Smile Please !!

In the Wellness Program I attended few weeks ago, I gathered several useful pieces of wisdom. Here is one such gem. Enjoy !!

Smile Please !!

We have all heard about “Laughter being the best medicine”. Personally you ask me, when you really need medicine, you are in no position to laugh about it. A better version would be “Laughter is better way to avoid medicine”. But we aren’t talking about laughter here. Sure there are laughter clubs all over India (if not world) but I’m talking about Smile. Surely you know the difference 🙂

During the period in between two sessions of our Wellness Program, I over heard this conversation.

Student : I have this constant headache.
Counselor : That is because you don’t smile. I haven’t seen you smile even once during last three days. What are you worried about ?
Student : I’m not worried about anything, I’m having a good time. But I’m not a kind of person who smiles for no reason
Counselor: Then you should. Seriously. Force yourself to smile. Since you are frowned all the time, you build up this tension. You forehead is always wrinkled. Just smile physically, even if you aren’t feeling like smiling. This will help relieve the tension.

I never go to hear the aftermath, whether the student did take up smiling (I did see her smiling at least couple of times during rest of the program, so I guess it went well)

But this advice stuck with me. Whenever I’m feeling low or angry (and I’m alone) then this advice comes back to me. I have tried this several times since the program, and I must say that it has worked every single time.

It is funny really, that I am really angry, boiling mad at something (or someone) but I’m physically smiling. As soon as I smile (OK, may be not as soon as, but soon enough) my emotional state changes to far better mood.

Till few days ago, I used to think emotional state of happiness brings out smile in people. But now I have realized that a forced smile, also brings up emotional happiness.

Please try this, and let me know if it works for you.

Smile Please !!!

Posted via email from Mandar Vaze’s Posterous

Beggar and The Pot of Gold

Image by vgm8383 via Flickr

This is another story I heard during one of the personal development courses I attended recently. You can read the previous one here

Once upon a time in a small town in India, there was a temple. Several devotees visited it both in the morning and in the evening. After a while, one of the very poor person from some nearby place came there. He had lost everything he had. He collapsed outside the temple. People being very nice, helped him with some food, water. He started getting better, but he had no where to go. He setup his bed under nearby tree. Passersby started giving him some money. Eventually, he got better, but by now he had become comfortable being a beggar. He did not try anything else, since he was doing OK just begging.
People did not like having a beggar outside the temple, but they continued to offer him small change out of habit, and out of their goodness.

After a while, the beggar died. People arranged for his last rites. Then they decided to clean the beggars place so that there won’t be any more beggars outside their temple.

They cleaned the place. But then the decided to just dig up the place while they are at it, and just be absolutely sure. After a few strikes, they hit something. After careful examination, they found a pot full of gold coin. (They used it renovate the temple)
Poor Beggar, he was sitting on a pot of gold his whole life, but never realized, and continued his life begging to people for his day to day survival.

Several of us go through life unknowingly sitting on a pot of gold (our skills, unique abilities) never realizing it.
What can we do to uncover the hidden potential, so that we don’t end up like the beggar in the story ?

Please share your views in the comments.

Posted via email from Mandar Vaze’s Posterous

A Man and The God

Image via Wikipedia

Image via Wikipedia

I heard this story during one of the personal development courses I attended recently. I think it is worth sharing with you all.

There was a man who constantly complained to the God that there is so much misery in the world, and that the God is not taking care of the World he created in the first place. The Man just complained and whined and nothing more.

Then one day, The God appeared to him in his dreams. The man complained “in person” to The God. After all, how many times does one get to talk to the God, even if it was in your Dreams. The Man made full use of it. The God listened and He smiled. He Said : “I created the world. Sure there are unhappy people in the world. But I also created You”
That was it. The Man woke up from the Dream. God always speaks in mysterious ways. The Man had no clue what the God meant. He was just happy that he could complain to the God Herself.

Days Passed. The Man was back to his routine on whining. After after a few days, there was another dream.
The Man saw that there was a wounded Fox, who could not hunt for food. The Fox was weakening. The Man thought : “I was right. There is so much sadness in this world. The God isn’t doing his job”. Then he saw there was a lion(ess?) who had hunted a dear. The Lion ate just the portion of his kill, and left. The wounded fox was near by. As soon as the lion left, he quickly approached the carcass, the ate rest of the dear.
Now the God appeared, and said to the man : “I created this fox, who is now wounded. But I took care of him as well. I made sure that even in his physical condition, he gets to eat.”

The Next Day, the man decided that he need to do anything. He just strolled around the house. Did not go to work. The day passed, he got hungry. But no one served him the food. He was sad. Since he had not eaten through out the day, he felt weak, and dozed off.

In the dream, the God appeared to the Man. Man started complaining again : ” God, I trusted you. Yesterday you told me that you take care of everyone. .. and today, I had to go hungry the entire day. That is not fair”

The God smiled and said : “I did not make you the Fox. I made you the Lion”

I think this is very thought provoking story. Lot of us go through the life thinking that someone will help us. But how many of us realize that “We are the Lion” ?
Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Posted via email from Mandar Vaze’s Posterous

Virtues of open-mindedness

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

I came across this article in New York Magazine, which talks about how US President Mr. Obama is talking to “everyone”, not just the “regulars”.
The following quote from the article is worth pondering :

spending too much time in the company of like-minded people serves only to exaggerate your own views and make you less tolerant of differing opinions.

Read the full article here

Cross posted from my Posterous blog

Customer Service

Another episode my my own life, and what I learn from it

What is Professional Behaviour ?

Honor Your Verbal commitments

Lot of my posts are inspired from  real life incidences, and what I learn from it. This one is no different.

How Long Do You Hold a Grudge ?

We have all been there. Once in a while, something goes wrong, and you start not liking the person. But life moves on, and hopefully you forget about the incident that caused the grudge in the first place. But do you let go ? Following real life incidence provoked me into writing this post