“To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance”- Oscar Wilde
The auditorium was packed with the first year students who had just completed their school life and ready to experience the excitement of a college life. There was a lot of restlessness. Sarcasm and cynicism were more dominant in the air than oxygen.
“Oh! Can’t start the year with a sermon.”
“Who can stand an hour of advice?”
“Why are we being treated like school kids in college?”
“I am going to boo him if he is boring.” The voice of dissent was echoing from several quarters of the hall. Two giant personalities, contrary in appearance entered the hall and the auditorium suddenly fell silent.
Dr. Menon entered followed by Abhivyakti.
Dr. Menon, an old man with a towering personality had a majestic head with a mass of wavy grey hairs. Years ago he had allowed his hairs to grey, slowly learning to grow proud of them. The youthful audience held this man in awe for his reputation of an impressive voice, large years of experience and most important of all the credit of knowing his students. The professor addressed his audience with a booming voice and said, “Who is the one person with whom you spend the maximum time?” The students imagined varied answers- parents, friends………..!
The Professor continued, “One person with whom you spend the maximum time is yourself. So we might as well get that relationship right. Young men, it would be a shocking experience for you to know that your feelings towards other people are largely determined by your feelings towards yourselves. If you are uncomfortable within yourselves, you can’t be comfortable with others. To be able to enjoy this relationship with yourself, you need to value yourself. A positive self image makes life cheerful, lighter, and happier. Self image is a very important ingredient of our thought and I believe Abhivyakti will have a profound influence on all of you in this direction.”
Abhivyakti looked a cool guy. Tall, fair-complexioned, jet black hair with deep piercing eyes, the man expressed affluence. The audience took him lightly, another of those successful guys, about to give them a ‘mantra’. They booed together. The young man stood unruffled.
The gathering comprised excited teenagers who had all come out of the safe cocoons of ‘homes’ and experienced for the first time in their lives ‘freedom unlimited.’ This is a very unique phase of life. It is one of the most crucial transitions in one’s life…. Everything seems inviting and exciting. These young adults, now more than ever, become very conscious of their looks. They pay far too much attention to what the world around them thinks of them. Paths change, goals change, priorities change, friends change…..they are in a world of their own.
Somehow, most adolescents in their late teens want to be someone other than who they have been until then. An insatiable craving for heroism…a craving to be accepted….a craving to find a place for themselves….controls their decisions.
Random emotions ransack the mind. Read to find if these sound familiar from the teenagers:
“If I don’t dress the way my friends do, I will be branded as ancient”.
“If I don’t bunk classes with my friends, I will be called a coward”.
“No girl has approached me, which means something is not okay with me”.
To flaunt parents prosperity and to idolise cine stars is their style image. Though self-image, as the very term suggests should be the image one has of oneself, during this phase of life, the image the world has of them becomes their self-image. The world becomes their mirror-often reflecting its own judgement of what is.
In the midst of this ocean of youth, Abhivyakti began to address his audience.
“Did you know that the best day of life is the one on which you decide your life is your own?” Amidst the ‘yeses’ were also screams of ‘No’. With a put-up smile Abhivyakti continued, “If you didn’t know, get to know it now – Self-image draws the height for individual accomplishment.”
Oooooooooh!” screamed the students in response. A visibly disturbed Dr. Menon wanted to reach for the mike, but Abhi just gestured that he would take care. Legends love challenges and here was Abhivyakti. Could he win the challenge of his exuberant audience?
Abhi continued, “The day you have no apologies or excuses to offer; no one to lean on or blame, that day life is truly your gift. It is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins. You know what you want to do in life and go out to do it. You listen to the voice of your heart and feel comfortable doing things which add quality and beauty to life.”
Every empowering communicator knows that the way to enter the head is to reach the heart.Abhivyakti had emotionally stirred his audience. Here was one person in the world who encouraged them to do what they wanted. Almost all of them had become very attentive. In just a few minutes, Abhi was in command of the auditorium.
“Don’t ask what your parents want you to be or what the world needs of you, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive. The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off. Self-care is not selfish-ness, it is an expression of the gift I was put on earth to offer to others.” When your opinion of yourself goes up you do not seek outside attention but find an inner stability even when your world might be negative or uncertain at times. The increasing self-esteem and self-love also makes you feel more deserving of good things in life and work with more motivation and focus than ever before.
What copper can, gold cannot. The fragility of the ant enables it to move and the firmness of the mountain enables it to stay rooted. Your value is determined by what you are able to make of yourself.
“How does it feel to you to know that in the history of the universe there has been nobody like you and to the infinity of time to come there will be No-one like you? Trust yourself. Your parents and those who love you may not often tell you how important you are to their lives but you leave a lot of yourself in people who you meet in every day life. There are still millions of lives you are yet to touch and make a difference with your highest values, your deepest beliefs and your greatest dreams.”
“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection”
– Buddha
This reminds me of the words of Mark Twain, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” So give up that complacency. Fly high into the sky like the kite. Catch the mighty winds in your tails. Explore! Dream! Discover!
