GETTING YOUR LIFE RIGHT

 

“Getting our thinking right is the sure-fire way of getting our life right. It is even more important to THINK RIGHT, when things are going wrong.” -mahatria Ra

 On some days, when I stand by the gate in the morning, children wish me with a lot of love. They walk in happily. They enquire about my well-being in a loving tone. All they need is a smile from you. It brightens the day. Just a smile from you can change the school climate. Thus, it creates a positive environment. A positive environment helps the child to think right. There are three things that we have to get right, to get our life right.

1.Quality of our thoughts

2. Quantity of our thoughts

3.Direction of our thoughts

How do we get the quality of our thoughts right? By improving the quality of our vocabulary, we can improve the quality of our thoughts. Think about it. Is your vocabulary resourceful? Consciously work on your vocabulary. Let it be positive. Wherever you feel it is negative, substitute with a positive word. This has to be done consciously. I was in the habit of using the phrase, “You won’t believe” to convey something amazing. One day a friend of mine corrected me saying, “Please say, believe me or trust me.” That day I stood corrected. The tongue should never resort to the lower, but focus on the higher. Surround yourself with the right friends, receive the right inputs and you will see a shift in the quality of your thoughts.

In order to reduce the quantity of thoughts, we need to sit in non-doing (meditation). I suggest you begin by sitting for five minutes and then slowly progress to eleven minutes. Have a dedicated space and time. Make it your dinacharya, which means, you will do it without absenteeism. Many thoughts to one to none, is meditation. When you sit in non-doing, you may get thoughts. Don’t bother about it. Try to focus on your breath. What is important is that you sit in the seat of meditation every day. As far as I am concerned, meditation is the master key to all solutions. You don’t have to address each of your challenges separately. For eg; your anger, laziness, lethargy, fear, procrastination, etc. Over a period of time, when you practice it consistently, you will find that the traffic jam of thoughts is slowly settling down and you will start experiencing clarity in thinking. It will also give rise to awareness. You will start becoming aware about your actions and you will start correcting yourself. Just be with yourself every day. You should have your daily appointment with your God.

The direction of your thoughts will be the direction of your life. Everyday make it a habit to sit by yourself and run through the entire day. Take a mental marchpast of the day. You will actually realize how you reacted or responded to situations and people. You will be able to instantly correct yourself only through introspection. The more and more you make it a habit, the more and more you will stand corrected. Choose to think in the right direction. There may be times when you have negative thoughts, immediately replace one negative thought with five positive thoughts. Develop the habit of gratitude. Being grateful to and grateful for, will fill your life with holistic abundance.  Closely watch your thought process. Everything begins with effort initially. Slowly you will reach a point of effortlessness. It will come naturally to you to think in the right direction. Begin today and gift yourself a beautiful tomorrow.

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

DO YOU HAVE EXPECTATIONS FROM THE WORLD?

 “I always feel happy 

  Do you know why?

  Because I don’t expect

                                             Anything from anyone.” -  William Shakespeare

 When the whole world was confined within the four walls of their homes, and none could venture out without fear, during the pandemic, complaining never helped. Whom to complain to? Everybody in the world, without an exception, was in a similar or worse situation. All that we could do was to take precautions and protect ourselves. We lived in the hope that we would be relieved of this situation soon. School going children were very happy not to have school. But their joy was short-lived when days became weeks, weeks became months, months became years. Happiness turned to sorrow and then, to agony. Not being able to go out, unable to meet their friends, some of them confined to a room, all of this took a toll, not only on their physical health, but also their mental health. Many lost their jobs, businesses were closed, the economy took a bad hit, lives were lost. It went to that extent that people started losing hope of returning to a normal life. Disappointment was writ large on everyone’s face. It was wise to operate from our circle of influence rather than our circle of concern. We learnt to accept and move on in life. In fact, the pandemic taught us a big lesson in tolerance and acceptance.

 ‘’Expectation is the root of all heartache.”

 Nevertheless, we continue to have expectations from the world. We expect favors from our friends, we expect love in all our relationships, we expect the other person to apologize first, we expect parents to provide us with not only our needs, but also cater to our wants, we expect our teachers to be lenient, we expect the school to be liberal, we expect our country to be clean and the list goes on. We do not have a dedicated study time, but we expect to score high marks, we do not go early to school, but expect the gates to be open even after the bell, we don’t practice consistently, but we expect to  win a gold medal in sports, we don’t respect the other person, but we expect everyone to respect us, we are focused only on  our well-being, but we expect others to extend their help, we don’t practice honesty, but we expect everyone to be sincere.

 Our expectations from the outside world have no limits. It gives us nothing but disappointment in capital letters. On the contrary, if our expectations can be turned inward, we will experience growth. This has been my personal experience. I had this huge expectation from the world. I grew up as a love starved kid. I was too young to understand life. I was so pessimistic and disappointed with the people around me. “Why me God?” was my constant refrain. In my new-found maturity, I understand how the world works. Today, no matter how the world is, I have decided to be happy & peaceful. I will not hand over the keys of my happiness to the world. It is priceless. Momentary disturbances may be there, but I don’t stay disturbed for long. I bounce back soon. I have become more loving, happy, selfless, calm and peaceful in life after I dropped all my expectations from the world. I am no more the person I used to be. I started expecting more from myself. Thus, it paved the way for my incredible growth, both, personally and professionally. Today my past looks like somebody else’s past. Life is beautiful! Start expecting more from yourself. You are assured of unbelievable growth.

 #Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

DO IT LONG ENOUGH

            

      “Life is like a notebook. It’s up to us to either scribble on it or to write poetry on it.” mahatria Ra

 The imaginary finishing line is what differentiates a champion from an also ran. The finals of this year’s Wimbledon was one of its kind. Carlos Alcaraz created history by beating the four-time defending champion, Novak Djokovic. Carlos grew up watching the games of all the Wimbledon champions, and at twenty, he won the Wimbledon championship. He practiced long enough to become a champion at twenty! It took what it took for him to receive world recognition. Give up would have been a major part of his life. As a youngster, he would have given up many of the pleasures his friends would have indulged in, so that he could achieve his dream one day. It would have certainly been a life of great discipline, with his goal in mind. When a desire is backed up by a goal system, you achieve it.

 “Discipline enables you to be the master of your time and thus do what is important before it becomes urgent”

 Anything done long enough becomes a habit. What is most important is, to not give up. Some of them give up, not realizing that they were very close to success. Every champion has a clear focus. They use their time productively. They are the masters of their time. They know to prioritize. They plan a daily schedule. If you can concentrate long enough you can see a difference in your marks. By scoring good marks in each test, it helps you to score high marks in every school exam. Eventually, you stun yourself by scoring incredible marks in the Board exam. But the journey will be tough. There will be moments of despair, times when you will feel like giving up, days when you will be tempted, moments when you will feel like throwing away everything and partying. Just pause at those moments, without being impulsive. Understand that you need to give up to go up in life. Here, give up is not a sacrifice. Rather, it is giving up wrong ways to embrace the right ways, which will only help you to go up.

“Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny”

  If you can hold on to your value system long enough, you can grow up to become a wonderful human- being. There will be temptations on the way. Can you overcome these temptations? Your environment will play a huge role in who you turn out to be. So, you need to take care of whose company you keep, as a student or as a professional. A man is known by the company he keeps. Be in the right company to get your thoughts right, and thereby your actions. Living a value-based life will give you peace and happiness. It will make you trustworthy and reliable. It will help you to build relationships as well as grow in your professional ladder. More than receiving an endorsement from the world, when you hold on to your values always, you grow in your eyes. You start believing in yourself and feel proud of who you are.

 When you hold on to your Faith long enough, you will be carried by Him. I have had testing and challenging times in life. But I just persisted. My guru once said, “God will test you, but He will never forsake you.” From then on, I have just held on to my Faith with Gratitude in my heart. My Faith in the Almighty is very strong. So, I never feel I am alone. There is an unseen Hand above my head and a Force that fights all my battles.” Faith is beyond human judgement. Faith is the ability to trust what you are not able to see. The reward of faith is that one day you will be able to see what you always believed in.” I have my daily appointment with my God. I meditate everyday without absenteeism. It is a constant in my life. Today, experientially I can say that, when a thought is released from the seat of Silence, a mere wish becomes a command to the Universe!

 Whatever you take up, hold it long enough, and don’t give up. You will be rewarded abundantly in life.

1.Fix a goal

2. Define the time frame

3. Create a road map

4. Associate with the right group

5. Celebrate every milestone achieved

The goal system is a priceless opportunity to motivate yourself. Consistency is achieved only through emotional participation. Think like a winner. “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.”

 #Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

 

 

 

WHO ARE YOU?

 

“What has gained mastery over you has gained mastery over your peace” – mahatria Ra

 It is human nature to love appreciation and appear good in front of the world. This is how we are in our childhood. There have been so many naughty moments in my life. Doing some mischief and then walking away as if I did nothing, with a straight face. Somehow, in childhood, it gave a kick. Were we not one person at home and another outside? We behaved so well in front of relatives and friends, though at home, we siblings fought tooth and nail with each other and back answered my mother. Very notorious at home, but very soft spoken amidst other people.

 As you grow older these pretenses fade away for some, whereas, some build a wall around themselves. They are very private people and will not allow anyone to peep into their personal life. I was more of an open person who did not think twice before speaking. That was my folly too because I made some daring comments. Today I wonder how I could make such blunt statements and get away with it. Absolutely immature, but happy that I was not manipulative. I was a brutally frank person who was not very sensitive to the feelings of others.

 I have come a long way and mellowed down a lot. In the current maturity, I don’t find the need to prove myself to anyone. I know who I am and I don’t have to convince the world, rather live my life aligned to the truth of life. I need to be spiritually aligned, which is a constant striving in me. I need to be more loving, do everything out of joy and happiness, preserve my integrity, be a selfless person, achieve emotional equanimity, be peaceful and radiate it in the world around, develop a grateful heart, magnetize holistic abundance into my life, perpetuate goodness, be useful to the world, and all of it that would enable me to live a holistic life.

 “Who you are when nobody is watching you is your character”-mahatria Ra

  Today, putting the world ahead of me, choosing what is right, devoting my life for a Cause, operating out of love and happiness, counting my blessings, taking care of my body, having a daily appointment with the divine, seeing my work as a prayer unto Him, not losing my peace, staying calm, having a strong faith in Him, strong leadership, all of these come naturally to me, without any effort. I don’t have an iota of doubt that the new me is a product of the spiritual connect. It is not enough that we gain a lot of insights from the teachings of our guru. Living by those teachings is what brings about that Transformation.

 The first stage is, we are not aware of our shortcomings. It is the stage of unconscious incompetence. Then we learn to consciously practice the teachings with a lot of effort. A state of conscious incompetence. Then we start practicing regularly. That is the third stage of conscious competence. Then we reach a stage where all this becomes a part of our life. We do it effortlessly. The stage of unconscious competence. It is at this stage that all these qualities merge into you and becomes your persona. A lot of internal shift happens within you. This is a very beautiful state to be in. I would love each one of you to experience this state of inner bliss. Wake up to the exciting possibilities in your life.  

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

TEMPLE OF TRANSFORMATION

 

Blossoming in the environment

Taking care of every requirement

A home away from home

Is how a school has to be

 

A teacher need not preach

But has to necessarily reach

Connecting with them in class

Then becomes an easy task

 

To love, they will truly respond

This will create a lovely bond

Happiness & joy should prevail

From warmth & care none should ail

 

Fear should not be a handicap

In confidence & courage let’s wrap

A manipulative mind let’s not build

Values should be constantly drilled

 

A School is a “Temple of Learning”

From vices we need to keep weaning

Transformation we need to achieve

That’s the gratification we receive.

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

AGES & STAGES

 

 

You walked in with staggering gait Unsure and with a lot of fear With outstretched arms and tears You leaned towards your mom But soon from school she was gone!
Later you were happy & cheerful And had settled down with ease Being comfortable and at peace Your quiet mischief now began Restlessly here & there you ran
Then you became a wild tween Boxing, punching, pushing and pulling Provoked at the slightest pretext Pent up anger you wished to vent Unable to handle your own self
Teenage you then helplessly reached You hated when they all preached Life was lived out of Pain & pleasure Every moment you were under pressure Wanting to live life your ways.
From a caterpillar to a butterfly You just transformed your life Came back with a winning smile Recognizing you took a while Yes, my baby has grown in style!

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting

THE RAT TRAP

                                     

When there is a lot of invasion and ransacking by the rats, we decide that it is high time we set a trap, especially if the loss is very high, no time is wasted in trapping the rat. There is much joy in trapping it when we experience pain in the kind of damage it creates. The aroma of the burnt coconut is so inviting that the rat just runs in to eat it, and the door closes. We take it far away, to a no man’s land, and release it. This is true of our life too, when we live on our instincts, and don’t use our intelligence. When we are guided by pain and pleasure, we tend to fall into a trap of wrong company and thus, wrong habits.

 

The child does not perform well in academics and so, the parents keep scolding the child, as they are anxious about the child’s future. Listening to this every day, the child develops a dented self- image and instead of aiming to score more marks, the child joins a circle of friends who are in a similar predicament. They warmly receive him into their circle, as birds of the same feather flock together. They encourage each other for all the wrong reasons. The child is also happy in their company as they make him feel good. He doesn’t feel the need to prove himself.

 

The more and more he yields to their call, without his knowledge, he begins to lose himself. His trouble begins only once he is trapped. He is now part of a group that encourages him to smoke, to try a peg of alcohol, to take drugs, appreciates him for copying in the exam, for troubling the teacher in class, for sneaking a mobile into the school, to back answer the parent, to cheat them, and many such unacceptable behavior. It becomes a vicious cycle. He gets sucked into it.

 

The wrong company of friends is a trap in life. The sad part is, once we get into that trap, we don’t realize our folly, rather we enjoy their company. We feel good, as there is someone to appreciate everything that we do. Slowly we begin to fall in life. Just take a moment and reflect on your life. Do a self-audit. Is the curve going up or are we going down? Can you share with your parents everything that you do with these friends? Can they be introduced to your parents? If the answer is a big NO, then it is time to withdraw from the wrong company. Your achievements are more important than how you feel. These friends will disappear from your life. All that you will be left with will be, bad memories and experiences. Wake up and understand that if there is deterioration in the quality of your life, if you are not seeing any progress, it is time to come out of the wrong company that you have been keeping. Unlike the rat that cannot wriggle out of the trap, we still can, if we decide to do so. Beware and be aware of the TRAP!

#Thoughtfulthursdays #nsn #nsnschool #mentoring #parenting