And you thought your life was tough???

Nick Vujicic, 26 is an Australian born without limbs. He uses his story to inspire and motivate people all around the world. Have a look.



The greatest error of a man is to think he is weak by nature. Every man is strong in his real nature. What is weak are his habits, his desires, and his thoughts, but not himself.

Mucho amor and bendiciones

Vikram

http://www.metronirvana.com/

Creativity thy name is Relaxation

It’s fun conducting wellness workshops for the advertising agency employees, especially if they belong to the creative side of the ad world. In fact, I recommend every hardcore corporate guy to work for few weeks in the ad world in the creative section, to know how fun yet challenging that work is. I find these creative guys from the ad world to be balanced in their approach to work and life. They seem to use both the sides of their brain in good proportion unlike other corporate careers which can get too logical or analytical.

One thing these ad guys have no dearth of and want more, is CREATIVITY. Every time we do some exercise in the workshop, these guys go, “so will this make us more creative??” I wish this zeal for creativity is desired by every employee in the corporate world. As Abraham Maslow, the famous psychologist and father of humanistic psychology stated “The key question isn't, 'What fosters creativity?' But it is, 'Why isn't everyone creative?'"

We are all creative beings, but only on the sub-conscious level. What is needed is to bring that creative process to the conscious level. The fact that we lost our creative ability on the conscious level has two reasons. One, as kids we used to be a bundle of fantasies. And it was through these fantasies and imagination that our creativity naturally flourished. However, our parents and elders didn’t encourage us to fantasize. Wish they would have facilitated part of our fantasies into our real life by encouraging us. As a result, by the time we reached adulthood most of us had stopped expressing ourselves creatively without even realizing. Secondly, we also lost our creative abilities while growing up due to hang-ups or fears of being judged by adults for indulging in fantasies. If only our parents and elders would have understood what Albert Einstein meant when he stated, "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world".

We all know the famous quote, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a vision.” And what is this vision? It is imagination in the simplest form. The first step to being imaginative or creative is to relax! It is relaxation that increases the odds that a creative idea or insight will surface. In fact, people are more creative after a relaxation activity, but they don’t know it.

If you feel it’s difficult to relax in your daily work routine then take a holiday or a short vacation. This break will not only give you the much needed rest and relaxation but also help shift your thinking from its habitual, stuck patterns and create the space for creativity to emerge. This change will give you the time for reflection so you can step back and look at what's happening in your life with a better perspective. And as you become more sensitive & aware, can visualize your goals or objectives clearly, the rest will follow. So all you idea hamsters, relax. Cause it is RELAXATION that is the key to getting more creative, inventive and to churn out new ideas. It is relaxation that will help you create a tunnel vision when you’re hammering away at a problem. And it is relaxation that will help you create your goals that will lead you to realize your vision.

Soulful Regards,

Vikram
http://www.metronirvana.com/


Metro Nirvana conducts workshops in Creative Expressions for those who want to overcome stress, break their faulty conditionings and bring out their inner child! In these workshops you express not through your mind but your inner being. This is a perfect platform to rediscover the healing pleasure of imagining and creatively expressing yourself through dance, music, drama, poetry, writing and art. During the workshop as you take time for yourself, we encourage you to feed your spirit, follow your dreams and cherish your vision. All this lead to the freedom of your soul.

Healthy lifestyle an antidote to stress

Each time, I’m invited to a dinner get together by my corporate friends; the discussion always veers towards stress in life. After ten minutes of going around in circles, the corporate dudes get to the point. How do I cope with stress?

Isn’t stress part of our metro lifestyle? Doesn’t stress refuse to leave our lives? Isn’t stress too hyped up in today’s world? Can a modern man ever live a stress-free life in this metropolitan environment? It is at this stage in the discussion that I begin to look superior and lecture these corporate executives on my triumphs in dealing with stress. I’ve never had that sort of problem with stress, I say. Of course, stress exists in today’s rat race, but then, so does solutions to combat it. You don’t let stress affect your life. Agreed, stress leads to unhealthy habits. A bad day lures you to have a slice of cake or an ice-cream. It drains your willingness to exercise or eat well or have fun. It causes you to tune out the world, to sit in front of the television and ignore your relationships. And yet stress can be relatively easy to manage. All it takes is a commitment to lead a health life -- and an open mind.

So the real agenda is not about stress at all. It is about adopting a healthy lifestyle. For that, you need to have a positive mindset and a set of choices that contribute to maximizing the quality of your life and health. This will include: having a positive self image, awareness of one's strength and weaknesses, seven to eight hours of sound sleep, nutritious diet, maintenance of weight, no smoking, regular exercise, and practice of relaxation. Relaxation is very crucial. When you are relaxed, you learn to see things clearly and have fresh perspective on the same problem or issue.

It is this HOLISTIC lifestyle that helps you work under pressure and combat stress in the busiest of workday environment.

Until next time, hasta la vista. Keep commenting!

Vikram

Yoga knows no religion

I cannot help but laugh on hearing about ‘hinduizing’ of yoga, as I call it. First it was some churches in UK that had banned the practice of Yoga as it is adverse to catholic churches and now it’s the clerics in Indonesia and Malaysia banning Muslims from doing yoga.

I have run into this attitude myself few times. As part of my wellness workshops, I teach yoga to various corporate executives. One guy told me that how his minister, a Jehovah's Witness, told him he would "go to hell" if he did yoga. Even some Christians feel that yoga is "evil". Apparently getting physically fit to some people is evil!

We all know that yoga is good for health and all religions stress the importance of leading a healthy life. Yoga is universal. The birthplace of yoga is India, but it’s for all, irrespective of religion, gender, nationality and language. Agreed, yoga is not ultimately, a form of exercise but a spiritual path in its own right. However, religion and spirituality don’t necessary go hand in hand.

The clerics are afraid that people who practice yoga are worshipping another god but that is not the case at all with doing yoga. It’s only because they don’t understand what yoga is and they feel it’s a threat. They should go to yoga class and try it. The clerics think that chanting mantra is a Hindu act, little do they know that the purpose of chanting mantras is not to pray but to focus thoughts and has no relationship with worshipping. Chanting doesn’t weaken anyone’s religion. Also, some aspects of yoga constitute meditation but it’s not a part of the religion and there is no dogma involved while meditating. Not to mention, that yoga which is more than 5000 years old is one of the oldest known medical systems and it is now at the forefront of holistic and integrated medicine in the West.

I think yoga has never been said to be bad for humans except for the clerics who deep inside are afraid to lose their followers base who want to free their minds to think for themselves. Yoga frees the mind and spirit, to fly and search for truths, without depending on anyone. Such greatness, such powerful good medicine to the mind and body, yet banned by some?

So next time, someone asks you to stop doing yoga, just ask them to hear the famous song by Pink Floyd- We Don't Need No Education…..Yes leave yoga alone!

Best wishes for your body,

Vikram

The Law of the Garbage Truck

Came across this beautiful story and wanted to share it with you all. Brilliant insight into the way we live our life!

One day I hopped into a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his breaks, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly. So I asked, "Why did you just do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call "The Law of the Garbage Truck." He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the street.

The bottom line is that successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so… Love the people who treat you right. Forgive the ones who don't. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!


I thank all those people who stop by this place……
Vikram

Good side to Recession

As I always believe, that every action has both- a positive and a negative side to it. So by that logic there has to be a positive side to recession too! Researchers are stating how with the ongoing global financial meltdown there is a rise in good health.

According to Professor Christopher Ruhm of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, when the economy weakens, his research indicates that mortality rates of all kinds fall. People also behave in a healthier manner- they smoke and drink less and they’re less likely to be obese. Suicides rise, but total mortality rates drop. People have more leisure time, exercise more and eat more healthily.

Am corroborating my comment with an abridged version of an article that appeared on February 1, 2009 in The New York times--- Recession Can Change a Way of Life - By TYLER COWEN

As job losses mount and bailout costs run into the trillions, the social costs of the economic downturn become clearer. But there is also a broader set of questions about how this downturn is changing our lives, in ways beyond strict economics.

All recessions have cultural and social effects, but in major downturns the changes can be profound. First, consider entertainment. Many studies have shown that when a job is harder to find or less lucrative, people spend more time on self-improvement and relatively inexpensive amusements. During the Depression of the 1930s, that meant listening to the radio and playing parlour and board games, sometimes in lieu of a glamourous night on the town. These stay-at-home tendencies persisted through at least the 1950s.

In today’s recession, we can also expect to turn to less expensive activities — and maybe to keep those habits for years. They may take the form of greater interest in free content on the Internet and the simple pleasures of a daily walk, instead of expensive vacations. In any recession, the poor suffer the most pain. But in cultural influence, it may well be the rich who lose the most in the current crisis. This downturn is bringing a larger-than-usual decline in consumption by the wealthy.

Popular culture’s catering to the wealthy may also decline in this downturn. We can expect a shift away from the lionizing of fancy restaurants, for example, and toward more use of public libraries. Such changes tend to occur in downturns, but this time they may be especially pronounced.

Recessions and depressions, of course, are not good for mental health. But it is less widely known that in affluent countries, physical health seems to improve, on average, during a downturn. Sure, it’s stressful to miss a paycheck, but eliminating the stresses of a job may have some beneficial effects. Perhaps more important, people may take fewer car trips, thus lowering the risk of accidents, and spend less on alcohol and tobacco. They also have more time for exercise and sleep, and tend to choose home cooking over fast food.

In addition to trying to get out of the recession — our first priority — many of us will be making do with less and relying more on ourselves and our families. The social changes may well be the next big story of this recession.

To read the complete article visit,

Keep commenting !

Vikram

Stress, Coffee and Life

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups made of porcelain, glass and plastic. Some of the cups were plain-looking and some were expensive & exquisite. The professor then asked them to help themselves to the hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice-looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, THAT is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the better cups and are eyeing each other's cups."

"Now, if Life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it. "

So, don't let the cups drive you ... enjoy the coffee instead. Good Day

Vikram

Vitality through Rest

My last topic on sleep evoked few cocky responses from some bright brains in the corporate world. They wrote saying that they didn’t need much of sleep or rest as they relaxed by partying hard or hitting a pub every evening after work. Their maxim in life is, “Work hard, and party harder”. Here’s my reply to them.

Rest, which includes sleep, is nature’s great restorative process just as activity and excitement represent her great exhaustive process. Activity is indeed necessary for the expression of organic life – but it must be alternated with periods of rest or else the organism will wear out. Real complete health does not refer to a plan of simply eating well or exercising vigorously.

To maintain good health every facet of life is important as the other and this includes rest. Rest is therefore not a cessation of activities per se; it is a cessation of certain form of activity. When one consumes alcohol, uses party drugs, or even in the state of sedation, narcosis, and drug induced hypnosis and anesthesia, our physical and mental activities are almost suspended. Anabolic activities are also nearly suspended. This does not allow the body to refresh and renew itself. These induced states leave the body depressed, languid and unfit for any further activity. Normal rest and sleep however lead to vigor and freshness.

There are 4 kinds of rest:

Physical rest that comes from discontinuing physical activity, going to bed, relaxing, etc.
Method: Sleep, yoga, massage, etc.

Sensory rest that comes from being quiet, refraining from using the eyes much, etc.
Method: Maintaining silence, prayers, playing some musical instrument, listening to music, journaling, yoga, etc

Mental rest that is the result of mental equilibrium, ceasing to fret or worry.
Method: Practice of yoga, playing some mind games, puzzles, quizzes, sudoku, etc

Physiological rest that follows from reducing physiological activities.
Method: Yoga, eating easy to digest food, etc.

All four kinds of rest are needed in therapy and recuperation and have been used with positive results in natural alternative forms of therapy. In fact, you will notice that yoga is the only method to attain rest on all the 4 levels. Just goes to prove the tremendous efficacy of yoga in relaxation and sleep. So how about hitting a yoga studio after work than a pub!

Namaste,

Vikram