2021 Feb Review & March Goals

February was a memorable month as it was supposed to be. I made a cake like structure with fruits to surprise my husband for his birthday. We went on a long drive to celebrate our wedding anniversary. It was quite a scenic place and gave me the much needed break. 

 

The two unplanned beautiful things which happened were I finally bought Complete works of Swami Vivekananda. I am sure that is going to have a life changing impact on me. I decided to read one book a month and with a few delays or at a faster speed, I should be able to finish them this year. The other life changing event is that I started reading bhagavad gita. I will read one chapter a week, which will take me around 4 months to finish. Since I am reading it with a group, no excuses this time.

 

Review of Feb

 

1.Detox drinks

 

The changes after the first week were not really drastic. But I could notice how my skin started feeling less dry and my sneezes to dust allergy reduced. I wish to stick with it for the rest of my life if not for the amount of time it consumes in the morning. My entire morning routine feels upset. Unless you have a strong purpose or value system around staying healthy, doing a set of detox drinks in the morning is going to be super tough. Since my desire to stay healthy supersedes everything else, I am going to do it as long as work from home exists. I will find a way later on to deal with the time crisis.

 

2.Self compassion

 

I always thought I was low on self-compassion. When I took the self-compassion test and did the exercises this month, I realised I was good enough. At one point, I could catch myself doing negative self-talk and let go being harsh with myself. This helped me design a course to help others to learn self-compassion. Enquire for a session if you are interested.

 

3.Video

 

I recorded just two videos. The morning routine going haywire and my work life turning hectic didn’t really help me have any energy left for the day to push myself.

 

4.Talk to a stranger

 

I spoke to 6 strangers in the first one week. I made friends with a babysitter and two old men who were interested in my photography and another woman who bonded over being from the same state. This was difficult but I took my camera around to make it an easy conversation opener. After this, there came the news of an apartment near my place which had more than 100 covid cases. I stopped stepping out of the house after that. I will take this up after covid settles.

 

Plans for March

 

It is understood from my Feb experience that my mornings are packed with detox drink work, so it is not practically possible for me to take up anything else which is more time consuming. I decided to keep this light for this month

 

1.Abandonment research

 

Last year, when I did my research on this topic for my psychology project, I noticed that a lot of them suffer from this. I will try to do some research on practical ways to deal with it so that I can release a package on how to deal with it for my clients.

 

2.Practice intuition

 

I realised that Intuition has two parts. One of them is to be aware and mindful. The second is learning to decode what it means and accepting whatever comes to you. For the first part, I have been watching a TV series where the protagonist makes observations. When I went out on the road, I started observing people the way he does. This sort of made me feel more aware of my surroundings. There are also some practical exercises mentioned in Psychic abilities for beginners and Trust your vibes. I am going to spend this month doing these exercises to train my intuition muscle.

 

3. Diet – 369 Cleanse

 

Anthony Williams, from whom I picked up the detox drink plan, also has a 369 cleanse diet plan. I am not sure if I can survive that diet for 9 days, but I want to give it a try, cleanse my body and experience the difference. I will share my diet plan in one of the next posts.

 

How was your Feb? What are your plans for March?

 

Happy March!

 

2021 Jan Review and Feb Goals

The first month of January was a very busy start to the year. The month passed before I could even realise that. I am very excited to meet Feb, as it is a very happening month of the year.

 

Review of Jan

 

1.Soul Signature

 

A dose of soul signature daily helped me focus on one thing per day. At the same time, it made me feel that one for an emotion was of no use to bring about a remarkable change. Each chapter or a group of chapters together from the book should be done for a month to see some difference. As a follow up to this, I decided to read letting go book by Hugh Prather. Since I have other things planned for this month, I will take this up mostly next month.

 

2.Artist’s way

 

I created my vision board as a part of the exercises mentioned in the book. I was so surprised by the pictures and words I found which were so relevant to my life. One of the words I cut was “ Dear Future, I’m ready!”. That felt so empowering. I haven’t finished the book yet and will pick it up next month.

 

3.Coursera

 

As against my target of 8 courses, I could do only 4. If I had chosen to do self-improvement courses, I could have easily achieved this target. But since I was doing courses on deep learning and neural networks it was too heavy to process and do more of them.

 

4.Kapalbhati

 

I realised that it was not a great thing to do it for 15 minutes but to do 15 minutes in within 20 minutes. Currently it takes me around 45 minutest to do 15 minutes of Kapalbhati. I want to reduce the break time rather than increase the length of kapalbhati.

 

5.Breathing from belly

 

After I started the detox drink, I could see how breathing from belly became easier as I was feeling lighter. Apart from that, I still have a huge scope of improvement to breathe from belly. I am more aware of whatsapp notifications now than before and reducing the number of times I check notifications will happen eventually with the awareness.

 

Plans for Feb

 

1.Two rounds of detox drinks followed by a smoothie

 

After all the failed experiments from last year for weight loss, a friend suggested that I follow the morning routine suggested by Anthony Williams for a toxin free body. This is an expensive exercise momentarily and time wise but I think I am already seeing the results. I lost a kg in 5 days of the detox drinks and I am looking forward to losing many more. The first round of detox drinks involves drinking lemon/ginger water and wait for 30 minutes. In the next round, drink celery/cucumber/aloe juice and then wait for another 30 minutes. Now make the heavy metal detox drink with amla or any other berry of your choice, bananas, coriander, barley juice powder and spirulina. This sounds super fancy and at the same time I am excited to try this as there are many people on his instagram handle who post about their success with this. As always, even if it doesn’t show any results, it is a move towards healthy lifestyle. 

 

2.Self Compassion and morning pages

 

I haven’t been regular with my morning pages in the month of January. Every day after my first detox drink, I will spend time on my morning pages. I will use that space to overcome my limiting beliefs around self compassion and make it a practice to work on it as a habit.

 

3.Talk to a stranger each day 

 

I have done this exercise back in 2017 and it helped me make a few good friends. Now is the time to do it all over again. I will go for a walk in my society and find at least one person to talk to. They might or might not become friends but just going out of my comfort zone and talking to them counts in my attempt towards making a few new friends. I worked on my limiting beliefs around talking to new people, so now I am good to go.

 

4.One video a day

 

In my attempt at learning to do public speaking well, I will get back to this exercise of recording a video a day. I want to get comfortable with the camera first. Along with this I will do public speaking specialisation on coursera. Everyday after dinner, I will spend time on this before I do anything else.

 

It feels like I am pushing myself too much out of my comfort zone this month but this is for different times of the day and I have done my homework behind each of these habits so it should be totally doable.

 

How was your January? What are your plans for Feb?

 

Happy February!

 

Book Review – Super Attractor

I picked up this book last September to learn about a few techniques to understand manifestation better. But I could not read more than 2 chapters back then. As they say, everything will happen when the right time comes, without the other books I read in between, I would not have been able to read this without skepticism. 

 

Did this book help me in manifesting better?

 

Even though I am yet to follow the principles in this book, the one thing I really liked about the examples in this book were they were real. She wrote about the everyday frustrations she felt even though she is already a spiritual coach. It made me feel more human and told me that it is okay to feel frustrated at times and lose faith but what matters more is resilience and coming back to faith. 

 

Key Learnings

 

  • Hard life experiences are spiritual assignments for growth and healing
  • If you are trying to control things which are beyond your control, you are trying too hard and that repels from it to happen
  • Your thoughts are the messages you send to Universe
  • For every issue you face, you have a choice. You either let it dictate you or learn a lesson from it
  • If you dwell in lack and fear, you are pushing away things you desire. Just by feeling better, you are aligning yourself with the Universe
  • Whenever you face a problem, choose surrender as the first option. Use prayer to express your concern
  • Ego and spirit are always in a conflict. Ego doesn’t let you feel good. It comes from a place of lack and fear.
  • When you make feeling good a priority, everything else will flow automatically
  • If you are happy for a reason, that reason can cease to exist tomorrow. Decide to feel good just for the sake of it
  • Envy brings down your vibration and reduces your chances of attracting what you desire
  • Raise your vibration from grief to anger and from anger to desire then passion. This shift makes a huge difference to ask for something from the place of hopelessness to from a place of joy
  • When you ask for something, is it because you want to validate your feelings or for the greater good? This decides whether you receive what you are asking for
  • Make appreciation a habit. If possible write 5 pages of appreciation every morning or night. This helps you stay positive and attract more.

 

Favourite lines

 

  • “I forgive my past, I release the future and I honor how I feel in the present”
  • “Many of us don’t realize the feeling bad is a decision we have made.”
  • “Don’t blame others for their resistance. They are merely reflecting back to you any lingering resistance of your own.”
  • “Showing up for your dream takes guts and it can bring up a lot of fear”
  • “Fear of not having enough and fear of not being enough are both major blocks to our Super Attractor power”
  • “You do not attract what you want, you attract what you are”
  • “ In prayer, you ask for guidance and in meditation you listen”

 

Should you read this book?

 

If you are new to manifesting, this book gives you a good idea on the basic concepts but you might not be ready to trust that this works. If you are an expert in manifesting, you might get bored of repetition of the same concept throughout the book. It is a good book for someone who has not covered a lot of ground and needs a reminder to stay positive and choose faith over fear.

 

Happy becoming a super attractor!

Book Review – A little bit of Mantras

I grew up in a traditional Hindu Brahmin family where mantras and rituals were a part of daily life. There was a time when I was reciting hanuman chalisa every morning but I soon gave up that practise. I picked up this book to explore the science behind mantras to see if that is something I want to get back to. The book gave me the apt information I was looking for. The book starts with quoting scientific studies on people where mantras have helped in well-being. When seeing images filled with fear, people who were reciting a mantra felt calmer than people who didn’t. Then the author goes further quoting different mantras and their uses and the right way to do them.

 

Key Learnings

 

  • While there are a lot of affirmations you can say to feel good, reciting a mantra is more helpful as they have the power which has been transferred since ages
  • Scientific studies on mantras revealed its impact on relaxation, lower blood pressure, reduce obsessive thinking, improve focus, increase resilience, fight alzheimer’s disease.
  • Mantra practise involves – gathering attention, notice the mind wander, let go distraction and bring back attention
  • There are three ways to practise – speaking, singing and writing
  • Using a mala helps in counting the mantra and doing it for the right number of times
  • Mantras have to be written in the right strokes for them to be helpful
  • Mantras for peace are Aum, Aum Shanti, lokah samastha sukhino bhavanthu. If you are reciting them, it is helpful to recite it 108 times with a mala  
  • AUM denotes four aspects
    • A – waking state
    • U – dream state
    • M – dreamless state
    • Silence after sound – Transcendental space 
  • Mantras for healing are called bija mantras. They are Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Aum. They need to be practised associating each of them with the chakra they belong to.
  • Soham is the mantra for ‘I am that’. It helps in connecting with the divine
  • Mantras for clarity are Gayatri Mantra and aum asato ma sadgamaya. Gayatri mantra is associated with Goddess Gayatri and the Sun God.
  • Mantras for strength are Maha mantra, ram, jaya jagatambe ma durga. They are associated with Vishnu, Ram and durga respectively.
  • Mantras for liberation are aum gam ganapathaye namah, aum namah shivaya, jai gurdev.
  • Mantras can be effective to replace negative emotions, empowering yourself, infusing food with positive energy.

 

Should you read this book?

 

For an atheist or non hindu, this book provides the scientific research behind the power of vibrations of certain sounds. If you can disassociate yourself with the thought of god and devotion and consider this as a power of vibration of certain words, go ahead and read it to learn about different methods to change your life.

 

Happy chanting!

Book Review – The Magic Path of Intuition

This is another book I picked up hoping to train my intuition skills. Even though the book had nothing to do with learning intuition, I found it very powerful. Each sentence was power packed with the right words which leave a great impact long after you have read it. This was a small book which I could finish in one stretch but at the same time it is a book which needs to be read daily till all the points are strongly internalised.

 

Key Learnings

 

  • Manifestation is not just about praying for things to happen. You need to show active faith acting as if it has already happened
  • Always choose the path of non resistance.
  • Bless the person who annoys you, angers you or cheats you. You get what you give.
  • When it comes to money, consider that you are drawing from the abundance of the universe and not from your job
  • You see what you train your mind to see. If you train it to see happiness, you will see only happiness everywhere
  • Be careful with the words you use to describe your situation or to describe someone. If you call ‘poor’, you will become that
  • If you are physically ill, check for the recent disruption in your mental health. A skin disease indicates mental irritation, torpid liver indicates condemnation and jealousy, a poor eyesight is due to fear and resentment, hearing issues stems from stubbornness and strong personal will
  • Watch your motives. If they come from a place of lack, you will end up in loss. 
  • Are you longing for it or feeling that you already have? This decides whether your desire to manifest comes true
  • If you are questioning how things will happen, you already lost the game. Faith is the source of manifestation
  • How frequently are you cleaning your spiritual glasses? Fear, worry and resentment will regularly taint your glasses.

 

What are you wishing for today?

 

Happy thinking positive!

Book Review – Signs – The Secret Language of Universe

I picked up this book to work on my intuition skills. But the book turned out to be a bundle of joy rather than a book to learn about intuition. It was a mind opening book which left me craving for more of such good feeling.

 

Key learnings from the book

 

    • After people die ( cross), they reach the other side. Irrespective of how much pain they have gone through on the Earth, they are free of all the pain on the other side
    • Even though they are biased and not always right while on the Earth, they think with totality when they are on the other side
    • There is no revenge and whatever love has been shared on the Earth will only multiply by infinite times when they reach the other side and they want to express this by constantly guiding us.
    • We can look for guidance through the standard ways through which they usually express – numbers, sign posts, billboards, rainbows, butterflies, insects, deers, electric signals, phone texts or blank calls. The other way is to look for things which they deeply loved. If this also doesn’t work, ask for a clear sign which either comes intuitively to you or make it a difficult or unique signal which you don’t necessarily see
    • Once you establish a signal, you can reach out to them whenever you are missing them or have a difficult decision to make
    • If you are mindful, you can notice their presence during your family gatherings
    • This process applies not only for the people who crossed in this life but the connections you have over other life times
    • If you had a miscarriage or a still birth, it is not your fault. That was the contract you had with that soul
    • If you are having a difficulty making a choice on whether to have a child or not, it is okay to not choose to have a child. If you have the child, they will bring in a lot of happiness and healing into your life. If you don’t choose to have it in this life, it will happen in some other life.
    • At the end of the day, whatever signs in you get in whatever situations they are only for guidance. It is your free will whether to go with them or not.
    • Make these decisions from a place of love and not from place of fear
    • Even though they are present to guide you on the right action path, sometimes you will have to go through your problems because that will lead to higher path or it is because of your past life karma
    • If you want to develop this kind of intuition, you should start by cleaning your energy. You can do this by walking in a forest, enjoying moving water like shower or ocean, or meditation. 
    • It is helpful to do a bit of meditation and calming down the thoughts before reaching out to the other side. This also happens naturally while you are in the shower or in a relaxed state.
    • When asking for a manifestation, try to be as specific as possible and mention the date or month. For dates, mention the date and say or sooner and for money, mention the amount and say or more because we should not limit the abundance.

 

After reading this book, I felt so happy for the people who are dead. It might not be the right thing to say to a person who just lost a dear one, but it is good for the person who left us because he finished his journey on the Earth and is doing well somewhere else. They are constantly watching us and showering us with love by showing signs and letting us know of their presence.

 

I asked for a sign of crown from a loved one of mine who crossed a decade ago. He sent it to me through a whatsapp emoticon. In retrospection, when I think of the months and years after he passed away, I can recollect all the signs he sent me back then. This is more than a mere coincidence if you choose to believe in this. 

 

Should you read this book?

 

Even though in the end, the author explains how this works scientifically and also mentions cases of how doctors and other people who have deep scientific bent of mind experienced this, I suggest that don’t read it with skepticism. You read it only if you can give it a possibility that it exists. If you are trying to validate the science explained in the book, you will not be open enough to receive the signs and feel good about all the stories of the book. 

 

If you believe in the other side, go read it and fill your heart with joy.

 

Happy Discovering your Signs!

 

2021 January Plan

January is not only a fresh start for the year but also provides a milestone to break down the habits to achievable sub goals.

 

Plan for January

 

1.Discover your soul signature

 

It is a one page dose 3 times a day for 33 days to get you in touch with your emotions. I liked the idea of the book and even if it can’t bring out the emotions for the first time, I am sure that will be a thought which will be lingering in the consciousness and with a few repeated readings will become very effective. 

 

2.Artist’s way

 

Doing the exercises of artist’s way was quite exciting in the month of November. I could not stick with it in December due to other commitments. I will take the opportunity this month to speed up on the exercises and try to finish at least two a day.

 

3.Coursera

 

I got coursera access for this month so want to spend my time learning professional and soft skills by studying various courses. I want to target to finish at least 8 courses (2 per week).

 

4.Kapalbhati

 

By the end of this year, I want to be able to do 30-45 minutes of Kapalbhati daily. Currently I do around 10 minutes. In this month, I target to do exactly 15 minutes daily in the morning.

 

5.Replacing checking notifications with Breathe from Belly

 

I switched off notifications for whatsapp. This means that I decide when whatsapp can distract me. I don’t want it to distract me whenever it wants which in turn means that I can create a lot of free time. I have decided that I will check whatsapp notifications 4 times a day or more if I have a conversation going on. I can evaluate my progress at the end of the month by comparing with my usage from the past month.

 

We normally breathe from our chest. Breathing from belly gives a sense of relaxation to our body.

 

Now I replace my urge to check whatsapp notifications by doing a deep breath from the belly. It provides me relaxation, saves time and gets rid of an unhealthy coping style.

 

6.Launch of ‘Make your dreams a reality’

I have launched a package to help people make their dreams a reality in 2021. Drop a mail to lensq29@gmail.com to book your 1:1 session. 

 

Majorly, this month is all about consuming content to start working on action plans for the coming months.

 

What are your plans for January?

 

Happy January!

Bye Bye 2020! Welcome 2021!

In 2020, the world saw nature take over its power and tried to reset the balance. I will stop here instead of repeating what everyone has been already saying. 

2020 for me was, “When you can’t go outside, go inside”. I couldn’t go around the world to experience new things, I went inside my body to discover the wonderful meditation experiences. I found a safe place inside me to go to when there is turmoil around. This one choice alone has made a huge difference and made 2020 a life changing year for me.

2020 Review

 

January started with a challenging new job. While I enjoyed my work and constant appreciation from the Product Manager, I always had the doubt that am I doing well. Little did I know that I am going to spend the rest of the year working with the most amazing Manager I ever worked with. It gave me faith in humanity and good people still exist. For the first time in my corporate life, I experienced working with a manager who cared for me as a person and for my personal goals and skill set and always made me feel cared for. The best habit which I picked up this month but became more serious about only in the next month was gratitude. The one thing which set me up for the beautiful day was gratitude diary.

 

February was the month of my first anniversary and we went to Andamans to celebrate. When we discussed the things we wanted to do better, the point on how I am anxious and stressed out all the time came up. I took the discussion seriously and chalked out a plan to change that. That was the one discussion which changed my 2020.

 

March was the onset of Covid in India. Given how poor my immunity is, I decided to go through the natural ways to bump it up. I started taking kapalbhati, yoga, ginger-amla-turmeric, meditation quite seriously. It was also the beginning of reading books on spirituality which started with Power of Now.

 

April was the month when I got into mindfulness. I had a stretch of one week where I felt absolute bliss and I could not replicate that experience again. Another highlight was, I read close to 3000 pages in one month which boosted my reading speed. The tricks I found to read faster were helpful for me in the coming months to read the highest number of books in any year so far. Most of my other goals failed at this point, one of them was learning Kannada. I didn’t have sources to practise so I could not find motivation to stick with it. Another one was I couldn’t publish the book which I finished writing because I didn’t find it upto the mark. But the way I could keep up with photography by finding something to click daily has definitely pushed my creativity to next levels.

 

May was all about cooking. I learnt a lot of new dishes in a month since I thought it was not safe to order from outside to satisfy my cravings. I went from being a person who cooked to survive to a person who was trying to create the atmosphere of home through food. As far as cooking was concerned, I definitely inherited the genes from my mother who is an excellent cook. Most of the time, I intuitively knew what to add and I created my own recipes. Guess what, the dishes turned out to be amazing on the first time, which gave me confidence to cook more. I went up to the phase of making my own masalas to add for different types of curries. Learning a new skill always gives a different type of confidence to life.

 

June was for a breakthrough in Kapalbhati. I just increased it by one minute daily by starting it at 3 minutes a day. I initially thought it was an impossible task but definitely learnt a perfect example of moving just a little everyday. I also started hip opening yoga. I really loved the way I was feeling more flexible.

 

July started with me finally getting into a data science project. All the credit goes to my manager who recognised my skill set and put me into a project where I can prove myself. Since I was getting back to coding after a long time, I had to put in extra hours to speed up my skills. But it was definitely worth every effort I put into my dream. Another highlight was my exposure to Gita classes. The downside is I haven’t started reading Gita yet.

 

August was all about the black and white grid where I lost and learnt. I always wanted to learn chess and finally my husband agreed to play this with me as a shared leisure activity. When I won, it only boosted my ego and the games I lost taught me the game, just like life does.

 

September was the month of “Build the skill set, opportunities come on their own”. I started that month by recording a short video of me everyday to practise my public speaking skills and by the end of the month, I was asked to do a small video on managing stakeholders by my company. 

 

October is a special month as I started being a Habits coach. Helping others find their purpose in life brought immense joy in me which in turn made me feel that my purpose was to help others live up to their fullest potential. Moving into a new house,  helped me set my sleep cycle and watch the sunrise and do my meditation on time.

 

November was about getting back to morning pages. I brought out so many of my limiting beliefs just through my morning pages. This in turn helped me cry a little and let go of long held resentments. I liked the joy of healing. Another best thing was buying a piano which I had wanted since ages and I started growing vegetables in my balcony.

 

December was about forgiving. I religiously did it for the first few days, where I could actually feel my chest go lighter. Later on I felt bogged down by my project and internship work and had to heavily focus on that. I felt really grateful for all the people who contributed to the survey which made my project a success and the wonderful guide who had immense confidence in me.

 

As the year ended, it felt nothing special. It was just a date which we humans make as special. But it is not a bad thing to make it a milestone, to reflect on the time passed and make new goals for the future. The one regret I have about 2020 is that I could have written more and better. 

 

Plan for 2021

Moving forward to 2021, some of the broad goals I have are

 

1.Physical health

 

Weight loss has been really tough for me. I have tried a lot of different alternates but nothing worked. But I am grateful for not putting on any new weight. Sometimes, we just need to keep working on what is right and not control the results. That is the exact plan for weight loss this year. I will keep doing what I consider good for my health. Grow my own organic food, eat more raw food, keep doing yoga daily. Sleep on time. Work on limiting beliefs on weight loss. 

 

2.Mental health

 

2020 was excellent for mental health. I need to put in extra efforts and plan well to make 2021 as better than 2020 for mental health. The brief goals I have are 

    • Spend less time on worrying
    • Hold no resentment
    • Forgive
    • Learn self compassion
    • Write about everyday miracles
    • Attend vipassana retreat
    • Learn to breathe from belly
    • Do 30 minutes of kapalbhati daily
    • Learn to look at every problem as an opportunity for growth

 

3.Hobbies and skills – I don’t have a Netflix subscription. Nor do I plan on taking one. I use my free time in getting better at my hobbies.

    • Learn piano thoroughly
    • Publish one book
    • Learn digital marketing
    • Learn public speaking
    • Launch different counselling programs and workshops
    • Write daily
    • Learn chess moves
    • Read 100 books
    • Publish 50 book reviews
    • Be an expert at billiards
    • Play badminton regularly

I will create time for this through

    • Don’t check phone the first thing in morning
    • Limit whatsapp and instagram time to 30 minutes a day
    • Check whatsapp notifications only twice a day

4.Learning a new language – Learning a new language expands your vocabulary. I want to learn a local language – Kannada, a national language – Bahasa and an international language – Spanish.

5.Academics –I want to publish 2 research papers based on the study I have done this year.

6.Career goals– Most of my work experience in machine learning has been about text mining. I want to work more intensively on this and become a Natural Language Processing expert.

How was your 2020? What are your plans for 2021?

Happy 2021!

 

2020 Nov Review & December goals

November was a life changing month. I had a personal discovery almost every other day and it was filled with miracles. My book sales improved. I bought a piano after thinking about it for many years. This new mode of relaxation has helped me bring out another angle in me. I started growing plants. I bought empty pots and soil and planted tomato, tulsi, marigold, methi, coriander and chilli. With a gap of a few days, different plants started sprouting. The joy of seeing the seeds sprout made me feel alive. 

 

Review of November

 

1.Morning Pages

 

After a really long gap, I started writing my diary. I didn’t write what just happened in my life. I started questioning why I was doing what I was doing. I uncovered a lot of my beliefs which were holding me back in life. I could see my peace of mind improving exponentially with every discovery. Thanks to my friend, who was a true accountability partner which enabled me to stick to the schedule and get back to this.

 

2.Mindful brushing

 

This didn’t feel as good as I did for the first time. I felt my mind drifting quite often. But the good thing is brushing with my left hand has become a habit now.

 

3.Self exploration

 

Writing an answer for one question each day to explore myself was quite revealing. It showed me how my values evolved and I changed over the years. 

 

Goals for December

 

1.Revise the books

 

I would ideally want to revise the concepts from all the books I read this year. But I don’t think one month is enough to achieve the same since I have easily read more than 50 books this year. But I will do as many as possible to make sure that I implement whatever I learned.

 

2.Visualisation for weight loss

 

After having no luck with any of the traditional methods for weight loss, I decided to try visualisation for weight loss. I will listen to visualisation for weight loss videos before sleeping every night which might help me in my weight loss journey.

 

3.Forgiving

 

After previous failures at this, I have decided a template which I picked up from the books on forgiveness. I first explain the event as it is without any interpretations of mine. Then I talk about my perspective, my interpretation and my feelings. In the end, I will write an alternate story, another perspective to view things from a third person perspective. I did a sample exercise and this worked wonderfully for me. The only concern is this needs to be done over and again for the same scenarios until the new story becomes the new normal.

 

How was your November? What are your plans for December?

 

Happy December!

 

Book Review – The Headspace Guide to Meditation

I picked Headspace Guide to Meditation because it was one of the top reads on the topic Meditation which is a part of my theme for the year which is spirituality. I didn’t have great expectations from the book as it was just going to be a repeat of what I already knew. But then I enjoyed certain parts of the book for his style of explanation and the analogies he used.

 

As I write a review of this book after almost 6 months, these are a few things which I still remember from the top of my head.

 

  1. The author lived as a monk in the Eastern side hopping from one monastery to the other choosing what works best for him. He practised meditation thoroughly before he started a profession in that. One such example he quotes based on this is, how a monk decided to leave a monastery where he was expected to do gardening 8 hours a day instead of just spending the entire day in meditation. While meditation is important, being mindful in the rest of the day plays an equally important role as not everyone can leave their lifestyle and shift to monk life. I was grateful for the validation I received for my thought process through this.
  2. There is no good or bad meditation. If you are meditating, you observe your thoughts. If you are not observing your thoughts, it is no longer meditation.
  3. Meditation is like watching vehicles pass in front of you on a highway. If you like a vehicle, you don’t start running behind it. You just acknowledge it and let it go.
  4. The mind is like the sky. Thoughts are like the clouds. There are clear sky days, there are cloudy days. There are rainy days. But the sky remains the same.
  5. In the initial days, meditation feels impossible because your mind is like a wild horse. You can’t expect to domesticate in a day. When you tame a wild horse, you should first start by reducing its running space by one diameter each day until the space becomes smaller and smaller and then finally it learns to stay in a stable.
  6. When you start staying mindful and let’s say you go on a mindful walk on the same street you have been going throughout your life, the street looks completely new. 

 

Is this book for you?

 

  • I am new to meditation
  • I need analogies and impact of meditation
  • I want to understand what monk like is like
  • I need some practice exercises on meditation

 

If you are at intermediate level, the book is more like a novel than with any practical use for you.

 

Happy Headspace!