A Fork In The Road

Alternatives. Options. Choices. 

It seems like a good thing having them in life, no? Who wouldn’t want that? Where you had one thing earlier, now you have more. Where you could do something one way only, now you can do it in different ways. In general, having alternatives seems beneficial, a good situation to be in. Problems of plenty, right? 🙂

But recently I realized that it may not always be such a good idea. At least for someone like me. Specially, when it is not just a case of “which”, but of “whether”. And there’s a big difference between the two. Let me try to explain with an example.Read More »

Know Your Personality Type

Today I want to share with you what I think is a very useful tool. It may or may not work for you, but it was shockingly accurate for me! So, I just thought I’d share it with you, in the hope that you’ll also give it a try with an open mind.

Actually my previous post was inspired by the results of this tool itself, which is basically about identifying a person’s “personality type”.

If you’ve already heard about this categorization / classification scheme and don’t happen to believe in the same, please bear with me for just a moment before you shoot my head off for propagating such malarkey!

Personality type is basically a psychological classification of different types of individuals. There’s not a single scheme that claims to do this classification. You can read this Wikipedia page for more context and technical details on this.

It is one of these schemes, the “16 Personality Factors” (or Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, 16PF) that I want to talk to you about.

I took this test at 16personalities.com and was amazed by the results! I was classified as an

Read More »

The Power Of The Knowledge Of The Self

Many times in life, we find ourselves in situations where we can’t figure ourselves out. We don’t know why we act or think the way we do. And what we can do if we wanted to change ourselves.

As a typical INFP type personality (yes, I do think there’s some merit to this personality categorization. Don’t know about you, but it works for me at least), I definitely like introspecting and asking questions of myself, and, in the process, discovering more about myself. I may not always be right, but the desire to understand myself better is there.

Even though there are numerous self-help books and articles and talks and so-called “experts”, all telling us about ourselves (some sincerely and helpfully, some not), I think it’s rare to find opportunities to really know ourselves. And rarer still to find those opportunities at the “right” time. Because, to really make full use of any such chances, we need to be in the right frame of mind emotionally and spiritually, based on our experiences. I’ve had instances when the same things have made much more sense when I came across them after certain experiences, when I was in a certain place.

Life is a constant teacher, but one has to be ready to receive the lesson to really understand and remember it.

* * *

But you might ask: “Why does it matter how well I know myself?” Well, to each, her own. Perhaps a person can only answer that question for oneself. Or, who knows, maybe it doesn’t even matter for everyone. There are some who even say that knowing oneself could be dangerous. But for me personally, it matters. It matters a lot.Read More »

The Most Important Thing To Know

Recently, one thought has been popping up in my mind repeatedly. And it happens at all sorts of time – when driving, when walking, even when talking.

Not that I’m complaining though. In my somewhat routine life, I tend to forget a very important thing, maybe, even the most important thing. But I’m glad that these days, the thought has been staying fresh in my memory through repetition.

And that thought is:

Read More »

How Free Are We Really?

We have all heard the word “freedom”. One might define it as the ability to move around freely, to be able to say and do things one wants (assuming no rules or laws are being broken by such things). If asked if they are free, most of us would probably say that we indeed are.

However, apart from the physical manifestations of freedom, I think the mental aspects of it are equally as important, if not more. To be truly free, I think one must have freedom from fear, experience, conditioning, self, and knowledge.

Let’s talk about each of them and see why they are important, and how we can deal with them.

Read More »