Meditation Mantra

A lot of people around me have distinct views about what the meditation is. There are quite a few myths as well. I am practicing the meditation since last five years (Though not on a regular basis). I would like to get into further details so that it will answer most of the doubts about it. There are few people around who are willing to practice the art of meditation but don’t know how to begin.

Meditation is a period of time set aside every day to quiet the mind. It is a way to slow down, chill out and get in touch with inner side of our self. Initially in meditation, the thoughts are slowed down and after conscious practice, eventually thoughts stops completely.

According to studies, meditation can increase immunity, defuse negative emotions, lowers blood pressure and reduces the effects of stress. More important, it’s free and has no side effects. But with so much information around books, internet and other sources, people are still not sure how to begin.

I have already read a lot about this subject in the past and was confused also. There are hundreds of ways of doing mediation. But I chose one of the simplest and effective ways to do it and it has created wonders for me. That is breathing meditation.

How to meditate?

Sit comfortably on a hard chair, with your spine a few inches away from the back of the chair. Close your eyes. Focus your attention on your breathing. Let your belly expand on the inhalation and contract on exhalation, allowing the breath deeper into your lungs. You can also count One while inhaling and Two while exhaling out and so on. This conscious counting of the breaths (i.e. One while inhale and Two while exhale) will help you to restrict the thoughts entering your mind.

Initially, the thoughts will keep on entering your mind and will try to distract you. But gently come back to your conscious counting as mentioned. As you keep on practicing, the thoughts will eventually slow down and your mind will reach to the state of absolute thoughtlessness (Samadhi). Anytime your mind begins to wander, and it will, so don’t be hard on yourself. Slowly, focus your attention back on breathing.

When to Meditate?

The best time to meditate is as soon as you wake up. Bypass the tea and head straight for your meditation. Once you get a cup of tea and start reading the news, you know, you are absorbed in other things. Meditation as a first thing in morning has maximum health benefits.

What much time to meditate?

According to research, we need to meditate at 10 minutes a day to begin reaping the benefits. So the only requirement is finding that time from our so called multi tasking culture.

Benefits of Meditation

It Lowers oxygen consumption
It decreases respiratory rate.
Increases blood flow and slows heart rate.
Increases tolerance in heart patients.
Leads to better level of relaxation.
Decreases muscle tension.
Builds self confidence.
Enhances Immune system
Increases serotonin production in body which influences mood and behaviour.
Good for people with high BP as it brings the blood pressure to normal.

Bottom Line

Just the action of focussing on your breath for 10 minutes a day is enough. Most people over complicate the process of meditation. They think that they should get up at 5 AM in morning and do it for hour or so. Second thing, its not a religious practice. It’s a scientific technique and already proven as a beneficial thing to apply in our daily life.

Another thing, meditation is not a corrective measure to apply after a health problem has started (Of course, it helps in better recovery, but by that time, the damage has already been occurred). Rather it’s a preventive measure, which helps in our overall well being. So you can start practising it from today onwards itself.

Autobiography of Lee Iacocca

Just finished with reading of the book titled as “IACOCCA: An Autobiography”. The book is a bit thicker in size which I don’t like much but once started reading, I finished this book within no time.

For those who don’t know much about Lee Iacocca, this is the brief. The son of Italian immigrants, who went onto become President of Ford Motors and Chrysler respectively. A visionary leader, Marketing icon, media person who received celebrity status in America during 1980s.

An engineer by education, Iacocca started his career as Management Trainee at Ford. After few months of working at manufacturing section, he chose a more happening field of Sales and Marketing. At the age of 36 he went onto become General Manager of biggest division of Ford Motors.

Lee is popularly known as the father of Mustang, a sensational Car model launched in 1964. This model created history in American Automobile sector. Within the first 2 years Mustang generated net profits of $ 1.1 billion.

The success of Mustang, coupled with his great management, selling, interpersonal and decision making skills made him President of Ford Motors in 1970, a business empire of 4,32,000 employees.

During his presidency over the period of next 8 years, Ford was making the average profits of around $ 2 billions per year, the largest margins in its history. His growing influence in Ford and indifferences with Henry Ford II, (who was Chairman of Ford) made the matters worse for Iacocca. After working for 32 years (out which 8 years as President) he was fired.

The insulted and devastated Iacocca then joined Chrysler as President. But the Chrysler was already plagued with bad management, poor quality of cars, declined sales, which led it to almost bankruptcy. As a president, Lee had to take a lot of tough decisions like restructuring of board of directors, shutdown of non-profitable plants and firing of a huge manpower. But in doing so he had the vision and confidence to bring the Chrysler on the right track.

He implemented a lot of other cost cutting initiatives, like he opted to reduce his annual compensation from $ 1 million to $ 1 per year. Other employees then voluntarily came ahead and made their contribution. Lee brought out the concept of “Equality of Sacrifice” at Chrysler.

The OPEC oil crisis in 1980 made the matters worse for him and other than bailout, the only option he had left was asking for Government help. After a lot of struggle and convincing, US govt sanctioned a loan guarantee of $ 1.5 billions. The guarantee was given for the period of next 7 years at the annual interest rate of more than 20%.

After that, Lee concentrated all of his efforts on work and brought the concept of K- Car, which introduced 2 Car models, Aries and Reliant. These models made history in sales and Chrysler came out of the situation of bailout to profit making company within 3 years and paid the entire outstanding loan to US congress.

This is an incredible story. A straight from the gut talking, aggressive sales and Marketing guy became an American legend. His growing influences in America made him a celebrity and people were insisting him to run for Presidency of United states.

I liked this book very much. Personally I took a lot of lessons. This book can prove to be the bible for those who are inclined towards management and wants to climb that ladder very fast.

Through this book, Lee openly criticised working style of Henry Ford II. He openly talked about stringent emission regulations in America, tax policy, Japanese Car challenges and even insisted about the mandatory use of safety belts as precautionary measure to reluctant US citizens. He also expressed his views on bringing back the American glory, importance of work life balance for individuals, etc.

One thing I didn’t liked as a reader is Lee’s open criticism towards Henry Ford II and he also revealed personal side of Henry. But, apart from this, the book is a true masterpiece. One thing is for sure, this book is going to be a part of favourites section of my bookshelf.

The difference between Ego and Self Respect

Ego is about how we mask ourselves from reality, whereas Self Respect is about how we feel about ourselves. Let me further explore into it.

Ego (Ahamkara) is something which keeps an individual under wrong influences. It makes the person to live in his own limited space. He becomes happy when ego is satisfied and devastates when ego gets shattered. Self respect (Swabhimaan) on the other hand, is something beyond respect and disrespect. Whether satisfied or not, it drives an individual to explore himself further and do good Karma.

An egoistic person creates an imaginary world around him. Most of which includes showcasing their existence. He is always concerned about his own interests. During the tough time, he tries to safeguard himself in multiple ways even though he is responsible. He tries to play a blame game and drags others into it. He throws the responsibility on others, to satisfy the desire for authority and tries all crazy things to prove his worth.

A person with self respect tries to discover his own existence on the earth and works to give justice to it. When everything goes well, he feels accomplished in whatever he does; He feels contentment and shares the joy with others. He never expects any appreciation. If something goes wrong, he is the first person to realize it and will feel guilt. After that he accepts the situation and tries to improve upon it.

Extending these thoughts to corporate life, an egoistic person creates a false image about himself. He will try to showcase falsehood, is reluctant in helping others and is always hesitant to take help from others. A person with Self respect is always confident about his doing and there is no existence of guilt in his actions. He will not care about his status in case he needs any help from others and offers everything if they need help.

One needs to understand the difference between self respect and ego and decide our actions accordingly. Otherwise the acquired wisdom will become merely an exhibition.

Google+: New marketing sensation??

A couple of weeks back Google launched its new social networking service Google+. And within this short period of time, it has already become a sensation, especially among techies. People are endlessly talking and sharing their views on this topic.

This made me to go into some details of this new buzz word.

The Google + starts with Circles. It’s a bit confusing term, but a Circle is the list of people an individual wants to share information with. This information can be anything like sharing locations, status, photos, videos and many more. You can make multiple circles like this and name it. The cool thing is that none of your friends who are added to circles will know which circle they are a part of.

Google + has an “asymmetric sharing model”. This means you can share one way with the people but it’s not mandatory for them to share with you. If you both share, then it shows in your stream. There are three modes in which you can share the information. Public, Extended and Limited. Public is public on your profile and in the stream of everyone who circles you. Extended includes friends of people in your circles. Limited is people selected from certain circles. Twitter is an example of this model. Facebook is an example of symmetric sharing model, where two people mutually confirm them as friends and then only can share the stuff.

There is a main difference between Groups and Circles. In groups, everybody knows who is in the group. For circles it’s exactly opposite.

Advantages of Google+ includes it puts privacy first, manages sharing with selective lists, you can version your profile by circles. Disadvantages include it’s a bit confusing, problems can arise when circles collide and there is little social discovery.

It will be too early to discuss about success or failure of this new service, but for sure, it has taken the web by storm and people are talking something other than Apple.