Convincing Ourselves

I recently came across the idea of Energizing Meditation (EM) in the "National Council for hypnotherapy Journal SUMMER EDITION". The protocol has been proposed by Howard Baron, a retired management consultant, whom I believe still dabbles in workshops and corporate training. While traditional meditation is about staying mindful and relaxing, Energizing Meditation (EM) aims to converse and boost one's energy. Basically, you are to feel 'energized' after an EM session. Howard has an interest in managing oneself under highly stressful situations, and I can see how he came up with the protocol in order to ensure managers and leadership can function in the best manner when confronted with difficulty (we are talking oil spills and disasters here!). Given Howard's background is in management consultancy, I feel Energizing Meditation (EM) is worth looking into. The protocol has been deliberately keeping very open and flexible because he rightfully believes...

It is well understood in psychology that our beliefs, especially those formed in childhood can have a great impact on our behaviour and choices later on in life. Even though Cognitive Behavioral Therapist may not deal with issues from the past, and in certain cases you may not need to, it is well acknowledged that it does occur in traditional psychotherapy as well as literature. With my experience with individuals, I have also come across individuals who are struggling with certain behaviors and choices presently, that stem from beliefs and experiences in early life. Below I will give a fictional account of what that may look like in order to help readers understand how such beliefs can be formed, and how they may be invisible to the individual themselves. Fictional Account: Laura, 35, is a middle manager at a local chain of retail stores. She comes from an upper-middle-class background, and both her parents were immigrants and doctors. Laura had two more siblings. A...

The world is currently wrapped up in a pandemic, and an associated economic crisis. With this comes a whole lot of other problems, from logistics, to governance, and of course healthcare. Times are uncertain a lot of people may feel anxious or downright threatened. Its as if everyone is having to tread blind, while surrounded by danger, and no clue when it ends. Moreover, people are not just worried about themselves, but also about their loved ones. This is and of itself is a mental help challenge as well. The whole world is going through an emotional and cognitive crisis and this may have repercussions on our own health and well being as well. If not managed well, just like the health or economic crises, the effects could be lasting. Focus on what you can control: In a situation, where most of the variables are out of your control, one must focus on what can be controlled. This is necessary to bring a sense of control and therefore certainty back to the person. Even in war...

This is a follow up to my article on goals: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-do-you-really-want-umair-usman/ When starting a business, a workout regiment, or any project for that matter, when starting with a blank sheet. No idea of how to move forward. We try things, we fail, we stumble, we fall and even with advice or a coach, we tend not to be able to attain what we set out to attain. A big reason for not being able to achieve our goals is because we lack a strategic plan. Now whats a strategic plan? A strategic plan is simply a break down of a list of goals over a period of time. All you need to do is to answer three questions to really set out a strategic plan -Where are you? -Where do you wanna go? -How do you get there? Example 1: BUSINESS Say you are starting a coffee trading business, how will you answer these? -Where are you? Define your objectives, mission, assets, strengths, weaknesses etc. All are necessary to understand know to figure out what can...

Everyone grows up admiring someone. We may admire our father. He seems strong and powerful yet loving. We may admire our teachers in school, who seem to know the answer to everything, we may even admire a cartoon character that we can relate to. Whatever the case, we all admire people and often aspire to be like them. Even though many believe that having role models means we may be 'fan boyish', 'unoriginal' or 'hero worshiping', I believe role models have a huge role to play in helping us becoming our potential and for many having a role model can be life changing. Showing Purpose: One way in which role models can help us is by showing us a purpose in life. As a young kid myself, I was very much inspired by Edison and wanted to be an inventor myself. This never  materialized ofcourse but it set me on to a path where I was curious to discover new things and without a doubt made up who I am today. Even though I did not know Edison, whatever I read about hi...

The Beautiful Journey Jin and Lui were the fiercest fighters at Master Yang's dojo. They had trained at this dojo in a secluded mountain peak since they were both 6 years of age. Being good at Kung Fu had been their sole purpose in life. Now, 20, they both helped glorify the name of Master Yang and his dojo in all the land. However, even though they both were great, there could only ever be one 'Dragon' in all of China, either Jin or Lui. The competition to become the 'Dragon' was the biggest competition in all of China, held once every 25 years, so every generation has one Dragon. Jin and Lui had been practicing for this their whole life. They had sweated and bled together, went through sleepless nights, broken bones, insults and defeats to be able to enter this competition. All the pain had to pay off now, they both thought. In the supervision of Master Yang, Jin and Lui went from one level of the competition to the next. Training continuously, perf...

                                               Magic The legend of the magic lamp was very famous around the Baghdad bazaar. Tribesmen, tradesmen, women and children, everyone has heard about the magic lamp buried somewhere in  the desert. Anyone who possessed the magic lamp, would be able to command the genie to do anything they wanted.  It was rumored that the magnificent palace of Baghdad was built by the genie of the lamp when the Sultan possessed the lamp. The lamp was lost by the Sultan during a battle in Mosul. He searched for it for a 100 days and nights and returned empty handed from that battle. It is believed that the lamp is still buried somewhere in that desert.Many had tried to search for it themselves, wasting away time, money and energy, but never found it. Ali Shah was just another boy. He used to hawk oil lamps in the Baghdad ...

Confused Confused, indecisive, procrastinate? Sometimes we just cant make sense of things and because we cant make sense of things we don't take action. Of course, nothing is more important than action but when life overwhelms us with choices, information, chores, sometimes it becomes difficult to look past the immediate and take a birds eye view of the grand perspective. There are many such instances where we can simply not think right, ranging from small everyday things, starnge annoyances, all the way to big life decisions eg 1-Buying a new smart phone? --we can be confused about specs, pricing, plans etc 2-Eating out, where to go?-- what to eat, why to go there? 3-Do my classmates hate me? --why do they laugh at me? why do I have so few friends? 3-Which university to go to? --what will it cost, what will be the return, how far will it be from home? etc etc etc Once we convince ourselves that there is a path forward, we can break through all the clutter and cle...

I believe everyone should read this simple and short blog post of mine before they start university. I am not intending to give 'self help' and 'personal growth' advice over here. There are millions of books and webpages out there. All I want you to do is to look into yourself and hear what you say. That is it. Hear what you say to yourself. Do you tell yourself you will be the next Steve Jobs? do you tell yourself that you will be the best athlete at the school? or do you tell yourself you will out do everyone in the class? whatever it is, good luck and I hope you achieve it but remember that you know exactly how to achieve it. There are no short cuts in life and if you are smart enough to be going to university, you already know this. However like anyone, you may need a reminder. You know how much you have to give to reach your goals, you know who to talk to, you know what is to be done. Do not just dream, follow your inner wise person and do it. You ar...

Well, I am not going to give a solution as to what to do when you are confused and afraid. The idea of writing this blog was not to explain solutions to problem but to show how solutions usually reside within us already. It is we who cannot get out of our internal struggle and make things happen, even when we know the solutions already. We set block up to our growth by imagining an easier, better or simpler solution. By waiting for a magical event or someone out there to help us. If that does not happen, many of us just do into depression and feel victimized. There is nothing worse than feeling victimized. Warriors cannot be victims. We are all warriors after all. How you may ask? well, we may be confused about a future work plan or confused about simple things eg what to eat? or which university to join? All complex decisions [and as frustrating as these moments are], we can always get over these and make a decision. We cannot predict the right outcome, obviously, but we can...