I just returned from a lengthy trip which included Israel, Egypt, Morocco, and Spain. The trip was planned with a loose itinerary because the best travel is the unexplored and the adventures you experience along the way. When you travel you open your self up to experiences outside the safety of your nest.
Although all the stops were intriguing and all had special moments in Marrakech we visited the art museum which was a bit of a disappointment. It was sparse and the art crudely displayed. There were old Berber tribal bowls, jewelry, and blankets on display but nothing spectacular. Then suddenly it hit me that the real art of Marrakech was outside in the medina (the old city) where the Berbers where still hand painting pots, making blankets, and jewelry. The art of Marrakech was alive and interactive! It existed in the souk or marketplace.
I turned to leave the museum and written on the wall was a quote from the philosopher Voltaire, “I decided to be happy because it is good for my health.” This made me stop in my tracks and contemplate the words on the wall. There I was in the middle of old Marrakech feeling a sense of simple enlightenment. Is it true? Does being happy make you healthy?
Scientific study after study tells us that when a person is in a happy relationship, is happy with their work and generally optimistic about life they are healthier. This is because when we are relaxed and happy (away from anxiety and stress) blood pressure is lower, heart rate is quieter, digestion works better and our minds are more relaxed. We sleep better, have more energy and generally feel better when we are happy. Studies have shown that being in a happy state improves immune functioning.
Regarding happiness the Dalai Lama speaking before an audience in Arizona said of happiness, “I believe that the very purpose of life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So I think, the very motion of our life is towards happiness…”
When asked if happiness was a reasonable goal for most of us, the Dalai Lama replied,” Yes. I believe that happiness can be achieved through training the mind.”
Isn’t this just want Voltaire meant by the quote on the wall? Isn’t happiness a state of mind or a state of being and not a state of possession? And when you feel happy doesn’t it reflect in your health?
Like everyone there are things in my life that cause me to feel anxious, sad and even angry at times. But when I move from these states of being into focusing on gratitude for what I have, for what I can do and for what I can experience I find that happiness creeps in and my mind is a little quieter, my step a little peppier, my energy increases, and my laughter and smiles are infectious. When I am happy I sleep better and eat better, and by all accounts being happy seems to be good for my health; body, mind and soul.
Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

Does age bring with it a deeper sense of acceptance? And what does it mean to accept?
We must learn to accept life and ourselves…with a shrug and a smile…because it’s all we’ve got. – Harvey Mindess
In yoga we might call acceptance the ability to detach and let go. Detachment means that we accept things just as they are without emotion, fear or struggle and through a sense of balance and tranquility we learn to flow with life because life is truly all that we have. When we depart this world we have nothing of value accept the experience and quality of our lives.
Acceptance may be one of the hardest tasks for a human being because by our very nature we always want more. We crave and desire all that we believe we are not or we believe we have not. And it is this craving and desire that leads us to frustration, anger, and disappointment.
Let’s take money for example: we all want and desire more money. It seems no matter how much we have we could all use a little more. So we invest and save and think of ways to increase our wealth. It is a good thing to set goals and strive for more. However it is the unbridled cravings and desires that bring discontentment and unhappiness to our lives. Have you ever watched someone who is discontent? Their body language is rigid and tense, their mind is scattered, and their spirit is down trodden. How about some one who is content and happy? There is a spring to their step, the mind is sharp and alert, and their spirit shines through. The content person always seems younger and lighter and more fulfilled.
The practice of yoga is ultimately about letting go of discontentment and accepting things as they are in the present moment. But what if you don’t want to accept that you are alone, don’t have enough money, can’t find success, and are getting older? How does one wrestle with the discontentment and find acceptance?
Sit down and look at your life just as it is in this very moment. With a shrug and a smile embrace the very essence of your life in this moment (right now be present and aware). Life is ever changing and the present is always subject to new experiences. You have no control over the future. You can only control how you react to the present moment. Accept and be content with yourself and your life because in this very moment it is all that you have. Stop right now and smile, because what you have at this very moment is the beauty and wonder that is known as your life.

Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart. – Socrates

I am recovering from cancer surgery and doing quite well. However not a day goes by that I am not haunted with an ache, a pain or a reminder of the possibility that the cancer will return. Most days I push the negative thoughts away and go on living my life embracing the day, the hour, the moment. We all get caught up in our own troubles and illnesses and can slip into that place of despair. Nothing brings you out of self concern than to hear the tragedy of another person. I share this story with you because it can give us all time to pause and be grateful.
I met a young woman of forty-one who told me the story of her younger sister. Her sister met the man of her life at about age thirty and was about to get married when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The young man loved her and they got married despite her illness. Soon after her marriage she had surgery and radiation to the breast and the lungs. It appeared that the cancer arrested itself and she was on the rebound so she decided to start a family. She got pregnant and carried a baby boy to 6 months. He was born prematurely with undeveloped lungs. The doctor’s told her it was probably due to the radiation treatment she had received and that she might not be able to carry a baby to full term. She is thirty-six. She is a young woman who has had to carry a might tough load at such an early age. Her sister tells me she remain positive. I don’t know this girl but her burden has been on my mind this week.
One of the many lessons of yoga is to learn to accept that which comes into your life. Detach the emotion and allow your karma to phase it self out. This will bring contentment into your life and contentment is a step along the pathway to reaching enlightenment. This all sounds very good in theory but in reality when a disease or tragedy strikes it is very difficult not to feel sorry for you.
Contentment is one of the vital laws of observance as taught in yoga. Basically contentment means that we should be content with what we have and not crave or desire that which we have not earned. It means we should not be disappointed with what does not come into our lives. We also should not be overly elated with what does come into our lives. That which is taken from you is not taken from you but converted into something that you need more dearly. Understanding this wisdom of life brings contentment.
It is a difficult task in the modern day world to be contentment with what we have and not wish for more or to feel sorry for that which has been taken from us. But if we listen quietly we often experience the joy of all the good bestowed upon us and can always find someone who suffers more which brings us full circle to the blessings of our own life. If given the chance we all would pick up our own burdens and be thankful for the blessing or lesson that comes from the struggle to find contentment in a world that challenges our peace of mind day by day and moment by moment.

Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

No emotional crisis is wholly the product of outward circumstances. These may precipitate it. But what turns an objective situation into a subjectively critical one is the interpretation the individual puts upon it – the meaning it has in his emotional economy; the way it affects his self-image. – Bonaro Overstreet

Your center which is your core, your stability, your steadiness, and your strength is what keeps your self image balanced and peaceful. Finding and holding center in a chaotic world takes awareness and discipline. Circumstances, like shifting winds, will continually pull us away from our steady course. It is the awareness of this shift and the experience of holding center in times of turmoil that is the difference between a balanced life and a life that is chaotic.
Turmoil and strife can leave us drained. Stress takes away our health and our appreciation of the moment to moment events of life. In my yoga classes this week we are practicing the art of finding our center by using the breath to surrender to the stillness and the quietude of our inner selves.
I’m asking them to practice the “centering technique” or a meditation that opens the chakras (energy centers) from the base of the spine all the way up to the top of the head where the crown chakra opens and allows us to expand out into the eternal energy of the universe.
We begin by sitting quietly in a cross leg position with the hands resting on the knees and the eyes closed. Center yourself in the Saturn chakra located at the base of the spine. The chakras are fountains of energy that lie along the base of the spine. There are eight major chakras and many minor chakras. When energy is flowing freely through them we are complete and fulfilled.
The first chakra or the Saturn chakra corresponds to the color red and is the quality of the earth element. This chakra represents the day to day ordinary aspects of life. When our energy is flowing freely through this center we are grounded, dependable, realistic, and secure.. If this center is not in balance we have a tendency to be spacey and ungrounded.
Pull your energy into the Saturn chakra and focus. Feel as well as visualize a ray of light moving up the spine to the top of the head and then visualize the thousand petals of the lotus flower opening from the top of your head. Do this without any other thought. As you visualize the light moving up the spine do not let it move to either side but keeps it moving straight up the spine. Now return the light to the Saturn chakra in the same manner. Breathe in and then release the breath. Stay with your center. At the end of the class I will bring them back to the Saturn chakra and once again we will center and move up the spine to the crown chakra at the top of the head.
Your center is there forever and for always. When the world becomes chaotic and unbalanced sit quietly, find your center. It is your strength. It is your peace of mind.
Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

Enjoy yourself. These are the good old days you’re going to miss in the years ahead. – Anon

I found myself talking this week about the good old days and how much easier it was when I was young. I suddenly realized that I was showing my age. I remember my parents talking about the good old days. But as the above quote says enjoy this very moment because before you know it this moment will be a part of the good old days you reflect back upon.
For some of our children it is hard to believe that there was a time when cell phones and the internet did not exist. I can even remember party telephone lines. Our first phone was an eight party line. To make a call you waited until the line was free. Life was simpler then with information moving at a comfortable rate. Today it moves so fast few of us can keep up with the moment to moment changes. But progress is an essential part of innovation and moving forward. So what seems so important today may be very inconsequential tomorrow. This is why yoga teaches us to embrace and enjoy the moment and at the same time freely let the moment slip away and make room for the next. Let life flow rather than resist change for change is inevitable.
Resistance is something that chases you all over the place. When we resist something we fight against it and the more we resist the harder it gets to set you free of the obsessive nature of resistance. One of the fundamental principle of yoga is to let go and learn to yield and flow with the moment. We are taught to embrace that which comes into our life and not to focus on that which we have not earned. Wisdom, which is the ultimate goal of yoga, comes about through experience, time, focus, and awareness.
Focusing on the past keeps us in that perpetual cycle of disconnection with the present moment. Awareness is the presence eliminates the past and future. At once you begin to experience timelessness. This is the essence of joy. It is a place (if there is a place) where time stops and your being simply becomes fully aware of its ultimate nature which is eternal.
The mystical path is to release you from looking back with regret or desire and to release yourself from looking forward with cravings and fear. The mystic seeks to find the moment free of all encumbrances so that the joy of enlightenment can be experienced. To live is to be present. Life happens and is often missed while we are busy, regretting, wishing, desiring, planning, and fearing. In the moment, the body becomes located and the mind becomes clear. We may look back fondly with memories of good times and wish we could recapture the feeling, the mood, the experience but it would never be the same because what is past can never be recreated as explicitly as the moment of the experience’s birth. So rather than wish for the good old days, remember today will be tomorrow’s good old day so embrace and enjoy each new moment of your life.

Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

You are used to listening to the buzz of the world, but now is the time to develop the inner ear that listens to the inner world. It is time to have a foot in each world, and it can be done. – Saint Bartholomew

With the practice of yoga we can learn to have our feet firmly planted in both worlds. We can live our lives in the physical world with complete awareness of the inner fortitude of the soul. Meditation is the method we use to reach a place of quietude and this place of quietude leads to awareness of our inner world.
The physical practice of yoga teaches us how to establish balance, flexibility, and strength in our physical selves. We then translate this into how we live our lives. The spiritual practice of yoga is the inner journey into the place of serenity where we learn to view the world we live in and the experiences of the world as simply opportunities to gain wisdom, which is the ultimate goal of yoga.
The guiding principle of yoga is that when you understand the inner self you understand the total universe. He, who knows a drop of water, knows all water. It is about understanding the two opposing forces of the universe and how to unite them into one. Matter and spirit unified bring about self conscious awareness and illumination. The world is made up of real experiences through which we have the opportunity to gain real knowledge of our real being. Truth must be lived and thus experienced.
The key to making things work in life is to communicate, try not to change other people, and be honest in everything you think, say, and do. If you find yourself in a situation that is dishonest, than you are not living an honest life, but rather cheating yourself of the blessed path of truthfulness.
The inner world of meditation allows us to immerse ourselves so that we might discover the truth; I am not my body (the physical world) I am my spirit. Meditation is not simply a technique for getting quiet but rather a basic approach to life that becomes the foundation for living, loving, and laughing. Meditation removes stress on all levels. It is the ultimate therapy. It is the key to the core of your existence. But before you can master meditation you must master the physical and mental levels of yoga.
We must first learn to discipline our bodies through the practice of hatha yoga or the physical poses and then we must discipline the mind through breathing and letting go of strife. Then and only then can we find the peace and serenity that is the essence of meditation.
Now is the time to find physical and mental balance, flexibility, and strength with one foot while stepping quietly into the inner world of your soul with the other foot. Carry yourself with strength as you walk softly, always aware of the beauty of life.

Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com

Make one person happy each day and in forty years you will have made 14,600 human beings happy for a little time, at least. – Charles Willey

Just think what would happen if each day you set a goal to make just one person smile and feel happiness? Think about how you feel when you give joy to another person. When we extend happiness it returns to us a thousand times over.
What does happiness have to do with yoga? Happiness comes about when we find peace and tranquility within our souls. It is not a physical or mental thing but a deeper sense of contentment that can only come from being grounded, balanced, strong, and peaceful. The practice of yoga is simply to release ourselves from the chaotic physical and mental world and find solace in the nature of our soul. The soul is eternal, non-judgmental and passive. To connect with our soul energy we must be able to let go and letting go brings about contentment which is the doorway to happiness.
Many times I watch my yoga students leave class a little lighter and a little happier. I feel within myself a sense of accomplishment and this brings a sense of joy and happiness. When a person feels happy the energy is contagious. And when you share your happiness by making another happy it circles back.
Happiness is found within. It is not found through any material thing. The goal (if there is one) in yoga is to find contentment and wisdom through the everyday experiences of our lives. This contentment and wisdom brings about happiness. We then live our lives from a place of joy.
Why pursue happiness? Because of the three things that mean the most to us; health, happiness and peace. Happiness is something we can share. Just think what would happen if everybody just made one other person happy each day?
Our practice in yoga this week is to slow down and find the contentment that comes from simply sitting, letting go and experiencing the wonders of the breath. Doing this we lift the spirit, relax the body and quiet the mind. It then opens the door way for that stream of happiness to enter.
I am asking my class to close with thoughts of peace and serenity. I am asking them to find that moment of contentment that leads to happiness. Then I am asking then to go out into the world and make at least one person happy. Make at least one person smile and laugh and observe your own sense of happiness that comes from giving laughter and joy to another person.
Think about what we could accomplish if each of us set out each day to make one person happy? Happiness and joy would flood the world and may-be for just a little while we would all be smiling and laughing together.
Today make one person happy with a smile, a laugh and a hug.
Doctor Lynn
www.doctorlynn.com