Survival Instinct
We are all hard wired for self-preservation. Everything that we do is based upon one thing: our own personal survival. Through distinctions like these, the meditation techniques found in the Yoga Awakening Meditation Program will allow you to develop intuition, increase energy, improve memory concentration and focus, increase confidence and find natural stress relief.. Let’s look into it further……
Basic Survival
Imagine you filled a large pot of water with snails, began heating the pot, but forgot to put the cover on it. What would become of the snails, you ask? The snail has no idea that it’s in a pot of water and being prepared for the main course. After all they aren’t very sophisticated animals. But like all life on this planet they do have a very acute instinct to survive. In time these snails will find their way out of the pot and probably end up on your kitchen walls and ceiling. The snails will move away from the water as it heats up. This is a very basic survival instinct at work.
Humans also share this same instinct, albeit ours is much more sophisticated than the snail’s. Everything that we do is driven by this personal preservation drive! Let’s look into it together.
Personal Preservation
1) Someone says, “I am going to punch you in the face” and then moves towards you in a threatening manner. You have several choices: a) you will immediately move away, b) cover up, or c) defend yourself. This is quite obvious. You are protecting yourself from a physical threat. You react immediately to the threat of physical danger.
2) Someone says, “You have a disgusting and ugly face, please stop looking at me.” Now what will you do? When we are threatened or challenged emotionally, things change quite a bit. Again you have several choices: a) You can move away by saying nothing and avoiding this person in the future, b) You can cover up or start to walk with your head lowered so that no one will ever see how ugly you are, c) You can even defend yourself by saying, “I’m attractive, you’re ugly.”
The first example was quite straightforward, your response was immediate, you naturally reacted to the pending danger of being punched.
In the second example your feelings have been hurt. In spite of all the sophistication we possess, we really aren’t very good at dealing with intellectual threats. They are much more subtle and require much more attention so that our responses are balanced and of an equivalent nature. The results of these subtle attacks can snowball and lead to unimaginable complications and disorders.
If you move away and say nothing, it will likely bother you that you didn’t respond appropriately. If you truly believe that you are ugly, you will be distraught and likely suffer severe self-confidence issues. Even if you defend yourself, you may still believe the insult and suffer from self-confidence issues.
This insult will lead to excessive thought and attention of this event to your life and waste precious energy, increase stress and reduce memory concentration and focus. Your mind will return to this incident over and over again in the future. It could have been a co-worker that complained about your work ethic, or a friend that commented on your weight, or a spouse that fell out of love with you or complained about your bad eating habits. All of these things have one thing in common: they all result in a personal confrontation and will result in the survival instinct taking over, thereby wasting energy, increasing stress and reducing memory concentration and focus. You will attempt to protect yourself in order to survive. If you are really honest and open about this, you will see that our selves are all that really matter to us. All of our actions are based upon our efforts to protect ourselves.
Think of all the energy wasted on such mundane activity. Think of all the stress these intellectual confrontations cause you. If your mind is constantly distracted by thoughts of survival and self protection, what do you think this does to your memory concentration and focus, to your ability to stay centered?
There are so many secrets Yoga and Meditation techniques will reveal to you. There are so many ways that Yoga and Meditation techniques can make your life easier and more fulfilling. The benefits of Yoga are numerous: you will increase energy, improve memory concentration and focus, increase confidence and achieve natural stress relief to name a few. So come and explore these meditation techniques with me now by visiting: http://www.yogaawakening.com
To Natural Stress Relief, Abundance and Excellent Health,
Tony D’Agostino, CEO and Founder of YogaAwakening.com
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts. Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.
The reason people’s negative comments bother you is because they are perceived as a direct threat to your survival. Your survival instinct kicks in and that’s when the difficulties arise.
Instead try to remain un-effected by these comments. Realize that it is your survival instinct at work defending your self against a direct perceived threat. Don’t allow your emotions to become charged as this is only the effect of your perception of the threat. Remain calm take a deep breath. Realize what’s happening with in yourself. Then just focus on the comments made and respond appropriately, with out the emotional charge caused by your internal defenses. Your response will be much more balanced and on point. You will be able to see the true purpose and meaning behind these unfortunate comments and respond accordingly.
Warmest Regards, Namaste
Tony
It amazes me to see how many people are so unphased by the emotional fret their words can pose on another human! Since starting college, I have been confronted with many different types of people and personalities, many difficult to cope with. Over time I have learned the importance of staying centered and focused on the good in the world, not allowing the bad to overwhelm my mind. Ignoring emotionally draining events that occur regularly is a lot harder than it seems and. It takes a lot of confidence, which can be hard to gather at times. I’d love to continue learning how to improve my life in this way and begin thinking only about the positive things each day; I am confident it will keep me more focused and happy.
Hi Theomarakit,
The most important first step is to develop an understanding of exactly what’s happening to you. Yoga and meditation is about self exploration. About understanding yourself, which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of others and how we interact with our environment.
There are many forces at work here. The human condition is extremely complex. We are all very sophisticated social creatures. It seems that with increased mental aptitude and capacity comes great complexity. As I pointed out in this article, the complexities of human interactions present us with some very difficult challenges as a species. Because the distinctions are so subtle and our self image and survival instinct are very much in play we accept things the way they are and assume this is how they should be and the only way available to us. Most of us don’t even attempt to change or look into this. For the ones that do, possibilities abound.
Continue to observe your own actions in your daily routines. Become totally aware of how the survival instinct protects the self, your image of you. Look at the concept of cause and effect. How this pursuit for self survival taints your actions in life. How the results you get may not be everything you were hoping for.
Consider how you react to your environment and to others. How environmental stimulus causes certain effects in your life. By understanding these things you will soon begin to see possibilities that were not available to your before.
If you are really serious about improving your life or deeply want some crucial insights into the human condition, you will find the drive and motivation to do these things.
Next week I plan on discussing the concepts of cause and effects, and bring this entire discussion together.
Warmest Regards, Namaste
Tony
This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!
You have really hit the nail on the head.One is confronted always with issues of life in various divers forms. The question is how do we conteract all these. Would be most grateful if we can learn these meditative acts, practice them and mitigate the effects of the challenges life presents to us.
We will go for it, continue teaching us, we are garteful