Journal Week 4 (18th May - 24th May 2015)

Monday, 18th May 2015

Reconnecting with nature

In today's world, we are faced with so much information flow on a daily basis, that our minds tend to get cluttered with too many thoughts and our focus is divided among too many unnecessary things. Silencing your mind for some period of time, every day, can lead us to efficiently focus on the important things during the remaining time of the day. Perhaps, the best way of achieving that is taking a walk in the park, or enjoying the view of sunset from your balcony, or anything thing which can connect you with nature. Reconnecting with nature can immediately relax your mind and can silence most of the unwanted thoughts running around in your mind at that point of time.




Tuesday, 19th May 2015

A day, a life

In his wonderful book 'How to stop worrying and start living', Dale Carnegie tells us to live in day tight compartments, ie., to consider each day as a new life and to live in a manner such as to make each 'life' meaningful. By concentrating your full attention on the day at hand, one can live free of guilt of the past and the nightmares about an unknown future. Not many people are good in laying out their plan of actions for long periods of time. But we all have the capability to live one day perfectly, and doing just that is all required. We can live better when we can see life for what it really is,... a simple summation of such perfect days. 




Wednesday, 20th May 2015

Importance of vacations

A human being is wired such that he/she'll get bored with repetition of same work over a period of time. Even his efficiency in such work gets affected due to this boredom and gets reduced over the period of time. What is a better way to recharge your mental batteries other than going on a small vacation with your loved ones? No one has to explain it to you, you'll know from your own previous experiences that a good vacation can clear your mind from all the negativity and leave you with a pleasant mind.




Thursday, 21st May 2015

Letting loose your creativity

All human beings have some sort of creativity within themselves. It might be present in varying levels for different individuals, but it is present in each one of us without doubt. May he/she be a 7 year old kid or an old timer at 70 years of age, there is creativity to be tapped. Exercising your creativity, let it be drawing, writing, singing or anything, will let you lead a happier and fulfilled life, rather than filling your life with meaningless things. Finding what you are good at and exercising it on a daily basis can be tough, but with repetition it could be made a habit that you can't be without.  

Friday, 22nd May 2015

Stop blaming others and start taking responsibility

Whenever we are faced with a roadblock or a wall in our life, our natural tendency is to search for people and external conditions to blame for, rather than accept our role in that failure. Unless we start to take full responsibility for being where we are currently, in the road to goals of our life, we'll always have a victim-mentality. That means, we'll always think of ourselves as helpless and that other people or factors decide where we end up. For example, most people who discontinue going to gym or abandon their daily exercise routine, have a tendency to blame it on the cold weather or late night work shifts, but not on their own laziness. Taking full responsibility for your life is of course scary. But, only when we take responsibility for our current standing, we can start truly believing that we are capable of making changes in our destiny. And with such a belief, one can do wonders.

Saturday, 23rd May 2015

Embrace information silence for a week

On comparison with someone who lived 50 years ago, the amount of information at our disposal is tremendous. Information inflow into our mind, knowingly or unknowingly, through the time we spend in social networking sites or reading newspapers, amounts to be very large. Letting in unwanted information can crowd you mind to an extent that, accessing wanted information gets difficult. Also, our mind gets restless on being subjected to too much data inflow. So we can practice an exile from social media websites and newspapers for a week, so that our mind gets clear and we can take decisions better.

Sunday, 24th May 2015

Don't be a slave to your moods

People acting on their moods can invariably have an affect on the social atmosphere around them. A person in a good mood can improve the general positiveness of a social gathering. While that is socially acceptable, spreading negativity by throwing tantrums in a social gathering is in no sense acceptable. A normal person will have troubles in mastering his/her moods, but the least we can do is not to let our bad mood affect another person. Also, people tend to stay away from those who express too much of mood swings. 

Journal Week 3 (11th May - 17th May 2015)

Sadly a gap of 12 days crept in when I was at my home. I hope I'll strong enough to stick with the schedule for remaining 7 weeks.

Monday, 11th May 2015

Stop pondering over trifles

During my childhood, I've stayed in a number of rented homes before getting to live in one of my own. After we had vacated one such house, a family known to us became the tenants there. When we were staying there, we had kept the house clean, but didn't stress much on keeping the house spotless. However, this family was a bit too much obsessed with cleaning. They engaged in daily cleaning and had optimized the usage of all available spaces. They had really surpassed us in this aspect, that even the children of the family started teasing me that that was how a house supposed to be kept. At that point of time, I wanted to be basically be like that family once I grow up. But, in reality I became a lot worse once I grew up. On thinking about that now, I feel that as a normal man I can keep focus on only a few priorities in my life, and I'm happy that for me they are my family and my passions, rather than socially acceptable virtues like high cleanliness. I'm sure I won't be sad about not keeping a cleaner room, while I'm on my death bed. The world is full of trifles. Happiness and success comes when you follow what is really important to you.




Tuesday, 12th May 2015

How you stick to your decisions determine your character

All of us want a strong and altruistic character. At least, that's what we have been taught from our childhood, as the character of a perfect man/woman. But that's not something we can wish into existence. Whatever be the sort of character you want for yourself, you actions should be in alignment with that. Everyone makes resolutions and decisions at different points of their life. How one stick to these decisions, decides one's character. Because character is always a moldable thing. It is not something fixed throughout our life. If we repeatedly stick with our decisions, our character will be a strong one, whereas a weak character will be the result of an inability to stick with our decisions. If you want to be altruistic, you have to do such deeds. Even in case of molding your children's character, rather than giving oral lessons, you should be able to put forward your life as a lesson for them to follow.




Wednesday, 13th May 2015

Setting time as your currency and health as your asset

I've met a lot of people, who go ahead with doing something which is of no value to their time and possibly even having a negative effect on their health, for the reason that they've paid for it. For example, people eat more than they could possibly digest, to avoid the guilt of not eating enough after paying for it. I'm also one among them. But if that is seen as a transaction, it is full of losses. We've lost money by paying for it and by taking in more food than needed, we are putting some loss on the health side too. We could have prevented the second loss, if only we had stopped after eating what we require. Perhaps, the mature way of making decisions can be done setting time as our currency and health as our asset. Thereby we can avoid a lot of decisions taken to avoid monetary loss. It will always be good to remember that money could come back to your life in plenty, but loss in time and health are a thousand times harder to get back.




Thursday, 14th May 2015

Listing your troubles

It is said that sharing your troubles with your best friend can reduce your tensions. And who can be a better friend that 'a pen and a paper'? You can pour out your heart on a piece of paper, perhaps even more than what you could do with your best friend. It is often mentioned by psychologists and other experts that keeping problems locked up in your mind is a sure shot way of getting ended up with a restless mind. It is really curious how we can remember a slight injustice done to us even 20 years before and feel bad about it even after such a long time, while we easily forget a small favor which has been done for us yesterday and won't be able to feel as grateful as we felt at that point of time. That's why dealing with your issues becomes something of great importance. Listing down your troubles in a piece of paper will relieve you of the burden of remembering them all and your mind can be freed from the restlessness to a great extent. Perhaps, a proper phrasing of the trouble might be enough for us to realize that it was just some minor inconvenience. In case of worries for which nothing could be done, acceptance comes easier with sharing your feelings in the piece of paper. And finally for those issues which do have solutions, writing it down forms a tool helping in visualizing the possible solutions and makes it easier to work on them.

Friday, 15th May 2015

Anger Management

Well, if you are a rageaholic, you better see a psychotherapist. This article is of no use to you. But if you are someone like me, who gets irritated with minor inconveniences during the day, perhaps we can sit around a table and share our views. We get irked by many things in our daily life - 'plates are not available when we come to take food in the mess', 'someone overtakes our car without following the rules' or 'something is not where we kept it previously'. These things will be always coming at us throughout our life. So, isn't it better to develop a proper response to such situations than getting angry every time these things present themselves before us. Because, unless we keep serious check on it, getting angry on such things will become a habit on repeating it over a period of time and gradually an angry or irritable nature becomes a part of your character. While it is definitely bad for your health, it can also lead to damage your relationships. Changing the focus of your mind to something else when you are faced with such irritable things can help you a long way in having a peaceful life.

Saturday, 16th May 2015

Meaning to work

Our generation, unlike that of our parents, doesn't find satisfaction with simply having a job. Now the question is no more that of survival and getting to eat three meals a day, as it was 20 - 30 years back. Now, we want a 'meaning' to whatever we are doing. We are not satisfied with spending our time on a job, if it doesn't give us a feeling that we are important and that we are making a change, irrespective of how much better the pay might be. Hence it is necessary for everyone, to ask themselves, while selecting a career path, that - 'will the world be a better place, that I happened to be born and opted this career path for my life?'.

Sunday, 17th May 2015

Being selective about what you read

One can always take some lesson or some bit of information out of any book he/she reads. But we need to be selective in what we read. This is because, there is a lot of literary material available and which keeps on increasing owing to widespread availability of the internet, and we'll never be able to go through all of them. Perhaps, starting with the 'best seller lists' or 'books to read before you die' could be somewhere you can start. In current era of digital information, we might prefer videos and audiobooks for our convenience, but an avid reader will always tell you that there is always an extra something to take away by reading books as compared to the digital mediums.

M Police

"Oh my god! What happened to you, baby? Your lips are bleeding. When you called me last, you were coming here with her."

"We were... We were... walking this way through the park. Suddenly... some rogues surrounded us and... started questioning her why she is walking with someone outside her religion... Then they started calling her derogatory names, telling her how she is disgracing her religion... and began interrogating her whether I'm her lover."

"What is the issue with these idiots? Can't a man and a woman walk together in a democratic country like ours?"

"I tried to interrupt them,... saying we are just friends. But they won't listen."

"How hard is to understand that? Even in this age, the mentality of such people are so primitive."

"That was when I really got angry and shouted at them... that it is none of their business whether we were lovers or not... They became really furious at that point and started beating me up saying that how dare an infidel like me try to taint the chastity of a girl from their belief.... They didn't even stop after I started begging them to leave me and that I already have someone else as lover..."

"Oh, my poor baby.... "

"Please don't cry darling... You know it is the only thing I can't bear.. Please stop."

"Did they hurt you a lot, dear? Shall we go to a hospital? "

"It is ok, honey... I'm fine now..."

"We should complain about this to the police. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with this."

"There is no use in that, dear. Two policemen were idly watching the whole event, while it was taking place... Once the mob left me after beating me up for some time, they came to help me get up... Surprisingly, they were angry at me instead. They warned me, not to repeat it and never to be seen in the park."

"Our society is going to the dogs. What will happen to our country if those who are to uphold the law, just remain bystanders when laws are broken... By the way, where is she?"

"They forcibly took her along with them saying they'll take her to her home and warn her parents of her wayward lifestyle and how that is a disgrace to their community... She had already many problems in her home with her conservative parents. Now they'll stop her education and get her married... It breaks my heart knowing that her walking with me might become the reason for shattering all her dreams and ambitions.... She had even told me that someone might tell her parents if we walked together this close to her home, but I assured her nothing bad will happen... Only I had not insisted...."

"Ay.. Don't cry... You are not responsible for that.. Come here.."

They hugged.

A crowd was standing a little distance away from them. One of them spoke to others pointing at them, "These imbeciles have been doing public display of indecency. What message is that sending to our little brothers and sisters? It is time to teach them a lesson of their life. Let's thrash up these gay bastards for good."