To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #144       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         We are born monks, raised as fighters.                     We are all born with child-like innocence and monk-like inclination for tranquility. Knowing our being, unearthing our gifts, living a life of contemplation and devoting every breath to the service of the universe is how we are meant to spend our life.           We are born with a sense of wonder, curiosity abounds and we are unburdened by the whimsical oddity of life. And like monks, we have an inherent capacity for stillness, mindfulness and self-reflection. We have the purity of mind, purity of heart and an unrelenting desire for fulfilment. We have original goodness within us, childlike awe, wonder and playfulness, an agenda-less way in our interactions and are fearless and free to love, live and choose.           But as life happens, we are expected to drop our monk-like robes and armour up in a cloak of invincibility to protect us from the upbringing, the prejudices, the conditioning, the programming, the templatisation and the new beliefs slapped onto us to survive in the world and be fearful of anything that is not familiar or doesn’t smell, sound, taste, feel, or look like us.           We leave our peaceful living and become fighters.           Fighting for ourselves, fighting with competition. Over our peaceful beingness, we wear the mask of pretense, personality and aggression as we fight with everyone else in the never-ending pursuit of success. We fight for material success, to hoard more than others; we fight for rewards and awards to be known and wield power from the outside of us. We lose our monk-ness one Ferrari after another. We constantly engage in the battles of life and are expected to be ruthless, assertive, ambitious and determined. We are told to put on hold our innate need for introspection, emotional well-being and spiritual growth. And not very soon, we realise we have been led astray from our authenticity. From the connectedness we always felt to everyone and everything, separateness becomes our safe space, fear our state of being and survival our only practice.           Let’s walk back home. Drop the armour of ego, wear the robe of beingness, nakedness of authenticity, the smile of toothless innocence and not the scowling face of hatred and anger.           The greater your love for yourself, the fuller and more fulfilling your life.                     You can only love someone as much as you know someone. And to really know someone, to have a close relationship with someone, to love them wholly, you have to be deeply interested in them.           Let’s do this again with a little twist.           You can only love yourself as much as you know yourself. And to really know yourself, to have a close relationship with yourself, to wholly love yourself, you have to be deeply interested in yourself.           The more passionate, joyful, meaningful, purposeful, fulfilling life that you want is directly proportional to how much you love yourself. For, the more you love yourself, no way do you settle for a small life. The more you love yourself, the more you work hard for a bigger life full of joy and happiness.           And the life you have right now is what you subconsciously choose for yourself. Subconsciously you choose a smaller life because you love yourself only that much — only five percent — because you only know yourself that much, says research. We know ourselves only five percent — the space we take conscious decisions from and the rest of our life, the ninety-five percent of it, we live on autopilot, from our subconscious.           Also, we are conditioned to dismiss and dislike anything that we don’t know or understand. That’s ninety-five percent of us.           To love yourself more, you have to know yourself more, be in an emotionally intimate relationship with yourself. And that’s where the self-awareness journey starts — to know yourself fully — your pain, your traumas, your stories, thoughts, feelings, motivations, behaviours, patterns, triggers and reactions. Making knowing yourself your biggest priority and fall in love with yourself again.           As you walk the path, a deeper realisation sets in: that you are not your pain, traumas, stories, body, emotions, mind, designations — you are far more infinite than the finiteness that you have made peace with. You are the infinite universe itself, you are the divinity itself, you are the maker of your own destiny, you are consciousness itself, you are love itself.           But you have to know this experientially, not intellectually. That's where honouring your swadharna, being the non-doer in every creation, serving unconditionally detached from outcomes, allows consciousness — that pure love and awareness — to experience itself through you.           Love experiencing itself through love. How beautiful.           Make knowing yourself and loving your biggest purpose. The big life then just falls at your feet, waiting to be yours.             Our upcoming retreats                         Kolhapur Last 1 Seats Left 10th to 16th August     Escape the city's clamor, reconnect with your inner light. Indulge in a life changing retreat, experiencing the discovery of your true self, within the arms of nature.   More details     Reignite conversation     Kasauli Last 6 Seats Left 31st August to 6th September     The stunning vistas and holistic experiences at Kasauli create the perfect space for self-discovery and ensure this retreat is a transformative and unforgettable experience.   More details     Reignite conversation     Udaipur Registrations Opening Soon 29th October to 4th November     Discover joy at a 400-year-old fort nestled in the peaceful hills of Bambora. For souls in search of a purpose, it provides a perfect space to just be.   More details               This week, let's revisit     Mandi March 2024                         Experience a life full of purpose                     The purpose of my life is to build joyful, meaningful, sustainable and nourishing relationships with food.   Aanandita Chawla Kasauli, September 2022         The purpose of my life is to give a helping hand to people and make them feel loved and valued.   Anupama Singh Tirthan Valley, July 2022               For a daily dose of Creativegarh and our retreats, follow us here:                           Swati Gandhi         Sunita Somani         Pedal On               View Our Collabs for Joy                   creativegarh.com             You are receiving this newsletter because either you have subscribed to it through our website, interacted with us by filling an invite form or because you have asked us to put you on the database. 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