SISTER SHIVANI’S INTERVIEW
RADIO EAST FM
NAIROBI
AUGUST 12, 2009
To live a stress free life one is told to eat well, exercise, etc. What is your response to this?
Focus is on the physical well-being whereas stress is created in the mind. Hence you have to work on your mind. Good physical health is important but it will not help the mind.
Isn’t having good health important to well being?
Both are important but now we are more aware of the body and health issues are not improving because the mind is still not being looked after.
Organizing you time, living space, and having a supportive social circle are all ways in which you are told to reduce stress. What are your thoughts on this?
Organize your thoughts because if you were to arrange your schedule perfectly at the start of the day and then shortly meet with someone who upsets you, your perfect schedule for the day would be difficult to follow. We produce too many thoughts, which tire our mind and reduce our productivity.
The environment affects our thoughts. How do we decide what to keep?
We think that our situation creates our thoughts. So if you are nice to me, I will have nice thoughts and vice versa. The illusion is that my thoughts are caused by my environment. However, my thoughts are my creation and my cumulative thoughts create my environment.
There are negative thoughts all around us so how do you respond to them?
Yes, but just as the world is full of bacteria but you will not get ill if you are already healthy, your mind is surrounded by negative thoughts but if your mind is strong it will not be affected.
Renewal of our Spirit, how is this done?
Renewal is simply the cleansing of the negative thoughts, impure thoughts, anger, impure sanskars that we have created. Everyone’s soul was originally pure. We were all pure, beautiful and peaceful but on our journey we taken on different stains. Peace and happiness are not things found outside of myself, I am already very peaceful within but I have forgotten it.
Does IQ not include EI?
No, because today the pressure of jobs is high as a result of fewer people taking on more work due to the financial crisis. Knowing how to work in groups is more important. Those with high IQ are more likely to have large egos. As a result, corporates have clearly decided that on-the-job training can be done easily, but emotional stability and group-working skills are what are important to find. To develop this stability, the important point to keep in mind - this is my own creation and is not dependent on situations and other persons. No one can create anger, sadden or tension in me, and no situation can cause me fear, I create this myself. We keep people who have hurt us in our hearts, this is low EI. Whatever they did, is done but the amount of pain we create is our own choice.
Why is it that in the early days, relationships were stronger unlike nowadays?
Relationships are basically an exchange of energies. If I am in pain and you are in pain then what type of energy exchange are we going to do? I have to be full of love and you have to be full of love, or at least one of us has to be full of positive energy to make it work. Nowadays we are both empty and get into a relationship thinking that you will give me the happiness and vice versa. We demand from each other happiness and love, and relationships have become about taking not giving, hence they are not working.
How do you teach people to understand intentions, motivations, and desires of other people? We are all individual and different.
It is not about understanding the other person. It is about understanding my self. How can I understand everybody? We each have to understand myself and giving the right energy to the other person. Look at my own energy and vibrations. For example, my energy is to trust and the other person’s is to doubt, I do not focus on their doubts but need to create the energy of trust, send it to the other person, which will help that person to create trust in himself. It is about what I am giving, not sitting, checking and changing other people.
You may have dealt with people with phobias, so do we have to deal with our phobias before we can deal with them?
I just have to be stable to work with them. For example, a 12th standard candidate with chronic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder who had stopped taking medications, was violent, and had attempted suicide three times. The psychologists and teachers had disallowed him to sit his final exams as he had not attended school for 6 months.
2-3 hours daily for a month with positive thoughts teaching him to create and maintain the positive thought resulted in his sitting and passing the exams with 74%. However, this required stability in my mind, not allowing myself to be drained but to continue creating positive thoughts and energies. This is our role now. We have to a stop going into pain ourselves when dealing with someone who is in pain. It is the role of parents, teachers and leaders - one needs to remain empowered and not go into the age-old belief that being in pain with you is a sign of love for you. A parent going into pain as a result of pain in a child is why we cannot help our children. Pain and love cannot be together. Love is a positive, powerful emotion, it can help erase pain.
I feels hurt when someone speaks to me negatively, what to do about that.
Each morning for 10-20 minutes do meditation where you can increase your soul power, which will protect the soul. I personally take about 30 min for myself in the morning and 2 min each hour and finally 20 min at the end of the day.
