NAVEEN NIVERTHY
AUTHOR, MARKETING & SALES LEADER, LIFE STRATEGIST
Think Better and Thrive. Step by Step.
Blog
Health. Work. Love. Parenting. Spirituality.
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Of Pretend Play & Fiction Writing
In the second year of life, children start pretending with simple acts, like pretending to sip imaginary milk from an empty cup. Their pretend play becomes more complex and imaginative as they enter preschool years. However, there has been a belief that pretend play declines as children enter middle childhood and engage in activities like…
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Miswanting: The Inaccurate Predictions of Our Desires and Happiness
When we say we like something, it makes us feel good. Wanting is when we predict that we will like something in the future. Sometimes, we get what we want but end up not liking it. This is called miswanting. Miswanting refers to the situation where we desire or want something but end up feeling…
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Embracing Single Parenting
Divorce is a life-altering experience that often brings a wave of emotions, challenges, and significant changes to one’s social landscape. As the ties that once bound us together unravel, we may find ourselves feeling isolated, as if we no longer belong in the social circles we were once part of. Friends may drift away, invitations…
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Why Second Marriages can fail faster
Second marriages, like first marriages, can fail for a variety of reasons. Here are some common factors that contribute to the failure of second marriages: Unresolved issues from previous marriages: Individuals who enter second marriages may carry emotional baggage or unresolved issues from their previous relationships. These unresolved issues can create tension and conflict within…
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Why Anger is Repulsive
“Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” – Mark Twain I believe of all the emotions that a person displays, anger is the most repulsive. Here are a few potential reasons why anger might be seen as…
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Why never plan a retirement that relies on children
It is common in many cultures for parents to prioritize their children’s needs and well-being above their own. In India, very common for parents to make significant sacrifices in order to provide for their children’s education, health, and future prospects. This may include working long hours, saving money, or even putting their own career aspirations…
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The most beautiful human bond is Friendship
Friendship is the most beautiful relationship because it is based on mutual trust, understanding, and support. Unlike romantic or familial relationships, friendships are not bound by obligation or societal expectations, making them more freely chosen and thus, more authentic. Friendship is also unique in that it allows for vulnerability without fear of judgment. Friends can…
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Responsibilities in a Marriage
In a marriage, both partners have responsibilities towards each other. These responsibilities include: Communication: Both husband and wife should communicate openly and honestly with each other, sharing their thoughts, feelings, and needs. Emotional Support: Both partners should provide emotional support to each other, helping each other through difficult times and celebrating successes together. Respect: Both…
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Teaching a teenager to share
Caring and sharing are both important values that contribute to healthy relationships and a sense of community. They complement each other, and practicing both can help us to build stronger connections with others. Caring refers to a feeling of concern, empathy, and compassion towards others. When we care about someone, we want them to be…
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Strength Training at Home without Equipment
Strength training is a type of physical exercise that involves resistance or weight training to build and strengthen muscles, bones, and connective tissues. Strength training can be done using body weight, free weights, resistance bands, machines, or any other equipment that provides resistance to muscles. The importance of strength training lies in the numerous benefits…
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Need for Companionship after 40
And as ridiculous as it may sound, sometimes all any of us needs in life is for someone to hold our hand and walk next to us. James Frey As we age, our social needs and priorities may shift. While we may have had a strong focus on building a career or raising a family…
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Love can be Pathological
Pathological forms of love refer to types of love that are considered abnormal or unhealthy. These can take many different forms and are often associated with personality disorders or other mental health conditions. Some examples of pathological forms of love include: Obsessive love: This type of love is characterized by an intense fixation on the…
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What is Advaita Vedanta?
Advaita Vedanta is a philosophical and spiritual tradition that originated in ancient India and is widely regarded as one of the most influential and profound philosophical systems in the world. Advaita Vedanta is often referred to simply as “Advaita,” which means “non-dual” in Sanskrit, and it emphasizes the unity and oneness of all things. At…
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Love as an experience of shared being
The idea of love as an experience of shared being suggests that when we love someone deeply, we feel a sense of oneness or unity with that person. This feeling of oneness is not just a mental or emotional state, but an experiential one, in which we feel a sense of connection and intimacy that…
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Fitness for Women after 40
Staying fit after 40 requires some extra effort and attention to specific areas of health and wellness. Here are some tips for women to stay fit after 40: Exercise regularly: Engaging in regular exercise is essential for staying fit and maintaining a healthy weight. Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise most days…
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How to tell whether a person has no psychological disorders?
It is important to note that only a trained mental health professional can diagnose psychological disorders. However, there are certain signs and behaviors that can indicate whether a person may not have a psychological disorder: They have stable and healthy relationships with others, such as friends and family. They are able to manage their daily…
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What is the difference between emotion, mood and feelings?
Emotions, moods, and feelings are related to each other but are distinct concepts. Here’s a brief explanation of the differences: Emotion: Emotions are brief, intense, and specific responses to a particular stimulus, such as an event or situation. They involve both physiological and psychological changes, such as changes in heart rate, breathing, and subjective experience.…
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Thumb rules for Financial Wellbeing
Pay yourself first: As you get paid, put money into savings. Automating it is the best. Build an emergency fund: Save for emergencies an equivalent of six months of your living costs. Use the 50/30/20 rule for Budgeting: Allocate 50% to needs, 30% of your monthly income to wants and 20% towards investments or savings…
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Fitness: An Essential Shared Value in Relationships
If you have been reading my blog enough, you know by now that having shared values and interests is critical to the long-term success of relationships. Of several essential shared values like trust, responsibility, loyalty and so on, I believe Physical Fitness is one of the most important because it can make or break a…
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Eating Right
I love mental models and I use them wherever possible. They are not always perfect but they are sufficient to help you make better choices. There are five components to fitness viz. cardio vascular endurance, Muscular strenth, muscular endurance, flexibility and body composition. The formula to achieve the right body composition that supports the other…
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How parents can prioritize their time
As parents, we want to take up the responsibility of raising our children entirely. But many of us think this means we try to do everything we can to contribute to parenting. Juggling between work and home, if not done right, can get stressful and ultimately affect both work and home. Being hard-pressed for time…
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Demystifying Ātmā
What is Ātmā? Ātmā is not Soul or Individual or an Atomic entity: we need to dissociate these words and unlearn this. Let’s start afresh. Follow me here, slowly, sentence by sentence. Do not rush. After every paragraph, pause and reflect and then move forward. All objective experience is known. We are aware of our…
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Questions to uncover your Personal Well-being Recipe
What is human flourishing and what enables it? Dr. Seligman’s PERMA™ theory of well-being is an attempt to answer these fundamental questions. There are five building blocks that enable flourishing – Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment (hence PERMA™) – and there are techniques to increase each. Different people will derive well-being from each…
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Emotional needs of children as they grow
Statistics show that 50% of mental health problems are established by age 14 and 75% by age 24. It is easy for us to identify a child’s physical needs: nutritious food, warm, clean clothes, a roof over their heads, routine bedtimes, and medical care when needed. However, a child’s mental and emotional needs may not…
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Be a Lamp unto Yourself
You come to this life alone and leave alone. There is nothing to hold on to in this world except your own being. At least once a day, drop everything on your mind- your worries, projects, tasks, aspirations for some time and just be – be yourself. . Relish that pure joy of being and…
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On Living: Bertrand Russell, in his words
This page forms the Prologue to Bertrand Russell’s Autobiography and is titled ‘What I have lived for. Bertrand Russel is my hero and I have loved him, been influenced by him and been inspired by him since my college days. Today, I can relate better to him as a person and the way he conducted…
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Questions to discuss with your partner before you say ‘yes’ to marriage
For all those considering marrying – be it the first time or another time – it always makes sense to understand fully what you’re signing up for when you say ‘yes’ to marrying someone. This applies to both love marriages as well as arranged marriages. Most couples learn this the hard way and it need…
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The Five Vows for Happiness
A Vrata, simply put, is a vow. There is no religion that doesn’t prescribe or include different kinds of vows. Vows are prescribed either as means to attain greater self-control or expiate sins or recondition the mind to make it more sensitive or receptive or simply to please God or Ishwara or become worthy of…
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Thumb Rules for Financial Planning
1. Calculating your risk appetite for asset allocation. Mutual Funds are one the of the most popular instruments of investing. They spread the risk across companies in their portfolio and can in the long term stable returns. But how much to invest in equity and how much in debt instruments? This is the most common…
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Launching your Child
I had given an overview of a family lifecycle in a blog post previously. On this post I diving deeper into the 2nd last stage of this lifecycle viz. the launching of your child into the big wide world. In the launching stage of the family life cycle, the children have reached the age where…
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Tracking Moral Development of Children
Moral development is the process through which children develop proper attitudes and behaviours toward other people in society, based on social and cultural norms, rules, and laws. All of us want our children to grow up to be morally strong citizens of society. But how do we know how they are developing, where they stand…
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SCARF model for working effectively with others
Being effective in any kind of collaboration, be it with children, students, friends, associates, co-workers or even loved ones is a skill. The few people who can do this well can lead themselves and others well. Developing this essential leadership skill requires a deliberate focus on the dynamics at play in any social setting and…
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Paul Brunton on Marrying on the Spiritual Path
I look up to Paul Brunton as one of many spiritual teachers that influenced and taught me. Paul Brunton was a British philosopher, researcher, mystic, and adventurer. He left a journalistic career to live among yogis, mystics, and holy men and studied a wide variety of Eastern and Western esoteric teachings. With his entire life…
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Value Parenting a Child’s Mind
The Oxford dictionary defines parenting as the process of caring for your child or children. Parenting is usually seen as the responsibility of providing a child with nourishing food, security, care, shelter, discipline and education. In the light of dharma, parenting goes deeper and aims to build, shape and fine-tune the antaḥ-karaṇam, the inner instrument…
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Outgrowing the Parenting Instinct
One of human life’s greatest joys is to become a parent. The sheer happiness of holding your child first time in your hand is magical and indescribable. Anyone who has experienced this will vouch for me on this. Even the mere sight of watching a parent with a child brings so many emotions. A parent…
