Haim Factor - BodyMindWisdom

Excel as a Spiritual Tool

14 March 2023 by Haim Factor

One aspect of spirituality is being in touch with oneself and, through this, being in touch with others. And one outcome of being in touch with yourself is a contentment and quiet peace that comes with a sense of security or inner quiet. Some people sometimes call this “grounding”. There are many ways to get grounded. I’ve found that using Excel® is one of them! Read on to learn how to use Excel for grounding.

What do I mean?

This subject may sound technical—but actually it isn’t. If you know what Excel® is please skip the next paragraph.

For those of you not familiar with Excel® it’s software that allows you to arrange information in rows and columns and to perform all sorts of operations, including arithmetical and accounting operations on the information. (Excel® can also be used to organize text or perform complicated calculations in lots of neat ways, but those are other subjects.) Among its many uses, Excel® is used very widely for accounting, budgeting, and general planning—and that’s where I lead into spirituality. (For those of you who want to learn more about Excel®, try looking at http://www.baycongroup.com/el0.htm.)

The day-to-day activities of running a business or even organizing your household can cause quite a bit of stress. Even the most disciplined among us can easily get overwhelmed by the complexity of the number of choices and variables we’re faced with. Frequently, not having even a basic grasp on our finances can yield this distress. Having some sort of plan where we can “see a larger picture” frequently helps.

There are many ways to set up family and business budgets. Clearly, a useful budget or plan can be a very valuable tool. My purpose here is NOT to cover methods of setting up these tools. Suffice it to say that a balance must be struck between investing too much detail and work in setting up the plan, versus quickly slapping together a tool which has little value.

I’ve found that setting up an effective Excel® budget—whether I’m using a simple arrangement or a complex mutli-tabbed/multi-linked spreadsheet—gives me a sense of grounding and control. I’ve felt this happen again and again, in business environments as well as in organizing my own home expenses.

As long as the balance I mentioned above has been struck, Excel can serve as a spiritual tool! I’ve found that it helps me feel grounded in much the same way as I’ve felt using more “conventional” spiritual methods, such as meditation, yoga, and prayer.

Let me know if you agree!

You are welcome to copy, forward, and republish this article, but only in its entirety and unedited, including this information.

5 Steps to Changing to a Career You Love

14 February 2023 by Haim Factor Leave a Comment

5 steps Did you know that you can love what you do? Your job doesn’t have to be something you hate when you’re there and dread when you’re not. In fact, staying in a job or line of work you don’t love can cause excessive stress and anxiety, decreased energy and motivation, and other mental health consequences.

Yes, changing careers often requires time and money, which can be especially challenging when you’re supporting a family. Moreover, you may feel like you need to stick it out to get the most out of the education and/or training you paid for to prepare for your job. But if you don’t see a way that your current job can bring positive fulfillment to your life, it might be worth considering a change.

When you’re passionate about something, you become more motivated to get through awkward beginning phases and other challenges down the road. It also means that you probably know quite a bit about your desired field and may even have a certain level of education required for it. And if not, then the passion will likely enable you to learn fast.

At BodyMindWisdom.com, we strive to help each of our customers live a life of wellness. That’s why we’ve provided five quick tips for improving your well-being by taking the leap into a new career:

1. Form a business
If your dream is to start a business, start preparing now for your business formation. Your business structure will determine many factors, including the taxes you pay and your personal liability. Working with a formation service will make the entire process much less stressful for you, as such a service will take care of all the paperwork and documents necessary in your state.

2. Research
Begin researching what it will take for you to succeed in your desired career and industry. Learn what education, training, and certifications will be needed. Study the most successful companies in the industry and research how they operate. Learn everything you can before diving in.

3. Talk to others
It can also help to bring others in on your plans for a career change. For example, talk with a mentor, or consider hiring a career coach to help you map out a plan for how you can navigate what lies ahead. You could also find people who currently work (or have recently worked) in the field/industry you’re considering. Along with picking their brains on how they got their foot in the door and what education/training they acquired, ask them to describe a typical day in the office.

4. Network a lot
Networking is critical, no matter what kind of career you’re aiming for. Go to as many conferences and meetings as you can, especially ones that are related to your desired industry. This will help you build meaningful connections with potential mentors, bosses, co-workers, and/or business partners. Engage in networking sites like LinkedIn to meet other professionals and build your online presence.

5. Get your feet wet
Finally, don’t assume that you’re going to leave your current job on Friday and start your dream career on Monday. Most of the time, it doesn’t work out quite like that. Even if you’re still working your current job, start getting your feet wet before diving in. Volunteer, take on an internship, work part-time for a business in your desired industry, and/or follow a mentor around on their job. Anything you can do to get a sense of what to expect and how you can improve your knowledge and skills will help you in the long term.

You don’t have to stay in that dreadful job for the rest of your life. If you’re ready to take the plunge into a new, more satisfying career, then start making your preparations today. Along with following the tips listed here, keep researching how you can plan for a smooth transition into a fulfilling career. It probably won’t take long before you realize you made the best move you could have made!

Would you like more helpful advice on how to live your best life? Or are you looking for the highest-quality holistic health products on the market? Check out the BodyMindWisdom products and blog today.

Floor Sitting and Meditation—Practical Points

4 February 2023 by Haim Factor

There are a few styles and methods to meditating. This blog touches on a few practical points regarding floor sitting and how to make your meditation sessions more effective.

Although some people meditate from a conventional sitting position, such as sitting in a chair, the most effective way to meditate is by sitting directly on or near the floor. No matter how you sit, however, you should pad yourself from the earth by placing beneath your feet or your bum some natural fiber, like a wool or silk blanket/rug/large cushion or a piece of cloth placed on your meditation chair, bench, or cushion.

What’s most important when meditating is to sit erectly. Whether you sit on a chair, pillow, or meditation bench, keep your back straight, chest raised, head erect. Your eyes are typically closed, and your hands should be resting with palms upturned in your lap, preferably at the juncture of the thighs and abdomen.

Some people who sit on the floor use the lotus position, with legs crossed in front, whereas other people use the seiza position, where the meditator appears to be sitting on his knees—although in fact most of the body’s weight is supported by the meditator’s “bum” in this position. We discuss a few solutions for both positions below.

Lotus position

Many people use cushions to pad the bum and to have it slightly elevated in relation to the crossed legs.

Some people prefer to sit in the lotus position with back support available. In this case, our Back Jack chair provides both ample “bum” padding with available back support. This chair is lightweight and very comfortable for floor sitting. Whereas most effective meditation is in an erect position, as noted above, Back Jack chairs allow the meditator/floor sitter to rest from time to time with comfortable back support.

Another solution is our Nada Chair, which supports both your lower back excellently and allows erect sitting. Nada Chairs are very lightweight and they allow a comfortable and erect meditation position to be maintained for extended periods.

Seiza position

In this position, the meditator has his legs folded straight back, with his ankles beneath the “bum”. While most people cannot sit in this position comfortably for very long—the addition of some cushions –such as zabutons—changes the picture completely! Usually an ample cushion is placed under the knees, another under the ankles, and a third cushion under the bum—between it and the ankles.

Another solution is our Meditation Bench (also known as a seiza kneeling meditation bench). This bench provides a simple and comfortable way to sit for meditation, allowing you to sit easily with your spine straight, yet relaxed. The bench allows you to use less cushions and more evenly supports your bum, taking all of the weight off your ankles and most of the weight off your knees, for more comfort over a longer meditation period.

Some meditation benches having angled legs and some with rounded legs. In both cases however, correct use of the bench will position your hips leaning slightly forward, comfortably We offer meditation benches with both angled and rounded legs and we have benches with folding legs, allowing the bench to be compactly stored when not in use.

However you meditate, we wish you success!

Back Jack Ideas – versus a seiza Meditation Bench

28 January 2023 by Haim Factor Leave a Comment

Some people want to know how to use their Back Jack—and what is the difference between it and a seiza Mediation Bench.

Back Jack Chairs—ideas for use:

Some ideas/applications for using your Back Jack Chair are:

· Group floor sitting, such as: school/classroom settings, library, religious settings, conferences, other children’s groups, , adult groups such as: retreats, spiritual, and Lamaze.

· Individual floor sitting, such as: meditation, watching TV, recreation room, reading, special /temporary sitting needs (photography, nature, camping, etc)

For more Back Jack info and reference please see: https://www.bodymindwisdom.com/back-jack-chairs/

On the other hand, if you are interested in more formal meditation in the seiza meditating position, take a look at the Pi seiza meditation bench.

Meditation Bench—ideas for use:

· Mediation—individually or in groups; on the road or at home

You can read more about Pi Meditation benches and specifically the seiza position at: https://www.bodymindwisdom.com/meditation-benches/.

A Four Letter Word

8 January 2023 by Haim Factor Leave a Comment

by Haim Factor

A Four Letter Word Quite a few years ago, after I met one of those helpful highway patrolmen on the road one too many times, I received an invitation in the mail to take a refresher, compulsory, driver’s improvement course. Full of disdain, I indicated the date in my day timer (this was well before the days of the smartphone). I shuddered at the thought of how I’d be able to sit through all the sessions…

The day arrived and the course started. I saw other poor souls sitting there—more or less like me. But for me, this experience was quite a shock. It was because I really was a good driver. I just didn’t belong here! What’s more, I hadn’t been to any formal driving instruction since I got my license, when I was 16 years old—many, many years ago.

What a waste of time this was going to be…

The instructor kept talking and talking. “Probably justifying his existence.”, I thought, as I doodled in the little instruction booklet I received. Then the instructor started talking about “safe following distance”. Oh no—not that! Even a freshman engineer in Physics 101 knows about accelerations, velocity, and displacements versus time! And here I was, an experienced senior engineer with a Masters degree, sitting in a Driver’s Improvement class and relearning parts of Physics 101 from the lips of no less than a Driver’s Improvement instructor.

What’s more, I really did understand the importance of keeping a safe distance. Over the years, I learned to instinctively keep a good distance between myself and the car in front of me.

Man—this course was real punishment!

Using all of my restraint and trying not to dwell on my bad fortune, I somehow made it through the lecture, just to the point when the instructor asked: “Are there any questions?” I felt my hand shoot up as my patience must have finally worn thin.

“Look”, I gasped, “I’m very familiar with safe driving distance.” Quickly reconsidering that there was no need to antagonize the instructor (who was hopefully going to give me a passing grade and was going to allow me NOT to repeat this boring course) I decided in mid-sentence to talk about what I felt rather than what I knew. Clearing my throat, I explained “What really makes me mad is that OTHER people are always on my bumper!”

That’s it. I told him how I felt! Relieved by the fact that I could tell the instructor my feelings, I slouched back in my seat and relaxed a bit. I gazed at him. He just stood there and smiled back at me. He calmly said one word:

“Don’t.”

“Excuse me?!” I asked incredulously.

“‘Don’t’, I said.” the instructor repeated.

“Don’t what!” I blurted out, beginning to get exasperated.

“Don’t get mad.” He responded, benignly.

And with that, he turned away from me to continue the lesson. I just sat there for a few seconds as he continued to talk about crosswalks-or-whatever. I tried to understand his response to me.

And then it hit me! He was right. He was VERY right! And I really hadn’t seen it at first. I didn’t have any control over the other drivers—something I knew from my years of driving experience and from a point that the instructor had somehow reinforced in his course.

I did, of course, have control over myself. Pretty simple stuff, no? But I never thought of it in this framework.

Well, some time has passed and, as you can see, I survived that course. I was actually quite happy to have learned about the word “don’t”. You see, I ended up not only being a bit calmer when I’m on the road—but also found myself applying the “don’t” lesson to other parts of my life, even when I wasn’t driving.

We very rarely have any control over others around us. That’s the frustrating and beautiful part of organizations and of our society. However, we should have control of ourselves. We should—that is, if we have our act together. I don’t mean “control” in terms of self-denial or any of a list of negative things some people do or try to do to themselves. What I mean is that all of us usually have a clear choice whether to get angry or “take something to heart”—or to let the matter pass us by. Almost every day, and throughout each day, we find ourselves confronted with actions by others—and many of those actions aren’t even too significant.

It’s our choice how we react.

Read it again. It’s our choice—not theirs. We can choose to be kind to ourselves. Or we can choose to punish ourselves for what we feel other people have (or haven’t) done to us.

Nowadays, that “other driver” who is driving too closely to me may be surprised when I slow down and just let him pass me. He probably doesn’t even know that it really wasn’t my intention to just give him a head start of at least a few milliseconds.

I actually let him pass me because I was simply being kind to myself.

I deserve it—-don’t you?

You are welcome to copy, forward, and republish this article, but only in its entirety and unedited, including this information.