Kalpana Academics

In our college Heartfulness program was conducted on November 26 to November 28, 2018 through video conference

HEARTFULNESS

Heartfulness is a simple heart-based meditation practice that fosters balance, peace and overall wellbeing. By tuning into the heart, we learn to regulate the mind and cultivate an inner knowing that wisely directs and guides our lives. The introductory practices include a relaxation exercise and a Heartfulness meditation. There are other core elements of the practice which support reaching the profound depths of meditation and achieving inner transformation. The Heartfulness system of Relaxation and Meditation is practiced in about 150 countries by more than a million people. Heartfulness Institute has tens of thousands of volunteers, including thousands of trainers worldwide, who support practitioners through their meditation journey. There are no prerequisites to experience Heartfulness other than willingness, basic mental health and an attitude of openness. Heartfulness offers a scientific approach to the inner journey and is open to anyone from all secular and faith backgrounds.

3-day experiential workshop for Student-teachers, with sessions :

Heartfulness practices and techniques essential for self-management,
Heartfulness heart-centered learning pedagogy,
Inquiry-based learning, and
Essential life skills that enable teachers to create joyful activity-based learning in classrooms.

Objectives:

To learn the four basic Heartfulness practices of:
a) Relaxation,
b) Meditation,
c) Mental Cleaning, and
d) Inner Connect.

Create the environment

Find a place where you won’t be disturbed. Turn off your phones, televisions, radios and any other sources of distraction. If you need to, tell your room-mates or family members that you will not be available for 30 minutes.It is recommended that the Heartfulness practice is followed for at least seven days to feel the effects of meditation in a tangible way.

Relax

Sit comfortably and follow the Heartfulness relaxation. This can be done by people of all ages.The following steps are needed for relaxation:

Sit comfortably and close your eyes, very softly and very gently.
Let’s begin with the toes. Gently wiggle your toes. Now feel them relax.
Relax your ankles and feet. Feel energy move up from the earth… up your feet to your knees, relaxing the legs.
Relax your thighs. The energy moves up your legs, relaxing them. Now, deeply relax your hips,stomach and waist.
Relax your back. From the top to the bottom, the entire back is relaxed.
Relax your chest and shoulders. Feel your shoulders simply melting away.
Relax your upper arms. Relax each muscle in your forearms, your hands, right up to your fingertips.
Relax the neck muscles. Move your awareness up to your face.
Relax the jaw, facial muscles,eyes, forehead, all the way to the top of your head.
Feel that your whole body is completely relaxed. Move your attention to your heart. As you rest there, gently have the idea that the inner calmness is prevailing.
Feel immersed in the love and calmness in your heart. Remain still and quiet, and slowly become absorbed in yourself.
Remain in this deep silence for as long as you want, until you feel ready to come out again.

Meditation

Heartfulness meditation directs our attention from our minds to our hearts – from thinking to feeling. We feel a relief from stress and anxiety as we begin to experience life through our heart’s serenity. As we delve deeper, we develop the intuition and clarity to make more effective decisions in life. Inner clarity and poise increase our capacity for empathy, joy and love. These qualities positively impact our relationships and our way of life.

Discover purity and simplicity, adopt positivity, and let your life be led through your heart.

To this day, more than 2 Million people have tried Heartfulness

Theory of Change

THE NEED

It is a well-known saying that “Our Children are our Future”. These children, under the current system of school education, are largely being nourished by their lecturers.
The result-oriented, examination based education system puts a lot of pressure on students to focus only on academic results, leading to a stressful life.
While students develop well and become subject-matter experts, most of them lack the basic life skills.
There is little time to focus on values and morals.
A slow downfall in the moral standards of today’s youth is quite visible in our current society.

THE IMPACT

– Improved Concentration and Focus in students.
– ‘Centered 1 Students’: where ‘centeredness ’ is defined as a person who is self-confident, emotionally stable and well balanced.
– A life where stress is well managed, leading to a joyful and happy society.
– Students displaying values of compassion and respect for each others.

Initially, the quality of kindness is an occurrence (or state) in our lives – something that happens occasionally depending on certain conditions. With repeated and steady practice, kindness can develop more into an attitude or orientation to life (a trait) – something that characterizes the very way we experience and relate to ourselves and the world around us.

5 tips to help you get started

Intrigued? Let’s get down to it. Here are five tips on how to practice Heartfulness Meditation today:

1. Set aside 20 minutes for your “heart time.” If possible, always meditate at the same time, in the same place, to keep your practice consistent and create a calm space that you can return to each day.

2. Sit comfortably with your hands and legs drawn in and relaxed. No need to hold your hands or limbs in an awkward position—just focus on feeling peaceful and loose. Let your arms rest and land wherever is most comfortable.

3. Take a moment to tune into your heart. Imagine that there is a light filling it and expanding to capture your attention. As you focus on the subtle idea of lightness in your heart, you will begin to feel a vibration and energy descending into you.

4. As your mind wanders, gently return to this focus of light in the heart. Thoughts that arise will naturally fall away and not trouble you after some time of practice.

5. Upon completion of your meditation, take some time to reflect on the practice. Write a short journal entry, even just one sentence on your experience. As you move through your day (and continued practice), you will find yourself returning to your heart.

Mental Cleaning

Another very important element of the practice is the Heartfulness cleaning /rejuvenation technique, which allows us to reset our systems at the end of the day and improves the quality of our morning meditation. Our daily hectic routine and activities give rise to complexities and impurities which impact our heart, mind and eventually ou consciousness. So, it becomes necessary to cleanse these before they become permanently embedded in our consciousness. The aim of this cleaning practice is to establish simplicity and purity inside and feel rejuvenated.We recommend doing the rejuvenation practice in the evening after the day’s work is over.

Start with 20 minutes and gradually extend it up to 30 minutes:

Sit in a comfortable position. Close your eyes and feel relaxed. Make a subtle suggestion that all complexities and impurities are going away. How? Imagine they are going away in the form of smoke or vapor. From where? From the entire back side – imagine from the top of your head to your tailbone.
Slowly accelerate this process of smoke going out from the back side. Be gentle and confident.
Do not dwell on specific events or things you want to get rid of. Simply brush them off. If your attention drifts, and you find yourself involved in other thoughts, gently bring your attention back to the cleaning process. Continue for about 20 minutes.
Towards the end, when you feel lighter and purified from within, incorporate another element: Think that the light from above is descending into your system. It is pervading all throughout your system, from top to toe, and is helping you to remove the complexities and impurities.
End it by making a final suggestion – that all the complexities and impurities are gone and now you feel simple, pure and rejuvenate.

Inner Control

The last basic element of the Heartfulness practice is connecting with the inner self. This inner connection can be established when there is a vacuum created in our heart. This vacuum can be triggered very easily by an intentional linking within, fostering a meditative state throughout the day. From the moment a person is born, the life force continues to drive the life until that moment we call death. It hardly matters what we call that agency that gives us life, as long as we understand that there is a universal source that sustains life and it is inside each of us. The soul, or the life force that animates all things, is not outside ourselves. Prayer is about connecting within, to expand our attunement to the heart. When we address and invoke the power from within, when we are inspired from within, it is the very source inside that guides us all the time. There are two ideal times to create this conscious connection.
The first is just before morning meditation, and the second is at bedtime just before sleeping.

Rest your attention on the heart.
Feel the longing within the heart to be the highest that one can be Call upon this deepest Self for guidance.
Try to go deeper within.

Here are some of the most compelling reasons why you should practice heartfulness meditation.

Outcomes

Helps enhance emotional control: This meditation technique helps in activating the amygdala which is the emotional center of the brain. Hence, it can help you feel calmer, and these benefits are spilled over in our day to day life as well.
Acts as a painkiller: You will be surprised to know that if you practice heartfulness meditation every day, you will experience much less pain. In a study, there were two groups of people where one practiced heartfulness meditation while the other group did not. The one who meditated daily experienced less pain.
Makes you compassionate: One of the most important benefits of heartfulness meditation is that it makes people more sympathetic and virtuous.
Alters Neuro-chemical balance in the brain resulting in more composed and calm emotional state: Meditation is such a fantastic technique that if you can practice it for about 8 months, it will result in a change in the neuro-chemical balance of the brain.
Leads to an improvement of cognition: A study found that if you meditate daily, you will be able to sustain attention and it will invariably result in boosting your cognition. The level of improvement can range somewhere between 15 and 50 percent and the more you meditate, the better the results.
Learn basic Heartfulness practices to manage their own stress and emotions, and improve their quality of life.
As a result, teachers will be more relaxed and centered, and will connect more easily with their students in classrooms.
Teachers are enabled to teach Heartfulness Relaxation to students.
Teachers are enabled to give instructions for Heartfulness Meditation to students 16 years and over.
Teachers learn some basic tips on how to bring to heart-centered pedagogy for the 21 st century into their classrooms, e.g. inquiry-based learning, interactive learning, and facilitated learning.