Here is Deepak’s interview with Green Living editor-in-chief, Tishin Donkersley

Green Living: What are the most common thoughts that block one’s inner peace?

Deepak: Regrets, grievances, and resentments from the past and anxieties about the future.

Green Living: How can we use our emotions to our advantage?

Deepak: Emotions such as loving kindness, joy at the success of others, compassion, and equanimity take us out of the ego self into our transpersonal self. They are emotions that bring about physical healing as well and increase our connection with the world.

Green Living: How has the electronic world contributed to inner disconnect?

Deepak: The electronic world is neutral and has not contributed to inner disconnect. People use the electronic world from the state of consciousness they are in. Those who want to connect, heal the planet, and foster relationships are using the electronic world to do just that.

Green Living: In a world where many focus on materialistic things to make them happy, how can one begin to turn away from the external and focus on internal happiness?

Deepak: If you realize that happiness comes from finding opportunities where others find problems and from finding creativity and meaning in your own life – and from making other people happy, you will discover the source of true happiness. Material things will make you happy but only transiently.

Green Living: How can one begin to learn to adapt to new circumstances and find happiness?

Deepak: It takes patience and perseverance. Focus on being in the present moment. Be open and receptive and have the intention to connect and you will be happy.

Green Living: As many people today are dealing with negative effects of the economic downturn, (job loss, homelessness . . . ), how do you recommend they remain positive?

Deepak: In every crisis there is the seed of a greater opportunity. Identify all the problems you are facing and ask yourself what is the opportunity here. Live those questions and life will move you into the answers.

Green Living: Is world peace attainable?

Deepak: I don’t know but it’s worth striving for.

Green Living: How did you formulate the Seven Practices for Peace?

Deepak: I tried them out myself and they work. Some of them are drawn from Buddhist practices.

Green Living: Where is your favorite place to meditate?

Deepak: I can meditate anyplace, anytime.

Green Living: Do you have a favorite mantra? If so, what is it?

Deepak: Yes I do, but I’m not telling.

Read Deepak’s article about Perfect Health here.

• Stress relief. As scientific studies have found, yoga lowers heart rates, reduces blood pressure, and decreases the production of stress hormones such as cortisol. High levels of cortisol are linked to depression, osteoporosis, and abdominal weight gain.
• Greater immune function. Yoga’s postures improve the flow of the lymphatic system, responsible for fighting infection and releasing toxins from the body.
• Flexibility and balance. Yoga helps release tight muscles and increase range of motion. Even those who claim to be “genetically inflexible” are surprised to find how much more limber they can become through a regular yoga practice. Yoga also deepens your awareness of your body, allowing you to improve your balance and posture.
• Strength. Yoga is a powerful strength-building exercise for every part of the body, including the muscles of your core, back, legs, chest, and arms. This helps prevent problems such as back pain and arthritis. As you strengthen your body, you also build your inner strength, discipline, and self-confidence.
• Improved mood. Yoga balances the central nervous system and endocrine system and stimulates the release of endorphins – natural mood-elevating neurochemicals. As you practice, your mind relaxes and you’re able to stop dwelling on stressful thoughts and situations.

Even if yoga only enhanced physical fitness, the time spent in practice would be fully justified. However, yoga offers much more than just a way to exercise the body: Yoga helps us cultivate an inner state of body-centered consciousness that allows us to walk calmly amongst the chaos. Yoga teaches us both to let go and to have exquisite awareness in every moment.

According to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, “Yoga is the settling of the mind into silence. When the mind has settled, we are established in our essential nature, which is unbounded consciousness.” The essence of yoga is the union or integration of all the layers of life – physical, emotional, and spiritual. It is a practice for going beyond the ego’s habitual identification with the mind and body and directly experiencing our true spiritual self. Rooted in this connection to spirit, we are able to solve the challenges that arise in life. Click here to learn a heart-opening series of yoga poses.

Thinking about becoming a yoga instructor?

Learn more about becoming a certified Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga instructor through Chopra Center University.

Welcome all Primordial Sound Meditation teachers in training!

This week the Chopra Center’s instructor certification program is unfolding in the sweet spot of the universe – La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. Led by davidji and the Center’s other master educators, the Primordial Sound Meditation instructor certification course gives participants extensive training in public speaking, presentation skills, and the incredible body of knowledge that fuses the Eastern healing arts with the best in modern medicine.

Each year Chopra Center University teaches a select group of applicants and certifies them as instructors of yoga, meditation, and ayurveda. Certified instructors gain the expertise, experience, and qualifications to successfully teach courses in mind-body health and spiritual growth.

Learn how you can become a certified instructor. Email Chopra Center University at learn@chopra.com or call 888.424.6772 x1639.

I am seeking vibrant health.

The Perfect Health Panchakarma Program: Our signature six-day healing program where you will experience Panchakarma detoxification therapy, daily ayurvedic massage treatments, a mind-body medical consultation, and instruction in the healing practices of meditation, yoga and Ayurveda.

Journey Into Healing: A mind-body workshop that interweaves the most recent discoveries of modern Western medicine with with the healing arts of the East. An opportunity to learn with some of the world’s most renowned pioneers in integrative medicine.

I want to discover emotional wellbeing.

Free to Love: A three-day life transforming emotional healing workshop featuring Dr. David Simon.

Free to Heal: A six day emotional release process that also includes ayurvedic healing therapies to nourish your body and soul.

I want to connect with my spiritual nature.

SynchroDestiny: A self-empowerment workshop that teaches you how to harness the power of intention, coincidence, and attention to fulfil your greatest dreams and desires.

Seduction of Spirit: Out classic six-day meditation retreat – a celebration of Primordial Sound Meditation and Ayurveda.

A Weekend Within: A introductory workshop that teaches you the fundamentals of meditation and Ayurveda. Featuring Deepak Chopra, M.D., David Simon, M.D., and davidji.

I want to teach.

We offer teacher certification in the following three areas:

Yoga Teacher Training
Primordial Sound Meditation Teacher Training
Perfect Health: Ayurvedic Lifestyle Teacher Training

Not sure which program is right for you? Talk with a program consultant at 888.736.6895 or send us your questions here.

The Chopra Center for Wellbeing is here to show you that you can.

Join us this Wednesday, March 10 at 2 p.m. for a powerful teleseminar led by Chopra Center co-founder and medical director, David Simon – and dean of Chopra Center University, davidji.

Register today to reserve your place in this special teleseminar.

The Manifest Teleseminar offers a live discussion of practical tools and techniques, timeless wisdom, and insight that will help you manifest what you most want in your life.

Join us and learn how to manifest your deepest dreams and desires!

Check out our new section on the blog dedicated to all those on the teachers path to be apart of Chopra Center University!

This is a place for participants on the teacher’s path to hold discussions, share tips, and ask questions.

Click here to access the blog page!

For more information on Chopra Center University or to become a certified teacher, please click here. Or please call 888.736.6895 and speak to a Program Consultant today!

Change the world! Become a teacher!

They received intensive training in public speaking, presentation skills, and the timeless practice of Primordial Sound Meditation. Each participant learned the history of meditation, mantra techniques, personal instruction techniques, meditation’s healing benefits, and facilitating group meditations. They are now experts in teaching others this powerful tool for balance, natural stress relief, and expanded states of consciousness.

The Chopra Center University is an internationally recognized institution that has certified more than 1,200 teachers throughout the world to teach yoga, ayurveda, and meditation. Certified instructors currently teach on every continent on the planet. World-renowned for its teacher training programs, Chopra Center University gives instructors the expertise and qualifies them to successfully set up, market, and independently teach courses in mind-body health and spiritual growth.

The Chopra Center’s New Meditation Instructors

Mark Bannon, Connecticut
Pat Boulet, Canada
Laurin Kyle Boyle, Canada
Jean Brown, Canada
Susan Chapman, California
Nancy Clark, Florida
Andrea Dennis, Illinois
Patty Eppley, Pennsylvania
Susan Fishman, Arizona
Michelle Fondin, Virginia
Marie Helene, Fortin California
Stephanie Frantz, Illinois
Katherine Fredricks, New York
Fabrizio Furlanis, California
Patty Gaitan, Guatemala
Steve Guarino, Illinois
Alan Hark, Pennsylvania
Julian Hubbard, California
Mike Imperato, New York
Ursula Jabri, California
Chiharu Kimura, Japan
Stephanie Konecoff, California
Rindy Leeds, Colorado
Charlotte Lenssen, Colorado
Paula Mayer, Colorado
Siobhan McKenna, Ireland
Isabelle Moreau, Canada
Tiffany Murray, California
Dara Noyes Gall, Massachusetts
Donna Nulton, California
Karen Rzepecki, Pennsylvania
Kole Schreiber, California
Valerie Scruggs, New York
Chandra Shah, Colorado
Shelyn Somani, Canada
Livia Stabile, Florida/Brazil
Donna Teodorov, Canada
Nicole Walleen, Canada
Leilani Ware, Michigan
Deanna Zimmermann, California
Lorin Zvilna, Canada

*Congratulations!*

To find a certified Chopra Center Teacher in your area, please click here.

For more information on becoming a certified instructor, email the Chopra Center University at learn@chopra.com or call 888.424.6772 x1639.

To read and post comments, click here!

Chopra Center University spends extra time with each student to move them past their fear of presenting in front of others – and the transformation is powerful. By Wednesday the comfort level is extremely high. Since all teachers in training are also students of meditation, they have been diligently meditating twice a day,  which is making them more intuitive, sharp, and focused in each session.

This November class has drawn participants from Asia, Europe, South America, Canada, and the U.S. There are 15 different countries are represented, a great blend of men and women, and a wide range of ages.  The group contains mothers, fathers, a few doctors, lawyers, ceos,  entrepreneurs, therapists, and people from many other walks of life, bringing together an abundance of personal and professional experience.

After spending seven days with us in the sweet spot of the universe, they will take the final test (and hopefully graduate), and then scatter like seeds throughout the world sharing stillness and silence. Imagine the world  just one week from now – less stress, less anxiety, better sleep, heightened immune systems, more creativity, more intuition, easier communication, more sharing, heightened awareness, deeper discovery. And most of all . . . 45 magnificent beams of light gracing their own communities, their own worlds, with love, expansion, and deeper connection. Truly beautiful.

We are blessed that people around the world who would never have considered themselves teachers, today feel inspired to take these teachings into their families, their workplace, and their daily lives . . . harnessing the power of intention and consciousness to transform the world.

Peace. -davidji

To read and post comments, click here!

Welcome all Primordial Sound Meditation teachers in training!

This week the Chopra Center’s instructor certification program is unfolding in the sweet spot of the universe – La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, California. Led by davidji and the Center’s other master educators, the Primordial Sound Meditation instructor certification course gives participants extensive training in public speaking, presentation skills, and the incredible body of knowledge that fuses the Eastern healing arts with the best in modern medicine.

Each year Chopra Center University teaches a select group of applicants and certifies them as instructors of yoga, meditation, and ayurveda. Certified instructors gain the expertise, experience, and qualifications to successfully teach courses in mind-body health and spiritual growth.

Learn how you can become a certified instructor. Email Chopra Center University at learn@chopra.com or call 888.424.6772 x1639.

To read and post comments, click here!

Chopra Center University is proud to announce our newest yoga graduates! Chopra Center co-founders, Drs. Deepak Chopra and David Simon have designed a daily yoga practice to help you unite body, mind, and spirit, bringing you into alignment with the magnificent rhythms of the cosmos.

The Seven Spiritual Laws of Yoga infuses your practice with spirit while bringing the seven laws into action each day. Every class plays a crucial role in yoga’s path to enlightenment while providing you with a wealth of meditation techniques, mantras, breathing exercises, and yoga poses.

To learn more about Chopra Center University, please click here.

To read and post comments, click here!