Makeup & Breakup

(via Dignity of Life Matters the Most no Matter what Age & Stage we are in our Life)

“We need to realize that poverty doesn’t only consist of being hungry for bread, but rather it is a tremendous hunger for human dignity. We need to love and to be someone for someone else” – Mother Teresa

The word “dignity” has evolved over the years. Originally, the Latin, then the later in English, and French version of the words for “dignity” did not have anything to do with one’s inherent value.

We are living in a world where our worth is getting measured between the producers and the consumers. How much are we producing? How much we are consuming? Everything has become so commoditized and commercialized. We are busy producing. We are busy consuming. We are contemptuously immersed in this vicious cycle of production and consumption. We derive a sense of vanity not the pride. We are fatally vanquished in our battle of irreconcilable thoughts. The quantity matters.

Who cares about the quality? We are talking of the quality of life. The volume speaks. Who cares about the silence of sound?

“Everything on earth is beautiful, everything — except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.” – Anton Chekhov

(via Blink Think over Think Straight over Think Again)

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” – William James

The life we live is a life of decisions and it needs thinking. The question that we need to always ask ourselves whether we are thinking the right way, more importantly asking question about our thinking, are we thinking straight or our thinking is circuitous and we keep confusing ourselves.

We usually tend to over think in some cases and other cases; we don’t get into the details before when we try to take decisions. In either way, we might end up on the wrong side of the stick making them mistake from which we wanted to protect ourselves.

The question of how do we think and what is the right way of think. What are thoughts and how do we separate the useful from the useless thoughts that circulating in our mind.

Blink is about what the concept of “thin slicing.” Gladwell defines this process as the moment of time in which we all make snap judgments.

Think Again is a book by Adam Grant about the benefit of doubt, and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong.

(via Self State - Known Self, Unknown Self, No Self)

“The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

Who is this ‘self’ that we keep referring? There is so much we talk on self but what exactly we mean by stating that self in our conversations. Self is that sense of who we are and deep within it is something that defines our identity. This identity exists nowhere else other than in our mind.

We belief it to be our true self and we operate everything that we do emanates from that very premise. When we are qualifying self with that factual statement there must be a corollary to it which is a false self.

This false concept of our self is a manifestation of our ego. The ego is the big thing that controls our behavior and manages our conduct in life. Such is its hegemony that we are forced to operate under the mercy of our ego. We become ego-centric. We become egoistic. We term all these aspects as egotism, which is nothing but an obsession with our own self.  

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. — Michel de Montaigne

(via Work Without Drama & Dialogue – Work Your Way to Success & Happiness)

“Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.“ — Ralph Waldo Emerson

If the purpose of our life to be successful and the meaning to experience happiness, then there is nothing more to loving the work we are doing and we need to keep doing with telling stories. We need to keep doing without entering into unnecessary dialogues. We need to keep doing it without creating dramatic scenes.

We need to remain focus on our work and only work, and there is no the work, every work has its own place in the world of working. We shouldn’t be getting confused between work and play, we are here talking only about work and play has its own place in our life. The problem arises only when we start cooking stories on our work and create recipe on why we are not working our ways in our work.

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

(via The Philosophy of Walking and The History of Walking)

“All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

Walk is agnostic of the places and doesn’t bother about the time. It is a pure form of physical activity, left alone the body will go about doing its business without bothering anybody. But we have the mind sitting on its head. It’s the mind that decisions everything about our walking, where to walk and where not to walk. The time to walk and the time not walk. And more philosophically speaking, the purpose of walking. Why do we have to walk other than walking for our work?

Rebecca Solnit in her book, A History of Walking, shows that walking was more than a mode of transportation back then but has been part of the method of rumination for philosophers to writers to artists.

Frederic Gros, the professor of philosophy who has written the book, A Philosophy of Walking, has literally fallen in love with walking.

(via Living a Meaningful Life & Games That We Play in Life)

“If there is meaning in life at all, then there must be meaning in suffering.” ― Viktor Frankl

The problem is in not understanding the real problem of our life. The problem is we are all playing a game of life and we don’t know or learn how to play it in our turf and play it in on our term. We shouldn’t being playing it too seriously and not taking every small thing to heart and not getting worked out or getting bogged down on matter of lesser significance.

We are so insignificant in the grand scheme of things in this world; our presence is inconsequential to the game of nature. There is this cosmic view of the universe of which we an insignificant part but our part is atomic in nature. The game we play changes the way we change our perspective from that atomic view to that of the cosmic view.

Life is a game, and it’s much more fun if you play it as your own game, so stay light and loose and relaxed. – Bill Murray

(via My New Book "MAP INDEX" Launched...)

The book attempts to answer one fundamental question that gets frequently and customarily asked in every organization. It doesn’t matter what the size or age of that organization. It doesn’t matter whether it a manufacturing or service organization. It doesn’t matter whether it is new age economy or an old economy company.

The quintessential question is that of how to effectively manage the body of business practices that can produce best possible business results for organizations. And it is possible by systematically making those practices to grow to become as “best practices”.

Naturally, the question gets expanded to explore something much deeper. Is there a management framework that can work towards helping organizations clinically “map and tap” into the world wonderful of best practices? After all, it is the practice that makes us perfect and the organizations are no exception.  In order for organizations to perform better in the businesses that they are doing they need the sourcing power of best practices.

(via Making More Conversations but Missing to Making it Meaningful)

Good conversation can leave you more exhilarated than alcohol; more refreshed than the theater or a concert. It can bring you entertainment and pleasure; it can help you get ahead, solve problems, spark the imagination of others. It can increase your knowledge and education. It can erase misunderstandings, and bring you closer to those you love. – Dorothy Sarnoff

The talks are only a precursor what we all want in life is the freedom to express without any fear and the joy of someone out there to lend his or her ear to listen with full attention and empathy. We want a process of reciprocity. This form of engagement is nothing but having a meaningful conversation in place.

We are all craving for meaningful conversation in our life so as to experience the true meaning of living life. This process costs nothing and the execution of the process needs almost nothing to initiate a talk and build a conversation that matters to us.

Conversation should be pleasant without scurrility, witty without affectation, free without indecency, learned without conceitedness, novel without falsehood. – William Shakespeare

(via Emotion, Empathy and Ethic (3E) is what makes the Human Naturally Intelligent otherwise it is (AI))

In 1983, Howard Gardner presented The Theory of Multiple Intelligences when he published his book Frames of Mind. He declared that learning occurred through many different types of intelligences, and human have multiple levels of intelligence. His theory challenged the traditional concept that there is one single type of intelligence, often referred as “g” for general intelligence, which only focuses on cognitive abilities. Gardner introduced eight different types of intelligences consisting of – Linguistic, Logical/Mathematical, Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Musical, Interpersonal, Intrapersonal, and Naturalist.

In 1988, Robert Sternberg developed another theory of intelligence, which he titled the triarchic theory of intelligence. Practical intelligence, as proposed by Sternberg, is sometimes compared to “street smarts.” Analytical intelligence is closely aligned with academic problem solving and computations. Creative intelligence is marked by inventing or imagining a solution to a problem or situation.

(via Action to Traction to Attraction not Digital Distraction)

Action, is defined the process or state of acting or of being active. The work that we do and the way we behave is our action. The Latin root act means “do.”

Traction comes ultimately from the Latin verb ‘trahere’ meaning to draw or pull. Traction is the power that takes us closer to our goal. Attraction comes from Latin attractionem “a drawing together,” noun of action from past-participle stem of attrahere “to draw, pull”.

Attraction is the invisible force that drives us. Distraction comes from the Latin dis-, “apart,” and trahere, “drag.” We are distracted when an object that directs our attention away from something where we want to be there to something else.

Indistractable focuses on the reduction of distractions from the use of digital technology using techniques like reimagining internal triggers to hacking back external triggers. In the end analysis, it boils down to the question of how to spend our time wisely given the digital distraction that is making our life miserable to life.    

We are diverted from something that we want do, distraction is interpreted as we have lost our focus. We need to get back to our locus of control which drives us and make us strive towards reaching our intended destination.

Makeup & Breakup simplifying thoughts and amplifying ideas...

(via Is Consciousness a Profound Quest to Resolve the Perennial Mind-Body Problem?)

“The highest activities of consciousness have their origins in physical occurrences of the brain just as the loveliest melodies are not too sublime to be expressed by notes.” ― W. Somerset Maugham

Life is an embodiment of the body and the mind but how exactly are they connected remains a big question mark. Hence, we have the pressing mind-body problem on our hand. In other words, what is that elusive relationship that operates between the physical properties of our body and the mental properties of our mind?

The physical attributes of our body includes our shape, size, weight to color and the overall composition. The mental attributes of our mind includes our perceptual to conceptual to the emotional experience which is a part of our overall sensory experience. The composition of mental attributes is what we attribute to our state of consciousness.

“Once we have ruled out the impossible, what remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” – Sherlock Holmes

(via Cynicism vs. Skepticism and Hedonism vs. Epicureanism – Philosophical Perspectives)

“Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it” – Karl Marx

Skeptic is a person who doubts things and questions everything. Skeptical means having reservations. Cynic is a person who is derisive and holds a negative outlook on everything. Cyclical is characterized by general distrust. Cynicism is blend of disillusion and pessimism towards any affairs of human engagement. Epicurean is a connoisseur of the arts of life and the refinements of sensual pleasures. Epicureanism implies a love or enjoyment especially of good food and drink. Hedonist is a person who is devoted to the pursuit of pleasure and self gratification. Hedonism is the process of maximizing pleasure while minimizing pain.

“The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself.” ― Oscar Wilde

(via Reading a Good Book once is not Good Enough)

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” – Rene Descartes

Reading is a habit and once we develop it we are into it. The habit grows on us and there is symbiotic relationship, where we grow with that seasonal cultivation of the good habit of reading. We will then not find any good reason to break that habit.

The habit of reading is pre-fixed with good, deliberately done so, as there is nothing bad about reading and even reading bad books is a good habit, may sound oxymoron but it is a paradox we all need to reconcile to ourselves.

This puzzle only signifies that there is such bounty in reading even the bad doesn’t matter, what matters is how much we are reading, we needn’t worry, the learning follows and more importantly, how we are enriching our thinking process through reading.

Thinking is such a vital tool that defines the way we live our life, it is revitalizing, the sharper our thinking the better is our ways of living life. The more we read, the better we become in our thinking and we become more thoughtful in our observation and meaningful in our conversation.

“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison

(via Being Alone without Being Lonely - Art of Living Life)

It’s beautiful to be alone. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. It means the mind is not influenced and contaminated by society – Jiddu Krishnamurti

The feeling of loneliness has become such a chronic phenomenon and we are all feeling the heat, nothing to beat the heat but we are beating around the bush. We have to get off and get going we cannot get stuck there. The problem is that we have cut ourselves off from the world outside and we have stopped living in the world inside of us. 

In this way, we are neither here nor there; we have unceremoniously left our soul in the wilderness leaving the soul alone to its soul searching. The soul needs us and we need to be there with our own soul, otherwise who else, everybody is so busy and those who aren’t are doing the soul searching and nobody has time for other.The physical place is where we create the space for our mental orientation and we need to set our physical place in order. There is so much of chaos that we have created around us it is but natural to attract disorder, it’s an enemy and we will never be able to make friends with order. 

To make sense of things we have to get those things properly organized. We have to then establish an order which might otherwise appear as a deceptive form of disorder. The mystery of life is so much riddled in the cycle of chaos and order. We just need to create that mental space to get that mystery solved and the history of life to get unraveled. 

We are so much obsessed with things and we are so deeply immersed with thoughts we have left no room for such mystery to play out. Rather we are laid off in the game of life as we are living a life with a lost cause.

(via Space that we Operate Make us the Time we Spend)

Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality – Immanuel Kant

We know space and time act as a grid, and hold us together. Philosophers had a perspective on space and time before scientists brought in an altogether different perspective. We used to define our position in a three dimensional space when time entered the scene made it a fourth dimension to define our exact position which changes with time. Without mentioning of time, the space location may appear as meaningless, as we cannot locate an object in a place unless the time is specified. There is both philosophical and scientific perspective to both space and time dimensions.

Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live – Albert Einstein

(via Race for Reaching & Pace for Perfection)

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” — John Lennon

We are running and the clock is ticking. The relationship has got intertwined. This clock is not going to stop by itself. Nobody is intervening to do so, rather everybody is aiming at it and seeing how they can speed up and keep going to reach faster.

The question is where we are going; no one is ready to ask. Hence, we have a world of over achievers. The moot question is whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. The answer is anybody's choice.  

The world is increasingly getting filled with overachieving professionals. They are on the go and they are just going after everything to achieve what they have set in their mind. The mind game, it is the game that is being played out in the mind before it is getting played out in the ground. It is a good thing as that’s the resolve needed to achieve things in life.

Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. – Dolly Parton

(via Walking Make us Think Better and Become Smarter)

“Methinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.” – Henry David Thoreau

The idea that there is a positive correlation between walking and thinking is known but not known. In the sense that many of us walk but don’t realize the impact of walking has on thinking. We walk but we don’t connect. We recognize but we don’t realize how valuable walking is for our thinking. There are  studies that establishes the positive correlation and more relationships are being derived. In turn derivative of walking augments our creativity and segment our writing to being overall wellbeing.

There is this beginning of a positive cycle and that keeps rubbing on us, and we start to feel refreshed and recharged as we  progress with the cycle. It starts with the movement of body but it soon spreads into the brain where the mind gets the mood to move. There is a rhythmic pattern that forms between the body and the mind with the brain getting activated and willfully participating in the physical exercise. We keep walking but we rarely think in this manner but thinking itself gets the booster dozes it needs to get going.

For, as I think I have said, I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop I cease to think; my mind only works with my legs – Jean Jacques Rousseau