Learn

 

We learn something every day. There is sometimes a first time and a new experience. And sometimes, repeated similar experiences because we DON’T. It is typical that these repeated experiences will keep coming. Until we learn what we are supposed to.

On a lighter note, this happens when we don’t address a WhatsApp message. The message will keep coming up on the screen until we read it.   it is a constant reminder that repeated patterns must be addressed.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Struggle

 As humans, we are as negative as many others around us. We struggle with feelings like injustice, reactions, feeling rejected, the unfairness of justifying a wrong deed. Sometimes, these feelings become intense and there is much anger.

Then gradually, as you realize you can only change yourself, grudgingly, acceptance of what you can’t control or change sets in and you begin to seek answers to the “why”.

Finally dawns the light you need so badly within you and have blocked for so long. And when expectations die, finally, some peace dawns.

What a struggle when we could have arrived at this solution so much earlier.

But, right time and right effort is imminent! So much backlog to clear. We have to be kind to ourselves.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Emotion

 

Tears are like irrigation for the heart. We are always told to control our feelings, not to get emotional or teary, that it is a sign of weakness!

Somewhere, if we believe this, we are suppressing ourselves and not accepting ourselves because we have been told time and time again that it is a weakness. And who wants to be perceived as “weak”?

If a demonstration of emotions is weakness, why have we been given them in the first place? All our chakras are related to emotions and elements. Suppression leads to blockages. But we still carry on in our ignorant mindsets, believing that to be emotional is to lose control. In case if excesses, yes! Otherwise, they are a part of what makes us human, unlike robots!

Ironically, an effort is being made to trigger emotions in robots now! It is very interesting to see that we think humans are limited, so, we create “superior” robots. And then, we try to make them “human” by making them like humans!

The world is a crazy place! We never accept God’s perfect creation. We think we know better!

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Self-esteem

 

Life is not about feeling threatened, politicking and one upmanship. As long as we are in that space, our toxicity will pile up and will take longer to leave us when we start trying. It CAN happen very quickly if we realize deeply that we have to LET GO every polluted thought, against others and equally so, against ourselves.

The culprits are always within us: self-criticism, void, low self-esteem and confidence, the “I am incapable” / “I am not good enough” syndrome and more….

We have all been fashioned in the image of God, to fulfil some requirement. Instead, we don’t trust and flounder amidst our identity woes. Someone whose life seems perfect may have several challenges you don’t know about. Just minding our own store can upgrade us to the next levels.

That’s all we CAN do.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Confidence

 

I guess many of us have had the experience of our friendliness being misinterpreted as “over familiarity”. It stops you in your tracks for a minute! And you begin to wonder where that came from! Very often after that, you start closing yourself up to new entrants in your life because you don’t want to be misunderstood yet again.

But honestly! Aren’t we blocking our natural flow in the bargain? At the end of the day, it is our intentions which are important, aren’t they? If these are ok, I guess we are ok as well, and we don’t really need to become guilt ridden at every reaction of people to us, people who probably are insecure and or uncomfortable in their own skin.

I find that our biggest bug bear can be social relationships. We find it so difficult to honestly say,” this is the way I am. Take it or leave it”. Learning from experiences is one thing and criticizing yourself unnecessarily for what you need not, is another. And this confidence makes a huge difference. For then, you are steady in one place. People will go around you and those who want to stop because they know your worth, will stop, just as you will do the same for others. It is that simple! We need to know who we are.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Circumstance

 

Everyone has difficult circumstances to tackle in life. But, it is disturbing to see so many people developing a victim mentality. Worse still, making their victim card a weapon and playing it to their advantage to gain sympathy.

Today, we need more courage than ever before. Life is fast and no one has the time. We need to do things for ourselves because the support systems of families and elders is crumbling. To blame life is completely futile. Nothing just “happens”. The fatalistic card of “woe is me” can only mean defeat /lack of motivation to get up and walk again.

There will always be supporters around you in strange ways though you may never see them as such out of wallowing in self-pity and confused feelings. I have seen many an olive branch by well-meaning people, rejected again and again.

Actually, you can beat yourself up all your life, with comparisons, maybe for bad decisions made or a karmic onslaught, branding yourself as “unlucky” or whatever.  But you know what? It only makes it worse. Only you can turn your life around.

Again and again, I come back to the courage needed to transform a negative pattern of thought to an “I can do it” mode. It is hard work and sometimes, many tears before you smile again.  But that one smile is worth the tears preceding it.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Perspective

 

The mantra for life, I have discovered, is “that was THEN, this is NOW”.

If we reflect on our thoughts, how much of our thinking patterns come from past experiences? A maximum percentage, I would imagine.

We judge people from past experiences.

Our relationships, more often than not, are dictated by the past experiences too.

Our trust factor also comes with time, again only from the past.

Our behavior stems from early conditioning.

Our guilt comes from what we did wrong earlier.

Our lack of forgiveness is because someone has hurt us and that becomes a negative past memory.

So, the past, which is really a ghost, rules over us even though it has passed.

It is incredible that we still won’t let go. Irrational that we won’t give our present a chance. The more we read about living in the NOW, the less we actually do. The past has occupied so much space within us. It actually lives there; like the cobwebs we have no time to clean. We are so busy planting pretty fences and flowers in a garden which is full of weeds.

Popularly said, “nowhere” can be changed with a new perspective, “NOW HERE”. But our mind is here and there all the time. Never in the NOW.

Awaken, people, to what we are doing to ourselves during our life here! Improving every moment in the present, trying to clean each such moment is the only thing we can do.

As we clean, and declutter, we create new spaces to attract the energy which can change our lives and bring in what we call miracles”.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Meditation

 Many people think meditation is something you do in an isolated place with closed eyes. But a meditative state is one of “no thoughts”. Anytime, within any activity, done with deep concentration, one can reach a state of “ no thought”.

The mind exists only as long as there is thought. If you think you have a mind, you do. If there is no thought at all, there is no mind and that state is the ultimate state when the true self shines.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Comparison

 I have found “c’est la vie” to be a wonderful way to live. “So be it!” Imagine, if we could use this in our daily lives! How much stress and strife we could avoid in matters which are really beyond our control!

But, oh no! We will fight every inch of the way to turn the circumstances and people in our favor and kill ourselves in the bargain, while God has the last laugh at our silly egos!

We always get “enough” for our sustenance. There is a reason for everything. Cursing is not going to help. Comparisons are going to help even less. A raging battle within us will kill our positivity and our initiatives.

Sometimes, life is as clear as the sun shining brightly. And sometimes, it is a cloudy sky. C’est la vie. Unnatural circumstances like Covid forced us indoors. Did grumbling / crying help? Ultimately, we had to buckle down to the lifestyle demanded by those times. Something will happen against your wishes often. These are challenges to see how we respond / react. The aura is our space and to keep a clean aura, without letting negativity in, is the sanest thing we can do for ourselves.

So, let go! Let it be! So be it! These are miracle phrases if we can practice them. We all have a rightful place in this world, just not necessarily where WE want to be.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Dharma by Design

 

Self-improvement

 

“Your path to success starts with a single step towards self-improvement. “A profound quote by Dale Carnegie! Simple and hard hitting, the key word being “self-improvement”. To open our inner eye that sees us as we are and to close our external eyes that only see where others should improve. The latter doesn’t help in our journey, does it?

The other struggle is how to define success. If you build an awareness of where you need to change for the better AND work on it, that is success. If you can turn the negative within to positive, that too is success. If you learn to cleanse yourself of the need for conflict and so on.

Peace descends where we learn to live within our own space and learn to plant a garden within the space, instead of encroaching on other spaces.

The problem with the few materialistic success stories is that those who earn it are more often more balanced than those around them who bask in reflected glory and take their glory to a narcissistic level, never having worked for it for a minute. The quest for an illusory supremacy! This is diametrically opposite to the concept of self-improvement.

And so we exist somewhere between two extremes that polarize humanity so much so that the wrong majority forms the “ right” and the right minority learns to survive as best as they can.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Relationships

 

A line once again caught my attention. “Those who feel lonely with age, have not strengthened their relationships when they were younger”. I have this habit of tearing apart every saying in terms of, not words but actual experiences. And I find many sayings a little on the superficial side.

I have seen karma at work. For some, it is heavy. Relationships are all karmic. If your lot is in learning through being isolated, that’s what your lot will be. Despite being loving and caring, relationships will mostly go wrong. No one to blame! It is just what it is. Sometimes, building relationships can be like pulling teeth. You can get more misunderstood than understood! No answers come forth despite one hundred “why’s. It is just meant to be so.

People will counsel you left, right and centre, that you don’t have “the art” of sustaining relationships. Maybe, everyone is not need based. Maybe, love runs deeper than superficial demonstrations to make others feel good so that they may like you….

The one sustaining relationship I have discovered, is with myself. Until I have that, I will feel a void, a loneliness and try to make others complete me. A futile exercise! No one can complete anyone else.

So, let’s try and isolate, if required, to become our own friends. That will work like a miracle has happened! You have to experience that state. But you have to reach it first.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Dharma by Design

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Kindness

 

We talk so much of kindness but we never focus on being kind to ourselves. We are so knotted within us but we preach kindness. We push ourselves, deny our blocks and try to prove ourselves to the world while our personal foundation is so challenged!

Generally, people feel good when they are spoken of well and praised even. Human tendency is naturally to gravitate towards where you feel good or where people make you feel good.

Getting involved in a busy schedule often does not give you an opportunity to self-analyze, to dig out the toxins buried deep within. Maybe, from childhood, may be later in life. But, not worth neglecting!

Ultimately, every one of us has the responsibility to review and correct impressions and perspectives so as to give more opportunities to life. Moving along, wanting to be in the light and yet, holding onto the dark spots where light does not enter, is like moving one step forward and one step back. How does it help?

As I always say, it is so easy to select a few and dole out your goodness, no holds barred! Almost like dog lovers who cannot love humans the same way as they do their dogs.

But so difficult to offload the baggage you have built up with people based often on simple misunderstandings or unrealistic expectations, not to forget ego driven attitudes!

Either you have the wisdom to understand the journey of those around you or you just keep being myopic without giving even a benefit of doubt.

And you know what? I have seen that with such attitudes, we miss out on some great relationships! But, sadly, what you don’t even know, how will you miss?

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Quote of the day

 

Meditation

 

Many people think meditation is something you do in an isolated place with closed eyes. But a meditative state is one of “no thoughts”. Anytime, within any activity, done with deep concentration, one can reach a state of “ no thought”.

The mind exists only as long as there is thought. If you think you have a mind, you do. If there is no thought at all, there is no mind and that state is the ultimate state when the true self shines.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Trust and Faith

 I wonder what all this fight within and without, all the conflict, the rat race to that illusory and non-existent place called “the top” is all about. It seems to alter intrinsic human behavior. And not in a good way.

Granted, it is great to be relevant. Wonderful to be recognized. Euphoric if your name is in the neon lights!

Then what? After that? We all have a little void within which we are desperately trying to understand. To me, it is that core that does not belong to this world. It is that spiritual core that knows the extent of our earthly journey. We try to ignore it in our commitment to winning races which can never be won because there is always someone below and someone above you.

I have seen famous people cry alone. The higher they go, the lonelier it is . Emotions going haywire at what compromises you may have had to make in your values and principles so that you can have a million followers on social media. Popularity kick!

Please have more followers but for the right reasons, when your work has spoken for you and you don’t have to succumb to rigged awards and followers to gain some empty publicity for yourself.

Life is much, much vaster. The more you want, the more you will want. Poor Satiation levels can only be counteracted by genuine contentment and understanding that you will always get what is ordained for you.

Somehow, we feel irrelevant unless we are the talk of the town. Again, after that what? Do we become better humans after that? Do we suddenly start understanding concepts of right living?

The most unaccepted fact of life is death! The mad scrambles to defeat age and to refrain from entering the “vaanprastha ashram” and defying the natural progression of life is so self-defeating if we can see that for ourselves.

That is why the society is devoid of trust and faith. It is said that faith is more fragile than love. We lip read most orators who speak of the unseen, inner world and continue our cudgels with our ambitions and greed.

Aptly said, that unless we personally reach this point in our thought processes, nothing will sink in anyway.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Evolutionary path

 We get our present life based on our performance in other lives. Soul connects, discord, relationships we managed and those we didn’t.

If we look at each one around us, family, friend or foe, we don’t need to be an Einstein to know that there is a reason.

Opening your heart with compassion is enough. Try never to get emotions all knotted up about anyone or anything from YOUR side. We don’t understand that by retaliating, we ARE starting that knot!

If YOU take a wrong step, YOU are on the wrong path. You can’t justify it with any argument accusing another. Your decision is in your hands. Period.

I often sit down and examine my feelings! Intense as I used to be, I have understood that I am in my own space. My mind body spirit are mine. I have come alone and will go alone. So, I need to balance my life between who I really am and who I am here.

You keep trying. Some things work. Some don’t. You fall ! And you rise again, this time hopefully wiser in understanding. And this is a pattern on the path of learning.

But let me learn this fundamental rule. No one and nothing should change the course of your life if you are on the right track. And I don’t mean we should not have examples to follow.

Just that we tend to emulate lifestyles which will not really get us on an evolutionary path. And we must be careful.

Two emotions we MUST avoid are at any cost:

HATRED and ENVY! They just seem to corrode all the goodness within us. And for what reason? No one else is affected but US! And That would be a sad, sad story to tell each time.

 

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Reflection and Practice

 

Sometimes, when we start talking about spiritual thought, we also run the risk of a little spiritual arrogance! There are many texts being quoted but little reflection and practice.

There are no mountains to climb but simple steps towards uncovering our spiritual base which we have, sometimes in our ignorance, covered with confused thoughts. We may be led to think we are on the right track but we may not be.

Overt behavior sometimes is judged as non-spiritual. It need not be. Our basic nature prevails unless we work on it. But human goodness can still be lurking within. Superficial judgements can be completely off the mark.

Humans have a tendency to judge people superficially because generally, they see only the surface of a person. Whereas, the teal person can be very different.

Therefore, both judging people and gossiping speaks of the shallowness of the people who indulge in it.

Let us get out of both tendencies because we have been the victims of both at one time or another and we definitely have not enjoyed the experience. So why indulge in them at all?

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari

Dharma by Design

 

Quote of the day

 

Human Values

 

We lack focus. Our minds are travelling all over the place even when are doing important activities.

There was a time when cell phones were not allowed while driving. If we lose focus, we can cause accidents and also cause ourselves or other people to lose their lives.

Now, people have started advertising on roads on big screens where moving ads can cause a similar damage in moving traffic where moving visuals can totally distract a driver.

Where are the people in governments who need to FOCUS on keeping citizens safe?

Look at the Manipur tragedy! It started with a FAKE news video from Delhi (last year) that went viral in Manipur!!! Really????

This is the result of too much ignorance and a distorted idea of using time by miscreants! And just stupid “fun” which borders on the dangerous! Or is it the drama around elections which perpetrates crime?

And there just aren’t enough punitive measures going around. People in positions of authority need to have a healing attitude, not a raging one. How else do we change anything?

We are just so intent on blaming others when WE are the ones out of control!

Today, even justice has no voice and crime is happening in a “free for all” environment. In every state, safety must be ensured. It is the duty of the government and the police department.

But it is a distant dream as long as people in all positions of authority are devoid of human values.

Surekha Kothari

www.BodyMindSoulCentre.com

surekhakothari.wordpress.com

Speakingtree Blog: www.speakingtree.in/public/surekhakothari