Refined Ripples

 

We all know Swami Vivekananda, who was an Indian Hindu monk and a chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna during the 19th century. Vivekananda wanted to carry his master's message to the west after his master attended his samadhi which he did and thus became a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta and was credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of the major World religion.

Before He started his journey, he wanted to seek permission from Sarada Devi who was the wife of Ramakrishna. Sarada devi was busy cooking in the kitchen and responded to Vivekananda without looking back at him by telling him to bring a knife to her. Vivekananda brought the knife to her and Sarada devi gave him permission. Before leaving Vivekananda asked her why she required the knife as he could not see any vegetables to cut as all were already being boiled in the pot. Sarada devi replied it was not about the knife but the way he brought the knife to her. This message is about the power of gentleness of Swami Vivekananda. 

To be spiritual is always understood as to be gentle but unfortunately being gentle is always taken as being weak. The weaks are gentle not by choice but they are incapable of making a strong imprint on others. Gentleness is of value only when it is by choice. You and your character are capable of being violent but you choose to be gentle. That is of great value. You are incapable of violence and you choose to be gentle. That is not of great value because that is coming from a certain incapability. 'Gentleness is weakness' is a common misconception and true gentleness is actually the opposite. It requires great strength and self-control. We must not see ourselves as better than someone else in order to be gentle but help others even who have done wrong.

God is gentle with us. He continues to love us even when we are wrong. Without keeping record of our wrongs he forgives us if we come to him, pray to him from heart. The way we interact with others , the way our thinking processes shows the gentleness of our heart. Gentleness is similar to kindness and involves refining of our thoughts and cultivating a softness towards other people. We have to be compassionate towards the struggles and shortcomings of others. Maintaining a gentle attitude when it is difficult is actually a strength. We must exhibit gentleness in this harsh world and refine the ripples of our life patterns in good ways.

                     - Swagato Chatterjee 

 

Itchy Chair Motivation

 

If I ask you, "where might you accomplish more work? - lying on a sea shore with your fellow friends and loved ones or sitting in a deserted office room? 

 

However strong the argument would be, I can bet that a greater part of individuals would be more productive in a workplace environment than in a vacation with his companions, which obviously sounds incredible. The shoreline is mesmerising; it is anything but a work completing condition. 

 

Discomfort : the key to motivation

 

People tend to strive for comfort and stability throughout their lives; the goal being to live an opulent life with less hardships. But reality sucks! Life is like the waves; it has ebbs and flows and the journey's like a ship sailing on such waves. Some point in life is smooth sailing whereas some days seem a broken mast; when nothing is working out. The latter is of greater significance. The ability to withstand hardships, to weather any storm without letting the disappointments, pessimism, darkness and failure dampen our spirits is the key idea of "Itchy chair motivation", simply called Discomfort motivation. 

 

The point is, when everything seems to work just fine, less things complete. People tend to be carried away with the thought that they are at the pinnacle of business, where they earn really well or everything is perfect. Think of it like an itchy chair. The discomfort makes you get up. That resembles reality; life. For example, when profits in business are very low, one is more likely to evaluate business and probably look for ways which eventually leads to more effective business ventures.

 

Bestride the peaks and valleys

 

Life is hard and success is not constant. Sometimes you find everything smooth, you win in almost everything and nothing can stop your success. Also, there are episodes in life where things make you feel like giving up. It is a journey and one has to ride the ebbs and flows. Now it is upto that one, whether they will quit or simply strive for a better tomorrow. 

 

Discomfort is not the sole key

 

However, the concept does not imply that we cannot seek comfort. Leisure and luxury is part of life. The motivation only gives us the will power to surpass our comfort zones and to work when everything goes against what you have planned. 

Itchy chair cannot be the only way to motivate yourself. One can be equally motivated by passion or creativity. People are not trapped between the choice of unmotivated pleasantries and motivated discomfort. One can be happy and ambitious at the same time. 

But that is not the point. The question lies, "if you are already in an uncomfortable position, why not use it as a fuel for motivation?" The goal is to recognise your wave and learn how to ride it; to make your discomfort push yourself forward. 

 

But never compromise your comfort. You deserve to be content. However if you happen to be in a point of recession, use that to drive you.

 

The Penumbra Plays

 I will start with the saying "The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek" by the American professor of literature Sir, Joseph John Campbell who worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion and whose works on various aspects of the human experience are used for carrying on research. This topic is focussed on the hidden talents of the subconscious.

A human personality comprises of both the lighter and the darker sides and to know yourself, to return to the wholeness, you have to jump to the deeper elements of the psyche. Through out decades of work and research, it is discovered that the human mental condition is fragmented among the conscious and subconscious. Most of us are aware of only a small fraction of ourselves and the remaining stays hidden from the actual view. We choose to focus on the superficial and ignore deeper dimensions of the self. One thing we must know for sure that existence of certain things can not be ignored if we don't observe or feel them. They do exist.

The more we know the darker sides of our personality, the more we will grow towards self-actualization. There is a hidden balance in ourselves like this vast cosmos. Patterns are equal and lookalike. The darker sides is termed as the shadow and the role it plays on our thinking and respective outgoings is the shadow-work. We may not understand why we do the things we do, why we get enslaved to forces outside of our control without exposing the shadow. Our thoughts, emotions, reactions, behaviour, relationships are heavily influenced by the subconscious.

Let us consider a canvas of black colour and filling the upper portion with sparkling dotes and looking the whole from a distance and certain angle, the canvas will look like a night sky and it has separate set of beauty. This beauty is same as any daylight canvas and we must open this night side of us and let it superimpose on the day side and make it a quite balanced frame of life. The yearning for growth and self-actualization is inherent to us all. Our darker sides communicate through dreams, thoughts, instincts, emotions. Resisting them to explore resists our true nature and will always result in veiled appearances. We will heal and grow once we start facing the darker sides or the shadow of ourselves.

The subconscious is in many ways a depository of all those elements we have discarded such as intense emotions, those that collide with our ego, sexual urges. We choose to lock away these traits in the chambers of mind with a one-way door. The journey to face them after breaking the door is a challenge and tough. It takes honesty and strength to approach the shadows. Confronting them means waking up the evil side of ours but once we interact with them in a non-judgemental way and utilise them to lighten-up the ones which remained submissive, we will certainly hold our head high and will point out the most beautiful canvas of life.

-Swagato Chatterjee

Struggles of Jack Ma

 A ll of us have faced rejections, criticism, felt low and worthless at some point in time. We try to seek for motivation in the form of quotes or videos at some point of time and keep going on with our life, but we are not able to take the leap of faith. Let us go on a journey on this edition which can inspire you guys to the core and help you take the leap of faith. The story is of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba and one of the richest men in Asia.

Jack Ma was born on October 15, 1964, in Hangzhou. Ma was thin and bony and often started fights with classmates. "I was never afraid of opponents who were bigger than I," he recalls in "Alibaba," a book by Liu Shiying and Martha Avery. He was fond of collecting crickets and made them fight, and he gained the expertise to distinguish type of cricket by the noise it made.

Like many of us Jack Ma was without money or connections and only way to go ahead was through education. Jack Ma did the same. As he completed high school, he applied to go to college but could not enter as he failed the entrance exam twice. After lots of effort, he finally passed on the third try and attended Hangzhou Teachers Institute. He graduated in 1988 and like all of us started applying for jobs. Jack Ma applied for 30 different and distinct jobs but faced rejection each and every time. He also applied for the police and was told that he was not good enough. He went to KFC with 24 other people, everyone was selected except him. As per the world and society he was not good enough to join KFC and was the only one rejected. Finally, he was hired as an English teacher. Jack was a natural trainer and his students loved him and he also loved his job -- though he only made $12 a month at a local university. In 2016, Jack Ma revealed he was rejected 10 times from Harvard at the world Economic Forum. Jack had zero experience with computers and zero expertise in coding, but he was astonished by the internet when he used it for the first time during a trip to the US in 1995. Jack searched "beer” for the first time on the internet but he was surprised to see that no Chinese beers popped up in the results. It was the time when he decided to start an internet company for China.

MOTIVATIONAL

Struggles of Jack Ma

I t is not like that the idea hit him and he became successful. His first two companies failed and then after four years he gathered 17 of his friends in his own apartment and con-vinced them to invest in his vision for an online marketplace he used to call "Alibaba." The site allowed exporters to sell through his website through product listings that customers could buy directly. Soon enough, the service started to attract members from all over the world. By October 1999, the company had raised $5 million from Goldman Sachs and $20 million from SoftBank, a Japanese telecom company that also invests in technology companies. The team remained closely linked and they are not organised. "We will make it because we are young and we never, never give up," Jack used to say to his employees.

In 2005, Yahoo invested $1 billion in Alibaba for 40% stake in the company. This was a huge suc-cess for Alibaba as it was trying to beat the china arm of eBay and it would eventu-ally be an enor-mous win for Ya-hoo too, getting a net value of $10 billion in Alibaba's IPO alone.

Jack told Bloomberg in an interview that he knew Alibaba had made it big when another cus-tomer offered to pay his restaurant bill. "I'm your customer of Alibaba group, I made a lot of money and I know you don't make any money," said the customer. "I'll pay the bill for you."

A s on 2020, Jack Ma’s total worth is 6560 crores US dollars. He started as a middle-class man like most of us and got lots and lots of rejection. But he never stopped and never doubted his abilities even when the whole world doubted on his abilities. So next time, you feel low or started doubting yourself whether you are good enough or not, think of Jack Ma. Just remember If the World cannot see your value in your current form that does not mean you are not valuable. You are like a balloon who is not inflated. Once you can inflate your balloon with attitude, it will be inflated and big and the world will see you as per your true value.

-Nilanjan Kala

Moulting the Real You

 Yes, you read it correctly. we need to moult our grey thoughts and make our world green. But the question is how? Indeed, we cannot feel positive all the time. Being positive means to be optimistic. Seek out the good out of every bad situation. See the grey in between the black and the white phases of your life. Convert your negative emotions into positive actions. People tend to have three types of mind-set. Read and find out which type of mind-set you have:

1. People with a win/lose mentality always compare themselves with others'

They considered a success as a relative term i.e. their success depends on other people's failure. They feel happy when others fail. They feel jealous if you achieve more than them. They always try to feel you down so that they can wear the crown. They feel insecure all time. 2. People with lose/lose mentality are negative thinkers

They will always try to take you along their journey in the sinking boat. You should never discuss your plans with them as they will do everything to suppress your idea. They will criticize you and make you feel anxious. So you also hesitate to take the first step towards your goals and finally you quit.

3. People with the win/win mentality are achievers

They are people who let them work hard, fight with their inner weakness and make their dream come true. They always cheer others to take a small step towards their dream. They believe small steps together make the successful victorious road ahead clearer. They also think their success depends on other people's success too. To become the person we want to be, we must have the winning mindset. If you are surrounded by successful people then they are creating a positive environment which helps you in attracting your goals towards yourself. Stephen R Covey, American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker stated - "win/win is based on the paradigm that there is plenty for everybody, that one person's success is not achieved at the expense or exclusion of the success of others...it's not your way or my way, it's a better way, a higher way."

You need to love and respect the person you see when you stand in front of the mirror. Give importance to your thoughts and listen to your heart. God has given us two ears so listen to the good things from one year and remove the atrocious thoughts from your other ear. Just as some of the animals shed their skin, hairs and features to make a new way for their growth similarly we need to shed our negative thoughts and enter a new positive world. "Being positive doesn’t mean that you live in candy land. Positive people have real problems. They get angry. They challenge people and fight hard for what they believe in. Positivity is not about wearing rose-coloured glasses and rolling over when the going gets tough. It’s about being self-aware and accountable for your emotional state.” - Isaiah Hankel.

-Anuradha Agarwal

Crop out the negatives

This is a world of Run and Rush. It is easy to get lost. Getting lost in the bias is the common thing and it happens in major portion to those who live a 'Out-of-box' life, communicating with varied kinds of people around. 

Now this bias is itself another domain of positive and negative circuits powered by the complicated cerebrums and thus it is difficult to stay positive when your soul is experiencing the world through a negative bias. The difference between what is positive and what is negative depends on what aspect you are giving to it. Your childhood, your maturity of understanding, your experiences, your bounced behaviour, your interaction with the environment stands in understanding the smaller and broader aspects. So let me skip this phase and point out the positive and negative poles as good and bad in general ideology. 

A glass half-filled can be seen as positive or negative depending on the person who is seeing it. Reading our own mind is one necessary step we must follow. 

◆ Slowing down your vehicle of seeking negatives will slow down the negative momentum. Take a break when things get stressful, take a nap or meditate and start with a new prevalence. 

◆ Speak about the good things in your life - Make your positive belief system more concrete. Share the good things with others.

◆ Cultivate a gratitude practice - Be thankful for all the good things in your life. Think about what is going well and least what has not gone wrong.

◆ Expand your thoughts - There are glimmers of good in everyone. Try to find it out from your friends, colleagues, relatives, etc. Create time for pleasant moments. Laugh through your heart.

◆ Find out what is true, good and possible by enhancing your observation without judging. Replace pre-conceived ideas and face what is real.

◆ Help others and that will make you feel good. Look for ways to make things better for someone else. Kindness ripples. 

All these above steps is not a One day journey. Collect all the positive vibes around you in a bucket of positivity day after day and repeat. You might not notice it first but practicing gratitude, kindness and mindfulness consistently is how you create positivity in your life and crop out the negatives.

- 𝑺𝒘𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒕𝒐 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒋𝒆𝒆 

Crop out the Negativity

 

• Dealing with negativity can take a toll on you 
• Find out how to eliminate such negative emotions in an article by Swagato Chatterjee based on realistic situations.

Read (Click Here) & Find out in our Monthly Magazine 

To get an early magazine copy Whatsapp us @World Around Us

Things to do on Independence Day 2020

There is a whole lot of things that we can do on Independence Day & celebrate the day very gloriously. It is a national holiday which is celebrated by every Indian to remember our freedom from the shackles of the British rule on 15 August 1947. This year we Indians will celebrate the 74th year of independence. First of all, we must pay homage to our country by showing gratitude to those brave freedom fighters who gave their lives to in order to protect their country. And also to those soldiers & people of law enforcement who are putting their lives on the line to protect the country and it's countrymen.

Now having said that, now on a lighter note let us explore a few things with which we can plan on how to celebrate the special day by doing something that would make our day beautiful.

Sing National Anthem

We rarely sing national anthem ever as for general people who are not connected to educational institutes rarely get a scope to sing it. Today you can stand up & sing the national anthem. You have every reason to do so.

Fly kites

Youths & kids alike have a chance to enjoy this day by flying kites & capture the day's most participated event in majority parts of India.

Read patriotic books

You can also catch-up with patriotic books & know something about history.


Watch patriotic movies

If you want to skip reading a patriotic book, you can also catch-up with history by watching patriotic movies & know something about important historic figures.

Stay colour-coordinated

You can wear colourful dresses & bring a multi-coloured fashion statement along with patriotism.

A Treasure Not Measured By....Us

- Anuradha Agarwal

A Treasure not Measured by....us

The journey called Life

Have some spice

Some said you are good for nothing

Some said you can do everything

What matter is the perception

You just need your own imagination

To follow your passion

Make your own fashion

Let others conspire

But You be inspire

Go on and join the dots

To get the right knot

Never let anyone feel you down

Destiny is there to renown.....

Your future 

Say it loud

That you are proud

To follow your dreams

And enjoy the creme

Reach the highs

And touch the sky

- Anuradha Agarwal

Friendship Day 2020

Sunday

, 

2 August

International Friendship Day 2020 in India

"To Readers,
I wish everyone, Happy Friendship Day 2020 & I wish all my friends that too, without whom I would not be who I am today.

Soumadeep Chatterjee"

Friendship day is celebrated all over the world by everyone, all the school buddies wish their friends & provide each other with a friendship band.

We all miss our days when we used to spend quality time with friends

Friendship is a very beautiful relationship that almost every human being has felt. A person is a friend if he stays in times of need.

Some of our best memories are created with friends

The term friendship is not limited. Your parents, brother, life partner, relative, literally anyone can be your best friend. So please don't limit your throughts. Enjoy this special bond with everyone. Keep friends who are worthy. Go an extra mile for them and who knows you might get a lifetime membership of that person in your life.

Friends are the best part of our lives with whom we share our lives

I hope all of you will be there with your friends and make them family. Because that is the best thing you can do to a friend. Give them so much love & make space for them in your heart, so that the friend turns into family.

Friends are the ones who stays with you no matter what

This wonderful day is celebrated by Indians on the first Sunday of August. According to me, it is the best day as majority of people have Sunday as a off day. We always have underrated this day. But it is a day that we must all try to be together with our friends. We must stop for a moment on this day. Look back & rejoice the moment with our friends.

Friendship is not limited to humans only, as friendship with pets are more intimate than one can explain

The Miracle Morning – 6 Steps to Success

Life S.A.V.E.R.S. (In a book by MM)

1. Silence

It is important that you spend some time in silence to let your thoughts come to you. If you keep on getting in other tasks or be with your phone, your conscious mind will not be able to connect with your subconscious part of your brain.

2. Affirmation

It is essential that you accept what you want to really do. Telling it loud what you want to become or what your target is, helps to get going & achieve things that you have always dreamt of.

3. Visualisation

The only thing that really keeps you pushing is your visualisation. Our mind works better whenever there is a reward lying nearby. But it is not always the scenario all the time. The reward is not always visible which is why the motivation fades. So, you need to continuously visualise the reward or the aim or the person who you want to be in order to keep yourself motivated.

4. Exercises

Exercises in the morning are extremely crucial because it helps to circulate fresh oxygen & water in all the body parts making all your organs active & ready to spring into action. So it is mandatory that one does some exercise in the morning to get a better performance.

5. Reading

A good book is like a good friend. It is not always possible to choose people around us. But it is possible to fill our lives with good book. We must read some good book in the morning filled with positive thoughts or positive things. This will help you emit positivity throughout the day.

6. Scribbling

Sometimes visualisation works better when your brain sees or feels the things around. Writing your daily targets or goals helps the brain to plan accordingly & make those written things turn into reality. Thus, do not forget to write this things, be it in your sticky notes or diary or ipad or mobiles or computers.

The moment you choose The Miracle Morning, you choose to improve your life.

The Secret of Happiness

Smile whenever you can, it helps to keep negativity away

If you want to be happy, be happy right now.

With whatever you have, how much you have. Be happy right now.

Happiness should not be like if I get this I’ll be happy.

Happiness is simple- I am happy for the food I eat and the love I have and the shelter I have.

Simplicity is a powerful key towards being happy

Music heals a lot of pain and gives a lot of positive energy. Make sure to keep music in your pockets

3 Ways to “Unfriend” Negativity

How to be positive with all the negatives doodling around your life? Scroll to Update your life. 😄

Whenever you are feeling down, Get up & start analyzing yourself.

1. Identifying Your Negative Emotion

The most important step to eradicate negativity is to identify them. Unless you can realise your negative thought, you won't even know what to work on. So, the moment you think something which makes you feel sad or down. Pause there & go back & police your thoughts. There you will suddenly find a big fat negative thought lying. Now once you find this negative thought you have made 33% progress!

2. Substitute with a Positive Thought

Now you will have to mould the negative thought into a positive one. Like for example- “The Glass is Half Empty” is a Negative Approach but “The Glass is Half Full” is a positive approach. Instal this positive thought into your belief. Progress 66%! Hurray. Now the Final Step…

3. Mock Test

Your newly installed positive thought may fail initially, but you repeat this a few times, your brain will understand the new pattern & then drive your thoughts on the positive roads. 😄 Progress= 100%

Positive thoughts attracts Positive People in your life

3 Simple Tricks to Stay Focussed

Do you lose Focus? Your answer is sometimes right? What if I told you there can be a way by which you can always stay focused. Will you be interested to find out? Well, the first thing you must remember is-

Meditation can help you set your priorities & bring back focus

1. Go Back to the Root/Origin

Why are you doing that thing? You will have to find the driving force. And grasp that driving force all the time.

2. Pinpointing What is Taking You Off Tracks

Once you know a problem, then you can start working on the solution. So it is important to know what is the reason you are losing focus. Try to remove that element from your life. If you cannot, then find ways to ignore it.

3. Make a Detox Bubble

Create a small window of a few minutes a day in which you can leave out all your devices and distractions & focus on yourself, your plans & the things you are working on. By doing this you will be able to justify your actions & identify your mistakes.

Time to yourself helps to realise many things amidst today’s information bombardments