Reflections: the stoic way!

Life offers us many delectable aspects to a blessed existence. Heavenly places on earth are not many but when they invite you, you can't afford to not get mesmerized. God paints its own masterpieces.    Five elements of life create their enigma and with changing hours of the day, it throws open a new landscape of thoughts to get drenched into.  Wellington, near Ooty, Coonoor district of Tamil Nadu is one such place.   Google describes this place like this:  Coonoor is a hill station in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It’s known for its tea estates in the surrounding Nigiri hills. Sim’s Park is a sprawling public garden with plants like rhododendrons, roses and eucalyptus trees. The steam Nilgiri Mountain Railway travels between the towns of Mettupalayam and Ooty via Coonoor. Dolphin’s Nose is a vantage point with views of the cascading Catherine Falls. ― Google Captivating view from the Gorkha Hills, Wellington, Tamil Nadu, India.. ...

Dan Buettner and his magnificent 2 decade of research on the Blue Zones is something to consider seriously.  It's not only Ikigai, but various blue zones have also discovered their recipes for living a long, meaningful, full of zest, socially and religiously bound, independent and paying back, lovey life.  Check the 9 core principles, aka Power9, of the Blue Zones. ( Loma Linda , US, Nicoya , Costa Rica, Sardinia , Italy, Icaria , Greece, and Okinawa , Japan) Dan has written several NYT bestsellers, worth reading.  Blue Zones have a cross-sectional similarity in how they live a healthy life beyond the higher averages of the world population!  You see below the Power9 factors that contribute to their well-being in common!  There are some 5 Blue Zones and adding slowly, that are spread across the globe where people have decoded the art of living 100 years.   Netflix and Discovery Channel have Dan's documentar...

Life and our quest for a meaningful life starts with YOU! You are a body and mind before anyone you identify with!  Ex-PepsiCo CEO, Nooyi wakes up as early as 4 a.m., telling Fortune that "they say sleep is a gift that God gives you ... that's one gift I was never given." She was so busy and demands from all corners poured in...she navigated life of million tasks with ease but most of us are not like her.  We have breakdown moments, we give up, we surrender to fate, etc.  Emotional well-being and body health are related and one in shape leads to the other and the opposite is equally true.  Your life is not something that you can triage; keep, let go and repurpose! But health priorities can certainly be  triaged. Some 2000 years ago, stoic Seneca told something that is more relevant today than any time in the past! Life in not just happening, it is descending on us, heavier by the day and anxious by the night!  Before you jump into your Stoic ...

Hypertense (High BP), belly fat, depleted liver, pale looking face, bad sleep, poor body symmetry and obviously lost touch in bed! Sounds familiar? Read on.... That's the premise to my 71 kg on the weighing machine on 15 June to 66 kg in 30 days and now on 20th Sep, clocking 63.3 kg. I am 53 and 170 CM. Have started walking 15 k steps with ease in one go of ~2 hours. Pumping some iron with ease and run some 700 meters in rhythm...  Target 🎯 to run 5 km marathon in Pune on 10 Dec 2023..looks like some work and continued commitment but am determined!  Started with 15 kinds of Nutrilite supplements that worked quick, started loosing weight in 7 days.. Only healthy meal at home, no snacking, no bazaar wali biryanis, nothing in between meals..  Appetite reduced to half and cravings one-fourth. No to Sugar and other whites..  Started with early dinner and 30 min of relaxed walk post all meals..  My dietician Swapna ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/swapna-k-4352111a...

 Title sounds unreal, right? They are not from the future but are edicts from the past. Those edits, which were purposefully buried down!  Check this:  Alphabet lays off hundreds from global recruitment team - The Hindu Did you hear this? Google parent Alphabet lays off hundreds from global recruitment team! or, Google parent Alphabet is laying off employees from its global recruiting team as the tech giant continues to slow hiring! Google it! How ironic? Use of AI Chatbot in hiring is going to lift the talent agenda from the dungeons of being relegated to rot at the ATS and then the Incompetent Recruiter's mercy! Recruiters have done more injustice to the talent than the ATS, right?. Poor ATS gets the blame, while the perpetrators of this injustice are lack of governance, apathy of senior leadership and the hordes of ill informed, incompetent recruiters! Sounds brutal? Audit your ATS and trail of applications that never saw the sunlight! Your ATS maybe the biggest '...