mental-health

Mental Health

| MyWorldWithoutWalls

Healing According to Paramahansa Yogananda

Taking care of one’s mental health becomes a priority in today’s world. When we take care of our own mental health, our physical health automatically improves.

Back in India, even to this day, we do not talk about mental health in our everyday living. We take care of our physical health through purchasing medicines across the counter and adopting a diet that is suited to our physical requirements. We think about mental health and well-being only when some behavioral outburst happens to disrupt our everyday life, such as suicide, physical harm through revenge, or even murder in broad daylight. It is then that we start thinking about mental health and well-being.

Sri Paramhansa Yogananda was way ahead of his time. As part of the daily yogic rituals of self-care, he made his disciples aware of the need for mental care. He writes the following for preventing mental disease:

Cultivate peace and faith in God. Free the mind of all disturbing thoughts and fill it with love and joy. Realize the superiority of mental healing over physical healing. Banish bad habits, which make life miserable. (Scientific Healing Affirmations)

Peace can be cultivated into our own nature with intention, even though we were born with a disturbed mind. Faith in the wonder-working God should be the driving force of our intention to become a peaceful soul. A peaceful person brings love and joy to his relationships. A peaceful person finds solutions to life challenges. A peaceful person seeks hope through trust in God and looks beyond difficult circumstances. A peaceful person has a healthy mind. A peaceful person, in fact, is far from timid but has an inner resilience to face adverse circumstances in life.

Paramhansa Yogananda spoke often about habits and how we can intentionally cultivate good habits ourselves even in the later stages of our lives. We cannot blame our parents and our educational system all the time to escape taking our own responsibility for being who we are.

A certain way of thinking also becomes habitual. We must be willing to discard thought patterns that no longer serve us. These thought patterns are often passed down family lines or picked up from our environment. Developing self-awareness will enable us to discard some age old thought patterns that no longer serve us anymore. This need is especially urgent among migrants who moved from their native place to a place that has promised a better life. However, over and above material comfort, one soon realizes that in order to be truly successful, one needs to cultivate new ways of thinking in order to thrive.

Mental health overall plays a big role in our overall physical health and well-being, especially in the later stages of our lives. Cultivating inner peace through meditation is something we must attempt every day for our overall well-being.

Shifting mindset for success

| MyWorldWithoutWalls

The mindset in an undivided family

Breaking Free from Outdated Beliefs

Being born as an unwanted female child in an undivided Hindu family during turbulent times felt like the worst thing that could happen to a newborn. But the truth is—being born an unwanted male child in the same family is just as heartbreaking.

Every child comes into this world with a purpose. Yet, when you’re born into the aftermath of wars and social unrest, survival becomes the first lesson—even before love, identity, or freedom.

From the very start, we learn to adapt quickly. We read the room, watch every reaction, and seek approval from parents, relatives, and even distant family members—as if their acceptance is the only key to survival.

But here’s the question that changed my life:
Do we really need to keep seeking approval from people who no longer have a meaningful role in our growth?

The Turning Point

One hard truth eventually hit me: I don’t need their approval to live my life authentically.

I grew up in a culture where deference to elders was expected, where every choice was filtered through their lens of what was “right.” But those same elders, tied to outdated values, often offered little guidance for the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Breaking free from that approval-seeking mindset was not easy. It’s like shedding generations of inherited fear and shame. But it’s also the only way forward.

We can study the ways of the past—the traditions, the rituals, the hierarchies—but we must also have the courage to call them what they are: anchors that keep us from moving toward a life of purpose and leadership.

Why Change is Urgent

Generations of misguided honor and unquestioned obedience have kept entire communities stagnant. If we do not challenge these inherited beliefs, the cycle of silence, subservience, and missed opportunities will only continue.

Leaders are not born from constant compliance. They are born when someone dares to think differently, to listen to a higher calling, and to step forward even when approval is withheld.

If we want authentic leadership to rise—in the Indian subcontinent, in the diaspora, anywhere—then a massive shift needs to happen. Outdated bonds need to loosen. Ties built on fear and control must break.

Choosing Authenticity

Living a life of authenticity and purpose is never the easy path. Our ancestors often taught us to “keep the peace,” to take the safe route, and to avoid confrontation. But easy doesn’t build strength. Easy doesn’t build leaders.

Every vision, every dream planted in your heart—whether your own or the unfulfilled dream of an ancestor—demands courage. And courage requires a shift: from seeking approval to standing firm in your truth.

What can you do about this right now?

Look around your life today. Where are you still seeking permission to be yourself? Whose approval are you afraid to lose?

It’s time to stop living small. Stop dimming your light for the comfort of others. Choose growth. Choose freedom. Choose to lead—not just for yourself, but for the generations to come.

The moment you stop seeking validation from others, you begin to step into the life you were always meant to live.

Growing into leadership

| MyWorldWithoutWalls

Organic Transformation – A Metamorphosis to Developing Into Accommodative Leader

In the aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections I feel strongly the need for emergence of leaders who have committed themselves to emerge as a leader who can fill the gaps in the society for its urgent transformation and development. India is in desperate need of leaders who are visionaries and are prepared to take up the difficult road of self transformation.

Ego centric leadership is outdated. Such leaders often tend to use brute force alone to get what they need. They are not visionaries. They control, oppress and instill fear in the hearts of their followers. The intelligentsia becomes indifferent and live in a bubble.

Paramhansa Yogananda the author of ‘Autobiography of A Yogi’ continues to inspire youths even to this day to embrace a path of integrity, spirituality and physical discipline to attain the marks of leadership that can shed light into a world that tends to get dark without conscious effort.

Persons of strong character do not blame others for difficulties that can be traced to their own actions and lack of understanding. They know that no one has the power to detract from their happiness unless they themselves allow the adverse thoughts and actions of others to affect them. (Paramhansa Yogananda)

I am reminded of my natural father who never ever blamed others even when they were hostile to him or belittled him for no reason. The times were difficult.  It was post world wars, post freedom struggle…post several episodes of global dimension into which empaths and serious thinkers often fell into.

Everybody faces adversities in their journey of life.  When we encounter new set of circumstances we encounter adversities. Should we then give into fear and not try out new things in our lives? Of course not!

Great opportunities come with a package of negative surprises often as curve balls.  If we try to understand the Universal laws, we will understand that they happen as the energies start moving around and taking new forms.  The Universe throws them at us as part of our learning process.  It is up to us to read into them without shaming, blaming or complaining about unexpected incidents. A certain amount of stress tolerance is part of the journey of growth and transformation.  Piling up negative emotions associated with fear, sorrow and anger will cause harm to our earthen bodies.  

Many a large successful family falls apart in India, failing to expand by shutting the doors to new ideas and new ways of thinking.  The law of nature is to nourish and nurture us in order for our fuller expression in our living circumstance.  The Universe does not accommodate for long stagnation and resistance to change. Resistance to change causes things to fall apart. Things start disintegrating due to lack of regeneration in life and living.  This is pure Physics.

Commitment to personal development and growth is the single most important thing to commit to, in one’s life.  In order for this to happen, we must commit ourselves to building our innermost strength from which flows our unique characters.  Most people fail to develop their unique characters due to lack of effort in their entire lives. They become easily satisfied with their attainments and do not want to take risks for fear of failure.  Growth mindset and growth awareness is available for every person to grasp and make. But only a few have the courage to grasp this great opportunity that we have in the course of our lives.

Your real power resides within you.  One sign of growing in maturity is taking full responsibility of things that seem not quite right around you.  When we get out of the endless cycle of blaming, shaming, complaining and finding fault with one another, we become master of our own destinies.  We create our own blueprint of life.

It is extraordinarily exhilarating to go about doing good and freeing one’s own self and those around that God sends down your path from Karmic entanglements.  This is what Jesus was doing and nobody seemed to understand him.  They only saw the surface…he was changing ways of thinking and mindsets that had become entrenched for generations without positive changes.

In his humanity Jesus was one of the finest leaders who drew strength from His Father to even give his life on the Cross in order to free humanity from suffering and living in a degraded state.

Taking responsibility for things happening around you without blaming, accusing or shaming others is the hallmark of true leadership.