Tag: Personal Growth (Page 4 of 9)

On just doing things without thinking

December 18, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

There’s a certain sense flow in the spirit of a child, a magical blend of curiosity and fearless adventure in every moment of its being. The openness to explore, decipher and create emanates from its core, as a natural expression of life itself.

Kids never think twice before they attempt something. They could open up their whole racing car toy to make sense of how it works, talk to strangers as if they’re long lost friends, dance even if there’s no music around, and even reprimand their Grandpa if he doesn’t practice what he preaches !

The energy flows as it comes, unhindered.

In a way, they are ‘just doing things without too much thinking.’

And how much life do they squeeze out of each living moment with that flamboyance !

While we adults, in comparison, have quite a constipated existence.

Why?

Because, believe it or not, we too,
are ‘just doing things without too much thinking.’
The same expression I had used earlier for a kid’s state of being applies to us, however in a way that doesn’t serve our growth

We are too busy doing things without giving conscious thought about it. Despite access to all the knowledge in the world we are just getting on with our lives.

What are we making off of our privilege?

We choose to not take care of our health,
eat and sleep at ungodly hours, poison our bodies with socially accepted addictions, all the while knowing that it does us only harm.
We box up our lives, feeling sorry for ourselves despite our privilege while we could be finding ways to help people in a greater need than us.
And life goes on like that, as we keep scrolling through a stream of information just to fill up the void in our life.

We get on with our lives,

‘Just doing these things without too much thinking.’

Life goes on.

A child also keeps doing things without too much thinking, but how profoundly different is its life from ours!

We need a phase shift.
Now.

For that shift to happen we must follow a two step process :

1) Rediscover the childlike abandon in us and do things without being bogged down by self doubt and fear of judgement.

2) Be mindful and deliberate about our lives, and not let it just happen.

With step one, we will regain the creative vigor of a child, beyond any imagined fear.

With step two, we will make the best use of our knowledge and channel our creative energy wisely, in the direction that serves everyone best.

After all, there are so many things in worlds within and without, that deserve attention and action from our end !

It is the same expression :

‘Just doing things without much thinking‘

It could mean a mindless existence in one sense.
But it could also mean a flamboyant existence rolling like a juggernaut in the direction of divinity.

It is a matter of choice, isn’t it?

Let’s change gears, course correct our journey, and give a better meaning to our existence.

Let’s do this !

How to Upgrade your existence

December 17, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Normal is such a normal word isn’t it?
It refers of all things ordinary, the banal, the commonplace, not showing any deviance from the usual.
It is a word that references itself in its character. Normal.

There is an ubiquity to this word, despite how flavorless it is.
We use this word quite often to refer to the state in our own life. In fact, despite how lacklustre it sounds, we all wish for a ‘normal’ life, don’t we?

There is only one issue with wishing for such a normalcy in life.
It is that, often we seek what’s considered normal on a societal level. We take normal to be something that has met with the tacit agreement of others around us. We do not take a moment to consider and set a benchmark for our own self, of what we want our normal to be!

Let me cite a personal example.

The other day, my father came into my room when I was writing. He was a bit surprised to see me write with my left hand. He’d always remembered me to be right-handed. Since he hadn’t seen me for a long time, he wondered if he had forgotten which was my dominant hand.

Eventually I told him that I had been writing with my left hand everyday for the past 18 months. And now, it felt totally normal to me. I sometimes come to my writing desk and pick up the pen quite instinctively with my left hand.

That’s a normal I worked towards, something I eventually I got used to.

Would it not be best, if we strived to upgrade our ‘normal’ to a more challenging state of being?
Normal doesn’t have be a constant, it needs to have a positive evolutionary slope.

Personally, I am still trying to level up on my normalcy. I am constantly trying to be open in the heart, just as a child, something that doesn’t come naturally to adults. But I am working my way towards making it a normal part of my being.
Likewise there are many other areas where I wish to bring an elevation in my normal state of being. It is an ongoing process that challenges you to grow mindfully.

There is nothing wrong with wishing to lead a normal life, as long as you define what you accept as normal, as long as you choose to push your boundaries and upgrade your normalcy.

The same word, normal, gets invigorated once we choose give it our own definition.

Define your own ‘normal’ and constantly strive for an upgrade in your state of being.
To do that for your evolution, should after all become,
Normal.

When an old man runs

December 15, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

An old man used to frequent a park. He wouldn’t do much there. He would just sit on a wooden bench and enjoy the breeze of the season.
Every evening, he would see a group of three young men meet at the park after work. They would just sit on the bench opposite him and chatter away mindlessly.

The old man could barely see much. But even in a few months of observation, he could sense the gradual deterioration in the health of the young men.

He wished to change things.
But how? He wondered.

The next day, the old man quit his slippers and came to the park in his shoes. Just as the three men came in the park that evening, they were surprised to see the old man walk around the park with his cane.
In a few weeks, the old man felt healthy enough to set aside his cane and walk briskly without it.
Each time he would pass their field of vision, the men would feel a strange feeling inside them. Their talking would stop and all their attention would momentarily be on the old man.

The following month, the three men got a big shock. The old man was jogging slowly around the park with a beaming smile. There wasn’t much talk that day, just a lot of silence.

Next day, the old man got a surprise he was wishing for all along. The three young men were waiting for him in their running shoes. Soon, the three of them were following the old man around like chicks around mama hen.
Even with his slow breezy pace, the old man had moved three mountains semingly set in stone, in gentle onward motion.

For a few weeks they would run like this everyday.
Until one day, the old man didn’t show up.

They assumed that he was unwell and continued on with the running.

Little did they know, that from the vantage of heaven, he was rejoicing the sight of a stuttered jog turning into elegant strides.

Isn’t that the best way to make a change whose time has come?
To lead by example, beyond all rationalisation.

If we seek positive change, then shouldn’t we, at every moment, strive to be either the old man or the three young men?

If we can, we must lead the change.
If not, we should follow the ones who show us the path.

Our little world needs a lot of change.
Passivity breeds deterioration.
Only in running actively, in the direction of solutions would we find the blueprint of a better world.

Run. Follow. Learn.

On finding equanimity in life

December 13, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

The test of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind and still have the ability to function.
– F. Scott Fitzgerald

We have all experienced that emotion at least once in life when we think that in the grand scheme of things, we don’t really matter.
In the infinity of the cosmos, the constant sourceless flow time, does a speck of a little being that appears and disappears in a flash hold any significance?
Yes, in the bigger picture, even in the observable universe, we don’t even feature as a faint blip on the cosmic radar.
One could thus infer that life is quite pointless, devoid of any meaning.

But wait a moment and think.

Don’t we also have the opportunity to find meaning for our life for our own self?

We have a finite amount of time to experience our perceptual reality and engage ourselves in something that we find meaningful.

It might not matter in the bigger picture, but in the present moment, what we do with our life and what adds meaning to it matters, doesn’t it?

So how does one find a middle ground while being confronted with apparent pointlessness on one hand and finding meaning on the other?

Here’s where the quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald comes in.

To make peace with pointlessness and meaning, we have to able to hold both ideas in our head at the same time.
And, it can do wonders to your existence.

On one hand, realising our pointlessness in the grand scheme of things will make sure we don’t become egocentric in our perspective.
On the other hand, choosing to find meaning for our own life and living by it will make us more responsible carriers of consciousness.

Once we learn to make peace with both these opposing ideas, of pointlessness and meaning, a certain stoic calm would dawn upon us.
In a way, we will learn when to take life seriously and when to just sit back, accept and laugh at how insignificant we are.

An image conjures up in my mind when I think about making peace with this duality.

Imagine a father and his 5 year old son peering through a telescope at a clear night sky.
The father looks at a minisclue fraction of the cosmos through the lenses and realises how little his existence is.
And then, he looks at his son gazing through the telescope in awe and finds all the meaning in the world to live fully and responsibly. To make the most out of his existence.
In that moment of realization, he’s made peace with his reality.

Perhaps the best way to stay clear of nihilism and egomania, is to understand the duality of pointlessness and meaning,
and live with a solemn awareness of both ideas each living moment.

How does one make peace with these polar opposite perspectives?

Perhaps, a telescope would help.
Or maybe,
watching your baby fall asleep.

Are you being a true friend?

December 12, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

The internet tells me I have more than a 1000 friends in the online ecosystem.
There’s a good chance that you share a similar story.

But how does one get to know who their real friends are? Not just among the friends in the online space, but also in their physical world?

I feel there is way to find the answer.
And the answer is in the questions they ask you.

Even if we have been friends with someone for a while, we can spend years not going beyond the same old questions-

‘How are you?’
‘What’s happening?’
‘How’s work?’

You know the list !

But amid the cacophony of the same old peripheral questions, there will be a friend who’s questions will pierce straight through your heart.

He’ll ask questions that compel you to come up with answers you already have, to questions you don’t.

‘What is your dream?’
‘What do you fear?’
‘Are you happy?’
‘Can I help?’

These are simple questions,
and they must be attended to.

These questions can only emanate from the heart of a true friend.

Who is a true friend you’d ask.

In my opinion, a true friend is someone to whom your growth matters just as much as their own.

You can be friends with hundreds of people, but if you want to be a true friend to a chosen few, you must ask these questions to them.

And time and again, in the interest of fostering meaningful growth,
To form a deeper personal bond,
One must ask these questions,
To himself.

So,
As a good friend,
May I ask,

‘What’s your dream?’
‘And what’s holding you back?’

And, coming back to the question,
Who’s a true friend?

The answer is in the questions they ask you.

I hope you find a friend in me,
A friend in you.

On slowing down time

December 11, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

‘An unexamined life is not worth living.’
-Socrates

Do you remember the last time you did something consistently, every single day?

No, I am not talking about the usual tasks like waking up, eating and sleeping.
I am talking about doing something that is a mindful choice that when repeated every day steers you towards betterment.

Something that’s physically, intellectually or emotionally challenging. Something that makes you act, and repeat, with a clear goal in mind, every single day?

There’s a good chance that you don’t remember doing something with such disciple and commitment.

Most of us do not have such a focussed outlook.

And as a result, we fail to examine where we stand and sense if we are improving over time.
Time passes all too quickly, without us having derived all that we could from it.

But there is a way to slow down time, and dwell in each day, and squeeze out most of what we can do with it.

I’d like to share a personal experience at this point.

Ever since I started The Power Of Everyday project this month, I’ve seen a marked difference in my experience of the passage of time.

I have promised myself to write a blog post every single day.

A simple, easy to follow rule.

Once I started to do this everyday, the days have slowed down. It feels as if I’ve been writing every single day forever, while it has just been 11 days this month.
Even in a span of less than a fortnight I could sense an ocean of time.

While in the past, there have been times when I’ve not written and published for months yet, I would feel as if it hadn’t been long since I last wrote.
Time passed all too quickly without me having gotten much out of it.

I would definitely prefer an experience where I derive most out of my time. Wouldn’t you?

A mindful and deliberate act of disciplined creation helps one derive the most out of the continuum of time.

And hence helps one lead an examined life.

If you desire to experience this slowing down of time, to feel a sense of direction and discipline, promise yourself to do a simple task, every single day for a week.

It could be the simplest of the tasks.
But the rules have to be simple and well defined.

10 push-ups everyday for a week?
Reading one page everyday?
Or Writing a page in your journal ?

Take your pick as you like.

But try this one out.

A wise man once told me,

‘Time doesn’t move. We move through it. Time just stands still. Eternally.’

Maybe, by trying to do something every single day, mindfully and deliberately,
we can impede our flow through time,
And grow in ways that we absolutely must.

One thing. Every day. One week.

It’s worth a shot.

Why your new year resolution should start today

December 9, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

This might catch you off guard.

It might feel that I’m posting something three weeks too soon.
It is not time to talk about new year resolutions yet, you’d say.

Be patient and hear me out on this one.

I’ve been trying to form positive habits for the past few years. After constant experimentation and many failures, I learnt about the two key elements that determine whether a positive habit will stick or not.

They are –

A) Consistency

B) Momentum

Now, we are all aware of how most new year resolutions fizzle out by the second week of January.

An obvious reasons is because we move into the new year with no momentum at all.

You can’t start going to gym every single day in a new year if you’re picking up from a week of partying towards the end of the year.
You’re just expecting yourself to start running before learning to crawl.

In my opinion, one needs to start the new year with momentum.
A momentum that starts to build at least three weeks before the new year.

Why three weeks?

Well, it is a well researched fact that I can attest with my own experience that it takes at least 21 days of consistent effort to form a new habit.

Whatever your new year resolution might be, if you start working on it from tomorrow, you’ll have 21 days to be consistent and build momentum so that you are already well primed for the changes you want to bring into your life next year.

This might have caught you off guard and you might not have even thought of a resolution yet.
But it’s a Sunday, and a good day to relax, reflect, and resolve what you’d like to improve on.

Once you decide on your resolution, start tomorrow. I am positive that the habit will stick in the new year if you stay consistent and build momentum for these 21 days in December.

This is the cheat code.
A headstart.

Are you in the game?

On Inertia and choosing a better Lifestyle design

December 8, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Kids have a special energy in them.
Once they learn to move about and pick things up, they trasmit bundles and bundles of energy in all that surrounds them.
They’re running all around the park, swaying in swings, throwing around toys, stones and tantrums alike without discrimination.

That special energy is in their ability to lend their power packed inertia to everything they interact with.
Even frail old Grandma gets energised to sing and dance once her grandson is around.

As we grow up, we lose that special power of transmitting our inertia of motion.
Instead, we acquire another trait,
Of succumbing to inertia of objects around us.

Think of that comfortable couch in your house or that workspace which has looked the same for as far back you can remember.
We succumb to the inertia of the couch and assume a similar inertial state of rest and slumber.

In a way kids are at peace because they find a way to equalise their inertial potential with their surroundings.
The inertia of motion.

While adults are also at peace once they’re in that couch because there’s a consonance, an equilibrium in their inertia and their surroundings.
The inertia of rest.

But the peace we find in a state of rest isn’t the best use of our energy.
It comes at the cost of our dynamism.

As responsible adults, we must design oursurroundings better.

Imagine this situation.

In nature, while trekking along a hilly range, where the wind blows fresh, and streams trickle from every cliff, isn’t it easy for most of us to keep walking?
Despite the difficulty of ascending up a hill, we find motivation to keep on moving.

I feel it is because the wind, just as the water around us is in constant flow, in perpetual motion. And we find it easy to embody the inertial motion of our surroundings.

But we don’t live in the hills do we?
A lucky few do, but most of us don’t !

So how do we design an ideal inertial design around us?

At times, when we have limited control over inertia of objects around us, say in an office desk, we can at least make sure that things are always moving.
That work doesn’t stay for too long on our desk and all objects in the vicinity are used constantly.

If you realise you’re not using something in your workspace, do away with it, before the spell of its inertia of rest catches hold of you.
Move things that you can, much like a child, and add a sense of dynamism in your vicinity.

Move things in your context.

And when you’re out of that workspace and ready to unwind, choose a context which calls for motion from your end.
Go walk, run, trek ,swim, sweat in a context that conjures up the latent energy inside you.

Make the context move you.

We embody the inertia of our surroundings just as much as the surroundings embody ours.

A good lifestyle design would constantly call for wise choices from our end.

In choosing our surroundings wisely and fostering inertia of motion in our lives,
The context for a productive life will surely materialize.

On imagination, discernment and the peace perspective can bring

December 7, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

Imagine a little girl with a big paintbrush in her hand. She’s got hold of water colours for the first time and she just cannot wait to paint something.
She chooses the living room wall as her maiden canvas.
Soon, the smooth white wall gets dyed in mild shades of every color in the palette.

Her mother arrives to find that her daughter has painted her dress just as much as the wall she’s been painting on.

The mother could take recourse in two ways.
She could either

a) See things as they are.

Consider it to be a wall in flux, which could be painted over again.
She could use her discernment in a sound direction.

b) See things as if they’re so much more.

Consider it to be disaster and reprimand a budding artist at the outset.
She could use her imagination, albiet in a misleading direction.

The two key phrasess here are

a) sound discernment

b) misled imagination.

Discernment and Imagination are powerful tools, but when used incorrectly either cause us only detriment.

Now imagine the same incident again.
The mother could use another train of thought.

She could either

a) See things as they are

Look at only the colored stains on the wall and not the blobs of a butterflies her child sees through her eyes.
She could use her discernment in an unsound and sterile manner.

b) See things as if they’re so much more

She could not only look at the blobs of the butterflies but use her imagination to see the whole animal kingdom waiting to appear on the living room wall.
She could look at it as the first page of her little daughter’s art portfolio.

She could use her imagination in the right direction. I call it right because it brings peace to both mother and daughter and the art still thrives.

Again, as I’d said earlier, discernment and imagination are powerful tools.
We must make use our wisdom to make the right choice,
The ideal mix of discernment and imagination.

True wisdom though, lay in the mind of an unconditioned child.
Like the little painter, who could see things the ideal way.

By discernment she knew it was a wall but her imagination suggested her to use it as a canvas.

By discernment she knew it to be a blank canvas, but her imagination suggested her that it could be so much more.

The little girl was easily weaving her thoughts using both discernment and imagination as it deemed fit.

Much of the distress we face in life is because of unwise choices between discernment and imagination.

We imagine fear of failure and discern obstacles to be dead ends.
While we could imagine ways to triumph and discern obstacles only to be hurdles that must be jumped over.

The choices we make shape our reality.

Any tool is only powerful if used with wisdom.

With sound discernment and well directed imagination,
Life would reveal itself in ways that serve you best.

Imagine !

What’s to learn from a Blank Page?

December 5, 2018 / Sreenath Sreenivasan / 0 Comments

This is a blank piece of paper.
Well, it used to be.
Now that I’m writing on it, it isn’t blank anymore.

But wait a moment, and imagine
Is it just a blank page?
Or is it so much more than what we think it is?

A blank page is an ocean of possibilities.

It could be a page where a toddler squiggles his first lines ever with a tiny red pencil.

It could be a crumpled ball that the toddler’s kitten plays with for hours at end.

It could be the first paper plane the little boy makes.

It could be a frog he learns to make in origami class.

It could be a hand-fan he waves to soothe his kitten on a hot summer day.

It could be a cone that contains freshly roasted groundnuts, worth all the riches in the whole wide world.

It could be the first love letter he ever writes, brim with an innocent passion.

Or a mournful poem he pens when he falls in unrequited love.

It could contain a doodle that he sketches, one that has the ideal mix of amusement and hope.

Or it could have wayward scribbles all over, intelligible only to him who’s certain of his confusion.

It could be a painting his old grandmother paints, an artist who finally summons the courage to play with colours again.

It could contain notes of a beautiful symphony his sister composes, one that’s yet to be ever played.

It could contain an elegant equation, that explains deep mysteries of the universe with simple, irrefutable logic.

It could contain a sketch of a prototype he imagines as a young inventor,
An invention that changes the face of mankind.

It could be the declaration of independence, a freedom his nation fought for years to earn.

It could contain his will that he writes realising that the end is near.

Or maybe it can just be a blank piece of paper that ages gracefully.

If a blank sheet of paper could be so much more,
How about the miracle of existence that’s alive in the little boy?
In you?
In me?

Could we be so much more? Just like the blank sheet of paper?

We are not merely a blank page,
We are also the embodiment of energy that can transform it into something beautiful.

We are a billion beautiful possibilities.

Listen to the blank page singing softly,
That you,
as me ,
Just as us all,

Are art in the making.