Spirituality

What is spirituality? If you have been asking the following questions of late, you are already on the path to spirituality:

How can I live the highest life?

What is the meaning of my suffering?

What is my connection to the world around me?

Why I am suffering?

Spirituality concerns with the meaning of life. Human beings are awed by the miracles of science as much as they are fascinated by the powers of spirituality. Science is a discovery of nature’s law: while the spirituality is discovery of one’s self. It also includes a sense of connection to something bigger than ourselves. Spiritual life is connected with the spirit rather than the body or physical thing. Nurses Ruth Beckmann Murray and Judith Proctor Zentor write that,” spiritual dimension tries to be in harmony with the Universe, and strives for answer about infinite, and comes into focus when the person faces emotional stress, physical illness or death.”

Relationship between Religion and Spirituality

It is very important to point out here that spirituality may incorporate elements of religion; it is generally a broader concept. Religion and spirituality are not the same thing, nor are they entirely distinct from one another. The best way to understand this is to think of two overlapping circles like this

 

In spirituality, the questions are: where do I personally find meaning, connection and value? The question in the religion is what is true and what is right?

Deepak Chopra observes, “Religion is belief in someone else’s experience. Spirituality is having your own experience.”

Religion tells you to follow an ideology and obey certain rules. Spirituality lets you Follow Your Own Heart and What You Feel is Right. It sets you free to be what you truly are without bowing to anything that doesn’t resonate as right to you nor to anyone because we are all one. It is all up to you to choose what you will honor enough to make it divine.

Religion Tells You The Truth – Spirituality Lets You Discover It.

Religion tells you what to believe and what is right. Spirituality lets you discover it by yourself and understand it in your own unique way. It lets you Connect with Your Higher Self and see with your own mind what truth is because the truth as a whole is same for each one of us. It lets you believe in your own truth through your own perception.

Religion Separates from Other Religions – Spirituality Unites Them.

There are many religions in our world and they all preach that their story is the right one. Spirituality sees the truth in all of them and unites them because the truth is same for all of us despite our differences and uniqueness. It focuses on the quality of the divine message that they share and not on the differences in details of the story they speak.

Religion Makes You Dependent – Spirituality Makes You Independent.

You are seen as a religious person and someone who is worthy of happiness only if you attend religious methodology. However spirituality shows you that you don’t need or depend on anything to be happy. Happiness is always found deep in ourselves and only we are responsible for it. We are always where we need to be and not just while attending some events or rituals. Divinity is in us and that is why we are always worthy.

Religion Makes You Follow Other’s Journey – Spirituality Lets You Create Your Own. The foundation of a religion is the story that it tells about a God or Gods, their journey of the Gurus/Prophets or Masters towards enlightenment and the truth they discovered. Subsequently mankind follows their footsteps. Spirituality lets you Walk Your Own Journey to enlightenment. Every religion came by spirituality; by the journey through which one person became enlightened. That is why every religion has something true in it, the truth.

Spiritual versus emotional health:

There is a connection between spiritual and emotional well being. Spirituality is about seeking a meaningful connection with something bigger than you, which can result in positive emotion such as peace, awe, contentment, gratitude and acceptance.

Emotional health is about cultivating a positive state of mind so that we can see brighter side of life.

Hence, a spiritual person is more resilient. He is able to take turbulence of life in his stride sportingly.

Spiritual growth

Spiritual growth is only possible when there is a self desire to grow. Quest to correct one‘s behavior is the core of spiritual growth. The birth of Shakyamuni Buddha was to demonstrate the behavior of the Bodhisattva on the Earth.

There is no need to go to the forest or go to the lonely places for the spiritual growth. When there is a commitment of growth for self and the happiness of humanity, the spirit begins to soar.

In the final analysis, I would like to quote Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, “Ultimately we must make a distinction between spirituality and religion, as it applies even in our everyday lives. Religion is like a banana skin and spirituality is the banana. Spirituality is common to all religions. It is what keeps the enthusiasm, courage, confidence and the smile alive in our lives”

Boosting men and their ego as women become front runners

In the conflict of superiority or who is the front runner between men and women, we forget the fact that apart from being men or women, we are human being with the unique powers gifted by God to every individual. We shouldn't question who is superior to whom because in the world both have their own respective roles to play and in some aspects women are superior while in others men are. For e.g. men are not gifted with the virtue of reproduction thus cannot be responsible for the continuity of our race. Similarly science says that men have more brute force and strength than women.

Generally, We hear that women have to juggle with multiple hands who play various roles in their life being a daughter, mother, professional etc.  But giving it a thought, Its Men who are increasingly required to juggle their work and family lives. The men with their wives employed outside the home with greater frequency, more responsibility for home chores and child care falls on husbands, who then need to balance these responsibilities with their work demands.  

Men have to fulfill their multifarious responsibilities to give their family and kid a leisure life. Today, most of the men define an ideal man not only by his ability to support his family with his work, but by his role as an active and involved father, spouse or partner, and son. 

In the growing era, today men are adopting the instincts of women and balancing their work life so beautifully. And women are adopting the instinct of men and showing their stronger physical side, Like being a kabbadi player, wrestler and doing excel in such sports. Whereas, while breaking the orthodox mythology, more men are opting for profession of chef and carrying out their job outstandingly, which no women can beat.  

Today if a man is successful and earning good then he is compatible and good for any woman and then he can give his kids a good life. So, the responsibility lacks more on men to prove him a successful and professionally stable person to get married, so that he can entrust satisfactory future of his kids.

Therefore, it’s impossible to judge the superiority between the men and women or saying that women are the front runner is just a myth. The fact is we are just moving out and breaking the orthodox mythology and women are also coming up to show their power and their capabilities which earlier only men could show as women were bound with the orthodox mythicism. 

When does spirituality touch your chord when you are on professional route?

Professionals become successful professionals when they condition themselves to think about success, networking, and moving up the organizational structure. But being a human, everyone has to face distractions due to scads of complications occur in their work life.

Everyone rushes to make his/her extraordinary identity in the society and at the workplace, hence, he/she gives complete emphasize on the targets, achievements, work and when this reaches to an extent, stress begins up building in one’s brain, and in this reality the soul, the sense of self, the sense of being, can be lost. This is the time when spirituality touches your chord on the professional route.

Life confers plenty of happiness and same amount of sorrows to every individual which ultimately brings a lesson for everyone to bring out more polished personality of a human being.  When we talk about the professional route, Professionals can face quite disruptive situations such as Business losses, strained relations with certain customers, frayed tempers, delayed contracts, and a lot more, which causes stress and can bring negative outlook towards life. This is the time, when one should go on a spiritual side to get the best use of their brain power. But, people actually make it worst by keep stressing their brains by thinking about the dilemmas which have been occurred, due to which number of things starts running in human’s mind. When numerous things run in human’s brain, the brain does not able to function effectively. One needs to understand that the problem is not outside, but the problems develop inside you, in your brain and the biggest problem begins when our stressful mind unable to function effectively and we do not be able to take quality decision to solve the occurred problems. In this situation, it is very important to uplift your inner energy, and you should largely focus to develop your inner peace which can be achieved through mediation, music, by spending some quality time in a peaceful place which lets your mind become peaceful.

When your energy is low, you tend to run from the outside situations of life, or outside situation or people over-power you but when you lift yourself up from within, you change the outside situation and outlook of people towards you, and you hold the power over situation and people in your life, to transcend life’s situation for the better.

A very important factor which keeps human personality higher is planning. One should always plan things in advance and must understand and prepare for the fact that to reach at any bigger place or higher destination, one has to cross bridges, stones, and hurdles. Therefore, Every Human being should make their personality too strong that the bridges or hurdles cannot overpower their inner energy. Human beings have ultimate power of their thoughts and brain and action then gives these powers a new spirit. One should always keep his/her inner energy stronger with the positive thoughts which ultimately makes the brain peaceful which allows the brain to take quality decisions and taking those decisions into the existence or action can bring any person out of the worst situations and can achieve anything the person desires.

Following the motto "less is more" help reduce stress in work

Principle of minimalism

One should start choosing or prioritizing their work the way they choose clothes for the day. Two physical objects cannot be applied at same time; similarly, the principle of minimalism can be applied at our workplace.

One should focus on one work at one time for the effective deliverable. You should have the ability to analyze the important work for the particular time and should devote your time and energy on the precise work. The principle of minimalism not only gives the credibility and effectiveness in work bus also allows one to focus on other work afterward with a calm and intended mind. Therefore, yes the motto of “less is more helps reduce stress in work and increase effectiveness of work.

It is important to develop effective strategies for managing your time to balance the conflicting demands of various works. One should prioritize the work and set a deadline for them and precisely list on a paper, and should not think about other work load they have at that particular time.

Even when the person has numerous goals in life, he/she will never be able to achieve any of them, because to achieve anything in life, one has to be focused on a particular goal with zealous mind. Listing your task according to the priority and setting a deadline according to the strategy of time balance can firmly help goals to be achievable. 

How to cope up with stress before examination

Examinations play an important role in the process of selection of people. As challenges are a part of one’s life at different stages, one of the challenges is learning to handle examination pressure. Equipping oneself to face these emotions in simple ways is the wisdom to move ahead in life with a healthy competition.

Before students go for the exams, one should make sure that they have prepared well for the examination. Make pointers in your mind in your language; don’t mug up the things as it is. One should always practice to understand the context and write in own words. Remember, Excessive tension and stress attracts more stress, so stay calm, relax and confident for whatever you have studied. You should always remember that once you committed to yourself that I am ready, then no hurdles or challenges can break you in life. So, this is just an examination. Deep breathing and meditation are good to follow during this time, if the child has stress related problems.

On the day of the exam, one should completely avoid last minute mugging and stressing. You should have a good sleep of minimum 8 hours the previous night. I have seen parents, who do not allow their children, to play or going out, if they have their board examinations coming up. But parents should understand that it is very important to do some kind of physical activity for children, even if it is for 15 to 20 minutes at 2 to 3 hours intervals. Again it depends on individual capacity. Some students can sit to study for long hours, while others have a shorter span of attention. Exercise breaks that monotony. 

AK Mishra’s Art of Success seminar held at Jamia Millia Islamia University

Success Guru AK Mishra with his life changing art of success seminar reached  among overwhelming youth of Jamia University on 3^rd Feb 2015 at Ansari Auditorium, Jamia Millia Islamia University. The session was started at 2pm with an introduction on AK Mishra’s Art of success sessions by the anchor, Ms. Manisha Bhardwaj who invited on stage Mr. Talap Ahmed, vice chancellor at Jamia Millia Islamia.

The Auditorium was filled with plenty of students with an impeccable enthusiasm. Number of students came on stage to share their expectation with the seminar and thanked AK Mishra for being present among them with his Art of Success session. The way students were beautifully indulged in the seminar and shared their thoughts with the chief speaker of the seminar, Mr. AK Mishra, was showing unbreakable excitement of the students which was beautifully maintained throughout the seminar for almost 4 hours.

At the outset of the talk, Success Guru AK Mishra motivated the audience by prodding them to understand the purpose of their lives and how one gets astray from the same due to continuous conditioning of their minds right from their childhood. He urged every one present to dream big and constantly remind oneself that we are born for a definitive purpose. Once we find the purpose of our life, we need to work in the right direction gathering right information and developing skills for the same. It is then that we’ll see the whole universe coming together to translate our dreams into reality, Said Mr. AK Mishra.

Ak Mishra also shared live examples by narrating stories, giving examples of famous personalities, showed movie clips and inspirational videos to motivate his audience to move forward to achieve their desires with right focus and belief in oneself. Students seemed so happy and lively and went out with an intended and delightful heart. While ending the session, AK Mishra portrayed a beautiful thought “Quality is never an accident; it is always a result of high intention, sincere efforts, intelligent direction and skillful execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives.

Truly an enlightening experience; the seminar left the audience wanting for more. AK Mishra’s Art of Success Team thanks all the attendees for an overwhelming response and promises to continue its commitment towards empowering one and all.

Discover yourself, Your Goal and your unlimited Potential

This world has been created by the people who dared to dream and believe in possibilities. All inventions, discoveries and achievements in human civilizations are results of believers and strivers. The creator created the hardware but delegated the responsibilities of developing software to human beings. Hence every human being is born to succeed and grow to no limit. This is because success of every human being is the success of the creator himself. Whatever good or bad you believe in and you try for, you will succeed in.

All you need is to discover yourself, the reason you were born and the inherent potential within you to achieve anything in life you desire. Many people feel as if they're unanchored in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. This happens with the people who do not focus on the purpose of their Life and just keep moving on in a murky path of an imprecise destination. And this happens to many of us. The key reason is that people don’t spend enough time in solitude to understand the purpose of their life, what they want from life, and do not set for themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? No!

If you want a positive outcome from your goal setting, you need to be specific as to what do you want? When do you want it? And how will you achieve it? And why you want to achieve it? You cannot get result from yourself till the time you become specific about a deadline. These two questions ‘What’ and ‘When’ must be supported by a clear answer for ‘Why’. The answer for ‘Why’ will give you strong motivation and enthusiasm for your efforts. This makes you clear about the choice of goal and keeps you connected with the tastes and glories of your goal. For example if someone motivates you to climb mountain for 5 km without giving answer as to ‘Why’ are you supposed to do the same, you will not be able to go even a few meters purely because you would be struggling finding a purpose behind this act. On the other hand if you have reasons, tastes and attractions connected to your mountain climbing you will forget all difficulties on the way and reach the top of the mountain with all enthusiasm and spirit. Write down in a paper and read every day, and make commitment to yourself that no matter what hurdles would come your way, you will reach to your destination on the particular timeline you have specified for yourself. Every time you read your goal statement you must do it religiously with a peace of mind and run it through your mind and internalize it in your subconscious mind through repetitive thinking about the opportunities of realization of your potential attached with it.

Then finally comes the question ‘How’. This is the technique of achieving your goal that you may call ‘Art of Success’. This is where you have to assess your existing potential and upgrade it to the desired level. You have to sharpen your skills in order to match with the expectations of your goal.

You must spend some peaceful time to develop your consciousness towards yourself. If you have desire to accomplish something in your life but fear and doubt comes on the way, you must understand that some wrong conditioning has happened in your mind towards your goal. Therefore, before moving ahead with your efforts, you must try to come out of that wrong conditioning and reprogramme your mind with realization of your actual potential and strong belief system. The real thrill is not in doing something that you find easy but in doing something that seems difficult. It does not take more time to follow a bigger dream than a smaller one. Therefore you should never hesitate on creating a dream as big as you can.

Goal setting is very crucial in human life. Without a clear goal life is worthless. We are different from other animals because we can dream and we can follow our dreams. But these dreams are meaningless till the time these become objectives of our life. As former President of India Shri Abdul Kalam says,” dream is not one that you see while sleeping but that you see when you are awake and that does not allow you to sleep.” Only this kind of dream can become goal. However, in relation to your goal, you must ask yourself following questions seriously and contemplate on them. www.artofsuccess.in