Today, let me tell you a bit more about yoga, science and the story about why I decided to name this website The Abundance Psyche. There are several reasons actually…
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Holding on to Abundance has served me well
One is that, you know, whenever in life, I have held on to an abundance mindset, acted as if I have nothing to lose, and everything in the universe is working for me, that's when I realised that I had the best times in my life, both in my career and in life. So that's what I wanted to share with everyone- that joy of abundance!
I talk about The Abundance Psyche sometimes in a very spiritual woo woo context. But what we tend to forget is the psyche, i.e. the psychology, the brain, the neuroscience of our body.
I am quite interested and passionate about the topic and often talk about the merging of science and spirituality. I am an AI enthusiast. I work in data science, and I work in machine learning. I also am an avid meditation person.
And The Abundance Psyche is a confluence of all my thoughts are about meditation, spirituality, science, in yoga.
Meditation and yogic knowledge changed my life
If you have noticed, I have lately started asking guests on the Not-so-Corporate podcast about that one not-so-corporate thing that changed their lives, and also their careers. And for me, that one thing was meditation.
For me, it was uncovered that I am amidst this abundance. For me, it was uncovering that science and spirituality are indeed related. They are the two sides of the same coin. Most of you have probably heard about yoga.
And when we talk about yoga, the images that come to mind are some mind-bending exercises that we possibly couldn't replicate with our bodies. But I would tell you that that is just one form of yoga, that's called Hatha Yoga, which means achieving unity using bodily physical movements.
What is (hatha) yoga and yogic science?
The term Yoga is actually quite loaded. Yoga means union. Yoga means when you understand and are united with that one. And there's a lot of oneness that we talk about when we talk about spirituality.
So yoga and, even the Hatha Yoga comes from a very spiritual tradition, where actually your physical body can and does change your mind. This has been proven by modern psychology, modern neuroscience- your body indeed has an effect on how you perceive the rest of the world, how you perceive your life, and how you indeed deal with your life.
Basically, what we consider woo-woo is in fact what modern psychology has proven. One of the researchers in this field, Amy Cuddy, wrote a book called Presence, and she will talk to you about this in her TED Talk as well. What has been proven is that your breath can control your hormones, the way you stand, the way you sit, the way you run or react can control the hormones within your body. No wonder we are always stressed out because we are slumped in front of our laptops all day long.
Your body changes your mind. And what Hatha Yoga aims to do is to basically take back control of your body. And it helps you realign your body into how it was supposed to be and this actually has a tremendous impact on our central nervous system, which is why the advanced meditators will tell you about this energy flowing up and down their spine, which is nothing but the central nervous system in action.
And when your body actually can control your mind, it automatically controls your nervous system because guess what the mind controls the rest of the things, the mind definitely is the seat of your nervous system. That is why all of this- the body, the mind, the nervous system, is also related.
Now, we can take it a step further to go into spirituality. And that probably can get into the realm of woowoo and belief regimens and what not. But till now, whatever I have said is still in the realms of science, and how you use your body, and breathwork.
And this is where it is undoubtedly true that science and spirituality are the two sides of the same coin.
When you step away from that to mantras, and affirmations. you start stepping into what seems to be the unknown.
Other forms of yoga
There are other forms of yoga, like gyana yoga, which is the path of knowledge, where you realise that you are actually that one true consciousness that reflects, and is indeed, amongst all of us.
There's the path of Bhakti Yoga, which is the typical form of worship. When you have an idol, or a deity, or Jesus, or God, or Allah, or whoever that be, that is essentially a form of Bhakti Yoga.
Then there's Raja Yoga, which is basically a practice of meditation.
And then there is Karma Yoga, which is basically how you serve others, and you become one with that service with the love that you have for others. Now, why am I telling you all of this?
What does yoga have to do with careers and life?
And oneness- what does oneness have to do with being successful?
What I have found is actually, the more I have leaned into my spirituality, the more I have discovered the science of it. The fact that when you do something with true love, and devotion, all of those good hormones like dopamine, like oxytocin flow into your bloodstream, and they make you sharper, they make you more agile, they make you more attentive, and they get all of those stress hormones like adrenaline down in your system. And we all know, adrenaline. And the cortisol in our systems is basically the result of stress in our bodies, and the stress in our systems, which we all know is the silent killer.
Whenever you're stressed, you are in burnout, and you are not performing at your peak performance. What yoga does is, really flips that on its head, and tries to actually make you see reason, either by using your body, or by using your mind, or by using your nature, which is either to love or reason or work or be of service to others.
When you actually focus on devotion, or love, or actually completely being one with the work that you are doing, or indeed you are extremely aware of yourself and your impact on the world, and you are always living in that awareness, that has this tremendous power to change your life. It can change the context of your life, the perspective of your life, and that flows into your biochemical system, your neurological system because then you can take back control of whatever it is that’s stressing you or people around you.
This is why the stress levels that you find amongst meditators is far lesser than the average Joe.
And this is why I am telling you this- spirituality, and the conjunction between spirituality and science literally changed my life. That is why I passionately talk about neuroscience and all of the spiritual aspects that are to do with that abundance that helps us live in that abundance psyche.
So that is the story of The Abundance Psyche.
And if you enjoyed this post, you will enjoy the biochemical hacks that I provide to my insiders. Download it, implement it in your life and write back to me.
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