When I was in kindergarten my dad would say something to me every night before I went to bed. The phrase was “everyday in every way you are getting better and better”. It wasn’t until recently that I learn where that phrase originated. It came from a French physician’s, named Emile Coue’, work with his patients in the mid-1800s. He worked with his patients to build their self-esteem. He is recognized as being the father of applied conditioning.
As a boy, I thought it was a little weird for my dad to say that to me. Sometimes I feel a little subconscious saying it about myself. As I grew I learned that it was okay to feel good about myself. Throughout my life I’ve told people about my dad saying that to me, and that I’ve said it myself over the years. Some of the people that I’ve told thought I was a little corny. At the same time they also said that it is  pretty cool that my dad was saying that when I was a kid. I guess if my dad was going  to say anything to me I’m really thankful that it was something so positive and inspirational. I thought it was such a great idea I started saying it to my kids when they were old enough. I’m not as consistent as my dad was with saying it every night but both of my kids know the saying and we say it together frequently.

Have you ever wanted to change something about yourself and didn’t know how? We all have areas of our lives that we want to improve on but sometimes get so wrapped up in the issue that we get stuck and can’t move forward. Well, I found something that seems to work pretty well for me. Emotionally change your response to the situation. Basically, change a negative to a positive. A lot of people get stuck on the negative side of things. For example, I don’t have enough money, I’m not very good at that, I can’t find the right girl/ guy, I never get what I want, I’m always tired. The idea is to change the situation by changing your response. I heard once that if you think you can’t do something then you are right you can’t. We get so stuck in our heads about what we can’t do and don’t have that we read more here>>

This is the first Volume of a two volume publication. This is a compilation of the 110 lectures that Swami Krishnananda delivered from March to August in 1976 on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are a manual on mind control, meditation and mental discipline—a manual for spiritual freedom. Crisp and pithy in rendition, the sutras have an aphoristic quality and urge deeper reflection and dedicated application. Across various philosophies the denotation of yoga varies. Patanjali uses the term ‘yoga’ to denote a complete cessation of mental modifications so that consciousness rests within itself in the state of moksha or liberation. This teaching has been delivered through emphasis on practice rather than mere philosophy. This is verily a manual for us to operate the mind and thus our life.

I was wrong! When I first read the title of this chapter I thought it would be very out dated with an early 1900′s ideology, guess again. Some of Emile Coue’s ideas about education and raising children can be used today. My favorite quote is “In dealing with children, always be even-tempered and speak in a gentle but firm tone. In this way they will become obedient without ever having the slightest desire to resist authority.” I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did. EDUCATION AS IT OUGHT TO BE It may seem paradoxical but, nevertheless, the Education of a child ought to begin before its birth. In sober truth, if a woman, a few weeks after conception, makes a mental picture of the sex of the child she is going to bring forth into the world, of the physical and moral qualities with which she desires to see it endowed and read more here>>

Emile Coue’s Thoughts and Precepts still rings true today 100 years later. I hope you enjoy this excerpt and are inspired by just one of his insights.