Be Happy – We Can Live Longer

For particularly those people, who did not study medical sciences, it has been a great anxiety for long what causes us to age resulting in death of our body cells over the years, develop heart disease leading to plaque in the artery, or suffer from cancer causing cells to mutate and grow erratically. If we reduce the number of oxygen radicals, we improve the antioxidant status in our body to reduce the danger of many diseases and we can live longer since the common denominator in all these conditions is the antioxidant status – the level of chemical process that cholesterol level we can measure our antioxidant status and determine how vulnerable we are to diseases.

There is a rhythm in nature. Seasons come and go. In your own body also, there is a rhythm. Life has a particular rhythm. Similarly, your breath also goes in a pattern. Your emotions move in a particular rhythm, as well as your thoughts. All these rhythms arise from your being, which has its own rhythm. In this direction, Sudarshan kriya works a lot on the antioxidant status of individuals. Sudarshan Kriya is a well known rhythmic breathing technique, preceded by Ujjayi Pranayam or long and deep breaths with constriction at the base of throat and Bhastrika or fast and forceful breaths through the nose along with arm movements.

In Sudarshan Kriya, we get into the rhythm of our being and see how our being is permeating our emotions, our thoughts, our breath and our bodies. Soon, every cell of our body becomes alive and releases all the toxins and negative emotions it has stored from times past. Once again, we are able to smile from our hearts.

Our body is being constantly damaged and destroyed by oxygen radicals, similar to what dirt and rust do to our vehicles. Oxygen radicals are different from oxygen gas in that they are molecules that are highly charged and detrimental byproducts of cell reactions.

Our body has an antioxidant defense system that constantly searches and destroys these oxygen radicals, much like our immune system, which polices our body for foreign agents such as bacteria and viruses to eliminate them. If the antioxidant defense system of our body is weak, the number of oxygen radicals increases, causing our cells to die quickly. This results in inflammation and plaque with our heart vessels or prompts the cells to mutate into cancer cells. If we reduce the number of oxygen radicals, we improve the antioxidant status in our body, and we can live linger and lead a disease-free life.

It is important that we try to reduce the level of oxygen radicals and strengthen our defense system. We can increase our antioxidant levels through our diet. A healthy diet of vegetable and fruit increases our intake of important antioxidants such as Vitamins A, C, E, and beta carotene. Some initial studies have shown the benefit of higher antioxidants in our diet, but larger studies have not detected the benefit – so the jury is still out. Smoking, alcohol and chronic psycho-social problems like work and family pressures, can increase oxidative stress. This stress affects our complex molecules and genes. Yoga and meditation can relieve this stress.

Will Sudarshan Krisya have similar effect? In a research, it has been found that the Kriya practitioners had a better antioxidant status at the enzyme and the gene level. Also they had less DNA damage and cell aging. It is difficult to know if this change will lead to longer life span, decrease rates of cancer, or lessen heart disease, but we should practice some type of breathing technique once a day to reduce stress. We can undertake this kriya twice everyday. Though biochemical science and spirituality may seem miles apart, it is heartening to see ancient practices and modern science converging in man’s endeavour to live a richer and healthier life. It is expected that it can help us to live longer.

Be Happy - We Can Live Longer By Undertaking Sudarshan Kriya Under Some Expert's Supervision.

Be Happy – Know What You Are

It is everyone’s wish to be successful. But, have you ever thought success can be as easy as doing what you like? In other words, if you are doing what you like, there’s nothing that can stop you from achieving your goals, since work will then be a treat for you. All that is needed is to identify that aspiration which you cannot do away with. For example, a person who aspires to be a writer cannot do too well in a sales job! For convenience of comprehension, we can name it ‘career anchor’. Now what’s in it for the industry? Well, it could be an organization's best tool to retain their best talent. Letting your employees do what they like can helps them excel in their jobs and maintains their loyalty to the organization. Sure, it’s not an easy task. But enterprises would benefit tremendously by keeping an eye on the ‘career anchors’ of their employees, and aligning the same to the company goals. This, in turn, calls for establishing a symbiotic relationship between the employee and employer.

Know what you are?

Knowing an employee’s career anchor can be one your best retention tools. Do you know what’s it that you can’t do away with? A ‘career anchor’ has been defined as one’s occupational self-concept comprising self-perceived talents and abilities based on actual successes in a variety of work settings; self-perceived motives and needs based on opportunities for self-tests and self-diagnosis in real situations and on feedback from others; and self-perceived attitudes and values based on actual encounters between self and the norms and values of the employing organization and work setting.

This anchor could vary from managerial aspirations where people like to administer, to technical/ functional aspirations where people are more attentive towards the details of their craft, stability, autonomy/independence, and entrepreneurial/ creativity; among others. The most important thing to note here is that the anchor is a ‘stabilizing force’- the values motives and needs that an individual will not give up, if forced to make a choice.

However, there’s usually a mismatch between an individual’s career anchor and the kind of career path that an organization provides. And in the knowledge industry, where the employee is the greatest asset, no organization can achieve success without its employees achieving success. Therefore, the relationship between organizations and professional also needs to be looked at from an increasingly symbiotic perspective.

Career aspirations:

Interestingly, while entry level professionals mostly pursue careers that are in vogue, those in the 2-3 year experience category, more or less know what their career anchor is. Right from the early days, I wanted to create. And today, in the capacity of a software developer, I am learning, applying new skills and implementing new thoughts in action, everyday.

Building that psychological connect is never easy:

A good understanding of career anchors can strengthen the psychological contract between the employee and employer. But this is never an easy task. After all, how do you deal with entry-level professionals, who would join an industry not out of any specific career inclination, but because of other reasons like peer pressure, what’s in vogue etc. Again, many a time, career options that are in line with the employee’s career anchor might be limited. So once the career anchor has been identified and the employee assigned responsibilities in line with the same, after a period, the growth of the employee may become limited by the opportunities available in that area.

Take you time:

An organization may give people time to ‘settle down’. “instead of charting out a career path right at the entry level. We must wait for two years and then let them choose their careers. One of the main purposes of performance appraisals is to identify the strong areas of an employee. It has six growth paths, which are thrown open to employees once they have completed a certain period of time with the company.

After a fair bit of counseling, we must help employees choose the career they would like to be in. employees even have the liberty to opt out of a career path after spending a considerable amount of time, in case they feel they want to do more. But yes, their decision to opt out should be backed by genuine reasons.
Right from the first contact:

The process of identifying an employee’s career interests begins right at the stage of the first level of interview wherein the potential employees’ motivations or joining the company, other than remuneration or role and responsibility, are uncovered. There are mechanisms like setting up of measurable objectives (in line with the company Goals) along with the reporting manager which will be assessed at the time of appraisals. During this process, managers get a chance to uncover other factors (career anchors) which keep the employee with the company. The manager then incorporates these along with the objectives which will be measured at the time of appraisals. This has a twofold impact – better employee retention and brand building of the company.

Reaching the inner person:

Understanding a person’s career anchor could be a way to bridge the gap between what is planned for him/her and what the ‘inner person’ will accept. There are basically three approaches to identifying career anchors. First is the use of questionnaires, the second is to have structured discussions with the individual and understand what motivates him/her and the third is self-evaluation to help make the correct career choice. This helps identifying areas where one can deliver fully over a period of time, and also understand the work setting in which one thrives best.

This may go a long way in helping people identify if there is a rift between them and the job they are doing. People are constantly looking for something meaningful. Many people switch jobs in the hope of finding ‘meaning’ without understanding where their passion lies and end up being miserable in a new place. Stability will come when people are clear which career will work for them in the long run.

Be Happy – Know What You Are Whether You are An Employer or An Employee. If You Are able to ascertain your capabilities, you can design your strategy accordingly.

Be Happy – Sincere Love Can Accomplish Your Dreams

Love is that type of emotion which is related to a sense of strong affection and attachment with someone or self. The word love can refer to different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure, as getting attracted to some specific meal due to taste or aroma, to intense interpersonal attraction as happens between wife and husband. This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states. Its definition changes from time to time in the different contexts.

We usually refer love to a deep, ineffable feeling of tenderly caring for another person. Even this limited conception of love, however, encompasses a wealth of different feelings, from the passionate desire and intimacy of romantic love to the nonsexual emotional closeness of familial and platonic love to the profound oneness or devotion of religious love. Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and, owing to its central psychological importance, is one of the most common themes in the creative arts.

Love is an essential matter for the success of your emotional life. If you develop and nurture it properly, be sure you can add up more than 16 years to your life span. That is why it needs special consideration and for that you need to create conducive atmosphere to develop. How to build up and nurture love in your life, there is a simple story for those who mostly work on computers and forget the importance of this factor in their life which I am putting up as I read somewhere. One computer-savy wishes to install love in his life and asks for the guidance from technical support expert. What they discuss is for your information and kind consideration.

Customer: Do you give technical guidance?
Tech Support: Yes, how can I help you?

Customer: Well, after much consideration, I’ve decided to install Love. Can you guide me through the process?
Tech Support: Yes. I can help you. Are you ready to proceed?

Customer: Well, I’m not very technical, but I think I’m ready, as long as you walk me through the steps. Tell me now, what do I do first?
Tech Support: The first step is to open your Heart. Have you located your Heart?

Customer: Yes, but there are several other programs running now. Is it okay to install Love while they are running?
Tech Support: Er… what programs are running, can you list them for me?

Customer: Let’s see, I have Past Hurt, Low Self-esteem, Grudge and Resentment running right now.
Tech Support: No problem, you can go right ahead. Love will gradually erase Past Hurt from your current operating system. It may remain in your permanent memory but it will no longer disrupt other programs. Love will eventually override Low Self-esteem with a module of its own called High Self-esteem. However, you have to completely turn off Grudge and Resentment. Those programs prevent Love from being properly installed. Tell me, can you turn those off?

Customer: Umm… let me see. Actually, I don’t know how to turn them off. Can you tell me how? Please help.
Tech Support: With pleasure. It’s really quite simple. Go to your start menu and invoke Forgiveness. Do this as many times as necessary until Grudge and Resentment have been completely erased.

Customer: Okay, done! Wow, Love has started i9nstalling itself. Is that normal?
Tech Support: Yes, but remember that you have only the base program. It’s quite basic. You need to begin connecting to other Hears in order to get the upgrades.

Customer: Oops! I have an error message already. It says, ‘Error – Program not run on external components.’ What should I do now?
Tech Support: Don’t worry, relax. It means that the Love program is set up to run on Internal Hearts, but has not yet been run on your Heart. In non-technical terms, it simply means you have to Love yourself before you can Love others.

Customer: So, what should I do?
Tech Support: Pull down Self-acceptance; then click in the following files: Forgive Self; Realize Your Worth; and acknowledge Your Limitations.

Customer: Okay, done. That wasn’t too difficult.
Tech Support: Now, copy them to the ‘My Heart’ directory. The system will overwrite any conflicting files and begin patching faulty programming. Also you need to delete Verbose Self-criticism from all directories and empty you Recycle Bin to make sure it is completely gone and never comes back.

Customer: Got it. Hey! My heart is filling up with new files. Smile is playing on my monitor and Peace and Contentment are copying themselves all over My Heart. Is this normal?
Tech Support: Sometimes. For others it takes a While, But eventually everything gets it at the proper time. So love is installed and running. One more thing before we hang up. Love is Freeware. Be sure to pass it and its various modules around to everyone you meet. They will in turn share it with others and return some cool modules back to you.

Customer: Thank you, thank you so much.

Be Happy – Distributing love to others costs you nothing but it gives back to you a lot.

Be Happy – Shed Your Ego

Ego comprises that organized part of the personality structure that includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions. Conscious awareness resides in the ego, although not all of the operations of the ego are conscious. The ego separates what is real. It helps us to organize our thoughts and make sense of them and the world around us. It may mean one’s self-esteem, an inflated sense of self-worth, or in philosophical terms, one’s self, amour-propre, delight, dignity, egoism, egotism, face, gratification, happiness, self-honor, self-pridefulness, repletion, self-satisfaction, self-admiration, self-confidence, self-glorification, self-love, self-regard, self-respect, self-satisfaction, self-sufficiency, self-trust, self-worth etc.

Ego can be termed as a big social problem world over. We people are highly egoistic and did not want to compromise with it. Especially people who rose higher in ranks or got high position in society or get rich, starts classifying themselves as different class of people than the rest. This is a common story that is why we people still salute to higher status. There are many examples where people use their power to exploit other because only they want to satisfy their own ego. Ego tussles can be seen among people of same class. People are usually hurrying to malign others, only because these people have hurt their ego.

In office rivalries are mostly result of hatreds grown due to ego clashes. Many bosses are more concerned with their own ego satisfaction rather than the benefits of company or department. Due to their ego, these people starts given themselves extra cover of false perceptions. Ego problems are not restrained only up to office or societies but they are very well present inside homes. Ego problems can be seen between all the relations of Father-son, husband-wife, brother-brother or brother-sister, no relations are left alone by the ego problem. With the advent of new technologies and advancement in higher education, these problems are becoming even worse. Now days, a small school going boy or girl also have big ego to satisfy. It looks that people have forgotten the art of forgiving and respect for others. We are only and only concerned with our and only our ego.

An average person always thinks he is above average. The perception of ‘easy and difficult’ is the result of one’s state of being. Swatting a fly is ‘difficult’ for some, while killing thousands is ‘easy’ for others like terrorists. Dropping the ego is easy when we realize that we are less than a dot in this vast cosmos. It is foolish to live with the illusion that we are the center of the cosmos. Dropping ego becomes difficult when we have this illusion.

In any circle, there is a center and a circumference. If the center of your life is hope then you will experience deficiency. If the center of your life is enjoying the moment, being total in the moment… then hope will be a circumference… then it is not a problem. Let kitchen items in the kitchen and bathroom items be in the bathroom. If they are placed elsewhere, then there is a problem. There is no problem with ‘hope’ as such, as long as it is in the circumference and not in the center. Be alive to the present.

The self with arrogance is ego. Self with the ignorance of who we are is also ego. Self filled with hopes and dreams is also ego. Ego lives either in the past or in the future, but never in the present. If its center resides either in the past or in the future it misses the present.
We are living in the world of ego… the ‘lower self’. But if our center is gratitude and devotion, then we live in the present. Both past and future become mere reference points. The ‘higher self’ is a space from which possibilities arise. It is a flow. It is a learning energy. It is an evolving being. You have the choice to operate either from the lower or higher self.

When you operate from ego, your relationships will be affected. Ego wants to prove its point of view. If you feel that the point of view is more important than truth or happiness, you may appear to demand and not command respect. If a couple demands respect from each other, they are beggars of happiness and not givers of happiness. In the egoistic state, an argument feeds the ego. Remember no one wins an argument. You accumulate more of bitterness and at different periods of time you settle scores with the other.

When you operate from the ‘higher self’ there is a healthy discussion. In discussion, truth is more important than who has said it. Happiness and well-being become more important than the survival of one’s point of view. Then, a relationship becomes rhythmic. You enjoy being with the other and you enjoy being alone. You are neither dependent nor independent but interdependent. You share your joyous being and not beg happiness from your partner.

Identity is created by what others have said about us. If others have told you that you are a great speaker, then you feel you are a great speaker. So your identity is dependent on others. In fact, others create your identity. Others validate you. It is painful, as you have invested much on others. Your image is in the hands of others.

The facts is, the real ‘I’ in us is not created by others, but the higher self is our essence. The higher self is a presence. It is awareness we have not learnt to operate from that state of being. Hence, we are alien to ourselves. When your partner separates from you, you feel you are at a loss. Stop and look within. You may find a higher self. Give up Your Ego and you will enjoy the life truly.

Be Happy – Shed Your Ego

Be Happy - Spirituality is an important virtue

Generally, we view spirituality as the quality of being concerned with human spirit and our spirit represents our mind, our feelings, our character. It is that part of the human beings which includes their mind, feelings and character rather than their body: the power of the human spirit to overcome difficulties, a person’s feelings or state of mind: to be in high / low spirits. Spirituality relates to, consists of, or has the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. It lies beyond the material world of proof, beyond what can be measured or counted. It is something deeply religious, something relating to the spirit and sacred matters.

It is vital to our well-being because of its emotional significance. It is the foundation of our most closely held values, the seat of our trust and hope. Spirituality brings purpose and meaning to life, and as we develop it, we grow in wisdom and love; we begin to experience a sense of awe, a sense of connection to all of life, and a deep reverence for the Divine. We find ourselves moved to prayers of gratitude and moments of spontaneous worship. Spirituality calls a human being to a life of trust and service.

When our spirituality is nurtured to go beyond the materialism, we get connected to others more easily. This connection is both a sense of relationship to the Creator, Great Spirit, or God (Divine Force), as well as a relationship to all people and to Mother Earth (Our life giving environment). Spirituality takes us beyond our ego-centered lives by expanding our hearts with compassion toward all.

Spirituality forms the framework for re-orientation to life; it does not dwell in a realm apart. It is not an extracurricular activity. Spirituality involves a reverent attitude towards all things because it awakens us to a divine presence in all things. In this way of seeing and being, all things and persons are interconnected and interdependent.

Yet this spirit, full of mystery, is every bit as real as the visible, tangible world. It is important to differentiate spirituality from religion. Some people have rejected religion in order to escape what they consider to be oppressive rules and regulations. In the process, however, many lose the great gifts of joy and compassion that spirituality brings Religion and spirituality related and intertwined, but they are not the same.

A person may experience spirituality without being a member of any specific religious affiliation, and even the most religious person may feel spiritually bereft. The true purpose of religion is to enhance spirituality through ritual and practice. This is accomplished when a person approaches his or her religion as a way to enter the great mystery, to become aware of the sacredness of all life. Religion can become a barrier to spirituality when it insists on narrow, judgmental dogma, and estranges its followers from a sense of connection with the Divine.

Religion serves us best as a vehicle to nourish and develop our spirituality. It is possible, however, to get too caught up with the religious practice, while losing sight of the destination, spirituality, which is communion with the Divine and compassion for all. For modern, academically oriented professionals, like physicians and health care workers, spirituality is often a difficult subject. For nurturing our spirituality, we need to depend on logical, analytical, and rational approaches, and while honoring science and the mind, our cultural tendency urges us to devalue belief and mystery, but the result is costly: we are left spiritually starved and out of balance.

Some of life’s most difficult questions are the spiritual ones. What is the purpose of life? What is of real value in our lives? If there truly is a God who loves us, how could there be so much suffering and unfairness in the world? Part of our addiction to our busyness is an attempt to prevent ourselves from thinking about our mortality, the inevitable fact of our own death.
But when we keep ourselves too busy to consider the purpose of our existence, our lives cease to have meaning. Strangely, it is only when we fully accept the reality of our mortality that we truly begin to live. This is the point at which we begin to enter into and learn about the spiritual dimension of our humanity.

Factually, we are not physical beings having a spiritual experience, but spiritual beings having a physical experience. Our spirituality is our true essence. It is that part of our life which relates to our soul, which from a spiritual perspective is connected to the divine and is infinite. This life-time is but the physical experience of our deeper reality, our spirit, which is our fundamental nature. We must nurture our spirituality as it is an important virtue.

Be Happy - Spirituality is an important virtue

Be Happy – Death is the Universal Truth.

Death is separation of the soul from the physical body. In other words, you can say, it is the termination of the biological functions that define a living organism. It will eventually afflict all living things. Death refers both to a particular event and to the condition that result thereby. It is the end of one’s life. Let us say that vital processes are those by which organisms develop or maintain themselves. These processes include chemosynthesis, photosynthesis, cellular respiration, cell generation, and maintenance of homeostasis. Then death is the ending of the vital processes by which an organism sustains itself.

For those, who believe in the theory of reincarnation, death becomes the starting point of a new life. Death merely opens the door to a higher and fuller form of life. He who is born is bound to die. He who dies starts new journey to live again. This way, life is death and death is life. They believe that no one comes, no one goes. The eternal alone exists. Your physical body comes to an end in event of your death. Just as you move from one house to another, the soul passes from one body to another to gain experience. Just as a man casting off worn-out garments takes new ones, so the dweller in this body casting off worn-out bodies, enters into others which are new.

This way, life is a continuum. Death is necessary for further evolution. Dissolution of the body is no more than sleep. Birth is like waking up. Death brings new life. Death unlocks the door to other options the soul has. The soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere but its center is in the body. Death means the change of this center from one body to another. There is death for the physical body, a compound of five elements. It is a universal fact that who takes a birth in some physical form has to put off that body one day after the vital processes stop to work.

The individual souls build various bodies to display their activities and gain experience from this world. They enter the bodies and leave them. The process goes on. This is known as transmigration of souls. The entrance of a soul into a body is called birth. The soul’s departure from the body is death.

Man has always tried to know what happens after the death of an individual. Science has been struggling to unravel the mystery of what lies beyond death. Experiments have yielded many interesting facts. Natural death, it is said, is unknown to unicellular organization. When life on earth consisted of these creatures, death was unknown. The phenomenon appeared only when from unicellular, the multi-cellular evolved.

Laboratory experiments have shown that whole organs such as thyroid glands, the ovary, suprarenal gland, the spleen, heart and kidneys isolated from the body of a cat or a fowl, can be kept alive in vitro to show increase in size or weight due to the appearance of new cells or tissues.
It is also known that after the cessation of an individual, parts of the organization can continue to function. The white corpuscles of the blood, if cared for, can live for months after the body from which they were withdrawn has been cremated. Death is not the end of life. It is merely cessation of an individuality. Life flows on to achieve the universal till it merges in the eternal.

Why do you worry about death?

Death will come to you one day in spite of the best medical care you opt for your body. Your body is not your own – it has been given to you for your soul for some limited time by nature and would be taken back after that specific period expires. You are quoted to have expired after that period ends and your death is declared. Nature takes back the body, whether through some violent means like malnutrition, disease, or accidents resulting in terminal physical injury or due to natural decay on account of age factor but with remarkable exceptions like hydra and the jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula since both are thought to escape age factor (possessing biological immortality).

Keeping in view the nature of the souls, it is also advised to all the mortals not to attach emotional attachments to the material things excessively as such material things may not be carried along with by you beyond the specific period allotted to your body to contain your soul. It is true that the specific period is not known to you or anybody else and this is the reason we understand ourselves to be permanent resident in our present body. This illusion creates greed in us to keep everything of our possession with us unless that is snatched from us or we are compelled to give away on account of some other consideration.

Death of someone can cause a lot of grief to those who love him/her. But if you assume that it was to happen to someone and/or all some day either one by one or to some of you together or all of you, you may take the death as no exception. You can shed tears that she is gone, or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all she's left. Your heart can be empty because you can't see her, or you can be full of the love you shared. You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday. You can remember her only that she is gone, or you can cherish her memory and let it live on. You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back. Or you can do what she'd want: you must smile, open your eyes, love and go on. You must ensure that those who are still enjoying their lives near to you may continue to do happily, Because Death is a Universal Truth for you, for me and for all human beings.

Be happy – Death is a Universal Truth.

Be Happy – Use Your Intuition as Your Best Guide

The dictionary definition of intuition is "quick and ready insight;" and "the act or process of coming to direct knowledge without reasoning or inferring." It is derived from the Latin word "intueri" which means "to see within." It is a way of knowing, of sensing the truth without explanations. You may not consider yourself to be particularly spiritual or metaphysically adept yet may be quite good at following your instincts.

Your intuition is your ability to know something by using your feelings rather than considering the facts. For example, intuition told her that he had spoken the truth, he was guided by intuition and personal judgment or the answer came to me in a flash of intuition.

Your intuition can be an idea or a strong feeling that something is true although you cannot explain why it is so. It can be an immediate apprehension by the mind or by a sense without reasoning. For example, you can say at any moment that you have an intuition that something awful is about to happen.

What do we mean by intuition in the context of decision-making? While different definitions emphasize different aspects, there are three key features that characterize the intuitive mode of thinking.

1. The process is dominated by your subconscious mind, even if you use your conscious mind to formulate or rationalize the final results.
2. The information is processed in parallel rather than sequentially. Instead of going through a logical sequence of thoughts one by one, you see the situation more as a whole, with different fragments emerging in parallel.
3. You are more connected with your emotions. For example, it may occur to you that an option you consider does not feel right, even though there is no clear logic to prove that.

As our life becomes more dynamic and less structured, intuition gains more and more recognition as an essential decision making tool. You have probably heard of experienced decision makers who are able to directly recognize the best option or course of action in many tricky situations. The solution just comes to them from somewhere in their subconscious mind, instead of being a result a lengthy chain of logical derivations or a computer output from a complicated simulation.

Why are your intuitions important?

Intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker, especially when you deal with non-standard situations or in expedient decision making. Yet, before you put more weight on intuitive choices, there are a few important points you need to keep in mind. You need intuition in decision making situations where intuitive approach can help most when

• Expedient decision making and rapid response are required. The circumstances leave you no time to go through complete rational analysis.
• Fast paced change. The factors on which you base your analysis change rapidly.
• The problem is not well defined but poorly structured. But that is affecting your productivity.
• The factors and rules that you need to take into account are hard to articulate in an unambiguous way.
• You have to deal with ambiguous, incomplete, or conflicting information.
• There is no precedent.

Intuitions versus Rational Analysis

The main alternative to the intuition-based approach is rational thinking. The rational decision making process relies mostly on logic and quantitative analysis. You consciously analyze all the options. You formulate the main criteria for judging the expected outcomes of your options and you assign certain weights to those criteria to reflect their relative importance. Then, based on the expected outcomes and their weights, you rate your options by their perceived utility. Finally, you choose the option that has the highest rating.

If, for some options, the expected outcomes involve uncertainty, you will also need to incorporate in your ratings the perceived probabilities of different possibilities, or even perform a simulation.
Rational analysis still plays crucial role in many situations, especially when you have clear criteria and have to deal with extensive quantitative data, like quantitative finance. Yet, you will likely face even more business situations where the rational decision making becomes impractical.

How Do They work?

The simplest way to make sense of why and how intuition works is to think of it as an advanced pattern recognition device. Your subconscious mind somehow finds links between your new situation and various patterns of your past experiences. You may not recall most of the details of those experiences. And even if you did, it may be very hard to express the lessons you learnt in a form acceptable for analytical reasoning. Yet, your subconscious mind still remembers the patterns learnt. It can rapidly project your new circumstances onto those patterns and send you a message of wisdom. That message comes as your inner voice and will most likely be expressed in the language of your feelings. For example, some of the options or solutions you consider may not feel right to you.

How to use intuition effectively

The first important thing to keep in mind is that even when you rely on intuition it is still very important to do your homework. The intuition will help you navigate faster through much of unstructured data and can work around certain gaps and conflicts in the available information. Yet, even intuition can be misled if too many of your facts are wrong or missing.

Pay attention to your emotional state. If you are stressed or in a bad mood, your true inner voice will be distorted or lost in the background of your strong negative feelings. A similar effect may happen with strong positive feelings. If you want to hear your inner voice, get over the background of your strong feelings. Feel them through or let them go. Take a walk. Do something refreshing. Say your prayers. Forgive and accept. Sigh. Refresh your mind with new inputs.

Finally, you can greatly increase the quality of your intuitive decisions if you include certain elements of the analytical approach. In particular, try to follow the procedure of the rational analysis first. As much as you can, capture on paper the ideas on the main options and the criteria for evaluating your choices. Write down the key facts and factors you need to keep in mind.

Following this procedure is an effective way to feed your subconscious mind with all the relevant data it needs. You will help yourself even more if you put all those notes together on paper as a mind map. By having all the important points written in one place you will also refresh your mind. At that stage you are much more ready to listen to your inner voice.

Once, Martha a young lady found herself at her wit’s end. Her business was failing, she owed a huge sum of money that she did not have, and her long-term partner had just ended their relationship. In the small hours one morning she hit bottom, in a crisis of despair.
“There has to be something more,” she said out loud, even though there was none else in the room except her.
“Are you asking?” a voice said clearly, outside of her head. She was too stunned to respond.
“Are you asking?” the voice repeated in an even more urgent tone.
“I guess I am, I am not satisfied with my business performance.” she answered.
“Do immediately what you wish to do. Just, verify your stocks once again and meet your trade debtors and customers afresh. You may get reply to your query.”

Martha heard the voice but found none there. She felt that this voice was coming out of herself only. She went into her shop immediately, did what she was advised. She found that her stocks were more than what the statement given to her by the store keeper. She felt that something was wrong. She made out the list in his absence and went to her trade debtors and customers to know that there had been some misunderstanding brewing without her knowledge. She made the necessary corrections and from that moment on, Martha knew she was not alone in this world. She had just met one of her angels, also known as guides.

Even though at times we may feel isolated and bereft, none of us comes into this world entirely on our own. We always have help and friendship right by our sides in the form of loving, invisible mentors who want nothing more than to play an active role in supporting us before, during, and even after our physical sojourns on earth.

All we need do is ask for their help – and then be ready and open to receive their guidance. In the days following that dramatic encounter, Martha learned much about guides in general and her angels in particular. As vibrating eternal essences (also known as souls or spirits), we choose to experience each physical lifetime. We usually have a purpose for the life we have selected. Such purpose is general, such as teaching, healing , inspiring, creating, and so forth.

Our life purpose attracts to us other spirits who want to share that purpose but do not necessarily desire to do so in a physical body. We then select a group of souls to help us along the way. Often we make our choices based on the fact that we know these spirits already from other physical lifetimes on earth (or elsewhere). We trust these beings and they trust us. Sometimes we include souls who have particular expertise that we believe will be especially helpful to us or because we just want to try something new while on earth.

Then we arrive in our physical bodies. As very young children, we interact with our spirit friends as the invisible companions we play with and who comfort us. Well-meaning adults, however, inform us that these friends are “not real”. We start to distrust our intuitive senses, the means by which we communicate with our angels, and eventually give up our angels, and eventually give up our angels so that we may “grow up” and become “well adjusted”.

Our angels remain with us anyway, sending us their love and guidance, hoping to reconnect in a more direct manner. In times of crisis, we call out for help, and they provide it to the extent we will allow ourselves to receive it. The voice Martha heard was an angel.

Angels/guides have different functions on our behalf. Martha’s angel will guide her spiritual well-being. Another role for a guide is that of protector. In our world full of cars, buses, trains, planes, boats and other forms of mechanised travel, protector put in plenty of overtime paying attention when we are distracted.

Many guides take on the function of jokester. Humour is the easiest and best way to tune into our own heart’s wisdom, so helping us find and appreciate the hilarity and absurdity in life also helps us keep our spiritual connection alive and healthy. Guides are also healers, teachers, legal experts, even business consultants. One of Martha’s guides is a handyman who invariably astonishes his physical counterparts, who cannot understand why Martha is able to tell them the actual mechanical problem even before they inspect the broken machine. Angels or guides present themselves to us usually in a form we can relate to-human- but some guides have shown themselves as comic book figures, like Wonder Woman or Rocky and Bullwinkle, if that’s what and names they take on are simply a matter of making them, their love, and their guidance readily available to us by matching our needs and expectations.

Is it possible for all of us to meet our guides, up close and personal? Yes, provided we are willing to relearn how to trust our intuition. Since guides/ angels do not have physical bodies, we cannot sit down with them for a cup of coffee and a chat. We need our intuition – our hunches, gut feelings, visions, and inner hearing – to be able to receive their messages and send ours in return.

The next step is taking the time and space to get to know our angels via a meet-your-guides meditation, with help if needed. The reacquainted with our angels will come back to us many times over in the acceptance, safety, and well-being. For that, you need to give up your bad habits, take up humanity, sincerity, honesty, selflessness, kindness, patience, humility, justice, temperance and prudence. Your clean brain would be able to listen your intuitions more clearly.

Be Happy – Use Your Intuition as Your Best Guide

Be Happy – Nurture Your Marital Relationship

This day, I am putting up some submissions for those who are already married, and for those who are interested to get married soon.

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found. Such a union may also be called matrimony and the relationship is called matrimonial. As we know, matrimonial relationships are a part and parcel of our married lives, They are like tender tassels woven by love, trust, mutual understanding and respect for each other and are likely to get disturbed by the winds of arrogance, compulsion or too many expectations from each other.

Like Each relationship, matrimonial relationship needs love and care. This relationship is very much different from others as two people from completely different backgrounds come together, accepting each others virtues and vices. Even a small spark can result in a big fire. This spark may result out of lack of mutual trust, lack of love and care or even through lack of understanding and communication gap. Every marital relationship faces ups and downs in life. In connection to this, I am reminded of an advertisement on a popular television channel which suggested how to stop your neighbor's verbal fight with the spouse. It says, “when you hear your neighbor's verbal fight, shouting or yelling at someone, just ring the doorbell and this will put an end to the fight, restoring peace to some extent.”

In matrimonial relationship, trust is the most important thing. Understanding and respecting each others’ feelings is very essential. Both husband and wife should fulfil their duties keeping their ego aside. If a wife is a working woman, then her husband should be co-operative and understand her professional problems as well. A lot of trust and understanding is required to make a marital relationship flourish. Just as plants need to be watered daily, a husband-wife relationship also needs to be nurtured with love, trust and understanding to make this marital journey smooth and uninterrupted.

If both persons are egoistic then it is impossible for them to live together happily. Self-respect should not let one’s ego to prevent him or her from saying sorry.” Couples having completed 25-50 years of marriage often suggest others to solve problems calmly as aggressiveness can lead to serous consequences. They emphasize that if the persons are aggressive, differences are surely going to arise and that may affect their family structure, badly their children more seriously. Children who grow up in homes where parents are married to one another and live happily, are less likely to be impoverished, to have emotional or behavioural problems, to engage in premature sexual relations, to use drugs, or to commit suicide etc.

Love should not be equated with possessiveness and forceful attitude. Both partners have the right to question but someone’s personal space should not be invaded. Thus, a marital relationship should not be considered a burden and should be given enough time to grow and mature.

We’ve all been around couples who have a relationship that seems flawless. You know the couples I’m talking about, the ones with an obvious healthy marital relationship. They never argue, are able to work through conflict as it arises with ease. There is a constant show of affection, love and support for each other.

I know a couple like this. They married and everything seemed to fall into place for them. They live a charmed life and it is all due to the healthy marital relationship they have with each other.
For some couples things don’t fall into place. A relationship with their spouse is more of a struggle, something that has to be worked at, a relationship that leaves them feeling empty, unloved or disrespected.

There are some features of a healthy and unhealthy marital relationship, given below which may help you and your spouse to determine whether or not you are on the right track in your relationship or whether you both need to make some modifications in certain behaviors.

Salient Features of a Healthy Marital Relationship:

• Not only you feel happy and safe with your spouse, you are able to have those same feelings when alone.
• You motivate each other to live life to the fullest. To pursue your dreams and are able to work together toward common goals.
• You accept each other for who you are. There aren’t any expectations that the other will or needs to change.
• You both feel secure in expressing your opinion. You know your spouse will listen and take into consideration your feelings on issues that arise.
• Your relationship with each other is your main priority. If something comes up that will cause stress in the relationship you always defer to what is best for the relationship.
• Marital problems and conflicts do not cause you to feel insecure. Your spouse can become upset with you without you taking on the attitude that you are no longer loved.
• If you are asked about your relationship the majority of what you have to say about it is positive.
• You are able to communicate in an open and honest way with each other.
• You always feel loving, kind and giving toward your spouse.
• You repeatedly tell your spouse, “I love you.”

Salient Features of an Unhealthy Marital Relationship:

• You feel insecure and needy when not around your spouse. You are dependent on your spouse for security and feelings of happiness.
• You judge your spouse’s differences. If he/she does not feel as you do about dreams or goals for the future you are unable to work with your spouse in a way that means both getting what they want.
• When conflict arises, you are unable to solve the problems. You feel stifled, as if your spouse does not listen or take into consideration your point of view.
• You withdraw intimately by withholding sex or emotionally by withholding love when there is a conflict. Instead of finding solutions to problem one or both of you shuts down and refuses to deal with the conflict.
• You do not communicate openly and honestly with your spouse. You lie and withhold important information from each other.
• You spend most of your time feeling hurt or worrying about the state of your relationship with your spouse.
• You complain to others about your spouse. Instead of talking to your spouse, you invite others into the problems in your marriage.
• You do not make your relationship a priority. You put your own desires and level of comfort before the relationship.
• You take any criticism from your spouse as an assault instead of being open to his/her feedback.
• You manipulate your partner into doing things they are not comfortable doing regardless of the harm it will do the relationship. If you want something you will nag, beg or emotional blackmail until you get what you want.
I hope that you would consider the above submissions in right perspective and take appropriate action to nurture your marital relationship further.

Be Happy – Nurture Your marital Relationship.

Be Happy – Avert Unhappiness

Unhappiness is a curse to your life. None wishes to be unhappy for a single moment. Why are you unhappy? Your unhappiness could be multi-times. Suppose you are troubled by something… for example, your body is under pain – this is the first unhappiness. But due to that unhappiness the mind becomes unhappy, “Why this pain? Why me? When would this pain go away?” Then, you had been thinking over the unhappiness from many angles, this process of thinking again and again increases the weight of pain many times over. The body is in pain. The body is curing it too. Nature has its own way of healing. But the mind made it “my pain”, “my unhappiness”. Instead of working on curing yourself of unhappiness, work on curing yourself of extra unhappiness.

Children get angry. But you also see them playing peacefully the very next moment. Now compare that to an instance where you have gotten angry. You got angry. It does not trouble you as such. The episode is over. But you are thinking, about it. Even after the incident has passed, what you think gives you trouble. This means you get angry over anger and this troubles the mind. As your understanding increases, you get rid of this extra unhappiness.

Unhappiness alone cannot trouble you. Unhappiness in and of itself does not possess the capacity to trouble you. Non-acceptance of unhappiness is the point where extra unhappiness begins. That is where there is unhappiness over unhappiness as to why you are unhappy. When there is acceptance of this unhappiness, then unhappiness over that unhappiness doesn’t happen. Depression doesn’t occur: The understanding will arise that it is only non-acceptance that is unhappiness and that it is only acceptance that is happiness.

Accept moments of unhappiness and let it go. How do you let them go? You let unhappiness go without resisting it by asking a simple question, “Can I accept this?” This question propels the release of unhappiness. In most cases, the answer you shall receive within is that you can accept this. You immediately release your unhappiness and change your focus.

What if you cannot accept your unhappiness? What if the answer to the question, “Can I accept this?” is a ‘no’? Then, ask yourself a second question, “Can I accept that I cannot accept this unhappiness?” Be right with your non-acceptance. Do not become unhappy over not being able to accept. Then you are not accepting non-acceptance. Accept the non-acceptance and you shall be able to release you level of happiness instantly.

What is true at one level is true at all levels. As in small, so in big. As in the microcosm, so in the macrocosm. When you answer “Yes” to the “Can I accept this?” Question, then you have let go of negative feelings associated with it. You may think that this is just a small step. But when you do so, it causes a giant shift in you consciousness. At that very moment, a lot of other unrelated things open up for you and you begin to attract more positive things. The smallest letting go action helps us in every facet of our life. Not only do you become mentally free, but it affects you at the physical, emotional, social and financial levels, setting off a chain reaction that reverberates through your entire being and leaves you in quite a different place that you were before.

It is therefore advisable that you must avert unhappiness altogether. Be happy – Avert Unhappiness.

Be Happy - Be Active

An active life is an ideal life. How can you make your life active? It depends upon you, your attitude and your determination to keep yourself active. Just a lot of jogging, exercise, yog practices may not make you active if you just go to bed or relax for a long period keeping yourself lazy thereafter. To remain active, you need to interlace some regular exercise into your daily activity.

Globalization has done much good, and though it’s made us more aware of our health, it’s also creating the stress which is ruining us. Youngsters are found to be workaholics with little physical activity, unhealthy eating habits and heavy indulgence in alcohol and cigarettes. A combination of all these factors is making you prone to health disorders earlier in life, but many of these diseases can be prevented by following a regular fitness regime.

All you need to do is to take out 30-40 minutes everyday for your body. You can choose from many physical activities like aerobics exercises, brisk walking, jogging, cycling, power yoga, or swimming, as you like. Out of all fitness activities, walking as a form of workout beats every activity hands down! Some experts even opine that taking roughly 10,000 steps per day can keep a check on heart diseases, stroke, breast cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, by reducing body fat, maintaining ideal body weight and a sense of mental well-being.

Fitness is something that you reel from within. It is not something that you can see in the mirror. Exercise is the spark and nutrition is the fuel. Our body has been made for activity and exercise by nature. But how can you be more physically active? You need to make physical activity part of your daily routine. Try cycling to work at least once a week, use the stairs more often or walk to do errands near home. Find an activity that you enjoy, and stay with it. Vary it with other activities, so you don’t get bored. For example, walk three days a week and switch to swimming on other days. Join a basketball league for fun and exercise. By finding more activities you enjoy, you’ll have a greater chance for success.

If you own a vehicle, park at the far end of a parking lot and walk, get off public transportation a few blocks before you stop, get up from your desk during the day to stretch and walk around, take a brisk walk when you get the urge to snack, increase your pace when working in the house/yard, mow your own lawn, carry your own groceries. It will make your life enjoyable and you will gain health simultaneously.

Be Happy – Be Active.

Be Happy - Woman is The Better Half of the World.

International Women's Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. It is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions of the world, the celebrations on this occasion have been focused to range from respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements in the society.

Throughout heart and soul, woman is that beautiful creation of God, to whom we actually owe our life, origin and survival too. If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if that is a male or female. In terms of intelligence, females have been considered more powerful as Arnold Haultain says that a woman can say more in a sigh than a man can say in a sermon. She is so influential in her working that she is considered the back-bone of the rise of her man if both of them team up to get some target. They can make your highs higher and if they revenge, your lows may become lower. Women work like bandage to your wounds, if you study her sincere emotions attached with you. Almost the females of all the species perform the duties of upbringing and nurturing the off-springs.

Unluckily, man did not accord due recognition to woman and in course of time, her sentiments, emotions and contribution to the society have been given lower place due to their physical weakness in comparison of masculinity. In many prehistoric cultures, women assumed a particular cultural role. In hunter-gatherer societies, women were generally the gatherers of plant foods, small animal foods, fish, and learned to use dairy products, while men hunted meat from large animals. In more recent history, the gender roles of women have changed greatly. Traditionally, middle-class women were typically involved in domestic tasks emphasizing child care. For poorer women, especially working class women, although this often remained an ideal, economic necessity compelled them to seek employment outside the home. As and when opportunities struck, women excelled and sometime, took over greater responsibilities but to sum up, the most of the female time had been limited within the four corners of a house to make that a sweet home.

As changes in the labor market for women came about, availability of employment changed from only "dirty", long-hour factory jobs to "cleaner", more respectable office jobs where more education was demanded, women's participation in the U.S. labor force rose from 6% in 1900 to 23% in 1923 and that is going up gradually. These shifts in the labor force led to changes in the attitudes of women at work, allowing for the revolution which resulted in women becoming career and education oriented.

Movements advocate equality of opportunity for both sexes and equal rights irrespective of gender. Through a combination of economic changes women in most societies now have access even to those careers which were so far considered fit for men only. The gender gap world over has been reduced over the last 30 years. Younger women today are far more likely to have completed a primary qualification: In 19 of the 30 OECD countries, more than twice as many women aged 25 to 34 have completed the primary education than women age 55 to 64 do. In 21 of 27 OECD countries with comparable data, the number of women graduating from university-level courses is equal to or exceeds that of men. 15-year-old girls tend to show much higher expectations for their careers than boys of the same age. While women account for more than half of university graduates in several OECD countries, they receive only 30% of degrees granted in science and engineering fields, and women account for only 25% to 35% of researchers in most OECD countries.

To ensure equal rights, equal opportunities and progress for all, we must make sufficient efforts so that the female section of the society may get the due at the soonest. If women didn't exist, all the pleasures in the world would have no meaning. Matthew Prior says:

Be to her virtues very kind,

Be to her faults a little blind.

Be Happy - Woman is The Better Half of the World.

Be Happy – Your Workplace is Actual Place of Your Worship.

If with your heart and soul, you are going daily or frequently to temple, mosque, church, Gurdwara or any place which you feel is the place you perform your religious worship, it is good from religious point of view. But your practice would become superior if you simultaneously perform your duties for which your God wishes you to perform apart from worshiping Him. I believe that God does not ask you only to worship Him every time, He wishes that you must perform your duties towards humanity too, that is proper looking after your dependents, meeting your natural requirements appropriately and helping the needy as your own capacity permits so and in doing so, you are not obliging anyone. If you feel so, you are not superior to Animals who think about themselves only. Some species are also there, who look after their off-springs only but that for some time only. Human beings are supposed to look after others also as and when required.

For human beings, it is proper that utmost importance be attached to the performance of their duties. When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being. Whatever our sphere of work or place in our organizational hierarchy, few among us would describe our jobs as being easy. Preoccupied with what we have to do from one workday to another, we have little time to reflect on whether we have got the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ right.

When agonizing over right and wrong; when choosing the easy compromise over a more complicated but possibly better option, our well founded belief acts as a benchmark. He who is overcautious about himself faces danger at every step; he who is afraid of losing honor and respect gets only disgrace; he who is afraid or loss, always loses. Overcoming the fear of losing, not worrying incessantly about what the workplace universe may think of you, try to work for work’s sake.

You must avoid looking wistfully, or with bitterness at what seem like more relevant and rewarding roles than your own. No man can long occupy a position for which he is not fit. By doing well the duty which is nearest to us, which is our hands now, we make ourselves stronger, and improving our strength in this manner, we may reach a state in which is shall be our privilege to do the most coveted duties…you’ll get what you deserve, not what you desire; so work primarily to change what you deserve and the rest will follow.

A calm perspective yields contentment as opposed to the contentment as opposed to the feeling of dissatisfaction that often overwhelms us at work. We find ourselves in the position for which we are fit, and if one has some capacity above another, the world will find that ‘We are ourselves. We determine what our duties are to a much larger extent than we are willing envy, which kills the kindliness of the heart.

In the course of moving up the professional ladder, you are tempted to agree more with yourself. Then, comes the inclination to bring others into your fold, and convert them to your point of view. We must first form character, and results will come of themselves… be in no hurry to give your thoughts to others. First have something to give! Know Truth for yourself, and there will be many to whom you can teach it afterwards; they will all come.

We first need to improve on what we have to give, and not hasten to teach or preach, believing we have learnt enough. If we hone our skills and build our character, those who wish to acquire them from us will come of their own accord; we need not rush to act as dispensers of wisdom. Let’s make a beginning by improving ourselves first to that extent that some one may like to follow us. We must treat our workplace also as place of our worship, and attend our duties as sincerely as we do our religious activities. It will remove the difference between our action and our beliefs. It will bear rewards definitely.

Be Happy – Your Workplace is Your Temple

Be Happy – Treat Your Memories As Minefields

As we are aware, our memory field is our treasure. It contains the record of the incidents happening in our life every moment. We find some incidents good and some are bad. In course of time, our memory field becomes minefield. We need to tread it very carefully.

Virtually, Memory is a mine in three senses of this word.
1. Mine as a device that explodes on contact: Memories of our past bad habits are like mines implanted in our consciousness. At slight provocation, they could explode into uncontrollable desires that could destroy us. For example, to an alcoholic trying to turn sober, the sight of a liquor bottle is a mine that could cause him to relapse into alcoholism.

Similarly, if someone has misbehaved with us, then that memory becomes like a mine. Whenever that person behaves even slightly improperly, we explode into a disproportionate burst of anger. Instead of being assertive, we end up being aggressive and so end up compounding the problem.

2. Mine as excavation site from which ores and minerals are extracted: In our life, we do have some loving incidents too. We get some joy by thinking of the person we love or we repeatedly recollect those beautiful incidents and tell to our close relatives and friends about those incidents as part of our experiences.

3. Mine as possession, “belonging to me”: It is for each one of us to decide: “Which mine am I going to let myself be exploded by bad memories or am I going to enrich myself with a mine of enjoyable treasure?” Sometime, we wish to extract something from our memory field and sometime, we do keep reservation to open up. Such exploration depends upon our own attitude too.

The human mind tends to delight in worldly memories, good memories only. We must try to brush off our bad memories as soon as possible as their longer presence creates pessimism in our attitude affecting our workability. We need to control our mind as such and divert it to some productive work or spirituality. The uncontrolled mind works as an intractable enemy. A worldly enemy can be dealt with by friendship, gifts, divide and rule or punishment.

The process of overcoming undesirable memories entails treading the five fold path of awareness as Patanjali explained in the Yoga Sutra:

1. Mudha: deluded, as in sleep, laziness or dullness.
2. Kashipta: agitated, as in stress or mania.
3. Vikshipta: distracted, as in a lecture in a noisy environment.
4. Ekagrata: concentrated, as in a student revising an hour before the exam.
5. Niroddha: controlled, as in a devotee absorbed in Samadhi, the trance of love.

When we starve the mind, that is, when refuse to pander to its demands for immoral, unhealthy pleasures, it starts agitating more than normal. Many people become disheartened by this increased mental tumult and give up. But rich premiums await the courageous few who refuse to be cowed down by the mind’s scary tactics. We may have to be spiritual adventurers by determinedly refusing to be cowed down by a recalcitrant mind into silence and submission by philosophical conviction and devotional meditation. Then, the mine of the heart will yield us the treasures of unshakable, unending peace and bliss. Let us try to tread our memory field very carefully.

Be Happy - Treat Your Memories As Minefields

Be Happy – Create More Awareness

Wisdom is more superior to knowledge. A man with eight doctorate degrees met a monk and told that he was proud of his achievement. The monk asked him: “Why have you been so foolish in life?” The man said, “But… you could not understand! I have got eight PhDs to my credit”. The monk said: “I have understood you; it is foolish to spend the best part of life reading instead of enjoying the birds, the stars and the moon. It seems to be true that you have read a lot but you did not practice it”. One may have all the knowledge but not clarity. One may know a lot and yet understand nothing. There is a difference between knowing and understanding; there is a great difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge means grasping the contents of the literature already written and deriving out the results or making some conclusions. Wisdom means how to use them. You must understand how you would use the knowledge.

Not knowing the difference between understanding and knowing leads to confusion. You have many centers: intellectual, emotional and physical. In each centre, there is a mechanical and magnetic part. The mechanical part acts like a machine while the magnetic part acts with more awareness. You have to transform yourself. Your mechanical movements and thinking have to change. Your mechanical likes and dislikes have to change, too. Mechanical emotions like jealousy and hatred have to be transformed. You can do this by bringing in more awareness why you are in existence and how you justify it. Take into account what you brought in this world with your birth and what you would carry back after your death. You have got your physical body from your parents who nurtured you to the present stage- you are indebted to them for having been able to stand on your feet. You have to create more awareness.

There is no greater force than awareness. When one increases awareness, even poison can turn into medicine and with no awareness a medicine can become poison. A king dreamt that he was a beggar. In his dream his guru told him the truth that he was a king and not a beggar. Now was he to argue with his guru or just wake up? He was supposed to act like kings acted. Bring in more awareness and see the transformation of life. Even inert objects have life. With loving awareness treat any object and it will guide you mysteriously. You intuition and purity have to increase to receive this message.

What are the differences between a pair of eyes and a camera? If capturing an image is the purpose of the eyes, then a camera will do. Eyes are meant to see beyond the forms, like a sculptor sees an idol in a stone. So too, eyes are meant to feel the expressions and accordingly communicate to the brain. A relationship is meant to see the truth.

There are differences in a relationship. Give importance to your love and commitment, to your commonality, enjoy your relationship. Keep yourself relaxed. Increase your awareness and love. let there be choice. ‘Should’ creates stress and limits you to only one option. Choose not to judge. It is not a demand but a wise choice.

The danger of judgment is that you stop seeing the object of judgment and you are more in your judgment. In life, you have to make judgments, but don’t be a victim of your judgments. Suppose, a thief enters your house, you have to judge him but then, be open to the possibility that he can change. Assume, you meet him after 10 years, see if he has changed or not. Do you still judge from the memory that he had been a thief? If you do not have this awareness, you will not see the change in a person even if he has changed.

Like you avoid poisonous food, avoid negative emotions. Like how you are very alert when you see a poisonous snake, be very aware and alert of negative emotions. Let them come, don’t identify with them. Don’t participate. They deplete your energy. They keep you asleep. They are harmful and heavy. They make your life complicated. We define our failure by somebody’s success. We feel jealous seeing someone successful.

If you go on comparing, life becomes miserable. If somebody is better than you, learn from them; enjoy others’ success. No one can have all good qualities. Someone will always be better than you at some level. Do not whip yourself with this comparison. Instead, get inspired by someone’s success. Even if you compete with others, enjoy it. See the beauty all around.

Once you are able to create more awareness, you will immediately give up your jealousy as you may feel that you are also competent to achieve what the other one has got. You may struggle in your own perspective and hence, can avoid any clash with him. You will enjoy the life without being affected with other’s emotions.

Be Happy – Create More Awareness.

Be Happy - Adopt Consistency For Success

Sometime, you might be jealous to see the success of your neighbor how he suddenly became so successful that he has exceeded your expectations. No, not as such…while seeing the sudden spurt in the display of his possessions, you might have overlooked consistency of his working towards a single target he might have adopted for the years together, if he had not won any jackpot.

The sustainability of action is crucial to the success. An individual action even if well executed can not bring about the success unless there have not been consistent research how to achieve that target. The ability and devotion to consistently perform is vital to success. Consistency in action derives from a person’s internal attitude. Factually, three kinds of attitudes govern human action: selfish, unselfish and selfless.

Selfish persons act merely to fulfill their personal desires. Their interests are all their mental horizon can encompass. At its most unsophisticated level, selfishness is merely following the whims and fancies. They do something at the spur of the moment, what would give to meet their gratification. There is no thinking involved. Now-a-days, the capers of such people fill the most popular section of the society papers. Such people may achieve some success for some time but that is not sustainable for a long period. They do not fix their goals on long term basis and discipline themselves accordingly.

Further down to the continuum are some selfish persons who do set their personal goals only and work to achieve them. They do plan but remain self-centric. As soon as their goals are achieved, they put off the associates for ever without sharing the success with them. They do pretend friendship but that lasts till the moment they find whether their goals are being not met through you. They would change immediately even during the process of working together. The pressure of their necessity warrants fast results and the intellect being fuzzy cannot project beyond a point. So, you can not expect consistency in their attitude for a long period. You may find early-burn-out-syndrome as manifestation of this attitude. They can push themselves to achieve their targets to the points of collapse. Not only this, they can get discouraged if their goals are not achieved quickly.

The unselfish persons fix their goals ranging a wider spectrum both in terms of time and persons it will benefit. They can conceive a goal that may take decades for the results. All the great leaders and industrialists have the same vision. If you see around the big industries, you will appreciate that these are the achievements of their efforts taken long ago. Might be they had faced some failures in beginning but that did not bog them down in their efforts. However, they do have some limit beyond that they do not wish to go. They can conceive to some extent only. After that they give up the efforts or hand over the inventory of their working to someone else having more endurance.

There are rare individuals who are totally selfless who want nothing for themselves. They can transcend all barriers. They conceive, pursue and achieve the goals with their consistent working. Their capacity to maintain consistency in their strategy is awe-inspiring. The higher their vision is, the higher is their capacity to undertake the efforts. Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther are such personalities we still remember profoundly for their contribution to the society.

We may make an introspection of ourselves and grade whether we are selfish, unselfish or selfless. If need be, we may change our grade by effecting necessary changes in our attitude and endeavor to make efforts for success we wish for.

Be Happy – Adopt Consistency For Success

Be Happy – No Life Without Challenges

You know! If you embrace your challenges with your positive mind, you can get transformed. How do you take your challenges? A man’s reach should exceed his grasp. If he is able to do so, he is rightfully entitled for the happiness available in heaven. One interpretation is that human aspiration must transcend limitations of current circumstances. There is no aim then, including heaven, which can escape our reach. Everything seems eminently attainable.

Life brings situations all the time as challenges. The trouble in facing them begins when we label them as such. We tend to see challenge as a problem, impediment, set-back, or obstacle. The label takes over and before you know it perfectly doable, the situation becomes a troublesome.

There are three methods to meet the challenges as enjoyable. You can call them it, Spirit and share it. The first method: Enjoy a challenge “because it is there”. Those were the words of George Mallory, the mountaineer, who, when asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, replied thus. He did not survive to tell the tale but those words have become a source of encouragement for mountaineers the world over. The Zen of such thought, without the investment of emotion and superlatives, can make light the passage from ill-health to healing, loss to plenty, impediment to fulfillment, and from discord to willingness. This is the light of acceptance. This is the light of acceptance. We climb several Mount Everests in our life, but resist and curse them all the time. Approaching a challenge “because it is there” is also the attitude of a witness.

Every challenge is an invitation for us to plumb the depths of our spirit, our talent, our ability. Every challenge surprises us with what we get to know about our inner reserves, about how vast and in-exhaustible they are. Rendered deaf and blind in childhood by a mystery fever, Helen Keller went on to be highly educated and flowered as a writer of repute, inspiring similarly challenged individuals.

Coming closer home, when Azim Premji returned prematurely from his engineering course in Stanford to take over Wipro after his father’s sudden death, he was 21 years old. The shareholders advised him to sell his company. They were sure that managing it was beyond this youngster. He didn’t take the advice. He proved them wrong. The beyond your own limits is also within you. The challenges before you can put forth your energies hidden inside. Can it be anything but enjoyable? This is the second method of spirit converting your challenges really enjoyable.

There is a third method. Facing a challenge successfully is a gift, so share it. Helen Keller worked tirelessly for others who were physically challenged through endowments and advocacy. When Baba Amte took up the cause of leprosy patients the challenge was daunting. Swami Vivekananda had a wonderful definition of sin. He said it is “…to say that you are weak or that others are weak”. The methods are intertwined. They are not really distinct. Embrace any of the method and you will find yourself on the other two sooner or later.

Those who adopt marketing job consider every consumer-complaint as a gift. A challenge is a gift to us as individuals. They come with a lot of heartbreak, but with the power to transform us. Embrace your challenges; watch them turn into your best friends. Climb the mountain, don’t avoid it. You might not reach the top, but the effort will bring top, meaning to your life and possibly to that of others. Take it granted that if you do not intend to meet the challenges, one day you will find your life bore.

Be Happy - No Life Without Challenges

Be Happy – Values are More Important Than Beliefs.

Whenever we go to some good organization’s office, we find the aims of that organization prominently displayed at the entrance or the place where an incomer may not escape his attention. Organizations display company values prominently at the workplace and company leaders reiterate the importance of aligning with, and living by those values. Many companies engage in elaborate discussion and debate before selecting them. And after final decision, they draft their strategy according to those values. Somewhere it is carried out as formality to achieve some certification like ISO etc. because if you were to read 10 sets of company values, you would find a high degree of repetition. But some companies are really very much serious about their values and it is found that those companies which create conducive environment and make serious efforts by grooming up their team to achieve their values, succeed ultimately.

Some Companies really do their best to achieve their value oriented aims but we must figure out the extent and nature of alignment of our personal values with company values. What are values? If we define them, we can say that they are a shorthand way of describing our personal motivation and what we consider dear and important to us. There are positive values, which tend to be fairly universal and enduring, or values that are potentially limiting. Examples of positive values are trust, passion, caring, sharing, fairness and integrity. Potentially limiting values are power, greed, status, and blame, manipulation, wanting to be liked or play favorites and so on. Typical company value statements comprise positive values, whilst managerial behavior we experience would have a fair sampling of potentially limiting values.

It is important that one’s personal values are in sync with organizational values. Why? This alignment releases energy, commitment and creativity as contrast to just getting our token compliance. Else, there is misalignment between who you are and what you are expected to be. One copes, putting on a facade in our eagerness and anxiety to please, causing fear and apprehension, resulting in impaired sub-optimal performance.

What also limits realization of our potential at work are beliefs, which are assumptions we hold to be true, often without verification. One may take decisions based upon the belief that budgets for undertaking an important project won’t be available as the boss recently slashed some expenditure on advertising. “We are the outcome of all the significant decisions we have made in our lives; and choosing not to decide is also a decision.” Say existentialists. If decision-making is so vital, is there a hierarchy of decision-making that would help better understand its nature and basis?

At the reptilian or base level, decisions are made by instinct. This is mainly a reflexive response to a survival situation. Action precedes thought. At the next level, decisions are made on the basis of our conscious beliefs, invariably based on the past. However, one now inserts a pause between the situation and one’s reaction. One tries to understand the situation and gets what one wants, based on one’s understanding of the situation. Many mammals operate at this level. At the next level, decisions are based on values. One consciously chooses to create the future based on the value one has chosen to respond with. This type of decision is future-oriented. Only human beings are capable of such decision-making.

As Richard Barrett, the values-based leadership advocate, succinctly points out “Science is a set of continuously changing beliefs”. Beliefs are based on the past; values belong to a deeper level of the human being. We need to create a safe environment for people to move from belief based decision-making to values-based decision-making. Decisions, made in fear, are usually based on beliefs and baggage from past experiences. If we want to consciously create the future we want to experience, then we need to graduate to values-based decision-making. Beliefs separate while values unite.

We must attach greater significance to the values as they are more important than beliefs. Before we act upon our beliefs, we must verify their sanctity and viability in the present circumstances and if required, they must be realigned in reference of the values we have adopted. Values are more important for long term gains.

Be Happy -Values are More Important than Beliefs.