So much for spaces
Gained and lost
Conquered and abdicated
Sensed and enjoyed
Or relinquished in the letting go!
In mindless efforts & attempts at attention one loses track of what truly matters!
Sanity of being and most importantly sensing of life’s moments!
Savvy
Some songs weild power over us
Of playing with our emotions
Of altering reality in just a while!
Merging reality and dreams
Shifting our perceptions and reactions
Making us cry or laugh as we tune in
Some songs bring memories rushing in
Of moments lived and loved
Songs can create moods
Play on our senses
Shake thoughts up
Or make things feel alright!!
Everyone of us may have
Our own special song
Appealing to our senses
Touching base to who we truly are
Have so many favorite songs
That leave lasting impressions
Of life made a little more memorable
All evoked through those untold stories!
What about you?
Savvy
“Many paths present itself.
Every path is infinite in possibilities.
The question is are we ready to walk the path?
And how we evolve, walking the path of choice?”
Savvy
Creativity abounds
Artist delivers
Critiques interpret
Art flourishes.
Every piece of art is a creative signature
Of the soul of the artist
Artworks retain its interpretation within
As they leave the chamber of creation.
Once the art is set free and open
Making it visible and vulnerable
To reviews, critiques or applause
It is open to manifold interpretations.
The inference is never complete
Nor is it free of judgements in assumptions
For how can it be so?
It is nature of art to manifest counter views.
These very varied interpretations
Give life to the art
For as new meaning is born
The art flourishes in its wake.
Savvy Raj
Allow the self to heal
Life challenges, teaches and evolves in the strangest of ways.
When you resolve to heal, all of nature conspires to begin your healing
It is all in the allowance, in the permissions that you give yourself to let go of your inhibitions and hesitations that stalled your healing in the first place.
As you permit your self to move beyond your limitations that you set on yourself, you begin to see the changes manifesting in and around your body, mind ,spirit and in your life!
All things move freely and you flow through…people appear who are meant to help you heal , So give in and allow your self to be all that you truly are .
You are a divine manifestation of consciousness. Remember that and all is well!
Savvy Raj
A personal mantra…
Live the life you love and love the life you live!
What happens to you when you embody love…
You realise your self worth in awareness
You start to give and receive in gratitude
You gradually become a kinder human being…
Your actions gradually turn compassionate.
Your respect for life increases leaps and bound.
You value the power of love in life at large.
You begin to see the larger picture
You know you are born for a purpose.
Your movements become life affirming
Your positivity spreads beyond yourself
You begin to generate joy and thrive in goodwill and gratitude.
You begin to see the meaning in celebrating life and living in the now.
Savvy
Giving your attention without fear or favour and caring to understand what another is saying, before responding says a lot about the person who is listening…
Here is a true incident…
Viktor Frankl, one of the great psychiatrists of the twentieth century, survived the death camps of Nazi Germany. His little book, Man’s Search for Meaning , is one of those life-changing books that everyone should read.
Frankl once told the story of a woman who called him in the middle of the night to calmly inform him she was about to commit suicide. Frankl kept her on the phone and talked her through her depression, giving her reason after reason to carry on living. Finally she promised she would not take her life, and she kept her word.
When they later met, Frankl asked which reason had persuaded her to live?
“None of them”, she told him.
What then influenced her to go on living, he pressed?
Her answer was simple, it was Frankl’s WILLINGNESS TO LISTEN to HER in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT.
A world in which there was SOMEONE ready to listen to another’s pain seemed to her a world in which it was worthwhile to live.
Often, it is not the brilliant argument that makes the difference. Sometimes the small act of LISTENING is the GREATEST GIFT we can GIVE.
How can we choose to listen well?
What are the barriers to effective listening? How can we improve our listening abilities.
A few issues in listening well….or what is called Ineffective listening.
Distraction caused by the difference between speaking and thinking speeds in humans. So if the speaker speaks too slowly or too fast, the listeners may lose the plot.
At times the appearance or personality quirks or the environment changes can create distractions.
Distraction also causes the listener to show a lack of interest through body language like in posture of loss of eye contact.
Overcoming distractions requires keeness to improve and interest in personal development as much as a sense of commitment to the task at hand.
Here are a 5 tips for improving listening skills.
1. Restating . Pay full attention so as to be able to restate or paraphrase in your own words every once in a while, what it is that you have heard so as to make the speaker feel listened to.
2 Prompting . Use short and positive prompts by interjecting them in the pauses … to show interest like .. And then ? So ?or I know…
3.Validating .Express your empathy . Show that you understand what another is saying or going through. Acknowledge the issues faced by another or the feelings as they are speaking. It shows you are sincere in your concern.
4.Pausing . Allow for some gaps in the conversation.. it helps buy time to think for both the speaker and the listener . As it helps process the information. Silences are great tools to let go the unnecessary gibberish and loose-ended talks which may be counter- productive.
5.Shifting . Redirecting a speaker when needed by shifting the topic gradually changes the tone of the discussion which can at times get too aggressive or violent for comfort.
There are so many ways that develops the GIFT OF LISTENING .
Have also found that in practise, the art of listening well involves all of our senses.
After all the art of a great conversation lies in the ability to listen keenly and respond well than simply react.
Savvy
Personally speaking I have often been a good listener… yet I must confess that there are a few close friends to whom I have spoken who are such great listeners that they put me at ease.
It is truly wonderful to be listened to as much as to listen. There is so much healing in the listening as much as in the sharing. I take this opportunity to thank those friends and readers who cared to give me a listening ear and time.🙏
Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet. THICH NHAT HANH
Words of wisdom from the gentle soul!!!
Gentle is the Way
Yes you are born into this world
But how must you be
Now that you are a part of it?
Your time is preordained.
Yet your destiny is in your being
So be kind and gentle with this world
And be the gift that you are meant to be.
Your gifts are in awakening your senses
So be in harmony with the living you
Flow with the now and just be
To receive what this moment offers you.
Tread carefully, hurt no one
To feel the flow of grace in and around you
Yes, Gentle is the way!
Savvy
Kindness and compassion are way beyond words.
It is the conversation of souls.
A consoling touch, a supporting hug,
An unconceited hand of help,
A heartfelt look to show that ” I’m here for you”
Can heal a hurt.
It has the magical power to convert
The curve of the mouth upwards.
To strengthen the heart ,
To induce the power to fight back,
To erase the dark clouds of the mind,
To view hope in the horizon,
To see the brilliance of happiness shine again.
Tomorrow is Another Day.
Another step to move forward.
There is dawn after every dusk.
Anjana
Tommorow is Another Day indeed!
This is a reflection that came my way as a response from my dear mother after reading my yesterday’s post on Power of the Human Spirit.
I simply had to share… the power of hope.
My recent poem ‘The Middle Path of Peace‘ evoked many responses. The following verses are my musings to a comment … Especially the one by a reader on the necessity of war.
I propose here a moment in peace
Through the following verses…
Hate is never meaningful, love is
War is never meaningful, peace is.
To confuse war to be the answer for peace
Is the greatest fallacy of mankind
For the war never truly ends once begun
It sprouts the seeds of hate before it is over.
Yes, wars are fought
When equality and freedom are forfeited
As a privilege of a few,
When oppression and chaos reign,
When pushed beyond resilience,
When backing down is not an option,
For it is, then, a matter of self-preservation and survival.
To confuse victory in war
Is the mark of inexperience.
No one returns from war unscathed.
Casualties are a heavy price to pay,
Let alone the truth of anguish and scars.
Wars are never the answer.
Pain and hurt leave vengeance behind
And revenge brews in spurts
To strike someday.
The heart of man is like a sponge,
Ready to absorb that which flows.
Allow the light of love to flow in;
Let thoughts of peace seep in
Through every vein.
For love heals the hurt and pain
And empathy helps move beyond revenge.
Make art of life and living
For war is just a never-ending tragedy.
Wars are fought for business, sadly.
There are no ethics to war.
To fight is not bravery.
True bravery is in finding a way
To avert the war and build peace.
Savvy
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The nature of nature…
Nature is full of vibration.
Never truly silent
For it is alive with pure energy.
Always a wise companion.
In moments that you need
Some respite and understanding.
Its very nature shows the way.
Seek nature to energize your being.
Seek its freshness of spirit
When the world gets too weary
Every once in a while.
Nature never competes.
It is never in a hurry.
Nature never rushes you
It continues on its path
As it seems meant to!
Allow your own nature
to blend with the bliss of nature.
Sense its synchrony
Envision its endurance
Marvel its magnificence
Wonder at its wisdom
Connect with its composure
Understand its inate balance.
In itself by itself with itself .
In and around you.
Know you are nature
And nature is you.
Ultimate Oneness in the diversity
Such is the nature of nature.
Savvy
The search for meaning
Is never in vain
There is always a meaning
To life and living.
One or a million reflections
May be more
At times can lead
To a miracle in the making.
One or a million drafts
May lead us to a perfect design
One or a million words
May be more…
Can bring on the inner genius
One or a million works of art
May be more…
Delivers a masterstroke.
Each step is of value
And somehow significant
To some one somewhere
As much as…
To the utimate whole!.
If something seems to be useless to one person, there is always a possibility of so many who may find it useful.
Savvy
Often profound meaning arrives from the most mundane and the so called ordinary moments in life and living. For the truth is out in the open but our overworked brain often misses these simple truths for it chooses to search for meaning in the complexities. But what is wonderful to know is that all is never lost… for every step makes a difference matters to the whole some how somwhere.
What seems to be, may not be
What is, maybe not.
What is an assumption, may become a contradiction.
What seems factual, may not be actual.
All is a matter of shifting perspectives.
Savvy
The above image was shared by a friend on social media… it is not a video but simply a still image.
The question is do our perspectives shape our experiences
Or do our unique experiences shape our perspectives….
Just thinking aloud.
Who has not felt ripples
At some point or another?
Life comes a full circle,
With its curves of ups and downs.
In the course of living,
There will be many ups,
Where the ego is boosted
And the spirit seems to soar.
And in the same breath,
There will be many downs
Of grief, despair, and loss,
Sometimes beyond compare.
As life continues on its path
Between nowhere and somewhere,
Between pain and pleasure,
Know there is an art to living.
Call it the wisdom of moderation
To stay clear of tilting to the extremes
Of emotions that manifest
In life and living.
Sense it all, both pain and pleasure,
For what is life after all.
Laugh a little to fill your hearts,
And let your tears flow, if they must.
Just don’t dwell on it for too long.
Move on, learning to flow with life.
You are no mountain to stand unmoved,
Or a stagnant pond collecting debris.
You are filled with the wonders of life.
Just like trees, shed your pain.
Like dried autumn leaves,
Let go of your worries.
Allow yourself to flourish again.
You are meant to flow
Like a stream in the river of time.
You are meant to grow
And evolve along the way.
Choose to care and share
With your fellow travellers
For each life matters, somehow, somewhere,
To one and all, along the way!
Savvy
This poem is dedicated to anyone who is going through a rough patch.
Hoping for the best and sending in loads of goodwill.
Titled: Unshackled…An Artwork By Savvy Raj
Born free we truly are, but we learn to evolve, to move beyond the soul cages of our own being!
When we learn to appreciate the freedom that is ours for the taking, we realize its value in deep gratitude!
“Do not do this… Do not do that…” often these are the words that are entrenched in our brains in the name of effective and good rearing.
We are told for goodness sake to avoid disappointments at all costs and to stay away from failure. Often our programming is tracked for success without a doubt.
Superb indeed! A mindful way of being that acknowledges the good and disregards the bad.
Great, then where is the issue? There should be none at all! However, the reverse is the case, and often as well!
For example, a child very lovingly brought up has to experience and grow in a world of dualities.
There are all kinds of people that make up this world and varied experiences to be had in this journey of life. Preparation of exigencies is thus a necessity after all.
Acceptance and Adaptability
This is the key that we mould from within as we evolve towards unlocking the secrets to a successful life.
Dealing with what must be dealt
Bending in the flow where it is necessary
Standing up for something or someone you care
Steering through a crisis that shows up without notice
All these take nerves of steel and resilience. And never forget to smile from the heart and all of your being.
Life is like that — a taste of bitter and sweet, all spiced with the nicest surprises yet tinged with necessary learnings along the way.
Freedom is being who you are
Everything alive has a right to be all that they manifest with the uniqueness of their thoughts. There is always room for expansion while accepting another as they choose to be.
Self-imposed restrictions may be a discipline necessary for one to learn, while for another it may stifle them if forced in even small measures. Caged by its own thoughts, the soul of the being needs to set itself free from limiting self-reflections to a spectrum of colours beyond.
Break free from the soul cages of convictions that hold you in chains of restrictions and evolve with your resurrection.
Remember, the world is as free as you want it to be. Just take care that along the way, another’s joy you do not steal.
In the acceptance of the free-spiritedness of another being, there is the unshackled lightness of your own being!
Remember you are born free
To be all that you choose to be!
Savvy
Savvy Raj 
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