Life. Dreams. Aspirations.

" Dreams are which the mind conceives , the heart desires and the soul believes" author unknown.

In a world where majority of our time is spend on dreaming and aspiring to be someone, comes along a thought which leaves us to think if our life has given us possibilities to dream and think then somewhere lies the opportunity for our aspirations to take wings. What stops us from following our dreams? Is it the people? Is it the society? or Is it just us who don't have the courage to follow our own dreams?
We are conditioned to think one way, we are imposed with a mindset in our childhood and this is who we become as we grow up. Life's little instructions are coded in our mind and the time we are told about how to go about life, honestly i don't remember connecting to anyone of those instructions when i was a child. I wanted to play and sometimes break public property to be a rebel. But little instructions imposed in my mind; respect public property till date does not allow me to consciously or sub consciously even remotely think of invading public or any private property for destruction. I cannot even think of throwing a paper or litter public area as the instructions code has somehow imbibed all that is related to this one little instruction as a code of conduct for me. This has somehow taken away the freedom from me to join public rally's or any event which in someway disrupts public life and property. So if ever i harnessed the dream or aspiration to be a Political, rebel or a thief my gene code has suppressed this aspiration due to code of conduct imbibed in me.
In a way i am happy, i never had any aspirations to be a public figure. Your life is not your own anymore. Your actions are judged, your life is disrupted by public opinion and in a way you start living a life as per the aspirations of people than yourself. So thanks to one instruction a whole plethora of aspirations which i could have build on have been sidelined by me.
But i used to have a constant dream, funny as i say this it was one aspiration which had two very different dreams. One was to travel the world, meet people, do mega shows and always i saw that stage. My second part of the same dream was to help the needy, create schools, shelter, employment, hospital etc for the underprivileged. It was strange that time also and it feels strange today too.
Recap of my aspiration:
Part 1:I wanted to do big shows, travel, meet famous people, create concepts, hold a high position and run a company. My dream all elements ticked. I have lived this life for two decades and had a time of my life is all i can say. Yes my recurring childhood dream since i was 12 years , i made it happen.
Part 2 of my same dream : Philanthropy, help under priveledged, love and compassion. This is the beginning of Soul Studio.
What i figured out is that we have dreams and we have fears, the choice is ours to follow our heart and let go of fears or believe in our fears and let go of our dreams. Each one of us is given multiple possibilities and from these possibilities we try to prioritise our dreams and aspirations. We make a bucket list of this and start living life by living our dreams. I have come across many people who have two lives's. One they are living and one they aspire to live. Why do we short change ourselves when it comes to our dreams and aspirations? In the end its our life , then why do so many live someone else's life? Sometimes we are not aware of our own fears and addictions and the life instructions told to us as a child. Sometimes our actions are related to sub conscious thought, and sometimes we are too indifferent to change.
Fear, addictions and our mindset play a very vital role in us living our life or suppressing our dreams and aspirations. Buying few houses, big cars, planes, owning few companies, jewellery , kids going to ivy school, club memberships etc are perks of dreams and aspirations coming to reality.
But is this all which we aspire for? is our dream and aspiration only for us to buy materialistic pleasures? Do take a journey within and answer this for yourself.

As rightly said by Lao Tzu : "If you realise all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold to. If you are not afraid of dying, there is nothing you cannot achieve."
And as said by Samuel Johnson : " Our aspirations are our possibilities."

Prisoner's dilemma _ Mind a slave or master

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men" beautiful quote by Martin luther king jr.

Often i think about what goes in people's mind. Do we all think alike at some level? or are we all so unlike yet try to exist on this planet together. This thought plays with my mind and i wonder if some one else is also having the same question. We feel so important of being who we are without realising that there are 7 billion plus people who feel the same importance. We don't realise that we are just a speck of energy in this whole big universe. Our actions sure make a difference to the fate of this planet but our existence makes no difference to the universe.
Its a thought which keeps crossing my mind, what do i bring to this planet? I mean literally am i of some importance with my purpose or am i a burden which is being carried over. The "I" is of utmost importance here. As for myself and for my means to live "I" is very important in the scheme of my whole existence. Yet will my achievement be my own or will other people's joint efforts make it worthwhile? Now the "I" shifts to "We" or "Us". Still in the giant scheme of events "I" will always  gain more points than collective "We".
Our mind control everything for us. Our logic way of thinking and our logical conclusions to everything we do is the boost our mind needs constantly. The masks are many and we know how to wear them at all occasions .
Its difficult to be a leader in todays world. How many people can one appease and how many different conclusions can one come up with. Somehow the end result is always the same. As many times we do the statistics we will come to the same conclusion, we cannot please everyone all the time. Some people will follow us, some will respect, some will listen to further their own growth opportunities but majority will always be dissatisfied. My problem is not with the dissatisfied people but the one's who follow or respect . The thin line which we create here is what at time scares me. These are the people with dreams and the day your vision does not fit with their dreams, thats when the problem arises.
Our mind allows us to be led by someone only when it solves our purpose, we are engineered in a way which makes us vulnerable to our weaknesses and allows others to guide us for sometime. Once we get clarity of mind, the control freak mind wants to move away from the discipline and forge its own path. Its our nature to always look for problems and when the mind wants to control thats when the thin line between satisfaction and dissatisfaction merges. Now what does this make us? The answer my friend is within you to understand this. We are like a wave which is looking for a purpose to hit the shore and then recede back in our shell to rise up again with the purpose . Does the wave ever finds its purpose? Its a controlled predictable pattern till the time a storm does not come for the wave to create havoc.
Now the question which arises is who creates the havoc? What is the catalyst which brings this change in the predictable pattern of the wave?
As i said earlier we are just a speck of energy which on its own can do nothing. But a collective energy can bring change to this world. We still will mean nothing to this universe. I have seen many companies ride this wave at a certain stage in there life. Its a pattern where the old and new thinking merges and many times old employees leave as the new vision does not give them the power which they are used to. In the end its all about control and power. The old game which our mind has always played with us. The same is with countries. Global peace is a far cry as not a single leader trusts the other to help in taking steps towards disarmaments and global warming.
We are slaves to our mind and love the games which exist as it gives us control and power. At times i feel we are all in a delusional prisoner's dilemma and maybe someday will wake up and laugh at ourselves for putting ourselves in this position.

As the saying goes , "Mind a beautiful servant, a dangerous master."

The choice is always with us.

Time Out_Shine like a diamond in the sky

"A diamond is just a piece of charcoal that handled stress exceptionally well."

Shine like a diamond i have heard this many times. and often wondered how can i shine like a diamond. The underlying message somehow eluded from me for a long time. Every time some one said this phrase to me, i felt this meant i had to look my best , excel in my studies , sports and work etc. I realised much later in life that how we have this ability to cope with stress and come out stronger and more positive about our life is what this old saying actually meant.
I never realised i was a good conductor of stress until i got in events. Its easy to say "i am stressed". But its difficult to be in stress and work effectively. Initially when i started work i was always short of time, work never finished. Before i could finish one event, another was already in pipeline and at times i realised i was coordinating 4 events in different locations of this country in a day. My stress levels were high and i don't remember Shinning like a diamond in those days.
After much thought i realised where i was going wrong. I had programmed my mind by constantly saying to myself and to anyone i met "I am stressed" , "I don't have any time for myself", "I am very busy". I suddenly realised saying these sentences made me feel important and busy with my work. But in reality my mind was getting signals of being stressed and finding no time for myself. My productivity level as per my understanding was low even though i was working and delivering my targets. Hence the change came in my perspective and as i said earlier probably i am a good conductor of stress, once i made up my mind of accepting the impact of being in events , i suddenly was less stressed and had time for both my work and personal life. This change in my mindset has helped me for two decades and if today i conduct workshops for people to realise their trigger points of stress is all thanks to the Time out my mind takes which has changed my perspective.
Modern lifestyle, we love the attention and constant influx of calls and messages. Social media is at its all time high. Our lifestyle now has too much of digital influx which keeps us on our toes always. This ping sound resonates in our mind constantly and candy crush the best time pass game invented. This is what eases our stress from work and attention disorder has hit roof high.
For me personally, i prefer to take Time out for my mind. Today i find vacation places where i have no mobile / data connectivity. One hour a day i put my phone on silent so that i can be with my thoughts and plan my day and week accordingly. This disciplined Time out is for me to rejuvenate and think creatively at my next project. At meetings i ensure my mobile is on silent mode and not kept on the table to divert my mind from discussions. While meeting family and friends again i keep my mobile away as i would prefer to give all my attention to the person in front of me than the virtual ping which diverts my attention  My mind needs rest just like my body. I could not write a blog for a month as no thoughts came in and too much of travel, social and work took toll on my creative thinking. This happens to all of us but in the rat race to be somewhere we let go of fatigue signs which our mind gives us.
For some playing an instrument, cooking, shopping, sports etc are few ways to take Time out from digital influx. Somehow we have not grasped that if "I don't take this call or reply to the message will not make me irresponsible . I too, do have a right to have some family and me time in this busy world. " Stress is no one's friend and our body in many forms gives us a notion to stop and take some time out but we in our busy little world wearing blinkers don't want to understand the telltale signs.
We all can devise our own time out methods, provided for this brief period we are not on any digital medium.
There are some breathing exercises which can instantly bring our mind to calm down and before we know we are in this space where Time holds still for some and we can rejuvenate. I once again reiterate "Still your mind" meditation does have a very positive impact on our thinking and to rejuvenate our tiring mind.
For me personally "Time Out" is the new Mantra in this ever evolving busy life to Shine like a Diamond in the Sky.