Sagar Takker

Not reacting is like a skill. You have to practice it to get better at it. So initially, you will be reacting and putting effort to let go and be imperturbable. If you are working on a specific issue, you might require to put a lot of effort to stay non-reactive and to keep observing and letting go. After a while, you'll notice that the issue doesn't trigger much reaction from within. That's a sign of progress. When you have completely let go of your entire mass of 'reactivity,' the issue will not trigger anything anymore. You will have become free of it completely. The issue will have become a non-issue. Think of this practice like taking shots on a basket ball court. As a beginner, you'll miss many shots (you will keep reacting). But as you keep on taking shots, keep on practicing, your accuracy will get better.

I used to do DDP yoga some years ago. It's good for overall fitness; works on strength, endurance and flexibility - all at the same time. Search for Arthur's transformation through DDP yoga. It's quite inspirational.

Whatever may come up in meditation may come up in life anyway too. The experience of a demon may arise anyway too. Ultimately, the question is how do you deal with fear, how do you deal with the feeling/emotion present in that moment. If it happens to me, I would sit and witness it with all my awareness and put all my effort to be as emotionally imperturbable as I can. Whatever emotion will come up, I'll observe it and let it go. Also, having some adage that reminds you that all that you experience is just consciousness or 'an illusion' can be of help. For example, Verse 18, Chapter 1 from Ashtavakra Gita: Sakaram anritam vidhi, nirakaram tu nishchalam. Which translates to, Know that which has form to be unreal and the formless to be permanent. One way to deal with fear is to become willing to experience what you fear. Requires courage. But does the work. Often, we are looking for a way to deal with something without actually dealing with it. The way to deal with it is to deal with it. You ask how does one deal with it... Dealing with it would require you to face it, right? There is no other way to do this. So when you do face it, you will be 'absolutely terrified.' This much is certain. Now what can you do? You will either react or not react. Reacting will not help, not reacting will. It may seem like you can't control it but you can. Requires some effort, can't be bypassed.

Today was Day 1 of Inner Engineering Completion. There was a session between 06:00 and 08:30. It went well. During the session, I received an inspired idea to create a video about the program. It would be a trending topic and would get some views form my target audience. So I decided I would create a video sharing my experience. As the session ended, I went online to do some research on what videos were already present. In the search results, I found a video whose title had 'Freedom From Fap' in it. Freedom From Fapping is a book on overcoming porn addiction that I published in December 2018. So I wondered if the video was about my book. I found out that the guy in the video talked about an upcoming program on overcoming porn addiction. This program was being organised by Sarvesh Shashi, someone I have great love and respect for. I wonder if Sarvesh is aware of the title of my book, has seen it or not. Doesn't really matter. But it does give me some mixed feelings. I don't really know the truth about why Sarvesh chose that title for his program. So I would wait and if the answer arrives, that would be good. And if it doesn't, doesn't really matter. I am happy. I am happy because when I search for Nofap on amazon, my book is listed in the top. It's got some good reviews. I wasn't aware that it was ranking good in search results or about the ratings it had got. Just got to know about all that today. And I feel good.

I have heard the same things about handwriting that you mentioned. I journal a lot; have been doing it for more than 5 years now. Mostly, I do it digitally, especially if I am journaling to keep a record of my practices. However, when it comes to actual practices that involve writing, for example, morning pages (ref. The Artist's Way, Julia Cameron) or sentence completion exercises (ref. The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, Nathaniel Branden) I prefer to hand-write on paper.

In morning, I received a message from my friend asking if we could do our session today. I immediately agreed to it; I felt happy that she took the initiative. I thought of it as a positive synchronicity because in my mind, I had thoughts that she wasn't very willing to do the work. I arranged things in a way that would let me do the session at the decided time. Before the scheduled time, I prepared, set up the system etc. I sat in front of my laptop, the camera was on, and I waited. She didn't turn up. For 15 minutes. That brought some feelings of being disrespected. I kept letting go to the best of my ability. After 20 minutes of waiting I decided to 'give up' and undid my setup. After around 45 minutes of the decided time, she sent a mail asking if I was available. I was surrendered by then and had forgiven her. So I agreed and we ended up doing a session. The session didn't go as great as I would have liked. In fact, I ended up feeling not good enough, not skilled enough. It brought up some doubts, 'Should I put it out? What if people think that I am not skilled enough and decide to stay away from my channel, my work? What if someone ends up watching this and ends up doing the 'wrong' thing.' Thanks to all the years of meditation practice, I do not believe my thoughts much; I don't take them way too seriously. In the evening Shadow Work practice session, these doubts came up again. I started doing EFT tapping on them. And it helped clear my mind. Yes, maybe I am not very skilled yet, but I can improve. If the ball doesn't go in the basket in the first try, try again. And again. And again. When it comes to a skill, one has to practice a lot. And I am willing to practice a lot, with my whole being; heart and soul. And the video. Maybe it's not that bad. I am judging it from my eyes, but from the perspective of someone new to inner work, it might help. Even if it helps one person just a little bit, that's good.

Happy new year! I didn't feel like working much today. It wasn't a very productive day. I publish videos every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today, I had to publish a video by 6 pm. I kept on delaying doing the work. Around 4 pm, I finally got myself to do the set up and record. I wasn't in the best state of mind, not very energetic and emotionally high to record a nice video. Anyway, I did record one. Edited it. The final video looks good. The lesson here is to set clear deadlines. It really helps to have a deadline. Suddenly, everything falls in place when your ass is on fire.

We can quote and refer to a thousand teachers, experts, theories, researches, experiments. In the end, it will all be a belief. A thought. These discussions are a distraction. One can instead choose to focus on one's practice, a sincere search for Truth.

I had planned to do a one-on-one session with a friend to demonstrate how EFT is done. I was quite excited about it, looking forward to it. I spent some time in morning preparing for the session. At 10:30, the scheduled time, I was ready, sitting in front of my laptop. I waited for a minute and then checked my phone to see if there was an update. She sent a message that she would get late by 10 minutes. Now, she is someone who I believe is mostly late. It has been an experience, almost all the times I have set a meeting with her. So this brought up some feelings. I worked on letting them go, did some shadow work too. Thoughts of chastising her appeared and I kept letting go whatever arose. Around 10 minutes later she joined. Only to tell me that we won't be able to do a session right now. What is my highest priority in life? Imperturbability! So, even though this event is bringing up certain feelings and thoughts of righteousness, wanting to change, I do recognise that this is an opportunity. To let go, to do shadow work and integrate. Things will not always go as intended. Aversions would come up. More important than 'my' goals, 'my' dreams, 'my' intentions, is His will. May Thy Will Be Done.

Great! Go ahead full force. Good luck.

I just quickly read through a small ebook I had written back in 2014. I am so amazed to see that I completely agree with all that I had written. In fact, I am so surprised that I had written all the 'right' things back then, even though I didn't have much experience. After 6 years of working on the very same things, the skills I had written about, I have reached the same conclusions through experience. It seems like I allowed Infinite Intelligence to work through me really well.

I was de-cluttering my laptop. A lot of space is being used by the videos and their project files etc. I stumbled upon a clip; it was a fast forwarded version of a 40 minute meditation session that I did on my terrace. I remember how cold it was and I still sat there, as still as I could. My plan was to show myself sitting in meditation as the sun was setting. A fast forwarded version would have looked amazing. So to materialise my idea, I did try thrice to record. But each recording didn't really work in the end. None of them was close to what I had imagined in my mind. In the end, I used none of them. The point I want to note is that I spent some 2-3 hours, subjecting myself to cold weather, sitting still and letting my knees hurt so that I could record a video and in the end it didn't really work out. That's the journey. You do a lot of things, but the world gets to see only some of them. It is important to keep a record of these things; so that you can remember where you are coming from. I myself had forgotten about it. Now that I remembered, I thought I would just note it down. One day, I would read this and have tears in my eyes.

I would highly recommend the same. The Completion Process by Teal Swan was quite helpful in my experience.

It's very important to know how to break a fast. If not done correctly, it can not only undo the good that fasting brought but may cause damage too. The thumb rule is to break the fast in half the duration of the fast. For example if you are going for a 3 days fast, take 1.5 days to break the fast. Which means, for 1.5 days, consume more juices, fruits and salads instead of going for a heavy meal. You can check out this resource: https://juiceon.helpsite.com/ I have done a 3 day juice fast with them and it was a wonderful experience.

I didn't have a very productive day after such a long time. I didn't do much focused work. Slept after lunch for around 1.5 hours. It's alright, I love myself. I'll work for an hour or two before I sleep; I'll finish a task that I had planned for today.

You can also do this; write a script. Then you can record an audio to create an audio course or you could speak whatever you have written alongside a presentation to create a video course out of it. Checkout this for an example:

I have been doing intermittent fasting for over a year. And I have gone for a 3 day juice fast. If you are going for a 3 day fast for the first time, it is highly recommended to avoid doing any kind of work; be it physical or mental. Your body may experience detox symptoms during a fast. And the mind needs willpower to persist. It would be advisable to be gentle with yourself and better take rest from work during this time.

That's good advice. @HERO_Start small. Don't worry about competition from apps/programs/already successful coaches. Even if you start with a basic fitness program that's not even way too creative or different but does help people get results, people will want to work with you. People are more interested in results, than something new/different. A part of your job would be to help them recognize this (communicate this clearly); that they you can get them results, even if you haven't found your unique style yet. Over time, you will start doing things your own way and build a unique brand. Or you'll end up getting clarity on what's more authentic to you.

The evolution of desire through Shadow Work. Carolyn mentions in Existential Kink, that desires do not evolve through denial but through intense approval. A few weeks ago, I became aware of an unconscious desire to depend on my parents. As I gave it intense approval, it seemed to have evolved. The next thing that came up was wanting obscurity (opposite of fame). As I gave this one intense approval, it seems to have evolved to wanting disapproval (and lack of approval) from the world. For a long time, I often worried that people didn't really like me. I used to have stories in my mind that they were conspiring against me, talking behind my back. I distinctly remember having these thoughts and stories when I was a teenager. Over time, the whole tendency kept on evolving on its own, as I became more and more accepting and loving. Now, it seems to have come up for its final release. Let's see how this unfolds.

Stay courageous, friend! There's a better experience of life on the other side.

All the hard work is so satisfying. Even if the outcome is not as desired, the act of creating is so fun. Feeling really great about what got created. 7-8 hours of work to create a 13 minute video. But it's not just 7-8 hours; it's actually entire life till this moment.

@platolol It's called LiveProfound: http://bit.ly/liveprofound

I have spent the last 4-5 hours in deep focus; editing the video I am creating on the experience of keeping a commonplace book for 3 years. I skipped my evening meditation practice for this. And I am working way past my 'official day end' time. Never mind. I am enjoying the process. We had a small gathering at home today so couldn't work during the day. And this Monday, I'll be going to some place. So this 'overtime' is justified.

There are 4 processes/techniques that I want to share with you. You can look into EFT (Emotional Freedom Tapping); It's a technique of releasing stuck/unwanted emotions by tapping on meridian points. I have had great experiences with it; e.g. I let go of deep feelings of pain of abandonment using EFT. Letting Go by David Hawkins or Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin can help you deal with emotions in a powerful way. In short, it's about not expressing or suppressing or escaping from an emotion, and rather fully feeling it. When you fully feel the emotion, it gets 'released' after some time, when the energy has run its course. You can do Shadow Work, which is quite powerful; I would highly recommend reading Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott. The Work of Byron Katie can help you tremendously too. It's a process of questioning your thoughts and beliefs, and aligning them with reality.