Tag: Life

  • Life is beautiful

    Eliseo Orefice: “You’re serving. You’re not a servant. Serving is a supreme art. God is the first servant. God serves men but he’s not a servant to men.”

    The above excerpt is from one of my must watch films “Life is beautiful”. It is story of a man and his son surviving through the holocaust. I always thought how hard it would have been seeing the dance of death in front of your eyes. Until Covid-19 happened, I personally lost two members of my family. It is at such testing times we seek the meaning, it is during storm we hope for the sun.  

    Once a friend of mine asked explain me what’s life? Why are we here? I said, I’m no guru or preacher but in last 40 years I have learnt that everyone has a purpose. It is not clear to some, some even don’t care about it but some of us wallow in it. It is only through the experience we learn and find out what’s our purpose. It is only through experience we learn. 

    Even this experience of global pandemic is here to make us realise that life is a gift. It is given to us, some of would learn from that experience and use it wisely. Some of us will forget it once it is over. The truth may not always be pretty but is always available to the seeker. Only if we learn to seek, only if we learn to serve then we learn to rise.

    To rise above the pain, agony, trauma and inability we must learn to serve the experience and understand the message it is offering.

    “You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have. -J. R. R. Tolkien”

    "Originally Posted On June 29, 2021"

  • Make your work break count!

    Have you heard new adage “sitting is new smoking” …

    When I heard about it I thought hell yeah! better I had quit smoking already now I need to quit sitting too? Until I got diagnosed with chronic back pain a couple of years ago. I told my chiropractor “I am quite a fit bloke” How come I got back pain in spite of working out and leading an active lifestyle? He mentioned about the science of posture and how the human body is meant for hunting in the fields and not sitting in front of a damn computer the whole day long. 

    Now if this was 1860, I could have done something about the “hunting in the fields” part but in 2017 it is a pretty tough gig. Specially living in this civilization makes it even harder to imitate our ancestral modus operandi.

    We might have come from the planet of the apes but now since we are in the information age let’s see how we can still quench our postural thirst by staying in “well-being worker” limits. This is what I suggest as our plan of action to make our work breaks count.

    Breaks are good, but do we take them? Ask yourself, “What makes a good break for me?” Do you take yourself to the local park, call a friend, check into the gym, or laugh out loud with colleagues? Or it might be just eating your food mindfully—which one is your fit? Find it and use it.

    Ensure you drink more than 2 litres of water: Have you been asked this questions – Do you drink enough water? I am sure you would know the benefit but it has the added advantage of making you run to the toilet pretty often and also break the sitting posture cycle for the sake of your bladder.

    Get a fitness tracker: A little bit of technology to help you motivated and stay on track, most of the trackers can now start to beep (like mine) every 50th minute of an hour asking you to move your body (I said body…)

    Don’t press the send button:  At times you’ll catch yourself sending an email to a person sitting at the same floor. Have you done that? I know I have, why not try the alternate and walk to the person to have a chat.

    Catch that yawn:  Yawning is actually a signal from your brain craving for oxygen! That is body’s natural response to initiate a break in posture. Next time when you catch yourself yawning at work get up and stretch yourself.

    7 min refresher: It is scientifically proven 7 minutes is what it takes to break your postural pattern, experiment all the activities you could do in 7 minutes like brushing your teeth after lunch with an added advantage of dental hygiene.

    Power Naps: There is a misconception, you don’t have to actually sleep merely closing your eyes and listening to some relaxing music for 10-20 mins would do the job.

    In conclusion, it matters less what you do than why you’re doing it. Pay attention to three aspects of body, mind and spirit to tune into your own energy style and choose work break activities that will truly refresh you.

    Originally Published On September 18, 2017

  • Matter of Values!!

    Matter of Values!

    Lately, my two-year-old daughter has by-hearted this phrase “Daddy what’s the matter?” The other day we promised to take her to the beach if she sits in the car seat and be a good girl. She pretty much was in anticipation of her reward until we drove home without taking her to the beach. First words she exclaimed watching me reverse back into garage, “Daddy what’s the matter with the beach?” I gave her some gibberish reason and she cutely accepted.

    Later on, I thought I shouldn’t be doing this to a two year old, for two reasons. First, “Integrity” being one of my core values if I exhibit this behavior to my kids, it would register in their subconscious brain and would later on become part of their personality. Second, Aanya & I both love the beach so not to miss out on great opportunity to escape from the grind.

    Our value system is reflection of our personality because it feeds off directly from the experiences our brain had registered in past. For example, if “love & connection” is one of my values then I’m bound to have certain rules around looks, dress up, appearance and what I portray to the outside world. People with such values would want people to admire them when they look good and they do the same to others. It is part of the basic instinct “dress to impress” and becomes their second nature and a rule ensuring they wear their attitude.

    Now if someone stops them from dressing up nicely or objects to their appearance they feel attacked and would react either passively or aggressively. In my personal experience, best way to stop such retaliation is to be authentic to them and vice versa. Irrespective of colour, race, or sex value does matter because it is deeply ingrained in our neural pathways based on personal experiences we have since childhood. They are your rulebook to decide what’s right or wrong when faced by situational or emotional dilemma.

    So when in doubt speak to your values…

    “It is not hard to make a decision when you know what your values are” – Roy Disney

    #GreenlabFilms

    @amazing_arvind

    First released to the audience on November 20, 2016