What if you had to relive the same day; every day?

Day 1: Phil Connors, a skeptical news weatherman, unwillingly travels to a small town for a day to report annual Groundhog Day. He had one of the worst days and is not able to travel back home because of a bad blizzard that blocks all the roads leading out of the town. He had to grudgingly stay back in the town.

Day 2: Phil wakes up and discovers the today’s events repeating exactly as yesterday. Phil finds out it is still Groundhog Day and he is stuck in the previous day. As unbelievable as it may sound, he is trapped in the Yesterday, in a town he hated and never wanted to be in the first place. He is now in a time loop, waking up every day to the same radio clock alarm, going to report the same news, meeting the same people and cribbing about it every single day. Clueless and shocked, he is not able to figure out how can he stop reliving the same day over and over again.

Well, I just gave you a half synopsis of one of my most favorite movies, Groundhog Day. Groundhog Day, one of my recommendations in my list of “must-watch movies before you leave the planet”. The movie had a lasting effect on me when I watched it for the first time. It made me question myself. What if I were stuck in a day, in the same day, and there is no tomorrow. Just one single day to live in, over and over and over, till eternity. One single day to spend a lifetime.

But then I realized, I already was living in my Groundhog Day on a repetitive mode. Me, getting up every day, having almost similar breakfasts, taking the same route to office, reaching office at the same time, meeting same people, working on similar projects, returning home only to prepare myself for a different yet similar next day. I was not doing the exact things but more or less the same, until the weekends. And not to forget I also was cribbing about how monotonous my life is. In one way or the other, I realized I was Phil Connors, spending my Groundhog Day without even realizing it.

Returning to the movie, Phil keeps on repeating every act, every day, until the day he realizes that he can use this trap to his advantage and then starts improvising every day. He tries and tries persistently to make this woman of his dream, fall in love with him, but in vain. Till the day he loses his hope about that happening and eventually his will to live anymore. I mean anyone can understand, how tedious and depressing will it be to live one day monotonously. I knew that feeling and was somehow able to relate to it. I was not able to admit it but deep down I knew that my days were as predictable and dull as of Phil Connors.

In the process of introspecting, I figured out that I was used to the usual. I had programmed myself to live a monotonous life, because it was comfortable, familiar and easy. My mind was programmed to do the same thing over and over again. Because I had become really good at resisting change. I realized that I would rather live my Groundhog Day than changing it to something new. Such were my days stuck in my mind. And I knew I will never be able to release my day from my mind unless I start adding new tasks to it, taking newer risks and adopting to new changes. I knew that the days will go by the same way, if I let them. And, I also knew that it will be a hell of a task for me to change these days.

As the movie progresses, we realize that changing a day to something totally new has become a tough task for Phil. And it was because of his negative mindset which didn’t change, just as the day didn’t change for him. Just when Phil was on the verge of giving up completely, his love (who btw is much more upbeat than him) tells him how it’s not the day that matters but how you perceive that day. It took tons and tons of days for Phil to change his day, because for him to change the day, he had to change his perception about the day.

Changing perception is not an easy job. All the hell break loose when you try to change perception stored in your mind. I knew I will have to do the same unless I wanted to live the way I was living. But I also knew if I actually decide to change my perception, nothing can stop me.  One of the lessons I learnt from the movie that has stayed with me till now is that “there is a heck of a lot more to a day than just living it as some ordinary day”. It taught me that once you change your perception about a day, your day changes. It taught me that once you change your day by choosing what to do in that day, your day changes. Your day doesn’t own you, you own the day. The realization was powerful enough to kick me out of my monotonous, comfortable and familiar days to being courageous enough to pursue newness.

Just as in the movie, once Phil chooses and decides to change his perception of the day, everything changes. He starts living in the moment, going with the flow. He starts taking piano lessons, learning ice sculpting, being kinder to strangers, complementing his colleague, saving man from choking and a kid from falling down a tree. He starts giving one hell of a performance to that one same news he had to report that day and every day. He starts breathing life into an old man who is supposed to die that very day. And once he changes his perception about the day, his day changes.

The same town which he hated to begin with, is now a beautiful town with amazing people. The same woman he was trying so hard to woo, gets attracted to this changed man who has a completely different aura now. Once he changes his day and what he did with his day, his day changed to tomorrow, with the love of his life by his side. A happy ending to the movie and a happy beginning to Phil’s new day.

The movie not only pushed me from introspecting about my days to changing for the good. Today, whenever I feel dullness wrapping around my days, I ask myself, how can I change my Groundhog Day. See, Phil had a problem, he was actually stuck in the day. But I am not. I can break free my dull and dreary days. Because eventually, it is always up to me if I want to live the same day repeatedly or brand new days with brand new experiences and some extra life.

Today, I know that changing my days can be easily done by adding and trying new and unusual tasks and experiences. Every day, while going through the day, I keep asking myself. What can I do differently in the day? What can I add extra in the day? What can I do better? Can I be kinder to people? Can I give more smile to strangers? Can I laugh a little more? Can I make someone else’s day? Can I add a little more spice in whatever I am having? Can I add a little more effort in whatever I am doing? Can I put some more love to whatever I am dreaming? Can I avoid cribbing or complaining or negative self-talk? And the answer to these is always a “hell yeah”. Because we can’t have enough of the best things, ever.

Once we add extra life to our days, our perception of the day will change, and vice versa. Once we start changing our days like this, and people see us with that extra effort, extra smile, extra love, they will ask us “what did you do today?”. And we can tell them how we changed our Groundhog Days to the best days of our lives.

P.S. If you have not watched Groundhog Day, I would urge you to watch it. You will love it.

To know more about the blogger Niharika Chaturvedi, visit www.niharikachaturvedi.com.

Self-motivation is like taking bath, its needed everyday

Increased workloads, demanding jobs, increasing interventions of technology, 24/7 business culture, high-pressure situations and the load of balancing between work and life – no wonder today’s workforce is more stressed than ever. And if we’re running a business, a family, or a side-hustle, the stress of handling everything all at once and getting successful at everything, automatically increases our level of stress. But it does not stop here, stress is negatively affecting health and increases stress-related trips to the doctors. Not to mention depression, mental disorders, heart diseases, sleep deprivation, and many more diseases are all sourced to stress we were not able to manage in the first place.

While in such situations when stressing out is now becoming second nature to us and we feel sometimes that our stress-related emotions are ready to burst out uncontrollably, the role of self-motivation is becoming more and more important.

What is self-motivation? Imagine yourself as a bulb with its plug in its own hand. If you want to light yourself, you will have to insert your plug in the socket yourself. That’s self-motivation.

So how do you keep yourself self-motivated? The most effective ways of motivating oneself without any external help or divine interventions are some of the ones I gathered below.

(*Image Credit: Shutterstock)

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   Remember why you started. Focus on your end goal. Affirm your goals out loud, with positive enforcement. Write it down. View it several times a day. Visualize it as many times as possible, and with feelings. Affirming end goals conditions your subconscious mind to kick you towards achieving those goals.

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     Mindful meditation is something that calms your mind and keeps you grounded and lets you stay in the current moment. If you are stressing out, it means you are either staying in the past or the future. Meditations helps you bring back to this moment and helps you savor the moment instead of running back to yesterday or tomorrow.

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     Keep learning and continue adding value to yourself. New learnings are assets to your profile which not only increases your confidence, it keeps you motivated to put all your efforts towards your goal. Self-learning leads to self-confidence which leads to self-motivation. Also, self-help books are one of the best ways to keep yourself motivated.

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     Pursue your passion. Have hobbies. Just play, exercise, detox, take a power nap, sing, write a song, do everything that makes you happy. Life is not only about working your arse off but it is also about keeping your creative juices flowing. And to keep your creative juices flowing, you need to keep your passion alive. Having passions in life and following them will not only help you stay motivated but will inspire others as well.

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    Avoid negativity, avoid negative self-talks, avoid negative people, avoid negative talks with these people. You will always get people who are so stressed out, they keep spreading it as an infection. Avoid getting that infection. Pull them up to your level of self-motivation instead of falling to them.

And do these every day. Because someone very rightly has said that self-motivation is like taking a bath, its needed every day.

One last thing. Stop calling it a dead-line. Call it alive-line instead *wink*

To know more about the blogger Niharika Chaturvedi, visit www.niharikachaturvedi.com.

Tell me who you are and not what you have become…

…because if we really want to open up to people we want in our lives, we need to open our souls to them.

And so, it doesn’t interest me what you do for a living or what your working hours are. I don’t care how much you earn, what your bank balance is or if you have a house in your name or the car you drive.

Tell me what your heart had always ached for. Tell me if you feel the mess you made in life is what that has created you. Tell me if you wish to become a child again and grow up making different mistakes or may be the same mistakes differently. Tell me if your emotional trauma has led you to freedom. Tell me if you have a long cherished dream that stays with you like a constant itch on your back. Tell me what you are doing to scratch that itch. Tell me if you too have a constant fear of leaving the planet before achieving that dream, just as I have. Tell me if you have found your divine purpose and what made you find it. Tell me if you have started doing something to align your soul with your purpose. Tell me if you have given yourself a deadline to live that purpose.

I don’t want to know the names of the books you read or your favourite movies or your favourite places.

Tell me if you have chosen the name of your autobiography yet. Tell me if you feel that you have already written that book in the parallel Universe. Tell me if you secretly browse for the future publishers of your book. Tell me if you have ever lived inside a book as a character and which character is the closest to you. Tell me if you feel Jane Austen’s books have no comparison and her male protagonists are unrealistically awesome. Tell me if you feel the friendship of Harry and Hermione was stronger than of Harry and Ron.  

Tell me what you have learnt from the Batman movies. Tell me if sometimes you wonder you could use 100% of your brain just as in the movie Lucy. Tell me if you wish to have that perfectly romantic music booth scene with a stranger just as in the movie Before Sunrise. Tell me if you noticed the spelling of happiness is incorrect in the movie Pursuit of Happyness and then laughed at yourself. Tell me if your hope is unshattering and faith unwavering as of Andy’s in the Shawshank Redemption. Tell me if you sometimes wonder you could erase your memories as in Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

Tell me why your favourite place is your favourite. Tell me the memories attached to those places. Tell me if you ever had a feeling of déjà vu when you first visited a place you have never visited before. Tell me if you wonder what these places have witnessed all through the years of their existence. Tell me if you too get attached to places just as I do. Tell me if there are pieces of all your favourite places hidden inside you.

I am not interested in your taste in music, your favourite genre or your favourite song.

Tell me if there are music that have touched your soul. Tell me if you feel there are songs that are so beautiful, they tear you up every time you listen to them. Tell me that if you were a song, which song would it be. Tell me those lyrics that you feel, were written for you. Tell me if you have ever cried because the music you were listening was overwhelmingly beautiful. Tell me if you think music has saved you in unimaginable ways. Tell me if you are grateful to be born on this planet because it has music. Tell me if you feel music is your oxygen and without music, you would not have survived.

I am not interested to know about your dating life or your idea of getting married.

Tell me if you believe in love at first sight of someone’s soul. Tell me if you have ever loved someone so much you feel their energy with you 24x7. Tell me if you believe in twin flames or you believe you have a twin flame. Tell me if you have that weirdly beautiful feeling of souls merging with each other as if they belonged together. Tell me if you ever felt someone’s emotions as if they were your own. Tell me if you ever felt that a person was your home. Tell me what you think about unrequited love. Tell me if you ever felt the Universe beautifully orchestrating your divine meeting and guided you through signs and synchronicities towards someone who is your split soul, your twin flame. Tell me if you still in the process of realizing that when you meet your twin soul, the journey is not just about ending up together but creating something together so you can help the planet ascend.

Don’t tell me about your hobbies or your favourite pastime.

Tell me if you ever clicked photographs of trees and thanked them later for posing. Tell me if you ever wrote and sang a song for yourself. Tell me how you feel about writing your own story and then expecting that story to become true. Tell me if you ever dance wildly in a closed room till you are out of breath. Tell me if you ever laughed so whole-heartedly because you were living a bliss. Tell me if you ever saw your most cherished dream come alive in front of your eyes and your eyes released tears of ultimate joy. Tell me if you want to inspire someone to be, do or have better. Tell me who inspired you to be, do or have better.

Don’t tell me your superficial and trivial issues in life.

Tell me your darkest secrets and your deepest desires. Tell me about your most embarrassing moment and your happiest one. Tell me if you feel there is a parallel universe. Tell me if you believe in reincarnations. Tell me if you ever hurt someone unintentionally and then regretted later. Tell me what scares you and what excites you the most. Tell me about your weirdest dreams and your dumbest beliefs. Tell me what inspires you to wake up in the morning. Tell me how you handle your most negative thoughts. Tell me about your most inspiring deed. Tell me about the person you touched so beautifully, it changed them. Tell me if you have seen the rock bottom in your life and then risen from the ashes like a phoenix.

Because if we really want to open up to people we want in our lives, we need to open our souls to them. And tell them about everything we have hidden from everyone else and everything we ever wanted to tell.

To know more about the blogger Niharika Chaturvedi, visit www.niharikachaturvedi.com.