WoW - The Wisdom of Wellness!

Finding our Spiritual side

The Daily Tango!

The Reverse Order Inquiry - Winter Retreat!

Leadership Crisis!

Is the loss of enthusiasm in graduating students a systemic failure of Leadership in Organizations!

Recently after a very long time, I was facilitating a program on Transition from Campus to Corporate for young graduating Turks!

Programs for the mid, senior management take their own time to evolve in terms of energy in the room for learning. Often the group is reserved, keeping to themselves and it takes a lot to break the pattern. This age group probably comes into the program with a goal to complete the mandated training hours for the quarter, half yearly or yearly requirements and or their promotion cycles. I often call it the ‘tick in the box’ need!

What needs to be looked at with caution is that this energy is contagious, just like any other.

The young group that I worked with had tremendous enthusiasm, made a lot of noise, was eager to learn and had a million questions. All the traits of an eager mind and body to make a difference. The energy in the room was palpable and it rubbed off onto me!

It then dawned on me on how this energy gets depleted, almost wiped out in a very short time, at the most a year and dread of the work world sets-in. These willing and able bodied group suddenly become lethargic, dis-interested, just go about doing what is told, maybe not even that and very soon fall into the emotional pollution trap that is existent all around them!

Why does this happen? I really do not know the answer, but I am willing to hazard a guess and my assessment is, it is because of the team that they are currently involved with and more so their current existing Leadership.

Leaders in teams give a clarion call for collaboration, but recognize and praise individual performance, they ask for creativity and innovation, but beat down new ideas, there is talk of empowerment but often micro-manage, emphasis is on flat structures but leaders expect positional respect, leaders talk of work-life balance as a culture and ask for unreasonable work hours.

Over a period of time, in fact a very short period of time, the reality vis a vis practice starts to drift apart and it becomes apparent to the intelligent mind that the youngsters possess, and then the disillusionment dawns!

In the race for what is urgently important in terms of deadlines, bottom-lines and what not, what is fundamentally important with regard to individual personal development, shared vision, empathy and compassion is sacrificed by the Leadership.

And then we complain that the new Gen Y are not predictable and cannot be trusted!

We need to ask, ‘Where does the blame lie?’.

Reverse the order: Look at their personal development, give them a road map, allow freedom at the work place and become a part of the transformation! These are the traits of a Emotionally Competent Leader.

That’s the legacy of a true leader.

Find Inner Peace!

The Spirit, Mind and Body Triune!

Follow your own Drum Beat!

The Energy to Create!

Yoga - The Holistic Practice!

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As we approach the world Yoga day on 21^st June 2015, here is an excerpt from my Co-Authored book on Yoga, which I am sure will dispel quite a few misconceptions about the practice!

Yoga is one of the most ancient cultural heritages of India. The word yoga in Sanskrit means "to unite” and so yoga can be said to mean a unitive discipline. In this sense it is an exercise in moral and mental cultivation that generates good health (arogya), contributes to longevity (chirayu), and the total intrinsic discipline culminates into positive and perennial happiness and peace. In its spiritual sense, it is the process by which the uniqueness of the individual soul and the Supreme Soul is realized by the Yogi. It is the union of all aspects of an individual: body, mind and soul. 

Yoga is an all-encompassing way of life, a science of self-culture and mental discipline that ensures the purgation of the ignoble in man and brings forth what is most noble in him. It is relevant to all people irrespective of their caste, creed, sex, and religion. Yoga is for all. Yoga is universal. It is not a sectarian affair. The practice of Yoga is not conflicting to any religion. It is purely spiritual and universal. It does not contradict anyone's sincere faith. It can be beneficial to all - the good and the bad, the sick and the healthy, the believer and the non-believer, the literate and the ignorant, the young and the old. 

There are too many misconceptions confusing the science of Yoga. People perceive it to be some kind of black or white magic, sorcery, physical or mental wickedness through which miraculous feats can be performed. For some it is an extremely dangerous practice, which should be limited to only those who have renounced the world. 

The real meaning of Yoga: Yogash chita vritti nirodha
Yoga is the termination of mental fragmentation.

Yoga: Oneness, yoga. Chitta: mind. Vritti: wave, the action of rolling, modification, way of being. Nirodha: cessation.

All about Yoga is said in the four words Yogah,Chitta, Vritti, nirodha. The four words of the second sutra define the “discipline” in a practical way. But then one should know their meaning and mostly what they signal to us. Chitta is the mind field, which is the ocean of perception and reflection. Even deep sleep is included in that world of perception, or cognitive activity. 

The meaning of vritti exceeds what we normally mean by thought. The idea of something rolling, of a wave in motion, is the first meaning. It is a more basic procedure than the solitary conscious thinking. We can say mental activity of form of consciousness, and that’s how we will translate it most of the time.

The word nirodha carries in itself the complete core of spiritual understanding, the full grace dawning on the open soul. It is the cessation, the silence. But what is silence? Silence imposed by thought —“what we often designate by the word “control”— is not silence”, It is an effort, a struggle, and uneasiness: in other words, it is still a troublesome thought: there is still someone looking after a goal. On the contrary, the discipline of yoga is the cessation of something that has hardly ceased until now and which we evoke by the expression chitta vritti.

Space and Stillness!

You BET!

Compassion at the Heart of Emotional Intelligence!

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I am certain that a lot of us have heard this before by Maya Angelou, ‘It is my observation that in the future, they will not remember what you said or did, but they will remember how you made them feel’.

Feelings are a part of the emotional repertoire and the next step after feelings are emotions, i.e. when I put that feeling into motion.

At the heart of Emotional Intelligence is Compassion. When we understand what compassion is in contrast to Compulsion, we understand what Maya Angelou says.

Compassion has an emotion attached to it and this emotion is different from the ‘think emotion’ that we so incessantly have all the time. When we think that we need to do something, it is not Compassion but compulsion and that is where most of us are caught up in, in today's world.

According to Wikipedia: ‘Compassion is the emotion that one feels in response to the suffering of others that motivates a desire to help’.

And to that I add, ‘make a difference’!

Compulsion means: ‘the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something’. Many a time, I attend functions that I don’t want to, do something that I don’t feel like or comply with actions that are not necessarily mine.

The force that Compassion has is internal, it is something from within that makes me want to make a difference and this gives me tremendous energy! When I am told to do something against my will the force is external, I do it more as a requirement and obligation rather than free will and this drains me.

This external force might be family, social pressures, environment, a boss or whoever!

From this we understand that both compassion and compulsion have a bodily response to an emotional action. I can differentiate my actions by the output that my body generates at the end of that action. I can feel the output through my body!

While this is applicable personally, the person on the other side of the fence who is a recipient of doer’s behaviour is also capable of recognizing whether the doer is being compassionate or is doing it out of compulsion.

All of us have in us the infinite wisdom to recognize motives; we can instinctively feel whether it is heart felt or head conceived!

When we act in compassion, we are acting from the spirit, when we act out of compulsion we are acting from the EGO.

Go ahead and make a conscious choice to celebrate the joy of the spirit rather than be bound by the drama of the EGO!

EGO and Spirit!