Renewing of the mind

For the few who know the benefits of yoga, will attest to the fact that it focuses on the present such that you have greater coordination, memory and improved concentration skills. It lets you clear your mind of all its impurities and focuses on tapping on your inner soul. Knowing others is intelligence but knowing yourself is true wisdom. 

 

To try and change our lives without changing our thoughts is like trying to change the movie by trying to manipulate the screen. What one needs most importantly is to change our thoughts. For many years, yoga and meditation have proven to permit the mind, body and soul to realize tranquility and balance. Therefore, when we renew our thoughts, we transform the image playing in front of us, hence, increasing our creativity and focus which is essential while going on with our daily activities.

 

Mastering others is strength but mastering yourself is true power! Once you achieve the relaxation of the mind, it makes you realize that if you have enough, you are truly rich. The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire, the size of your dream and how you handle disappointment(s) along the way.

 

Design with conversation

Designers the world over are known to be problem solvers. Designing with conversation in mind involves solving problems with people and making things that are useful based on what you have seen and heard, rather than attempting to anticipate as well as define all features upfront. It is good to do a build-up and share it's conceptualization early with your audience. This makes it more flexible in the beginning leaving room for creativity than functionality.

 

Discussing with your audience of their needs and values can help you find better ways to solve their problems. It is interesting to see how a designed brand adapts from just speaking to include listening and responding as part of its efforts. To join in a conversation with its audience, who will always be glancing at the brand, it needs to adjust its thinking by incorporating concepts from practice of  interactive development.

Aside from accommodating for conversation within the product itself, a conversational approach to design also requires significant thought with regards to the life around the product. This is because a discussion requires an audience's interaction and feedback. The critical part is enhancing and facilitating ways to make participation easy and meaningful for the users.  

Not in an immature mind

It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires great strength to decide on what to do. Many a times we have been faced with this predicament and wishing it away doesn’t help either! It consumes your mind to a point of being it’s slave. It takes form of some sort of addiction! So, in the process you try and divert your thoughts to mind engaging activities e.g taking up that assignment that you have shelved for quite some time, doing research on pending projects, watching movies, reading human interest stories, the list is endless. All this is in an effort to WISH ‘it’ (read demon) away instead of facing the issue head-on! 

BUT the moment you have a glance of the demon, no matter how many steps ahead you were on wishing it away, floods of its tormenting memory hit you off balance, leaving you feeling lost, drained and without strength. It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more 'manhood' to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.

The easiest thing to do

Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. How many times, you as an individual, have given up on something? Be honest and truthful about it. Aren’t you amazed at how many times you have given up? Heck! it’s the easiest thing to do! But... to hold it together, when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, NOW THAT’S true strength! 

True strength comes about when one confronts the dark parts of yourself, the demons that hold you captive... and working towards banishing them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Oooh yes! sing they will! No matter how painful the experience turns out, use the pain as fuel. Fuel as a constant reminder of your strength within, to never give up but face your demons head-on!

Conquering oneself

It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell.  - Buddha 

Life, as we know it, is filled with many challenges. It is during our darkest and fearful moments, that we look within ourselves to find the strength to gather our courage and call upon our greatest strength to pull us through such days. That's when you learn to stretch your strength! to limits that are boundless. 

Sometimes you just feel totally beaten up and need comforting arms and encouraging thoughts to soothe your soul. Hey,... you are only human! The surest way to gain strength is through practice and making efforts to learn from mistakes. Conquering oneself is a heroic gesture, where an ordinary individual finds the strength to persevere and endure one’s demons in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

Struggling with demons

Everyone in the entire world, has had a share of demons to struggle with. From the tender age of childhood to adulthood, demons have taken shape and form in different stages of our lives, and to be honest, facing and overcoming these demons is the hardest thing anyone can do. This is so coz it torments and drains one emotionally and psychologically and the torment is usually triggered by a glance. 

The sight of the dreaded demon triggers a level of anxiety that reaches it peak the more you keep glaring at it. Struggling with one’s demons is one thing and conquering them is another. It is said that with age, one becomes older and wiser but not everyone has that privilege. I have reached a point in life where I not only have to glance at my demons but keep facing them to enable me to find out where they set in and try as much as I can to put a closure to each one of the many demons I possess! 

As tough as it should be, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! and I think this is something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.