Category: MINIMALISM AND LIFESTYLE

Tips and Tricks for Growth

The Minimalist Fitness Regime

Have you ever seen a fat cat with its stomach bulging or an elephant who is skinny and under nourished? Probably not! Well that’s because animals stick to their regular diet and activity. They have been following it since ages and they mostly remain healthy unless they become dependent. However, whatever situation they might be in, they have not forgotten their basics.  

Humans are crazy creatures. They experiment with everything. Well this curiosity of experimentation has brought us to the phase of what we are now. But one thing which we have failed to understand is ‘sticking to the basics’. This common sense includes having a proper diet and regular exercise regime.

Fitness and diet are the essentials of a healthy life. The benefits of doing regular exercises and having a good diet are well known to every individual. Among all the benefits, not getting contracted with a disease is the biggest advantage. Hope that everyone is engaged in these healthy habits in time of COVID-19. If not, what are you waiting for? It’s never too late unless you are bed ridden. Start now because, exercising does not require ‘sophisticated’ equipments or functional setups or extravagant gym studios. Actually, humans do not need any equipment at all to become fit! We are designed to remain healthy just by engaging in some metabolic activities.

The minimalist way of doing exercise could be practicing ‘Yoga’. This is the ancient technique which has been evolved since last 5000 years and was originated in India. Since last few decades, it is gaining momentum around the world. The yogic philosophy is the description of the ‘way of living’. It is richly described in the literature and is available over the internet. Many books and courses are also available worldwide, if one wishes to learn the yogic philosophy. However restraining to our discussion, the yogic literature consists practice of ‘Yogasanas’ (Yoga postures) as a fitness dose to the human body. The benefits of practicing yoga are innumerable. You can start with simple postures and move on to complex postures by continuous efforts. Practicing these yogasanas is very interesting ritual. Unlike heavy gym training, one does not experience fatigue after performing the yogasanas. There are different asanas for different requirements. If you are troubling to gain weight, the ‘Suryanamaskar’ will help you achieve your goals. Likewise there are different asanas for different problems. The problems such as constipation, IBS, and even paralysis and many such physical deterrents can be cured just by practicing Yoga.

21st June is celebrated as International Yoga Day. It is to promote this simple yet effective practice for benefit of humanity. Try some of the yogasanas and you will love doing them. But remember to perform under expert supervision. The yoga studios are setting up in every city around the globe. There are even online yoga classes. The basic yoga training and material is freely available on most of the leading yoga institutes. Try to reach out these websites. You will be fascinated by the content.   The Government of India has also launched initiatives to promote yoga globally. Reach out for more information and content about the yogic asanas practice; how to become a yoga trainer; the yoga institutes; where to find them; how to approach on this official website of Government of India http://yogacertificationboard.nic.in/leading-yoga-institution/

Unlock-self in Lock-down phase

“Tree: Representing Sophisticated nature, minimal needs and infinite possibilities”

After the COVID crisis, the world will not be the same as it was, predict experts. No one knows when, how, and where this problem will end. Oracles and astrologers are silent on the fate of mankind. However, change is the only constant. This time will over soon. The new age will welcome humanity with resilience and hope. But the time to come back to the new normal is yet not visible. By giving a new chance for survival, nature has once again taught us the law of survival of the fittest. I hope we learn from the constant hints from nature.


In the new world order, we will be losing a lot much freedom. However it is far better than losing our lives, isn’t it? What more will we lose in this catastrophe? Many will lose their dear ones, many will lose their jobs, businesses, relations, lifestyle, and daily routine. However, one thing we should not lose is our sanity. There will be a paradigm shift in our way of working, gathering, traveling. All this is certainly going to impact our self-perception about the world. Even before the corona outbreak, humans once lived their lives with certainty (though life was still uncertain then) are unsure about the future. This uncertainty can be due to insecurity of job, business, relations. This lock-down phase is about reducing the risk of insecurity. The time to prepare for the future. A preparatory leave for revamping our lifestyle. A break to think about our divine connection with mother nature. A holiday to redefine the way we define work. A void to feel the essence of life.


‘Unlocking self’ means thinking ways of self-improvement. Unlocking can be in every aspect of life. This includes personal health and development, spiritual growth, family bonding, working style, friendship and colleague connectivity, financial success, recreational time, and social aspects.


Each of these aspects plays a vital part in our lives. From shaping our personality to molding our behavior, attitude, and beliefs. We need to look into these aspects and indulge in the practice of transformation according to the changing ways of the world. In short, we will have to look for greener solutions in our own vicinity, ‘pro-environment’ lifestyle for better livability, redefine businesses as per the need of an hour. adopt healthy stress-free work options, inculcate Gandhian way of living, and practice minimalism rather than materialism. But why should we do this? because even if the COVID crisis ends (which it’s not gonna happen so easily!), the environmental stress will surely strike us back after some time ahead. Moreover, a healthy way of living will increase our ability to respond to the pandemic, increase our intellectual ability to comprehend the situations ahead, and will create a great business acumen. The way of ‘naturalistic living’ is more exciting than the typical routine lifestyle. Think of the possibilities ahead and start planning for the new routine.


What possibly one could do to unlock self? Find time to explore within; read varied literature; transform your house with creative thinking and using locally available stuff; adopt a healthy lifestyle – practice yoga, meditation; inculcate the habit of learning- a new skill, go back to hobbies, explore space through stargazing, reading interesting interstellar phenomenon; Gardening and planting saplings; find a passive income option which will help in maintaining cash inflows.

Well, there are hell lot of things one could do but, only if one wishes to do. You probably would have gone through your photo albums meanwhile since the lock-down. I hope you embrace who are. Make use of this time in finding self. Because in one way or the other time is going to pass, even if the world has taken a halt, the time hasn’t, after all, you should not regret that you spent this golden time just passing it by getting bored. By unlocking yourself, you will at least have some life exploring opportunities. Experience the world differently and stop being ordinary. A new world is waiting for you. A new world of possibilities, a world of equity. Stay sophisticated, stay minimalist.

‘VIRTUAL-REALITY’

Are we becoming slaves of smart technologies?


“This is a fast-moving world”, the phrase has become a cliché nowadays. With shortening attention span and media reflecting a perspective of better life with fantasizing photos of picturesque locations, good food to dine in, best places to go this vacation, mates having fun, it is like the other lane always moves faster than yours.


Seriously, social and digital media are making us feel lower in self-worth, insecure about the future and letting us compare with others. Which is not right, right?
Incessant streaming on digital platforms: Youtube, Netflix, and other entertainment channels are supposed to keep you engaged, grab your focus and keeps you in hibernating mode. You being submitted to so-called enjoyment takes away a lot of time from you. (All I want is your time..says your Smartphone to you)
However, one more major issue lies in this context, the person sitting next to you. It is most likely that when one person takes out his phone, the other also does the same. But is it the way we communicate?


There was a time when kids, young adults, even women used to gather at commonplace to have some conversation. Nowadays, who the hell has time? Everyone is busy in scrolling their shit. The gardens are occupied by regular senior citizens and each house by fluffy kids sitting with a phone, watching random suggestive content, the whole evening, in the name of binge-watching!


Adults, nowadays, are most commonly addicted to mobiles. Their hands constantly goes towards the phone. Checking phone screens multiple times, even if there are no notifications. What is the need for that? Can’t we have a good time conversing with the one present at the moment? Can we not keep these electronic devices aside for longer spans? The question lies: Who is the slave of whom? Certainly, You know the answer.
Humans communicate to share their feelings. By sharing thoughts, emotions, a bond between the people strengthens. That bond somewhere is weakening nowadays.
One might be happy to share a funny incident or a tragedy that happened recently. Your kid might have come up to share his achievement at the school, but your focus is lost in random videos. You are just nodding your head and humming the response.
Are we humans supposed to be like this? Are we such unwise to dumb ourselves?.
I hope that day doesn’t come, when someone close to you is fallen sick and needs your attention out there and you are busy texting someone far away, an occasional friend who made you complete 1000 likes on your social media platform.


Make sure you don’t fall into this category. Give the media a limited time. take time for yourself and the one near you, even if they fall in the above category. Because wise are you, aren’t you?

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR….?

Adversity brings out our hidden potential….Jeff Keller

Has it become habitual for us not to act unless something worse happens to our lives? Think!

Are you waiting for some personal misfortune to occur before you start looking at life not in a casual manner? Are you waiting for a tragic encounter to force kick start a wonderful journey of life!

The word encounter is defined as ‘to meet (someone) without expecting or intending to. Let us define an encounter with an inanimate thing instead of an animated one. Here we replace the word ‘someone’ with ‘something’. An encounter with a stray dog gets you run faster than an Olympic medalist but it will not grab you a gold even if you win the occasion. Because it is a situation of extreme perception of your mental and physical capability and not your endeavor to attempt that circumstance. Moreover, as soon as you realize that the disaster is disappeared and you have left the dog far apart you move into your usual routine with just memories in your mind of the tragedy of dog which just occurred.

   So when you encounter someone or something you either get encouraged/excited or discouraged. It matters on the situation you get encountered with. Now let’s have another situation. if you get encountered with a disease that is, if you fall prey to any disease which is not chronic(occurring again and again for a long time) and imagine you are feeling ill, you always try to ensure yourself that you will not repeat the same mistake which landed you in such terrible state. For example, if you caught cold and fever, you make yourself agree that you will never again consume frozen products. This commitment relieves you because you give yourself a false signal of not attempting the mistake again. In one way you are fooling the mind. But as soon as you become well/fit and as the time passes, you forget those commitments and you again go for an ice cream craving! You again head out uncovered in cold atmosphere. are we not fooling ourselves?

         Such happens when, decisions taken at wrong swing(wrong time, wrong place, wrong situation) don’t turn out to be fruitful in the long run.

To stand to your commitment you need a strong will and a strong self instinct. This instinct is followed usually when you likely fell into a situation from which it is not easy to get out. For example, a chronic disease like acidity will never let you miss your meal. Or take another example of a road accident that will never again excite you to drink and drive or maybe to speed up your vehicle above a certain limit. So in short – “A life-threatening instance which can take out life from you can make you follow your priorities in a focused manner”. Are you waiting for a road accident to happen to tell you that you should not drink and drive!

      Instead of waiting for such things to happen why not act wisely at first hand! Why not set a few rules in life which will help to achieve what is necessary or what you have dreamt for. Make a list of the 10 most important things you wish to achieve and work wholeheartedly to achieve those targets. Life is too short to learn from our own mistakes.

whatever you want to do…Oh Come On.. we have to learn from others’ mistakes. Have you not seen how accidents cause death, how unhealthy food makes you fell ill, how money spent unwisely without investment make lose standards and status. Lot more examples, you can also tell. Now implement rather than just recite.

Act now, Start exercise training, start a venture, overcome your fears, eat slowly, drink plenty(water obviously), don’t drink and drive, go green, invest smartly you can write and follow a lot many things. You just need to be focused and committed towards those goals

  Is it a case that you want to stay in the same place or position or are you waiting for something ‘threatening’ to happen with you before you start ? for which situation are you waiting for, ACT NOW

At last, I recommend you to read this book “ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING” by Jeff Keller. which I read recently. It is a wonderful book for looking at life from a different perspective. And I must say that this book has influenced me a lot. You will surely get a clear and positive mindset after reading this book. The book is precise and easy to digest!

How Not To Get Bored!

Getting bored…here are the things which will take you out from your boring emotions

When is the last time you were alone and you had nothing to do except just turning on your mobile phone screen and sliding along the menu and again locking the phone and repeating the same task just to keep yourself busy? Had you ever experienced a feeling of literally not doing anything or procrastinating the work? Had you ever sat somewhere and there was nothing to do except looking here and there only to pass the time. Had it occurred to you that you are getting tired up by something uninteresting. Are you experiencing more than 8 hours of sleep in a day (literally called lazy)? Do you feel exhausted and tired after work? If any of these symptoms are being experienced in your life then you are not enjoying your present moments, be cautious you are subjected to ‘getting bored’ phenomena! In literature, it is known by the name boredom.

   Not just you and me! (I conquered them now) are facing this type of problem. There are plenty of people out there who are currently experiencing the phase of boredom if you are in public place just have look around and count the number(only after reading the whole blog).

It is very bemoaning to say that in spite of such progress that man has made since the 19th century he remained unsuccessful to find a cure on this problem. He was not even able to track the number of people who are currently getting bored (can you suggest any studies done on this topic just comment if you know). And now he is planning to settle on mars! What the hell will he do thereafter constructing all the setup? Just experience boredom, I guess! Hope this kind of thing doesn’t occur.

But yes to every problem there is an answer. You have to introspect/circumspect to find that answer.

Getting bored is not any mental or physical disorder. So this is not the type of disease which needs medicine. But there are certain practices you could rely on for cure to come out of these time eating sessions.

Just as a curiosity I will ask a question. Do you know any technique to come out of this boredom situation? What is your story and thoughts about this topic? Feel free to share your story in the comment section. Till that time let’s explore a few things which will take out this boredom from our minds.

  • Stay ‘engaged’

Yes, you are thinking right, you should be engaged in any task you are doing or you are supposed to do. Easy E.g. suppose you are completing your homework, you took a break and you started feeling bored. Just start the work again and within a few minutes, you will move out of boredom. [Being single is also a fair choice but then loneliness will make you feel even worse?]

  • Go out and try something new

Go to a new café in your locality. Go to museums, art exhibitions, expositions, festivals. These kinds of gatherings happen almost daily in every city. There are more options beyond these few which are not going to delimiting your scope. You can easily find your relevance.

  • Find ‘your type of things’

Do the things which attract you, which get you closer to your priorities. In short focus on the things which will take you closer to your desired goals. There is a saying – ‘start with keeping the end in the mind’. Never settle until it’s done. One motivational quote reads- I don’t stop when I am tired, I stop when I am done.

  • ‘Meet ups’

 These are the best places to go to. There are hell lot of meetups which happen daily and you can easily join one of your like/taste/choice. There are many meet up sites online for such social activities. Browse and click anyone out there and you will land at numerous social gatherings happening out daily in your vicinity. These are nice places to get involved in. And if you live in the place where there is no scope for these sites, why don’t you organize your meet up. It’s always a wonderful feeling to host any group activity. By doing so you will certainly add more like-minded friends in your friend list

  • Take up an online course.

When I was a kid I was not very much interested in studies. More often I would skip the topic which was hard and which carried fewer marks for exams. But when I grew up I realized those topics to be interesting and essential (for example Mathematics) and I started accumulating more material about them but nowadays the internet has made everything so simple. I explored a few online course sites and registered myself with a few of them and it was a wonderful experience (obviously I took one online course and I am taking up more). Go online and find out more. There are numerous courses on these host websites. The variety you will get will amaze you. You can explore every topic below the sky!

To list a few: Udemy, Edx, Coursera, Mentor Box, Unacademy, NPTEL- for technical/engineering. YouTube also contains software tutorials which can be learned for free

  •     Learn a language.
MUSIC IS ALSO A LANGUAGE

 How interesting it would be if you start speaking a couple of more languages other than those you know. The benefit of learning a new language is that it increases your neural connection which in short means you become more intelligent. And a new language is always a plus point. Either this or that learning a new language will always brighten your scope of opportunity in the world.

There are a lot many things which I will be sharing in the next blog, till that time just start any one thing out of this list and tell me how much time you have saved by #NOTGETTINGBORED. 

Making New Year Resolutions? … keep this in mind

Happy New Year to everyone. Its a lot that we all have seen in the current year and everyone wants to breathe afresh but how can we?

‘New Year Resolution’ is one such method to realign yourself with your higher self . It might be in any aspect say fitness or business or startup or even a ‘New You’.

How can you ‘realign’ yourself to reach where you want?

Simply by sticking to your resolutions.

Attach OBJECTIVES to your resolutions and see the change happening

Objectives are set of guidelines to cater to the expectations of the leaders/management/firm as a whole. Just like every organization set their objectives, you too can personally attach objectives to your resolutions. You will thus set realistic targets.

Objectives are the set of principles. They are something you are striving to surpass those limits of your own.

Why these objectives help?

These objectives hold your hands when you try to deviate from the vision. Moreover, they take care of you by not letting you set unrealistic resolutions.

Remember that time is the essence of everything. Let us, without much philosophical gulping, dive into the pool of objectives for your goals.

Note that: Defining an objective is as easy as eating and following it is as hard as digesting!

Be cautious… and at the same time… be strategic and challenging

Let us imagine that you set 5 resolutions for the upcoming year. As an example let us assume these 5 basic resolutions…

  1. Will join a gym to be fit -many among us set this! (fit can further be weight loss/gain, strength, chiseled body, etc)
  2.  I will go for a jog daily –it can be in the evening or morning
  3. I will join a violin class
  4. I will give up procrastination- {procrastination is literally …the art of delaying things!}
  5. I will spend more time in self mastery

Certainly, none of us will write like this-“From next year I will make more money”

The above activities are irrational-you can certainly guess why. Because they are not definite!

As the resolutions are set, her comes the next important thing –‘write them down and keep them in front of you’

Just by writing these statements will hardly work, if you don’t define them or specify them. To our rescue comes the objectives

Imagine you have started a company called-‘I will give up procrastination’. To make this company work, you as well as your employees and clients should know what your company is aiming. Let us define the objective as follows:

              I will give up procrastination

Why?

Give reasons to your objectives as follows

  1. To make myself productive
  2. To enhance my activity schedule so that I will utilize my time in doing things which I like or which I wanted to do
  3. To eliminate idleness in my life and bring a sense of activeness
  4. To save this intermediate time and utilize it to read a book
  5. To take up a relevant course online and finish it up within this floating period

Always keep these objectives in front of you (paste them on your table/wall/refrigerator/etc).

Looking at these will help you when you will feel low and uninterested in doing your goals.You must always look back and think why you started and you will get your answers here in your objectives! ultimately your chances of quitting on resolutions will decrease.

Along with the objectives, the vision, and the mission statements, you can add more value to your determination if you also state the pros and cons of working and not working on those goals/resolutions.

For example, if you have written- I will brush my teeth twice daily, then the pros will be your healthy teeth without pain while the cons will be getting a root canal(A painful operation!)

At last, you have to take up the challenge and start working from day zero. You need not to get upset if you miss or deviate from the desired goal. Again realign with same enthusiasm because to err is to human…!

Share your resolutions with your dear ones. It will bring a sense of seriousness in you. By doing so, your chances of sticking to the goal will increase.

In this year,let’s achieve significant goals, let’s hope for greater good, let’s attract abundance, let’s elevate to higher self…

Wish you a bright year ahead 🙂

THE READING ADVENTURE

Indulge into reading

Exploring has always fascinated humans may it be through real-time adventure in the nature, which is quite risky but breathtaking; may it be performing a scientific or an engineering experiment or just turning the pages of an interesting book which keeps you engaged in it’s plot.

Isn’t it a great thing to experience others’ observation through reading and diving into their world just by moving our eyes through a piece of paper. When you get fascinated by exploring such stuff you are eventually tagged as a ‘Bibliophile’- a person who loves to read books.

Our EXTRAvagant Brain

Have you ever observed an ant? you can’t say no but have you ever thought of what functions these tiny creative creatures can do. To list a few

  • Meeting and greeting while living in groups that is why they are called social insects!
  • They are organized …. sorry to say but more than us
  • They have three classes -queens, males, and workers
  • They construct their own colonies just like construction workers and engineers do for us
  • There are even slave-making ants that capture other species territories.
  • They respond to every passerby ant
  • They maintain a line and unlike us follows it strictly
  • They can lift weight 20-100 times of their own weight. this will always make our weightlifters jealous
  • They have soldier ants for guarding the regions. wow, how strategic they are!

Well, these are few highlights about our tiny housemates. But keep’ jokes on us’ apart there is this thing to point out.

“These tiny bit size insects whose size ranges in millimeter can do so many tasks with having even smaller brain size which is hardly visible to naked eye. Imagine a human brain that can occupy the size of a fist can do what! “

A dialogue from the movie LUCY reads-“Life was given to us a billion years ago, now you know what to do with it”.

Just got this above thought while relaxing…

What capacity our brain can have is yet left for you to discover!

WHAT SOPHISTICATED MINIMALISM IS ?

LIFE IS A WONDERFUL PHENOMENON, ISN’T IT? IT IS FUSION OF NATURAL FORCES BECOMING ACTIVE AND COMING TOGETHER AT A CERTAIN TIME, SPACE, SITUATION TO FORMULATE A SPIRIT, CREATING A SEPARATE EXISTENCE, YET CONNECTED TO THE CREATION ITSELF.

IT TOOK AROUND 9.5 BILLION YEARS FOR THE UNIVERSE TO EVOLVE IN A STATE TO CREATE EARTH AND ANOTHER 4.5 BILLION YEARS TO CREATE HUMANS, THE HIGHLY INTELLIGENT PRIMATES EXISTING ON THE PLANET.

HOWSOEVER SIGNIFICANT IN OUR OWN RATIONALE, WE ARE BUT TINY ELEMENTS OF THIS VAST UNIVERSE BLESSED WITH AMPLE RESOURCES AND A SAFE HAVEN

WE, AS A SPECIES,OF PRESENT TIME, ARE FORTUNATE TO WITNESS THE EMOTIONAL AND INTELLECTUAL PHENOMENON. THE ESSENCE OF OUR LIFE LIES IN OUR CONSCIOUSNESS. WE, AS SPIRITUAL INDIVIDUALS, CONFINED IN PHYSICAL BODIES ARE HERE TO EXPERIENCE BLISSFULNESS. YET WE HAVE INDULGED OURSELVES IN SO MUCH TROUBLE. EVERYWHERE, WE SEE, ODDS IN THE HUMAN SOCIETY, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAVE AND THE HAVE NOT; THE EXTREMES OF EACH CONDITION; THE EVILS OF THE RATIONALISM, AND ALL SUCH NEGATIVES OF THE HUMAN STATE.

MINIMALISM IS TO LIVE WITH FEWER POSSESSIONS,SO THAT EVERY LIVING BEING GET ITS SHARE IN THIS JOURNEY. SOPHISTICATED, AS WE ARE, WE MUST ACT RESPONSIBLY IN THIS WORLD. THE SOPHISTICATED OUTLOOK OF HUMANS TOWARDS EACH OTHERS , IN A RESPONSIBLE WAY, IS WHAT ‘SOPHISTICATED MINIMALIST’IS PRACTICING AND TRYING TO CONVINCE AS WELL.

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