Marie Kondo, the author of this book runs an acclaimed consulting business in Tokyo helping clients transform their cluttered homes into spaces of serenity and inspiration. The author began reading home and lifestyle magazines at five, inspiring her to study tidying seriously from age of fifteen. From the author’s exploration of the art of organizing, she can say with confidence that “A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming.”

Changing the Thinking

The general assumption, in Japan or any other country, is that tidying doesn’t need to be taught but rather picked up naturally. Many have spent years using ineffective conventional methods, leading to cluttered homes and struggles with storage. Usually, a short time after tidying, the spaces will become a disorganized mess again. This is not due to lack of skills but rather due to lack of awareness and inability to make tidying a regular habit. In other words, the root cause of the problem lies in the mind. The method suggested in this book ,i.e, the Konmari method will help anyone to acquire the right mindset for creating order and become a tidy person.

Awareness about tidying

A person’s awareness and perspective are far more important than any skill at sorting, storing or whatever. In Japan, and I guess even in India people believe that keeping your house clean will bring good luck. Changing lifestyle habits acquired over a span of many years is generally extremely difficult. It is a known fact that people cannot change their habits without first changing their way of thinking. Tidying is just a physical act that can be broadly divided into two kinds: deciding whether or not to dispose of something and deciding where to put it. The author mentions that anyone can do this and achieve perfection.

There is a famous saying that goes as follows; “a messy room equals a messy mind.” When a room becomes cluttered the cause is more than just physical. However, when your room is clean and uncluttered, you have no choice but to examine your inner state. The author suggests that tidying must start with discarding regardless of the personality type. To avoid a negative spiral, grasping the overall volume becomes important. So the author suggests tidying by category and not by place. Once you have put your house in order, tidying will be reduced to the very simple task of putting things back where they belong, which becomes an unconscious habit.

Start with Discarding

As mentioned earlier, there are only two things involved – discarding and deciding where to keep things. Just two, but discarding must come first. Failure to follow the order is one of the reasons many people never make permanent progress. But before starting with discarding, begin by identifying your goal. Think in concrete terms so that you can vividly picture what it would be like to live in a clutter-free ideal lifestyle. Next step is to identify why you want to live like that. Ask yourself “why?” again, for each answer three to five times. As you continue to explore the reasons behind your ideal lifestyle you will come to a simple realization that the whole point in both discarding and keeping things is to be happy. When you find this or any other answer you are ready to move on to the next step of examining what you own.

Rules for discarding and keeping

Regarding the standard to use to decide what to get rid of, the author suggests the best way would be to take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If it does keep it else dispose of it. Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest. Before choosing what to keep, collect everything that falls within the same category at one time and lay it in one spot. Then pick each item and see if it sparks joy. Those are the only ones to keep. Dealing with just one category at a time speeds up the tidying process. The best sequence of categories suggested by the author is clothes first, then books, papers, komono (misc), and lastly, mementos. This order has proven to be the most efficient in terms of the level of difficulty for the subsequent task of storing.

The first step is to confront your own stuff. To quietly work away at disposing of your own excess is actually the best way of dealing with a family that doesn’t tidy. This may set off a chain reaction. The best time to start is early morning. To get rid of what you no longer need is neither wasteful nor shameful. When you come across something that you cannot part with, think carefully about its true purpose in your life. If the things have already fulfilled their role, acknowledge their contribution and let them go with gratitude. In the end, all that will remain are the things that you really cherish.

The author found a significant similarity between meditating under a waterfall and tidying. The clear, refreshed feeling gained after standing under a waterfall can be addictive. Similarly with tidying, once you put your space in order, you will be overcome with the urge to do it again.

Tidying by Category

The first step is to check every closet and dresser in the house and gather all your clothes in one spot. At this point, the author advises to start with off-season clothes since it is much easier to apply the simple criterion of whether or not they bring joy. Once you have gotten the knack of choosing what you love for the above category, you can move on to each subcategory of in-season clothing. It seems a waste to get rid of something that is still perfectly usable. In this situation, the author suggests breaking the habit of downgrading clothes that don’t thrill you to lounge wear. It makes far more sense to reinforce a positive self-image by wearing clothes you love.

There are two storage methods for clothes: one is to put them on hangers and hang from a rod and the other is to fold them and put them away in drawers. Just hanging can’t compete with folding for saving space. By neatly folding your clothes, you can solve almost every problem related to storage. Once the laundry is done and ready to be put away, folding seems like extra work, especially as the clothes will be worn again soon anyway. The first step would be to visualize followed by organizing the contents of drawers or cupboards so that you can see where every item is at a glance, just as you can see the spines of the books on your bookshelves.

Clothes

The key is to store things standing up rather than laid flat. However, to store clothes standing, they must be made compact, which means more folds. The number of folds should be adjusted so that the folded clothing when standing on edge, side by side, fits the height of the drawer. Each piece of clothing has its own “sweet spot” where it feels just right – a folded state that best suits that item so that it stands properly. The author shares a secret for maintaining the neatness of closets,i.e, arrange your clothes so that they rise to the right. To do so, hang heavy items ,i.e, heavyweight/lengthy/dark coloured items on the left side of the closet and light items on the right. By category it would be, coats on the far left, followed by dresses, jackets, pants, trousers. But one should not forget to reduce the wardrobe to only those clothes that you really love.

Socks

Folding socks is easier. Place one sock on top of the other and follow the same principles as those for folding clothing. You can adjust the number of folds to achieve the height that best suits the drawer. Store the socks on the edge, just as you did for clothing. It was a common practice to store and unpack seasonal clothes in a year. However, currently, this custom is behind the times. With AC and heater, our homes are less subject to the weather outside. So, the author suggests a few points to keep all our clothes ready to be used year-round, regardless of the season. The trick is not to over categorize. Divide your clothes roughly into “cotton-like” and “wool-like” materials when you put them in the drawer.

Books

In case of books, once you pile all of them, take one by one in your hand and start asking whether you need that book or not. Imagine what it would be like to have a bookshelf filled only with books that you really love. There are situations wherein you bought a book to read long back, but haven’t read it by now or you might have half read. It is far better to read a book that really grabs you right now than one that you left to gather dust for years. Get rid of them today.

Papers

Regarding papers, the author recommends you to dispose of anything that does not fall into the three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely. As for the papers to keep, the author suggests them to be organized into 3 categories: needs attention, should be saved (contractual documents), and should be saved(others). In other words, you need only 3 vertical organizers or containers or folders. One should aspire to keep the “needs attention” box empty.

Komono

Unlike clothes or books, sorting and organizing komono or miscellaneous items may seem daunting. The author suggests a basic order for sorting komono to make it simple. The order being ; CDs/DVDs, skin care products, valuables like passport and credit cards, electrical equipment, household supplies, kitchen goods, others. The point here is to take stock of komono and save only those that bring joy. Regarding a komono like the boxes and manuals of electrical appliances, discard or recycle them as soon as you unpack it. Spare bedding takes a lot of room so disposing of them is suggested by the author. Similarly with expensive unused health care items that you never fully utilized.

Sort by category, in the correct order and keep only those things that inspire joy. Do this thoroughly and quickly, all in one go. As you reduce your belongings through the process of tidying, you will come to a point where you suddenly know how much is just right for you. Believe what your heart tells you when you ask, “Does this spark joy?”. If you act on that intuition you will be amazed at how things will begin to connect in your life and the dramatic changes that follow.

Storing to Make Things Shine

In this section the author writes about having a designated spot for each item. Once you choose a place for your things after you finish using them, you can keep your house in order. This results in keeping your space tidy becoming a second nature. It is surprising to see the author mention that she is yet to find a house that lacked sufficient storage space. The real problem is we have more than what we need. The point is to choose your belongings properly which results in the items to fit into your space perfectly. If you live with your family, first clearly define separate storage spaces for each family member. This is the most effective way to keep storage tidy.

Organizing and storage hacks

The author lays out a simple rule for better organizing and storing your things. When you are choosing what to keep, ask your heart; when you are choosing where to store something, ask your house. One more hack on storage is to store your items vertically as much as possible. This applies to books, clothes, papers etc. As for bags, purses and handbags, the best way to store is to first make sets according to the material, size and frequency of use and to store them one inside the other. Regarding the bag in use, the author suggests to empty daily and make a place for the things inside it. Another point for efficient storage is to move all your storage units into your closet. Also refraining from stocking up on things and buying what is needed followed by removing them from their packages immediately is suggested.

Start by removing the product seals from your storage containers. This is absolutely essential, just as you remove the tags from new clothes to welcome them as your personal belonging. By eliminating excess visual information that doesn’t inspire joy, you can make your space much more peaceful and comfortable. Expressing gratitude is an important point that needs to be inculcated towards the happenings in our everyday life. This same rule applies to possessions as well. When you treat your belongings well, they will always respond in kind. Storage, after all, is the sacred act of choosing a home for your belongings.

Tidying Transforms Life

Tidying increases the awareness of what one really likes and as a result daily life becomes more exciting. The author believes tidying is the best way to understand ourselves, more effective than self-analysis or listening to others. Tidying is a way of taking stock that shows us what we really like. The lives of those who tidy thoroughly and completely, in a single shot, are without exception dramatically altered.

Honing your decision-making skills

Tidying means taking each item in your hand, asking yourself whether it sparks joy, and deciding on this basis whether to keep it or not. By repeating this process hundreds and thousands of times, we naturally hone out decision making skills.

When we delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two : an attachment to the past or a fear for the future. These reasons guide your choices in every aspect of your life, including your relationships with people and your job. The best way to find out what we really need is to get rid of what we don’t. However, there are 3 approaches we can take towards our possessions: face them now, face them sometime, or avoid them throughout our life. With confidence and enthusiasm, we can achieve much more. In other words, if you are going to put your house in order do it now.

Opportunity to express gratitude towards your possessions

Life becomes far easier once you know that things will still work out even if you are lacking something. Selecting and discarding one’s possessions is a continuous process of making decisions based on one’s own values that hones one’s decision-making skills. It is by putting one’s own house in order that one’s mindset is changed. Also, tidying is our opportunity to express our appreciation to our home for all it does for us. The author suggests to put our house in order from the perspective of what would make it happy. This smoothens the decision-making process. Getting rid of those things that no longer spark joy, should be a parting ceremony to launch them on a new journey. According to the author, what you part with will return in the same amount when it desires to. Hence while parting it is a good practice to use words like “Thank you for finding me” or “Have a good journey. See you again soon”.

Other positive effects

When our space is clean, we can focus on other important things in our lives without thinking about tidying. We amass material things for the same reason that we eat – to satisfy our craving. The author noticed that when her clients shed excess, their tummies slim down, minds clear, and skin smoothens. The philosophy of Feng-shui is about living in accordance with the rules of nature. The purpose of tidying is also the same ,i.e, to live in the most natural state possible. Hence owning what we love and what we need is the most natural condition. By putting our house in order, we can live in our natural state.

As per the author, things that are cherished shine. True joy resides in the body and possessions of the owner and can’t be concealed. If you truly like something and are proud of it, ignore what others think. There is no greater happiness in life than to be surrounded only by the things you love. The author suggests to pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life. Putting your house in order will help you find the mission that speaks to your heart.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Getting Things Done
• Book Review : 7 Mindsets for Success, Happiness and Fulfillment
• Rules to Live By to Thrive at Life/Work
• Mind Management Basics
• Book Review : Mindfulness in Plain English

The author of this best-selling book is a person by the name Morgan Housel. He has been writing about finance since early 2008. According to him, when a financial crisis like the one in 2008 happens, no one can accurately explain what happened or why it happened. Unlike the engineering field, finance is guided by people’s behaviors. What appears to make sense to one person might seem crazy to the other. I guess the author is right when he mentions that in order to understand a financial crisis similar to the one of 2008 or an individual’s financial crisis, the lenses of psychology (greed, insecurity, and optimism) and history would be a better tool.

Driven By Luck & Risk

The author starts off with the first chapter explaining everyone’s unique experience with how the world works. People go through life with different beliefs, goals and forecasts. This is because people from different generations raised by different parents who earned different incomes and held different values, in different parts of the world, born into different economies, experiencing different job markets with different incentives and different degrees of luck, learn different lessons. Hence every financial decision a person makes, makes sense to them in that moment and checks the boxes they need to check. Luck and risk are both the reality that every outcome in life is guided by forces other than individual effort. The world is too complex to allow 100% of your actions to dictate 100% of your outcomes.

The Importance Of Enough

The next chapter highlights the importance of enough. If you become self-sufficient at some point in life it is important to remember a few things.

• The hardest financial skill is getting the goalpost to stop moving. If expectations rise with results, there is no logic in striving for more because you will feel the same after putting in extra effort. It gets dangerous when the taste of having more, increases ambition faster than satisfaction. But life isn’t any fun without a sense of enough.
• The game of trying to keep up with other people’s wealth needs to be avoided. The ceiling of social comparison is a battle that can never be won, or that the only way to win is to not fight to begin with. Accepting that you have enough, even if it’s less than those around you is the solution here.
• The best shot at keeping some of the invaluable things like reputation, freedom, family & friends, and happiness is knowing when it’s time to stop taking risks that might harm them.

Power Of Compounding

In the book, the author provides the analogy of ice age in-order to explain about compounding. According to the author, the big takeaway from ice ages is that you don’t need tremendous force to create tremendous results. Similarly in finance perspective, Buffet’s fortune isn’t due to just being a good investor, but being a good investor since he was literally a child. His skill is investing but his secret is time. Good investing isn’t necessarily about earning the highest returns that can be one-off hits. Its about earning pretty good returns that you can stick with and which can be repeated for the longest period of time. That’s when compounding runs wild.

Getting Wealthy & Staying Wealthy

The topic of getting wealthy is one thing but keeping it is another. The ability to stick around for a long time, without wiping out or being forced to give up, is what makes the biggest difference. This should be the cornerstone of your strategy, whether it is investing or your career or a business you own. Applying the survival mindset to the real world comes down to appreciating the following.

• More than I want big returns, I want to be financially unbreakable. And if I am unbreakable, I will be able to stick around long enough for compounding to work wonders.
• The most important part of every plan is to plan on the plan not going according to plan.
• Being optimistic about the future, but paranoid about what will prevent you from getting to the future is vital. Economies, markets and careers often follow a similar path,i.e., growth amid loss.

Tail Events

Tails drive everything. A good definition of an investing genius is the man or woman who can do the average thing when all those around them are going crazy. A lot of things in business and investing work this way. Long tails, the farthest ends of a distribution of outcomes – have tremendous influence in finance. In this, a small number of events can account for the majority of outcomes. Anything that is huge, profitable, famous, or influential is the result of a tail event – an outlying one in thousands or millions event.

Control Over Time

Money’s greatest intrinsic value is its ability to give you control over your time. This is what makes people happy. Control over doing what you want, when you want to, with the people you want to. People who have lived through everything say the same thing: Controlling your time is the highest dividend money pays.

Wealth As A Benchmark

The author touches upon one more important point in the book ,i.e, people using wealth as a benchmark for their desire to be liked and admired. If respect and admiration are the goals, then one needs to be careful how to seek it. Humility, kindness and empathy will bring more respect than wealth power ever will. We rely on outward appearances to gauge financial success. But the truth is that wealth is what you don’t see. The hidden nature of wealth makes it hard to imitate others and learn from their ways. The world is filled with people who look modest but are actually wealthy and people who look rich living at the razor’s edge of insolvency. This is what one needs to keep in mind when quickly judging other’s success and setting one’s own goals.

Savings Rate

Building wealth has little to do with your income or investment returns and lots to do with your savings rate. A high savings rate means having lower expenses than you otherwise could. Having lower expenses means your savings go farther than they would if you spent more. People with enduring financial success – not necessarily those with high incomes- tend to have a propensity to not give a damn what others think about them. Savings does not require a goal of purchasing something specific. Savings need to be done for savings sake. The return on this is incalculable and should not be overlooked. Having more control over your time and options is becoming one of the most valuable currencies in the world.

Being Reasonable

In the book, the author mentions the philosophy of aiming to be reasonable instead of rational, when making decisions with money. Reasonable is more realistic and you have a better chance of sticking with it for the long run. This is what matters most when managing money. Whereas a rational investor makes decisions based on numeric facts. If lacking emotions about your strategy or the stocks that your own increases the odds, you will walk away from them when they become difficult. The rational investors who love their technically imperfect strategies have an edge. This is because they are more likely to stick with those strategies.

History Can Be Misleading

The cornerstone of economics is that things change over time. This is because the invisible hand hates anything staying too good or too bad indefinitely. The author points out two dangerous possibilities when relied too much on investment history as a guide to what would happened next.

• One will most likely miss out on the outlier events, or the record breaking events that move the needle the most.
• History can be a misleading guide to the future of economy and stock market because it doesn’t account for structural changes that are relevant to today’s world.

Avoid Single Point Of Failure

The author quotes one of Nassim Taleb sentences, “You can be risk loving and yet completely averse to ruin”. The idea here is that you have to take risk to get ahead, but no risk that can wipe you out is ever worth taking. However, avoiding unknown risks is almost impossible. If there is one way to guard against their damage, its avoiding single point of failure/a single source of income. It is important to save for things that you can’t possibly comprehend. The most important part of every plan is planning on your plan not going according to plan.

Points To Note About Long Term Financial Decisions

Charlie Munger says the first rule of compounding is to never interrupt it unnecessarily. Part of the reason some of the people in the world became successful is that they kept doing the same thing for decades on end, letting compounding run wild. However, the author points out 2 things to be kept in mind when making long term decisions.

• We should avoid the extreme ends of financial planning. Assuming that you will be happy with a low income or choosing to work endless hours in pursuit of a higher one.
• We should also come to accept the reality of changing our minds. Embracing the idea that financial goals made when you were a different person should be abandoned or dragged on can be a good strategy to minimize future regret.

Price Of Success

Like everything else worthwhile, successful investing demands a price. Its volatility, fear, doubt, uncertainty, and regret – all which are easy to overlook until you are dealing with in real time. The price of investing success is not immediately obvious. The trick in convincing yourself that the market’s fee for volatility is worth it. That’s the only way to properly deal with volatility and uncertainty – not just putting up with it but realizing that it’s a fee worth paying.

Different Goals And Time Horizons

When investors have different goals and time horizons – prices that look ridiculous to one person can make sense to another. This is because the factors those investors pay attention to are different. For example, bubbles affect the long-term investors playing one game, start taking cues from the short-term traders. A takeaway here is understanding your own time horizon and not being persuaded by the actions and behaviors of people playing different ball games than you are.

Financial Pessimism

Optimism is the best bet for most people because the world tends to get better for most people most of the time. But, pessimism just sounds smarter and more plausible than optimism to most. Tell someone that they are in danger, and you have their undivided attention. This is the same with financial pessimism.

• Since money is ubiquitous, something bad happening tends to affect everyone and captures everyone’s attention.
• Pessimists often extrapolate present trends without accounting for how markets adapt.
• Progress happens too slowly to notice, but setbacks happen too quickly to ignore.

Points To Note In The Story Driven World

This is a story driven world and there are two things to keep in mind when managing your money.

• The stronger your desire for something to be true, the more likely you are to believe an exaggerated story that aligns with your wish. If you offer the prospect of investing alongside ‘the next Warren Buffet,’ you will see people wholeheartedly believing, risking their life savings in the process.
• Everyone has an incomplete view of the world. But we form a complete narrative to fill in the gaps. The illusion of control is more persuasive than the reality of uncertainty. So we cling to stories about outcomes being in our control. This is true about market forecasts in which we are very bad at. Forecasts can create an illusion of predictability in a world. These unforeseen events largely dictate outcomes, potentially doing more harm than good.

Beware Of The Curve Balls

As per the author’s insights on personal finance, everyone without exception will face a huge expense that they did not expect and plan for. It is a good practice to save in a world where curve balls are more common than we expect. Avoiding the need to sell stocks for expenses increases the likelihood of allowing owned stocks to compound for an extended period.

The author’s investment strategy relies on a high savings rate, patience and optimism. This is what the global economy will create value over the next several decades.

References :

• Minimalism : The COVID-19 lockdown takeaways for work and life
• Book Review : The Art of Thinking Clearly
• Book Review : IKIGAI
• Meditation for self growth
• Rules to Live By to Thrive at Life/Work

The author of this book is the world renowned spiritual teacher, Swami Mukundanda. Though he passed out of top institutes in India, he chose the path of spirituality. He has dedicated his life to guiding millions worldwide on the path of happiness and fulfillment. One of my previous blogs on mind management was inspired from his lectures that is available on YouTube. He blends scientific theories and logic with his mastery of Vedic scriptures that makes his teachings unique.

The mindset of positive thinking

kṣhaṇamāyāti pātālaṁ kṣhaṇaṁ yāti nabhasthalam

YOG VĀSIṢHṬH

Translation : The mind is so nimble that in a moment it travels down to the nether regions, and in the next moment, it is up in the celestial skies.

The art of joyous living lies not in waiting to reach happiness in the future but in adjusting our attitude to discover it here and now. By developing a positive mindset, we can be happy, irrespective of external factors. Our performance at work does not depend as much on our skillset as it does upon our positive mindset. While the right attitude helps us rise in our professional career, the opposite is also true.

The amalgamation of the body and the mind works miraculously. We become healthy or unwell by the thoughts we harbor. If our emotional state is positive and optimistic, our physical health gets boosted as well and vice versa. In order to avoid negative emotions we need to learn to be thankful to God for the grace of existing material possessions and health.

The mindset of taking responsibility for our emotions

uddhared ātmanātmānaṁ nātmānam avasādayet
ātmaiva hyātmano bandhur ātmaiva ripur ātmanaḥ

Bhagavad Gita

Translation : Uplift yourself by the power of your mind, and do not degrade yourself, for the controlled mind can be your best friend, while the unbridled mind will be your worst enemy.

The responsibility for our mind lies with us. By honoring it, we ascend the spiritual heights. We created our destiny by performing actions exercising our free will in past births. If God performed action through us, we would not have to bear any karmic reactions for our actions.

However, we possess the free will to change our future with our puruṣhārth or self effort. The ability to exercise our free will for choosing our attitude is the foundation of spiritual growth.

The mindset of inspiration

sa yathakamo bhavati, tat kratur bhavati,
yat kratur bhavati, tat karma kurute,
yat karma kurute, tat abhisampadyate

Brihadaranyaka upanishad

Translation : As the desire is, so the will is, as the will is, so is the action. And as is the action, so is the consequence, or the result thereof.

No endeavor is free from difficulties, and the higher the goal, the bigger the obstacles on the way. Inspiration is the propellant that keeps us going in the face of our biggest challenges in life. People get inspired in contrasting ways. For some, the external reward is the fuel while for the others external circumstances are immaterial. Such people possess the ability to tap into an inner source of passion that propels them to excellence, achievement and success.

Everyone has varying levels of inspiration. Here the author advises us to use our intellect to eliminate the lethargy of the mind. Bringing proper knowledge to the intellect like thinking about the importance of the human form that we possess is one of the ways. When we ponder over the value of human life and its transient nature, we will naturally be motivated to do our best. The Sage Narada in the Narad Bhakti Darshan Sutra77 states that “Kshanardhamapi vyartham na neyam” ,i.e, ‘Do not waste even a minute of your human life.’ Use every opportunity for your eternal welfare.

The mindset of purity of intention

nirmala mana jana so mohi pava

Ramayan

Translation : The pure at heart are the ones who attain me.

Mere inspiration is not enough, it must also be focused in the right direction ,i.e., ‘the purity of intention’ must exist. Our intention will be considered pure when our definition of success is pure, and we are sincerely striving to achieve it. Success can never satisfy a person if it does not bestow peace of mind. The happiness we are searching for is not on the outside, rather it is within us and is accessed through purity.

As per the Vedic scriptures, the understanding of successful living is to be good, to do good and to feel good. Accordingly success should be measured against the criterion; to become the best we can be, to do the best we can in the works we undertake, to experience happiness and satisfaction in life.

We souls are tiny parts of God, hence we all are little fragments of the ocean of bliss. When we reconnect ourselves with our source, we begin to do our every work for his pleasure and hence experience bliss. Thus, purity of intention is the desire to please God with our every thought, word and deed. The attitude towards work was explained in the Bhagavad Gita as ‘Karmanye vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana‘ ,i.e, do your best and leave the rest to god. This is also what the Karm yog says as well.

The mindset of cultivating knowledge

ajnanamevasya hi mula karanam

Adhyatma Ramayan

Translation : The cause of suffering in all human beings is their lack of knowledge.

A small improvement in the way we think or the way we do a particular task can lead to a considerable enhancement in our performance. Information per se will not benefit us. We will benefit from our ability to generate useful knowledge from that information. Those with the mindset of knowledge keep learning at every opportunity and rapidly rise to higher levels of excellence. We need to bear in mind that material knowledge is not the only kind of knowledge that exists. There is also spiritual knowledge which is even more valuable and beneficial for success, happiness and fulfillment in life.

Spiritual science is that body of knowledge which gives us the tools to purify our mind and intellect, and thereby lead a noble and divine life. It teaches us to control our thoughts and make them sublime. We get to learn about ethics and morality without which we humans would fall to the level of animals.

The vedic scriptures are the treasure house of divine knowledge. Their complexity can easily baffle an unguided reader. Hence, the vedas themselves instruct that they be understood under the guidance of a guru. Such a guru should be both theoretically knowledgeable and practically realized. Inquire from such a guru with reverence and render service unto him.

The mindset of discipline

dhyāyato viṣhayān puṁsaḥ saṅgas teṣhūpajāyate
saṅgāt sañjāyate kāmaḥ kāmāt krodho ’bhijāyate

bhagavad gita

Translation : While contemplating the objects of the senses, one develops attachment to them. Attachment leads to desire, and from desire arises anger.

We may possess the knowledge of all the libraries of the world in our head, but we will not benefit from it without the virtue of discipline. Discipline empowers us to do the right thing even though it may be difficult. Research has shown that the two qualities having the biggest correlation to accomplishment are ‘intelligence’ and ‘self-control’.

The reality of life is that pleasures which pull us down and degrade the mind are usually readily available, while worthwhile pleasures invariably lie upstream. To reach them requires hard work and earnest effort.

What weight training does to muscles, will power training does to the pre frontal cortex. By repeatedly flexing our will power muscle we develop our self control. In the morning, the brain is well-rested and recharged. Therefore it is the best time to engage in challenging tasks that requires immense control and focus such as meditation. In meditation, we exercise self control to prevent the mind from being lured by distractions. Thus, all three functions of the prefrontal cortex, ‘I want’, ‘I will’ and ‘I won’t’ get a workout.

The mindset of growing in the face of problems

Tough times do not last, but tough people do.

Robert h schuller

There are problems in all directions, nobody is exempt from them. In life, you will succeed by anticipating problems before they happen, thereby becoming better prepared for them. Very often, when problems seem to tower before us, we do not realize that it is only a matter of perspective—our mind is making mountains out of molehills. Difficulties and obstacles have a positive side to them. It is in facing them that we grow from within.

Since God is all-powerful, human hardships cannot happen without his will. Whenever he deems it necessary, he creates challenges that force us to exert ourselves emotionally, intellectually and spiritually, so that we may grow. Facing the hardships gracefully allows us to rise above them. We can also be inspired to do the same when people pester us. Advance ahead so much that you leave them behind.

If someone hurts us, it is natural to feel resentment towards that person. When we nurse a grudge, it dirties our mind and poisons the consciousness. The right attitude would be to consider his/her provocations as tests created by God to help me master the virtues of tolerance, forgiveness and patience. When people tell you that you cannot achieve your goals, be deaf to them. If you have a dream in your heart, be positive and optimistic, even if everyone around you is negative and pessimistic.

As per the author, we will need to work on all of the above mindsets simultaneously to achieve success, happiness and fulfilment.

The Law of Infinite Potential

The author concludes the book with an explanation of the ‘law of infinite potential’. According to the Bhagavad Gita, all souls in existence are eternal parts of the Supreme Soul. Hence, we are all divine, like God himself. As tiny parts of God, our potential for growth is also infinite, because our source is infinite in every way. The Law of Infinite Potential also states that each one of us has endless potential for growth. Lack of awareness of this law creates in us the scarcity mentality, which leads us to compete with each other. Hence, the only person we really need to compete with is ourselves. Our topmost priority should be to become the best person we can be and make our journey of life a success.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Mindfulness in Plain English
• Mind Management Basics
• Importance of Karma Yoga in Today’s World
• Bhagavad Gita to be a Better You
• Profound Sayings from Ancient Scriptures for Personal Excellence

The author of this book, Rangan Chatterjee is a physician, television presenter, author and a podcaster. He is best known for his TV show Doctor in the House and has also appeared on BBC TV news and radio.
The author has shared his ideas in this book that have transformed his own and his family’s life. He is confident in saying that the ideas presented in this book have saved hundreds of his patients from a lifetime of pain and medication. The ideas being simple and achievable can be utilized by anyone regardless of your job, food preference and location.

INTRODUCTION

This book is divided into four main pillars that aims at improving the way you Relax, Eat, Move and Sleep. Each pillar is equally important and it is possible to consider each pillar in isolation that needs more attention. The author provides health advice in this book on the basic idea that the human body is one big connected system. If it starts being treated poorly in one area, by bad diet or lack of sleep, problems can emerge in another part of it. The author being a physician says that a symptom in one domain might actually have a cause upstream in an area of the body that the medical training does not tell them to look into.

RELAX

Based on the data of majority of patients, the author says that the majority of health problems are driven entirely by their lifestyle. In this pillar, the physician author orders you to give daily relaxation as high a priority as food, movement and sleep. This most often gets ignored, both by the public and also by the plethora of quick fix health books.

Me-Time Every Day

Every day for at least 15 minutes, be selfish, and enjoy some time for you that does not involve your smartphone, tablet or PC. There are many reasons why these breaks make a difference, among which the principle one is that it helps to switch off your overactive stress response.

The level of the hormone, cortisol surges when we are stressed. Cortisol works by activating our sympathetic nervous system, i.e., our fight or flight response. In the modern lifestyle, this fight or flight response is activated many times in a day. This response can be managed as long as we take steps to balance it out with rest and relaxation.

It is important to remember the term ‘cortisol steal’. More of cortisol will be produced to overcome stress situations in a day. Cortisol steals the LDL cholesterol that is used to produce other hormones as well during long term state of stress. This upsets the hormonal balance.

The Screen Free Sabbath

Use devices in a way that helps you rather than enslaves you. The usage of smartphone has become addictive. We are constantly contactable through calls, emails and texts on our smartphones, coupled with constant noise of social media that we let into our brains. This can be an easy road to stress and depression to anyone. Altering the way you use your smartphone can be the way to reset your relationship with electronic media. Create a digital detox plan such that you are e-device free for a few hours in a day or a whole day in a week. The author provides his plan in the book that is worth going through.

Keep a Gratitude Journal

Every night before going to bed make it a point to list out a few things that you are grateful for. Irrespective of whether you had a good day or a bad day, listing out the things at the end of day helps to shift the focus towards positivity.

Practice Stillness Daily

In the modern world, we spend most of our time overwhelmed by calls of attention. Lowering our stress by practicing stillness can have far reaching effects on the rest of our wellness. It can be intimidating for the overactive monkey mind to practice stillness instantly. In order to be good at anything you need to train. Similarly, you have to train your mind to practice stillness. Meditation or mindfulness is about stillness. Start with a minute or two and gradually build up to ten or fifteen mins that would be ideal. In a flow state of stillness, stresses and distractions of everyday ordinary life are blocked and mind is at peak state of focus.

Reclaim Your Dinner Table

As recently as twenty years ago it was common for families to eat their evening meals together. But nowadays most of them have their meals in front of TV, which results in over consumption of food unconsciously. Even the social connection deteriorates. The fix is to sit and eat together to eat healthy and feel closer.

EAT

The huge problem with today’s food culture is the sheer amount of conflicting advice that’s flying about the place. There is no one true diet that’s optimal for everyone. However, the blue zones have been widely studied by nutritional scientists hoping to discover the one true diet. The people in the blue zones are nearly always in good health with much lower rates of chronic diseases. The common diet across the blue zones consists of:

• A non-processed food culture. They eat fresh, unprocessed, local produce.
• Sit and eat meals together.
• They eat what’s in season.
• They have treats only on special festival times and not every day after school, or every Friday or Saturday.

De-normalize Sugar

Our unrelenting habit of sugar consumption sets us on a blood sugar roller coaster. The fix is to get off it completely. If we abuse our system for a long time, our bodies will become resistant to insulin that is helpful to normalize blood sugar levels. Since sugar is absolutely everywhere nowadays it is good to get into the habit of reading the labels of food items for sugar before buying. The strategies to cut down on sugar include some protein in every meal that helps you feeling full and avoids sugar cravings, keep healthy snacks with you readily available. Once you have reset your relationship with sugar start to consume it intentionally.

Microbiome Diversity

As per researchers our gut consists of diverse microbiome capable of adaptation and job share. Over the years our gut populations have been decimated by modern way of living resulting in less diversity than we used to have. As mentioned in this book this is a likely factor for growing rates of chronic ailments. There is a simple way to fix the damaged microbiome with plant-based fiber. In the large intestine or gut, the microbiome feeds on the prebiotic plant-based fiber and produces anti-inflammatory byproducts that helps to improve immunity. We can control the gut bugs and help them to work for us with our food choices. The more the number of coloured vegetables we eat, the more we will get of these incredible compounds called phytonutrients or polyphenols. The physician author’s advice is to start eating 5different types of vegetables each day, different colors the better.

Daily Micro fasts

Our bodies are designed for going without food for certain period of time. But in the modern environment we surrender to the temptations to eat frequently. Having your food in a restricted time window allows your body to enhance its own house cleaning. This process of cleaning or autophagy sets in at about 12 hours of fasting. The benefits include enhanced detox, lower levels of inflammation, improved blood sugar, improved immune function. As per recent studies, our body functions are determined by circadian rhythm. Scheduling an early evening meal or skipping it may be more beneficial than skipping the breakfast.

Drink More Water

The author mentions that many of his patients who complain about tiredness, regularly experience low grade and long-lasting headaches, it turns out that many of them are simply not drinking enough water.
So, he recommends his patients and everyone to drink at least 8 glasses or 1 liter of water every day. Care should be taken not to drink calories in the form of fruit juice or diet drinks. Drinking enough water results in fewer headache, increased energy, reduced craving for sugar and so on.

Unprocess Your Diet

The author mentions that it is a pretty safe bet that any food product that contains more than five ingredients is highly processed. More than low carb or low fat diet the point is to consume good quality fat, carbs and protein diet. The major drivers of inflammation in our bodies is transfat, highly refined carbs and vegetable oil. Real food is minimally processed that reduces inflammation and nurtures a healthy microbiome.

MOVE

As the physician author rightly says, health is so much more than just a comparison of calories in vs energy out. We see the keep fit craze everywhere nowadays. Weight loss is being considered as the goal when infact it should be a natural side effect of living well. Another general thinking is to consider movement and exercise as a separate activity from the rest of our lives when infact it needs to be included as part of our lives.

Walk More

A simple rule to set us in the direction of being more active is to set an arbitrary goal of 10,000 steps a day. The author wants you to start seeing the whole world as a gym so that you start seeing opportunities to make movement an achievable part of your life. The benefits include improved mental wellness, reduced risk of diseases.

Become Stronger

We tend to think of the muscle as nothing more than dumb meat necessary to power our limbs. But the fact is that the muscles control not only how harmones are released into our bodies but also how it is regulated. Our muscle cells contain a high concentration of mitochondria. Mitochondria being our energy factory, the more muscle we have the more mitochondria hence more potential to make energy. Since after the age of 30 we start to lose muscle mass naturally, regular strength training would be a must. The author suggests the readers to choose a strength training of their choice. In the book he provides a workout plan for people with busy lives that needs to be started slowly and built upon later. This strength training includes 5-10 squats, 5-10 calf raises, 5-10 press ups, 5-10 triceps dips and 5-10 lunges.

Begin Regular High Intensity Interval Training

This refers to exercising hard but in short bursts. The difference between HIIT and traditional exercise is that, rather than going non stop for an extended period of time, your workout is sectioned off into lots of smaller sessions. However, in these short sessions you need to go all out, sweat running, heart pumping. The health benefits of HIIT include; weight reduction, getting rid of the dangerous internal visceral fat, increasing mitochondrial numbers and so on. There are a lot of different versions of HIIT, but the author suggests any form of exercise with a period of high intensity movement followed by a period of low intensity movement.

Movement Snacking

As we grow older we no longer run around having fun. This part of our nature that gets repressed with all the responsibilities of the adulthood needs to be replenished. This intervention is focused on fun and play, either at office or at home. The point is to enjoy the workout like playing together, house gym, office workout with team mates. The author has suggested a combination of movements such as 5 triceps dips, 5 star jumps, 5 hand clap lunges, 5 side lunges, 5 desk press ups to be done five days a week. This is a great way of engaging everyone to be active.

Wakeup Your Sleepy Glutes

As per the author we are a generation who have sleepy glute muscles and flat butts due to our sedentary lifestyle. We usually think of our bottoms as something to sit on, but they are one of the most important muscles in the body. A lot of back pain types are associated with sleepy backsides. If they are off they can knock on effects on many other muscles in the body. The solution is to switch on your glutes by following some body stretch exercises. The author has come up with a set of movement exercises with one of the experts in the field of movement mechanics, the movements include; flexing on a step, the hip adduction, foot clocks, 3D hip extension. He suggests to do at least one of these four movements every single day.

SLEEP

As per the author we are in the middle of a sleep deprivation epidemic. However, what sleep researchers find particularly dangerous is that many sleep deprived individuals don’t even realize they are fatigued and their performance impaired. The fact that we spend a third of our entire lives asleep just hints at how critical it is for both our mental and physical well-being. The potential benefits of a good night’s sleep include increased energy, improved concentration, improved immune system function, better memory, reduced stress levels and so on.

Create an Environment of Absolute Darkness

The author provides a simple hack by recommending the environment in which we go to bed needs to be completely dark. Darkness is a signal to our bodies that it is time to rest by triggering the production of melatonin. For a good night sleep, one more important point is to keep your room free of TVs or e-devices. The blue light needs to be avoided, but in unavoidable situations go for red light instead. Sleep deprivation results in increased level of cortisol, increases BP, impairs our body’s ability to regulate sugar.

Embrace Morning Light

The author highlights the importance of exposure to morning light in this intervention. In the earlier intervention it was about managing darkness at night for better sleep, here it is about managing light in the mornings. In terms of values, full sunlight gives us about 30,000 lux, cloudy day gives about 10,000 lux and a brightly lit room gives about 500 lux of exposure to light. The differential between your maximum and minimum light exposure is also important in helping set your body’s rhythms, boost cognitive function, and increase Vitamin D levels.

The retinal photoreceptors in the eye are most sensitive to a short wavelength of light that is available only in the mornings. One of the great things about this intervention is that by going out for a 20-minute morning walk gives you the me time, helps towards 10,000 steps and addresses your current intervention of exposure to natural light.

Create a Bedtime Routine

We all have a master body clock that keeps its time using signals of light and dark. Each function in our body like harmone production, core body temperature, our memory and so on has its own rhythm. All these rhythms combine to form the awe inspiring and beautiful symphony that is the healthy human body. Aside from having a regular sleep time, one way we can support the internal rhythms is by having a constant routine or pathway that leads us towards sleep. The author suggests having a set routine/wind down before going to bed is as important as having a fixed getting up time. The set routine should include no device time before bed as well.

Manage Your Commotion

This intervention is about reducing emotional tension or stimulation in the precious hours before bed. The author suggests minimizing activities like watching thriller movies, arguing, talking about financial aspects, working out, using devices to check email that will raise the emotional tension before bed. However, activities like meditation, breathing exercises and journaling helps.

Enjoy Your Caffeine Before Noon

Caffeine is the world’s most popular drug. It sharpens our senses, and a lot of new research associates caffeine consumption with better health outcomes. However, caffeine is known to be a big sleep disruptor. It blocks the body’s ability to sense adenosine, the chemical that helps to induce sleep. Hence drinking the right amount of caffeine at the right time matters. It is advisable to take caffeine before lunch time, considering the number of hours it takes for its effect to subside.

The author makes a very good statement about change that reads as follows: By making conscious changes to our lifestyle we make unconscious changes to our biology. As mentioned earlier as well, the best medicine for you is you. So, making it happen should be your top priority since about 90% of your health is determined by your environment and not your genes.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Mindfulness in Plain English
• Beneficial Yoga Exercises That IT Professionals Must Try
• Techniques to Tame the Monkey Mind
• Electromagnetic Field Protection : A must in today’s world
• Boosting Immunity in the times of COVID-19 Virus Pandemic

The author of this book, David Allen has been called as one of the world’s most influential thinkers on productivity. The personal productivity system, Getting Things Done (GTD) was developed by him and published in this book. The GTD method rests on the idea of moving all items of interest, relevant information, issues, tasks and projects out of one’s mind by recording them externally and then breaking them into actionable work items with known time limits. This avoids recalling each task intuitively that may result in missing out on certain things.

The book starts off with the problem, i.e., most of the people have too much to handle and not enough time to get it all done. These people are to some degree frustrated and perplexed about how to improve the situation. Neither our standard education, nor the traditional time management models, nor the plethora of organizing tools available has given us a viable means of meeting the new demand for speed, complexity, and changing priority. There is a great need for new methods, technologies, and work habits to help us get on top of our world. When you feel out of control, stressed out, unfocused, bored and stuck, the methodology of GTD will show you how to get back to “mind like water”, with all your resources and faculties functioning at the maximum level.

In the next chapter, the author explains about the core process or five stage method for managing workflow. No matter what the setting, there are five discrete stages that we go through as we deal with our work. In this management of horizontal aspect of our lives, we incorporate everything that has our attention at any time.

Collect things that command Your attention

It is important to know what needs to be collected and how to collect it most effectively so you can process it appropriately. You must be sure that at some point in the near future you will process and review all of it. There are several types of tools that you can use to collect the open loops or incompletes. Tools that can serve as in-basket are the physical ones like the trays that can collect the paper based materials, note taking devices like the paper writing pads, electronic note taking devices like the PDAs, Voice recording devices, Email application. These collection tools should become part of your life style so that you can collect your thought anytime & anywhere.

Process what they mean and what to do about them

The most important question to ask here is what’s the next action? This is the critical question for anything you have collected. If you answer it appropriately, you will have the key substantive thing to organize. The “next action” is the next physical visible activity that you need to engaged in, in order to move the current reality towards completion.

Organize the results

For nonactionable items, the possible categories are trash, incubation tools and reference storage. If no action is needed on something, you toss it, reassess it later, or file it so you can find the topic that you need to refer to at a later time. However for actionable things, you will need a list of projects, storage or files for project plans and materials, a calendar, a list of reminders of next actions, and a list of reminders of things you are waiting for.

Review the result as options for what we choose to do

Its one thing to write down a task and another to actually execute it. You need to be able to review the whole picture of your life and work at appropriate intervals and appropriate levels. After checking your calendar, it is good to turn to “Next actions” list. If you have organized the list by context, they will come into play only when those contexts are available. Everything that might potentially require action must be reviewed on a frequent enough basis to keep your mind from taking back the job of remembering and reminding.

Perform the action

The basic purpose of this workflow management process is to facilitate good choices about what you are doing at any point in time. If you have collected, processed, organized and reviewed all your current commitments, you can galvanize your intuitive judgement with some intelligent and practical thinking about your work and life.

A functional workspace is critical. Be it office or home, everyone must have a dedicated workspace and in-basket to start with. This serves as a physical locus of control from which to deal with everything else. It is imperative that you have your own work space, or at least your own in basket and a physical place in which to process paper. Some of the basic processing tools that you will need are paper holding trays, paper, pen or pencil, post-it, paper clips, binder clips, a stapler & staples, scotch tape, rubber bands, an auto labeler, file folders, a calendar, wastebasket.

The author suggests everyone to maintain their own personal, at hand filing system. The following are the guidelines as suggested by the author to make your filing effective.

• Keep your general reference files at hand’s reach
• One Alpha Filing system – Ex: Manila folder system with A-Z and nothing else
• Have lots of fresh folders to process the in-basket
• Keep the drawer less than three quarters full always
• Label your file folders with an Auto Labeler
• Get high-quality mechanics file cabinet
• Purge your files at least once a year

In the subsequent chapters, the author goes into the detail of each of the core process starting with collection or getting all your incompletes into one place ,i.e., your in-basket. The first activity is to search your physical environment for anything that doesn’t belong where it is, the way it is and put it into your in-basket. Start your activity with your desk at home/office, drawers, inside the cabinets, floor, walls, furniture etc. Once you have collected all the physical things, you will want to collect anything else that may be residing in your mind that has your attention. In this instance, go for the quantity instead of quality so as to avoid missing out on anything. Often you may just need a walk to unearth something lurking in a corner of your mind. Remember, when something occurs to you, write it on a piece of paper or pad and toss it into your in-basket.

The next chapter is about the processing or the review part. When you have finished processing the in-basket you will have trashed what you don’t need, completed any less than 2minute actions, handed off to others anything that can be delegated, set reminders of actions that require more than 2minutes, identified any larger commitments. The key processing question that needs to be asked when processing each item in the in-basket is “What’s the next action?”. If there is a next action it, that may be either to do it, delegate it or defer it. In case of no actions required for the items, the categories that they fall into will be either trash, incubate or reference.

In the next chapter on organizing, the author writes about the primary types of things that everyone needs to track and manage from an organizational perspective.

• A Project list
• Project support material
• Calendarized actions and information
• “Next Actions” list
• A “Waiting For” list
• Reference material
• A “Someday/Maybe” list

The above categories must be visually, physically and psychologically separate. If the above categories begin to blend, much of the value of organizing will be lost. The best way as per the author to be reminded of an “as soon as I can” action is by the particular context required for that action ,i.e., either the tool or the location or the person needed to complete it. Like the reminders of actions, you need to set reminders of all the things that you are waiting to get back from or get done by others have to be sorted out too. In this case, “Waiting For” list is the best to use, similar to the “Next actions” reminder list. As per the author, your calendar can be a very handy place to park reminders like the triggers for activating projects, events you might want to participate in, decision catalysts. The timely reminder from outlook calendar will make it sure that you remember your tasks on time.

In the next chapter about review, the author says that if everything is completely collected, processed and organized you will take only a few brief moment to access your system for day to day reminders. Your most frequent review will probably be your daily calendar followed by the list of all the actions you could possibly do in the current context. As per the author, the magic key to sustainability of the whole process is the weekly review. Weekly review is simply whatever you need to do to get your head empty again. It builds in some capturing, reevaluation and reprocessing time to keep you in balance.

When you start to perform any action, the choices can be made based on the criterion of context, time available, energy available and priority.

There is much more to these simple techniques and models than may appear at first glance. Indeed, they offer a systematic method to keep your mind distraction free, ensuring a high level of efficiency and effectiveness in your work. Getting things done, and feeling good about it, means being willing to recognize, acknowledge, and appropriately manage the things that have your consciousness engaged. The author says that your life and work are made up of outcomes and actions. When your operational behavior is grooved to organize everything that comes your way, at all levels, a deep alignment occurs and wondrous things emerge. This results in you becoming highly productive.

Further Reading :

• Useful Tools for IT Professionals
• Useful Microsoft Outlook Tips & Tricks
• OneNote : Basic to Advanced Guide
• Minimalism : The COVID-19 lockdown takeaways for work and life
• Rules to Live By to Thrive at Life/Work

The authors of the book are Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles from Spain. The former is an IT professional and an author of many books who has lived in Japan for over a decade, while the latter is an award winning author. The name of the book is a Japanese word “Ikigai” that literally means “reason for being”. If you put in your effort on something and it pays off, you say that it was worth the effort. This is what is meant by “Kai ga aru” or to be worthwhile. If you combine the word “Kai” with “Iki” or “to live”, the combined word “Ikigai” would mean something worth living for. As per the author, those who discover their Ikigai have everything they need for a long and joyful journey through life.

The author explores the life of people in the blue zones, especially Okinawa that holds the first place among the blue zones, known for its  highest life expectancy in the world. Even in Okinawa there is a village called Ogimi that boasts of the highest life expectancy. Based on discussion with the local residents, the author says that more than the natural resources and diet, an uncommon joy flows through its inhabitants ,i.e, their Ikigai. Certain longevity studies also suggest that a strong sense of community and a clearly defined ikigai are just as important as the healthy Japanese diet. The Okinawans live by the principle of “ichariba chode” and “yuimaaru” that means “treat everyone like a brother even if you have not met them before” and “teamwork” respectively. One common saying in Japan is “Hara hachi bu” or “Fill your belly 80%”. This ancient wisdom advises against eating until we are full.

Just as lack of physical exercise has a negative effect on our body and mood, a lack of mental exercise is bad because it causes our neurons and neural connections to deteriorate. Our neurons start to age while we are still in our 20s. This process is slowed down by mental workout activities like learning something new everyday, playing games, interacting with others etc. One more factor that affects the neurons is stress. These days people live at a frantic pace and in a constant state of competition to which stress is the natural response of the body. A sustained state of stress affects not only the release of certain harmones but also is the cause of irritability, anxiety and other ailments. Mindfulness is an effective tool to reduce stress and helps us live longer. One more habit that affects longevity is a sedentary lifestyle. Being concious of our daily routine to detect harmful habits and replacing them with healthy and active lifestyle will renew our bodies and minds.

In the subsequent chapter the author mentions about therapies that were popular many decades ago like the logotherapy and Morita therapy. As mentioned in one of my earlier book reviews, Vikor Frankl’s logotherapy helps you find reasons to live. Discovering one’s purpose in life helps an individual to fill the existential void. While, Morita therapy focuses on teaching patients to accept their emotions without trying to control them, since their feelings will change as a result of their actions. Morita therapy’s basic principles are, accept your feelings, do what you should be doing and discover your life’s purpose. Next the author quotes a few questions that may help us discover our Ikigai, what makes us enjoy something so much that we forget our worries? When are we the happiest? etc. On the importance of flow the author says that, having a clear objective is important in achieving flow, but we also have to know how to leave it behind when we get down to business. Furthermore, concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow. Examples are takumis/artisans, inventors and otakus/fans of anime who flow with their Ikigai all the time.

As mentioned in one of my previous blogs, most of the successful people meditate everyday. One of the main reason behind their success is cited as meditation. This makes sense when the author here says, training the mind can get us to a place of flow more quickly. Meditation is one way to exercise our mental muscles. In the subsequent chapter the author writes about his learnings from the interview with the longest living people in the world. Some of the words of wisdom from the elders are as follows; don’t worry, cultivate good habits, nurture your friendships everyday, live an unhurried life, be optimistic, keep your mind and body busy.

In the following chapter, the author writes about the diet followed by the longest living people. The Okinawans diet consists of a variety of fruits, vegetables and grains that they have everyday. They have fish and pork twice or thrice a week. Other notable points are, they consume less sugar and salt compared to the rest of Japan. A common point across all of the blue zones is low calorie intake. Everyday intake of antioxidant rich food is also considered to be the keys to Okinawans vitality. A few of the antioxidant rich foods found in Okinawan diet are Jasmine tea, green tea, shikuwasa, tofu, Miso, Nori etc. However, antioxidant rich food recommended by experts in other countries are broccoli, citrus fruits, berries, dry fruits, oats etc.

What the author discovered in the village of longevity, Ogimi is that people almost never stop moving in the course of their daily routines. If we live in a city it might be hard to move in natural and healthy ways everyday, but we can turn to eastern exercises that have proven for centuries to be good for body, mind and soul. In Japan many people start their day with a short workout, radio taiso that has been around since ww2. Yoga from India, Qigong and taichi from China are also popular in Japan and around the world. In the final chapter, the author highlights the common nature of people with a clearly defined ikigai. They pursue their passion no matter what. Resilience is what makes us to pick ourselves up and get back to what gives meaning to our lives. Proper training of mind, body and emotional resilience is essential to confront life’s challenges.

Buddhist and Stoic philosophies teach us to control pleasure, emotions and desires. Both these philosophies, at their roots, are methods to practice well-being. Regarding resilience, these two philosophies remind us that the present is all that exists, and it is the only thing we can control. A similar Japanese concept called, ichi-go ichi–e teaches us to focus on the present and enjoy each moment that life brings us. This is why it is so important to find and pursue our Ikigai.

Next the author mentions the word antifragile and its importance. The term antifragile was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book, Antifragile : Things that gain from disorder. Taleb says that ” Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.” If we are to apply this concept to our lives, we need to create redundancies in terms of having a secondary occupation or having friends or any personal interests. This is required to overcome adversities in job or relationships. The next point point required to be antifragile in our lives is to be conservative in certain areas and take many small risks in others. The final point is to get rid of things that make us fragile like certain people, things and habits that generate losses for us and makes us vulnerable. If we have an antifragile attitude, we will find a way to get stronger with every blow, refining our lifestyle and staying focused on our Ikigai.

Though the title of the book is ikigai, the focus is on improving the longevity. Here ikigai is just a part that contributes to longevity but is also very important. There is no perfect strategy to connect with one’s ikigai. Though life is not a problem to be solved, the focus should be to have something that keeps us busy doing what we love, while being surrounded by people who love us.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Man’s Search For Meaning
• Importance of Morning Routine
• Meditation for self growth
• Beneficial Yoga Exercises That IT Professionals Must Try
• Bhagavad Gita to be a Better You

The developer of Silva Mind Control method and the author of this book is Jose Silva. It was developed in the 70s by him and millions have been trained on it so far. Even today we can find institutes training people on this method. It was surprising to note that this course was even introduced in a few schools in the US to improve students abilities. Many renowned psychiatrists had evaluated the method and had found it to be useful too.

Before developing the course, Jose did a lot of research on the mind. As he was into radio repair business he knew about electronics. Since low resistance circuits make best use of electric energy, he applied the same logic to the mind. He started with hypnosis but gave it up as the mind did not have the reasoning power in that state. Later, he moved on to experimenting with mind training exercises inorder to reach the lower levels. He succeeded in proving that we can learn to function with awareness at the alpha and theta frequencies of the brain. Also, these levels proved more effective than beta in learning. One can reach the alpha state by meditating for 15 to 20 minutes. However, in the book Jose suggests another easy method to reach/come out of the alpha state with better control.

Going forward, Jose gives ideas to go beyond the passive meditation. Once at the meditative/alpha level, one can use it to solve problems. Jose suggests the mental screen technique to visualise small, everyday problems in order to solve them. The same technique can be used to connect a real event to a desirable one, provided the imaginary event is desirable, believable and must be expected to happen. While going about your day, suppose you need to recollect something but doesn’t come to your mind easily. Instead of taking time to go to your level and visualise the event to recall, Jose suggests an emergency method. The triggering mechanism to reach alpha instantly is just bringing together your three fingers but must be internalized first at alpha.

Once mastered, Jose suggests the three finger technique for learning, reading a book that helps to improve concentration and better grasp the information. Next he moves on to the topic of dream control, i.e, using dreams to solve problems. Just before going to sleep, go to your level and review the problem. Program yourself with words to have a dream as mentioned in the book. When you get awakened in the night or in the morning write down the dream and interpret it. Jose provides many cases where people have found solutions to their problems in this way. Next he mentions the power of words. He has ample proof to say that the power of words is greatly amplified at meditative levels. He suggests a couple of positive sentences to say at the alpha level that has produced impressive results.

Jose later on provides a few ways of enriching and improving a marriage through meditation. The condition here is both the partners should be willing and should have the knowledge of the techniques provided in the book. The result will be a stronger and deeper level of intimacy that only years of living together could achieve. Later on he redefines ESP as “Effective Sensory Projection” to train people to perform psychically. To reach this level one has to have 30 to 40 hours of mind control training. This way you can detect illness in persons you have never seen and also project healing. This is really astonishing but it is a fact and gets better with practice. This method of meditation and visualisation to heal abnormalities is called psychic healing. Jose advices the people who perform psychic healing to keep it to themselves.

Towards the end of the book there is a mention of many businesses built from ground up using mind control techniques. Businesses were built on new innovative products, investment club etc. Even in company employees who took the course, found their jobs to be more enjoyable, found solutions to perplexing problems. Going by all the proven information provided in the book there should be no doubt that this book has the potential to change a person’s life if followed seriously.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Mindfulness in Plain English
• Meditation for self growth
• Importance of Karma Yoga in Today’s World
• Book Review : Karma Yoga
• Mindfulness in the Workplace

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, the author of this book is a Sri Lankan Buddhist Monk. He is also an internationally acclaimed author and a meditation teacher. This book is a step by step guide to Vipassana or insightful meditation practice. Most of the points described in this book is drawn from the Tripitaka – Buddha’s original teachings. Tripitaka contains the code of discipline for monks, nuns and lay people.

The author starts off the book with the explaination of the word “Gumption” that is required to do meditation regularly. Meditation requires time, energy, grace, determination and discipline ,i.e, the qualities normally regarded as unpleasant that most of us try to avoid. He later delves into the nature of the human mind that is always in search of happiness and peace. Thoughts of various types come and go. People postpone their happiness to fulfill their desires first. The author highlights that man’s desire is never ending so he is stressing to recognise one’s desires and to not be controlled by them. Attaining a purified mind should be one’s goal as that can help you attain happiness and peace.

Meditation helps to purify the mind by cleansing the thought process of its psychic irritants like greed, hatred and jealousy. It brings about a state of tranquility, awareness, concentration and insight. The purpose of meditation is personal transformation. It changes a person by the process of sensitisation by making him/her aware of one’s own thoughts, words and deeds. Thus meditation prepares you to better handle the ups and downs of life by making you mindful of the fear, worry and tension.

There are many misconceptions surrounding meditation like it’s just a relaxation technique, it is for the hermits or monks etc which is not true as the author clearly explains that the goal of meditation is awareness and the other benefits are just a byproduct. Thus it is not only applicable to monks but to anyone who wants to bring about self transformation in everyday life. There are many other misconceptions and the respective answers in the book that is worth going through.

Hindu yogic meditation aims at focusing the mind on a single object like a stone, candle flame etc by not allowing it to wander. Advanced meditation involves focusing the mind on other complex objects like chants, body, religious images etc. By this we can understand that it is basically an exercise in concentration. However, in Buddhist meditation concentration is highly valued along with another element called awareness. Buddhism has various techniques of meditation among which Vipassana is the oldest. Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of awareness. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them. The object of this practice is to see the truth of impermanence.

In the subsequent chapter the author highlights the attitudes required to be successful in meditation. A few of them are, to not expect anything from meditation and to just go with the practice regularly, to not force oneself just because someone is forcing you, to go into meditation in a relaxed manner and to not rush etc. Next the author gives an introduction about the actual Vipassana practice. To start with, the beginner needs to focus one’s attention on the breath to improve concentration. But the goal of the practice should be to see things as they are and to not get attached to them.

In the next section the author writes about the recommended physical practices that will aid a person to master the meditation skill. Sitting on a chair or on the floor is fine but must be appropriately cushioned in order to avoid pain, numbness and sleep. Keep the back straight and the head should be held in line with the spine. The clothing you wear should be loose and soft. After detailing on the physical practices the author moves on to the mind. The traditional vipassana practice stresses on mind control by mindfulness through focus on the breath. Ancient pali texts compare the human mind to a mad elephant that when tied to a post, i.e, the object of meditation with the rope of mindfulness will eventually know that it cannot escape. Thus meditation tames the mind.

Keeping aside a specific time in a day for the meditation practice is really important. This helps to release the tension from the mind after a hectic day. Meditation recharges your mindfulness. Choosing a quiet place free from any disturbances is also equally important. Morning time is the best for meditation but one can choose to meditate even in the evening. Beginners can sit as long as one feels comfortable that may be anything around 15 minutes. Gradually increase the time as you become used to it and after sometime you will not need to keep time. Inorder to clear the mind before a meditation practice, there a mention of certain recitals to be done as well.

Next the author mentions about the various physical, emotional and attitudinal roadblocks to meditation and how to overcome the roadblocks. Further, he also explains how to go about dealing with distractions. In case of vipassana meditation, whenever distracting thoughts appear, distance yourself from it and observe the start, how long it lasts and return the focus back to the breath again. Don’t wait for distractions but focus on the breath and let the distractions come to you. Mindfulness,i. e, observing things objectively without any reaction is what brings you back to the object of meditation when distracted. Whenever you focus on the breath it is concentration that keeps your attention on the breath.

Towards the final chapters of the book, the author explains how to practice meditation while performing the  everyday tasks. By developing awareness in your everyday tasks, the mind is more attentive and is ready to handle any thoughts or emotions. Thus being mindful extinguishes distractions and worries. You are no longer caught up in worries as you are mindful and conscious of every experience.

Further Reading :

• Book Review : Karma Yoga
• Importance of Karma Yoga in Today’s World
• Meditation for self growth
• Beneficial Yoga Exercises That IT Professionals Must Try
• Mindfulness in the Workplace

In this book, the author writes about his experiences in four of the concentrations camps that he was in before being released. Later he details on what it really takes a man to overcome situations that challenge him to the maximum. In the concentration camps, the inmates were beaten up by the guards even with the slightest provocation and sometimes for no reason at all. There was a hard fight for existence that raged among the inmates as well. The sick and feeble inmates who were incapable of work were sent to the gas chambers. The quality of hygiene in the camps also lead to the outbreak of many illness other than the starvation sickness. The following are a few of the opinions of the author based on his perspective as a psychiatrist, on what it really takes to overcome situations such as the concentration camp or any general life situations.

• Inspite of the physical and mental torture that the inmates were subjected to, sensitive people who were used to a rich intellectual life suffered much pain due to their delicate constitution. But the damage to their inner selves was less as they were able to retreat to a life of inner riches and spiritual freedom. However, the robust natured inmates were unable to survive the camp life. It is possible to practice the art of living even in a concentration camp though the suffering is omnipresent. Here the author gives an analogy of gas pumped into an empty chamber that spreads evenly and completely independent of its size. Similarly, human suffering fills the human soul and conscious mind completely, no matter the suffering is huge or insignificant.
• The consciousness of inner values is anchored in higher, more spiritual things and cannot be shaken by camp life. But not many inmates possessed those values, as was evident from their behavior who felt degraded. From being somebody prior to the camp life to being a non-entity at camp they felt irritated that resulted in fights between the common inmates and the prominent inmates who held higher positions.
• An active life gives man the opportunity of realizing values in creative work, while a passive life of enjoyment affords him with the opportunity to obtain fulfillment in experiencing beauty, art or nature. There is also a purpose in life that is barren without any purpose of creation or enjoyment ,i.e, the camp life that restricted both. The way in which a man accepts such a difficult situation adds a deeper meaning to his life. In case of some, their inner strength can raise them above the outward fate whereas in others, in their quest for survival may forget the moral values and dignity that such a situation can afford.
• An exceptionally difficult external situation gives man a chance to grow spiritually beyond himself. Life became meaningless for the inmates who lived their lives thinking about the past. Only a few were capable of reaching great spiritual heights by turning the experiences into a victory through a life of inner triumph.
• Not every conflict is necessarily neurotic, some amount of conflict is normal and healthy. In a similar sense, suffering is not always a pathological phenomenon but can be a human achievement if it is a result of existential frustration. A man’s concern over the worthwhileness of life is by itself an existential distress but by no means a mental illness. The author quotes the saying of Nietzsche, “He who has a why to life for can bear almost any how”. In accordance with this, in the camps those inmates who knew that they had tasks waiting for them to be fulfilled were most apt to survive.
• The meaning of life according to the author differs from man to man, from day to day and hour to hour. Therefore, what matters is not the meaning of life in general but rather a specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment. Here the author provides the analogy of a chess game, where there is no best move in general but depends solely on the game situation and the opponent.
• It is important to mention the term, logo-therapy, a concept started by the author that makes a person fully aware of his responsibility. It plays the role of an eye specialist rather than a painter. The eye specialist tries to show the patient the world as it is, whereas the painter tries to show the picture of the world the way he sees it. Hence a logo-therapist’s role would be to widen and broaden the visual field of the patient so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible.
• According to logo-therapy, one can discover the meaning in life by creating a work or doing a deed, by experiencing something or by encountering someone and the attitude one takes towards unavoidable suffering. As a technique, logo-therapy tells that excessive intention, for example pleasure should remain a side effect or a byproduct and is destroyed to the degree it is made the goal in itself. Similarly, excessive attention may also lead to sickness.
• Man is self determining ,i.e, what one becomes is ultimately is a result of what one has made out of oneself. In the concentration camps, some behaved like swines while others behaved like saints. Man has both the potentialities within himself, but which one is actualized depends on decisions and not on external conditions.
• Once an individual’s search for meaning is successful, it not only renders him happy but also gives him the capability to cope with suffering. However, if a man’s search for meaning is in vain, might result in a fatal condition. According to logo-therapy, depression, aggression and addiction are due to the existential vacuum or a feeling of meaninglessness. Although every case of the three side effects cannot be traced back to meaninglessness. To go about finding a meaning in life the author quotes the saying of Charlotte Buhler, “Study the lives of people who seem to have found their answers to the question of what ultimately human life is about as against those who have not”.

This book introduces a beginner to karma yoga and includes many short story illustrations on various concepts as well. In the first chapter, Swami Vivekananda explains the ideal of Karma yoga in simple words. The ideal man is he who in the midst of the greatest silence and solitude finds the intensest activity and vice versa. He has learnt the secret of restraint, he has controlled himself and if you have attained to that you have really learnt the secret of work. In the next chapter, he focuses on what karma yoga deals with ,i.e, the three factors of Tamas – Inactivity or darkness, Rajas – Activity, Sattva – Equilibrium of the earlier two factors. By teaching, what they are and how to employ them, karma yoga helps us to do our work better. Inactivity should be avoided by all means. Activity always means resistance. Resist all evil, mental and physical, and when you have succeeded in resisting, then will calmness come. Plunge into the world, and then, after a time, when you have suffered, fought and enjoyed that is all in it, until you have passed through the activity, then will renunciation and calmness come,i.e, the highest ideal of non resistance.

The life of a householder is as great as that of a monk who has devoted himself to religious work. The great duty of the householder is to earn a living, but he must do it by not telling lies, or by cheating, or by robbing others; and he must remember that his life is for the service of God, and the poor. The next chapter starts by explaining about the kind of help or service that is the highest. Spiritual knowledge is the only knowledge that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a short time. A spiritually strong and sound man will be strong in every respect if he so wishes. Next to spiritual comes intellectual help. The gift of knowledge is a far higher gift than that of food and clothes. Ignorance is death, knowledge is life. Life is of very little value, if it is a life in the dark, groping through ignorance and misery. Next in order comes, of course, helping a man physically.

Next we come across the bliss of non-attachment. If working like slaves results in selfishness and attachment, working as master of our mind gives rise to the bliss of non attachment. There are two things which guide the conduct of men: might and mercy. The exercise of might is an exercise of selfishness. Whereas, mercy is heaven itself; to be good we have all to be merciful. The other way of putting mercy or selfless charity into practice is by looking upon work as worship. The selfless and unattached man may live in the very heart of a crowded and sinful city; he will not be touched by sin. Next comes the idea of duty. We should always try to see the duty of others through their own eyes, and never judge the custom of other people by our own standard. I have to accommodate myself to the world and not the world to me. No man is to be judged by the mere nature of his duties, but all should be judged by the manner and the spirit in which they perform them.

In the subsequent chapter, Vivekananda mentions that the desire to do good is the highest motive power we have, if we know all the time that it is a privilege to help others. All good acts tend to make us pure and perfect. The world is not waiting for your or my help; yet we must work and constantly do good, because it is a blessing to ourselves to make us perfect. If we were really unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation for the work done, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Next chapter, moves on to the nature of work, i.e, Pravritti and Nivritti. Pravritti is the natural tendency of every human being; enriching the me by wealth, power, fame etc around one centre, that centre being “myself”. When this tendency begins to break, when it is Nivritti or going away from, then begins morality and religion. This Nivritti is fundamental basis of all morality and religion, and when a man has reached this state he has attained the perfection of Karma yoga. It is sheer nonsense on part of any man to think that he is born to help the world. When you have trained your mind and nerves to realize this idea of world’s non dependence on you or on anybody, there will then be no reaction in the form of pain resulting from work or expectations. Nothing has power over the self of man, until the self becomes a fool and loses independence. So by non-attachment you overcome and deny the power of anything to act upon you.

As per Karma Yoga theory, first we need to destroy this tendency of selfishness, and when you have the power of checking it, hold it in and do not allow the mind to get into the ways of selfishness. Then you may go out into the world and work as much as you can without getting contaminated with evil. The book ends with a memorable quote from Buddha, considered as the true karma yogi who dared to say, “Believe not because some old manuscript are produced, believed not because it is your national belief, because you have been made to believe it from your child hood; but reason it all out, and after you have analyzed it, then, if you find that it will do good to one and all, believe it, live up to it, and help others to live upto it”.