Becoming receptive

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

–Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I had read “The Secret” long back in 2008 after it was suggested to me by my class teacher. I read the book randomly without understanding a word in it. However, my sister was very intrigued by the book and spent days and weeks on the internet to find out all the related concepts discussed in the book. It was the first time in my life that I came across the concept of “Law of Attraction” and absolutely rubbished the claim. The book literally said that “Treat the Universe like a genie, ask your wishes, truly believe that you will receive it, act has if you have already received it and voila, your wishes will come true!” How was I supposed to believe in something as vague as that? Also my life was pretty uncomplicated during those days, I was always full of hope and positivity and truly believed that I had control over my life and future.

As I grew up and started experiencing failures and setbacks in life, I realized that life wasn’t as straight forward as I thought. We don’t get everything we dream of, things don’t always work out in our favor, sometimes we get rejections even after trying our best and many a times we keep waiting for better days to come. I turned to “The Secret” again during my C.A. final exam days in the year 2012, when I was in stress 24*7 and it helped me immensely during that time. It helped restore my faith and hope in the Universe, it made me forget about my negative feelings and focus on the bright side of every situation.

It’s been more than 9 years to the last time I believed in the power of “The Law of Attraction“. I let life take control of my destiny and stopped believing that I too have the power to rewrite my future. I know it might sound way too nonsensical to many of you at the moment but the only reason I am trying to get back to believing in the power of the Universe is because it had helped me immensely in the past.

Lately I have noticed few instances in my life where I got a glimpse of few things I have desired since long, only to be taken back from me. This applies to my job search and a fitness watch that has been on my wish list since forever. It felt like my prayers were answered finally by handing me these desires only to be snatched away from me at the last moment. As soon as I realize that there’s even a slightest chance for my life to change, I start overthinking all of my life’s decisions and start questioning if I really need those things in my life. I have never felt this confused ever in my life before. My thoughts aren’t clear, I don’t know what I truly want and any change in my life is only triggering a sense of fear instead of excitement or wonder. This should certainly not be the case.

While researching about this phenomena, I stumbled upon an amazing article by Rose Stein (https://thoughtcatalog.com/rose-stein/2016/04/this-is-how-you-should-open-yourself-up-to-the-universe/). Do give it a read, it is precise and just what a confused soul is seeking. For people who feel confused and stuck in life, she has suggested 5 guiding ideals that’ll help clear our thought process and make us receptive to the Universe and it’s infinite possibilities.

• Trust
• Openness
• Gratitude
• Acceptance
• Intention

I really wish to get more clarity in my life and this article gives me hope. I have decided to delve deep into the practice of gratitude journaling, setting a powerful intention, deeply believing in the power of the Universe, opening myself up to the abundance and most importantly accepting my current situation instead of running away from it.

I choose to be receptive and will work hard to clear the unnecessary blocks in my mind.

Just a reminder

Day 27/30

Let go

“Things are as they are—we suffer because we imagined different.”

– Rachel Wolchin

Day 12/30

Certain things in life are just not meant to be. We try our best, fall down, get back up, try again, fall back again, get back up YET AGAIN and this cycle continues. We never lose hope but never get closer to our dreams either. We stumble and fall so many times that the dream seems too far fetched now. We still hope that things will miraculously change for the better and life will turnaround. But it doesn’t happen YET AGAIN. Things don’t change, we are still hurting yet we still try not to lose hope. That’s what is taught to us right? Try, try, try again. But what if we tried for the 1000th time and failed, yet again? Do we continue trying?

No, absolutely NOT. We let go, GRACIOUSLY. We did our best, prayed, wished, worked hard, begged at times, cried, but it still didn’t happen. Boy, we need to understand Universe’s signals by now. Some things in life is just not meant to be.

Let go, move on, focus on things that are under your control. Focus on yourself, focus on your happiness. Be at peace with yourself, with or without such things.

You’ve tried really hard, it’s time to let go. It’s time to forgive ourselves and forget about such things. It shouldn’t be this hard. It’s not meant to be.

Be in charge of your happiness. You can do better, you are better and bigger than this.

Manifestation Scripting

“Attitude is the little thing that can make a huge impact in every single area in your life. When your attitude is right, you will thrive and flourish. The universe feels your attitude and you will manifest whatever your attitude reflects. So let your attitude be electric!”

-Anonymous

Day 11/30

Yesterday, I wrote about my insecurities and fear for my future and received uplifting comments from my fellow bloggers. Of late, most of my posts have been about the negative aspects of my life and I understand it’s adverse impact on the readers as well. Writing them did relieve me from the mental stress that I was facing at that moment but I avoided reading my own posts as well. I wish to try my best now. I wish to change it. I have started researching (a little bit) about manifestation, affirmation, positivity, gratitude more so that I can use them to create the life I desire. In the coming days, I wish to read and increase my knowledge about all these topics and try them out in my life. I may not achieve any dramatic results overnight but I want to be consistent at it this time. The flip side to this situation is intense darkness and negativity and I’m done with it. I’m willing to take effort to improve my life as doing nothing doesn’t make me happy anyways.

The first topic in this series is Manifestation Scripting.

Manifestation Scripting is a technique wherein you write down in detail about the life you wish to create/manifest. I have tried this technique long back during my Chartered Accountancy Final examinations and I did end up clearing the exams. While I don’t know if I should attribute the success entirely to this process as preparing for the exams were mostly under my control, there are some things in my life that are totally out of my control right now. I wish to apply this technique and understand if it truly works.

What you’ll need? A journal and pen.

You can use any journal of your choice but to make it more fun and effective, choose a journal that’s bright and positive. It can have a great quote on it or you can design something that sparks the light in you whenever you look at it. The key to Manifestation is “BELIEF”. You need to believe that this journal is the key to the life of your dreams. Make it as interactive as possible.

How to do it?

Start the journal entry by “Gratitude“. Gratitude is the first step towards an abundant life. Be grateful for everything that is right (or wrong but has given you an enriching experience) in your life. You can write about anything under the sun. The key here is to truly feel grateful it when you write about it. If you are grateful for your current life, the Universe will give you more reasons to be grateful for.

Now start the scripting process. Write down your desires in the present tense as you have already achieved it.

For example, if I wish to manifest an Iphone, I will write down,

Thank you so much Universe for this amazing Iphone 12 pro Max. I’m truly grateful for it and it has brought a lot of joy in my life.

Be as specific as you can and make sure to truly imagine it’s presence in your life as you are scripting it.

And that’s it. According to what I’ve read about this, this is the simplest way to manifest the life of your dreams. It is advised to do this process twice a day, first thing in the morning and right before you sleep.

I’ll be starting this process from tomorrow and plan to do this for a month and share it’s results/my experience with you.

If any of you have already tried this, do share your experience in the comments.

12 goals for 2021

My goals are usually very descriptive and never ending. I love writing down goals and I’m curious to experience life in general. Although I’m tempted to write down every goal in the book each year, I’ve decided to stick to 12 most important ones this time. I’m jotting down these goals here as my wish list for the Universe. It’ll be great fun to revisit them at the end of the year and figure out how many goals I managed to accomplish.

1. Travel to South Korea and attend BTS concert live
2. Clear Chartered Financial Analyst^® (CFA^®) level 1 exam (scheduled on 21st February), earn a scholarship for Level 2 exam
3. Run 10 kms under 60 minutes and half marathon under 2 hrs 15 minutes
4. Meet my other half (Dripped in cheese, I know. The wait has been excruciatingly long!)
5. Lose body fat, gain muscle definition (will define this in absolute terms once I check my current measurements)
6. Read 50 books and watch 50 shows/movies
7. Join the 5 am club (wake up at 5 am everyday)
8. Help mom lose weight (10 kgs) and become the fittest version of herself
9. Complete 12 online courses
10. Cross the 500 articles and 1000 followers mark on my blog, The Supermode.
11. Speak, read and write fluent Korean
12. A 50% increase in my current pay scale, upgrade in my designation at work (through my current job or a new one)

That’s it and I’m all pumped for 2021!

2 weeks to reality

“Each person deserves a day away, in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us.”

-Maya Angelou

I came to know on Monday that I would have to resume normal office working days starting January 2021. 2020 has been an extraordinary year in all aspects but the biggest gift from this year for me has been the “long break” from my routine life. I was completely burned out due to various events in my life during the beginning of 2020. I desperately sought a long break. I remember having a conversation with my younger sister where I told her that my dire wish was to quit my job, take a year long break and travel the world. I knew at that time owing to my responsibilities at home, quitting my job was not an option. But Universe heard me out and gave me the gift of a lifetime, an “almost” year long break without having to quit my job.

For majority of this year, I have worked from home. We had a complete lockdown of 2.5 months here in India from March 25th to May 31st. I resumed office on 29th June and my office visits in July and August were sporadic, about once a week. The journey was extremely hectic, I spent close to 8 hrs in a bus travelling to and fro from office due to the insane roadways traffic. From September to November, I went to office twice a week which increased by 1 extra day in alternate weeks in the month of December. In all, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time off from the extremely rushed routine life that I had in the pre-covid times.

As my sweet fairy tale comes to an end, I am prepared to take the challenges of a daily hectic routine life once again, starting January 2021. It’s an extremely bittersweet feeling for me to bid adieu to 2020 which has given me much more happiness than I could ask for. I am very well aware that I am one of the few who considers 2020 as a blessing and I’m filled with gratitude towards the Universe for it. I will post a detailed “year in review” on 31st December and make it a tradition on my blog going ahead. Till then, I’ll go back to the blissful last 2 weeks of 2020 and make the most of it.

A second chance

#94/100

“Sometimes in life, you’re not always given a second chance, but if you do, take advantage of it, and go out with a bang!”

-AQUARIA

I was dreading an event that was supposed to take place today. I was unprepared even after having sufficient time to prepare for it. I let my anxiety get the better of me, yet again. Or was I too comfortable being anxious and not having to put in the required efforts to fight back? I don’t really know. As the clock kept ticking to the time of the event, I started losing hope to get a positive outcome out of it. After all we can’t leave everything for our fate to decide.

Something magical happened an hour before the scheduled event. IT GOT POSTPONED! I didn’t know how to react. I literally got the gift of time from the Universe itself. This is how “second chances” must feel like. I was relieved and happy at the same time.

I woke up in the morning today promising myself that I would try my level best to be prepared for everything in life, as much as I can and not leave my life to unexpected chances. I will work hard to live up to to this new version of me. I hate last minute jitters yet I procrastinate till the end, every single time. Things can’t work like this no more. It’s time to change and put an end to this habit, one little step at a time. Let’s do this!

The secret to success

#39/100

BTS : First Korean act to top the Billboard chart ever

I literally jumped with joy when I got this news yesterday. My beloved BTS has created history yet again. They are the only Korean act to top the Billboard chart in it’s entire history. This news made me so happy, it felt like my success. I have been closely following BTS’s journey since 2015 and have been their ardent fan ever since. From being disregarded in their country to becoming the global sensations and music legends that they are now, BTS has come a long way.

BTS always make me wonder how they managed to get this successful in life. They are small time boys from South Korea who were passionate about music and dance and wanted to make a mark in their local music industry. For 3 years since their debut, they were moderately recognized in their country but were subjected to harsh criticisms, mean comments, jealous remarks, derogatory opinions and snubbed by their own industry. However, they continued to work hard each day with the dream to make it big one day. Their hard work knew no bounds, they put their heart and soul into everything they did and managed to enjoy and live in the present. I don’t know what they did exactly to tilt the universe in their favor but their countless hours of hard work paid off eventually. They earned international acclaim in the year 2016 and their popularity has increased by leaps and bounds ever since. In the words of John Green, their life is a roller coaster that only goes up. With each success, they continue to work harder, be happy, live in the present, be humble and just love themselves and their life.

BTS has been a big source of inspiration for me ever since I’ve had the privilege of knowing them. Their journey gives me hope and great strength to deal with every situation in my life. I remember during my weight loss journey, I was constantly inspired by BTS to work a little harder, do a little better each day. I still remember my first 10 km marathon run. The last 2 kms with extremely tough and I wanted to give up. At that moment I closed my eyes and thought about BTS and their undying spirit, it instantly energized me to finish my marathon strong.

From BTS’s journey, I’ve realized that the cheat code to crack life is very simple but somehow extremely hard to implement by many people. We need to live in the present, give more than our best in everything that we do, be kind and humble, be grateful for our blessings and find happiness in everything that we do. So simple right, this is what BTS do as per my observation. These are very simple steps but somehow we fall prey to the challenges that life throws at us and bow out of the success race mid way. I’m trying to follow these ‘cheat codes’ to the best of my ability and have never felt happier in my life.

Let’s try to un-complicate life and be happy no matter what. I’ve been grinning from ear to ear throughout the day today because of this incredible news of BTS. Cheers to many more amazing accolades in future. Thank you BTS for keeping me sane and being my number 1 source of comfort and happiness whenever I am down and out. Thank you for inspiring me to do better and celebrate all the small wins in life. Life is extremely beautiful, let’s keep it that way and make it brighter and happier.

Broken dreams

#30/100

Since I’m too tired to even think today, my today’s post is my first and only attempt at poetry. This poem was written by me about 4 years back after having my heart crushed into a million pieces (I can be dramatic too!). I can laugh about it now but those were some trying times. I must have written this poem with tears in my eyes. Writing this poem did help ease the pain a little bit. I’ve never got around to write another poem after this one.

Her mind goes into overdrive,

To control the heart that wanders astray,

The world that she has in her dreams is too beautiful to leave,

Back to reality, every thought, word and silence is painful,

A moment of happiness turns into lifetime of grief,

She wonders what she could have done better,

To earn this unattainable dream.

Her dreams are too sweet to let go, but mind rigid,

Can she only have this wish? Her heart pleaded,

Time to shake herself awake from this difficult illusion,

There are much better things to look forward to, screamed her mind,

By leaving the best? asked her heart.