My First Read of Year 2019

Monk who sold his Ferrari. It’s amazing self-improvement book. Given below my take on same:

Lesson 1: Develop Mental Mastery: Art of Self Control and Disciplined Thinking. Learn to guard your mind with “The Heart of the Rose” exercise. To practice it you need an actual rose and a quiet space to yourself. Then, you simply stare at the center of the rose and try to fill your mind with thoughts about how beautiful it is. Think of it as a form of basic meditation.

This will help you to clear mental clutter, unnecessary information, ungrounded worries and anxious thoughts.

Lesson 2: The Ten Rituals of Radiant Living

1.     The Ritual of Early Awakening. Six hours of sleep and seeing the sunrise. Early awakening give you ample self-time and prevent you from hush-hush busy work life schedule.

2.     The Ritual of Solitude. Always make a few minutes to practice silence after waking up. It fill you with required peace and calmness.

3.     The Ritual of Physicality. Move, get up, do some exercise. Whatever gets the blood flowing. Do the Nature Walk- It keep you active and energized throughout the day

4.     The Ritual of Live Nourishment. A vegetarian diet based on fresh food is what the sages follow and advised.   In today world if not strictly vegetarian, one should try to add vegetarian fruits diet wherever possible.

5.     The Ritual of Abundant Knowledge. Make habit of Daily Reading- (preferentially new subject or ancient scriptures. Few book advised The Story Of My Experiments With Truth, I will advise Ashtavakra Gita )

6.     The Ritual of Personal Reflection.  Self-reflection is very essential- in terms of how we conducted our self throughout the day, what kind of thought processed in the mind. By this we will be able to identify opportunity to improve in terms of our thought and conduct.

7.     The Ritual of Music. Listen to soothing music to keep yourself motivated throughout the day. It is also beneficial when you are in bad mood or cluttered with worries.

8.     The Ritual of Spoken Word. Write down a short mantra you can repeat to yourself throughout the day. Like I am strong, able and calm. This will help you to improve your willpower and give you much needed power to face the challenging day.

9.     The Ritual of Congruent Character. Take Daily Incremental Improvement ( Kaizen) to make a Character i.e. Cultivate the virtue- Meaningful Life

§ Industry- Hard Work

§ Compassion

§ Humility

§ Patience

§ Honesty

§ Courage

This will develop deep sense of inner harmony and peace. Which will enable you to do the Right Thing and Be Guided by Your Heart.

10. The Ritual of Simplicity. Ruthlessly live your priorities and remove everything else that’s unnecessary.

Lesson 3: Selflessly serve others and you’ll be better off yourself.

As per Chinese proverb: A trace of fragrance always remains on the hands that present you with roses. It’s a metaphor, which says whenever you help someone else, some of the benefit will come back right to you. You rarely know when and how, but karma always comes around. This doesn’t mean you have to join the Salvation Army, small, simple acts of kindness and compassion go a long way. Every morning, take a few seconds to think about what good you can do today. Whether it’s calling your parents or praising a coworker, it’ll bring you one step closer to an enlightened life.

I am sure if we follow above advice we will nourish our mind, body and soul simultaneously