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7 steps to handle new change in life (Part 2) – lessons from the book “Who moved my cheese?”

Continuing from the previous post, where it introduced the premise of the book and listed the 7 steps in the process of handling changes in life. In this one we will go through each one on them individually. (Click here to read Part 1) You are getting surprised by change only if you aren’t expecting it. I. Change happens This is the first thing that we need to keep in mind that no matter what you do there will always be changes happening around you. Change is the only constant in life. It is natural for change to occur continually in your life. It doesn’t matter if you expect it or not. You are getting surprised by it only if you aren’t expecting it. If you haven’t been looking out for it. Sometimes you hang on to things due to nostalgia and old memories. They seem familiar and give you comfort. You do that even when they are no longer good for you. This prevents you from observing and expecting any changes. You settle down in your comfort zones, which makes it very di...

7 steps to handle new change in life (Part 1) – lessons from the book “Who moved my cheese?”

I recently finished reading the book “Who moved my cheese?” by Spencer Johnson. It’s not a very big book, rather it’s on the smaller side. The hard cover version only has around 96 pages. (My eBook reader estimated it to have 79 pages.) Even with my "snaily" slow reading speed and an average reading time of around 15-30 minutes, that I do before I go to bed, I finished the book in around 3 days. (Well, I did read a bit more over the weekend during the day as well.) So, yeah, my point is that it’s quite a small book and would make a good starter book for people like me, who don’t like reading huge epics. If even that doesn’t encourage you to read it, then here is a quick summary of my take on the main theme in the book. The cheese in this context stands for the things in life that you long for and strive to attain in your life. In summary, the book is about your inhibitions and resistance to change. It uses four characters in a short story format. These characters f...

Handling your mistakes and learning from them

I am sure no one amongst us mortals can claim to be faultless and proclaim that they have never made any mistakes in their lives – except for the most narcissistic personalities. So, we all have experienced the feelings of making a mistake, ranging from some very silly ones to the more serious ones, leading to setbacks in life. And more commonly, when something like this happens, we start to look for reasons and find someone to blame for it. Some just blame themselves, and some try to put the blame on others, including people, systems, government, environment, etc. making mistakes is invariably our essential nature and no matter how careful and meticulous you are, they are bound to happen from time to time Wouldn’t it be nice if typical mistakes were just like writing with a pencil, so that you can erase and leave no trace of it? In some rare cases, they do resemble that ideal behaviour. You can promptly correct the innocent mistake, and no one would know, and hopefully you would ...

Tips for successfully managing your anger - Part 3

Like we mentioned in the previous post, the ill-effects of rage and anger can be extremely harmful, both physically and emotionally. ( Click here to read part 2 ) So, it is important that we also learn how to handle it and find ways of altering our behaviour and better alternatives. We know that it is not always possible to control the emotions and no matter how calm a person you are, there would be times where things could get on your nerves and elicit an adverse reaction in rage. Here are some of the ways that you can manage anger and your responses to it. The first thing that might be helpful is to understand is how the brain works and what causes this reaction. Anger is one of the most basic emotions and has been a crucial part of human evolution. It is part of the fight or flight response of the brain, whereby it was also important for survival. The amygdala in the brain releases a series of stress hormones like epinephrine, which affect your overall prepared...

Understanding anger, it's ill-effects and how to successfully manage it - Part 2

So, continuing from the previous post regarding how anger is one of the most basic emotions and learning to handle it successfully is one of the most important life skills. ( Click here to read part 1 ) But before we learn about the different ways, we can handle the feelings of anger, it is important to understand why we need to do it in the first place. So here are some of the harms and ill-effects that have been studied and proven for people who have issues of anger management. One of the main things, that you might be able to relate with easily as well, is that, more often than not, we tend to regret losing our temper and getting angry, as soon as we have calmed down a bit. And it mostly does not matter who was at fault and how stupid an action he or she had taken to enrage you. So, even though the anger stayed with you for probably a few seconds or a few minutes – or maybe in some cases for up to a couple of hours – the regret that we feel stays with us for almost the w...

Understanding anger, it's ill-effects and how to successfully manage it - Part 1

Let me start by sharing a small story from Buddha’s life. Once Buddha was on his daily outings, walking through a village, when he encountered a very angry and frustrated young man, who was particularly upset and confronted Buddha. Believing that this was another one of the fake saints who frequented the village, he started shouting and insulting him, “You are nothing but a fake guru and as stupid as everyone else who has visited before, if not even more. You have no right to come around lecturing people and teaching them things.” As the young man's tirade continued, all through this, Buddha stayed calm as ever, just reacting to the insults with complete indifference, whereby making the young man even more enraged. Feeling that the young man was getting more and more frustrated that his attempts were going in vain, Buddha felt that he must help the man, so he said, “Young man, you seem to be a very knowledgeable man, so answer me one question; if you buy a gift for someone, and the...