General

Take any one belief of yours that has ruled your life, and examine it from the following aspects.
1 Is it true?
2 Can you absolutely know that it’s true?
3 How do you react, what happens, when you believe that thought?
4 Who would you be without that thought?

This challenge was posted by fellow blogger, Reena. Thanks, Reena, for, once again, making me think deeply about my life.

This challenge has been sitting in my draft box for quite some time. I am fascinated by the challenge and, at the same time, scared silly of following where it might lead. Self-examination is scary, at best. This has the touch of terror.

When I try to single out one belief about my life – that I haven’t beaten to death already on my blog – I draw a blank. Mostly because I don’t want to delve any deeper into…

Hosted by the ever dependable, super resourceful Reena at

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 15

DARKNESS TO LIGHT

By Neel Anil Panicker

As the Master of Ceremonies (MC) announced the winner of the COACHING TIME Best Faculty Award 2017, thunderous rounds of applause swept through the audience as every single person was up on his or feet, clapping, cheering lustily, quite a few even, especially among the women, shedding more than a tear.

These were no ordinary tears; instead they were tears of joy, tears of supreme happiness and a silent prayer in honour and recognition of the insurmountable spirit displayed by one of their own, one who with her actions had become an inspirational beacon of hope for all.

Daintily adjusting the folds of her exquisitely ornate gold embroidered Kancheevaram silk saree, Dr Lavanya got up from her chair in the corner third row and worked her way towards stage acknowledging…

The Who did a song titled ‘Who Are You’, which featured lyrics that said, “Well, who are you? (who are you? who, who, who, who?) I really wanna know (who are you? who, who, who, who?) Tell me, who are you? (who are you? who, who, who, who?) ‘Cause I really wanna know (who are you? who, who, who, who?)”, however that is not what I am writing about.  This post is about Alan Watts a British philosopher, writer, and speaker who is best known as an interpreter and that popularized Eastern philosophy for a Western audience.  He wrote more than 25 books and numerous articles on subjects such as personal identity, the true nature of reality, higher consciousness and the meaning of life.

Watts gave an amazing lecture about ‘Who are you really?’, where he said, “If you’re ready to wake up, you’re going to wake up and if you’re…

Hosted by Reena at https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2017/11/24/reenas-exploration-challenge-week-14/

NO SWETTING OVER SWOT, SIMPLY SOAR

Here’s the prompt.

By Neel Anil Panicker  

Nitin Gokhale looked around him and found that he was the odd one out. Everyone in the large airy hall the size of a 5-star lobby was clad in suits. Cleaned and shaven, hairs gelled, shoes shining brighter than the morning sun, and holding sleek leather bound files in their manicured hands, each one of them radiated brilliance as their eager, sparkling eyes stood affixed on a corner door that for now remained firmly closed.

For a casual observer the scene could be mistaken for the grand finale round of the ‘Mr World’ contest when the door would magically spring open and the judges would walk upto announce the winner of the most prized contest.

Except that this was no beauty contest but a brainy one. The participants who were waiting were…

This weeks prompt gave me much to think about. On the one hand, you could argue that as I am now retired aspirations as such no longer matter, employment-wise. It’s more about enjoying each day as it comes past.

So, I’ll look at each section and see what conclusions I come to.

Strengths: Resilience is one. Health issues can be debilitating at any time but when you are ageing the problem is exacerbated because you want a quality of life that will sustain you and allow you to exercise some of your goals, such as travel and relationship.

So, I combine that with determination. I listen to all of my medical people, and I determine to follow their advice based on their experience in their respective fields. I do so knowing some days I will fail miserably and when I do it’s about recognising not just the failure but…