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"You'll find that life is still worthwhile if you just smile," said silent screen star Charlie Chaplin. A study recently published in Psychological Science revealed that breaking into a genuine smile--one that engages the muscles around the mouth as well as those around the eyes--reduces your heart rate after a stressful event. "Whether you feel happy while smiling doesn't matter," said lead author of that study Tara Kraft. "Muscle activation alone does the trick."
As you go through the day, try smiling at everyone you encounter--be it family, friends, colleagues, or even strangers. And, when you smile, it is highly likely they will smile back, making the brief encounter friendlier and warmer. You'll see that your spirits will rise and you'll experience a positive feeling. "A warm smile is the universal language of kindness," said American motivational author William Arther Ward.
-Victor M Parachin, "Five Steps to a More Positive Attitude"
As you go through the day, try smiling at everyone you encounter--be it family, friends, colleagues, or even strangers. And, when you smile, it is highly likely they will smile back, making the brief encounter friendlier and warmer. You'll see that your spirits will rise and you'll experience a positive feeling. "A warm smile is the universal language of kindness," said American motivational author William Arther Ward.
-Victor M Parachin, "Five Steps to a More Positive Attitude"
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Death raises profound spiritual questions. Tap into your faith, and you will gain comfort, support, strength, insight, wisdom, and a sense of direction. If you have not been in the habit of actively participating in a faith community, bereavement is a very good time to seek one out. One of the impacts of losing a loved one to death is fear--fear of the future and fear in the present. The greatest antidote to fear is faith.
- Where fear imprisons, faith liberates.
- Where fear paralyzes, faith motivates.
- Where fear disheartens, faith encourages.
- Where fear sickens, faith heals.
- Where fear leaves us hopeless, faith generates hope.
This contemporary saying has much wisdom and truth in it: "Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there!"
-Victor M Parachin, Healing Grief
- Where fear imprisons, faith liberates.
- Where fear paralyzes, faith motivates.
- Where fear disheartens, faith encourages.
- Where fear sickens, faith heals.
- Where fear leaves us hopeless, faith generates hope.
This contemporary saying has much wisdom and truth in it: "Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there!"
-Victor M Parachin, Healing Grief
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Those who seek to practice meditation are always instructed to begin by focusing on their breathing. In meditation, the breath is the vehicle of release: the releasing of distracting thoughts, disturbing images, feelings of limitation, and feelings of resistance. Those skilled in meditation know that the breath can calm, reassure, and stabilize both mind and body. . . .
So the next time you're upset about something, don't just stand there, breathe! Here's an effective way of using the breath to calm and center yourself: While inhaling and exhaling, say to yourself: "Peace in, anxiety out." Repeat this as many times as necessary until calm and relaxation emerge.
-Victor M Parachin, Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds
So the next time you're upset about something, don't just stand there, breathe! Here's an effective way of using the breath to calm and center yourself: While inhaling and exhaling, say to yourself: "Peace in, anxiety out." Repeat this as many times as necessary until calm and relaxation emerge.
-Victor M Parachin, Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds
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Too often we have "monkey minds" which do not consider carefully enough the consequences of an action before it is taken. While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of those actions. That is the law of Karma which operates through the universe. People have experienced tremendous sadness because of careless thinking and acting saying "I didn't mean for it to turn out like this." The way to avoid such troubles and tragedies lies in mind management. It is important to think things through, consider all options and take the most skillful action. Only then are the odds in our favor that the consequences will be positive rather than negative and disappointing.
-Victor M Parachin, Buddhist Wisdom for Beginners
-Victor M Parachin, Buddhist Wisdom for Beginners
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Buddhist tradition notes that the Buddha himself taught three fundamental types of generosity. First, material generosity, which involves sharing money and other material things with others. Secondly, emotional generosity, which the Buddha described as "making others feel unafraid." We do this when we spend time with a person who has just experienced a traumatic event such as the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, or with someone who has had a loss to death, or with someone who has been "downsized." Thirdly, there is the generosity of sharing wisdom with others such as leading a meditation group, offering a spiritual workshop, making a presentation about higher values and ethics.
The Buddha often taught about the importance of generosity because it is not only helpful to the recipient of our generosity. We ourselves are greatly helped when we act generously.
-Victor M Parachin, Think Like the Buddha
The Buddha often taught about the importance of generosity because it is not only helpful to the recipient of our generosity. We ourselves are greatly helped when we act generously.
-Victor M Parachin, Think Like the Buddha
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Consider these words . . .
meditation,
medicine,
medic,
medication.
They all come from the same Latin prefix "medicus" which means to care or to cure.
-Victor M Parachin, Sit a Bit
meditation,
medicine,
medic,
medication.
They all come from the same Latin prefix "medicus" which means to care or to cure.
-Victor M Parachin, Sit a Bit
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"Breath is the link between the mental and physical disciplines. It makes the mind calm, lucid and steady." -Swami Vishnu Devananda
Not only do most people take breath for granted but many people do not breathe properly. Consistent ineffective breathing eventually results in fatigue, stress, anxiety, illness and a wide variety of other health issues. To determine if you are a good breather or a weak breather, take a few moments and pay attention to your breath. As you inhale and exhale sense whether your breathing is shallow and rapid or smooth and steady? Because both body and mind are affected--negatively or positively--by the way we breathe, it's important to do so properly.
-Victor M Parachin, Buddhist Wisdom for Beginners
Not only do most people take breath for granted but many people do not breathe properly. Consistent ineffective breathing eventually results in fatigue, stress, anxiety, illness and a wide variety of other health issues. To determine if you are a good breather or a weak breather, take a few moments and pay attention to your breath. As you inhale and exhale sense whether your breathing is shallow and rapid or smooth and steady? Because both body and mind are affected--negatively or positively--by the way we breathe, it's important to do so properly.
-Victor M Parachin, Buddhist Wisdom for Beginners
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Attachment is a major theme in Eastern thought, especially in Buddhism. The Buddha specifically taught that it is attachment that leads to suffering. We suffer not because an unpleasant event has taken place in our lives, but because we add to that event the huge burden of emotions and fantasies: anger, resentment, hostility, entitlement, fear, grief, etc. The Buddha taught that freedom from attachment is the cure for suffering. "For him who is wholly free from craving, there is no grief, much less fear."
-Victor M Parachin, Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds
-Victor M Parachin, Eastern Wisdom for Western Minds
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Those who are grieving should think about that truth--attitudes are more important than facts. The fact is that you have lost a loved one to death. The grief is hard, and the journey is lonely. Yet your attitude can triumph over the fact about loss. Adopt the attitude that you will overcome, that you will transform pain into gain, that you will become an enlarged person as a result of this hard experience.
-Victor M Parachin, Healing Grief
-Victor M Parachin, Healing Grief
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This Zen proverb of six words is mindfulness in a nutshell: When walking, walk. When eating, eat. It reminds us to do one thing at a time; to do it slowly; to do it deliberately; and to do it completely. This can and ought to be expanded into daily life. Here are some ways:
- When listening to a friend, listen.
- When mowing your lawn, mow.
- When loading the dishwasher, load.
- When sitting with your cat, sit.
- When driving, drive.
- When working, work.
By approaching daily living this way, you'll discover the joy of living like a Zen monk because your daily mindfulness will bring you calm, peace, perspective and tranquility.
-Victor M Parachin, Think Like the Buddha
- When listening to a friend, listen.
- When mowing your lawn, mow.
- When loading the dishwasher, load.
- When sitting with your cat, sit.
- When driving, drive.
- When working, work.
By approaching daily living this way, you'll discover the joy of living like a Zen monk because your daily mindfulness will bring you calm, peace, perspective and tranquility.
-Victor M Parachin, Think Like the Buddha