Past Newsletters

If you have ever meditated, you have seen the devil – none other than your mind. It just won’t sit still. You want to focus on your breath. Yet, it will do anything but that. The mind keeps getting distracted by thoughts and daydreams. You bring it back and in no...

During my days at McKinsey, I once asked a retired senior partner about life before PowerPoint. How did they make presentations to clients? He said that they used to create presentations on big chart papers using felt-tip pens. They would have to write in big font,...

Whether it is making a presentation, talking to our boss, or socializing after work, some of us experience a serious lack of confidence or anxiety. We anticipate that we will fumble, make a mistake or do a really bad job. And when we are afraid of making a fool of...

The harder you work, the more you get done, and the more value you create. Right? Wrong! It turns out that life is not that linear. Working long hours, non-stop, is not the recipe for value creation. Nor is working without a break for months and years. Every once in a...

This is going to be controversial. But read on… By now, you must have heard this a zillion times: To achieve even your biggest goals, be it building habits, becoming fit, or compounding your wealth – all you need is consistency. When you are consistent, small...

When we think of meditation, the mind often conjures up an image of monks sitting in a buddha-like pose, with serene calm, detached from the world, mind full of lofty thoughts. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Meditation is not a retreat from the world....

Except for my early childhood in Bangalore, I grew up in an environment where English wasn’t used for day-to-day conversations either at home or in school. So my English vocabulary was limited mostly to commonplace words. But unfortunately, all the newspapers and...

During my training at the National Police Academy, there was one man everyone was terrified of – Mr. Anil Kumar Raturi (the future DGP of Uttarakhand). At that time, he was the boss of our outdoor training at the Academy. Which means, all the physical torture we...

Last December, a colleague and I were talking to my friend Ashish Chordia, who also doubles up as our startup coach. When we excitedly told him about the new program we were going to create (on journaling), he asked, “How long will it take?” My colleague said, “3-6...

First of all: Wish you a wonderful new year! While I may not be able to talk to you personally, I say this with all my heart: May 2023 be truly special for you. May you find success and peace. May this be the year of joy for you. 2023 can indeed be a special year. But...

Human beings are unhappy not because they have less but because someone else has more. Who has never felt envious or jealous of others? We all have. Comparing ourselves with others is a recipe for unhappiness. Yet, we can’t stop our mind from going down that path. How...

What makes us happy? This question is both trivially simple and impossibly hard. For centuries, philosophers have speculated about this but thankfully, we don’t have to anymore – research has thrown up some really specific answers in the past 50 years. But first, let...

We are swimming in junk – be it the greasy food from Swiggy, mindless scrolling on the phone, or binge-watching Netflix.  And it is not even that we enjoy it. I haven’t seen anyone who says, “Yay! I spent 6 hrs scrolling on Instagram.” No, they hate their life. But...

Today morning, I woke up feeling a slightly toxic mix of sickness, low mood, and light anxiety. I guess, my Covid recovery is slower than I expected. Even the morning meditation didn’t help much – my mind was too fragmented. So I went for a walk. But instead of just...

Rousseau said, “Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.” In this newsletter, I want to talk not about socio-political freedom, but something deeper – the freedom to choose how we live. Today, you live carrying a heavy burden. So do I. This burden is the...

I recently read ‘The Attention Revolution,’ a book by Alan Wallace, in which he guides you through 10 stages of tranquility meditation leading to such mastery that you meditate for up to 4 hrs, with practically zero distractions. Even if we can reach the first 3 or 4...

This question is controversial – hence worth talking about. Let us start by dissecting it further. When we talk about balancing work and life, we assume that they are in conflict – that one of them comes at the cost of the other. And somehow, we need to find that...

The solution might sound straightforward: Practice, practice, and more practice. But not so fast. It does not work that way. To convince you, let me share a personal experience. My daughter started playing the violin in 5th grade. When kids start practicing, what...

I don’t know if you have ever been in a rut but I have. There was this one particular year in school, which I totally whiled away without studying. It was not that I was caught up in some bad habits or delinquent behavior, but somehow, I could just not break my...