the answers.

2. Repeat the same simple, brief and clear resolve every day using the

same words in the same language. The crucial part is to repeat your resolve when your mind is calm, peaceful and not polluted by stress and worries. The perfect time is either early in the morning or before going to bed. You have to be very consistent. It takes time but one thing is for sure – your resolve will eventually come true.

3. Practice relaxation. My recommendation is yoga nidra. A lot of relaxation

practises and ancient meditation techniques are available on iTunes. The main thing is to be persistent. If you do it once a week or only once a month you won't achieve the desired results or it will take much longer for them to be obtained.

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4. Once you’ve prepared the ground, it's time to get creative and

remove all the obstacles on your way. Each week write down the three things you think hinder your personal development such as bad habits, non-productivity or procrastination. Observe yourself and your day-to-day life impartially. Start with the most important issues you need to fix. As you progress you'll see how by working on yourself and being patient and consistent, you will evolve.

5. Draft creative ideas on a daily basis. Start with three and gradually add

more until they reach ten. It's best if you can come up with 20 ideas daily. Not all of them have to be good: if you create 10 ideas, two or three will be good while the rest - mediocre or even bad. The important thing is to keep your mind and imagination ready to experiment and see new ideas and the connections between them.

6. Discover your inner passion. It can be cooking, gardening, knitting, reading

or any other activity. This is the first point in the hedgehog concept: your work must be driven by passion, not by money.

7. Do something creative. Paint, write, play, compose… It doesn’t matter what

as long as you expresses yourself. According to Hindu philosophy, all arts and knowledge represent and originate from the Goddess Saraswati. I’ll tell you a secret: when you use any negative quality within you which you cannot negate and you express it through creativity, soon it won’t bother you – it will be transformed for a better purpose.

8. Transform your limitations into potential through faith and surrender to

the Higher Will. 9. Pray! Pray to God, to your Guru (if you have one) or simply to a person who

you consider exceptional. It is a proven fact that prayer and faith improve one’s health and that religious people are happier than non-believers.

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10. Follow your intuition! From the yogic perspective, intuition is the intellect refined. Due to our ignorance and unconsciousness we suppress, bypass or ignore our inner voice only to regret it afterwards. Whatever your intuition tells you, even if the logical mind rules the opposite, that’s the right thing for you.

11. Fear, phobias, anxiety: face them. Try as often as you can to do one thing

you are afraid of. For example, if you are afraid of airplanes, fly on one. If you have fear from dogs, get closer to one on the road. Stop being a slave to the fear! This may be a bit difficult at the beginning but let me tell you a secret: if you manage to do it, your body will produce hormones such as endorphin, dopamine etc. You’ll feel as if you’ve done something very brave and this feeling is as good as, if not better than, eating a whole bunch of chocolate. After all, everybody prefers to eat chocolate when feeling happy rather than distressed.

12. Follow a spiritual path. It doesn't matter whether it is yoga, Zen, Тai Chi or

Аikido. Be part of such a community and attend its meetings. Make friends with people from the community and try meeting with them outside of it.

13. Engage in helping people in need, especially those who are strangers to

you and there’s no relationship between you and them. Do not expect to see them ever again. When we perform service to others, we forget our own troubles and little egos. This is the most effective tool for purifying the mind in our age.

14. Spend money on supportive and positive causes. This will not only

reduce our selfishness and pride but will also keep us in connection with other people and charitable organizations.

15. Be grateful to the universe and to the Lord. We tend to always complain

and be unsatisfied. Instead, we should develop the daily habit of thanking the cosmic powers for all the abundance they’ve given us.

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16. Stay detached from the results of your work. Be only work-oriented: each day think about how you can improve the quality and quantity of your projects, duties, etc without associating yourself with their results. Having an attitude "This action x will bring me xx money" is not right. Instead, think of performing those actions as your uttermost duty and obligation. In the ancient scripture Bhagavad Gita Lord Krishna convinces the warrior Arjuna to fight because it's his duty to do so. Arjuna simply wants to flee the battle struck by fear but Krishna encourages him to do his duty as a warrior without thinking of gain or loss, praise or censure, pleasure or pain.

17. Learn to discriminate. That’s the quality of the mythical swan, according to

the legend. When given one liter of milk mixed with water the swan can extract only the milk and leave the water. In the same way we have to learn which things are really essential for us and which are just mediocre.

18. Think and plan in long-term perspective. We tend to act on momentary

impulses but this is not the way we should behave. Impulsive decisions are neither good nor healthy for us.

19. Set goals. Divide them into two groups – material and spiritual. For example:

“I make a new product till the end of xx month”; “I write a story or paint a picture today” and so on. Or, “within one month, I get rid of my anger, attachments or fears”. Keep your mind busy; this way you'll never allow it to wonder what to do.

20. Always, always keep your mind busy! You know the proverb “An empty

mind is the devil’s playground”. The more deadlines, goals, tasks and duties you impose on yourself – the better. Yet, try not to burn out.

21. Avoid time travelling. I myself know how difficult this can be. Sometimes

time traveling has a creative benefit in that we come up with new ideas but as far as our day-to-day life goes, it's advisable to live in the present.

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22. Take advice from people who are successful and ignore the murmuring of those who aren't. Only those who are prospering are eligible for trusting and listening to.

23. Avoid unnecessary talks and meetings with friends that don't share your

interests or beliefs. 24. Try speaking less. We speak an average of 16 000 words a day, so try to

reduce this amount. Why? We lose too much time in unnecessary chatting that only drains our energy.

25. Meet interesting people with a unique and colorful personality. Allow

people with new and unconventional ideas to influence you and help you along your path.

26. Develop a steady discipline: get up early, make daily to-do lists, restrict

your unproductive time and manage your free time better. If you struggle with the too many distractions we face nowadays, use apps such as Strict Workflow, Website Blocker, Time Tracker etc.

27. Reduce your time on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter,

YouTube, Quora, Pinterest, Google+, etc. They grow more and more powerful as they form a life on their own. The truth is that social networks have become an essential part of our lives and we waste too much time on them. Of course, if your work requires the use of social media, because you are building a platform or trying to reach a mass audience, for example, that's something else, but again, be cautious! My advice is not to lose more than an hour on social media sites.

28. Stop watching TV and news. All news outlets are full with negativity,

drama, accidents, etc which are happening somewhere else. There is a purpose behind it – negative emotions such as anger or states like poverty or suffering are viral and people pay attention exactly to this kind of news. Don't fall prey to such manipulation.

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29. Give up reading newspapers. They are polluted with false news,

advertisements and lies. Instead, buy practical, useful and interesting books. They are better in keeping you up with the latest tendencies.

30. Never take yourself seriously! There is a quote by Sonia Simone, the CEO

of copyblogger, which I’ll cite here: "Always take work seriously, never take yourself seriously".

31. Test everything, whether it’s an e-book, a project, a new employee or even

your partner. Test things and people before committing to them. 32. Try to accomplish at least one single thing during your working day.

One thing properly finished is better than a whole bunch of projects which are not accomplished.

33. Live simply, think higher! Reduce your daily, weekly and monthly budget.

We spend too much money on things we actually don't need. Give up fancy clothes, cars, houses, etc. This may go against our fashion-centered culture but I really prefer being simple and old-fashioned than trendy but not myself. As Tyler Durden loudly proclaims „You’re not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet {…} the things you own end up owning you." You don't want to end up like the narrator in Fight Club, do you?

34. Go outside in the nature on a regularly basis. For example, once a week

or once in two weeks head to the parks or the mountains. Interact with all nature's living creatures. Dogs are known as people's best friends and, indeed, animals sometimes make better friends than people.

35. Do daily exercises. Hatha yoga and especially surya namaskara are

especially helpful but any other practice is fine as well.

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36. Do sports! Go bicycling, running, playing tennis or hiking in the mountains. Physical tiredness calms one's thoughts and emotions and, eventually, one's mind.

37. Go to an ashram and stay there as long as possible. This is a place of

solitude where yoga aspirants labor hard in order to remove their blockages and dross. If you are undisciplined and your mind controls you, not vice-versa, ashram life will be your true life-saving boat. Try at least once a year to spend some time and energy in an ashram environment.

38. If there is anger, lust, jealousy, hatred, greed, anxiety or other

negative passions inside you, don’t kill them. Accept these qualities, because they are all in YOU. At the same time, try not to express them or by doing so you’ll find yourself even more entangled in their sway and possession. That’s one of the primary points of tantra. It accepts you at the level of your evolution not asking you to hate or kill any part of yourself as that may lead to personality splitting , i.e. one part of you plays the sinner and the other plays the punisher. Instead, tantra advises us to accept and spiritualize our negative qualities and thus exhaust the karma.

39. Don’t follow the whims of your mind. Do things the mind doesn’t

want you to do and don’t do things your mind tells you to do. This is a huge task but gives your mind strong discipline. However, be careful not to fight with your own mind. Simply observe it. This is the milestone of yoga philosophy.

40. Mind what you feed your body, mind and soul. You need quality

nourishment, enough time for digestion and a working method for waste treatment at all levels – biological, intellectual and emotional.

41. Pay attention to the food you take. I recommend a vegetarian diet as I

myself have been vegetarian for 8 years. It's not necessary to give up meat, simply reduce it together with all dairy products. Develop a steady discipline. Having a food regime is an advantage. At the same time, don't get too

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stressed if you have failed to observe your daily routine. No rule is shaped in stone!

42. Have some millet and buckwheat meals at least once a month. These

foods contain high levels of alkaloids and strengthen our immune system. 43. Start fasting. If you can’t fast, then try not eating meat and dairy products

for a longer period of time 44. Listen to the voice of your body, spirit and soul. When we are on the

wrong path disasters and diseases don't come up overnight or out of a sudden. Usually we have been receiving signals and warnings for a long time but have failed to pay attention to them. Develop the sensibility to determine what kind of foods, exercises, thoughts and lifestyle are good for you and follow them. Be honest in determining what's harming you and as soon as you’ve realized it, start erasing the harmful patterns.

45. Develop the good habit of observing yourself at least once a week.

Then move on to observing yourself once a day. By doing so, you'll notice your shortcomings and strengths, as well as the way you appear to others more easily. Be a silent witness. In yoga this method is known as drashta.

46. Read inspiring literature about great sages and saints like Bhagavad

Gita, Ramayana, Vedas and Upanishads. If you think these books are old-fashioned or irrelevant, I have some shocking news: they have been referenced in the works of all modern scientists from Deepak Chopra to the great Robert Oppenheimer.

47. Surround your work desk, your living room and environment with

bright colors such as yellow, orange, blue and green. Psychology studies show that these colors have a direct impact on our mood, creativity and productivity.

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48. Find more time to communicate with children as they are really innocent and not attached to the world the way we are.

49. Stay tuned to my blog and its articles (sorry for that shameless self-

promotion). 50. Now, with all said above, follow your heart and take action! It's better

to try one thing than read tones of theoretical stuff with no practical implementation.

It’s your turn! The time is now... I would love to hear your thoughts on how to live healthier and happier lives. P.S. If you have come so far and read everything above, I congratulate you! Please, let me know at antaraman9@gmail.com whether this piece of advice helped you or if you tried anything from this report. Antara Man http://www.antaraman.com/