I want to use the whole box of crayons this year 2014

First of all wishing all of you a great new year 2014.  May we all remain blessed with good health and lots of happiness this year.  Yes, prosperity and wealth as well. But I guess when we have good health to enjoy the wealth, we automatically become prosperous in mind and body.

Today is the 1^st day and I wish everyone lots of happiness, fun, joy. The great canvas that is all the 365 days have been given to us once again.  Actually, I want to use all the colours this year.  Yellow is my favorite colour, then comes orange. I totally relate to these colours - yellow and orange because there is a lot of these colours and it is a total reflection of my personality. When I say this, I totally mean what I say. 

With lot of colours that the colour palette has to offer one and all, it definitely means that we need to appreciate every colour.  Life is like these colours, at times we have yellows and oranges, blues and greens. The colour white in fact is a beautiful colour, you could mix any colour in it and change the colour itself. You wish to add the deepest of blues in white, it becomes sky blue. Past thoughts of happiness and joy can make the bluest of our days less stressful and painful.

With such a rainbow of colours, life is indeed beautiful and worth living every second, every minute. Just like how a good thought makes us feel happy and blissful, there are thoughts that make us feel low. There will be gloomy days and days where we feel low. On personal front, what I do is I dress up well and show up.  This makes me feel good about myself.  I try and wear those colours that pep me up and look into the mirror and say,  That’s like a good girl.  You are looking awesome and beautiful.  This mirror technique is something I believe in and I feel wonderful about it. It’s just that thought that changes my feelings and emotions at that point in time.  Makes me feel great and good about myself even when there is nothing exciting to do or say. It is not always possible to predict the way things or situations in life are going to be. That’s not in our control for sure. 

If we only had few colours, life would be dull. If we had only to wear white and black, life would have been boring. Its about having all these wonderful colours in our life, enjoying all the ups and downs, embracing happiness, solitude, joy and sorrow.  With the colour palette, comes varied types of painting brushes. You could use these to create and draw the life you wish to live.

Love and blessings always!!

Rekha

p.s. Life is vibrant, inspiring and I love all the colours. I am going to embrace 2014 with all its shades and colours.

Don’t Try Fitting into someone else’s shoes because those are not meant for YOU.

We tend to quickly form opinions about people. We want people to change, we want them to mould themselves into what we feel right or wrong. But hey hold on!! Take a minute and think about this. At times, we find it so difficult to change even that one thing about us so how can we expect someone else to change all of a sudden.

Yes, please give thought to this THOUGHT

I happened to meet this girl who was so loud (as per what people told me). The two committees within my mind were actually trying to prove what they felt right. One said she is loud, the other one said, she is outgoing. You may call her crazy, but I felt she is unique and wants to do things her way. She likes to laugh loudly, speak out things just the way she is without adding any spice ( in our slang masala) to it.  

What you may feel immature may be fun for her. She loves to dance, sing and she decides that this is how she is going to live her life. It may embarrassing for you but I may call it living the way I wish to. Oh my God!! How much we think and how much time we have to form opinions and judge others.  What is me is something that I need to be bothered about and I like to be me. I like to be creative and I like to be JUST ME.  I cannot change because people want me to be someone else.

What I can summarise from the above is that a person’s basic traits can never change, what he or she is born with will always remain.  Yes, we can definitely make some minor alterations. A person who is basically very friendly and outgoing cannot suddenly become quiet.  The same holds true for people who are quiet and like to be them. Is it possible to completely change tables, Of Course not!! As long as we are able to understand and comprehend this, life is going to be easy.

So hey you beautiful people out there! Be the way you are designed to be because that is your REAL YOU.

Love and Blessings Always !!!

Rekha

Why I choose to see the Glass as HALF FULL ALWAYS

I always have this take on life that we need to forget about the reasons as to why things will not materialize and just think of why it will work.  This hard core optimism has worked for me in most of the cases.  You may call this will power,luck,power of the mind –anything, but I am truly an OPTIMIST.  For me optimism is like sunlight, rays of sun. Just like the sun that comes up bright and sunny every morning, optimism is just like that ray of hope.  There is sunrise which brings a smile and I feel happy and elated.

I believe in this phrase if you don’t like something, change it and if you are not able to change it, then change the way you think about it.  Just few days, I read a post which said if you can’t change the girl, CHANGE THE GIRL.  Apart from this statement, I seriously believe that if is completely our perspective as to how we view things.

Small joys make me happy and this is what keeps the high level of positivity in me going. I feel life goes on, come what may. Nothing stops in life, it’s just like the ocean.  Small things and happenings in our life are like those drops of water in the ocean. Just because there is a drop in the water level, the ocean does not cease to exist.  Our life is like that. So instead of being negative about events and incidents in life, let’s change our perspective and let’s breathe it like fresh air everyday.

Life teaches us so many things.  When the going is tough, we get tougher.  The Supreme Power/ Almighty/God/Divine Universe (you may choose to call it any name) gives one and all the power to live our LIFE. This is what is referred to as will power.  Our will power and desire to do things for ourselves is something that no one can take away from us.  I am reminded of the great Louise Hay’s saying “Nothing is permanent.  This too shall pass”. So why fret over something or some incident when things are not all that favourable. It’s not going to stay with us forever. So let go, smile, it’s a much more sunny day ahead.

Lots of smiles and luv to all of you.

Stay positive and optimistic.  It works always!!!!

Luv

Rekha

p.s. Even bad days have happy moments-  Check it out

What are your putting in your MARRIAGE BOX – MIND IT!!!! Rajni Ishtyle

Yes, marriage is a meeting of two bodies, two minds and two souls.  Let’s put it simple, it’s getting to know each other and accepting each other with a little differences, fights and of course the not so good things about your spouse. The tickets are booked and the destination is set. At times, there is a short break and few bigger breaks. But the journey can still be made livable and enjoyable. It’s is your hands.

Marriage is more of giving than receiving. It’s about investing your time, efforts and lots of love to make it a beautiful journey.  It’s about being with your spouse even when the going gets tough. 

The marriage box is your secret treasure. Just like how you would want to protect and safeguard it from outsiders, try saving your marriage box. Arguments, minor fights are common, but as far as you don’t allow anyone to barge into that marriage box, things are fine.  A lot of things go into this marriage box, there is commitment, love, affection, sacrifice, intimacy and most of all FRIENDSHIP.

I give a lot of stress on the last word FRIENDSHIP. It is for life.  Friends fight but we can never be angry with a friend for life. As long as the couple treats each other like friends, laughs at each other’s jokes, faults and idiosyncrasies, things are still going to be fine.  This treasure box needs to be treasured, shielded and at times it may get old since you have not bothered to polish it.  What do you do, you spice it up with more love and affection. As times goes by, you become so possessive that you cannot live without it.  So make your marriage special.  Many married couples who have lived for years together may at times get bored with the lives they are leading. Remember that every relationship has its set of problems, the beauty lies in complementing each other even when life sucks.

Try keeping the marriage box full to the BRIM with a lot of togetherness, smiles, appreciation, care and most of all saying I LOVE YOU.  It truly works. What happens when the box is full?  It overflows and the fragrance of your togetherness and love spreads all around. People can feel it and believe me a couple who is in love need not express verbally that they are happy.  It automatically shows on their face.  Couples who have forgotten to appreciate and hold hands will get their lessons too.

P.S.: BEING TOGETHER WITH YOU IS BLISS AND IT TRULY IS. YOU MAKE MY DAY AND YOU MAKE MY NIGHT. YOU COMPLETE ME IN EVERY WAY.

Yes I am on duty 24/7 – Welcome to the round the clock call center and WHAT YOU CALL HOME SWEET HOME

Hi all beautiful women out there- This post is to bring a smile on your faces and make you feel good about yourself. All of you out there who are so called HOMEMAKERS are doing a wonderful job there. So don’t let anyone underestimate your POWER. U R SIMPLY 2 GUD.

Oh did you hear what I say, yes , u did right!!!!  We all have heard of domestic call centres as well as international call centres.  The timings are close to 10 hours or at times slightly more depending on the number of calls that need to be attended that particular day or night.

But have we given thought to the wonderful home maker who actually works 24/7 (round the clock) to keep your home in good shape, makes meals for your family, parents, kids and tries to keep that smile on her face, however down she may be.  When the husband enters, the wife automatically smiles, thinking that her smile may pep him up.  The wife feels that her spouse has come back after a tired day’s work and so she needs to look presentable, serves him tea/coffee.

Just give 5 mints of your day and think about how the housewife or HOMEMAKER has spent her day.  Her day and her night passes without even her knowledge.  The seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years pass off and at the end of the day she begins to feel unworthy.  It’s not always necessary to present her with a bouquet of roses and take her for candle light dinners.

Even simple appreciation would do her good. It’s not able the diamond sets that you would be gifting her. It’s just about holding her hand, looking into her eyes and telling her that she is the pillar of your sweet home and without her, things would have never been the way it is. Believe me, she is going to actually blush when you say this and will change the topic.

We hear the saying HOME SWEET HOME so many times in poetries, stories, write ups. Your home could never have been HOME SWEET HOME without the lady of the house. Kudos to all the ladies who are simply superb in whatever they are doing.

I have been lucky to have the best of both worlds – I had taken a sabbatical when my daughter was just schooling and was with her and enjoyed that phase completely.  I am equally enjoying this phase of working life as well.

So all beautiful HOMEMAKERS,  you all are doing a gr8 job.

Luv and Blessings Always

Rekha

Here’s a small conversation that I happened to come across:

'Because Your Wife DOES NOT WORK....???'

The following are Questions and Answers between Husband (H) and A Psychologist: P :

What do you do for a living Mr. Bandy?

 H : I work as an Accountant in a Bank.

P : Your Wife ?

H : She doesn't work.

She's a Housewife only.

P : Who makes breakfast for your family in the morning?

H : My Wife, because she doesn't work.

P :  At what time does your wife wake up for making breakfast? H : She wakes up at around 5am because she cleans the house first before making breakfast.

P :  How do your kids go to school?

H : My wife takes them to school, because she doesn't work.

P : After taking your kids to school, what does she do?

 H : She goes to the market, then goes back home for cooking and laundry. You know, she doesn't work.

 P : In the evening, after you go back home from office, what do you do?

 H : Take a rest, because i'm tired due to all day works.

 P : What does your wife do then?

H : She prepares meals, serves our kids,serves me and cleans the dishes, clean the house then take the kids to bed.

From the story above, who do you think works more???

The daily routines of your wife commence from early morning to late at night. That is called 'DOESN'T WORK'??!!

Yes, Being Housewives do not need Certificate of Study, even High Position, but their ROLE/PART is very important!

Appreciate your wives. Because their sacrifices are uncountable. This should be a reminder and reflection for all of us to understand and appreciate each others roles.

Why I don’t like to judge people – I will love you the way you are

On one of my trips, I identified this wonderful hoarding outside a restaurant that said, All of you are welcome here, we will not judge anyone based on their looks, attitude, colour, religion, belief.

I repeat the same, All of you are welcome to my blogspot, go through my blogs, comment on it, share it. I am not going to judge anyone based on any of the above.  All of us have a right to live the way, express our thoughts and are responsible for our feelings, emotions. 

The word Responsibility has a lot of responsibility, in the sense, when we know that our words or actions may hurt someone, we are more careful with it.  During my teens, I used to be outspoken and knowingly or unknowingly, I feel I would have hurt people.  However, one thing that I could pride myself on was that I would never ever judge people, even then and I have lucky to have managed to maintain that quality in me even now.

It gives me a lighter feeling when I do not have to pass comments, judgements against people. Believe me there is so much of tamasha going on in outside world, because people hold on to grudges, minor misunderstandings.  I would urge people to just speak it out, voice it out. Don’t carry it to the next year, it is not going to serve anyone. Once we speak out, we feel much lighter. It’s like dusted and gone.

In one of the online courses that I undertook, one of the subjects was a challenge wherein we had to stop judging people for a day, allow them to be the way they were. Yes, it can be quite stressful, because at that point in time, we are more thoughtful and mindful of what we say.  When we judge less, we are able to accept people and situations in life the way they are. Our happiness quotient automatically improves.

As humans we are all have giant sized egos.  As long as we do not have an oversized ego, it’s fine.  With tremendous ego, comes the power to simply pass judgements over people and situations. 

This is my synopsis of why people tend to be judgemental:

Firstly, we try to compare others to our own self and we are scared that someone else may be better than our own self in terms of looks, appearance, professionally, financially.  Isn’t it simple to accept each person just the way they are because we have been created uniquely and there is something unique about each person. Ego and resistance go hand in hand.

Many of us want people to accept us the way we are, but when it comes to us, the tables change. This is when resistance comes and we start judging.  So if you have been doing the judgement for all these years and it has not served you good, then try reducing the number of times that you judge people. If you have been doing it for 10 times, try reducing the count. It will help you to breathe well and easily and you will feel lighter in mind and soul.

Luv you all, blessing always

Rekha

p.s: 4 more days to go to welcome 2014.

If it doesn’t matter to them, IT SHOULD NOT MATTER TO YOU

The above sentence should make sense to most of the people who are right now going through some turbulence in their lives, more so in their personal lives.  I come across a whole host of people writing to me about their personal issues on my personal email id. Technology is indeed a wonderful thing and most of the people who approach me are the ones who are going through a not so smooth patch in their personal lives.

Actually we take ourselves too seriously for reasons beyond our thinking.  We tend to hold ourselves responsible many a times for things and events that happen, come and go.  In fact, let me tell you, people who hold on to grudges and faults of others have all the time in the world.  If you have the time to think about all these, then I am sure you have time for prayer as well. So let’s shake off all those assumptions that we think people have about us.  Live light, think light – it makes things simpler, don’t complicate things and your life. I am sure there are much more things to ponder about.

Just like all of you, I too come across people, we meet, talk and life moves on.   The experiences that I gain meeting people, interacting with them are wonderful. Every experience teaches me something or the other.  If they are meant to be, things continue or else it could lead to a short sabbatical. I am absolutely fine with it. Initially, I used to feel a little down, but with age, I guess we mature and take things the way they are presented to us.  Life is actually a gift in the real sense of the term. You don’t choose your gifts. You get it right!!!! So take every gift as it comes, at times, it will present you with events and moments that you will feel absolutely wonderful.  We feel elated and on top of the world.  At the same time, we receive gifts that may not appeal to us.  Do we ever return the gift to someone who has given it to us?  I am sure most of you would say NO. 

Another thing that many write to me is about not getting acceptance from their own friends and relatives.  All I can say is that people (just like you and me) have their own preferences, favorites and likes.  There is nothing to feel bad about. At times, yes, it does hurt, but that cannot or should not make us feel sad or low.  If people want to be in your life, they will ensure that they do and if they want to make you feel good and nice, they would do it.  It’s not in our control for sure. Also, if you read my previous blogposts, I have penned that every person is a complete reflection of the opposite person.

So don’t try to control people – it doesn’t work that way.  Things that don’t matter to them should not matter to you as well.  It’s like a two way path. 

I personally believe that CHANGE is truly a very strong word and it helps a lot when we try and change ourselves.  The change that we can bring about in ourselves is a benchmark and a yardstick that we can be happy the way we wish to live our lives, no matter what.

Bye for now, blessings always!!

Rekha

p.s:  People who are meant to be will remain so, no matter what !!

Pay a visit everyday to every room of your MIND/BRAIN – Mind cleansing

I am sure everyone of us loves to keep our homes neat and tidy.  We do our daily chores and routine of dusting, swabbing and cleaning.  Without these tasks, somehow we are not comfortable even sitting in our drawing room.  Let’s accept the fact that we are slaves to routine. Yes, a change once in a while is good.  But just having to do nothing and whiling our time is not anyone’s cup of tea for sure.   Just to break away from the routine and spend some fun time, I met my cousin.  We had planned not to meet outside and R City Ghatkopar was the ideal place where we could meet up since it was equidistant.

I had visited the place many times, but had so much to catch up with her.  Being Christmas, the entire place was beautifully decorated with all possible decorations. There was Santa in red (Red happens to be my favorite colour) and I love Santa. I associate him with goodness and sweetness. Come Christmas and the entire mood and surroundings change.  When I was young, I associated X mas with cakes.  I was lucky to have a lot of Catholic friends and went to their home to eat the plum cake (which till date I love eating).

While taking rounds in the mall, I happened to glance at the homestores which had a lot of household accessories, cleaning material and so on.  As mentioned earlier, I love to do the cleaning work of my home. My mind caught the attention of the cleaning equipments and devices.  For a moment it just struck me that we always do the cleaning of our physical place and surroundings.  People who have bigger homes too make it a point to open each room, dust it and ensure to keep it clean and tidy.  Yes, I do the same and am sure everyone does it.  But what happens to those mental rooms in our mind?  We are too busy to clean up these rooms. For our understanding, I have categorized our brain into four rooms. These include the  physical, mental, emotional and spiritual rooms.

The physical room can be associated with the physical body and so we need to dust this area. It implies we need to take care of our physical body by eating right, drinking right and of course by giving thought to what we put into our plates.  The mental room needs to be visited daily and we need to be careful as to what thoughts and feelings we are feeding our brains with.  A simple way to dust the cobwebs and negative feelings from this part of our mind is by simple meditation for atleast 10 mints to begin with. 

Yes, so what comes next is the emotional space in our brain.  We tend to get intimidated at times when we are hurt. We experience feelings of anger, distrust, jealousy and many other feelings.  Positive affirmations are the answer to this.  Lastly, it is the spiritual area of our brain.  The best way is the power of the mantra.  Even Westerners are beginning to believe in the power of mantra or jaap. Any good affirmation when repeated time and again becomes a mantra.

So happy cleansing all the rooms of your mind !!With mental fitness comes physical fitness. Let’s seriously give thought to what we feed our minds with.

I am eagerly looking forward to all the positives that the NEW YEAR is going to bring to each one of us.

Keep smiling and love you all.

Blessings Always

Rekha

The brilliance of silence cannot be defined in words as it is beyond the capacity of the human brain to comprehend it !!- Rekha Mahadevan

The above is a proverb or sentence that I have contributed to the site of new authors.

There is a bit of me in U and U in me – Marriage is a WORK IN PROGRESS Contract

I guess when you are married and have spent 2 decades and a little more,   we tend to become very much like our spouse.  That’s why this quote “There is a bit of me in U and U in me.   You tend to attract more of his qualities having lived together and having spent wonderful time together.

With the rate of divorces and marital separations taking place in today’s world, it makes sense to first become a friend to your partner as this eases the situation, more so if one is going to spend one’s life with someone who is totally new.   Going back 20 years, we were lucky to see each other for close to 6 months even before we could get married.  This was not the in-thing during those days but yes, I felt good that there was this person who wanted to first get to know me before actually settling down.  A person who was modern in his outlook towards life and giving space and allowing me to be myself and this swept me completely off my feet.

It was my parents who were a little skeptical at meeting this guy who was going to marry me only 6 months down the line.  Courting days are always special and memorable for sure, for each one of us.  Even thinking of those days brings a smile to my face.  Not that things are any different now.  I guess it is more about spending time together, getting to know each other better as weeks, months and years and decades pass by.

The saying if your husband is your best friend, nothing like it.  I am sure there are many out there who have their husbands as their best friends. If you are one of those, then you are definitely lucky. Do not allow small misunderstandings ruin up the beautiful relationship.

While I was just crossing the road, I saw this big saying “Work in Progress” board. Every relationship is work in progress.  Yes, I guess we need to work out every relationship so as to keep it youngish and charming.  More so, a marriage,  there will be differences, debates, fights, misunderstandings, but ultimately he or she is your friend and a friend for LIFE.  There may be weak moments and not few but many, when either of  the partners may find it boring, just pep it up.  Either of you could take the initiative, it’s all about attitude.  It’s never too late as there are years and more beautiful years ahead.

At the end of the day, as long as you are able to laugh at your stupidity at having fought, it’s fine.  When you laugh, laugh together and when you cry, you know you have a shoulder to cry on, someone to cuddle you, make you feel good even when the going is not good.

So laugh and smile with your best friend for life, it makes life exciting and happy.

Luv

Rekha

p.s.  If you could share your deepest secrets with your spouse, then you have got it right for sure.

Be it a mother or a mother in law – ALL MOTHERS ARE SPECIAL.

I am dedicating this blog post to my dear Mother in law (in fact, I don’t wish to call her mother in law because she is just like my mother)- I still throw tantrums and argue with her, hug her, scold her for she is a MOTHER after all and mothers are truly special.

Happy birthday to a wonderful lady who has all the will power and who loves me so much.

I was all of twenty and had been just out of college and got married.  But there was not an iota of doubt as regards how I would adjust to this new surrounding, new people and of course the new home that I would be going to.  I still felt that this new life that I would be living from 12^th September 1993 would be like the ones I had seen in most of the movies (considering I was and I am a big moviebuff). 

But yes, I was lucky having come to a family where people were simple, most of all my in laws.  I could be my self and I did not have to put up pretences.  Yes, just like any other new entrant, I felt a little out of place (not because I was made uncomfortable) but because the routine that I was used to in my parents home was different from MY HOME (considering this is my home now and I can proudly say that after 2 decades.

My MIL ( a woman of few words) appeared strict, though she was not.  Coming from the old school of thought, she had her own thoughts and was particular that things had to be done in a particular fashion.  I did not even know the basics of cooking (forget cooking) even cutting vegetables.  However, even by observing how things had to be done and managed, I quickly picked up.  I guess the reason for this was that I was quickly able to adapt to the new surrounding (considering  I was all of twenty).  

I learnt everything and within a year I could prepare almost all the authentic Southie dishes. The reason for this was simple.  My in laws never criticized me on anything I made. My MIL always said that the very fact that you are trying and want to make all this goodies means that you have a knack of doing things and I felt happy.  Not once have they criticized my cooking and compared me to anyone. I guess when there are fewer comparisons especially when you are just married and entering a new phase of life, it becomes easier and there is less stress.

My parents still visit my home and share a friendly relationship with my in laws. We enjoy, have fun and be just the way we are.  After all, we are ONE FAMILY.

When there is love and affection and fewer expectations from the opposite person, I guess things turn out to be the way they are.  I have received a lot of love from people around me, my family, in laws and love my in laws TONS.  They mean a lot to me.  We argue, we debate, but we are still ONE.

Love you loads Amma,  you are simply too gud.

Rekha

p.s  : Nothing could have been possible without the love, support and tremendous UNDERSTANDING of my husband Mahadevan who stands like a pillar of support and strength.  Mady,  you are my strength forever and ever.

The Gift of Today – Enjoy it with Tea and a piece of cake

Yes, my pastime when I was a collegian was tea and a piece of plum cake with my favorite Mills & Boon novel. It used to be an absolute delight and pleasure reading those and most of my friends will second me on this. When we are young, there were fewer worries and problems to be sorted out because we had someone to take care of all those. As we grow up, times change, the priorities and responsibilities change. We grow up and so do our problems. Amongst all this tamasha and the daily buzzy life, we must not forget one thing, the desire to live happily (irrespective of the small irritations that come and go) , the smile and the laugh because this is what makes TODAY wonderful.

When we turn back or rewind our life, we will surely be able to relate to all those small little things of yesterday which we may have ignored to see or would have unknowingly skipped, overseen…. I remember as a school kid and even in college, I used to love watching Chitrahaar and Chitramala because those were the only 2 programs that most of us used to wait for.  Even thinking of those and speaking about those small moments of happiness, bring a smile.  I feel happy rewinding those memories of walking down to college, eating vada pav, chatting with friends etc etc. There are a lot of small moments of happiness which get lost in this busy life, please catch up on those, these are wonderful moments. Capture them in the form of pictures, videos and few years later when you see them, you will feel so wonderful.

Recently, my daughter was checking out few pictures to make a collage for a birthday.  We literally ransacked the bag of photos and photo albums.  We finally got a lot of pictures and I am so happy that we have a lot of photographs with beautiful memories(I must say). These pictures of yesteryears took us down memory lane and it made me so happy and believe me the sense of satisfaction looking at those pictures made me feel so so happy.  Pictures of family, new borns, birthday parties, outdoor picnics – the list is endless.

I looked at those pictures and told myself “Oh my !!! Did I actually look like that?  Such are the beautiful moments of yesterday which were

at some point of time TODAY.  So make your Today beautiful and when you look back, you are going to smile and say, yes, it was beautiful and it will always remain.

Bye for now

Luv and blessings always!!

Rekha

p.s.

I am reminded of this wonderful dialogue of the late Rajesh Khanna from the movie  Bawarchi, directed by Hrishkesh Mukherjee – Year 1972-  It is so simple to be Happy but so difficult to be simple. The dialog made me think then and it still makes me think!!!

Take some time out, once in while jog through the collection of your old pictures and photographs.  I bet you will smile …..

The husband wife relationship between the BODY AND THE MIND

What your mind says, your body hears !!!

I would personally not want to classify the mind as the husband and the body as the wife.  It is left to each one of us to choose what best fits in their individual families and lives.  But what I can say and say for sure is that there is definitely a strong connect between the mind and the body.  Like I have mentioned in my previous blog posts, the strong inter connection between our mind and body is what makes or breaks our health.  The little ups and downs in our physical health have a lot to say about our mental imbalance that an individual is going through at that point in time.

Just imagine if a husband and wife in a family always have long bouts of quarrels and misunderstandings time and again? What happens? The family life suffers, the kids suffer and there is no peace in the household.  The same holds true for our body as well.  We as humans are endowed with the power of our senses and we have been gifted with the wonderful mind.  Use your mind in such a way that it is in sync with our body.  Our mind or brain sends out signals to our body and we as humans are able to capture these. But for some reason, we tend to ignore or at times overlook these signals.  We come across the term gut feel many a times in our life. What is this gut feel? It is that strong urge or sense or feeling that is like a red signal as the mind is able to sense that something, somewhere is not right.

It is possible to capture these red signals and take the right steps if we practice few moments of silence everyday.  When the mind is calm and in a state of meditation (which is similar to silence), we are able to channelize our thoughts in a healthy manner.  This helps us from getting into the trap of overreacting to situations and events in our life, judging people and getting rid of the drama in our lives. 

We as humans love drama and tend to use a magnifying glass (to our convenience).  Our love for the magnifying glass should be only to magnify the goodness around people and in the event of a not –so- good situation, let’s keep it aside. 

Let your body hear the beautiful signals that your mind is sending out as this can be of great help and support not only to oneself  but to all the people we are surrounded with in our daily lives.  Let’s make this husband wife relationship of our mind and body so strong that each one acts in perfect synchrony with each other and would never EVER want to LIVE without each other.

Luv and blessings always!!!

Rekha

p.s.:  Let’s try and get into the habit of sending positive signals from our mind to our body and allow our body to remain healthy – That’s what it has been designed for.  Let’s ease our minds from the Dis-ease.

Happiness is not a takeaway lunch – It is still homemade

I just closed by eyes for few quiet moments and I picturised this slogan on the boards of one the restaurants – It read “ We serve homemade food here with a dash of happiness!!”  It made me smile!!!! I am sure there would surely be few restaurants that would have this Board and I have this inkling that they must be doing good business as well. Everyone loves to be served food with that dash of smile and happiness.

Why is it that most of us are on our journey to discover what our happiness lies in. For few it may be getting the best of jobs, earning tons of money,  buying the latest vehicle, foreign trips, huge sprawling properties – the list is endless.  All this gives us that feeling of elation for a while for sure and there is no doubt about it. Anything that gives you a feel of feeling high without making you bored the next minute is happiness. We get a good job, buy a good property, go for that much awaited foreign trip, What next?

We all love to eat out right?  But I am sure there are very few people who would love to eat all their 30 breakfasts, 30 lunches and 30 dinners out, unless they have no other choice.  Eating all these 90 meals can be quite boring.  There would be times when you would want to have your simple homemade dal khichdi or dal chaawal.  I have heard people who travel all round the world and frequent flyers that they just want to spend time at home with family and being with their spouse and eating the simplest of home food. For them, their frequent travel points are good on paper and for the outside world.  Within them, they want to be with family and that is how they define their happiness quotient.

As per statistics and for whatever little I have managed to read and comprehend, close to 40% of the happiness is what we receive from one genes.  If your parents and grandparents have had the good fortune to be happy irrespective of the situations and circumstances, then chances are that you would attract those.   The next 10% is dependent on the money we earn and of course our health (we can never underestimate the importance of good health). Similarly, people with a strong family support are happier than people who do not have a strong family backing.  The remaining 50% is in our control. 

Use your ingredients and make this as a homemade meal daily for yourself and your family. If you lookout for the small and humble moments around yourself, you will find it. It’s not only affordable but also this is what will work in the long run.  Take away lunches and buffet diners are okay once in a while, but there is nothing more satisfying and tasty than the humble homemade food which is garnished with love and affection.  I think that summarises my caption that happiness is truly homemade.

That’s all for now – Keep smiling

Luv and blessings always !!!

Rekha

Life a KrackJack biscuit - Sweet and Salty

Have your seen the above Krack Jack biscuit packet.  The first thing that captures our mind when we think of the advertisement is that it is sweet as well as salty. Our life is made of up so many sweet and salty moments. With such a beautiful blend, life is indeed beautiful.

Yes, I agree that everyone is not happy and feeling of elation may not persist all the time. However, we can surely unlock the happiness and I would like to mention here that happiness may not necessarily be related to the material goods that you are able to buy or high achievements and accolades that you have received. It ultimately rests on how your current relationships are and of course your perspective towards life.

You could feel happy when you have met a school friend after so many years, so that’s your sweet moment. If you have received a compliment from your spouse that the food was excellent that day, it’s your Krackjack sweet moment. You are caught up in traffic, you missed your train, the power point presentation did not turn up the way you had desired, that’s your Krackjack salty moment. These sweet and salty moments make our life worth living. Imagine if we only were served sweets and more sweets and sweets , we could end up getting Diabetes and not be able to live normally.  Accept the other part of life, just the way it has been designed to do.  Every shade and every taste of life is important, cherish them or else it could be dreary and get boring.

Irrespective of all these examples that have been mentioned above, life is truly beautiful when you are healthy because if you have all the wealth, but you do not have the good health to enjoy it and you are weak as far as your family and relationships are concerned, something needs to be worked out.

So get your packet of Krackjack today, eat it enjoy it – Life is good and I am so happy to be a part of this wonderful family and friends who shower  me with their love and blessings always.

Stay connected with your self and with me of course.

Luv and blessings always

Rekha

p.s: I just found out that Krackjack has been there since 1972, exactly by birth year.  I love you Krackjack…..

Holding on to sadness – Let it go!!! It’s not your Fixed Deposit

I came across this wonderful saying somewhere that people find it tough to be happy and they actually feel guilty when they are happy for a continued period of time.  The reason for their guilt according to me is that they are holding on to sadness and they love it so much that they hold on to it like a Fixed deposit. 

Let me add a little bit of financial angle to it, though I am not very good at economics.  Even if it were a Fixed deposit, it would mature at some point in time right.  Okay it matures and you get double the sadness.  But why renew it??  Yes , at times, we love to be within our own coupe of sadness and like to bask in it, we complain to our spouse, relatives, friends about how sad things in life are.  Fair enough, but don’t stretch it.  It will become a pattern of your life and it will reflect on your personality.  With months and years of this fixed deposit interest getting added, it will appear like an dinosaur.

This also reminds me of the Sanskrit word (Athithi) which means a guest who comes home without giving notice.  Sad moments in life are like the athithi (guests) that come but you can rest assured that they will go as well.  Obviously, we are not going to make them stay with us and make them a member of our family or extended family.  However, if you keep feeding thoughts of depression, self guilt and anxiety,  the atithi is sure to reside in your home and in your mind.

Yes there are moments just like all of you when I am down and sad.  But as far as possible, I try and change the thought. This was difficult initially, but I am definitely working on my life.

When we go on a vacation, we make the lodging and boarding arrangements and generally the hotel is booked for 2 nights 3 days or 3 nights 4 days.  The check out in most of the hotels is around 8 a.m. in the morning.  Max to max you get a buffer of an extra 1 hour at the time of check out.  Anything extra is charged right!!!

The extra time that sadness stays in the home and our lives is chargeable. It takes away our peace of mind and solace.  So try packing it off as soon as possible and don’t allow it to extend its stay in your life and cave away the beautiful moments of your life.

It’s definitely not worth it.  That’s all to be penned for this blog post.

Luv and blessings always

Rekha