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Festivals of India: Jagannath Rath Yatra

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Yesterday, June 23, was the most important festival in the state of Odisha. It was the chariot festival or the rath yatra of its most famous dieties, the Jagannath of Puri.

The term Rath Yatra particularly refers to the annual Rathajatra in Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and other East Indian states, particularly the chariot festival fof Puri that involves a public procession with a chariot with deities Jagannath, an avatar of Lord Vishhnu, his brother Balabhadra and his sister Subhadra, along with his weapon, the Sudarshana Chakra on a ratha, a wooden deula-shaped chariot. The rath yatra attracts over a million Hindu pilgrims who join the procession each year.

According to Knut Jacobsen, a Rathayatra has religious origins and meaning, but the events have a major community heritage, social sharing and cultural significance to the organisers and participants. Ratha Yatra processions have been historically common in Vishnu-related traditions in Hinduism across India, as well as in Shiva-related traditions, and amongst the Thirtankars in Jainism and the saints and goddesses in Nepal plus the tribal folk religions found in the eastern states of India.

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Derived from two Sanskrit words, Ratha meaning chariot or carriage and yatra which means a journey or pilgrimage, the word Ratha Yatra means a pilgrimage which the deity will undertake in a chariot, accompanied by the public. The term appears in the medieval texts of India as the Puranas, which mention the Rathayatra of Surya or the Sun god, of Devi or the Mother Goddess, and of Vishnu. These chariot journeys have elaborate celebrations where the individuals or the deities come out of a temple accompanied by the public journeying with them through the Kshetra which refers to the region, city or even the local streets to another temple or to the river or the sea. Sometimes the festivities include returning to the sacrosanctum of the temple.

The Jagannath Ratha Yatra also called the Car or Chariot Festival is the oldest Ratha Yatra descriptions can be found in Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana and Kapila Samhita. This annual festival is celebrated on Ashadha Shukla Paksha Dwitiya or the second day in bright fortnight of Ashadha month. This year it was on 23 June 2020. The festival commemorates Lord Jagannath’s annual visit to the Gundicha Temple via the Mausi Maa or the maternal aunt’s Temple near Saradha Bali in Puri.

As part of the Ratha Yatra, the deities Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Lord Balabhadra and younger sister Devi Subhadra, along with the Sudarshan Chakra, are taken out in a procession out of the main shrine of Jagannath Temple and placed in the Ratha or Chariot which are ready in front of the Temple in a process called ‘Pahandi’. The procession starts with ‘Madan Mohan’ then ‘Sudarshana’ Balabhadra, Subhadra, and Jagannath Deva.

After that, Gajapati Maharaja, the king of Puri, who is also known as the first servitor of the Lords, does the ‘Chhera Pahanra’ ritual or the holy cleaning of the chariots in which the king wears the outfit of a sweeper and sweeps all around the deities and the chariots. The Gajapati King cleanses the road before the chariots with a gold-handled broom and sprinkles sandalwood water and powder with utmost devotion. This ritual signified that under the lordship of Jagannath, there is no distinction between the powerful sovereign Gajapati King and the most humble devotee. After this ritual, finally the devotees pull the chariots up to the Gundicha Temple, which is also known as the birthplace of the Lords.

Once the deities reach the Gundicha temple, in the onward car festival, they are taken in the Pahandi and installed on the holy platform, called the Ratna Simhasan. The Lords remain at the Gundicha Temple for nine days. After that, the process of taking back the deities to the Main temple is observed. The return journey or return car festival of Puri Jagannath Ratha Jatra is known as Bahuda Yatra or Punar Yatra.

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Three richly decorated chariots, resembling temple structures, are pulled through the streets of Puri called Badadanda. This commemorates the annual journey of Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, and their sister Devi Subhadra to their aunt’s temple, the Gundicha Temple which is situated at a distance of over 3 km from the main temple. The chariots are richly decorated with painted flower petals and other designs on the wheels, the wood-carved charioteer and horses, and the inverted lotuses on the wall behind the throne by local artists and painters. The huge chariots of Jagannath pulled during Rath Jatra is the etymological origin of the English word Juggernaut. The Ratha-Jatra is also termed as the Shri Gundicha jatra.This is the only time when devotees who are not allowed in the temple premises, such as non-Hindus and foreigners, get a glimpse of the deities.

The three chariots of Balabhadra, Subhadra and Jagannatha are newly constructed every year with wood of specified trees. They are customarily brought from the ex-princely state of Dasapalla by a specialist team of carpenters who have hereditary rights and privileges for the same. The logs are traditionally set afloat as rafts in the river Mahanadi. These are collected near Puri and then transported by road. The three chariots are decorated as per the unique scheme prescribed and followed for centuries. Covered with bright canopies made of stripes of red cloth and combined with those of black, yellow and green colours, the huge chariots are lined across the wide avenue in front of the majestic temple close to its eastern entrance, which is also known as the Sinhadwara or the Lion’s Gate.

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Lord Jagannatha’s chariot is called Nandighosa. It is forty-five feet high and forty-five feet square at the wheel level. It has sixteen wheels, each of seven-foot diameter, and is decked with a cover made of red and yellow cloth. Lord Jagannatha is identified with Krishna, who is also known as Pitambara, the one attired in golden yellow robes and hence the distinguishing yellow stripes on the canopy of this chariot. The chariot of Lord Balarama, called the Taladhwaja, is the one with the Palm Tree on its flag. It has fourteen wheels, each of seven-foot diameter and is covered with red and green cloth. Its height is forty-four feet. The chariot of Subhadra, known as Dwarpadalana, literally “trampler of pride,” is forty-three feet high with twelve wheels, each of seven-foot diameter. This chariot is decked with a covering of red and black cloth – black being traditionally associated with Shakti and the Mother Goddess.

Around each of the chariots are nine Parsva devatas, painted wooden images representing different deities on the chariots’ sides. Each of the chariots is attached to four horses. These are of different colours – dark ones for Balarama, white ones for Jagannatha, and red ones for Subhadra. Each chariot has a charioteer called Sarathi. The three charioteers attached to the chariots of Jagannatha, Balarama and Subhadra respectively are Daruka, Matali and Arjuna.

During the annual event, devotees from all over the world throng to Puri with an earnest desire to help pulling the Lords’ chariots. They consider this as an auspicious act. The huge processions accompanying the chariots play devotional songs with drums, sounding plates of bell metal, cymbals, etc. The Ratha carts themselves are approximately 45 feet high and 35 feet square and it takes about 2 months to construct the chariots which are pulled by the thousands of pilgrims who turn up for the event; the chariots are built anew each year only from the Neem tree and the wood of no other tree is used.

There are 6 events which are considered as the key activities of this annual spectacular event:

  1. The ‘Snana Yatra’ is the one where the Deities take bath and then fall sick for almost 2 weeks. They are thus treated with ayurvedic medicines and a set of traditional practices.
  2. On ‘Sri Gundicha’, the Deities are taken in the onward car festival from the main shrine to the Gundicha Temple.
  3. On the Bahuda Yatra, the return car festival, the Lords are brought back to the main Temple.
  4. The Suna Besha or Golden Attire is the event when the Deities wear golden ornaments and give darshan from the chariots, to the devotees.
  5. The ‘Adhara Pana’ is an important event during Ratha Yatra. On this day sweet drink is offered to the invisible spirits and souls, who would have visited the celestial event of the Lords, as believed by the Hindu tradition.
  6. And finally the Deities are taken back inside the main shrine i.e. the Jagannath Temple and installed on the Ratna Simhasan, on the last day of the Ratha Yatra activity which is called as ‘Niladri Bije’.

This year, because of the coronavirus panademic and the Covid-19 situation in India and especially in the state of Odisha, with many states under lockdown, uncertainty looms large over the conduct of the annual Rath Yatra for the first time in 284 years. The festival even took place during the great famine of 1766 which was believed to have killed millions and during the cholera epidemic. The festival which took place in Puri this year, was just a token festival which was shorn of all the guander and pomp and pageantry it usually has. The rituals leading to the festival which usually takes place outside took place inside the temple and the festival was short of its usual pomp and splendor without devotes in a historic first, a day after the Supreme Court of India allowed the state to hold the seven-day chariot festival in a restricted fashion amid the coronavirus.

I hope in the near future, when things are more normal, I can make it to Puri to witness this grand spectacle. If you want to read more about the state of Odisha, which I have written in detail, please read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5.

Father’s Day

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When there is a day dedicated to mothers, can fathers be far behind? Yesterday was Father’s Day, a day of honoring fatherhood and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society. Yesterday was the Father’s Day, a day when we honour not only our fathers, but also our grandfathers, uncles and the other father figures in our lives.

Anyone can father a child, but being a dad takes a lifetime. A father is a girl’s first hero and the importance of a father can’t be underestimated. He is like a superhero who is always ready to take on everyday troubles for his children. The significance of a father is beyond words as he is the person who works tirelessly to fulfil the requirements of his family. Fathers play a role in every child’s life that cannot be filled by others. This role can have a large impact on a child and help shape him or her into the person they become. To honour the contribution of all such fathers and fatherly figures and to celebrate the paternal bonding, a special day is observed every year as Father’s Day.

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Children look to their fathers to lay down the rules and enforce them. They also look to their fathers to provide a feeling of security, both physical and emotional. Children want to make their fathers proud, and an involved father promotes inner growth and strength. Studies have shown that when fathers are affectionate and supportive, it greatly affects a child’s cognitive and social development. It also instills an overall sense of well-being and self confidence.

Fathers not only influence who we are inside, but how we have relationships with people as we grow. The way a father treats his child will influence what he or she looks for in other people. The patterns a father sets in the relationships with his children will dictate how his children relate with other people. For a young girl, her father shows her what a good relationship with a man is like. If a father is someone who loving, gentle, strong and valient, a perfect foil to her mother, his daughter will look for those qualities in men when she’s old enough to choose her life partner. For a son though, he would model himself after his father’s character. Boys will seek approval from their fathers from a very young age. As human beings, we grow up by imitating the behavior of those around us; that’s how we learn to function in the world. If a father is caring and treats people with respect, the young boy will grow up much the same. When a father is absent, young boys look to other male figures to set the “rules” for how to behave and survive in the world.

In Catholic countries of Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 as Saint Joseph’s Day since the Middle Ages. In America, Father’s Day was founded by Sonora Smart Dodd, and celebrated on the third Sunday of June for the first time in 1910. It is held on various days in many parts of the world all throughout the year, often in the months of March, May and June. Complementing other days like Mother’s Day, Siblings Day and Grandparents Day, Father’s Day is celebrated across the world in many forms.

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A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in catholic Europe is known to date back to at least 1508. The day is usually celebrated on March 19 as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly Nutritor Domini or Nourisher of the Lord, in Catholicism and the putative father of Jesus in southern European tradition. This celebration was brought to the Americas by the Spanish and Portuguese. The Catholic Church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph’s Day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans. In the Coptic Orthodox Church, the celebration of fatherhood is also observed on St Joseph’s Day, but the Copts observe this on July 20, in a celebration which may date back to the fifth century. In addition to Father’s Day, International Men’s Day is celebrated in many countries on November 19 in honor of men including boys.

The day which is mostly celebrated today originated in the United States. This day was not celebrated in that country until the 20th century outside of the catholic traditions. People started celebrating in the early 20th century to complement Mother’s Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting. After Anna Jarvis’ successful promotion of Mother’s Day in Grafton, West Virginia, the first observance of a day honoring fathers was held on July 5, 1908, in West Virginia. In 1911, Jane Addams proposed that a citywide Father’s Day celebration be held in Chicago, but she was turned down. On June 19, 1910, a Father’s Day celebration was held in Washington state by Sonora Smart Dodd to honour her father Willday and felt fathers should also have a similar holiday to honour them. Although she initially suggested June 5, her father’s birthday, the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday in June and on June 19, 1910, the first Father’s Day was celebrated.

However, in the 1920s, Dodd stopped promoting the celebration because she was studying and it faded into relative obscurity, but she started promoting the celebrations again in the 1930s. She had the help of retailers who realised that such a celebration would help promote their products and services, which are specifically targeted at men.

Other countries celebrate the day in different dates across the year. In the southern hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Papua New Guinea celebrate it on the first Sunday in September. So irrespective of when you celebrate this day, on the day you do celebrate it, do thank your father and the father figures in your life for everything they have done for you, for moulding you to become the person you are today.

To all the fathers and father figures who read this piece, Happy Father’s Day to you!

Meditation – To open your eyes, close them

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Wikipedia defines Meditation as a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Scholars have found meditation difficult to define, as practices vary both between traditions and within them.

Meditation has been practiced since 1500 BCE antiquity in numerous religious traditions, often as part of the path towards enlightenment and self realization. The earliest records of meditation or Dhanya as it is called in Sanskrit, come from the Hindu traditions of Vedantism. Since the 19th century, Asian meditative techniques have spread to other cultures where they have also found application in non-spiritual contexts, such as business and health.

Meditation may be used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being. Meditation is under research to define its possible health benefits which could be psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular as well as other effects.

Meditation has been associated with all the major religions of the world, be it Hindusim, Islam, Jainism,Buddhisim or Christianity. There have been many religious practices which has its roots in meditation, be it chanting the lord’s name with a rosary or sitting in one position and comtemplating the infinite.

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I have written about meditation previously, but even though I have tried meditating in fits and bursts, after a few days, I usually find myself starting to slack. Earlier this year, I restarted meditating again. It started with someone asking if I was interested in being a part of a group for Deepak Chopra’s 21 day meditation course. Intrigued, I said yes and started the programme. During the programme, I also came across an app which was giving free access to all their meditation programmes for a year because of the current situation and I decided to take them up on their offer. Initially, I used to meditate at night before bed, but soon started falling back on old habits and trying to miss one day thinking it was no big deal. Then I switched it up. I started waking up about 30 minutes earlier daily to meditate and to my big surprise, this really worked for me. I found that I really liked being awake early enough when the house was in silence and the 15 minutes I spent on my practice started paying off. These days, I find myself waking up early even on weekends and public holidays, when I would normally sleep in, just because I want to meditate in silence and darkness (or with minimal light). I have now been consistent with my practice for more than two months and it has done wonders in my own behaviour. I feel that I have become less anxious and also feel more positive these days, with the cloud of negativity that usually hangs around me, lessened to a great degree. I am also trying to be more grateful to things around me, which is a positive thing.

Mediation is a practice and you only get better the longer you practice it. Every meditation practice is unique in its own way and even if you feel you did not have a good practice, incrementally you are getting better. Meditation is great for both physical, mental and spiritual well-being. It lowers your blood pressure, improves blood circulation, lowers heart rate, reduces anxiety, slows down your respitory rate, reduces anxiety, lowers blood cortisol levels, reduces stress, gives you feelings of well-being and improves and deepens your sense of relaxation.

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Contemporary researchers are now exploring whether a consistent meditation practice yields long-term benefits, and noting positive effects on brain and immune function among meditators. Yet it’s worth repeating that the purpose of meditation is not to achieve benefits. To put it as an Eastern philosopher may say, the goal of meditation is no goal. It’s simply to be present.

Meditation is not as difficult as we think. All we need to do is sit in a quiet place with no distractions. Close your eyes and start focussing on the one thing we all have and do – our breathing. Just breathe naturally, there is no need to to changeyour breathing style and technique. If you mind wanders, and this is common and natural, just acknowledge it and go back to focussing on your breathing. You may also feel phantom itches and perhaps pain. When this happens, again acknowledge it and go back to your breath. When you start, you can start at 1-2 minutes and then once you become comfortable, slowly start increasing the time and you can go as long as 15-20 minutes. The longer you practice meditation, the more your focus becomes sharper and you can after some time, focus on your breathing without your mind wandering for the entire duration of the meditation.

During times like this, when we are anxious on so many levels and worry about our health, finances and scores of other things, a meditation practice will help you manage your anxieties and help you get a grip on things so that you don’t get overwhelmed.

World Blood Donor Day

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Blood is what regulates the human body and without blood in our systems, we will not be able to live and breathe. It is thicker than water, and feels a bit sticky. The temperature of blood in the body is 38° C, which is about one degree higher than body temperature. Blood has three important functions:Blood plays an important role in regulating the body’s systems as well as supplying oxygen and nutrients to tissues, removing waste, transporting hormones and other signals throughout the body. Composed of plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, the main function of blood is to regulate the pH of the body and the core body temperature. The amount of blood a person has in his body depends mostly on his size and weight.

Blood is an important resource, both for planned treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and perinatal care.

There’s no end to the benefits of donating blood for those who need it. Blood is needed to save lives in times of emergencies and to sustain the lives of those with medical conditions, like leukemia, thalassaemia and bleeding disorders, as well as patients who are undergoing major surgeries. For many patients, blood donors are their lifeline. One unit of blood can save three lives!

It turns out that donating blood doesn’t just benefit recipients. There are health benefits for donors, too, on top of the benefits that come from helping others. Donating blood has benefits for your emotional and physical health. According to a report by the Mental Health Foundation, helping others can reduce stress, improve your emotional well-being, benefit your physical health, help get rid of negative feelings as well as provide a sense of belonging and reduce isolation.

For those who have a rare blood group, it is all the more important they donate blood. I am one of those individuals. My blood group is B-ve and I am the only person in my family to have this blood group. In fact, I was so convinced that the result was wrong the first time I did the test to determine thhe blood type, that I did multiple tests to confirm the fact that my group was so different from the rest of my family. B negative is one of the rarest blood groups with around 3-4% of the population having this group. S and the children are O positive and because of this, I had to take multiple injections when I was pregnant so that my body does not reject the children’s positive blood group. I used to donate blood and also had a card from the local Red Cross which stated my blood group and to not do any transfusion if I needed it unless the check the blood which will be transferred into my body, but I lost it when my wallet got nicked some years back. These days, even though I want to, because of my diabetes, I am unable to donate blood. S on the other hand, is an enthusiastic donor and donates multiple times a year.

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Yesterday was World Blood Donor Day. The event serves to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

A blood service that gives patients access to safe blood and blood products in sufficient quantity is a key component of an effective health system. Ensuring safe and sufficient blood supplies requires the development of a nationally coordinated blood transfusion service based on voluntary non-remunerated blood donations. However, in many countries, blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.

The need for safe blood is universal. Safe blood is critical both for treatments and urgent interventions. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with a higher quality of life and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. Blood is also vital for treating the wounded during emergencies of all kinds (natural disasters, accidents, armed conflicts, etc.) and has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and neonatal care.

But access to safe blood is still a privilege of the few. Most low- and middle-income countries struggle to make safe blood available because donations are low and equipment to test blood is scarce. Globally, 42% of blood is collected in high-income countries, which are home to only 16% of the world’s population.

An adequate supply of safe blood can only be assured through regular donations by voluntary unpaid blood donors. This is why the World Health Assembly in 2005 designated a special day to thank blood donors and encourage more people to give blood freely. World Blood Donor Day takes place every year on 14 June. As well as thanking blood donors, it is a day to raise awareness about the global need for safe blood and how everyone can contribute.

The campaign theme for this year’s World Blood Donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place”. The idea is to focus on the contribution an individual giver can make to improve health for others in the community. Blood donations are needed all over the world to ensure individuals and communities have access to safe and quality-assured blood and blood products in both normal and emergency situations. Through the campaign, we call on more people all over the world to become life-savers by volunteering to donate blood regularly.

The objectives of this year’s campaign are to celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to start donating; to raise wider awareness of the urgent need to increase the availability of safe blood for use wherever and whenever it is needed to save life; to demonstrate the need for universal access to safe blood transfusion and provide advocacy on its role in the provision of effective health care and in achieving universal health coverage; and to mobilise support at national, regional and global levels among governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programmes.

The day and the theme are also a call to action for governments, national health authorities and national blood transfusion services to provide adequate resources and put in place systems and infrastructures to increase the collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors; to provide quality donor care; to promote and implement appropriate clinical use of blood; and to set up systems for the oversight and surveillance on the whole chain of blood transfusion.

Are you a blood donor, if yes, here’s a huge shoutout to you and if no, please consider giving some blood to someone who needs it, if you are physically able to.

Synchronicity: Everyday Magic?

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“Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see”

– Carl Jung

There are times in your life when suddenly you see something popping up repeatedly in your life. For me this is in the form of multiple numbers. In any given week, I see numbers being repeated. This will be in the form of time where I will see time like 11:11 or 1:11 or 4:44 or even 5:55. Or maybe when I am reading book, online or offline and when I glance at the page number, it will show a double number like 44, 55 or even 77 or 99! I got curious about these coincidences and this is what I learnt.

When you notice the same coincidence happening more than once and it begins to take on meaning, then it becomes a Synchronicity. This type of serendipity can seem startling and mysterious when it happens often enough. Everyone has experienced these ‘meaningful coincidences’ in their life, but many don’t always pay attention to the meaning of the synchronicity itself, or realize how it came about in the first place. It is believed by many that this continued coincidence is a nudge from the universe telling you to go in a certain direction or maybe reassuring you that you on the right track, perhaps you are grappling with a decision and such coincidences show you the path to take?

A growing number of people believe that synchronicity is like a powerful ‘wink’ from the Universe telling us that yes, we’re on the right track. Synchronicity is also believed to be a form of guidance from the Higher Self; a way of showing you where to go and what to do next in your life as you proceed through your spiritual awakening.

Synchrocity is different from Serendipity. Serendipity is defined as the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way, while synchrocity is a series of events which are symbolic in nature and which point out to something happening or going to happen in your life.

A concept first introduced by the analytical psychologist Carl Jung, synchronicity is defined as “the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection”. He says such events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related. According to Jung, synchronicity is an “acausal connecting (togetherness) principle,” “meaningful coincidence”, “acausal parallelism” or “meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved”. He introduced the concept as early as the 1920s but gave a full statement of it only in 1951 in an Eranos lecture.

Synchronicity is considered pseudoscience because it is neither testable nor falsifiable. Mainstream science explains synchronicities as mere coincidences or spurious correlations which can be described by laws of statistics and confirmation biases.

According to Jung’s 1960 book, “Résumé”, Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, the occurrence of a meaningful coincidence in time can take three forms:
a) The coincidence of a certain psychic content with a corresponding objective process which is perceived to take place simultaneously.
b) The coincidence of a subjective psychic state with a phantasm (dream or vision) which later turns out to be a more or less faithful reflection of a “synchronistic,” objective event that took place more or less simultaneously, but at a distance.
c) The same, except that the event perceived takes place in the future and is represented in the present only by a phantasm that corresponds to it.

For subjects like synchronicity, there will be skepctics who say that it’s all coincidence, chalking it up to what’s called “confirmation bias,” which is our very real tendency to remember our ‘hits,’ and forget our ‘misses’. They also point out to the fact that all experiences you hear from people about synchronicity are anecdotal, which means it’s a personal experience, something that happened only to them and can’t be replicated. But if you think about it, most of our experiences in life, spiritual or material are personal and what you experience and undergo may not be the same as someone in the same situation.

It is not very difficult to develop the ability to have synchronicity in your life. You need to be aware and have an open and receptive mind which pays attention to the now and present. Also be humble and don’t impose your desires on your experiences. Trust in yourself and the fact the universe will show synchronicity in your life. Lastly, listen to what your instincts tell you. Sometimes, and this is something I struggle with all the time, we tend to dismiss what our instincts tell us and instead use our mind and practicalities to make a decision. When this happens, when I have a disconnect between my mind and my heart and I let my mind win, I always regret it because my instincts were spot on. Our unconscious mind is vast and very wise and when we listen to our instincts, doors open and things happen for the better.

So the next time such coincidences happen in your life, don’t dismiss them. Stop and think and if you have a battle between your practical mind and your instincts, give the instinct a chance, you will be pleasantly surprised!

Have you had instances of synchronicity happen to you? Do comment and share it with me, I’d love to hear all about it!