Skip to main content

Slow down, let go

This is a great read. Especially on a Monday when you (at least, I) tend to lose focus. Especially when too many things are happening around you, and you are feeling overwhelmed. When you have to handle contempt and scorn. When some scenes from the past keep twirling like a dancing doll in your head. When you know you deserve better. When you need to slowly get your moorings back and stay afloat. When you need to learn equanimity. And be unmoved by high praise and vile criticism. When you should let go of people or things who are not for you.

http://ideas.ted.com/want-to-be-happy-slow-down/

Excerpts from the link where Pico Iyer and Matthieu Richard have a great conversation:

I think that’s why people like me, who are not part of a religious tradition, will often go on retreat to monasteries, because suddenly you can listen to everything and you’re not endlessly talking and you’re not trying to impress everybody around you, and you’re not being distracted by emails and texts … Suddenly when you start to watch things and start to listen to things, even if you’re a journalist without religion, the world becomes much richer.
“EVERY DAY THERE ARE SMALL MOMENTS WHEN WE HAVE A CHOICE: WILL WE TAKE IN MORE STUFF, OR JUST CLEAR OUR MINDS OUT FOR A BIT?” PICO IYER



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Walking down Fleet Street

One of London's most iconic streets, if you are a literature lover or a journalist or anyone who has anything to do with words. That's Fleet Street for you. The St Bride's Church, designed by Christopher Wren, located on this street has a lot of history associated with it. It is called the Jounalists' Church because of its location. Some of London's oldest papers were born on this street. When we walked into St Bride's, it was all quiet. We were the only visitors and the place was being renovated. Yet there was a free exhibition on. We enjoyed looking at old newspaper extracts, the history of the Church, clippings of how the Church was bombed during the WW II, how it was destroyed in the Great Fire and rebuilt etc. It was next door to this Church that the first printing press in London started to function as well. Our second stop on Fleet Street was the pub that came with many recommendations in books such as the Lonely Planet. The debate continues on whether...
Post a Comment
Read more

Not worth losing a life over

(This post has been published in unboxedwriters.com. Here:  http://unboxedwriters.com/2014/11/not-worth-losing-a-life-over/  )  This piece has also since been published in The New Indian Express L osing a wicket is a far far better thing to strive for. No batsman would say that under normal circumstances, but given Phil Hughes' death, he would certainly say that.  The sight of a fast bowler tearing into a batsman has been one of cricket's most romanticized images, especially in the pre-helmet era. It was a test to the batsman's technique and mental make-up to duck a bouncer or take one on and dispatch it to the fence. Some of the most celebrated tales in cricket come from anecdotes where batsmen have withstood or batted on in spite of a broken nose or a jaw, samurai-like. It is also very macho, I guess, for both players and spectators to witness such episodes involving sweat, and blood, in some cases. Almost all modern-day sports are civilized and evolved ver...
1 comment
Read more

Remember Sadanand Vishwanath?

I write this as I watch the post-lunch session of the first Ashes Test 2017 at the Gabba. Watching it on Sony Six with the Channel 9 line-up of commentators (plenty of flak for that line-up, of course), my mind goes back to the Benson & Hedges series of 1985-86. I was too young to remember much, but certainly remember the Audi car that Ravi Shastri won. That was also the first time that DD telecast the Channel 9 feed -- I know now not then. I only remember the famous animated duck walk past the screen as the batsmen walked back to the pavilion. That series saw the emergence of a young, dashing wicket-keeper who kept the chatter going behind the stumps -- Sadanand Vishwanath. A Google News search told me what's up with him now. Here's a link: http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/vishwanath-seeks-to-live-cricket-again/article20628906.ece
Post a Comment
Read more