Sometimes life gives you beautiful memories where you least expect it from. Or maybe all happens for a reason. We were meant to meet!
A month back, work took me all the way to China. And while some industry visits were happening as scheduled, a small moment of connection and conversation resulted in great joy and camaraderie. Met some very beautiful and loving hearts. We warmed up almost instantly with each other. We shared much about our cultures, our food and traditions. We spoke to each other from the heart all with the help of a translator app. It was such a beautiful flowing conversation. We circumvented language barriers although I spoke in English into the app and them in Chinese. It hardly came in the way. By the end of it what mattered was the joy that emerged. The beautiful moments shared will always be treasured in my heart.
Thankful to the useful translator app that made it so simple. And helped create fond memories of that day!
We can seem totally confident and be raring to go one day and feel completely strained and stressed out on another day.
We are only human and its perfectly ok to feel so.
We don’t have to prove anything to anyone.
It’s our life and we have just this life and this moment with us, if we are not living with joy in our heart then perhaps we have some questions we need to answer for ourselves.
Ask yourself these questions honestly…
Do you dare to be as you are?
Do you express yourself without doubts and fears?
Do you mince words, avoid stepping forward, play too safe
That you hardly dare to live your life?
Do you wear what you like?
Feel comfortable with what you wear
Or choose to conform to fashion trends or what’s expected of you?
Do you eat with all your heart?
Do you binge or fast in guilt or insecurity?
Or do you care to nourish and nurture yourself with food?
Do you check your weight?
To be sure you are in a healthy range.
Or do you find yourself too often on the scales, almost every day?
Do you dare to speak your mind,
To voice what’s in your heart.
Or shut up in fear of ridicule, of what others will say?
Do you measure your words to talk
In fear of being judged or criticized.
Or…to be the best version of you.
Are you happy in your skin
Do you care about your appearance
To the extent that it ruins your day
Or to feel good for yourself.
Remember you are most beautiful when you wholeheartedly accept the way you are.
Do you wake up because you have to?
Or do you have the joy of waking up…
To a new dawn in the hope of possibilities.
Make this moment special the best you can as you are.
Remember every moment in every day is a challenge
It sometimes gets easier or even tougher in the ups and downs.
In my earlier stint of working in the aviation industry, I had the privilege of working with a multitude of passengers day in and day out.
Handling VIP passengers, tough customers and dealing with difficult situations was an everyday affair. But it taught me patience and adaptability on the job and most importantly how to maintain a cool and pleasant disposition no matter the time of the day or the shift you are in.
Beyond the glamour were the grind and the rigours of the conformity in the service industry.
However, there were some amazing takebacks & learnings for a lifetime with regards to people management especially customer service.
Sharing a few thoughts on Customer Care:
The best way to express customer care and what you can give any customer is your undivided attention.
It can be in the form of kind words, pleasant voice, empathetic smiles, nods and eye contact that work to show that you understand their needs or issues.
Psychologically it is equivalent to giving personal time, it aids to comfort people, reassure them, and make them feel good especially in moments of crisis, delays or disappointments.
Remember to avoid mechanical responses, choosing some people as favourites and treating them better.
Aim to treat every one of your customers as important.
Be understated and avoid embarrassing the client with too much emphasis on the care you are giving. Aim to be classy and not overly effusive that it looks unnatural. Customers may even start apologizing for taking your time…
Aim to do your best every time. Your customers may not remember how you did it but remember you made them feel special. And that goes a long way!
If we only could understand
Our so-called imperfections
Are pieces in the giant puzzle
Of life and living
They are meant to match
Another jigsaw somewhere somehow.
We are meant to piece together
Collaborate and correlate
The meaning of life and living
Of existence beyond the bread & butter.
Of what makes us survive
In spite of the insurmountable.
If we could only begin to see
The beauty within us
We would learn to appreciate the beauty
That surrounds us.
We are perfectly defaulted
We are blessedly imperfect
As we are divinely manifested
To be the way we are.
We are but mirrors in the reflection
Across dimensions of space and time
Such is the eternal truth of our being.
We construct and deconstruct
In our imagined cosmos
The truth of our own existence.
We bounce and reflect our perspectives
In and on to each other.
We shine our brilliance.
We mirror perceptions.
We are vulnerable and yet volatile beings
Beaming energies boundlessly.
The task is to recognize the strength of our souls.
In our perfectly imperfect ways
We pattern our world along with us.
We are creation and creation is within us.
Our thoughts are powerful and with it
We are creating and altering the social structure of life itself.
Our world needs each of us.
To have our edges, sawed or not
Blunt or sharp
For actualising the purpose we are born for.
We are way bearers for the future
We are the torch and flame of life
Existence longing for itself.
Life can be fickle and yet very wise
The choice is ours to take.
This is a beautiful painting by my dear artistic friend Rupa from India.
Am visiting France currently, so I happened to send her a photo in the morning of a beautiful magpie on the street in Rennes. Her brushes waxed eloquent on the canvas and painted the beautiful being in my heart for eternity.
Yesterday as I was speaking to a senior faculty at a university here who also nurses a similar interest in painting and photography I was so happy to share my friend’s work with her… I believe love for art and creativity is such a beautiful way to connect with life.
Thank you, dear friend, for taking the effort… it’s such a lovely first impression.💙🤗💙
One who knows the worth of life cannot afford to waste even a single moment of life.
Every step you take towards a more meaningful life for you, makes life worth living in it.
There is much wisdom in integration, in finding meaning in the divergences.
What a poet relates to the truth in humanity.
What a scientist relates with theories of relativity
Are all drawn from the same well,
Of cosmic vibrations,
Of conscious awareness,
Of the eternal truths of life.
Where wisdom flows
There is Universal consciousness
Savvy
Here is a beautiful conversation I came across between the great minds, of Albert Einstein and Rabindranath Tagore…..when the two met and spoke at length.
Do take time to read this interesting dialogue between them in this article link below.
Recognize
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. So a team or an organization is more than just the number of individual members put together.
Reframe
To bring different factions into consideration and consensus it is necessary to reframe the issues in a more inclusive way that speaks for one and all. It is important to validate the needs and apprehensions of all to find common ground.
Reconcile:
All are parts of an interdependent system.
So every move impacting one will impact one and all.
Remember :
The strength is in the interconnects.
So think beyond the immediate self and work towards envisioning & understanding the larger picture.
Resolve :
Be inclusive and expansive.
Be mindful to be positively impactful.
In every organization whenever there is a need to examine the pressing issues of individual human nature and/ or behavior in a team and come to a resolution, it is mindful to be aware of the surfacing of hidden dynamics at play in communication and its impact on personal /professional relationships.
Any mediation is, after all, a process of balancing the ways of engaging, managing and productively finding resolutions that can help make a positive difference towards peace and goodwill.
Art of Self Management for Self Employed & Entrepreneurs
If you are self employed it is certainly possible that you are actually having no downtime at all.
It is also likely that however rosy the picture is to be your own boss the truth is you are overworked and highly stressed as you are unable to delegate as compared to conventional job scenarios.
Maintaining work life balance is a continous work in progress.
The first step is working towards putting a good team in place.
You cannot managealone as your company grows . You need to be able to step back , step in and step up.
Avoid this inner conflict with yourself that as an entrepreneur you have to be hustling constantly all the time.
Avoid burnout… take a mini vacation time to time.
In today’s technological age you can step away and be aware and clued in on what’s happening at work easily.
Remember you are a human not a machine and you need to ease up as well.
Switch off to switch in.
Sleeping well is great way to destress but to boost your brain there is a way to renew your creative instincts
Simply Switch off from regular work
Switch in to a new or parallel interest .
Read explore paint draw dance sing write or research or reflect on complete opposite of what your regular schedule entails .
You will rewire your neural pathways to jumpstart your own creativity.
Had shared it earlier in 2016 but will share this again as I believe it is relevant always.
The Gift of Life …
“When I was a little girl I often have witnessed my dear father see and give great value & acknowledge every little good that is or happens, however small they may seem to others. It could be a with a gentle word, a tiny appreciation or a little compliment.
He taught me one of the most important lesson for a lifetime…to notice, respect and reflect on the good in and around us … and to live positively and think of life always as Plus++++es.
Life is beautiful as it is and it is in us to see it so.”
Savvy Raj 
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