Savvy Raj

Live Life Lovingly!


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On Team Management

Team Management

Today the world is expanding rapidly on many fronts with shrinking communication time and reachability across the world… and the fact is, organizations are confronted with a multigenerational workplace.

Values and beliefs that was so far held by the world are finding new definitions and for many its difficult to catch up with the changing trends. New words of communication are coined every day and the different generations suddenly find themselves alien to each other.

For organizations to acclimatize to a changing world, the old patterns of thoughts and mindsets need fresh perspective…

Time and again a revision of what’s redundant or what cannot work in a fast moving world needs identification but with discernment as there is much wisdom garnered in the experiences of life and living.

Here are 6 A’s worth imbibing in work places to sustain teams and evolve for the better.

1. Accept

Accept there is a place for every one… be inclusive of the diversity… Accept that the differences are what is unique to the person and teams need people with diverse intelligence to take it to the next level. Every stage comes along with some learnings.

2. Acknowledge

Acknowledge the value of interdependence at work strengthening a culture of inclusiveness. Importance of co-operation in collaborative work cannot be stressed enough.

3. Allow

Allow the expression of new ideas, suggestions and let it find listening ears no matter which team or who it comes from.

4.Appreciate

Appreciate and celebrate the work done, even the little wins help to motivate the team. Appreciation is an evolved method of correction.

5. Align

Align the set of achievable goals of teams with the mission & vision of the organization. More the alignment the faster and easier the channelling of communication by maintaining open communication greater the chance of successful endeavors.

6. Accountable

Accountability is being accountable about to being able take responsibility at all times and own it.

As a Consultant with a deep interest in Wellness, at work this is what I help facilitate day in and out especially so, in these uncertain times.

From applications of art and movements to creating space for dialogues to understand shifting mindsets & perspectives I have been mentoring diverse teams at work places.

Every team afterall, is made of unique individuals but the issues faced as a team are often similar. As a result of interaction & the scope of work different patterns of team dynamics are created.

If you have been responsible to manage teams to collaborate effectively….

Do share what kind of challenges have cropped up in your teams and how have you managed them.

Would love to understand more.

Savvy


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6 ways to make friends with time.

Your past is gone in time

Your present you have

If you are in this now

Every time you are in this now

You create your future.

Power is in this now.

Steer it well.

Six ways you can make friends with time.

1. Plan ahead

2.Make a to do list

3. Be focused

4. Structure your time

5. Prioritize

6. Delegate

But most of all

Be self aware

So make it a point

To be on time.

Savvy


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Heart of Art

Consciously or otherwise,

whether it is…
In Steering the words that flow, toward a larger purpose.
In Channelling the ideas that spring forth
In Creating artworks with a splattering of colours

Art draws expressions from wonder
Art thrives in the heart of the being.
Art flows through in movement & solitude…

When the he(art) speaks, the artist listens
For Art is life and living an art.

Savvy


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Spill Art

Very interesting perspectives…

Spill creates Art

I wonder what makes the mind want to take a spill to art.
What evokes the heart to charge the creator with imagination and energy…
To be able to create such artful associations.

Some learnings from a Spill
To turnover a spill to evolve for better

If a child has spilled a cup of milk accidentally….
To keep calm and address the lesson in the spill like carefulness, steadiness, patience, thoroughness, cleanliness and most of all mindfulness.

What’s is spilled, is spilled already…. what matters is what we do about it.

Savvy

As a child when my daughter dropped a glass of water, spilled milk on the floor accidentally, without getting angry admonishing, I have used it as moments to convey such lessons… so much so that it made her understand the value being in the moment while doing anything.

Great lessons can be taught in such moments and vulnerability can become a strength in time.

Similarly one can intend

To create hope in a spill…
To sense a pattern of possibilities in a spill

To use a spillover to change mindsets
To challenge the statuesque through a spill.

To evoke creativity and art…
To test skillsets learned from a spill

To create art in revisiting patterns & perspective
To spill some more and align the pattern formations.

To move beyond the evident spillover…
To envision hope beyond the accidental spill

To accentuate the spill artfully
To create masterpieces from the potential in a spillover…

To understand there is always a reason why and the learnings to come.
To empathize with the spillings across the learning curve

So the very act of overflow or spill
Or a cup that runneth over
Can be a turning point in itself
With the many lessons to learn.
The choice rests with us.

Savvy

This post is a spillover effect from an earlier share by my good friend Ali Anani, PhD.


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Illusions & Reality


What is illusory ?
What is reality?
What is I and what is you?
Both so intermingled in the intersection.

Creating new perceptions
In the making of reality
Charting through illusions
Decoding the delusions…


Of assumptions of the invisible
Of judgements of the  intangible
Of connections in the uncertainty
Virtual seems true & truth virtual.

Between the apparent realities
Diminish the blurry lines of truth
Many lives are lived, in one life
Or perhaps there are many lives after all!

Savvy


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Serenity of Silence

In the serenity of silence,

Sense the wisdom within!

Emoting in the stillness

To align with your being

A little more in every now.

Breathe and just be…

Savvy

Savvy


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Build Bridges

Time evolves one and all, come what may.
Yesterday’s mountains have become paths today
Love of life will show the way
As you keep building bridges not walls I say.

Savvy


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A day of silence

~ Silence ~

A day of Silence
Can be a pilgrimage in itself.
A day of Silence
Can help you listen
To the Soul play
In marvelous lute and drum.
Is not most talking
A crazed defense of a crumbling fort?
I thought we came here
To surrender in Silence,
To yield to Light and Happiness,
To Dance within
In celebration of Love’s Victory!

~ Hafiz ~

Be silent and sense the stillness

A million moves may be more

Are manifesting in this now

Hear the music unfold its rhthym

Be still and sense the moves

For stillness is full of movements

In the depth of Silence

We witness the dance within.

Savvy


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Mystic of life

A dear friend shared this picture on social Media and it left me contemplating…

We are born to connect

In one way or other

For a purpose larger

Than our individual self

There is light that we have

That we ourselves may not know

The potential of, that manifests

To serve at the right time.

There is always a reason

For this now, so rise above despair

And look onward and upward

The way is forward in faith

To live and help heal some more.

No wonder its said ‘Hands that help

Is holier than lips that pray…’

We are carriers of hope

That pass on for posterity

Our life is intricately weaved

In every moment of our being

Through the echelons of time

For a reason, we may or never know

Such is the ‘Mystic of life’

In all its brilliant manifestations.

Savvy


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All in good faith!

The power that creates

The omnipresence

Is all knowing consciousness

That is there to take care

All of creation

Cannot be without a reason

Trust the purpose

Keep the faith

Faith is all there is

Without faith nothing is

Savvy


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Passion & Perseverance

Have you ever wondered

What is it on your path

That makes you persevere

Like no tommorow

To keep giving all of you…

Something that is on the fringes

Something tangible and yet intangible

It is that which sparks you up

Nothing feels unbearable

Its as if your mind body & soul

Is finally integrated in the sensing

Of the brilliance at work

Beyond yourself.

You will know that when you meet

The purpose of your being

At some point in your life perhaps

In the most unexpected of ways

You will find in yourself

An energy summoned from within

To reckon with to persevere on.

Such is the dance of abundance

Of creation at play

Making life resonate to its cosmic ways…

Savvy


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Tap Into The Inner Wisdom

Our guiding voice from within

Is always speaking to us

Signaling in a whisper or a sign

Conveying what is the’ Gut feel ‘

Our second brain is often ignored

But it operates nevertheless

Resonating or relegating

An advice to our being

If only we know to listen in

We draw from its bank of wisdom

And better manage our choices

In staying integrated in life & living.

Savvy


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Soul Enrichers

Soul Enrichers…

I do believe the journey of life, broadens the mind and brightens the spirit if we are ready to acknowledge the unfolding gifts of connections. along the way.

In my journeys across the world earlier, as a Dance Educator teaching and speaking about dance applications and approaches there have been some amazing people both in the dance circuits and otherwise,who I have had very fascinating conversations with…

I want to share a bit here about some of these beautiful people from across the world who I had a chance connect with, nothing planned,yet meeting them was truly soul enriching to say the least.

Would like to begin the first in these series of posts with Emily Berry who is now a dear friend.

Emily, the beautiful intelligent woman with an Indian Soul all the way from New York … who dances with all her heart and soul 🙂

Emily Berry is the Artistic Director of B3W Performance Group, which has performed in the US, England, Greece, and Mexico...

We met in 2014 Greece, while we were representing our own countries at the World Dance Research Congress.

In her own words…

“I strive to create a safe space for students to learn, explore, question, and become independent thinkers and movers. In technique courses, I address each individual student’s unique body in order to help them develop their technique through muscle re-patterning. Students learn anatomical awareness and tools to help them move past road blocks.

In theory, improvisation and composition courses my main goal is to help student’s find their own voice. Creating a judgment free space is essential so students are not afraid to explore new movement possibilities.”

Professor Aviva Geismar

Berry’s choreography has been tackling such issues as race, the glass ceiling, domestic violence, women in prison, and war since 1995.

Today, brought in a beautiful memory of a time when I had an amazing afternoon walk with her, while at the Acropolis museum Athens.

I remember how a shared a common love for all things dance… got us interacting post our dance workshops and rest just fell in place!

We conversed like we have known each other from years ago…

‘Beautiful places… Beautiful memories ‘💙

Savvy


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Art of Movement

Personally speaking, I have a deep interest in the art of movements, especially the ones that elucidate the flow… perhaps that is why I love dancing but on the other hand I have been equally captivated by the beauty of Tai chi and more so Qi Gong.

The healing energy of movement has often been a subject of deep passion, respect and research for me.

Likewise I am especially fond of the flowing Waltz as well. Since childhood, dancing comes naturally to me but have always found myself grappling to understand why martial art is even necessary.Until much later I started exploring the potency of energy in each of us…through a little introduction into Tai chi as well by conscious choice.

Allow me to present my reflections on this subject in a flow….

In a dance
There is an interconnect
Of emotion and movement
As to emote is to sense
The feeling in the flow…

In dance there is an awareness
Of moving in response
Without anticipation.
As in one step less,
The music moves on
And you are left to improvise
On how to match the steps in rhythm.

Yes, truly to dance is to enjoy the life in the moves.

In martial arts
There is flow too
But a flow that is ever in alertness,
In strategic moves and self defense
The speed and swiftness
In reaction and response.

Martial arts often feels like dance… t
But often the difference
Is between life and death.

Both are connected in the deepest sense and yet distinctive like chalk and cheese.

The intention to dance and to fight…is what differentiates.

We dance to let go, to enjoy this now and celebrate it.
In awareness is a flow that merges in harmony to synch in with now in artistry of the moves

The warrior is fighting for peace for survival against all odds
Not knowing what is the next move but yielding to the now to decipher the countermove and strike.
Here too there is often a display of extreme artistry of motion in accuracy of time.

To learn both, takes dedication and practice in patience.
But most of all is the need for relentless will & passion to persevere .

Yes, there is a dancer in a warrior

And a warrior in the dancer.

Choice rests within you.

Just remember, to dance is to live the moments and explore its most aesthetic potential in the flow… choose not to make dance a fight.

Stay joyful in peace.

To learn martial arts is to get into the arena and survive.
Attack or in self defense with least possible harm to get out of harms way to stay in peace.

Both may have their own relevance in purpose
To negate one is to look at only one half of the circle
Just as much as joy is part of life
Safekeeping the freedom to be
Is equally important in every now…

Do you want to dance in peace
Do you want to fight for peace.
Choice is yours to make
Peace or war!

Savvy.


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WISDOM OF NATURE

Is the beguiling beauty of nature
Meant to have its own purpose
Afterall,everything is connected
Nothing is accidental.

However free in abandon we may feel
In this moment, we are bound
By the laws of nature
And its in these tangible connects
In being part of nature
We are deeply disturbed
By the imbalances of nature.

All of animaldom chooses harmonious
Coexistence with natures laws.
Unlike humans who try to outsmart nature and its ways.
Yet nature nourishes and nurtures itself in every now.
Such is the truth of life and living in nature.

High time to evolve with the lessons
nature shares.
Know that there is always a reason
To the way things are…

What we cannot see with our eyes
Nature of nature, emotes through our senses
Leaving the heart imprints,

Of wisdom in impressions for all of posterity…

Savvy