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!

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Be the light!

This is a series on “Protecting Mental Health” and every day you will have your dose of motivation to understand yourself and the people around you better.

Focus of today’s write up is “let us be there”

Every incidence has got a lesson and we need to learn from it! YES! We need to understand the reasons and remedies to it! Let us not be there for everyone – We have got specialized people for that, right? We have counsellors, we have psychologists, we have therapists its like we do have professionals to handle when things are beyond control.

What we can do is – let us just be there for people whom we cross our paths to. I am not asking you to be there at the cost of your own peace! Naa, not at all, but atleast we can make sure that our actions don’t hurt anyone. Our words don’t rip someone’s heart. It might happen that we aren’t in confirmation with the person sitting across the table, it might so happen that even after taking same efforts someone else has taken up a bigger promotion, it might happen that things just go upside down – but that gives us no right to start abusing or criticizing the other person. It was his share of success; it was his luck. It is okay to grow slow but it is not okay to grow at the cost of someone else’s unrest. You do not justify yourself when you sleep peacefully when someone else is facing inconvenience just because of you.

It is like the chain – you think for others, you be there for others and someone else returns it back to you! Life will get much simpler this way. We are all one community – we are all tied in knots of humanity. Let us be humans’ friends! Let us be there for every one and do our small bit to help the world be a better place to live in!

Tomorrow we will be learning as to “Why do we stress up?”

(You can always ping me on my Instagram (Aishwarya Jaju) to suggest topics or even reply back here in the comments or simply mail on – letsendthestigma1@gmail.com ! And if you find reading this helped you do share it!!)

Communication

This question peeped through my mind all the while throughout the day as I was sitting on the first bench of my Orientation Programme before starting my articleship days “As to why this 35 hours are a necessity when all you do here is just speak, chatter all round and nothing else?”

The question hovered me even on the last day and I wondered when will it be answered. And yes! It was answered rightly on the very first day of my articleship (where I was interviewed before, which as well included communication skills – because the interviewers didn’t scrutinize my results deeply, all they were interested is the way I present myself). It was my first day of articleship where I was accompanied by my senior and colleagues, and I was handed over a file to compare the TDS as per books, TDS certificates along with form 26AS. I was blank because all this was read in books but I never knew how to download 26AS, neither was I thorough with the accounting software. I kept staring at the files for a while with an awkward look till my senior came and with the bossy voice instructed me – “If you aren’t aware of things, ask for help and start working immediately!!” And then, I understood why was OP conducted, those 35 hours did work miracles and I could get through things.

Basically, not only on the office desk but at every platform communication plays crucial role. Giving you an example how effective communication helps you to make the listeners visualize better and in turn it makes the process of understanding the facts better. Let us just compare – and ask yourself which sounds better and conveys better.
1st way – I started my morning with coffee
2nd way – I opened the chilly winter morning by treating myself with a steaming hot aromatic coffee.

I am sure the second way makes you feel the situation right. Same happens in our teams while working, if we can convey the ideas well, we can convince well and gradually that affects our career growth. There are many ways through which we can be effective communicators like effective listening, reading of facts and having knowledgeable content to share in the right manner with the RIGHT TONE (very important when you are in a verbal conversation)
Simple way to start can be add minute details to your observation and these will be automatically added to your words.

Speak sensible and Spread your ideas.

Corona and Doctors!!!!

He was travelling back to India nearly after some 18 months! He was going to see his ailing mom, his darling wife and recently graduated sister after so many days, weeks and months. There on the airport waiting in the queue to get the primary check-up done which was mandatory for every international flight passenger due to recent epidemic outbreak of CORONA, he just happened to sneeze and not to his surprise this time his sneeze accompanied him with all eyes looking at him as if he was a culprit in the town, there was no bless-you after the sneeze anymore! People just shifted apart from him, his own family members who were waiting for him were not so eager anymore and insisted on to see the hospitals before. People had concerns of their kids, their families back at home, their future, their health and the list continue! No one wanted this man even in a meter’s radius!

The only person who came and touched was a simple masked doctor, well he too had a wife waiting at home for the night’s dinner, his children waiting to share the day’s stories with him, parents who looked up to him as their support to old age. He too was concerned about his health but still he stepped forward to take this man to a cabin where detailed checks were to be done!
Why this incidence!!??

We see fluent attacks on doctors happening all round the country, there are huge break outs done at their dispensaries or hospitals just because of a natural death of their closed one! Doctors are not GOD!! They are just a medium through which we have hopes to get cured well, through which we see a better and easy lifestyle, they do all they can to save a life but it isn’t magic – that a doctor touches a person and woohoo!! All is done right!!
They are humans, it is a fact that sometimes there are errors and, in their profession, a slightest error costs a life and so they are normally people who are much sincere and committed to their profession! All I want to convey to all of you reading this is – they too have a family back where they are needed, they have never backed out on their responsibility – be it midnights or be it wee-mornings! They have sacrificed their personal lives as well for the betterment of the society! So, as a human being let us be a little sensitive as well and thank them for all they have done and will be doing! Respect doctors – because if they fall short in committing their time and sincerity towards us, epidemics like Corona, Swine flu will be more of disasters for entire human race!!

Proud to be a daughter of two highly committed doctors and also associated with number of doctors directly or indirectly!! Thank you for all your efforts and honest advices which saved 100s of lives till now!!

Zindagi

इंसान जो आता है वो एक न एक दिन वापस लौट जाता है

बस्स इस बीच मैं हर किसी के पास कुछ समय होता है

जिंदगी के नाम से जानते है

इस सफर पर चलते चलते कभी खुद को अकेला समझते है

कभी भीड़ से घिरा हुआ

सफर यादगार बनाने की कोशिश मैं कभी हम खुद को ही भूल जाते हैं

इसलिए कुछ अल्फ़ाज़ लिखे है

ज़िंदगी हर किसी के नसीब मैं नही लिखी है

अगर तू आज भी सांस ले रहा है

अगर तुने आज भी आंखें खोली है

तो यकीन कर उस खुदा पे

तेरे लिए आज भी कुछ खास लिखा ह।

तेरे ज़िंदगी मे उसने और कुछ हसीन पल लिखे है

Everyone who comes leaves one day….

In middle of these two events we live a journey called Life

Penning a few words down…

Life is a gift blessed to the lucky ones

If you have opened your eyes today

If you have seen the morning today….

Trust Him….He has written something good about the day…He has written something more beautiful for you….Yet to be felt!!

Smile and spread smiles

You are reflection of your surroundings!

You’re just an imitation of what is around you, its just that you don’t imitate one person; you take bits and pieces of hundred people and make yourself

I was small when my mum always had a concern of all the tiny heads which would flock in our house to play, laugh, complete homework and enjoy the best days of life. It wasn’t the mess we created in and around that dreaded her, it was the children coming home, their upbringing and their culture in which they were brought which was her concern! She was very keen on choosing the right people as friends and I always had a grudge as to its okay whosoever they are! I just play with them and will not be influenced with any of their habits! But then entering the house without a brief introduction of my friends was next to impossible!

Now when I started analysing things myself and knowing the psychology behind her worried eyes, I totally agree to her! You are known by the company you keep! Not because it’s a saying! But because your brain constantly snaps images of the attitudes – be it good or bad of all the people you surround with. These small snaps taken slowly and steadily start throwing impression on our personality! And to be checked out in practise – take an example if your boss is in a grumpy mood and you happen to be the target point as soon as you have taken your seat early morning. You are thrashed and abused in hard words in front of a few colleagues, later you take the same grumpy vibes to the cafeteria which is simply carried ahead to your kids waiting back home. So, you see, you gradually become the way you receive vibes! You read a positive quote and you are all filled with motivation. Atleast for the next few days you work with a new energy and focus!

So, it’s simple – I vibe, your vibe… WE VIBE. Be surrounded with positive people, the optimistic ones, those which send you a positive energy! Those who allow you to be a little better than your best version

Journey!

Don’t focus on the destination, enjoy the journey!

Having a conversation with millionaire who was in his early 70s, verbal sketch was something like – a wrinkled face with a sparkle and a glow flowing out, attire he worn was perfect for a business class meeting (though he was retired man), head covered with dove white silky hair (as if one could play the find-black-hair challenge), hands shivering but still the handshake was firm enough to understand the throw in his personality, he stood all straight without a stick, very meticulously he had a choice about everything – be it what he wore, what he read, what he ate and so on and so forth! Impressed by the way he presented himself to me! I actually looked upon this young-old man to throw light on topics like life, career, future, goals and stuff and initiated the conversation.

And there this man had a crisp to explain me these things – which normally sound as rocket science for teens and a big fat topic for parents to such teens! He just had summarized in words which meant that love what you do! Without the fear of what will be the result. The more you get result oriented, the more mechanical you are. The more you tend to fit yourself in a strict format, the more you happen to be machine. The more you get into stuff of pulling eggs in one basket, higher are the chances to topple and break a few.

He had his view explained right with an array of examples – he asked me to climb the morning in wee morning hours and then notice the way the sky changes it colours from dark night black to beautiful golden orange. The cold breeze that kisses you all the while you push yourself to the top. The silent darkness turning to the chirpy morning. Once you reach the highest point, the journey is over and you arrive to your destination, the view from the top is treat to your eyes because you have seen the canvas of sky with the most beautiful shades, you had felt the chilled morning travel its way through to the first ray of morning. The destination seems better and journey wont tire you even through its longest route if you simply learn to live the process and not the results.

And wow! How impressed I was to acknowledge this thought while recollecting the biggest of my achievements! You too can take it as an assignment! May be while cooking or while on your way back home or while on a walk, think of your biggest heights you reached and you will realize the result gives you satisfaction and sense of completeness but the minute you find yourself smiling acknowledge the memory you just recalled which was a part of the journey you travelled!

Commitment!

Incredible things happen when you commit

Commitment – a high voltage word! Your partner asks you a commitment in your relationship, you boss asks you the same for your job, your team asks for it on the field and so on and so forth.

But have you wondered what of you fall short in what you actually commit – you lose… you simply lose your respect, your value your position; but then is it easy to commit!? No, not all rather! Had it been easy to commit why would the repercussions be so hard.

When you say you commit a thing – you mean that you are ready to devote your entire energy on that stuff! You mean that you will stand up 101^st time even if you fall a hundred times! So, there falls your answer – Why incredible things happen when you commit yourself to it! It happens because you dedicate the best phase of you to the task not just to complete it, but to complete it in a way which shocks your own self. You commit when you desire to watch things beyond perfection.

Force!

If an egg is broken by an outside force, life ends. If broken by an inside force, life begins. Great things always begin from the inside.”

A wonderful quote read at one of our client’s premises! The audit place is usually seen as pressure and deadlines with an expectation to have a highly active mind to catch up all the discrepancies and hidden transactions of all the entire year! So here normally I am on a mood of complete professionalism where the usual chatter box of my own self is turned to on to mute mode and mind is all vigilant!

Gazing around the premises to take a rough idea of the nature of business, I came across this inspiring quote. It just took my attention away, as it had so much to be thought on!

Forces inside you can make you a complete new person – kind of ready to face the world! It can shape you and sharpen you! It had multiple meanings – and I could just not stop thinking ahead on every front! Being as simple as – People may scream that it is high time for you to continue and suggest to give up, circumstances may shout where you feel like that is all you can do but one single thought from your heart whispering to you in the lowest voice possible can get you new rays of hope. Smiling through all once if you trust that inner voice you might as well have a cake walk through all backbreaking situations!

Just sit back and think on this quote and start a journey of self-motivation!

Smile and spread smiles!!!

 

Just do it!!

So, everyone one of us is gifted with this beautiful gift of 365 new days and thousands of opportunities rushing in to make your life more beautiful than before!

Wishing everyone loads of smiles, success, joys and happiness this year! With this I would also wish you to have the strength to fight every difficult situation which will be testing you this year!

Well, everyone might have made a few resolutions, if not in black and white atleast you must have thought it for sure! I would just like to add a single line of three words to all of that list of to-do-things or must achieve targets in that list of yours! JUST DO IT!

Yes! If you dared to think of it means you have the potential to do it! Did you write in your goals that you wanna fly like a bird or something like you wanna walk on water? Of course, not right? SO that is it, if you have genuinely written something in your targets for the upcoming year, it means either consciously or sub consciously you know that, yes, I can do this!

So, let the year be like – I will do it! Come what may, even if you feel rejected, down or something like “will it be possible?” let your inner self shout out as loud to you as possible – JUST DO IT!

Because you can do it!