Life Skills

Who is packing your parachute? Air Commodore Vishal was a Jet Pilot. In a combat mission his fighter plane was destroyed by a missile. He however ejected himself and parachuted safely. He won acclaims and appreciations from many. After five years one day he was sitting with his wife in a restaurant. A man from another table came to him and said "You're Captain Vishal ! You flew jet fighters. You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Vishal. "I packed your parachute," the man smiled and replied. Vishal gasped in surprise and gratitude and thought if parachute hadn't worked, I wouldn’t be here today.  Vishal couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. He wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?' or anything because, he was a fighter pilot and that person was just a safety worker" So friends, who is packing your parachute?

Once a Crow, holding on to a piece of meat was flying to find a place to sit & eat.  However, an Eagle started chasing it. The crow was anxious and was flying higher and higher, yet the eagle was after the poor crow.  Just then "Garuda" saw the plight and  pain in the eyes of the crow. Coming closer to the crow, he asked: "What's wrong? You seem to be very "disturbed" and in  "stress"?". The crow cried "Look at this eagle!! It is after me to kill me". Garuda being the bird of wisdom spoke "Oh my friend!! That eagle is not after you to kill you!! It is after that piece of meat that you are holding in your beak. Just drop it and see what will happen”. The crow followed the advice of Garuda and dropped the piece of meat, and there you go, the eagle flew towards the falling meat. Garuda smiled and said "The Pain is only till you hold on to it. *Just Drop* it”. The crow bowed and said "I dropped this piece of meat, now

The Boss was retiring.  Everyone had tears in their eyes on the day of his farewell.  One of the employees said,  “Sir, there is one thing we want to learn from you. You worked here for so many years.  Leave aside about scolding your subordinates, we have never seen you even shouting at them.  We have scolded our subordinates on pressure of work or for other reasons.  We want to know about the seed of your patience.” The Boss said,  “This all comes from the incident of my childhood.  My father was working as a lower level employee in an office.  He was a very nice person.  He was respected very much in our family.  It happened one day,  I was studying in the 4th standard.  I had gone to the office of my father for some reason.  I saw that my father was not on his seat.  I waited outside. After some time,  the door of the Boss opened, my father came out of the door.  I saw the fair face of my father had turned red.  He went straight to a corner and stood there looking outside through a

School Name: *LIFE* Class: *40th Standard* (All students are above 40 years) * ANGER * - Present sir * EGO * - Present sir * STRUGGLE * - Present sir *ENVY* - Present sir *REGRET* - Present sir *ANXIETY* - Present sir *BOREDOM* - Present sir *DESIRES* - Present sir (in full volume) *KILLED DESIRES* - Present sir *FRUSTRATION* - Present sir *IRRITATION* - Present sir *MONTHLY EMI* - Present sir (in full volume) *OFFICE TENSION* - Present sir *FUTURE TENSION* - Present sir *TROUBLE* - Present sir *HURDLES* - Present sir *WORRIES* - Present sir *PROBLEMS* - Always Present sir *UNCERTAINTIES* - Present sir *CRITICISM* - Present sir *GREED* - Present sir *ARROGANCE* - Present sir *HALF KNOWLEDGE* - Present sir *HAPPINESS* - ??? (no sound) *HAPPINESS* - ???  *HAPPINESS* - Absent sir *PEACE OF MIND* - Absent sir *CONTENTMENT* - Absent sir *FULL KNOWLEDGE* - Absent sir *WISDOM* - Always on the way, stopped by Ego *LOVE* - Sleeping/Missing sir *Hope* - Leaving sir *PATIENCE* - Lost sir *GENEROS

*"That Which You Know Already" - Real Life Story !* 'Ouspensky' was a marvelous thinker from Russia. He had written many books, one of which had brought special fame. It was said that there was no book in the world to equal his. At the time Ouspensky went to visit 'Gurdjieff', He was a famous man, Gurdjieff was a simple 'Fakir'. Ouspensky said to him: ”I want to put some questions to you.” Gurdjieff handed him a blank piece of paper and said: ”Before we talk, write down all that you know and all that you do not know. Then we shall talk on that which you do not know. That which you know already, needs no elucidation. It will only profit you if we talk on the matters you do not know.” That was a strange way to greet a famous man! However Ouspensky took the paper and went in a corner of the room He meant to make a long list. But when he started to write, he found himself in a strange predicament!  He asked himself: ”Do I know God?”  The answer came from w

*1) The stomach* is scared when you do not have breakfast in the morning. *(2) The kidneys* are afraid when you do not drink 10 glasses of water in 24 hours. *(3) The gallbladder* is scared when you do not  sleep until 11 o'clock and do not wake up at sunrise. *(4) The small intestine* is scared when you eat cold and stale food. *(5) Large intestines* are scared when you eat more fried and spicy food. *(6) The lungs* are scared when you breathe in smoke, dirt and polluted environment of cigarettes and bidis. *(7) The liver is scared when you eat heavy fried food, junk and fast food.* *(8) The heart* is afraid when you eat your meals with more salt and cholesterol. *(9) The pancreas* is scared when you eat more sweets because of the taste and being freely available. *(10) Eyes* are scared when you work in the light of mobile and computer screen in the dark. And *(11) The brain  is scared when you start thinking negative things.* Take care of the parts of your body and do not scare t

Today's Story: _The Experts:)_ In 1942, Russia was being overrun by German tanks. The Russians needed a fast, cheap way to combat them. One of their ideas was to use dogs. Training dogs to carry explosives under the tanks made sense. Dogs were fast and could each carry a small bomb. The only problem was the dogs couldn’t be trained to put the bomb down and run away. So the dogs would just have to explode with the bombs. It still made sense. There were plenty of dogs, they were cheap and easy to train. So the Russians set up canine-training schools staffed by experts. Experts who knew exactly how dogs thought. They decided the best kind of dog to use would be Alsatians: strong, brave, and fast. Each dog was trained to wear a vest with 28lb of explosives. They were kept permanently hungry and their food was always kept under a tank. So they learned to crawl under a tank to get their food. In a battle, a lever sticking out of the explosives would hit the bottom of the tank. That would

Many people feel emotions in certain parts of their bodies–stress in their neck or anxiety in their stomach, maybe happiness in their chest.  For example: Anger has many expressions: resentment is one, frustration is another and obviously rage is an extreme. Symptoms that may show up are, blurry vision, dizziness, headaches that are mainly on the top of the head, high blood pressure or pain in the ribs.  Below is the article being circulated widely among social media. Though I was not able to get the first source of this finding. You may comment if some thing is incorrect. Japanese surprising research... 1. *Acidity* not only caused by diet errors, but more dominated because of *stress*. 2. *Hypertension* not only caused by too much consumption of salty foods, but mainly because of errors in *managing emotions*. 3. *Cholesterol* is not only caused by fatty foods, but the *excessive laziness* or sedentary lifestyle is more responsible. 4. *Asthma* not only becaus

A beautiful story, do read...it makes a difference One day Maths teacher asked her students to list the names of the other students in the room on two sheets of paper, leaving a space between each name. Then she told them to think of the nicest thing they could say about each of their classmates and write it down. It took the remainder of the class period to finish their assignment, and as the students left the room, each one handed in the papers. That Saturday, the teacher wrote down the name of each student on a separate sheet of paper, and listed what everyone else had said about that individual. On Monday she gave each student his or her list. Before long, the entire class was smiling. 'Really?' she heard whispered. 'I never knew that I meant anything to anyone!' and, 'I didn't know others liked me so much,' were most of the comments. No one ever mentioned those papers in class again. She never knew if they discussed them after class or with

*Much respect to whoever wrote this awesome article* *It is a mistake to think time is going. Time is not going. Time is here until the world ends. It is you that is going. You don’t waste time. Time is infinite. You waste yourself. You are finite (In this world). It is you that grow old and die. Time doesn’t. So make better use of yourself before you expire. And one of the worst things to do with time is comparing yourself to others. A cow eats grass and gets fat but if dog eats grass, it will die. Never compare yourself with others. Run your own race. What works for one person may be that which will kill you. Focus on the gifts and talents God gave you and don’t be envious of the blessings He gave others.* *Both Lion and Shark are professional hunters, BUT:* *A Lion cannot hunt in the Ocean and a Shark cannot hunt in the jungle* *That a Lion cannot hunt in the ocean doesn't make him useless and that a Shark cannot hunt in the jungle doesn't also make him useless both

1. Spiritual Maturity is *when you stop trying to change others, ...instead focus on changing yourself.* 2. Spiritual Maturity is when you *accept people as they are.* 3. Spiritual Maturity is when you *understand everyone is right in their own perspective.* 4. Spiritual Maturity is when you *learn to "let go".* 5. Spiritual Maturity is when you are able to *drop "expectations" from a relationship and give for the sake of giving.* 6. Spiritual Maturity is when you *understand whatever you do, you do for your own peace.* 7. Spiritual Maturity is when you *stop proving to the world, how intelligent you are.* 8. Spiritual Maturity is when you *don't seek approval from others.* 9. Spiritual Maturity is when you *stop comparing with others.* 10. Spiritual Maturity is when you *are at peace with yourself.* 11. Spiritual Maturity is when you *are able to differentiate between "need" and "want" and are able to let go of your

We don’t live in bungalows, duplexes or flats. We live in our minds.  Yes, that’s our permanent residence until we leave this world. And there are no constraints of square-feet there. It’s a vast space with unlimited area. No matter how well-organized your rooms, balconies, garages and verandas are, life is good only when things are sorted there – in your mind. And that’s where we keep things messy – regrets piling up in one corner, expectations stuffed in a closet, secrets under the carpet, worries littered everywhere, comparisons spilt on the table, complexes leaking from an old bottle, and grudges stinking in a box. For this ‘real home’ of yours, you can’t outsource housekeeping. You got to do it yourself. Source: received through WhatsApp Message

           I wrote this article as soon as I ended my trip using two-wheeler self-service bike ‘Bounce’ at Bangalore. It was unbelievable, for 7 km I was charged 25 Rs. ( Not even half of the USA $ ), imagine the affordable cost in a city like Bangalore. The bike was brand new, it had ridden around just 1100 km. Who are these people who started this convenient service, are they ‘entrepreneurs’, yes they are. You can think of Ola, OYO, Paytm and many more startup examples. Image source:  https://casanuratti.com/2018/11 I always think why so many graduates get into job lines instead of opening assembly lines (I.e. Factory). The students focus their imagination and creativity only for getting a job. The entrepreneurship is a position where you really create some valuable service or product to the people and the jobs and economy to the country. Few examples of entrepreneurs, mix of old to young folks: a. OLA Cabs- Bhavish Aggarwal b. Bounce bikes- Vivekananda, Varu

After reading this concept, please write your thoughts in the comments section: *Swiss Time Bank* A student studying in Switzerland observes: While studying in Switzerland, I rented a house near the school. The landlady Kristina is a 67-year-old single old lady who had worked as a teacher in a secondary school before she retired. Switzerland's pension is very good, enough to not worry her about food and shelter in her later years. However, she actually found "work" - to take care of an 87-year-old single old man. I asked if she was working for money. Her answer surprised me: “I do not work for money, but I put my time in the ‘time bank’, and when I cannot move in my old age, I could withdraw it.” The first time I heard about this concept of "time bank", I was very curious and asked the landlady more. The original “Time Bank” was an old-age pension program developed by the Swiss Federal Ministry of Social Security. People saved the 't

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Snippets: - Social problem solving skills are a set of  skills  involving cognitive and behavioral processes in which one works to find positive and adaptive ways to handle everyday problematic situations that could arise in the  social  environment. - For example, these  skills  include, self-awareness, an understanding of emotions, how to manage anger, perspective taking, empathy, prosocial behavior, and establishing positive relationships (igi-global.com). - Social problem solving might be understood as systems and processes that we use to solve the problems that we encounter in our everyday lives. - A problem is defined as any situation or task that needs some kind of a response if it is to be managed effectively. - Each of us will see problems in a different way, depending on our experience and skills. - The important element is being able to see problems as ‘challenges’, or opportunities to gain something. - Those who find it harder to adopt problem solving techniqu

- Training is a passionate job. - Trainer should be full of energy. - Training is a group work. - Training needs lot of preparation. - Training is never a one size fits all. - Trainers know how to put across the intended information to the trainees. - Trainers accept feedback and advises positively. Click to read from source:

- Everywhere people want their innate needs met for food, social support, and shelter. Will this meeting of personal needs generate happiness? - This is a summary of interview of Ed Diener who is a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia and the University of Utah, and senior scientist for the Gallup Organisation (Source: GGSC). - There is no single key to happiness because a number of factors influence it. - There are behaviors and choices we make that can influence our well-being.  - Some environmental factors such as air pollution can lower well-being, and other environmental factors such as parks and  green space  can raise it. - There is a recipe with some needed ingredients, such as supportive social relationships, spirituality that is based on positive feelings linking the person to goals bigger and more important than themselves individually, feeling valued by others, and the ability to deal with setbacks, which we all experience. - The happiest people are o

- Lets refresh our memories   - employees are emotional creatures. Events from personal life affect professional life and vice versa.  - Healthy work-life balance means different things to different people. Top companies realize there is no one-size-fits-all approach – they don’t tell employees HOW to achieve work-life balance. - As long as employees feel they are a part of something that is bigger than themselves, they remain engaged. Merge this with the freedom to design professional career path and the well-planned learning opportunities to succeed on those paths. Click to read full article from LinkedIn:

Power of positive words Once upon a time, there lived a boy named Ethan who loved adventures. He was only eight years old. One day he was playing in the park. He was climbing on the trees. He was a good climber and soon climbed thirty feet high in a tree. Excited, he started hanging on one of its branches and swinging back and forth. He was having so much fun that he did not realize that at that very moment, one of the branches could break. His cousin Liam, who was just a year older started playing on the same tree. Ethan’s father and Liam’s mother noticed that the kids were up too high that they could fall. Before they could get to them, suddenly, a gust of wind came over the tree and it started to sway. Ethan could hear the voice of his father saying, “Ethan, hold on tightly!” Liam’s mother was shouting, “Liam, DON’T FALL!” Seconds later, Liam fell out of the tree. His mother ran to his rescue but luckily, he was not injured. Ethan scampered carefully down the tre

Yes, Schools teach us to be poor. Schools teach us failing is bad. Reality is, to be rich you need to risk, to take risk means also to be ready to fail. To be rich you need to create- Jobs, emerging industry, tax, money, and more. To be rich you need to be big heart. Once you receive pay check you are programmed to be dependent on your employer. Imagination also needs knowledge to pull in thoughts. Schools never give you that kind of knowledge. Schools were built to create people who can work and make money for the rich. Watch a 7 minutes inspiring video. Click to watch and get inspired:

Melinda and Bill gates have shared few experiences in their blog. They say, "we’re highlighting nine more things that have surprised us along this journey. Some worry us. Others inspire us". Among 9, #5 highlights the importance of life skills education and training. We didn’t see this coming. #5. You can learn a lot about processing your anger from teenage boys. Melinda: Two autumns ago, Bill and I spent an afternoon at a Georgia state prison. We were there to learn more about the link between poverty and mass incarceration. (As we wrote about in last year’s letter, our foundation is beginning to expand our work in the U.S. beyond our investments in public education, so we’ve been studying U.S. poverty from lots of angles.) The most memorable part of the day was a conversation we had with a small group of inmates. If we had any preconceived idea of what a violent offender would be like, the men we met didn’t fit it. During our time together, they were funny, friendly, and

The donkey said to the tiger, 'The grass is blue.' Tiger said, 'No grass is green.' Then the discussion between the two became intense. Both of them are firm in their own words. To end this controversy, both went to Lion – King of Jungle. In the middle of the animal kingdom, sitting on the throne was a lion. The donkey started yelling before the tiger could say anything. “Your Highness, the grass is blue, isn’t it?” Lion said, 'Yes! The grass is blue. ' Donkey, 'This tiger does not believe. Annoys me He should be punished properly. ' The king declared, 'Tiger will be jailed for a year. King's verdict was heard by donkey and he was jumping in joy in entire jungle. The tiger was sentenced to one-year jail. ' The Tiger went to the Lion and asked, 'Why Your Highness! Grass is green, isn’t it? ' Lion said, 'Yes! Grass is green.’ Tiger said, '... then why am I sentenced to jail? ' Lion said, “you did not get punished for th

- We all make mistakes occasionally because we're human. - We're all fortunate to be able to enjoy growth and learning throughout life, no matter what our current level of ability is. Nobody can ever take that source of fulfillment away from us. While all this happened to us, mistake was a part and parcel. - Is committing mistake really a bad thing. Many educators believe that mistakes are not bad as such until we seek to learn from them. If we're more precise in our own understanding of mistakes and working on to minimise them, it will increase our understanding, buy-in, and efficacy as learners. Few educators have classified mistakes into four types (Click to learn this in detail). - Stretch mistakes. - Aha moment mistakes - Sloppy mistakes - High stakes mistakes - What do we do when we realise that there is a mistake. Ask few standard questions to oneself. What was unexpected? Why did that result occur? What went well and what didn't? Is there anything I coul

*The story of a very brilliant boy: There was a very brilliant boy. He always scored 100% in Science. Got Selected for IIT Madras and scored excellent in IIT. Went to the University of California for MBA. Got a high paying job in America and settled there. Married a Beautiful Girl. Bought a 5 room big house and luxury cars. He had everything that makes him successful but a few years ago he committed suicide after shooting his wife and children. So, WHAT WENT WRONG? California Institute of Clinical Psychology Studied his case and found “what went wrong?” The researcher met the boy’s friends and family and found that he lost his job due to America’s economic crisis and he has to sit without a job for a long time. After even reducing his previous salary amount, he didn't get any job. Then his house installment broke and he and his family lost the home. they survived a few months with low money and then he and his wife together decided to commit suicide. He first shot his wif