To remember to be kinder to oneself as much as another
Is a habit of a lifetime to cultivate.
It’s good to acknowledge the now
And remember every movement is happening
As it is preordained.
Let worry take a backseat
As well as the need for overt perfection.
Just keep the faith and hope alive in your heart
Simply know deep within…
All is well as it is meant to be.
Savvy
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 Chacha 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 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.
Savvy Raj
Dreams are where everything begins
Dreams are roots of creativity
Dreams are a dance of imagination
Dream it and you can make it happen
Dream a little every day!
Savvy
True Appreciation nurtures
The nature of the individual.
Care to nurture an attitude
Of true appreciation and share
Whenever and wherever you deem fit.
It doesn’t hurt to appreciate in authenticity
You might be surprised by melting walls.
And at work how teams bond along the way.
Savvy
‘Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children‘ Kahlil Gibran
A life well lived
Includes experiences
That makes us who we are.
We are not set in stone
Or cast in iron that cannot mould
Our emotional being cannot be suppressed
We are life living breathing and exploring possibilities.
Our infinite ways of expressions is unique to our being
We surf the tides of changes and flow
And we learn as we go.
Savvy
This is heartfelt share of a beautiful story forward .
Sometimes while performing some duties, does such a thought come to mind that why should I do this work, what’s in it for me?
Contact Lenses
A true story!
Brenda was about halfway to the top of the huge granite cliff. During her first mountaineering attempt, she was breathing while standing on a ledge. While she was resting there, the safety rope hit her eye and the contact lens fell out from her eye.
“What now?” She thought, “Here I am on the edge of a cliff, hundreds of feet above the ground, and now everything has gone blurry.”
She looked around again and again in the hope that somehow she might reach the top of the mountain. But she couldn’t see any way.
She felt panic growing inside herself, so she started praying. She prayed for inner peace and she prayed that she could find her contact lenses.
When she somehow reached the top, a friend thoroughly checked her eyes and clothes for the lens, but could not find it. Although she was calm now as she had reached the top, but she was sad too, because she could not see clearly across the mountains.
She prayed to God that, “Oh Lord, you can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and you know very well where my contact lenses are. Please help me.”
After a while, another group of climbers reached the top peak. A member of the crew shouted, “Hey, have any of you lost contact lenses?”
It was quite shocking, but do you know where the climber saw it? An ant was walking slowly on a twig on top of a rock, and that contact lens was on it!
The story does not end here. Brenda’s father was a cartoonist. When he heard the incredible story of the ant, prayer and contact lenses, he drew a cartoon picture of an ant with the title, “God I don’t know why you want me to carry this thing. I can’t eat it and it’s too heavy as well. But if that’s what you want from me, I will carry it for you.”
I think we should all happily say, “God, I don’t know why you want me to carry this load, I don’t see anything good in it and it’s too heavy as well… but if this is what you want of me, I will definitely carry it and that too with full enthusiasm.”
Nature doesn’t invoke the worthy, it makes whoever it invokes worthy. ♾️
“We remain conscious of God in everything we feel, think and do in constant connection with God. The easiest way to do this is through acceptance and surrender.”
The Degrees that we acquire
Are but an endorsement of our skillsets
But degrees do not define our nature.
No matter the set expectations.
Our behavior day in & out,
Is a testimony to our true education
No amount of degrees can guarantee our behaviour.
Our ways of being and our attitude towards others speaks a lot more…
Of how we apply our education in our lives.
Savvy
An expansive quote on the way of work comes to mind in this now
It’s hard to do one thing 100% better than everyone, but you can do 100 things 1% better. It all adds up.– Jay Steinfeld
A few musings pertaining to the way of continous improvements at work…
Integrity speaks more than words.
Have confidence in your principles
Think of ways to support one another
Collaboration is a great team builder
Working to improve without antagonizing
Take your ego out of changing scenarios
It makes it easier to adapt to changes.
As you lead, help team, to own their work
Help teams to lose their self doubts
Help make their vulnerability a strength
Being understanding than seeming smart
Is important for one and all.
Choose to do good by people all the time
Make space to find authentic resolutions
Create culture to welcome feedback
To allow yourself to know where you are
Nurture, the genuine human connections
Build trustful relationships with one & all
Work will feel totally worthwhile!
Savvy
There is a grace
In the lightness of being
While it is difficult to practice
When one is hurting from within
In acknowledging the now
And in knowing the change is awaiting
Troubles are meant to turn away
Sense there is always better moments
Forging ahead in forgiveness
Makes the moments less dense
And keeps hope and love alive
In the heart of the living.
Forgiveness heals!
2 for 1.
Savvy
Savvy
Peace matters
More than we know
For the heart is never at ease
In the wake of uncertainties & tensions
Allow love and peace to leads the way
Steer towards positive thoughts in this now
And sense your life thrive as you live.
Savvy
Your cells are intuitive and have memory bank of information that is stored both inately and experientially .
How they synthesize and process that information may depend on many factors, especially on how healthy they are and what kind of nutrition they continue to have.
However they are continously in communication with you. Your sense of intuition is a part of their communicative process.So is your gut feeling and even a deja vu.
There is always much listening in to do if you wish to decode these flashes of thoughts and feelings. In fact they are your inbuilt guide and gifts of life. Acknowledge them for what they are.
That familiar feeling of knowing someone or something before even meeting them.
The rush of emotions amidst certain memories may be your intuitive sense of your cellular being getting a higher intensity of messages.
Here it is important to differentiate between fear and intuition… most often fear as a reaction is driven by attachment and led by insecurity, whereas intuition is a calm knowing from an inner voice of guidance and an almost unattached feeling although at times they may overlap in certain situations .
The tense feeling before a certain situation or place person or thing. Can be, you are getting a message across from your survival mechanism .
Your clenched fist or the butterflies in your stomach, the knotted feeling deep within at times, or even a voice screaming from within of lurking danger ahead are all perhaps are a forewarning to be more present in this now that you actually are.
Your intuition sense comes from both the heart and the gut brain. While the gut feeling comes forth to protect you, the heart is expansive in nature for it is known to radiate an aura around you. So no matter how the intuitions come from you can learn to make it work for you as you begin to develop your understanding of it.
The trick is in discernment of what comes from the place of fear and why or from the space of love and why.
A few tips on developing and harnessing your intuition.
1.Acknowledge your sense abilities for they are more powerful than we understand them to be
2.Try an pay attention to the first feeling you get in situations. There may be more to the vibes you get.
3.Work and develop your creative skills it helps to strengthen your intuitive sense of awareness starting with your own breathing patterns.
4 Try to work on being grateful of the gift of life and trust it to be your guide along the way. .
5. Most importantly avoid over thinking simply, be alert and yet receptive as it is always a work in progress.
How much do you value your intuition?
How much do you allow it to manifest itself?
Do you care to nurture it ?
Do you care to listen when your intuitive sense talks to you ?
Or do you choose to ignore it and move on .
Do you recall any instance of how you listened to your intuitive self.
Do share your thoughts…
Savvy
Hold The Door Open
HTDO
Mathews, a hotshot sales manager, on a Sunday evening, was in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The parking lot was packed. Cars were crawling with anxious drivers looking for that one vacant slot. Mathews, sharp and aggressive as he was known to be, spotted a vacant space ahead and quickly zoomed in. He could see another car trying to reverse into the same slot, but Mathews was determined to beat the other man to it. And he did! Mathews felt jubilant – as we all sometimes do with life’s little victories. The old man driving the car was disappointed. He looked Mathews in the eye and continued his search for another parking slot.
Two days later, Mathews was preparing for one of the biggest moments of his career. He was close to winning a big contract for his company. And all that was left now was the formal handshake meeting with the client’s CEO. As Mathews walked into the client’s office and saw the CEO, he felt a sudden sense of discomfort. Yes, it was the same man from whom he had snatched the parking slot on Sunday. And you can guess what happened thereafter. Alas! If only Mathews had grown up with the HTDO habit!
So whats HTDO?
It has probably happened to you before. As you walk towards the door of an office, or a hotel, the person walking in front holds the door open for you. Remember how good it made you feel – if only for that moment.
Isn’t it surprising that although we all feel good when someone holds the door open for us, we seldom do the same for other? How come?
It’s probably because we are all preoccupied with ourselves and obsessed with getting ahead. Here, then, is a life-changing lesson they don’t teach you in any B school – ‘Hold The Door Open’.
The world can be divided into two types of people. Those who push open a door, walk through and let it slam behind them. That’s the 99% of the population. And there’s the 1% who hold it open to allow the next person to walk through. Learn to do that, and you too could join the select 1% club. HTDO doesn’t merely make other people feel good. It makes you feel good too. HTDO translates into a behaviour of helping and caring.
Winning in life is less about naked ambition and more about helping other people win.
Someone once said, “It’s nice to be important. But it’s more important to be nice”
Make a beginning. Hold The Door Open.😊👍🏼
I loved reading this inspiring forward so much that I simply wanted to share.
If there is any of you who would like to share their stories of holding the door open pls feel free to do so.
Focus is being totally present in this now…
Staying true to this present moment calls for attention and focus, inspite of the arising challenges in life & living.
If you can acknowlege life challenges as they come you will accept most pressures are buildup of anxieties about the future state and remembered failures from the past.
So as you play your game in this present moment, you are in your optimum best as there is no pressure actually.
As you evolve know that life is simply working its best to evolve your consciousness in its optimum way.
Your experiences along the way may be a stepping stone for furthering you on your journey in the evolutionary consciousness.
Savvy
Circles of compassion
Creates connections
Bonding boundlessly
From the heart.
Everything flows from love
Creating synergies in synchrony
Between strangers strengthened
In these compassionate connects.
Savvy
Savvy Raj 
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