Mindfulness and Self Counseling

In this blog, I would like to share my thoughts on self awareness and self counseling.

Human beings are generally in a state of volatile thoughts. What I mean by volatile thoughts is being in a state of constantly changing the direction of thoughts. This state often causes distress, confusion and unhappiness within a preoccupied mind.

We need to adapt the concept of clearing unwanted thoughts from our thinking baskets. In short, we should learn to detoxify our mind. This will make space for more fruitful, internal discussions and decisions…. Internal discussion are to be held between you and yourself, me and myself. A dialogue with yourself is most important. A daily positive dialogue with self is a powerful therapy to achieve a stable and happy state of mind and moreover is helpful in turning situations favourably.

More importantly, this dialogue is a must when you find yourself in a confused, heartbroken state or a state where you find yourself stuck or strangled or let down by internal or external forces.

I believe that I am my best friend. I am the one who can help myself out of any challenges. All help is available within me. It’s just the matter of opening your inner self to your subtle self what we may, in lay man words call it as, your second mind.

While having a self talk, address yourself the way you want to be addressed. Take your name and tell yourself that you are awesome. Boost up yourself with positive words and awaken your potential from within. Your self will believe you because you are the only resource of positive energy.

Be conscious, be aware, practice mindfulness and keep talking to yourself and stay connected to your innerbeing….

Stay happy until we meet here again ❤️❤️

Musical Tranquility

“Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” — Khalil Gibran

We all listen to music of our choices. Most of us sing or simply hum casually while doing our daily chores. I had been doing so for many years and enjoyed a lot. like many of you, music was always my passion. Most importantly Indian music could and can still immerse me in a completely different charisma. Marathi hindi film songs and various music albums were adding pleasure into my life. Along with my professonal and familial life, I always wanted to explore my Me-Time. Believe me, Music became the driving force to lead me to the zone and tranquility that I searched always. I found myself transcended and flowing with the eternal spiritual stream of absolute peace of mind and soul.
But let me tell you, all these years, I was ignorant of the ethics of music. Coincidentally, I was newly introduced to MUSIC when I began my musical journey with Kalanjali Music Academy on 5th March 2021. First time, I got exposed to the real ‘shuddha’ Soor, Taal, Rhythms, lyrics, its relevance to life and devotional sense of music that touched my heart. In the light of My Guru, Dr. Satyajit Kosambi, I’m taking tiny steps towards my musical enlightenment. The journey is of miles and miles together. Standing on the 1st step, trying to settle and move on. I know, the journey of thousand miles, begins with a single step. Its my voyage. 
So dear friends, I would love to share my little understanding of music that I learnt in past 4 months. 
We generally believe that we listen to music with our ears… However, my belief has changed now. I have understood the most important concept of music which takes you to a real musical world, a world of Musical Tranquility. 
We do not listen to music with our ears; we listen to music through the ears. Ears are the entrance from where it passes into our body. We see music through our eyes, breathe it through our lungs, feel it through our heart, sense it through our beats and live it through millions of cells in our body.
Therefore, Listening to music is a process, a recipe, a worship, which can take one’s soul to a different level of serene bliss and a thoughtless awareness.

After all, Life is Harmony, Harmony is music and so Life is music or now you can say music is life. So Have a musical life until we meet again here…

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ऐ जिंदगी…

ऐ जिंदगी रहम कर इस दिल पर
थोडा संभलकर जीने दे
कांटे इतने बीछाए राहों में
अब थोडे फूल भी बीछादे

रुलाती आयी है तू हमेशा
अब थोडा हंसा भी दे
इश्क करना सीखाया तूने
हमसे थोडा इश्क तू भी करले

डर लगता हैं मुस्कुरानेसे
कही गम ना राह में आए
यू तो आदतसी है गमोंसे उलझने की
बस मन बैठा है सुखकी आस लगाएं

The Hidden Emotion

I knew not, I knew never
How it feels to bury a loved one forever.

I wish that you could have never gone
Or risen from the ashes to be reborn

It’s like the wind has been calling out
It could hear my heart shout

The waves came to receive you
Only to return back from the shore

Nature gathered to embrace you
Which was much more powerful
Than the whims of my emotions

And you went never to return back….

What Is an Effective and Impressive Communication?

In my earlier blog, (https://inspiredliving2020.in/2020/08/16/communication/), I had written about the various common types of Communication methods. We use these methods at different times while interacting with people. At every instance, we want people to understand exactly what we are intending to communicate. Hence, it is very important that the content that we present in any form is clear to the audience.

Communication is a 2 way process. It begins with the person who wants to communicate and ends with the person or a group of people to whom it is addressed to. If the communication is not articulated well enough for the audience to understand, it will not be effective for accomplishing the task.

Gaps in Communication

Let us take a certain Project discussion as an example to understand the flaws in the information flow.

Scenario A: The Project Leader calls his team for a quick meeting. Once the entire team has assembled in the meeting room, he announces, “I have a good news for you all. The Senior Management has entrusted the responsibility of developing an application to enhance the service provided to our Customers. I invite thoughts from all of you on the subject. We will meet again in a few days. Keep your thoughts ready.” With this the he closes the meeting and everyone returns to their desks.

Scenario B: The Project Leader calls his team for a quick meeting. Once the entire team has assembled in the meeting room, he announces, “I have a good news for you all. The Senior Management has entrusted the responsibility of developing an application to enhance the service provided to our Customers. This application will be made available for all our Customers. They should be able to access the application through their laptop, desktops, mobiles and tablets.” He further informed the team about the features expected in the application and a few specifications. While closing the meeting he said, “We have 30 working days to launch the application, starting today. Your thoughts are invited. We will meet the day after tomorrow, same time. Keep your ideas ready, so that we can start the discussion on the design and the functioning of the application.”

If we look at both the scenarios, the difference in the communication can be understood. The required information was given to the team in the Scenario B, which was sufficient to start work until the next meeting. A milestone was set. Where as in Scenario A, there was milestone set, no appropriate details were shared. The execution in Scenario A may get significantly delayed.

This was an example of gaps in verbal communication. In written communication, such gaps can have further reverse impact as there is no one present physically to clarify the doubts, which may arise in the readers mind.

Just like verbal and written communication, your body language also sends messages to the observer or the audience. Your words and your body language should be sync with each other. The movement of your hands, eyes, etc. should be in congruence to the content said by you.

These small but critical gestures and clear information make the communication effective.

Hope you enjoyed reading this little knowledge piece. Happy Reading!!!

Communication

Communication, in simple terms is sharing information with relevant person or a group of people or with an audience. The way we communicate what we intend to is of utmost importance. The communication should be effective.

What is an effective communication?

Communication is effective when the information is articulated clearly and precisely to the audience. There should be no loose ends which leave a scope for assumptions. While sharing any information, a pattern or a structure is very important. One should be aware of the criticality, usage, impact of the information and it should be articulated in a specific manner.

Generally, it is assumed that anything spoken or written simply means Communication. Though it is partly correct, there is much more depth to the subject.

There are 4 major types of communications:
1. Verbal Communication
2. Non-verbal Communication
3. Written Communication
4. Visual Communication

Verbal Communication:

We are aware that any information which is passed on by speaking is Verbal Communication. However, is it really that simple? The answer generally would be ‘YES’. But there is more to this. In a verbal communication, words spoken are very important. And the manner in which these are spoken is equally important. The voice modulation, the pitch and the tone in which the information or advice, etc. is communicated plays a very important role.

Non-verbal Communication:

Non-verbal Communication is a very powerful communication method. It can create an impact beyond imagination. The movement of your hands, your legs, your facial expressions, your unspoken reactions convey a lot. Similarly, the way a person dresses up and carries oneself also contributes to the way communication is perceived.

Written communication:

Most of us are habitual to reading books, news papers, articles, etc. Do we enjoy everything that we pick up to read? Definitely not…😊. One of the reasons is that the author is unable to impress your mind or unable to hold on to your attention.
In a written communication, while communicating, you are only a part of drafting. You are not present personally while the receiver is reading the communication. Hence it becomes more critical and important to ensure that the entire communication is sequential, crisp and clear. There should be no or very less room for queries and absolutely no room for assumptions from the receiver to avoid delays in work or a reverse impact.

Visual Communication:

Visual Communication is based on the usage of media. Graphs, maps, charts, hoardings, pictures, digital formations are tools for visual communication. This is a very powerful method of communication because human brain can easily absorb the visual effects and produce them when required. It is easier to remember and relate an incidence or a data, etc with this type of communication.

Hope you liked the write up so far on Communication…. 😊.

Stay tuned for further information on Communication, which is an essential part of human beings as we are social beings. 😊

Beliefs and Perception

In my last blog, I had illustrated how our upbringing instills filters in us which form our beliefs. In this write up, I would like to link this concept with Perception and how this can impact one’s personal growth.

When we start believing a certain aspect about ourself, we continue the self talk on the same lines. The more we continue with the self talk, the more strong our belief becomes. This then developed into self perception, also called as perseverance.

If one conditions his or her mind with certain beliefs or perseverance, the over all behaviour changes and gets adapted to the characteristics of the new thought process. This new thought process begins stronger with every passing minute, ultimately forming a habit. These habits of behaviors are exhibited by the individual in day to day activities and social interactions. Eventually this creates a perception about one self in social circles, which will definitely have its own consequences.

Hence, it is very critical and important to eminate a positive self perception, which will be helpful in influencing ones social circle, ofcourse in a positive manner. Hence if we start thinking towards the first step of building such positivity, it is very important to have a positive self talk, break perseverance and break the chain of negative beliefs which do not allow one self to proceed and conquer.

It is never too late to change and inch towards chasing one’s dreams, slowly but steadily. Aspire for your dreams beyond the rainbow. It is never too late. 😊

Beliefs

To begin with, I want to mention why I chose to write on Beliefs.

Once while reading short articles on internet, I came across a story of The Elephant Rope. I’m sure most of us must have heard or read the same at some point of time.
(I have taken this piece from the collection on internet named as Short inspirational stories.) The story goes as below:

A gentleman was walking through an elephant camp, and he spotted that the elephants weren’t being kept in cages or held by the use of chains.

All that was holding them back from escaping the camp, was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs.

As the man gazed upon the elephants, he was completely confused as to why the elephants didn’t just use their strength to break the rope and escape the camp. They could easily have done so, but instead, they didn’t try to at all.

Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape.

The trainer replied, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free and escaping from the camp was that over time they adopted the belief that it just wasn’t possible.

The same is applicable for human minds too. While we grow up, we are told what to do and what not to do. These ideologies are so emphasized that our mind, unknowingly, gets conditioned with them. We build these do’s and don’ts in our stream. These eventually turn into our beliefs… As we grow old, our beliefs become stronger. Most of the limitations of our life are a result of these beliefs.

This leads to building of a strong self-perception of our limitations, which stops us from even thinking about what miracles we can do. Leave alone venturing to do so.

We can change our life if we start giving ourself a chance to believe in our strengths. It is never too late to take that first step in doing something different, something that we have never done but yet seems worth taking a risk in attempting to make it happen.

It has to be our decision to break the chain of beliefs which we have clenched to since many many years. It’s time to trust oneself and do whatever we always wanted to do, so that we can fly high into our aspirations. Then… Sky is the limit.
Keep Flying High…

A PINCH OF SALT

While in school, I had a bad day once when my best friend and I had an argument, which ended in both of us swearing not to see each other ever in life. I was upset and weeping profusely as if the world had come to an end. On listening to the entire story, my grandmother made only a small statement. She said, “it’s okay, take it with a pinch of salt”. I was in 5th grade. Too small to understand what she meant by that. But I did not bother to ask her what she meant, because my loss on which I was grieving, was way too big to pause and try to analyse what my grandmother was trying to say. Over a period of time, my friend and myself reunited. After all it was kids’ fight and had to end… (pun intended 😊)

As years passed by and I grew up, gaining knowledge and wisdom (that’s what I believe I have gained 😀), facing challenges which life threw at me, I was balancing myself, my life, etc. like most of us do. Then there was a day when my mind drove backwards into the memory lane and I recollected my grandmother’s words… “it’s okay, take it with a pinch of salt”. There was a sudden ticking which went through within me.

Thinking of the role of salt in our food, our diet. Salt is an ingredient, which is used in almost all our food preparations, but the proportion is the least as compared to other ingredients. At the same time it is also the most important ingredient.

The events of our life are also similar to this. Every good and happy moment should be savoured and treasured. Every not so good moment should be… TAKEN WITH A PINCH OF SALT… ❤️

May you be blessed with lots of happiness and abundance… 😊

Nitya Shitut…

Passing on the baton

Are we responsible for the culture we imbibe in the next gens…..?

Well, the answer to this is a BIG YES. We forget the essence of life ourselves and hence are not in a position to teach and inculcate relevant behaviours in our children.
Children are exposed to so much of information which is not relevant to their age. Owing to this, they mature too soon. Outdoor games are very rarely witnessed. A fashion of gyms, clubs, etc have come into existence. Lifestyles have changed which is also evident nowadays in kids. Depression, anxiety, arrogance, expectations… These traits are prominent in the kids today.
We need to think for ourselves. Are we taking the next gen on the right path?