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Quotes, Musings, and Contemplations

This blog post is the result of sitting in silence in the mornings, reading other people’s blogs and posts. In this post, I attempt to highlight some of my writings and others. I hope this piece will spark a passion in your inner-being and open up new passion and possibilities. I hope you learn to trust your instincts and sit with the discomfort when things fall apart. Let’s begin.


“When things fall apart when the plan doesn’t work out, and when you don’t get what you want — it’s OK to feel sad and allow yourself to feel the sadness. Don’t push it away and don’t beat the shit out of you. Then, you can focus on your intention, and your next steps, and connect to the vibrational frequency of your desire.”

“Remember that darkness is a source of massive growth. You may not see in the moments of darkness but remember that light always follows the darkness.”

“Trust is such an important aspect of intuition. You may not always 100 percent believe every one of your decisions is going to work out, but can you trust that you are doing the right thing? Can you tap into the core of the heart, where trust is nestled, and let go, close your eyes, and fly?” – Molly Carroll

“I used to be a poor listener. But over the past several years, I have taken more of a listening role. It’s powerful, insightful, and even healing. I have been practicing this – Instead of feeling like I have to share everything that pertains to someone else’s story or comment, I withhold. And I try to fully understand their experience, presently. I do so because I am learning that proving myself or whatever motive I have to share, does not take away from what I have or my experience.” – Candice Georgis

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Contemplative Questions to Wander and Wonder

As I’m taking a deep dive into certain areas of my life, why I do, what I do, who I’ve become, and who am I becoming — I’ve been asking myself some questions in different contexts such as vocation, love, and relationships, friendships, podcast, etc. These questions can be applied in any context I believe. I’m glad to share those questions in this post. If you think these are irrelevant to you, please disregard them, and you might reconsider these at a later point.

The quality of our life depends on the quality of questions we ask ourselves. When we listen to life, when we listen to that softer inner voice — we usually listen to the calling, the unanswered questions, the unexplored territory. Listening to life is a lifelong practice and requires cultivating moments of silence.

I heard these questions in moments of hope and despair. These questions created a tingly feeling inside me and I couldn’t resist capturing them. Some of them came through when I was talking to Amanda Tempist Jade recently.

Here’s the list:

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Self-Reflection Questions in Dating and Relationships

Below are some questions that came up in my coaching session with Amanda Jade. I absolutely adore her. Amanda has been on my podcast, I reached out to her to coach me when I was going through some anxiousness in my dating and relationships with women.

These are powerful questions to contemplate and wanted to share them with you. There is no right or wrong answer to these questions. My answers will evolve over time as I change and grow.

For simplicity, I’m using the pronoun “her”, and you feel free to use whatever pronoun is aligned with you.

1) What are my expectations of her?

2) What part of me says YES or NO to her?

[This question arises when I am absolutely attracted to her and when I am not.]

3) What am I learning about myself?

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The Place I return to Myself

When I write, I feel compassion for myself. When I write, I feel love for my inner child, my younger self, and my older self.

My writing is a refuge where I find comfort in.

This is the place where no one judges me.

This is the place I can share anything openly — I can share all my hurts, sadness, and Joy.

This is the place where I celebrate myself, my inner being, my life, and my friendships.

This is the place where I return to myself — my home, my heart, and my soul.

This is the place where I let my imagination go run wild without any fear.

This is the place my soul cries for the deepest desires to come to fruition.

This is the place where everything comes together and sometimes everything falls apart.

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Do you have a desire or do you have a longing? (there’s a big difference)

Words longing and desire have been used interchangeably. These are similar and yet not the same. One morning, on my quest to understand the difference between longing and desire, I started to read a bunch of articles. The reason being is to understand is if I am longing to attract a loving partner or I am desiring. I wasn’t sure what it is.

I came across a fantastic article from Janelle Hardy. The article connected with me so deeply that I took the print-out and read it about a dozen times. Later, I reached out to Janelle Hardy to see if I could share that article on my website. And, she said yes. I also subscribed to her newsletter. I’m sure that this article will connect with you at some level. I loved this article so much that I shared the link in one of my Friday Newsletter. Below is a short bio of Janelle Hardy and then the article begins.

If you enjoy this post, please share it with others. Thanks so much. Last but not the least, I subscribed to Janelle’s podcast the Personal Mythmaking Podcast and it’s very calming and heart-touching.

Janelle Hardy is a writer, artist, host of the Personal Mythmaking Podcast and the creator/teacher of a transformational memoir-writing course called The Art of Personal Mythmaking. She’s been working as a trauma-informed bodyworker in the hands-on healing arts fields for 13+ years and as an artist (writing, painting + dance) for 17+ years. Throughout that time she’s taught adults out of her living room, arts centers, universities, and community colleges. For the past 5+ years, she’s integrated all of her expertise, including a BA in Anthropology, an MA in Dance, and a Diploma in Structural Integration, into supporting people in their creative healing work via the alchemy of transformational memoir-writing.

Enter Janelle:

Desire. Desiring. Wanting.

I desire many things. Intensely deep, rich, dark, tarry chocolate. Exercising till I sweat rivers down my back, between my breasts, into my eyes. Soulful conversations that draw me into a deeper understanding of my rich friendships. Belly laughs that turn contagious and nonsensical, ending in fits on the floor, alternating sighing and laughing until fatigue burns through the impulse. Butter that is cultured and snobby, tasting of so much more than just butter, melting on my mouth as my eyes roll back. Losing-my-head sex. Dinner parties with friends, finished off with my mother’s glorious devil’s coffee.

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Amanda Tempist Jade — Stocking the Furry Edges and Caverns of Possibility, Saying YES to Personal Transformation, Dragon at Heart, Grief-Remembrance, Equine Informed Experiential Inquiry, and More (#190)

Amanda, known by some as Tempist, is a polyphyletic creature, an embodied convergence of ancestral lines that stretch from the Dawnlands of Turtle Island (Passamaquoddy – eastern US) to the mountains of Macedonia; from the ocean-hugging lands of Greece & Sicily to the seafaring lands of the Celts. Mother to a shapeshifter, *she/they dwells in the mountains of Southern Ute territories with her partner, child, horses, chickens, felines, and canine.

As a lover of crossroads, she tends to the intersections of ancestry, mythos, gender, trauma, chthonic & cosmic spiritualities, inter-species relating, and place-based re-membering as pathways for the reimagining of emergent and unknown futures. Futures that humanity might come to inhabit from places of radical transformation. With a particular focus in (eco)mystical experiences and their capacity to in-form deep mycelial change, Amanda believes such experiences connect us to wider narratives of possibility and break down petro-patterns that feed the soil of life’s entangled becoming.

She feels that in these times of eco- and paradigmatic- collapse, our somatic intelligence is ancestrally equipped to channel a feral kind of consciousness. An awareness that we are so much more than what we’ve been coerced, forced, or seduced into believing. Amanda allies herself to the dawning of hybridity – a way of moving with the world that invokes our trans-specied and mythopoetic brilliance. A hybridity that is capable of inhabiting and learning to inhabit landscapes of uncertainty.

Work with Amanda: https://www.feralmysticism.com/mentorship

Please enjoy!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite platform.

This podcast is brought to you by Newsletter. If you’d like to learn more about what I am reading, new documentaries, what I am learning new, recent podcast updates, things I am experimenting with, or anything —which I share extensively in my weekly short and sweet “Friday Newsletter”. No spam ever! I hate that too!

Connect with AmandaWebsite | Facebook | Instagram

Continue reading “Amanda Tempist Jade — Stocking the Furry Edges and Caverns of Possibility, Saying YES to Personal Transformation, Dragon at Heart, Grief-Remembrance, Equine Informed Experiential Inquiry, and More (#190)”

My Free Flow Morning Reflections

Usually, my job on this show is to interview world-class experts in different domains. This episode is a solo one where I record my morning reflections. Every day upon awakening, I write free-flow journaling whatever comes through me. and In this episode, I share some of my reflections and thoughts with you all. You can read the transcript below.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or on your favorite platform.

This podcast is brought to you by Newsletter. If you’d like to learn more about what I am reading, new documentaries, what I am learning new, recent podcast updates, things I am experimenting with, or anything —which I share extensively in my weekly short and sweet “Friday Newsletter”. No spam ever! I hate that too!

Download Audio:

Stream the audio here

Download this audio by right click and choose “save as”

Please enjoy!

Transcript of the audio:

“This morning I woke up “worthy”. My heart asked me, what do you want? And I responded – love, joy, and connection. At every stage of life – despite achieving different goals, milestones, success – it’s amazing to realize that we always turn inwards to peek in our soul to seek more love, being more human, more kind, and compassionate. Every new phase sets the new intensity of love. As we evolve with time, our love for ourselves and others evolves with time.”

“We all have different challenges and goals in different stages of life. A challenge once resolved motivates others to realize how things are possible. A goal once achieved sets the foundation of another goal. This is being human. Life is long. If you don’t have what you want and if you are nowhere you want to be, remind yourself that you are still alive and there is still time left to do the work, but not be complacent. Today’s failure is just the foundation of tomorrow’s success. —Note to me.”

“Trust yourself that the right people, right career, and right things will show up at the right time. Universe has its own timings. Trust in the wisdom that created you. You’re unique and your path is unique. Expansion requires stillness. Life is long. Take time to be still. Be kind to yourself as you’re doing the best you can at this present moment.”

Your Being has on condition and prerequisite. You are worthy. I am worthy. We all are worthy. Ego might ask – “worthy of what?”. Ego is stupid and is conditional. I don’t have to do anything to deserve worthiness. I already am worthy of everything”

“The 3 questions I always find useful whenever I am emotionally triggered: What happened to me? What’s my emotional reaction(name the emotion)? What’s the story I am telling myself? The key is to inquire compassionately. There is no place of self-judgment here. This practice always helps me to see I am responding to the past and childhood patterns that are no longer serving me. When I recognize that the source of all of it is within me, I am Powerful. (not a victim)”

“Someone saying “no” to your LinkedIn request to be on a call, to check the Pdf, to be on the podcast, fill in the blanks – they don’t reject you. They just don’t see the possibility. They are simply not enrolled. Don’t give up. Try to pursue those who believe in close proximity to what you believe in. There is no lack of abundance. Don’t go to an ocean with a spoon. “

“Your triggers are your own. I often get triggered when someone says something or does something. I am practicing recognizing those emotional triggers and then identifying those questions. I ask – what emotions do come up? Anger? Sadness? Rage? Fear? What’s the earliest childhood memory I’ve of feeling this way? I take responsibility for my triggers. Someone else in the same situation could be perfectly fine. The trigger is a messenger to me that I still have to heal the older part of myself. A triggered state is an access to the old beliefs.”

“While reading Lao Tzu’s Verse 24 on Living without Excess, I came across this sweet short poem by Hafiz: Even After All this time, The Sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.”. Look what happens with a love like that, It lights the Whole Sky”.
-Poem by Hafiz

“Know that all your needs are valid and you shouldn’t be apologetic for having it. We have a need to emotionally, spiritually, physically bond with our partners. If you’re single, find someone who can validate your needs and never tell you “you are too needy”. If you’re in a relationship – do you communicate your needs to them? Does your partner understand your needs? Or, do they dismiss them? Do you value your own needs? I personally accept that I have a huge deep capacity to love and my heart is now stuck open to receive love. My needs are important and yours too. I accept my needs wholeheartedly and I am worthy of them. Needs are not bad and we are wired to emotionally attach with our partners the way an infant attaches to his/her caregiver.”

“We all are doing the best we can in any given circumstance. My realization is that – people from all different backgrounds, financial statuses, beliefs – are just wanting to access those internal feelings of joy, love, happiness, freedom, and care. Someone rich might want to access these feelings by going to an exotic beach. Someone who makes very little money might want to access the same positive feelings by going to a little fancy restaurant. We, humans, are the same at the core level. We all want to be loved, be happy and live a life of joy. Not only it’s about the beach or the fancy restaurant, but also the feelings we want to feel. Your inner being doesn’t care about the external. Inner only knows about the feelings.”

“I embrace my “Whole” self. I am love. I am joy. I give myself permission to feel the juice of life. I have a deep knowing that the universe is working for me. I am abundant. I am worthy of receiving life’s gifts. My worth isn’t attached to the external things and conditions. What can you let go of today?”

“It’s really hard to mentally focus on things if you’re struggling internally to let go of certain attachments, emotional turmoils and disturbances, anxiousness towards the outcomes, and so on. Internal calmness and clarity lead to external focus – it’s not the reverse way.”

“I don’t know who needs to hear this. If you are having a bad day or a bad week, everything will be alright soon. Light always follows darkness.
If this week is not so productive, it’s completely ok because you will be back with much clarity and grit. If you feel slow in achieving your desires, remember the story of tortoise and hare. You may be slow today, but you might run tomorrow, and then you may get slow again. This is life. We get to embrace the “whole” of it.

When you don’t hold your fist too tight and try letting go, you will realize that things that really belong to you will show up at the right time. No amount of pushing will matter for things that don’t belong to us.
How do we know what’s for us? It’s a tough one. Just keep doing your best and putting one step at a time and practice a little bit of letting go and surrender.”


The Nishant Garg Show:

This show and blog is about helping Entrepreneurs, Tech Founders, Startup Enthusiasts develop Emotional and Mental health and be more human in their work and personal lives. I interview entrepreneurs, authors, mental health professionals, leadership executive coaches, psychologists, and many more For any questions, please contact me. If you have enjoyed listening to my podcasts, please subscribe to the new podcast updates on Itunes please provide your reviews on Itunes which will really help me.

My Personal Favorite Podcasts from 2021 and 2020

Whenever people asked me what my personal favorite podcasts are, I always struggled to answer this. I always responded with a smile — “how can you differentiate among your children, who’s your favorite and who’s not?”

I found myself repeating the same and realized that it’s time to write about it. When something keeps appearing in life, it’s a sign from life telling us something. Better to listen to life as one of my friends says life gives you a curriculum. Well, I finally decided to write about it rather than dodging this question every time.

Yes, every podcast episode is very dear to me as so much work goes behind the scenes. To shortlist my favorite ones was challenging and I had to think about some criteria to limit the list.

The criteria are:

  • I’ve become friends with the guests.
  • The podcast did exceptionally well beyond my expectations and self-judgments.
  • The podcast was very self-satisfying to me even though it didn’t do very well in terms of downloads.
  • Guests introduced me to their friends for future guest potential. Therefore, I’ve interviwed 185+ experts from different areas.
  • They have coached me in some capacity.
  • Guests promoted the hell out of the podcast on their social platforms and newsletters.

Below is the list of podcasts. This list is in the decreasing order of publishing date. It’s not in the order of my favorites.

1) Mo Edjlali — Inner state of being, Mindful Leadership and Contemplative Practices, Uncovering Unconscious Beliefs, Processing Grief and Sad Emotions, and More (#176)

2) William Richards (Bill) — The Promise of Psychedelic Substances, Studying with Abraham Maslow, Psychedelics and Mystical Experiences, Administering Psychedelics Psychotherapy, Origin and The Future of Psychedelics, End-of-Life psychedelic Psychotherapy, and More (#174)

3) Rhonda Magee on Inner Work and Healing Ourselves, Mindfulness in Race and Justice, Resolving Conflicts and Handling Difficult Conversations, and More (#172)

4) Denise Shull — The Role of Emotions in Decision Making, Resolving Mental Blocks, Performance Coach to Professional Athletes, Understanding the Feelings, Experiencing Peak Performance, and More (#169)

5) Dr. Romie Mushtaq — Optimizing Brain Health, Cure for Busy Brain, Restore Sanity, Sleep, & Sense of Connection, Wellness Paradigms, Connection with Divine, Root causes of Depression, and More (#167)

6) Raj Sisodia on Wholeness and Healing, Spiritual Journey in the Himalayas, Mind Maps for Writing, Ayahuasca Experience, Feminine and Masculine Energy, Conscious Capitalism, and More (#159)

7) Ora Nadrich — Questioning your Thoughts, Transformational Thinking, Cultivating Calm and Relaxed State, Mindfulness in Motion, Dream Work, Live True, and More (#158)

8) Debbie Millman on Deep Relationships, Creativity and Growth, The Importance of Therapy, Hope and Resilience, and More (#154)

9) Sarah Sarkis on Mastery, Psychological Flexibility, Emotional Skills and Self-Regulation Practices, Relationship with Risk, Sense of Wellness, and More (#153)

10) Jeremy Hunter on The Quality of Life and Attention, Meaningful and Engaged Life, Why Moments Matter, Japan Bathing Culture, and More (#152)

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