Yes, I am asking “Are You Playing On Your Unique Strength”? There are people telling you that “You are Unique”. But I am asking you, are you really unique or do you really want to become unique? These days uniqueness is a desire, but people do not know how to use their natural gift of uniqueness.

Have you thought, why this happens?

Schooling

Schooling happens to create semblance and order as society needs generalization and categorization. This is the reason every child has to go through the same teaching style and the same subjects. 99% of the schools are working on developing Logic, Language, Rational and Planning part of the child’s brain i.e. the left hemisphere of the brain. Very few schools in the world work on the right hemisphere of the brain where Music, Intuition, Emotions, Creativity and Holistic perception resides. Each child is subjected to the same exam and they have to pass every exam before they can be promoted to the next class. So, if you are a musician you have to still solve mathematics, physics and chemistry till a certain grade. There is no school where children who have musical talent can be groomed, keeping music as the primary subject and other subjects written in a way that right-brain dominant children can understand them easily. A generalized way of teaching kills the child’s uniqueness at the budding stage.

Social Pressure

By the time you come to youth, you already have set parameters of success. You are chasing a dream which is given to you by your society and which is not really yours. Most of you might want to become a commercial success instead of a professional success. Just ask, who told you that financial success is so important? Why no one told us how much money is enough for us? Do we realize that these thoughts came to us from the society and unknowingly we are fulfilling society’s expectations? There is a constant unknown pressure on everyone’s head to match standards set by the society. In this, your uniqueness takes a massive hit or in a worst case scenario you forget who you really are.

Role Modelling

In the starting phase of your youth, you are already imitating and copying your idols or role models. You are encouraged by your family, school, and society to idolize someone or to become like someone. Once you start copying someone, your uniqueness further goes down. You can get inspired by someone’s qualities and you try to imbibe those into your personality – this is a good idea but copying someone’s manners, dressing style, hairstyle, etc. is not going to make you your idol. But what is sure to happen is that you will lose your uniqueness.

In these times when everyone wants you to become like someone and to become financially independent, is it advisable to work on your uniqueness? Is uniqueness really a gift?

These are very important, appropriate questions since your personality and success is judged by comparing them with someone else’s. So, is uniqueness really a gift or a recipe to fail? It is true that in the society, at the look of it, uniqueness is not a gift. But trust me uniqueness is a gift. How?

Uniqueness

• Defines your personality: If you follow your uniqueness, it defines your personality and makes it different from another person’s personality. Your personality is a gift because it helps you gain love, affection and work in your unique way. If you follow and adapt another’s personality, then even your success will have a stain of discord in it.
• Defines your niche: If you follow your uniqueness, you will find that your talents will be shaped uniquely. This expression of talent will be very different from others and will help create your niche at your workplace as well as in your family. There will be some things which will be done well by you effortlessly and that’s your niche.
• Defines your place in society: With a unique personality and niche, you will stand out in the society. This will give you a specific place in society. Not everyone should become a doctor, engineer, politician, businessman, or a popular profession. Someone has to do social service, create music, some have to join defence forces, some have to become a farmer or a fisherman. All work is important, and we need help from different professions. If you follow your uniqueness, you will fit well with your work and do justice to the work at hand and with yourself too.

• Gives you your identity: It is a differentiating factor between two people. Uniqueness makes people in the same profession, approach things differently, and also make identical twins’ behaviour different. Uniqueness creates your identity. Uniqueness in your personality is like your fingerprint with which you are identified. Without your uniqueness, you are lost or you cannot be identified.
• Helps you create path-breaking work: All the people who have done some path-breaking work accepted their uniqueness and followed it despite the challenges they faced in their lives. Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Ram Krishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekanand, C.V. Raman, Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, etc. are few people who did path-breaking work that you cannot compare with anyone else as they were unique.
• Is a sign of human possibility and growth: Uniqueness helps to create new human possibility when people follow their uniqueness. What human is capable of, from sports to spirituality is created by people who never settled with set norms. They followed their unique skills and what was in their hearts. By knowing such people, I see what human being is capable of – like in Christ we see the epitome of love, in Buddha we see the epitome of Compassion, in Shri Krishna we see the epitome of Action, in Mother Terresa we see the epitome of Service for strangers, like how these spiritual people keep pushing the possibility of human consciousness. In sports, we see records broken by different individuals every other day. These athletes keep pushing the limits of the human body’s and mind’s possibility and growth. Different scientists with their invention keep bridging the gap between miracle and science. These scientists are stretching the limits of the human mind and its creations. Examples in each profession are well known and all these human possibilities and growth happened due to the individual’s uniqueness.

Now the question is how to find your uniqueness: Answer the below questions to reach your uniqueness.

• What talents you have?
• Which work do you love to do?
• Which work you can do for hours without getting tired?
• Are your talent and the work you love related?

If talent and work which you love are related, then it is your uniqueness. If they are not related, then you need to consult a coach to find your uniqueness. Also, the coach will be helpful if you think your talent does not have a chance of growth or market value.

Till you read my next blog, till then Work on Your Uniqueness,Stay Healthy, and Stress-free!!

“Forgiveness is the biggest healer”- when I told this to one of my clients, he did not believe me. Forgiveness sounded cowardly or unmanly to him. “If you have power, then you will teach a lesson to the person who has wronged you. Taking vengeance is the way of a man”, he said to me.

When I told another client of mine that forgiveness is the biggest healer she said, “I know. My religion also talks about it. I do it all the time.”

I asked, “Have you stopped judging yourself or others?”

“I don’t think so. I still feel I am judging myself or others”, she said.

This is what happens when you have not forgiven someone. This might be because you have not understood forgiveness.

Then what is Forgiveness?

Forgiveness is understood differently by different people. The act of forgiving others which stems out of compassion is called forgiveness. With this, you really let go of your rage and negative emotions towards others and you feel neutral or peaceful towards the person or event from the moment you forgive. Your feelings do not change in the future even when there is no new negative occurrence.

So, to repeat, forgiveness is something that stems out of compassion. If your act of forgiveness is not stemming from compassion, then it will not work.

How to be in Compassion?

To be in compassion means that you have to understand the misfortune of others or you have a concern towards other person’s sufferings. But in today’s world, our thoughts are more centred towards our own welfare and comfort. With this mindset, getting into someone’s shoes and understanding their suffering is difficult. Hence to get into compassion, you have to follow the below steps:

1. Get into a ‘good feeling’: Yes, think about some event from the past which gave you happiness or thinks of someone who brings happiness in your heart.
2. Practice gratitude: Fill your heart with gratitude for what you have. This brings your focus on what you have instead of what you do not have, creating a greater positive feeling in your heart.
3. Get into other’s shoes: Start thinking what your reasons might be if you have to behave in the way the person who offended you is behaving
4. Give the benefit of the doubt: Now start giving benefit of doubt to people who have offended you, telling yourself that they might be having good reasons or compulsions (Like you have discovered in Step 3) to behave in a non-favourable manner
5. Start Feeling their suffering: Now feel how much they will be suffering to act the way they are acting today.

With the completion of the 5th step, you will be in compassion towards others and with this, if you practice forgiveness, it will happen.

How to Forgive?

Once you are in compassion, follow the below process:

• Bring the person whom you want to forgive on your mental plane
• Forgive the person for what he/she has done to you with complete sincerity and feeling
• Ask for forgiveness from the person for whatever you have done knowingly or unknowingly to hurt him/her

• Inform the other person mentally that your account with him is balanced and ask him to continue on his/her life journey
• Take a deep breath in and let go of the person

This process of forgiveness not only helps forgive others but yourself too. If you are the one who needs forgiveness, make sure you follow the same steps given above. The only change will be that you have to be sympathetic about yourself and less harsh in your judgement towards yourself. Do appreciate yourself and keep an appreciation journal if you can.

You might be thinking how someone can be so harsh on himself. Believe me knowingly or unknowingly we all are judging ourselves. So even if you feel you have not done something wrong ask for forgiveness from others. You will find an unknown pressure lifting from your shoulders.

Sometimes it is not easy to reach the state of compassion or forgiveness in straight forward steps given above. Then you need to talk to a professional or write a journal to create acceptance in your heart for others. By writing your emotions in a journal you let out your bitterness towards others. When you have fewer negative emotions like anger, jealousy, sadness etc., then you can be compassionate towards others.

Benefits of Forgiveness:

Forgiveness has its own physical, mental and spiritual benefits. Here are the physical and mental benefits of it. Forgiveness:

1. Keeps anger in check
2. Keeps depression away
3. Keeps stress in check
4. Keeps your mind solution-oriented
5. Keeps it away from a victim mentality
6. Gives you back the command on your own mind
7. Helps in keeping your hypertension in check
8. Generates higher positive mindset towards life
9. Keeps you in peace and harmony
10. Improves your self-esteem
11. Keeps your heart healthy
12. Helps you create a good relationship
13. Helps you keep your immune system strong
14. Declutters your mind
15. Keeps away conflicting thoughts

Power coaching and other coaching styles use forgiveness as one of the tools to bring you out from a ‘victim mentality’ to ‘creator mentality’. Take these easy steps to forgive yourself and others. Write to me if you are facing an issue forgiving someone by writing an email to me.

Till you read my next blog, till then Keep Forgiving,Stay Healthy, and Stress-free!

What is Cluttering Of Mind?:

In these new times where everyone is busy and wants to achieve so much in life, keeping your mind clear is a challenge, since our mind is constantly working to achieve something or the other. The mind is generally focused on the list of goals that we want to achieve. The mind is reviewing this list non-stop, constantly worrying not to miss any of these. Missing any item from the list is considered a failure by the mind.

Fear of the List

The mind gets so messed up in different tasks that when you want to focus on a specific task it starts reminding you of another task. Unknowingly, you set your mind to chase contradicting goals, which creates conflicting thoughts. The result is that you are not able to focus on any of the tasks. Sometimes, it leads to overloading of mind and can create work paralysis or brain fog. Soon, you start procrastinating your work and start fearing your list.

Easy Ways to Declutter Your Mind: Just as how there are ways how we clutter our mind, here are easy ways to declutter:

1. Create a List: You should create a list of all the things your mind is chasing. This will relieve your mind of the stress that it will forget any of the items.
2. Wanted vs Unwanted: Make sure you now strike out those items from the list which are unwanted. How to know if something is unwanted? Start asking yourself why you wanted to do this work. If the work is not relevant, then strike it off. This will make the list short and meaningful and in turn, it will unburden your mind.
3. Prioritize: Prioritize your list like mad. Make sure you divide your tasks between Urgent and Important tasks. This will take away your urge to complete all the tasks at the same time. This thought that all the work must be completed at the same time is unrealistic. This will declutter your mind and will help your mind focus on real Urgent tasks.
4. Stop Multitasking: With the shortened list you are equipped to focus on one thing at a time. But due to our habit, our mind tries to multitask. Train your mind to focus on the work at hand. Due to habit if the mind asks you to do another work just command your mind to finish the work at hand first and that the other work can wait till then. By stopping multitasking, you can clear a lot of the clutter from your head
5. Declutter your surroundings: Yes, your mind affects the surroundings and your surroundings affect the mind. So, if your surroundings are cluttered be it your home or office, this reflects your mind is cluttered. Start clearing your surroundings, dispose of the unwanted items, and keep your important items in their rightful place. This will help you declutter your mind.
6. Start writing a journal: Whatever you feel is bothering you or creating stress start writing about it. You will see that goals which you want to achieve are causing you stress or worry. Even your relationship issues can be written in this journal.
7. Release your fears: Most of the time, fear attached to your memory is bothering you. It is always good to release or let go of your fears which are attached to your memories.
8. Meditate: Meditate daily for 30 minutes. First, fix a time of the day to meditate. This helps in forming a habit of meditation. In the starting, use guided meditation and then slowly give up any type of your supports for meditation. Meditation is known to declutter the mind.
9. Minimize Negative Inputs: We are in the age of social media and we browse anything and everything on the internet. We are bombarded with the information we want, or we do not want. I call all the information negative which we do not want, or which creates a negative influence on us. The unwanted information creates clutter in our mind and overloads it. So, take action by:

• Unsubscribing from the websites whose information is not relevant to you.
• Limit your time watching TV or browsing the internet.
• Authenticate the sources of the channels and websites that you follow or read.
• Make your own opinion by using the right data and let go of others’ negative opinions.

10. Do not waste time in regular work: I have seen most of my clients waste their time in the routine regular work like “What to eat today for breakfast, lunch or dinner? When to clean the house? What to wear to the office today or what to wear at home?” All of these or many more routine questions take your time without you realizing it. And, this clutters your mind and eats into your precious time
11. Stop Procrastinating: Your to-do list or your email inbox will be full of the work on which you have to take action. These pending tasks create clutter in your mind. Start taking decisive actions on your pending tasks one by one and declutter your mind.

Take the above easy steps to declutter your mind.

Wait for my next blog till then Stay Healthy and Stress-free!

In this blog, I urge you to be your own friend, before anyone else! We’ve often come across the idea of a good friend or a best friend. What does a friend mean for you? I’m sure, the idea of friendship for all of us comes along the idea of support, love, encouragement, and trust. Isn’t it so? These are the four pillars of any healthy relationship.

A friend in need is a friend indeed! This is the most common saying we’ve come across since our childhood. But the general idea of friendship that we’ve been taught for ages has conditioned our minds to look for a friend in the outer world, outside ourselves. Why haven’t we ever looked inside and asked us whether or not we are our own friends? Do we really love ourselves and treat ourselves as our best friends?

What do I mean by being your own friend, and why is it necessary?

You cannot give what you do not have. It is as simple as that! How do you expect to give love and kindness to others if you’re not kind towards your own self?  This starts with having Empathy towards yourself. What I mean with empathy is that you should understand yourself. For that, you need to reflect on who you really are and start treating your own self as you would treat your best friend. Unfortunately, we all have been strictly taught to become perfect in whatever we do. Everyone is expected to always be successful at everything, and we take this as a load and become overburdened. In stressful times, who do you want to share the load with? A friend! Have you ever thought that you can also be that friend for yourself? Every time one fails, self-criticism comes into the picture, and criticism without self-encouragement is a potion for failure. A friend lifts you up from the dark and encourages you to see the light. It is important to be that friend for yourself, first!

How to be your best friend? Let me tell you a few checkpoints for you to make sure that you love yourself first, before anyone else!

• Do you know yourself well enough?

If anyone asks you at this instant, “Who you really are with all your positivity and negativity? What are your likes and dislikes? What are the tasks you’re good at? What are your areas of improvement?” Would you be able to answer without fail? Observe your emotions happy and pain points, observe your highs as well as your lows. Stop Judging yourself or stop being a hard taskmaster and look at yourself from a different perspective. Maybe looking at yourself with the perspective of empathy is a good way to know yourself very well. Friends know how to work upon you because they know very well what you need in different instances. Do you know the same?

• Do you always attend to your needs?

Everyone has needs and wants. Needs change with time but every time a need arises, you need to look at it as a responsibility towards self and work towards fulfilling the same. After a long day at work, you might feel you need to spend some quality time in a serene environment, maybe a walk in a park amidst nature, or a joyful time with your loved ones or maybe some me time. Try to attend to your needs as much as you can. Do not ignore them in the garb of laziness or self-neglect.

• Do you have Me Time?

Do you have fixed times for breaks from your busy lives? Consider keeping aside the gadgets you work upon for the whole day for some time and spending time doing something completely different from your office work. If you have bore a special attraction towards painting, or dancing, or singing in the past, include that activity in your break-time. Do anything that rejuvenates you.

• Do you recharge daily?

Every device requires a recharge, your mind does too. Meditation helps you recharge yourself, gather your thoughts, and introspect in a healthy manner. Consider including regular meditation in your schedule to channelize your energy. Rejuvenating yourself is the best way to be your own best friend!

• Do you keep celebrating your successes?

A good friend makes sure to remind you of your past successes time and again to keep you going! How often do you do that to yourself? Consider maintaining a journal of success, write every tiny success you attain in your daily life in that journal, and revisit it often. A journal of success can be the best gift you give yourself!

Become that friend who’s always there at your side. Good friendship does wonders. Hence, be your friend like no one ever will, and this is how you will begin your journey towards self-transformation!

Love Yourself, Stay Healthy, and Stress-free!

Stop hypnotizing yourself towards your failure! The word and concept of ‘Hypnotism’ has an eerie emotion attached to itself, that is what we have been fed throughout our lives, through stories, cinema, and generic conversations. However, various psychologists have been conducting research and practicing hypnosis for treatment purposes all around the world for decades altogether. The concept of hypnotism needs to be looked at with a different angle altogether in order to use it for our benefit. If I say, you hypnotize yourself with every single serious thought of yours, will you believe me? It is the truth, our thoughts have the capability to hypnotize ourselves. How?

Let’s know more about this below.

Thought governs your mind, your life. You all must have heard about ‘induced trance’. Trance can be induced via various external agents, however, thoughts can induce trance as well. A high or a happy state of life induces a happy trance and a low life state, extreme negative thoughts can induce a negative or a consuming trance-like state. Hypnosis involves induction of trance which leads you towards one direction, makes you act in one way or another.

While through happy thoughts and motivation, you hypnotize yourself to have a positive outlook towards life and hence are encouraged to face every challenge with confidence, negative thoughts, and fear can hypnotize your mind into believing in lies, and you eventually lose faith in yourself.

I’m sure you all must have come across the ‘Pavlov’s dog theory’, the theory which talks about training your dog at the sound of a bell to have its meal.  Your mind is that dog, and your thoughts have the capability to train it. Let me share with you an incident to explain the effects of self-hypnosis:

As a child in school, we were supposed to assemble for morning prayers and announcements in our school ground. One day, one of my friends felt uneasy and nauseous in the assembly; she fell down unconscious. She went to visit a doctor and she was told that she fell unconscious because of suffocation and that her nausea was a result of an upset stomach. However, she became so scared after this incident, that she began to avoid the assemblies out of fear. The picture was set in her mind, she had connected crowd to suffocation, and further to dizziness. Her fear had consumed her in a psychological trap so badly that she actually felt dizzy every single time she stood in the assembly, or joined a crowd. Despite being healthy in her body, she had infected her mind and hypnotized herself into believing that she will fall or feel suffocated in crowded places.   Her repeated failure was a direct result of self-hypnosis.

It’s almost like you being scared and extra-conscious of falling in a pit, and you end up falling right into it. You attract your thoughts and your fear, and hence become psychological slaves to those thoughts. However, one needs to realise that self-hypnosis can also be done for good, for changing the course of your life in a positive direction. How? Let me tell you:

• Change the stories you tell yourself and to others!

Have you ever noticed that if you tell a lie repeatedly, with conviction, you start believing it to be true, and eventually you end up turning it into reality. Why does that happen? Because you give energy to a thought by repeating it in your mind, or through your words. Changing your story, your words, is extremely important to change the course of your life. Tell yourself, that you’re capable of overcoming any challenge and achieving success, start believing in the same and you eventually will. Everyday you wake up to a positive thought, you will automatically act in the direction of bringing it into reality!

• Ask yourself, are you believing too much and too quickly?

Every time you realise that you’re dwelling on a negative thought, check yourself, have you been believing too much on what others or what the social media has fed you? Social media in today’s date is one of the biggest hypnotizers of the mind. Fact check everything, before you place your belief. Be careful with every thought you’re letting in your conscience.

• Begin training yourself, today!

Instead of letting your negative beliefs train your mind to act in a negative direction, make conscious efforts to train your mind in the other direction. Imagine the scenario you fear, face your fears head on, and imagine utmost success for yourself in that event. Imagine it repeatedly, every day. Believe in your success like there are no two ways about it. This is exactly the story you will create for yourself. This is how you train your mind to act in a particular manner, for your benefit!

• Meditate to de-clutter your mind!

In order to use self-hypnosis for your benefit, the mind needs to be free of complexities and doubts. If you’re unable to think straight, it becomes difficult for your mind to focus and it begins dwelling in confusion. Remove confusion, and meditate in order to get clarity of thought.

In the current global lockdown-like situation, the fear of coronavirus has consumed numerous minds and people are unable to fight against the negativities that surround them. Be conscious not to self-hypnotize yourself, or to create your own problems. Realise the opportunities that come your way. Train your mind to succeed, instead!

Stay Motivated, Happy and Stress-Free!

In this blog, we shall talk about gratitude, the antidote to mental illness. But what is this gratitude? How it is different from thankfulness? Gratitude is a feeling which comes from within and it can come for the benefits received by you or for nothing. Thankfulness is an act from the person who received the benefits. Gratitude can be expressed in thankfulness. A ‘Thank You’ with the feeling of gratitude has the power to transform your life and change its course towards positivity. It is a powerful cure to your mental block and illness. How? We shall talk about it further in the blog. Since the coronavirus pandemic has struck the entire world, thousands of people have been finding it difficult to keep a control on their emotions of hopelessness and agony. The necessary evil, i.e. the lockdown has also pushed many people into solitude and without human touch, most of them are finding it difficult to maintain a high life state. However, in such situations we often forget that no matter what the situation, one has numerous things they can be thankful for. Why should one be thankful for everything they have? Let me answer that question with a short example.

Mike, a young lad, had recently been offered his dream job. He was extremely excited as he joined the firm and wanted to display his potential to his best. Suddenly his company had some issues and to support his company he started shouldering more responsibilities beyond his job specifications. Everything worked in his favour, he was in constant touch with his manager, and he was being appreciated at great lengths as he worked at his best for a few months. However, gradually, he began to feel that the levels of appreciation have reduced. He began to feel as if he is working for no gains. He started to lose his interest and began to feel that his company and manager has probably taken him for granted. He felt as if he isn’t being respected and this eventually became evident in his quality of work.  “I am taken for granted in this company!”, “Everyone here is thankless!” This is what he thought. On the other hand, his manager had begun to believe that Mike had reduced his dialogue with him and has stopped respecting him. “I think he has taken me for granted. He is not feeling gratitude towards how well I trained him. Maybe he forgot how well I trained him at the start!”, his manager thought.

One factor became the sole reason for the dispute in Mike’s work life, i.e. Lack of Gratitude. One cannot feel the zeal to do well at a place where there’s lack of appreciation. It is a vicious cycle of negative energy. You attract what you believe in. Overload of fear, lack of appreciation, and negative energy swarms your life and seizes the functions of your mind. This in turn leads to mental illness. However, basing your actions on gratitude and thanking your surroundings for what you have instead of focusing on what you don’t, leads you towards abundance!

How does gratitude cure mental illness?

1) Improved Sleep: Balanced and sufficient sleep is a must for a peaceful state of mind. People who realise the importance of gratitude in their lives end their day by thanking the universe for everything they have. This creates a focus on things that are positive in life. Sleeping on positive and happy thoughts results in a satisfying sleep. Gratitude also releases stress and helps relieve anxiety and depression which results in better sleep. Gratitude in this manner improves sleep, thus, in turn, maintaining the balance of mind.
2) Self-love: Once you realize that you are fortunate to have a healthy body and mind, which are the key ingredients for success, and you’re fortunate in numerous terms for your life, your gratitude towards your life increases. This will reduce your self-criticism and will increase your self-love. You love what you have, and you begin to accept yourself the way you are. Focus on ‘what is’ than ‘what is not’ shoots up self-love and makes way for positivity in life.
3) Building effective social relationships: Gratitude is the key to building effective and fruitful relationships with society. Man, being a social animal, depends on society to a great extent for his well-being. When you begin appreciating and paying gratitude to the person next to you, you build harmonious relationships. Harmony and goodwill help an individual in maintaining mental health.

Begin paying gratitude in your daily life in the following manner:

1) Appreciate and accept yourself, the way you look, the way you think, your achievements as well as your failures. Begin by writing what you really love about yourself and meditate on those positive thoughts. Be thankful for what you have and begin focusing on working upon yourself to grow in life each day.

2) Appreciate your family, your friends, the society you live in. Pay gratitude to the person in front of you. It is not necessary to always show to them that you’re thankful. Being grateful at heart is conveyed through positive energy.

3) Pay gratitude to the universe for all the materialistic things you possess.

Where there’s gratitude, there’s abundance. Use the power of gratitude to fill your life with positivity.

Stay Grateful, Happy, and  Stress-free!

Break free from your habits and transform yourself! The current coronavirus pandemic has brought along itself challenging times for all of us. It is a necessity for us to transform our lives to adapt to the new ways of living. If you’re still clinging to your old habits, you’re harming yourself to a large extent, unknowingly. Let me ask you a question, ‘What are habits according to you? What are good as well as bad habits?’ I am sure that you consider waking up early, sleeping on time, following a good diet etc as good habits, and smoking, heavy drinking, working without taking rest, as bad habits. Let me tell you that good as well as bad habits are not limited to these. How? Let us know more about it.

Habit is nothing but a repeated behaviour. You do not have to make conscious effort while doing these actions. These actions form a part of your comfort zone and you often refuse to come out of that zone. It is quite possible that you follow a good and busy routine each and every day, i.e. getting up on time, eating the same breakfast, driving the same car, doing the same work, and reaching home, and cooking similar food,  and sleeping on the same time every day. However, I would suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

• Do I feel happy and satisfied at the end of the day?
• Am I stuck in this routine?
• Is this routine my comfort zone?
• Do I fear coming out of this comfort zone?

If the answers to the above questions are  ‘Yes’ for you, this is the time you need to work upon yourself and transform yourself into a person who is free and genuinely happy. Self-dependence is the key to success. You must have noticed that when you try adopting a good habit or when you take on a task towards a better self, for example, losing weight, or following a healthy diet, it takes a lot of effort and time for you to follow the same. As kids, we were always taught that “tiny drops lead to an ocean”, or “ little efforts are necessary for a bigger goal”, or “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, i.e. it always takes ample time to build something great. However, we attract negativity faster and in a big way. The more you’re stuck in habits, the more difficult it gets to transform yourself. Let me tell you a story to explain the same.

A young boy had various habits which he was unwilling to give up. An old hermit wanted to teach him the importance of transformation. One day, while taking a walk in the park with him, he told the young boy to pick a flower off the ground. The young boy did that in a second. In a few minutes, the man told him to pluck a small bush off the ground. The young man plucked it and gave it to the old man. The old man smiled and talked, and after a few minutes, he told the young boy to pluck a tree off the ground, the young boy looked at the old man in doubt and said, “How can I pluck the tree? it is impossible!” The old man said, “Why do you say so? You plucked the bush, why can’t you pluck the tree? The flower you picked earlier fell off the same tree.” The young lad thought for a while and answered, “Because the roots of the tree are strong. I could pluck the flower with no roots, the bush, because it roots were not strong. But the tree has been here for years, and because of its strong roots, I cannot pluck it!” The old man gave out a big smile and said, “Exactly! If you do not decide to give up your habits and transform yourself quickly, these habits grow stronger and hence are extremely difficult to be changed later on!”

Living in comfort zones is like leaving water stagnant for a long time! Stagnant water is the breeding ground of impurity and infection.  It is extremely important to be independent and free to lead a life towards success.

How to become self-reliant and come out of your comfort zones?

1. Make realistic goals, instead of burdening yourself!: Social media has become a source of stress for most of us, instead of being merely a source of entertainment and connectivity. One must take inspiration from people trying to change themselves in these times, and not instead stress yourself out and set huge goals. Being focussed, witty and dedicated is the key to transform yourself.  
2. Look at your life from a third party perspective! Do you think your life is what you have always wished it to be like? When you judge it from a third party perspective, do you feel certain things need to be changed? If yes, take on the challenge today!
3. Take risks! Anything new demands stepping out of the comfort zone, that may be as simple as stepping out of your bean bag to get moving to lose weight, or as huge as waking up an hour earlier than usual to meditate and focus on a new venture you’d been wishing to work upon. Fear is the foremost factor keeping you from success. Do not let fear infect your mind. Taking a route different from the usual might seem a risky attempt, however, you won't get to know any new or easier routes if you don’t make that decision.

The current situation, where most of us are at home living a completely different life, is a chance for you to become self-dependent, take your life in your own hands, and lead a better life towards success!

Take that first move! Stay Happy, Healthy and  Stress-free!

Stop letting greed take over your need! The world is currently battling the coronavirus pandemic and struggling to devise ways to counter the downfall of global economy. This is an unusual and challenging time for all of us. While most of us are being able to spend the days in lockdown with sufficient food and essential supplies, there are thousands of people struggling to find essential items for survival. Stores are facing a sudden supply crunch and are unable to deliver items to the population in need.

Let me ask you, did the news of lockdown push you toward a state of panic and fear? As a result, did you, like many others, end up panic-buying items in quantities way beyond necessary? Do you remember hoarding your carts and spending thousands on grocery without giving much thought about your actual “need”? If your answers have been “yes” to all the questions above, let me tell you, you’ve become a victim of greed.

“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

How is Need different from Greed? Let me make the difference clear for you:

The root of Greed is “Fear” and the root of Need is “Survival”. When we act from survival instincts, our needs are legitimate and are fulfilled. But when our survival needs are fulfilled, we start having the fear of losing them. This triggers the greed in us and we end up wanting more of what we already have. The more we have, more we want. We even start comparing these things with others, we start indulging in a competition with them in our minds and this creates “Jealousy”.

Greed makes us selfish and self-centred. We no longer remain compassionate and loving. We become hard hearted and cold. In short, we no longer remain human beings, we begin developing an animal instinct. We stop helping others.

Do you remember the news about the people who bought thousands of toilet paper rolls, some to make use of them amidst the lockdown, and others to sell those for greater prices? These people acted out of fear and greed. Let me tell you a story to explain this further. A man, George and his friend Michael wished for a huge house, an expensive car and a bungalow as teenagers. Eventually, George grew to become a businessman, and his business flourished in a short period of time. Michael on the other hand joined a firm in service, however, enjoyed his job. As success came George’s way, he started spending more and more time with affluent people, and began comparing his life with theirs. Michael started noticing a difference in the behavior of his friend, who had started being rude owing to the constant stress he felt. With every little success, George wanted more, and pined until he achieved it. Michael, however, was content with what he had. Eventually, Michael realised that his friend isn’t really happy in his life, and that at every point of time, he feels someone else is better than him. He was never really content with the money he had earned, since he had become a victim of greed.

Let me ask you, what do you think leads us towards greed? Especially in difficult times such as these, what are the reasons we, as a part of our society, act through greed? These challenging times have unfortunately been able to reveal the most frightening faces of the human race. Why is everyone around the world acting in such a greedy manner? People have been hoarding toilet papers, hand sanitizer bottles etc. out of panic. Why? Let me tell you the factors which lead people to act this way:

Thanks to technology (which is a boon in our times), all sort of negative news and rumours reach in our living rooms. Instead of keeping news at a level of information and analysing them with our intellect, we start getting influenced by them. Unfortunately, negativity attracts our attention and our mind starts getting subsumed by fear. Fear in turn infects our mind  & we start believing in everything that goes around, succumbing to distrust. Panic-buying, which is the most common scenario these days, is a result of extreme fear and lack of unity in the society.

Every problem has become a business in the modern world, which has ultimately led to greed in the affluent, and scarcity in those in need. 

What happens when Greed takes over your Need?

The moment you let greed take over your need, the universe finds a way to balance the imbalance created due to your actions. Greed blinds you and keeps you from your real goals and ambitions which can take you towards success in life. As the fear of the pandemic spreads around the world, let us all learn to act a responsible citizens and act sensibly. Through unity and compassion, we can win over this pandemic together! Before buying anything in bulk, or strongly acting towards your desires, ask yourself, “Do you really need this? Can you lead a happy life without this? Will the others suffer if you do this?” If your actions might disturb the universal balance, if you’re wishing for something out of jealousy, you’re letting greed overpower you.

Stand with the fellow human beings in this time of crisis! Stay healthy and happy!

 “Your Infected Mind Can Kill You Faster than the Virus!” Yes, you heard me right. Let me tell you why I am saying that! The current times are extremely stressful with the coronavirus outbreak taking hundreds and thousands of lives around the world. The fear of this infection has in turn affected humans both physically as well as emotionally. It has rendered us weak in spirit, and sadly, has had a bad influence on our lives. Let me ask you a question, do you think that the global panic is only a result of fear of the pandemic? Where does this fear come from? What if I tell you, that before our bodies, our minds have been infected already? Yes, my friends, we have come to a point where we suffer in our minds even if our bodies are safe from the virus.

If you look around yourself right now, you will find numerous things that arise fear in your heart. It can be an update on the pandemic, an unfinished task, or a post on social media. What is the cure of this infection of the mind? Is fear the only symptom of this infection? Let me elaborate more on this.

Infection of the Mind - Major Causes

What causes the mind to catch infection?  Let me elaborate on the causes:

Herd Mentality: I believe in the importance of good and fruitful relationships among human beings in a society. Society can make or break a man. Hence, cordial and collaborative relationships between people are necessary for them to be successful and happy in life. However, the most dangerous side effect of a collaborative society is the development of a herd mentality.

What do we refer to as herd mentality? When you keep your logic and thought aside to blindly believe in what the other person says to you, you’re a victim of herd mentality. A negative thought in the current times of difficulty spreads like wildfire. If you have a herd mentality, you easily give in to that negative thought, and hence plague your mind.

In the current times, taking actions wisely and spreading truthful information are two basic tenets of avoiding panic-like situations. Be aware of the decisions you make under the influence of others. Meditate, and use your own intelligence in order to develop better decision-making skills. Do not copy others and act in one direction because “everyone’s doing it.” Remember, as long as an idea is not criticized, its credibility and worth is not proven. Do not judge those who work differently, develop relationships with society based on effective communication and logical actions.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Bertrand Russel

Belief on Rumours: What happens when you decide to believe in a mob? You end up believing in rumours and/or spreading the same. Fear and stress are the two foremost and direct outcomes of belief in fake news. Apart from these, making decisions based on rumours also leads to loss of compassion and appreciation.

Social media, especially in the current times, is the biggest spreader of fake news and rumours. If you dwell on the news spread on sources such as social media, you can subject your mind to perils as dangerous as clinical depression and anxiety. The emotions of hatred and fear arising out of fake news make you attract negative energy towards yourself. Run a fact check before you believe or forward anything on social media. Do not let the effects of technology and social media consume you and infect your mind.

Rumors are like germs. They spread and multiply almost in a breath and before you know it, everyone is contaminated.”

C.J.Tudor

Dwelling over Negativity: I have repeatedly talked about the strengths of the Law of Attraction in my previous blogs. Words have immense power and energy. Through repeated discussions of negative news, reacting to and spreading the same, you attract more negative energy. Negative thoughts can make you extremely stressful. Manage your thoughts by writing them down, and focusing on improving your physical as well as mental health.

Fear and stress arising from a belief on rumours lead to an imbalance of chakras as well as directly reduces the immunity of your body to fight against infections. If you let your mind get infected by fear, your body weakens and gets more susceptible to the infection you’re fearful of.

What are the outcomes of an infected mind?

In these difficult times, what we need is to support each other and infuse our life and environment with positivity. Instead of brooding over fearful thoughts, it is time to plan out your life better, improve your relationships and family life, bring your body clock on track, balance your chakras and take actions to incorporate wellness in life. An infected mind reduces your confidence levels, develops issues like brain fog, and hence keeps you from success. Herd mentality combined with the belief in rumours can lead to a panic-like situation. Panic and fear, as we read in our previous blog, kill you faster than any other infection. Appreciate and pay gratitude to what you “have” right now and focus on growth.

Keep your Minds Infection-Free! Stay Healthy and Happy!

 ‘How to conquer fear, our greatest enemy!’ you might be wondering about the title. So, let me ask you a question when was the last time you did not feel afraid of anything for an entire day? It is difficult to remember a day like this, am I right? Fear and anxiety are both human emotions, and no one can completely get rid of them. Fear is supposed to act as an alarm for situations which require sudden reactions and can be called a ‘saviour emotion’ in instances where sound decisions are a need of the hour. However, over-information, misinterpretation or overthinking may lead to an immense amount of fear, which can, in turn, overpower your mind and can lead to dire circumstances.

Fear, if not put under control can kill you faster than any disease. How is it so? Let me explain.

Uncontrolled and extreme fear is the direct cause of various health and personality disorders. However, where does fear come from?

We human being in our day-to-day lives experience various kinds of fear:

• Fear of Pain
• Fear of Loss
• Fear of Failure and Embarrassment

In general, we fear the unknown or the repetition of a painful scene in the past. As kids, we feared injections, why? Simply because the memory of pain is attached to that of an injection in our minds. We do not want to undergo painful situations, be it physical or emotional. Certain people do not wish to invest emotionally in anything or anyone. Why? Because they are often stuck in the clock and fear that attachment might cause pain.

Money, being one of the most vital elements of human life, comes along with a fear of loss. Certain people do not spend on themselves, fearing that it would lead to a loss of money. Fear of failure, of any sort, keeps us from taking a step forward into anything new. Fear of change goes hand-in-hand with the fear of failure.

Don’t quit even before you’ve started. Let us know the reasons why fear is the biggest killer of all!

Paulo Coelho

• Effects on Physical Health: It has been proven by the research studies conducted all over the globe that stress and anxiety can directly lead to a deterioration of human health at an extreme level. An external stimulus or a thought acts as a stimulus for the brain to release stress hormones, primarily, cortisol, which is responsible for various changes in the body. Stress and anxiety directly lead to an increase in blood pressure, in turn posing a high risk of heart disease. It also curbs the immunity of the body, and its tendency to heal. This directly makes the body more susceptible to infectious diseases. An Imbalanced sleep cycle is another stress-related disorder which has an adverse impact on mental health.

• Effects on Mental Health: Anxiety directly hits your brain cells and may also be an outcome of a condition known as ‘Brain Fog’, a block, as you may say, wherein you are unable to make any decisions whatsoever. Fear of the unknown, or fear of change gives way to negativity. As I’ve told earlier in my previous blogs about the Law of Attraction, you tend to attract what you strongly believe. Constant and overpowering fear pushes you toward the realisation of your fears.

“Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.”

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

There are a few simple steps you need to follow in order to take control of your fear and anxiety:

• Know Your Fears and Face Them Head On: A clarity of vision is necessary for achieving that goal. In the same manner, clarity and identification of your fear is the first step to tackle it. Once you know exactly what you’re fearful of, it becomes easy for you to find the required solutions.

“If you try to get rid of fear and anger without knowing their meaning, they will grow stronger and return.”

Deepak Chopra

• Meditation Helps Clear the Clutter:Regular meditation helps you to slow down your thought process in order to develop a sense of clarity. Stress arising due to misinformation or confusion is the worst to tackle. Analyzing all the sides of your fear is one way to take control over it.
• Physical Exercise:Regular exercise releases ‘hormones of happiness’ in your body and hence helps to conquer conditions such as ‘brain fog’. Increased blood circulation and adequate supply of oxygen to the brain has been proven to reduce anxiety and cure depression.
• Visualize Success: Imagine your success before you take upon a new challenge. Make sure to remain clear in your imagination and work towards that goal without paying heed to the thoughts of failure. Focussing on success will give your brain lesser opportunities to entertain the thoughts of anxiety.
• Have Gratitude for What You Have:  The universe will only continue providing for you as long as you appreciate what you have. If you’re grateful for the people and the material wealth you have in your current state, you worry less about the next moment. Effective communication and positive relationships with people around you have always helped reduce the thoughts of fear, loneliness and anxiety.

Cherish your relationships and friendships amidst these times of crisis. Owing to the CoVID-19 pandemic, where people are fearful of the virus and depressed about the current situation, it is important for us to realise that our fear in such circumstances is our greatest enemy! Focus on what you have and learn about natural ways to create wellness in life.

Register for 15 minutes free Power Coaching Session to utilize this time of crises to its best and turn the direction of your life towards positivity. Stay tuned for my upcoming blogs.

Till then, Stay Fearless, Healthy and Stress-Free!