“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come,
whispering ‘it will be happier’…”
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

May all beings have the ears to hear that whisper,
the eyes to see the good in others
and the heart to welcome the many wonderful possibilities in this new year.
Happy, Healthy New Year from us to you, and all!

The Silver Lining Is Clear to See

With all that you have gone through the past year or so, it is easy to be skeptical about the future. Much of the news you read and see might only serve to cast a darker shadow on your hopes. But if you look more objectively and in the right places, you can see much to brighten the new year. Take these two steps and you won’t have to worry about fulfilling your new year’s resolutions:

1. Take a look inward
Take the yogic perspective. Look inward. Meditate.
Meditation opens the door to a more joyful appreciation of life. In a matter of days, a regular meditation practice literally begins changing your brain, let alone your mind and perspective. Even a few minutes of meditation a day can make a difference.

Scientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have been able to verify significant changes in the brains of students who have learned to meditate. For example, the brain scans revealed that meditation practice:

Activates and strengthens the part of the brain that builds empathy and compassion for others.
Enlarges and strengthens the part of the brain that determines your ability to concentrate and maintain present moment awareness.
Decreases the size of the amygdala, the part of the brain that produces feelings of anxiety, fear and stress. As the amygdala decreases in size, you become less emotionally reactive. You are able to maintain a sense of calm even under the most challenging circumstances.

Being less reactive while more appreciative, present and compassionate – all these benefits and more will make you the kind of person the world so badly needs today. And that’s the most important step toward changing the world around you.

2. Know your true nature – and that of others:
Are you Divine or are you Lord of the Flies?

Learn more about your Self, your true essence. That’s the main goal of Svaroopa® yoga and meditation.

Your true essence is divine. As the Judeo-Christian religions say, you were “created in the image of God.” As the mystics, saints and sages of most all creeds concur, you are Divine. God is within all beings. God is being all beings, being you and being me.

Unfortunately, the conventional wisdom is that human nature is far from angelic. More than likely, you have been taught that humans are barbaric by nature, sinners by default. This viewpoint was clearly depicted in a book that you most likely read in high school: William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Written in 1954, millions of copies have been sold since. The book has been translated into more than 30 languages, and it is still assigned in most high schools. Lord of the Flies describes the fate of several schoolboys who were shipwrecked on a small deserted island. They turn savage, fighting with one another and ultimately turning the island into a wasteland.

Recently I came across writings by a Dutch historian, Rutger Bregman, who raises doubt about Golding’s view of human nature. While reading about Golding’s life, Bregman realized that the author of Lord of the Flies had no knowledge of behavioral science and was not an impartial judge of children’s inclinations. He made up the story for his novel, and that story was not about children’s dark nature but rather his own. He was an alcoholic who had a very dark view of himself.

All this is documented in Bregman’s recent book Humankind: A Hopeful History. After learning about Golding, Bregman became curious about what would really happen if kids were left alone on an island. He wrote an article on the subject, comparing Lord of the Flies to modern scientific insights and concluded that, “in all probability, kids would act very differently.”

Bregman began searching for a real-life Lord of the Flies example. After a long search, he found a fascinating story about six young teenage boys who set out on a fishing trip in the South Pacific in 1965 and were caught in a huge storm. The boys were shipwrecked on a deserted island. They set up a functioning democracy and communal economy. They shared chores, built sleeping huts and a kitchen, tended a garden and created a gymnasium. They got a fire going, taking turns protecting it so it never went out. They had occasional quarrels, but the rule was that the quarrelers had to take a timeout to cool down for a few hours before being brought back to the group to apologize.

After 15 months on the island, the boys were finally rescued by a passing fishing crew. The boys were extraordinarily healthy – physically, mentally and spiritually. The ship captain who rescued the boys wrote in his memoir: “Life has taught me a great deal, including the lesson that you should always look for what is good and positive in people.”

Read our January 2021 Newsletter to hear more about your good nature!