Have you met yourself?

How often do you meet yourself? Yes, you meeting you! Does that sound absurd? Well, maybe but think again, how often do we meet our true inner self? That inner voice, gut feeling, basic instinct, the thoughts and dreams that are buried somewhere within us.

Often people say, meditation helps in clearing out the clutter and reaching out to our inner self. I say, meditation can be of various forms. To begin with, me writing this piece is kind of a meditation too. Off late I have been reading some inspirational books, the most recent being Robin Sharma’s- Mastery manual. I would say reading this book was like meditation for me. I say this because, the book makes you go through some introspection, incremental activities to self-discovery. More than self-discovery, it is about connecting with yourself, spending time with yourself. This I feel is the key missing factor in our lives today! In this fast paced world, we rarely sit back, retrospect or introspect or spend moments in silence. I have picked up some action points from Robin’s book and some of my personal insights. As I explore and experiment in meeting my inner self, I will keep on sharing these insights. I assure you am testing these first before posting :-) 

1. Journaling

Remember, ‘Dear Diary’? Some of you may remember this from your school days, well the adult version is called ‘Journaling’ :)  A little black notebook or diary that you commit to maintain where you note down your thoughts at the beginning or end of day.

Why is this required? Well, often we hear ourselves or our folks saying- "Don’t have the time", "Just didn’t get the time". I am one of them! A journal essentially addresses this daily excuse of ours….

At the beginning of the day, if you devote peaceful 5minutes in listing down the key short tasks for the day it really helps in planning one’s day. Try it!  Remember, not an overwhelming, exhaustive list that scares you instead of bringing piece ;) , instead limit yourself to key small goals for the day. By the end of the day, fulfilling most of these goals and atleast attempting the rest, is a big accomplishment!

The second reason or objective of journaling is to capture your eureka moments! No, these are not groundbreaking earth shattering ideas, but they are ‘Your’ ideas and thoughts which makes it all the more special. These can come at anytime, its best to note them down the very moment it comes knocking your way….

The more you write, the more you de-clutter and vent, it has an extremely positive effect and also kills lethargy. It gives a sense of alertness and calms you down during the many stressful moments in your day.

2. Live in the moment

With the advent of smart phones and a hyper connected world, buzzing with notifications of all kinds from all kinds of media, this is a tough proposition! Imagine, the times we live in, am actually recommending you and motivating you for something so obvious but long forgotten!

* Have meals at the dining table, not in front of the TV

* Do not check messages during your family time. Also, when on an outing with friends, refrain from checking your smartphones. Its like a disease that we have, a creepy reflex action, we are more alert to our smartphone beeps than we are to the emotions of the person we are hanging out with!

Whatever you are doing- whether you are working, in a meeting, on a date, just be in that moment :-)

Respect the time of others, value the presence of your near and dear ones. Taking loved ones for granted is natural, we all do it unconsciously, but from now on try avoiding it consciously. Embrace the little joys and moments of life and count your blessings when you feel low.

Small steps, less sermonisation, more self-realisation will be my mantra for my upcoming blog posts....