Turn your Life in 10 minutes!

My dad once told me: “You can apply the 10 minutes mantra to turn around your life in a tremendous way.”

 I didn’t understand at first. “What’s the big deal in 10 minutes?” I asked.

“There’s indeed a big deal about it. 10 minutes, believe me son, can create a marvellous difference in our life,” my dad offered wisely.

“Elaborate please, dad,”

“I’ll tell you. But first, you’ve to get up tomorrow at 6.00 am.” My dad conditioned. I agreed.

Next day, as I woke up at the agreed time, my dad came to my room.

“What’s the time?”

“6.00 am” I replied.

“Okay, so before you can follow the 10 minutes mantra, you have to follow the art of being aware about the clock,”

I was confused. My dad continued, “Look at the clock. It’s 6.00 am. Now within 10 minutes I ask you to do the following: Arrange your bed and your table; drink two glasses of water, wash your face and brush your teeth. But keep looking at your clock while doing these. That’s it”

“Well…Okay,” I said, thinking what could be the catch my dad wanted me to capture.

I began and started doing all he asked. All the time, I kept glancing at the wall clock. Finally after 10 minutes (or 30 seconds earlier to be exact) I had finished it all.

“Well done, boy. You have turned around your life!” My dad praised, patting on my back.

“What?” I was astonished and puzzled, unable to grasp, and asked earnestly “I didn’t get you, dad.”

 “Think, son, think!” My dad urged, “Recall your earlier days. How did your day started off?”

I racked my brains and pondered over. Usually, I wake up at 6.00 am. Then, I wander off, yawning lazily and even sleep for some more minutes or sit idly on my chair, my thoughts in thousand directions. And, by the time I finished the above activities, it was already past 7.00 am. 

“And today, it’s just 6.10 am” my dad said as if he read my mind.

“Yes!” I exclaimed, starting to understand.

“So what made you do it?” my dad asked.

I thought. What made me do it? Because my dad told me to do? No, no; there was more to it. And then it hit me:

“The art of being aware about the clock!” I almost shouted.

“Yes and also ten minutes.” My dad said, smiling at my wonder-struck face.

My dad explained: “By setting your eyes on the clock and thinking about 10 minutes, your mind got focused in that span of 10 minutes. It was just like a deadline or a due date. The “10 minutes” deadline kept your mind in the present; in the “now” and prevented you from wandering off.”

I was impressed. Just a matter of meagre 10 minutes had such a mighty effect! I had completed all those routine activities on time.  Now, I felt I have so much time ahead (as compared to 7.00am, it was just 6.10 am!). With so much time saved, I could work on creative and productive activities, instead of loitering around aimlessly. Time was, indeed, the most precious thing on earth.

 A question piqued my curiosity, “Dad, why only 10 minutes. Why can’t we divide our activities into 1 hour slots?”

“Good question,” my dad said, “we can. But shorter the time, more productive you will get; Imagine, if I told you to do those routine activities in 1 hour? Your mind will make your actions slower because you’ll think you have enough time to do it. Even if an activity takes 1 hour, you can segment it into 10 minutes slots.”

“Give an example,” I was eager to know more.

“You can, for instance, segment your workout time,” my dad resumed. “10 minutes- warm-up; 10 minutes- stretching and 10 minutes-yoga,”

“Really amazing, dad; this 10 minutes stuff can make your life on a roll! Instead of long bouts of inactivity, once can benefit from the short bursts of creativity!”

“Yes. The 10 minutes stuff is just an idea. You can also make it 15 minutes or 20 minutes but not longer than that.” My dad paused and continued:

“The 10 minutes mantra can be applied in every aspect of life. A student, a professional, a businessman or anyone can apply this simple but successful technique. Take an example of student. The student can allot 10 minutes time for a topic. After that, he/she can take 2 minutes rest and resume for another ten minutes. He or she can also take time off and read a good book for 10 minutes or allot just 10 minutes for walking. All a student has to do is to be aware of the clock."

"Elaborating it further, we humans have a tendency to keep on delaying small things. We know we have to pay bills on time, and still we delay it beyond the due dates. We are aware that our bike’s tyres need to get pumped, yet we don’t care to stop by the car-shop we pass every day. We promise ourselves to go to a temple on a particular day, yet we never seem to keep our own promise on time. Why? Because our mind wanders off and deems such things as unimportant. If we vow to take just 10 minutes or 20 minutes of our entire 24 hours, we would never procrastinate and our life will be million times better.”

My dad concluded: “The 10 minutes, if followed consistently, can have a tremendous effect in anyone’s lifestyle. Procrastination and Idleness will vanish away replaced by focus and intensity. People will tell you they are short of time. No time for the loved ones, no time for pursuing their dreams, no time to eat, no time for their health as if they are the most busiest people on earth! It’s the lamest excuse one can give.

 

The 10 minutes mantra can keep us organized, keep our otherwise disoriented thoughts in check, balance our life fruitfully and help us to have enough time in our hands. So follow this 10 minutes mantra and see your life turn around at a miraculous pace!”        

Superstitions: Serious or Silly?

As I walked past a shopping mall, my eyes fell on the heavy discounts it offered on various essential products. I immediately called my shopaholic aunt. (Well, who wouldn’t take such benefits, if not her?) And, obviously, she rushed to the shopping mall only to return home midway as if an emergency had prevented her! 

Well, her emergency turned out to be a cause of astonishment for me. “I forgot that it’s ‘Shanivaar’ (Saturday).” She said, “So no new items!” Her illogical belief amuses me and provokes me to think: How, in the present era of illuminating scientific developments, the shadow of superstitions still hovers over the minds of modern people?

Superstition – The oxford dictionary describes it as “the belief that particular events bring good luck or bad luck and that cannot be explained by reason or science”. Now, if you think it as a “cause & event” analysis, then a new, practical definition would come up: a particular, seemingly ordinary event that has the immense potential to cause an exaggerated, illogical and comical behavior in a person!

Throwing light on above, consider a group of superstitious interviewees who are anxiously hurrying for an interview, praying that the entire day fares well.  Suddenly, out of nowhere, a black cat crosses their path-Alas! Bad luck! The obvious reaction of interviewees: startling body language changes signaling an inauspicious start like abruptly skidding to a stop, lots of gasps, groans and gesticulations, a sudden increase of anxiety attacks and no matter how late they might be they wouldn’t cross the path until someone other crosses it! By the time they resume, their already tensed mind is peppered with negative thoughts! (Well, as for that ominous black cat, it may feel itself as a feared creature!)

Keeping intact the above situation let me replace the cat with an elephant! Wow! Good luck! The obvious reaction – Body language changes signaling auspicious start like the sudden friendliness and respect towards this creature (the symbol of Lord Ganesh), anxiety evaporates instantly replaced by a sudden upsurge of faith! And, by the time the elephant moves on, one could see the interviewees in a much better mood than they had been minutes before (probably thinking that now no force could stop them to pass an interview!)

Like above there are numerous occurrences of superstitious force playing around us in our everyday life ranging from comical to ridiculous to even unhygienic, all being the products of old traditions, customs and long followed religions. Seeing a peacock (good journey), eating curd with jaggery before a journey, breaking mirrors (bad omen), sneezing before you leave your house (bad day, do watch out!), opening umbrella inside the house (probably you won’t get married!), lizard falling on head (death is looming overhead!), dogs howling in the night (death is stalking nearby!), standing under a peepal or banyan tree (evil spirits may possess you!), hanging lemon and chili in the entrance of your shop to ward off evil spirits (or even hanging them around your neck in some parts of India!), hiccupping (someone is thinking about you!) not bathing or not changing clothes for days or even months (seriously unhygienic!), deeper the color of bride’s mehandi, deeper the love of the groom (no doubt, today’s brides are using cosmetic products to darken the color of their mehandi!). Foregoing were the few instances of human idiosyncrasies!

From a demographic perspective, one may confidently argue that today’s modern societies or young generations are impervious to the sway of superstitions, owing to growing awareness, education, literacy hike rates, information explosion and rationalized thinking, unlike the socially and economically backward strata of societies. But that remains a debatable issue. On meticulous scrutiny, you may elicit that even the ultra modern section of the society, sometimes, do become the servitudes of superstitious forces. 

Oh yes, in simple terms, compare it with a low tide and high tide catalysts – During normal, low tide- uneventful-days, these people do not care so much about good or bad signs greeting them now and then.  But during high tide-eventful-days –  like a wedding event, inauguration ceremony, exam day or result day, social event, going for an interview or first day at job – the same category of people are, all of a sudden, more prone and receptive to good or bad omens, overacting, overreacting and overdoing things, often resulting in human folly!

You may have found the above instances of superstitions as generally innocuous, harmless and inoffensive. However, on a serious note, one cannot deny the heinous and evil forms of superstitions prevalent in our country. The ancient India witnessed wicked practices of Sati-pratha, witch-hunting, black magic, girl child-abortion-murder, castration, widow-ignominy, animal and human sacrifices to Gods, and many more that have been majorly curbed, thanks to the crusaders and social reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Ray and Swami Vivekananda. 

But shamefully, headlines of these malevolent practices still crop up in various parts of India resulting in unnecessary killing of innocents and adding to social stigmas and human despondency. The obvious reasons: sheer lack of education, woeful ignorance, false beliefs which are deeply rooted in minds and human bigotry. Serious contemplation by the government, pragmatic methods of disseminating education and awareness is needed to suppress such practices.                             

Scientifically speaking, superstition is not the causative factor to bring any good luck or bad luck. So what does? Well, it is our thoughts, our disposition and our interpretation of events that really counts. Interestingly, if we think any event to be a good omen then we are right and if we think it as a bad omen, then also we are right! The simple logic, though hard to follow, is – Our way of thinking is the very seed that blossoms into good luck or bad luck! As goes the famous adage – “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”