A Moment of Thought to Evaluate the Thought of the Moment
We are constantly filled with thoughts, many of which pop up and then disappear without us paying much attention. This in itself is not a [...]
Two steps to stop feeling sorry for ourselves
Wherever we go, we will be carrying our sorry self with us; stop feeling sorry for ourselves, and stop being the kind of person that [...]
Are we in charge of our inner world?
The Bhagavad Gita (6.6) warns us that our mind can be our enemy if we are not in control of it. In politics, there are [...]
Keep away from fear
In our social circles, there will always be people who act as doomsday prophets. They constantly report what went wrong, what might happen, and somehow [...]
How facing fears decreases them
When we face our fears by gradually exposing ourselves to their sources, those fears decrease. How? By exposing the falsity of the link in our [...]
Live with fear not for fear
Fear can arise from both external situations involving uncertainty and internal impressions that trigger insecurity within us; neither of these may be immediately in our [...]
Three steps toward becoming more focused
We all have the experience that we get distracted and waste a lot of time due to the resulting underperformance. To become more focused, we [...]
The most productive work
The most productive hard work is heart work. People who are successful often extol the glories of hard work. And yes, hard work is needed [...]
Emotions: not commanded but cultivated
Even though emotions can't be commanded, they can still be cultivated. Suppose someone is feeling cold. We can't command them not to feel cold. But [...]
Catching opportunities or complaining about opportunities
Are we catching opportunities or complaining about opportunities? Whenever we seek to do something special, we may often not endeavor because we feel that we [...]
Focus on progress not success
To grow steadily, focus on progress, not on success. Whenever we start doing something challenging, such as focusing our mind and learning to gain mastery [...]
The cure for dissatisfaction
Whenever we feel dissatisfied, we often attribute it to some external cause: 'I don't have this house. I don't have this car. I don't have [...]
Purification is inner empowerment
We may think of purification to be something religious or sacred and not very relevant in our daily lives. However, purification empowers us internally. When [...]
Effective education: what to NOT focus on
Education requires a dynamic awareness of the level of those being educated. Suppose a math teacher with a triple PhD in calculus is teaching children [...]
What made us the way we are?
We tend to ascribe to God our life’s starting conditions — our complexion, our birth family and our default disposition. Justifying such an ascription, we [...]
Can any question be a bad question?
The questioning spirit is good; it shows our eagerness to learn. Still, that doesn’t mean all questions are automatically good. Why not? Some questions are [...]
How can we situate ourselves in our spiritual identity?
Suppose we are in an ocean characterized by huge waves. How can we protect ourselves from being swept away by those waves? By having an [...]
Elevating our self-image
Our self-image, our conception of who we are, is usually generated by others’ opinions of us, especially those opinions that we accept uncritically. Why do [...]
Be not holier-than-thou
During a pandemic, suppose someone has succeeded in avoiding infection by adopting preventive measures such as vaccination. Suppose further that they become proud and deliberately [...]
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Suppose we are living with a moody person who has extreme negative mood swings — during those dark moods, they tend to be both deceptive [...]
Raising the quality of our questions
If we wish to improve the quality of our life, we need to begin by improving the quality of our questions. We may classify the [...]