Are you vaccinated against Emotional Turmoil?

 

Like we need the vaccine to protect us from the virus, we need to learn ways to immunize ourselves from our inner emotional turmoil.

The prolonged and seemingly unending nature of the disruption and losses caused due to ongoing Pandemic makes us routinely feel disoriented, anxious and exhausted.

We need to Cultivate sense of Equanimity – We need to develop and practice stillness within us so the changing external scenario doesn’t easily affect us. This doesn’t mean that we are not affected at all. It’s just that we need to raise the threshold at which we experience emotional hijack.

Building equanimity requires deepening our emotional self-awareness. We need to learn what makes us happy, sad, insecure and excited; how frequently we move from one emotional state to the other; and what triggers these shifts. Ordinarily, we are on an autopilot mode where certain triggers produce a predictable reaction within us time after time.

When we are in touch with our changing emotional states, we can quickly catch ourselves starting to feel anxious, envious or angry. We can then choose to acknowledge those emotions and without judging ourselves, explore alternate ways to respond. That’s how we can break the pattern of our emotional reactions.

We need to learn to deal with unexpected outcomes: One of the major reasons we experience emotional stress is our attachment to specific outcomes. For example, I should get promoted this year, I will get possession of my recently booked flat this year and many other such expectations.

The problem is that we associate so closely with the desired/expected outcome and in case, there is any deviation, it causes anxiety.

The way to deal with this is to open our heart and be flexible to accept any possible outcome of whatever may emerge. Whether that promotion happens this year or the next; whether we get the possession this year or the next, we need to accept the natural process of evolution rather than get stuck to fixed outcomes.

Our ability to deal with Setbacks: We fear and hate setbacks. We shouldn’t underestimate our innate ability to deal with setbacks. We must be more resilient than we often believe.

We can protect ourselves against this fear by learning to reframe our relationship with difficult circumstances. Almost nothing is as good or as bad, as it seems. Also, we can choose to assess what the situation is trying to teach us. In fact, invariably, it’s in such situations that we learn and grow the most.

We simply need to get more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

If we can practice these in our real life, we can be assured that our vaccination is effective and our immunity on emotional turbulence is in action!

If we have cultivated our mental strength to control our emotions, then we will realize that our existence should matter, it must have value, worth and importance for us and society.

Having reached this milestone, it’s time to find our Purpose of Life and achieve the same.

Let Go...

Let’s understand the dictionary meaning of “Let Go”

·         to stop holding something

·         to stop thinking about or being angry about the past or something that happened in the past

“To Let Go” does not mean “To get rid of”. “To Let Go” means “To let be”. When we “let be” with compassion, things come and go on their own.

“Letting Go” is one of the hardest things to figure out in life. As our emotions usually cloud our logic, and because our feelings make it harder for us to concentrate, it seems like the art of letting go can be confusing and complicated.

Signs that Tell Us, It's Time to “Let Go”:

·         Staying in it always makes us feel broken, depressed, and frustrated

·         We justify that it’s worth holding on when it’s really not

·         We refuse to acknowledge the present because it hurts too much

·         We have already exhausted all our efforts but everything stays the same

Ways to “Let Go”:

·       Learn to Forgive: Resentment and unwillingness to forgive will keep us locked in the past and prevent us from moving forward with our life.

Remember: When we forgive, we aren’t doing it for the other person; we are doing it for ourselves. If for no other reason than that, forgive and Let Go.

·       Remove our clutter: Letting go of these stress-inducing thought patterns and lifestyle features isn't easy, but it may be easier than we think.

And importantly, it can be addictive, once we start letting go of some of the stressors in our life, it becomes easier to let go of more.

·       Let Go of grudges: Releasing grudges, negative perspectives, toxic relationships, and other vessels of negativity in our life may feel difficult at first, but once we have started to release your grip, letting go becomes increasingly easier.

·       Drop Negative Attitudes about ourselves: Make a list of our personal accomplishments, even the small ones, and add to it daily. We will have to let go of a little discontentment to make space for this self-satisfaction. Let’s accept and love ourselves as we are and keep moving forward. If we want to fly, we have to give up what weighs us down.

To heal, we must let go of our fear of letting go. Letting go doesn't mean that we don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person we really have control over is ourselves.

Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are a part of our history, but not a part of our destiny.

Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let our tears water the seeds of our future happiness!

If we let go a little, we will have a little peace. If we let go a lot, we will have a lot of peace.

If we have peace, then we have an opportunity to identify our “Purpose of Life” and chase the same.

Let's enjoy our Journey of Life...

Life is a Journey, with Problems to Solve, Lessons to Learn and Experiences to Enjoy.

Our Body is the most sophisticated gadget in the planet – much beyond a super computer that has been gifted by God. For living a worthy life, we need to read and understand the User Manual of our body as it is the most complex machine on the planet.

Most of the problems in our life are an outcome of our State of Mind.

Let’s find out one Human Being that is not suffering…

If they are not Rich, they are suffering with Poverty; If they are Rich, they suffer from competition and taxes.

If a person is not Married, they suffer to be alone; Get them Married, no comments…

If a person doesn’t have Children, they suffer to be lonely; If they have Children, they still complain…

So, it seems that every aspect of life has suffering, however, that’s not correct, Life is not a suffering.

Life is neither a suffering nor a Joy, it exists with mixed emotions. It simply exists as a journey or phenomenon.

If we ride on journey of Life, It feels fantastic; If we get crushed by it, then the journey is terrible and miserable.

All sufferings that we undergo is the result of our own psychological process, our own thoughts and emotions and our negative state of mind. Our own Intelligence, if not directed towards the right direction, turns us against ourselves and causes misery, disappointment and depression.

What happens in the World is not within our control, as things may not happen the way we want them to happen, however, what happens within us needs to be determined by us. How we think and feel should be in our control.

Our wellbeing will never come from outside or materialistic things. We can create comfort and convenience with the external gadgets but cannot create our wellbeing. Our wellbeing is our state of mind that can happen within ourselves, as our human experience is created from WITHIN.

We need to identify our nature of life, fundamental of our existence, our Purpose of Life.

Our positive thoughts can derive highest level of Joy and Pleasantness.

Let’s Embrace, Enjoy and Love our Journey!

Oh no, another bad decision…

 

All of us, make/take bad decisions. Actually not, that’s not true, we never knowingly take a bad / wrong  / incorrect decision.

Decisions could be related to choosing a job, opting for higher studies, investment in real estate, investment of funds in Stocks / Fixed Deposits / Mutual Funds, making choice of a life partner, etc.

The fact is, that the good decision that we take, in due course of time, reveals itself to be a bad decision due to the outcome of the decision that is not aligned with what was conceived or is not favorable.

That’s the reason, we always say that “decision was wrong” and we never say that the “decision is wrong”. A wrong decision is an event that is always referred to something from past, therefore, there’s no merit in regretting something that has already happened but importantly we should strategize to move forward in the given situation rather than looking back.

The decision that was made in past was taken based on the data points and artifacts available at that point of time. Therefore, the decision that was taken then with pious intent was supposedly correct, however, with the passage of time we experience unfavorable outcome and the right decision that was taken in the past, turns out to be a wrong decision.

As per statistics, 95-98% of the decisions that we take are correct and favorable, however, we never celebrate correct decisions. Correct decisions that are taken are most often ignored and forgotten and considered as part of “Life as usual”

Whereas, we regret and mourn for wrong decisions. Bad decisions are repeatedly remembered and thereby leading to negativity/sufferings and self-blame.

Decision Making is one of the important traits of Leaders. Coward are those who don’t take decision. We can’t afford not to take decisions based on the fear of failure. We cannot make progress in life without making decisions.

For any situation to take a decision, the Best Thing is to do the Right Thing, the next Best Thing is the Wrong Thing, and the Worst Thing that we can do is Nothing.

Once we make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

We keep thinking that when we took a bad decision why did God not give me wisdom to refrain from taking that decision. Isn’t God supposed to equip us adequately? How do I know, what God wants? If God is behind our plans, why did God allow us to take wrong decision?

We don’t have specific formulas on how to deal appropriately with all situations that we face in everyday life, as each situation is unique.

The fact is that it’s actually all destined, GOD has HIS own ways to make us learn and grow in life with all good and bad decisions. The script of our life is already written, however, every day a new page gets unfolded.

Life would be very boring / monotonous / dry if all decisions that we would have taken were the right decisions.

However, importantly, we should learn from our bad decisions and not repeat the same mistakes again. Every intersection in the road of Life is an opportunity to make a Decision.

Life is a matter of Choices and every Choice that we make, makes us.

Good Decisions come from Experience. Experience comes from making Bad Decisions.

Take decision to align your thoughts and actions with your “Purpose of Life”.

Purpose of Life

Tame your Thoughts!

“We define our Thoughts” or “Our Thoughts define Us”.

Thoughts influence our Dreams and Dreams turn into Reality. Thoughts make us what we are and also govern what we may become tomorrow. We are shaped by our thoughts and eventually we become what we continue to think.

Thoughts are a mirror of our mental and spiritual awakening. We need to dwell on our thoughts as they are the source of our actions and future deeds.

Our thoughts rule our life. If we can change our thoughts, we can change our world.

Dreams are Reflection of our Thoughts

When our conscious and subconscious minds are active, they translate into dreams. Often, we dream what we are thinking of or worried about.

However, the sphere of dreams is much bigger than our thoughts. We experience much more in our dreams. Dreams can go beyond our thoughts and can give indications about our past lives and even about our future.

Dreams are propelled by our curiosity. This curiosity in turn comes from deep thoughts. When a thought, deep in sense, creeps into our mind we start to think about it. It goes into our subconscious mind that gets reflected in our dreams and sometimes in our actions.

Sometimes dreams define our personality. It tells who we are from inside, What we need, What we have and What we do. Hence, dreams are reflection of our thoughts.

Positive and Negative Thoughts

Thoughts that originate in our mind can be either positive or negative that carry their own vibrations.

Positive Thoughts create positive vibrations that affects us and our surrounding in a good way and it brings wellness in our life, may be sooner or later depending on its power. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results.

When I am happy and gay, I would smile at whatever comes my way. Even when I’m down and not so happy, some positive thoughts can reduce the intensity of sorrow or grief and ease the pain, to help us smile back again!

Negative Thoughts are like slow poison which will show their result slowly but surely a negative one. Overthinking Leads to Negative Thoughts.

Great men have said "always be careful of what you think, because someday, it may come true".

During times of crisis like the ongoing Pandemic times, we are in the phase of uncertainty and the probability of negative thoughts creeping in us is very high.

These negative thoughts are not helpful in context to our life, health, profession and other dimensions of our Life.

What matters is to live in the present, live now, for every moment is now. It is our thoughts and acts of the moment that create our future.

Human Mind is filled with Drunken Monkeys

Buddha described the human mind as being filled with drunken monkeys, jumping around, screeching, chattering, carrying on endlessly. We all have monkey minds, with dozens of monkeys all clamoring for attention.

Fear is an especially loud monkey, sounding the alarm incessantly, pointing out all the things we should be wary of and everything that could go wrong.

Meditation helps to tame the drunken monkeys in our minds.

It’s useless to fight with the monkeys or to try to banish them from our mind because, as we all know, that which we resist, persists. The first principal of Meditation is that we should never make an attempt to stop our thoughts but allow them to come and go without giving any importance to them. If we spend some time each day in meditation, we can, over time, tame our drunken monkeys. They will grow more peaceful if you lovingly bring them into submission with a consistent practice of meditation.

Meditation is a wonderful way to quiet the voices of fear, anxiety, worry and other negative emotions.

Also, sometimes engaging the monkeys in gentle, kind and loving conversation can sometimes calm them down and transform our life. If the Fear Monkey is noisy and intense, have a calm conversation with him and try answering all the consequences of the Fears being raised by the Fear Monkey and our plan to address the situation/circumstances. Talk to him about the worst scenario and your plan to address the same. By the end of the conversation, Fear Monkey may still be there, but he would have calmed down and we can get back to our life as usual.

Learning to manage our monkey mind is one of the best things we can do to transform all fears and negative thoughts.

Tips for Positive Thinking

·         Look at the mirror and smile with positive thoughts - “I can do it and happy times are ahead”

·         Ensure that we spend time in the ambience of people with positive thoughts to get similar vibrations.

·         We should never become a passive victim. Don’t self-pity or expect sympathy from others. Instead, get confidence from within - “We have the power to change our destiny and we shall do it by all means”.

·         Count your blessings. Once we reflect and look around, we shall identify several blessings that we have. Thank God and feel grateful for all our blessings.

Power of Positive Thoughts

Our thinking pattern allows us to define, engage, organize in decision-making, problem solving, experiencing, planning, learning, reflecting, higher reasoning and creating.

But sometimes our thinking can be meaningless and not serving our purpose in any dimension of our Life for a variety of reasons and this has a negative impact on our Overall Health and well-being.

We have infinite riches within us. To gain them, we need to open our mind’s eyes and behold the treasure within us, to realize our infinite intelligence and boundless love within ourselves.

We need to charge our mind with faith and confidence, our mind can lift ten times of its own body weight. People with confidence are always born to win.

When our mind is discharged, it is filled with fears and doubts. Our mind is a garden and we are the gardener. Thoughts are seeds we are putting on our thinking.

Mind is a Gift from Divine Power and we can achieve anything in this World or beyond through the Power of our Mind.

Mind is God’s Gift that can enable us to identify our Purpose of Life.