Namaste and Hello. Welcome to the light within. In this episode we are going to talk about how to slow down and create moments of silence in our busy lives. Why it is important and some practical ways to do it. The last week for me was hectic, I was pushing myself working like a machine around the clock. And I was feeling very distant from myself. While I was doing what I was supposed to do, I was exhausting myself in the process, what I actually wanted were some genuine moments of silence and peace, away from the rush, just to connect with myself. I don't know whether we've forgotten to connect with peace, or maybe we never learned it. You know, people around us have also been caught up with doing a lot. And so we've picked up the same traits our society has taught us, there's just been so much to be done due to the roles that we play in our lives. And if we are unkind to ourselves, then it's a double whammy. We keep running the same cycle day in and day out. A lot of us wait for weekends, to live our lives, which is actually missing the whole point of living, isn't it. Even those of us who have an awareness of this fallacy are unable to break the cycle and bring in what we are here for in real, which is living fully not according to the society's standards, but our own standards. I think I'm not alone, this happens to all of us, a lot of us simply drain ourselves in just catching up with life. You know, there's an energy of simply being an energy of doing action as needed, not just to survive, but to thrive. However, anything that you do cannot be done if you're not connected to the energy of your being. This may sound philosophy. But let me give you a practical example. When you do something you enjoy doing, not only do you enjoy the process, the results from such actions are far better. On the contrary, when you do something out of compulsion, because you're supposed to do it, you get only mediocre results. Most of the time. This is because your energies are not fully involved in the process. We create an energy imbalance when we push ourselves too far, doing things that we are supposed to do. And there is no denying the fact that there are a lot of routine activities in our lives on a daily basis, which we do not necessarily enjoy. A lot of unrest we experience in our lives is because of this imbalance. When we say I just need some me time, I think a lot of us say that I need my me time. Or I simply need to sit in silence. Essentially, what we are saying is that we want to connect with our being the core of our energy. Over the years, I have learned the distinction between doing and being there's been so much of unlearning that I had to do. And I continue to do because the demands of life have not changed. In fact, they've only continued to change and become more and more complex. So many of us get caught in this friction, we need our me time, yet we have so much to take care of. There's just so much going on that a lot of time we don't even have the time to rethink our schedules and check that we might have created pockets of energy leaks without our conscious awareness. Can we close these pockets and instead use them to inculcate silence. The time is limited, you can't create more, and you only need to know what to drop. I remember reading an article in Harvard Business Review many years back, the article was about managing energy instead of time. Time is a finite resource. No matter how diligent you are, you will get only 24 hours a day to live your life. You wasted or make the best of that time is up to you, but the quarter is not going to change. And hence we need to change our focus to how we use this time recognizing energy depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them regardless of the circumstances. We have a Using energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings, the body, emotions, mind and spirit in each energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed. By establishing specific behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.
Let me quickly share the common energy leaks in our lives and how you can close them to create moments of silence and connect with yourself.
- Area number one body when it comes to body. The most important aspect according to me, is food that we eat. I know you didn't expect me to start with this one. I know for sure that what I'm going to talk about may not be what you would like to listen. But listen anyway, food has always remained one of our primary medium to not just satisfy our senses, but to also create social connections. I know most of my friends who call themselves foodie, they don't just enjoy food, because it gives them a pleasurable experience. But they also realize that through food, they are able to bond with more and more friends and create social connections, the impact our food choices have in our lives are way beyond the obvious ones. Now, in the context of our discussion today, let me quickly come to the point, the food that you eat doesn't just impact your physical well being but your mental well being as well as me how, according to Vedas, there are three types of Gunas or qualities sattva, rajas, and Thomas the phone which is high on Rogers and domestic qualities can create a huge energy leak by way of creating lethargy and drowsiness. This creates a vicious cycle as you're just caught up in a cycle to catching up on things without realizing that what you think should be energizing you is actually draining you. In your whether the traditional system of medicine from India, foods are categorized into three gunas. As I mentioned earlier, these are qualities known as satwik, rajasic, and tamasic. These classifications are based on the inherent qualities of food and their impact on mind and body. The sattvic food are considered to be pure, clean and conducive to spiritual growth. They're believed to promote mental clarity, harmony and overall well being example of sattvic foods are anything which is plant based, so fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains, honey, herbal teas, etc. sattvic foods are prepared with minimal processing and cooking to preserve their natural qualities. The emphasis here is on simplicity, freshness and natural flavors. Now coming to the second kind of food, which is Rogers rajasic foods are considered with passion, activity and stimulation. They can be energizing, but may also lead to restlessness and increased mental activity. Examples of rajasic food our food which is how you own spices, herbs, stimulating beverages example tea or coffee, certain type of needs onion, garlic, and food which is rich, spicy or heavily seasoned rajasic food is also prepared with a variety of spices and cooking techniques that enhances flavors and aromas. They may involve more complex recipes compared to sattvic preparations. The last category of food is dumb, sick food, dumb sick Ford are considered heavy, dull, and associated with inertia. They are thought to promote lethargy, confusion and lack of clarity examples processed and stale foods, excessive consumption of meat, especially beef and pork, fermented food, alcohol and food that are overly fried or greasy. toxic food often involve deep frying, overcooking and use of preservatives, as you can clearly understand from the examples I've given. Now based on the categories that I have shared with you do an evaluation of the kind of food that you're having on a day to day basis. In case your evaluation tells you that you're having more rajasic and tamasic food, drop some of them and experiment with more sattvic food, I'm sure you will witness a change in your energy levels.
Don't believe me? Just because I'm saying it, Google it out. Understand, experiment and only after you are satisfied to make the change but I'm telling you if you make this a consistent point act as you will definitely notice a change. Most of us can't see food beyond sensory satisfaction. And in order to get that momentary satisfaction of tightening our senses, we end up paying a heavy price in the future. All my life I have followed a simple mantra, eat satwik have no water during meals, and most importantly, fill only 80% of your stomach. Let your senses not rule you and honor your body. Now we were talking about the body and we spoke about food when it comes to body how you can just by altering your food choices bring in more energy to yourself.
Now it's time we understand the energy leaks. From a mind perspective. When it comes to mind. My first suggestion to you is it's okay to be disconnected. If you are a working professional, there's no denying the fact that it's going to be hard to stay disconnected even if you consciously wanted or planned to do it. Work emails, WhatsApp, Team groups, parent chat groups, and to top it all guilty pleasure of watching reels five minutes get into two hours before you know. I know you know the problem. Well, the solution is to stay disciplined and reduce the urge to respond. I remind myself of the concept of distinguishing between tasks based on their urgency and importance. Sometimes we need certain techniques matrixes which are proven so the matrix that I'm talking about is the urgent important matrix also known as the Eisenhower matrix. This matrix categorizes your tasks into four quadrants, urgent and important something which you need to do. First, let us speak about them to understand how you can declutter your mind and close the energy-leaking loops.
- Talking about the four quadrants first is urgent and important. These are tasks that require immediate attention and are crucial for your goals and well being focus on completing these tasks as a priority because if you don't do them, it's likely that the thought of not doing them is going to eat you up. Examples could be a project that you need to deliver by a certain timeline or dealing with an emergency. So think about your tasks and categorize them basis urgent and important.
- The second kind of tasks are not urgent, but important tasks in this quadrant are important for long term goals, but may not require immediate attention, scheduled time to work on these tasks to prevent them from becoming urgent. So if you don't pay attention to these tasks, they're going to move to the first quadrant and become the do first urgent and important quadrant. Examples could be self-care and exercise to maintain your health. It is not urgent, but it is definitely important.
- The third quadrant that this matrix speaks about is urgent but not important. tasks that are urgent but don't contribute significantly to your long-term goal fall into this category. You can delegate these tasks to other people, if possible. And you don't need to feel guilty when you do it.
- The fourth and the last quadrant is not urgent, not important, which is also called the eliminate quadrant. Tasks in this quadrant are neither urgent nor important, you should consider eliminating or minimizing the time you spend on these tasks to free up your time for more meaningful activities. I don't need to give you an example of this quadrant because I know you know it, it's mindlessly browsing the internet without a purpose. You can look up this matrix on Google. But just for your revision, let me just tell you, that the first quadrant was urgent and important things that you need to take care of on a priority basis. The second quadrant was not urgent but important, something that is going to help you in the long run which you need to schedule. Third was urgent, not important, which are tasks which you can easily delegate to people around you. The fourth quadrant was neither urgent nor important. These are tasks which lead to huge energy leaks in your life. It is best to create a schedule or list of things that you want to get done in a week. Even if you have to say no to people, please go ahead and do it. Your energy is your asset you need to protect it at all costs. Now let's talk about the third category which is the category of spirit when it comes to connecting with your energy of beingness and ensuring that there are no energy leaks.
When it comes to talking about the matters of spirit and soul. Let me tell you that you need to learn to enjoy your own company. A lot of us are simply afraid of being alone. However, finding quiet time for yourself is not being alone.
- The energy of loneliness and solitude are very different from each other. Loneliness stems from lack, while solitude is when you are not looking outside for anything, you realize that all you need is within you, the love the fulfillment, the validation, everything is within you don't wait to be acknowledged. The truth is that the people who you are looking at, are themselves seeking the same things from you. How is it going to work out? Then? I'm sure you've heard of this, fill your cup first, so that you're not pouring from an empty cup. But how do you do that? Firstly, heal yourself. A large part of our journey in this lifetime is to work on things that trigger us. These triggers we might have picked up in this lifetime, or they may be coming from earlier lifetimes. While this may not sit well with some of us, it is something that we all have to eventually work on. If we start our journey on our own, we will save ourselves from a lot of pain. But if we don't, then life will throw us in situations where we will not be left with a choice. But to face our inner demons. If you try to understand your triggers, you may not be able to establish that this particular thing is the cause of my anger or frustration or any other negative emotion. It's with time that you understand why you're behaving the way you are, and what you could do to fix it. I realize that we all have something which is unhealed, we are afraid of being alone. Only because we want to avoid confronting them. Look at the parts which trigger you annoy you and dive deep by asking yourself these questions. Why am I feeling this way? Is there anything deeper than just the emotion? What am I running away from as you genuinely answer these questions and seek healing healing will seek you to slow down and take a few moments to work on what your soul needs, which is healing.
- The second aspect that I want to share with you is to nurture your connection with God, the single most advice that I would like to give is to nurture your connection with God. Creating a personal connection can take you places you can't even imagine, needless to say that it will also heal all the pains and aches that you've been through or are going through. You may be a CEO of a company or you may be just a student, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day you are the child of God and you have forgotten that in the world that worships delusions. The problem is that most of us do not want to put in the hard work that's needed to build this connection. We put our logical mind and say that if God loves me, how did he let so and so happen? You will get the answers to all the questions only if you keep him first and build your connection. That energy is always speaking with you. It is just that our senses are not tuned to catch the answers. Tune your vibe by meditation, you will get all that you're asking him. See your journey as a soul no matter what I say what our scriptures say, the shaft of Maya or delusion is so strong, that it is just not cool for people to meditate and invest time in building their relationship with God. I'm telling you that you don't have to believe me. Try it out for yourself. Invest time to meditate and speak to God or the deity in your own way consistently for a month. You will see how he moves mountains for you. Have faith and simply do it not because you want something in return but because you love Him above all.
This is all that I have. In this episode. We spoke about how can we create moments of silence in our busy lives and close the energy gaps. I hope you have enjoyed this episode. I will see you in the next episode. Until then May your soul be enumerated with the light within I will see you in the next episode.