Author: Neera

From being stressed all the time to stress-free

Neera

In 2023, I went from being stressed all the time to being stress-free for life.

It’s that time of the year when I look back and make a note of the things I achieved, mistakes I made, and lessons I learned.

As I am working through them, I realize there are several stories hidden in them that could help my readers.

For the next few days, I am going to share them here.

The first one that stands out is how I got rid of stress from my life forever.

I remember, back in November 2022, I was flat out trying to finish several projects before the end of the year that it was affecting me not only mentally, but physically.

My eyes were so tired and dried that I couldn’t keep them open. I hadn’t gone to the gym for most of the year and quit walking for months.

I thought if I could just finish this project and this project and this project… I will be fine.

But I wasn’t.

The more I did, the more work piled up.

And the irony was, I was retired and supposedly pursuing my hobbies.

Then one day, I came across an advertisement on Instagram. It was Vishen Lakhiani talking about the De Silva Meditation Method.

On an impulse, I bought the course.

In fact, I bought Mindvalley membership which had the De Silva Meditation course and hundreds of other courses by top coaches in the world.

For the next 28 days, I religiously meditated twice a day using De Silva’s techniques taught by Vishen Lakhiani.

I also started a journal to record my progress and insights. The image below shows what I wrote on the first day of starting the program.

By Day 9, I was much more relaxed. All the unnecessary fears and anxieties were gone. I was performing in a much-relaxed state. This is what I wrote in my journal:

“I have eliminated the word stress from my vocabulary and replaced it with relax. Relax is my default state from now on. There is no rush. Only calm. ‘Calm’ is positive, while ‘rush’ is negative. I am getting the same amount of work done, if not more, by being in a relaxed state of mind.”

By the end of the program, I was a new person.

What surprised me was that the transformation was permanent.

It’s almost a year, and not even once I felt rushed or stressed.

I think you can achieve the same, by whatever meditation practice you use. Just instill the message in you that you are replacing the word ‘stress’ with ‘relax’ in your dictionary. And you can get more work done by being in a relaxed state of mind.

See you in the morning

Neera

As I sat down to write my update yesterday, the phone rang.

It was my friend’s husband.

“We had to take Adrianne to the hospital on Wednesday. She will not make it. If you want to see her, don’t leave it for later.”

My heart bled. I have known Adrianne for over 20 years now. She was in the very first writing course I joined. She became my biggest supporter, urging me to keep writing endeavors, even when constructing coherent sentences or expressing my thoughts on paper felt like a daunting task.

After the course finished, we kept meeting at my house once a month, writing and sharing stories from our lives.

She is an amazing woman. Firey, feisty, an advocate for women’s rights. She is a force to be reckoned with. Longing for love and acceptance throughout her entire life, even when her own mother treated her poorly (going as far as calling her a ‘failed abortion’), she had an abundance of love to offer.

She is the most compassionate individual I’ve met in my life. Despite having so little, she gave generously and without reservation. For half of her career, she served as a certified teacher, and for the remaining half, she worked as a certified nurse. Her entire life was dedicated to serving others, using both her professional expertise and her boundless kindness.

However, she has endured immense suffering. Her initial spouse was deeply troubled, and he made severe threats against her and her three children, putting their lives in danger.

All of her children have passed away and over the last three years, she has been grappling with excruciating, arthritic pain. Yet she never lost either her fighting spirit or sense of humor. She is my hero.

I went and saw her in the hospital an hour after the call. The fiery, feisty, 87-year-old dynamo was curled up like a newborn in the vast expanse of the hospital bed. Although heavily drugged, she recognized me.


“How are you, Adrianne?” I asked.
“A little older, my dear,” she said.
“How are you feeling?” I asked.
“Pathetic,” she said.
“What is the plan?” I asked
“See you in the morning,” she said.
May god relieve her from her pain and give her a better life next time.
The one she really deserves.

Write Your Book, Build Your Authority

Neera

Most coaches want to be seen as an expert in their field.

They spend hours writing blog posts, articles, LinkedIn updates, or newsletters.

Don’t do that.

All these writings don’t have a shelf life.

– The shelf life of a LinkedIn post is one day.
– The shelf life of an online article is for one week.
– The shelf life of a newsletter is a fortnight (or even less).

Write a book instead.

Books have a shelf life of years. Sometimes even decades.

For over a century, books have been the top scalable asset for cultivating trust and establishing authority.

They also serve as a valuable resource for populating your pipeline with pre-qualified prospects.

The more people read your book, the more your pipeline flows.
It is very much a “set-it-and-forget-it” method.

Your book can generate leads and sales for years to come.

When I wrote my first book, overnight, I became an authority.

Since then I have written 4 more books.

My books are my main marketing tool.

Writing books has radically transformed my life with benefits far beyond the financial.

Now I want to share my knowledge with you, through a FREE Email course.

This is what you will learn:

Day 1: Step 1 – Unleash Your Expertise: The Power of Transforming Knowledge into a Timeless Book

Day 2: Step 2 – Narrow Your Focus: Craft Your Book for Your Ideal Audience

Day 3: Step 3 – Find Your Book’s Focus: Choose the Right Type and Topic

Day 4: Step 4 – Outline Your Masterpiece: Create A Roadmap By Generating Ideas

Day 5: Step 5 – Master the Art of Book Structure: Transform Outline into a Structure

Day 6: [Bonus] – Effortless Writing Mastery: Strategies to Unlock Your Writing Potential

Subscribe to it here.

An Open Letter To Writers

Neera

Dear Writers,

I hope this letter finds you well, or at least well-caffeinated and surrounded by a few crumpled-up drafts
that resemble more of a paper mosh pit than a literary masterpiece.

If not, I have a message for you.
Stop organizing and start writing!

I get it, I really do. Organizing can be a blast.

It gives you that delightful sensation of doing something useful while secretly avoiding the terrifying blank page.

It makes you feel like you’re the Marie Kondo of your own writing space.

But let’s be real here—if your writing desk is so clean you could perform surgery on it, you’re probably not writing enough.

So, how about we make a deal?

Let’s embrace the chaos, the spilled coffee, the tangled earphones, and the breadcrumbs scattered all over the keyboard.

Let’s write first and organize later (or never).

After all, the world needs our words more than our perfectly organized filing system.

Writing is a wild adventure.

It’s like trying to tame a herd of feral plot bunnies while riding a roller coaster with your muse screaming in your ear.

And guess what? That chaos is precisely what makes it beautiful.

It’s the messiness that gives birth to those unexpected ideas, quirky humor, and brilliant one-liners.

So, why on earth are we spending hours alphabetizing our collection of writing prompts?

Now, go forth, brave scribblers!

Unleash your creativity with the ferocity of a squirrel raiding a bird feeder.

Write with wild abandon, and remember that the messier your drafts, the more brilliantly unique your stories will be.

Yours in writerly solidarity,
NM

Making Time

Neera

Productivity is not about doing more in less time.

It is not about making to-do lists, prioritizing them, or even outsourcing.

It is about “making time” in your day for the things you care about.

What are your priorities?

– Spending time with your family?
– Learning a language?
– Starting a side business?
– Volunteering?
– Writing a book?

Whatever you want to do, “make time” for it.

Life is so busy and chaotic. That’s why we are constantly stressed and distracted. We have too many things on the go that are competing for every minute of our time.

We are in we-must-fill-every-minute-with-productivity-bandwagon.

Overflowing inboxes, stuffed calendars, endless to-do lists, apps, and other sources of never-ending content, most of our time is spent by default attending to these things.

Productivity isn’t the solution.

I have tried every productivity trick to do more.

The trouble is there are always more tasks waiting to be done.

The faster I ran on the hamster wheel the faster it spun.

So I got off the hamster wheel.

– I deleted apps.
– I banned devices.
– I scrapped to-do lists.

And I “made time” for the things I really wanted to do.

I am now less busy but feel more productive.

I am working only 4 hours a day now but achieving much more.

What things you are doing by default?
What do you need to “make time” for?

How To Write About Anything

Neera

This one simple trick will empower you to write about anything with confidence and ease.

I could easily turn this into a product and charge you for it, but to be honest, I just can’t be bothered.

So I am going to give it to you in 4 words.

If you want to write about anything – turn it into a question.

That simple.

And it works every time.

Why?

Because our brain is geared towards answering questions.

When someone asks us a question, we often intuitively begin forming an answer and blurt it out even before we realize it.

Did you notice that I just asked a question (“Why does asking questions work every time?”) and provided the answer?

I have been using this technique for a long time and can vouch for its effectiveness.

When you turn a topic into a question, your brain starts working on answering it.

If you do not know the answer, you can start researching to come up with interesting ideas and a different perspective. This will provide you with material for writing.

Here is a set of questions, see how your brain is already forming answers:

  • How to beat perfectionism?
  • What mistakes do new writers make and how to avoid them?
  • What challenges do creators face every day and how can they solve them?

My approach is to first rely on my existing knowledge and then conduct research. This way, I don’t lose my unique perspective on the topic.

So I direct the questions to myself.

  • How can I beat perfectionism?
  • What mistakes I made when I was new to writing and how to avoid them?
  • What challenges do I face every day, and how to solve them?

Then I research to see what others are saying about it.

Once I have a better understanding of the topic, I rewrite my response, incorporating the new information I have acquired.

Try it.

You will love the technique.