So what is the difference between bondage, liberation and escapism.

To me bondage comes from a belief that our past is the real and the only thing that can determine our future. We work hard to achieve what we want, even after we are frustrated that we cannot have a better life and have lost all hope. Now we are stuck in the cycle of not being happy with real, working hard without hope and belief and not getting anywhere. We are so stuck in our reality that we cannot see what a future that may be different.

In escapism we remember one or more situations where we have experienced pain, and completely disconnect from reality to not have to relive the pain or even a bigger pain. We deny us our dreams and desires and disengage afraid that to face he pain. Focus on denial of our desires leads to a state in which it is hard to even remember that we have dreams and desires and we can start to live a life being completely numb and isolated.

liberation sits in the middle of the two extremes and is a healthy alternative. In liberation we see that our desire will cause us the discomfort of the knowledge that not everything is lined up to for us to get our desire and yet having the imagination to focus on the desire. Have a knowing that through focus and imagination of desire means for its achievement will be brought into our awareness and being excited at the knowing that in this process we, the collective consciousness and universe experiences growth and expansion in this process.

So we can be thankful that liberation is available to all of us, what we have to do is ask, believe and receive.

As someone who has admired the technology and innovations that apple has brought into this world under Steve job’s guidance there is a little sadness in this news for me as the difference that his leadership has made is tremendous.

Even with all his technology achivements, my mind was drawn to a commencement speech that Steve Job’s had delivered at Stanford in which – he quoted that “if you live everyday as if it was your last, then one day you will be right” – he then went on to say that “death is probably the biggest invention that pushes forward innovation, it recycles the old and makes room for the new”.

I personally have not experienced death very closely other than a couple of moments of extreme danger in my life (and it was not a deliberate thing like a roller coaster ride or jumping out of a plane), and yet I think that there is something very profound in what Steve Jobs is saying here. In a manner of looking death is an end of a lifetime. An experience that leaves the ones left behind in grief and sadness. It is so distressing to think about that most of us avoid talking about it and definitely do not spend a lot of time thinking about our own death.

Many things end in life and yet are not really all that distressing to us. I know that this day will come to an end soon and I am OK with it because I know that tomorrow will be yet another day – a new beginning. The thing that makes death so scary is that we look upon it as a “final ending”, a point from which there is no return.

The question is how do we accept the fact that everything in the material world is destined to end one day and death is a part of natures perfection.

In his commencement speech Steve Jobs provided a great way to make death a useful concept, he said “I ask myself, if this was my last day on earth, is what i am going to do today the thing that I would like to do on my last day? And if my answer is no on many days in a row then I know that i have to change something in my life”. Amazing thought – looking at death to remind us how precious this life is and how life can truly be made meaningful with the knowing that we our time on this earth is short and it is best to make use of our present moment.

With a knowing that death is a reminder that our life is precious. May each and everyone of us live our days to the fullest and in the knowing that in embracing life we make it easy to embrace death as a fitting ending to a life well lived.

This is really puzzling to me as at a very deep level I do believe that truth will always win, and yet when I look around I see and hear about all kinds of people in this world who are successful and not quite up there on the “being truthful” scale. As a matter of fact I can remember times when I got away with things because I was not exactly truthful and being truthful got me into lot of trouble.

So when we look at the world in light of our experiences, the idea of truth always wins seems to be more of a romantic idea than a reality. However the idea that truth, is the way to win in life, resonates with most of us at such a deep level that it is obvious that there is “some truth to it”

So what is the key for winning with truth in this world, I think that the one thing that truth gives us is “character”. It takes courage, patience and a very deep belief in ourselves to hold on to what we know to be right and true, in face of adversity and when we do this, the world truly becomes a different place.

This is the truth that Gandhi tapped into and created “Satayagraha” – “an insistence on truth”. This insistence on truth galvanized the people of a nation behind him. I believe that people were drawn to a character that he developed due to steadfast insistence on being truthful.

So what is the difference between a winning with truth as opposed to winning based on lies. I believe that when we win with truth, we know deep inside that we deserve our win, it energizes us, and inspires up to do better. A victory won on lies is often only celebrated half heartedly as deep down inside it does not seem to be pure or permanent. A victory in lie is like something borrowed, we know that we have it today but we do not know when we will have to give it up.

So if we take another look at truth as a way to be successful, we see it is absolutely true when we define success as a combination of wealth, health and happiness (including happy relationships). When we see “success” in life of someone who is not truthful, one or more of health or happiness will be found wanting in this win.

May all of us find the strength in holding on to truth and in doing so create a world where all our wins are joyful and permanent. May the truth be with you.

So how is it that my belief can determine my reality. In NLP beliefs are understood to be filters through which we perceive everything. The idea is that we have millions of bits of information that we take in through our senses – sight, hearing, touch, smell etc. We are incapable of processing all of this information at the rate that it is coming in, so we prioritize this information through the filters that we have. For instance our brain will very quickly grasp inputs like a snake, a gun shot or something that means immediate and imminent danger. And I think that most of us will be able to agree with this statement.

We have deep rooted beliefs about the “stuff of survival” and this is a very good thing, because in order to enjoy thing sin life we have to be able to survive any threats that come along.

However when we look at what some of other beliefs are then we start to realize that there are other beliefs that we have that are really not very necessary for our basic survival and yet these beliefs can hold us back in our life and keep us from enjoying optimum health, happiness and success.

One such belief according to a mentor of mine is “I am not good enough”. No one gets up in the morning thinking that I am not good enough however when ever we start to get overly concerned about our finances, the amount of love and respect that we are getting from our souse, family, colleagues and friends, we most likely are experiencing some form of “I am not good enough”.

Our brain responds to the negative thinking very differently then the positive. This has its root son the emotional experiences in our early life. We will cover some of these in a future blog.

For now it is sufficient to say that when we start paying attention to the correlation between our beliefs and what is showing up in our lives, like me you may be amazed to have things show up in your life even though it is not highly likely. It is a pleasant surprise when we have been focusing on something we desire, and all of a sudden it become real even though initially we may not have any thought that we may get it.

Believing in things that we want in life begins with our belief in ourselves. The realization that I create my beliefs and that my beliefs create my reality, when understood is really exciting as now we can take complete charge of our lives and when we engage with life with whole heart and all our belief, magic happens.May our lives be blessed with empowering beliefs so that we can live a life of bliss.

Why is it that most of us “know” that “disease” is something that happens to us rather then disease is a manifestation of our beliefs. To understand this we have to look into how we form beliefs and the degrees of beliefs that we hold for ourselves.

We get our beliefs mainly by what we are told and see when we are young, open and completely impressionable (mostly by the age of 2 and then a little more until the age of 8). After this age we look at our various experiences and validate beliefs that we had formed earlier on. Also we need to keep in mind that beliefs that we and others around us focus on a regular basis become our “truth”.

Looking at how the “belief of disease” takes its roots – we can see that we have been told that germs cause disease, that our body decides to do high blood pressure or diabetes etc. In labs we can prove this fact because we can find all sorts of germs and microorganisms that are associated with the disease.

The big question is if germs really are responsible for disease then why is it that every disease does not become an epidemic. What I mean is that once one of us is exposed to germs then there is no way that rest of will not be exposed to the germs. Fortunately answer is that our immune system protects us from diseases. This means that maybe that disease is a sign of compromised immune system. The BIG question then is as to what is responsible for our weakened immune system.

This is where the wellness practice that Dr Brown and I follow made its biggest breakthrough. It was discovered that the compromised defense systems (nervous, immune and endocrine systems) are a result of holding stresses in our subconscious mind. The process that we follow for removing these stresses is quite effective and yet we find that while most people do very well some show slower progress.

The difference between these two sets of people is their belief in their body’s ability to heal itself. Those that have this belief really show remarkable healing and others who do not believe show slower progress.

In conclusion I am reminded of the fact that often doctors who treat terminal diseases and cancer can tell whether a patient is going to survive based on the patients attitude towards life and belief that they can be healed.

So if wellness is the option then why not adopt a belief in life that our bodies are capable of healing itself from anything and witness how our lives become healthier.

Think wellness and be well.

One thing that was intriguing to me was the experience of cafes in Vienna. When we went to a cafe it was like entering a different time zone. The energy of the place was such that I had no difficulty slowing down and hanging around with friends. I remember several visits to various cafes with my wife where two of us sat over cakes and coffee or hot chocolate (with Schlag – the whipped cream of-course) and spend hours just relaxing and enjoying.

After coming back to US this experience lingered on my mind and when I tried to recreate it I realized that it was not that easy. So what was it that made relaxation so easy in Vienna and not that easy to get into back in the US, I had my wife, we have coffee and hot-chocolate, therefore the missing ingredient had to be something else.

Through lot of thinking I have come to the conclusion is that the missing ingredient is the mind-set. In Vienna people somehow know that as they enter a cafe they are there to relax, they allow the time to slow down, and indulge in a relaxed drink and dessert. In US we somehow do not step of the gristmill when we go to our cafes.

Starbucks was supposed to create the experience of relaxation in us and it has the environment to do so, however by the time people are there to “do” a business meeting, a sales meeting, be there for a quick cup of coffee, the energy and the atmosphere of Starbucks has changed to something that no longer can provide that experience of relaxation that we all need so much.

So what is the answer, luckily for me the wellness center that I practice at during the weekends gives me the perfect place to go, relax and hangout. I am really grateful to all the people that I meet with there and get pampered from. I really feel surrounded by loving and caring people in an atmosphere that relaxes my mind and fulfills my soul.

I think that we all need our own sanctuary where we can go and just be who ever we are, May all of you find that place that gives you inner peace like I have found mine in the wellness center that I go to. And may the sense of peace that we experience our sanctuary extend to rest of our lives.

Further in the interview he explained that right from the childhood we are told about what we need to love. Love your father and mother, love your country, love your colleagues, love your neighbor (I think that one is in the good book).

It is no surprise that when it comes to love, we have so many concepts in our head and the very moment we think about love or have an intention for being in love, we get into our head. Love has become a mental concept, it is no longer expressed purely from our heart.

Hate on the other hand has retained its authenticity, hate is purely visceral, expressed in body. it may be triggered by mind but is usually not a mental concept.

I am reminded of a couple of things that I saw on Facebook: First was story in which the wife decides to hold back intimacy to punish her husband for ignoring her (she uses the words I do not feel like it) . Her husband pays her back the next day by taking her to a shopping trip, selecting lots of things that she likes and in the end telling her that he was not going to buy her anything because he “did not feel like it”.

The other was a comment from a friend that – when some one told her that he loved her and she sneezed – she surmised that she is allergic to bullshit.

Both these are examples of unauthentic love and why we doubt when we are told that someone loves us.

So what is the solution, maybe we can set an intention that we will only express our feelings of love to someone if it gives us joy. In my opinion if we feel joy while we tell someone that we love them then it has to be authentic.

Another recommendation is that lets start showing our love in action rather than through words, and if we expect anything back in return then we acknowledge that it truly was not an act of love.

Through authentic love we can create a world where love uplifts as much as hate makes us flinch.

In closing, lets create an intention to “allow” love rather than “do” love. May the love you give and receive, be always authentic and pure, and may every expression of love be full of joy.

What is it about our human existence that makes us forget all the blessings that we have in our lives. Clearly not counting our blessings adds no value to our lives. As I think about this question I realize that ignoring to be grateful for blessings in our life is a habit. Our habits are formed when we are trained in something and habits become strong with constant practice.

So why do we get into the habit of not counting our blessings. One of the reasons is that we think that we will count our blessings after we have “arrived” and until then our mission is to do whatever it takes so that we can “arrive”.

The funny thing is that if we did pause and look at everything that has gone right in our life; there have been so many things that have turned out to be surprisingly better than what we expected. When we will realize that we can be happy right now and we will truly realize that we “arrive” by starting to enjoy the journey.

In the end it may really boil down to the truth that Buddha had realized – which is that – “cause of all suffering is unrealized expectations”. I would like to add to add a second part to it and here is the extended version:
“All suffering is caused by unfulfilled expectations and not being grateful for the ones that were fulfilled”.

May our life be blessed with gratitude which brings to us more things for which we can be grateful.

I have spoken to others in anger or dealt with them impatiently when I am angry. To me the game is how I live my life especially when I am under stress and spectators are other sarong me.

And yes Gerry Ford was right.. as I live life and adopt spiritual and mental discipline that allows me to become more tolerant, I do find that I am hitting fewer and fewer spectators. The key to hitting a bad golf shot in life seems to be forgiveness. Forgive ourselves when we inadvertently do some thing that hurts others and forgive others if they do something unkind to us.

In closing I am reminded of another quote – “I forgive those that offend me as I realize that, I will sometimes offend others and need their forgiveness.” My wish for everyone is that may your game become so good that spectators spend more time admiring your game then ducking the stray balls.

Then why do some people constantly seem to attract ‘bad luck’. Outwardly they are doing everything that they possibly can to change their circumstances and yet ‘luck’ somehow does not seem to favor them. In studying principles of law of attraction suddenly this strange phenomenon became very obvious. It is not our doing by itself, it is the feeling associated with the doing that determines how fast we will achieve what we are trying to achieve. When we are focused completely on something and are really hopeful and optimistic about it, everything seems to go right and all of a sudden we see success in the area of our focus. Often the speed and extend to which we are successful is beyond our expectations.

Then there are times in which what we are focused on becomes a chore and all of a sudden the results so not seem to be coming forth as quickly as they used to.

I guess the idea is that when life seems to not work as planned, it is best to take a break, do something that really fills us with joy and comeback to finish the job and success will be ours soon. “Kismat ka sitar” – the stars of good luck will be on our side once again.

I wish all the best to everyone in whatever you do, may you have fun and joy in doing all significant things in life. May success KISs-your-door-MAT every day.