New Year Resolutions

The time has come to make New Year Resolutions. Don’t make resolutions like the mom who resolved to give up all her son’s hair at Tirupathi. Make ones you can keep. There are four areas of your life where resolutions could transform your year.


Personal
Family
Work
Social


The space where you have the most control is the most important personal quadrant. I know guys who have given up smoking, because it can add atleast 7 years to their life. But then they give it up atleast once a month. Which really is the problem with resolutions. They are so difficult to keep for a whole year. Here are some simple resolutions

• Every day is a celebration. I will do something every day that I have never done before.
• I will enjoy one week day evening and weekends with my family with cell phones and laptop switched off.
• I will learn something totally new, professionally
• I will keep in touch with old friends and meet them at least once a month.

Creating a positive interpersonal field.

A drug addict once explained the difference between sympathy and empathy. He said, ‘You can never feel anything but sympathy for me and what I need is empathy. Empathy is the capacity to feel my pain in your heart.’ To be ‘socially tone-deaf’, a term coined by Peter Solovey, can lead to a life littered with broken relationships. Develop the capacity
to pick up subtle verbal, tonal and non-verbal signals from others. Learn also the ability to send out soothing, nurturing signals to others, thus creating a positive interpersonal field. In order to develop this skill, practice working with people and listening to them with the same attitude as you would a beloved child, or respected parent. Your word, tone, glance should be completely focused on the person. When you are with someone, pay complete attention. Anything less will only elicit a lukewarm response. Those who can create positive fields around themselves attract and build lifetime relationships.

A recent happiness survey shows that hairdressers have the highest levels of happiness at work! The reason? They are in direct touch with their customers. Chris Humphries, Director General of City and Guilds U.K., says: Nowadays, job satisfaction and happiness is about fulfilling your potential, tapping into your own creativity and feeling that you can make a difference. Many are exchanging their desk-bound jobs for vocations that enable them to be hands-on, use their brains and be in charge of their own destiny.
In a Guardian article by Laura Smith, two out of five hairdressers
described themselves as extremely happy. She gives two reasons:
1. Creativity
2. Contact with customers

A study commissioned by the Qualifications Authority of City and
Guilds published the following results:

Happiest

Clergy
Beauticians
Plumbers

Unhappiest

Social workers
Architects
Estate agents
Insurance Agents
Secretaries

Those in practical jobs enjoyed a lot more social interaction.

Towards Personal Happiness

The world is in your drawing room, it is clamoring to change your life with more and more sophisticated toys. As a popular saying goes, ‘What separates the men from the boys is just the price of their toys.’ Simplify and go home to what you really need.

Any of the big five emotions—kama, kroda, madha, lobha, matsarya (lust, anger, arrogance, greed, jealousy, respectively) can flood the body with the chemicals of stress. Stress is destructive. To recreate the garden of your mind, creates happiness, you have to get rid of the anger, hatred, fear, greed and jealousy. If you really want to be happy, you need to plant the flowers of love, the fountain of companionship, liberate the butterflies of laughter.

On the Cusp of Change

* Take care of your health. You cannot deliver a prize-winning performance with a broken-down body.
* Force the world to look at issues like: What kind of world are we leaving for our children? Where have leisure, poetry and caring been banished? Why has the door been shut on the smiles and joy of our children? Why do we have no time for our friends or small acts of kindness? Why are deadlines so terrible that they extract death as the price? None of us would mind dying for great causes, but to die for a power-point presentation, seems slightly frivolous.
* Do not get stereotyped into how others see your role: as a mother or an all forgiving rescuer in the workplace. Encourage men to discover their so-called feminine qualities of sensitivity and caring. Do not stereotype men!
* Affirm women who are role models instead of trying to find chinks in their armour. Network with them. There is a queen-bee complex, which causes successful women managers to surround themselves with male managers and discourage the entry of women. Identify this and speak up when required.
* There are points in a woman’s life-cycle when her intensive physical presence is needed. There are high priority interactions which cannot be delegated. Build a support system with family, household staff, neighbours and friends to help you enjoy these
times. Men too have been deprived of active participation in these peak experiences in the past. Make your company recognise and respond to these realities.
* Hitch your wagon to the pursuit of daily and consistent learning. Be Saraswati. Bring your heritage of creating wholeness from leftovers, and wealth from waste. Be Lakshmi. Call forth the courage to speak, write and act for what is true and good for all.
Be Shakti. Be all woman. Be all human.

Pleasant Music to Empower Your Mindspace

‘Music has the power to purify the emotional field like nothing else,’ Our mindscape trembles with the joy of old songs half-remembered, snatches of tunes hummed by our mother. Every day we could choose the sounds we allow into our field. Perhaps we could set a song for the day in our mind. Those who meet us would see the sparkle of that song in our eyes and feel the rhythm of its harmony in our limbs.

‘Shabdh or sound is Vani Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning. Words are sacred to her.
Choose to say beautiful words, to hear lovely words. Banish harsh, angry and foul language from the inner spaces of your heart,’ Pour music into your soul. Touch people who love you. Explore new places. Reach into great books and study alternate futures.
Pamper yourself and ask your loved ones for hugs. Meditate. Be silent. Plug into the universe. Let go. Let God catch you. Your sankalpa or intention must be pure. Be clear about your goal. Be non-judgemental. Love and seek to understand with tenderness.

Healthy Environment for healthy living!

In order to treat or prevent disease, it is essential to look into our emotional, mental and psychological environment, as our thoughts and emotions directly contribute to our wellbeing or otherwise. Emotions like love, courage, humour, compassion wonder and peace create a positive and energetic environment . Meditation helps you to achieve these energy and contribute enormously to an individual’s psychological and physiological wellbeing.

How to create a positive and energetic environment around yourself, your home and office?

 A mental process which draws a magic circle of love around all those who are participating.

 A prayer or mantra said together.

 A common exercise, a company song, common goals.

 A handshake, a friendly look, an encouraging word.

 Thinking, believing and acting in a positive manner.

 Laughter and shared jokes.