Flanders Fields

 ‘The less you own, the less owns you’. Read this power statement today, and I believe it will help us to re-wire ourselves and get rid of the ‘problem of plenty’. The overpowering burden that we carry.  We somehow celebrate consumption, accumulation and acquisition. We hoard assets, handicrafts, clothes, accessories, books, pens…what not. We get some sort of high from going on a shopping spree, whether we require them or not. As a result, our home feels like a museum or a junkyard. Let us try ‘minimalism’. A tool that may help us find freedom from fear, worry, being overwhelmed, the trappings of consumer culture that we get pulled into. Lets go back to basics..the original Indian lifestyle which was always been minimalistic. Most of us have grown up in homes where reduce, reuse, recycle was not just some new found mantra, it was a way of life. We use to have reasonably spacious rooms, a generous open sit-out or a varendah, minimal furnitures and beds (often sleeping on the fl...

What does "release" mean? One of the definitions given by the dictionary is: 'to relieve from something that confines, burdens, or oppresses'. Think about our emotions: they can be of two kinds. One kind sets us free, the other burdens us. Positive emotions set us free because they make us feel good, grateful, fulfilled. Negative emotions oppress us because they make us feel upset, resentful, frustrated. Although everybody would like to feel happy, many can almost never behave in a way that makes them achieve such emotional state. Why? Because they are unable to release. They might think they are, when they manifest their feelings in a violent, usually aggressive reaction. This is not 'release', this is an 'explosion' that causes even more damage. To release means to communicate our hurt in a calm, yet assertive way. It means to express our pain sincerely, yet in a friendly way. Its aim is to bring peace, not war.