7 Invincible Ideas to Live by In 2017

Re-imagine yourself this New Year. Dreams have no holidays. Time recycles itself. Mind hits no pause buttons. Life lingers on, from the twinkle in your eyes to the wrinkle on your forehead. Spare the first few days in 2017 to think through these seven ideas that are as invincible as your life itself. From this list, you can choose which ones you wish to embrace and implement. The only way to do something is, well of course, by doing it. You learn to twist an ankle by twisting it, dance by dancing and walk by walking. Ideas are like silent engines; they have no power by themselves. They gain power when you use your muscle and your mind to jump start them. So, here is wishing you power and peace ahead of a glorious 2017

#1 Start intelligently, hone your finishing skills: This year is passing by! Let it go. Never mind the false promises you made to yourself. Ring in the new ones. The environment is doing fine. Only people are trumped! (Oh, No! not again). You can flirt with your future resolutions, your dim and undistinguished past would not mind that. Resolutions can neither be fulfilled nor be forgotten. Or, you can simply stop making those resolutions in the first place. Just finish that one thing that you started last year. Have a list of just ONE finished item each day. I just decided to finish reading a book every Friday. That way I would end up reading one thousand forty books in the next twenty years!

#2 In 2017 improve your relationship with your body. Health is what you create, not what you have. In the true sense, health is the emotional or mental relationship you have with your body. I meet many people who demonstrate a healthy attitude and acceptance of life-threatening diseases such as diabetes or even cancer. On the other hand, there are many who are mentally sick, even if they do not show symptoms of physical disease. On a less serious note, get to like your sickness! Enjoy your seasonal flu, welcome a bout of gout! Say it aloud: I am greater than the sum total of all my ailments. Those of you, formidable germs. who could not kill me have made me stronger than ever before—come on, arm-wrestle with me! Many times you have to go through the discomfort of a disease to experience the freedom of health. A healthy attitude toward your body is a well kept beauty secret.   

#3 Show a kid some new habits. It is easier to nurture a new generation than to repair an incorrigible middle-aged alcoholic. Teaching is the second best way to learn something. The best, of course, is by accidentally bumping the funny bone of your arm against a hard surface. You immediately get the truth-ache! If you wish to stop telling lies yourself, teach your kid how to be truthful. Don’t tell, just show—by setting a personal example. Your showing to telling ratio should be 3:1

 #4 Treat life like a daily blog. If you want your New Year story to be magnificent, begin by realizing you are the blogger of your life, and every day is a new blog. What if you were to write your last blog one day before signing off? For whom would you write that blog? For your near and dear ones isn’t it? In that blog will you worry about husband’s gross behaviour or your net income? Assume that you will live just for a day. When you make your day the defining structure of your life, you will find that there is an enormous surge of energy. You will pay deep attention to everything because this is the only day you are alive. Inertia will transform into a sense of urgency. You will look at the beauty of life around you because you may never see it again. You will find your goddess in small things. You will hear the heartbeat of the earth, sense the softness of grass beneath your feet. You feel the beauty of a tree. Living for a day will lift you from dullness, envy and the utter stupidity of competitive swearing during peak traffic! A day fully lived will be greater than unlived eternity.

#5. Alternate feasting with some intelligent fasting. Fasting is not so much about the body. Fasting is concerned with bringing clarity and austerity to the mind. Drink sips of warm water from a glass when you fast. Some warm water first thing in the morning can also help with weight loss. This is because warm water increases body temperature, which in turn increases the metabolic rate. An increase in metabolic rate will bring vitality and energy to your body. If physical fasting is not accompanied by mental fasting it will not work. You may be fasting in the body but your mind would be hovering around a gigantic pizza. That kind of fasting is like suspended feasting. This way, your fast will soon break into an artery-choking, gorging spree.

#6. Practice Rule 3 by 7. Engage in some deep personal conversations for 3 minutes with 7 people every day. These 3 by 7 personal conversations, that are anxiety free, will bring about deep human connections with people who truly matter to you. The network that technology has created for you has organized your world in such a way that you get to experience less and less of truly human moments. You end up having friends all over the world and none inside your own house. Think of the cell phone ringing on your table just when you entered your bath tub stark naked! The seduction of technology results in the reduction of intimate personal time. The internet that is supposed to free us in space and time now binds us in cyber space and stressful time.

#7. Follow Newton’s law of love. You will know that love can neither be created, nor be destroyed. Love can only be circulated from one form to another. If your loving pet, or a close friend has passed away, transfer your love to the marigold that you are growing in your potted plant. Do not underestimate that flamboyant yellow magical marigold. That single flower is a co-creation of soft soil and bright sunshine; rain clouds, tender hands, and green thumbs. That little flower is a huge act of cosmic love. Love transforms manure into marigold. You too are just that—transformed dust! You are not manufactured on a hospital bed, you are the sum total of a million acts of love. So this New Year simply practice three acts of unconditional love. Have three names every day on your to-do list. These are names of three people you will help without expecting anything in return. Unexpected returns will come to you, unasked and multiplied manifold.

Finally, live your full potential by reducing internal conflicts. Here is a parting extra helping to add to my seven insights! The only block to your God-given potential is your divided mind. There are many mutinies inside your mind. Resolve your internal conflicts by simply observing them. The shadow of conflict ceases when the light of pure observation falls on them. Here is the life rule: small ‘p’ is performance, Capital ‘P’ is Potential and that small ‘i’ is internal conflict. Your performance (p) will be equal to your potential (P) if you simply reduce your internal conflicts (i):

 p = P-i

Cheers and namaste!

?Debashis Chatterjee, 2016  www.debchat.com

P.S. If you have liked this blog, please feel free to share it with your friends. This way a few more people may benefit from your graciousness. As always, I would love to read your comments. 

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