Food For Thought – Page 30 – Sanjay Sabarwal's Blog

Facebook Hiding

June 21, 2016 Sanjay Sabarwal

It’s hard to be on Facebook sometimes. When tragedy strikes or some kind of win ( NBA finals), I get a steady stream of opinions, thoughts, and fights that it makes me want to quit social media. It is this kind of barrage that makes me wonder when the lines for oversharing were blurred. It feels as if everyone (including me) has a megaphone and we are just blaring away our mouth. Yet am I truly listening anymore? More and more, I just scroll, scroll, looking aimlessly at the shouts and then after a few minutes shut it off.

It feels like an empty snack. You keep consuming but never feel full. It also a form of avoiding and hiding. Unlike social media, you cannot turn off life, but it sure feels that way sometimes when I close that app on my phone. I feel I have shut of a gusher of information and images that no longer bombard my soul .Yet then I go back again. But sometimes there are moments. Just a breath. I remind myself why I choose to be on social media. To connect, to remember, to know my loved ones are ok and to reminisce. I put down the judgemental and avoiding hat and enjoy social media for what it is not what I want it to be. Just like life.

Mini Break

May 24, 2016 Sanjay Sabarwal

There is nothing like stepping out of my routines that reminds me of how much I have to look forward. Taking occasional breaks can also show new perspective and also can give me the space to sort shit out. As many have noted, I can be task oriented and can sometimes miss the big picture. When I break that up, I often see what others already pointed out. This is a long about way of saying that breaks are good, mixing up one’s life allows for new ideas or old ones to percolate and come to fruition. Yet there is more to that.

I see now that whenever I step out of routine, it allows me to take pause and reground myself for what is important. This weekend proved that as much as tasks are important, it is just as important to do nothing. To soak it in, and count my blessings. The amount of gratitude I felt this weekend showed me how lucky I am to be living the life that I am. Best of all, I got to do it with my wife, and showed me that even a good time can be made better when you are with a loved one.

Food For Thought

Fulfillment Week

May 17, 2016 Sanjay Sabarwal

Earlier this month, I sat down to write my goals for the quarter in eight key areas of my life. Relationship, Family. Career, Fitness, Finance, Community. Recreation and Spirituality. Previously, I had done it annually, but it hit me that in order for me to remind myself to stay on track and to know if my goals are realistic, I needed to review them more often. For now, quarterly suits me. It hit me that one area I tended to fall behind on was keeping in touch with friends and anyone who I wanted to get to know better. I often failed to reach out or remember to call my friends, especially guy friends. The worst part was that it was that the time in between meetings grew longer. Before I would call or get in touch if a few weeks went, but now it had turned to months, and there were consequences. I felt disconnected, unmoored with my thoughts, and it hit me that when that continues for too long, I feel empty. yet it has the simplest solution: picking up the phone.

I am blessed to have men in my life who are caring, intimate, vulnerable, loving, and brutally honest. That’s not to say I don’t have women in my life, but it hit me how special I had it when I see other guys with their friends involved in sports, drinking and clowning around. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that, but as someone who is not very athletic and not interested in professional athletics, I always felt like an outcast at those times when others were so vested in the game on television.

Last week, I am proud to say was a fulfilling week From a long phone conversation with old college friend who lives in New York, checking in daily with my best friend, to meeting up three different friends I had not seen in a while, I had a full week. It is not a coincidence that it was also the most grounded I felt in a very long time. All it took was reaching out.

Food For Thought, Myself

Few Moments

February 25, 2016 Sanjay Sabarwal

Each morning, I wake up and for a few seconds while I am still in bed, I express gratitude for my life, for the people in it and my existence. Those few moments matter to me because so much could change. It has in the past. New people, problems, ideas and things happen. Then there is the inevitable loss. It surprises me still how I respond when death occurs. It is as if I continually forget how that is also life’s deal. You come in one day, and you leave. Most of the time, you never know when, but you know what even if you do, it has become important for me to love my life and the people in it the way I was meant to.

This means connecting with loved ones, telling them how I feel, letting them know they matter to me, and how much. I forget sometimes, but lately those few seconds, I send out gratitude. I used to feel silly , but no longer. Life is too important to be lost in regrets. That’s not to say, I don’t say it to them, just that those moments have become important because sometimes words are enough.

I say again and again in those moments and now. Thank you for being in my life. Thank you for allowing me to see your light. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Simple words, important. I no longer need to have to see all my loved ones (although I wish I could), but if nothing else I hope and pray these thoughts reach them in their moment of need.

Family, Food For Thought, Myself, Preeti

Reflections on 2015: Love More, Live More & Give More

December 31, 2015 Sanjay Sabarwal

So the last two days have been eventful in my life. Actually, if I was honest, I would say this past month and the whole year has been. But yesterday, I spent most of the day at the ER for a headache that wouldn’t go away. Last time, that happened, I had a subdural hematoma (a bleed in the brain) so it’s frightening. Luckily, it turned out to be migraine caused by heavy congestion. Then, this morning around 5am, someone tried to break into our garage. Our brave seven pound Maltipoo alerted us with her bark, and we called the police who confirmed that someone had kicked the door in. They didn’t get anything, although they were welcome to the 2 broken bikes, poker table, and 4 tires that were in there. I almost wished it was a homeless person that we could have given money to spend the night someone since it was so cold out.

The lessons I took from these events is that 2016 is the year I work on improving the foundation of my home to taking my health to the next level. I have had too many scares to not take it seriously. Yet, I also got a chance to reflect on how many amazing things happened this year. I learned that I focus too much on what I didn’t get done, and while that works on motivation, it devalues me in a way. So while it may sound like bragging, it’s more of a testament of just acknowledging myself that I am on the right path,

This year, I completed a Spartan Trifecta, wrote a novel, and 4 other personal essays, completed a leadership program, did lots of community service, started practicing law, deadlifted 305 pounds, worked out regularly, raised and donated money, became a Artesia chamber member, connected with loved ones, acknowledged my failures in trust with key people, and learned much more than I thought possible.

Now 2016 comes, and I now know that I need to travel more, do more fun stuff with Preeti, and of course learn more. So the last two days are a reminder of what more I get to work on, and as part of what I learned from Four Agreements is to accept it all and not take it personal.

So Happy New Year to all my loved ones. I hope you take a chance to reflect on your year as I did. It is a great way to build a foundation for the future!

Food For Thought

Deleting Distractions

November 16, 2015 Sanjay Sabarwal

I just deleted Facebook off my phone. I go through cycles. I tell myself that I will check occasionally and I am good for a while until disasters strikes like this past weekend. I just kept reading all the articles and the status updates. It was depressing, defeating and frankly just affirmed people’s belief in their whatever ideology they support. And it did nothing to resolve my need to understand why we do this to each other. So I deleted Facebook. Not to avoid. Not to pretend all is well, but welcome ideological silence. Don’t get me wrong, I am not deactivating my account, I am just removing the temptation to keep checking so it came off the phone. I still want to remain connected but not at the sake of addiction or feeding the section of the brain that alights like when one does Heroin. It’s funny how much more I get done when I check it from a desktop, and how much content noise goes down.

It’s not worth it to constantly scour for something that cannot be found on a site meant for easy consumption. I also got tired of the rants, and the memes and the accusations that people are being ignored. Everyone seems to pick what suits them while all the people are dead. So off it comes from my phone and it becomes one less distraction while I pray and think of all the lives lost for senseless reasons. May we all atl east do that.