The Power of Words Unleashed: Mastering the 5 Phases to Harness Their Impact!

We’ve already discussed awareness in various blogs, and we’ve even discussed “intent“. Then come – words and actions. (I’ve written about action too). In this blog, we’ll see how we can unleash the power of words for our growth in the awareness timeline.

Priming Effect

Before we continue further and see the specifics, we must know what applies in general. The power of words is mainly to induce a certain behavior in an individual or a group. Scientists call it the Priming effect. [Priming effect can be of varied stimuli, here we are referring to the same effect but only of the words]. Ex: If the words – Towel, Shower, and Shampoo are given, and the fourth word is given as SO_P, we’re more likely to read it as Soap. Whereas, if the words, bread, juice, and milk are given together with the same last word given as SO_P, we are likely to read it as soup.

Basically, the power of words is to make you think of something you know. The effect of it on our behavior is not to be neglected. Modern marketers manipulate us through this same technique and make us behave to their profits. We’ve seen the usage of this wisdom in various cases – We’ve heard how empowered the Vaanaras/monkeys grew by sheer chanting “Jai Shree Ram”, or how the prince Uttara Kumara even though he couldn’t face his first battle well, he died a martyr, he believed himself to be a great warrior simply through affirmations, but of course, it also shows us that only is not enough. Before that, in Mahabharatha again, Kunti, without knowing what he had brought home, instructed to share it among all the 5 brothers. The Pandavas married Draupadi not just to honor their mother, but also because Pandavas knew the power of words. They knew the influence of words on our thoughts, and eventually our emotions and behaviors. Or at least, Yudhishtira knew. Of course, he could have chosen to discard the word, and rise above the power of words, [Planes of reality] but he didn’t, well, we all make mistakes. Pandavas too were mere humans. One of the finest, but still humans.

Anyway, I mentioned these scenarios because, yes even though not enough on its own, the influence is there, but also,  we have the choice to rise above the power of words too.

Role of the power of words in the awareness timeline (Growth)

It can be a huge hindrance if we’re mindlessly spilling words out of latent tendencies or beliefs we smeared ourselves with the absence of awareness.

People say “Reading books is not my thing..” when they haven’t tried reading at least a dozen books on the topics they’re interested to know about. [Of course, most don’t know what they’re interested in either, so that’s a hard ask on them]. People say “Meditating does not work..” or “Meditation or any kriya practice is a waste of time, it’s a hokum..” when they haven’t attempted sitting for at least 15mins a day for a few months. Or they say “Hi” when greeted with a “Namasthe”. If that’s the culture you belong to, no problem, otherwise, it’s a tragedy. If you’re discarding your own culture and history for a mere sense of “fitting in” or “being modern”, isn’t it utter foolishness?

Assuming you’re smarter than every monk, king, knowledge worker, or any individual for that matter, in fact, the cumulative collective intelligence of the past 6000+ years, isn’t that foolishness? Sure, you may have access to the internet now, and you may have all the fancy technology now, but what you’re gathering from it is what our ancestors have already realized and have accumulated. Not just accumulated, they’ve lived practicing it. Planets and their orbitary motions were calculated way before the telescope was invented, and you think you’re smarter than all of those previous generations combined?

I’m saying all this because the power of words is a tool. Why use it to inhibit our experience, awareness, and growth when you can use it to gain the same? Your words can provide a pretty good image of who you are. But even more importantly or dangerously, what you become is influenced by what and how you use words. Our ancestors knew this all along. Everything from the significance of mantras to speaking less/only what mattered, they practiced this wisdom as a lifestyle.

5 Phases to Unleash The Power of Words:

  1. Become highly mindful of the words you say to yourselves and others. Just this step, unlocks tremendous potential in you. Understanding of life explodes, as a result, you become humble and as a result, you see more and so on continuing the virtuous cycle. 
  2. Check whether your words match the awareness you have or it’s matching with the beliefs you’ve held unconsciously. Ex: if you think you are aware of being accountable is the right attitude for growth and are still complaining, then you are not aware of that wisdom. If you are aware, it must be practiced. By doing this, you understand yourself better. You’ll be able to see your tendencies and hence distinguish yourself from them and see yourself as is. Pretending/ using words to pretend does not help, in fact, it can backfire on your progress. Check out Chat GPT’s suggested questions to check your mindfulness with words here.
  3. Remove every word that does not mean anything to you. Remove every word that is not who you are. Ex: If you’re a person who does not want to stand for body-shaming, then there should be no space for “you’ll be blown away with the wind”, “you look fatter” or “the fat guy”, etc. By doing this, you are practicing the wisdom you’ve gained. If you’re not able to do this, that means, you’ve not realized that wisdom yet. By this phase, you’ll be uttering only truth, and nothing more.
  4. Look for words that are used merely out of trend and replace them with words of your origin. This step is again, acting on your gained wisdom, but also to be smart about how we proceed in life. Instead of being unaware of tendencies and mindlessly doing whatever, we choose to mindfully be the way we are designed to be. It’s like realizing to use Ferrari as a racecar instead of a farm tractor or vice-versa. In other words, we are using our past as a tool to grow. We are using our tendencies for growth. By this phase, your identity and your words match.
  5. Then there is Silence. Automatically after being through all the mentioned points, a sound of silence sets in, inside one’s heart. This is an indicator that whatever you’re doing is working. Enjoy that silence. Continue to practice it, along with the 4 points mentioned above.

The power of words is an incredibly powerful tool if one is able to culture it. All along these phases, you’ll have realizations. Write them down. Be it digitally or in a journal. Practice whatever you realize, soon there’ll be more realizations. It seems cyclic, but it is also spiral, which means it may seem repetitive, but there’s growth.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Monthly Wrap! (May 2023)

Did you know I write a blog every week? Well apparently, I’ve been writing for 109 weeks now! If you knew I write and if you’ve read some of my blogs, I would like to say I’m grateful! Thank You for reading.

If you did not know, or if you’ve missed reading some of my blogs, I’ve made a list of My Top Blogs here, to begin with. http://sanathkumarnaibhi.com/my-top-blogs/

And for further reading, you can find the latest & all my blogs at https://sanathkumarnaibhi.com/blog

Also, please drop your suggestions or ideas for blogs that you would like to read.

Thank You!

Monthly Wrap (April 2023)

Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include:

  1. Blogs of the month
  1. Book recommendations
  2. What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
  3. Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
  4. My writing journey/ my book updates

Here’s the “Monthly Wrap!” of May 2023.

Blogs I wrote this month:

  1. Blog 106: Redesign your life
  2. Blog 107: Play -An essential part of life that’s forgotten
  3. Blog 108: Arise with Awareness

Book Recommendations:

This month I could read 5 books:

  1. Tuesday with Morrie
  2. 100M Offers
  3. Discipline is destiny
  4. Liminal thinking
  5. A million thoughts

What I curated:

Movies:

  1. Mitchells vs machines
  2. Murder mystery
  3. The boy who harnessed the wind
  4. Murder mystery 2
  5. Elephant whisperers
  6. Yes day
  7. Matilda
  8. The Magician’s Elephant

Trailers:

  1. Oppenheimer | New Trailer
  2. The Flash – Official Trailer 2 (I didn’t like it because I liked Barry Allen from the series)

Series:

Young Sheldon S6 (ongoing)

YouTube videos:

  1. Advocate J Sai Deepak Opens Up On CAA, Modi & India’s Democracy | AJIO Presents TRS
  2. How NASA Reinvented The Wheel
  3. The Fastest You Can Drive! | It Happens Only in India | National Geographic
  4. Building My DREAM YouTube Studio! (In a WAREHOUSE)
  5. The Insane Engineering of MRI Machines
  6. Why Lightbulbs Might Be The Best Invention Ever
  7. 5 things every Hindu must do | J Sai Deepak
  8. How Civil War Starts? Turn India Into Islamistan | #LebanonExodus

Reminders & reflections to ponder:

  • Vairagya increases as clarity increases. And one cannot reverse that.
  • Nothing and everything are not two things, it’s the dual nature of the same thing.
  • One need not fix a Sunday on one’s discipline/routine. Sunday is bound to happen naturally.
  • A piece of paper should unleash you not bind you.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Arise with Awareness!

In the blog The Tragic Drama, we saw the tragic side of this skewed system. And even in the blog, Redesign your Life, we re-sensed its absurdity. And even in the last blog: Play – An essential part of life that’s forgotten, had the tinge that makes us feel that the system won’t let us be the best. In this blog, it’s time to do something about all that!

Of course, I cannot do that without reminding you again of the absurdity, which is mainly out of necessity for the context and impact of today’s topic. An engineering student, after studying for 4 years to be called an engineer, still has to go through some training, let’s say for 1 year, in the workplace he or she joins. And most of what they’ll be trained to do will be novel or at least seems totally different than what they’ve been taught throughout their 4 years course of education. So, why is it that 4 years isn’t enough for them to be “employed” (capable of doing the actual work) immediately without any further training or guidance? It may be because each company has different work needs and work interfaces. But why isn’t the capability to learn those systems taught by their course of education?

Can we fix it?

Ok, now let’s say you understood the system is messed up. But can we fix it? Ever? If I had to say a simple answer, then it would be “No”. Let me explain. Suppose, there is a new education system brought in, which includes all the training required to be employed immediately after the education course. Then would it solve the problem? No. How is that scenario any different from what it already is?

Because no matter what you do,

  1. No system can bring the best in all. “We are all wired differently.”
  2. Hierarchy becomes necessary when there is high supply and low demand. I mean, even though all engineering students are taught/trained with the same material, not everyone can be given the same job. Because obviously, the number of students graduating each year is way higher than the number of job postings available. So who gets the job then? One who is skilled with something else other than what the system has already taught. This implies that the student who makes himself valuable not relying on the system alone wins! Or if you’re at least the best cog in the machine rather than just a cog in the machine, then you’ll be valuable.

And that isn’t any different from the current scenario. After one is out of the education system, especially students who relied wholly on the system to upskill, employ and enrich them, are left with the devastating realization that they do not know the answers to two of the most important questions to further progress in their life:

  1. What am I good/great at? [Competence]
  2. What do I love doing? Or What work feels like Play to me? [Love/Passion/Play/Flow/Calling]

It’s the merge of these two, that provide one with the best job for them. But how could anyone know anything about themselves when the system is designed to make identical robots rather than unique human beings? They were given no tools for self-exploration/self-discovery, instead were only trained to harass their own memory to impose generic data and puke the same on answer papers. OMG, what’s the use of advancement in computers, their high-grade memory chips and processors? If a computer can know and/or do the same, why train humans to do the same? Of course, everyone must know basic arithmetic and science because that contributes to the lifestyle of an individual. But beyond that, what’s the use of irrelevant data ingested into the human brain?

So once we understand not only that the system is screwed but also that it’s almost impossible to set it right, we can think further into – acceptance –> accountability & responsibility –> intent and –> action.

Awareness & Acceptance

But acceptance, accountability, responsibility, etc, all of it, are nothing but sub-layers of awareness. When there is awareness, there is acceptance, there is accountability and responsibility, intent and action. If there is not, that means, there is no awareness.

It’s like the snake and the rope situation. Suppose in the dark, you touched something and you presumed it to be a rope. But when there’s light, you realize it to be a snake. Do you wait for your mind or heart or whatever to accept that it is a snake to act? You react immediately, right? Acceptance is immediate. In fact, acceptance is an unnecessary word in this process. That’s the same case for all these trends around self-care, self-acceptance, and self-love. When there is self-awareness, acceptance is irrelevant. Love is a natural state then. Acceptance is a word used when there is a subjective discussion, but awareness is completely objective – something is this or that, or in between, but it is very clear, that is awareness!

Awareness is the Key!

So, regardless of whether you choose to or are forced to be in or out of the system, awareness is the key to progress, and to live The life of fulfillment! Constantly seek awareness, like a bug. If you are suffering, that means you’re not seeing something, let that be your way of handling all life’s suffering – Ignorance is the cause of all suffering. And with that mindset, irrespective of your path, you’ll live a fulfilled life! I highly recommend reading my book – The Flower of Fulfillment, because this is for which it was written, awareness of what are the essential elements for a life of fulfillment.

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Play – An Essential Part of Life that’s Forgotten!

In the last blog, we were wondering how it would be if our work didn’t feel like work, but like play instead. But what is play? Why is it so important? If work is like play, then great, but if not, how can we add play or adapt that kind of lifestyle? We’ll be answering all these questions in this blog.

 

What is Play?

Play (here) is any activity that induces fun and a balanced state called Flow. If you didn’t know, Flow is a state at which one forgets everything except the activity at hand and gets deeply immersed in it.

 

When we say fun, we assume it is entertainment. Yes, play is entertaining, but not all kinds of entertainment can be considered Play.

 

Play can be called Active Entertainment where one is actively challenged physically and/or mentally slightly above their comfort zone and yet there is so much excitement/fun [Examples for Active Entertainment: Badminton, Abstract music played on any musical instrument] rather than Passive entertainment where one just consumes entertainment in various forms that usually consists of other people engaged in active entertainment – Play. Any form of sports is of course Play. And like Albert Einstein once said: “Creativity is intelligence having fun!”, so anything involving creativity is Art, and hence any art form is “Play”. [Will write a dedicated blog for Creativity, or being creative or Art as an essential part of life. etc soon] [ I thought I made up those words active and passive entertainment, but no they’ve already been discussed in other blogs]

 

Of course, we can be enthralled by passive entertainment too, thanks to our “mirror” neurons. But not as much as what “Play” brings to the table.

 

Why is it so important?

Before we see why it is so important, we must understand that Play has been simply necessary for the survival of the human race. Not just humans, naturally, every species has Play intertwined with its daily routine. Have you observed how cats play when they are filled? They’ll find something and just start playing. Apparently, for cats, even a dried leaf is enough to start playing. Yes, literally, anything from dried leaves to empty paper bags is more than enough for them to do so.

 

For our Super early ancestors, Play, not only contributed to physical activity and in turn physical health, but also, it provided mental equilibrium and a sense of reward after a successful hunt. Also, it was and is still an activity that makes humans social. Not just maintaining physical, mental, and social health, Play has also been responsible for our learning, and expression and hence the tremendous growth of humans in all aspects – everything from scientific inventions to music and blockbuster movies through which we express ourselves and all that we are today.

 

How can we adopt “play” into our lifestyle?

Artists and sportspersons are the fortunate ones here to have chosen Play as their work. However, it is possible for one who is not an artist or a sportsperson to still inculcate Play in one’s life. When cats can, why not humans? So, here are some pointers to help with that:

  1. Observe your tendencies and try to pick out a few activities that seem fun to you.
  2. Arts and/or Sports. Or we can also see it as Mental or physical, respectively. It’s best to have a blend of both of such activities.
  3. Passive entertainment can also help you induce Play. For example, listening to music can make you dance.

 

I’m an artist, I get more than enough “Play”. Still, sometimes, I choose to play with a sponge ball just nudging it with my feet and wandering around the living room. The only rule is that the ball must not touch the framed tiles. And then there is our cat Buddy (he’s 1.5 years old now), who I play with too.

 

Anyway, by this blog, all I intend to do is provoke & let you think and adopt “Play” in your lifestyle!

 

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Redesign Your Life!

When was the last time you read a few pages from a non-fiction book? When was the last time you sat, eyes closed with your mind as the only company? When was the last time you wrote how you feel or why and what you’re stressed about or how grateful you are and what are the aspects of your life that you are grateful for? When was the last time you moved your body to positions that added to your health? The right answer ideally is today morning. What is the one thing that you do daily other than eat, sleep, cleanse, and work? Is that a self-building and self-empowering habit or a self-destructive habit?

We all know how we need to live life and what we need to do in order to do so. It’s just that most of us have forgotten the big picture and we live out of compulsion, either due to the herd mentality, pressure due to the system’s culture, or due to internal tendencies/compulsions.

Let me illustrate. Suresh works at a typical corporate 9-to-5 job, looking at numbers that mean nothing to him, it is not fulfilling to him but he pushes through to work because he loves what he gets paid. He even thinks he loves his job because of that or because he blindly believes there isn’t any other way he could earn the same amount of money or even more doing a job that is more fulfilling. Anyway, 9-to-5 is 8 hours, that is 1/3rd of a day. And hence if he stays as an employee for another 30 years, he’d be devoting 10 years of his life to building a company not of his own, probably not of his country even. If one sleeps for 6hrs every night, that is 7.5 years of sleep in the span of 30 years. Eliminating eating and self-cleansing activities (2hrs/day), we’ll be left with 8hrs per day, that is, around 10 years over the span of 30 years. And then we have another huge chunk of time that’s eating away our lives, that is mobile screen time. People, on average spend 2-4 hours on their mobile phones. [Unless of course if you’re already tracking and being mindful about your mobile screen time. My average mobile screen time is 40mins. Min. being 21mins, max. 1hr 25mins. Btw, if you’re not already doing it, track your mobile screen time using the in-built digital well-being app now on most smartphones. If not, there are third-party apps you can try too]. Let’s say Suresh uses his mobile for 2hrs/day, then that amounts to 2.5 years of screen time over the span of 30 years. So that’ll leave us around 7 years left to live, calculated for the span of 30 years.

You get the point I’m trying to convey through this illustration, right? Out of 30 years of “existing”, if one is down to only 7 years of deliberate/conscious living, isn’t this a tragedy?

[ If you’re still not convinced of the “Tragedy”, read the blog: The Tragic Drama]

People are ready to pour hours of time and other human resources into building another’s company but they are too “busy” to devote their time & energy to building themselves into their highest potential.

But there is a way to leave this kind of simply existing and choose conscious, and a life of fulfillment. It is definitely possible and attainable to all.

  1. First of all, this clarity of the big picture is required. Btw, it’s not finished yet.
  2. We saw how much time one may have left in proportion to other tasks. But then we need to think about Energy management. Even though you have time, you may not have enough physical or mental energy to enjoy that time. For example, Suresh may come home at 6 PM [oh, by the way, we didn’t calculate any commute time to his workplace & I’m already wondering if he lives at all]. He may have another 4-6 hours left before he sleeps. But what kind of enthusiasm he’ll have if he’s already exhausted at the workplace? That’s when he jumps into the loop of scrolling his iPhone.
  3. And then there is the mortal nature of us humans that we need to consider. Who knows you’ll live up to 53 years? (assuming Suresh got his job when he was 23). What if you die while working at the age of 30? Or 40? Then you’ll be living even less right? Even though the ratio remains the same.
  4. I’m not suggesting everyone must switch to jobs that are not 9-to-5. It’s not just about time. Doctors for example work more than 8hrs, maybe even more than 12 hours, but the work they are doing will bring them a sense of purpose and fulfillment because they’re being of great service to people. Of course, this is assuming a genuine doctor who charges reasonably. But yes, switching jobs is also what one must consider. If the job is not fulfilling to you, and you don’t feel like you’re serving enough, then maybe you should find that job that works for you. We saw what a huge part of our lives work takes, what if that huge chunk of time didn’t feel like work at all? What if that was your deliberate way of living? What if your self-growth and professional growth become the same thing? Then it would really tip the scale towards a conscious and fulfilling life, right?
  5. If we have to tip the scale towards a conscious and fulfilling life, other than the job/work choice, we must give time to ourselves. Self-improvement is self-empowerment. We must make time for Meditating, learning (reading or listening to books and lectures), AnushTAnAs, writing, and other practices that help our growth.
  6. We must try to become conscious of each activity. Of course, this is easier said than done. That is we must focus on the previous point- trying to make time for such conscious/mindful activities.
  7. Also, one must become mindful of other activities that are eating away from our lives and eliminate them entirely if possible or avoid them as much as possible or reduce the total time and energy spent on such activities.

Coming back to the first point, If Suresh knew that he was dedicating years of his life to building an MNC company, wouldn’t he think of building a career on his own? A freelancer, or a company of his own? And if he realized all the above points, would his lifestyle still be the same? Would it be money-centric or growth-centric? Wouldn’t he be aligned to serve more? Wouldn’t he be more fulfilled?

We already know this, it’s just we may have forgotten. It’s time to realize!

This may be hard for some of you, because of the choices you’ve already made due to various reasons. But all those reasons, even though varied, have risen from a single node, that is ignorance. Realizing you are in the dark and moving towards light may not be easy but it will be worth it! Start from Scratch, Think, think enough & think again and align & redesign your life to live to the fullest!

Thank You
Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Monthly Wrap! (April 2023)

Did you know I write a blog every week? Well apparently, I’ve been writing for 105 weeks now! If you knew I write and if you’ve read some of my blogs, I would like to say I’m grateful! Thank You for reading.  

If you did not know, or if you’ve missed reading some of my blogs, I’ve made a list of My Top Blogs here, to begin with. http://sanathkumarnaibhi.com/my-top-blogs/

And for further reading, you can find the latest & all my blogs at https://sanathkumarnaibhi.com/blog

Also, please drop your suggestions or ideas for blogs that you would like to read.

Thank You!

Monthly Wrap (April 2023)

Monthly Wraps are blogs that are up on the last Sunday of the month which include:

  1. Blogs of the month
  2. Book recommendations 
  3. What did I curate? Resources I’m binging on – of course, I’ll be choosing the major ones. Just a brim of how much I curate!
  4. Reminders & Reflections to ponder – Of various of my reflections of the month, I’ll choose one or a few. And some re-realized reminders!
  5. My writing journey/ my book updates 

Here’s the “Monthly Wrap!” of April 2023.

Blogs I wrote this month:

  1. Blog  101: Read this when you’re feeling low!
  2. Blog 102: 4 Essential Tools for Mental Health Recovery
  3. Blog 103: Nurturing a Mentally Healthy Environment

Book Recommendations:

This month I could read 6 books:

  1. Living Untethered
  2. A Whole New Mind
  3. Eight Upanishads Volume 2
  4. Energize your mind
  5. Practical Vedanta
  6. Never split the difference

What I curated:

Movies:

A man called Otto

Series:

Young Sheldon S6

YouTube videos:

  1. Quantum Computers, explained with MKBHD
  2. Explaining concrete while getting buried in it
  3. AI Made this VLOG
  4. Traveling to Europe for the ARRI Headquarters SUPERTOUR!!… and some durability Tests
  5. MOLTEN GLASS VS Prince Rupert’s Drop – Smarter Every Day 285
  6. Too much slide whistle (don’t watch)

Reminders & reflections to ponder:

  • You are the embodiment of the truth you speak
  • It’s suffering for sure anyway. What you can opt though is whether the suffering was deliberately chosen or not, what kind you take on, and how rapidly you can take on and exhaust your quota.
  • You may be suffering an Upgrade
  • If there’s realisation, there is gratitude, if there is gratitude, there is service.
  • Don’t try to recreate someone’s success. Whether you succeed or fail, either way, that  leaves you at an unfulfilled state.
  • Every end is a beginning. Once this is realized, the journey becomes smoother.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Nurturing a Mentally Healthy Environment

This month, I’ve tried to write my thoughts (at least whatever came to me then) on mental health. We saw Blog 101: Read this when you’re feeling low!, Blog 102: 4 Essentials Tools for mental health recovery, and Blog 103: Protecting our Mental Health & Mindset. In this blog, let’s dive into how can we build the best environment for mental health.

  1. Building a Non-comparative environment: Major changes can come about by just dealing with one aspect – comparison. But there are a lot of changes we need to bring in order to eliminate or at least reduce this comparative environment. Here are some:
    • Educated to become unique individuals. Rather than trying to load the same set of irrelevant data on all the students and expecting them all to turn out great within the same metric, the education system should be transformed in a way that supports the development of uniqueness within each student. One of the foremost intents of such an education system will be to make students into competent learners, not just of any knowledge, but mainly the knowledge of the self. Once they learn to learn, about themselves and the world, students can easily figure out what it is that brings them fulfillment. Simply said, not everyone needs to become a doctor, engineer, lawyer, CA, or journalist. What an individual becomes should be a more deliberate choice than a choice that is highly and complexly influenced by the norms of society. We may not be able to change the laws of the nation, but we as individuals can choose to stay out of the system, and parents can choose to homeschool their children and stop comparing their kids and their test scores with other kids. Or even the value of salary package of the other with their own child’s. We can encourage our friends and acquaintances to find their uniqueness and work on it instead of struggling in a system they don’t fit in.
    • LIFE Aligned. Once we are educated as stated above, we’ll automatically move towards what actually fulfills us. Instead of focusing on money and fame, we’ll focus on the stillness within, health, wisdom, love, freedom, and self-mastery overall. When there are social gatherings, the topics of conversations will be such things as – Did you meditate today? How long? What is the latest book you read? Do you think there is a connection between us and the universe? Instead of gossip like “That girl has an x lakh package, she’s doing good”, or “That guy is the best, he has 10.3 million followers on Instagram”. 
    • Deliberate Choices. When you work on LIFE alignment, you tend to move towards LIFE by deliberate choice, not by compulsion. And that can be a major paradigm shift in one’s life. It’s by living mindlessly and compulsively that we’ve made our world a battleground of comparativeness. If each individual thinks with his educated mind as mentioned above, he or she will rise to his/her best self. 
    • Being mindful of Social media’s effects. As mentioned in the last blog, social media is contributing to the game of comparison more than anything. I don’t have the Instagram app installed on my phone, and I’ve set a 5 minutes timer on YouTube on my phone. If I have to watch more YouTube, I watch on other devices, like TV or my PC. The timer helps you remind yourself and be mindful of what you’re consuming. I’m not saying you should also do the same. However, when I ask or sometimes see the screen time of my friends and my family members, in most cases, social media consumes most of one’s screen time. On average, people are hooked to social media for at least 3hrs, extending up to 6 or 7 hours. Ideally, the Instagram or Facebook, etc app itself must provide an auto-timer that shuts off itself after a certain time period of usage (10-15mins). But that won’t happen, because all that those private companies desire is financial growth year by year. They need you hooked for even longer durations. So what can we do? If uninstalling the app is not an option, then we can set our own timers and be mindful of our social media usage. We can choose to mute stories/statuses of selected people or all people so that we are exposed to fewer situations where we start comparing our materialistic state with others. We can choose to hide the social media apps on our phones so that we add extra steps, hence extra hard to get to those apps. 
  2. Compare to Get Better: If we can become enough self-aware, we can mindfully choose to utilize our instinct to compare to yield “good”. And this can happen only if you’re focusing on a person’s values, virtues/qualities, or skills and not on the result itself. For example, a person might be rich because of his ability to envision and execute, we can try to adopt those qualities in ourselves to get better at those areas. Sure, you might argue that you have seen a lot of rich and famous people who don’t deserve it as they don’t have any such quality of becoming so. What we can do then is, observe what else is in them, what good values, virtues/qualities, or skills you find in them that you’d like to have. Work towards that, if it is necessary for your ideal self, contemplating the big picture. In short, train yourself to see the good in others and try to implement that good. Do not compare is good advice if and when one is taking it subjectively and feeling low about oneself. But comparing can definitely be a great tool to learn and grow if one can see objectively and execute on the learnings.
  3. It is not funny: You might feel great pulling down the other, but imagine someone doing the same to you. Your joke may not apply or hurt you, but do you think you have no aspect that can be joked about? Are you that perfect? One might argue that comedy is art, laughter is medicine, etc. All of it is true, but it is not at all comedy in the first place if any aspect of another person is used as the subject and the other person is hurt intentionally or otherwise. Teasing or bullying or whatever you call it that uses another person as a subject of comedy in a conversation, is clearly not ‘comedy’. Professional comedians know or at least must know that it is comedy only when there is only laughter and no one is hurt after the joke.
  4. Awareness: Obviously, there isn’t a problem in the world that I don’t think can be solved through awareness. We need to ensure there is enough prominence given to self-awareness in every individual so that even when people talk ill, it doesn’t bother them as much because they know themselves better. And we must also be aware that a human is a dynamic being. We are the amalgamation of so many things, so we must be mindful while generalizing or talking with a single scope of view. A student can also be an artist. An artist can also be a teacher. A teacher will be an achiever. A person may be all of these. And most important of all, every person is a spiritual being. Everyone is on the same journey as you. Having this awareness, we can be better at handling bad words and behaviors by others and our own. And through it, nurture a mentally healthy environment.
  5. Art vs Content: Even this is another adverse effect of social media. But through awareness, can be dealt with better. As mentioned in the last blog, we must remind ourselves and be mindful of what we consume. And the continuation of that step would be to encourage art, of all forms throughout the world. So what is art vs content? Simply said, all art can be content, but not all content is art. Essentially, whatever content that’s not art is noise. If we need to make a mentally healthier environment, we need to reduce the noise and increase the art people can consume. So what is art? That is probably a discussion for another day.

These are just some ways we can do it. Let me know what else we can do collectively to nurture such an environment.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

Protecting our mental health & mindset

In the last 2 blogs, we saw tools to overcome not-so-good times or low mental states. In this blog, we’ll think about protecting our mental health and mindset.

In this modern digital era, protecting one’s mental health has become and is becoming very crucial. The world around us is rapidly evolving, but we feel like we’re not enough, thanks to social media now that it’s very easy for us to fall into the trap of comparing each other’s lives. And that has led to a lot of mental health issues. Many youngsters especially, as I’ve noticed, who’ve been through the conventional education system, not aware of the big picture, are failing to accept the reality due to their incompetence, which is the result of complete reliance on the skewed system. ( Read the blog: Tragic Drama).

And in this age, not only are we comparing and feeling disappointed but sometimes we tend to think about achieving something through the hack‘s path – we tend to overlook and give up on our integrity and other important aspects of our life for increments in mere metric measures like money and fame. The path of truth & Dharma is the harder one and requires a lot of effort on one’s part. Due to this, we may start questioning truths and our strongly held beliefs like “Good begets good”, “Dharmo rakshathi rakshithaha”, etc. And that’s why protecting our mindset has also become very incredibly important.

So, here are a few ways we can protect our mental health and mindset:

  1. Remove negative person, words, and actions. Here, “negative” implies anything that makes you feel utterly helpless & uninspired afterward. Avoid such people, words, and actions. This is a key factor in protecting our mental health and mindset. If it’s a family member with whom you stay, make them understand clearly that their words or behavior is making you unhappy. Ask them if you’re happiness is not their priority. They’ll usually say the opposite, then tell them, if you want me to be happy, please stop doing that. Remember, as Robin Sharma says, you can speak whatever you want as long as it is kind. So make clear to them what brings happiness to you. Be mindful of the words you use in both the conversations with yourself and with others. And beware of actions that are not a conscious choice.
  2. Accept through Awareness. Some people choose to be hurtful to others with their words or actions. It has become their nature. Accept that. It is in no way depicting your weakness or lack of whatever they’re trying to imply. This is for your secondary or tertiary circle of people, not the closest ones. For the closest ones, as mentioned in the previous point, make them clear about what behavior of theirs makes you stressed. Remember, protecting our mental health and mindset is far important than the relationships that are being a threat to the same.
  3. Consume “healthy”.  Not just food, be mindful and observe what you consume both physically and mentally because our mind repeats what it consumes. Mainly, what content you consume. Be it in the format of videos, blogs, newspapers, podcasts, books, or movies. If you can, avoid the newspaper totally. To have context, you can browse the news once a month or so if needed. 
  4. Remove the comparison environment. Uninstall apps like Instagram. You may choose to download it whenever you want to post something and uninstall it immediately afterward. Or if you’re an artist, I recommend hiring a social media manager so that you don’t ever have to use social media (you may install once a month if you feel like to kill some time immediately uninstall after a few minutes or an hour at Max.) because especially you as an artist cannot afford to be thinking about how other’s lives are way better than yours when you need to be thinking good thoughts, ideas that lead to great art. Again, protecting our mental health and mindset is far important than keeping track of the wellness of the people that we know.
  5. Know your priorities & Which is the wisest choice? Wisdom or fandom? Mental health or whining? Present or Future? I believe my book – The Flower of Fulfillment will help provide clarity as to what aspects are essential to a life of fulfillment.
  6. Visit positivity. It may be a person or a place. Which person that you know of is a lot wiser, creative, successful, free, and overall fulfilled than you are? Go & meet that person if possible. Or, you can chat or call that person too. What places that you know of had a positive effect on you in your previous visit? Go visit that place. If you are blessed to be born in the land of Bharath, you know we have a lot of consecrated spaces. Visiting such places, especially places that resonate with you, i.e, places that you like, can do a lot for one’s mental health and mindset.
  7. Replace whining with Gratitude. Gratitude is a super powerful tool in dealing with mental health and mindset. Having a daily habit of gratitude journaling or prayer is good but what is more important is to remember to switch to gratitude when one’s mind starts to tend towards compulsive, comparing, and complaining.

If you’re in a low mental state right now, I recommend you read the last 2 blogs ( Blog 101: When you’re feeling low, read this!, and Blog 102: 4 Essential Tools For Mental health recovery) and then re-read this blog. And as I mentioned in the last blog too, if you’d like to share your situation and reflect on it together, please feel free to ping me.

Thank you

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

4 Essential Tools for Mental Health

In the last blog, I gave away a list of insights/learnings/realizations I had gathered over a long time. That list can be helpful when you’re in a not-so-good or low time. Depending on your situation, you’ll find particular insight very helpful. In this blog, however, we’ll see what that list looks like when simplified to its core.

  1. Awareness is light. If there’s pain, that means there’s ignorance. Awareness is the only antidote.  If you are suffering, that means you’re not seeing something. Let that be your way of handling all life’s suffering – Ignorance is the cause of all suffering. And with that mindset, you’ll live a fulfilled life! [ Suggested Read – Be a Bug, Hardships & Pain, Understanding Advaita – Part 6 ]
  2. “You are not that”. One more insight that one must remember when they’re in not-so-good times/when they’re feeling low is that “You are not that”. This is the reality of existence. Everything is one. Or at least, you must know that you are not your personality, you are not your work, you are not your mind and body and hence you are not anything that is the direct aspect of your mind and body. However, to ensure this does not lead to the build-up of our ego and destruction of ever-abundant curiosity and humility, what I do is, at the time of low, I think in 2 directions. One, how could I have not gotten into this situation? If not this time, how can I avoid it the next time if possible? What is the learning/insight/realization that I must take away from this situation? How can I grow from this? Two, say to yourself – “I’m not this persona, so I’m ok to just observe what comes by. The situation moves along, I’ll just observe”. Then the situation has no effect on you, at least ideally. It gets to that point only through practice. Since it is the ultimate realization, it may take entire lifetimes, but nevertheless, it is very useful to be on that path and keep practicing. 
  3. Work is an antidote. Sometimes, we do not what we’re going through. We don’t know why we are sad, or angry, or we don’t even what we are feeling even. Then, ideally, we should try to dissect and understand the situation by writing or by confessing. But we rarely do either. Not many people have the habit of writing and in this society, there are not many people who can just listen, objectively think and offer non-judgmental but kindly ask genuine questions to unravel ourselves even deeper. So, at those times when we can’t wait for awareness to dawn upon us and set us right, work, especially work that gives you a sense of meaning and fulfillment can be the only antidote. [Suggest read – 8 Simple Facts that can help you beat Resistance!, Viveka- The Superpower of Objective Thinking ]
  4. Move. The essence of all the above three points can be seen through this point. Move on the awareness timeline, move through all the situations because you are not the situation or what the situation makes you feel or think you are, and move in terms of action. Lastly, move literally too. Exercise to move your physical body, pranayama to move your energy body, if required and possible, move your workplace to move within your mind, or even go for a short vacation. And once you know what works, make it a habit. [ Suggested Read – LIFE Alignment, 9 Habits that changed my Life! ]

Again, the list can be very helpful when one is at not-so-good or low times, so recommend it to anyone who may be in it right now. And as I mentioned in the last blog too, if you’d like to share your situation and reflect on it together, please feel free to ping me.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

When you’re feeling low, Read this!

This is my 101st blog, If you did not know, or if you’ve missed reading some of my blogs, I’ve made a list of My Top Blogs, to begin with. 

In this blog, let’s talk about the un-talked. It’s our not-so-good or low-feel or low times, sadness, depression even. I’m just another person, so I too have experienced these at varied levels.

Get ready. Let’s begin. This is going to get deep.

Buddha said, “Life is suffering”. Have you ever felt like that? Ultimately, if you leave space for nothingness, you’ll realize that that is all there is. There is nothing in this world other than YOU, the self. So, it’s obviously the natural state for every one of us to be in sadness or depression even, if we’re trying to search for something other than that.

In the world we are in, nobody seems to care about this reality, and that provokes our primitive brain to think about all the other things people seem to value – money, fame, expensive lifestyle, etc. We forget the life that’s in every moment. If you feel like “Life is suffering”, that means you just took a moment and separated yourself from your life to see the suffering throughout the process. Of course, it is true objectively that where there is desire, there is suffering. And we’re designed in such a way that we constantly desire. At the least, a hungry man desires to eat food. So, what can we do to make ourselves not feel “Life is suffering”?

If it is an immediate survival problem, definitely solve that by using both sides of your brain. But if it is a psychological problem, do not try to solve it externally, because the only way to solve it is through learning to let go. I’m not saying just let go of your desires. I’m suggesting you let go of the tendencies you have to cling to the “suffering” part of life. And you can do that after you become aware of the exact mechanism of that particular tendency of yours.

Here are some of my learnings from when I was in “not-so-good times”. This is personal, but I thought it might help many in “not-so-good” times. I’ve acquired them not now or in one day or in a year, but gradually through each of my “not-so-good times”.

When you’re feeling low. Remember this:

  1. Listen to your favorite music (for me, the legend – U Srinivas’s Mandolin. And I use this at my lowest point, thankfully it’s been a long time since I’ve been at that point). Music, especially, classical music has the power to restore you to your best self, after which you can try to think, rationalize, understand your situation, and let yourself back to the world at ease. This is a painkiller or a band-aid, but nevertheless, we need it to begin with when the pain is very intense.
  2. God is with you. [ If you do not believe in God, you can replace it with Universe. Ultimately, everything is one, so that should be enough to say you’re not alone ] This is not your first low feel. Remember how you overcame your previous low, remember there was light, and it was God who directed you, who is and gave the light. He was there for you back then, and he will be there for you now too! If this is your first low feel, then brace yourselves, there will be more! 
  3. Observe what you are thinking about. Are you thinking about your work or about the results you expect to miraculously happen? That answers why you’re feeling low. 
  4. Ignorance = Pain. Try to see what you’re not seeing, and from where the pain originates from. “This too shall pass” is true, but the other half is, “what are you gonna do about it?” Do you learn from what’s happening, or will you just feel the pain? Or worse, try to avoid pain by distracting yourself from it through external stimulants.
  5. Fight the resistance. [ I must keep creating, always.] [ This was one of my first personal discoveries ]. [Read the blog: 8 simple facts to beat resistance]. Get back to your routine, filled with these 9 Habits that changed my life.
  6. Moreover, Your ultimate intent is liberation! So, don’t fuss too much about the happenings in this materialistic world. Just practice, meditate, and serve.
  7. Not everything applies to you. You need not overthink unnecessarily because there exist planes of reality or in other words different levels/planes of truth. The higher you are in this hierarchy, the less you need to bother about the lower levels of truth. The truth that matters will be coherent/ remain the same at all levels. When you’re facing contradictions, this might help. But of course, this applies only if you’re moving with awareness towards LIFE, not when you’re trying to avoid something out of fear. (Fear is born of ignorance)
  8. Consider that you are experiencing low feelings because you’re not listening to what the universe is trying to say. Listen! And be grateful that soon you’ll be enlightened by a bit of truth, a bit of realization. You’ll realize a bit of either how your brain works or how life works or both even, who knows, get ready. Welcome the truth with grace!
  9. It’s none of your business. It is not your business to make suffering for yourself! And this also applies as it is not your business to interfere or get involved in other’s work paths.
  10. Everything is meaningless. Nothing matters. You don’t matter. No one matters. No matter how much you try to convince otherwise. When no one and nothing matters, that should not be the point of suffering, it should be liberating if you truly realize it.
  11. You’re probably expecting too much. And you know that desire is the cause of suffering. Remind yourself that you have an intent, not desire, so it cannot influence how you feel. Remember that Intent is process aligned, not result-oriented. 
  12. Have patience, and faith in the self.
  13. Time is uncontrollable. Patience again. We are trapped in time, yes. You desire the ultimate Wisdom, ultimate health, and ultimate freedom to do what you love & serve mastery to humanity. But it takes time. One step at a time. 
  14. All questions will be answered. But just not right now. The universe knows when you’re ready to realize a particular bite of truth. 
  15. Whenever you see yourself complaining about life being unfair. Ask yourself this, is life being unfair to you in providing you with a fulfilled life? Or is it just that you want some increment in merely a metric system? 
  16. Whenever things do not happen your way, you need to practice wisdom. You must take pleasantness from that process of just observing from a point.
  17. Enjoy your gifts. If you can be honest, you have everything. All that’s required to live a life of fulfillment. Acknowledge that abundance. Do not be bothered if someone else also has everything. So be it. You enjoy your gifts, that’s all. 
  18. You may be suffering an Upgrade. 

This list might become even longer in the future, with more lessons I’ve learned, but I wanted to not further postpone sharing this with you. Through this blog, I know I’ve barely tried to furnish the surface. If you’d like to share your situation and reflect on it together, please feel free to ping me.

Thank You

Sanath Kumar Naibhi

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