Keep your cactuses safe!

Relationships are like seeds – you need to nurture them. The more you care the healthier it grows but if you ignore or over expect it starts shivering from the roots and finally breaks own.

Let me tell you one observation – In case you are very happy (you are feeling very happy) there are high chances that the relationships which matter the most to you are working well. And the exact opposite falls when you are sad it is probably because the relationships you value a lot are not working well.

Everyone of must has deposited money in bank, right? Why can we withdraw money from bank – because we have deposited the money before. Similarly, you can expect back only when you have deposited into it!

This is normal human tendency that every person expects back from any bond that he is attached to. But can we make it simple – deposit so much that you never feel that your withdrawals will be excessive.

Few people are like the fresh flowers – they come, bloom, spread fragrance, dry off and leave. But some are like those cactuses and thorns which stay back no matter what, which stay back irrespective of the weather, irrespective of the time and situations. They just stay back. Keep those cactuses in your life forever. A life with these cactuses is more blessed than a day with fragrant rose.

Relationships require efforts – they require thoughtfulness, they require patience, understanding – most importantly they require time. You can not simply expect someone to climb the Everest in their first attempt to trek, you need constant practise. Same is the case with our human attachments – with time grows the bond.

Summing it up – I would just say – Keep your cactus safe! I am sure everyone has at least one such person in life – express it to them how special they are. Be for them whenever they are in need!


Smile and spread smiles

Advertisement

Dawn of Optimism

The Pandemic has spread its jaws tight in the second wave in India – attacking not only the physical health of the citizens but also affecting the mental fitness. 

Everyone out has lost someone either in the family or locality – which has just aired the fire of negativity. Deep inside all of us are craving for thoughts of affirmations, for positivity, for an ounce of hope towards better tomorrow! I couldn’t be luckier in choosing “Viktor Frankl’s” Man’s search for meaning randomly to get this little bit of “hope”

The author being a Nazi Concentration camp survivor has beautifully explained the psychological state of humans in every phases of life – through the ups and downs. Jotting down a few of them which actually threw light on the optimistic sight in me. (Hope it serves you right)

• One instance which an author recalls in a talk where he was shown the pictures of prisoners laying like the haystacks in a room on their sick days – prisoners suffering from the typhus epidemic wearing old rags as clothes resting their wounds on torn shoes – some bleeding and others searching for piece of bread in their torn pockets – the person showing the pictures to the author tried having pity on the conditions in which they survived on which the author’s reaction was surprising when he said that these were the happiest times as we could rest, we could laze and not go out and work. So you see it is all about the perception – every thing can have two perspectives – you need to find the happier one, the positive one.

• Another instance where he focuses on how the prisoners though in misery still had the humanity to think for the other one in the group.

• Hope – was a huge thing that the prisoners of camp were motivated for survival of every day that passed. The times when they were taken from one camp to another rose their hopes to live a better life with lesser pain. The “hope” that one day they will be free helped them survive through the most brutal tortures. (every camp always had an option for prisoners to suicide by touching the electric wire but they still chose to live each day in dreams of freedom)

• This is an extract from the book “I would like to mention a few similar surprises on how much we could endure: we were unable to clean our teeth, and yet, in spite of that and a severe vitamin deficiency, we had healthier gums than ever before. We had to wear the same shirts for half a year, until they had lost all appearance of being shirts. For days we were unable to wash, even partially, because of frozen water-pipes, and yet the sores and abrasions on hands which were dirty from work in the soil did not suppurate (that is, unless there was frostbite). Or for instance, a light sleeper, who used to be disturbed by the slightest noise in the next room, now found himself lying pressed against a comrade who snored loudly a few inches from his ear and yet slept quite soundly through the noise”

All I wanna point out through this blog is – The pandemic has 100s of negative effects but then it is we who are gonna pull ourselves out from this negativity. We can and have to stand up for our families, our friends, our colleagues!! It is gonna be tough each day to stand the scenes of people struggling for oxygen, relatives queing up to bury their near ones but then let us stand tougher against all this. Material help is provided to the country from every corner of the globe, but mental support has to be given by us – you need not have huge bank balance, all you need is a positive mind. If you only can pull your close circle from sinking into dark thoughts – you have done your part of the job! In no time the chain of smiles and hopes for healthier tomorrow will spread. 

We are comparatively in a better situation then the people who have survived the world wars, the concentration camps, the Vietnam War and our very own Indian freedom struggle. Back then it was physical torture which is beyond our imagination. Today all we have to do is simple things – wear a mask, avoid gatherings, stay home. We have Netflix, we have thousands of books online which are unread, we have our families with us unlike the wars where families were parted and all what people had was closed gas chambers to threaten them with their death.

Spread the word – stay home, stay safe and stay positive! Very soon there will be a new dawn of health and happiness!