Thu, 28 Mar, 2024

Mindfulness And Emotional Skills for Higher Performance- By Ravi Pradhan

By Barsha Dahal

A 63 year old man visited our college on 5th September and changed the perspective to see  life in just two hours. He fantastically began his talk, by telling everyone to leave their chairs and stand up and taught us exercises. This is the best way to involve your listener in your speech. I must say he is such a darling, cheerful and happy person. Just in a single encounter we could feel the freedom in his eyes and vigilance in his voice. He said he did his MBA in 1975 AD. “ Don’t think me imprecise, but I am not telling my age.... hahahaha” he said. The hall was filled with laughter. Thanks for that wonderful Friday and an amazing evening!! He talked about Search Inside Yourself which was developed at Google. We learnt about 5 emotional intelligence of Search Inside Yourself: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills that involves mindfulness practice, leadership and science. Have you ever heard about neuroscience? This is the science of the nervous system. You may be thinking what is the connection between his lecture and neuroscience. But to be exact, this was the main part of the talk session in my view. How to do self-mastery on our own nervous system by concentrating over our breath and how to live life as the leader of it ? It seems so interesting even to hear these all things, then guess how fascinating that workshop was... He made the workshop very interactive and friendly at the same time. Many students asked questions. I was dying to know something so I asked him, “Why do I get influenced by the negative actions rather than positive? If someone told me something very bad. It is very hard for me to cope with it. But if someone tells me better then that happiness just remains for a short time. What may be the reason behind this?” He laughed for a while then he answered in a very genuine way, “That's the problem with us humans. It has been our culture. So to change it, we have to practice. To be negative you do not need any course, but to be positive you need to learn the process of thinking at first.” Everyone present there were pleased by the answer. “You must be optimistic with strong will power, should have time management skills, should accept criticism as challenges and be self motivated if you want to compete in the real world.”, He mentioned this as the core soft skills for young graduates. When Mohan, one of the students of DWIT asked, “Why sometimes we are unable to understand the situation and begin to panic?”  We were left open-mouthed when he told adolescent brain is under construction till 25. So, we are not mature enough to face all the emotional challenges upto 25. He asked  everyone present there, “Why is soft so hard?” Whatever we assume to be simple and never bother to think twice is always the most valuable reality that we live every day but  very difficult to fathom. Other questions were asked  which helped us to evaluate our emotional intelligence and inner power. I found myself as a strong lady with tenacious soul, but sometimes I get driven by negative emotions easily. When asked the difference between meditation and mindfulness. He said,”meditation involves religion, but mindfulness is a complete science. So I prefer mindfulness to meditation.”  I must admit this was the most inspiring talk program I have ever attended. He said, “Nobody had taught you to learn from your own experiences and to listen to the voice of your heart.” Have you ever learnt to search the value of the noises that exasperate you every time? What are you breathing, air or oxygen or life? Have you ever asked yourself, “Who am I?” Once think, you are alive and you have got only one life. When you die what do you want to be remembered as? That really matters. Every sentences he said is embedded in my brain as the inner voice that is whispering to me to let go of past, forget about future and anyhow try to live in present. That may be the single and a simple effort for each day but it is the process to know oneself and to be the magic of our own life. We never know what can we do until and unless the situation challenges us.