Ardour

What does the term ‘obese’ mean? 'OBESE' basically means OVERWEIGHT. Being fat or obese in our society is hard. Take this from someone who is experiencing the hardships on a daily basis.  Most obese people in the world have a number of names given to us by society, like fatty, moti, golu, pani poori, gol matol, to name a few from the long cringeful list of ‘fat’ names. People younger than us also call us by ’fat’ names made by our society instead of being respectful and referring to us as bhaiya, brother, or even by our own name given to us by us parents.     Most obese people find it difficult to perform the tasks that others around them can easily perform. We find it hard to play the sport we like, because we know we will be teased. If we do something wrong people will make fun of us. Upon all that we wouldn’t try to correct that person or correct the others. The worst part is when others talk about the funny incident for almost a week because of which we feel re...

"The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear". ~ Aung San Suu Kyi Most of us in the recent months would have felt the pain of having to be isolated and confined to our houses. Most of us would now know the ache of having our bodies and our minds to forcefully stagnate, the ache of not allowing our minds to freely skip around the place to release any built up frustration, the ache of having to experience what our worst fears might feel like and then the resulting anxiety. The frustration starts to build bit by bit. Slowly you start to give up on the idea of daily routines, then your workouts, then daily bath and then even routinely tidying up your house. So what is it about isolation and confinement that is just so hard to bare? Why did Heath Ledger aka Joker have to face the worst coming from isolation and confinement? What is it like to be imprisoned, albeit, in better conditions? We are used to the auto pilot life where our consc...

WHAT IS CONSISTENT PERFORMANCE? Literally speaking, consistent performance is the quality of always performing in a similar way or to a similar extent each time someone performs. For example: finishing the race first each time you participate is consistent performance. You could also define it as achieving a similar feat each time you perform or each time you do something. When we’re consistent, it means we’re dedicated to carrying an activity or completing a task. It means we’re clear on what we want to accomplish and are taking the necessary steps to reach it. THE REASON WHY YOU AREN'T BEING CONSISTENT You’re focused on the outcome rather than the process. This is not to say that the outcome is not important, but if we become fixated on outcome, it will work against us, no matter how compelling. Why? Because any outcome compelling enough to excite you is probably one that won’t be achieved without hard work and sacrifice over a long period of time. Without certain processes in p...

"A minute's success pays the failure of years." ~ Robert Browning Nobody likes to lose Nobody likes to lose. Whenever we think of success, the next thought that comes to our mind is of failure. Winning & failing are two sides of a coin. In life, both go hand in hand. How you perceive your failure and what you do after losing or failing reflects what kind of character you possess you are and the kind of attitude you have. But what makes a winner? What differentiates a winner from others? One needs to understand the mentality and attitude of people who can be called WINNERS. Thomas Alva Edison inventedthe light bulb. History is replete with examples of people who have tasted massive success in their lives. But scratch the surface and look behind their success, you will see stories of failure and struggle For instance, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, M S Dhoni and many others. A classic example is Steve Jobs, who was thrown out ...

Roughly 3 months and 10 days into the lock-down period I came across an unusual case in a young athlete. In the middle of a morning online workout session, she blurted, "I can't breathe". My first instinct was that I must have heard it wrong. I asked her to repeat what she said about 2-3 times. And when I could finally convince myself that my network connection was not jumbling up words, I looked at her. She looked fine. A little tense. But with no signs of suffocation or any kind of struggle. My mind raced through my First Aid Training. I brought back the images of the breathing apparatus that exists in human bodies. Analysed the situation for discrepancies and abnormalities that would help showcase the problem. I immediately started blurting out instructions and asked her to perform different breathing and stretching movements to soften the breath while trying to figure out what was so odd about this situation. Symptoms -difficulty breathing, tight chest muscles, tight...