#MyFamilyMyPride Who seeks, shall find!

HDFC Life and Indiblogger have given me an opportunity to blog about a family member who has guided and encouraged me to grow into a better, self-reliant person. In a way, family is all about cooperation, love and care. Family is the first school where a child learns to be herself. A mother understands it better than anyone else in the family. Parents nurture the mind and soul of the child and guide her into a self-reliant grown up. I dedicate this post to the parent closer to the heart, my mother.

I wrote a poem a few years back on Maa in Hindi:

"हे माँ!तुझसे बढकर ना कोई अपना,

अब जागा हूँ नींद से देख रहा था सपना।

करुणा ममता अपनेपन में तू अनुपम है,

दया प्रेम सौहार्द्र का तू संगम है।।

जब मैं रोया तूने मुझको गले लगाया,

जब भी मुस्काया तूने है साथ निभाया।

चला गिरा दौड़ा लातें भी मारी तुझपर;

पर न्योछावर करती रही तू प्रेम निरन्तर।।

In short, these lines describe values that a mother is an ocean of. She enriches her child with love, compassion and care. She hugs the child when she cries and always shares happy moments with her. A mother is an epitome of selfless love. 

There come many such moments in life of a person when he feels like a loser. He feels as if all that he was trying to do is ending up as a big zero. Those are the times when one desperately needs someone to support and guide him. I have also faced such hard situations and at all those moments, my family has always been there for me. They have always been a good support.

My mother has always motivated me to stay positive despite the negativities of life. Fear of failure is more worrisome than failure itself. One can learn from a failure, but the fear and worry often give even a small failure a great shadow. The moments when I felt depressed and wanted to live in solitude, she asked me to identify the root cause of conflict within. Then she guided me to the incredibly important task of taking a swift and immediate action to dissolve the cause. 

She also taught me to channelize the negative energy within into something creative. While the depression drains one of the feelings, the creative work that one does with this monumental force of energy makes one feel compassionately connected with the universe. She also made me learn in those moments to remember and discover all the things that I already have to be thankful for. This helped me to focus on positive aspects of life more than negative ones.

Physical and mental health go hand in hand. She ensured that I remained active and healthy. She encouraged me to spend more time in sun and to exercise more often while ensuring a healthy diet for me. To improve mental health, she guided me to do meditation and yoga to help me relax and clear my mind.

Her guidance and support helped me come out of the bad times. It motivated me to live life with a positive approach. Our relationship is so much like the father-daughter relationship in the commercial that I am sharing. ‘Apno ko apne dum pe jeena sikhao’ is all that a family truly stands for!