What is your response?

The Upanishad Era: Here, the Advaita philosophy was more of a hypothesis. It passes its lessons via word of mouth from one generation to the next. The Shankara Era: The 8th century saw Adi Shankara conceptualizing Advaita and establishing Brahman's non-dualism as the ultimate reality. Concepts such as maya and ajnana were introduced to explain better the creation and presence of duality in the universe, one that did not affect the non-dual nature of Brahman. The Post-Shankara Era: This was the most extended period lasting from the 9th to the 16th century. Philosophers such as Madhusudana, Padmapada, Vachaspati, Vimuktatman, Sarvajnatman, and Sureshwara characterized this period. This period marked Advaita's division into three schools: the Virana school founded on the views of Padmapada and Prakashatman, the Vartika school from the beliefs of Sureshwara; These schools refined the philosophy of Advaita by shifting the focus from Brahman to maya. It's our amygdala hijack in action. To understand these triggers, I suggest getting a notepad and drawing three vertical columns. In the first column, list the situations and people that trigger or frustrate you. This may include people who are lazy, stupid, selfish, arrogant, critical, or low performers, or situations where you were not informed about a critical business decision or were micromanaged or controlled by your boss. In the second column, write your stress response and emotional reaction. For example, did you shut down, fight, or run away? Were you angry, frustrated, hurt, or disappointed? In the third column, write a time when this happened in the past, whether in childhood or during your career. This may be when your boss gave you critical feedback and you felt insecure and hurt, like when your mother criticized you about talking too much or doing certain activities the wrong way. Integrate your emotional reactions. Discussion of the ego's regulatory function goes as far back in psychology as the 19th century, but the first major breakthrough in studying self-regulation came in 1972, when Shelley Duval and Bob Wicklund developed self-awareness theory. Self-awareness theory

The theory that aspects of the self--one's attitudes, values, and goals--will be most likely to influence behavior when attention is focused on the self. Duval and Wicklund started with the idea that, at any given moment, your attention is focused either inward on some aspect of self--things you need to get done today, your social life, and so on--or focused outward on some aspect of the environment--a building, a dog catching a Frisbee, a new tune on your iPhone. When attention is focused inward, people bring to mind aspects of themselves--such as attitudes, values, and goals--that connect to the situation they're in. In the voting booth, for instance, self-awareness would bring to mind your attitudes about political issues, but while taking an exam in class, your academic standards and aspirations come to mind. We saw in article 4 how information that is salient significantly influences behavior. Duval and Wicklund make the same point regarding the self. When attention is focused on the self, the self-aspects that come to mind have a stronger influence on behavior. This is because self-awareness makes us mindful of the gap between what we are doing right now and what we aspire to or feel we should be doing. The four principles that propounded in this era include: Dual or two-level reality Non-duality of consciousness The illusion of Jivatva or individuality Ajnana as the collective cause of the world The modern era: Predominant in this period were the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna. The changes these gurus made adapted Advaita to the present world's needs and the day-to-day challenges of life. While Swami Vivekananda reconciled Advaita to modern science by stating that the philosophy of Advaita was not just a belief but the science of consciousness, Sri Ramakrishna popularized sivajnane jiva-seva -- The gospel of service to man being equal to service to God. Advaita Vedanta: The Planes of Existence In classical Advaita Vedanta, there are three planes of existence: Once you build more awareness of your triggers and emotional reactions, the next step is to feel and integrate your emotions to build emotional resilience. Often, the emotions that show up in our life are unresolved issues from the past that will plague us until they are understood, healed, and integrated into our mind and body.

It's similar to uninstalling old software in your computer's hard drive. You need to remove the old software application to upgrade to the new program. Before processing these emotions, I invite you to find a place in your body that feels grounded and strong, or an external place you go that feels safe, happy, and peaceful, like the forest or beach. This is your resource for building emotional capacity. Now, from this place, lean into the discomfort and feel the emotional reaction (anger, jealousy, frustration, disappointment, sadness, etc). The brain will naturally trigger physical sensations in your body (heart rate racing, breath quickening, palms sweating). This fight-flight-or-freeze response is triggered by the amygdala, or emotional brain. As sensations and emotions arise, breathe in and out, deep inside your lower abdomen and be with the discomfort without resisting it. In Freud's terminology, directing attention onto the self activates the superego--the internal judge that compares how you currently are with internalized standards for how you think you should be or want to be. Sometimes, this comparison reveals that we're falling short of our standards. In those cases, people feel bad and are motivated to feel better. One way is to distract yourself from self-focus so that you stop thinking about the discrepancy between how you are and how you want to be. For example, if you found out you bombed on your first social psych test, you might go to a movie or hang out with friends as a distraction from dwelling on your failure. The other, generally more constructive, way is to commit to doing better. In our example, you might commit to studying harder, taking better notes, getting a tutor, and so on. What determines whether you will avoid self-focus or commit to doing better? If you think your chances of successfully reducing the discrepancy are good, or if it's easy enough to change your behavior, you'll take that route. But if you think your chances are slim and the discrepancy can't be reduced with a simple act, you're more likely to take the distraction route or perhaps even give up on the goal entirely (Carver et al. Pratibhasika; Vyavaharika Satta;

Paramarthika Satta; Sanskrit: ? Visistadvaita, Also Known as Qualified Non-Dualism (Sanskrit: ? This advocates Monism. One of the major proponents of this school of thought was Ramanuja, although the movement began with Vaishnava or devotion to Lord Vishnu in South India in the 7th century. The monist movement started in the 10th century with Nathamuni, a brahman or priest of the Srirangam temple in Tamil Nadu. Yamuna succeeded Nathamuni in the 11th century, and Yamuna handed over to Ramanuja (1017- 1137). Ramanuja was a priest at the Varadharaja Perumal temple, Kanchipuram, in Tamil Nadu. Your emotions will run their natural course and integrate into the emotional brain. It's important to stay with the emotion as if you were holding a small infant you love dearly. This is the art of rewiring your negative mindsets and creating more positive states of mind. If the emotion becomes too overwhelming, disconnect from it and return to your resource, or happy place, and attend to the emotion later, when you feel stronger. Seeking guidance from a trained coach or therapist is recommended and important when working with deep-rooted emotional or traumatic experiences. Know that anytime you feel anger or other strong emotions, you can slow down, take a deep breath, step back from the situation, and examine what your emotions or physical sensations may be telling you. With practice, it will get easier, and you will have more emotional resiliency when faced with challenging and uncertain situations. Self-Management Self-management is the ability to use our awareness of emotions to stay flexible and act positively when engaging with another person or situation. When we skillfully manage our emotional reactions, making rushed decisions, compromising our values, or judging others for their behaviors, we cultivate more impulse control. This process is summarized in FIGURE 5. Self-Awareness Theory

According to self-awareness theory, an internal focus of attention leads relevant standards to become salient. People compare their current state to those standards. If they perceive a gap, they feel bad and are motivated to either reduce that gap (eg, by trying harder) or escape self-awareness. The flow chart shows internal and external focus, representing attention leading to relevant attitudes, values, and goals become salient. This leads to compare actual state to standards, which further leads to positive effect, if no discrepancy or discrepancy. This again leads to negative effect if low likelihood of discrepancy reduction or if high likelihood of discrepancy reduction. In case of If low likelihood of discrepancy reduction it is shown leading to Escape self-awareness. In case of If high likelihood of discrepancy reduction it is shown leading to Adjust behavior to reduce discrepancy. He wrote the Sri Bhashya -- a commentary on the Brahma sutras -- among other works and believed that his philosophy was consistent with the Advaita Vedanta only with one minor difference. According to Sri Ramanuja, the only way to become one with the divine is devotion (Bhakti). Man is a spark or ray of the divine, and moksa or release is not dependent on a series of rebirths or reincarnation but on complete devotion to the almighty who mercifully aids the devotee in attaining freedom. In qualified non-dualism, brahman is the ultimate reality that humans strive to become. Just like our souls are one with the body, God is one with the world. This ideology is the reason monism is called Visishtadvaita or Advaita with some uniqueness. These principles are the cornerstones of Visishtadvaita: Hita (Sanskrit ? Tattva (Sanskrit ? This is knowledge of the three primary entities: Ajiva (the non-sentient entity), Jiva (sentient beings or living things), and Isvara (the supreme being, ruler of all manifestations, and the inherent giver of grace and mercy based on karma). This allows us to address the situation objectively and take more personal accountability for our actions and mistakes. Here are three strategies for regulating your emotions.