To view this newsletter in the browser, click here                 Issue #220       A newsletter from Creativegarh to help you live a life of passion, purpose and meaning.         Sometimes, the road to nectar begins with a sip of poison.                     The three kinds of happiness through which one finds enjoyment and comes to the end of suffering. That which seems like poison in the beginning but becomes like nectar in the end is called sattvic happiness, born of the serenity of a clear and discerning intellect. ~ Bhagavad Gita 18.36-18.37           That's the advice Krishana offers Arjuna here - an extraordinary understanding of happiness. Not everything that feels good is good for us, and not everything that feels difficult is against us. In fact, the deepest, most nourishing happiness often begins with something that feels terribly unpleasant. Krishna calls this sattvic happiness. The kind that feels like poison in the beginning but becomes nectar in the end.           Think about it. You want to write a book, but the blank page terrifies you. You want to heal an old relationship, but the conversation feels impossible. You long for love, but resist vulnerability. You want freedom from resentment, but cannot bring yourself to forgive. You want to meditate, but your mind would rather spend another twenty minutes scrolling through reels of other people’s lives.           We do not realise that the very thing we are resisting may be the doorway to what we are seeking. The idea of not to romanticise suffering, worship exhaustion or turn our lives into an endless exercise in doing difficult things. We have already become rather good at that. Grind. Hustle. Push. Prove.           Sattvic happiness comes from a different place. It asks us to move from hard work to heart work. From trying to impress to wanting to express. From proving our worth to living our purpose. From avoiding discomfort to consciously choosing what nourishes our being. And yes, in the beginning, it may feel uninspiring, uncomfortable, unfamiliar, unsettling and utterly undoable. But as we continue with awareness, what once felt impossible becomes possible, what felt uncomfortable in the beginning now makes us unstoppable.           The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding. Not every difficult path is the right one, but because the right path sometimes asks us to walk through discomfort rather than around it.           Choose the happiness that doesn’t merely feel good for a moment, but makes you feel free for a lifetime. Dust yourself and get up, There will be pain, yes. But you get to choose if the pain you want is of showing up everyday or the pain of regret of now showing up for very things that could have sparked your soul.                 We are wonderfully open-minded. Until someone disagrees.                     We simply love people who agree with us. For they validate our beliefs, appreciate our opinions, laugh at our jokes, and reassure us that we are lovely human beings.           And then, one day, someone comes along and disagrees with us. Suddenly, the same peaceful, evolved, spiritually enlightened person who was talking about universal love wants to throw a chair across the room.           Why? Because disagreement doesn’t always threaten our ideas, sometimes it threatens our very identity. We become so attached to what we believe that questioning our beliefs begins to feel like questioning who we are.           When we are genuinely curious, we ask questions. When our ego feels threatened, we go to war with arguments. We stop listening to understand and begin listening for loop holes in the other person’s viewpoint. The conversation becomes a courtroom. Our mind becomes the defence lawyer. And the person across from us becomes the accused.           But imagine a simple possibility. What if there is a sliver of truth in what the person said. What if there is something here that you haven’t understood? It's not necessary that the person who got you raked up is right. But could there be a chance that your understanding may be incomplete?           And this is also an opportunity for us to take a deep dive into our being. What we usually don't like in others is what we do not like in ourselves. What we judge in others is unresolved in us. We judge ourselves for our intentions and others for their actions. What triggers us through others is a part of ours that needs enquiry, holding and healing.           The person we call arrogant may remind us of our own need to be recognised. The person we call controlling may reflect our own discomfort with uncertainty. The person we call judgemental may awaken the uncomfortable realisation that we are judging them rather fiercely. That's the beautiful irony. Sometimes we become the very thing we attack while attacking it.           We often enter disagreements believing we are the reasonable person patiently dealing with someone who is being unreasonable. But the person across from us is probably thinking exactly the same thing. It helps to understand that while you have your own experiences, fears, conditioning, loyalties, wounds and stories, they do too.           We spend much of our lives dividing the world into opposites. Right and wrong. Good and bad. Us and them. Evolved and unevolved. People like you and people who need urgent spiritual intervention. But spiritual maturity means learning to hold both - to recognise that someone can be generous in one part of life and selfish in another. That someone can be wise about one subject and profoundly mistaken about another. That someone can hurt us and still possess qualities worthy of love.           Wholeness is not the absence of contradictions. It is the ability to accept them without losing our humane-ness. Sure, you don’t have to agree with everyone, but you can refuse to let disagreement make you less loving.             Our upcoming retreats                         Andretta Last 2 Seats Left 21st to 27th February     To reconnect to your inner child at a beautiful hillside retreat with 14+ soulful individuals will make this a life-transforming experience. See you at Andretta!   More details     Reignite conversation     Bhimtal Registrations Open 14th to 20th March     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     Kasauli Last 2 Seats Left 4th to 10th April     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           This week, let's revisit     Andretta November 2025                         Experience a life full of purpose                     My purpose is to inspire hope in the human soul through the beauty of visual storytelling.   Bernadette Lobo Sakleshpur, August 2022         My purpose in life is to energize the world and lead people towards self-healing.   Ekta Sheth Sakleshpur, August 2022               For a daily dose of Creativegarh and our retreats, follow us here:                         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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