It was Saturday and we echoVMEians were all gathered around to get our doze of weekly motivation. Mr. Niraj Shah who had an aura of calmness around him started off with an interesting task for all of us and asked us to close our eyes and think about anything except a red monkey running around!
As we all closed our eyes for this simple task which grew harder and harder as all we couldn’t imagine anything but a red monkey creating mayhem in our mind by running around! He asked us to open our eyes slowly and with serenity he revealed the day’s session to be about “The power of mind”.
How to Energize Your Mind
We all face tough times in our work where we need abundance of energy to push through our daily tasks. Mr. Niraj told us how the practice of pranayama and yoga filled his life with zeal and zest. He introduced all of us to “Bhastrika pranayama”. We closed our eyes and took a deep breath in and out and followed his instructions by repeating this pranayama for a couple of times and as we opened our eyes our mind became more tranquil and placid!
Either You Do or You Don’t. There is no TRY!
Here, ‘try to pick it up’ said Mr. Niraj by throwing a pen in middle of our gathering’. We all rushed in to pick the pen up and he said in life there is only “do or do not there is no try”. Mr. Niraj addressed how the word ‘try’ restricts ourselves from achieving more than what we can. He said that we can solve this conflict in our mind by asking itself whether we want to do the task or not!
How to Live in the Present?
This time Mr. Niraj showed us how focusing in the present will help us to perform better in our life. He asked us to stand in pair of twos where one is Jerry and other was Tom. The task was simple, Jerry had to clap his hands and tom had to stop Jerry. All the echoVMEians jumped right into their role with enthusiasm and sportiness. The Toms were trying hard to stop their partner in the game, Jerry from clapping and the Jerrys were finding new ways to clap. As we all got tired by playing our roles of Tom and Jerry Mr. Niraj explained how living in the present make us to find new ways to overcome the difficulties that life throws upon us.
Spirituality and Materialism
The way to achieve success in our life is by creating a balance between spirituality and materialism. He said, spirituality means the way of life and the way to control emotions of all kinds is by being aware of one’s feelings and surroundings which will suppress them eventually to make a better judgment call during our hardships.
Body Understands Efforts and Mind Understand Effortlessness
In the end Mr. Niraj explained that the mind understands the language of effortlessness and said that meditation is the best way to master your mind. As we relaxed and closed our eyes he asked us to concentrate on different parts of our body and be aware of our emotions and feelings. We slowly opened our eyes on his instructions, our minds were more aware and body felt rejuvenated and we were ready to take on ourday!
‘Mind is the most powerful tool that we have’, was his concluding line as he made us aware of different ways to control our mind to get the best out of us. The key to every problem is just taking a deep breath and letting things work itself!
We thank Mr. Niraj for leaving these powerful insights of living life inside our curious minds.
