I want to improve my financial status. I felt that by reading the financial gurus' blogs, something will trigger in me and make me save money. So I have a list of blogs about finance which I consider good. I love to read them and yes, they have helped me change my perspective and learn a better way to handle money. One excellent blog is Ramit Sethi.

But the tips and suggestions I read from them is no different than all the things my parents hammer into my brains all these years. Even today my dad would tell me, my father had tried time and again to teach me finance, but I refused to even allow those golden words enter my brains.

So why is it I need to listen from someone else? Don't you think that we only listen when we are ready and want to make a change. Does this mean that the growth of our capacity depends on when we make a decision to listen. If that is so, could it be that we have wisdom inertia that actually inhibits our spiritual and intellectual growth. Aren't we the makers and destroyers of our capacity to listen!

I was waiting for my luggage at the airport. It was a crowded day and people seem to rush to wherever they were going. There was this lady waiting by my side for her luggage too. Suddenly I heard her, making noises and ready to grab her luggage as soon as it came near her. She had momentarily forgotten everyone else, rushed to the conveyer belt and grabbed her bag.

It did not bother her that in her gust to pull out the bag, the edges hit me and I almost fell backwards. I grabbed hold of a young man standing next to me and he too just stood there, unsure what to do. He too must be focusing on his bags that he did not even have his impulse on trying to catch me from falling. All that saved me where the bag carts. She stopped to look at me, murmured a sorry and went back to her routine. All that mattered to her were her bags. So focused and so profound was her intensity to grab what is hers, she had forgotten what is around her. What were the effects of her action? I broke a nail (no big deal) but this got me smiling. Aren’t we all like this? When someone or something occupies us so much we forget those around us, neglect them and loose time on things that may matter more. Share with me some of your stories!

I think we only learn one thing from our past. Unfortunately our learning exercise sometimes works against us. What if in all our learning, instead of growing wiser, we actually become afraid. Wouldn't that stop us from doing what we want to do?

I love water. When I was small, I fell backwards and took some time to come up. That remained in my head. They call in a phobia (everything is labelled these days!). Since then, instead of learning to swim, I stayed away from enjoying a dip in the pool.

I love my husband. Because of the fear conjured up within me due to a bad past relationship, I am unable to enjoy this one. I am always waiting for the moment when he would say he is going. That is fear!

Instead of starting afresh, I drag a heavy sack of my past and expect my future to be bright. Do you do the same?

So many things are offered in a pre-pay plan. Have you every wondered if your life had been pre-planned? What if we were given choices before we were born with a pre-destined amount of pain and pleasure? What if for progression in this life, we went to a pre-school and learnt all the things we were supposed to do on earth. Doesn’t that explain why some are rich, some famous, some lucky in love and the list goes on. No two people’s destiny is the same, and if you notice carefully, not everyone is happy all the time and not everyone is miserable all the time. Maybe we choose all the things we got in this life in a big hope of using the lessons we learnt to improve ourselves.

I sometimes think there are only two types of people. I equate them to the original Microsoft software version and the pirated copy. They both function well, they both do what they are supposed to do, but the main difference is the support.

The original copy’s support is always there and if you have bugs they will try to solve and update it. They are not perfect but they work hard at setting things as promised.

The pirated version is different, it just functions as it is supposed to, and what you get is what you see. If there are bugs, or you need assistance, you have no support group. There is no call center to support their product. You probably just have to buy another pirated version and cross your fingers and hope that they work.

What am I saying here? I think this is how people respond to problems. Either they do or they don't. Their response effects all around them.

So whom we are with would fall in either category. We also belong to either one category. What do you think?

I am sitting at a restaurant ordering lunch. Once the waiter had taken the order, he returned to my table with a small plate of tropical fruit as a gesture of appreciation. This is a strategy used to attract customers and there are many outlet there that are competing for customers.

I began to think. The effort and the thinking taken by the owners to grab customers and retain them is simply amazing. They resort to all sorts of methods. If only we spend the effort and time to do the same with ourselves, with our loved ones. Is chasing money so prevailing that people we love are unimportant. Sure you say, I love my family, I am not denying or ridiculing that....I am just saying do we give the same effort and time just as business owners sit and plan to earn money. Do we spend the same effort on our family just as how we use our wit, charm and effort on our job. My question is do we do things that benefit us only?

We all hold on to something or someone. We hold grudges on events or people and spend all our lives making sure we won’t forget them. We relish the idea of reliving these events and harness more anger and hatred. I think we actually enjoy reminding ourselves constantly that we must remember bad times in life. Does it effect you….to me yes. I feel we must learn to leave the past, learn from it and move on. Let nature take care of complications…and we don’t forget to live in the present. I know you know this, the question is how do we do this? I feel perhaps by not discussing about it for lenghty moments, or giving it any importance nor making it a priority in life is a good start to let go. Get ourselves organized, change our environment (if possible) or getting a new hobby might do the trick.

Imagine if your life depends on someone else’s perception? What if his/her perception is limited to what he or she experiences only. What if in his/her inadequacy, they makes decisions solely based on their perception. What if that decision causes you to make a mistake you will have to shoulder. Are you going to trust someone else with my life or take charge of it, be responsible for it?

Stop blaming others, it begins to show your inadequacy of your own perceptions. Improve your perceptions, that is your duty to your soul. Your birthright.

Relationships are no longer based on happily ever after. It is all about moments of shared kisses, great sex and great moments. When these elements reduce, then go to another relationship. Another chapter of shared kisses, great sex and great moments. Life goes on, relationship will be like Fast Food. Not happy today, don’t worry, another one will come. We no longer work at them, trying to make them work, learning from mistakes. The ‘I’ culture will not allow that. It is too delusional to even begin to think the I have a problem. It is always someone else who starts the problem, so let’s move on…mating season is 24/7.

Every home should have a quiet room. In this quiet room, we should spend 20 minutes or so in solitude and let the thoughts and emotions pass through our head and heart. It will allow us time to think and reflect back on the events that had previously taken place or try to comprehend a situation that otherwise we would neglect. You may ask if this exercise is necessary, I strongly recommend it. When I started on this I was amazed at how much information actually goes through my head.

I think people are made of several layers within them. Imagine each layer is representing a part of us, like we have an anger layer, a love layer, a hatred layer, a funny layer, a moral layer and thousands of other layers. I think that when two people get together in the name of love, they bring that layer right infront and display that to their partner. When they are at work, they pull out their professional layer. When they are with friends, they have funny layer or friend layer. Thus when 2 people are in love and with no problems, this is what you get. A happy unison.

Trouble starts when the layers are not in harmony. Although the love layer is strong, but if the irritable layer, or silly layer keeps taking dominance, imagine the other person's reaction to that layer. What do you get? Fireworks. When this happens we further counter-react with each others layers until we utilize all our negative layers to vent our frustrations. This is what happens when we have a fight. So what do we do to make sure layers that we don't want comes up?

Harmonizing your layers is firstly very important. To harmonize them, we must understand how they work, don't allow them to pop up and take charge.