Most of us live our lives hungry, hungry for love, attention, praise, success. But no matter how much we take in, it's hard to be satisfied and feel full. We may get what we need momentarily, but then before long we're craving more. It is easy to spend each day waiting for tomorrow when we will get what we dream of. Most think that tomorrow they will arrive at their goal, find a new job, have good weather, or finally, magically, meet the love of their life.
But when tomorrow comes it's another day, just like this one. Unless we know what this day is, and how to live it fully and truly, the fulfillment we dream of never comes. In Zen this is called being a hungry ghost- someone at a banquet who eats and eats, but is still unable to taste the food, feel full or be nourished by it.
The good news is that we can learn to eat, digest and be nourished by all that comes to us. Zen practice is about stopping the merry go round of our minds and heart. We take our attention off the prizes we think are waiting for us, off being good enough someday, and realize we're good enough now. At this very moment we are that which we seek so fervently.
How To Take The First Step
Stop For A Moment
Practice is about stopping. We stop our usual way of running, moving, chasing, fixing, thinking, doing and take a breath. Just a simple breath, just like one we take every moment of our lives, but pay no attention to. The first step is to take charge of our focus and pay attention to what's happening right here, under our eyes, to the breath we are taking, this very moment. Without this precious breath and the one that follows it, we would not be anywhere. Strange, isn't it, how we take this breath for granted. What else do we take for granted? It's worthwhile to look and see.
Exercise: Paying Attention
Consider for a moment what you pay attention to all day long. What seems important to you, what do you take for granted and hardly attend to at all? Write it down. Do not judge your answers. Be honest and simple. As you keep track all week long, you'll be amazed at what claims your attention, what you give your life force to.
Most of us spend our lives paying attention to the dreams created by our racing, scheming minds. We allow this Monkey Mind to rule us. The monkey mind is the mind that hops from person to person, job to job, desire to desire, thought to thought. It always wants more, never feels good and doesn't now how to say thank you. It chatters endlessly and is an expert in spoiling, judging and criticizing everything. Sometimes it is very loud in our lives. Other times it settles down.
This monkey mind pursues that which has no value and doesn't know how to find that which it is yearning for. In order to fill our hungry hearts, we must learn how to recognize and dissolve this monkey mind, to take our attention away from it, to turn our focus to what counts.
Exercise: Stop The Monkey Mind
Spend some time getting to know how the Monkey Mind is operating in your life. Much of our misery is caused by our own monkey mind. The first step is becoming aware. We need not hate, reject or try to get rid of it, just to recognize what's going on. This recognition takes its power away. As we learn to make friends with this part of ourselves we help it to settle down and take its proper place. As you pay attention and stay in the present, little by little you will be returning to your original nature.
This is the part of yourself which knows the truth, is kind and filled with clarity and satisfaction. As this part of you grows, everyday life and the struggles it brings, will become transformed. Life will become fresh and new possibilities will then come to you and to those you interact with. Cc/author/2007
Copyright (c) 2007 Dr. Brenda Shoshanna
What we are going to be feeding them is obviously content in our blogs and websites. Search engines love content.
One of the first things we have got to do is to feed them regularly. Like sharks, they love to eat regularly and do not just like to have one meal every month. They like to be fed little bits at a time on a regular basis and thus we have got to be putting content out there on a regular basis.
How often should we be updating content? Ideally we could do it once a day. We could do more than once a day if we have got the time and we are able to do that. Once a week is really not enough especially at the beginning. We have got to be adding content on a regular basis to our blog. That is how we are going to get out there in the search engines.
Progressively people are going to start linking to us and coming back to our blog, and we are going to start to build up this readership and then drive people off to our money sites. It is not going to happen just by putting one piece of content up there every week.
The second thing is to make sure we keep the food fresh. We do not want to be using stale mouldy food. It is the same with content. When we are putting content out there, keep it fresh, keep it new if we can, keep it unique and keep it up to date.
We do not actually force-feed them. Do not keep ramming food like hundreds and hundreds of meals down their throat every day. What this means is when it comes to content there are penalties in the search engines if we put up a lot of content on a daily basis.
The third thing is to make the food tasty. We should make our content tasty and whet their appetite. It is not just the flavour of content, not just the way that it reads. It is got to be something that does not send people to sleep, but it has also got to have certain keywords in it and make certain keyword density in it. Generally when people go online to find something, a lot of people go to a search engine and type what they want into the search engine. If our website has content related to what they have typed in, we are in with a potential chance of turning up in the results of the search engine.
Both Brenda Shoshanna & John Zhang are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Brenda Shoshanna has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Marketing, Depression Cure and Dating and Romance. Discover The 2000 year old Zen secrets for being calm, balanced and positive, no matter what's going on in your life in noted psychologist's eprogram Living By Zen, ?