Namaskar, This is Arun Bhardwaj, and welcome once again to the Monday Motivation. First of all, wishing your family and you a very Happy New Year. Let us start the Year 2023 with the Happiness Project of our own. I am not suggesting a year of deep meditation in the cave; my goal is to inspire you to make some small changes very much in your control that can have a big impact to enhance your happiness index. 

As the new year ushers in, let us dedicate some introspection time for our own inner growth. Let us make a list of Top-10 activities that you believe help you in feeling happier. Do share that list in the comments; who knows your effort may become a guiding force to other friends. 

We all wish you live in joy, but we either do not understand what truly makes us happy, or we forget to weave those factors into our day-to-day life.   

Let us put conscious effort to make 2023 a happier year in our life. Write down your "Top-10 Things To Be Happier" list on a piece of paper and paste it somewhere you will see it several times in a day. Now let us weave those activities consciously into our daily routine. 

Living Happier is not just a stroke of luck, it depends on our attitude toward life, the choices that we make, and also the effort that we put to nurture the factors of happiness in our daily life. 

I hope (and I believe) that you will not merely listen and forget this JoyMantra but make Happiness Project one of your top priorities for the year 2023. So start working on your "Top-10 Activities to Be Happier" list. I will be eager to hear about your experiences. 

Once again wishing you a very happy, healthy and prosperous year 2023. Namaskar. 

The Secret of Original Thinking

In any given situation, the capability to generate multiple possibilities and select the best alternative is one of the supreme human strengths. With these two powers of Vichar or ideation i.e. ability to generate original ideas and Vivek or discrimination i.e. intellect to evaluate and choose the best alternative, humans are capable of handling adverse conditions to achieve favorable results. But unfortunately, this is not always the case. Our choices are often tainted by the biases created by our likes or dislikes.  We utilize our faculty of discrimination more to justify our ideological positions rather than exploring the best possible alternatives. As a result, we end up compromising the possibility of the best outcome.  

Let us utilize our power of ideation and discrimination consciously in the coming weeks. Do find at least one alternative idea while making any decision. The process of identifying alternatives and doing cost-value analysis will help to reduce your position bias towards a single idea, and also enhance the possibility of finding the best possible alternative for the desired outcome.

The research in the field of ideation suggests that when we explore ideas, the first five are average. They reflect our experience of success in the past. The next two ideas are a blend of past experiences and originality. It is only after seven ideas that we step outside of our known world and exercise our capability to generate original out-of-box options. We then have freedom to choose the best option to achieve the most favorable outcome. 

Let us utilise this secret of original thinking in the coming weeks and experience the magic of human creative potential. 

The Learning Process to Transform Life

By listening to words we gain knowledge whereas with experience we understand the meaning. We can only get the benefit of positive thinking and attentive listening if we can convert our knowledge into positive actions. I have shared many JoyMantras by now with you and I am curious to know if you were able to make time-tested wisdom of these JoyMantras part of your daily life? Let us explore the art of learning today because without that bringing transformation in life is difficult.  

Our sages were using a three-step process in our ancient Gurukul System to ensure learning
results in transformation and value creation in life. The three-step process was: Shravanam, Mananam, Nidhidhyasanam i.e. Attentive Listening, Reflection, and Meditation. 

Shravanam or Attentive Listening is about listening to a credible source of learning with the intent of learning without biases.

Mananam or Reflection is the process of correlating your learning from Shravanam phase in the context of your life experiences. You can decide how you could utilize the information in your life. This process enhances the relevance of gained information and transforms it into meaningful knowledge. 

Nidhidhyasanam or Meditation is the process of practicing what is found of value after reflection and making it part of our life. This is when the actual transformation takes place. 

Let us reflect on this process of Shravanam, Mananam, Nidhidhyasanam this week - without which we can surely collect bookish knowledge but can not achieve transformation. 

The purpose of sharing these JoyMantras with you is not just to share knowledge but to bring a positive transformation in your life. 

I will be eager to hear your thoughts after you have reflected on this week's JoyMantra :) 

How To Love What You Do

Two friends were having a conversation. One asked the other to predict how the weather was going to be the next day. The second friend said with a smile that tomorrow was going to be an amazingly beautiful day. The first friend asked how the other friend was so confident in his prediction of a beautiful day? The second friend replied that he has realized since he can not control the weather, the best option is to accept every day the way it is and enjoy it to the fullest.  

When we think about Happiness @Work, we often hear the phrase - "Do What You Love, and you will not feel burdened by the work a single day in your life". But many times we do not get this freedom of choosing work that we love. We may have to do jobs to financially support our families. You may be skilled to do such jobs but they might not contribute to enhancing your happiness quotient. 

Under such circumstances, you will hear another suggestion, "If you can't do what you love, then start loving what you do". Now you will say, "This is a reasonable suggestion but how to start loving my job?" A marquee research done by Positive Psychology Guru Dr. Martin Saligman and his team suggests that you will start loving what you are doing if you consciously use four or more of your core character strengths in your day to day work.  You may now be thinking about how to find your core strengths. The very first step is to introspect and identify what you think are your key strengths. You can also take feedback from your family and colleagues. Additionally, you can also visit https://www.viacharacter.org/account/register to utilize the survey designed by Dr. Saligman and the team. The survey will help you identify your core character strengths.  This method has worked for me, and for many others who have chosen to practice it in their professional life. I hope that you will also give this thought serious thought. "Do what you love, or love what you do" - in these two decisions lies the possibility of a joyful professional life. I wish you Happiness @work.  This is Dr. Arun Bhardwaj and I will be back next week. 

Namaskar!!!

The Power of Perspective

Once a little girl was holding two red apples in her hands. Her neighbor saw her and asked the girl if she would share one of those sweet apples with her. The little girl looked at the lady with a smile and quickly took one bite each of both apples.  The lady was keenly observing the girl's reaction and smiled with the thought that this new generation has grown up without the virtues of sharing and caring. How smartly this girl has secured both the apples... But suddenly the girl extended her hand, offering one of the apples to the lady and said, "Aunty, you can take this one, this is tasting sweeter of the two". 

Whoever you are - rich, wise, powerful - do you take time and show patience in understanding people? Do you listen to their perspective before judging them? Do you see things from their perspective or at least allow them to explain their side of the story? 

It is not necessary that what we see and believe is reality. Sometimes, it is not the world but how we look at it that distorts reality for us.  

I had read somewhere that "Ravan, a learned wise man, could have avoided all the bloodshed had he gone to Ram and listened to his side of the story. Do you always listen to the other side of the story?". 

This week, let us decide to trade our judgments with our curiosity. Let us not judge people in haste, rather let us try to understand them. 

This simple change has the power to strengthen our relationships and help us build new ones. This change can also help us inspire the best in the people around us. 

Have a joyful day, week, and life!

The Power of Forgiveness

Every one of us wishes to improve our relations,

But we keep hoping for the others to do the initiation.

Have you ever reflected that humans are the only living being that can keep punishing themselves and their loved ones repeatedly for the same mistake? Not only this, we can continue to keep the bitterness going for years for the same mistake.   

If your pet dog does something mischievous and you shout at him, he will go away but soon return with the same love as if nothing has happened. You also may not stay angry with him for long. But when it comes to mistakes committed by our loved ones, we keep remembering them for years. We don't even hesitate to keep poking and hurting our loved ones by reminding them of their past mistakes. 

I invite you to think differently in the coming week - 

Let us replace the baggage of bitter memories stored in our minds with joyful thoughts by asking for forgiveness for our mistakes, and forgiving others for their mistakes. Not because they deserve your forgiveness; but because you deserve peace. 

Getting angry is like drinking poison and hoping that the other person will die, and forgiveness is like nectar that you give to others but it heals your wounds. That is why forgiveness is a super virtue.   

It is not necessary to respond to every provocation in life with words; let us learn to respond to a few questions with silence and smile. 

Wishing you a joyful week and life.