Hi there,

Hopefully, if you're visiting this page, you've already heard my very first audio message! (If not, it's at Asoka's Audio Postcard

I'd love your feedback… on the audio, on what you'd like to hear about in the ezine, on anything you feel like saying that can help me make my messages better for you. Either way, it was nice to get in touch with you via audio and add a more "human touch" to our relationship!

Best Wishes,

Asoka

Article by Stuart Goldsmith

Despite what those slick-suited seminar-gurus tell you, every
decision you take in life has a shadow partner – the life you
cannot now lead because you took that decision.

A few simple examples will prove the point.

You take a career decision to become a surgeon; but doing this
precludes you from being a lawyer.

As a woman you decide to marry and have a family. The
consequence is that your career is on hold for a minimum of five
years and more like fifteen or twenty.

You decide to go to the cinema; you cannot also spend the evening
in a fine restaurant.




You decide to give up drinking; you cannot now go boozing with
your pals.

You decide to start thinking for yourself; you lose most of your
'friends.'

Every decision you take has consequences.

Every decision, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, sets
your life on a slightly different course. This is why, as Jim
Rohn says, "Everything matters."

Even inaction has its consequences.

If you decide just to float down life's stream, and the current
sweeps you randomly into the left tributary, you cannot also
enjoy the right tributary. If you sleep all day, you cannot also
play your favorite sport on that day.

This tiny handful of examples should prove to you immediately
that you cannot have it all. It is so obvious that it is hardly
worth saying, and yet there are at least two top seminar gurus on
the circuit at the moment who are claiming that you can. In fact,
I'm fairly certain that I have seen a book and a tape series
entitled "You CAN have it all."

Wrong! But far more importantly, every decision you take to
improve your life, no matter how trivial, will have an associated
cost – a price that you will have to pay in order to achieve that
success.

The price usually involves the sacrifice of one aspect of your
life, in order to achieve more in your main area of endeavor.

Here's a simple example. You're a single guy, and you decide to
spend every evening for the next three months decorating and
improving your house from top to bottom in order that you might
sell it for the best price. This will allow you to realize your
goal of moving up the housing market. You really want a detached
house and have a burning desire to move out of the
poverty-stricken terraced-house neighborhood in which you live.

Great goal! But the principle is that you can't have it all, so
what is the price that you will pay for choosing this route?

Answer: It will kill your social life for the next three months.
No drinking, no clubbing, no frittering away your time with the
mates. Who knows, you might have met your future wife at one of
those missed evenings at the club, but instead you were home,
working. The pathways of your life divide. You follow one which
leads to a brighter, better tomorrow – according to your best
judgment, of course. The other diverges sharply, blinks and
shimmers uncertainly before fading out to join the countless
millions of other 'might have beens.' You never meet that woman,
you never marry and have children with her.

Another example: Charles sets himself the goal of becoming super
successful; really mega-rich. This man wants £100 million, he
wants it badly and he's going to get it. Now that's a lot of
money and far more than I will see in my lifetime, and I've seen
plenty! Now ask yourself seriously, can this man have it all?

Can he work the demanding 12 hour days, 350 days each year
which are required to achieve this level of success and be a
perfect father who never misses his son's football matches or his
daughter's clarinet concert? Can he be a perfect husband who is
always home from the office by 5:30 to peck his wife on the
cheek; who's never late for a dinner party with friends? Can he
shoot for super success and also be a competent odd-job man who
spends weekends and evenings tinkering with the plumbing, or
installing new work-surfaces, pipe clenched firmly between teeth?

Let's go further. Can he try for mega-wealth, and also be a 'good
old mate' to a bunch of lads down at the local? Can he play for
the
darts' team Tuesdays and Thursdays? Can he say "yes" to a ten day
skiing holiday with his friends? Is he likely to be an active
member of
his local choir or amateur dramatics group? The answer is no.

Shooting for this level of wealth requires laser-beam focus.
There will
be late night and breakfast meetings; urgent problems to sort out
requiring him to jump on a plane at a moment's notice;
international
midnight telephone calls – you name it.

Let us probe deeper. Will others consider him to be a reliable
friend? In other words, are people likely to say of him "Good old
Charlie, he's a real pal. You've only got to pick up the phone
any
hour of the day or night and he's there for you."?

I don't think so, do you?

Charles is on a fast track to super-success; this track is not
open to any old mooch or bum, it requires extraordinary
discipline and effort. It requires 100% commitment; and total
dedication to the task in hand. This level of success commands a
high price, not surprisingly, otherwise every half-witted,
unfocused fool in the country would be doing it.

Whilst we are on the subject, let us ask: "Will Charles have
many, or indeed any, friends?"

Friendship has a high time-overhead, in case you haven't noticed.
You have to call each friend at least once a week and meet them
at least once a fortnight, otherwise they fairly rapidly drop out
of your circle of mates. With only a dozen chums, you will find
that most evenings and weekends, indeed almost every spare moment
you have, will be consumed in meeting friends for a drink,
chatting on the telephone to catch up with all the gossip, coffee
mornings, driving endlessly to and fro from their tiresome
houses, dandling their squawking brats on your knee and going
"coochy-coo," letter writing, e-mails and returning mutual
favors.

Your life is thus reduced to working, sleeping, and entertainment
(socializing). It would not be overstating the case to say that
this describes most people's lives. There is nothing wrong with
that, if the major life-goal you have set yourself is 'to be a
good friend to as many people as humanly possible.' But can you
do this and be a super success? Can Charles shoot for his hundred
million, and be the person I just described? Can Charles have it
all?

The answer is tritely obvious. No he cannot. If he is to achieve
his dream, he must pay the price – and the price is a big one.

Copyright Stuart Goldsmith. All Rights Reserved.

—————————————————————-
Article excerpted from Stuart Goldsmith's latest book, "7 Secrets
Of The Millionaires". Stuart is a British multi-millionaire
author and lecturer. He created a $16 million fortune starting
from a position of heavy debt, and has taught thousands of others
how to get wealthy. Discover how his breakthrough power
strategies can help YOU achieve your specific goals/dreams….

7 Secrets Of The Millionaires
—————————————————————-

Life is absolutely dependent upon the act of breathing. "Breath is
Life."

Differ as they may upon details of theory and terminology, the
Oriental and the Occidental agree upon these fundamental principles.

To breathe is to live, and without breath there is no life. Not only
are the higher animals dependent upon breath for life and health, but
even the lower forms of animal life must breathe to live, and plant
life is likewise dependent upon the air for continued existence.

The infant draws in a long, deep breath, retains it for a moment to
extract from it its life-giving properties, and then exhales it in a
long wail, and lo! its life upon earth has begun. The old man gives a
faint gasp, ceases to breathe, and life is over. From the first faint
breath of the infant to the last gasp of the dying man, it is one long
story of continued breathing. Life is but a series of breaths.

Breathing may be considered the most important of all of the functions
of the body, for, indeed, all the other functions depend upon it. Man may
exist some time without eating; a shorter time without drinking; but
without breathing his existence may be measured by a few minutes.

And not only is Man dependent upon Breath for life, but he is largely
dependent upon correct habits of breathing for continued vitality and
freedom from disease. An intelligent control of our breathing power
will lengthen our days upon earth by giving us increased vitality and
powers of resistance, and, on the other hand, unintelligent and
careless breathing will tend to shorten our days, by decreasing our
vitality and laying us open to disease.

Man in his normal state had no need of instruction in breathing. Like
the lower animal and the child, he breathed naturally and properly, as
nature intended him to do, but civilization has changed him in this
and other respects. He has contracted improper methods and attitudes
of walking, standing and sitting, which have robbed him of his
birthright of natural and correct breathing. He has paid a high price
for civilization. The savage, to-day, breathes naturally, unless he
has been contaminated by the habits of civilized man.

The percentage of civilized men who breathe correctly is quite small,
and the result is shown in contracted chests and stooping shoulders,
and the terrible increase in diseases of the respiratory organs,
including that dread monster, Consumption, "the white scourge."
Eminent authorities have stated that one generation of correct
breathers would regenerate the race, and disease would be so rare as
to be looked upon as a curiosity. Whether looked at from the
standpoint of the Oriental or Occidental, the connection between
correct breathing and health is readily seen and explained.

The Occidental teachings show that the physical health depends very
materially upon correct breathing. The Oriental teachers not only
admit that their Occidental brothers are right, but say that in
addition to the physical benefit derived from correct habits of
breathing, Man's mental power, happiness, self-control,
clear-sightedness, morals, and even his spiritual growth may be
increased by an understanding of the "Science of Breath." Whole
schools of Oriental Philosophy have been founded upon this science,
and this knowledge when grasped by the Western races, and by them
put to the practical use which is their strong point, will work wonders
among them. The theory of the East, wedded to the practice of the
West, will produce worthy offspring.

This work will take up the Yogi "Science of Breath," which includes
not only all that is known to the Western physiologist and hygienist,
but the occult side of the subject as well. It not only points out the
way to physical health along the lines of what Western scientists have
termed "deep breathing," etc., but also goes into the less known
phases of the subject, and shows how the Hindu Yogi controls his body,
increasing his mental capacity, and develops the spiritual side of his
nature by the "Science of Breath."

The Yogi practices exercises by which he attains control of his body,
and is enabled to send to any organ or part an increased flow of vital
force or "prana," thereby strengthening and invigorating the part or
organ. He knows all that his Western scientific brother knows about
the physiological effect of correct breathing, but he also knows that
the air contains more than oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen, and that
something more is accomplished than the mere oxygenating of the blood.
He knows something about "prana," of which his Western brother is
ignorant, and he is fully aware of the nature and manner of handling that
great principle of energy, and is fully informed as to its effect upon the
human body and mind. He knows that by rhythmical breathing one may
bring himself into harmonious vibration with nature, and aid in the
unfoldment of his latent powers. He knows that by controlled breathing
he may not only cure disease in himself and others, but also practically
do away with fear and worry and the baser emotions.

To teach these things is the object of this work. We will give in a
few chapters concise explanations and instructions, which might be
extended into volumes. We hope to awaken the minds of the Western
world to the value of the Yogi "Science of Breath."

Taken From "The Hindu-Yogi Science Of Breath" by Yogi Ramacharaka

For more articles on Yoga, visit 1-Yoga.Net