Mansi Dupte

“I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.”

- Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Hello, guys! How are you? I hope you all are doing great & awesome! Welcome back to my ‘finally a new blog 😊I am so sorry, I was stuck between so many things, and I didn’t get a moment just to sit down and write my nonsense babbling which I’ve done in the last 6th blogs! Sorry, just kidding 😉 I know, my blogs have been helping you guys, and that feeling makes me the happiest in the world! I hope every piece of content that I write makes you feel relatable and extraordinary.

So, let me tell you the very first thing that- this blog is going to be all about going back to our basics, to our roots, and to who we are fundamentally? This blog is not going to be a solution-oriented blog where I will list the things that I practice or anything like that! But it is going to be something very special to my heart and yours as well because I very well know you😉This blog will give you a feeling of realization that; you love and admire. I hope you feel my every word.

Do you remember those days when you used to play all day long in that scorching sun in summer vacations with your friends and used to come home only for lunch and dinner? Do you remember those days when your father used to bring the sweetest, and crunchiest garma-garam jalebi’s from your favorite store while coming back home from work for you and your siblings? And then you used to count every piece, comparing the number of pieces you had on your plate and your sibling?  Do you remember those days when you used to giggle and laugh out so loud while watching Shinchan (the cartoon) with your sibling because you genuinely loved his non-funny jokes, and you used to become all giddy and uncontrollable?

I remember all of those days, clearly and perfectly. And I know you vividly remember them all, too! But do you know the reason why you retain all of them? Think a little more? Ahh-haa, come on! Okay, let me tell you- The reason you remember them all is because you lived in those moments from the bottom of your heart with rapt attention and concentration. You enjoyed those moments so minutely without even thinking that will I get all these moments back again? You observed everything that was going with and around you and then packed all of those memories with you and placed them safely somewhere in the back of your mind while growing up.

The saddest part is that once those fleeting moments go behind you, they never return. You, me, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed them, but we never get a chance to relive them again. Sometimes, we go there back to seek peace and calmness, but when we return to reality, we feel regret and sorrow, since we feel, “I can’t go back there at least once and enjoy them to the fullest!” Even I think this too!

No one can ever checkmate time because life is a checker, and the most decisive player opposite you is TIME! Time never returns. But do you know one thing which is oddly surprising but equally mesmerizing that I’ve discovered in my life lately that is- You can relive those passed moments again which you feel nostalgic about and always thinks that they can never be relived again!

And do you know how? Just by recreating them. Yet, again, by completely living in the moment. By giving your 500% while doing every single task. By providing your rapt attention and focus on the things you do regularly. Yayy, it is possible. Let me make it simpler for you- While writing this blog and pouring my soul delicately and slowly in my writing, I feel the 11-year-old Mansi writing her first poem on a piece of paper, scribbling and trying to justify her every emotion through her words. I feel her. I think the exact motion of her doing this task for herself by forgetting the tick of the clock and the distracting noises of her mother cooking food in the background. I am recreating and reliving that moment again since I am doing the same thing, i.e., writing, but only the dimensions of my surroundings and amenities around me have pretty much changed. I feel her with absolute purity and vibrating energy she always had in herself.

You can do the same every day. While performing your favorite tasks, think about how that little you may have done this. With how much attention and focus? And then focus all your thoughts and energy on that process, and you’ll feel absolute peace and pleasure, my friend, that I guarantee you!

So, take a day off and forget about all the work you’ve already scheduled for the week, go out in the scorching sun, and play your favorite childhood game with your friends. Save some money, and go to your favorite childhood store of yours and buy plenty of garma-garam jalebis for your whole family. Sit with them and enjoy it to the fullest! After dinner, ask your sibling to sit beside you and watch your favorite episodes of Shinchan and once again become all giddy and happy from the core of your heart. Recreate your favorite moments and relive them again!

Yes, every passing moment of your life, you can recreate and enjoy it from the depth of your heart and soul. Please, don’t let that beacon of light inside you get lost again. Please, don’t let that little child inside get lost his way, again😊

I hope you thoroughly enjoyed reading this blog and understood what I meant to say! So, please just click that little heart button on the right-hand side of your screen. And yeah, don’t worry, I’ll keep coming back to you with more such blogs😊

“Happiness is a choice, not a result. Nothing will make you happy until you choose to be happy. No person will make you happy unless you decide to be happy. Your happiness will not come to you. It can only come from you!” – Buddha

We are living a life, where we all are so attached to materialistic things that we end up feeling disappointed every day. Our desires are so much attached to the external things around us that we’ve forgotten that the only person on the earth who can make us happy is no one but ‘us’. Only we can make ourselves happy, and no one else can do that for us. Easily being relied on the other person or factors to make us happy is mere foolishness. This habit makes us dependent on someone else to make us feel absolute joy, and when we didn’t get that joy from them, we easily become disappointed and unsatisfied, because of their actions.

We tend to search for happiness in everything around us, and that is the natural human tendency. But the bitter truth is that happiness lies in our perspective not in those things in which we search for it. The best example of this is- We expect our best friend, spouse, or girlfriend/boyfriend to only spend time with us & with no one else! But is it practically possible? No, it is not! As like me and you, your best friend, spouse, or girlfriend/boyfriend has various human relationships with other human beings so he/she will always try to retain those relationships organically. That is his/her natural behavior just like me and you! So why do we get upset easily when they spend time with their others? The sole reason of feeling upset, unhappy, and insecure is because we didn’t see them as an independent individual who has his/her own life. We are dependent on them to make us feel happy by their actions, which is completely absurd and meaningless. The day when you’ll start seeing them as independent creatures of emotion, you’ll accept the fact that they have a life just like you and me! And to retain a great life they have to sustain organic and happy relationships with others! This is the only fact you’ll have to accept, to become happy from within rather than being dependent on them to make you feel happy!

“Everybody in the world is seeking happiness- and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn’t depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions” Thoughts are basically everything! But the most uneasy and difficult task is to control them. And we all have two minds- a thinking mind and an observing mind. (Which I just got know about yesterday:D so let’s keep that for another blog:p) There are 3 ways I practice to ease down my thoughts, take absolute control of them, and generate happiness from within-

1. Always have a smile on your face

Having a smile on your face even in the hardest times helps to ease down your thoughts. It also helps to calm the mind and the continuous chatter going on in your thinking mind. It gives you immense power to tackle the situation and helps you to stand strong on your feet once again. Try this and you’ll immediately experience the change of energy within and around you.

2. Accept it!

Sometimes, life loves making you all run out at once, but the only key to coping up in situations like these is to accept the fact that- it happened! Even though things have not gone in the way you wanted them to & not going the way you want them to! Accept it! Acknowledge them give them the importance they’re asking you to give. Move on. And start thinking about the happy moment you deserve, which is on its way to happening in your amazing life:D

3. Focus on the solutions!

Every day is a challenge. From getting up from the bed to walking that two steps seemingly one mile to that bathroom and splashing cold water on your face are extremely hard, trust me:p But we have to do it, every day, no matter what! The same is with your life. There is not a single day in your life when you are not challenged or don’t have a problem to deal with. But rather than focusing on the problem, if you focus more on the solutions of it, you will become more happy and satisfied. Always think about what I can do in this situation? And you’ll get your desired answer quickly! The psychology here is that- when you order your thinking mind to focus more on solutions, it immediately becomes excited and energetic, to get the task done for you. And then the magic begins...

You might be wondering what is this best habit I am talking about before going to bed. Is it skincare? Yes, skincare is important but still, it is not what I am talking about. Please guess! Let me give you some hints- this habit is easy to pursue, anyone can become fond of this habit quickly, this habit gives you intellectual power, empowers you to be a good human, and it also gives you knowledge which no one can take from you. You might have guessed what I’m talking about. I am talking about; READING. This is the best habit everyone should have and should exercise every day. Reading books, magazines, comics, newspapers, etc helps you to have a clear and clean visualization. Reading makes you aware. You can read anything, but you should read like you’re reading this blog now:). Reading is indeed the greatest habit to pursue according to me. Reading helps you a lot to grow your mindset and thoughts. Reading gives you the direction of thoughts. It helps to have rich thinking and a positive attitude towards things.

There are some great physical and emotional impacts of reading on your body, like reading strengthens the brain, increases empathy, prevents cognitive decline, reduces stress, aids sleep, alleviates depression, lengthens lifespan, etc. In 2009, some researchers measured the effects of yoga, humor, and reading on the stress levels of students in demanding health science programs in the United States. The study finds out those 30 minutes of reading lowers blood pressure, heart rate, and feelings of psychological distress just as effectively as yoga and humor did. Regular reading is a must. A regular reader sleeps better, has lower stress levels, higher self-esteem, and lower rates of depression than non-readers. Regular readings improve brain connectivity, increases your vocabulary and comprehension.I read every day before going to bed without fail. My mother introduced reading to me. And it is the best thing I have ever encountered. Some of you may think of making it a habit, but are not dutiful towards it and thought I’ll do it later but didn’t, and that’s not good at all. You should be dutiful towards it by pursuing it daily. When I started reading I loved the process of turning every page with curiosity to find out what happens next? Or where this story is taking me? And when I discovered that joy of reading I feel, I fell for it the moment I completed my first book. I read in multiple languages i.e. In English, Marathi, and Hindi.

Whenever I grab a book to read or anything that comes in my hand, I make sure that I read it with certain seriousness and depth to understand each word I read. If it interests me and increases my curiosity I make sure that I read it till the end. The joy of completing a book or an article takes me to cloud nine. That feeling is so overwhelming and satisfying at the same time. It feels great whenever I complete reading a book or an article or a long post. I tell about the things I read to my parents, friends, or anyone whom I feel “they should know about this.” And they resonate with what I tell them.

Reading gave me clarity in my life. It also gives me a beautiful escape from the reality that results in making me happy and my mood too. Some thoughts written somewhere are so great that they hit us hard; they resonate with our life and reading them out is mandatory. I am a polygamist and altruist reader. I was recently reading three books from totally different genres at the same time. Right now, I am reading two different books from different genres- 1. The perfect look by Blake Pierce (Psychological fiction and 6th sequel from the series of books), 2. You can win by Shiv Khera (Self-help and motivational). I am reading the 2nd book slowly and calmly so that I could keep everything with me and understand the author's perspective, and I think self-help should be read-only when you’re functioning systematically.

You can start your reading journey by reading books that are written in easy English which will help you to understand English far more easily. You can start reading by reading books of Sudha Murthy and Ruskin Bond which are easy to understand. They’ll help you understand many different attributes of life in simple and easy-to-understand English. There are 21 most popular books genres like action and adventure, classics, comic book or graphic novel, detective and mystery, fantasy, historical fiction, horror, literary fiction, romance, science fiction (sci-fi), short stories, suspense and thrillers, women’s fiction, biographies and autobiographies, cookbooks, essays, historical, memoir, poetry, self-help, and true crime. The best genre for me is FICTION; because this genre leaves you in complete awe and makes your jaw drop. You are dumbstruck by the story the author wrote and that is the power of fiction. The main genres of fiction are crime, fantasy, romance, science, western, inspirational, historical, and horror. Even though I love fiction I also prefer non-fiction occasionally, to give me some reality-check. Explore all of these genres and find the one which makes you feel good. So start reading you will love the process and you will also experience better sleep at night since reading is the best habit to pursue before going to bed.

We live our life just the way we think, we crave. Craving for something is the natural emotion every human has. We crave because we desire. We desire because we want things to happen in a certain way. Having strong desires for something is never wrong, and it never will be! Desires are part of us. They are part of our thinking, mentality, and psyche. Wanting something to have, to possess is a natural human tendency. There is nothing wrong with it. According to the oxford dictionary, desire means- a strong feeling of wanting to have something or wishing for something to happen. But the problem occurs when we get attached to everything we desire, we crave. Attachment means ‘to be fond of or to give something more significance’. It can be anything, a person, a thing, or anything we think of.

Overthinking starts when we get attached to everything around us. We think about everything we have and we have not. While we overthink we judge, we compare things with each other. Even though things are not related to each other, we make them look inter-related when we overthink because we make our minds accept that; ‘what I think is completely right. So there is no need to be patient and then finalize a conclusion. Overthinking simply means ‘to put too much time into thinking about or analyzing (something) in a way that is more harmful than helpful, and this is exactly what we do.

The symptoms of overthinking are:· You experience repetitive thoughts.· Your worrying keeps you up at night.· You struggle to make decisions.· You start doubting yourself so much that you become harsh on yourself.· You second guess decisions.· You are constantly thinking about something which affects your mental peace.

The above-given symptoms are initial stages symptoms of overthinking. They can get severe when you overthink for a long period. But what is the solution to this? Is it possible to overcome overthinking? Yes, it is! To break that toxic relationship of overthinking with your mental health is possible. It’ll take time, but you’ll heal. The given below are the 7 easy to do steps I follow personally, whenever I feel like I am overthinking.

THE 7 EASY STEPS THAT I FOLLOW TO OVERCOME OVERTHINKING ARE:

1. TEN DEEP BREATHS: When we do deep breathing we feel lightness. We feel calm and relax. Deep breathing helps us to analyze everything going inside us. It helps so much to overcome anxiety and stress. Whenever we overthink, we worry. So if you feel like you are overthinking. Immediately sit straight, keep both your palms on your thighs and take ten deep breaths. This helps instantly to pause overthinking and do something productive.

2. READING EVERY DAY:Reading books every day at least for thirty minutes to one hour completely diverts our attention to something else. Reading helps us to grow mentally and emotionally. It is an adventurous exercise to practice every day for our brain. Reading empowers us. It gives us wings to fly in our vast ocean of imagination. It also helps us to escape reality for a while and to live in our world. Novels, fictional stories, and self-help books help us a lot to discover different areas.

3. LIVING ON THE LEAP OF FAITH:Whenever I feel low and I worry about something constantly, I immediately give myself a thought that “Everything is going to be fine, just trust the process” I recall the memories of struggles of the people I idolize, for example, my parents, teachers, mentors, etc. Those memories act as an antibiotic that cures my thoughts of despair. Their struggle gives me will power to stand strong. You can also do the same.

4. COMMUNICATION: This way is one of my favorites. Communication is one of the best ways to reduce stress. When I talk with my beloved ones and share the thoughts and feelings I’m feeling at that moment or from some days, I feel good and happy. I smile feeling delighted. I talk with anyone I feel like for example, my parents, friends, teachers, mentors, etc. Try this out and you’ll understand the power of communication. Communications are best only when they are unfiltered and done hesitantly.

5. WRITING:Writing is underrated because it is hard. When we start writing our thoughts on paper, it suddenly becomes hard; describing our thoughts in actual writing becomes hard. Writing our problems or thoughts on paper helps us to get organized. But the one, who writes, easily maps out the way and reaches the solution. Writing is powerful. You can write about anything you feel like, it might be your problems, thoughts, or anything else. Writing your thoughts on paper makes you an organized person. It makes your thoughts more efficient and descriptive.

6. MAKING A TO-DO LIST EVERY DAY:Making a to-do list every day keeps you busy and engaged. A to-do list helps you to get the most of the things done quickly and proficiently out of the day. It also helps us to sort things out easily. When you make a to-do list, at the beginning of your day, and keep it in front of your eyes, you consciously complete those tasks written in that list. This keeps you busy from those repetitive thoughts and provides you a sense of satisfaction to become happy.

7. INSPIRATION:We all lose the motivation to work sometimes. A ted-talk or josh talk or a motivational video help you in that situation and gives you the power to work. Watching motivational and inspirational content broadens your way of thinking. It changes your attitude towards life and the perceptions you are having of things in your life. Sometimes it might be watching videos of your favorite content creator and their journey so far helps you to feel better and removes those disturbing thoughts from your head. Listening to podcasts also helps a lot. Remember this, “Motivation works for you only when you start working on yourself”.

Everything is falling apart; this is the feeling everyone is having right now. But there is always sunshine after rain. There is hope waiting for you to become the best version of yourself, but right now you are in the process of becoming. It will take some good enough time to become. But how to face those emotional challenges? How to get rid of them? How to tackle them out? Here is the solution! The 7 amazing ways to become mentally tougher. So those emotional and mental challenges you’re struggling to get rid of will stay away from you. Being mentally tougher is so crucial for our physical and emotional well-being since it makes us stronger and helps us to be brave, courageous.

7 MOST AMAZING WAYS TO BECOME MENTALLY TOUGHER

1. Get an emotional trash can:We have only one human body, but we are living so many different lives at the same time. We are exhausted from the things happening with us in our unpredictable life. We are also becoming harsh on ourselves. That’s why our emotional well-being is always disturbed. Sometimes we stress about so many things at the same time. And we also get instantly worried about silly things. This leads us to a state of eternal confusion, which makes us depressed. So to get rid of this by have an emotional trash can for you. This means to do something which you love and your heart says; it helps a lot. For example, you are worried about something and that is causing you emotional pain, so write it on paper clearly and accurately. Tear that paper in small bits and throw those pieces of paper in the dustbin; it gives so much peace. Try this out.

2. You have the power of “CHOICE”:Everyone is always available to make decisions for us, even though they are not taking the decisions for their life. Everyone is always too ready to judge us, to give us advice but how many of them follow their own advice in their own life? Some people we didn’t even ask about confidently say, “Your choice is wrong, so your decision!” But there is no such thing as the RIGHT CHOICE. IT’S A MYTH. The right choice is what you as an individual honestly feel about something and decides to have it or not. So rather than listening to others, listen to yourself first. Remember you have the power of “CHOICE”, so do what you feel is right.

3. Get done the difficult things first:For all your life you have been taught to do easy things first, but doing easy things first makes you more anxious about the difficult things you have to do at the end even though you feel like running up from those things you are part of. So it’s always better to get done those things you hate or you are afraid of. When you overcome your certain fears, you become more confident which boosts your energy and makes you feel good and happy. So it’s always better to get done the difficult things first; which are undeniable even in the end. For example, you are afraid of being a leader of so many people, try to overcome it by being the monitor of your class or your friend's group. This is how you can improve to be better.

4. Do exercises and meditation:Exercise and meditation help you to relax and empowers you to take the quick actions you need in your life. Exercise is physical training that trains your body to have a fixed routine. Meditation gives you stability, consistency, and a healthy outlet to become less negative in the most difficult situations. If you do it regularly, you have clarity of thoughts, contentment, and peace. Twenty to thirty minutes of cardio exercise or warm-up boosts you for the rest of the day. Fifteen minutes of meditation every day helps your brain to make better decisions and to be strong in the worsts.

5. Learn to lose gracefully: Failure is the first step of success. Failure teaches you a lot if you’d wish to learn. Losing something doesn’t mean it’s the end of life. Losing is a part of life. And it’s okay to lose; if you try to learn something every time, you’ll always learn the most from your failures. Your mistakes will teach you what you’d lost! Ask yourself- What is the lesson here? How do I move forward? Keep practicing these self-analysis questions, to keep in check with you. It also gives you a vision about what to do next in your life and how to do it. So learn from your mistakes. Accept your failure and learn to lose gracefully.

6. Practice gratitude every day:There are so many things for you to be grateful for. Gratitude brings joy. Practicing it every day makes you conscious of the things you possess. You are privileged to have so many things right there in front of you. You already possess so many things you are unaware of, write them down, list them up to understand that you have so much in your life. Either cry for not having something or be happy for having enough. Do journaling about the things you are grateful for every day, it will make you smile. When you are in the most difficult situations of your life, read them aloud they will give enough satisfaction to carry on,

7. You cannot control everything: Many things happen in our life; which is uncontrollable. Sometimes we are so frustrated that we ask questions to ourselves that why I have them as my parents or friends? Why they are in my life? But we don’t have the power to change certain things in our life, that doesn’t mean to feel upset about it. It’s all about getting up giving your best and fighting back. Whenever you feel that you are losing control over something, ask yourself- Can I do something to make this situation better? If so how? March towards that situation with your best weapons and give your best to change it. But if nothing is in your hand to make it better, and then let it go and relax. After all, you cannot control everything!  

YOU ARE A HUMAN FIRST THEN AN INDIVIDUAL

“Who are we as human beings, if we ignore the suffering of others?”

In this world full of living beings we all are somewhere lost in our own world. We constantly think about ourselves and our lives. We are so lost in worries that we have forgotten that there is a world beyond our life, beyond our thoughts, beyond ME and MYSELF! There is a world that consists of many people where some are known and some are unknown. There are also different types of species that are living just like ME, in this world with life. Our so-called modern and busy lives are just living without love and care in this world. This has made us self-centered and self-deceit. We are lost in a world that is self-made by ourselves. In that world, we only think about our PAST and FUTURE. In that world, the PRESENT did not exist.

The self-centered attitude is taking us towards misery. We are not even sparing a minute from our lives to look around and ask our self, what is happening around us? Is everyone happy and doing great in their life? Can I help them with something they might need from me? Is there any way I can spread more love and satisfaction? Usually, we don’t ask these questions to our self, but this all questions exist and they are standing right in front of us asking us to answer them. But we always ignore them. We ignore them thinking that “Everyone has their own life. What am I going to do, if they are not happy?” This is what we think! But when we found ourselves in loneliness, we ask ‘Is there not a single person in my life, who can’t even notice my loneliness, my pain?’ Rather than asking is someone there to notice my feelings, ask yourself how many times I noticed someone else’s pain? Their loneliness? Their misery? Ask yourself first.

In some ways, we have also become attention-seekers, who unnecessarily want everyone’s attention towards them. But we forgot that people only give attention to those people who appreciate them, admire them! And why they will give you the attention when you don’t do anything for them. When you don’t even appreciate them as a formality. Why will they give you the attention? To get attention first we have to give it to others. After all, everything comes back to us in the same way we give it to others. The love, care, affection, hate, and envy, everything comes back in the same way we give it to others. And this is KARMA which keeps hitting us, in every situation of our life.Some days before I noticed that the more people I ask about their health and their family’s well-being the more other people ask me the same question back. I didn’t expect that those people will ask me all of a sudden, but they asked me with the same concern and love, which is pure in itself. And this proves that what I give, ultimately comes back to me. And all this love and kindness can only come to us when we give it unexpectedly which is in its true form. Nothing goes in vain. Because what you sow shall reap.

Some days prior when I was waiting for the elevator on the ground floor of my apartment, an old lady came and stood some meters away from me, she lives in my apartment too but not on the same floor as the mine. That old lady is in her mid-sixties. We don’t personally know each other families but we exchange greetings sometimes. The lady and her son were isolated in their own house because both of them tested positive for COVID-19. They were isolated for 18 days and after one month I met her. While standing there and waiting for the elevator, I asked her with genuine concern that “How are you? How’s your health?”With a deep sigh, she replied “I am good.”“Okay, but do you face any serious symptoms when you were isolated?” I asked.“Not much, but I faced body-ache some days, in the beginning”, she said.To give her some relief, I said, “Now you look pretty good! You must be fit and fine now!”She replied with a smile, which I could sense from her mask as well, and said, “Yes, now I am completely fine. I feel good.”And we came up in the elevator standing beside each other.

This was a small conversation, but I talked with her with some genuine concern and she felt that which made her smile and I sensed that from under her mask. Like these, there are so many people around us who feel good when we talk to them with some empathy and care. People build their perspective about us just by the way we interact with them. After all, the world needs people who believe in humanity and giving it back to the world. Today the world needs people who spread love and kindness in every possible way. The world needs people like you, who are reading this blog to spread humanity. One small act of humanity might give someone a new vision for a better life. Rather than expecting someone to be kind to us, let us be the first who is kind to EVERYONE!

THE SOLE MEANING OF LIFE IS TO SERVE HUMANITY. 

THE BEST WAY TO LIVE A SATISFIED LIFE

“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. 

If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough”

 In the 21st century, life has become less grateful but more stressful. We the so-called tech generation have become more reluctant to thank what we have right now. The lives of the so-called millennials and the gen-z generation are all about complaining. No one takes a single minute from twenty-four’s to show thankfulness towards the breaths we are taking to live on this planet. I doubt is it so hard to show the feeling of gratitude for the birth we got as human beings? Don’t we control the feeling of happiness? No wonder, it is in our hands! It’s scientifically proven- We choose Happiness! It is totally in our hands! And the feeling of gratefulness brings satisfaction, and satisfaction ultimately brings Happiness! Eternal Happiness! When the unknown coronavirus came into our normal but pathetic lives, we all suddenly became afraid of DEATH! People were dying just because of not taking enough care of their hygiene, by not maintaining social distance from others, by not wearing a mask, by not sanitizing themselves when they came in contact with others. Sounds ridiculous, but it is the truth. So then we became thankful for the life we are living. We started praying to god showing gratitude. But all goes in vain because we became aware of this crisis when many people died when our near and dear ones lost their lives. We became thankful when the pandemic hit us hard but not consciously, not by our own selves. And then slowly-slowly, coronavirus also became a part of our life. We made our mindset to live with this virus our whole life. But this was the time when we stopped being grateful, and thankful for everything we have in our lives, even right now. We started complaining more about our situations and the circumstances we were in. We complained the same way we used to be. And then people became depressed and lonely, because of not practicing GRATEFULNESS!

We all are like a lotus. A lotus only blooms in muddy water. And right now, the muddy water is the situation we are trapped in, but if we become grateful for the life we live, we will definitely bloom like a lotus. To become a lotus we have to be grateful for each and everything we have right now in our life. When we practice thankfulness regularly, we subconsciously develop a deep-rooted sense of satisfaction, which leads to ETERNAL HAPPINESS. To become grateful we have to make a habit of showing gratitude regularly, which requires a lot of effort and truthfulness. But it is not impossible. Anyone can do that, by consciously making it a part of the daily routine. 

The 5 simple ways to become grateful that I practice every day: 

1. Praying every single day, and saying “I am thankful for being on this planet as a human being. I am thankful to have proper senses, proper organs, two legs, hands, and eyes. I am thankful for having a life and to have everything I have right now in my life, every person who is somehow connected to me. I am thankful to have food on my plate and good sleep”. 

2. And praying for mankind. Praying that everyone must get a good life like me. To end their suffering and worries. Let the whole of mankind have a good and amazing life they desire. Everyone should get what they deserve. They should have a contented life.

3. Always willing to help anyone who is in need. Even though doing the smallest job possible for them. For example, always lending an ear to hear other's problems, and even trying to give them some relief mentally if possible. I believe we help people like this by just listening to them without being non-judgemental and biased. After all, they are going through problems and I am just listening to them. 

4. Rather than feeling pity for others I try to feel more empathy for them. When we feel pity we only feel sorry for them, but when we feel empathy for others we develop love and affection for them which makes us emotionally strong and also makes our relationship with them much stronger than before.

5.  Never comparing myself with others. I firmly believe that we all are humans with some unique qualities by birth. When we compare ourselves with others we develop an inferior complex, which leads to poor confidence and this leads us to constant suffering and stress. Only doing a constructive comparison with others which leads me to my own betterment. This is how I became Grateful, and I believe you can become too!