Make your life truly Happy and Prosperous – Practice PAUSE

I am sure you have welcomed new year with full fun and celebrations.

Like every year, you must have received lot many wishes from known and many unknown. It has become so easy nowdays, to just forward the message you receive to a group or bunch of people to convey the wishes. On social media, you just have to Like/share/retweet, and your message gets known to the world.

I am not sure how many of them actually meant what they shared or forwarded. But one thing is for sure that your happiness and prosperity does not depend on numbers of messages (or wishes) that you have received. Rather I believe that it is the blessings that you collect in your day to day routine plays a major role in making your life happy.

You must have made your list of New Year resolutions by now. But the resolutions are meaningless unless you commit to what you want to achieve.  Resolutions are actually the promise one makes to self to do or not to do something in the New Year. It may be to develop a positive habit or change a bad habit.

It’s actually a wonderful practice, but the issue arises when one promises to self by not looking inside and decide what she actually wants, but looking outside as what others are doing and so she should also do the same. And this is the reasons resolutions are made in January and get ignored by the time you reach February.

Today I am going to tell you one wonderful activity, which if you practice on a regularly basis and especially when you are going to make important decisions, you will see the change in your life.

Mantra to have a happy and prosperous life is to recognize the important elements in your life and then work on them one by one.

And to identify those elements, my advice to you is to – Practice Pause

Pausing is a way of moving oneself away from the noise around. Just like you pause your TV when you receive a phone call to hear the other side clearly, the same way you need to pause the outer environment to hear your own self and also to your loved ones.

Pausing will lead to you to think about what is important and what you actually want the most. It is about giving complete attention to the things you are doing or the person you are talking to, which may be your own self.

You need not be in a meditative state and posture while on pause. You can be on pause while going alone on a stroll, Sometimes 2-3 deep breaths are enough and sometimes a weeklong break is required.

Talking to your spouse or playing with children with a switched off phone and TV, is also another kind of pause. Reading a book is a pause. Tasting and enjoying food is a pause. Listening to songs, word by word is a pause. Appreciating nature is a pause.

It may be sounding simple and easy, but do remember that doing simple things is the most difficult task. Swami Vivekananda states that our mind does not stay fixed at one point. Like a mad monkey, it keeps jumping from one thing to another. Even Buddhism states that our mind cannot stay fixed on one thing for even 12 seconds.

Pause in life is not stillness, it’s just moving self away for a while from the noise and activities around. This is done to regain the attentiveness, to revive the relationships, to work on something more important in life, when you need more time for self, when you are rushing when you are not ready. Pausing before making a decision is a very helpful way of deciding right.

In finances too, I always recommend pausing for few minutes before spending (swiping cards). It’s better to pause for few minutes or if possible for 2-3 days before making any purchase. If the purchase is really important, you will come back to buy, else you have saved the money.

Practice pause before investing. Think about why you want to invest, what for, why in this product. You should have all the acceptable reasons to do whatever you are doing. You need not justify your decisions to someone else but to your own self.

Pause before selecting an advisor? Take responsibility of whatever you do.

In the book Yogic wealth, the author Gaurav Mashruwala, who himself is a renowned Financial planner has said that most of our life’s decisions come out of our emotions, which are the results of comparisons of self with the outer world. Fear, greed, jealousy, anger, inferiority or superiority complex…are some of the emotions that people go through. If you want to be rational in life, then you have to move away from the emotional bent while deciding something. A pause will let you understand the emotion you are going through and help you decide wisely and rationally.

Think about your resolutions, your wants, your goals…are they also coming out of some emotions.

Prosperity does not come from having more but enjoying more whatever you have in your life. You can never be prosperous if you keep yourself comparing with others and either boast about your wealth or feel bad about what you have. You should respect your money, your family, your friends the way they are.

Practicing a pause will also help you in simplifying the complicated things. You will start looking at one thing at a time and focus on what is important and not urgent. You will learn that you cannot please everyone, and learn to say NO.

I strongly recommend reading a book titled “Essentialism – The disciplined pursuit of less”. This wonderful book, will guide you how to identify the important things in your life and eliminate other things as much as you possibly can. In the words of the author Greg McKeown,  Essentialism is not about getting more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done. It’s not about Mastering some new strategy in time management, it’s about pausing constantly to ask,” Am I investing in the right activities”.

You are rushing from task to task, sometimes trying to do multitasking which further affects your performance.

Sometimes you are running because you like running, but many times you do that because others want you to do that. You are partying because this is the culture around or your boss wants you to join in. You are working overtime, not because you like to work but to pay for your Lifestyle, You are splurging just to look at par with your peers, neighbors or relations…almost all of your decisions are based on what others are doing, but in all this your own self is getting lost somewhere.

People wishing each other is a ritual, but it is on you how to convert those wishes into reality. Don’t just move with the flow…just pause for a while and define how you want your life to be to keep yourself happy and start working on it.

It is fine to share and like the motivational and spiritual quotes on facebook, but implementing those in your personal life will only bring the change. So Pause for a while before sharing it.

Let’s practice pause and rework on resolutions, to give meaning to them and commit to the same. Keep your list small so it should be workable. Long lists lead to inertia and you will again be at square one.

Decide your pauses carefully…else life has its own way of sending you on pauses when you don’t take care of your health, wealth and relations.

Do remember – A wise decision requires reflection and reflection requires a pause.

Let’s be true to our resolutions and make life truly happy and prosperous