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!!.

Role Model – Define your growth path

Change is constant in life. We call it as our growth when the changes influence us in a positive way. The primary purpose of our life is to grow in a positive way and lead a meaningful & purposeful life. It is important to experience and feel the positivity of growth from time to time on a constant basis. Life becomes dull and monotonous when one fails to experience the positivity.

Growth: Positive growth can be achieved by two means. One is by contribution.

 Yes!! Contribution = Growth

Contribution: Your resourcefulness gets leveraged only when acquired resources are utilised for the benefits of others. This is called contribution and the contribution aids in allowing the energy generated by your resourcefulness to flow seamlessly.  The energy is blocked when your resourcefulness is not utilised for the purpose of others. For example, my resourcefulness of yoga skill has no meaning if I do not allow leveraging this skill for the benefit of others. Obviously, our contribution has positive impact on others and as well it aids in our own growth.

Secondly, growth can be achieved by enhancing the resources or by acquiring new skills. These resources/new skills should influence you in a positive way to lead a meaningful and purposeful life.

Role Model: Role modelling is one such ideal way to build the new skills/new resources. First step is to identify the role model depending on the level of interest in the field where you want to build your new skill/resource.  If you believe that running marathon will influence in a positive way which improves your health and fitness level then it is important to anchor this idea, right away. Obviously, right now, you do not have the right kind of resources to achieve the end result but you seek to build the resources by adopting the qualities of the role model.

Anchoring: The best way to anchor the virtues of role model is to take the printout of the photo of the role model & write down the list of qualities that you want to build over the period of time. Stick this photo and qualities that you want to build in your bedroom or drawing room. Whenever, you see this photo, it acts as a reminder to achieve this goal. Then, all that you need to do is to mimic the successful patterns of this role model. Over the period of time, you can able to produce similar result as that of your role model.

Bridging the gaps:  In our culture, a person who has achieved greatest heights in any particular field is titled as DEVA. Yes, they are equated to God. For example, Sachin Tendulkar is considered as a cricket god. Here, we are trying to reproduce his success pattern. While attempting this, the first start point is to understand your present resource capabilities and mindfully bridging the gap between your current patterns to that of the role model.

This involves a three steps process. a) Understand our present resource capabilities b) understand the success pattern resource requirements c) mindfully bridging the gaps between these two patterns.  Most of us do the mistakes in not understanding clearly our own resource capabilities or simply overstepping into our unknown discomfort zone that eventually causes the damage.

So, anchoring is a powerful tool and a clearly defined process as explained above is important in avoiding those commonly made mistakes. Let us GROW and HELP others to grow!!

Long distance running: A Test platform

Yesterday, I ran the second edition of the Bengaluru half marathon. It was an incredible experience to feel the energy of the seventeen thousand participants across the different categories. The atmosphere was really electrifying & wonderful.

Since, I didn’t practice well for this event; I was bit reluctant to participate. But, the sheer thinking on the kind of energy that gets generated in such events forced me to go for the event. There are couple of points that I would like to highlight in this blog.

Test Platforms: After that I achieved my desired health & fitness level, I was looking for some test platforms to monitor my fitness condition on consistent basis. So, as my age ticks every year, I know exactly how healthy & fit am I. I have integrated such test platforms in my personal life such as long distance running, horse riding, hiking etc. Primarily, long distance running helps to check the endurance level and a good test to check the cardiovascular as well as the respiratory systems. I use horse riding mainly to check my postures and spine stability & flexibility. Now also, I am on the lookout for many such test platforms to keep me fit & healthy.  I feel that all these activities are simply the extensions of yoga & to see how the mental, physical and emotional skills that one developed in yoga can be applied and tested.

Performance:  When it comes to the performance of my running skill, I am nowhere near to those who are on the top of this activity. I feel that top 10% of the runners are the real and serious performers. This is true in any other fields as well. Even in our career, if we are not in the top 10% then we will have to go through some scuffle & there will be a sense of incompleteness in our career life. My policy in life is to be in the top 10% in those areas where we seriously invest our energy or otherwise, take enough effort to reach that bracket. Rest of the 90% of the people are part of the crowd.

My performance is now in the top 25% to 30% bracket. I would like to invest sufficient time & energy to push to less than 20% in the coming months. I am banking on the yoga skills that I developed over years such as my deep breathing, flexibility of the body, efficient cardiovascular system etc.

Misconception: Some of the clients as well as the yoga practitioners believe that it is harmful to run long distance especially after the age of forty years. They think that the knees and ankles will get stressed heavily. They also think that yoga and running are mutually exclusive activities and can’t be done together. In my experience, yoga is not a practice to keep your mind calm, keep you fit & flexible and keep your stress level at minimum. It is much bigger than these. Yoga is something which really shakes the core of your being and changes the way of living that provide an opportunity to explore and expand the different dimensions of life (health, wealth, relationship & spiritual development). So, if one experiences yoga in true sense then he will not equate yoga to mere physical & mental workouts.

So, just go for all theses activities such as long distance running which not only serve as test platforms but give tremendous opportunity to explore the abundance of the life.

Upgrade: All the skills that you have learned by practicing yoga are to upgrade to your higher self. You feel and see yourself in your growth path on day today basis. The ultimate purpose of yoga is to realise the inherent power within ( Shakti- Kundalini) , bring it your consciousness ( Shiva ) and use those powers for the benefit of others. So activities such as running are simply a validation process to reach your higher self. I know made it almost like a ritual to participate on annual basis those mega running events of the country such Mumbai Marathon, Bengaluru Marathon & TCS world 10K. That is my commitment for my health & fitness. Would you like to join me ?

Build the right energy circle

We are influenced by the environment and also we influence the environment. Being a social animal, each one of us influences the society in some way or other and also we are influenced by the society. No one can stand and live alone. Knowingly or unknowingly, we are always in constant connect with the environment. Even as you read this blog, if you notice now, your feet is in contact with the earth element, you breath is in constant contact with the atmosphere and so on. We are in constant contact with the nature and the environment & we can’t isolate from this bonding.

Because of this bonding, there is always an energy circle built around us. This is not a random or discrete energy ring forced upon. In fact, this energy circle can be designed. Yes!! The good news is that one can consciously build this energy circle that helps in his growth.

Essential components: The essential components of this energy circle are the nature elements, the society in which we live, the family members, friends, the technology & gadgets, the virtual internet space, office colleagues, the living place, the lifestyle enhancing tools such gym, physical activities and the list goes on. Each of the above components creates its own energy field and it shapes your energy circle.

Open up the channels: For the energy circle to manifest in a beautiful balanced way, it is important to open up consciously all the possible energy channels. Say for example, if you are not a very social person and you do not have close friends then it is important to make a conscious effort in opening up this channel.  A deliberate attempt in building up the relationship with the friends circle is important even if it is limited to one or two friends. But, the channel should be opened up.

Bidirectional flow: For the sustainment of the energy flow, the first and foremost criterion is that the energy should be bidirectional. If you are drawing some help from your friend then this should be reciprocated back your help to him even if it is not at that given time space but in some other time space. Then this energy channel acts as a sustainable source of energy. If you are drawing some knowledge from the internet source, say for example by reading this particular blog then do not stay passive. Reciprocating energy can be created by some simple acts such as leaving a comment to this blog, saying thanks to the author etc.

Active interaction: For the energy to get multiplied, it is important to have an active interaction. Say for example, you want to relax yourself and hence want to play some sort of computer game. You might opt for a single user board game. Obviously, it allows you to relax but then the interaction here is passive in nature. As a slave, the game does what you really want from it. Instead, if you opt for a multiusers game, then there is another human playing opposite to you then there prevails an active interaction & hence, an opportunity to multiply the energy.

Supporting structure: In case if any of the essential components of the energy circle drains then you need to have some sort of supporting structure which acts as a substitute energy source. For example, if you are not a social person then your energy drains when you are not comfortable in a social gathering. This does not mean than you need to shut down this channel. It is simply, you need to find out an alternative channel that substitutes. You may consider having a limited close friend circle who can substitute this source of energy.

So, build the right energy circle where the inflow and outflow of energy is seamless. We then act simply as a medium where the energy goes in and out effortlessly.