Am I losing it or is this the New normal?

Today a friend reminded me that I need to pick up on my blogging again and thanks to her, am writing one after a while. I realized that like many people around, the sudden crisis that has embarked upon the world has left me with a myriad of emotions ranging from being blank, trying to grasp what the hell is happening, and how this now will affect tomorrow for next few weeks, months or even a couple of years! while doing this the range of emotions are swinging from being positive, grateful, content to being angry, confused, uninspired, bored or frustrated to name a few. This is when I realize that it is not the uncertainty of the situation that is unnerving, more so, it is the contrast emotional roller coaster that is becoming tough to handle. Just when I feel am having a good day, done my bit of exercise, meditation, been grateful for all that I have...….a phone call of a few minutes about how grim the situation is, or reading an article or watching news of people being in pain and misery around the world, loved ones losing their family and friends to the disease, people losing their jobs, livelihood can shatter that aura of peace and fill one with fear, negativity and a sense of hopelessness as well as helplessness!


So what is the alternate then? stop watching news, talking to people, discussing and create an illusionary reality where everything is hunky dory? No, that would mean living in denial. The alternate is really about two important things! One, while you focus on physical fitness and diet, pay equal attention to make yourself stronger mentally and emotionally! I am no expert on art and science of it, however, find what works for you - meditation, yoga, pranayama, reading a book, gardening, cooking, listening to music or whatever else that soothes you and makes you happy! Do it!


The other important lesson this crisis has thought us is how important it is to have a support system around. Not just physical or financial but mental and emotional as well and honestly, it does not matter if this support system is your family or not! Find it in your friends, neighbors, colleagues, pets, room mates, fellow students, does not matter!!!! There will be days even during this lockdown where you will feel happy, positive, cheerful about life, yourself and future and there will be those days when you feel f**cked about you and everything and everyone else! It is normal! so first, we need to accept this and not be hard upon yourself and wonder if you have lost it. We will keep losing it often in these times! when that happens do one of what I have mentioned above - using your own strength pull yourself out of that mode or if it seems too tough seek your support system to do it for you!


This is unlike any personal setback that any of us have gone through in our lifetime! This is a collective setback as humanity and that is why it is normal to feel overwhelmed! Pat yourself as each of us are doing the best we can in these times for ourselves as well as for the world!

? On my Mind......

A sign of growing wiser is having more questions than answers and enjoying find answers to those questions only to give rise to newer questions! For sometime now question that comes back to me frequently is what defines success..... is it wealth? Position? Followers? How many people you know, how many people know you, assets, bank balance, health, relationships, me time...... so many possibilities or rather combinations of it! And before even I find an answer to this there is a follow on thought that wonders what is more important? Success or happiness? Are they parallels or can they co exist? What do you choose if you had to between contentment or ambition? If you do choose contentment are you taking cover in it? Does that choice indicate you are being lazy, a loser making excuses or a wise soul making a good choice? What if you choose ambition? Are you being materialistic and making sacrifices which you might later regret? Questions, questions! 

Gratitude a key thread in all festivals

Happy Dasera to all :) on this auspicious occassion, I want to explore the idea for having each of these festivals. I mean why do we celebrate so many festivals? Surely it is not just to meet, greet and feast. There must be a more deeper reason for these to be done over the years. The more I think about it, there is one thought that keeps sounding louder than the rest. Gratitude! yes, that is one of the key drivers......I mean lets take Ayudh pooja. In South India atleast, people celebrate this day by decorating their vehicles, performing pooja to gadgets, equipments whether in homes, factories or shops. What exactly is their act saying? Thank you. Thank you for serving us so well for the past year, Thank you for helping us to earn our daily bread, Thank you for saving our lives, Thank you for making our life so comfortable, and you can go on adding to this list. Is that not what we actually mean when we do these rituals? Taking it one step further maybe we are offering gratitude in advance so that all the benefits from these gadgets, equipments, machines etc may continue in the future. Extending this to other festivals across religions, is that not what we do on each of these special days. Thank God or even if you do not believe in God thank whatever force you may want to for all the good in your life. Maybe, our ancestors knew of this secret and also knew that by habit man will get so busy with the smaller things in life that he may not have time and mind to be grateful, so atleast by nominating specific days for celebrations, festivals was a way to ensure people do not forget to be grateful and atleast some days in the year people are grateful and thereby improve their quality of life.

I'll end this blog by saying 'Thank you for reading this' :)