ENERGY CRISIS
I am currently living in NYC, and the other night I attended satsang at Sivanada Vedanta Center. The Swami leading satsang was reading Swami Sivanada’s words during his satsang teaching, “…the world’s problems are a summary of all the individual problems…”
What a powerful statement! If we really dissect these words of truth and wisdom, we find that looking outside of ourselves or placing blame elsewhere to solve problems is a futile expense of energy. Swami Sivanada is saying, no more separating oneself from the issues at hand because looking at the world’s problems is like looking into a mirror. By no means is this a burden, in fact it is a gift! EACH ONE OF US HAS THE POWER TO MAKE THE CHANGE. WE ARE ALL CONNECTED TO THE WHOLE AND THE EARTH IS A REFLECTION OF HUMANITY. No more waiting around for someone or someone else to solve the problem, the solution is everyone of us.
An urgent global matter of the present and future is the energy crisis and the preservation of our rapidly disappearing resources and environment. Swami Sivanada’s words “…the world’s problems are a summary of all the individual problems…” were first published in 1951, and not published again until 2008. Our universe has a way of answering its own questions if we just listen. We are being asked to examine …
How we each expend and direct our own energy on physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels?
Are we aware of how we direct energy outward and inward!?
Our current energy sources that have sustained life as we know it are diminishing with the blink of an eye. This hasty depletion poses an intimidation that a drastic life-style change is on the horizon. Is it really so intimidating? We are merely being asked to change. The consumption of these sources have also left behind a mess, that mother earth herself cannot handle. She is tapping into her innate energy and sending us warning messages that we must not wound her any longer.
What does this earthly situation reflect about how we as individuals direct our own energy? We can either expand a great deal of energy worrying about the future being trapped in the past, or we can ask ourselves, why am I worrying?
How can I find peace of mind by focusing on what I can control?
Myself, my own actions, reactions, thoughts, and speech.
Swami Sivanada’s words speak to the energy crisis we are faced with in our external reality and within our own minds and bodies. Changing one’s internal environment has a directly proportionate affect on the external environment. This change must start in our own mental and physical reality. This is the true ground of creation. We are what we see and experience there is only apparent separation.
Yogic practice builds awareness and mindfulness so we can begin to understand how we use, waste, expand and sustain energy that fuels creative and destructive cycles in our lives.
The first step to confronting this energy crisis is, LOOKING WITHIN, getting to know yourself on deep levels and cultivating compassion for others and oneself.
Ask yourself the following questions…
How do I direct energy physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually?
Physically…
Do I honor my body for the gift that it is?
Do I rest when I need to rest?
Am I constantly pushing myself to fatigue and neglecting my body and mind?
Do I take time for myself and to reflect on the day?
What physical manifestations do I self induce by my own behavior?
Emotionally…
Do I harbor negative emotions towards others?
Am I a grudge holder? How do these feelings affect my over all well being?
Do I have a hard time forgiving?
Do I draw boundaries for myself in relationships (friends, family, partners)?
Do I prolong negative periods in my life, because I fear change?
What commitments have I made to myself to sustain my own well being?
What activities do I engage in to raise my self-esteem and recognize my own self-worth?
Mentally…
Do I exhaust myself worrying, planning, predicting, or projecting?
Do I let my insecurities cloud my vision of the situation?
Do I hold myself to unachievable standards?
Do I appreciate myself for my gifts and talents?
Do I obsess over what is right and what is wrong?
Do I find joy in what I regularly engage in?
Do I constantly repeat the same mistakes and fall into the same traps that I have set for myself?
What practices have I set in place to uplift myself when I have fallen?
Spiritually…
Who am I? (a questioned constantly asked my Swami Radha)
What is the purpose of my life?
Do I feel deeply connected and grateful for the people, places and things around me?
What practices, activities, creative endeavors can I choose to build awareness so that I am aware of how I affect myself, others and my surrounding reality?
These are just a few questions from different perspectives. We all will have different answers to these questions, and that is an infinite number of ways to positively affect the energy crisis within your own mind and the world. If we all take care of one another and ourselves the earth will take care of herself.
Freedom is ours to hold, its just a struggle in your mind to keep your soul
-The Beautiful Girls
