Seven Poses of Mental Yoga 心灵瑜伽的七个招式

Objectives：Facilitate positive thinking, accomplish emotional shift out of negative energy, improve mental flexibility, balance and strength.

Pose 1: Awareness

• When you encounter negative energy, first calm down and just let yourself become aware of and then face / accept the existence of the negative emotions, such as anger, grievance, disappointment, anxiety, venting, etc. 

• Do not blame yourself (otherwise you are adding more negative energy on top of what you already have).  Accept the existence.

Pose 2: Gratitude

• Think of 5 things to be grateful for in life, the more concrete, the better, e.g. the salad I had for lunch was so delicious, today we had rain after a hot day, this sweatshirt I am wearing is really comfortable, etc. 

• Note everyone’s list is different, try not to compare; If you absolutely need to compare, compare yourself to those in misery.  

Pose 3:  Compassion / empathy

• Try to put yourself in others’ shoes and understand the existence of a circumstance or a person, without emotions or judgement.  

• Note you don’t have to agree to or like the subject, just acknowledge there is a reason for its existence. Find 3 reasons why it exists, e.g. historical reasons, economic pressure, identity crisis, influence from environment, lack of love at childhood, etc.

Pose 4:  Analysis and isolation

• Isolate your emotions from the matter itself, analyze whether it is the fact itself or your emotions that caused most of the pain, ask yourself how much truth you have, and how much imagination is embedded.

• Isolate someone’s approach from his/her intention, if needed.

• Assess if you are able to solve the issue, separate the part you can solve directly, the part you can influence, and the part beyond your capacity;

Pose 5:  Reverse thinking & multi-angle thinking   

• Think of 5 different or even opposite perspectives about the situation you are facing (vs. your original perspectives). 

• Be creative and look at things from different angles, imagine you are in a debate contest and have to switch side now;

Pose 6:  Perspective Thinking  

• Go observe nature, especially those with vast scope, e.g. ocean, starry sky, moon, forest, lake, if not accessible, you can even just go to your backyard or a park nearby.  

• Realize that the troubles you are facing seem much smaller compared to the vast universe and the ever flowing time. 

Pose 7: Introspection and self love

• Look into yourself, and see if there are areas you can improve, e.g. better communication, be more sensitive to other people’s needs, improve independent self esteem, etc. 

• Note even under confrontational situations, this is not showing weakness, on the contrary, this is strength to elevate yourself to be a better being for your own good.  Remember you are doing this for yourself out of self love. 

At this point, hope you have more or less accomplished an emotional shift from negative to positive.  The positive emotions include calmness, objectiveness, self-examination, empathy, analyticity, patience, self-love, gratitude, communicativeness, constructiveness, etc.

With positive thinking empowering you, you often become stronger and are more likely to succeed in future communications and reconciliations with others. Tackle the parts that you can control. If things still do not work out, repeat the process. After all, you are doing things to make your decisions more sensible and less regretful.

心灵瑜伽的七个招式：

目的：促进正面思维，从负能量中走出，提升心灵的柔韧，平衡和力量。

第一式：觉察

当您遇到负面能量时，请先冷静下来，然后让自己意识到并面对和接纳负面情绪的存在，例如愤怒，委屈，失望，焦虑，嫉妒，不安，猜疑，自卑，发泄等。不要怪自己（否则，您会在现有的基础上增加更多的负能量）。觉察并面对这些存在。

第二式：感恩

想想生活中至少5件让你觉得感恩的事情，越具体，越好。比如我午餐吃的沙拉是如此美味，今天我们在炎热的一天之后等来了一场雨，我穿的运动衫非常舒适，等。 注意每个人的单子都是不同的，尽量不要进行比较; 如果您必须要比较，请将自己与处于痛苦中的人进行比较。  

第三式：共情

尝试以第三者的身份理解您所面对的情况或个人的存在，尽量避免情绪或判断。请注意，您不必同意或喜欢该事或人，只需承认其存在是有原因的。找到其存在的至少3个原因，例如历史原因，经济压力，身份危机，环境的影响，童年时代的缺爱，等。有时，您共情的对象可以是您自己。

第四式：分析和隔离

将您的情绪与问题本身隔离，分析造成痛苦的原因是事实本身还是您的情绪，问自己，您拥有多少真相，以及加入了多少想象。有必要的时候，将他人的方法与意图分开。评估您是否能够解决问题，将可以直接解决的部分，您可以影响的部分以及超出您能力的部分分开。

第五式：多角度思维：  

考虑关于您所面对的情况的5种不同甚至相反的观点（与您的原始观点相比），试着发挥创造力，从不同的角度看待事物，想象一下您处在一场辩论比赛中，而现在必须改变立场。

第六式：透视思维： 

走入并体察大自然，尤其是那些广阔的自然环境，例如海洋，星空，月亮，森林，湖泊，如果暂时无法实现，您可以去后院或附近的公园。与广阔的宇宙和不断变化的时间相比，您将会意识到自己面临的麻烦似乎要小得多。 

第七式： 内省和自爱：

观察自己，看看是否有可以改善的地方，例如更好的沟通，对他人的需求更加敏感，提高独立的自尊心等。注意即使是处在争论或对抗的情况下，内省也并不显示出您的弱点，相反，这表明了您的强大，您可以让自己成为更好的人。记住，这是您出于自爱而为自己做的。 

到了这里，希望您或多或少已经完成了从消极向积极的情绪转换。积极的情绪包括镇定，客观，自我检查，同理心，分析，耐心，自我爱心，感激之情，沟通能力，建设性等。

积极的思维会赋予您的心灵以柔韧，平衡和力量，您通常会因此而变得更强大，并且更有可能在未来与他人的沟通和协调中取得成功。记住处理您可以控制和影响的部分。如果仍然无法解决问题，请重复这些过程。毕竟，您正在做的事情，是让您的最终决策变得更加明智而无悔。