The 8 Qualities of a Wealthy Woman

Today, I am going to write about the 8 qualities of a wealthy woman which I happen to read from the book - Women and Money:Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny authored by well famed American financial advisor & TV personality Suze Orman.

Harmony         Balance         Courage         Generosity
Happiness       Wisdom          Cleanliness     Beauty

Qualities 1 & 2:
Harmony & Balance

Harmony is an agreement in feeling, approach, and sympathy.
It is the pleasing interaction between what you think, feel,
say, and do.

Balance is a state of emotional and rational stability in which
you are calm and able to make sound decisions and judgments.

Harmony and balance are perhaps the most important qualities of all, for they serve as the foundation for the remaining qualities. When you possess true inner harmony, what you think, say, feel, and do is one. When your thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are not in harmony, it shows up as an imbalance—you feel agitated, uncomfortable, you sense something is off, so you find it difficult to make rational, calm decisions.This is why these two qualities are a pair. To make sure these two qualities are present in your life, you need to pay attention to your feelings. Observe and listen to the words you use—the actions that you take should be perfect reflections of the thoughts you think. If you maintain this awareness, you will notice when you are out of harmony/balance.

Quality 3: Courage

Courage is the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty,
or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected
from a chosen course of action.

Courage gives harmony expression.When your thoughts and feelings are one, courage helps you manifest them in the form of words and actions.When you are afraid to speak or act, courage helps you overcome your fear. Courage gives you the ability to speak your truth, even when it is not what others may want to hear. Women can be deflected from a course of action if they think that it might hurt someone else. It’s so much easier to hurt yourself than to hurt someone else, isn’t it? Women also lose their courage when they subscribe to a belief that someone or something is the key to their happiness—rather than recognizing that power lies within.Fear is usually what stands between us and our courage. The only way to conquer fear, finally, is through action. You can meditate on your fear and think about it rationally and try to will it away, but in the end, if fear is preventing you from acting, you must find your courage and act to overcome your fear.You find the courage to silence your fear and you say what’s on your mind, you do what you believe must be done, you express your feelings.

Quality 4: Generosity

Generosity is when you give the right thing to the right person
at the right time—and it benefits both of you.

Generosity is a quality that most women can tap into very easily— maybe too easily, if you ask me. As women, we tend to be overly generous with our time, support, love, and money—but giving simply for the sake of giving does not match the definition of true generosity as stated above. It is very important that you understand that true generosity is as much about the one who gives as it is about the one who receives. If an act of generosity benefits the receiver but saps the giver, then it is not true generosity.

Quality 5: Happiness

Happiness is a state of well-being and contentment.

When you find the courage to live your life in harmony and balance, when you understand and practice generosity in the truest sense, happiness spontaneously appears. When you are happy, you are open and accessible.When you are happy, you tend to be more optimistic.You approach new challenges with a clear mind that seeks positive solutions.You see possibilities rather than problems. Happiness is not a luxury. It is a necessity for true wealth. When you are happy, you find pure joy in your life.You are not in a state of wanting but a state of contentment.You have the satisfaction of knowing that your actions come from a place of purity and balance, that they are correct and generous and kind. There are no regrets in this state of happiness—and that’s a goal worth striving for in all areas of your life.

Quality 6: Wisdom

Wisdom is the knowledge and experience needed to make
sensible decisions and judgments, or the good sense shown
by the decisions and judgments made from an accumulated
knowledge of life that has been gained through experience.

The quality of wisdom is more than intellectual, and it is in no way related to how much schooling you have.Exercising wisdom requires cutting through the noise of life and tapping into your core beliefs to make thoughtful decisions.Wisdom results from inhabiting all the qualities that came before it. A wise woman recognizes when her life is out of balance and summons the courage to act to correct it. A wise woman knows the meaning of true generosity.A wise woman knows happiness is the reward for a life lived in harmony, with courage and grace.A wise woman knows how to summon her courage and do what is right, rather than what is easy.

Quality 7: Cleanliness

Cleanliness is a state of purity, clarity, and precision.

Cleanliness is about respecting the importance of order and organization.When you don’t know where your money is, when you have no filing system for your important documents, when you dive into your pocketbook to pull out crumpled bills,when your car looks like a garbage can, when your closets are filled with junk and clutter. You need to clean up your act—quite literally—to bring true wealth into your life. In India, women sweep the front entrance to their home each morning as a way of welcoming Lakshmi, the goddess of material and spiritual abundance, into their home, for there is a belief that she resides at the threshold of every house. In order for her to enter, she must have a clear path. Respect the power of this quality of cleanliness. Make it your way of honoring the goddess Lakshmi, if only symbolically. Tell the universe that you have cleared the path for wealth and abundance to enter.

Quality 8: Beauty

Beauty is the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person
that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the
mind or spirit.

Beauty is what you create when you incorporate the other seven qualities into your life. When you take the steps to have harmony, balance, courage, generosity, happiness, wisdom, cleanliness, and beauty in your life, you will exude confidence in who you are. And there is nothing more beautiful than a confident woman. Remember, when you are confident you feel secure, and when you feel secure you have no fear. And when you have no fear, you have the courage to say what you think and feel in a
calm and wise way.And when you are calm, you make wise decisions with your money, which then allows you to be truly generous to others as well as yourself, which, in turn, makes you a happy, powerful, and beautiful woman. Do you see how all of
these qualities work together to help you arrive at the goal of being a woman in control of her destiny?

Carry these qualities with you throughout your life. Write them on a notecard and keep them close at hand—in your wallet or in your pocket. Make it into a talisman to guide you every day as you make your way through life and all its impossible demands.These qualities will keep you focused and tranquil. Let them and they will offer you constant reassurance that you are acting powerfully and correctly, with love in your heart and the purest intentions, to realize your goals of security and comfort for yourself and all you love.

Leap Year - The Significance of Feb 29th!

A Leap Year which is also know as intercalary year or bissextile year is an year containing one or more extra days in order to keep calendar year synchronized with the astronomical or seasonal year. The Earth's seasons repeat once every tropical year (the time it takes the Earth to complete an orbit around the Sun). This is about 365.2422 days long, so a consistent 365-day calendar year would over time cause the seasons to slowly drift. By occasionally inserting an additional day into the year, making it 366 days long instead of the usual 365, this can be corrected. In the Julian and Gregorian calendars, which is used by most of the world, this "intercalary" or "bissextile" day is added to February, making it 29 days long instead of the usual 28 days.

February 29 is a date that occurs only every four years, in years evenly divisible by 4, such as 1988, 1996, 2008 or 2016 (with the exception of century years not divisible by 400, such as 1900). This extra day of the year is also known as the Leap Day.The rule specified by the Gregorian calendar for leap years is as follows:

A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, unless it is divisible by 100 and not by 400.

Without leap years, the seasons would start one day earlier on the calendar every four years. After 360 years, the 21st of March (the usual start of spring) would come in winter, on what would otherwise be the 21st of December.

A number of countries use a lunar calendar (based on the moon). They have leap years when they add an extra lunar month. Different calendars add the extra month in different ways.

However, now you have an extra day in your year to add on to your New Year's Resolutions!, if any.

Responsibility - "The Power" "The Control"

Responsibility...Responsibility....Responsibility.....Hmmmm....Everyone has their own responsibility. The child has its own responsibility, the parents have their responsibility, the teacher has one, the student has one, the manager has one too, the developer too has responsibility. Its become more of a role-based. Somehow everyone on this planet has their own set of responsibilities defined within their boundary of limit.To feel confident to live and be worthy of happiness, you need to experience a sense of control over your life.

Well, then, what exactly is responsibility? Responsibility means "responding to our abilities". It also has other flavors like "I belong to you" and "Realization of self". Responsibility starts with giving 100% for everything in your life.

Responsibility is not given to you - Its taken by you. This leads to the self-realization. Whenever you tend to take responsibility you get more control and more power to execute what you want. Responsibility = Power = Control. Therefore there is a direct relationship between the amount of control you have and the amount of responsibility you accept.For example, in any industry, the CEO or the Chairperson has the more responsibility of their company's growth. With this responsibility, he has more power in his hands and gets the control to operate the company as per his decision. This implies, with responsibility you get more power to control.

Mother Theresa was not given any responsibility she choose to take her responsibility ministering the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries.and became immortal to the services she delivered. Though she didn't intend, she eventually became internationally famed as a humanitarian and most influential person in the whole world. This shows how powerful and how much control she had with her responsibility.

Final tidbits on Responsibility:

Sudarshan Kriya - Art Of Living

I have rejoined this Art Of Living - Part 1 course designed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar guruji. Yesterday was my second day in the class and my teacher taught us the Sudarshan Kriya. This was a very phenomenal experience. The main key point in this course is to drink plenty of water - as plenty as possible since this Kriya does a complete deep inner cleansing and removes all the toxins. Another catch is to keep our eyes closed throughout the process and feel the eternity in self.

The Kriya starts with closing our eyes for the 3-stage yoga sitting in Vajrasana and doing in Ujjayai breath(the breath experienced in the throat & not in the nostrils) followed by Bhastrika in normal breath. After these paranayama(breathing excerises), we chanted OM thrice which invoked vibrations in abdomen, chest area and as well in the face-head area. As the OM chants finishes, will begin the Guruji's tape which has a recorded voice of Guruji himself chanting SoHam in a particular rhythm which again contains Long-Medium-Fast paced rhythms (It goes like this So--------Ham So--------Ham So--------Ham - So----Ham So----Ham So----Ham - SoHam SoHam SoHam) to breathe in-&-out in normal breaths. This cycle of Long-medium-fast SoHams are almost repeated for about 8 or 9 cycles followed by complete body relaxation in Shavasana. During this stage I had lots of vibrations throughout my body. Also, I had all sorts of mixed thoughts flowing - sad, happy, good, etc for which my emotions were just frozen to accept all the thoughts as they were. I felt my emotions were so controlled and eventually felt as light as a feather. The whole kriya lasted somewhere slightly less than a hour & a half.

As I opened my eyes I was so relaxed and energized at the same time so joyful, I felt complete and was fully charged up for yet another round of Kriya which in fact didn't happen. Since you are not supposed to do this kriya twice in a day. Also, the class was almost over, it was quarter to nine in the night and my buddy along with other classmates were hungry for their dinner. Actually, yesterday was the total lunar eclipse which I missed watching for which I don't regret though! At the end, we called it a day and signed off with yet another homework which I am working on it right now to discuss my opinions in the class. I should bring to your notice that these homeworks will not only wake-up your thinking level but also makes you re-discover yourself with the answers you hear from your inner voice.In total, it’s a bliss!

Books I read @ a glance in 2007

Though I had a different resolution for the year 2007, I was impressed with my husband's resolution - "Reading 20 books". I happen to take up on his resolution and reach the goal partly inspite of my 3 months vacation to India. This was a small effort from my side to start towards investing time in reading and avoid my procrastination as well. Here is the listing along with their author names and also containing my small personal notes outlining the book:

1.Men are from Mars. Women are from Venus - Author John Gray
-Talks about differences between men and women. Compares men to elastic and women to waves

2. The Monk who sold his Ferrari - Author Robin S Sharma
-10 Steps to radiant living -NEWSTART

3. Siddhartha - Author Hermann Hesse
-Never have your ego dominate you. Have thirst for learning new things continuously. Learn to think, wait and fast.

4. Aesop's Stories - Indian moral stories
5. Chandamama - Indian moral stories
6. Akbar and Birbal Stories - Indian moral stories

7. Deception Point - Author Dan Brown
-Suspense thriller. Its all about the NASA, president and the politics

8. Interpreter of Maladies - Author Jhumpa Lahiri
-The Indo-american life storeis

9. Freakonomics - Author Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
-The hidden side of everything

10. The Four Hour Workweek - Author Timothy Ferriss
-Escape 9-5. Live anywhere and join the new rich

11. Jonathan Livingston Seagull - Author Richard Bach
-Self perfection and self sacrifice through continuous learning to achieve higher plane of existence.

12. One Minute Manager - Author Ph.D. Kenneth Blanchard, M. D. Spencer Johnson
-One minute goals, one minute praising and one minute reprimand are the basic secrets of one minute management

13. Memories of Midnight - Author Sidney Sheldon
-Suspense murder thriller

14. The Mystery of Lord Ganesh - Author (Translation of Satyajit Ray's Feluda collection)
-Suspense detective containing 3 stories in this book

To add to the above list, I already finished reading two books for this year -

1. Warren Buffett Speaks:Wit and Wisdom fromt he World's Greatest Investor - Author Janet Lowe
-This book is a library of notes and quotes collection revealing the many aspects of the World's Greatest Investor--his wit, personality, and wisdom.

2. From Midnight to Millennium - Author Shashi Tharoor
-The book describes about Gandhi, Nehru, Indira & about other successful Politicians along with other historical events about the Indian politics from the midnight of our Independence until to the millennium year, describing a full analysis of the accomplishments and failures of the past 50 years" that will be "useful to anyone interested in modern India.

I hope you would pick any of these books and enjoy reading!