It was a quiet Sunday morning and I was fast asleep, hoping to get up very late. Suddenly I felt my wife shaking me awake, gushing excitedly about something that sounded like “elephant” to my sleepy brain. Contrary to what some people think, India does not have an elephant or a snake charmer around every corner. In fact in most cities, children would not even know a snake charmer if they met one!

So, the word elephant was enough to pique my curiosity and wake me up. I then realized that she was telling me that an elephant was standing in our street, having just got down from a truck. I guess mere mortals have to do with a bus, however a truck can be the only means of transport for this giant, majestic creature. I got up, intending to take a quick look at the elephant and then return to sleep after a few minutes.

True enough there was this elephant munching away on odd fruits that the children in the neighborhood were offering her with delight. The caretaker (who subsequently turned out not to be one) was shooing away everyone saying it was dangerous to come too close. After offering some fruits, I left telling them that they could call upon me if anything was required as we lived at the end of the street.

By that time, sleep was long gone so I proceeded to go through my morning routine. While so engaged I heard my spouse banging on the bathroom door and telling me that I had some visitors. Now, we live on the ground floor of an apartment building and when I walked out of the room, I almost fainted at the sight of this elephant blocking the balcony doors with its massive bulk. For a few seconds I thought that she might actually break down some walls to enter the apartment. The actual mahout and caretaker was waiting to meet me and requested some water to bathe the elephant. And so started that unforgettable Sunday. Obviously the “little water” was not not a small amount by any stretch of imagination.

For the next couple of hours the elephant luxuriated in having a leisurely, well scrubbed bath and a pedicure! Then which she was made up as carefully as any beauty queen; we watched in fascination as her forehead and face were painted with unusual decorations.

In the meantime we had organized for a few kilos of vegetables which were promptly gobbled down by her.

I became 5 years old again and spent the entire time scrubbing the elephant, running around her, taking pictures and finally sitting atop her after she had finished her bath. She was sweet enough to indulge me and lived up to the label of a gentle giant.

We learnt that the elephant was Ms. Shyamala Devi who hailed from Swamimalai, a small town in southern Tamil Nadu. She had come to Chennai to grace a wedding with her distinguished presence and ending up gracing up our home for an entire morning.

Oh what an unforgettable experience, being Mowgli for a few hours!

To Follow:
Training, Rituals, Rights, Maps, Diagrams, Advice, Instructions, Trends, Rules, Policies, Procedures, Instincts, Music, and now also, one of the very latest of them all… trends, Twitter, etc.

As we learn to follow, we need to learn to adhere to some of them as well,
To lead and and not to bleed.

To fulfill needs.
And not to fulfill greed.

To stand out as an outstanding Human Being.
And not to standout as a standout.

Since birth, through childhood, and until we grow up, we follow and learn basics, till we learn them well, and master them.
Till we “stand up on our own feet” so to speak.
Thereafter, we decide to be selective as such, on our ‘following instincts.’

To Follow:
Intelligently, instinctively, or blatantly! Is now left to us.
Our choices and not our chances pave our way.
It is either us, only me, them, or they.
As we make our life like hay,
To our delight or much to our dismay,
Day after day.
Till we find ourselves turning gray…
In our relentless pursuit.
To follow and be followed,
And to be …. somewhat hallowed.

It’s then that we look back and introspect,
We do mull and we also inspect,
And discover a rather hollow hallow,
In us, as a fellow, who did follow,
As we swim and as we wallow,
In life’s depths both deep and shallow.

As we prospered and prospected, all the while,
Were it the choices or the chances, that made or marred our days?

As a nerd, was it worth it to be a part of a herd?
A question we seldom asked then, to be heard.

As a geek, why did we not tweak….
To shine, outshine and stand out,
When we had both the wherewithal and the clout to flout?
While we were nerdy within the herd….unheard.

Did we squeak or shout to tweak….
As a bold soul and not a meek?
To stand apart, instead.
By following our own… heart?

Follow the heart!
We must….
Trust the heart.
We must….
Take care of the heart.
We must….
Stand apart!
We must!

Life begins with the first heart beat.
Life ends with the last heart beat.

Therefore:
Choose the right path…follow the heart, always.
You see, life is always lived out of choices and not chances,
Choices made after hearing the inner voices…made by the heart.

Firstly:
Do you have a heart to do so?
To stand apart?
To live long and to belong and longed for?
To be loved, kissed and missed?
To be bliss and blessed?

If you have one…Follow that heart please.
As it is given to you on lease.

Follow it always.
Listen to the inner voices it makes, and follow them blindly,
Make the right choices….
You will live life…so kindly,
As it was meant to be.

I was jamming with a client whom I adore. She’s kind-hearted, she’s willing to look at her crap and her gloriousness, and she’s excellent at what she does. And, as it tends to happen, I slid in one of my favourite backwards burning questions:

“So in terms of ‘success’ how do you want to feel like?” I asked.

“I…I want to feel important,” she admitted. And then it came, the back-paddle, squashing of desire: “But is it wrong to want to feel that way? Shouldn’t I want to feel something else?”

Freeze frame. Is it wrong to want to feel a certain way? Why would it be wrong? Who says? What would happen if you let yourself feel a certain way? How about starting with being okay with wanting to feel a certain way and seeing where that leads you? Back to the convo:

“Is it wrong to want to feel important?” I echoed back to her. “Well maybe some therapists would think so. Could be your wounded inner child ‘n all that, but let’s work from here and now. In terms of your business, what would make you feel important?”

“Celebrity X would be photographed in my product. And the editor at that big magazine would decide to put me on the cover for the next issue. I’d be front and center at the gala. And my cheap clients would stop pestering me for cheaper product, and I would be working with the people who really value what I do.” She was on a roll. Her voice was clear. I imagined she was sitting up straight.

“Uh huh. Well, that sounds like a rocking business to me. So, what do you need to do to help ensure that you feel important?” And with that, a very concise to-do list rolled off her tongue and the future looked brrrilliant.

“You know, just talking about what I’m going to do to make myself feel important makes me feel…important,” she concluded. That’s what happens when we take control of our desires. Moving toward gratitude helps you feels grateful. Aiming for power gets your power circuits firing. Planning for love makes you feel warm and fuzzy. And so it goes.

I used to have intense guilt for craving creative freedom – and then life forced me to go solo and I learnt in one fell swoop that my guilty craving was a very divine calling – with all the rewards I was hankering for.

Enough with feeling guilty for wanting to feel the way you want to feel. Follow your desired emotion. Don’t analyze it too deeply. Just let it roll and rumble a bit. It may be there to humble you, expand you, heal, surprise or reinvent you. Anywhere it leads, it’s there for a divine reason.

Writing and jamming all day, I need to to wrest my eyes from words and the screen. Even if I’m writing fluidly or fire starting with a fellow entrepreneur, I crave little bits of beauty like I crave milk chocolate at about 3:00 pm everyday. Visual beauty quenches and cools the part of my brain that is usually on warp drive. A luscious image makes my cells go “ahhhh.” We forget to brake for beauty. She’s rarely on our to-do list. But she makes all the difference in the day.

5 ON-LINE GORGEOUSNESS SNACKS. EAT SOME DAILY.

1. The flower mandalas by psychotherapist and photographer David J. Bookbinder make my heart still. Absolutely mesmerizing: flower mandala photos {be sure to click “color” on LEFT tool bar} Bookbinder’s blog on Beliefnet.
2. Coolhunter is so damn cool that I can hardly stand it.
3. My favourite new artist is Cheryl Sorg. I’m wild about text art, and butterflies, and neutral palettes. The preciousness and intensity of her work is staggering. I have two pieces of hers en route to me and I can’t wait to hang them above our mantle. She’s also allowing me to play with a fantastic line drawing of some flames for the cover of my book-in-progress (also called…yep…White Hot Truth.)
4. Impeccable Beyoncé, choreography by supreme Goddess attitude: Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) Video. When you’re this frickin’ hot you don’t need any props.
5. One of my favourite Canadian abstract painters: Patricia Larsen.
ahhhhh.

“Well that sounds like a whole lotta of freaking fun.” I said to her. And I asked the waiter to bring me a Coke.

Here’s the thing: As hard-wired achievement-bots many of us subscribe to systems of success that actually become blockages to our instincts. Structures, programs, regimes, all disciplines and theories should be used to support your freedom and independent thinking, but many serve to stifle our truth.

Curiosity and sensation are exponentially more effective than obeying the rules.

The rain has stopped now, as I sit in my balcony sipping hot cocoa and looking at downtown Seattle and beyond. The air is crisp and bears a freshness, which comes with the benumbing chill of fall rain. An occasional breeze wafts in with  the smell of wet earth and the sweet scent of an unknown flower. The frame of the city that I can see is at rest; drenched in the Midas touch of the setting sun. Though it looks beautifully at peace, I sense a hint of some unknown danger lurking beneath.

My view is restricted by neighboring apartment blocks on both sides, so I actually only see a single frame of a montage of the city. It looks like an artist’s unfinished canvas – perfect with all its imperfections. Dense dark gray clouds hover around the upper left corner and then disperse into patchy globs, as if an amateur painter used too much water to spread the gray across the canvas. Random streaks of clear blue sky disturb the gloomy gray. The foggy white, blurred slope of West Seattle meets the almost splotchy backdrop at the right edge. Beneath that, the familiar vermilion cranes at the dock suggest water, though I cannot see it from where I am sitting. The cranes are crisscrossed with the white lattice of the tall, pointed, arches of the Pacific Science Center.

Moving towards the center of the frame, I can see the stacked cubes of modern skyscrapers of downtown. I occasionally catch a lit window indicating the only sign of activity in this otherwise still city frame. Further down closer to me, the dirty green mass of Larry’s Market peeps through the tall thorn bushes that might have been lush green leafy trees when summer started. Closer still the dull, flat roofs of Queen Anne’s brick buildings peek through the yellow, rust, plum and various greens of leafy bursts. The sporadic glitter of a rain drop clinging tantalizingly to a fragile leaf or sunlight reflected off a building’s glazing are the only elements, which make me wince at an unusually beautiful view of Seattle.

My eyes move towards the Space Needle, which for once, due to the skewed perspective, appears to be towering over downtown Seattle. Since I cannot see its base, all I see are two concrete flanges resembling two gigantic, cheap plastic, white, salad forks holding up an equally disproportionate slice of gourd rind that has been rendered colorless, topped with a dollop of stiff white frosting. Sandwiched between the salad forks is a metal cage in which two elevators move up and down totally out of any synchrony.

Suddenly out of nowhere, an airplane glides across the canvas towards the iconic structure. I watch with a sense of anticipated doom as the aircraft approaches the concrete forks. It almost seems like a 9/11 recap that they keep showing on TV with the plane approaching either tower. I close my eyes and hold my breath in preparation for the loud crash, but seconds pass by and I hear nothing. I open my eyes only to see a beautiful city basking in the golden glory of fading sunlight.

Although at first the frame seems unchanged, I cannot feel the same about it. I know something has been disturbed if not physically at least in my perception, though I know not how. While disentangling my thoughts, I unintentionally evoke a terrifying memory that has marred this beautiful painting forever – a thin white stroke of jet trail. An otherwise innocent stroke has assumed unimaginably fearful proportions in me, casting long shadows on this exquisitely beautiful Seattle sunset. Wistfully I realized that the enchantment had been broken….. it was time to go indoors.

How much do we do in a day with our nose to the grindstone? Myopic, focused, making a list and checking it twice. Done. Done. And done. But what have we done? Really? What’s the “big real” of what you are doing? There’s a Big Real behind everything we do. Sometimes it’s a negative Big Real. Sometimes it’s a positive Big Real.

I’m not posting to my blog. I’m evoking the truth.

I’m not working on my book proposal to have it to my agent by Sept 15. I’m writing a book that could spark people into true action, and it’s burning inside me, and people want it and they want it bad.

I’m not cleaning my house, I’m making it a Zen temple in which I can hear myself think and we can cozy up. (Okay, I’m just jokin’ with that one. Vacuuming is vacuuming and it sucks hard. Pun. I know, I just caught it.) But you get my point.

What’s became rote or banal for you that is really part of a great dream or vision or bad plot that you really don’t want to be participating in?

Working overtime? How about: making sure you’re getting to Miami for your next holiday to flame your mojo?

Hauling your ass out of bed for a run? How about: connecting with the power of your body and tapping into your creative thinking?

Cutting people’s hair? How about: your salon is a place where people heal and are heard and have their beauty nurtured.

Waiting on tables: How about: you’re learning and teaching loving kindness.

Filing papers for your boss? Maybe the Big Real there is that you’re helping a do-no-good company make no-good money while your own genius wilts on the vine?

Look up. Zoom back from the tasks and see the holy weaving of your time and love and action. Make it matter. Because it does.

A dream is a very sacred thing to share.

If you knew someone’s dream, you might look at that person very differently…with more tenderness, more respect, more familiarity, and more wonder than before. Dream-sharing melts boundaries and it calls forth resources and commonalities.

Look at everyone you meet this week and actively think to yourself, “I wonder what their dream is?” Ask at least one person this week what their dream is. You can do it subtly, and traditionally, like, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” or “What did you want to be when you were growing up?” Or you can just go for it, playfully and momentously and ask, “So, like, what’s your big dream?” So many people never get asked that. And fewer are really listened to. And for those who are stumped by the question, I guarantee they’ll be thinking about it for days to come. Just the asking of that question sets essential things in motion.

The guy in the cubicle next to you may be working on novel about unicorns and espionage. Your sister might be fantasizing about her own cabaret break out performance. Your postal carrier may be patenting the next great invention. Make no assumptions about your partner, your workmate, or the bus driver.

Wonder what their dream is….

Small, mighty, seemingly impossible, or simply pure – when you know what someone’s dream is, your perspective leans toward openness. And every dream needs space to run.

Oh, my dream-stream…
Inspire freedom seeking and engagement with life in a big big way for a long long time. That means my next book, White Hot Truth is a stunning success in every way possible, and I’m wearing suede boots and big gold hoops on stage and enjoying my “you-know-what-I’m sayin’-don’tchya?” laughs with thousands of people.

And I dream of Morocco and France and a koi pond in the back yard of my mod pre-fab house. I dream of collecting art and magazine coverage. I dream about communion with my man that blows both our minds. I dream of sitting ’round a fire with leaders and lovers of progress. Being able to give ‘yeses ‘and make phone calls that open doors and new dimensions for people.

I dream of children being taught mindfulness in school, and a movement of conscious birth choices and parenting, and technologies that heal. And I dream of invitations that humble me, and more magical connections with people whom I recognize on a cellular level, and we band together to leverage change, and to support and care for each other in the way that reminds you how great it is to share space and time. And I dream of feeling more electric and sweet every single day.

But mostly, I dream of being amazed.

How ’bout you?

But I’ve noticed that even shiny, sexy, wide-awake people don’t talk that much about sex. The general conversation starts and stops with whether you’re getting it or not. “It’s good.” “We need to make more time for it.” “Haven’t gotten around to it.”

If sex conversation is relegated to the cultural fringe, it’s likely reflecting where it lies on our personal list of priorities. And you don’t have to have a partner to have a sex life, BTW. Just ask Mama Gena who makes it, uh, pointedly clear that the clitoris has 8000 nerve endings of its very own.

You can be sure that your sex life is a microcosm of the macrosm of your entire life. Deep but quiet. Repressed. Rigorous. Loving but slightly aggressive. Playful and sweet. Dutiful. Whatever is going down in the sack is going ‘round in your life as a greater theme. So maybe we should talk about it more. At least to ourselves.

SEXY SHAKE UP
For the sake of shaking up mindsets, what if you gave your sexual well being the same weighty importance that we tend to give the other day-to-day stuff?:

What if we treated our sex lives with the same importance as our diet? Imagine counting orgasms like you counted calories. What if there was the same urgency to get funky with your lover or yourself as there was to get to yoga or spinning class?

What if we put as much effort into cultivating our sexuality as we did our intellect? Imagine a D-I-Y erotica degree based on the awareness of energy and breath and physiology and bliss. Where would you begin to look for knowledge? What would it take to earn and A++?

What if we talked about our sex lives like we talked about, say, our health, or our satisfaction with work? I’m not suggesting that you should chat up your hot night with Larry and Lucy at the water cooler. Because, yeah, sex is sacred, absolutely, positively, precious and typically private. BUT…what if, with the friend you trusted most, you let the conversation go deeper into the sensual part of your life. And you explored questions like, How do you feel in bed? What does womanly or manly really mean to you? Top, bottom, bunny, adventurer, priestess, kink-meister or athlete, what’s next in terms of being more fully you?

Don’t tell just anyone. But dare to tell yourself. The answer may have you grinning for days.

The lady was busy in drying her clothes while she kept an eye on the children. Her son must have been about seven years of age and her daughter close to four years. Her youngest child was a girl, who seemed to be about a year old and she was sitting in the pram enjoying the game of her elder siblings.

The two kids were running to and fro, dancing, jumping on the chairs, rolling on the floor and laughing. Their game was not new and their gestures were ordinary. But I was captivated by their innocence, smiles and laughter which were as fresh as a morning breeze.

I wondered if I were like them when I was a child. Did I forget about the world and laugh to my heart’s content? Did I play similar games? Were my smiles as genuine as theirs coming directly from the heart? Was my laughter like tinkling bells?

As I stood there I wished I could be a carefree child again.

It is sad that as we grow older, we stop remembering the child in us. The busy lifestyle of today has taken everything from us that is carefree. We are paying the price for our complexities and technologies that we once created to make life simpler. We all need to make life simpler rather than more complex.

We should stop worrying about the things over which we have no control over and think of solutions rather than problems. The rat race for a big house, big job and more money will never end so why WORRY? We should enjoy and live each moment of our lives as if there is no tomorrow. So let the energy flow out of you! Smile at everybody you meet. Laugh out loud at silly things and let the child in you LIVE again…..

I was in Kauai in the fall and read Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth between beaches. And this question of his became my walking, rambling, meditation. “What is my relationship….to LIFE?!” Daunting. Spectacular. Galvanizing. Perhaps my favourite question of all time.

It opened the floodgates of inquiry for me. I spiraled it backwards to look at my relationship to my man, my child, my families of blood and soul – my portals of connectivity and on good days, communion. What was the majority experience of me showing up in the world? How is it that I am vulnerable? What feels pure and steadfast within my cells? One question led to another. What do I bring forth from the well of my essential self, and what do I keep in reserve, locked, frightened, greedy, proud, and practical? When I engage with people what is my motive? How do I greet strangers and friends with whom I have history? What is my most regular waking thought? What is my favourite feeling? Who am I trying to impress? How do I stand in crisis? Where does my generosity stop? What gets to the core of my core?

I actually didn’t need to delve into the deep recesses of my psyche. It turned out to be a remarkably basic exercise – one that I bet you could find your own answer to by the end of today. It all got down to this simple sub-plot question: How am I with people?

I saw the pattern of truth emerge, a through-line to ALL of my interactions with people – with everyone, every one. Whether it is my lover-companion of ten years with whom I can be amazing or pathetic, or it’s the dude sliding my tea across the counter, there is a consistent energy and attitude that I bring to them. I can see the rhythm of it in my mind. It goes like this: I give off a honey-golden love warmth, an “I love you, we’re in this together” declaration. It’s pure and it’s innocent and is graciously global.

Then out comes this acuity, a kind of “I get you, I see you, and I’m very serious about it.” I’m not sure if it’s a natural intensity or if it’s a protective reaction that roots in fear, but often, my next level of vibe is either something along the subtle lines of “don’t f*** with me,” or “you do your thing, I’ll do mine, and all is well.”

When I looked at my relationship to the humans (and my dog counts as a human) that I relate to, it became clear that I am a planet of love with a hair-trigger drawbridge that closes without much warning. I am, and this was somewhat heartbreaking for me to realize…I am somewhat reserved with my love.

And thus, my relationship to life is: Big Love. True Smile. Tricky Lock.

It’s a long term relationship. My vows are a work in progress.

I started thinking about some comments people had made when I was at work as an invigilator. There was this guy who said, “You are the only person smiling around here. Keep it up.” And he even thanked me for it. I must say that I was taken by surprise. In fact, this must have been at least the 5th time, when I have been paid this compliment and it has always taken me by surprise. But, it does reinforce my faith in me and my decision to be an optimist, especially during the times when I don’t feel great or full of positive energy.

Do I smile that much? I went back to thinking about myself over the years—was I like this always? Or, is it a recent trait? I tried to dig deep in my memory as far as possible. I don’t remember all of my childhood but I can remember as far back as 37 years ago when I was about 5 years old. I don’t think I was the always-smiling individual that I am now. And of course, I remember only a few incidents – not all. In fact, what I remember is that I was always one for whom the world was a strange place and I felt like an alien. I was always wondering about what was going on around me; wondering about how little I knew while others knew so much; how the others could be at peace and enjoy everything while I was the one who would just stare and wonder.

Gradually, I did come to terms with myself but wondered if my friends and siblings had the same experience. Anyhow, I guess I must have started consciously working on myself in grade 3 or 4. I used to observe my Mom a lot which is usual in everyone’s life. I would see her smiling and talking with everybody. At times she would be absolutely tired and ready to fall but her smile would always spring up when a guest arrived unannounced (must say that that was the trend those days).

I must tell you however, that I was the usual grumpy adolescent later on but certainly less grumpier than most of my peers. I was introspective even then and taught myself to smile even when I was going through the most difficult times of my life.

I think that I have probably been trying to cultivate a smile and a positive countenance ever since then. Smiling and optimism go hand in hand, don’t they? There are times though when I am not cheerful and I can be grumpy and unhappy like anyone else. But it takes a lot to make me cry. I have to be very deeply hurt and disappointed to shed tears.

So, what is it that has made me into an eternal optimist? To sum it up: an interest in being a more pleasant person, working on myself, holding on to a childlike innocence and allowing life to happen around me without too much judgment. These are the traits which have helped me to maintain the sunny disposition that is my trademark.

Happiness is the elusive, but much desired state of mind which visits us at times but never stays for long. One cannot be always happy…. contented perhaps, but never always happy. So how does one become happy? How do we bring happiness to us rather then waiting it to happen to us?

Happiness begins just by the intention to be happy; we cannot control our circumstances or the events happening to us but we can choose how to react to them.

Unfortunately in today’s chaotic world, most of us live life on autopilot and we rush through our garden of life without taking time to smell the roses. And yet, there are so many small things which we can easily incorporate into our life which will bring a bounce in our step and a smile on our lips….interested?

I am not going to give you a sure shot method or formula to be happy. Neither am I going to tell you to exercise or do yoga or bring any earth shattering change in your life. All I will do is to ask you to tweak the life you are already living — point you towards something you already know but somewhere down the line forgot you knew it.

It doesn’t take much to be happy and I am speaking from experience. You don’t have to have the world to make you happy. Just ONE small thing at a time can bring a wave of joy with ripples that can be felt for a long time. What is that one thing? It can be anything. Take your pick from list provided below and make your own formula to be happy.

1) We all need JUST ONE PLACE, one corner in this world where we can be ourselves — it can be your parents’ house where you can be child again or a friend’s house or a small cosy corner in your own house where you can have your ME time and reflect on life. A place where you can make goals, repair yourself or do nothing and live life without rules.

2) We also need JUST ONE PERSON with whom we can share our dreams, aspirations, fears and failures. Someone who can understand our words and also our silences.

3) We SHOULD BLOOM ONCE and reach a peak by accomplishing something extraordinary. We should taste success once so that it inspires us to travel that path one more time.

4) We should experience real LOVE AT LEAST ONCE IN LIFE. You should love someone more than you ever thought yourself capable of doing. Allow yourself to fall so hopelessly in love that you feel giddy….it’s an amazing feeling.

5) We should own ONE PIECE OF CLOTHING or accessory that makes us feel gorgeous, like million bucks, and instantly transforms a worm into a butterfly.

6) We should HAVE ONE GOAL OR MANTRA in life that motivates us and chanting it should fill us with energy and get us back on the road to recovery. It can be spiritually-rooted or a material goal you want to achieve in life.

7) We should COMMIT ONE SIN or do something naughty in life which gives us a thrill and reminds us how young and carefree we were at one time.

We should LOVE ONE GOOD THING IN OURSELVES and work towards preserving that quality. When you acknowledge your virtues mentally, it means you are also aware of ‘negative’ qualities in you and just being aware of your complete self makes you happy.

9) We should own ONE BOX OF OLD MEMORIES. It can be an old album/letters/journal or anything that keeps you in touch with your past, which charts your journey to present.

10) We should have ONE DESIRE to follow passionately. It could be material or non material but life should be full of desires because they keep us alive and thriving.

11) We should BREAK ONE BARRIER IN LIFE if not more. Overcoming your limitation gives you hope and courage and you learn to expand and grow in life.

12) We should NURTURE ONE THING in life. It can be as big as mentoring someone or as small as watering a plant. Nurturing anything brings of joy to one’s life.

13) We should GIVE UP SOMETHING WE LOVE once in life. It teaches us what true giving is all about. If you don’t know how to sacrifice, you will never appreciate what you receive.

To me, the bliss of dawn heralds a rebirth everyday – a rebirth of the earth and our human spirit.

It is during the dawn as the soft and delicate glow unfolds that we come closest to nature in her pristine form.

The Sufi poet Rumi reminds us, “The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell. Don’t go back to sleep.”

Lovers from across the ages will attest that the gentle breezes of dawn can soothe a troubled heart.

Enjoying nature during dawn is one of the most enchanting experiences known to us. Immersing oneself in daybreak lends a touch of ethereal enchantment to drab lives and a mundane existence.

From the dawn emanates an energy of hope and regeneration that keeps us inspired all through the day in spite of the challenges thrown at us.

So, if you really want to have a beautiful and inspired day, wake up early and pay homage to the dawn.

Call it what you want: the zone, the flow, the magical gap, the illuminating silence….there is a place in space and time where we tend to think and feel most clearly. And in that place, aha’s, creative genius, strategies, and revelations tend to flow our way.

Notice when and where the Idea Fairy likes to visit you.

Notice how solutions enter your being.

Maybe it’s when you’re talking to a particular friend or associate (interaction). When you’re cruising down the highway or walking to work (movement). Or in the bathtub or washing the dishes (water). Some people’s Idea Fairies like to show up after a good meal or great sex, first thing in the morning, or just as they’re drifting off to sleep.

The Idea Fairy can be slightly unpredictable. She won’t always show up when you’re in the zone. But she really appreciates being invited.

A smile is a fundamental action and reaction that it is crucial to our lives, as human beings who must interact with others on a daily basis. Besides having the capacity to break down emotional and mental barriers, a smile is also an indication of a happy spirit and is a source of energy, for you and for others.

A friendly and sincere smile can win friends and influence even the most stubborn and difficult people.

The smile energy can neutralize any assumption of rudeness from others and will vaccinate you against bad feelings and negative thoughts.

Begin a smile-rich day in the morning by smiling in the mirror and seeing good things flowing around you as you go about your business. Try to keep a smile in your mind as you step out to face the world. To make this easier, remember all the good things that life has given to you over the years. Smile regularly and remember to laugh at all the quirky incidents that punctuate your life on a daily basis. You will notice that people become friendlier and more cooperative, little irritations will disappear, and many problems will be resolved quickly with little or no conflict.

Smiling doesn’t imply a careless attitude – actually it sends a message that you are psychologically balanced, approachable and capable of solving problems without allowing stress to encroach on your interaction with people.

It is a fact that if you smile often and maintain your serenity, you will improve efficiency and efficacy in solving complicated problems in the workplace and at home. You will transmit peace and confidence to your colleagues, friends, family and the world around you.

A smile is an extremely powerful tool in our day-to-day activities. Use it generously and sincerely and you will definitely see a difference in your life as each day unfolds.

My mother is loving and kind, yet strong and independent. Tell her a sad story and her heart melts within seconds, but cross her and she will never back down! Her passion, I think, is feeding people.

When I was growing up, she was always there for me, being a full-time mother, wife and homemaker. My earliest childhood memory is of falling off a tonga – a horse-drawn carriage – with my mother. This happened in Kashmir when I was about 2 years old. It is the only memory of being a two year old child. I guess I remember it because it was scary or at least a huge shock to the system. How well do I recall being held in my mother’s lap with her arms tightly wrapped around me while slipping off the tonga. What is most significant to me perhaps is the memory of feeling safe and protected during the ordeal.

From later years, I remember my mother, a staunch follower of Mahatma Gandhi, telling me to turn the other cheek whenever my male cousins hit me. Fortunately for me, my father had a more practical approach to life. He taught me to fight back by not inflicting too much damage on the other person – just enough to discourage them from picking on me.

Though I rejected that particular lesson, I imbibed other aspects of my mother’s Gandhian views. She taught me to speak the truth without fear or reservation. So much so that my father claims that I am not just truthful but often “brutally frank.” Well, I am trying to temper the “brutality” without losing the frankness.

I learnt from Mum and dad to treat all people with respect and courtesy regardless of race, religion, gender or age.

I remember an elderly gentleman moving into our home in Delhi for the entire winter one year. Mum introduced him to me as her “godfather.” He lived in Norway with her older sister’s family, but found the winter there to be too harsh. So he had come to spend the season with us. I loved this man, who told me a story from the Mahabharatha every night. Before he left, he had told me the entire tale, with all its twists and turns, and its myriad sub-plots. What a wonderful experience.

It was only much later I learnt that he had been my grandfather’s housekeeper. He had moved to my aunt’s household when she got married to help her run her new home, first in India, then Indonesia, and finally Norway.

Another year, Mum’s elderly aunt came down to escape the cold winter in Kashmir. She too, told me stories, half in Hindi and half in Kashmiri, which I didn’t know too well. Both my parents respected her deeply as the oldest member of the family taught me to do the same.

Our home was an open house to any relative, friend, or friend of a friend who was passing through Delhi. Female guests simply moved into the room I shared with my older sister. Male visitors slept on a thakhat in the living room. People who dropped in to say hello were invariably persuaded to stay on for the next meal.

I didn’t find any of this odd. I thought this was how all families operated and I enjoyed all the comings and goings. The house was open to all my friends too, of course.

Mum has always been a wonderful hostess. Equally, she is a gracious guest. Except for the closest of friends, she would not go to anyone’s home “empty-handed,” as she put it. She kept a stash of gifts to be dipped into as and when required. If she didn’t have an appropriate gift to present, she would take flowers or fruit. Never under any circumstances would she go without a gift on her first visit to someone’s home.

She was also careful to never allow her host to feel uncomfortable on our account. When I was in my teens, we had close family friends who lived nearby. Since the relationship was so informal, we would often drop in on each other at short notice. One time, when we had gone over, the lady of the house apologized because she had cooked only a simple vegetarian meal that day.

My Mum, with her most innocent look, asked, “What day of the week is it?” When our hostess told her, Mum still maintaining her innocent look replied, “Oh we never eat meat on Tuesdays.” (or Thursdays, or whatever day it happened to be). This happened at least 3 times before our friend finally caught on!

In our own home, my Mum resolutely refused to teach me to cook or do household chores. I was possibly the only Indian girl of my age back then who couldn’t make tea. Girls were generally groomed to be good wives and daughters-in-law in India’s joint family system. My Mum assumed, like others, that I would eventually marry and “settle down.” But, in the meantime, she wanted me to have fun. She insisted that I should enjoy myself because there was no rush to get involved in cooking and housework!

Both my parents considered education to be of great value, both in itself (as knowledge) and in its ability to make one financially independent. Mum wanted her daughters to be well educated and to work before marriage, if not afterwards. I remember her talking about this even when I was really young, perhaps 10 or 12 years old. She felt it was important for a woman to know she was capable of looking after herself even if she was not going to work after marriage. That way, “if anything went wrong,” she would know she could be financially independent.

As things turned out, I worked, got married, continued to work, and never really “settled down,” while happily moving around Asia with my husband.

My mother, now 83, continues to be a loving presence in my life. She doesn’t cook in her own home any more, but when she visits my husband and me, she makes a special effort to make us a favourite dish once in a while. It is hard for her to stand for long, so we put a chair for her in the kitchen. Our cook/housekeeper helps her by cleaning and chopping the ingredients but Mum directs the process. (Sometimes my parents cook together, but that deserves a post of its own).

Even though she lives in India and I am in the Philippines, we often spend quality time chatting on the phone. She never fails to ask me to give her love to my husband – “and even more to you,” she invariably adds. Then she chuckles and adds: “But don’t tell him I said that.”
Happy Mother’s Day Mum!

Just in case there are others like me out there who have not heard of this, the Wallenda factor refers to the fear of falling or failing. Shortly after Karl Wallenda fell to his death in 1978 (traversing a 75-foot high wire in downtown San Juan, Puerto Rico), his wife, also an aerialist, discussed that fateful San Juan walk, “perhaps his most dangerous.” She recalled: “All Karl thought about for three straight months prior to it was falling. It was the first time he’d ever thought about that, and it seemed to me that he put all his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope.”

Mrs. Wallenda added that her husband even went so far as to personally supervise the installation of the tightrope, making certain that the guide wires were secure, something he had never thought of doing before. When Karl Wallenda poured his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope, he was virtually destined to fall.

I realized that most people and even organizations tend to develop this orientation over a period of time, especially when they become more successful. When one starts off life with little to lose, the focus is on trying new things, experimenting, taking risks. The focus is on learning, experiencing and growth. Usually this makes life richer, more interesting and lot of fun. One gets caught in a positive cycle which often is self sustaining.

For the average person, then comes marriage, children, monetary responsibilities, home loan EMI’s and a focus on savings. And along with it comes a shift in focus and orientation. Slowly the focus is on managing the unknown future, usually through a monetary cushion. This is the crux of the issue. We fear the unknown! I guess that’s the single largest reason why death inspires so much of discomfort and fear. One does not know for sure what lies on the other side.

So, with the change in focus the Wallenda Factor kicks in fully. One gets increasingly bogged down in avoiding failure.

The same can be said for many organizations. When they are in the start up stage, the focus is on success and usually they succeed. And then the focus shifts on sustaining the success or rather avoiding failure. This leads to less of innovation and experimentation and more of reviews and analysis. I remember a comment which aptly describes the latter behavior; “Driving while looking only in the rearview mirror”. Is it any wonder that accidents happen?

Over a period of time, one finds that the conversation centres increasingly around the good old days.
This has been discussed and debated in the leadership context in various publications and not succumbing to the Wallenda Factor is considered to be an important leadership trait.

I am more focused on how the average person can recognize and avoid this orientation to live a fuller and more meaningful life. If you are a victim of the Wallenda Factor, the following guidelines might be helpful:

Acceptance: Accept that the unknown will always be unknown.

Continued focus on learning: There is no greater fun than learning new things. A case in point is this article, which came about because I did not know something. Learning something keeps the mind agile and also diverted. It could be something to do with your line of work, art, craft or even just plain old whistling!

Constantly share and thereby enrich others: Sharing could be anything. Your knowledge, experiences, memories or money! The internet today has made sharing so much so easier. Don’t let the imagination die down.

In short, keep the child inside alive, well and kicking. Be curious, experiment and enjoy the journey.

As both individuals wrap their arms around one another, their energy blends together, and they experience a tangible feeling of togetherness that lingers long after physical contact has been broken.

A “heart to heart hug” is when you put your left arm over someone’s shoulder and your right arm around their waist.

As they do the same to you, your hearts become aligned with one another and loving, comforting energy flows between the two of you to flood your being with feelings of love, caring, and compassion.

A hug is a pleasurable way to share your feelings with someone who is important to you.

Depending on your relationship with the other person and the kind of message you wish to send to them, a hug can communicate love, friendship, romance, congratulations, support, greeting, and any other sentiment you wish to convey.

A hug communicates to others that you are there for them in a positive way.

In an instant, a hug can reestablish a bond between long lost friends and comfort those in pain.

The next time you hug someone, focus all of your energy into the embrace.

You will create a profound connection that infuses your feelings and sentiments into a single beautiful gesture of pure love.

Peace and hugs to you.

I felt it shelter to speak to you.
- Emily Dickinson

We gather in a group to be witnessed, to be supported, and to be both equalized and elevated in our struggles, gifts and ambitions. Common ground is very fertile ground – it is, what Emerson calls, “…the common heart of which all sincere conversation is worship.” Where two or more are joined with the same intention, grace intensifies and solutions multiply. Belongingness heals and nourishes with its affirmative recognition that we are not alone. Simultaneously, we are able to experience our unity and our uniqueness.

Who hears you? Whose greatness do you foster in return?

It’s essential to have a posse.
I have my “Goddesses,” five of us who meet almost monthly with one purpose: to tell each other what’s really going on in our lives. We’re a mismatched gang that began when one woman said, “I’m having a potluck of cool chicas next week, whoever shows up, shows up.” It was just the five of us who made it – some of us already friends, some of us new to each other, and it was clear at the end of our first night together that we had to do more of this. And in just two years of homemade soups and desert and other bubbly things, we’ve gone through life-altering decisions, marriage melt downs, new babies, business epics, world travels, heart wrenching loss and amazing successes. We would move mountains to help each other. I love knowing that we happened by intention and by serendipity.

Stop and think about it right now.

Close your eyes and take a good in-breath/out-breath if it helps. It usually does, so go ahead and indulge yourself.

What would feel really, really, good to feel?

Connected. Free. Light. Creative. Influential. Powerful. Healed. Rich. Pretty. Strong. Leadership. Quality. Sweet. Sexy. Robust. Close to nature. Fresh. Excited. Vibrant. Quiet. Playful. Adored. Productive. Sensuous. Peace. Colour. Focused. Complete.

Hone in on the three feelings you want to generate this week.
Write those three feelings on a sticky note and keep it in your day timer or on your computer screen.

Intend to feel that way.
Feel what happens.

Vineet Tandon is an aspiring author, marketing communication specialist and works with Oracle India. Contact him at vineet.tandon@gmail.com.

I sat in silence, just watching. The words started coming first slowly and then more rapidly. This is what the sea spoke to me that day.

The waves come to the shore only to go back and merge with their source as one. So, do we come into this world, to learn our lessons and go back and merge with our Creator as one. This life on earth is temporary. Our body, our home, everything is temporary. Nothing is permanent. Why then do you cling and get attached?

This causes much misery, but if we accept that everything and everyone in this world is here only temporarily, we can enjoy what life has to offer even more. Enjoy every moment and move on.
The next lot of waves got with it a rotting branch, some plastic bags with flowers; they all lay by my feet while the waves flattened, retreated to the sea. Softly, gently telling me, always remember in life whatever you give out, comes back, so take care of  the words you speak, your action, as sometime or the other it will all come back to you. So true, I thought reflecting on these words.
Cool breeze started blowing and the waves started coming in faster and louder, lashing against the rocks close by.

I got up and started walking, the combination of the sound of the waves and the breeze seemed to say – look forward to what the next moment has to offer you. Welcome it with open arms and receive with grace. Life is beautiful; see it in the right perspective.

It is but satan in us that suggests any kind of self-harm and we should never yield to this wicked suggestion.

I live in India, my younger son studied and lived in San Francisco. I have seen pictures of the Golden Gate bridge there. I think it is so beautiful, an engineering marvel. But just think how many try to use it wrongly, to kill themselves! I thought bridges were meant to help people cross, and not drown themselves, but alas! I was watching the movie ‘The Bridge’ where I actually saw some in the act – it’s so bad, such lovable souls perpetrating such a heinous act! I read that in one year alone, as many as 24 people terminated their lives by jumping down the bridge, and many more thought of, or attempted, it.

Can we blame the bridge for it, no – not any more than we can blame the knife for killing, or the atomic energy for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WW-II. Give the same knife to a surgeon and he will save a life, or you can similarly use well the same atomic energy in a nuclear power station – we just need the wisdom to meaningfully use the power of that scientific knowledge, that technology. Well, suicides occur everywhere; in India, many poor, debt-ridden farmers kill themselves by consuming handy insecticides – it’s sad and terrible.

The world is a school, life is all about learning, each experience is a lesson. Those who commit suicide are drop-outs. And what happens to students who drop out? They repeat the class.

We can appreciate how people with suicidal tendencies feel, the agony and frustration that they undergo. They need our love and encouragement. But they also need to understand that by making a timid escape from life by killing themselves unnaturally and cruelly, they will only repeat that ‘class’, with the disadvantage of an extra karmic debt for killing. A murder is a murder, let us realize, whether one kills another or oneself. Suicide, in a way, is the murder of the worst kind, because love like charity must begin at home, with oneself.

It is rather so selfish to run away from life like that. Everyone has problems. It is how we look them that decides whether they becomes a ‘ladder’ or a ‘snake’ in life’s game. Those we leave behind, were not having a cake-walk anyway; they had their challenges. If one had relationship problems with them, they must have had problems with that person too because it is usually mutual. By suddenly leaving them like that, one makes it even more difficult for them – more lonely and saddened.

Nor is there any fun for the person concerned. The whole thing is so sad but avoidable by just a change in the way we look at life and ourselves – one only needs to pause for a moment and take another perspective! We are not what we gain or lose here; my Master taught me these are just dream experiences. We need to keep identified with the observer or dreamer, not the observed or dreamed.

What then is the game behind this creation, what is the mystery? Is there God and if He is, what is He trying to get out of all this mess? Can there be a meaning to it all?

Why a perfect, loving God who sends loving, beautiful prophets like Krishna, Christ, Buddha and Mohammed to earth, permits such pain and suffering for so many, why doesn’t He interfere, instead of indifferently watching all this nonsense?

Why a loving God permits cruelty, pain and suffering? We often wonder why a God, so kind, merciful and omnipotent, still allows so much sorrow, suffering and cruelty in this world.

Well, this situation is our choice, not His. In any picture, there are light and dark shades; in the film shown by a projector, there is a mixture of light and shadow. To make a creation, God had to mix the darkness of delusion to His divine light – the One had to appear as many. You can’t make ornaments from pure gold anyway; you have to add a bit of copper.

This world is a play of mere appearances. What appears is not true, what is true does not appear so. Quantum physics now says the same thing about this world.

We can enjoy this play if we keep up our remembrance of a divine origin. Through ego and ignorance, by siding with the satan in our minds, we get too involved in this play of appearances and we think all this is ‘my’ show, all this is real. The moment the thoughts of ‘me’ and ‘mine’ come in, there is trouble.

But God gave us reason and the ability to develop deeper intuitive understanding so that we can escape the delusion and heal the situation. But we must make the right choices. We are, as a poet put it, made strong enough to stand but free to fall. If we choose to fall, why blame Him? Here is a story someone posted on the net that gives an insight by comparison.

A man visited a barber’s shop in his neighborhood to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they started a casual conversation. They talked about many things.

When they eventually touched on the perennial subject of God, the barber was quick to say, ‘I don’t believe that God exists.” ”How can you say that?” the customer asked. “Well, you only need to go out in the street to realize that He doesn’t exist. Tell me, if He did exist, would there be so much pain and suffering, so many sick, unhappy people and hapless, abandoned children? I can’t imagine a loving God who would permit these things, or be powerless to control them.”

The customer paused, he didn’t really want to start an endless argument. The barber finished his work and the customer paid up and left. Shortly after he stepped out, he saw a man in the street with long, matted, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt.

The customer quickly turned back and re-entered the barber’s shop. He said to the barber who had meanwhile started attending to another customer, “You know something? Barbers really do not exist.” This naturally surprised the barber. He asked, “How can you say that? I am a barber, right here, and did I not just work on you?”

“No, no!” the customer insisted. “You see, barbers do not exist because if they did, there would be no such people with long, dirty hair and untrimmed beards such as that man outside.”

“Ah, well, barbers of course do exist! What can I do, if people do not come to me?”

“Yes, Exactly!” affirmed the customer. “That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is people don’t turn to Him and do not look for Him. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world.”

So well, let us not ask the Lord to guide your footsteps if we are not willing to even move our feet. God will not declare from a roof-top that He exists. He is too shy and humble for that; besides, He has given us freedom to choose.

He wants to see if we would love Him just for His own sake, and not merely for the sake of His many gifts of life and loved ones, food and water, rain and sunshine….We fail to thank Him even as we consume these. Whether we believe or don’t believe that He exists, He loves us all, just the same, like even an earthly parent who would love his/her child, regardless of whether that love is reciprocated! Wouldn’t the hHeavenly Father’s love be much deeper, much more unconditional, than an earthly one’s?

Happiness is about making right choices. Depression comes from making the wrong choices. We only need to change our consciousness. Look for love – give it to receive it, seek God in the cave of your heart, count your blessings and be grateful for His many gifts, tame your ego…and you will see how beautiful the same life can be.

Well, let us now look at specific things we can do to fight depressive/suicidal tendencies:

1. Exercise everyday. Do anything – brisk walk or jogging, yoga, swimming, long cycling, gym workouts…a combination of brisk walk and yoga (especially, the 12-posture Surya Namaskar series) may really be the best.

2. Get minimum 15-20 minutes’ sunshine every day; choose an hour when the sunlight is reasonably strong – not weak or too strong.

3. Several times a day, do deep abdominal (diaphragmatic) breathing.

4. Eat plenty of seasonal greens/fruits and honey with almonds. Chewing almonds with honey, or slowly chewing previously water-soaked almonds followed by a glass of orange juice really helps.

5. Don’t just think positive – FEEL positive. Feel the blessings of life, be grateful for all that you have received. Think who digests your food, who ensures you do not forget to breathe and your heart does not forget to beat when you are deep asleep.

6. Do some work, keep busy but not too busy – take sufficient rest and sleep.

7. Avoid all addictions.

8. Keep affirming love and forgiveness to all, seek God’s forgiveness for all our ignorant acts.
Remember, what goes out, comes back. Send out only thoughts of love and compassion. If you just feel kind inside for others, if you inwardly affirm love, you will see them responding better and relationships will improve, even if you say nothing.

9. Learn and practise twice daily some Pranayama techniques – this is a very potent remedy for depressive tendencies.

10. As you slowly grow positive, meditate everyday.

Take care. Love yourself.

–

Hans is a chemical engineer  who  worked in sales/marketing for 28 years.  Thereafter, for the last 8 years, he has been a motivational speaker, yoga coach and corporate trainer. In his personal life, he has been practicing yoga-meditation for close to 25 years.

The following tips may be useful to make your life more interesting and thereby remove the emptiness that you feel.

1. Acquire a child like curiosity about life.
2. Pursue a hobby and try and learn as much as possible about it.
3. Spend your free time in community development without any expectations.
4. Take interest in other people and their happiness, howsoever small.
5. Smile and see how infectious it really is and how many people will open their hearts to you.
6. be charitable in your speech and actions.
7. Engage yourself in bettering your knowledge in fine arts or other related fields.
8. Play a game for the sake of the game and not for winning.
9. When wrong, apologize honestly.
10. Look at the sky and see its limitless expanse and potential.
11. See the dawn and the dusk and appreciate how naturally the world around us wakens and goes to sleep.
12. Appreciate nature.
13. Go to sleep wondering what you could do if you do wake up again.
14. Believe in the Almighty.
15. Say a prayer with your heart in it.

And finally and most importantly, you live life once, live it to its brim.

It is by no means difficult nor by any standard easy to change your thought process that has been long set. However, you can attain all the above points plus more, that you too can develop, thereby enriching your living.

This much awaited spring is a time of fulfillment. There is something sacred about this energy. Heavens are poised to inject their magnificence into our land. New sprouting leaves and grasses (which are yet to raise their heads) upraise every local heart. This magic touch of nature is literally poised to sweep out any dross and odd bits of morose energy from every heart. The vitality of spring has that power. It is indeed a time of great uplift! We are now emerging from a winter cycle of suspension of growth into evolution! Yes, we are almost there! It is time for movement, change, growth, and newness.

The energy of spring influences people in a very profound way. Though Ladakhis are always a very friendly people, I see that their smiles have broadened. Long dark winters, with short days, and hardly any sunlight do take their toll on people. As they say, sun not only gives us heat and light, it also affects our moods. But all that is past now.  Just as a seed pushes aside the dirt and stones to come into light, it is time for us to pick ourselves up, dust off all the lethargy and celebrate our growth. The beginning of spring is a great time for renewal of energies. It is time to clear away heavy energies built around us and become light at heart. The sun is definitely brighter and stronger now, urging us to shine in all our magnificence!!

We can use spring as a beautiful metaphor for human life. When life seems at its worst, with no visible hope, spring tells us to know beyond any doubt that just beneath the surface of our dark reality lies an abundance of vibrant shoots, just biding their time and raring to push their way up: to sprout, flourish, and blossom; provided we let them do so.

Unfortunately many amongst us block our growth through negative feelings and emotions. Toxic ingredients like fear, worry, and stress don’t let spring come into our lives. If only we can cultivate faith, optimism and joy; we will grow in all our glory. It is time to think about that!

As I go out for my walks, I observe profound changes. Life in all its Divine abundance and diversity is awakening from the slumber of winter. It reminds me of my own awakening from deep sleep. As the earth is getting charged by the energy of the sun, I feel a new energy sending a tingle down my spine. As nature readies itself to pursue a new cycle, I gain understanding of eternal cycle of life. Spring embodies new beginnings and new hope. For me it is a ‘new’ expression of Divine love which was present during the long, cold, dark and dreary nights of winter as well. Life existed even then, but it existed as a potential. The way it exists in all of us; a potential waiting to be realized. In some of us it is not apparent but it is there all the same. Nature is never partial to just some of its components. It gives us equal opportunity for greater aspirations and inner movements. The sun shines forth on all new beginnings!!

I feel so fortunate to be soaking in nature unspoilt by human hands. I feel my consciousness merging with the glorious energies around me, and I realize that spring is a part of me. The light is shining ever brighter inside me. When I sit down to meditate on the river bank (right outside my house), I get the feeling that spring is not just an outer event. It’s ‘we’ (yes, that includes all of us, including you), who are about to happen. It is ‘we’ we are waiting for. We are on the very cusp of discovering ourselves. We are too modest to admit it. For far too long we have covered our magnificence under a blanket of snow (so to speak). We are too used to looking outside of us in awe and wonderment. The spring is asking us to look at our own worthy selves. We are pregnant with promise. We are full of vitality. We wear auras of many colours, and we have the power which is one with ALL THAT IS, including the spring!

Yes, there’s spring in the air and hope in the heart! What more could one ask for?????

River rafting too is a sport that very subtly gives us an insight into life. Geared with our life jackets we venture into the Ganges for river rafting, all set to face the rapids that come our way. There are some rapids that literally throw us off balance, yet, we survive the rapid. As we drift along in the calm river again, there is excitement building up to gear up for the next rapid. Having experienced the highs of river rafting, I quietly sat by the Ganges that evening and watched it flow by. The lamps lit by many pilgrims reflecting a beautiful yellow orange flame on the river had something else to say to me. Life too gives you its share of rapids – how do you react? How often do you say why me?

So true, I thought to myself. Life’s rapids come to us in the forms of various experiences – some pleasant and some not so pleasant. The pleasant ones we accept willingly while the unpleasant ones we crib about. Come to think of it, how boring life would be if it was a straight smooth sail drifting along. It is the rapids in our lives that strengthen us, gives us a high, a low. Growth happens when we go through the rapids in our lives.

These are the joy rides of our lives. Life is sometimes smooth going round and round like the merry go round, sometimes like the giant wheel – up and down and up again. But at the end of it all, it’s nothing but a joy ride.

So, enjoy life, enjoy the joy ride.

The ad shows a corporate executive with a sad de-motivated face telling himself, ‘I always wanted to resign on a Monday morning.’  Then it shows a senior corporate executive sitting in a board meeting looking through the window to the rainfall outside telling himself, ‘I always wanted to chase the rain.’ Then a guy telling himself with a surfboat in hand, ‘I always wanted to swim with the whales.’ Then it shows a pregnant woman in a hospital saying, ‘I wanted to take a break for a year and see the world.’

We all, at some point of time in life, have felt this way. At least I have for many years. On every Monday morning I asked myself if this was the life I wanted to live and felt like quitting it all and reclaiming my life.

It’s true that we don’t lead the life we wanted to live. We feel the pinch everyday but we still continue living the same life. Statistics in the USA sometime back showed that almost 50% of all heart attacks between age 25 and 45 happened on a Monday morning. The reason is that we are stuck in work and jobs which we don’t want to do and thus there’s no passion left in life.

I always think of those famous words from a friend’s letter which I’m sure we all have heard it: ‘First I was dying to finish high School and start college and then I was dying to finish college and start working. Then I was dying to marry and have children. And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so I could go back to work. But then I was dying to retire. And now I’m dying and suddenly I realized I forgot to live.’

Please let that not happen to you and do something to reclaim your life.

There is always that defining moment which can be called the crossroad moment when you decide to reclaim your life. It happened with me one day when I went for a life-enhancing course. As part of the process, I went for a nature walk. I suddenly saw beauty of the sunset and realized I was missing out on life and the beauty of this world. There and then I decided to reclaim my life back. Today I’m not living someone else’s dream but I can proudly say to a very large extend I’m leading a life of my dream though it’s a long journey.

But do you want to wait for that crossroad moment to reclaim your life. NO – seize the moment now. Please don’t be a passenger in this journey called life, drive your own life – live life!

Have no regrets in life

You ask any person who’s a success and living life of their dream. At some point they had to take a decision to move towards something they wanted in spite of the fear. You will never regret taking risks in life. If there is no risk there is no success. Last week I was reading a recent post of Robin Sharma in his blog where he said the last question before your death is always ‘Who did I become?’ Let that last moment not be a regret for having become what I never wanted to become.
                                                                            
Enjoy living in the present moment

Even if you are on your path and following your calling in life you should always live in the present moment. You should judge your life less and enjoy it more. All wise people see life as a great gift and don’t waste it on trivialities.

I remember knowing a person a retired brigadier who was living a life as a community teacher and whenever I used to ask him how was he, he used to say, ‘I’m here.’ It basically meant I’m grateful to be alive and acknowledge this gift.

Be honest to yourself

In life, be true to your self and live with intention. Even if you have found your true calling in life you need to live with intention to consistently and regularly ask three critical life questions:

Am I following my calling in life?
Am I being true to myself?
Am I being the person I want to be in life?

The late Michael Landon, movie star and great humanitarian, once said:

‘Somebody should tell us right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every single day. Do it, I say! Whatever you want to do – do it now! Carpe diem. Seize the day! And expect miracles, because you are one.’

Thus I’ll again say, reclaim your life everyday and enjoy this miracle called life.

My neeeeeed to dance MUST be resurrected. My life depends on it. I don’t need therapy or an intensive to get back in touch with that fire. I just need to invite it back. A simple 1 and 2 and 3 and dance!

Even if we have continuously repressed or neglected the truest aspects of our being, that energy can come back into our lives with only the slightest invitation. Because, that which is true rests easy and hopeful – like flowers rest in winter, knowing that spring always comes. There’s no need to fret over faded passion. Your mojo and moxy are always within reach.

What part of you would you like to revive? The part of you that was playful – no matter who you were with; the part of you that planted a big smooch on your partner when they came home; the part of you that believed the world was waiting for you to show up? Put a name to that part: free, moxy, audacious, fearless, theatrical, hearty…and make that your word for the day, the week, this season. You don’t need a ‘revival plan’ or an action list – just one word, invited back with all your heart.

If it’s part of your spirit, even dormant passion won’t take much to ignite. Vitality is a muscle memory, like riding a bike. Or dancing on tables.

Friendship is a good example of intangible joy. When we are young, we love our friends. Sometimes, we even fight for and support our friends to the chagrin of our kith and kin. We learn from our peers and not seers. But as times change and needs change we look upon friends as a burden.

When we are young, we have a myriad intangible joys:

l  A dance in the rain.

l  Playing chess or snake and ladder games.

l  Sharing a thoughtful quote with a friend.

l  Sending a funny forward mail.

l  Organizing a potluck.

l  Meeting old friends and relatives at a wedding.

l  Or just sharing sweet nothings with a fellow human being.

As we grow, we need to buy a house, pay monthly instalments for life insurance, and manage an insecure job.  So intangible joys become joys of the past. And people who ask for intangible joys are branded as childish.

Stephen Covey, in one of his books, explores a nice facet of intangible joys. He reasons that different people have different needs or versions of intangible joys. So your son may need a warm back rub when you are busy telling him a story with a moral. A friend may be expecting a phone call when you are chatting with her on Skype. An employee may be looking for heartfelt appreciation when you give him a scroll of honour for excellent performance.

So, to avoid a mismatch between give and receive, you need to be prudent and know what type of intangible joy your friend, colleague, or relative needs or prefers. Otherwise, your effort is not recognized by the receiving party as an intangible joy. How do you find out without asking your friend, what his/her intangible joy is? Watch out for that wide smile or giggle, sparkling eyes, tapping feet, subtle messages, or a blush!!!

Now that you know the intangible need of your friend, tune yourself to his or her joy. Let go of your ego and your style of give and take! Enjoy ageless intangible joys now!!!

The dictionary tells us that gratitude is “the expression of gratefulness and thanks” but this doesn’t begin to convey its real effect. Here are an alternative set of definitions.

Gratitude stops you taking your life for granted and helps you realize how many good things you have in your life.

Gratitude makes others feel better.

Gratitude makes you feel better. In the words of an Arabian proverb, “The hand that gives the roses always keeps some of the scent.”

Gratitude raises your awareness of things around you.

Gratitude is easy, quick, and free.

Gratitude is an instant blues-breaker and stress-reliever.

Gratitude changes your view of so-called “bad” things.

Gratitude frees you from petty annoyances.

Gratitude inspires you.

Gratitude puts your thoughts and feelings on a high vibration level that in turn attracts back to you more things to be grateful for.

Gratitude nourishes the soul.

Gratitude is like compound interest on money in the bank: the more you put in, the more you get out.

Gratitude is a spiritual act because it acknowledges that the origin of all good things is a source outside ourselves.

Gratitude puts you on a direct line to God.

That’s the “what” of gratitude. To show you the “how”, here are three things you can do to make the gratitude attitude a firm fixture in your life.

1. Create a thank bank.

A thank bank is simply a place where you can jot down all the things that you are grateful for in your life. You can split the bank into different accounts such as family, surroundings and work, and then simply start writing out your thanks until you stop. Put your list somewhere safe and pull it out when you’re feeling down and you’ll instantly change your mood.

2. Show gratitude quietly.

Don’t turn gratitude into a promotional or motivational tool. Too much thanks is as ineffective as too little. Instead, express your thanks in quiet ways: a thought, a prayer, a one-on-one word, a note of appreciation. Give people gifts of thanks that aren’t bought at shops: a bit of your time, a sacrifice, something valuable to you. Remember the story in the Bible of the widow, who gave a small money gift in thanks even though it was worth everything to her.

3. Always replace the 3 C’s with the 3 A’s.

If you work or manage others, and sometimes feel the need to use one of the 3 C’s – complaining, condemning, and criticizing – replace them with the 3 A’s of accepting, acknowledging, and appreciating. Accept people for who they are; acknowledge them for what they do; and appreciate them for just being around. Remember that when you appreciate others, your reputation and respect appreciates too.

There’s nothing complicated about gratitude. It’s something we can all do. We so often don’t do it because we forget, because we focus on the few so-called bad things in our lives, and because we take the wonderful things for granted. So change your life. Put gratitude just below your level of consciousness, and every day will become one of joy and delight.

Very depressing. Made me very uninterested about life. All I see around are just copies of DNA trying their best to survive. War is a laughable affair. So is the desire of a new bike. We are a temporary blip, registered nowhere in the universe.

And then on Sunday morning I just got home from gym, and as I was parking my bike, the apartment’s security came running, with a bright yellow lump held in hand. A love bird, obviously escaped from someone’s cage and later picked up by a kite for breakfast, fell on its head when it was being carried overhead. A direct fall to the ground would probably have been fatal; but the bird was injured enough. I took it home.

Its heart was beating too fast, and it wasn’t able to lift its head. I don’t know if the neck was broken, and I thought it’d have been instant death if that was the case. Taking it in one palm, I held some water cupped in the other, and much to my relief, it stretched itself to slurp. After some sips, it seemed to have calmed down but refused to eat bread crumbs I offered. It needed medical attention, so I called PFA and they took it to their hospital.

The bird is doing well now.

This is crazy. Why there has to be an equilibrium of everything? Nursing an injured bird changed it all — I love life again!

Cheerleaders are said to be a small crowd across the globe, and it makes them very special and unique for what they do – fly across continents to be at sports venues just to spread cheer, warmth, positive energy, smiles and laughter. So, wherever they cheer, they are an epitome of what all of us aspire to be… just plain happy within and outside.

The power of their presence is felt when you see them cheering the crowds – you and me included.  Does anything cheer you more, bring more joy, more vivacity during these matches than these cheerleaders? They dance and giggle through you TV screen irrespective of how the match is poised. Whichever team you and me may patronize in the game, we are all on one-side – the side of the cheerleaders……

These cheerleaders are not just bone and flesh, pretty and chic…. In each of them is a teacher, a nurse, a corporate executive, an airline hostess, a travel guide, an architect…but above all, they are cheer-leaders and their goal is to spread as much joy and cheer cutting across color, creed, and continents. This is the power of positive energy at its best.  If each one of us, above all we do in our lives, decides to imbibe cheerleading, this world will be a greater place than it is now.

Each of these cheer leaders have their own set of problems, they have overcome many hurdles in life than any of you and me, they have their successes, failures and setbacks, and in some cases even insurmountable tragedies.

BUT they are a determined lot – put all of their personal life aside, and be here and now, only to make you and me smile, laugh, feel happy, feel good, be a bundle of positive emotions.  Believe me, even the critics of these cheerleaders, get infected  with their joyful emotions. THAT is the power of spreading positive energy, smile, happiness, and joy. We all must imbibe a little bit of cheerleading in our daily schedule.

Amongst them, each of these cheerleaders invests so much of time and energy in staying and looking to be what they are…. Be it keeping their good and happy looks, an ever smiling disposition, a strong mind and body to take them across countries, and make a million and more spectators reciprocate the same positive energy and joy. I don’t think there could be any other small group akin to these wonderful cheerleaders. Cheerleaders are power packed positive emotions their best. They  are teamwork at its best. Each one of these cheerleaders is from a different place, nation, speaks a different language, has a unique set of life goals and career aspirations. But when it comes to their ‘here and now’ goal of cheering, they are the best team, move as one, dance as one, and smile and make you smile as one…a cohesive and close-knit team that performs only to accomplish the group’s goal to cheer. These are great management lessons in how teamwork ought to be.

Cheerleaders spread joy and happiness not to one sport…  They do the same for cricket, baseball, football and any other sport which would want to get them to cheer the crowd.  That is an example of a vision statement, irrespective of what is done… a vision to spread joy and cheer, and positive vibes for a huge audience.  So, here we learn the power of having a personal or corporate vision.

Let’s all benefit from a few good life lessons from these cheerleaders!

–

Muralidharan is an HR practitioner and a recruitment professional. A strong believer in spreading cheer and positivity, Murali currently works out of Chennai and is a voracious reader and a prolific writer.

So many people are looking for it: their big life purpose.

Becoming YOU is your purpose.  You’re the very purpose of your existence. Realizing what lights your fire and floats your boat — THAT’s your life purpose. What else could it be?

If it gives you true joy {not the seemingly happy-high that is fleeting, but the reliable, always-there kind of satisfaction} to…grow a family or a garden; to help people feel powerful – whether by fueling their bank accounts or working their bodies or writing their stories; to make people laugh, to commune with nature, to make things a little more beautiful wherever you go; to feed; to stir it up, to clean it up, to look on the bright side; compassionate citizenry, non-stop exploration, or pure pleasure-seeking…then, by God, that’s your life purpose!

Your life purpose is what you say it is.

Who could tell you otherwise?

–

My conscience? What was that? Years after being a corporate citizen in an overly competitive world, I thought I had rid myself of it a long time ago! My nearly four year old daughter it was indeed, standing firmly in her place instead, tugging at my eyelids and admonishing me in the most mature parent like voice she could manage “Common daddy, why are your sleeping? It’s a beautiful day outside!”

One of the great joys of being a father is to be greeted by an angel in the morning and I reached out with both arms pulling her down and buried my face in her tummy making her squeal with delight and propping her upon my knees, enquired “So what does my sweetheart want to do today?” That did it. The litany commenced, “I want to go out, I want to ride in a bus, I want to go in that plane, I want to go to the beach, I want to go to Goa, I want to go shopping, I want to go and play, I want to go to my friend’s house, I want to go to dance school, I want to see that movie…” And she meant them all! So began a day that as it progressed promised to burst at the seams, remarkably with more vigour and fun ending in an energy so high that almost could not be run down!  Amazed aren’t you? Well so was I, but I recalled my own youth and how much we did and lived in one day, each day at a time. Powerful lives lived at full stretch. The cup really did run over.

So why do we live within the cup of our lives, why not let it run over any more. We seem to be happy with living contained lives, within the sanctuary of safety, responsibilities, focus, rationality, reasonableness, moderation and therefore mediocrity! Perhaps without realizing it, we have slid down the greasy pole of achievement and success to a level of happy mediocrity where life seems to be assured and the peril of striving to stay at the top is swapped with the comforting lull of “consolidation”. Something like hanging up the wanderer’s backpack and parking your high-roads bike, for a log-house in a meadow and a stately sedan to carry the growing midriff of a “settled” life.

Seems interesting and the right thing to do at first, until you realize what you give up. We give up the spirit to explore our world, to savour the thrill that risk brings, the ability to live with less and still feel like a king, to give freely from what we have because there’s nothing to miss when it’s gone, to delight with the discoveries of new avenues of living, the experience of experimenting, the savage need to conquer, the untamed cry of the rebel against institutionalizing and corralling an exuberant life into straight-jacketed mellowness,  no longer daring to dream but dreaming to dare, no longer at the cutting edge of a razor sharp life, but on the blunted butt of balanced sensibility.

After 18 years of driving a car with the four wheels of balance, I decided to buy myself a bike once again. An Enfield 350cc Thunderbird. Why? Because I need to feel the wind whip my hair again, the rain splatter against my face, to bend and twist my thickened torso once again as I weave in and out of traffic, around sharp curves and the thrill of the balance between machine and man! And the almost orgasmic joy of straddling the roar and throb of the powerful engine, extending an almost phallic fantasy of machismo. Pure adrenaline indeed! Brief moments of it are enough to energize my day beyond belief. The ageing adult reliving the fantasies of an adolescent, one may say, but that was when all the undiluted fun and the raw power of life lay!

Mating the maturity and assuredness of the sober adult with the reckless and fiery spirit of the unfettered child can be one of the most rejuvenating experiences in living life powerfully again. Because this time around we have more options and are more capable of unlocking sensitive doors skillfully rather than battering them down with the brute force of unbridled and brash youth. We can love without letting lust intervene too early, live with risk rather than risk life, learn to unlearn and relearn instead of learning by rote, plan and do, rather than “plan to do” or only “do and undo”, acquire and give away, rather than snatch and hide, succeed and support instead of fail and flail, aspire and acknowledge achievement rather than compete and crush the competition, conquer and democratize rather than capture and dictate, build shining towers of shared success rather than colonies of mediocrity walled within the confines of meagerness.

Making life count and making a difference is the way to making life deliver delight. Powerful living is not a dream. It is an aspiration in action. Inscribe your own shining life epitaph by crossing every point on the bucket-list you write with the blood of buoyant youth, the will of the achieving adult and the wisdom of the old.

–

Dexter J Valles, business and life trainer renowned for his programs under the “At the Steering Wheel of Life” and “Winning Edge” banners, is CEO of Valmer International, a Mumbai-based management consultancy. Contact him at www.valmarinternational.com or http://valmar.page.tl

I was having a chat and when posting my profile I finished with the sentence that is the title of this article.

Indeed to become an artist in life is a tough task.

The core issue is to have a balance between work and success and to allow to be tickled by life. That is truly an art!

Occidental culture and values coupled with capitalism and unlimited consumerism make the day-to-day activities an endless search to increase incomes if you are a compulsive consumer and need to have the latest digital model TV set, the latest model of a mobile phone, the car of the year and so on.

Even if we believe in a simple life with simple habits, they cost money and not a small amount at that. If we want that our kids have a good education that is expensive. If we want health insurance that is also very expensive. This is just talking about some basic necessities.

If we want to read a good book, nowadays, they are also expensive. I consider culture a basic necessity.

I would be able to continue this list on and on for pages and pages, but an American economist synthesised it very well saying: “There is no free lunch.”

So to develop the balance between needed income and quality of life is without doubt an art and more so if you want to be tickled by life.

But in spite of all difficulties, we never should give up our dreams.

An inspiring poem, from Jose Luis Borges, will keep you on track, and strengthen your objectives to become an artist. Here are a few lines from it:

Moments

If I could live again my life,

In the next РI’ll try,

- to make more mistakes,

I won’t try to be so perfect,

I’ll be more relaxed,

I’ll be more full Рthan I am now,

In fact, I‚Äôll take fewer things seriously…

–

Mario is a seasoned manager and entrepreneur with a broad technical background, coupled with multi-cultural experience and multi-lingual skills, co-founded two high tech start-ups, and now is developing a non-profit project to leverage globally the business development of small entrepreneurs.

They obviously didn’t bother to check the map to see where Hawaii was located and were oblivious of any logistics that might be involved to keep up that promise.

2014 looked conveniently far at that moment of time and this promise was made with the strong conviction that the good things in life were yet to happen and it was possible for us to achieve anything we wanted to when we grew up!

I was obviously one of the friends and today even after fifteen years we haven’t forgotten the promise…but now that we know exactly where Hawaii is on the world map…it’s not so simple to reach there! And by 2014 we’ll probably have seven tickets to pay for instead of two!

Suddenly, the date seems to be just round the corner and the thought of breaking the promise really makes me sad. I really hope we can make it…but then a doubt takes over my desire to do so.

Like everyone else at our age we’re caught neck deep in our routines–trying to keep up with the pace of our lives. Right now it’s very easy to go with the flow and forget things that matter but can’t be worked out. We forget what we wanted, keep working hard for other things, get tired and then one day again remind ourselves of where we started from and again keep going in circles.

And that’s why may be it’s important that we keep telling ourselves that unless we imagine and work towards targets…life will have no meaning!

Sometimes I wonder where my earnest thoughts have disappeared. Why is it so difficult now to believe that anything is possible?

I can make it happen so I should not give up! And this should apply to everything that I do in life.

Just like it’s possible for Peter Pan to fly with the power of his happy thoughts …I too wish that someday even I can Fly…to Hawaii!

–

Currently working as a Supply Chain Manager, Bhavna is a follower of Nicheren Daishonin’s Buddhism and has based her life on the Lotus Sutra of ‘Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo’ to win over any situation in life.

We all have sensitive moments, times when we take life to heart. Sometimes, when sensitivity dominates, we feel and sense our way through the day, aiming for the miraculous place just before feeling fully spills over into feeling too much.

Cue the circus music.

What do I do when this balancing act, for whatever reason, can’t be sustained and I spill into the net, landing with my arms folded across my chest and a scowl on my face, peeved, frustrated, or sad?

The best and most immediate restorer of balance I know is a jolt of joy, delivered in the form of a list of things that make me happy. I go to my room, close the door, pull out my bliss reminders list and start reading. The list is pages and pages long – long enough to suck me into its vortex. No matter what the circumstance, reading the list never fails to shift my mood toward the positive. I feel my body lighten, and my mood along with it. The bliss list has the power of a catapult, and I’m airborne again in no time.

The blue dress and matching coat I had as a kid. Maps. Musée Fesch in Ajaccio. Campfires. Practicing whistling in the tent during the sleet storm. Monkey puzzle trees. The look my nephew gave me. Pistachios. Illustrated journals.

Try it for yourself. Use a format you’re drawn to. Write the list into a blank book, for example, or keep the list on a computer and print it out. As you list joys, make them as personal as possible. Mine your past. Catalogue the joys of all your senses. Get specific. Keep adding to the list. Come back to it often for a lift.

–

Grace Kerina founded www.HighlySensitivePower.com to provide tools and encouragement to empower sensitivity, including the Healthy Boundaries Handbook and the Creativity Prompts Compendium. You can reach her at grace@highlysensitivepower.com.

It has truly been a life changing journey for me since the moment my daughter was born. Fatherhood has been a truly transformative experience.

Thought it would be fun to share some of the personal growth lessons I have learned in my journey of last three years.

1.    Always keep smiling: When kids find themselves in a difficult situation they usually smile and work around the issue. There are some things in life we just can’t predict.  Even with a great deal of planning, it’s possible that life will throw at us knotty moments. We need to greet those moments with a sense of good humor and proactive fascination. You will always find that smile on a child’s face whatever the situation be. It’s said a child smiles 1700 times in a day, a young adult smiles 17 times and a matured adult hardly smiles. We should just be like a kid and face every moment of our life with a smile.

2.    Physical activity keeps you healthy: Kids are into some physical activity all the time, not because it’s healthy, but because it’s fun. They participate in sports, climb trees, run etc. It’s also said in the Puranas and I closely watched it in my six-month-old daughter that for the first six months a child is always found in any of the yogic postures and mudras. That’s also precisely the reason why in the first six months the mental growth of a child is maximum. Just watching them in the initial months can comfortably teach you all the postures of padma sadhana which is the best practice of a healthy living.

3.    Love without expectation: Any form of love that a child shows is the purest form of expression. When a child hugs you, kisses you, looks at you with love, it’s 100% natural and it’s done with complete genuineness and without any expectation. Thus a kid teaches us everyday life’s greatest lesson ‘LOVE’ and how to express it.

4.    Living the present moment: Kids live by their instincts openly and without hesitation. They are enthusiastic about life, eager to learn, and curious about everything. They are not worried about the past or anxious about the future. They live every moment with awareness, enthusiasm and complete consciousness. Watching them teaches you one of the biggest lessons of success, give 100% to the present moment.

5.    Dance for yourself: It’s about enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Put a kid in a puddle and watch him cheerfully splash around. Or just tickle a kid until he is beet red from laughter. All of these are simple pleasures that children love to partake in. I think the biggest sign of a life well lived is to be able to dance at anytime, anywhere as if no one’s watching. Children do it all the time.

I’m looking forward to many more years together of learning with my two teachers of life my angels Pia and Dia. I’ll also suggest each one of you to watch kids closely, learn from them for they are life’s greatest teachers.

–

Kaushik is a Business Training and Development professional working with a well known MNC bank in India. His interests are reading, travelling, trekking, spirituality, photography, cultural and social activism. He has travelled extensively and seen all states of India and most of the Himalayas.

To heck with it.

I’ve got a first-class ticket to the back of the line, and that’s where you’ll find me. I’ll be the one hanging out on that little porch at the back of the caboose, dangling my bare feet over the edge, propping my chin on the low railing, taking in the wide, glorious receding view.

Will you join me? Here, I’ve spread out a little picnic. Help yourself. We’ve got everything from carrot sticks and hummus to strawberry scones with butter. Take an embroidered cloth napkin and a chunky pottery plate. Lay down your burdens, pull up an all-cotton handmade cushion for your tush, sit here next to me, and let’s relax.

Now that we’re so far off the radar no one’s even looking for us, what do we do? Frankly, nothing much for a few hours. We watch the sky and the mesmerizing pattern of the railroad ties as they unfurl from beneath the back of the train. We take in the beauty and the fresh air (it’s a very long train), and the light at play across the land. We take turns sighing with relief.

Then we look at each other and giggle. Suddenly, everything’s funny. When we’ve laughed so much our bellies ache, we stop and watch the horizon recede. After a while longer, we talk. Our conversation winds, but we follow. We talk without a goal, except to discover each other and ourselves. We talk with our mouths and our eyes and our silences.

Then the train rises up a hill and trees meet overhead, making a tunnel that takes our breath away and makes speaking superfluous.
Hanging out at the back of the caboose is about navigating by the compass inside rather than the push for speed. It’s about getting happy, being whole, discovering the best me I can be, living my own dreams, connecting deeply.
The last edge of the sun slips away as the train banks around a long curve. In the fading light I reach for your hand.
–

Grace Kerina founded www.HighlySensitivePower.com to provide tools and encouragement to empower sensitivity, including the Healthy Boundaries Handbook and the Creativity Prompts Compendium. You can reach her at grace@highlysensitivepower.com.

You should really choose to live like that. I choose to see all the small “tickles” that life gives me, and by the fact that I actively choose to see them.

I choose to live my life forward, and I choose happiness actively every day. I choose to see positive angles in life, rather than focusing on what doesn’t work.

Time and again I have the joy to be confirmed in that I made the right choice. I’ve been contacted by the most amazing and inspiring people who enjoy my words and actions.

Can you get happier yet – yes, of course, you can! By actively choosing happiness on your own part, you will infect others. Isn’t it just fantastic? It’s as simple as that, choose to do what makes you happy, find bright spots around you and then it spreads like rings in water.

Find the place that gives you energy, and bathe in it! I dance hip-hop. Yes believe or not, a coach in her mid-40s is dancing hip hop. O)

It truly is to be “tickled by life” in abundance – to be with people who share the joy of dancing. It’s awesome to give it my all at training and then some at the tournaments.

I admit it – I’m really not the most competitive person in the world. If I did my very best on the floor, the medals become less important. I just get such an inner joy that makes me so high that it itches.

Everybody would ideally want a gold medal. Not getting one can be disappointing but not for me. If I know I have danced the best I could, I am just so “tickled by life” that everything else fades.

What turns on you energy in your life? How are you tickled by life?

Please remember that joy is infectious. O)

–

Karin Ludvigsen is CEO at the coaching company Phokus in Denmark. She is a certified business and life coach. She is tickled by life by dancing hip-hop in her spare time. Feel free to contact her at: karin@phokus.dk.

How often we have seen many an individual start with a bang and then slowly the energy levels drop, work now becomes more of a job and not a picnic, it is more of a duty towards one’s family and company but no longer an enjoyment. There could be many factors but primarily one factor is – lack of enthusiasm. This one lack, if dealt with and taken care of, can help one realize all their dreams.
Life can be an easy cakewalk if one is enthusiastic about almost everything in life – right from the time you wake up to the time you fall asleep. If one is enthusiastic about each moment in one’s life, one lands up welcoming every single moment with open arms and not dread another moment, another meeting, another…

Moreover, enthusiasm is highly contagious. So just imagine, if you are enthusiastic about your job, your life, you meet up with a large number of people from various walks of life and pass on your contagious enthusiasm to all, wouldn’t this world be a better place for all?

In fact, enthusiasm is not just about having a positive attitude, it’s about walking the talk. In your enthusiasm you convey a passion for whatever you do, your confidence  and belief in what you do and last but not the least  the people you come in contact with respond positively too and enjoy your company.

One wonders how to sustain enthusiasm? Since the degree of one’s motivation is directly in proportion to the amount of enthusiasm, one has to keep the fire burning all the time.

Follow these simple steps to keep your enthusiasm level high all the time:

1] Wake up each morning with the decision to choose happiness.
2] Go for a long walk alone, or work out in the gym or whatever suits you.
3] Out of the 24 hours, spend just ten minutes by yourself, close your eyes and visualize your dream and where you want to be in life.
4] Make just that one call a day to an aunt or uncle or any one in the family or to friends whom you have not spoken to for a long time. Their happiness on hearing your voice will make you happy and your enthusiasm will multiply.
5] While traveling, listen to your favorite music.
6] Yesterday is history, tomorrow is unknown, this moment is where one is and it is your present, give it your best shot.
7] Make a to-do list and tick each one as it gets done, you begin to feel more enthusiastic about the next job to be done.
8] Believe in your self and know that you can achieve what your mind has already achieved.
9] There must be at least one person whom you can hug every day. Touch can work wonders.
10] Remember that what you give out, comes back to you many fold, so give out your heartfelt enthusiasm and you stand to gain so much more.

So now that one knows how to sustain enthusiasm, go ahead prepare for a great day, make that call, and  realize your dream.

–

Arpita Ghosh conducts various  training modules on communication skills, goal-setting,  developing leadership skills, Life is A Blank Canvass – Create Your Own Picture, Follow Your Heart and many others at college and corporate level.

How can you be successful if you’re living life through the eyes, or values, of another?

What’s wrong with you, eh!…

Actually, the question you should be asking yourself is this one: what’s *right* with you? It really is better to accentuate the positive, just as it’s equally essential, if not more so, to love yourself too.

Yes, it’s love (not money) that makes the world go around. And, whilst it’s important that you love your partner, love your friends and family and even love your neighbour, it’s much more important that you love yourself.

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” — Buddha

You are unique after all. And when you love yourself, you give of your best, and then you allow others to love you also.

Remember, you know more today than you did yesterday. You are one day wiser. And, tomorrow, you will make the same progress in life. Isn’t that great to know?

“Whoever you are, there is some younger person who thinks you are perfect. There is some work that will never be done if you don’t do it. There is someone who would miss you if you were gone. There is a place that you alone can fill.” — Jacob M. Braude

And – thank you Jacob! – you will have also taken another step forward in your life-path. A path that will have much more purpose and potential if you truly believe in yourself.

“You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” — Steve Jobs

But it must be *your* path – as I’m sure Mr Jobs would agree – and *your* goals.

And you must not be deflected from what you are trying to achieve in life, no matter how ridiculous it may sound to someone else. Let them live their life by their rules and their hopes, whilst you should live by yours.

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain

And never listen to anyone who tells you that you can’t.

‘Can’t’ is a negative word that has achieved very little of note. ‘Can’, on the other had, is more or less responsible for everything great that has ever been achieved in this world.

“The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it.” — Chinese proverb

Yes, ‘can’ allows you to be (and trust) yourself; enables you to be the best person that you can be. And sometimes your best can intimidate or annoy someone else’s worst. Ignore them. You only have one life, remember, and the clock is ticking…

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss

Happiness awaits us all, I’m sure of it, just as soon as we stop pursuing it, and start to recognise that happiness is already within our reach, waiting for us to allow it into our lives. Happiness awaits.

“The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.” — Erasmus

Happiness is simply accepting who you are, and recognising what you have achieved in life and what you can still achieve.

Happiness is, and always will be, about the moment; it cannot be pursued.

So I say: Be happy, be yourself!

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Steve M Nash believes that you are your own self help guru. And that’s why he created http://www.SelfHelpCollective.com – to let you help yourself, and help others too in the process. You can find more inspirational quotes here – http://www.selfhelpcollective.com/inspirational-quotes.html