Friday, May 22, 2020

What were your Resonance Moments?


Remember your last climb to Sinhagad. You had climbed until the final gradient. You were tired and thirsty. But you saw the break in the wall and few trekkers sitting on it like a parapet way above. That was your destination. The gradient got further difficult. But then you reached that moment when the body and mind resonated with a rhythm. Breathing also got aligned. You didn't feel anything but a desire to reach that point. You kept walking. For the next ten minutes, you experienced those moments which I call Moments of Resonance. Then you got rewarded with Kandabjai and Tak. You can replace Sinhagad with any other trail or climb you had in the past. 

When I was climbing from Ghuttu to Panwali, a 6000 ft climb, on the second day of my first Garhwal trek, I first time felt the experience and intrigue of Himalaya. Thanks to the fold mountains, you see the horizon and feel that sense of hope that climb will end there. But when you reach that point you again see some flat land and a further climb. It was an unending journey that day. But still, the body found a rhythm and I started walking with my mind focusing only on the steps. I then experienced moments of resonance for the last half hour of the climb.  The reward that day was an amazing view of the valley with meadows, trees, snow-capped peaks beyond, and of course Panwali village of two huts. We stayed in one of them which was a guest house, the other was a cattle shed.

When I did Wari, I found these moments of resonance climbing Dive Ghat. Mind and body resonate with the chants of Gyanba Tukaram and your existence gets aligned to reach the resting point.


When I rehearsed for a play, there used to be a day during practice when all the actors used to perform so correctly. There used to be no breaks or mistakes. The play structure used to get created that day. Play 'stands on its own'  as they say in the local language to translate it verbatim. The next practice sessions are the efforts directed towards excellence or the moments of resonance that continue also in the final show. I am referring here to the amateur drama movement. But on the other hand, some plays never used to reach that point. These plays did not work on the final day.

I am not a singer but then when I sing a song on karaoke and the moment I get my own feedback that I am making myself aligned with the tune, I get a sense of tranquility and exuberance. Then I don't care about anything else, Mind focusses on singing to the best of my ability. I get into moments of resonance. I am sure my voice quality will not meet any worldly standards but still, I can imagine how the good singers feel after delivering a great rendition that too after hours and hours of practice. 

When I swim steadily for a long time, I reach a state when the body synchronizes with breathing and motion. I go on and on without feeling tired during these moments of resonance. 

When I run at a steady speed on a treadmill, I reach a stage where I focus on completing the 30 mins mark. The body just keeps going on despite the tiredness and shortness of breath during these moments of resonance.

When I read a great book, I just keep turning pages till I reach the end.

When you work for a charitable cause you get to experience such moments. I experienced the same for helping Nerlekar School and other causes I support.

There are many occasions across life when you reach those points. Be it binge-watching television or being engrossed in watching live sports. While cooking a very difficult dish. While listening to your favorite song. While driving through a picturesque road or drawing a picture or writing a blog. 

What is life? Its the pursuit of these moments of resonance. Its path to be happy. Happiness is nothing but being in the state of mind experiencing these moments. A successful running business or rewarding job or success in any activity is the immediate outcome of living in these moments.  Doing what you like is the basic ingredient of finding the moments of resonance. The moment this rhythm is disturbed by external deterrents like an accident, injury, disease, storms, or by internal deterrents like laziness, weakness of mind,  jealousy, reluctance, indecision, coercion we stop experiencing these moments. Life becomes asynchronous and drudgery. That is what we call Sorrow. Failure is the immediate outcome of the lack of those moments in your life.

What do I mean by moments of resonance? 
As per physics: An object free to vibrate tends to do so at a specific rate called the object's natural, or resonant, frequency. Such an object will vibrate strongly when it is subjected to vibrations or regular impulses at a frequency equal to or very close to its natural frequency. This phenomenon is called resonance

Similarly, the human mind operates in a resonant frequency. When the mind is engaged in an external activity which very is close or near to its natural frequency, it feels the vibrations. To further simplify whenever you are engaged in an act which you are very fond of and the moment you are getting internal feedback that you are doing that activity in the best possible way you find that moment of resonance. This feeling gives you an enormous satisfaction, the efforts the energy you put in doesn't give you any sense of fatigue or tiredness. Is it not different from what we seek in life Happiness. The moment this resonance is impacted by external impediments may be due to strife or calamity or incompatibility or anything that tries to change this frequency life reaches its unhappy state. So ultimately life is an ability to live in these moments of resolution.


Our professional life has two phases: Study and Work. My Work has been mainly doing Business. I experienced those moments of resonance in my professional life. I am keeping it generalized without dwelling on various individual moments. 

Imagine as a student when you study hard and appear for exams. You know all the answers to the questions asked. You start answering them. You know you are cracking it, You reach a moment of resonance. You also know you have bungled up. You get tensed further and make more mistakes. To be a good student you need to find these moments during the study when you work hard. For the subjects you like you understand concepts very fast and get to a stage where you can solve any problem any minute. You will find your moments of resonance if you like the subject of your study. But then you can also start liking a subject which you don't by persevering to read more to find things you like. It's a circular process. More you like the subject more you study. More you study more you like the subject.  

 In Business, you drive toward excellence in every aspect of your business.   It starts with doing market research, creating communication to help generate sales. The sales process starts with lead generation. Then you write the best possible proposal. You execute the project and develop a zero-defect product tested and accepted by the client. Hours and hours are spent to tune this process. The moment you lead to a well-run unit where each part runs as expected and this results in future growth. This is the ultimate dream of an entrepreneur. You experience those moments of resonance during the process when you know every stage of this process is run in the best possible way. It can happen at 1am when you return home after putting 18 hours workday to deliver a project. It can happen across a  great sales presentation you make to a panel of customer representatives. It can happen across the table closing a beneficial deal. It can happen in training an efficient team. Inversely if you do run of the mill stuff and take below standard efforts, you will know yourself and feel not convinced about your product and processes. Your business will suffer.  So you need to put in more effort to correct the flaws in the process and deliver a better product. More efforts you put better you perform and reach those moments of resonance. Again its circular process.

I have felt many moments of resonance. I am sure everyone has. What were your moments of resonance? Do you agree?

 


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