Taking control of your life is in your own hands. When you are self-aware, even the tiny moments of deep clarity change the course of your life. Suppressing your emotions is not the right way of clearing them up, rather consciously going through them, observing them and resolving those tough moments is something which is a long-term solution.
This story is from Tanistha Arora – one of the strong women I know, who has been a great student of life, studied life sciences in her academia and subsequently holds a degree in Law. She’s worked with the National Commission for Women (NCW) and while working there she has handled cases of many abused women who had been through rape, sexual assault or were suffering from PTSD. She shares how that whole experience shaped her and a subsequent journey inward, kindled through meditation, inspired her to drop her blooming career in Law and how she embarked on the journey to fulfil her life purpose.
She’s a prolific writer and documenting her journey and I hope this story will inspire you.
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.
– Invictus by William Ernest Henley.
When Nelson Mandela was confined in the prison during the freedom movement of South Africa, he was internally struggling to find his true self. The poem became his lifeline and my journey also revolves around this.
Just for the background- I completed my under graduation in Life Sciences, graduation in Law and worked with National Commission for Women (NCW) for a year (although I no longer identify myself with such an introduction).
Designing your life around your passion and what you deeply resonate with, is not easy. Making difficult career choices, making life choices which may sound naive to the people around you, not being able to see the light across the tunnel, but still being hopeful and moving forward in the dark. That’s what it takes to follow your heart.
It all comes to what matters to you. Is it a stable paying job where you feel discontent? or Is it working on something you truly believe in and practice yourself, the thing that makes your heart happy!
In the middle of the herd, there are always exceptions, the moonshots, the crazy ones, the ones who take that shot, which most of us are afraid to take. Leaving the stability and going for that alternate lifestyle which makes them feel fulfilled. Starting a company, Building an innovative product, Starting to Coach etc.
This story is from Priyamvada Mangal, a Freelance Yoga Coach and Journalist from Mumbai, India (Instagram).
She is a certified Yoga Coach and has been working to introduce Yoga to more and more people as a way of life, with her coaching. She is also a prolific writer with her writing pieces published in The Hindu, The Tribune, Manorama etc. As a journalist, she has worked with names like Mumbai Mirror and Firstpost. She’s worked on many photojournalism projects, her photography portfolio can be found here.
Since leaving her full-time job at a big media house couple of years back, she’s been working freelance and is well on the path of financial freedom. She usually provides one-on-one Yoga coaching, but now since Covid-19 hit all of us hard and restricted us inside the boundaries of our homes, she has started teaching Yoga online.
In this piece, she’s sharing how she first got introduced to Yoga and shares about her transition from a traditional journalism career to the freelance writing and Yoga Coaching. She also shares the Yoga way of life that changed her lifestyle and how she’s helping others now to discover this alternate way of life with her Yoga Classes.
The first time I did yoga was when I was 13 and visited the yoga institute for a children’s camp, since then I have been doing Yoga on and off but I never really made it a part of my daily lifestyle until 2018.
Have you asked this question to yourself anytime before? We talk about self-care, self-love and treating ourself as we would to our best friends and family. But have you asked this question to yourself anytime before?
If no, then it’s the right time to ask it to yourself. If you are not able to think clearly, use paper or a diary and note down how are you feeling right now. Physically and emotionally.
Stop thinking about what you should have done, what you would have done or what you could do. You are going to miss this moment, the right now, this moment. (Yes this one!)
Ask yourself the hard question and try to answer it honestly.
I did ask this to myself recently and in the process of answering it, I arrived at quite an interesting derivation about my well being. That gave me a new goal and direction to work on and made me course-correct myself and start living in the present moment once again. I totally recommend you do this exercise.
The only thing which will help you grow apart from generating ideas is following through by doing reflection exercises on a consistent frequency. (This Saturday-Pentacle newsletter has become that for me, a weekly reflection exercise) It helps me re-calibrate the upcoming week, after reflecting on the past week.
This is a leap year day, 29th Feb 2020. So happy B’day to all who were born on 29th Feb. Wish you next after 4 years. Here is a fun Ad Ryan Reynolds’ (the Deadpool actor) company Aviation Gin made for a lady who was born on 29th Feb and turned legally 21 (actual biological age 84). What a video. Watch it here. (This is a bonus piece in today’s pentacle)
Coming on book listening progress, I’m finishing up on Homo Deus (88% done) and finished “A Study in Scarlet” of Sherlock Holmes series and started the next one in this series “The Sign of the Four” (which is almost 20% done). So even though Home Deus is not finished. Still, I’m near to my goal (certainly didn’t breach the goal). So hopefully till the March End, my 6 books are over (Jan – 1, Feb – 2.5 and Mar 2.5). Hoping for more consistent listening time daily.
Coming back to the Saturday-Pentacle, let’s cut to the chase.
Once I saw Sam Kolder’s work on YouTube. It just swept me off my feet. His videos are unlike anything I’ve ever seen. So much editing work done with all those magical transitions and every second making your jaw drop a little more wider.
Here is a video from him (and you can get down the YouTube suggested video rabbit hole from here and you won’t be disappointed) –
KOLD – The Creative Process
A meditation session I Loved —
The Last Time You’ll Do Something – This meditation session by Sam Harris on the app “Waking Up” shares a significant insight about our lives. Just like a reminder that everything you do may be the last time you do it. Not just maybe because you’ll die tomorrow, but also maybe you might just not do that thing due to any number of reason ever again. So think about it, whenever you are doing anything, is that last time you are doing it?
When was the last time you took a walk just to take a walk?
Sam Harriss
Check out this video (made by someone else, but this same meditation session) –
A playlist I loved –
Songs to Get lost in – This past week this playlist had been on heavy rotation. Loved many of the songs from this playlists. Great for chilling or light focus.
Check it out.
Quote I’m pondering on lately – (this one is also from Sam Harris)
The only thing that permits human beings to collaborate with one another in a truly open-ended way is their willingness to have their beliefs modified by new facts. Only openness to evidence and argument will secure a common world for us.
Sam Harris
Before saying “see you next week” Here is a podcast episode I published in the past week. Episode 18 with Delton Dsouza. We talk about adventure filmmaking, his creative process and much more.
Hey friends, I’m Himanshu, a technology professional working in Mumbai, India. I spend most of my spare time making Podcasts, YouTube videos and write on Lifestyle Design and sometimes stories. Every Saturday, I send out an email newsletter called “Saturday Pentacle”, a list of the cool stuff I explored in the past week, including quotes, photos, books, articles, movies, documentaries and so on!
An archive article from my creative short pieces –
Imprisoned behind the curtain of the waterfall – Sharing one more piece from my creative writing pieces. You’ll need a little bit of imagination while reading this short piece. If and when you do, you’ll see it making sense.
My most popular Instagram post recently —
MasterMind Breakfast! . …Click the photo below to read the entire story.
ilomilo by Billie Eilish – This is kind of groove (lyrics may be too intimate for some folks, so excuse me) with which you would not only want to be work on in the late night as a background sound. But also as the foreground sound and be an a transcendent state.
Quote I’m pondering on lately –
If you are always trying to be normal you will never know how amazing you can be.
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A shocking fact I learned recently – It’s about Google Photos App/Service from Google. I use this cloud based photo service everyday to share my photos with family and friends assuming that the photos which we stare with certain people are completely private. But I learned very recently that It’s not the case, any photo which you share as an album are created with a public link, if someone has that public link, they can see you pictures without any login or authorisation in Google without you giving them access. It’s scary and it’s something which broke my trust in some ways with Google. I discussed this matter on Google’s Photos related forums online but I was amazed to see many people didn’t know this and were shocked too. But Google is not doing anything about it right now, probably because it is not there priority right now. I think it should be their first priority to fix privacy of their proprietary software/app. Just imagine a hacker searching the Public URLs of our Google Photos app somehow finds one actual link and is able to access our photos without us knowing. That will be a nightmare.
I’m searching for an alternative to this app right now and I couldn’t find any as of yet. But hopefully Google fixes it, otherwise we all will have to eventually remove our photos from Google’s cloud servers and delete this app.
It was a grey day rather evening should I say.
.
My body was drained out of the juice and I wanted to sit somewhere immediately.
.
That was when I heard a scratching sound……
Why You Need a “Deloading” Phase in Life – This article from Tim Ferriss is like having a detox Tea after a long day, when you sip it and it relieves the stress of the day. The same way this article can help and inspire you to create a deloading schedule for yourself to reduce your stress and manage your life in a better way. A good read.
What I’m listening to —
Guided Meditation by Tara Brach – This meditation from Tara Brach is so relaxing and it actually helps you release the tightness in your body and mind both.
Quote I’m pondering on lately –
“Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.”
Join my reader’s list – It helps us a lot when you become a subscriber, it smoothens you experience on Lifestyle Architecture Lab. Being on the email list provides you additional benefits like some exclusive content, webinar’s, free goodies and all of it will be FREE. Please click the link above to join now or put your email address in the below box and hit subscribe.
