Category: अश्विनी उवाच

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Types of personalities and Introversion

There are broadly two types of people in the world, introverts and extroverts. Also, there are Ambiverts who are considered to be a mixture of introvert and extrovert nature.
Understanding your personality type is crucial for understanding ‘Yourself’ better. I often wondered about certain behavior of mine which was not acceptable by my family, for example; avoiding social gatherings or not accepting sudden change in plans. This behavior of mine was often misunderstood for anger and being a mean rebel. My family tried to make me understand that being stone-cold distant from people won’t help me in the future and explained how relationships were needed to be maintained. I tried learning how to be interactive with people and relatives, but these interactions often left me feeling exhausted and craving solitude.
So, in order to find out why I had certain kind of responses to particular situations, I started searching on the internet about types of personalities and how understanding them is important for expressing yourself in the right ways to other people.
Sadly, in India, living in a socially tight bound cultural-religious country, you can either be an extrovert or pretend that you are an extrovert. Today in this post I want to brief you all about introverts and what goes on in their minds.
So, what exactly are introverts?
According to me, an introvert is someone who just enjoys his/her/their own company rather than being with other people. An introvert is often misunderstood to be shy and are forced to be a part of big gathering so that they can learn to interact with people. The truth is, introverts know how to interact with people, it’s just that that they don’t ‘want’ to be a part of these social gatherings.
The terms introversion and extraversion were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung.
An extrovert is often regarded as an outgoing-upfront person who likes being in company of many individuals. They like social interactions and can’t see themselves without their particular group of friends/ people. An introvert on the other hand is often thought of as a quiet, reserved, and thoughtful individual. They don’t seek out special attention or social engagements, as these events can leave introverts feeling exhausted and drained.
But the definition doesn’t completely explain what introverts are exactly like. Introversion is a spectrum with many more types of sub-categories.
According to psychologist, Jonathan Cheek, who teaches personality psychology at Wellesley College, there are 4 types of introverts — social, thinking, anxious and restrained. Cheek further argues that many introverts are actually a combination of all of the 4 types — instead of identifying as just one of the types.

  1. Social Introverts: These are the kind of individuals who love going out and at the same time tend to be more private about their feelings and thoughts. Even these outgoing introverts get emotionally drained at a certain point if they stay out with people for too long.
    They do prefer having few close friends they can depend on and share their thoughts with. They will be the most social when they are with the group of their closest friends.
  2. Thinking Introverts: Daydreamers fall into this category of introversion. They don’t mind socializing but even when socializing they can be often found to be lost in their own little world. Introspection is their strong suit and thus they are always in tune with their own feelings.
  3. Anxious Introverts: These are the individuals who keep replaying social encounters in their head, trying to derive possible ways in which they could have/ haven’t interacted with people. They are more like shy introverts and crave solitude even when they are with close friends.
  4. Restrained Introverts: These individuals get highly uncomfortable when they are rushed into situations, especially social ones. Restrained introverts are reserved, thoughtful and don’t like change. These individuals will do anything if they have planned for it far enough in advance. They love relaxing by themselves and find comfort in routine. If you are willing to make plans with a restrained introvert personality, make sure you give them ample of forewarning about the plans.

Apart form this classification of personalities there is one other classification too known as MBTI. MBTI or Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is an introspective self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
This type of classification comprises of 16 different types of personalities based on the combination of introversion or extraversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving. One letter from each category is taken to produce a four-letter test result, like “INFJ” or “ENFP”.
Introverts can seem like hard people to deal with at first, but if you do have an introvert friend or family member, try and understand why they act in certain ways in particular situations. Chances are that these people are suffering more mentally and getting exhausted because they don’t want to hurt you by rejecting forced social interactions but also don’t want to drain themselves by accepting to be in one.
There are many online tests to figure out what kind of personality type you have. They might not always be accurate, so it’s better to first observe your own behavioral pattern and stay connected to yourself. With a little more searching and learning about yourself, you’ll eventually be able to figure out your own personality type and express your feelings in the right ways to other people.
Introverts especially go through a lot of trouble trying to explain people why they are the way they are. Note that not everybody will be willing to understand your point of view and few might not be able to understand even if you try, so, don’t stress over it much.
As correctly put by the famous INFJ (introverted, intuitive, feeling, and judging) Eleanor Roosevelt, “You wouldn’t worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do”.

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The Hidden Beginning:

There’s a post on this blog titled ‘The Five Paws’, I wrote it for the four puppies who took birth at my home and stayed in our society with their mother.
After January, the viral season took over and our puppies started getting infected one by one. It was the deadly Parvo virus. One day we saw Caramel sitting under a car, she was looking very weak and wasn’t moving around. I searched on google only to find out that the sickness symptoms were being caused because of the Parvo virus infection. Caramel wasn’t eating anything and had bloody diarrhea along with vomiting. We rushed her to a private vet the same evening and got the medical attention required, the doctor strictly told us that giving just injections won’t heal the pup, she will be needing doses of IV-fluids at least twice in a day to get back to being normal.
We started her treatment a day after. I and my mom took Caramel to the private vet daily twice in a day. Each IV-fluid session was around 1 hour and we sat there near Caramel hoping for her to get fit and fine. She wasn’t allowed any oral food/ water until the diarrhea and vomiting had stopped. Meanwhile I saw that the other puppies were looking happy and fit and had no symptoms of this disease. This all started around 1st February 2021. It was not until 7th February that Coco and Burrito started showing symptoms of viral infection. Me and my family were calling up the ‘1962’ (helpline) Animal Care ambulance every day and had personally requested the doctor to come and save these puppies. We were giving Caramel the private treatment as she was the weakest one with maximum symptoms. We kept Caramel inside our house so her body temperature could get back to normal. Gradually it started becoming exhausting for us to travel and sit through the IV-fluid therapy every day, the puppy was vomiting and had diarrhea throughout the day in house. Also, the physical and mental stress with fear of losing these puppies had taken over our peace already.
The society and people around us contributed in manifesting more hatred and anger towards ‘Humanity’ in our hearts. The unwillingness of people to help these stray pups and fake affection was getting me on my nerves. Seeing Coco and Burrito also getting sick shattered our hopes of being able to save them all. Unfortunately, nobody offered to take out time for driving these puppies to the private clinic for treatment; not even the people who used to affectionately give food to these puppies every day. It was then that we decided to call up the Animal rescue people and asked them to take these puppies away and give them appropriate treatment. We tried calling every NGO in Vadodara working for Animal care, they denied us any help stating that they ‘don’t take in infected puppies and can’t provide any medical assistance’. I tried calling 1962 for a week but after that they also stopped coming as the regular doctor who used to come went on a mini vacation. Meanwhile on 8th Feb’s evening, Coco gave up the struggle and left us suddenly… Next day on 9th Feb even Nugget gave up and left us.
Coco and Nugget both had minimum symptoms, but they couldn’t bear the pain for even a single day. Burrito’s condition was not improving and we couldn’t keep Caramel and Burrito in the same house as Caramel was in a recovery phase. So, we gave burrito to our neighbors. Unfortunately, Burrito had eaten something or maybe he was given oral food/water; Burrito’s health deteriorated overnight. I and mom rushed the very morning to clinic with Burrito for her IV-fluid therapy. She was dehydrated and lethargic that day, but after getting the IV-fluid dose her health was looking a bit improved. It was afternoon time when I heard Burrito’s shaky voice and saw she was having trouble in breathing. Her hemoglobin levels were down and her gums had turned pale white. I knew what was coming next…
We lost Burrito on 15th Feb 2021 evening.
We were positive that Burrito would recover, her immunity was good too. Maybe all our efforts of saving Burrito went in vain just because we couldn’t keep her in the same house as Caramel. Maybe not everyone is capable of looking after a sick puppy even if they take the responsibility for it. Maybe it was all my fault….
It’s been just few days since everything felt like it was falling apart, but waking up each day to see the wiggling tail of Caramel with her hopeful eyes of getting food, well that’s something priceless.
Seeing Caramel’s health improving and she getting back to her normal behavior has given my family a lot of strength. We unknowingly did adopt a Puppy. Caramel is not allowed to roam freely outside until her vaccination is done, so me and my family is looking after her.
“Beginnings always hide themselves in ends”- Mike Posner
These ‘Endings’ turned out to be the ‘Beginning’ of me and family having a pet in our house. My mom and dad are getting more affectionate towards Caramel with each passing day. She sleeps with me on the couch and eats breakfast with us on table. She knows our routine and we know hers. She greets my elder sister and dad when they come back from their office.
Maybe my mind is twisted to always search for the best in worst circumstances, but this sure turned out to be the beginning of something me and family had never imagined.
There’s an animated movie titled “Over the Moon”, in this movie the lead character Fei-Fei loses her dear mother to a chronic illness at an early age. The whole movie revolves around how Fei-fei struggles adjusting in the new environment and goes through a roller coaster of emotions. She denies the loss of her mother and hates her father’s new found partner. This movie is a retelling of the classic Chinese myth ‘Moon goddess Chang’e who took a potion for immortality, causing her to become a goddess and ascended to the Moon without her lover Houyi, and still awaits for him there over the moon.’ Later on, Fei-Fei through the story of Change realizes that she never accepted losing her mother. Realizing that she must move on from her childhood tragedy, Fei-Fei tries to find love all around her. This allows Fei-Fei to accept her loved ones’ death.
Maybe writing this article was a way for me to finally accept deaths of Coco, Nugget and Burrito.
Losing a loved one brings unimaginable sorrow, but ignorance can’t always be bliss. Only ‘Acceptance’ can return you to the bliss in such circumstances.
There are times when life shows you what ‘Life’ is really about. No matter how many falls you suffer, no matter how many loved ones you lose, till your life goes on you’ll need to ‘move on’, just make sure to find that hidden Beginning when it all seems like it’s falling apart.

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The Mountain’s Soul

We were there at the top of a mountain. About 1100 meters up from the ground. The whole world seemed so small and so did our problems. While walking and climbing up those mountains, all I did was tell myself that ‘ I can do this, believe it’. There were many who were exhausted, many who had already reached at the top (mostly our trekking trainers). But we all had one thing in common, we didn’t have the option to quit or retract. Once our feet had started in the direction of the mountain top, there was no going back. The path we climbed up; was the path we were going to climb down through.

A lot of things change when we stop giving ourselves ‘options’. “What really are options? And why do we give ourselves the privilege of having them?”, I asked myself.

I guess, ‘to avoid misery’. Maybe we give ourselves options so that we can give up on the tough road and chose the easier one, thus, giving up on believing that we can achieve the unimaginable.

Why is it that we always chose the safer path? Not just in physical endeavours, but even mentally. “This avoiding and running away from challenges, or grabbing onto the nearest safest option, are these what they call the survival instincts?”.

Innumerable questions clouded my mind as I pushed my feet towards the mountain top. It felt like the mountains were talking to me, they were rocky-gravelly and sandy. Each with a story of their own. Some were easy to be walked on, some weren’t. Some scared me to death and some allowed me to sit and get the much-needed rest.

As the volatile clouds of the clear sunny day provided us with minimum shade, the high-altitude breeze cooled us down. There was a different kind of ‘calm’ up above. We even had a doggo companion with us who joined us for the trek.

I couldn’t help but notice that fearlessness in the doggy’s eyes. He stood at the edge of the mountain and stared into the vast spread in-front of him. I was so scared to even go near the edge, and there the dog was sitting at the edge of a cliff, so fiercely. It was as if he had befriended the mountains! I wondered if I would ever be able to develop such kind of familiarity with the mountains and the wilderness. I believe some part of me did hypothetically wish to explore the wilderness more, but I had given myself the option of returning back to my normal life. And so, I did choose instantly, the safer, familiar path of returning back.

We all trekking buddies pushed our limits that day, we didn’t give up midway because we didn’t have any other option of returning. We were entirely dependent on our trainers, from guiding us all the way up to back down on the ground.

My mind somehow started corelating the twisted roads with my life. I wondered if my life was just like these roads.

These roads demand struggle, and the ones who can manage to walk easily are either the ones who have already travelled a similar path or had the physical strength and will power to push their limits.

Before this trekking camp, I could’ve had hardly imagined myself being able to reach the mountain top, but as quoted by the great Nelson Mandela in his 2001 speech, “IT ALWAYS SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT’S DONE.”

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Motivated Perception

How often have you seen ‘signs’ in real life? Have you ever wondered about how the song you thought about day before yesterday is playing on the Television a day later? Did you also try categorizing it as a sign or was it added to the box of ‘unexpected coincidences’?
Many times, it happens that we actually see, hear or feel what we wish to see, hear or feel. This phenomenon is called, ‘Motivated Perception’.
By definition, idea that we see what we want to see is called Motivated perception.
It’s similar to another concept — Motivated reasoning, where we come to conclusions, we’re predisposed to believe in.
Our belief system and perceptions about things are rooted in our Sub-consciousness. Our Sub-conscious mind is more in charge of our actions/ decisions than what we are actually aware of.
The communication between the subconscious and the conscious mind is bidirectional, that is the communication happens both ways. Every time when you have an idea, or an emotion, a memory or an image from the past, this is the subconscious mind communicating to your conscious mind.
Communicating thoughts from your conscious mind to your subconscious mind is difficult because it should be done with emotions. Only the thoughts that are conveyed with genuine emotions make it to the back of your mind. And only the thoughts that are backed up by a strong emotion stay there. Unfortunately, majority of these thoughts that are backed up at the back of your mind are negative thoughts. This mindset is also the result of how our brains are more developed and evolved through time in such a way that they notice and remember the negative things/thoughts/ people more.
A study also states that out of all the thoughts that we have in a day, 80% of them are negative thoughts. It is important for us to monitor these negative thoughts or emotions and put a pause on them then and there so that they don’t become a part of your subconscious mind later on.
In Indian Culture it’s said that we should always speak good of others and our own selves, as once in a day randomly the Goddess Saraswathi will fulfill what you said or wished for. There is story in other cultures too about the guardian angel that always follows you. When you say to yourself “my life is awful”, it writes down awful life. When you say “my job is boring”, it writes down boring job. And when you say “my body is ugly”, it writes down ugly body. And then it goes on and grants you all those wishes, because they are filled with strong emotions (sadness, disappointment, regret, self-loathing). That angel is your subconscious mind.
“Knowing that other people could truly be seeing things differently from us is a way of being able to better understand them and empathize with how they feel,” Yuan Chang Leong, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley- neuroscience experiment in Nature Human Behavior.
We’re not always aware of our motivations and our expectations. This unawareness at times might lead to conflicts between our conscious and sub-conscious brain. The signs that you are believing in today might be just a mirage projected by your sub-consciousness which is guiding you towards a certain desire which you have unacknowledged motivation for. This is where our strong or weak ‘intuition’ comes in.
We all do see what we want to see and believe in what we want to believe. This doesn’t mean that we can never trust what we are believing in; this only means that every individual has already created a little world of their own just like you did. Disrupting that balance of the little world will never be accepted by the individual unless and until the individual really wants to or is trying to take your point of view into consideration.
Lastly, if you really wish to be the master of your sub-conscious mind, what better way to do that than Meditation.

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Five Paws

Today I would like to share with you all a little story of me and my family finding happiness in Four little paws!
My family had shifted from our old house to a new one in August 2020. I myself am not a person who accepts change easily. I was reluctant for even going to a new place. But the circumstances were such that we had to relocate. After denying the new changes and crying over old memories we finally left our old home and shifted to a new one in the same city.
The day we arrived at our new home; I found a new friend. The new friend I had made is a doggo. She used to visit our house daily and sleep near the front door on our doormat. I guess, that doormat was her own little cozy bed. Me, mom-dad and my elder sister, we all were initially a little scared of the new doggo but as the time passed, we all became good friends. I named her Biscuit!
It was 2nd November 2020. Biscuit became a mommy and delivered four little puppies at our home. It was like a festival that day. I remember how my mom made a traditional Indian sweet dish for Biscuit and our neighbors were visiting to see these little cuties. We as a family had seen first time in our life four little newborn puppies and we were happier than ever before.
I named the puppies Burrito, Nugget, Caramel and Coco.
In my childhood, I always avoided going near dogs. For me Dogs just used to be a bunch of big scary animals that were somehow out to get me. There were two separate incidents when a dog came running at me and I tripped and fell down. I even used to get nightmares where dogs were chasing me and I wasn’t able to run fast even though I tried my best.
It was not until my graduation that I overcame the fear of dogs or cats. But becoming foster parents to these Four paws was something I could have had never imagined.
A lot has changed since 2nd November, 2020. All the four puppies are now almost 3 months old and have grown beautifully! They respond to their names and fight with each other on and off for food (obviously). Biscuit has stopped visiting the house frequently because her pups never let her sit in peace. She instead now sleeps in the parking lot of our society.
Here are some points I would really like to share with you all:

  • Dogs/ pets are the perfect friends you will ever find in your life!
  • You will experience another level of love and happiness towards another living being that you may not have had experienced before.
  • When a little doggo walks towards you with hope of being patted, it’s the best feeling in this world!
  • My family, even though being afraid of dogs, has now become a dog-lover family. In fact, my mom and dad are the ones who give breakfast to the puppies early in the morning.
  • Being with them reduces stress, anxiety, depression and increases the levels of your happiness hormones.
  • Not all changes are bad. ‘Changes’ might be scary initially, but you never know what beautiful blessing is awaiting you on the other side.
  • You can find your own happiness in anything you want, if you are willing to be happy.
    I guess, after all that denying for getting relocated, it was best thing that ever happened to us. We truly found abundant happiness, adventure and whole of lot of life with this family of five-doggo. Love a pet/ animal. Care for him/her and you will be astonished to see how healthy it is for yourself.
    [Note: If you are a Dog lover, you must watch “A dog’s Purpose”- A Dog’s Purpose is a 2017 American comedy-drama adventure film directed by Lasse Hallström and written by W. Bruce Cameron, Cathryn Michon, Audrey Wells, Maya Forbes, and Wally Wolodarsky, based on the 2010 novel of the same name by W. Bruce Cameron. Available on amazon prime]
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How happy are you?

What is your definition of ‘Happiness’? Have you ever pondered on why your monkey mind keeps jumping from one ‘accomplishment tree’ to the other?
According to my observation Happiness is a ‘Variable’. A variable is something that will keep changing with the passage of time or other dependent factors. Your happiness can never be constant, it can be Consistent for a particular duration but never permanent. The things you want today, may not be required by you tomorrow and vice-versa. That’s the exact reason why your monkey mind is jumping from one accomplishment tree to the other.
It took me a long time to realize that what really made me happy has never been a constant. I used to find myself being unhappy or constantly complaining about the things that were not there or were missing from my life. We all have been big ‘complainers’ at some point in our journey, from complaining about the day not going according to your plan or complaining about the luxuries that you can’t afford. Unhappiness is often dragged in by this ‘complaining’ and ‘regretting’.
The view from where you are seeing your life, might not be the same for another person. People usually suggest a change in perspective or to consider somebody else’s point of view, when we are stuck under certain circumstances. It’s true, a change of perspective helps, and so does a different point of view. What may not be a happy lifestyle for you, might be a mere dream for another.
One person’s candy is often another one’s meal.
In a TEDx Talk by Barry Margerum – 2018, he said that, “Because we want everything to go the way we want when the world is a windy road, we get stressed out.”
Since childhood we have been told to be cautious, to be away from the uncertainties, to play safe and be safe. What happens in reality is, that there is no such thing as a ‘Predictable life’. There is a reason why we don’t get a manual on ‘how to live’ the day we are born. But we still can try to create our own manual for ‘being a happy soul in the midst of a windy road’.
“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.” – Charles Dickens.
People nowadays have started keeping a gratitude diary, and it indeed helps in lifting up the fog in front of our eyes that prevents us from seeing happiness in little moments. I myself have been maintaining a Gratitude diary for some time now and it really cheers me up to see that, ‘if noticed’ many little things happening around you each day can bring abundant happiness!
Make sure to train your eyes for seeing the good in uncertainties. Life will always be Unpredictable and you can’t keep blaming it for your failed expectations. If you really want to be happy, just try creating your own happiness by having a change in your perspective. No matter how hard it may seem, it will be worth it because you will be choosing your own happiness instead of just doing nothing and frowning over the unchangeable past.
Well, we all know that Happiness is truly a ‘Gift’, and I really hope that you are able to find your happiness in the “Present”.

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Surprises and Recovery

Earlier on ‘Samaj-Shilpi’, we talked about The Magic Burn-out. For those who are new to this term, ‘Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress’. It can also be caused due to over exertion and tight routine which makes you feel exhausted at the end of the day. Today, we will be studying a little more about how Surprises and Recovery can work wonders for preventing these Burnouts.
When you hit the gym and workout for at least 5 times in a week, the rest two days, usually weekends, are set aside for the ‘recovery phase’. Recovery Phase is the amount of time it takes for your muscles to recover from exercise. The time taken for recovery depends on your fitness levels and the difficulty of your workout. The healthier you are, the faster you’ll recover from a routine workout session. After a relatively light workout, your muscles may be able to recover in 24 hours, whereas a more challenging workout might take two to three days.
Similarly, our brain and mind, both require it’s ‘Recovery phase’. When we tire out our brain on a daily basis with same repetitive thoughts and work load, we end up spiraling into boredom and eventually lose our capacity to think creatively. This Monotonous way of living often leads to decrease in productive in whatever work we do. Recovery phase of the brain, just like the body muscles, also depends on the levels of our mental health. The healthier the mind, the faster it will recover.
This is where the importance of Adventure comes in. Adventure by definition is an unusual and exciting or daring experience, but here, adventure is more like a detox for your brain to ‘Recover’. Your adventure can be as big as travelling to another city or as small as going out for a walk and having that favorite ice-cream of yours. Depends on how big a break you really are in need of.
As the owner of a startup, what I usually do to keep the adventure alive is, I make chits of all the tasks I need to complete in the ongoing month or week. I fold and put all the chits together and pick up one every morning to see what new task is assigned to me for the day. The little trick here is, I also add chits saying “Observe nature and chill”, “Netflix bonus”, “explore new songs”, etc.
What happens here is, I give my brain a new impulse by surprising it to do something completely random than what it normally has to. In the artist community, this “Recovery-surprise combination” is known as ‘Inspiration’. Artists usually lookout for inspirations when they realize that they have exhausted their thinking capacity and can only enhance their art by an external stimulus such as visiting historical places or connecting with nature.
If you are really looking towards increasing your productive, then make sure to fit in these ‘unplanned adventures’ in your schedule. Surprise yourself so that you can go the extra mile next time when you get back to work again. Work is indeed important and so is the recovery.

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Let’s chat,

How often have you sat and wondered about that constant voice in your head? How often have you really paid attention to what it’s saying?
We go through multiple experiences in life on a daily basis, but it’s rarely that we actually let those experiences sink in to the deepest of our core. This ignoring and not acknowledging little things in life usually becomes our new normal.
New normal is actually a good thing if you are looking from a perspective of avoiding a mental turmoil during a phase of depression. Our hard-wired brain keeps bringing us back to what our daily life looks like and it gets easier to not being disconnected from the world.
What’s dangerous here is the fact that, when we keep being in such a depressive or discouraging phase on and off for a certain duration, we are unable to see the gradual process of making such kind of thought processing ‘a habit’.
Such kind of thought processing can only be manipulated by actually paying attention to it. By observing what your daily actions or behaviour is trying to tell you about ‘Yourself’.
We often hear people saying that, ‘We say certain things to others which we want to hear ourselves’.
There are two practices which really help in taking the control of your own life, Observation and Introspection.
Observation in philosophical terms is the process of filtering sensory information through the thought process. Input is received via hearing, sight, smell, taste, or touch and then analysed through either rational or irrational thought.
Whereas Introspection is a totally different term; Introspection is the examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings. In psychology, the process of introspection relies on the observation of one’s mental state, while in a spiritual context it may refer to the examination of one’s soul.
Introspection is closely related to human self-reflection and self-discovery and is contrasted with external observation.
In my experience, observation and introspection can go hand in hand.
Let’s visualise a little walk around the neighbourhood, observe all that you see, trees, birds, the vast sky or even the humongous buildings. We can observe them and still at the back of our head constantly try to relate the visuals to our daily life consciously or unconsciously.
If paid attention to, we can actually see the symmetry that life offers; more like unity in diversity. You’ll be fascinated to find out how everything even though seems different is connected to each other in some or the other way.
“All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
The knack here is to stop judging and analysing for a while and just observe along with paying a wee bit attention to what your mind is speaking. Practicing this on a daily basis can actually strengthen your ‘mindfulness muscle’.
There is something really beautiful in just being present in the ‘Present’.
As aptly put by Master Oogway, “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is a gift…. that’s why they call it ‘The Present’.
So, next time if you are ever feeling a bit disconnected to yourself, let’s just put our social media aside and listen to the words that your unconscious brain in trying to put together. You might end up finding answers to the questions you’ve been asking yourself for too long.
Have a chat with yourself, it’s really healthy.

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Good Morning!

Today I’ll be sharing with you all my morning routine. It is something I’ve just decided to follow for a while now and it really helps me in getting things done. I hope this technique helps you in some or the other way.
To have a good morning routine plan, you need to start getting into the momentum of the plan a night before the next day starts. What I do is, I try to keep my mind as calm as it can be before going to the bed. For achieving this task, I make sure to meditate for at least 10-15 min before going to bed.
Meditation helps me in removing all the toxic or unwanted thoughts of the day. It also helps me in getting mindful about my body and having a peaceful, less chaotic heart-set before going to the bed. Following a little meditation, I try to read a book for another 20 mins or reading till I fall asleep.
For getting into my ‘peace zone’, I avoid using any social media or digital gadgets one hour in advance before my bed time. Keeping the technology aside helps me connect a little more to myself and often leads to getting clarity on different aspects of my life. I read mostly motivational/ spiritual/ self-help books. Introspecting has now become the favorite hobby of mine and it indeed is peaceful to ‘just be yourself’ a little more each day.
In his book ‘The 5AM club’, Robin Sharma beautifully explains how having an energetic morning routine can nourish your soul and keep you empowered for the rest of day. I have started following his 20/20/20 pocket formula but with a little customization of my own.
My morning starts around 6:00 AM with an alarm. I try to avoid my mobile phone as much as possible in the early 20 min after waking up. This provides me with the space needed to get my brain function at its full potential without distributing my core energy to news/ social media.
The next 20 mins of my early morning I spend with my journal along with a peaceful music playing in the background, where I quickly note down my accomplishments from the day before and make a list of tasks to be completed throughout the day. You can try writing your accomplishments at the end of the day too, but this practice helps me more when I execute it early morning. It helps me stay motivated for the rest of the day with a sense of fulfillment and increased levels of confidence.
The final 20-30 mins of my morning are contributed to morning walks and integrating a new habit. Habits are really an important part of our system. If paid proper attention, you’ll be able to incorporate a healthy habit in your daily life instead of unwanted habits which eventually lead to fatigue.
Following this is a 30-45 min workout and then I finally move on to my self-assigned tasks.
Breaking down my morning routine into these smaller parts has resulted in helping me get most of the things done before 10 AM. These smaller parts contribute towards keeping my brain healthy along with my heart-set and soul-set. Also, working out early gives the adequate attention to my body and its wellbeing, which rules out the ‘worrying about health and stagnant lifestyle’ part.
It indeed is miraculous how one small change in the morning routine can lead to a better and more productive day throughout. Afterall, if our day today is better, it will become a better month and eventually a better year!
You can definitely follow the same morning routine plan if it helps, or else you can customize one of your own. You can meditate in the morning or even workout in the evening, whatever works the best for you.
I hope this practice helps you in some or the other way towards having a better ‘living’. Let’s be more positive, hydrated and content, starting today!

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Subtle Art of letting go

Our human brain is programmed to go through at least 6,000 thoughts in a single day or more than that. Most of our thoughts are reoccurring. What happens here is, when we keep getting these reoccurring thoughts, we get accustomed to dragging these thoughts together for longer durations. We don’t realize if they are good or bad, we just keep carrying the baggage all along.
In a recent episode of Rick and Morty (A cartoon series on Netflix- season 4- episode 4), the writer introduced a character of a cat who could talk. Anyone who encountered the cat kept asking it how it was able to talk and all it said was, “It doesn’t matter how. Maybe it’s time you stopped asking questions and started having fun”.
The viewers and fans of the show couldn’t understand till the end of the episode, why the cat could talk and what was its importance in the show. Many viewers even started coming up with theories about what the cat’s origin maybe or how it was able to talk. The show creators later revealed that, the cat was just introduced in to the episode ‘for fun’. There was no hidden motive behind it. The creators even stated that, ‘not everything needs analyzation and overthinking’. That was basically what the cat was trying to convey, ‘to just stop asking questions and start having fun’.
“Don’t underestimate the value of doing nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering” – Piglet, Pooh’s little instruction book, inspired by A.A. Milne.
It’s in the little moments, the silent ones and in the ones where you can just ‘be’.
We are living in a tech dominant century where competition is everything. We keep running around our daily lives like little hamsters on a running wheel while we always have the option to just stop and enjoy. To just live in the moment.
We always have the choice, to step out of the wheel, to pause and breathe.
Just listen to that music you always love listening to, take a walk or just lay down. Whatever that makes you happy. Do it. Your heart always knows what really makes it happy and it will guide you if you are willing to listen to it. Learn that subtle art of letting toxic thoughts and people go.
(Write the below quote in your journal / paper if you want to and put it up on your board / refrigerator. Little things like these are helping me a lot in motivating towards giving less energy to toxic thoughts; hopefully it will help you too.)
“Today I am making the decision to let go of the things that don’t make me happy. I am letting go, happily.”- Winne the Pooh
Yes, it indeed is ‘easy’ to just be happy.