To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #183       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         Life is your guru.     Love is your guru dakshina.                     Before you were born, you sat in a long session with your guides and teachers sipping ginger tea as they took you through your syllabus for this lifetime.           The lessons are non-negotiable, they said, but you can choose to learn the lessons whenever you are ready. You also have a choice of teachers - you can choose either joy or suffering to learn your lessons from.           Life will be your guru and this world will be your classroom. Your syllabus will be tailored to your soul’s evolution. Life will also throw some surprise tests at you along the way to see if you have learned the lessons and broken the patterns which were the universe’s way to create teachable moments.           Life will not use words and blackboards but experiences so that you can learn your lessons. Heartbreak, death, delay, pain, passed over for a promotion - all these would be teachings in disguise - different chapters in the book of life, but your book will be different from the other 8 billion out there. Your takeaways from the lessons will be unique only to you.           Every experience will be a feedback loop. The triggers, the joy, the longing, all will be invitations to deeper awareness and graduation to higher classes.           Life will never rush you. It’ll be wise, it’ll be patient, it’ll allow you to learn when you are ready, but once in a while, it’ll give you a tight whack across your face if you have just not been listening. A wake-up call of sorts.           So if life is your guru, what does it ask for as guru dakshina? In return, life doesn’t ask for your wealth, words or rituals. It asks you to go naked - to strip away your ego and all the masks and cloaks of fear and inauthenticity that you wear. It’s not interested in your LinkedIn profile but in your devotion, resilience, humility, compassion and truth.           Life is a gift and our syllabus in this lifetime nudges us to find our gifts and then give them away in the service of everyone’s life - not ours.           The purest offering we can make to life is our becoming - to become an embodiment of love. It is a vow to live the teaching with more love, awareness and grace. Our return gift is to return to the source by walking gently, speaking kindly, and living truthfully. Our biggest gesture of gratitude to life is to re-member ourselves to the divine and dis-cover the untruth that keeps us away from this divine oneness.           If life is the guru that gave you everything - your breath, your grief, your art, your healing - then let your love be the return gift that touches everything.                 The longest walk of your life is just five seconds.                     The longest walk of your life is just five seconds long. Yes, five seconds.           That's the time it takes to boot up the computer, knead the clay, preheat the oven, walk to your desk, sit down to write, open the studio door, pull out the paints, respond to the bills and invoices, show up for an act of kindness, wear your shoes for the jog, take a stance for your life, make the hard choice, ask for forgiveness, or forgive someone.           It's those five seconds when resistance and procrastination creep in uninvited. That moment where the fine line between a lived and an unlived life is drawn. That instant when inspiration turns to desperation, when ego takes over the soul, when miracles are forgotten, and rationalization rears its ugly head; when the snooze button seems more inviting than the dreams you've had of your biggest life. When the war with oneself - jaya - and the war over others - vijaya - is equally balanced, and just one small decision can shift the balance in favor of the wolf you feed. When the idea in the head seems like the safest place for it and yourself, rather than an idea put out there in the world. When the chatter between ‘how does my life even matter’ and ‘I want to matter’ becomes the biggest war in your head. When you attach an outcome and judgment to the thoughts that have been dropped into your consciousness.           And it's a split-second decision between a yes and a no. The inner child wants a yes; the inner demon wants a no. The soul wants a yes; the ego wants a no. And you know that the difference between a big life and a small one is this one decision. At this moment. Not later.           Who would you like to win this battle? Today and every day?           Laziness, procrastination, resistance, "not right now," "I am too busy," "this is not the right time," "next week for sure," "I am not ready," "do people want it?" "I am looking for materials," "I have to ask my family," "I need a few days off to do this," "too much happening in my life," "it's too cold," "it's too hot" - all these are just different names to describe fear. And that is what laziness is - a very, very polite name for fear. The fear of failure, the fear of judgment, the fear of success, the fear of not knowing where to start, the fear of not being able to finish. The fear of inner work. The fear of shifting from your comfort zone, even if it keeps you small.           What you need is to get up and take help, one baby step after another. But more important than anything, give yourself the permission to create and live a fulfilling, abundant, joyful, magical, and happy life. Give yourself the permission to feel your own power.           Writing a book is not difficult; sitting down to write is. Living your big dream is not difficult; getting out of your dream state every morning is. Living a purposeful life is not difficult; giving yourself the permission to live it is. Running a marathon is not difficult; putting one foot after another is.             Our upcoming retreats                         Bhimtal Last 2 Seats Left 10th to 16th May     Bhimtal offers a rare kind of Kumaoni serenity. This landscape creates the perfect setting for inner work, allowing reflection to unfold naturally.   More details     Reignite conversation     Mandi Last 4 Seats Left 14th to 20th June     Mandi in summer is a calm escapade. Cool mountain air, green slopes, and quiet mornings create space to breath, rejuvenate and slow down.   More details     Reignite conversation     Kolhapur Registrations Open 12th to 18th July     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           This week, let's revisit     Munnar January 2025                         Experience a life full of purpose                     The purpose of my life is to create a sensory experience by curating food.   Smita Roy Sakleshpur, August 2022         My purpose in life is to create & amplify infinite impact through the power of storytelling.   Raagul Ram Nainital, May 2022               For a daily dose of Creativegarh and our retreats, follow us here:                           Mantra Gold Coatings & The White Paper Creative         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. If you would not like to receive any more newsletters from us, please click here to unsubscribe.