My recipe for a delicious life...

My recipe for a delicious life...

Wake up early, practice gratitude, meditate, communicate with your Higher Self, determine to have a wonderful day, practice faith, work with devotion, have fun in everything that you do,read and write, eat healthy, think healthy, exercise both your mind and body, practice gratitude, sleep well. :)

Make your mind your friend.

Mind – the most powerful, the most critical, the one thing that is the most difficult to leash! Make your mind your friend.

Understanding your own mind itself is not easy; how can you even begin to understand another’s? One needs to make understanding and befriending the mind a life long practice.

The speed of the mind beats all other speeds. It works faster than one can comprehend. It works simultaneously on so many things that we can’t keep up with ourselves, and in fact that is where problems begin.

The mind creates far worse scenarios that what they really are. It exaggerates little things into humongous proportions and not understanding this, you get sucked into its effects and the negative domino effects begin. The scenario created in your head may make you angry, depressed, tired, irritated, frustrated, anxious...and where do any of these emotions lead you to? A place where you cannot progress in any good way, a place where there is no healing, a place where the downward spiral begins.

This is the very reason we hear, “Sleep on the thought. It will have a different perspective in the morning.” Acting on any thought in the heat of the moment is disastrous. Words come out that you did not really mean. You act the way that you never really wanted to. And there begins the regrets...

And this points to something really critical: How you act in a situation not to your liking determines which part of your personality you need to work on; for when everything is going well, according to the way YOU want to, does not really tell anyone who you really are.

Let us go to the very root of all this and what should we do to prevent ourselves from disastrous situations that we create ourselves, or rather our minds create for us.

1. Know you are not unique when it comes to the mind playing games.

2. Meditate, go in solitude, indulge in self introspection, and understand where is the thought originating from, and learn gradually to LISTEN to your better self. No matter what it is in life, it points again and again to the ability to actually listen to what is going on inside you. The psychiatrist can only judge and make assumptions based on data collected over a period of time and prescribe potential solutions. On the other hand, meditation is the best doctor that I know of, that actually enables you to understand yourself and creates a peaceful environment, a fertile ground for the nutritionally rich seeds to be sown for a better tomorrow.

3. Work on yourself everyday, a little at a time, knowing in your heart that you are going to become so solidified that nothing will ever bother you.

4. Know that the only person, the only mind that you have the ability to control is yours. You can only plant seeds for the others; whether they follow or not is their own path. All you need to do is have compassion for them, smile at them, send a prayer their way and progress in your own journey to freedom from the mind J

Love to all,

Umang

Self Esteem

Self Esteem

These two words have so much in them that they have the power to make or break a person.

Self esteem is how people evaluate themselves, how much they find themselves worthy by their own perceptions. If their own perception of themselves is faulty, in either direction, self esteem suffers – they may consider themselves too good for anyone else, which certainly does not mean high self esteem in my book; or they may consider themselves worse than what the truth is, which definitely is low self esteem, and results in disheartening the person to the extent that their full life’s potential is never achieved. In fact they may end up depressed and worse try to take their own life!

True evaluation of self worth comes from self introspection, going inwards, and constantly allowing ourselves to progress in various characteristics and personality traits that we ourselves are aware need enhancing in either direction. This is being truthful about ourselves, accepting ourselves, and intending to progress ourselves with a passion.

We need to value ourselves, and that value will automatically come if we know in our hearts that we are on the path of truth, of integrity, honesty and love. In this journey towards internal freedom, you allow yourself to fall in love with yourself, which is critical to mankind. When you truly fall in love with yourself, you allow love to overflow to all others, and the thought that you are too good for others does not even come in the picture, for you truly form a relationship with others considering each and everyone worthy in their own right.

Always keep the focus on the internal, and never on the external. In doing so, external takes on the meaning that originates in love and not power or greed or any other negative emotion, for there is no selfishness there.

Then the two words self esteem melt and dissolve. :)

A Lesson in FAITH…

A Lesson in FAITH…

During my mentoring sessions with one of the most amazing individual who I have had as a mentor since the beginning of 2007, I gradually began to understand what Faith really meant. He told me, “Umang either you have faith or you don’t. It isn’t in between. When you are doubtful, it isn’t faith. Also when you have faith, you do not pick and choose – you have faith in EVERYTHING. You do not pick and choose which aspect in life you have faith in and which you don’t.”

It took me a while to figure this out completely, for he is the kind of mentor who does not give you the answers. He enables you to ask yourself questions and seek answers from within. The last 3 years have proven repeatedly what this mentoring has done for me. It helped me reprogram my brain cellsJ

I have an amazing episode to relate…

One day last year, my 17 year old son lost his cell phone during a visit with his friend. It was late night when he told me with sadness. I asked him to retrace his steps in his mind, and he told me that he had gone to many places with his friend in his dad’s car. They had stopped at various places like the store, the library, the park and the community centre! He told me that he had been very careful with his phone and that he could not remember ever taking it out of his side pocket. He was genuinely sorry. I told him to relax and not to worry about what had been lost, especially since he had been careful. And then something came out of my mouth just like that, “We will find the phone tomorrow early morning. If it is still raining, we will take the umbrella with us.” My son just relaxed, and went to sleep.

Early next morning we woke up, got dressed, and took our umbrella (since it was raining) and I drove us to the community centre! I can’t really tell you why I chose to go to the community centre grounds; just that I did! As we walked the sides of the community centre, I called his cell phone from my phone. Finding nothing, we then walked on the other side where he told me he had visited. There were bushes, and I heard the faint ringing sound! Yes we found the wet cell phone in the bushes just minutes after reaching the community centre.

Miracles are waiting around every corner. All you need is faith J Thank you God. J

Getting a mentor is one of the most critical steps you can take towards achieving your dreams and goals…

Getting a mentor is one of the most critical steps you can take towards achieving your dreams and goals…

Who is a mentor?

A mentor is a person who guides an individual to develop themselves in various aspects of life and life choices. The mentor is experienced in the area needed for mentoring. The experience may be through personal life experiences, as well as through coaching and leadership. It is not necessary that the mentor be older.

An exceptional mentor is a responsible individual who provides true mentoring/coaching selflessly, where the well-being of the mentee comes first. A professional mentor charges a fee for their valuable time; but you may find a mentor in an individual who is not a mentor/coach by profession.

A mentor can be chosen for any area of ones life that may need mentoring – be it be academics, finance, business, any professional field or personal growth.

A mentor should be someone you respect and admire; has values and ethics that matches your way of life and should be someone you can place your trust in. A mentor should believe in you and your goals, should be available to you with their time, should be open minded and not rigid in their way of thinking, should be compassionate and caring and wanting you to succeed as much as you do, helping you and urging you in the most positive way and in a way that is suitable for your needs, helping you focus and staying focused with you. Most of all, your mentor should believe in you and is honest and open with you. To get the most out of mentoring, mentor-mentee relationship should be very comfortable, so that you are able to open up without feeling inhibited or guilty. You should be able to emulate your mentor and so it is important that your mentor is well versed in whatever area you want mentoring in.

Why and when should we look for a mentor?

Look at any exceptional individual, in any field and you will find that there is always a mentor behind them guiding, urging, and developing the individual towards the appointed goal. A mentor provides the guidance in such a way that you become beyond good; you become exceptional.

The time you make intent to do something, to be someone, and this decision is going to alter your life in ways that will have major impacts on your life, you will want to have a mentor.

My mentor:

In my case, I acquired a mentor without a conscious decision. Jan 1, 2007 saw me making a very conscious choice – to lead the highest life. The moment that decision was made, I gave myself no other choice but to step forward on this self chosen path. Since I was extremely clear on what I wanted, the doors kept opening one after another, leading me, guiding me towards my chosen path. The Universe always knows and gives what you truly want, and that has been the reality in my life. Once you know this you are bound to become aware and turn your life around in the way you want it to turn around.

I had chosen a path and consciousness, of spirituality, of progression. Very quickly, unknowingly that I was meeting my future mentor, I did and soon it was evident to me that he was the perfect human being to guide me on my chosen path with highest integrity. I have felt very blessed and very fortunate to have met him. He has been my mentor ever since. I meet him twice a month and I am able to talk to him about all aspects of my life, enriching myself in ways I had never dreamed were possible. I was fortunate to have found the perfect match for my personality. He had met every criterion that I could possibly think of as a must in a mentor, without consciously making that choice! The only thing I can say is that God had listened to all my prayers and I was listening to all His guidance. He has not only proven to be a guide, a coach for me but for my children as well.

My life has unfolded in ways that the only way I know how to describe is that I was truly reborn on the day of my birthday almost 3 years ago. Thank You God.

To know more about my life changing moments and the journey to who I am today, please read my book, “A Journey of Self Revelation.” I wrote this book through 2007 – 2008 and published it in October 2008, the day of Diwali. I wrote this book under my pen name, “Joy.” You can find this at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com or through my website: www.wellnesshaven.com, under the "My Book" tab.

Love to all,

Umang

Between Knowledge and Money, which is more important?

Between Knowledge and Money, which is more important? -

When you have real knowledge and you act on it with passion, money follows, but the reverse has never been true. 

I hope you are saying to yourself what I believe. Knowledge is more important. In fact it is critical. One of the biggest issues of today leading man to struggling throughout life is ignorance.

Knowledge is when you understand a subject matter so well that you know it inside out, so that there is no confusion left, so that when you act with knowledge and awareness, the end result is peace.

No matter what it is in life, when you act under the influence of ignorance, you are acting based off fear, and you are not aware of the consequences of the end result. You are just in a rat race.

Since ages, approximately 97% of the people are taught to study hard, get a degree, then become an employee and then keep struggling as you provide for your family, and die still struggling. About 3 years ago, Robert Kiyasaki’s book, “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” made quite an impact on me, and I knew I was not going to be one of those people anymore. He has stressed on the extreme importance of true/real education and not the way it is taught in schools and colleges. It was quite an eye opener for me and I knew that there was no competition between knowledge and money. When you have real knowledge and you act on it with passion, money follows, but the reverse has never been true. Can you imagine money leading you to discover your true passion and then actually acting upon it? No wonder we struggle throughout life trying to figure out…

Acquire the tools, the knowledge, the skills about whatever it is in life that drives you, and then follow it completely, make it your dream, act upon it with a passion, and see your life unfold. Struggles become history!

You may inherit the money, but if you do not know how to safeguard that money and then grow it with knowledge, it will leave your pocket…His program teaches you ways to safeguard your money, how to grow the money and not lose sleep over it!

Knowledge is power, the internal power that really counts, and when knowledge is mixed with other ingredients like spiritual awareness, passion, and faith, the action that follows is also true to your real self, leading to a life where dreams come true, everything looks magical J

Do not allow Distraction and Procrastination to prevent you from maximizing your potentials!

Do not allow Distraction and Procrastination to prevent you from maximizing your potentials!

These two words come in the way of living our lives to our maximum potential; in fact they are dangerous to our living. These words separate 97% of the population from the rest of human kind.

People who are focused on growth and progress are not easily distracted by things. They have their To Do list very clearly etched in their brain, in sight at all times. Then they work on taking action and completing them step by step. They do not procrastinate.

To Do List:

A To Do List can be as long as you need it, probably pages and pages, but the top 5 on the list should be highlighted as the most critical. These top 5 are the ones the general population does not even want to look at for these are the most “difficult” the most “time consuming” and the most “undesirable” thing to take care of, and yet these are the very ones that need the MOST attention RIGHT AWAY.

Many people make lists, and it could be like this”

1. Create list!

2. Grocery shopping

3. Clean

4. Call so and so for so and so…

5. Find out how to get back/show this person …what makes him/her think who she/he is!

…

100. Pay bills/taxes

101. Take the next step in the action plan of your dreams/passions

102. Invest in yourself through education…

103. Introspection/Meditation

104. Exercise

...

And this is where people go wrong! The last 5 in the list should have been the first 5. The things that seem the least interesting and yet are the most critical are the ones that are neglected the most, because people ALLOW themselves to be distracted by the most trivial and mundane things. Even if they know what needs to be done, they procrastinate.

“Procrastination is the most destructive of all nations”

So you need to:

“Plan your work, and work your plan.”

Do not allow little things in your life to distract you from your life’s potentials. Do not allow yourself to procrastinate. Believe me only YOU can make this happen, nobody else. Others can talk and talk, provide the tools, but it is up to YOU to stop making excuses and take the necessary action! :)

LOVE

LOVE

There are so many ways one can define love and yet we are left wanting…for love truly has to be realized within, and no words or explanations can do it justice.

I have felt around this subject many times over the years, and my perception sure has changed as life has progressed. Today when I ask myself what love means to me, I am not left confused.

Love exists in all of us in our innermost core. We are love. We just need to become aware. Whether it is love for the Higher Power, our parents, siblings, significant others, children, friends, teachers or love for mankind, it emanates from within.

If there was no love, living would feel meaningless.

We have all heard of the expression, “Love at first sight.” Is that really love? This may be love if your definition realizes this response. It is all about how we perceive it.

Here is just an attempt to put this wonderful emotion in words…

Love is freeing, not binding.

Loves leaves you feeling light, not burdened.

Love does not make you hold another in a tight grip leaving no breathing space; it makes you leave the other free to realize themselves.

Loves leaves you admiring the person, finding goodness in all that they do.

Love is not controlling the other.

Love does not want you to change the other to suit your needs.

Love keeps you enriched and progressive in the company of the other and enables you to allow the other to grow.

Loves leaves you feeling content and at peace.

Love is trusting and sincere.

Love is responsible.

Love makes you want to be your very best for you first and then the other.

Love goes beyond religion, culture, age, rank, nationality or language.

Love enables you with spiritual freedom.

Love is not selfish.

Love does not leave you overpowered by emotions, and sensations. Overpowering emotions should not be confused with the ultimate emotion of love. Love leaves you soaring free and trusting.

Love is not feeling trapped.

A piece of paper, a legal ceremony can be the outcome of love, but in themselves do not define love.

Love should not leave you wanting more.

Love above all is unconditional.

You cannot love another unless you love yourself.

Love is the highest emotion of all.

Love is self encompassing and more…

Drench yourself with love :)