Inspire to smile

Happiness is something we often seek out of life and why not God has created us with such affection & perfection. Whenever I start thinking of evolution of life, as I have done graduation in Biology (Study of life), I just can’t stop praising God.

Human beings are at the top of animal kingdom; we can communicate, exchange thoughts, imagine & dream. It is said that everything gets created first in dreams & then gets converted into reality. Science has given us so many inventions to support our life. Today so many machines are there in our daily usage that we can’t imagine to live without some of them.

Recently I read a new term “NOMOPHOBIA” it’s a mental sickness in which one fears to how to live without his/ her mobile phone.

Are we not heading towards the addiction of digital chatting & getting away from real world that exist around us. Just look around in any restaurant people will use mobile phones for chatting/ texting/ viewing new pictures sent by a remote friend. Distance relationships are becoming more enjoyable than the ones we live with.

It’s easy to blame each other for such sorry state of relationships, but the irony remains the same.

Let’s understand that why the sorry state is there in the relationships & what can help us???

‘The Over Ambitious’ people keep their jobs or business 24x7 with them; they even don’t know that they are ignoring the people around them.

‘The Perfectionists’ (who seek perfection in everything) remain in their imaginary world & keep waiting for ideal situations to cheer up. The island “Perfect” is not there in the world’s map. Still they remain full of hopes.

‘Irked Relatives’ are always there in everyone’s life, as relatives are a matter of destiny (except the spouse)

‘Open Marriage Singles’ they are the ones who are living with their spouses in the same house but they are least bothered for each other. This is a very common side effect of our modern day life, which is “WANT DRIVEN”. (Immediate Gratification)\

‘ATM Cum Husbands’ these poor fellows are the living ATM machines as their family (wife & so called 21^st century teens) use them as ATM machines only. The first thing they get at home is the bill for the daily expenses when they reach home after office or business set ups.

‘Intellectual differences’ by the time marriages reaches a double digit vintage (10+years), the difference between life partners start increasing as they are exposed to two different worlds. Their definition for every world is different, like finances, materialistic possessions & show off, responsibilities towards old parents, children and love life.

Our generation is living in an era of fake identities. Many of us are living with dual faces. One side we love ourselves & want to live with peace, at the same time we are becoming “ZERO TOLERANCE ROBOTS”.

Everyone is searching for peace & love. The change has to start from “YOU”. (In my case it’s ME)

Only one person who can help you is “YOU”. The only person who can take you through is YOU. The focus has to be on Your Own development. It sounds too repetitive. But this is the only way out, I realized it in my life, you will realize if not now, then later, but truth will remain the same.

Start using a mantra to “FORGIVE & FORGET”; the more you forgive; the more you set free your soul. The more you forget the uncontrollable things in your life the more you enjoy the life as it comes.

Ensure you take care of your health unconditionally. The word “Unconditionally” is the key here, join gym, if not join neighborhood yoga class if not, join any dance class if not, go for a brisk walk daily in the morning & even if nothing seems possible then plug in music at home, close your room dance or do whatever physical activity you remember, point is do it daily, don’t miss the bliss of being fit & in great shape.

Ensure your mental balance (Emotional Quotient), don’t depend on anyone to keep you happy, it’s a human made society, God has created us as individuals, & that’s why God gave us the power of self talk, even if you listen to your heart & follow, you will ensure the happiness in your life. Don’t ignore the voice of your Divine Soul (In my previous blog read about ‘Divine Soul’).

Once your health is good & your emotions are well under control, you can feel free & a free soul smile like an innocent child. This innocent smile will bring a positive aura around you. No matter who lives around you will get a new positiveness in you, trust me people will turn towards you with a new perspective. Though positiveness travels with much lesser speed, but it’s not stand still also.

Few suggestions for making life simple & happy:

Ambitions are good; in fact important to grow, but not at the cost of family time, balanced approach will bring harmony in life.

Search for perfection in relationships or human being is total waste of time, thinking of perfection in other is itself not perfect. Respect everyone’s individuality. Life is simple if we don’t treat it as a puzzle.

Because of other relationships don’t spoil your core relationships; don’t try to win someone at the cost of losing someone you love. It is said that you can’t satisfy everyone at the same time. So even if some people are not happy with you don’t be guilty. It’s normal.

Even if love has disappeared from your marriage but you are not planning a divorce, it shows that something is still there on which the relationship is floating. Try to rediscover the love in your married life. Forgive & Forget can work magic. You can make certain rules like; prohibit the mobile phones in the bedroom, replace your TV with a music system from the bedroom, as watching TV spoils the opportunity for the light chat between the life partners. Lack of communication is the biggest reason for detachment. Talk, it will helps to restore the love.

It’s my humble suggestion to all house wives; that stop treating your husband’s as ATM machines, as in some cases the wife remain immune to financial recession while the husband has to bear the burn. The way inflation is hitting the finances of every household, the lady at home has to respect more for the sole earning male. Understanding the finances for the lady is equally important. In the urban families where only male is earning, usually finance is the biggest reason for marital discord. If a lady can’t work she need to understand the NEED based life rather than WANT based life.

If one grows in life or in profession, start reading some good literature or the market teaches him/her the values of life; while if the other partner is into lazy life style or only into fashion clothing there is possibility that the intellectual differences start building. These differences start creating communication gap which leads to lack of interest in each other. Relationship without love is merely a liability. The remedy is self improvement. Read books, blogs or watch knowledge based TV programs. In nut shell awareness is the key. A well aware person is confident & confidence is the key to get respect.

You smile & can see the people around you will smile back to you, if it can’t be felt in a day, but rest assured it will happen for sure.

The biggest guarantee you can take from your own analysis. If someone forgive you for your faults & forget the bitterness from the past; Will you welcome him/ her back in your life or not? If your answer is yes, my purpose of writing this blog is achieved.

Smile is contagious. Let’s spread this beautiful instant natural makeup to bring joy in our life.

Smile & inspire to smile.

Divine Soul

It is considered in many cultures that every living creature is made up of Body & Soul. The entire existence is based on Body & Soul. Since childhood we keep listening that God is everywhere. God is in every particle. God is in every living creature. God lives deep inside our hearts. When we talk to ourselves, we get an honest answer for every question. Our inner voice which comes out from our heart is the God’s direction to us.

It is said that some people think from heart that actually means that they listen to their inner voice and follow. No matter where we born & bought up, we always have our parents & grandparents to tell us the difference between good & bad. Our faith starts building since the tender age. Every human being learns from the surroundings & makes his/ her own perception.

To understand how faith is being built we need to understand first, the human mind. Our mind is divided into portions.

Conscious mind

Subconscious mind

Conscious Mind: - Conscious mind is logical, it gathers information from everywhere, process it & actively participate in making decisions. Knows the use of “Yes & No”. Makes choices between “The Right & The Wrong”. Conscious mind is practical & intelligent.

Subconscious Mind: - Subconscious mind is emotion driven. It’s basically a data storage device for conscious mind. It captures images & follows the power of imagination. The images in the subconscious mind make its beliefs. Beliefs are building blocks for Faith. Subconscious mind is far more powerful than conscious mind. Subconscious mind can only say “YES”, based on our faiths.

Let’s try to understand that how faith is built with the flow chat in the picture given below.

Once the faith is built, in every decision we refer back to our faith. Our inner voice will always tell us what is good for us or bad for us. Remember when you tried to lie on a simple thing, your inner voice would have tried to stop you, can you feel it now?

If your answer is yes, then this blog is for you. You are a Divine Soul, a person who is good at heart. I am glad that you are reading this blog. I am glad that I could touch you by my writing.

Now how to live with “Divine Soul” in this current world which has so many cases of human rights violations, corruptions & top of it a huge gap in the economic status in the society.

Don’t give up on your good deeds, even a small gesture of yours which can bring smile on someone’s face is a light year ahead than just sitting back & cribbing.

Trust me this world is still worth living because there are Divine Souls. It might be you; it might be anyone, who still listens to the inner voice.

Just keep listening to your inner voice & live for yourself, by just being harmless to others is a great contributions. Ensure your happiness by doing every bit in life to gather happiness. Even if you do well to yourself by listening to your heart, you will create a positive aura, which will attract all happiness in your life. Happiness can be found in relationships, can be found in small act of charity, can be found in reading some great literature, or can be found in just relaxing on the terrace with a cup of tea. Be happy, listen to your heart.

Don’t ignore the inner voice; it’s there to bring the best in you. It’s a proven fact that attitude gets its impression on the DNA too. Your act of being eternally happy will be a gift to the generations to come.

Just listen to your heart, it may ask you to call up an old forgotten friend, just make a call & say hello! Do let me know how you felt?

Just listen to your heart, it may ask you to call your parents, call them right away! Do let me know how you felt?

Just listen to your heart, it may ask you to refund some old debt from an old friend, call your friend & try to return his money or at least say sorry for not being able to pay as of now. Do let me know how you felt?

Just listen to heart, it may ask you to go for a long drive with your wife/husband or girl/boy friend. Do let me know how you felt?

Just listen to your heart, it may ask you to take a day off from office; it may be a delight for the family. Do let me know how you felt?

In the last I would conclude that, listen to your heart, talk to yourself, there is a fire for chasing dreams, fuel it. Work hard for every dream of yours, make life worth. You are a “Divine Soul”.

Be very careful while thinking as thoughts eventually become our faith. Our inner voice will answer our every question & will let us know the purpose of our life.

Pamper Yourself !

Happiness has become something rare today, people of every age group are facing uphill task to keep themselves happy.

Remember! When you laughed out loud in your life last time.  Please don’t count the laughter which was induced by a laughter show on TV or a comic movie of your favorite movie star. In our daily life laughter seems lost somewhere.

Take a round in any office & you will find people are working like machines and facial expressions are only cosmetic. Human beings are turning into machines - expressionless, emotionless & short tempered. Why is this happening? The real essence of life is lost somewhere, something is going drastically wrong.

Time has changed the urban life forever, nobody has time for others, and relationships are measured & maintained keeping financial status in mind. Relationship is no more an emotional issue it’s an affordability issue now. Sounds irritating & mind becomes clueless.

For absolute happiness if you depend on others including your most cherished relationship you are not doing justice to yourself. You need to understand life from your perspective. Let’s try to understand the impact of being in happiness. If you remain happy you will create a happy environment around you. Being positive about life in a miracle you will come to know once you practice happiness.

The key is to understand the self worth. It will help you to establish the reason to love yourself. A happy person can only give others the gift of happiness. As only a person who has money can give others money, in similar terms to give happiness, first you must have happiness.

Mostly there are two kinds of people in the world; one who are living in their past with guilt in their lives. Past is something which will never come back, and can’t be changed. On the other hand the other kind of people who live in future. Future is always uncertain, now if you keep thinking about future, all what will come in your mind will be hypothetical & uncertain.

The need is to live in the present. Present is also known as the real “Gift of God”. We can act only in present time. Action will bring results. Results will change the future. Action in right direction will bring happiness in future, so by present day action one can actually command his/ her future.

Now let’s talk about few possibilities for practicing happiness & how one can pamper himself/ herself.

Self talk: - Talk to yourself more often, decide your own happiness factors, indulge in something you love. Most of the solutions are within us only.

Self improvement: - Try to remain updated with latest studies of self help; there is plenty of data & studies available on the internet. Self improvement is the key to grow in life mentally & spiritually.

Awareness: - Keep yourself updated. Internet is a great tool besides TV to update you. An updated person on the current fashion, trends, news & society feels confident while moving in the circle. Confidence reflects from the body language & makes your acceptance easy.

Join a Gym: - Today’s life is so monotonous that there is hardly any excitement, by joining some club or gym; you will find new faces around & by indulging in some exercise like yoga, aerobic or gym workout, you will get a new energy in life. By doing physical activities we get Adrenaline rush.  “Adrenaline” is a hormone responsible for stimulating the excitement, good mood and happiness in mind. Yoga can be practiced at home, thanks to so many yoga gurus for free daily shows on TV. Go for jogging in the nearby park or field.

Join a Dance Class: - Dancing is not only a great fitness tool but a great help in up lifting our mood. Dance has always been associated with happiness & joy. You can join a dance class. Dance forms like Salsa & Jive are very popular in India now. Dance can be practiced at home also; you just need a determination & a mobile with MP3 songs in its data card. Plug in your head phone & start.

Be Fashionable: - Don’t wait for someone to come in your life to ask you to wear the fashion or the trendy clothes. If you have someone that’s good; but even if you don’t have any one, do it for you. You will find extreme happiness & a reason to appreciate yourself. Be in shape by burning some calories in gym/yoga/dance/jog or some sports activity. Wear what your heart says. Looking good is bliss.

Ventilate Yourself: - Find out a friend or relative who is a good listener & share your heart with him/her, the listener might not help, but just by listening he/she will help you to calm down. When you are calm you will take better decision which will help to resolve the issue.

Hug yourself: - Sounds strange; but have you ever tried, we most of the time forget to appreciate ourselves & wait for other to do this. Try a hug to yourself every morning & say loudly “I Love myself”, after few days you will realize the power of loving yourself.

Appreciate yourself: - It’s not that you need to be arrogant, being happy is not being selfish. Remember expressions are the real jewel of a human being not the features. Simple to understand example - a beautiful face can attract hundreds of people but it’s all about retention of our loved ones.

Practice Happiness: - Life is like a live drama, which unfolds everyday in front of us. No clue what’s in the future? When everything is temporary in life, rest assured your pain is also temporary; just hang on & keep your positive attitude towards life. Sounds bookish, let me know if being in negative mood you can do better? Keep reminding yourself “ALL IZ WELL” a famous Bollywood movie dialogue. But try this it actually works wonder. Thanks to the writer.

Watch Movie: - Don’t wait for the approval for a movie from your friends or loved ones; try solo. You will like the movie or you will like the solo company where no one is to tell what to do next, other opinions are important but not to ruin your mood.

Solo Tourism: - Try solo travelling; taking a break from your routine life & traveling alone will give you ample time for self talk. You can grab a book & enjoy your own company.

Grab a book: - Find out a book which has your favorite topics. Read it. Even if you read few pages you will love it. Try it.

Listening Music: - In our hectic life style, listening music of choice is also something we need to plan. An old song or a gazal of some maestro can bring long lasting smile on your face. Try & enjoy.

Bring back the Trust: - Try to make new friends, meet new people & show interest in life. Trust again. No matter what the past experience you are carrying. Trust again. It will help you to reach the right person. If you fail again, it will teach you million dolor lessons. But if you get someone trust worthy, a genuine friend you will cherish the new friendship for life.

               Live guilt free life. Don’t be the prisoner of your own past. Free yourself from the past. Doesn't either live in your future; it will waste your time & efforts. Live in the present moment. Whatever you will do today; will be a memory for tomorrow. Making mistakes is human. Learning from mistakes is a way to learn. It's said mistakes are the stepping stones to success.

               Let’s make life a journey which you travel every day. Move yourself towards the worthy goal. Dream. Dare. Be happy. Your happiness is the best gift to life. Gratitude is the key to receive the God’s blessings. Pamper yourself. Your happiness will bring positive people around you. Being happy will work in all walks of life to your favor.

Pamper yourself. Love yourself. Show the world your lovable soul. Law of nature will bring the best of people to you.

Team Work

In the simplest words T.E.A.M means ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’.

         Team is a group of people working on the same or different assignment but for a similar result or cause. In this blog we will try to understand that why different team’s perform at different levels.

          We are in twenty first century; a well developed world is what we see today. If you see any major achievement in the world, it’s for sure a result of a good team work.

          From freedom fight of India to landing on moon, all what is worth calling an achievement is a fine example of a team effort. Millions of people have sacrificed their lives to make this world look so well civilized & developed as it is today.

          Business Empire like Reliance started by great business leader of India is a fine example of team work of common men, lead by a business genius. Another such example is ‘White Revolution’ of India lead by ‘Dr Verghese Kurien’ which resulted into Anand Milk Union Limited (Amul).

        ‘Lagaan’ & ‘Chak De Inida’, two Bollywood movies got super hit success. Both had two things common in them- 

             (1)  A great leader to lead the team.

             (2)  A Purpose (Vision) to inspire the team.

            Most recent example of a great leadership in Indian sports is Mr M.S. Dhoni who lead the team from the front and became the only captain who has won the world titles in all three formats of Cricket. Current Indian cricket team is proving the fact that a purpose driven team can actually achieve the impossible.

          In every part of the world we see some of the businessmen has grown over the period of time even in the worst market conditions for business, proving that the right attitude & leadership quality with excellent team support, anything is possible.

          In the corporate world, I have found within the same company there is a huge difference in performance of the team managers.

         What determine the performance level of a team: - As I stated above that there are two major factors which make all the difference - Leadership & the purpose to inspire the team.

            Gone are the days that an administrative head or a manager can take out the best from the team members. It’s the time when only ACTION will make the difference, a manager has to have all the qualities first & his action should be exemplary. It’s the time when a manager has to lead. In many of the modern organizations the designation has also seen a transformation from Manger to Team Leader.

          The point is very clear that today the world needs more leaders, who can WALK THE TALK & lead from the front, rather than managers who can only take reporting & send the reports.

         Data says majority of SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) & Start ups companies close down their operations in less than 24 months. Why a start up fails.

                (1) Lack of experience.
       
       (2) Lack of funds.

      
       (3) Poor leadership.

              (4) Purpose not defined properly.

         In many cases we see that a hardworking man was doing pretty well alone, but once he expanded his business & then failed. It can be poor leadership or a lack of team work or could be both put together. Though there is no team which is created for losing or performing law but still some don’t achieve the goal ever.

          Let’s find out the common mistakes which can result into the low performance or failure of a team:-

                   (1)     A person who wants to be an administrator only, and want to push his team to perform.

                   (2)     A person with negative attitude will defuse his team.

                   (3)     A person who wants to do lip service only.

                   (4)     A person who is not focused & not driven by purpose.

                   (5)     Lack of coordination in the team.

                   (6)     A bad environment will never see a team grow.

                   (7)     Office politics/ gossips can be fatal for any team.

                   (8)     Lack of vision/ purpose.

        Let’s find out the remedy for creating a successful team:-

                 (1)     A person has to lead a team from the front. A leader pulls his team like a train engine.

                 
                 (2)     Positive attitude is a prerequisite to become an effective leader.

     
                 (3)     A leader has to follow the principle of “Walk the Talk” means he must follow what he preaches.

                 (4)     A person who is purpose driven will always be consistent in his action & will inspire the team.

                 (5)     A good leader will bring in synergy among the team members to ensure the best performance.

                 (6)     Positive environment will bring out the best from each team member.

                 (7)     Positive energy will reduce the chances of politics in the work place.

       
                 (8)     An ambitious team will only stick to a team which is driven by a vision/ purpose.

               In the last I would like to advice all leaders to be with your team more often, break bread with your people, means have meals together in regular periodic manner. Always praise in front of the team & share improvement areas in one to one meeting. This will win hearts, and the one who can win hearts can lead the team to success.

                Stay grounded & keep your eyes on the vision.

                Make vision statement & follow your dreams.  

                A dreamer is always a good leader.

           Keep dreaming, keep moving with passion, keep scaling new heights, keep reading, keep sharing…..

Stay Happy…Stay Blessed

A Magic Called “Gratitude”

Gratitude is a gesture to acknowledge the favor done to us by anyone in life. The gesture can be - bowing your head in simple manner, or passing on smile or a word of praise for the other person, or just by saying thank you. Thank You is the most common gesture which comes on top, in the list to acknowledge the favors. Hence we will take - "Thank You" as word of gratitude in our discussion to understand the magic of gratitude.

We say “Thank You” when we get a favor from anyone.  “Thank You” is the most common gesture to show our gratitude and most of the time these two words go almost unnoticed or get a reply as ‘Most Welcome’ or ‘Mention Not’. 

“Thank You” is a phrase which is used worldwide to acknowledge the favor & most of the time it just comes out so very quick that we forget to rap it with feelings.

If we can use “Thank You” with feelings it can really change our world.

 Imagine a friend who has taken some favors from you and in return he says “Thank You”, it will not make much of a difference to you, and probably you will forget the matter. But in case the same friend who has taken some favors from you & forgets to say “Thank You”, you will get some strange feeling. It is the first notice point, and a reason of discussion.

At times simple gestures like using Thank You & Sorry at the right time makes life beautiful even beyond our imagination. Mostly a decent person will never forget to say thanks to a person for his favor. But at the same time there is a strange fact also, that people forget to say thanks to the most loved ones. They take the loved ones for granted. Why so???

Here I would love to sight few examples where we will find that a simple use of Thank You would have created magic.

Ø  A house wife does countless jobs at home & hardly gets enough credit for her work, as it is considered to be her duty. The family takes her for granted.

Ø  A sole earning male gets hardly any recognition from the family for his contribution, and most of the time he is taken for granted. As it’s considered that he is not doing anything special, though in today’s world earning decent is also a challenge, ask any working class or a small business owner.

Ø  In some cases children don't value their parents or find it difficult to adjust, some of them even dare to ask “what have you done for us?”

Ø  Business partners find it difficult to continue because with time their excitement of being together starts fading.

Ø  Neighbors are not very friendly is most of the cases. Try to recall when you said Thank You to your own neighbor.

Ø  Customer retention is a major problem in service sector.  Even regular customer also doesn't get his due regard and one day flies away.

Ø  Employee – Employer relationships is a classical case of lack of gratitude. Even the biggest business houses are facing tough times to hold on the talent.

Let’s try to understand the basic reason for all such cases; the root cause is lack of gratitude in most of the cases. Just think that a simple gesture of saying “Thank You” could have made a big difference. The biggest human motivator is “Praise” a word of appreciation can make a person happy & proud. A word of appreciation in genuine words can create magic in someone’s life. Try this mantra & find out.

We can take our own example that when somebody gives recognition to our efforts, how we feel, in similar manner we can reciprocate to take the advantage of this age old mantra.

“Praise people and win hearts.” Praise is also a part of gratitude. Praise should be real, not superficial. As to praise genuinely one has to value the effort of the other person. Once we give due importance to the work done, we find it easy to pay gratitude.

Ø  Just imagine if a house wife gets recognition for her work, and a Sunday is given to her making her the Queen of the house, who can order & can get the simple household work done from husband & kids. She will never forget this special Sunday. Try & let me know.

Ø  A sole earning member can be treated as the lord of the family and a Thank You card can be handmade & presented to him with adorable words for his efforts to run the family. He already suffers a rude world while dealing with irritated clients, pending sales orders, pending collections for the office, a scold from the boss etc. All he needs is love & respect from the family. Let me know you take on this.

Ø  At time I see children asking their parents “what have you done for us”, I believe it’s the most stupid question if you understand the simple biology. Without parents, our existence could have been a fiction only. Respect parents, give them respect, in most of the cases parents need love, care & affection rather then financial support.

Ø  Maximum business partnerships fail due to either loss of respect for each other or  they don't pay enough gratitude to each other's genuine efforts. Having a partner can be a boon also, if both understand each other’s feelings & can say “Thank You” more often.

Ø  Invite a neighbor for a cup of tea & say Thank You for being nice to your children; or for any favor he did to you in last few weeks & you forgot to thank him, he will be nicer from next day.

Ø  We provide service to a client; the client enjoys our services but still leaves us! Why? A client expects something more than the mere service.  A magic called smile to greet the client since the time he / she enters the business premise can actually make him/ her happy. Retention of a happy customer is always easy.

Ø  If the organization can fix up a plan to encourage the employee for a small effort also, it can boost the morale of the employee, & a happy employee can be much more productive. Productivity will always attract more incentive. An effective system for employee appraisal is the key to retain talent. In the similar manner it’s a duty to praise every positive effort of the employer. 

The key is to maintain mutual respect & pay gratitude.

With these easy to follow mantras, I sign off today…Keep reading…Keep sharing…

Stay Blessed…Stay Happy!!!

Yours

Sanjay Singh

  

Happiness Decoded: Immediate Gratification Vs Gratitude

Question:     Are you happy with your life?

Most common answer to this question would be,

Who is happy in this life?

Or

Why are you joking man

Or

I can be happy once my dreams come true. (Like owning my own business, or getting promoted or inheriting property or marrying my dream partner)

Or

I can be happy if relationship with wife/ husband/ Children/ parents/ boss/ co-workers improves.

Why people are not happy???

Why I mean why these kind of answers are so very common. Be it a 15 year old kid or a house wife or a working lady or a service class man or even a businessman.

Immediate gratification is demanding rewards within the short time, its living for a day kind of mind set. Life can give actual rewards but the with the hard work & time.

Answer is within us only, now a days people have become crazy for materialistic possessions & there is a race to acquire more & more. On one side people say that they are not happy & on the other side they want to buy new clothes, LCDs, music systems, smart phones, I pads, & cars etc. Actually this rat race is not letting their mind to stay peaceful & a constant chase remain in the mind to acquire more. Every one of us is bombarded with loads of information from electronic media like internet & info commercial television shows. Anyone who is having access to internet or TV is in the target audience for such commercial advertisements.

Family members like kids & house wives get the maximum access for info commercial TV channels & they relate their standard of life can only be measured by the latest smart phone, latest dress, LCDs etc. They don’t think that they are being used as puppets by the big business houses.

Here I am not saying that the entire blame is on the TV channels or internet, actual the culprit is reduced communication in the family members, as long working hours have created a big gap in communication in relationships.

I still remember that my father used to come back from his office and used to sit with entire family over the cup of tea & homemade snacks, those simple happy moments are absent from our life style now. I hope everyone who is in the range of 35-40 years of age will agree with me.

Deteriorating communication in the family is the worst thing which is taking its toll to the family set up, forget joint family system even a nuclear family unit is not able to maintain the healthy environment. The reason is the increasing cost of living clubbed and immediate gratification which has changed the focus from emotions to materialistic possessions.

The problem is more in the family where a single earning member is there & rest of the members are influenced by show off culture.

Once immediate gratification becomes a habit, no one can be happy, take an example of a student, a simple fresh graduate is not ready to take up a job which is paying lesser than his/ her expectations, while in an era where jobs are rare thing, refusing an opportunity is not advisable. The fresh graduates have to understand that everyone can’t get a Blue Chip company to start with.

Take an example of a house wife who is free. TV & internet are her best friends, she will be exposed to latest fashion/make-up/smart phones/kitchen appliances etc. Now the gimmick of advertisement is such that she feels that without all the new shopping her self esteem is on the stake, what will happen if her friend buys something & she doesn't?

Take an example of an Executive who has just got a job in a Blue Chip company and making excellent money; he is also not happy, what??? Yes you would be asking this why he is not happy, just try to see what’s happening in metro towns, pub culture is on rise, young working class is spending money on the bigger than life brands, I am not saying spending money is wrong, but spending without planning is a cause of worry, and use of credit card for show off is one of the common mistakes.

Mid career blue is now a common thing in India, when you walk in any of the private office you find young faces greeting you, don’t you get scared that where have the middle age people gone. Jobs are becoming tight rope walk, and sustaining the pressure in the job is the biggest cause of blood pressure & heart ailments. You also must have heard that a young man in your circle has suffered from heart attack/ blood pressure/diabetes, have you??? All these are life style related diseases & decades ago, were associated with old age only, but now age doesn't matter.

Question is how to be happy:

Let’s live life as it comes, and pay gratitude to the GOD for the gift called life to us as human being, only human beings are given the power of verbal communication. It’s a divine gift; good communication can change the entire life.

Living life filled with gratitude is the key to happiness, being happy about your own self is the first step towards the success. Accepting the life as a plan of GOD is the best way to pay gratitude to GOD.

Take the focus from WANTs to NEEDs, once your focus is on needs the financial crisis will start coming to an end, and you will realize the harmony will start flowing in life. Relationships will start improving.

Dreams should inspire you to work harder & achieve rather than immediate fulfillment of desires. Once you work with full energy towards your dreams, you will achieve happiness in pursuit.

The GOD has been kind that we were born in this era of great development, where fiction is almost turning into reality, so let’s use our energy to achieve something worthy, and being happy for our today should be our first priority. Only a happy person can ask for more happiness as he/she must be content with today. A heart filled with gratitude is the magnet for happiness. Use this power to create a happy life.

Initially we may have to practice happiness, but eventually if we are determined to be happy, we will start finding happiness in small things like, sun rise, a simple walk in the park, playing with our pet dog, tea with an old friend or just relaxing with the family in the drawing room or playing carrom.

Once we start valuing small things, small happiness, life will start transforming, the relations will start becoming cordial & magical.

Let’s be determined to lead a happy life, bring gratitude in life & see the miracle happening. Start communicating with family more often, it will bring harmony.

Forgive & Forget is another magical mantra for guaranteed happiness in life. 

In coming days we will be discussing on this also, till than stay happy, stay blessed.