How to attract more opportunities in life

Isn't it astonishing that there are some people who are always in the right place at the right time and there are others who would always miss the bus? Often it seems like all of that has to do with luck. But depending on dumb luck could be like waiting forever! The people who are always finding new opportunities rarely wait for one to come. Successful people create their own opportunities. It's more about practising certain skills in life rather than waiting for the opportune moment to arrive. You have to use certain strategies that generate new possibilities for your advantage. You can create several opportunities for yourself by using these strategies.

Here are the 7 ways to create more opportunities in life- 

1. BELIEVE -

"Finding an opportunity is a matter of believing it's there. " - Barbara Corcoran. Successful people always expect good things to happen to them, even in the face of failure. They are open to new ideas, they embrace change readily. They develop a positive attitude towards life. Instead of focusing on what's not working, they believe that the Universe is always conspiring to bring all the good stuff to them. As a result, new opportunities are attracted towards them.

2. COMMUNICATE -

Seriously, if you never share your dreams and goals with anyone, how would they ever help you? You might have thousands of friends in the social media but with how many do you have a real connection? Now I am not suggesting that you hang out with all sorts of people each evening. But you must make a connection with some real people. You can find out your type of people only if you communicate with them. Successful people are great at networking. So, you must start practising this skill.

Stay in touch with friends, make new friends and acquaintances. If you show genuine interest in others they would show interest in you as well. And it's not like having a scheme in your mind on how to use people for your benefits! You should try to help them as much. It's like building a tribe of helpful, success-minded people who would lift each other up!

3. PRAISE OTHERS - 

Appreciation is of great quality. If you do not appreciate or compliment others often, you must adopt this habit. A person who can compliment others wholeheartedly is always liked by all. Now you should not mix this with fake flattery! Honest appreciation is always felt by people. If you see the good in others and praise them for their qualities, you would naturally make more friends and acquaintances.

 The more you appreciate others the more you make rapport with people, and the more likely it would be then for an opportunity to fall on your lap. The news that there's a vacancy in an office or some admission is going on for a course, a life-changing idea, scope for earning more money, resources for a start-up, a mentor, unexpected help - all such opportunities always come from people! Developing a good connection with people creates more possibilities in your life!

4. PREPARE -

 Ultimately opportunities would come to use only if you are well prepared. Success happens when preparation meets opportunity. So even if you grab that opportunity but you have never bothered to improve your skill or talent, most likely you are going to fail! People who have more information, have trained and learned more would always have more advantage than the rest. So you should be always learning and growing, practising and be ready, for when the opportunity comes you can make the most out of it.

5. TRY DIFFERENT THINGS -

Most of us are creatures of routine. We start and end our day in the exact same way! We do the same things, meet the same people, go to the same places, behave in the same way, every single day! So if we are always doing the same thing how can we expect something different happen to us? So, if you really want to get a change in your life, you must first change yourself! Take a different route to your office, develop a new interest, go to new places, try out new restaurants, meet new people, learn new skills, attend events that you usually don't! Eventually, you would find that you are flooded with opportunities. It seriously works like magic - change your routine!

6. HELP OTHERS -

Now you might be thinking how could helping others generate opportunities in your life. But it's the most powerful of all the strategies. According to the Law of attraction, like attracts like, so what you do for others would also happen to you! If you are a helpful person creating possibilities for people, the Universe would see to that, you also receive possibilities from others! Again, logically if you think then you would realise that we tend to reciprocate those who help us. So, it's only natural that you would attract more possibilities in your life by helping others.

7. BE MORE PRESENT - 

"Your big opportunity may be right where you are now." - Napoleon Hill. Opportunities never declare to you when it's around, you have to recognise and grab it! The more conscious and aware you stay in your life, the more you would be able to recognise the several opportunities that are already around you. So, stay alert, keep your eyes open. You would be amazed to find several possibilities that exist for you.



Article written by Ishita Ganguly
M.Sc, B.Ed, MBA

How to be happy: 12 Simple & Scientifically proven steps to be happy

Ultimately we are all seeking happiness. We are constantly looking for happiness in our jobs, our family, our partner, our children, in our bank balance, in whatever we are involved or whoever we are attached to! We want to be happy but we are searching for it everywhere except within ourselves. Happiness is actually a state of mind. I have seen so many people doing a great job, having the perfect spouse, the most beautiful family and still so dissatisfied, still so unhappy! Again I have also seen people with several setbacks in their lives, even with chronic illnesses, to be happy! In reality, people who are happy are those who had trained their mind to look into the positive things in their life instead of the negative. By shifting the focus from the bad to the good, these people have "created" happiness for themselves!

According to the Law of attraction, like attracts like, so the more you are in the happy, positive state of the mind, the more you attract happiness and positivity in your life! It's actually true that we draw people, situations and experiences according to how we think and feel. So, happy people tend to be more successful in the long run than the unhappy, sadistic people.

I do not claim to be happy 24×7, but I am practising 12 habits to change my thinking pattern and to stay in the happy state of the mind. I had mastered some of these and deliberately working on some! In all, I must say that my life started changing greatly as I adopted these in my life.

The 12 steps to happiness are :

1. Change your mindset - to become happier you have to consciously change your mindset.

Our brain operates in two modes - the default mode and the direct mode. The default mode is the autopilot mode which helps us to go through the day without having to think consciously. It's just running whatever programs were imprinted on our Subconscious in our early childhood. Direct mode is where we are controlling our thoughts. So, for every negative belief that has been programmed in our mind, we have to consciously train ourselves to reverse it into a positive one. We can reset our mindset through continuous practice.
( Read my post on how to change your mindset by reconditioning the Subconscious mind ->
How to become successful in life using the power of our Subconscious mind )

2. Stay mindful - Yes, life is not smooth all the time, there are difficult situations and challenges that we have to face. Often we are scared and want to escape, allowing our mind to wander.

But the more you let your mind wander the more your default mode would start to operate. As a result, you would always use your past conditioning and as a result, get the same result in your life! You would feel stuck in more undesirable situations in life. To change your life, stay in the 'present' moment and deliberately think and make decisions. Think new thoughts, better thoughts. You would feel happier.

3. Find your life purpose - The problem with our education system is that there is so much of History and Geography and Biology and other school subjects that in cramming those subjects for years, we tend to lose our gifted skills, we forget our passions.

Photography, for example, isn't a school subject but it could be a great passionate career for many! The thing is you can have passion outside your textbooks and syllabus, outside the degrees you have gathered! So, don't limit yourself. Spend time to do some serious introspection. Find out what is it that you're really passionate about, what is something that gives you so much of joy that you can offer that service even for free! That is what you are meant to be doing, that is what would make you happy and no, you don't have to do it for free, you can make it a successful way of living!

4. Use your time productively - Time is valuable. Yet we waste our time in useless things. We watch stupid TV shows, scroll through other people's profiles on the social media, forward useless messages and videos and what do we gain out of all of these? Nothing! Except that the time got wasted forever!

Your entire life-span is built with packets of time! The things and people you are giving your time to, you are actually giving a portion of your life to those! So if you want to be happy use your time well. Stay purpose-driven. Prioritise your day. Give your time and attention to things and people that are important to you! In your free time do things that are productive like listening to a podcast or reading a good book or pursuing a hobby!

5. Practice gratitude - Being grateful for things you already have is a great way to stay positive and happy. Maintain a gratitude journal! Each night before going to bed, write 3 - 5 things that you are grateful for!

I have benefited hugely from maintaining such a journal. As per the Law of attraction, the more you're grateful for the things you already have, the more you would attract the things and experiences to be grateful for!

6. Invest in yourself  - The best investment done on earth is on yourself! To be honest, the only person who is with you from the start to the end is you! So give time to yourself. Improve yourself. Create yourself.

You don't have to become like anyone else, you just have to be your best version. Practice self-love.
Learn new skills. You need to be open to keep growing. You might have to spend some money to learn and grow, you might have to leave certain people on the way, you have to take some important decisions as you create your new self.
( Read my post about Self love ->
Self-love practices that changed my life )

7. Surround yourself with positivity - If you want to stay happy and positive all the time, you must start to be around such people and things that give you joy.

It's not possible to stay happy if you are stuck among negative minded people. You have to learn to protect your energy. Sometimes it could be that there are no positive people around you. Then you must be the one radiating positivity! Reading personal development books, listening to inspiring podcasts and videos, constantly updating myself has helped me to stay positive and happy. By consciously practising a positive attitude, I had attracted several positive people around me.

8. Stop blaming -  " All blame is a waste of time. No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you. " - Wayne Dyer. You can never become happy as long as you continue to blame someone or something else for the situations in your life.

Jack Canfield in his book, The Success Principles, have given a great formula for life!
It is EVENT + RESPONSE = OUTCOME, which means that for any event or situation in your life if you start responding in a different way, the outcome would be different! You can choose to respond in a way by blaming people or conditions in your life, doing so you would always stay unhappy and unsuccessful. Or you could change your response in a positive manner and choose to stay happy. By stopping the blame game, you would find solutions to your problems rather than staying angry and confused.

9. Practice forgiveness - Forgiving yourself and others would help release the pain and grudge you are holding. This is the most difficult of all the steps as most of us want to skip this step thinking it's too hard to do! We all have some past experiences that we do not want to forget or forgive. But think about it, forgiveness is actually the best gift you can give yourself.

It's not even for the others but by forgiving you release the stored negative energy within you. You might say that it's absolutely impossible to forgive certain people in your life! That you went through hell because of these people. I can totally understand and relate to your feeling. But what I have seen from my own experience is that by forgiving, a lot of anger and negativity goes away making space for happiness and good things. I am not saying that you have to become friendly with your wrong-doers. You don't even have to talk with or meet those people! The best way to do it is mentally or writing it down. Penning down emotions is a great way of self-therapy as well! Also, forgive yourself if you are holding some resentment against yourself. I know forgiveness is hard but then practising it, again and again, makes it possible.

10. Meditate - Meditating even for 10 minutes a day would bring you peace and happiness. Start your day with a simple meditation practice.

You don't have to do complicated postures or anything, just sit relaxed and focus on your breaths. Again, consistency is the key. You would not get the result on the first day, making it a daily routine would bring you the result!

11. Eat healthy - It's something mentioned everywhere and it's true!

It has been scientifically proven that if you eat healthy foods you stay in the positive, happy state of mind. Moreover, you have lesser chances of falling ill, which means you can enjoy your life to the fullest.

12. Be of service - Martin Luther King Jr said, " Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service. " Rather than feeling miserable for yourself get involved with a greater cause in life.

Actively participate in some important cause, be it related to humans or animals or the environment  -  do contribute to society in some way. You can help with money or through service, or both. Even simple acts of kindness are ways of contribution. Give time to others, be compassionate, uplift and inspire someone who is going through a tough time. In the process of being useful to others, you would be creating happiness for yourself as well as for the world!

Article written by Ishita Ganguly
M.Sc, B.Ed, MBA

Also, read 7 Amazing Benefits of Laughter

Guru Pranaam on Guru Purnima

The concept of "Guru" can be traced back to the earliest Vedic scriptures of Hinduism. "Guru " is a Sanskrit word for a 'teacher, guide, expert or master' of certain knowledge or expertise. Precisely, Guru is the one who guides us to move from darkness towards light. A Guru could be an academic teacher, a parent or any wise person. 

In the modern age, the term "Guru" is often used in a derogatory way and it is used frequently by anyone and everyone! We find references to 'Tech Guru', 'Personal development Guru', the 'religious guru' and so on! But then, who is a  Guru in real? Who is the ONE for us? Many people arrive in our life path and guide, inspire and lead us. They help us to grow intellectually and morally. The role of a Guru is played by our parents, teachers, role-models in different phases of our lives. But not any of them could enlighten our soul. A Satguru is the one who enriches and awakens our soul. 

A Satguru is he who guides the 'initiated' shishya on the spiritual path. He is the ONE who helps us to realise our true self, who we are in 'real' and shows the way to connect with the higher power from which we have arrived in this physical form. Kabir says that worship of this Satguru includes in its worship of all the gods and deities as Satguru is the physical form of God! 

On this auspicious day of Guru Purnima, I would talk about such a Satguru, who awakened my Soul.

My Gurudev, Dr Ashok Kumar Chatterjee, Founder- Director of Yogiraj Shyamacharan Sanatan Mission is the brightest example of a Satguru. A true practitioner of the ideals of Yogirag Shyamacharan Lahiri and his enigmatic Kriyayoga, Gurudev wrote many books and articles on Kriyayoga and Shyamacharan Lahiri Mahasaya. He desired that all his shishyas, the Kriyabans would always practice Kriyayoga with dedication and love. As only through dedicated practice of Kriyayoga, the knowledge of the self would be attained.

He is a yogi and also our father, he is soft and humanly but he is also Param Bhagavan and he is also the truest friend who could be sought in the darkest of the hours! Although I am describing him in such simple, common words but in reality he is indescribable! His true essence is beyond words, descriptions, thoughts or beliefs! I am not yet progressed in my spiritual journey that I could even comprehend his truest essence. But this is my attempt to express my deepest gratitude to my Satguru, my God! 

Guru Kripa hi kevalam 🙏

How to become SUCCESSFUL in life using the power of our Subconscious mind

Ever given a thought on how one person is accomplishing everything in life and another is always a failure? Why is one person always happy and relaxed while another is sad and anxious? Why one person is healed of an incurable disease while another isn't? Why one person even after failing several times gets up and tries again while another takes even one defeat as fatal and loses all his courage?

We often talk about how 'luck' has changed someone's life or that maybe someone is born 'lucky'! But the reality is all of this has nothing to do with luck. Each person has their own sets of strengths and weaknesses. Nobody is flawless but nobody is without any talent also! But not everyone can utilise their talents effectively as they fail to realise their full potential. We all have a powerful device within us, the most powerful in this world, but most of us are unaware of it, let alone to even learn how to use it for their own benefit! This is the power of our Subconscious mind.

Is has been established that we have two levels in our mind - The Conscious or rational and The Subconscious or irrational.  Our conscious mind is the thinker and the one giving commands. While the subconscious is the unquestioning servant, working day and night following those commands. The Subconscious stores and retrieves every piece of information that it had gathered from the start of our existence! Each memory, experience and even traumas are all stored in the Subconscious mind. But the Subconscious cannot differentiate between the good and the bad. It is just like a recorder playing records that has been already recorded.

The main job of this Subconscious mind is to help create the situations that match the images and thoughts that have been imprinted in it, and hence automate much of our behaviours and thought patterns. We operate our life only 5% of the time from our conscious mind and 95% of the time our behaviours are controlled by the programming in the subconscious mind. Our life is actually a printout of our subconscious programs!

Now, most of these programs were imprinted in our brain from the last stages of the pregnancy  (when we were a foetus) till when we were about 7 years old! We are not even aware of most of these programs because the feeling of being aware of consciousness starts at about 6 years or so. Whatever dialogues, thoughts, ideas, beliefs were passed to us through our parents, friends, teachers and everyone else have all been recorded and imprinted in our Subconscious. Our reality today is exactly a match to whatever has been imprinted in our mind. So, are we helpless and have to continue the life that has been pre-programmed to us?

The answer is NO. We can change our life by changing or replacing the old faulty programs. It requires a lot of effort and time but it is possible to reprogram our Subconscious. All successful people have learned how to reprogram their subconscious mind whether intentionally or unintentionally. Now two questions might arise. How do we recognise which are the faulty programs in our subconscious mind? And also, how do we replace those faulty ones with the proper ones which would bring joy, happiness and success in our lives?

Firstly, let us first learn how to identify the wrong programs in our Subconscious mind that are ruining our lives. And to also identify which ones are the beneficial ones supporting us. The simplest way to find the answer would be to observe your life. Which are the areas in your life that are giving you comfort and happiness? Which are the areas where you are unhappy and struggling? The areas in your life which are sailing smoothly suggests that you have the correct, supportive programs for that! Again in those areas where you are struggling indicates that the programs for those are not supporting you!

For instance, someone is struggling in their financial area. What do you think the programs are in this person's subconscious mind? He obviously has been imprinted with programs that do not support him to be rich. How many of us have heard from our parents and family, statements like these:

"Money does not grow on trees."
" Money is the root of all evil."
" Money is hard to come by!"
" You have to have money to make money."
" Money is not everything in life."
" Greedy people always chase money!"
" Either rich or happy!"
" You have to work really hard to get rich."
" It's selfish to want a lot of money."

As an adult, if you are always struggling with money now you can understand the reason! The same reason is behind every success or failure in your life. Whenever the same result repeats, it is because of the imprinted conditioning in our subconscious mind. If we look around there are ample examples available. Think if you or any person you know who always have the same bitter experience in every romantic relationship they had encountered! Each of the men or women in their lives were only different faces but they mistreated them just the same! Again for instance as a teacher I have always found the class toppers are always consistent. They continue to get good results and secure their ranks as they move from junior to senior classes. Same pattern is evident in the mediocre students and also in the below-average students! They continue to get the same kind of results!

Remember that our Subconscious mind cannot understand the difference between what is right or wrong for us as it does not judge! It just runs it's pre-recorded programs so that your life runs in a pattern.

So now that we have understood how to recognise the correct or faulty programs in our Subconscious, we must as well now learn how to change these programs to make our lives happier, joyous and successful in every aspect. It has been established that the way we learn in the first 7 years of our lives is by hypnosis. After that, we learn by a process called habituation. According to Modern Biology, our Subconscious mind can be reprogrammed either by hypnosis or habituation. 

In the first 7 years of our lives, the brain operates predominantly in the theta hypnosis. As we grow our brain evolves and it does not stay in this frequency. But twice a day our brain goes through a period of theta vibrational activity. This is the time when we can reprogram our Subconscious mind! When we prepare to go to sleep and when we start to wake up our brain moves to the theta state or the state of hypnosis. This is the time in which we can imprint positive statements and images into our Subconscious. This could be done in various ways, the simplest and the most effective being positive self-talk or positive affirmations and visualization. Through repetition, our Subconscious would start to replace the older negative programs with these newer positive ones. This is called self-hypnosis by which you are sending your chosen programs to your Subconscious while reprogramming it! And habituation is the other effective way where you go on practising a new behaviour every single day till it sinks in. This is how we master a language or a new subject or a particular skill or habit! If you are weak in a subject but study it daily or you are a late riser but start rising up early, even if it feels hard for the next 30 days or so, you would eventually master it!

So, now what are you thinking? Comment down one of your 'faulty' programs that you have identified now! And also write the appropriate affirmation that could easily replace the previous one.

Conclusion:

● We all have unlimited power in our Subconscious mind.
● Our life is the expression of the programs imprinted in our Subconscious mind.
● 95% of our life comes from the Subconscious.
● If we want to change our life we have to reprogram our Subconscious mind.
● We can reprogram our Subconscious mind by hypnosis or habituation or both.



Read 👉 How to use the Law of attraction to manifest the life you desire

~Article written by Ishita Ganguly, M.Sc, B.Ed, MBA

7 SELF LOVE practices that will change your life

"As I began to love myself, I freed myself of anything that is no good for my health - food, people, things, situations & everything that drew me down & away from myself. At first, I called this attitude a healthy egoism.
                        Today, I know it as Love of Oneself."  - Charlie Chaplin

Self-love should not be confused with selfishness. A selfish person is only concerned about his own benefits and they do not help others. That's not what self-love is. To love yourself fully means to be able to understand and to express your truest self. You remember your worth and commit to fulfilling your dreams and passions. You become a complete person and you create your own happiness. You also inspire and uplift others!

Self-love is the most important factor to lead a fulfilling life. Whether you want to be happy, successful or attract love in your life, the journey should start within. It is when you accept yourself fully that you start to enjoy life. It is not possible to love others if you don't love yourself first! It seems such a simple concept but really difficult to practice it in our everyday life!

To love oneself need not require expensive shopping or spending time in the spas as suggested nowadays! Self-pampering isn't bad but it should not be confused with self-love. Furthermore, even if you consider that a spa or a few shoes could make you happy you can't be in the spa forever or probably won't be able to shop every single day!

Self-love, I believe starts with honouring yourself. As a person who had always been hard on myself, I had a lot of difficulty in practising self-love. When I changed my perspective and consciously practised certain habits it really started to change my life. Finally, good things started to happen as I stopped sabotaging myself.  But it's not that you do these practices just for once and hope to change your life in one day! You have to practice them daily and consistently.

The 7 SELF LOVE practices that would change your life are:

1. Spending time alone - Just think of it, how much productive time do you spend with yourself? We are so "busy" with everything and everyone else that we don't actually have a relationship with ourselves! We are continuously absorbing ideas and thoughts of others - the social media, the television and every other device is actually feeding us with unnecessary details of other people! Coming in touch with your own true self would require you to devote a good deal of quality time to yourself. Do a social media detox every now and then. At first, it feels like an impossible mission but trust me it's doable and when you eventually stay "off" from the social media and then you return you'll find that actually nobody missed you and you missed nothing! Other great ways of spending a good time with yourself is by meditating, reading inspiring books, going for a walk and journaling.

2. Be mindful - If you really want to practice self-love you must be 'present' in your own life! Be mindful in every action that you do, from eating your food to brushing your teeth. If you are focused on your own life, you'll observe that even in the most mundane moments, there is something to celebrate, something to be grateful for.

3. Eating healthy - Choosing the right food will not only make your body fit and strong, it would make you mentally happy. This is a basic step towards the path of self-love. If you have a child or a pet at home, do you feed them anything? Wouldn't you want your loved ones to take care of their health and have a healthy lifestyle? Why won't you want that for yourself!

4. Surround yourself with positivity - Yes it is essential to be absorbed in positivity to lead a happy and enriched life. It is said that we are the average of the five people we spend our most time with. It's a fact that if your friends have a positive attitude towards life, you would be infected with that feeling too. The opposite is also true! Choose your friends wisely.

Don't allow negative-minded people to inject their negativity in your subconscious. Stay away from complainers and pessimists. If you are surrounded with toxic people you can change that by choosing new friends or limiting your time with the energy vampires!

This isn't about being insensitive to other people's problems. We all go through tough phases in life but continuously staying with negative people would make you one of them! Personally, reading good books, listening to inspiring podcasts, and doing things you love, are great ways to stay positive.

5. Positive Self-talk - Changing the way you think and talk, would definitely improve your life and strengthen your relationship with yourself. Uttering positive words and sentences in the form of affirmations is a great way to shower yourself with love.

6. Do more things that you love - The easiest way to be happy and feel loved is by doing more of what you love! Just imagine how your life would have been if you always did what you love! At least, do something that you love every week.

Start to play the guitar again or join that art class you always wanted to or meet that good old friend or start that venture! Take an action now about a thing you love! It's never too late, remember you can always make time for things you love!

7. Don't forget to smile - If you want to enjoy life to the fullest, wear your smile wherever you go! Even if it's really a tough phase that you're going through, remember that it too shall pass! Life isn't always fair but it is this one life that we have got. So we must as well enjoy it to the fullest. Forget the past and focus on the present moment. Stop feeling bitter and SMILE. You deserve it!

Article written by Ishita Ganguly
M.SC, B.Ed, MBA