Help from a Higher Self

I love reading the Harry Potter series of books. I thoroughly enjoy imagining the magical places and people with my minds eye while reading the book. And more recently I did not even have to imagine…..I got to live some of Harry's experiences in my everyday life. For the past few months I have literally been "Disapparating" by juggling a stressful job with my personal life situation. Harry travelled from place to place while I rushed from day to day and from deadline to deadline. Work was consuming a good portion of my waking hours and the stress that accompanied it was consuming my health and personal life.  Days and weeks gone by seemed blurry. Every morning was getting heavier and harder to wake up as if I had met a "Dementor". And the routine of juggling continued…..!

At last one day I just decided to quit my job and take a few months break from work. I felt that life is made up of moments and a happy life is the sum total of happy moments. I felt the need from deep within to go more slowly through the day so that I could enjoy it more and create happy moments. I wanted to restore some sanity and energy to my strained life. Leaving a well paid job with many benefits was a pretty big decision. On one side the decision felt very liberating but on the other side I was weighed down by what I would be missing. My rational mind was debating on the "pros" and "cons" while my metaphysical mind wanted me to just take a break. I was sitting at the break fast table and sipping tea. I just closed my eyes and hoped something would guide me through this mental conflict. Should I go ahead and announce my decision to quit or should I hang in there for a little longer? I breathed deeply and went through my routine of sipping tea and browsing through some of my favorite blogs. 

The first blog that I happened to read that day answered the exact question I was asking. It was about how someone had left their well paying job after going through the same dilemma I had gone through. In case you are curious here is a link to the blog post I read that day:

http://justamotheroftwo.blogspot.com/2011/07/take-responsibility-for-your-happiness.html

I was consumed by surprise - I had not expected my dilemma to be answered so soon! I also felt relived that I did not have to go through the weight of the mental conflict for very long. I decided at that very moment that I was indeed going with my decision of quitting my job.

Soon after I announced my decision to my friends and family. One of my friends told me something very interesting. She introduced me to a book called "You can heal your life" by Louise Hay.  The book dealt with thought patterns and their effect on one's health and life. The authors own personal struggles with cancer and the way she healed herself by altering her thought patterns was very inspiring. I browsed through my friends copy of the book and the concept touched me very deeply. It made perfect sense to me. Over the past few months I was dealing with a few challenging personal issues myself and it was emotionally draining. I had bottled up my emotions like a tiger bound inside a cage. The book was the answer to what I had to do with my break. I had work to do. I needed to release my emotions and negative thought patterns accumulated so far. This was the key to face each of my personal problems with confidence and a positive attitude. 

I have often wondered whether it is possible to be guided by a higher power when asked for? How do we know we are guided and what does that feel like? I did not realize until this situation that I would indeed know the answers to these questions I had been thinking about for long. 

Any time we go through challenging situations and we sincerely ask for help, the help does indeed come to us. Our sincere request/s for help constitutes what is called "prayer". To answer our questions we are shown signposts. The signposts could be in any form such as written material or suggestions from people. When we have found the answer it feels right deep within us irrespective of what other people say. To be able to receive the answers we need to trust and go through life a little more mindfully so that we can listen to those answers. The answer provides a quiet confidence and a liberating feeling accompanied by an increased respect for our self. We feel lightness and a flow of positive energy within. Once we receive the answers we need to have the courage to accept the answer and take action. Sometimes the answer is to do the very thing that scares us, but we should go for it. When we come through we always come out a much stronger person.

What we can give back for the timely guidance is a simple whisper of "thank you" emanating straight from our hearts.

Thank you for reading!

Reflections on "Real Beauty"

Beauty is one of those abstract feelings which makes the world an interesting place to live in. It is a wonderful feeling that is triggered in us when we see or experience something sublime to ones senses.  As someone rightly said “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” making it a very subjective experience. The ability to feel beauty is one of the greatest gifts to mankind.

When I think of beauty it immediately conjures up images of material objects such as the lovely clothes in my closet, the colorful handbags and jewels. I have seen beauty in little children in their innocent chuckles and  sweet chubby faces, the actresses with their god gifted looks and flawless fair skin, a house with modern and chic interiors, the colorful flowers which I stop to look at every day on my way to work, the natural beauty of majestic mountains and rivers flowing through them to name a few. The world seems to be filled with so many beautiful things and sights....but I wonder what characterizes “real” beauty? 

Real beauty to me lies in the feelings evoked while and after witnessing the object of beauty. They should take the breath away and leave me with a deep-rooted feeling of bliss, hope and positive energy afterward. Real beauty should be lasting. I witness real beauty in nature when I see a rainbow in the sky or watch the towering snow capped mountains or a majestic canyon carved out by a river or glacier. These sights numb my thoughts making me forget the stresses of my everyday life. I am left with a feeling of serenity.  However when I see a beautiful actress or lovely house or clothes I enjoy them momentarily but they leave me with reminder of what I lack - the good looks, the not so fair complexion and the money to buy the house and good clothes. These objects are beautiful but do not constitute real beauty because with true beauty one is transported to a place of positive energy after the experience. 

I have felt real beauty in many ways and it has been a great de-stresser at any time of the day. I have felt it in the simplicity of a flower, in a butterfly happily fluttering in the garden, in a piece of art, in the grandeur of the Shiva linga at Brihadeeeshwara temple, in the myriad hues of the sunset sky, in the soothing sounds of music and in the the rhyming verses of a poem.

Beauty is ubiquitous. It can be experienced in any part of the world. It is a universal feeling transcending man made barriers of gender, religion and nationality. 

“A thing of real beauty is joy forever”.

This is my submission to the IndiBlogger writing contest on "Real beauty"

A new look, a new name and a new discipline!

I had been absent from blogging for less than a year. I had all along been interested in writing but while juggling all of life's activities the blogging took a back seat. Now I wanted to get back with all seriousness and needed a fresh start. I decided to motivate myself with an October resolution (I could not wait to take a new year resolution) of a new name, look and discipline for my blog.

I love tea times at home when I sit with a cup of freshly prepared hot masala chai at the tea table and some snacks. Tea time turns out to be one of the most relaxing and social times of the day as I sip tea and start indulging in conversations. Sometimes it starts with "whats happened today was..." and  it slowly turns out to be a very insightful conversation. So looking back I have a lot of wonderful memories of very interesting and "aha" conversations. So I decided to base the theme of my blog on my tea time conversations and thats how the new name "Chai, Chaat and a Chat" came about.  To go with the simple theme I decided to pick up a simple yet fresh look to my blog. I decided to have only four colors in my blog to begin with which I hope is liked.

Discipline is very important in order to pursue anything in life. Blogging is a very creative process and involves a lot of time and effort in coming up with a topic and writing a coherent article which can connect with some readers. Hey what is a blog worth if you dont hear back from readers in the form of comments. So focus and a discipline are required to continue blogging on a regular basis while handling the routine and non routine aspects of life. I have two blogs and I have decided to commit myself to post atleast one post every week on one of my blogs.

So lets see how my October resolution goes.... :)

Fall colors: Nature's holiday cheer

Nature provides us with some holiday cheer in the form of fall colors. Every year I admire the lovely colors the leaves turn into. They are in shades of greens, reds, yellows, browns and violets...are there any colors left, I sometimes wonder? So I decided to post some of the foliage photographs I had taken in the recent past to add a dash of colour to my blog.

            

            

When I stop to look at the leaves I am reminded of the following lines from Frost's poem:

"The woods are lovely dark and deep

And I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep"

Ingredients for a Perfect Day

A colourful bookmark caught my eye. On it were inscribed the following lines in a beautiful font.

Ingredients for a Perfect Day

Favorite memories

Plenty of smiles

Some time for yourself

Happiness

Fresh air

Laughter

Good food

... and great friends!

Simple thoughts that could make all the difference to my day.

News: Feeding Fear?

After a hectic day I plumped down on my sofa to watch the news. Ten minutes of watching CNN got me feeling really dull. It prompted me to think about the kind of news I ended up watching. Most of the news I hear or read is about reports of violence, war, accidents and the like. In short news was about what went wrong in the world or some report which just frittered away my time (like someone commiting suicide).

Is the world around us so bad? Maybe or maybe not but subconsciously I was becoming more fearful, careful and probably pessimistic about the status quo of things around me. I am sure there are positive and hopeful events happening around me - news about how people's lives were touched in a hopeful way, an indigenous technology, the power of dreams and imaginations etc. Its just that I hardly get to know about them. I think its time for a change. TV channels and newspapers should start dedicating atleast a 15 minute prime time slot on the good things happening around us.