Today from this blog post through, I want to share with you few habits and practices that we monks practice in our daily life. And also I want to share with you few of my personal practices that I do in my daily life and I believe these practices and habits can help you to achieve a more happier and a more fulfilling life. Have you seen people, those who are doing extraordinary things, that average people wonder and think like how on earth that person did that. Some people call it luck. Some people call it they are clever. Some people call that they are very skillful. But I would say the secret behind their achievement is a good set of habits that they have done every single day. They have practiced every single day and those practices and those habits has become a normal part of their life. That is why we have to focus our mind on the habits and the practices that we do in our daily life. Because what we do in our daily life, what we think in our daily life makes who we are, makes our character. So that is why we have to focus on the good habits and remove, try to try as much as possible to remove the toxic habits and replace them with a good one. So I believe these habits, these monk habits and personal habits will help you to achieve a more happier and a more fulfilling life. So without any further ado, let's dive into these habits.
CHAPTER 1: MORNING GRATITUDE PRACTICE
The first practice is the morning gratitude practice. Now this is something that we monks practice every single morning. That is to be simply to be thankful for and grateful for everything and every person in our life. So the first thing that I practice is I become thankful for the Buddha in the first step and also for his teachings, It is called Dhamma and noble community of monks that is called the Sangha. So these are the three jewels in my life. So I become thankful for all those three jewels and also I genuinely become thankful for my teacher who taught me the Buddhist teachings and also I become thankful for my parents and my brother monks and people who offer me foods. Now as monks, we don't earn money, we don't cook. So people have people come to the temple and they offer us food. So when we receive the food, we genuinely become thankful for them. And also I become thankful for all the people who helps me during the day. For an example, there are so many people who are helping me to create these videos. So every single morning I become thankful for them and you can become thankful for them as well. And also you can simply be thankful for everything and every experience and every person in our life. And also remember that you can be thankful for bad people as well. People who gave you tough times. Why should we become thankful for bad people and the rude people who gave us tough times to our life? Because they are the persons, those are the people who gave us ability to practice the patience and the mental strength. Without them, our life would be less interesting. The more you, more we face challenges, the more we face tough times, that is a story, there's a story for us to tell. So we can be simply thankful for them as well for making our life story more interesting. In that way, you can practice this gratitude practice every single morning. When you practice the gratefulness and you simply become thankful for everything and every person in your life, you start to feel the value of your life. Because sometimes we forget that we have a value in our life and think like, oh, my life is miserable. My life is worthless. My life has no value. But if you really think about it, if you really focus about it, our life is more valuable. The first practice is that to practice the morning gratitude.
CHAPTER 2: MORNING MEDITATION
The second practice that I want to share with you today is the morning meditation. Morning meditation is one of the most Important practices that we do in our monks life. Why meditate in the morning especially? Morning is one of the best times to meditate because your mind is so calm and peaceful in that time. And also your surrounding is calm and peaceful at that time. morning meditations give you a refreshed start to your day. So as
Morning meditations, normally we monks practice, first of all, the love and kindness meditation, and some monks practice mindfulness meditation, breathing meditation, a lot of meditations. So it depends on your choice what to practice and what not to practice. So morning meditation is one of the best practices and best things that you can do to start your day with a fresh start.
CHAPTER 3: JOURNALING
The third practice is journaling now this is something that I do every single day to have a good review on the day, What I did during the day and what I forgot to do. And also I take time to write down all the good things and all the good deeds that I did and simply be happy about it. And also finally you can leave some space to write down all the things that you are grateful for in your life.
When you write down all the things that you are grateful in your life and if you do it every single day, it becomes a habit to remember all the good things in your life, all the valuable things in your life, and you will feel much more valuable about your life. So journaling is one of the habits that you can add to your life to make your life more happier and more fulfilling.
CHAPTER 4: MINDFUL EATING
The fourth practice is mindful eating. Now, this is one practice that we monks do almost every single day. Normally as monks we all only have two meals per day and in some monasteries some monks have only one meal per day. So while we are having our meals we become mindful and we focus our mind on the food that we are taking. So the first step is to recall and reflect on the purpose of eating. Now what is the purpose of eating? As a monk we have our food. As a help for our health and as a help for our spiritual journey. So when you recall that, you know that you're having your meals with a purpose. And also, the next step is to be more mindful and focus our mind on eating. You can focus your mind on the texture of the food and the taste of the food and the warmth of the food and simply be aware of it while having the meals.
Now, while you are having these meals, the surrounding and when everyone is having that meal in the same way, the surrounding is very quiet and calm as the monastery's dining hall One thing, one interesting about the monastery's dining hall is the monastery's dining hall is very calm and quiet while the monks are having the meals because they simply become mindful about their food. So mindful eating is one practice that you can do in your life. And if you're having a busy life, if you don't have some time to meditate, a separate time to meditate, you can practice this mindful, mindful eating practice as a meditation.
So this mindful practice is one of the good practices that you can do in your daily life.
CHAPTER 5: PLANNING THE DAY
The fifth and the final practice that I want to share with you today is planning the day. Now, why should we plan the day? Because most of the time we spend our day in autopilot mode, We always think what should we do next? Sometimes we wonder what are we are going to do next and sometimes we do the things that we don't
want to do and we don't give that priority to
the important things in our life and we miss to do all those important things and that is why it is really important to plan your day before you start. So every single day before you're going to bed, you can take a book or whatever that you use to note down, and plan your day and prioritize.
The most important things that you should do and you should focus on during the day and try to do that most important task during the day in the first place. Try as much as possible to do the most important and the most difficult task during the day in the first place. Why should you do this? Because after doing that, you have that mental freedom, Mental clarity to do and focus on other things that values to your life. So every single night before starting every single day, plan your day and start the day. Don't step into the day without planning. Then your day will be planned and you will have a much good time and you can allocate a good time to have a mental freedom and to practice meditations and spirituality. Now, so many people complain about, oh, we don't have time to meditate. We don't have to we don't have time to read a book because we are so busy. No, everyone is not busy because everyone has got 24 hours. We all have got 24 hours. Even busy people, not busy people, organized people, organized people and not organized people, unorganized people, we all have 24 hours. It is all about how we organize our day, how we plan our day. So it is really important to plan your day and work on that plan then you can have more free and a happier day.
CONCLUSION
So these are the few practices that I do personally and we monks do in our monks life that can add to your life. I think some of the things, some of the practices you also currently you're also doing all those things. But if you're not doing this, add them to your life and then you will start to feel that
your life is more lighter, more happier and
more fulfilling. So I wish you all. A healthy and a happier life.
Thank you for reading this article ♥️
HAVE A GREAT DAY TO ALL 🙏 Gyanalokhub
