The Birds of Kanha

RAJESH MENON is a photographer from Delhi, who specializes in images from nature. Here he shares some of the beautiful birds of Kanha Shanti Vanam, the 1300 acre property outside Hyderabad, India, that is the international headquarters of the Heartfulness Institute. It is also a green sanctuary.

Giving More, Taking Less

FRANCOIS BOUDERLIQUE learnt about the basic principle of Nature – to give more than you take – when he left a high-powered banking job in Paris to live and farm in Kutch, India. He realized that his understanding of eco farming was colored by his past and he needed to open his eyes to a new reality.

YOGA & PEACE

DEEPAK CHOPRA speaks with DAAJI about the role Yoga has to play in bringing about world peace. This is an excerpt from their conversation broadcast on International Day of Peace, September 21, 2020. That documentary is available at https://heartfulness.org/en/international-day-of-peace/.

Create the habit of meditation

CHIRAG KULKARNI, Co-Founder and CMO of Medly Pharmacies in the USA, speaks with RISHIKA SHARMA about creating a regular meditation practice, so as to make it a habit. He also shares how meditation has benefited both his personal and professional life.

Remembrance & a Sacred Earth

LLEWELLYN VAUGHAN-LEE mourns our forgetting of our connection with the Earth, inviting us once more to remember, reconnect and rekindle the sacredness of that relationship in our lives.

HOW TO KNOW THE NATURE OF YOUR BEING

Author of The Untethered Soul – The Journey Beyond Yourself, MICHAEL SINGER, shares his thoughts on the nature of the mind and the heart. He also describes how we let impressions from the past and our thoughts affect our worldview and our potential, and how to handle the human heart – how to be at peace with the tremendous range of the heart.

BETWEEN Stimulus & Response

In this excerpt from an interview done in August 2016, DR. JAMES DOTY is interviewed by JOHN MALKIN about the science of meditation, the evolutionary advantage of compassion, aspects of human behavior that relate to compassion and collective social issues, and his cherished memories of the remarkable woman who gave him a helping hand up when he was a boy.

Creating Communities for Health – Part 2

In Part 2 of this exclusive interview, BARBARA BUSH speaks with MAMATA VENKAT about how to nurture mental well-being during the current pandemic, gratitude practices, the styles of leadership needed in today’s world, authenticity, what she learned travelling the world as the daughter of a US President, the importance of racial justice, and what is next for her.

Kindness Is Key to Resilience PART 2

In June 2020, AUDREY LIN from ServiceSpace spoke with PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN about the qualities needed to live a life of kindness, and the relationship between kindness and resilience. In part 2, Audrey continues by focusing on the Compassion Quotient, the concept of leading with inner transformation, and how easy it is to integrate simple acts of kindness into everyday life.

THE EVERYTHING OPTION

MICHAEL RICHARDSON celebrates the miraculous nature of our everyday existence and explores the reasons why we are not attuned to the miracles all around us in every moment. He encourages us to open our eyes to the miracle-nature of all things.

THE ART OF JOURNAL WRITING

MICHAEL LEWIN shares his own experience of the value of writing a journal, including embracing imagination, feeling, expansive thinking, creativity, spiritual growth, self-development and much more.

Gratitude

As a young mother in Sydney, Australia, KARISHMA DESAI was diagnosed with a serious illness and went through life-saving surgery. Here she shares how this changed her attitude toward life and her appreciation of the simple daily things she previously took for granted.

ACTIVISM

MARYAM and NIVAAL REHMAN became activists when they were eight years old, inspiring girls in their village in Pakistan to continue their education. The now 19-year-old twins have since worked for such causes as girls’ education, climate justice, gender equality and inclusivity. They have their own non-profit, The World With MNR, that uses advocacy, storytelling and development to take action and inspire others to do the same. They have used their social media and YouTube channels to cover several events, including the Social Good Summit in New York City, the Girl Up Leadership Summit in Washington D.C., and interviews with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai, and Madame Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank. They have received several awards, including the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award. Recently they released a documentary on the status of girls’ education in Pakistan and held global screenings to spark further conversation and inspire action.

Taste of life

It’s not about disappearing into the ocean, but of becoming the ocean.

The New Children

TERRAN DAILY begins a series of articles that offer parenting and teaching tips for today’s children. She sets the scene by explaining the consciousness shift we are undergoing from a mechanistic worldview to a systems worldview, and how as adults this changes the way we nurture our children.

Service, Simplicity & Songwriting part 2

With an Ivy league education, this MTV rap/hip hop star was living the American dream and working on Wall Street when the events of 9/11 unfolded in front of his eyes. Giving up the corporate world, NIMO PATEL decided to pursue his passion for music in LA, but a chronic health issue led him to seek Ayurvedic treatment in India. He stayed back for 6 months to volunteer at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad and continues to this day working with the slum children of the city when he’s not working for his own non-profit organization, Empty Hands Music. In part 2, VANESSA PATEL continues to learn more about him and his mantra “Service, Simplicity & Songwriting.”

JUST THINKING AND FEELING: WHAT IS A MISTAKE?

How do you handle a situation in which someone is so scared of making a mistake in the decision they need to make that they panic? If most of their energy is focused on the panic, then very little is left to deal with the problem that is worrying them. So, let’s see how we can reduce anxiety. The first thing to do is to take a deep breath and relax.

A User's Guide to Living - Part 9

Happiness, Food and Resources

A Love Letter to the Future: Part 1

“What we do now echoes in eternity,” said Marcus Aurelius. The transition of the past few months has been stressful but also a time to remove obsolete habits, to rebuild our priorities, and to explore new paradigms. With this in mind, PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN interviewed DR. ELIZABETH DENLEY on our ability to adapt to changes during COVID times. Elizabeth holds a PhD in ecology as well as having spent over 30 years practicing Yoga and studying the yogic sciences. She sees the bridging of science and spirituality as the way of the future.

The Four Eternal Truths

DR. SIMMI VALECHA shares her own journey of discovery, and how she found her purposes and joy in life. She also shares her four eternal truths, and how she has realized them in her life.

Taste of Life

DR. V. RAMAKANTHA is a former Indian Forest Service officer and member of the Green Initiative at the Heartfulness Center at Kanha Shanti Vanam in India. Having spent most of his working life living in forests and jungles, in tune with the natural world, he shares his knowledge about some of the amazing medicinal plants of India, starting with Parijata, the Queen of the Night.

Service, Simplicity & Songwriting part 1

With an Ivy league education, this MTV rap/hip hop star was living the American dream and working on Wall Street when the events of 9/11 unfolded in front of his eyes. Giving up the corporate world, NIMO PATEL decided to pursue his passion for music in LA, but a chronic health issue led him to seek Ayurvedic treatment in India. He stayed back for 6 months to volunteer at the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad, and continues to this day working with the slum children of the city when he’s not working for his own non-profit organization, Empty Hands Music. VANESSA PATEL caught up with him in June to learn more about his mantra “Service, Simplicity & Songwriting.”

Nature is a Great Companion

SOHAM DESRIAUX lives on Réunion Island, a French department in the Indian Ocean, known for its volcanic rainforested interior and beautiful beaches and coral reefs. At the age of 15, he is already sharing his creative flair for photography and multimedia, showcasing the natural beauty of his homeland.

Invisible Ropes of Love: ON CROSSING THE BRIDGE OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD

TREVOR WELTMAN describes the rite of passage he has experienced moving from youth to adulthood, how he navigated this crossing, and how meditation and yogic Transmission supported him along the way.

A User's Guide to Living - Part 8

DAAJI continues his series on everyday living, introducing the seventh universal principle of the User’s Guide, which is to let go of revenge, resentment and retaliation for any wrongs done and instead develop the art of gratitude, which includes both being grateful and giving thanks. This seventh principle allows us to transcend reactive, negative thinking when things don’t go our way. As we evolve, it becomes a fantastic tool to help us accept and trust in life, whatever it brings, so that we can soar into higher and higher states of consciousness.

THE HEARTFUL STRATEGIST - PART 5

In the earlier articles of this series, RAVI VENKATESAN introduced the Heartful Strategist framework. He covered how consciousness is limited by certain vicious cycles of negative emotions. He also looked at examples of shifts that can be made to allow consciousness to expand through broadening our perspective and “thinking” for the benefit of broader and broader circles of influence. In this article he explores tendencies and thought patterns, and how specific practices can help with shifting these. As background, you can read parts 3 and 4 of this series again.

SURRENDERING TO WHOM?

DR ICHAK K. ADIZES challenges us all to learn to listen to what feels right and wrong in the heart. He encourages us to find God’s will within ourselves.

Sleep Over It

HARI VENKATESAN takes the approach of self-compassion towards self-improvement and managing emotions. Here he shares some tips from his own experience.

The Fountain Within - An Art Essay

NARENDRA KINI manages to integrate his work as a successful Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur with being an artist, a poet and seeker of higher truth through meditative practices. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Global Touchpoints, and here he talks of how he finds his inspiration for creativity and art.

Raising CONSCIOUSNESS - PART 2

In April 2020, BRUCE LIPTON spoke with UDAY KUMAR about the transition our planet is going through right now, and what we need to do to raise our consciousness to the next level. In part 2, he goes into more detail about epigenetics, consciousness, and how we remain preprogrammed until we evolve our consciousness through meditation. It is our programs more than anything external that hack our attention.