Kindness is non-negotiable

Practice kindness to the pith. Your present state is an outcome of your past deeds and your future would be shaped by what you indulge in today. All said and done, many a times we get carried away by a flicker of sentiment and put our thinking neurons to hibernation; an outburst of anger, hatred or revenge follows and we, inadvertently, become the destructors of our destinies. The paroxysms of anger have always resulted in bad blood; one must take a pause and think about the situation from an altogether different perspective.

Human life is a constant struggle for achieving the state of nothingness; a state where you become empty inside as you contain everything. Quite an oxymoron, but that is the truth of life; when you seek refuge in worldly emotions, you keep on getting jolts, one after another. When you stop reacting to distracting stimulus and invest in true emotions, such as love, hope and kindness, you start experiencing as if the nature is breathing in tandem with you. Life is a bouquet of wild roses and life is an assortment of poisonous thorns; the perception of life depends on your perspective and thought process.

Kindness is the non-negotiable law of nature. Most of the awe-inspiring and heaven-sent experiences happen when you display abundance of kindness. To forgive is kindness; to sacrifice is kindness; the beatific display of abundant care is kindness; non-violence is kindness; respecting others’ mental spheres is kindness; to lessen others’ burdens is kindness. Practicing kindness comes as an addiction to those who derive the psychic pleasures out of it; when you start contributing to Mother Nature’s equilibrium of energies by practicing kindness, you truly shine out as the most resplendent diamond.

My memorable mornings

It has been such a ceremonialistic routine all these years for me to start my day with the onset of dawn. Sometimes, I precede dawn in making my arrival known to the folks in my hospital. In my college days, I used to think that something is wrong either with my reticular activating system or with my melatonin secreting apparatus. How else could an ordinary undergraduate relate with a short sleep requirement. A lot of people feel somnolent in the day time even after enjoying a sound sleep of 10-11 hours in the night time; some people are blessed the other way round. I consider myself to be a blessed identity in this aspect; I feel extremely wakeful and fresh after a sleep of 3 hours. I mean that much sleep is enough to get me bouncing the whole day; I wouldn’t feel like catching forty winks. On the saddest days I have managed to sleep for 6-7 hours, and haven’t really liked the exercise. Even my buddy-buddy patients know this fact and don’t hesitate calling me any part of the day or night for any of the health related concerns that they find worth bringing up to my notice.

The first thing I do after waking up is to remember my parents. My wake up cycle has embedded this spiritual exercise and I do this without getting any reminders from the brain; this is a realm where subconscious calls the shots and the body obeys. Next, I pray to almighty to give me strength to render my best knowledge, without any prejudice, to all my patients and to contribute my share in making their lives merrier and free of health related worries. I have always found the time of early morning the best for my creative imagination. This is the time when my body is in synchronization with my spiritual activity and everything seems so tranquil, without any preconceived notions.

Initial days of my brush with blogging

It was with at the behest of one of my colleagues at my hospital that I spent a couple of hours understanding the nuances of what actually a blog is. The year was 2008. The month was November. The climatic fervor was youthful. I discovered the diamond. As a child I had practiced writing my own diary that chronicled daily events in my own biased version; little did I know that a lot of people are writing their diaries in the web version for the ordinary person to read, appreciate and be inspired. A blog is a diary in which you can pen down anything you want. It will be updated within seconds and it will remain forever in the monarchy of internet. I was left ensorcelled by the possibilities of creative power attained, if I started to operate my own blog. That night I got a fragmented sleep, and wool-gathering was the essence of the coming day. I was partially in a reverie. Oh how badly I wanted to start sharing my observations with ordinary people, how badly I wanted to let people know my edition of life and it’s lanes. Every life is a story worth telling. Every life is a jamboree worth its gall.

The next morning, I signed up on blogger, the official blog platform of google. Though during those days a lot of folks were using wordpress, I was a bit cynical to host my blog on wordpress. I don’t know why. May be it had to do with the installation process and customization efforts that required a bit of insight knowledge of the technology, which I was not sure whether I possessed. I was more comfortable with the blogger interface and the options of templates and layouts it provided. In a matter of minutes, my blog was all ready to take birth. I was as happy as a sandboy and my mind had started working on what would be my first blog post.

Betrayals happen; life is a pebbly ride

I have seen very close colleagues, dear folks and random people betraying my trust when I was least prepared. I have seen myself landing between rock and hard plane quite a few times, and the memories of most aghast attempts still haunt me. These are the days when one can really relate to one’s belongings and one’s beliefs. I have emerged out from the tunnels of coal, remaining unstained but the process has been every inch nightmarish.

During such unfortunate spells, I have cocooned myself from the fickle minded attempts at maligning my reputation. Mum’s the word for me in such situations as I am an uncompromising believer in the power of actions. I am not someone who can be made mince meat of easily; and I believe that I have gathered this power by the realization of my inner self. We, the humans, hold mammoth powers that lie within us, and have the potential to transform lives. The ones who are on ever-exploring spree often get the equations right and are able to bring a radical change in the circumstances; others simply curse the fate and get moved in the direction of the force that has overpowered them.

We must be our own masters or else the vilifying attempts of people with suppressed conscience would keep on bringing you the dishonor and disturbance that you don’t deserve. I was taken aback in disbelief when I first discovered that one of closest pals didn’t think twice in cheating me with money when I was experiencing the hilliest of all the problems. The more you are connected with your folks, the more wounded you come out when breach of trust happens. With passing times, my armor of experiences has grown out of proportions, and this day, I find myself at a juncture where I am less prone to get succumbed to such baleful attempts. 

Memoirs of early years

I remember an incidence when I had just started my hospital. There came a patient, a rather young male who had just entered in his thirties, after being suffered multiple burn injuries by getting inflicted with high tension wires. At the time of his admission, the likelihood of his survival was pretty miserable in view of clinical state. He had sustained about 60% burns that contained both superficial and deep ones. The patient stayed at my hospital for about 6 weeks and emerged out a winner. I could not gather a single moment when I saw him getting hopeless or dull; he had this verve of life – a superfluous one. At the time of discharge, his total hospital bill was about Rs 94,000. Though we have this rule of getting payments deposited as the expenditures soar high, we don’t follow this rule with finicky attire. This is one rule that has been kept flexible; especially for the poor patients, I have instructed my staff to practice more compassion than what is the usual norm. This patient had deposited Rs 24,000 in his hospital’s account and was left with no more money. He explained this to me and said he is not in a position to return me the balance amount. 

I was curious to know why he did not opt to get his treatment done at some of the government hospital where expenses would have been far less and they even have separate burn care units with specialists 24X7. He responded after a long silence with lachrymose eyes and a heavy heart. What he said was enough to bolster my amour proper to a significant extent. He said ,” Sir, I am really sorry for not being able to pay you back for the services that you provided me when I needed them most. The moment you first attended me, I knew I was in exceptionally safe and capable hands. Had I not been in a penny-pinching state, I would have merrily given you the balance sum, and I promise to return it back to you in the years to come. What you have done to me is angelic and now I believe my mother’s words that used to stress over the fact that one comes across angels and demons in flesh and blood. I am yet to see a person as self-sacrificing as you.”

With years of social experience it does not take me a long time to decipher what’s going on in a person’s mind as he speaks a certain sentence. I was sure that this person stayed at my hospital in spite of not having any money because he trusted me with his life. I patted him on his back and told him to attend the follow up sessions on time. The moment he was about to leave my consultation room, I whispered softly that I don’t need the balance amount from him. Even before I could have finished my statement, he was brought in to tears. He cried for a long time and I consoled him. That is what I say a seraphic relationship. Beyond the description of ordinary words; the more I see life, the more I want to indulge in such selfless relationships where you only spread hope, love and compassion. Had I not been a doctor, I would certainly have not been able to experience the tranquility that peeps in my life from such sacrosanct experiences.

Don’t play small

Our deepest fear should not be about our inadequacies. We are powerful beyond measures, beyond ordinary recognitions. It must be in our light, rather than in our darkness, that should frighten us. It’s terrifying for some of us to shine our lights as dazzlingly as we are capable, and it doesn’t bother me to say that preponderance of people out there struggle with this facet of life at some point in their lives. A lot of melancholy and frustration in the world today emanates from disinclination or incapacity to shine one’s light and to truly express the greatness that we contain within ourselves.

If you are struggling with some specific part of life, may be it’s time to sit and list out the possible reasons. To identify the problem areas is the foremost step in deducing a plan of action. If your quench for your dreams is going steel-solid, nothing should deter you from tasting success and basking in the glory of accomplishments. Don’t limit the trajectory of your dreams; flutter freely for the wings of your consciousness are as much immortal as the sky and the earth are. If there’s something you’ve been wanting for a long time but have not been able to achieve it, it’s possible that some part of your own inner self doesn’t really want that thing or situation you’re trying to accomplish.

Put in some fuel in leveraging self-belief. No cause is worthy enough to rob you off your dream. You are here in this world to make things happen; nothing special would be served to you in your plate – you have to earn every ounce of it. And here lies the beauty of life and Mother Nature; for them ore you see your affinity with your cause, the forces tend to align with you in making your belief getting final shape. You have been given a human’s life; you are capable of rational thoughts and analytical power; you are here to create your destiny yourself. The answers lie within you, and once you find them, you are well on your way to shining your light in the world and infusing life in your dreams.

10 types of people you should avoid

1. Bosses who tell you to do them a favor by putting in an extra hour of work after your shift has ended.
2. People who cut lines to reach the window, without fail.
3. Teachers who constantly remind pupils about what they can’t achieve in their lives.
4. Parents who fail to respect their kids.
5. Pretentious friends, who claim to have done everything that you eye for.
6. Officers who take advantage of their governmental positions
7. Coworkers who claim they had told you so
8. Friends who have their own fleet of genuine-looking excuses when you need them the most
9. People with volatile tempers and lack of motivation
10. Doctors who delay unnecessarily in dispatching their duties

20 things you can achieve in 10 minutes

1. Burn 200 calories.
2. Take a small nap.
3. Plan a surprise party for your colleague.
4. Get a family photograph clicked.
5. Get involved with a Child Relief NGO.
6. Open up the window and breathe some fresh air.
7. Read the editorial page of your favorite newspaper.
8. Read the preface of a book and plan the reading sessions for the week ahead.
9. Call your parents.
10. Get a reality check with your child’s progress in his academics.
11. Prepare fruit salad.
12. Wipe out someone’s tears.
13. Organize your drawer and clean your keyboard.
14. Make a list of ‘to-do’ activities for the month.
15. Write an email to your future spouse.
16. Hum a nostalgic tune.
17. Bask in the glory of silence.
18. Read the reviews of a newly released book / film.
19. Change the passwords of your social media identities.
20. Write a blog post.

5 self help tactics for depression

Pangs of depression hold the abhorrent capacity to incapacitate a person. In today’s life, we have a lot of people suffering with underlying depression in view of fast changing values, expectations and poor support system. Depending on the extent and severity of underlying depression, you should seek medical help; depression help tactics are a grand way to start the healing process.

Setting goals are a great way to build confidence. When you set a goal for you, you instill self belief in your dejected soul and that, precisely, acts as a panacea in replenishing your positive hormones.

Work out in improving your body language and physical posture. Practice more often to stand straight, smile lavishly, hold your head high and maintain eye contacts. Do it in front of the mirror and commit to memory a time you felt great; this would not just wipe the depression to some extent, but would also help you regaining the lost self-righteousness.

Exercising is an imperative step in releasing gush of positive hormones in your body. This is no hidden truth that exercise makes you feel better, and you must incorporate exercising in your daily routine. It would be great if you can arrange someone to accompany you so that you remain motivated.

Don’t get burdened with a pile of must-to-do activities. Lighten down your workload and split your tasks into smaller portions. Don’t leave a prominent window for unnecessary procrastination; this allows you to complete your projects in a timely manner and desiccate the pulp of problem to an extent.

Surround yourself with happy, supportive folks. Spend time with people who understand you and participate in activities that you revel in such as checking out a new dress, going out for a meal, seeing a movie or visiting some friends.

Determining the causes of your depression is a first-rate first step towards determining the best course of action. In some cases depression suddenly appear in one’s life without an easily discernible root cause; if this is the case, it would be best to see a doctor while continuing these self-help measures.

Lift the pressure-lid off our kids

Every child is born with his quota of happiness; some are easily ecstatic, and some are tough to please. Some children are fussier and some children are more perceptive. Whether your child has a high level of likely happiness or a low down level, he must learn to accept failures. Learning to accept failures would enhance their creative spectrum and when we impulsively protect our children from failure, we dispossess them from learning skills.

Raising children is about inculcating traits, shaping thought process and instilling moral values. It would be rather too direct and cumbersome to just focus about fixing the erratic sides of their behaviors. Children, these days, are exposed to a lot of stimulus and judgments; we must take thoughtful steps to gain acceptance from our children. If we would try to impose our thought process over them, we may risk losing their faith. Teaching children how to burgeon should commence with focusing on their strengths, not their Achilles' heels.

Much of the education is not taught; it is rather attained by own experiences. By teaching you child how to take a failure, you are actually making him learn about the importance of optimism. A child must be involved in a thought process where life is not counted by achievements or setbacks; it is important for a child to learn in a guilt free manner.

By following the dictums of Positive psychology, the child’s strengths must be treated genuinely by the parents. It must be kept in mind to refrain from blunt approaches; a methodical assessment and gradual approach to impart the right stimulus would be the right thing to do. You must not encourage answering in ‘yes’ or ‘no’; when you would attempt to explain things to your child, you would help him to sharpen his thinking neurons, which, in turn, would help him soar the intellectual heights.

10 rules of Yoga Exercises

1. Ideally, Yoga exercises should be done empty stomach or at least 4-6 hours after taking meals.
2. It’s best to perform Yoga exercises during the dawn.
3. Of course, there are a lot of audio-visual resources available these days to help you learn the nuances of Yoga, it would be best to get training from an instructor.
4. Don’t get exposed to strong, direct winds while performing Yoga exercises.
5. Don’t attempt to cross your physical limits in a spree of over enthusiasm. Make realistic goals and aim to increase your range of movements and flexibility by and by.
6. Ensure to alleviate the stiffness of your body before setting to start the Yoga session for the day.
7. Ideally, you must never get tired while performing Yoga exercises; however, if you feel tired, take rest before proceeding to the next set. Ask your instructor about your technique and duration as well so that you don’t get fatigues frequently.
8. Yoga exercises are helpful when breathing patterns are manipulated in accordance. If you suffer from any illnesses, or belong to elderly age group, seek your doctor’s opinion before setting your feet to become a Yoga geek.
9. Don’t allow the kids to do tough Yoga exercises as some of them can interfere with their normal growth patterns.
10. Don’t eat anything till about 30 minutes after you are done with the day’s Yoga exercises.

Who is not in love with rains?

The delight-amplifying mechanism of Mother Nature induces clouds to pour down heavily in response to the roasting heat caused by the summers. Mystic hues caused by a riot of raindrops; nostalgic aroma of wet earth; water-logged parks with mud-smeared kids; sinking and floating pool of paper boats; window panes getting an eternal caressing from streams of showers; that feel of riotous water trickling down your hair; those facial gestures of a long-held prayer being answered; getting a kick in shearing a water-filled mud hole by speeding our vehicle over it; the mass-hugs and the abundant giggles; the momentary evanescence of worldly worries!!

Rains fulfill a missed connection between us and Mother Nature. I remember those spells of joyous feet-thumping in rain waters, those sprees of singing aloud with a bunch of friends while it rained as if there is no tomorrow. On the outer side, it may seem that rains convolute the orderly arrangements; however, in real, rains serve to make the things attain some patterns, and regain lost sheen. Rains join sky and earth, which otherwise never touch each other. With the interconnectedness of all the elements of Mother Nature, the world seems more fluid than ever when it rains. Oh I have been bitten so badly by the bug of rains! When would it rain in Delhi?

10 things to do before being hospitalized

No one likes to get admitted to the hospital; not even the most fire-eating kind of red-blooded geeks. But then let’s face the music of reality; most of us get admitted to the hospitals for one or the other bodily issues that has gone wrong. If you are heading to get admitted at a hospital for some elective procedure or treatment, it would help you a lot if you take a note of the below mentioned facts;

1. Make sure everyone in the family is clear of their roles.
2. Ensure to have a clear idea of expected financial obligations beforehand so that you arrange the entire amount well in time.
3. Act strong; the best clinical results are obtained when the patient has a tenacious mind and positive outlook.
4. Don’t leave any pile of works that would bother you while you are being headed to the operation theatre. Apply for sick leave well in advance and engage your colleagues to look after your work in your absence.
5. Know your rights and responsibilities as a patient. Times have changed and hospital policies have seen a quantum jump from those being practiced may be few years back.
6. Know about the physical limitations that you would be carrying home after your discharge from the hospital. This way you can plan for necessary arrangements in your house beforehand, saving yourself from a lot of worries.
7. Request your family members and friends to stick to the visiting time slot of the hospital for meeting you.
8. Ensure to circumspect every little thing related with your present illnesses. In case you think you have missed out telling a point to your doctor, do so at the first opportunity.
9. Don’t keep any negative thoughts. Avoid apprehensions and anxieties. Sleep well the night before.
10. Learn to find humor in every little thing and step out with a radiant confidence to regain health.

Experience 'Nothingness'

Most of us don’t feel in sync with the idea of sitting softly with a bare mind. For most of us the idea of evacuating our minds with any thought seems frightening, and seemingly impossible. If fact, this idea is often a blockade to any attempts to meditate or try exercises that advocate mindfulness. We are so absorbed in our own nests that attempts to see the world beyond it don’t really get our complete conscience working for it.

What often happens when you embark on to focus your thoughts, say on your breathing pattern or on a specific, and imaginary, point of light, is that you discover you are over and over again distracted and running off with stampeding thoughts. This is not something out of the world; it happens during the initial phases of our mind’s conditioning to know beyond what lays ahead our eyes. Distraction, in such settings, is not something that should deter you; distraction is the rule of the thumb which just signifies that you have stepped rightly on the voyage ahead. No one discovered God Particle without just like that.

The process of attempting to focus awareness and realizing that you are barking up wrong tree is priceless. At first this may seem a simple eye-opener, but progressively realizing that your thoughts do not denote your eternal self can be liberating. When you discover that thoughts navigate in a ceaseless flow, you can make choices about how you relate to these thoughts.  It would, solely, depend on you to choose the thoughts which you consider to be allies in your quest to self-realization. Which thoughts will you let pass by in a blink?  Which thoughts do you want to maneuver? Which thoughts are just fillers? Which thoughts carry keys to the bigger expeditions?

Mindfulness is not about suppressing your thoughts; its about holding a command over what enters your mind and what remains there. Make every moment a saga of conscientious awareness and you would witness abundant glorious patterns breathing frantically. Life is an awesome experience; you have the tools and you have the time – knowing the technique can bring a sea change in your perception of the inner world and the outer world.

9 qualities of a doctor

Illness is an unwanted acquaintance that knocks during the oddest of hours. It might fall unbeknownst to you, leaving you with little opportunity to think and react sensibly. Behavioral Sciences have established that a person is prone to think irrationally under stressful situations; more the stress, more the deviance from obvious logics. You must practice healthy habits; you must make friends with peaceful, fun loving people; you must not carry mental stress for extended hours; you must not take life in its face value; you must be judicious in selecting your doctor.

1. Your doctor must be experienced enough to be able to track down rarer clinical cases.
2. Your doctor must be an easy to talk to person. Snobbishness is a strict no no.
3. Your doctor’s sense of humor must be intact and flowing. Too much seriousness, in itself, is a disease.
4. Your doctor must not give you a quizzical look when you ask something that medical fraternity considers too obvious a piece of knowledge.
5. Your doctor must respect you, and your family. If you think that your inputs are not been treated properly by your doctor, may be its time to rethink about your choice.
6. Your doctor must never develop cold feet when you want him to discuss your case with one of his superiors/peers.
7. Your doctor must not be too self-worshipping; accepting shortcomings or ignorance would leverage one’s stature in the long run.
8. Your doctor must be radiating with confidence; a meek opinion is not always considered to be the unbiased one.
9. Your doctor must not try to use overtly complex medical jargons while communicating with you; unless of course you, yourself, belong to medical fraternity.