Fall in Love with Your Inner Being

February is Heart-Awareness Month. In addition, there is also Valentine’s Day! Your heart / soul is your best Valentine! Those who attend my meditation sessions know that sessions are like a "1:1 meeting with your heart and soul."

Meditation is the easiest way to establish an intimate connection with your heart (Inner Being). I urge you to spend some time every day with your Inner Being, without judgment, just witnessing and observing your inner emotions / thoughts. Cultivate the craving to know your Inner Being completely… Be madly in love with your Inner Being… only then can you experience unconditional love.

When you love your whole being, that love can radiate to everyone around you without any expectations, attachments, conditions and boundaries. This is priceless, and costs nothing to practice. I used to always wonder: Is there a love beyond attachment? It was through consistent, daily meditations which helped me discover unconditional love.

Back in 2014-2015, during my daily meditations, poems such as these below would pop up. Based on a friend’s suggestion, I wrote them down. Later, I recognized they were in response to the longing I had inside me. Read them, and let me know if they resonate with your heart / soul. If you start loving your loved ones beyond conditions, accepting their whole being… many walls built knowingly or unknowingly will crash down and disappear. You will feel that pure, unconditional love even when the individuals are not physically around you.

Shirdi Sai, mentioned in these poems, is my Guru. All my life, I felt I had a strong connection with him. It was only through meditation that I discovered he is my inner Guru. You can replace his name with whatever Divine Being or God you connect with in your inner heart. You can also use your Higher Soul.

Title: Pour Your Love Date: 12 May 2014

Guru Shirdi Sai!! Pour your Love, Pour your Love on me

Pour your Love, Pour your Love on meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Please take my “office responsibilities” on your shoulders and pour your love on me

Let your love give me “one point focus” to do work as your seva (service)

Pour your Love, Pour your Love on me.

Please take my “house responsibilities” on your shoulders and pour your love on me

Let your love flow through me and “nurture the family,” Let them feel your love through me

Pour your Love on me, Pour your Love on me

Let your love burn all the negative emotions in me

Let your love light up “Fire of Devotion” in me

Pour your Love, Pour your Love on me.

Guru Shirdi Sai!! Pour your Love, Pour your Love on me

Pour your Love, Pour your Love on meeeeeeeeeeeeee

Title: Pure / Unconditional / Boundary-less Love Date: 15 Feb 2015

Oh my Heart, Let me practice “Pure Love” towards my Guru

If there are any impurities present, my Guru won’t respond

Let my Sadhana burn all the impurities in the “Fire of Divine Love”

Ola! Now I feel his response

Oh my Mind, Let me practice “Unconditional Love” towards my Guru

If there are any conditions present, my Guru’s Love won’t be as complete as the Full Moon

Let my Sadhana burn all the conditions in the “Fire of Divine Love”

Ola! Now I feel his Love as complete as the Full Moon

Oh my Soul, Let me practice “Boundary-less Love” towards my Guru

If there are any boundaries present, my Guru’s love won’t be as infinite as the sky

Let my Sadhana burn all the boundaries in the “Fire of Divine Love”

Ola! Now I feel his infinite love vaster than the Sky

If the demands of life does not permit time to meditate every day, then the second best option to establishing an intimate relationship with your Inner Being is to know your breath. This is like a “dating” stage, before committing to your Inner Being completely.

Breath is our life energy. When breath stops, there is no life, and our physical body is of no use. Even though it happens without our asking, without our paying attention to it. Isn’t it amazing? What happens when you pay attention to your breath, and become aware of your in-breath and out-breath? Try for a few days and see what happens.

Those who come and meditate with me know there are three elements we use in our session: Prana (breath), Mind, and Heart / Soul. There is an intimate relationship between these three. Just as your spouse and kids trigger you, your breath, mind, heart and soul trigger each other. This is why, during our meditation sessions, we focus on breath through simple breathing techniques. Your breath is a palpable, physical connection to get close to your heart / soul.

Love your breath -- that is your life energy.

How do you love your breath? I will give a few simple techniques.

This month’s reading list also happens to be on breath. Isn’t it amazing? It is in a regional Indian language, called “Telugu” and the book series is called “Swasa Maha Vignan”— It means “high knowledge about breath.” Breathing-in and breathing-out; is essential for our physical body to conduct its work on this Earth.

Our breath changes throughout the day depending on what activity we are doing. When we exercise we breathe differently. When we are sad / upset / angry we breathe differently. When we are happy we breathe differently. When we are in love with someone we breathe differently. This is a known experience to everyone, isn’t it?

A simple, surprising, and important point I learned from this book series, is that breathing happens through one nostril at a time, and every hour it switches to the other nostril. To confirm this, try a simple experiment either by yourself or with your kids:

Keep your index finger under your nose, and write down which nostril has the dominant air. Set a timer for an hour. Repeat the experiment. Your breath should have changed to the other nostril. On average, we breathe 12-15 times per minute, i.e 21600 times per day.

The book also mentioned that our life span is not defined by how many years we live; rather, it is defined by how many breaths we take. If we slow down our breath we can increase our life span. Also, during deep meditation, our breath slows down. In rare cases it flows through sushumna nadi(central channel)… which drastically brings the number of breaths down. This is how yogis live for 100+ years.

Even if you only take a few minutes every few hours and make an attempt to familiarize yourself with your breath: take deep breaths, observe your breath-in and breathe-out, pump in unconditional love into your breath-in, and pump out all the conditions through your breath-out. This simple practice can bring tremendous changes to our whole being.

Also, for those who have trouble falling asleep, make sure you breathe through your left nostril a few times before you head to bed. It can help you relax, and transition into sleep faster.

As I was reading this book series I felt bad. Why hadn’t I known this until now? Why was this not taught in school as a science subject? Even in PE class? I have been practicing this with my daughter, and she is loving it.

Did you know that when we breathe-in and breathe-out, we are not just breathing the air, along with the breath we are also taking energy and emotion with it.

Since the February theme is centered around love, let’s try a few breathing techniques that are focused on love.

1. Take a few minutes for yourself (for example: in the evening during your bathroom break or while cooking) and observe your breath, breathing-in and breathing-out. Don’t worry about how long or short they are; don’t pay attention to that aspect just witness and observe without altering them.

2. With your breath-in, send “unconditional love” to your Inner Being, and with your breath-out pump out all the “conditions” you have accumulated inside you.

3. With your breath-in send “pure love” to your Inner Being; with your breath-out pump out any impurities present inside you.

4. Repeat 2 & 3 as many times as you can.

Become really selfish and explore self love through your breath, your dedicated 1:1 meetings with your heart and soul.

Let me know which techniques from this article resonated with you.