{"id":53681,"date":"2017-11-20T20:47:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-21T04:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/?p=53681"},"modified":"2017-11-22T21:18:43","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T05:18:43","slug":"yoga-meditation-made-better-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pickthebrain.com\/blog\/yoga-meditation-made-better-person\/","title":{"rendered":"How Yoga and Meditation Made Me a Better Person"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When I was young, I was privileged to have been born in a family where money was not an issue yet my father combined his hard work with hard alcohol daily leaving my mom to raise myself and my 3 brothers. My dad’s income presented my mom with a security that she was unable to attain on her own with no college education. She was married at 18 and pregnant with her first that following year. \u00a0My fathers’ growing pay check and increased absence gave her the freedom to hire babysitters, shop, or go on fancy trips. We had many babysitters and family rules were not part of our upbringing.<\/p>\n

As kids, we were pretty much given whatever we wanted whether it be ordering out pizza every night or money to buy material items. \u00a0Living life in this way may have seemed nice to many, but without the stability of 2 parents teaching family values such as love and kindness towards others, my family life often resulted in a chaotic blend of self entitlement, without compassion, love or respect towards<\/a> others.<\/p>\n

When I turned 25, I was in the middle of College with average to low grades and my dad had made a series of poor business decisions which resulted in him filing for bankruptcy. My mother was filing for divorce. Suddenly, I no longer had the financial support that I used freely to get by in life. I’ll give you an example. This was me speaking to my car insurance company:\u00a0 ” Oh, you\u2019re not going to insure me anymore because I skipped a few payments and was living and driving in the States? – Who cares.\u00a0 I’ll find another car insurance company.” So, I did and my dad paid double.<\/p>\n

“Oh, you mean, I can’t come back to school because I missed too many classes and essentially failed out? Whatever…I am going to school in Europe next year.\u201d So off I went.<\/p>\n

By the time I was thirty the family money<\/a> was all dried up with my parents fighting over it in court, and I was left with a very poor set of values and wondered why things just weren’t working for my very entitled self.\u00a0 I no longer had my dad\u2019s money as a crutch. Whatever good things came my way, I realized I would have to work hard for them and learn how to maintain them. \u00a0It was a while before I found yoga and process of meditation<\/a>, and in the interim I would say that my life was a series of lessons learned without any real guidelines to go by. I was frustrated with life’s curve balls and was searching for some form of peace and guidance in my life. Once discovered<\/a>, it would seem that yoga and meditation process was the perfect solution.<\/p>\n

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I think one of the first things I learned was that life is so unpredictable. From Hurricanes<\/a> to Earthquakes and so many other Natural, Social & Personal Events can bring you way up, then way down. Then way up, then way down, just like a seesaw in a playground.\u00a0 Yet with life’s unpredictability, I could always find shelter from ups and downs through mantra meditation. When practicing this meditation<\/a> on a daily basis, I felt safe. I especially felt warmth and love in my heart.<\/p>\n