Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Time..precious to hold

so many thoughts float around and yet so precious this moment to catch.
I think to hold time its best to work with it...so that one does not regret what he/she did with that precious time. Every hour is important and productive. Often procrastination have a huge share in our failure. We might not realize at this moment but underlying laziness kills our productivity.
To make ourselves productive, we may think the plausible reason behind such laziness/procrastination or delayed act. Here are the reasons which often hold me back.

1) How much I am interested doing this. Am I happy while doing this ? Is this worth for my time ?
   Reply: It may not be very interesting but it is important for achieving some long term goal. So it is necessary to pursue it, even little each day but consistent persuasion often makes something hard to crack down. So do it little bit of daily.

2) How much hard work is needed for it ? This sometimes limits ourselves from what we want. I find that for me the job which require lot of travelling, physical labour (like household chores), I restrain myself doing that.
Reply : Look for the immediate after effect. In this case, the results often are instantaneous. So if you can get a shiny house in 30 minutes, better go for it. Often this particular act takes our depression quite out of our system...physically and mentally both ways.
   

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Dream ..Hope...and Live

All of us dream. Some of us dream for a big career, a big house , a bigger car and often some of us dream for a little less weight. We are dreamers. However, depression often takes us from our dream. There are circumstances and situations in life which changes our dreams. Often some of us, we-dreamers, do not dream any more. Dream gets changed, life get changed and we, matter of fact grow older. The dream of that lucrative career fades away in the distant horizon. However, life goes on. We have to live and some of us really want to live in a world of dreams. May be we cannot catch the moon, but cannot we touch the star ? Generally all my blog posts are very much related to my life and my daily struggles. Struggles in a daily life, against the depression and failure. However, I am a very positive person. I want to take life in a positive way. And here is my today's post. Something too personal to share.
   My parents always wanted me to be a physician, a doctor...a life-saving angel. They dreamed for a good heart-full dream for their daughter. However I could not be. I cried and lived in the world of desperate struggles and frustrations for a couple of years. Then, I chose a different direction in my life. When all my friends were getting married, I chose to study again..a different subject. My MS classmates were all four years younger than me. I did PhD in materials science instead. It was completely different and I chose that for me. I am happy for my decision. Now I do not feel much regret why I did not become a doctor. I could not and I accepted. It was difficult to accept one's failure when parents and other loved one's emotions so much involved. But it was my life. I cannot stop dreaming about it. Dream may change but life has to move on. Today when I read about the suicide of beautiful 25 years old actress  because she was afraid to face the failure, I just want to say what if the definition of success changed. What if living your life happily and peacefully become the meaning of success to you ? How about that ? 
  



Life is beautiful and every corner of life has undiscovered hidden beauty and potentials. We have to play hard sometimes to discover it. Sometimes journey will be very lonely and hard. But there are sunshine, undercover  treasure beneath the hard stones. One has to upturn them with the hope and dream. Your life is only truely meant for you and for none. Beloved may betray you but that should not be the reason for taking your own life. Live life... its beautiful. Its meant for you
   I do not know if any body other than me anywhere reads this blog or not. But if one person feels better after reading this, I will be happy. Have a great day.
   
  

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Struggling with Yourself : I want to stay up at night

Yes, you heard me right .
Have you ever been in this situation where you are pushing yourself hard for your own good ? Yes, , "pushing yourself hard for your own good!!!!!!"
  My friends and acquaintances know me well. I am not a lazy person, however lots of time I procrastinate due to the lack of motivation.Often getting up from bed and starting the day seem to be so depressive that I sleep little more and get late. Recently i tried to analyze what makes me so unmotivated and why I have some days when I have to drag myself out of bed.
Often our body says the best about us. Little bit exercise or walking/running often helps me a lot. Often going late for bed or watching too many episodes of Big Bang Theory in single shot backfires me on next day morning. I tried again and again and failed to be disciplined. However is not it true we all want to enjoy our night outs in front of TV little bit longer ?
So here is my new resolution. I have a new plan of night out. Friday and Saturday nights are my stay-awake nights. Crying aloud, blaming at "too boring, monotonous, disciplined life" often does not count. We all need a change in our daily life, sometimes when we are not responsible adults but we are young again. I have my Saturday and Friday night out at home. But a big no no for Sunday night. That night is the most auspicious among seven days of week.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Some Low key days


Some days are not so good. You try so hard but cannot concentrate on anything.
  Today I had the same kind of day. It was very productive on my house chores. But here in office I was unable to concentrate on any work. I had lots of stuff to do, to finish a bunch of paper work and bench work. Yet I could not concentrate. Yes, I do agree I came late today (10 minutes late than usual). But that’s not the issue. I ate my lunch at least one hour before my usual lunch time. Something was wrong with me.
  But  I really wanted to work, or better to say I had to work.
So here were my strategies, let see how it works.
1.      I went outside for a stroll for 10 minutes out of my office. It was a beautiful sunny day. So I felt better.
2.       I drank a glass of water.
3.      Then I worked for next 25 minutes and then earned a break of 5 minutes. Actually it worked.
  A lot of time in our life, we are not “the boss “of our mind.  There will be some issues which in the back of our mind (may be sub-consciously) distract us. But most of the time, our professional life demands a lot more than we can offer at right that moment.  We may take a break for a day but it may not possible for many of us. "What am I going to say to my Boss?" It is easy to understand somebody’s physical obstacles or sickness but mental sickness or depression is an abstract to many of us.
·         I myself feel little planning and rewarding ourselves may be the best thing to cope up in those situations. May be bit of self-indulging is good for productivity. Telling yourself, “Hey, If I work for 1 hour without fidgeting, I can have a this one.” For me the cake-pop of Star-bucks ,” http://www.starbucks.com/menu/food/petites/birthday-cake-pop” is a kind of reward which is not included in my diet.
·         Often taking a real break for 15 minutes (out of desk ) on strolling/office treadmill is a worth trying. I usually go for a 15 minutes’ walk.
·         Talking to a friend whom I did not call for a while sometimes lift my mode a bit.
·       But I found that sitting in front of computer for long time never helps me to come out these bad mode days. I really need a real out-of-desk break to become more productive.

So these are my strategies which came out from my experiences. I wrote hoping if these help you too. But we are all different. So good luck with your own plans.



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Stress In Monday Morning

I do not like Monday mornings. I am not the person who waits eagerly for Monday morning to come. No, I do not hate my job, in fact its a perfect job for me, yet I hate my Monday mornings.
Why ?
1) because after two days holidays I get delayed to start Monday Morning. I love my other days' of week but Monday drags my Sunday night.
2) Most of Sunday nights I feel to lazy to do any preparation for Monday.

But somehow I have managed to change something in my Sundays to have a better Monday. In last saturday, I cooked a large batch for Sunday. And I finished my groceries and laundry on Saturday. So Sunday morning we just had our breakfast and went outside for for park for quite along time. I even played a little bit of football with my son. We came back,ate lunch and took rest for whole Sunday. Dinner also was made before so I practically did nothing on Sunday night. Except few things below :
   1) Fixed Monday lunch for entire family. This is not much because my Guacamole/avocado sandwiches do not take much time to prepare.
   2) Kept the sink clean and shiny like http://flylady.net/ so better prepared for Monday.
   3) Kept the dresses ( and socks) ready for Monday.
   4) Just before bed, thought what the appointments I have on Monday.
So five minutes extra sleeping on Monday morning did not stress me out a lot .

Ok a very easy recipe of Guacamole/avocado sandwich:

Ingredients: Serving 2
  Sandwich bread 4
  Romaine lettuce 4 big leaves
  Ripen avocado 1
  Cucumber 1-cut in round slices
  Tomato 1-cut in round slices
   Lime juice 2 tbsp
  Onion slices (optional)
  Salt 1 tbsp (or according to taste)
  Pepper (according to taste)
  Cumin powder (according to taste)

Directions:
Cut avocado in this direction http://www.foodnetwork.com/how-to/how-to-choose-store-and-ripen-avocados/pictures/index.html
Squeeze the lime juice on the freshly cut avocados, smash it.
Put salt, cumin powder and pepper in to the mashed avocado.
Wrap the mashed avocado with a plastic wrap touching the avocado to avoid turning brown.
Refrigerate for next day sandwich making. This helps because next day morning it saves time.
Put the sandwich bread, lettuce and put the mashed avocado on it.
Arrange sliced cucumber, tomato and onion on the avocado.
Put another lettuce leaf on top of the sliced salads.
Then put one more bread on top of the second lettuce.
So the avocado/guacamole layer is in between two lettuce leaves.
Wrap them in plastic wrapper and its ready for lunch.

I like to cut lettuce, cucumber, tomato,onion and store them in the storage container for five days. That helps me to make sandwich much faster when I need them in the middle of week.

    So bye bye. Enjoy the avocado sandwich







 

 

Friday, August 31, 2012

Being Mommy: Let me be organized

Mommy gets very busy in the morning. She gets ready for office, she makes breakfast, makes the lunch and she makes her ( nearly) four year old to get ready for school.
   But does mommy breathe? Yes, she does but she does not eat her breakfast ( most of the days), does not brush her hair ( 99% of days) and she yells at everybody at home. That is how mommy starts her day. Then after dropping the kid school, mommy breaths. She feels, " I made another day".
  Now as mommy is switching her job, she is little bit relaxed and she is evaluating her daily routine little bit. And she came up with certain ideas. Yes, stress-bursting ideas.
For weekends :
        I like to finish my grocery shopping at weekends. Out of two days, one day afternoon for an hour and half is enough for me to finish my grocery. While doing grocery I keep a plan what I will cook for weekdays. I almost cook everyday (yes, I do. Though its little foolish but I do.)
    Now  daily I have to make lunch and two snacks for my kid for school. And its a little bit difficult because I do not have enough time for innovative ideas for daily lunch for a picky eater. I follow lunch ideas from the following sites, http://www.parents.com/kids/nutrition/lunch/healthy-school-lunches-snacks/#page=1http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/everydaycooking/family/backtoschool?intcid=epi_navpromo and  http://www.laptoplunches.com/ . This mom's blog, "http://a-moms-diary.blogspot.com/search/label/Bento%20Delight" is also good. I usually buy different kinds of fruits for his snacks and luckily he loves those fruits.
For weekdays :
   1)  Let fill the lunch-boxes or at least fruit boxes filled with fruits and keep it in refrigerator.
   2) Keep the juice bottle and snacks in each lunch box.
   3) Let us think about tomorrow's lunch and breakfast right now, today night.
   4) Get up early and so sleep early.
   5) Keep dress ready for tomorrow. Actually often getting exact pair of socks for my kid is very challenging. So nowadays at weekends, I pair up the five pairs of his socks and stack them on the hanging closet. This really help me a lot.
For weekends:
    1) Finish the grocery. Do not run in the middle of the week for store.
    2) Sunday after cook a little for Monday and do not stress too much. Sunday is too precious for   a working mother.
    3) Try to write down the food schedule for whole week on board.
                  Let us see how it works.
    
   
   

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Being Mommy: My Little Helper

  After a night-long worry and more worries, I chose to stay cool and unaffected by my child's own adventures ( aka naughty pranks). Believe it or not, it worked except you have to ignore the bed-time dramas.
   I chose to be resilient on his pranks and found that both of us were doing good. When he was going for evening bike ride with his father, I gave him a letter to post. I saw the sense of pride and responsibility gleaming over that little face when he came back. He was so happy to do the small but big job for Mommy. To me its my beginning to learn about my child. To understand how to make himself confident. May be next time, he can help me to do grocery in quite afternoon. A long to go and a long to learn.
   I think I went wrong treating him like a child or rather directing him all the time. Let him fall and learn. Let me be silent and watch and hold his hand when he needs. Big lesson for me and long hope to raise "healthy,happy and safe child".