Nugget # 82 Life lesson from a crying School boy!

Hi friends,

Today as I helped my son get on his school bus, I watched an older child kicking and screaming and refusing to get on the bus. His mother and the bus helper tried to get him on and finally the driver had to help in getting the child on. Later we understood that the child was reluctant to go to school after his 1 whole week of vacation. This incident set me thinking and inspired me to write this nugget.

How very like that crying school boy we are when it comes to things that we know we should do but don’t feel like doing. Be it exercise/healthy living /work place issues or even relationships often we feel reluctant like that little boy and in our minds we kick and scream at even the idea of facing issues we don’t like to confront and would rather stay back home(in our comfort zone) Just as no good parent would allow this to happen so also we must discipline our flesh from time to time by doing what is good for us  rather than what we feel like.

Just sharing some points that may help us in the transition of doing the right thing when we do not feel like it.

1)Write out the things that need to be done and tick them off as you go ahead.

2) Just focus on the next step. One thing at a time.

3)Think about the confusion that may arise by not doing the thing.

4)Accept that it is difficult but essential. Sometimes promising ourselves a reward can give us the necessary push to go ahead.

5)Brainstorm with others (friends or loved ones) about how they handle similar issues.

6)Mentally prepare ourselves  for the ordeal by reminding ourselves that we have to face the situation and there is no way out.

7)Train ourselves to think of solutions instead of excuses.

8)Last but not least, picture yourself smiling happily after having succeeded.

Be it small or large a task, the same set of principles can help us face that which we would rather avoid or procrastinate. Consistency is key as we continue to repeatedly conquer our mountains we will thus develop the attitude of a conqueror and will start to cherish such challenges.

Nugget of Life : “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -LaoTzu

Have an adventurous week!

Cheers,

Sparkylaurie

 

 

Nugget # 81 Life is like a Yoyo!

Hi friends,

 In this post let’s compare our life to a yoyo. We are all familiar with the up-down motions of a yoyo. Similarly as we go through the life of any person on earth, we can find similar ups and downs; some mountain top experiences , some deep down in the valley experiences and some in between ones too! I’ve been learning and still am that more often than not, it is not the experiences but our response/reactions to them that actually determine how they affect us. The litmus test for this one would be watching the way 2 people respond to very similar /identical circumstances. It may affect one very negatively and hardly matter to the other person. There may be several factors that contribute to this. Very often it is the difference in priorities, tolerance levels etc that result in these variations.

 Since the only certain thing in this life is Uncertainty and Change, the best thing to do is to develop emotional stability in life. While we develop a rhino skin “Does not bother me” or rather a “I refuse to be bothered about it” attitude to life, we will realize how simple and uncomplicated things turn out to be. We also realize that since we obviously cannot stop/control the ups and downs of our lives, an unshakeable, immovable trust in the One who can will help us develop the tough exterior that will make our ride a more joyful one.

We need to remain like the string in the yoyo that does not change, no matter how high or low the yoyo of our life goes. We might as well enjoy/endure the moment. After all, life goes on and this season too shall pass!:)

 

Nugget of Life: “Through the twists and turns, ups and downs, in happiness and in sorrow, life teaches us… TO LIVE!”- Author Unknown

Have a great week!

Cheers,

Sparkylaurie

 

Nugget # 80 Life is like a Xylophone!

Hi friends,

Hope you all are doing well. It’s been a while now since I have been able to share something with you. The truth is that a lot has been happening and I’ve been pushing myself out of my comfort zones and inviting with open arms a wide variety of experiences. To be honest, it has not been all that comfy but the ride has been a good one and left me richer with precious memories and good life lessons.

The other day as I was picking up my son’s toys and placing them back in the box, I came across his xylophone. I just struck the bars and realized how differently odd each sound was. In fact there was hardly any melody or harmony to hear and yet as I slowly struck them from one end to the other I could hear the sweet musical tune of the xylophone that we usually hear and that made me think about the many different kinds of people we encounter. With some it’s an instant click and it’s great when we can effortlessly connect. But then this is not always the case. Often everything everyone says or does may not make sense to us. People think, behave and act differently from us and we from them. It is easy to surround ourselves with like- minded individuals but then where is the challenge in making beautiful music when every sound is similar? The real beauty lies in making something harmonious out of the chaotic.

Each individual is a unique and precious creation of the Master Craftsman and the people He has allowed in our lives are there for a definite and designed purpose. Our finite minds may never fully the grasp the ways of our Maker. It is only when we allow Him to work through us and strike every bar, that we hear such beautiful music that we may never have heard before!

Nugget of Life: Life is a Xylophone; make sure you lightly strike all the bars from one end to the other;   you may end up hearing the most beautiful tune ever!

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sparky laurie

 

Nugget # 79 Life is like a Garden!

“Life is like a garden. You reap what you sow. From your own fertile soil your seedlings do grow.”

Hi friends,

It’s been a long while since I have sat down and penned something and so it is with great joy that I share with you something that came to mind this morning. Hope it speaks something to you.

Each of our lives is like a garden that has been entrusted to our care. Meaning each of us is the Gardener to the garden of our life.

1)  Unique : No two plots or pieces of land are identical. Whatever we have; our families, our time, our talents, our friends, our relatives, our homes are where we cultivate our garden. We need to love and accept what we have been given and make the most beautiful garden out of it.

2) Free Choice : We are all given freedom to grow whatever we want in our garden. We can grow flowers or ornamental plants or fruits or vegetables or we may just leave it as it is. The choice is ours.

3) Investment Required: Once we have made our choice, we will have to invest into the garden. We need to give it time, energy,money in order to purchase the necessary tools, fertilizer,seed, etc. Some amount of sacrifice may be required if we want to do something worthwhile in life.

4) Ploughing the land : This means we actually dig out the hard soil of our garden and thus make it softer and ready to receive the seed we plan to sow. This refers to the teachability of the soil of our hearts to receive.

5) Uprooting the weeds: There may already be many weeds and other outgrowth that may spoil the garden and choke the good seed and so we will need to pluck out all of them to ensure a healthy environment for the proper growth of the plants we want to grow. This refers to the uprooting of our wrong mindsets and attitudes many which have grown strong roots as they have been there for a long time. This process may be time consuming, tiring and often even painful but it is inevitable if we want to have a beautiful garden.

6) Sowing good seed: The seed that we sow refers to the thoughts we meditate on , the words we speak and the actions we perform. If we speak life( positive,uplifting,encouraging words), we will sow life. Speaking death(negative words ,critical attitudes towards ourselves or others) will cause us to reap death.

7) Commitment to stick: Often on reaching this stage we may feel that our job is done. As actually we have completed the doing, we may get impatient to see the desired result but we are forced to wait patiently as digging up the soil is only going to destroy our hard work. This is a crucial time when we need to commit to stay till we get the desired result. Many times thinking that what we have been doing has not yielded results we may be tempted to give up our efforts to maintain what we have started. Just like we need to continue watering the garden and  giving it the necessary fertilizer and believing that one day we will see the result of our hard work, there are many times in life when we may have to just stay faithfully continuing what we know we have to do whether we feel like it or not.

8) Irrelevancy of Comparison: As mentioned in the 1^st point each plot of land given was unique and the choices that we made were ours, the work we put into it, the seed we sowed were all different, then how can we compare our garden with another’s? Often times we may look over the fence and see our neighbours’ garden in full bloom while all we see in ours is brown patches of earth. We may then be envious or we may call them lucky, we may even feel our efforts fruitless and the waiting may suddenly seem longer but then we need to remember that they may have started long before us, they may have worked harder, their choice of crop may be different from ours and so in reality the comparison is really not at all relevant. Instead let us  enjoy the beauty of their garden and taste the sweetness of their fruit all the while believing that one day our garden too will be beautiful and then they too will rejoice with us.

Nugget of Life: Your life is your garden and you are the gardener. Make sure you make the most beautiful garden that you can while you are here on earth. Surely, one day someone may stop by just to tell you how they admire the work of your hands!

Have a beautiful week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie

 

Nugget # 78 Life is like a Fitting Room!

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share a thought that came to mind quite recently. Have you ever thought of life as a fitting/trial room? Anyone who loves to shop knows how important a fitting/trial room is in a clothing store can be .

A trial room (try-on room) is a room (with mirrors) in a clothing store where we can try out items of our liking before buying them.

We may like to try something we have never tried before just to see how we would look wearing it.

We may also try something that fits us perfectly but we may not like the color.

We may try something that we love but doesn’t fit.

We may try something the color of which brings out the best in us.

We may try something just because of the feel, the texture.

We may even try on something we cannot afford to purchase then but would love to some day.

We often end up buying only the best of all that we have tried out and we leave the shop happy with our purchase but even happier with the experience.

The same thing applies to life. Change is inevitable in life; things change, people change, circumstances change. Though it is always good to keep up with changes, we may also need to first try and find out whether that change is something we really want or just a passing fascination. Sometimes being open to change is just trying things out like in the trial room so that we can end up paying for and keeping that which we really feel is worth it and leave the rest hanging on the hanger of the trial room. A visit to the trial room always gives us the luxury of making up our minds of whether we want to embrace the change or just let it go. Giving ourselves that freedom always ensures that we leave happy and with no regrets!

Nugget of Life : “Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”– Sydney Smith

So go ahead and live life free and with no regrets.

Have a wonderful week!

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie

 

Nugget # 77 Life lesson from a little birdie!

“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.”- Buddha

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share something I learnt from a little birdie that kept pecking on its reflection in the glass. It was as if it was not pleased with what it saw and was trying somehow to make things better.

Isn’t that the way some of us are with ourselves? I mean, we can be understanding and merciful when it comes to others but some of us (me included) can be our own harshest critic sometimes. We can overlook the mistakes of others but we look at our shortcomings through magnifying glasses so that things appear out of proportionately worse off than it really is.

Oft late I have come to notice that people hardly notice or even make as much of an issue as we do of our own goof ups. I mean everyone knows that after all no one is perfect. Then why do we like that cute little bird peck unapprovingly at our reflections when we fail in life? The truth I learnt from that lil bird was that we could definitely enjoy life a lot more if we could just give ourselves a break sometimes and quit being so hard on ourselves whether to be right for acceptance or just for no reason at all!

Life itself can be tough enough without us having to make it harder for ourselves. Often it may be the reactions of people who don’t understand or approve of us that cause us to introspect and analyse ourselves but sometimes it might just be the inner perfectionist in us who looks for areas to tweak to improve. Whatever be the source we just need to silence our inner critic and laugh at ourselves some more. After all, how can we enjoy the beauty in ourselves if we continue pecking at our reflections on the window?

Nugget of Life: View your life with Kind sight. Stop beating yourself up about things from your past. Instead of slapping your forehead and asking: “What was I thinking?” Breathe and ask yourself the kinder question: “What was I learning?”- Author Unknown

Have an awesome week!

Cheers,

Sparkylaurie

 

Nugget # 76 Life lesson from the movie ENGLISH VINGLISH!

Hi friends,

This week I’d like to share a very valuable life lesson I learnt from the recently released Bollywood film English Vinglish. A feel good movie for people of all ages. You can read the story line and review here.

Click here for Title Song: http://youtu.be/jqxF6MT4sZo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxF6MT4sZo

The lesson I learnt from Shashi (Sridevi) is the importance of Self respect. It’s admirable how this selfless wife and mother finally makes a decision to do something for herself (learn English) after being put down repeatedly by her husband and teenage daughter for not being able to speak English. She capitalizes on an opportunity that comes her way, by believing in herself and secretly working very hard.She finally surprises everyone with a Speech (about marriage and relationships) in perfect English and thus earns for herself the much deserved respect of all she knows; something that she had always yearned for.

In today’s highly competitive world, genuine appreciation/ encouragement and pats on the back never come easy and so in order to be truly happy, we need to learn how to be our own best friend first. It is when we love and respect ourselves that we can get ahead in life. And the way we treat ourselves often sets the standard for others to treat us.

Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it. ~Whitney Griswold

Click to enjoy this wonderful Inspirational Video on Self Respect!  :

http://youtu.be/0lTTZQwQgAE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lTTZQwQgAE

Nugget of Life : “ Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to become a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself and let your light shine! – Author Unknown”

Have a wonderful week,

Cheers,

Sparky Laurie