Anuradha Sridharan

 There were years when many aspects of my external life were progressing so well - career, higher education, relationship, financial growth, and stability. Not once, did I question or think about why things are going smoothly? But in the past 1.5 years, when one challenge after another kept hitting, I have questioned every single time - "Why me? What did I do wrong? Why do I need to face this? Why is life being unfair to me?". For a brief time, I searched for answers in astrology and thought a lot about karma and past decisions. After a certain point, I realized that questioning, analyzing, or overthinking aren't helping and in fact, making things worse. It is better to give rest to the intellectual, logical mind in such situations and accept and surrender to the Universe. Every experience is a teacher who has come to teach us something. Every challenge is a torch that shows us light on areas that need our attention. Every interaction or information that comes our way is ...

  "namakkum vellakkaarangalukkum enna thatha vithiyaasam coloura thavira?" ("What's the difference between us Indians and the Westerners, apart from our skin color?"), I remember asking my grandfather this question 30 years back. He was helping me with an essay on the freedom struggle. His response - "Avanga physically strong, naama mentally strong" ("They are  physically strong, we are mentally strong") I didn't probe further, but his answer got strongly etched in my memory. I'd request you to not take this statement literally and start an argument here. The point is not about whether this statement is true or not. The body is flexible when we are born and it slowly deteriorates as we age. Whereas, the mind is fragile when we are kids and slowly builds strength through life experiences.  Physical health across the world has been deteriorating over the past 3 decades because of food habits, sedentary lifestyle, various ailments, lack ...

 Aging is like that dreaded, inevitable board exam. Some choose to go unprepared and wing it at the last minute, hoping that luck would favor them. Some end up facing out-of-syllabus questions in the form of sudden, unexpected ailments. Some might know that the exam questions will be tough and yet they wouldn't be willing to prepare for it. Only a few start their preparation many years in advance. "What if I go unprepared? What's the worst that could happen?", I hear your question! Our entrenched habits, routines, rituals, beliefs, and character can either be life-serving or life-crippling. If these belong to the latter, then facing aging unprepared will end up causing complications not only for us but also for our loved ones (spouse, children, and grandchildren). For boarding an international flight, we reach the airport 3-4 hours earlier. There are multiple steps and procedures before we set foot on the flight. Do we directly enter the flight at the last minute? Not...

  "Why should a person always become a doctor or an engineer? What if that person doesn't want to be either?"- D asked me this question while we were watching the Tamil movie "Don". She had earlier watched Nanban/3 idiots as well. I told her that it isn't that way these days and there are various career options available. Though we both had fun while watching the movie (especially the scenes where SJ Surya aced it with superb voice modulation and body language), there are multiple aspects of the storytelling which I don't agree to. (1) Talent doesn't arrive overnight in a parcel In the movie, the hero realizes his talent one fine evening. He is not shown as someone who consciously works towards identifying his talent. Rather, he is shown as someone having fun, with a wish that he would identify his talent in those 4 years of Engineering. It creates a false hope in the minds of youngsters. Talent doesn't dawn on you overnight, without putting any ...

 Which is your favorite channel? When I was a kid, there was only Doordarshan, for a few hours in a day. Then came DD Metro, Sun TV, and 100 other channels. The 90s and 2000s saw more and more channels getting added to DTH. After the penetration of smartphones, many OTT platforms added more to our list of things to watch. Since 2016-17, Youtube channels also got added to our list - it is no longer 100 channels on TV, we have now 10000+ channels on our smartphone. We now have access to some fantastic, useful, and inspirational content. My cooking skills have improved over the past decade, thanks to food bloggers and YouTubers. When Youtube was getting popular in India, many of the channels were focused on a particular topic - recipes, home decor, fitness, programming, personal finance, etc. But in the last few years, vlogging has become a trend - some of them create vlogs daily, sharing every single detail of their day, garnering millions of subscribers. I'm clueless why would a ...

Many ailments manifest because of imbalances in our bodies. One of the important reasons for such imbalances is the impact of our thoughts on our nervous and circulatory systems. Given the busy lifestyles we lead, there is always a sense of overwhelm, that keeps our sympathetic nervous system on active mode for most of the day. Many of us start our mornings with a 10-min meditation or Pranayama practice, but as the demands of the day take over, the relaxation we experienced in the morning vanishes, and our todo lists and appointments keep us on our toes, leaving behind a sense of overwhelm at the end of the day. Why do we feel overwhelmed? What causes this feeling? Only when we understand this deeper, we will be able to figure out sustainable ways to come out of it. Here are 7 reasons behind it. There could be more as well. (1) When we blindly accept success metrics defined by the society and work towards the same What are those metrics - a few examples below If you are an employee - p...

  A few days back, I came across a video where I heard this beautiful insight (not able to get the link now) "Imagine a large ocean full of water. That's universal consciousness. When we fill a bottle with water from the same ocean, the water inside the bottle is our individual consciousness. The bottle is our body that provides space for our individual consciousness to reside. When we eventually depart, the bottle is opened and the water gets released back to the ocean." As I pondered over this, it made sense to expand on this further.  Imagine this bottle to be a transparent one made with glass. As we grow up, we associate with identities or labels. These get stuck on the transparent walls of the bottle, preventing us from seeing the Universal consciousness that we all are part of. We enter adulthood, adding more and more labels to our bottles. Some of those labels are easy to remove with little effort. But for those identities with which we associate strongly, the glue...

 My first experience with Yoga was in Jan 2004. With the usual enthusiasm of a New Year, I signed up for a 2-month Yoga class scheduled in a nearby Ganesha temple. The class was between 6-7 AM. Waking up at 5:30 am, getting ready for the class, and walking to the temple which was a km away - with Bengaluru winter, I lasted for 2 weeks 😁 The Yoga teacher was fantastic and he conducted the classes with utmost diligence. The charges were only ₹200 per month (more of a voluntary donation). Yet I didn't continue. The same session in 2005, continued the practice for around 50 days this time but didn't complete it.  Signed up yet again for the same Yoga class in 2006, with my husband this time. It was a memorable experience going to classes with him, bunking a few mornings, and making fun of each other while we struggled in balancing poses. The temple atmosphere in the early mornings was so serene, listening to Gan Ganapateye song playing on the speaker and walking back home, feelin...

  The mind plays an important role in influencing our body. If that's the case, then why do we focus so much on physical health - food, exercise, movement, and sleep? According to Yoga philosophy, When the body stretches, the mind also stretches. When the body opens up, the mind also opens up. When the body relaxes, the mind also relaxes. When the body tenses up, the mind also gets tensed. Both our body and mind influence each other. Working on both these aspects is essential for good health and vitality. Starting with improving our physical health makes a lot more sense because Working and correcting our physical body is  relatively  easier than the mind. There is a physical limit to the quantity we can eat in a meal. There is a physical limit to the point we can push our body. There is a physical limit to the point we can go without sleep. But for our mind, the limit is on the higher side - one can have 10000 thoughts in a day. It is hard to process, analyze or control ...

 My ILs were diagnosed with hypertension in their early 40s. As the years progressed, diabetes followed and then a few other ailments got added to their diagnosis. I have always asked myself this question - "No smoking, no drinking alcohol, no meat. They are vegetarians. Their main meals are mostly home-cooked food. Yes, packaged foods intake was high, central obesity, sedentary life, and lack of exercise. BUT, will these alone contribute to all their ailments? Is it due to the side effects of the progressively increasing dosage of all their medications and health supplements? There has to be something more". It felt like an important piece of this jigsaw puzzle was missing. As I started reading up more on the power of our mind and our thoughts and how they influence our body, the missing piece started to show up. And this book " Yoga on hypertension " made it more visible. Hypertension is one of the many psychosomatic diseases of today. Though the focus is on hyper...

A couple of years ago, I attended a workshop, that focused on self-improvement across various facets of life. At the end of most sessions, it just gave a sense of overwhelm, sometimes to the point of guilt and shame for the choices made so far. The strategies being advocated were also on the extremes, leaving the audience with the thought, "Oh, I have to do so much to improve my life". As I wondered why there is such a big demand for self-improvement - be it books, spiritual gurus, influencers, thought leaders, etc, there were many reasons that popped up: Lack of self-acceptance Unhappy with the current status quo Comparison with others Peer pressure / Social influence Action-oriented mindset, seeking change While reading J Krishnamurti's books, the answer became more clear. His words were so profound that hit the nail right on the head. Here are a few of his thought-provoking lines: "We do not know the significance of life as long as we are copying, imitating, follo...