5 effective points to deal with the PROBLEMS in Life

The points mentioned below create a right kind of mind set to deal with the problems in life.

1.       Combo: Understand that “Problem + No Problem” is a package that come us a combo in life. Life is boring without the problems. Growth in life can be obtained by the experiences in handling and resolving the problems. So, let us welcome the problems but the smartness lies in how one becomes resilient to the problems.

2.       Physical Result: Problem is simply an outcome in the physical world. It is a result that manifested in the physical world. It is an effect in your external reality. But, the causes are somewhere else in your internal world. Many of us have the tendency to focus on the problems, ex: weight loss. I want to lose weight; I have to get rid of those bulges etc. We have to shift our focus to the causes. Ex: what made me to gain the weight, was I like this five years before? , etc. So, focus on the causes to get rid of the effect.

3.       Mirror: A person true character gets reflected only in his adversity. When you are bogged down with the problems, you may have doubts, fear, worries, etc which are driven by the emotional centre of the brain. Your reaction to the problem is then based on the autopilot response that comes through the memories that hold your life experiences. This auto response is how you are defined as a person. The effectiveness in dealing with the problems is determined by the ability to switch and use the thinking brain instead of the auto response by the emotional brain.

4.       Solution Focus: A problem gets multiplied when one spent energy primarily focussing on the problems. Similarly, solution gets multiplied when one pay attention to the solutions. This is the fundamental of the Law of Attraction. You simply attract what you focus on. The effectiveness in dealing with the problem is the ability in quickly switching to the solution domain from the problem domain. An approach where one moves from the area of problem centric to the area of solution focus.

5.       One Micro step: The easiest way to move to the area of solution focus is to align your thinking or altering your mind set to take one simple micro step in getting a solution to the problem using your current resource capability. 

Habit formation – strategies

We are driven subconsciously by our habits. Yes, all our day today activities are majorly governed by our habits. These habits are ingrained in our nervous system for years. Habits are generally formed by repetition of the same activities multiple times.

We are comfortable to the activities that are familiar to us. Our habits work on those activities in an auto pilot mode. We don’t need to have a conscious effort to perform the action.

Habit change: At our conscious level, we know that we own both good and bad habits. Habits are hard to erase. It requires discipline and dedicated effort. This is because; you are attempting to change your own self. Change is not easy & brain shows resistance for the changes. Brain is designed to work in the least resistance path mode which is nothing but your comfort zone.

We need to have equally an opposite force of similar magnitude to go through the change phase. The duration of the change phase is usually within a month if we follow the protocols correctly.

Opposing force: When one wants to form a new habit or change the existing bad habit then he needs to go against the normal function of the brain. It is a process of establishing and rewiring the brain to the brand new neural path. This is an effort for the brain and it does not happen naturally.

One can supply the opposing force of parallel magnitude by his motivation. Motivation is a wilful action. But, in general motivation does not sustain for a long time for most of us. We are motivated to do workouts three times in a week after seeing an amazing fitness transformation of our neighbour. We start our workouts with lot of enthusiasm at the beginning but after few weeks, we go completely off track.

Reward based Motivation: For the motivation to sustain, it is important to get the motivation based on the rewards.  Somehow, the reward centre of the brain has to be activated whenever you attempt to build a new habit or change the existing habit. The brain has to experience the reward. In other words, we have to feel the rewards. Motivation based on the external trigger will not become sustainable like in case of neighbour fitness transformation example. Unarguably, it is a good start point to build a new habit but then we need to quickly work on our internal reward circuit to go through the change phase.

Two step process: Recognising reward is a two-step process. During the beginning phase of the change process, you may not able to see the result or benefit. In case of fitness transformation, the body has an inbuilt intelligence with a time constant associated with it. It requires some adaptation period before the body undergoes a change. So, during the beginning stage, we need to use the visualisation or creative imagination. Picture yourself and use the creative imagination to see every details of your transformed body, say after three months. How would you feel as you go through this visualisation process? This is the first level of reward activation for the brain to stay motivated.

Secondly, do not look for the monumental changes when you want to see the changes that are taking place within you. Most of us do the mistake of looking for a big transformation. Instead, look for a simple minimal change/reward. That is good enough to trigger the reward centre of the brain and to keep up your motivation. So, work on the reward base motivation to change your habits!!

Build up your positive vibe –Festive Mood

Now, it is the festive occasion of Diwali. We exchange love & affection to the family members and friends. It is a powerful way of strengthening our relationship. Good relationship is the currency of our life. Lots of positive vibes spread around us during this festive occasion.

On this occasion, I happened to listen to a debate on the topic of leadership. The title of the topic for debate was “Who are great leaders? Men or Women?”. Men were arguing to support that women were the great born leaders while women were supporting the opposite sex. It was an interesting debate. One of the key men speakers listed down the qualities of the good leaders such as relationship building, storytelling skill, love & affection, good listening capacity, emotional intelligence and the list continued.

Qualities:  There is one common ground if we see all that leadership qualities mentioned above. The emotional centre of the brain or the right hemisphere dominance is the one that needs to be developed to become a good leader. Relationship building is nothing but spreading the positive emotions especially in the adverse condition. Story telling is a powerful skill of the public speakers and that requires creativity.  Good listening capacity can be obtained when one gets the complete bird eye vision of the topic under discussion. All of these qualities are part of the acitivty of the right hemisphere.

Balance: We have both feminine as well as masculine charismas in each one of us irrespective of our sex. That is why in our religion, we have Árdhanaeswaara god depicted as male and female halves as one single entity. In yogic language, yoga is defined as the merger of the potential energy ( Kundalini at Mulathara chakra ) and the kinetic energy ( Shiva at the shasara chakara). In practical term, it is a way to understand the individual power within (Potential energy) and bring to his own awareness ( Shiva) and use this power for his own growth as well as for the growth of others. In fact, a great leader is not either the males or females but the one who harnesses both the male and female powers that lie within him/her.

Message: We light up the house with the decorative lamps on this festive occasion. It is a way to symbolise removal of the darkness and bring light into our life. In other words, it indicates the removal our ignorance. Ignorance can only be removed when you have the right knowledge. Right knowledge can be obtained only when one understands the power within. Practice of yoga is a methodology to be aware of this intrinsic power.

Wishing you again a joyous Diwali to all!!

External Needs vs Internal Power

Our needs are motivated and driven by the external world around us. Our needs and wants are limitless. For example, travel to Antarctic, to have Arnold/Aishwarya body, to own a jaguar car, to fly in the microlight etc. Why do we have endless list of needs? It is simply because we are attuned to the five external senses and that is the way we experience the world around. Since, we have developed to the great levels of our external senses, we naturally get attracted to what we touch, feel, see, taste and hear.

There is nothing wrong in having endless list of needs and wants. But, unfortunately for many of us the needs are not met and fulfilled. The needs stay as everlasting needs throughout life & are not achieved in lifetime. Life is all about abundance and one needs to enjoy that abundance that life throws at him. For this one needs to understand the ways and means to tap this abundance of life.

Attuning to the Internal World:

 The internal world within us is as big and diversified as that of the external world. One can develop a sixth sense of connecting to the internal world, our feelings, emotions, mind and bodily sensations at the subtlest level. We are all connected to the above but only at the gross level. But, if we learn to centre to the core of the existence then we can tap the power within. This is a journey to the internal world .Practice of yoga sets the path to take up this internal journey to tap the power within.

Powerhouse: The infinite power is uniformly given to every single human in this world. It is up to the individual to find out the path to reach there. This is a pure source of energy that acts as a guiding light in life. In fact, all that good things that have happened in your life are due to this single source of power. Knowingly or unknowingly, each one of us tapped into this power momentarily when we experienced goodness in life.

Witness the conditioned system: Yogic techniques are clearly defined to set this path to access the infinite power within. From the point of reference from this power, one gets the ability to watch the pattern of the conditioned mind. It is one of the big advantages of accessing this internal power. Each one of us acts and behaves in certain peculiar way due to the conditioned mind. In most cases, this conditioned mind sets the limit on exploring the new things in life.

Reprogram the conditioned mind: So, for the needs and wants to become the reality, it is important to shatter the limits set by the conditioned mind. Conditioned mind works in certain specific way. So, we get those very specific results that we have been getting all these days. To get the new results, we need to act and work in a different way and hence a way to reprogram the conditioned mind.

Practice of yoga not only provides an opportunity to witness this conditioned mind pattern but also allows us to change the pattern. Because, once you are aware of the pattern then it is easy to manage the pattern. Otherwise, it is difficult to manage without this awareness that you have gained by yoga.

The change in the pattern in the internal world sets a new reality in the life. So, life is abundance and it is our right to enjoy this abundance. All, one needs to do is to develop a way to access the power within to reconfigure his limited conditioned mind. Harness the power and liberate!!.