Different individuals have different feelings on what makes people happy. Some would say it’s getting a raise. Others would say it’s having a marvellous and meaningful life. There have even been rather a few who have more particular answers pertaining to their personal life.
All of these answers strike a chord, naturally. While everyone has their own belief, some universal matters like the ones below might be conceived as what makes individuals happy.
1. Family and friends
Among the things that make individuals happy and pleased is the company of loved ones and friends. The emotional back up these individuals give you is priceless.
You probably don’t enjoy being smothered by your mother or your father, but attending family reunions or getting together for a picnic or a cook out once in a while hearts up your happiness level. Having individuals around you that you love, trust, cherish and care for makes you feel that you’re not alone.
2. Giving back
Assisting others, whether in small or big ways, elates a person’s spirit like nothing else. Doing something for nothing may be completely opposite of what you’ve been taught, but acts of generosity & unselfishness always leave you with feelings.
Sharing your wealthiness or time with others puts you in the position to encounter the same positive energy back from other people. Likewise, making a difference in someone else’s life has a way of returning to you.
3. Meaningful work A job with an elevated salary isn’t always what makes individuals happy. As a matter of fact, these jobs often make individuals miserable (unless your heart is in what you do). Regrettably, not everybody can afford to go after their dream job. And not everybody finds meaning in their work. You may try to correct for this by volunteering at hospitals or environmental campaigns in your spare time. By discovering meaning in what you do, you’ll feel accomplished and have a purposefulness.
4. Freedom It’s impossible to become truly happy when you don’t have even a small ounce of freedom in your life. Whether it’s being able to convey yourself creatively or being able to make a choice for yourself, personal freedom is crucial. Suppressing yourself only generates a lot of damaging emotions and discontent.
5. Success Who doesn’t prefer to succeed? Individuals who have accomplished personal or professional success in their life are more prepared to go after other goals and try fresh experiences. They become more contented with the centering their life is taking and are generally happier in the long-run.
In my previous blog, I had mentioned how stress can lead to various health conditions and how being mindful of your being and breath will help you rebalance your energies or restore your mental well being .
In this blog , we shall explore eight attitudes of Mindfulness:
Source : Pinterest
Let’s take cooking for a moment , how would you consider trying it as a beginner ?
Location : Angsana Resorts and Spa Bangalore Photography : Own
1. Assume a Beginners mind – You could Begin with a mindset that you wouldn’t need to know cooking and its the first time your trying it – You could sense or smell the carrots or capsicum with green veggies whatever you are planning to cook and get familiarised with the recipe and procedure
2. Being non judgemental – Being non judgemental with yourself would really help because you are not an expert or expected to be one.All you need to do is start preparing a dish or salad or whatever you have planned as an outcome and staying in this space of curiosity.
3. Patience – Trying anything for the time first makes our brains get overwhelmed by this pace of learning and skills development that we try and apply it to any context or area in life. Leaving us susceptible to frustration, worry, panic and impatience . Some of these behaviours are conditioned from the past.
4. Trust – Learning to trust that whatever you are trying in cooking today is going to be ok and fine. Trust in your intuition or gut feel or whatever that thought is and tell yourself – Whatever I am going to make is gonna be great and amazing!
5. Non – Striving – Allow yourself to experiment and not force anything out of the process. Attitude matters big time. Bring in an element of ease and joy and do no rush through the process . Your mind may take you to a higher gear while you are still at gear 1 .
6. Acceptance – Acknowledge your self-reliance that you care for self and others while cooking .
7. Letting Go -Cooking associates to learning any new skill so let go of the need or being impatient with your culinary skills with yourself and others. Let go of the need for perfecting anything in the attempt or rushing to completing the dish, knowing that you are doing it for the very first time and doing your best.
8- Generosity (For others including self) Show generosity and self compassion .Allow yourself for mistakes and several failures.
Imagine this process or check-in being mindfully written on your mind’s whiteboard – where you can imprint these attitudes and start seeing how they express themselves in reality. Also explore where else can you use this approach ?
If your desire is to enjoy riches and wealth, then you need to create an environment for that to grow and prosper.
These 4 steps are key to bringing you closer to enjoying riches.
1. Set Your Money Goals
It ís time to get your pen and paper out, and make some decisions. What is your goal for earnings for the next 6 months? 12 months? 5 years? 25 years? Write it down and in addition create a dream board that is a vision of what wealth is going to look like for you. What are you going to do with your wealth? What are some of the things you are going to buy with your wealth? Think big and don’t hold back.
2. It’s Time to Track Your Spending Habits
It is time to create a journal of how you are spending your money. There is software that can help you do this tracking just where your money is going not just by where you spend it but by category as well. For example, entertainment, utilities, housing, etc.
3. You Need to Create an Income Stream
All around you are business opportunities and you don’t always require a large amount of capital to get started; however, you may need to think outside the box, change the way you are thinking about getting your start. You also need to set at least one goal and more is better. Here are some examples of goals:
My goal is to own my own business
My goal is to be my own boss
My goal is to have financial freedom
My goal is to be in control of my life
My goal is to create residual income
When you begin to focus on the goals that you set, you will actually reprogram your subconscious suddenly opportunities will begin to pop up everywhere. Isn’t that so exciting?
4. Don’t Be Afraid to be Generous
Be generous with your money. If you have not had money you might tend to want to hang on to your new found money and your growing wealth. But you need to begin to think and act like you have abundance and share it freely. This does not mean that you are being careless. It means that rather than giving the basic 10 % tip you give 20 %. It means helping someone that’s down on their luck, or it means sending flowers to someone that’s important to you. Make a pact with yourself to be generous once a week.
Do try these hacks to prosperity and let me know how it goes!
To your wealth and prosperity! I pray and send you prosperity blessings !
The principle of five elements is important to the concept of Feng Shui as they work in certain ways in accordance with the rotation of the Productive and Destructive cycles. All five of the elements correspond with a certain color and some of the elements will use more than one color. Here are the five elements and their corresponding colors:
Wood
The Wood element represents growth, development and planning. This element resides in the East and Southeast areas of your space. It is associated with the brown/green color spectrum and the columnar shape.
Fire
The fire element represents expansion, enthusiasm and transformation and provides energy to things that are career related. It will also assist you in being recognized in your achievements. This element resides in the South, Northeast and Southwest areas of your space. It is associated with the red, orange, purple, pink and strong yellow colour spectrum and the triangular shape.
Water
The water element represents easiness, abundance, freshness, calm and purity. This element can be used in the North, East and Southeast areas of your space. It is associated with the blue and black color spectrum and wavy lines.
Earth
The earth element represents stability, nourishment and protection in relationships. It can be used in the Northeast, Southeast and Center areas of your space. This element is associated with the beige and yellow color spectrum and the square shape.
Metal
The metal element represents accuracy, clarity and efficiency and can be used in the West, North and Northwest areas of your space. This element is ideal for your home or business and is associated with the white and grey colour spectrum and the circle, oval and crescent shapes.
Developing an attitude of heartfelt and sincere Gratitude for all your current blessings unleashes the ultimate power for obtaining many more. Give thanks each day and you will see how being grateful for everything you have today can create great changes in your life.
“Thank you” – these two simple words can change one’s life. With the problems that we may face every day in our lives, these two little words are often the most neglected words each day. We always see the worst in life that is why we never become truly happy.
Expressing your gratitude or even being thankful about the things you have is really important. This will change your entire life – the way you see life, the way you handle your problems and the way you cope with the daily challenges.
Gratitude means counting your blessings, thankfulness, acknowledging things that you receive and noticing those simple pleasures in your life. The moment you wake up in the morning, say a little prayer, giving thanks to another life given to you. Gratitude means learning to live a kind of life as if things were miracles, and it also means being fully aware on continuous bases about how much you have been given.
Gratitude also shifts your focus from the things you lack in life towards great abundance that is now present. It is also good to note that psychological and behavioral research has shown the most amazing improvements in life brought by the practice of gratitude. Bring thankful and appreciating life and the things life offers you makes us more resilient and even happier.
Resilient in the sense that no matter what challenges and difficulties we experience, we know that life is not cruel to give us something that we can’t bear. It gives us strength with the belief and the mindset that no matter how many problems we may encounter, the blessings we receive are much greater than them. Gratitude strengthens relationships, reduces stress and improves health.
Once you develop an attitude of a sincere attitude for all the blessing you receive, this unleashes the power for you to receive even more than you already have.
Having the feeling of gratitude essentially means taking nothing for granted and giving thanks about the abundance in life that you have obtained. Gratitude actually fits in with abundance in various aspects. As a famous writer says, “ A lot of people are trapped in the state of poverty by having lack of gratitude.”
An Abundance Mindset always goes with gratitude because we can always attract great wealth as well as abundance with the power of gratitude.
Today I want to reward you with a free gift of a Gratitude Mandala Sheet Design and free ebook on how to develop Gratitude – Register here https://forms.gle/8AkFuMsjBv8qy4bK9 to receive your free Copy on how to be grateful and drawing a Gratitude mandala design!
Who ever thought dreams can make you insomniac, like literally insomniac? Thousands of questions and doubts in our hearts, we take a leap of faith just to find the internal contentment. But sometimes, we just become too hard on ourselves. We forget that we have our limitations. The burden of dreams is like carrying an entire world on your shoulders. You must let that warrior inside you rest for a bit.
Not a long time ago, I was interviewing Lopamudra Banerjee, an entrepreneur, and a fitness coach. As soon as I made the announcement, I received a flood of messages in my inbox for Lopa to share her entrepreneurial journey. She is one brave soul. But I will tell you why this interview was a lot unique then what we see all the time. Lopa gave us all something to think about. From a sales professional to a personal fitness coach turned health entrepreneur, her journey says a lot about what happens when you choose to not take a break. Meanwhile, we hear people talking about breaking your limits and giving up everything for your goals, she shared the darker aspect of dreaming and overdoing things.
So, as per my rendezvous with Lopa, I will tell you what I have learned about the dreams and working too hard on yourself. Also, please do visit my Instagram page to find my interview with Lopa, and don’t forget to comment and share your thoughts on dreams. Also, please feel free to share your experience and how you found your warrior spirit.
Phase One: Opportunity knocks
When opportunity knocks our doors, what a time of merriment it is. You are filled with a reviving energy and you are ready to take the world down. But have you planned things the right way? Planning is an essential part of any journey. Do you just take a vacation to a place unknown without even checking the weather of the place? No, everything that we do, requires planning. Deep down we know going without plan is a lot adventurous and we all want to feel the thrill. But a smart person will always be prepared beforehand, so that when the weather is all stormy, they have a safe shelter.
Phase Two: Nobody tells it is going to be stressful
The actual story begins in phase two. Meanwhile, it is great that you are following your dreams, but the stress is just going to take a toll on your mind and body. It is going to break you and will make you feel helpless. If you are young your body will support you longer in the journey, but eventually depriving it of the needful rest, fun, and peace, you will notice your will starts to wither. The worst part is, you lose the quality at which you were always performing.
For many of us, it is important to give our 100% in whatever we do. But when you face work overload, are you still sure you will be able to keep up the quality? For any person quality is something which we all want to achieve. I am one of those people. Lopa is one of those people. You might be too.
It is essential in these times that we understand our limitations. We have to reinstate the lost balance. Sometimes, in the hurry to catch up with your dreams we leave behind the beautiful moments. We compromise our time with family to work hard. And in the end, we have to make do with whatever little connections are left with our loved ones.
Just like our body, the mind needs to rest too. But how to do that? It is constantly thinking, calculating your next move. Are things in your control when you are already juggling thousands of things at a time. In my conversation with Lopa ,I understood how badly restless she was while managing her growing business. It got her worried when a client did not get the results she promised. Though she never lost the business, it was too bad for her self-esteem.
As a result, things start to fall apart. Brick by brick you are back to square one with the burden of broken dreams. You must realize the importance of rejuvenating yourself. Resting your mind. Investing your time in knowing your limits and realizing when you are overdoing it. Empires aren’t formed in days or months, they take years. When we increase our pace, we forget we don’t have the energy to do it all ourselves. And also, you don’t have the resources to manage it.
Phase Three: Rejuvenating and Restarting Again
You don’t have to give up on your dreams. Take some time out of work and start working on your peace of mind. In the end, don’t forget you wanted to achieve this all to attain a great degree of self-contentment.
Understand where things are going wrong. Make a list of things that you will like to change from the last time. Start working on them. Choose wisely what and how much you want to work. Work exclusive if necessary. In the end entrepreneurship, job or business are not just about money, they are about gaining that expert badge.
Here’s 5 tips on how to begin with overcoming fear of public speaking!
Step 1 : Beginning with the end in the mind
As my Coach and 7Habits of Highly Effective People Master Stephen Covey says – “ Begin with the end in the mind “
Start with a vision statement for your purpose
Why do you speak on a public speaking platform ? What kind of speaking opportunities you are looking for ? What platform do you wish to speak on? Whom do you wish to address?
Step 2 : Define the content and context
Define what will be of immense “value” to those startups or entrepreneurs whom I’m supposedly addressing and representing myself as a brand and Google as a brand to them – what would be a win win situation?
As my Coach Master Stephen Covey says – “Be Proactive “ and “Putting first things first”
What matters most? Focusing on what’s utmost importance What are some of the trending topics that would be of interest to them? What would be a Better outcome for developers?
Step 3 : Empathisewith your audience
Empathise what will be they be thinking , feeling and doing .Having Listened to startup by being a part of their conversations and looking at their profiles , I’m supposedly understanding their concerns and putting myself in their shoes.
As Master Stephen Covey says “Seek to understand then to be understood”.
What are their pain points? What would they gain from my expertise and skills What could be their challenges? What are their thoughts,feelings and emotions?
Step 4 : Ideate or Brainstorm
Ideate or brainstorm what will be they excited to know or hear about . After Empathising with startups by being a part of their conversations and looking at their profiles , I started generating content / topic ideas that would be of interest and bring an element of newness.
As the 5th Habit is all about – “Think Win -Win or Synergize”.
Where can I look for inspiration? What , What If? , So What ? What could be the best strategy? How do I select the best idea & start synthesising my talking points ?
Step 5 : Experimentation / Execute
So I finally Executed or Experimented the selected idea and made it experiential . After ideating with my colleagues and mentors and LPA associates and looking at LPA seminars on Youtube , I started conceptualising the ideas that would be engaging and encourage participation.
As the 7th Habit is all about creating “Synergize “.
How can translate this idea into reality? How will the participants experience the subject/topic ? What could be the learning delivery method? What could be the possible outcomes for us & companies?
Step 6 : Evaluate
And after I spoke at this session , I performed a self evaluation on what did I do right, and what did I do wrong?
How can I do better next time?
Are there any improvement areas?
How can I practice or explore more such speaking opportunities?
If you have landed up on this blog searching for some wellness tips then you are in the right place !
Whether you hold a full-time job or work as a freelancer, work from office or work from home, stress is a real issue that every working professional has to deal with sooner or later. As the work culture gets increasingly complicated and employees are expected to work more for less; it’s now more important than ever to find your own recluse.
Relax, if you’ve been feeling stressed out lately from all the workload, just follow these simple tips for a quick fix.
1.Take frequent walk breaks: With the constant pressure coming from the weight of the world around us, it’s quite easy to feel bogged down and depressed. This is why one must break away from work once in a while even if seems impossible. A short walk break in the home itself can give you a fresh perspective on things and how to get things done, which is essential for clarity and mental fog .
2. Take up an art or hobby No, we’re not going ask you to abandon work to visit a studio for a 30 minute art or decoupage session. All you have to do is some simple art strokes or sketching in between work to feel refreshed and relaxed! Or dance around when no one’s looking to bring back peace of mind.
3. Read a book : Working on the computer , especially from home, can get very monotonous at times due to lack of social interaction. In that case, it’s always a good book from a great author is welcome!
4. Take up a touch therapy based activity : Post work Activities like gardening , clay , Pottery , makeup classes are so therapeutic and connects you to your souls essence and your true nature. It also boosts your happy hormones ! Once in a while , do take up whatever is therapeutic to you!
Uncertainty is jarring. It stops you from following your dreams. It leaves you with no courage to walk the road you have always wanted to explore. And worst of all, it leaves you helpless and subjective to circumstances. Gradually, you start making up for inner peace by finding comfort in the cozy materialistic life you have weaved. But when your soul is suffocating; how much do you think you can hold up?
In my brief discussion with Suruchi Shah a life coach and entrepreneur, we explored various emotional and mental hurdles a person encounters during their self-discovering journey. One thing that inspired me to my core was the role of ‘Ikigai’ – the Japanese philosophy in transforming Suruchi’s and thousand others’ life.
Eager to learn, and share the knowledge what I found out, I dedicate this blog to ikigai and its role in achieving our goals. But, before we go further, do catch my exclusive interview with Suruchi Shah on my Instagram page. Needless to say, it will help you gather the courage to take the first step towards your dreams and how to mentally support yourself throughout your journey.
Ikigai for finding your passion
What is life like when you are not following your dreams? Probably mundane, unfulfilling. Each day waking up to an ear-piercing alarm clock you want to smash on the ground, peering through beady eyes and cursing the day ahead, how do you propose to change your situation. Why do we inflict so much pain on ourselves? Just because of fear of failure. It is downright sadistic.
It is our moral duty to keep ourselves happy. Work towards finding a reason to get out of the bed. And do one thing each day that makes you happy. At the end of the day, you would be able to answer your soul that you have done something that is taking you towards serenity.
Ikigai is nothing but finding that very reason. This Japanese art of living was formulated to help people find balance within themselves, connect with others and the world. It opens up huge possibilities for personal development. Ikigai emphasis on starting each day with positive thoughts. Switching between moments to chid away anything negative that stands between you and your ultimate goal. Simply put, it is not about how you finish your day; it is about a positive start.
Ikigai for finding courage within
Positive thoughts have a huge impact on our lives. They help you in creating a good mood and generate happiness for yourself and others. Each day when you wake up, no matter how cranky you feel force a good mood on yourself purposefully. It will motivate your body to work towards your dream the whole day and keep discouragement at bay.
It promotes focus. It will channel your energy, and allow you to take control of your mind and body to work harmoniously for what satisfies your soul. Happiness attracts happiness and sadness attracts sadness. A blissful life requires you to ignore the ruckus around you and enjoy the beauty of your goals.
Ask yourself, why are you in this world? What is the reason for being? What makes sense to you the most? Do you want to have a carefree life? or do you dream of becoming financially strong?
Find what makes you happy, what satisfies your soul. And don’t be afraid to set goals too high or too low. Just set an objective for being in this world and channel happiness and your efforts in reaching it. And your reason of being shall bestow energy, skills, ideas and ability to use them productively.
Ikigai for respecting your individuality
Right from the day we are born to the day we leave this world; we make connections with people. We engage with them to create emotional and physical bonds and in this course, we expect them to be understanding.
But mostly they are not. And you can’t blame them. Because nobody else is witnessing the battle going between your mind and soul. It is you alone who is going through the misery and know how disturbing it is. With this we come to two conclusions. One, respect people even when they are unable to understand you. And secondly, you don’t need their confirmation to get off that misery boat.
Ikigai encourages you to come of use to the world. It believes you have a special role in the community to play and you can create a positive impact. And, you can make a big difference in the society, just by helping yourself. Nature never gives birth to anything that is useless. The world needs you to realise your potential and work hard to reach your goals so that you can add to the greater good.
Ikigai doesn’t want you to think about yourself or have an opinion or belief about yourself. But it stresses you to find what you think about yourself in heart, body and mind. This alone unleashes infinite opportunities. Self-acknowledgement further protects you from making false assumptions about yourself and the world. It teaches you to respect difference in opinions and thoughts, meanwhile also respecting your own individuality.
Practicing Ikigai
Now that we have talked in length about what is ikigai, what does it require you to do, how does it help you in your entire life, here is how you can start practicing it.
Find what you love to do
It need not be your childhood dream, and it need not be something very realistic. It can be vague and you can redirect yourself later to change your goals again. Start by finding what do you love to do?
Scale it to a professional level
Do you see yourself enjoying what you love to do for a long time? What can you do to add value to it? How can you scale your present skills and abilities to reach pro level? Find answers to these questions.
Convert your passion into vocation
Financial uncertainties stop people from following their passion the most. For that, once you have found your passion, try to find vocation opportunities for your passion.
Add to the greater good
In the end it is all about how you can add value to yourself and to others. Most the time people leave this fourth leg of ikigai and fail miserably. It is very important that whatever you are doing should add value to not just yourself but to others too. Make it a mission. In the end ikigai is not just a personal development tool but a global philosophy.
Write us!
Thanks for staying till the end. I hope you loved to learn about Ikigai. Tell us if you knew about Ikigai already, or you have been practicing it. You can also share your experience and how it changed your outlook towards life and made you more positive in the comments below.
From living her dreams to becoming a catalyst in making people’s dreams come true, Deepti Arora has been my support system in finding myself. Each conversation adding something unique, positive, and valuable, I couldn’t wait when Deepti took some time out from her busy schedule to become a part of my vlog series “Warriors of Change”.
Today, Deepti is an entrepreneur and NLP coach at her venture – HealClinc. But once she too was juggling lemons and becoming creative in using them to sometimes make lemonade, or for that matter a tequila. So, without further ado, I will take you to different parts of my interview with her and what I have learned from it. Please do visit my Instagram page to find my full interview with Deepti.
Superheroes need to unwind too…
There is a superhero that breathes in us all. It would take a load of the entire world on its shoulder and forget to analyze what are their priorities. And when things are not under their control it would freak them out. This is not just tiring; it would just take away what superheroes are known for the most – the smiling face even when things are not right.
That doesn’t sound like a superhero, isn’t it? It is not easy to realize that you are incapable of juggling too many things. If you continue you are not just doing injustice to others but yourself too by stripping off the needful mind-body equilibrium.
Defining your priorities…
I remember reading somewhere, “life never throws at you a challenge so big that you can’t cope with”. It has been with me for a long time now and it has completely changed my outlook towards the bad phases of life. Life is not going to be same all the time. And if you ask me, happiness would lose its meaning too soon if we don’t encounter sadness. We will just forget to cherish the moments in the flow of life.
Sadly, we all go into trance. How to get out of it? How do you find the serenity and happiness in the times when nothing seems to go right? I will give you one hint. Starting owning your mind. Choose your battles. Accept the challenges and meanwhile, everyone would think you just have to jump… I would say no. Never enter a battlefield unprepared.
In modern terms, plan… plan… plan… until you have found the right way to defeat your challenges. Make a priority list and let go of the things that are stopping you from winning the battle. No matter how necessary they might be to you. No matter how attached you are with it. Let go of the things that will make you lose your balance because you have that rope hanging in the air to walk and balance alone is going to get you to the other side.
We are defeated by our prejudices…
Life is all about breaking our conceptions. As Deepti said, we are all here to learn something from our experiences. In the same way, we are stopped from taking the right decision when we limit ourselves in commonly found notions of society. It is necessary to challenge yourself to continuously widen our paradigm.
For example, A working mother, a father who is wanting to quit his job to start his own business, a boy learning ballet, or a girl playing football or cricket. Society accepts us to work in a certain cliché format. We have these affixed notions in the society which want us to align our dreams around it. But happiness and peace of mind won’t come until you are satisfying yourself. Self-satisfaction is not selfish. Depriving yourself of love and dreams is a sadist. Dream and make a plan for life, the universe will fulfill all of it in time.
Having a vision for things…
Not every opportunity you get in your life will pay off. We have been there when something sounds too good to be true, you follow that opportunity but eventually it starts to fall apart. But now, when you don’t have time to invest in each and everything, vision can help you. There is no eeny-meeny-miny-moe way to choose what will be best for you. But having a vision will help you understand whether things are aligning with your long-term and short goals or not. It will not just help you in finding the financial footing, but mental peace too.
Having a vision bestows you the power to say no to the things that don’t align with your goals. Here, patience helps you greatly. When you are drowning, naturally you will pick up anything that looks like a rope to keep you afloat. But it might be a snake in disguise that is going to bite you after. In those times you have that choice to learn to swim too. What will you choose? I choose not to take an easy way out, not without fully analysing it.
Being a warrior means taking charge…
A warrior too can lose the focus. Even when things are going according to you, make sure you are not going back to your old ways. What you have learned from life and variety of experiences mandatorily be adapted in your life, you just need to scale them as per your current situation.
Above all, respect yourself, and your goals. Never let anybody else hold the reins of your life because, in the end, you will lose the power over your dreams. With physical wellness comes the acute need of finding mental wellbeing. And we can’t ignore the role of financial stability all along. Revisit your goals, and plan your life as per your current achievements to find help in a long run.
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