Srikumar Rao | Goodness Exchange

2 min read

Lessons From a Snow Globe and Other Insights

Have you ever shaken a snow globe? Picture the picturesque scene it holds inside, and see in your mind how it grows hazy as if snow is falling. Could the snow falling be a great representation for our mental chatter, quickly spinning us out of control until we can't see our hand in front of our face? Here's a story of how we can eliminate that snow in our brain and bring tranquility back into our lives.

Personal Growth, Happiness & Hope, Members Content

2 min read

Image: A garden gnome, sitting in a garden looking perfectly content

Should You Be Content? Or Strive for More?

Look at your life today and then look back twenty years. Odds are pretty good that your life right now is something that you dreamed of a bare two decades ago. So why aren’t you happier than you are? Should you be content? If you are not, should you try to learn how to be content?

Personal Growth, Members Content

5 min read

Image: A woman peering between the arms of a movie clapper.

Lesson From a Blockbuster Movie

What is the story that you are telling yourself about the things that bother you? Are you facing financial problems, relationship issues, health concerns, career stagnation? How do you face each of these? What happens to you is important. The story you tell yourself about what happens to you is much more important.

Personal Growth, Members Content

2 min read

Image: A man with his two children, one child on his shoulders and the other in his arms, looking directly into the camera.

The Greatest Gift You Can Give Your Child

Have you heard about "mental chatter?" It's something many of us struggle with, and our children do, too. Here's how you can engage with your child about "mental chatter," courtesy of guest writer Dr. Srikumar Rao.

Personal Growth, Happiness & Hope, Members Content

2 min read

Image: Two women, arms slung around each other's shoulders, walking down a nature path. The two share their troubles with each other.

Should I Tell, or Not?

Everyone needs advice from time to time, but perhaps more important than the advice itself is the person who is giving it. Here are some criteria for you to consider before confiding in others.

Personal Growth

Image: the silhouette of a man with bright lights shining behind him.

Who Are You to ‘Forgive’ Anyone?

Guest writer Srikumar Rao has an interesting thought experiment for you. What would happen if we all made a concerted effort to put our egos aside, and consider the notion that help is coming from the universe: happening "through" you and not "by" you or "from" you?

Personal Growth, Members Content

Image: Two black women on a beach, one with her arm slung around the other's shoulders in friendship. Both friends are laughing.

On Friendships: Don’t Make the Mistake I Made

When life gets busy, plans with friends are often the first thing we cancel and let fall off our plate. We say we'll check in with them tomorrow, or next week, or next month. But sometimes, tomorrow never comes. So whoever you're thinking of right now, as you're reading this? Reach out to them not tomorrow, not next week, but today.

Happiness & Hope, Members Content, Personal Growth

Image: Three lemons, symbolic of what to do when, as the saying goes, life gives you lemons.

To Heck With Gratitude! (How To Be Grateful When Life Throws You Lemons)

Are you sick and tired of being told that you should be "grateful" for the wonderful things in your life? I frequently, very frequently, advise persons to feel grateful for their lot in life. I ask them to feel grateful for what they are and what they do and the great good fortune that has been bestowed on them. For those who are ready to listen, I go further and ask them to just be grateful and not grateful ‘for’ anything.

Personal Growth

Image: A person on a swing, swinging high. A metaphor for never having felt so good!

I Cannot Remember the Last Time I Felt So Good!

When you go out and help someone or make their day with zero expectations in return, purely and simply because you can, you might just feel the best you ever have. Here's a heartwarming story of helping people and expecting nothing in return, and some tips on how you can do it too.

Personal Growth, Members Content

5 min read

Image: A young girl helping a young boy get up off the ground in the woods. Representative of the public's gravitation towards movies like Casablanca, where people end up selflessly helping each other.

Here’s Looking at You Kid! A Lesson from Casablanca

Oftentimes, the most compelling and transcendent media are those in which characters act in other-centered manners, overcoming their petty personal concerns for the sake of someone else or a greater cause. Take Casablanca, for example. One of the most well known films of all time does just this...

Arts & Culture, Members Content, Personal Growth

Image: A stop sign half submerged in water. Is it a good thing, or a bad thing?

Good Thing, Bad Thing, Who Knows?

Go back in your life. Has anything happened to you that, at the time it happened, you thought was a ‘bad thing’? But, looking back at it today, you can clearly see that it was not so bad and, perhaps, was even a ‘good thing?’ Most people can recall many such instances. So, is it possible that what you are today about to label a ‘bad thing’ could, at some point in the future, turn out to have been a ‘good thing?’

Personal Growth, Members Content

Get Rid of the Struggle: A New Model For Defining Success

Hard work is important, but it is not the only factor in our successes. Stop thinking of your herculean endeavor and acknowledge your good fortune. Here's how to become comfortable with an uncomfortable notion: that hard work isn't everything.