MyLifeYoga

Stuck in Complexity? Time for Back To Basics!

Sometimes we over think and make things complicated. This need not be so because there is great wisdom in simplicity. Here are five things that can allow you to simplify life by going back to the basics:

1. Speak to communicate

The purpose of speaking is to communicate. If your words are not going to be understood or misconstrued why utter them? If your words are going to hurt feelings why speak them? Truth is not a weapon you use to beat others with. If speaking the truth is going to unnecessarily hurt somebody or is not going to be accepted or understood, silence may be preferred.

2. Eat to live

The goal of eating is to get the right nutrition to live. It is not a way to manage your stress or a way to make you feel good. Choose what you put into your mouth consciously and not by habit. You should not put stuff in your mouth to gain social acceptance or show off. You should instead put stuff in your mouth because it is what you need to live.

3. Spend what you can afford

Telling yourself that you “need” something is the wrong starting point. The first question to ask is: “Do I have the money to pay for it?” If the answer is no, stop right there. No need to go further and entertain a million thoughts of why you need something. Here is a simple rule: “If you cannot afford it then you do not need it.” Continue reading →

When eight year old Luis Szaran heard a classical guitarist play, he immediately knew that music was his life. However Luis was the eighth child of a poor rice farmer and when his father learnt about his ambition to become a musician he was forbidden from playing music. Luis did not allow this to deter him and he secretly practiced music with a neighbor. By 12 he was composing short songs. Soon the head of a music school recognized his genius and sent him off to Europe on a scholarship to study music. When Luis returned he was an accomplished musician and slowly rose to become the conductor of Paraguay’s most prestigious national symphony.

However Luis was not satisfied with his spectacular success. He saw the role of music as an instrument of social transformation. He began touring the country, trying to establish a connection and trust with local communities. He wanted to bring music to the poorest of poor and he wanted his program to be completely free. This is how “Sounds of Earth” was born. For poor children music became an avenue for hope. Where formerly they had no purpose and resorted to drug and violence, now they have music to look forward to. Even communities benefited as they learnt to organize themselves to raise funds, to organize community events, to find a home for the music school, etc., The Sound Of Earth is now a fantastic success. It is self sustaining as it is run by local communities, and it thrives in hundreds of villages and poor communities.

One spectacular offshoot of “Sounds of Earth” program is the “Recycle Orchestra”. This came about when Sound Of Earth went to Cateura, a very poor community at the outskirts of the town. This community literally exists on top of a landfill, where people make a living by recycling trash. The response here was so great that the number of students outstripped available instruments. On a whim, Favio, the director who is in charge of the Sound of Earth program in Cateura, approached Cola who is an expert recycler with an idea. Could he fashion instruments out of trash? Cola was given a violin as a sample and soon he had fashioned an instrument from scraps of recycled trash. They laughed when they first saw the instrument, but soon realized that this was something that could be really useful. This could give a poor kid a chance to practice music, which would otherwise not be available to him. From this grew the idea of Recycle Orchestra that has now come to symbolize the hope of poor children of Paraguay.

Related:
Frontline Program on Sound Of Earth.
Full You tube movie on Recycle Orchestra

Here are nine things you need to know to expand your intelligence. The first three are related to the nature of intelligence:

1. Intelligence is multifaceted. It is silly valuing a car by a single feature such as its mileage. And just as there are many factors like comfort, safety, acceleration, power, durability, looks, mileage, etc., that go into determining the value of a car, our intelligence too is multifaceted. We have emotional intelligence, social intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, spatial intelligence, spiritual intelligence, mathematical intelligence, language intelligence, verbal intelligence, poetic intelligence, and so on. There may be thousands of different ways intelligence may be expressed. Do not allow anybody to tell you that the number represented by IQ (Which primarily focuses on problem solving math and language problems) measures the complete spectrum of intelligence that you have access to.

2. Intelligence is dynamic. One prevailing false notion is that everyone has a fixed quantity of intelligence that we are born with, and we can do nothing to change it. In fact intelligence is dynamic and it can both grow and ebb. It grows as we learn new things and our brains builds new connections and it ebbs when we under-use our brains.

3. Intelligence is a muscle. “Use it or lose it” works for both your muscle and intelligence. The metaphor of the muscle is useful when it comes to intelligence. You can grow it by practice and you have to work towards maintaining it. And just as a muscle is best worked by doing various types of exercises and stretches, your intelligence is expanded and maintained by engaging it in a variety of different ways. Continue reading →