Yesterday afternoon I visited the local Crosswords book shop and spent time browsing through some amazing books. I was so enjoying my Sunday me time that I hardly realized how the day had turned to late evening as I stepped out. Walking down an aisle of steps my eyes fell on a very poignant sight. There was this little boy with a little basket, sitting by a busy street selling the very colorful & delicious Java/blackplum called Jamun in India.
He looked no older than 6 or 7 years. But there he was confidently telling me a price. I went near him, to pick up some myself, but realized his entire basket was really ripe and ready. I watched how he had a little steel glass by which he measured and gave me the quantity I asked for.
I watched his tiny hands at work and I thought to myself this little boy should be holding a book to read or write and here was this child ,selling fruits.
I struck a little conversation asking him if he goes to school, he said the last few years there has been no school, although he likes to study but now he is helping him family this way and this is fun too! There was something in the way he said it, that my heart warmed up to him.
Yes he is right, the school of life has a lesson for each of us at every turn. If we choose to see it so.
Although fate has ordained his life to be so in this now, I blessed him silently from my heart for a better life in time. I salute the little boy’s budding entrepreneurial spirit.
Interestingly , 50% of a person’s bones & 50% of the muscles, are in the two legs. Do walk
▪️The largest & strongest joints & bones of the human body are also in the legs. 3-7k steps / day
▪️Strong bones, strong muscles and flexible joints form the Iron Triangle that carries the most important load i.e. the human body.”
▪️70% of human activity and burning of energy in one’s life is done by the two feet.
▪️Do you know this ? When a person is young, his/ her thighs have enough strength , to lift a small car of 800 kg !
▪️The foot is the center of body locomotion.
▪️Both the legs together have 50% of the nerves of the human body, 50% of the blood vessels and 50% of the blood is flowing through them.
▪️ It is the largest circulatory network that connects the body. So walk daily.
▪️Only when the feet are healthy then the convention current of blood flows , smoothly, so people who have strong leg muscles will definitely have a strong heart. Walk.
▪️Aging starts from the feet upwards
▪️As a person gets older, the accuracy & speed of transmission of instructions between the brain and the legs decreases, unlike when a person is young. Please walk
▪️In addition, the so-called Bone Fertilizer Calcium will sooner or later be lost with the passage of time, making the elderly more prone to bone fractures. WALK.
▪️Bone fractures in the elderly can easily trigger a series of complications, especially fatal diseases such as brain thrombosis.
▪️Do you know that 15% of elderly patients generally, will die max. within a year of a thigh-bone fracture !! Walk daily without fail
▪️ Exercising the legs, is never too late, even after the age of 60 years.
▪️Although our feet/legs will gradually age with time, exercising our feet/ legs is a life-long task. Walk 3000-7000 steps
▪️Only by regular strengthening the legs, one can prevent or reduce further aging. Walk 365 days
▪️ Please walk for at least 30-40 minutes daily to ensure that your legs receive sufficient exercise and to ensure that your leg muscles remain healthy.
Do share this valuable information with all your friends & family members, as everyone is ageing on a daily basis… _
All Fused Bulbs are the Same ! A senior executive retired and shifted from his palatial official quarters to the housing society, where he owned a flat. He considered himself big and never talked to anyone. Even while walking in the society park every evening, he ignored others, looking at them with contempt. One day, it somehow transpired that an elderly person sitting beside him started a conversation, and they continued to meet. Every conversation was mostly a monologue with the retired executive harping on his pet topic, Nobody can imagine the big post and high position I held before retirement; I came here due to compulsions”; and so on, and the other elderly person used to listen to him quietly. After many days, when the retired executive was inquisitive about others, the elderly listener opened his mouth and said, After retirement, we are all like fused bulbs. It does not matter what a bulb’s wattage was, how much light or glitter it gave, after it gets fused. He continued, “I have been living in this society for the last 5 years and have not told anyone that I was a Member of the Parliament for two terms. On your right, over there is Vermaji, who retired as General Manager in Indian Railways. Over there is Singh Saheb, who was a Major General in the Army. That person sitting on the bench in spotless white dress is Mehraji, who was the chief of ISRO before retirement. He hasn’t revealed it to anyone, not even to me, but I know.” All fused bulbs are now the same – whatever its wattage was – 0, 10, 40, 60, 100 watts – it doesn’t matter now. Neither does it matter what type of bulb it was before it got fused – LED, CFL, Halogen, Incandescent, fluorescent, or decorative. And that, my friend, applies to you too. The day you understand this, you will find peace and tranquillity even in this housing society. The rising sun as well as the setting sun are both beautiful and adorable. But, in reality, the rising sun gets more importance and adoration, and is even worshipped , whereas the setting sun is not given the same reverence. It is better to understand this sooner than later. Our current designation, title and power are not permanent. Keeping lot of emotions with these things only complicate our life when we lose this one day. Remember that when the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box. Enjoy what you have today . Have a fabulous time ahead…. 🙏🙏
Practice is to engage and rehearse repeatedly in order to perfect a skill to mastery , but not all who practice acheive the level of an expert even with structured and deliberate practice standards in place . So we can safely say practice makes one better gradually.
A consistent practice of any talent or skill will begin to show results for sure. It could be tangible jump or it could be a little step according to the amount to time, focus and energy given to practice. In time the results could be exponential in its rewards as well.
Practice can be truly rewarding and a great source of confidence.But practice needs not only consistency but also determination in perseverance.
A few tips to improve and implement a practice routine..
Be ready to self reflect so as understand why you are motivated to continue practicing.
Be willing to develop the learners mindset and maintain it.
Be mindful of your behavioral changes as you improve and work on it positively to sustain you.
Be engaged proactively to adjust your practice levels as per requirement.
Be focused to set short and long term goals and work on achieving them.
Most of all…
Continuity of practice is important after achieving a set goal…
In being proved wrong We learn something new What if we celebrate the learning Than criticize making mistakes For mistakes are an error of judgement. It is already happened, in the past What matters is what we make of it Are we ready to accept our mistakes? Are we ready to learn from it to move on? After all instead of fussing over mistakes, Let’s be receptive to being wrong. And care to imbibe a new perspective For then we can be a little less wrong now🙏
A man, who regularly attended family & group meetings suddenly, without any notice, stopped participating. After a few weeks, one very cold night the leader of that group decided to visit him.
He found the man at home, alone, sitting in front of a fireplace where a bright fire burned.
The man welcomed the leader. There was great calm & silence.
The two men only watched the dancing flames around the logs that crackled in the fireplace.
After a few minutes the leader, without saying a word, examined the logs that formed the fire and selected one of them, glowing most brightly of all, and removed it to the side with a pair of tongs. Then he sat down again.
The host was paying attention to everything, fascinated. Before long, the lone log’s flame subsided, until there was only a momentary glow and the fire soon went out. In a short time what was previously bright light and heat had become nothing more than a black dead piece of wood. Very few words had been spoken since the greeting.
Before preparing to leave, the leader picked up the useless piece of wood with the tongs and placed it again in the middle of the fire. Immediately, the piece of wood was rekindled, fuelled by the light and heat of the burning logs around it.
When the leader was about to leave & had reached the door, the host said: ‘Thank you for your visit and for your beautiful lesson. I’ll return to the group soon.’
Why is a group important in our lives ?
Very simple: Because each member that withdraws takes fire and heat from the rest.
It’s worth reminding group members that they are a part of the flame.
It’s also good to remind us that we are all responsible for keeping each other’s flame burning. And we must promote the union among us so that the fire is really strong, effective and lasting. Keep the fire burning.
THEGROUPISALSOAFAMILY It doesn’t matter if sometimes we are bothered by so many messages, quarrels and misunderstandings.
What matters is to be connected. We are here to meet, message, learn, exchange ideas or simply to know that we are not alone
My friend Ali Anani from Jordan proposed an interesting question last evening.
“As a poet dear Savvy I just wonder how much do you trust planning?”
Here are my musings…
Poets and Planning
A poet has a lot of structuring to do… The poet steps out of the box Knowing only too well that thoughts needs to align in time. Without trust in the divine plan there is no way the poet can create. And without a plan that visualizes the bigger picture as much as the little details, the verse will not make sense. So poets and planning have much to do in trustfulness.
Now speaking personally, Spontaneity seems to surge In the throes of a thought wave. Yet much is happens in following the flow. Synergies are sensed In the amalgamation and associations. Of thoughts into verses.
As words then fill the void spaces Making meaning out of matter. Spontaneity too then is preordained in the divine plan And poets are simply messengers Enriching thoughts in a meter of sorts. To make the ordinary words come alive!
Life reflects itself through the things you do, the people you meet as well as in your passions and perseverances, in so many intriguing yet enthralling ways.
One such beautiful reflection I experienced in my travels earlier in France.
A sense of deja vu, a throwback to the fond memories of teaching dances to people in the different places, all thanks to the Dance & the magic of movements.
While visiting France I met my colleague from the world of dance, Celine Maheo who resides in Rennes Celine is a practicing clinical psychologist and an Argentine tango dancer. What’s beautiful is that she is a dedicated professional who uses the dance therapy for helping Parkinson’s patients with their movements through Tango dance sessions.
My interest was piqued, as earlier I had been conducting very similar dance sessions as well, especially remembered our Seniors Dance for Wellness workshops back in India.
So over a beautiful meet and greet sipping cups of hot herbal tea at the Les Grands Gamin at the heart of Rennes, ensued a free flowing conversation where we exchanged notes on each others life. Our passion for dancing was the visible to see as we hardly knew how moments passed by.
To dance is to sense connections beyond the dancing bodies.
To dance is to honour life and its unique expressions in the movements.
Savvy Raj
And when Celine invited me to her next Tango Therapy Workshop, it was an offer I could not refuse. I was actually keen to understand whether and how the cultural differences change the way of conducting and experiencing workshops here.
Dancing can improve the mobility and balance in senior adults. Adapting the dance to suit the requirements of the group, like simplifying the steps, the placement of the feet, improves their coordination, mobility and balance.
The dance session was deeply engrossing & truly inspiring to witness and participate as well. The music played that day stayed with me well after the session.
So the next step turned out to be me conducting a Cha Cha session for them. The challenges of language barriers were surrmounted easily as Celine offered to translate my teaching from English to French.
Everything fell in place beautifully and voila time flew again.We danced a bit of ChaCha that day and also some more in the next few sessions as well. I was told later by the learners how much they enjoyed it.
It was an amazing experience sharing the joys of movements and I thank Celine for her inclusivity in requesting me to conduct the dance sessions as well. And I deeply appreciate all her beautiful learners that I met,connected and danced with. It was a truly warm and wonderful time spent with them all.
After the sessions we would gather together and discuss, opening many more facets of the learning and imbibing. It was a beautiful way of empathising and understanding each other.
Some of the beautiful souls I got to interact with in the few months I was there.
Dance has a way of soothing your entire being and bringing forth and connecting you with the depth of who you are. That is when dance begins to feel meaningful and transforms life. The dance connects established in those sessions is a beautiful memory etched in my heart, that I will cherish forever.
I chanced on these beautiful moments again as I found the photos I clicked back then and I decided to give them a little artistic effect.
All across the world April 29th every year is celebrated as International Dance Day, although every day is a great day to dance!
I dedicate this post to all my dance friends and colleagues and all the dance educators in the world who are making the world a better place, with every step in time.
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