An Apologetic Wish

Ever felt bad about receiving a wish late or felt guilty in wishing someone ‘late’ for their birthday? Read on.
Read More...For those kensho and satori moments in life
Ever felt bad about receiving a wish late or felt guilty in wishing someone ‘late’ for their birthday? Read on.
Read More...If you ever felt the need of approval, read on.
Read More...How powerful is the practice of setting intentions? Read a personal life account to find out.
Read More...Why have humans been attracted to a deity since the conceptualisation of the divine? Read on to find out.
Read More...Interested in making an upgrade to your health and fitness? Read on.
Read More...If you have ever been confused about your purpose, read this.
Read More...Ever felt ashamed for something you love doing? Read this to find some resonance and inspiration to be you.
Read More...Approaching the final days of the year, I find myself nostalgic about the past; not just the year that went by, but years previously as well. For reasons known best to my higher self or perhaps due to years of unconscious programming, the mind kept replaying events that still carry a significant emotional charge.
“Why did I act the way I did?”
“Had I been a little more patient, things may have turned out differently..”
“I wish I could get another chance…”
“Wonder what direction life would have taken had I taken that route..”
Such thematic statements might ring a bell for some of you and resonate as well. I’d like to think I have company is this bitter-sweet misery of replaying events that are long gone. I sadistically hope it is not just me who keeps them alive within the realms of mind.
Usually, year ends bring joy, renewed hope, excitement and wonder. Life sends another milestone your way. No matter how good or bad the journey from the last milestone to the imminent one turned out, you can make new plans for the journey ahead. You can choose to pull your socks up and play with renewed zest this great play of life.
As the year-end approaches, I also find myself contemplative of my death and mortality. The year has been full of news of people dying. Death was an essential topic of the year’s news and overall conversation. People dying all around and I miraculously survived to type this blog out, and you’re reading it! If this doesn’t make us feel grateful, I don’t know what else can.
Death was so close and yet, this year we got lucky. Some year though death will come knocking. And when death knocks, I will have to answer. When death calls, you can’t hide, delay, feign occupation with work or trick it.
I would love to live more because no matter the challenges living may give death is unknown territory. Wisdom tells me not to make bets about unknown territories. I have felt scared and anxious about the inevitability of the death milestone. However, what has to happen will happen. Why fret now? I’m sure I wouldn’t have to work hard to attain this milestone, it’ll come to find me. A better question to reflect for all of us is how to live while we can. 🙂
Enough of philosophising life. Let me first thank you for being here and giving your time to my ideas 🙂 Thank you for continuously supporting and inspiring me to write and share. I’ll leave with some things that made an impact on me in 2020.
P.S. If someone can help decode TENET for me, I am sure that would make the list as well.
I’d always fondly remember this year as a time when I got an opportunity to read more than ever. My Goodreads tells me I surpassed by reading goals by 142% ! Better yet, I enjoyed it a lot. 🙂 Prioritising reading time helped me immensely. Why and how I could read so much, I’ll share soon either through a blog, podcast or IGTV 😁
If you feel so, please do share your best parts of 2020– lessons, recommendations and anything else that you would like 🙂
I wish you joy, growth, peace and harmony for the next year of your life.
Hope to meet you with another blog,
Kushagra
What does this phrase ‘slow down’ mean to you?
We all have heard of “slowing down” a lot this year, haven’t we?
Perhaps a bit too much. More than we’d have liked anyway.
The pandemic seems unending even with the uplifting news of vaccine(s) ready for rollout.
At the beginning of the pandemic, slowing down perhaps meant restriction in travel, meet-ups, shopping, venturing out for recreation etc. As we approach the end of an infamous year, as conscious beings, we must ask ourselves that what exactly has this enforced slow down brought us.
Has it all been gloom and doom?
OR
Have we emerged stronger (both internally and externally) having survived thus far?
As I write this, I wonder why would anyone want to slow down by choice?!
Life’s a race, right?
Right from conception in the mother’s womb, we’re supposed to be running towards the grave. Often, without purpose or meaning; lacking any direction yet always having the certainty where we’re all heading for the same destination (death).
I think of all the happy times in my life and realise they all went by so quickly. At least what I feel were happy moments in retrospect. I doubt if I was enlightened enough to recognise and relish those moments as blessings and be immensely grateful. If we look at life from this perspective, we realise it is relatively brief and uncertain.
If we go by the western and Abrahamic school of thought, then you just have one life, one shot at fulfilment. After that, it’s either eternal obscurity/enjoyment or eternal damnation. Well, no wonder, the ideas emerging from the west have taught us to be in a rush.
When we’re overwhelmed with life, our mortal bodies, emotions or dealings with others are usually the times’ well-wishers advise us to relax and slow down. When too many accidents are robbing people of their life the government comes out with warnings of ‘speed thrills but kills’.
I think our ‘body’s government’— the Soul also comes out with such warnings in the form of anxiety, depression, confusion, disease and so forth. That’s when we need to check in with ourselves and see how to serve ourselves best.
I have personally realised lately that I have been someone who’s been in a hurry for some reason. My friend Aditi pointed out how I spoke fast while conversing. It was pointed out a few others also previously when I worked in theatre. My saving grace was the diction; otherwise, the words would have felt muddled up. I’d like to think the same about going through life; if we’re too much in a hurry, events can feel muddled up.
There were many other areas, also where I thought I had always been in a rush. I do feel ‘experienced’ enough to share some of my personally realised benefits in slowing down in different areas of life.
I’d like to leave you with some solid wisdom shared by Sadhguru is one of his disciples’ gatherings. I’ll humbly paraphrase what I heard in my words and understanding.
“Slowing down should mean slowing down the chatter of the mind. Slowing down the breaths (via yoga), words that come out of your mouth…your activities in the world.”
Thank you for reading this. Let me know what you made of this post. 😇
Taking it slow and easy,
Kushagra
This week I suggest a couple of things that are diametrically opposite in their effect upon you.
A heart-warming movie: Matilda (available on Netflix) is about a little girl who discovers the power of her mind and uses it against a bully.
A heart-breaking novel: 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by the immaculately talented Elif Shafak. The story of the life and death of a hooker in Istanbul, Turkey. You can find my review here.