A state of coexistence
With ourselves and the world
Where we can nurture our best potential
Towards transformations
That envisions beyond compare.
Savvy
Peacefulness
Category Archives: Learning
Love
Love heals like no other
A good measure of love
Is the best antidote
To the grieving heart
True love is accommodating
Without force & compulsion
It’s ever-expansive and inclusive
Love spreads messages of hope
Kindles goodwill in aching hearts
Age no matter love springs forth enthusiasm for life and living
Such is the power of love!
Savvy
Flames afire
Sharing a beautiful message with you…
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.
THE GROUP IS ALSO A FAMILY
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
Let’s keep the flame alive.
Life is beautiful with friends and family.
😀🙏😀🙏😀🙏😀🙏
On Teamwork
Our world is not so perfect
Yet it must go on
And Ants know it best
They work as a team to solve their own set of problems.
All fingers of a hand are different
All are meant to be for a purpose that is not yet visible.
Yet much can happen in coordination & collaboration.
When one that is weak is supported by the stronger.
There is a semblance of balance
In this ball of blue.
Savvy
Prep Matters
According to Psychologists, there are four types of Intelligence:
1) Intelligence Quotient (IQ)
2) Emotional Quotient (EQ)
3) Social Quotient (SQ)
4) Adversity Quotient (AQ)
- Intelligence Quotient (IQ): this is the measure of your level of comprehension. You need IQ to solve maths, memorize things, and recall lessons.
- Emotional Quotient (EQ): this is the measure of your ability to maintain peace with others, keep to time, be responsible, be honest, respect boundaries, be humble, genuine and considerate.
- Social Quotient (SQ): this is the measure of your ability to build a network of friends and maintain it over a long period of time.
People that have higher EQ and SQ tend to go further in life than those with a high IQ but low EQ and SQ. Most schools capitalize on improving IQ levels while EQ and SQ are played down.
A man of high IQ can end up being employed by a man of high EQ and SQ even though he has an average IQ.
Your EQ represents your Character, while your SQ represents your Charisma. Give in to habits that will improve these three Qs, especially your EQ and SQ.
Now there is a 4th one, a new paradigm:
- The Adversity Quotient (AQ): The measure of your ability to go through a rough patch in life, and come out of it without losing your mind.
When faced with troubles, AQ determines who will give up, who will abandon their family, and who will consider suicide.
Parents please expose your children to other areas of life than just Academics. They should adore manual labour (never use work as a form of punishment), Sports and Arts.
Develop their IQ, as well as their EQ, SQ and AQ. They should become multifaceted human beings able to do things independently of their parents.
Finally, do not prepare the road for your children. Prepare your children for the road.”
✏️ Author unknown
Poets & Planning
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!
Savvy
One heartfelt move
Power of one candle to light the darkness
Power of one tree to give shade
Power in one smile to change the mood
Power of one hand to feed the hungry
Power of one kind word to change hearts
Power of one heart to ignite hope in the world
Power of one touch to lift the soul
Just one heartfelt move… makes all the difference!
Kindhearts❤️
Life is precious
Hearts sacred
Rhythms divine
Kindness humane
And in these interconnects
All is truly well & miraculous
Savvy
On Kindness
If only we could realize how valuable it is to be appreciated and supported .
If we could only know how important it is to feel inclusive in our diverse ways.
We must understand that love and kindness is the only way besides adopting a non-judgmental approach.
We must realise how vulnerable life is, but beyond feeling victimized and create further suffering due to negative thoughts
We need to respond with empathy, show unity through kindness and compassionate deeds.
The power of kindness is truly infinite.
KINDNESS IS THE PRAYER IN ACTION.
Savvy
Walking for Wellness
It’s not how much distance you cover
It’s how much you walk with all of you
If you are simply stepping forward as your feet are moving
You will feel drained in time and lose interest soon
As you will feel, it is a chore to do.
If you can begin to sense the way it feels, as you walk
You might be engaging with all of you
Sense the ground as you walk
Time your breath in awareness
Acknowledge the world around you
Witness the changing scenarios as you walk.
As well as the way you are feeling.
Be one with your present movement and your breath
You are on a journey into your conscious self.
Nuture your movements with care consistently.
For they matter a great deal.
Walk for Wellness.
Savvy
A Dedication To Dance
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
Dream
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
Choose well
On Beliefs
Our beliefs are self created patterns
A representation of our expectations
Of how things relate in ourselves
And how the world ought to conform.
It’s our anchor within to navigate
With or without proof of existence
In a sea of uncertainty called life
As much as the challenges of change.
At the meta level are our beliefs are about beliefs in the sensing
At the emotional level it’s based on feelings
At the interpretational level are the opinions, feedbacks that are based in communicating
At the contemplative level its based on predictions in thinking.
But beliefs are within you to choose.
Do know your beliefs can create an ‘Empowered You’.
And you have the power to choose well.
Savvy
Flow through life
‘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
A beautiful story
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.”
Savvy Raj 
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