After the long and cozy winter, the summer takes over.  Days get longer and hotter, cold drinks (and even water) taste so delicious.  Fans are whirring overhead, and lucky people duck into air-conditioned rooms.

The greatest joy of summer is in the evenings. As the day starts ebbing the sun mellows down, shadows get longer, and a cool breeze starts dancing around you.  If you spend that part of the day outdoors, you can see many trees blooming with new flowers or different colored leaves, and the leaves dance to the breeze that announces the coming of sunset.

Birds fly to their nests in neat formations, clouds appear in the sky, and if you sprinkle water on the uncovered earth you get a fascinating aroma and a whiff of cool air.  Enjoy nature.

Sometime or the other we have to face a difficult, or even toxic, relationship.

And if the person is part of our life in some way, we cannot physically get away. All joys and pleasant experiences get submerged due to the continuous verbal attacks and the mental pain we go through on a regular basis.

Many of us are essentially kind people.  We do not wish to take up confrontation.  We hope that if we are constantly nice to the person, they will mellow down some time and become nicer to us.  It rarely happens.  And we are left with emotional trauma that can scar us for a very long time.

When faced with such a situation, the best thing is to learn how to mentally insulate yourself.  Use any technique suitable to you, look at life holistically, appreciate the other good relationships, build up your self-esteem, practice assertiveness, and set long-term goals towards a better dawn – which will inevitably come, sooner or later.

I look around and see that people are hardly stepping out of their houses – restaurants have more Swiggy delivery agents, Malls seem to be empty, meetings and seminars have become on-line.

The after-effects of Covid have truly become the “new normal” and face-to-face interaction is reducing consistently. People prefer to be in their cocoons and social interaction at personal level has reduced.

Visiting friends, going to the street corner for pani-puri, watching movies in a cinema theater, shopping for daily needs, or just taking a walk in the park, have become less and less.

Please keep aside your mobiles and revive the human touch once again, feel the warmth and sense of belonging.

Want to be a WINNER?   Take Charge of your Life

As a first step, stop looking at others and feeling jealous.  Do not live your life on what “it could or should have been.”  Do not live in the past.  And definitely do not develop the habit of gossiping, back-biting, criticizing, and being sarcastic about things and people around you.  Eventually you will be the worst sufferer.  See how many of these points you already have, and identify those that you need to develop:

• Winners treat time as precious. They don’t kill it.
• They do not dedicate their lives to a concept of what they SHOULD be.
• They are not afraid to do their own thinking
• They can separate facts from fiction and perception
• They respond to the situation
• Winners learn to know their feelings and limitations and to be unafraid of them
• They can manage their anger and can listen when others are angry with them.
• They can give and receive affection & praise
• They can enjoy themselves, and postpone enjoyment
• Winners are compassionate; they want to work to make the world a better place.

 There is no doubt that only a person who takes charge, responsibility, acceptance, and agrees that the buck stops with him, can truly create a quality of life that can give him immense satisfaction and fulfillment.  It may be difficult at times, there may be setbacks, but in the long term there is no substitute.

So ask yourself whether you are open to change.  Change is taking place very rapidly, and if you are not pro-active, if you do not create your own weather, however good you are in your current work and relationships, some day you will fall behind.  If you are ready for change, let’s understand what is ….