3 Ways to Improve Your Spiritual Immune System
From smart phones, to train seats, to doorknobs – pretty much everything we touch can be a breeding ground for germs. So maintaining a strong immune system is one key to staying healthy. When we live or work with a person who is suffering with a contagious illness, too, we are more prone to contact that illness even if we do not want it or like it.
The same is the case with our mind. Living or working with a person who has the dark aura of negativity, who is spreading particles of negative thoughts and vibrations all around, can be the biggest agony possible. It is the worst of any infectious disease on the subtle plane of mind and emotion. The person who suffers from a negative mind is most often unconscious and unpredictable.
But we can view the situation from a different perspective in order to overcome this obstacle in life. In the physical plane of our life, isn’t it true that we are being infected all the time with millions of viruses and pathogens? Isn’t it true that the infinitely intelligent body’s healing system naturally kills these viruses, thereby keeping us healthy? Isn’t it the strength of our immune system that decides whether we are going to succumb to the illness or not?
When we strengthen the immune system of our mind we also will be able to live or work with such persons without being affected by negative contamination. It takes two hands to make a clap. The person with whom we live or work may be depressed and negative, but if we lift ourselves up through our own practices of strengthening the immunity of the body and mind, then we will grow in consciousness and awareness.
This is our spiritual strength. The strength of our positive mind and right attitude will guide us from within to have compassion and understanding for the unconsciousness and weaknesses of the other. When we are strong we don’t easily fall into negativity. If we add fuel to the fire of negativity by resisting and reacting on a daily basis, trying to fix the other person, retaliating anger for anger, eye for eye, it only leads both people into the world of darkness.
The only alternative is to expand our will power to fight off the negative contamination without judging the other person for having it! It is almost like we are living in the proximity of someone who is suffering from a contagious virus, and in response we do everything to improve our spiritual immune system to fight against the virus of negativity! Here are 3 spiritual steps to help transform any negative situation:
1. Mindfulness – to live life without regrets and die without regrets
Traditional psychology defines mindfulness as maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment. Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them.
We can take mindfulness a step further when we use it as a spiritual antidote to another’s negativity. One of the most powerful benefits of mindful living is that it creates a very positive inner environment by attracting worthy life companions, friends and work relationships. These good and honorable relationships keep us anchored to a very positive attitude toward life, and help us touch the peaks of success with less effort.
It is our un-mindful state that attracts the downturns in our lives. Then we make the grave mistake of finding someone else responsible for the miseries in our life.
The true art of mindful living is learning to live life without regrets and to die without regrets. So look within! Once the home of our mind is in order, the world order changes, and so do our relationships!
2. Meditation – to consciously choose to respond from our heart and not react
Our usual mode of reaction is to keep fighting when we find someone who is hostile to us. Then, in spite of all our resistance, insistence, and letting go, nothing appears to be working.
How long will we continue to fight with each other to prove who is right? What is the big deal if one is right? It is not always advantageous to be right. We must all learn to lose sometimes, in order to win the heart.
That is the place where God lives!
To be meditative is the way! In a loving meditation, we try to find understanding in our hearts and remember that the other person is a soul caught in a lower vibratory field. In meditation we use our soul power, the powerful flame of positive thought, in order to fill the other person with beneficial vibrations so that he or she can awaken. When we change our judgmental attitude, the situation will change.
This is the new conviction that is emerging from the tit-for-tat lifestyle we have embraced for so long. Through practicing mindful, loving meditation we mature into a state of acceptance and transcendence. Then we join hands and continue to work together for a kind and compassionate world as our gift to the next generation.
3. Prayer – to calmly, with gratitude, accept that, “all is well, this too shall pass.”
Every sincere effort to lift our life is a form of prayer. If we first practice physical stretching, yoga exercises, breathing with awareness and positive affirmations, we begin to clear our mind of its clutter. This helps us to calm our mind, for true prayer can only come from a calm mind. True prayer is spontaneous. It is not something “to do” or to feel obligated to do. True prayer is simply the flow of the universal rhythm.
Then as we pray, we try to express our thoughts and emotions, our gratitude to the Supreme Being, in words. We try to seek that which only the Divine can grant. We pray for ourselves and for those to whom we wish to send the bounty of God’s grace and healing.
Sincere prayers come from the very root of our heart when we are faced with situations that are beyond human control or efforts. For example, if a person whom we love is in great danger or pain, or the suffering of many due to some calamity moves us, then we open our heart in earnest prayer to the Universe, or to the One, unseen Force that we trust. We trust the divine power to heal and help those we care about, as well as our own self.
When we find compassion in our hearts to care about those who suffer from the disease of negativity, and begin to offer sincere prayers on their behalf, miracles happen. As we change our mindset to realize that all is well, this too shall pass, that this person is only going through a rough patch, we begin to pray for God’s illumination to light the path of everyone involved. We do our best to walk in the light, and leave the rest to God.
Finally, when the inevitable turbulence in life comes, remember it does not come to stay forever. It stays as long as there is force behind it, brought on by the natural consequences of life. But if we add our negative energy to it, by being resistive and reactive and judgmental before the force ends, we are only helping to prolong the suffering. Remember, Mindfulness is the remedy. Meditation is the path. Prayerfulness is the support. We are never alone. God is always with us!
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About the Author
Shuddhaanandaa Brahmachari (Kolkata, India), is a globally acclaimed motivational and spiritual teacher, author, social advocate and peace maker. Founder of Stress Management Academy, his Simple Art of Managing Stress and Course in Mindfulness are known worldwide, inspiring corporate leadership, students and all seekers of peace and happiness to be the leaders of tomorrow. Author of the internationally acclaimed Making Your Mind Your Best Friend, Shuddhaanandaa was the recipient of the Man of Peace Award from the World Organisation for Peace in Mexico, 2012. He is recognized as a visionary social advocate for his development of groundbreaking programs that serve thousands of poverty-stricken individuals in slums of Calcutta, India and remote villages of West Bengal. He founded Lokenath Divine Life Mission in 1985.
Please read his new books Cleaning the Mirror of Mind, and The Incredible Life of a Himalayan Yogi, both available on Kindle. For more information visit http://www.courseinmindfulness.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/srisri.shuddhaanandaa
