We Have Moved

I have finally made the transition from the Blogspot world over to Wordpress.

Why the move you might ask: simply because I fell in love with a Wordpress theme. Yep, thats all it took to pack up my bag and give my writing a new home....

You can now find me at http://curiouslounge.wordpress.com/

Stop by and let me know what you think of the new space !


Why Finding Your Passion is a Myth

Here is another article recently published on LifeHacks.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/why-finding-your-passion-is-a-myth.html

Is Facebook Our New Best Friend?

Here is my article that was recently published on Stepcase LifeHacks.

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/is-facebook-our-new-best-friend.html

Are You Really Free?

When was the last time you ran in an open field with your arms wide open? When did you last embrace the world like it was all yours? Is day dreaming something you are still guilty about?

The question is, in this so called free world, are you really free? Free from your own shackles or have you managed to entangle yourself to such a great extent that you feel trapped within?

Though growing up comes with its share of responsibilities, we tend to overlook the freedom it offers. Consciously or unconsciously we restrict ourselves from living life to the fullest. Desires and passions take a back seat as we run faster and faster to catch up in the rat race. The new job, the promotion, the fancy car and the ego boosting title next to your name all seem very alluring but eventually steal you of yourself.
Photo By Instant Vantage

Think about it, what will really set you free? To me, freedom is a state of mind and cannot be achieved through materialistic pursuits. One needs to introspect, detect what is holding them back and then consciously acknowledge and let go of their fears and emotional baggage. A state of mind needs to be achieved where you permit yourself to live wholeheartedly in each and every moment.

Here are a few little things that can make a big difference.

Sip Your Morning Tea Slowly

Nothing is more blissful to the mind and the soul than slowly sipping your morning tea as you watch the sun stretch its arms to embrace the sky. Take a moment every morning to acknowledge your presence, reflect on yourself and just ‘be’.

‘To-Do’ lists are never ending and rushing through your mornings will only leave you exhausted. We all know how severely our days can be affected with a bad start, can you imagine how great your day could be with a great beginning instead?

Let Go Of Your Fears

The mind is an expert at exaggerating fears and can contemplate anything and everything that can possibly go wrong. Though preparing for the worst case is important, it is rather impossible to control every aspect of tomorrow. Over indulging in your fears is like adding weights to your own shackles, it only prevents you from living freely. The mind craves imagination and the heart longs to feel emotions, both are hollow without their intimate other. Don’t let your fears be theirs to exploit.

Most of the worries of tomorrow only exist today and we are pleasantly surprised by what the future holds in store for us. Let go of your fears and embrace what comes your way. What is the use of a perfect tomorrow when you fail to enjoy the flawless today?

For Matters of the Heart, Don’t Involve the Mind

One of the most prominent areas where we consciously restrict ourselves is when it comes to the matters of the heart. From wondering what the world will think to whether the feelings will be reciprocated or not, the doubts of the mind are difficult to purge. We only add to our emotional baggage when we restrict ourselves from doing what the heart desires. Ask yourself: can you afford to wonder ‘what if...’ for the rest of your life?

Don’t hold back anymore and start living from your heart again. If it makes you smile, do it! Give your kids a good night kiss and wake them up with a hug. The teenagers might resist you, but be assured that when the teenage years fade out, these are the memories they will cherish forever.

Call that old friend you’ve been thinking about or maybe your parents who you've taken for granted all these years. Mend the holes in your heart by apologizing for your mistakes and forgiving others for theirs. Life’s too short to live in fear and too long to live with regrets.  

The only way you can feel free and alive again is when you are in-sync with yourself and everything around you. Get rid of the thorns in your life by letting go of the past and not worrying about the future. Live in the present, it is the only thing that is real.

Make the quantum leap from simply existing to living each and every moment!

Mumbai Blasts – Can the Common Man be at Fault?

The blasts in Mumbai have devastated the city once again. The morale of Mumbaikars is at rock bottom while they see no signs of hope or change. Streets where the music of ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ echoed are now immersed in blood and fear. The sights are too gruesome for our appetite and the cries too agonizing for our ears. Though we try hard to convince ourselves that this is just a bad dream and rationalize our helplessness, this time we just aren’t succeeding. The city is still, lifeless, even the heavens above are in tears.

Photo by Yogendra
Still all we do is wait for the politicians speech and look out for what they have to say. For some reason that I cannot comprehend, we expect different results this time. Maybe this time the humanitarian nature of our politicians will overcome their greed for money, or our fight for human rights will come to an end. But unfortunately our hopes were short lived. Once again we were agitated by their response and future security plans, once again we felt vulnerable, yet what surprises me the most is that many of us do nothing about it.

They say India’s youth has a bright future; brilliant minds enter the workforce bringing in innovation and change as they excel across the globe. Let me ask the youth something: How many of you voted in the last elections? If you did vote, did you vote for a party you respected that shared values and objectives similar to yours? Would you be willing to go for coffee and have a conversation with any of its members? Think about it, either we don’t care enough about our country in which case we have absolutely no right to complain when events like the Mumbai blasts occur, or we've consciously picked members to govern our life and security that we wouldn't even want to have coffee with. Who is really at fault? It’s difficult to take the blame on ourselves but it’s true, we may have caused our own distress. The youth of India likes to boast as to how much they care about their country and how they would give up their lives for it. Have they ever considered living for their country instead?

Brilliant men can rationalize just about anything, what’s our excuse this time? If there is no political party that you truly respect, then create your own! You could call me ignorant but I don’t understand what is stopping us to create a party with bright and honest individuals and have them run in the next elections? Yes the political world can get dirty, but aren’t the streets of Mumbai much more gruesome right now? Are we all just scared? Is the brilliant youth of India not brilliant enough to govern its own country? Why do we keep pushing our responsibilities onto others and hope for someone else to be the saviour?  

Don’t get me wrong, I’m guilty of the same myself but I also realize that change is absolutely essential this time. We all have a part to play, how ever small it may be. Stop taking or giving bribes for your everyday conveniences and stand up for fellow humans when you see injustice. Take ownership to creating positive change yet ensuring that innocent lives are not put on stake. Wars and terror attacks have always been political conspiracies that common men become the victims to, aren’t we just being naive by asking for security from the culprits?

We can either spend our lives complaining about the political situation and living in fear or make a commitment to creating change ourselves. At the end of the day, we are the only ones to blame. It is our ignorance, our lack of desire to take responsibility and failure to stand up for justice that has led things to where they are. If we let evil brew in our home, one day it will enslave us!

Anger – Friend or Foe?

"The world needs anger. The world often continues to allow evil because it isn’t angry enough" – Bede Jarrett


Photo By Joel Davies
Anger is a daunting emotion, a sentiment that we try to evade or even conceal till our wit allows us too. It’s interesting to see how we are repulsed by anger; even an association with it is dreaded. We look down at ourselves for letting it get the best of us, though it makes me wonder, isn’t it just another emotion, a feeling without which we would be incomplete?

Someone once said to me, life is about feeling the feelings, every single one of them. It’s about letting yourself laugh and letting yourself cry, it’s about the empathy and the apathy, no one greater than the other. Would you have ever laughed if you’d never cried? Would you have ever felt love if you’d never been jealous? How would their smile melt your heart if you’d never seen them frown?

Emotions are a great way to learn about your self. They help identify your likes and dislikes, just like a tummy ache warns you about the street food you had. Is a tummy ache bad? Not at all. It’s simply a warning mechanism to prevent you from having something that doesn’t suit your body. Negative emotions play a similar role in our lives; they identify the need to make a change. It could be a change of job, a change in your surroundings or even a change within.

Our natural tendency to negative emotions like anger, jealousy or even dislike is to put the blame on someone or something else. It’s much easier to calm the mind if you can rationalize your innocence and prove to yourself that you’re the victim not the culprit. Though such an approach can help you de-stress relatively quickly, it hinders your ability to create change. It gives you the perception that the situation is beyond your control and therefore you cannot influence it.

When you ask people why they hate their job, somehow it is never their fault. Either the supervisor isn’t cordial, or the work is boring, and sometimes even the co-workers take the blame. But have you ever questioned yourself as to why is the work boring or why is the supervisor not supportive? Did you pick a job you didn’t love in the first place? Is your quality of work good enough for you to be in your boss’s good books? Do you treat your co-workers the way you’d like to be treated? It’s rather intimidating to blame your self for your own troubles and frustrations, and though it may not seem so, accepting your fault is the easiest way to make things better. Isn’t it yourself that you have the most control over? Then shouldn't changing yourself be the easiest? 

We need to learn to listen to ourselves, analyze why we feel the way we do and then constructively release our energy to make appropriate changes. Sleeping over a bad day or drinking away in frustration will not make the problems disappear. Not identifying the cause of the tummy ache will only land you at the clinic, and not listening to your emotions will only drain you of yourself over time.

Nature is a prime example that uses anger to create positive changes in the world. Flowers would never smell good if they didn’t hate being immobile and the wind would never carry their fragrance if it didn’t crave to be noticed. Would rivers carve through mountains if they didn’t long to be one with the ocean and would the sun rise if it didn’t envy the moon?

Make anger your best friend, before it becomes your worst enemy.

Peru – Love or Lust?

I’ve been trying to visit South America for more than a year but it just didn’t work out until now. Sometimes work took the blame, sometimes life did while at other times hesitantly I did. Though me being me had already made up my mind, I was going; how, when, I had no idea, but I was more than willing to figure it out.

‘Why Peru’ is a question I’ve asked myself repeatedly, but have had no answer. There is no doubt that Peru has unlimited things to offer from exotic beach vacations to mesmerizing trails in the Andes to the highest sand dunes in the world, but is that what I’m going for? Have I fallen in love or is this just a materialistic desire I want to fulfill? To be honest, I don’t know. But just like a lot of other things in life, I’ve decided not to question and analyse things that make me happy. Does there always have to be a reason? If so, do I always have to know?


Photo by Epicxero
 Though I’ve explored the Rocky Mountains in ample depth, from nerve wrecking hikes to watching meteoroid showers in the middle of nowhere, going down to the Andes will definitely be an interesting challenge. Not only will this be my first backpacking trip, it will also challenge me physically and give me an opportunity to identify my likes and dislikes. It’s also interesting to see how easy it becomes to mould yourself for things that the heart desires. Though I’ve always been a fan of the outdoors, working out has never been my thing and yet, somehow Peru has made me workout with a smile. I guess it’s all just a matter of perception; the positive aura of one thing can overpower the negative aura of another.

I’ve also been running into tons of people that have either been to Peru or are going in the near future. From my drumming class to new colleagues, they seem to be everywhere! Not only that, but my favourite coffee shop has lately changed its photo art section to pictures from Peru. Is it mere coincidence or meant to be? I don’t know, but it feels good what ever it might be.

Now that the adventure is less than 2 weeks away, I have to admit there is nervousness mixed in with the excitement. What if I can’t complete the trail or run into anacondas? The mind has analyzed everything and anything that could possibly go wrong yet fearing that there might be so much more that it can’t even conceive. Just the mere thoughts are terrifying, yet I don’t plan to change my mind. If I can’t complete the trail, at the least I hope to enjoy what I have accomplished with a warm cup of tea and mesmerizing scenery while if I run into anacondas, I better be the most delicious meal they have ever had!

I’m sure there will be ample things that go wrong but a journey without a challenge can’t be called an adventure can it? The serenity of the Andes and the Peruvian culture is simply irresistible to allow myself to second guess myself. And who knows, I just might be able to answer ‘Why Peru’ by the end of the trip.

Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan

Heart breaking, frightful and nerve wrecking barely describe how I felt when I heard about the disaster. Not only is the video coverage disturbing, sometimes it even feels unreal. Really? I’ve seen the world crash in movies but in my heart I know that as soon as I leave the theater it will all disappear like it never happened. But this is real; there are no men in black that will save the planet or scientists who will put things back in place. The thing that frights me the most is to accept the fact that this time we have no solution.

From the feeling of disbelief and fear, to picking up pieces of what’s left while frantically looking for your loved ones, what Japan is currently going through is something we cannot even try to imagine. We may get the shivers when we read about it or even lose our appetite but that doesn’t even cover the tip of the iceberg on how it feels to be entrapped and left with no hope.

Photo Credit Pundit Press
I’m not here to dramatize the disaster, or make you sympathize with it, these are humane feelings that have to just come to you; they cannot be created or forced. What I am hoping to do is create awareness that though we feel deeply about such occurrences and empathize with people affected by it, doing so is not good enough. I have no doubts that your feelings and concerns are genuine and true in nature but your empathy is making no difference. It has helped no soul, fed no kid, aided no one in need, it has not even given a ray of hope to anyone as they are unaware that you cared.

Make a difference, how ever small it may be. Realize that you could be the man in black for someone hurt or the superwomen to someone who has lost it all. Every action counts and it’s the little steps that make all the difference. Skip a Starbucks latte and donate to trustworthy organizations, volunteer your time to collect funds or physically help with disaster relief and if you are tight on time and money: remember them in your prayers, it’s much more important than you can imagine.

Think about it, disasters happen and untill we are not directly affected by it, we empathize for a while and then simply go on with our daily lives like we would when we return from a theater. Don’t make your response to a great movie and a horrific disaster the same!

I’ve listed below a few good ways you can donate online. If you have any other ideas or suggestions please leave them in the comments.

Doctors Without Borders – They are already in the process of sending medical personnel’s and aid.

Global Living – Another great organization that is already on its way to provide help and support to victims and families.

Google’s Crisis Response Team – They generally have the most accurate and up to date information. From finding people to donating themselves and identifying best ways to help, they update as information is available.

Crisis Common – A great Wiki initiative to making a difference.

The Humanitarian Coalition - A Canada based organization that has teamed up with various organizations in Japan to assist in the relief efforts.

Are You Neglecting You?

Another one for the lazy types like me :)

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2011/03/are-you-neglecting-you.html


Photo by gothick_Matt

Writing at Dumb Little Man

Now you can find some more of my writing at Dumb Little Man, a fantastic website about everything and anything life makes you stumble upon.

Here is one of the many to come : Don't Overthink Life! Think Less and Get Happy

Photo by Jay White

As always comments are welcome.

 
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