I am presuming you have already read part 1 of this article posted earlier today, and also my brief elucidations on thought conditioning, behavioural conditioning, results-based thinking, etc. If not, I would strongly recommend that you do so. Quite obviously, you cannot read and practice at the same time – so I would urge you to read the steps below a few times before you begin to practice.

Image source: Pixabay

1. Begin by lying down flat (with a thin pillow) or sitting down comfortably. If you have a tendency to fall asleep, sit on a straight-backed chair.
2. Keep your head straight and find a spot on the wall above you or in front of you. Your eyes should be looking slightly up, i.e., roll your eyes slightly upward at an angle of approximately 70 degrees up from the horizontal. The eye fixation method was developed by James Braid – who most people regard as the founder of Hypnotherapy.
3. As you focus on the spot, make sure that only your eyes are angled upward and not your neck.
4. Continue to focus on the spot with intense concentration. Do not divert your eyes. You will slowly become aware of the tension in the muscles holding your eyes open and even perhaps your eyelids.
5. You may notice that you are blinking more frequently, your eyelids are growing heavier, and your breathing may also deepen. Continue focusing and keep your eyes open. For some vision may blur, for others there could be a mist forming before their eyes – experiences differ from person to person.
6. Imagine NOW how relaxed you will feel on closing your eyes. Gently close your eyelids and experience the relaxation you have imagined.
7. Breathe in through your nose to the count of five and out gently through your mouth to the count of five. This will cause your body to let go of tensions and stresses.
8. Now curl your toes on both feet and tense them while you inhale to the count of five. Now relax on your exhale to the count of five.
9. Move up to your legs. Tense them while you inhale and relax whilst you exhale.
10. Now tense your whole pelvic region. And relax.
11. Move up to your stomach, then your chest, neck, face, and head, repeating the tensing and relaxing procedure while inhaling and exhaling to the count of five.
12. Imagine that you are at the top of a staircase which has ten steps leading down.
13. Beginning with your right foot, imagine yourself slowly stepping down the staircase as you count yourself downward from 10 to 0.

• In your mind, say the number 10, 9, 8 as you start stepping down the staircase until you reach zero. At every count, imagine that you are relaxing more and more and going deeper and deeper into your own subconscious mind.
• At the bottom of the staircase, imagine there is a large wooden door in front of you. Turn the handle, open it and step out to the other side. Based on your imagination, the other side could be a garden, a beach, a forest or any favourite place from your childhood – let your subconscious mind decide for you.
• Once you have stepped into ‘that place’, you will also be able to identify a ‘spot’ that you are most comfortable in – it could be on the sand, on the grass, on a bench, on a sofa, any place that you feel totally relaxed. Imagine sitting down on that spot and spend a few seconds noticing your surroundings created by your imagination. If you feel like lying down on that ‘spot’, please do so.
• This is precisely when you are at an alpha state of mind, it is time to give yourself the post hypnotic suggestions or the autosuggestions. The affirmation that you memorized. If you cannot remember the affirmation, create a ‘mental movie’. See yourself experiencing whatever it is that you want to experience as if it were happening right NOW. Do NOT visualize as if it is happening to another person – experience it as if it is happening to YOU, from your perspective.
• Stay with this as long as you are enjoying it.
• Once you are done and ready to return to normal consciousness (beta state of mind), simply count yourself back from 1 to 10 (upwards) and tell yourself – ‘Wide Awake, Feeling Better than Before, Feeling Refresed…’, etc.
• Have a sip of water (if your mouth feels dry), stretch and then go about your daily chores.

This simple exercise is refreshing, rejuvenating and life-altering!

Read Also:

Six Ways to Change Behaviour and Align it with Results

The Most Powerful Affirmation Ever!

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This article is largely for those who have never attended my workshop, but are still searching for a tool that can help. It is also for those who have attended my workshop, but never got around to practicing with any degree of regularity.

Self-hypnosis is a proven method of deep relaxation that

Image source: Pixabay

is used for creating inner changes in our thoughts, emotions and behaviours, through conscious autosuggestion. In most cases, self-hypnosis is a self-induced state of deep relaxation attained by either listening to a recording or by bringing yourself into a trance.

It is fairly easy to learn self-hypnosis and yet, if you try too hard, you defeat the entire purpose of hypnosis. The whole premise of a relaxed state of mind is to let your subconscious prevail whereas you limit the activities of your conscious mind. Forcing something to happen only makes you tense and will jerk you out of the relaxed state. Even as you practice, be gentle and loving with yourself, no force or effort is required, let the hypnotic state develop by itself.

Do NOT attempt to analyze what is happening with you, as you perform the actions that are stated below. Analyzing is a conscious activity which will take your mind back into a beta brainwave state from the desired alpha state of mind. Just allow yourself to relax. Do not get discouraged or think nothing is happening if you don’t feel much change at first or if progress appears to be slow. After some practise you will find entering a state of self-induced trance become easy and natural as you teach your body and mind to relax. This is also the case with participants who learn the Nirmiti Nidra technique in my workshops. Progress appears to be slow and the feeling when they practice on themselves initially is never the same as their experience in the workshop under the eyes of a trained hypnotherapist; however when they continue to persist and practice regularly, they realize they can enter the alpha state of mind – effortlessly.

The other aspect you need to know and remember is that no two people experience an altered state of mind in exactly the same manner. Therefore, never compare your experience to that of another!

Whereas Nirmiti Nidra only requires 3-5 minutes per session to practice each day, for the exercise below, you will need to gift yourself at least 15 to 30 minutes each day. Find a place that is ideal for you – where you will not be distracted by external noise or people around you. Switch off your phone and all other electronic gadgets. You can practice this, either sitting down or lying down. A few of you may tend to fall asleep initially; if that is the case, then practice at an earlier hour when you are fresh and not fatigued or practice sitting in an upright chair (straight-backed).

Eventually, you will be surprised that you do not actually fall asleep during self-hypnosis although you will enter into an extremely relaxed state of mind.

Before you begin the self-hypnotic session, set an intention as to what you would like to achieve or transform internally within yourself? Do you seek more confidence? Are you endeavouring to get over limiting beliefs? Create an affirmation that you will use as an autosuggestion, i.e. a post-hypnotic suggestion – this is a strong message that you convey to your subconscious mind which will willingly accept it. The various states of our mind and the gateway to our subconscious is explained in this post. Ensure you subscribe to this blog and become a member of my site (it is free), so that you receive regular updates on affirmations. In a subsequent post, I will be writing about affirmation techniques that no one every told you about, the 7Ps of affirmations (used as autosuggestions), and loads of other stuff that you will love to read about. All in bite-sized capsules.

Stay tuned for part 2 of this article which outlines the brief life-altering exercise you can easily practice at home or anywhere else.

Before you proceed, I hope you have read Part 1 of this article first.

Image source: Pixabay

Let us look at the two common things people procrastinate for. Exercise and Diet. Let us be honest – all of us, literate, educated, knowledgeable people who have, in the past decade, graduated from Facebook and WhatsApp universities, are fully aware of the health benefits. Aren’t we? Apart from the long-term benefits, we would also be familiar with the true rush of endorphins (more about them in a future article), that make you feel really good about ourselves. But when it comes to the actual act of exercising – we procrastinate, put it off. We have a zillion reasons as to why tomorrow or some day in the future would be a better option. In fact, some of us wait for 1 January so that we can make a New Year Resolution and then embark on our program. Unfortunately, tomorrow never comes. I know people where tomorrow has translated into years, if not decades.

Again, all of us know the importance of eating a nutritious, healthy diet. We are all fully cognizant of the fact as to what constitutes unhealthy food, the detrimental effects of overeating and obesity, the harmful impact that processed food and junk food have on our system. Yet, we persist and give in to temptation ever so often. We have a zillion reasons as to why it is okay just this one time and going forward into the hazy future, we would resist succumbing to such temptation again. And then again, when tomorrow comes, we postpone it further to another day. Oftentimes, the only stage that we take action is when our health has become precarious or we are now facing an extremely critical health situation when it warrants urgent attention. In fact, if we believe that pills and medications can help us prolong our bad habits, we would be happy to do so. Until we reach the stage where pills and medications are useless – and by that time, it is often too late.

Why am I narrating all this? Simply because for the first example (exercise), you have to do something which has been postponed. In the second example (diet), you have to NOT do something which has been postponed. The magical cure proposed here in this article, will more likely, work on the former (exercise) than the latter (diet). The cure is ideal for things you must do, have to do, should do; it is not exactly the same for things you must not do, should not do.

Let me not keep you in suspense any longer – what is this magic cure? It is called ‘Temptation Bundling’, the outcome of research by a team of psychologists, viz., Erika L. Kirgios, Graelin H. Mandel, Yeji Park, Katherine L. Milkman, Dena M. Gromet, Joseph S. Kay, Angela L. Duckworth. You can find the entire research publication here.

Says Katy Milkman…

“Temptation bundling involves the coupling of instantly gratifying “want” activities (e.g., watching the next episode of a habit-forming television show, checking Facebook, receiving a pedicure, eating an indulgent meal) with engagement in a “should” behavior that provides long-term benefits but requires the exertion of willpower (e.g., exercising at the gym, completing a paper review, spending time with a difficult relative).”

– Milkman et al. 2013

Let's imagine you want to go to the gym to focus on your health, but you truly don't enjoy it. You enjoy watching your favorite TV episodes on Netflix after work, but after one or two hours, you start to feel terrible. You believe that your time could have been used more effectively and that you ought to have visited the gym. Guilt – the wasted emotion you are better off without!

In the case of temptation bundling, you would use Netflix as an incentive to go to the gym and as a reward for doing what you ought to be doing anyhow. This implies that you would limit your Netflix usage to the same time that you exercise, only watching your favorite show when you work out. You're left wonder

ing what happens in that show after you leave the gym. The only way to learn the answer is to treat yourself to the upcoming episode while you're on the treadmill (if you stick to the plan, that is).

What if you only allowed yourself to get a pedicure or a foot massage while reading and responding to important emails that are past due? So, what if you restricted yourself to only playing your favorite music while finishing up household chores? Maybe just allow yourself to visit your favorite restaurant for the paneer makhani or butter chicken you can't get enough of while spending time with a challenging relative or colleague you should spend more time with.

Remember, what you are trying to achieve here. You are trying to form a new habit. A habit is what we repeatedly do consistently. The new habit you are trying to form is one that has delayed gratification. The habit that you are bundling it with is one that provides you with immediate gratification. The new habit you are cultivating is important, but not urgent (in your mind). The habit you are bundling it with is neither urgent nor important, but gratifying (for your mind).

Transform your temptation into a powerful motivation. Like I mentioned in the previous article, there are a couple of catches to it, which requires you to think and plan. Find the right activities, i.e. make a list of the things you like/want to do and those you want/have to do. Then sprain your brain to pair them – how can you bundle what you have to do with what you want to do? Lastly, stick with it. Never forget that our subconscious adores repetitive behaviours and creates neuropathways. Cultivate the habit, until it becomes you.

The main idea of temptation bundling is to leverage a chore you enjoy doing that gives you immediate gratification to motivate you to do something else that will probably have better long-term results, like exercising or improving your health. To have the best of both worlds, you meet in the center. The consequences of temptation bundling don't persist forever, at least not for everyone, as the study demonstrates. Eventually, you should gradually start to shift away from your temptations and only engage in the "should" activities.

How then, do we tackle the things that we should not do? Stay tuned to this blog.

The ability to go through some tough times now or to hold out now for a better reward later is an essential life skill. This is what is meant by delayed gratification. For example, to begin exercising now knowing that the rewards will take a few weeks or months before they become apparent; to stop smoking now, fully aware that they will improve your health and the state of your lungs in a few weeks; to avoid some reckless purchases now in order to save for a vacation in the future; to take on tasks that you don’t like doing, yet cognizant of the fact that it will help your career; to skip desserts now which you know will help you with your weight-management regime, are all examples of delayed gratification.

Image source: Pixabay

Yet, more often than not, we give in to temptation quite easily and procrastinate when it comes to undertaking tasks or actions that will inevitably lead to future benefit? Why? Because our mind prefers instant gratification.

The practice of delaying or postponing things until the very last minute or after their due date is known as procrastination. Procrastination is described by some academics as a type of self-regulation failure defined by the intentional deferring or delaying of tasks despite likely detrimental effects. No matter how methodical and dedicated you are, there's a good chance you've wasted time on unimportant activities like watching TV, social media, or shopping online when you should have been working on job or school-related tasks. It is essentially choosing what you ‘want to do’ or ‘like to do’ over what you ‘have to do’.

Procrastination is not considered a serious problem, which is the reason that most people succumb to it one time or the other. And yet, procrastination may have a significant influence on your job, your grades, and your life, whether you're putting off finishing a project for work, avoiding homework obligations, or ignoring domestic tasks.

You may have heard of the infamous ‘Marshmallow Experiment’? It was a study on delayed gratification led by psy-

chologist Walter Mischel, a professor at Stanford. He put each youngster in a private room with just a single marshmallow on the table to test hundreds of young children. The researchers then made a deal with each child: If they held off on eating the marshmallow while they momentarily left the room, they would give them a second marshmallow. Nevertheless, there wouldn't be a second marshmallow if the kid ate the first one.

The results of this study brought home the fact as to just how difficult it is for people of all ages to defer gratification. Some kids gobbled up the first marshmallow right away. Some tried to exercise self-control but eventually gave up. Only a handful of kids were able to resist and receive the reward.

Over a 40-year period, researchers followed the Marshmallow Experiment subjects into adulthood. The kids who postponed their reward were much more successful in practically all aspects of life than the kids who gave in to temptation. They had greater social skills, were healthier, performed better on standardised tests, responded better to stress, and had less substance misuse problems. This illustration of delayed gratification showed how important it is to success in practically every area of life.

So how does one overcome procrastination? How do you trick your mind into accepting the fact that delayed gratification is as much a priority as instant gratification is? Procrastination has various causes and there are several ways to deal with it, as I have explained in my book, Breaking Free From the MAFA Syndrome. And yet, there is a magic cure that works every time for most of the common reasons one procrastinates – as long you follow a few ground rules.

What is this magic pill that works every time?

Stay tuned, ensure you have subscribed to this blog to receive regular updates and await part 2 of this article.

Those who have participated in the 'Nirmiti Nidra' workshop are familiar with neuro-pathways. MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) evidence suggesting that certain neural pathways are increased when people practice self-affirmation tasks (Cascio et al., 2016). You can peruse the research publication here and the full PDF here.

There is compelling research-based evidence that practicing self-affirmations (thought conditioning) creates/alters the neuro-pathways in our brain. Self-affirmations practiced as auto-suggestions are several times more powerful in bringing about desired results, although I could not find specific research which compares the impact of self-affirmations (beta state of mind) versus auto-suggestions (alpha state of mind).

Image Source: Pixabay

Neuro-pathways are formed by the repeated thoughts we have and by the habits (including learned skills) we have formed. The more often we think about (visualization) or hear about something (the reason for self-affirmations or auto-suggestions), it eventually manifests as a habit or an instinct, deeply held beliefs, which become a part of our identity and influences our current and future behavior.

In an effort to help those who suffer from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), researchers concentrated on validating this information using MRI technology. Three groups of individuals with OCD were included in the studies, which was spread over a month. Here is a brief note on the study and the outcome/observations:

1. The first group did nothing unusual or different.
2. The second group consumed drugs that are known to reverse the neurological damage that results in OCD.
3. The third group engaged in talk therapy with a focus on altering their attitudes and actions by repeating affirmations or constructive language.

Each participant's brain was subject to an MRI scan before and after the research. The results -

1. The first group's brain showed no obvious changes
2. The second group's behavior improved and developed new neuro-pathways
3. The third group saw the same improvement as the second group, and developed new neuro-pathways, without any medication.

The ramifications of this study emphasize the need to gain control of our thoughts and creating a more successful and fulfilling existence.

Here are two visual representations that are far more evocative than words. The first one below is how NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) depicts the process.

And this is how CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) depicts it (Source: Wiki)

The first step in embarking on Results-Based Thinking is to identify your limiting beliefs. Then, translate these limiting beliefs into positive self-affirmations (or auto-suggestions) if you have a technique to access the subconscious mind. Finally, get going with thought conditioning to harmonize behavior with results and breakthrough by combining behavioral conditioning with thought conditioning.

Affirmations do however fail sometimes, this post will tell you why.

2. Stay away from people who always complain. They are energy vampires. And stop falling into the huge trap where you think it is your responsibility to advice and counsel them. Most of them will not follow your advice anyway.

3. Eat a high protein diet comprised of whole foods – avoid processed food and packaged food.

4. Your best ideas come in the shower, walking, in your bed or in the gym. Memory is fallible Keep a notepad ready.

5. When lifting weights, use your mind to muscle connection (focus) to increase muscle contraction.

6. When you wake up, drink warm water before tea or coffee.

7. The more you criticize others, the more you criticize yourself. If you want to judge yourself less, judge others less.

8. Mouth breathing disrupts sleep, ruins oral health & can cause sleep apnoea, you also often wake up un-refreshed. Mouth taping or using the economical jaw-closer you get online at night helps most people solve this.

9. Avoid fluoride in your toothpaste. Use ones that have hydroxyapatite.

10. Sleep at the same time every day. Align your body with the rising & setting of the sun.

11. Stop comparing yourself with others, start comparing yourself with yourself – as you were one day ago. If you are progressing and getting better, you are awesome! #RunYourOwnRace

12. Stay away from people who gossip. You can only spread negativity when you at first let it enter your heart and mind.

13. Learn a martial art to increase discipline, confidence & coordination.

14. Learn a new skill every few years once you turn 40 years of age.

15. Stop seeking attention. It is never about what others think about you. It is always about how you see yourself. When you lose your self-esteem, you want others to praise you.

16. Take complete ownership for every result in your life. Everything outside of yourself that you blame, you are only telling yourself that it cannot be resolved ever.

17. The best attitude is an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful for everything you have – make a list of it, keep adding to it and look at it every day.

18. Never be in rooms where you're the smartest person. Never work out at gyms where you're the fittest person.

19. Emotion is Energy in Motion. When you feel an emotion don't suppress or numb it. It'll only internalize, grow, and become much worse later. Feel it fully then let it go.

20. You can tell a lot about someone's character by how they treat service staff.

21. When someone confides in you, maintain confidentiality, never break their trust.

22. Practice a little kindness every day. Never feel bad about giving anything.

23. Charity should make you feel grateful that you had the capacity to give. Not proud.

24. Who you choose as a partner will determine your level of peace, wealth & happiness.

25. Reality is only our level of perception. To create a better reality, change your perception.

26. Read at least 10 pages each day. Solve at least two different puzzles every day.

27. You'll never be as young as you are now. Do what you feel you're meant to do.

28. Always remember you have two choices – to do what you like or like what you do.

29. Your best decisions come from stillness, never from chaos or hyperactivity. Silence and stillness are amplified by meditation and being out with nature.

30. Problems are meant to humble you, not tumble you. Eventually, they make you stronger.

31. Trust people who say "I don't know" more than the people who have all the answers. And have the courage to say, “I don’t know” when you don’t.

32. Instead of giving your kids what you wish you had, teach them things you wish you knew.

33. Live a life of purpose. That is the purpose of life. And always be self-dependant.

Have you ever wondered why you forget most of the information you are taught in school and subsequently in college but retain only a portion of it for most of your life? There would be "brighter" kids who could remember material for a longer period if schools and institutions followed this technique. That calls for major curricular modernization, adaptation, and reduction, all of which I doubt will take place soon.

Although it seems like a basic idea, there is a lot we don't know about learning. We may employ feedback loops to enhance our learning, for instance, or the fact that we each have a unique learning style, neither of which we are aware about - but that is for another day.

In this article, we discuss "Spaced Repetition," a potent method that anyone who wants to learn, retain and recall what they learn can use.

We must routinely and at set intervals update whatever information we want to keep in our brains. Say, for illustration, that you learn that Lima is Peru's capital. If you don't use that information at all, you'll probably forget about it after reading this post or later. However, you'll be more likely to remember this information for a very long time if you keep reading or telling others that "Lima is the capital of Peru" again.

You won't need to review specific information as frequently if you encounter it frequently.

Ron and Marty write that "Our memory is equally amazing and pitiful" in the book Mindhacker. "Although technology is capable of amazing things, it never performs exactly as we would like. In a perfect world, we would have rapid recall, but we are not machines. We use tools like memory palaces to manipulate our memories, but these strategies demand commitment and work. Most of us give up and rely on our cell phones, cloud-enabled PCs, or plain old pen and paper to store our memories. A learning method known as spaced repetition, which effectively organises knowledge or memorization, and retention, can be utilised to attain almost perfect recall, offers a compromise.”

According to psychology, retention and recall are influenced by the following variables in the exact same order: -

1. The intensity of our feelings on that specific topic.

2. How strongly we are drawn to or interested in that topic.

3. The frequency of repetition.

Think about how you can recall or remember some names but not others. Got it?

What you must do for efficient learning and ideal recall is as follows:

1. Review your notes first

Make sure the material is put down in notes and that you have examined them for short-term retention within 20–24 hours of the first information intake. You should read them during the review period, then turn your head to the side to try to remember the key details.

Rereading is not the same as recalling, so make sure you look away and use your memories instead.

2. First-time recall of the information

Try to remember the details without using your notes as much a day later. Try to think of times when you are relaxing by sitting down or going for a walk.

Making flashcards of the key topics and taking self-assessment tests on the principles will also help you work more efficiently.

3. Bring up the Material Once More

Then, over the period of many days, review the information every 24-36 hours. There is no requirement that they last for hours. When you're waiting in line or on an elevator, try having a memory session. While working with those notes, attempt recalling while looking at your notes or flashcards. To store and retrieve this information in your long-term memory, the goal of this stage is to quiz and ask yourself questions.

4. Go through it once more.

Take out your material and review it once more after a few days have gone. Make sure to complete this within a week of the test if the information is for one. This enables your brain to digest ideas again.

Our regular actions don't seem so significant on their own. Typically, a small error, a bad choice, or a squandered hour don't have an immediate, observable consequence. We frequently avoid facing any direct repercussions of our actions.

Failure is not a singular, devastating occurrence. We don't fall apart suddenly. Failure is a natural outcome of a series of bad decisions and bad thinking. Failure is really a few poor decisions made repeatedly every day, to put it another way.

This lack of discipline does not seem to have any immediate effects on our life if we have not bothered to read even one book in the previous 90 days. After the first 90 days, nothing significant happened to us, so we repeat this poor decision-making for another 90 days, and so on. It doesn't appear to matter, therefore. The serious risk is present right here. Not even comprehending that it matters is much worse than not reading the books, in my opinion.

Consuming excessive amounts of the wrong foods might lead to health issues in the future, yet the pleasure of the now often outweighs this risk. Nothing seems to matter. It doesn't seem to matter to those who smoke excessively or binge drink; they continue to make these bad decisions year after year after year. But these mistakes in judgement have just postponed the agony and regret for a later date. Consequences are rarely immediate; instead, they build up until the inevitable day of reckoning eventually arrives and we are forced to pay for our bad decisions—decisions that initially seemed to have no impact.

Diabetics fail to focus on their diet, read up on the wealth of material that is now so easily available on the internet and instead prefer to continue with their current eating and sedentary habits – as long as they have their medications on hand. Because it does not seem to matter in the short run.

The human mind is far more creative with excuses to justify the extant state of affairs than to set upon altering them. Whether one is a couch potato or a workaholic, there is always an excuse.

Failure's subtlety is its most hazardous quality. These minor mistakes don't seem to have an immediate impact. It appears that we are succeeding. These cumulative mistakes in judgement can happen even during times of high happiness and success. We merely float from day to day, repeating mistakes, having incorrect thoughts, listening to incorrect voices, and making incorrect decisions because nothing horrible occurs to us and because there are no immediate repercussions to focus our attention. in on us yesterday, therefore the behaviour was probably not harmful. It is probably safe to repeat because it didn't appear to have any discernible effects.

We surely would have taken prompt action to ensure that the act would never be repeated if, at the end of the day, the sky had crashed in on us when we committed our first error in judgement. We would have experienced our mistake instantly, just like the kid who ignores his parents' cautions and puts his hand on a hot burner.

Unfortunately, unlike our parents, failure does not yell out its warnings. To be able to make wiser decisions, it is essential to develop our philosophy. With a strong, personal worldview directing our every action, we become more conscious of our mistakes and more conscious that each mistake actually does matter.

Now for the exciting news. The formula for success is simple to follow and consists of a few daily practises of a few basic disciplines, just like the formula for failure.

Here's a thought-provoking query: How can we transform the mistakes in the formula for failure into the disciplines necessary in the formula for success? Making the future a key component of our existing mindset is the solution.

Both success and failure have after-effects that will happen in the future, such as rewards or regrets that are bound to happen as a result of past actions. If this is the case, why don't more individuals stop and think about what lies ahead? Simple: They seem to be so preoccupied with the here and now that it doesn't seem to matter.

Some people are so consumed with the issues and benefits of today that they never take the time to consider what will happen tomorrow. But what if we did establish a new discipline to set aside some time each day to consider the future? The results of our present behaviour would then be predictable to us. With that important knowledge in hand, we could make the required changes to our failings to create new, success-oriented practises. In other words, we would be able to alter our thinking, correct our mistakes, and create new habits to take the place of the old if we disciplined ourselves to see the future in advance.

The fact that the benefits are nearly instantaneous makes the success formula—a few straightforward disciplines practised every day—exciting. We see positive outcomes very quickly as we consciously transform everyday mistakes into daily disciplines. Our health significantly improves when we change our diet in just a few weeks. We almost instantly experience a fresh vigour when we begin exercising. When we start reading, we feel our awareness expanding and our self-confidence rising. Any new discipline we start using every day will have exciting effects that will encourage us to get even better at creating new disciplines.

The underlying allure of new disciplines is their ability to alter our way of thinking. Today would be the first day of a new life leading to a better future if we were to begin reading the books, keeping a journal, attending the classes, listening more, and observing more. We would never again accept a life of existence once we had tasted the rewards of a life of substance if we were to start trying harder and, in every manner, make a conscious and persistent effort to turn subtle and deadly faults into constructive and gratifying practises.

I first came across the writings of Fr. Anthony de Mello (also known as Tony de Mello) when my immediate superior, Mr. Rodney Pereira, in an organization I was employed with way back in 2005, introduced me to one of his books, viz., The Prayer of the Frog Vol. 1.

Being fond of epigrammatic short stories which makes one introspect, ruminate, and ponder, especially those with intrinsic messages to the subconscious mind, I took an immediate liking to it. (The Akhyayikas series which I have authored / am authoring are essentially short stories).

I never had the privilege of meeting him, although many years later, I met one of his close friends and associates, Fr. Richard McHugh under whose watchful presence, I studied Advanced NLP.

Fr. Anthony de Mello was an integral part of both Fr. Richard (Dick) McHugh’s life and Sadhana Center. He took a course by Tony at the Sadhana Institute for Pastoral Counselling. “Tony was a good man, a noble friend and my boss,” he has always told us.

The other phrase that Fr. Richard McHugh always expressed was, “The unconscious is always positive. Allow the unconscious to surface.” He was instrumental in cementing my existing beliefs of being positive, principled, and moral; in fact, in a world inundated with negativity and sensationalism, my books continue to be focused on inspiration, motivation and emancipation.

It was a sheer coincidence that I came across the text of some his talks which have never been covered by published books, which are now in the public domain. This work has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

Like his books, his talks were never meant to instruct, but to awaken. My fervent prayer is, that you would be fortunate enough to chance upon the philosophy that lurks within this book, and it would transform you, more than you expect, unwittingly and inevitably.

I have refrained from making alterations to the original text; however, I have taken the liberty to insert quotes from the Master, insert graphic separators, re-organize the paragraphs, rectify a few (not all) grammatical errors, italicized instead of capitalizing for emphasis, adjust the spacing, eliminate an excess of word contractions, formatted the book, etc. to facilitate reading. There are other rectifications that I could have done with respect to grammar and modern-day presentation but have abstained from doing so. Thus, residual errors are entirely my responsibility. And if I have missed out on that which I said I have done and could have done, that is my responsibility too!

Tony’s inclusive approach, which integrates both eastern and western theologies, makes for a practical spirituality that enlightens the world to a simple, yet groundbreaking concept: to attain happiness, you need only wake up to the fact that you already have everything you need to be happy.

Your culture has hypnotized you like a stage magician hypnotizes a person to see what is not there, and not see what is there. But suppose there was a way of waking up from your nightmare so that all that is false and neurotic within you would drop, and your eyes would open to the reality of joy surrounding you? Would you want that?

This book is an anthology of some of his talks not covered by the published books. You will find dozens of books authored by Anthony de Mello through various sources, but not this one. In his inimitable style, these talks, interspersed with stories and anecdotes as he is wont to do, summarize his philosophy on varied subjects with one objective – to WAKE YOU UP!

Every page contains a nugget of wisdom that can be found and applied to any situation. It is that potent. This should be the one book you finish reading this year, if any. A spiritual advisor who can help you comprehend the bigger picture, help you make decisions, and help you put life and yourself in perspective. Let this book persuade you to wake up and take stock of who you are and where you fit in the world.

- Salman Rushdie

We have all been brought up listening to stories from our grandparents, parents, and many others. A story has an innate capacity to mould us, to shape our thinking, to inspire us, to motivate us, to coach us and impress our subconscious mind metaphorically. Storytelling is and has always been an important part of the solution. And when the stories are real-life stories, the benefits get amplified manifold. The emotional strings attached to real human stories bring credibility, engagement, and buy-in.

The second book in the AKHYAYIKAS series (Akhyayika means a fable, a short episodic narrative, or an anecdote) is a compendium of 100 short stories of people who dared to dream. Given the rough twist of fate, they decided to pick themselves up and make successes of themselves in their chosen life purpose. All the characters in the stories have one thing in common: they believed in the power of their dreams. The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose!

You can find a link to my earlier books here.

Did you know there has been no significant famine in India since Independence? That a famine in India was directly or indirectly responsible for the American Independence. And there have been twelve famines during the 200-year British rule?

There is a lot of extremely interesting if not intriguing history that we do not know, primarily because we were taught the same old boring stuff repeatedly from Class 5 to 10. And there is no dearth to the horrors that the British perpetrated on us during their rule, in addition to reducing us from one of the richest countries in the world to one of the poorest countries in the world, as Shashi Tharoor has highlighted on several occasions.

My blog has been versatile in terms of content, but till date it has never witnessed the write-up on a historical event. It was a suggestion from my son, who also provided some of the basic inputs – he avidly devours history and unlike his father – remembers it. That is how this post came into being, a short blog article on how a famine in India led to American independence.

Most history is about human greed, individually or collectively and this one is no different. It also shows us how difficult it is to foresee the outcome of a particular action or a series of actions.

It is always a challenge to know where to begin a story even if one has determined where to stop. Let me begin with Bengal in the 1760s and 1770s which included modern Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Orissa and Jharkhand as well as the neighbouring country of Bangladesh. One of the major crops cultivated here was rice and considering that India was a land prone to occasional droughts, it was a practice for centuries to hoard rice and other essentials.

The Mughal Emperor had the right to collect Diwani (or the tax paid by the peasant) and in 1765, the British East India Company (BEIC) acquired this right. Profit-maximisation has always been the objective of all ‘companies’ and this one was no different. In a bid to maximise their profits (or increase their collections), the BEIC increased the tax rate from 15% to 40% and outlawed the hoarding of rice. Additionally, they discouraged the cultivation of food crops and encouraged the cultivation of cash crops such as tea and sugarcane, which further enriched their coffers with regular tax collections. In their immediate greed, they hardly foresaw the chain of events that would emerge from this singular action.

In 1769, drought hit Bengal again, however this time there were no stocks of rice as was the practice over centuries. This led to the first of the twelve famines that would wreak havoc and result in millions of deaths in India during the British rule. The emphasis on cash crops like sugarcane which consumed huge quantities of water aggravated the frequency and intensity of the droughts. The Great Bengal Famine is reported to have resulted in over 10 million deaths. There are terrible stories narrated by various newspapers and books, which are too horrible to be reproduced here. The BEIC did not, of course, care about the deaths of Indian human beings, but they did get immensely perturbed by the fact that their revenues plunged severely.

One of their first actions was to increase the rate of tax to 60% and resort to violent means to collect it. Quite obviously the price of rice rose steeply during the drought, from Rs. 2.48 per maund (37.32 kgs) in 1769 to Rs. 8.64 in 1771 (almost 400% increase), but the produce was so little and the unaffordability so high, that despite the higher rate of tax, it could hardly compensate the loss of revenue. The next course of action was to derive higher revenues by way of taxes from their cash crops which they sold overseas including the Americas.

Meanwhile, in America, owing to a string of protests that had broken out, Britain had repealed the taxes it had imposed on the colonists. However, it refused to repeal the tea tax due to their revenues being severely impacted by the Great Bengal Famine – it was estimated that the colonists drank more than a million pounds of tea each year. In protest, the colonists boycotted tea sold by BEIC and smuggled in Dutch tea, leaving BEIC with millions of pounds of surplus tea and facing bankruptcy.

This in turn prompted BEIC to persuade the British parliament to pass the Tea Act in 1773, which permitted BEIC to sell tea to the colonies duty-free and much cheaper than other tea companies – but still tax the tea when it reached colonial ports. The vehement and obstinate refusal to pay tax on tea led not to the reduction but an increase in tea smuggling, even though the cost of the smuggled tea exceeded the cost of tea sold by the BEIC.

Led by Samuel Adams, the Sons of Liberty rallied meetings against the British Parliament. In December 1773, even as several BEIC ships carrying tea arrived at Griffin’s Wharf, the colonists refused to pay taxes or allow the tea to be unloaded, stored, sold or used. The British Governor on his part refused to allow the ships to return to Britain and ordered the tea tariff be paid and the tea unloaded.

That night, over a 100 colonists teamed up to empty 45 tons of tea (worth over a million dollars today) into Boston Harbour. This event eventually became famous as the ‘Boston Tea Party’. In retribution, the British Parliament passed a series of Acts which came to be known as the ‘Coercive Acts’ or ‘Intolerable Acts’. They hoped (erroneously) that these Acts would crush the rebellion and prevent the colonies from uniting, but the colonies viewed these reprehensive laws as tyranny and the resistance movement gained strength and momentum.

The first Continental Congress was convened in 1774, to write ‘The Declaration and Resolves’ and prevent oppression by the British; which eventually sparked the beginning of the American Revolution. Thus, some stupid decisions in Bengal by the BEIC eventually led to American independence. Wasn’t that interesting?

PS: 270 years later, we have still not learnt our lessons. If the Indian addiction to refined sugar does not reduce dramatically and significantly and we continue to grow such enormous quantities of sugarcane, not only would the drought-like conditions increase but several parts of India ,may turn into a desert. Do we really need all this sugar?

#famine #history #independence

It is the best of times for the environment, it is the worst of times for economic development, it is the age of wisdom for those willing to learn their lessons, it is the age of foolishness for those inclined to just condemn and criticize or forward fake news, it is the epoch of belief for those who turned to their respective faiths or science for a solution, it is the epoch of incredulity for those suddenly stricken with the disease, it is the season of Light for all those who recovered, it is the season of Darkness for those who didn't, it is the spring of hope that Gaia's revenge would eventually bring about a new world order, it is the winter of despair that once we conquered the virus - we would go back to our erring ways, we have everything before us including centuries of accumulated knowledge, we have nothing before us in terms of a concrete solution, we are all going direct to Heaven, we are all going direct the other way – in short, this period is so far a period of ironies and paradoxes.

Irony has always been a part and parcel of my life, right from childhood. I was a voracious reader who was itching to devour books on every subject, but neither did the local libraries stock them nor could I afford to purchase comics or books. I had all the time in the world, but hardly anything to read. Over the years having climbed the greasy pole (at least partly), I can most certainly afford to buy books - paperbacks or digital is immaterial - but unfortunately can neither read them at the same pace as when I was young, neither retain them as I once used to do, nor find the time in the hyper-busy corporate world where we all lose ourselves. There are many other ironical stories but it can wait for another day.

Meanwhile, it suddenly struck me today that this period - the year 2020 so far - has been a period of ironies and paradoxes just like my life. Let us take a look at several of them. Do write to me if you think of many more, you know where to find me on whatsapp, social media or email.

Let us begin with the fact that no employee in India is commuting - saving him an invaluable hour to four hours each day, depending on which city or town he is residing in. It would be interesting to find out just how he is utilizing this extra time on this hands. Unlike many others I do know that this period is not just about 'staying at home' doing whatever the hell you like, but 'working from home' - possibly longer hours than you did on a normal day in 2019. There is so much that can possibly be accomplished like never before in the past and yet - just how many of us can get around to do it? There is so much time on our hands, but can it really be used to fulfill our dreams in a lockdown situation? Seems difficult if not impossible.

The air pollution is at its lowest in the past few decades, many of us especially the millennial is breathing purer air than ever before and yet has to wear a mask. Instead of dragging in lungfulls of pure air devoid of smoke, smog, particulate matter and other trash, we are mandated to cover our nose and mouth with layers of cloth. In countries like India, for people like me who just love road trips, the roads have never been emptier and yet it is impossible to go on a drive - either interstate or intrastate.

For the humongous human ego, a tiny little virus has held the world to ransom. For Gaia, which comes from the Greek work γαια meaning 'Earth' or 'Mother Earth', seems to be teaching us human beings that Planet Earth is not helpless and will stand by and silently witness the destruction that man is wreaking upon it and yet, the same Mother will help the human beings to eventually come up with a solution ensuring their survival - often at the cost of other living beings and Planet Earth itself.

Never have people observed so much hygiene as they do now, washing their hands and every inconceivable opportunity and yet shaking hands which the Western cultures imposed on the rest of the world has been replaced by the humble 'Namaste' - the greeting with folded hands. As an only child whose world revolved around his friends to a largely unsocial adult, I cannot help but think that one now has all the time in the world for friends but unfortunately cannot have a 'get together'.

Women were always more skilled and talented. Over these months, many men are slowly but surely learning to cook and bake (I was fortunate to be taught all those lessons early in my life, by choice or otherwise), but cannot invite their neighbors to their dining table so that they could either applaud or retch. It is also equally ironical that those who have tons of money cannot spend it in this period, whereas those who are struggling to make ends meet with their daily wages cannot earn it, even if they are willing - heart, mind and soul.

Monday morning blues have also become a thing of the past because we cannot now, distinguish from interminable weekends for some who dont work to extended weekdays for those who work from home.

PS: The original opening lines in Charles Dickens book, 'A Tale of Two Cities' from which the opening paragraph has been borrowed and embellished is - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." For this article, I could of nothing more appropriate to adopt and adapt.

#covid19 #lockdown #pandemic

I am not familiar with every town and city but would tend to believe that in major metropolitan cities in India, many individuals would be commuting for at least 2-4 hours each day from residence to office and back. They now have all the time in the world (3 weeks or more) to use this time wisely to inculcate new habits – meditation, reading, exercise, etc. This would certainly help them to live healthier, more fulfilled lives. It has also taken the stress out of driving – even those who love to drive or bike, would hardly enjoy the peak hour congestion on the Indian city roads, would they now? Suddenly people have more time on their hands – would it all go away once the lockdown is over? It is quite apparent that a majority of the people can actually work from home and still make the world go around on its axis. Oh yes, it has caused bandwidth issues and exposed the reprehensible quality of broadband internet and 4G wireless internet that is dished out by almost all the providers. Would organizations now realize that there is a potential win-win situation out here? ‘Work-from-office’ can be reduce to just 1 or 2 days per week. This essentially means hot desking can be expanded to include every employee. Office space can be reduced by 50% or more, leading to significant cost savings. Add to that the lower cost of internet, lower consumption of electricity and other utilities, lower administration costs, savings in passenger transportation, possibly higher productivity and most importantly – better wellbeing for their employees, which most companies aver they really care about. Last but not the least, if the avoidable human populace stays off the roads, it makes life far more bearable for the populace that cannot avoid commuting by public transportation for their daily livelihood.

The impact on the environment was also expounded upon in an earlier post on this blog. It is not just about cleaner air and reversal of greenhouse gases. It is also about a dramatic reduction in the burning of fossil fuels including petrol and diesel. It is also a relief to all the flora and fauna around us. It puts a rest to controversies whether or not global warming is true – instead it gives us an ability to observe and note down the visible and invisible differences in the atmosphere during the period of lockdown. Lastly, it calls upon all the world leaders to take up as a number one priority – the task of building a cleaner, more sustainable but less avaricious world.

In the past few decades, India has rapidly ascended to being the virtual diabetic and obesity capital of the world. The advent of processed food from the west is one of the root causes that has afflicted the growing affluence of the middle class. I have made a note to expand on this subject in a later post on this blog. There have been hundreds of jokes and memes floating around on the consequences of ‘sitting at home’ or ‘working from home’. Several jokes point towards the fact that one is expected to put on more weight during this period. Contrary to popular opinion, I would tend to think otherwise. I think this period has put an end to needless junk food and the growing menace of people wanting to dine out frequently. It should have also reduced the consumption of packaged processed food due to lack of availability. Not only does this highlight the fact that we can, actually, survive without junk food, it also seems to indicate that more people would actually get healthier by eating home-cooked meals and even home-made savouries and snacks. Will people learn from this and ensure that they continue sticking to their newly inculcated healthier food habits?

Every crisis gives rise to a large number of altogether new subject matter experts. The COVID-19 crisis is no different. From the miserable media to a bunch of angry, frustrated people who vent their misery by cribbing and complaining and fabricating, it has become difficult for the common man to isolate fake news from the genuine; difficult to ascertain whom to support and whom not to. It is somewhat sad to see that the criticism is often not constructive but destructive and rarely (if at all) is accompanied by alternative suggestions. Even as the government was criticized for ignoring the poor, the migrant labour, the daily wage earner, in its haste to impose a lockdown, thousands and thousands of individuals, groups, organizations, NGOs, religious places, etc stepped in to help. They are trying their best to ensure that no one goes hungry and that they have a place to rest. Can we transform this into a state of permanency as well? This is perhaps the ideal time to ascertain just how much would it cost the nation to ensure that no citizen goes to sleep hungry. Then look at permanent (not temporary) establishments to take care of this and means to find the resources, that are not then mis-utilized. It is also the right time to ascertain what a common minimum program would call for?

In a state of emergency, we were able to construct hospitals and new facilities in a matter of days. We have all the architects, technical expertise, professional advisors and skilled manpower in the world to plan, design, execute and administrate a world-class healthcare system for the citizens of India. Do we really need a crisis to prove our capabilities or propel us into action? Can we not undertake this on a war footing? Undoubtedly, it calls for resources and some deep thought as to how to make it financially viable and sustainable. But then, we also have some of the best brains in the world – even ignoring those Indians who have chosen to work for other countries.

Indians are generally known to save a larger proportion of the income as compared to their counterparts in the west. This is driven by fear and insecurity, especially as one nears old age due to lack of a full-fledged healthcare and old age retiral system in India. The lockdown should enable each family (not just each individual) to increase his or her savings at this time. Sadly, this would only apply to those who continue to receive their salary and allowances during this period – but that could be a very large number in this country. Savings would result from not indulging in pubbing, clubbing and dining out, purchasing fewer number of packaged and processed food items, virtually no consumption of fuel, no visits to malls buying unnecessary stuff, no visits to multiplexes to spend large denominations on popcorn and samosas. This should be clearly discernible and set aside for the future. The learning is complete if it continues to be applied after the lockdown ends.

Indians should be glad they generally have an intact family system. There are many nuclear families, but in a large number of cases, the parents are living with one child or the other, ensuring they all stay together at a time such as this one. The number of nuclear families further split by divorces may be quite small. This occasion should not just give rise to each one getting on the other’s nerves but also provide for some quality time together. This is also the right time for the spoilt brat to help out his spouse in the daily housekeeping, learn cooking or baking and make himself generally useful around the house (remember the extra hours per day he now has?)

This unique global crisis has brought out the fact that developed nations seem to be more vulnerable and less immune as compared to poor and developing nations. It also seems to emphasize that elitism is shallow, that the rich are in fact, also less immune than the poor and therefore have a greater stake to contributing to build a better more inclusive India. It also appears that we can survive without making self-gratifying trips abroad. Can we then spend our vacations within the boundaries of the nation and boost tourism as well as enrich the local populace?

The Corona virus crisis has also re-established the ancient Indian way of greeting another person – the ‘Namaste’. Whether it was intentional or otherwise, it undoubtedly kept contagion at bay. Let us look at a few other customary practices. The idea of purity and pollution (and somehow this sub-continent seems to have linked them) forms the foundation of Indian ethos. What was probably conceptualized and formulated thousands of years ago has been cemented over the centuries, although it is probably on the decline now (or would it rise like a Phoenix once more?). We always wash our hands with soap and water before and after meals. We always wash our hands and feet upon returning home. We always leave our footwear at the door and don’t traipse all over the house distributing dirt, dust, grime and filth (and yes - our streets are filthy). We have not used hand sanitizers or their equivalent from the beginning of time, even today it is clear that soap and water do a better job. We did not believe in sharing glasses and containers or plates or vessels – again for the sake of better personal hygiene. Even today, a large proportion of the Indian populace would not put a bottle directly to their lips – but their number is dwindling every day. And lastly, unlike their western counterparts, Indians use their hands and water to clean their bottoms after defecating. How on earth can a piece of paper render it clean? Also, they tend to use their left hand for this ‘dirty’ task, because 90% of the population is right-handed. One of those possible superstitions that has transcended centuries. So what is the learning? That we re-emphasize not just personal hygiene but also public hygiene – just as it was thousands of years ago.

Unintended at conception, this has turned out to be a rather long article, but hopefully an insightful and reasonably entertaining one. So how do I end this? It would be inappropriate if I end this without speaking of the impact of the crisis on the stock markets – worldwide and in India. We Indians are also famous for the herd mentality. Logically, one would tend to think that with stock prices having fallen to their lowest levels, this was the time to buy and not sell or wait. Rationally though, one would say that timing the market perfectly is near impossible. So, what should we do then? We should continue to invest through SIPs, not sell in panic if we are holding value stocks and in case we have an extra bonus coming our way, carefully select and buy a few select stocks which are at their 52-week lows. Another alternative, is to carefully select and invest in a few equity-oriented mutual funds. Do remember, however, that mutual fund investments are subject to market risks.

#lockdown #covid19 #lifelessons #mindfulness

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In the previous article, I endeavoured to give a different perspective on the lockdown that has been necessitated due to the Corona Virus COVID-19, as it is called. I fervently hope that the honourable world leaders do wake up and realize the positive impact on the environment and the urgent imperative to reverse global warming and develop sustainable processes that do not harm the environment.

In the present article, I am trying to make every person aware of the apparent connection between animals and pandemics, which seems to have been either ignored, intentionally or unintentionally. The past 2,000 years have seen several pandemics. The Antonine plague in the 2nd century is believed to be either smallpox or measles. And available research suggests the high probability that it originated in camels brought into Egypt and spread through rodents thereafter. The world population at that time was estimated to be about 160 million of which nearly 5 million died.

The Japanese smallpox in the 8th century was an infection that had ostensibly been carried by a Japanese fisherman who had contracted the illness after being stranded on the Korean peninsula. More likely than not, it passed on from animal to human and thereafter to thousands of other humans. It is said to have killed 1/3rd of the entire population in Japan. This was followed by the Plague of Justinian which killed about 40 million people and the Bubonic Plague which killed almost 200 million people, a significant proportion of the world population at that time. The transmission was from rats and fleas.

Image courtesy : https://www.visualcapitalist.com

The Russian Flu or the Red Flu (H2N2) in the 19th century which killed over a million people is believed to have an avian (birds) origin, whereas the Spanish flu (H1N1) in the 20th century is believed to have an originated from pigs. The Hong Kong flu is also believed to have originated from swine/pigs. HIV/Aids originated from chimpanzees. The Swine flu pandemic as recent as 2009-10 also came from pigs. So far, going by available data on the internet, it appears that rats, pigs and birds were responsible.

SARS in 2002-03 brought in the linkage with bats/civets and Ebola in 2014-16 with wild animals. MERS reinforced the link of diseases with bats and COVID-19, which is the most recent pandemic seems to have come from pangolins and bats. There seems to be a distinct connect between strains of human influenza and those from animals. One research from 1995 onwards traces H5N1 to chicken, H5N3 to terns, H7N3 and H5N9 to turkeys. Fortunately, none of them went to become pandemics.

There are dozens of other diseases that could be borrowed from animals – this site lists most of them – from Anthrax to Zika. Potential pandemics for the future, depending on how we interact with and/or ingest animals in future. To me, it looks like a sword dangling over human necks. If these aren’t enough, the top 5 diseases linked to meat consumption are Heart Disease, Cancer, Stroke, Diabetes and Obesity. Obesity in turn leads to many other complications. The other common diseases associated with eating meat are E. coli from ground beef, BSE (bovine spongiform encephalitis) from beef cattle also known as Mad Cow Disease (100% fatal), Trichinosis from pork, Salmonella from poultry, Scrapie from lamb and mutton, etc.

In this article I am not venturing into the environmental impact of meat. I am also not venturing into the steroids and antibiotics that are fed to most of the animals that are bred. However, considering the COVID-19 battle that the world is fighting right now, can human beings show greater restraint when it comes to devouring a variety of animals – at least to prevent pandemics? One can only conjecture.

#pandemic #covid19

The plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, was carried by ground rodents (rats), including marmots and is believed to have originated in China 2000 years ago as shown by gene sequencing data (see links below for references). It was terrifying contagious - even clothes brushing against one another could transmit the disease. It was so outrageously quick and deadly - a person who went to bed perfectly healthy (apparently) could be dead the next morning. You can watch the brief video here.

The Black Death was quickly followed by the New World Smallpox Outbreak (56 million deaths); Italian Plague, the Spanish flu, HIV/Aids, Swine flu, SARS, etc. The illustration below will give you a fair idea of all the major pandemics that the world has witnessed in the last 2000 years.

In comparison, the Corona Virus Outbreak or COVID-19 has so far resulted in less than 40,000 deaths worldwide, but it is estimated to have a range of 16 million to 35 million as potential victims by some sources, mainly children and senior citizens, who for some reason seem to lack the immunity that the young adult population has. There are other estimates which place the range between 2 million to 20 million. At this stage, I don't think anyone has a clue. All countries are under a lockdown and only containment seems to be the solution. If it does spread (and not all that many have been tested so far), the mortality rate revised by WHO is now placed around 3.5-4.0%. I am not an expert on this, so shall desist from putting forth any statistics of my own.

What is interesting is the fact that almost all of the previous pandemics resulted in religious, economic and social upheavals in varying degrees across the world, some of them limiting human interactions too, but none so far (as much as I can fathom) resulted in any environmental changes. However, the unprecedented lockdown to this extent in all major as well as minor countries has had far reaching consequences on the environment.

The World Economic Forum has published satellite images of the (positive) environmental impact of COVID-19 - it is really something that each person needs to be aware of. However, whether there would be a sustained lasting impact on the environment is difficult to conjecture. I am not saying that this pandemic is a good thing - it is scary and human lives are at stake - however, I am saying that as we become cognizant of how much we influence the environment adversely, we should learn from this and global leaders should listen to Greta Thunberg and take immediate steps to minimize our carbon footprint.

Here are a few things that have dramatically changed in the last month or so -

• Significant improvement in air quality (far lower air pollution).
• Nitrogen dioxide emissions, which are closely linked to factory output and vehicles on the roads, has gone down drastically.
• Steep drop in CO2 emissions across various countries.
• Clearer water, especially where water transport systems have come to a grinding halt.
• Slowing down economic activity, shutting down offices, schools, colleges and factories has also resulted in significantly reducing all greenhouse gas emissions.
• As people stay locked in at home, or in self-quarantine, there is lesser food waste and also a significant reduction in the daily urban waste generation by way of plastics, disposables, packaging material, takeaway containers, etc. However, the medical waste has gone up.
• The noise pollution levels have also gone down significantly, notably in countries with large population - there are no public events, no vehicles on the roads, no honking, no public transport.
• Airline emissions have gone down, although this has resulted at the airline industry staring at bankruptcy if they are not bailed out or suitable economic measures are not undertaken.
• Emissions from coal combustion are also falling across the world.
• Commercial use of energy has fallen rapidly, even as domestic consumption has gone up. However, it appears that the fall is far higher than the corresponding increase in domestic use.
• Particulate matter levels have dropped significantly.
• Human beings are spending more time at home with their families than they ever did before.

Nature is sending us a message. For all those who did not believe in Global Warming or the disastrous effects of human economic activity, the message is loud and clear. If a couple of weeks can lead to such dramatic changes, imagine the quality of human life if this were to be made permanent. NOT by another virus or by Gaia's revenge, but merely by global leaders waking up to the (now) established facts and taking urgent steps to reverse the damage that has been done to this beautiful planet over the past few hundred years.

References:

https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/black-death

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/history-of-pandemics-deadliest/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/emissions-impact-coronavirus-lockdowns-satellites/

#covid19 #pandemic #environment #global

Over the 3 decades that I have spent in full-time employment, I have spent 50% of that time in the freight forwarding industry. Having nothing better to do today after completing my chores and checking my office emails for quadrant one stuff (read urgent and important), I was ruminating on how every person today is similar to a freight forwarder - I call him/her the missive forwarder.

One of the activities that engages me for not more than 20-30 minutes each day is forwarding - not freight, but missives. Why do I call it missives and not messages? The former sounds more important and erudite. An ex-colleague asked me recently, "from where do you get all these interesting posts from?" (sic). I replied, quite honestly, "I do not go searching for them. They find me. I just find a place in the right groups, the missives then find me." He thought this was a clever response, but actually it was just an honest one. Truth is not clever, lies are.

It has been a complete mystery to me where some of these amazing videos and text messages originate. I get some awesome poetry, some great videos (ignoring the youtube and standard movie clips), some witty puns, some inspirational messages, some beautiful images, some humorous memes, some atrocious clips, some fake news, some political biases, some mouthwatering recipes, some visual treats. And it is a shame to keep them all to myself - so I forward them, just like others. After all, each one of us is unique, just as everyone else. Freight forwarding is restricted to a few global, local, organized and unorganized players - missive forwarding is unrestricted and free.

During the #lockdown thanks to #COVID-19, a quote from Charles Dickens' 'A Tale of Two Cities' seems quite appropriate - "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Most people think that forwarding is easy - it most certainly is not! It involves consolidating what you receive from different sources and determine where it needs to be forwarded to. It also involves 'breakbulk', i.e. de-consolidating the messages that you receive from a single source and determine who are the rightful recipients of different missives. It involves complying with local regulations - to ensure that no law is broken. It involves identifying the recipient with unerring regularity - so that the receiver is pleased to receive this particular missive and not annoyed. It involves judicious segregation of divisive and sociopathic missives to avoid conflicts and verbal combats.

One of the important aspects of forwarding is the speed and the agility. So, once you have the direction set right, the next important task is to make sure the missive arrives at its destination before anyone else's does. This also frustrates other forwarders and makes them more likely to make mistakes - haste makes waste. Another important aspect is embargo and restricted parties - how to ensure that the wrong recipient does not receive what is not meant for him or her. This is another instance of acting in haste and repenting at leisure - especially when it comes to hate mails as compared to inspirational mails.

Forwarding also means using different vehicles - so if you receive something on WhatsApp, be agile to share it on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter or even LInkedIn, if it is appropriate. Look for links on facebook and share it on LinkedIn. Check if you can download and store the images from one social network and use that to expand the knowledge of other social networks. All this is in a good cause. Speaking of social media and its posts, it has always seemed funny to me that some of the people who claim that other people are full of hatred, actually hate them.

You also have to take into account just how critical the recipients' biases are. For example, what if you happen to send the intended recipient a pro-Didi post when he or she is unabashedly 'anti-Didi'? How do you absorb, swallow, regurgitate and expunge the emotions that arise when you receive an insidious stream of emails that can only see the negative in every situation? How do you retain your own sanity? Would you now take up the battle or would you ignore it altogether?

A true forwarder always remembers never to wrestle with a pig - he gets dirty and the pig loves it!

#Humor

‘The Subtle Art…’ claims that it is a ‘counterintuitive approach to leading a good life.’ The author is extremely clever – in fact he appeals to the reader who is sick of the ‘be a great human being’ books that perpetually tell him to raise his performance to a level that all the illustrative examples in the book do – who therefore picks up the book. At last the reader has something that he really would like to believe – why should he give a f*ck about anything. After tricking the reader with his language in the first few pages of the book, it emerges that it is actually a book about values.

Essentially, the book tells us to set our priorities right (much like my own book ‘The Busyness Age’) and focus on things that matter the most to us, whilst letting go of everything else. The book had many parallels to my own – except that it was far more cleverer, was given the nod by a great publisher and marketed brilliantly. Whereas my own book would have far more tools to equip every office worker in actually setting out to achieve the priorities and keep away from distractions as compared to Manson’s book – the language, content, wit, and contemporariness of Manson’s book is far greater.

Manson’s brilliant book goes against the over-hyped aspects of ‘positive thinking’, ‘extraordinary living’ and ‘happiness seeking’. However, it is not a practical guidebook to choosing what’s important as ‘The Busyness Age’ is. It is a brutally honest look at oneself and a much-needed reality check on our aspirations, expectations, fears and tribulations.

Well, if one doesn’t call it a self-help book, what does one call it? I would call it an inspirational book, about living life fully based on our values and with a sense of purpose. The negativity that the book exudes is misleading, it is just clever so as to not ‘follow the herd’ of other similar books. It is a book that talks about accepting yourself as you are and accepting your dreams – which do not need to be grandiose or complex. It is about embracing the problems that life has cast upon you whilst yet striving to create goals and fulfil them.

The ‘sequel’ to the first book has a bold subtitle, “A Book About Hope”. If the first book was about our own individual flaws and accepting them, the second book is about the flaws in the world around us – where nothing is right. The materialistic world is full of calamities and nothing ever seems to be right.

A book about hope appears to be a book about despair! The vulgarity pours over from the first book even as the outrageous humour seems to have taken a back seat. And in the end, after reading 230 odd pages of erudition, psychological research and timeless wisdom from some of the greatest philosophical minds, it tells us nothing more than to face this world of misery, anxiety and stress with inner peace, happiness and hope. If I enjoyed reading the first book, the second one could have been given a miss.

#bookreviews

The TIMES OF INDIA has called it - 'A mini-bible' for every office worker, executive and B-school student. This concise book is filled with tools, tips and tricks and is completely devoid of unnecessary prose, jargon and technicalities - my endeavour is to help every corporate employee gain control over his life (read work-life balance or work-life continuum) and steer it in the direction one wants.

The contemporary work environment today has turned extremely hectic, the ‘tyranny of the urgent’ has you in its vicious grips and the 9 to 5 job metamorphoses into a 24/7. Yet, activity is not equal to productivity. And your dreams and aspirations, your hobbies and your passions need not recede into oblivion. There is always a way, and this book tells you –

• How to avoid ‘busywork’
• How to embark on ‘results-based’ living.
• less.How you can achieve more with
• How you can enhance your personal productivity.
• How you can find the extra time you need.
• How to overcome procrastination, and the secret antidote for it.
• How you can use the Pomodoro technique to your advantage.
• How you can use the secret of compartmentalization to your advantage.
• How to use the power of your mind to gain energy and become more productive.

Filled with tools, tips and tricks in every chapter, this simple book, devoid of jargon and technicalities, is meant for every office worker and executive to gain control over his life and steer it in the direction one wants. It includes an easy and simple self-hypnotic meditation technique, that can be practiced anywhere, anytime.

The intent was to make this book affordable to the masses - and thanks to my publishers ,Kalamos who made it possible. This compact handbook is now available on ,Amazon and on other e-commerce websites and is priced at just Rs. 199 for the mass-market paperback edition. For those equipped with a Kindle and prefer an e-book over a paperback, you can ,grab it here for just Rs. 110. And lastly, for those with a Kindle Unlimited ,subscription, this book is FREE!

#books #bookreviews #ebooks

Some books such as ‘The Secret’ sell hundreds of millions of copies, but it is unclear how many actually benefited. Riding the popularity wave, several books follow on virtually the same topic which clearly means two things, viz., the first book was incomplete or the subsequent books have little substance and are often repetitive and boring. I am not sure how I came across “The New Psycho-Cybernetics” written by Dr. Maxwell Maltz but am glad I did. It is one of those books that stands the test of time, did not have any ‘sequels’ and applies to personal development and psychological theory even today. This is irrespective of whether or not you are a hypnotherapist or an advance NLP practitioner.

It is a psychological masterpiece and I can now understand why trainers and facilitators picked up parts of this book for their personal empowerment programs for over two decades. This book was also responsible for the ’21-day myth’ that has become so popular amongst trainers and facilitators as well as those in the HR fraternity, many of whom may not even have read the book but merely heard about it or read about it someplace. The popular story that goes around that it takes ’21 days to form a habit’ is a myth, that has its origins in this book. Even today, most people believe that habits are formed by repeating a task for 21 days in a row. This, unfortunately is NOT true, although people desperately want it to be true, so it continues to gain popularity. Dr. Maltz did not say that 21 days of repetitiveness would result in the formation of a new habit. What he did infer was that it took approximately three weeks for the self-image of a person to change and that for various reasons, it did not necessarily result in a change of personality or behaviour in everyone.

Maxwell says Personal Empowerment is all about self-image. Self-image is the ‘mental picture’ that every person has of himself or herself. This mental picture is the sum total of past experiences, emotions and behaviours, and thus it represents the foundation on which we build our personality. Borrowing from Hypnosis, the book goes on to say that the brain cannot differentiate between ‘imagination and reality’. And this in turn has been picked up by thousands of books and authors subsequently. Hypnosis established this fact centuries ago, when clients are led through ‘hypnodramas’ to resolve present-life situations.

Maxwell then goes on to say that by changing the mental picture, we can change our reality – both in terms of our personality as well as our behaviour. Effectively we are replacing the old paradigm in our brain with a new paradigm using Maxwell’s techniques of relaxation and visualization – again no different from Hypnosis or the more modern NLP. Yet, unlike other books which leave you in the lurch, this one takes step-by-step through various techniques described through the book, viz., how to condition yourself for success, how to de-hypnotize yourself from limiting beliefs, how to live more courageously, how to sell or negotiate with confidence, etc.

The ‘Success Mechanism’ according to Maxwell – one of the more important aspects of this book – is based on a strong sense of direction, the willingness to keep moving, the ability to comprehend and communicate, the courage to face challenges, being kind and charitable, and having the self-confidence to execute one’s plans.

By all means, go ahead and read this book. It is not one of those that you read like a novel and place it back on the shelf, but perhaps one that you go back to from time to time and re-read once a year.

#bookreviews #habits #subconscious #success