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Jump-start your Day

December 23rd, 2011

If you wake up early morning, its fantastic and those who do not, not to worry. Just because you’re not up as the sun rises doesn’t mean that you can’t put yourself in a position to make sure that the day ahead will be a productive one. You need to put some things into play so that you can make the most of your waking hours.

1. Put your alarm clock out of reach.
I keep my alarm clock across the room so that I have to actually get out of bed to turn it off. It’s also close enough to my bedroom door so that I can head straight to the bathroom to give myself my morning splash. I also use an alarm clock app on my iPhone that takes some effort to shut off (such as Mission Alarm Clock; there’s also Challenging Alarm Clock for Android users), meaning I actually have to be awake in order to stop it from going off.

2. Wash your face right after getting up.
Rather than make your way to the kitchen for that cup of coffee, head to the bathroom and splash some cold water on your face. Once the alarm goes off, head out of bed and straight to the sink. The refreshing feeling you’ll get from the water hitting your face will act as a trigger that it’s time for your body to get moving. Well, after washing my face, I always look into the mirror and smile, being happy for the wonderful new day, for the good night sleep and sometimes just because I want to.

3. Get connected
Step outside your house for your morning walk or just a short ten minutes stroll  whenever the weather permits. It connects you with the outside world and gives your body the freshness and energy for the day. Fresh air is good at any time of day, and getting it early on is never a bad thing. If you are not able to move out of your house then sitting in  your balcony for some time and inhaling the fresh air, admiring the nature with your cup of tea/coffee/milk is always an option.

4. Time-Shift – For late risers
Despite being done at night — the night before — this is most certainly a morning hack. Even if any day, I take some extra hours of sleep, I am all set for the day as any other day. This is because my late-night habits often put me at performance par with those who get up a couple of hours before I do, I’m rarely behind in my productivity. The key is to “time shift” so that you’re ahead of the early risers the night before. By planning your day in advance (and even doing some of the tasks the night before), you can go to bed at ease.

I find deciding what I’m wearing the night before helps! It means I’m less likely to stay wrapped up in my robe while trying to decide ;)

5. Exercise
The medical literature is quite clear about the best time to exercise–it’s whenever you can. There are plenty of benefits to physical activity first thing in the morning. Early morning workouts rev up your metabolism, jump start your energy level and accelerate your ability to burn up calories. They give you a chance to put the world on hold for an hour and think about the upcoming events and activities of the day, or think about whatever you want to think about. It also gets the endorphins flowing, so when you finish you are relaxed and in a good mood to start the rest of your day. You can hit the gym or your own set of exercises. It keeps you fit and going, physically and mentally.

Besides all this, one thing that I do every morning is stretch myself while I am on my bed and scream aloud. It somehow freshens me and gives an amazingly relaxing feeling. Although it wakes up my other family members as well ;)

What tips do you use to jumpstart your day? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

Posted in Happiness, Lifestyle, Peace | 3 Comments »

Life without Television = :)

November 14th, 2011

I’ve mentioned on and off that I don’t watch TV, and people have curiously asked me why I do that and how I manage life without TV. Firstly, its not air, water or food that we cannot live without; its just a piece of electronic. Anyway, I thought it’s about time I write an article on it. In the past, I was a regular TV viewer like most people. I wasn’t a TV addict or a couch potato, but I would watch TV whenever I feel like it. That probably averaged out to a few hours a day.  Then slowly, I watched lesser and lesser TV. It wasn’t that I just woke up one day and decided that “This is it – I’m not going to watch TV from today onwards“. It was more of a gradual transition to a TV-free life. And truth be told, my life didn’t crash from not watching TV. Looking back, I don’t feel like I have missed out on anything. In fact, I feel my life has changed for the better. In the past years of not watching TV, I have experienced numerous positive changes, such as increased consciousness, more clarity, more time to do what I want, productivity, freedom, and so on.
Not watching TV has given me a lot more free time to do things I love. I remember in the past, I’d mark out shows I want to watch on my schedule. Then I’d arrange my activities around them. While I was watching the shows, other activities had to be put on hold. We didn’t count, but one probably spends at least 2-3 hours/day in front of the telly, if not more. That’s quite a bit of time spent in front of the black box and doing nothing else. In retrospect, that was a big waste of evenings.

Movies

The one thing I noticed about TV is how it gives you an illusion that you’re missing out from not watching. The TV trailers would go “This Saturday is Blockbuster Saturday– Be sure to catch Movie #1, Movie #2, Movie #3, back to back! You CANNOT miss this!” Or “This holiday season, all the best movies are coming home to you! You won’t want to miss this for anything!“. They just keep going on and on, and once you are done for the week, new trailers will run. Also, you don’t ever accomplish anything from watching TV. Yes it helps me to relax and chill out at first, but after a certain amount of time one feels more sluggish and tired from watching. Then at the end of it, there’s no specific output. You’ve gained nothing and done nothing.

Drama Serials

Many of us watch TV, specifically drama serials, because we want to see the stories unfold for the characters. What’s going to happen to X? Did Y get the outcome he/she deserves? Will A and B get together? What will the ending be? It’s all very exciting, and the cliff hangers keep us yearning for more. Then for the whole week, we wait excitedly for the next episode to see what happens. We have our own life to live and problems to solve. Even if one says that he/she doesn’t get affected by TV serials, watching them automatically gets you involved in them and it definitely affects you sub-consciously in your emotional and thinking patterns.

Reality Shows

Even for reality shows, the genre of reality TV was interesting when it first started, but after some point it became over done. After a while it seemed like network producers were just doing one reality show after the next, creating different spin offs which barely last. I’ve lost count of the number of singing competitions and sequels in the country. There is merit for a singing competition, but after a while it seems more like the TV producers are more interested in having successful talent shows than discovering talent.

News Channels

There is a lot of sensationalization on TV. Sometimes it’s the sensationalization of what’s there, making it bigger than it really is. Other times, it’s something created out of nothing. A lot of things are hyped up. Scenes of people crying, bickering, fighting, taboo, sexual content, ugly human behavior etc are played up a lot, especially on reality TV. Many times, they don’t serve anything other than to create drama and it’s quite pointless. If I’m a TV viewer, I’m watching to either (1) be entertained (2) be informed or (3) be educated. I don’t find hyped up content to be entertaining, informing nor educational.

Loss of Family Time

TV is one of the favourite pastimes in families. They spend evenings in front of the TV screen, watching show after show. Even though everyone is sitting together in the same room, they aren’t bonding with each other. Each of them is just developing an isolated connection with whatever is on the TV screen.

Now, imagine if all this time is spent talking to each other. Say, asking how each other’s days were, understanding each other, discussing tomorrow’s plans, being a part of each other’s lives, just hanging out. Isn’t that a more meaningful way to connect? Why build a connection with the television and characters on screen when you can be building a connection with real people? TV might be a proxy to bond with each other, but it’s clearly more fruitful to bond with each other directly. I definitely find the latter more meaningful than the former.

Introspection

I am not asking you to completely stop watching television but make it a point that whatever you see is helping you gain something and if not gain then at least you are not losing on anything, be it time, peace or happiness.

Here’s one way you can use to see if something is consciousness raising. Get a sense of how you are feeling first before watching the show. Then as you are watching the show, take a moment to assess how you feel.

  • How are you feeling? Happy? Joyful? Upbeat? Motivated? Inspired? Or scared? Worried? Annoyed? Disgusted? Angsty? Weighed down? Stressed?
  • What are you thinking? Positive thoughts? Or negative thoughts?
  • What do you feel like doing? Do you feel charged up to take action? Make a positive difference? Or do you feel nothing? Lazy? Just want to go and sleep things away?

If it’s the former group, then the content has consciousness-raising effect; if it’s the latter then you can probably do better without it.

Posted in Happiness, Lifestyle, Mind & Thoughts, Peace | 8 Comments »

Mindful Room

November 13th, 2011

Many people don’t spend too much energy or time setting up their room. They see it as just a place which shelters them while they sleep and do their activities. However, your room is actually a place of significant importance, for two reasons:

Firstly, you spend a huge amount of time here throughout your life. Factor in the approximate 1/3 of our days which we spend sleeping and the times when we hang out in our room during weekends and after school/work on weekdays, and it becomes clear that your room is one of the places where you spend the most time in.

Secondly, a lot of important thinking and decisions are made here. Chances are a lot of introspection, goal setting, planning, self evaluation, studying, working, etc. take place inside your room. This can be when you are conversing with friends on the phone/internet, emailing, surfing the net, working, etc.

Given that, it is actually highly valuable to invest time and energy to make your room a place which inspires you. If you are going to spend so much time here, wouldn’t it make sense to make it a place where you will absolutely love to be in? In that sense, your room becomes a very vital goal achievement tool which sets you up in the right frame of attitude and mindset.

Some people have a separate study room and bedroom. Even then, the same principles apply that you should be creating a conducive environment for a place which you find yourself spending a lot of time in and doing a lot of thinking/decision making.

The amount of clutter is something that can be addressed immediately. This can be in the form of removing old books, random junk, infrequently worn clothes, anything that you do not have a use for but is around ‘just in case’ you need to use it in the future. Many times, we keep a lot of things which we think we’ll use in the future, but never do. It is important to get rid of the old in order to get the new; be it clothes, objects or memories.

Every morning when you wake up, the wall you see can have something really positive and energising written; something like, “Good Morning ___(Your Name)___. Its a beautiful day.” Or there can be your picture with a big smile.

I am personally very fond of balloons and colors. Therefore, one shall always find colourful balloons in my room. Every time I enter my room, they fill me with happiness and never fail in getting me a pleasant smile on my face. These bright balloons keep moving and give me a feeling that the room is alive.

Should you reduce your clutter? Should you shift your furniture around? Should you get furniture and objects that fit you better? How can you be taking little steps today to make your room more conducive? What are you fond of? What are your favourite colors? What keeps you going? What gets you smiling? Answering such questions can help you design your room better. No matter how big or small your room is. Its all about how you turn it into your own haven where you absolutely relish spending every single moment. Your room should make you feel extremely vitalized, inspired and exuberant, on top of your normal self!

Posted in Happiness, Peace | 7 Comments »

Destructive Thinking Patterns

September 22nd, 2011

It can be extremely difficult to focus on the good when, seemingly, bad things are happening in your life. However you can train your mind to focus on the good things in your life rather than dwelling on the bad. No ,it’s not one of those positive thinking articles. This is about changing the way you think, changing your thinking pattern. Mentioned are few very destructed thinking patterns to be avoided. Realizing and understanding is the first step towards changing. Do you use any of these thinking patterns in your day to day life?

  1. ‘Life is disgusting’ Thinking pattern –Everything in life is bad, everybody is not to be trusted and nothing good will ever happen to them e.g. “I won’t get that job, the interviewer didn’t like me, I didn’t particularly like them anyway.”
  2. ‘Unsubstantiated conclusive’ Thinking pattern– You tend to make a lot of conclusions without any evidence to back up your conclusions. This can be a really destructive pattern as it can limit you in seeing reality for what it is e.g. “He walks a bit funny, he must be gay.”
  3. ‘Never to me’ Thinking pattern – This is when you think nothing good will ever happen to you. This can be a deep seated way of thinking and it is a deep down inability to believe you are worthy of anything good happening to you e.g. “I’ll never have money, I’ve never had it before so I’ll never have it in the future, might as well carry on with this shitty job, at least it pays the mortgage.”
  4. ‘The negative psychic’ Thinking pattern – Presuming you know what people are thinking about you and it’s all bad. e.g. “She thinks I’m an idiot, I’ll try to avoid talking to her.”
  5. ‘Should, would, could’ Thinking pattern – This type of person knows what they have to do to change their life, they are capable and they know it and they would do it if only……… e.g. “I know I could go to university and I would, but I’m just to busy with other things right now, I’ll apply next year.”
  6. ‘Emotion based’ Thinking pattern – Your emotions control what you are thinking and therefore your vision of what reality is e.g. “I feel incapable of doing that so I must be incapable”.
  7. ‘It’s all my fault’ Thinking pattern – You see yourself as being the cause of everything bad that has happened e.g. “It’s my fault he left me for another woman.” You’ll notice this type of person does not take responsibility for the good things that happen.
  8. ‘They’re all wrong’ Thinking pattern – You see everyone as incapable of doing anything right and your way is the best way to do it e.g. “He can’t do it right, I’ll stay late tonight and fix it when he’s gone.”

These are just some of the common thinking patterns I have observed in many people with low-esteem and negativity in them. Self-realization is extremely important. If you think you are having any of such thinking pattern, it is now time you start thinking contradictory and break the cycle of negativity..

Posted in Depression, Positive Thinking, Stress | 2 Comments »

Asking the Right Questions

September 22nd, 2011

What questions do you ask yourself every day?

Believe it or not, the kind of questions you ask determine the kind of life you lead. That’s because your questions trigger its own set of answers, which lead to certain emotions, which then lead to certain actions (or inactions), followed by results. If you ask yourself limiting questions, you’ll get limited results. If you ask yourself mind-opening, forwarding questions, you’ll gain a lot more out of them.

Some people like to ask questions like “Why am I so unlucky?”, “What if I had done this earlier?” and “Why am I always in such a situation?”. Because these questions are backward looking, the answers you get with them are naturally disempowering. On the other hand, questions like “What can I learn from this experience?”, “What can I do differently move forward?” and “What am I grateful for?” are empowering. They provoke you and get you thinking, putting you on the path to a better life.

If you’re someone who normally doesn’t self-reflect, you might be stumped by questions. However, this is perfectly normal. Self-exploration is a wonderful journey. I am a big fan of introspection and enjoy the process of self-reflecting and thinking over questions. I believe questions are a key to self-awareness and personal growth. In my 1-1 counselling sessions, I enable my clients to discover the answers to their goals/questions by asking them the right questions. It’d be easy if I just tell my clients what they “should” do and what they “should not” do. But that’s not the point. It’s about empowering my clients to discover themselves through asking the right guiding questions, catered to their situation and their profiles. The right questions will help them untangle the blockages in them and connect with their inner self.

Posted in Problem Solving | 3 Comments »

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