WHAT IS MY ROUTINE AND MY HABITS ?

1. Am I always very busy?
- Is this my personal choice?
- Am I hardpressed for time as I am taking on too much?
- Am I letting other people push me around?
- Am I pushing myself unknowingly because I feel I must keep myself busy always?
- Am I being busy at the expense of my physical, emotional and intellectual development?
- What is it that gives me a sense of meaning and satisfaction in my hectic routine?
- What is my life all about if I have no time for myself or for those I love?

2. Why am I always caught in a mad hurry?
- What am I trying to tell myself and others through my tearing hurry?
- Is my mad hurry tied up with my ego?
- Do I lack an inner focus and am I hurrying as a compensation?
- Do I feel dissatisfied with my present income?
- Is it confusion and a sense of compulsion that is driving me?

3. Is my life over-organised and repetitive?
- Are my responses to the demands of others in my life and work getting stereotyped?
- Is my routine enslaving me?
- How much of novelty and surprise is there in my life?
- Am I losing out on my happiness and well-being?
- Must I carry on with my present routine just because it's been that way for so long?

4. What kind of habits have I acquired?
- In matters like eating, smoking, drinking, entertainment, etc.?
- Am I in control or am I being controlled by them?
- Do I tend to over-indulge myself and go on the binge?
- Do I think that more is better?
- Am I conscious of my eating habits?
- Do I eat fast and compulsively at the dining table?
- Do I relish my food?

5. Could I plan my life afresh so that I am in charge?
- Can I slowly opt out of this frenzied routine in a manner that my activities add meaning to my life?
- Could I cultivate some new interests as viable alternatives to a dull routine?
- Can I try to acquire new skills which could help me to change tracks and infuse a new life in my work?
- Could I give my body and myself a better deal by being lesser preoccupied?
- Can I keep my body fit to face the challenges in my life?
- Can I take responsibility for my physical, mental and spiritual condition?
- Can I take a long-term perspective of my work and life?

WHAT ARE MY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES?

1. What are my greatest strengths?
- What is it that I am really good at?
- What do I really enjoy doing?
- Can I list the activities which give me the maximum personal satisfaction?

2. What are my talents?
- What am I doing to develop and use these?
- Do I have a daily discipline of practising or developing my talents?
- Are my talents getting recognition?
- Am I exerting enough to put these talents to good use?
- What have I achieved so far?
- Could I try and ask persons who are really close to me for their honest feedback?

3. What is my level of competence in basic skills?
- In oral communication, writing, visual, and presentation skills?
- In research, analytical, practical, and mechanical skills?
- In organization, team, and problem-solving skills?
- Could I acquire some new interests and develop some new skills?
- Like a new language, a new subject, or to operate computers?
- Like painting, music, stitching, plumbing, or a sport?
- Like teaching or public speaking?

4. What aspects of my potential am I aware of?
- Am I capable of quick thinking?
- Can I focus my mind and analyze a problem in depth?
- Am I able to look at people and situations from different perspectives?
- Am I very creative to come up with different alternatives and solutions to everyday situations and problems?
- Do I have a good sense of humour and able to laugh at myself?
- Do I have a fine sense of judgement and can reach one right decision?

5. What are the things I am not too good at?
- Do I know my shortcomings at work?
- What are the areas in which I feel handicappeddue to lack of skills, knowledge, or competence?
- Does it make me feel small or ashamed of myself?
- Do I take a lot of time taking decisions or go back on my decisions often?
- Do I doubt my capacity to deliver the goods?
- Do I see my potential as limited or limitless?

WHAT ARE MY GOALS ?

1. Where am I going?
- Do I have a purpose in life?
- Can I try to be specific and write it down?
- Do I find a sense of fulfillment in what I am doing?
- Do I have any priorities for today, week, month, year?
- Do I have a lot of drive?

2. How am I doing at my present work?
- Do I find it boring?
- Can I make it more interesting?
- Can I do my work better?
- How many suggestions can I think up?
- Am I lazy and careless about my potential?

3. What are my key goals in life?
- What do I want to be?
- Am I really possessed by any goal or dream?
- What am I doing to implement my goals and dreams?
- Where do I see myself five, ten, fifteen years from now?
- In what direction am I currently headed in terms of my career, finances, health and family life?
- What is the level of my commitment to my goals in terms of control and discipline?
- How do people judge my achievements when they talk about me?
- How will they remember me in my old age?

4. What do I cherish most?
- Is it the TV culture?
- Is it money and wealth?
- Is it good health?
- Is it happiness and well-being of my family?
- Is it achievement and recognition?
- Is it self-esteem?
- Is it long life?
- Is it communion with God?

5. Do I find time for myself?
- What are my goals for my intellectual development?
- Do I feel that I am just drifting aimlessly?
- Am I fulfilling my basic needs like peace of mind, happiness and well-being of the family, financial security and good health?
- What are my real needs?
- Am I more busy in consumerism to keep up with my neighbours?
- What are my choices and options in life?

WHO AM I ?

1. What is my heritage?
- Is it liberating or constricting?
- To what extent am I influenced/controlled by the "group think" of my caste, creed, religion, organization and so on?
- What is happening to the religious beliefs which my parents gave me?
- Are they meeting my religious needs today?
- What kind of relationship do I have with God - formal, personal or non-existent?

2. How do I introduce myself?
- How am I generally introduced by others?
- Do I feel important/small by this form of introduction in different situations?
- Does my designation/position in my organisation, religion, language, caste say all there is to be said about me?

3. Have there been people who have influenced me?
- Are they my parents, society and so on?
- Have they made a deep impact on me?

4. Am I aware of my unique qualities?
- Do I have my own qualities of body, head and heart?
- Have I acknowledged this uniqueness so far?
- Have I been unconsciously believing that I am just another face in the crowd?
- Do I really believe that each human being is unique?
- What are the qualities which I appreciate in others?
- What qualities do I have which draw people to me?
- Do my qualities put people off?
- Do I feel good about myself?
- How do I rate myself and why?
- Is there scope for improvement in some aspects?
- Do I seek or encourage feedback about them?

5. Is my behaviour predictable or erratic?
- Do people find me trustworthy?
- Can I recall specific instances and people in this regard?
- Am I forthright or dishonest?
- Do I communicate clearly or carelessly?
- Do I treat promises seriously?

6. Am I very confident of myself?
- What is the basis of my self-confidence?
- What makes me feel shaky and uncertain?

7. Where do I find my real happiness?
- In having things done my way?
- In the fulfillment of my wants and desires?
- In my relationships?
- In my independence?
- In being at peace with myself?
- In positive self-esteem?
- In earning for one's living?
- In making more money?

8. Will I lose my happiness if my wealth and comforts become lesser?

9. Do I find time to be alone with myself and to introspect?

10. Do I feel good about myself?

HOW DOES ONE INTROSPECT?

1. Find time to be with yourself, not just in seclusion but even in a crowd.
2. During this time, recall any incident or provocation for introspection.
3. Visualise your own responses to them.
4. Re-enact your reaction in each case and try to examine closely whether you know why you react the way you do.
5. Try to visualise the consequentions of your reaction, not just for the other person but for yourself too.
6. Watch the explanations, the alibis and the rationalising you come up with.
7. Check the impulse to condemn yourself, and let honesty be your bulwark.
8. It will put you in touch with the heritage of human values which you share with mankind.
9. Learn to be compassionate with yourself, so that you can accept yourself as you are at this moment with grace and humility, without rancour or self-destructive guilt.
10. This process can help you to get the first insights about the nature of your social conditioning, your temperament, your inner authentic self and so on for your well-being and inner peace.
11. The approach to introspection is not one of fault-finding or judgemental evaluation for sorting out your black and white, rather it's a process of self-discovery through empathy and understanding one's approach by adopting the stance of a bemused bystander.

HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU GIVE YOURSELF DAILY?

1. This thought does not even apeear on the mental horizon of most people because they are just too busy with their daily routine.
2. If you are controlled by this routine, you should reflect how you are piling up tension and stress for yourself, by failing to take a good look at your inner selves, thereby losing out on the obvious advantages of self-knowledge.
3. Introspection enables you to accept yourself gracefully, provides insights about your uniqueness, and helps you to recognize the voices of social conditioning which keep pushing and judging you.
4. As you develop self-awareness, you will behave less like a conditioned animal and will be more in charge of your choices, by retaining what is functional, and will speak and decide for yourself and own up responsibilities for your actions and well-being.
5. We should, therefore, develop a reflective state of mind by becoming aware about the strongpoints and shortcomings of our personality, so that we do not build impenetrable strong walls around our ignorance which deflect every personality-enriching stimulus.
6. It is never too late to begin the process of our self-discovery, as human beings alone have the capacity to stand outside themselves and observe their own thoughts, reactions and emotions.
7. With a little discipline, we can grow into a state of consciousness which helps us to be aware of what's going on in our mind at any given moment - by listening to ourselves with compassion and understanding.

OWN UP RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR WELL-BEING

1. We are responsible in every way for our well-being, though we often tend to pass the buck onto others, the environment and even to God.
2. Quite often, we seem to believe that our responsibility for learning ends with enrolling for the course to get a qualification, while believing that others will provide us knowledge.
3. But without owning up responsibility for our own growth, we can at best make only marginal use of the efforts made by our teachers and trainers to "thrust" knowledge on us.
4. We should, therefore, shift to an active "learning" paradigm, which involves initiative in reading up on developments in the field of one's choice, interacting with people in these professions, setting tasks for oneselves and draw out one's creativity.
5. Similarly, most of the time we do not realize that our health is our responsibility, and not the doctor's.
6. We are responsibile not only for our fitness, but for our blood sugar, our obesity, our blood cholesterol, our back pain, our body aches and so on.
7. Passing the buck to the physician, the fitness expert, the nutritionist and the pharmacist is all part of the overall alibi culture.
8. The basic truth is that you have to set aside time for the kind of exercise with which you are comfortable and consciously regulate your food habits in order to avoid those problems which you then expect the doctor to sort out for you, although he is just there to support you and not to take over responsibility for your health.
9. So, take charge of your life, by putting yourself first: your well-being, your near and dear ones, your personal growth and your peace of mind.
10. This is not a selfish attitude, because it is only when you are well and at peace with yourself that you will be of service to others.

ILLNESSES DUE TO DEFICIENCY OF VARIOUS VITAMINS

1. A - acne, weak vision in dark & low light (night blindness)

2. B1 - less absorption, beriberi disease

3. B2 - oral ulcers, mouth blisters, anaemia, diabetes

4. B3 - pellagra, dermatitis

5. B5 - malnutrition, paralytic illness

6. B6 - anaemia, pellagra

7. B7 - hair thinning, weakening of nails, their breakages.

8. B12 - neurological, psychiatric & Alzheimer's diseases

9. C - scurvy, bleeding gums, gingivitis, urine acidity

10. D/D2 - rickets, renal infection, osteomalacia

11. D3/D6 - bone disease, renal infection

12. E - cramps, cystic fibrosis, coronary disease

13. K/K1/K3 - clotting deficiency, bleeding

14. Benfotiamine - neuropathic, alcoholic, diabetic diseases

15. Colostrum - non-insulin diabetes, blood sugar

16. Folic Acid - anaemia, epilepsy