Being a Banker, I have personally been witness to this whole transition of thought process.I have seen closely how the scenario of an over-leveraged life  which looked  inflated right from the sensex to the yearly bonus has moved to a life of deflation where the sensex plummeted, layoff is the way and consumerism has taken a backseat.

What do we call this negativity, is it for real or is more in the thought. I personally feel its more to do with how we are thinking. Its important for us to remember now more than ever that thought power is the greatest power in this World. As you think so you become. One can evolve to unimaginable heights by directing the mental process towards that which is positive.

One must learn the importance and art of positive thinking.

Thoughts are Arrows
Thoughts are discharged like arrows by the mind. They hit their target and then turn back towards the person who originated those thoughts. Hitting by a positive arrow will always be a delightful development. The more you hit others with positive thoughts, the more it will come back to you bringing blessings and good will. Your mind will get elevated and so will be your life.

Thoughts influence your Health
Mind is directly related to the ‘Pranas’ vital forces which flow through the body’s subtle channels called nadis or veins. The operation of the nadis depends upon the nature of thoughts. Positive thoughts help the nadis to open up and pranas are allowed to move freely and negative thoughts make the nadis become disbalanced, some nadis even become sluggish and do not work at all.This creates tension and finally ill health.

Positive Thoughts must lead to positive actions
One need to understand in addition to thinking positively, he must act positively. The fact remains if you simply think positively and then expect too much of result from positive thoughts, then you only put your nervous system under tremendous pressure and actually don’t gain anything.

The process of positive thinking happens in three simple stages – Suppression where you hold your negative thought back by exercising your will and Substitution –while holding back your negative thoughts you start asserting that which is positive, and sublimation – as you continue practicing above negative thoughts become sublimated and fade away. To your great amazement, you realize that what seemed impossible to overcome has been overcome.

SO THINK POSITIVELY AND THINK TO WIN.

The ad shows a corporate executive with a sad de-motivated face telling himself, ‘I always wanted to resign on a Monday morning.’  Then it shows a senior corporate executive sitting in a board meeting looking through the window to the rainfall outside telling himself, ‘I always wanted to chase the rain.’ Then a guy telling himself with a surfboat in hand, ‘I always wanted to swim with the whales.’ Then it shows a pregnant woman in a hospital saying, ‘I wanted to take a break for a year and see the world.’

We all, at some point of time in life, have felt this way. At least I have for many years. On every Monday morning I asked myself if this was the life I wanted to live and felt like quitting it all and reclaiming my life.

It’s true that we don’t lead the life we wanted to live. We feel the pinch everyday but we still continue living the same life. Statistics in the USA sometime back showed that almost 50% of all heart attacks between age 25 and 45 happened on a Monday morning. The reason is that we are stuck in work and jobs which we don’t want to do and thus there’s no passion left in life.

I always think of those famous words from a friend’s letter which I’m sure we all have heard it: ‘First I was dying to finish high School and start college and then I was dying to finish college and start working. Then I was dying to marry and have children. And then I was dying for my children to grow old enough so I could go back to work. But then I was dying to retire. And now I’m dying and suddenly I realized I forgot to live.’

Please let that not happen to you and do something to reclaim your life.

There is always that defining moment which can be called the crossroad moment when you decide to reclaim your life. It happened with me one day when I went for a life-enhancing course. As part of the process, I went for a nature walk. I suddenly saw beauty of the sunset and realized I was missing out on life and the beauty of this world. There and then I decided to reclaim my life back. Today I’m not living someone else’s dream but I can proudly say to a very large extend I’m leading a life of my dream though it’s a long journey.

But do you want to wait for that crossroad moment to reclaim your life. NO – seize the moment now. Please don’t be a passenger in this journey called life, drive your own life – live life!

Have no regrets in life

You ask any person who’s a success and living life of their dream. At some point they had to take a decision to move towards something they wanted in spite of the fear. You will never regret taking risks in life. If there is no risk there is no success. Last week I was reading a recent post of Robin Sharma in his blog where he said the last question before your death is always ‘Who did I become?’ Let that last moment not be a regret for having become what I never wanted to become.
                                                                            
Enjoy living in the present moment

Even if you are on your path and following your calling in life you should always live in the present moment. You should judge your life less and enjoy it more. All wise people see life as a great gift and don’t waste it on trivialities.

I remember knowing a person a retired brigadier who was living a life as a community teacher and whenever I used to ask him how was he, he used to say, ‘I’m here.’ It basically meant I’m grateful to be alive and acknowledge this gift.

Be honest to yourself

In life, be true to your self and live with intention. Even if you have found your true calling in life you need to live with intention to consistently and regularly ask three critical life questions:

Am I following my calling in life?
Am I being true to myself?
Am I being the person I want to be in life?

The late Michael Landon, movie star and great humanitarian, once said:

‘Somebody should tell us right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every single day. Do it, I say! Whatever you want to do – do it now! Carpe diem. Seize the day! And expect miracles, because you are one.’

Thus I’ll again say, reclaim your life everyday and enjoy this miracle called life.

Every action of an individual or anything that a human being does has one deeper need or aim behind it – the need to feel happy. We all seem to be driven somewhere in life by the inner urge to pursue happiness. 

It was rightly said by Epicurus: “Happiness is man’s greatest aim in life.”

When we look at various religious scriptures we get some very interesting interpretation of happiness. 

In Bhagvat Gita the Lord Krishna preaches Arjuna to perform duty without any fear or desire of result. True happiness lies in being completely free from all desires.  

Alfatabi philosophy which closely resemble muslim philosophy of happiness states: “Nations and citizens of cities attain earthly happiness in the first life and supreme happiness in the life beyond when four human things are met: theoretical virtues, deliberative virtues, moral virtues and practical arts.”

 Buddhism believes: “Sacrifice of all sensual and materialistic pleasures and developing a sense of consideration and compassion for all beings leads to ultimate happiness.”

A study of national cultures throws interesting viewpoints: The Chinese seek happiness in long life, riches, love of virtue, health and natural death in old age. The French find happiness in principles of equality, liberty and fraternity. For the British, happiness lies in health, wealth and wisdom and Americans in the pursuit of life, liberty, materialistic achievement.

My personal viewpoint or understanding says happy people share happy habits.  It’s as simple as that.  If you’re looking to expand your general happiness, I would like to highlight three simple habits which you can implement in your own life.

1.     Positive Reflection: It is important to mindfully reflect on the good while striving diligently to correct the bad. More often than not, we tend to focus a lot on the negative outcomes of life and completely ignore the positive successes. Simply put, to be happy, it’s imperative for you to have a positive outlook in life.

2.     Do what you believe: Get involved in work which you believe in. Happy people are the ones who are passionate about work and life. They love what they do and do what they believe. Add passion into life and be happy.

3.     Be with your loved ones: Value your personal relationships and you will value life. A happy life is a life shared with loved ones.  The stronger the personal relationships are and the higher the frequency of interaction, the happier a person will be.

Let’s always remember these words of Abraham Lincoln: “Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

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 Kaushik is a Business Training and Development professional working with a well known MNC bank in India. His interests are reading, travelling, trekking, spirituality, photography, cultural and social activism. He has travelled extensively and seen all states of India and most of the Himalayas.

It has truly been a life changing journey for me since the moment my daughter was born. Fatherhood has been a truly transformative experience.

Thought it would be fun to share some of the personal growth lessons I have learned in my journey of last three years.

1.    Always keep smiling: When kids find themselves in a difficult situation they usually smile and work around the issue. There are some things in life we just can’t predict.  Even with a great deal of planning, it’s possible that life will throw at us knotty moments. We need to greet those moments with a sense of good humor and proactive fascination. You will always find that smile on a child’s face whatever the situation be. It’s said a child smiles 1700 times in a day, a young adult smiles 17 times and a matured adult hardly smiles. We should just be like a kid and face every moment of our life with a smile.

2.    Physical activity keeps you healthy: Kids are into some physical activity all the time, not because it’s healthy, but because it’s fun. They participate in sports, climb trees, run etc. It’s also said in the Puranas and I closely watched it in my six-month-old daughter that for the first six months a child is always found in any of the yogic postures and mudras. That’s also precisely the reason why in the first six months the mental growth of a child is maximum. Just watching them in the initial months can comfortably teach you all the postures of padma sadhana which is the best practice of a healthy living.

3.    Love without expectation: Any form of love that a child shows is the purest form of expression. When a child hugs you, kisses you, looks at you with love, it’s 100% natural and it’s done with complete genuineness and without any expectation. Thus a kid teaches us everyday life’s greatest lesson ‘LOVE’ and how to express it.

4.    Living the present moment: Kids live by their instincts openly and without hesitation. They are enthusiastic about life, eager to learn, and curious about everything. They are not worried about the past or anxious about the future. They live every moment with awareness, enthusiasm and complete consciousness. Watching them teaches you one of the biggest lessons of success, give 100% to the present moment.

5.    Dance for yourself: It’s about enjoying life’s simple pleasures. Put a kid in a puddle and watch him cheerfully splash around. Or just tickle a kid until he is beet red from laughter. All of these are simple pleasures that children love to partake in. I think the biggest sign of a life well lived is to be able to dance at anytime, anywhere as if no one’s watching. Children do it all the time.

I’m looking forward to many more years together of learning with my two teachers of life my angels Pia and Dia. I’ll also suggest each one of you to watch kids closely, learn from them for they are life’s greatest teachers.

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Kaushik is a Business Training and Development professional working with a well known MNC bank in India. His interests are reading, travelling, trekking, spirituality, photography, cultural and social activism. He has travelled extensively and seen all states of India and most of the Himalayas.

The struggle happens every day when we fight and argue with our own foggy brain under the warmth of our blanket and try to present ourselves the gift of that extra ten minutes by hitting the snooze button. Invariably ten minutes do stretch and we find lifting ourselves from the bed dejected having lost the battle once more.

Let me try to list down some very simple ways to win the battle of the bed:

Be motivated to get up early: The force of a deep desire of getting up early is the best way to bring mind over mattress. If we are really motivated to wake up at a certain time, we will surmount all excuses of going back to sleep in the morning. If we really value the benefits of getting up early, we will make it happen come what may.

Getting up at the same time everyday: Whatever our pattern or requirement of sleep, it’s imperative for us first to set a fixed awakening time. It may be a bit difficult initially to hone in on the right range of bedtime for us. There may be huge oscillations staying awake too late or going to bed early some night but eventually a time will set in when we will know what time is best suited for us to go to bed. We will automatically go to sleep at a time every day allowing enough sleep to wake up refreshed in the morning.

Early dinner: An early dinner before 8 PM everyday gives you ample time to digest your food. It eventually prepares you for a more deep and sweet sleep.

Don’t watch television just before sleep: The biggest energy sapper in most lives today is the process of watching television. It takes a lot of positive energy out of us, makes us lounge till late night and gives us insomnia. We should avoid watching television just before sleep and replace it with other habits like reading books, playing or reciting rhymes to our kids. Let’s try and enter sleep with sweet thoughts which will help us eventually to get up early and refreshed.

Snooze button is kept out of reach: We need to keep the alarm clock away from the bed and not right next to us. It will force us to get up from bed and not hit the snooze button lying in the bed. Once you are up, in all probability you will stay up. The best way is to stretch your body completely for ten seconds and force yourself out of the mattress.
Let’s now win the battle and join the esteemed “5 o’ Clock Club” to success.

In this journey to success, be guided by those words of Sam Veda: ‘A person, who rises early in the morning, feels energetic and remains active throughout the day. The mind remains fresh for the entire day. Therefore we should make it a habit to get up early in the morning.’

Read another point of view here - Forcing yourself to get up early in the morning is pointless!

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Kaushik is a Business Training and Development professional working with a well known MNC bank in India. His interests are reading, travelling, trekking, spirituality, photography, cultural and social activism. Reach him at k_cborty@yahoo.com