Krishna's Musings on Life

As a child, we are often told to suppress our feelings. It has happened to me so many times that someone has tried to mock my breakdowns. Whenever I had some major failure, I tended to express my anger. However, I was told to “calm down” and stop “overreacting” while they continue to poke about my failures. I was manipulated into believing that expressing your feelings and accepting what you are - makes one an “attention-seeker”. I tried to suppress my anger issue and stopped expressing myself in front of people. However, it only deteriorated my control over my own mental health.  No one told me that crying, shouting, freaking out, stressing, over-thinking are just some of our human emotions that are just as normal as laughing, enjoying, and having fun. We always appreciate the good parts of our psyche and try to cover up the bad ones. It took me years to realize that my over-reacting or vexation ain’t my character, and there is nothing wrong with me being worried about something....

Why are most of us not living the life we always wanted? Why are we not truly content with ourselves? Want to become our best version, but not really breaking the habit of being yourself ? Have you ever wondered? Well, it can be mainly because of the habits we want to inculcate in our lives but are not able to. As they say, your present habits determine your future! We try with all our willpower and motivation but fail to form new healthy habits and how to be at peace with yourself .  Not to mention, when it comes to the manifestation of your thoughts and feelings, your subconscious mind is the boss. Yes! It makes or breaks things in a massive manner.  We cannot achieve success in our life without having our subconscious minds aligned with the desired actions. In this whole tussle of the conscious and subconscious mind, almost 95% of the time, the latter wins, and how! Because…. Your subconscious mind is the most powerful. It processes some of the deeply involved functions in ...

The things that make us happy vary vastly with our age and circumstances. What made us happy at age 4 is not likely to make us happy at 34 (though if it does, congratulations! You’ve already cracked the happiness code and don’t need this article.) Where an extra biscuit at snack-time would have had us squealing with joy at 4 years old, it’s a gourmet dinner that will likely satisfy us at 34 years old. Thus, happiness is a state of mind . What if we could bring back the joy we felt, at 4 years old, for an extra biscuit? Imagine the innumerable joys we would experience then, every single day. Almost every moment would become a cause for celebration. Here’s how to be happy . Cast aside your self-doubt and uncertainty, embrace this list, and watch your life transform! Play in the rain. Ask for rainbow sprinkles on your ice cream. Dial a random number, ask them if their refrigerator is running. If they say yes, ask them to catch it before it gets away! Call up someone you love and tell t...

The single-most challenging thing I’ve ever had to do in my whole life is deciding . Not deciding about any one thing in particular but deciding about anything and everything! Where did we want to go eat? Oh god, too many choices! What did I want to do in life? How should I know? Shouldn’t life show me? What time did I want to go to bed every night? Uhhh… when I’m sleepy? What shampoo did I want for my hair? Scrolling for two hours didn’t help, so I guess I don’t know. Name any aspect of my life and I was indecisive. What does indecisive mean ? It wasn’t that I was just unsure in that moment. It indicated a deeper, more fundamental refusal to commit to living itself. I was wishy-washy about life and it showed in the small decisions I had to make, which I couldn’t. But if there’s one thing I’ve learnt, it’s this: everything is a habit. And so it was with my indecisiveness too. I had made it a habit to not decide, to either let others decide for me or put off decision-making for as long...

Boredom is one strange phenomenon. Really. Isn’t it incredible that the world is filled with endless options, with countless opportunities and with infinite activities yet all of us, at one time or another, find ourselves afflicted with this dull state of mind called boredom? Everything seems lacklustre. Nothing seems interesting enough, exciting enough, captivating enough. Have you Googled Things to do when bored yet and looked at the numerous ways it provides to tackle boredom? You should try :) It’s quite entertaining and may stave off your boredom for a while. I found myself so bored today that I Googled knock knock jokes. Here’s a good one: Knock knock! Who’s there? Alex. Alex who? Alexplain when you open the door! Funny, right? :) Here’s another that made me laugh out loud: Knock knock! Who’s there? Abby. Abby who? Abby birthday to you! But that was just a few minutes and then, I was back to being bored again. In fact, I found myself ruminating on boredom itself. I convinced my...

A few years ago, a Hindi film was all set to release titled Mental Hai Kya? (Are You Mental?) As soon as the trailer of the film came out, there was an uproar. The film showcased a darkly comical approach to a murder with two primary suspects – an urban, charming young man and his mentally unstable neighbour, a young lady. Casting aside the solid filmmaking and script, audiences and celebrities alike paid attention to the name of the film. Naming any part of the film ‘mental’ was absolutely not in keeping with today’s atmosphere and politically correct times. The director and actors were called out, and heavy criticism was doled out. Was it constructive criticism ? Perhaps. But it was lost in the hullabaloo of harsh, blameful words. Eventually, the makers succumbed and changed the name of the film to Judgementall Hai Kya? (Are you Judgmental?) – a tongue-in-cheek retort to the criticism while retaining the original title. And yes, it was judgementall spelt wrongly with two Ls. What fa...

You may have come to this post thinking that I’m going to be writing about an abusive romantic partner. You’re wrong. I’m here to write about another man that broke me. My partner will only destroy me emotionally but I don’t know this yet because the future is yet to come. But this man. He broke me physically, emotionally, spiritually and every which way you can think of. Have you ever been raped? I hope to God your answer is no. Ma warned me, you know. She told me it was a broken marriage of broken minds from the beginning. But when you have been starved for love nearly all your life and all of a sudden, you come across a man willing to give it to you, there’s only one natural course of action, isn’t there? Let me be clear. This man was not my husband. He wasn’t my boyfriend. He wasn’t even someone I was attracted to. He was my best friend. And the first male in my life to show me affection because papa, he left when I was 12. We met at swim class. I was 16, shy, nerdy. Typical teena...

I want to know what Love is I want You to show me… I want to feel what Love is I know that You can show me… So goes the Sri Argala Stotram by Krishna Das. He was born Jeffrey Kagel in America. His experiences on the spiritual path led him to take up a Hindu name. He became a vocalist, singing primarily devotional songs to the Divine. And that’s who he is today. When I first heard the Stotram , I was mesmerized. What were these words, who was this man singing them? And why did it fill me with a deep need to weep, to profess my love to something or someone I didn’t even know? Roopam dehi, jayam dehi yasho dehi, dvisho jahi… Grant us Your Form, Grant us Victory Grant us Welfare, Remove all Hostility Over and over and over, this line repeats itself. A beautiful, melting, aching chorus bringing together our heart strings, connecting them to Ma’s beautiful locks so that every time She twirls, our hearts dance right alongside Her. Her magnificent form, rising so far above us that to perceiv...