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RETREAT WITH UMA KRISHNAMURTHY
YOGA PSYCHOLOGY: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HAPINESS
Time: 10-13 May 2012
Venue: Park Place Pastoral Centre, Fareham, Hampshire
www.parkplacepastoralcentre.co.uk
Cost: £280
Including single room accommodation and vegetarian meals
Who can be called mentally healthy? This is, indeed, an interesting question. The ancient texts of yogic philosophy, such as the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras have addressed it admirably and are loaded with psychological wisdom. Their rich insights can help deepen our understanding of mental health. Embedded in these ancient texts are practical psychological guidelines that can enhance positive mental health and stabilize us in happiness and wisdom. The psychological insights from the great yogis and sages, both ancient and modern, can bring the ancient texts to life and further enrich this process. In this seminar, we will discuss the implementation of these sychological practices in our daily life. We will also compare their rich insights with those of Transpersonal Psychology.
In this seminar, we will focus attention on the psychological skills imparted by yogic masters that can help us in counselling, yogic healing or transformational work on ourselves. To reduce suffering in others, we need to work on ourselves also. The mystic Ramana Maharishi has hinted - when you are free of sorrow, those with whom you interact will also be set free.
Sri Aurobindo said, "All life is yoga". Every event in our daily life is an opportunity for us to evolve and grow. He gained mastery over his mind by the practice of psychological vigilance. Ramana Maharshi overcame the fear of death by enquiry and vigilant observation. If we apply the skills in daily life, our suffering gradually diminishes. The teachings of such mystics who transcended all shades of suffering can help promote our mental health.
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Today, we are in a position to integrate the rich psychological wisdom of both East and West. Psychological suffering is unnecessary, according to the ancient sages and can be overcome by wisdom. The mystics and yogis view suffering as an opportunity to evolve into higher states of consciousness. This is clearly seen in the Bhagavad Gita. Lord Krishna is the divine psychotherapist who skilfully helped Arjuna overcome his acute mental distress by broadening his perception and lifting his mind to loftier heights. His divine presence and yogic wisdom helped Arjuna understand the ingredients of right action and mental equanimity.
Much of our psychological stress arises because our mind lacks direction. Ramana Maharishi has suggested that we reduce the restlessness of our mind by providing it with a goal. We are at times confused and indecisive. This is mainly because our mind is not receiving guidance from our discriminative intelligence. It is perhaps cloudy because of impure motives and excessive emotions. We will discuss the yogic skills and suggestions given in the Bhagavad Gita to purify our motives and deal with emotions that obstruct our judgement and prevent us from effective functioning.
Abraham Maslow, the founder of Transpersonal Psychology, suggested that most of our emotional disorders are due to the contraction of our personality. We are not expressing our human potential enough. He has suggested widening our perception, to include the dimension of the sacred. We will explore the possibility of perceiving the eternal in every temporal event. This quality of perception helps us to live life with dignity and also to express our potential. When we start using our hidden strengths and potential in a constructive manner, our mind gets healed.
Lord Krishna has expressed similar sentiments in the Bhagavad Gita. He urged us to discover and give expression to the unique properties of our soul, that we are destined to fulfil. He warns us not to waste away our life in performing the duties of others' but instead focus attention on our own duty. In that lies our contentment. This is a key contribution of the Bhagavad Gita to healing our emotions and manifesting our potential. Ramana Maharishi has mentioned that the performance of destined duties should not create distress psychologically. However, when we perform actions that are not in accordance to our temperament we tend to suffer. We will try to find out whether we are fulfilling the evolutionary plan of our life or whether we need to study and tap our potential better. If we are experiencing a lack of fulfilment and direction in our life, we need to study our personality at a deeper level - our aspirations, desires, ambitions and so on.
The Bhagavad Gita also offers guidelines on preventing psychological suffering in the future by discussing actions and their consequences in depth. Jiddu Krishnamurti, addressed the very important question - what is right action? When we act from a fragmented state of mind, our actions will inevitably lead to suffering. We will study ways and means of overcoming fragmentation of the mind. Many of us are unable to implement the values and ideals that we deeply cherish into our daily life. This creates inner conflict. We will study the teachings and practices from yogic psychology that can help integrate our personality and reduce such conflicts.
Biography
Dr. Uma Krishnamurthy comes from a well-known Theosophical family in South India and was blessed to have a spiritual training from early childhood. She has also had the opportunity to meet living masters & yogis. She is a psychiatrist by training with many years of experience in the healing of emotions. She is a pioneering researcher in evolving a new paradigm of healing using guidelines from yogic masters, mystics and ancient yogic texts. She has been traveling worldwide for the past 12 years conducting workshops on yoga and positive mental health. She is also an exponent of Indian classical dance and has researched on the mystical symbology of dance. She brings a unique blend of all these disciplines into her presentations on yoga psychology.
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YBT Retreats, Yoga Biomedical Trust
T: 07737- 039 166 or 020-8245 6420 E: enquiries@yogatherapy.org
www.yogatherapy.org
BOOKING FORM
YOGA PSYCHOLOGY AND POSITIVE MENTAL HEALTH
A residential retreat with Dr Uma Krishnamurthy
12-15 May 2011
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