Sharing Ideas Sharing Thoughts

This one is for the teenager's and young adults When someone asks you a question, 1. Listen deeply and understand the question. Know what exactly is being asked. 2. Don't be in a hurry to answer. Let him finish. Think through your response. Use the time to create a structure in your mind. 3. Get to the good stuff ASAP. Preferably in the first sentence. And then support your answer with evidence and reasoning. 4. Be brief and to the point. 5. Use examples, stories to illustrate when required. An Example: Qn: What is your short-term professional goal? An average answer is like: Well! I have been discussing this with my friends and mentor's and there are a number of things that I am passionate about. I have always been interested in the financial world but I also have a strong bias for technology. But, I think I'd like to become a successful wall street trader in 5 years from now. A better one: I see myself as a Director in a top financial firm in 5 years.

Why do we eat? Because we are hungry or to provide nutrition to the body to stay healthy What do we sleep? Because we are tired or because we are re-charging our body for the next awesome day. Why does a student go to school? To get certifications or to learn. Why do we work? To make money or to seek fulfillment by doing something that excites us. To follow our purpose, our passion. Why do we wake up in the morning? Because we have to go to work or because we are drawn towards a higher goal - to serve others through our unique gifts. In the above questions, if you answered the former then maybe you are drifting in time and space - you are sleeping. And if you chose the latter then you have propulsion and rudder - you are awake.

We want an ideal life. Everything in our lives should be right. We seek good health, lots of money, happiness, love... But that is not the nature of life. Life will have it's ups and downs and we should face those enthusiastically. We want consistent results. Instead, we should aim for consistent effort. We must strive to play our part well and to give our best in every moment. While simultaneously having fun because challenges make life exciting. Will you go for a movie in which everything is perfect from the beginning to the end? So enjoy this roller-coaster ride, stop comparing, give in your best and be grateful for what you have.

In life, we win some and lose some. And we try and maximize our wins. In the process, we let our emotions impact our performance. Constant worry about the prize may make us fearful. A better way to live life is to always give our 'A' game without worrying about win or loss. PS: This does not take away the importance of goal setting. Rather, it implies to focus our mind on the work and not the result. 

"Don't change my circumstances, change me". "Kindly guide me and strengthen me" This sounds like a good prayer because we are asking God to give us the strength to overcome the obstacles. We are seeking success through empowerment. Instead of begging to God, we can express our need in simple words and assure him of our best efforts. Similarly, when we ask someone for help, the main component of work must stay with us. And the other person should be the source of guidance and support. 

When someone says or does something that we do not approve, we get hurt. And we mull over the incident over and over again, thereby preventing our emotional healing. To heal a wound we need to stop touching it. To stop thinking about it we must "let go" - forgive. When we forgive (genuinely), we stop feeling hurt and that gives us joy. We feel encouraged to engage with that person again and then re-establish the relationship. At times, we may realize that there was some misunderstanding or maybe we were partly responsible.  Forgiveness requires compassion, empathy, a willingness to understand the other person (someone hurts you when he is unhappy himself). It also requires common sense - because we should do things that are beneficial for the good of self and others. One of the ways to forgive someone is to visualize good things for him. "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you." - Louis B. Smedes

I have been struggling with this question since last 15 years. I used to think it was awareness. Which is true but I am sure there is more to it. I think consciousness is - " Your sense of being" - "Your identity as you know it". It is the sum total of who you think you are. All your experiences, knowledge and wisdom. The above explanation links it to the "ego". And that is how we limit our consciousness. We draw boundaries, we consider ourselves as separate. We fail to see the inter-connected-ness. For example, the wave in the ocean may feel it is separate from other waves and/or the vast ocean. In reality - they are all the same. When a wave dies, it merges in the ocean. And then rises again as a new wave. That is why wise people ask us to expand our consciousness. To realize that we are all one. The following talks are helpful to develop the understanding and Paramhansa Yogananada has explained it beautifully in his works. Consciousness -- th

Yes, they do. We are who we are because we reinforced our belief with certain thoughts. A child who feels that he is not good at Math constantly tells himself that he can't understand Mathematics. Similarly, a woman who thinks her nose is imperfect or someone who feels that he is clumsy is augmenting their belief with those thoughts. And we rationalize this by saying - "It is true, I see it all the time". Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Years of telling ourselves something makes us who we are. Similarly, if we keep good thoughts and practice affirmations, we will get into a virtuous cycle.