Manage Stress at Work

How terror attack survivors taught me the secret to overcoming stress?

Our generation is impacted heavily by workplace by stress. I was one of the worst sufferers of this pervasive, persistent and insidious psychological threat for years. I consulted neurologists, psychiatrist, nutritionist and personal fitness trainer in addition to countless hours of searching for find the magic solution for improving my condition.

List of things which I tried to get rid of stress and anxiety:

•    Started circuit training and running in the early morning to increase my endorphin level naturally.
•    Used to play and cuddle my pet dog to get enough oxytocin
•    Tried Reiki and other meditation technique to control my mind
•    Changed my diet pattern. I added dark leafy greens, nuts to increase intake of Magnesium, include eggs for breakfast, milk before sleep along with multivitamin capsules.
•    I tried all these options along with taking daily prescribed medicine- Pexceps.

But, my life was not exemplified by abundance, happiness, and joy.

The problem became acute once I moved to Kenya in 2012. Workload and continuous traveling in African countries took a further toll on my emotional health. My existence became crippled. I became heavy smoker and alcoholic.It went to such extent that I started contemplating to quit the job.Some of friends told me that I am suffering from mid life crisis and time is the best healer.

One evening I tuned to the local English Channel to know more about the terrorist attack in Lamu, Kenya by Al-Shabaab. TV journalist was interviewing a young girl and her grandmother who not only survived the brutal attack but also walked whole night through the forest to reach a safe place.

The journalist asked the young lady “How they managed to remain calm and escape scratch free while such macabre murderous spree was going on?”

She responded in her broken English “My grandma told me to take deep breaths and move one step at a time. Thank Jesus with each step. I did that.”

“How did you gather such courage?”

“My grandma was continuously whispering not to think about the terrorist attack. Keep walking. My throat choked with fear. The whispering of grandma helped me to gather enough energy and courage to move ahead in the night.”

The old lady said (as translated by TV journalist) “The thought of saving the life of my granddaughter didn’t allow me to think about fear, shock of losing family and year old knee pain which restricted my movements for years now. I prayed for her safety and Jesus helped me.”
I switched off the TV, came to the balcony and started thinking about the news. Words like “don’t think”, “acceptance”, “thanks to Jesus” started reverberating in my mind. I was amazed by the power of these words which helped these two ladies to overcome all challenges including fear of death in that night.

I started asking myself “Am I not driven by the negative thoughts of the random chattering of my mind?”

I started walking up and down on the patio and started thinking how I can master strength to overcome the depressing and negative thoughts.  I used to build confidence and courage by strengthening positive thoughts.

Once I started accepting my situations and surroundings, my circumstances improved. It took me almost two years to transform myself. Doctors reduced the dosages of my medicines. My blood pressure became normal and started sleeping well without any medicine.

The clue for my transformation was forming new habits.

Five Habits To Manage Stress At  Work And Stop Damaging Your Career & Life

1.    Stress a great motivator

I realized whenever I blame my luck it’s nothing but my unfulfilled wish or expectation mismatch. I came to Africa for exciting and challenging work. And, personally, I wanted to experience wild Africa. It was my decision. I started owning my decision instead of blaming others. Once I gave permission to myself to be stressed, the rush of Adrenaline improved my efficiency level.
The key here is to remember life is a marathon, not a sprint. It took me six months to have the paradigm shift of my mind. You can refer to the Theory of Positive Disintegration (TPD) by Kazimierz Dąbrowski to understand more about personality development which I often consulted during my transition.

2.    Become a morning person 

“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands” - Michelangelo
I inspired by Robin Sharma’s “holy hour” concept. I start my day with a cold shower after getting up early morning. Next, I use visualization technique to make my day a perfect day in my mind. I identify possible stressors of the day and visualize how I manage those stressful situations.
Next, I identify my top 3 tasks for that day. I visualize all the activities for that day and see the proper closure of each activity.  Following these principles of laws of attraction, I found my daily life become less chaotic. I complete these rituals everyday morning because the consistency on fundamentals gives success.  This process helped me to find a new mantra of a happy life - celebrate now! Tomorrow is Mystery and Yesterday are Histories”.

3.    Practice a habit of gratitude and acceptance 

Rising demands at office required longer working hours in a very competitive environment. It took a toll on my emotional health. I fought and complained the same but didn’t help.
I finally decided just to come and do the work the best I can do. I started to focus only things which give positive feelings. I started accepting what is required to concentrate on resolving the current job at hand.

I taught myself to take the harsh words of my seniors and clients not literally.
After few months, I found that this habit of the conscious practice of understanding and empathy improved my relationships with co-workers, and I am much less stressed. Over time, I learned to focus only good things at work and started sharing good events of life among ourselves.

All these practices resulted in a more expansive mind which is not narrowly focused on its little story of how things should be, but can see those small incidences as a part of a bigger picture.
I recommend you to have a feeling of the attitude of gratitude. You should feel everybody important with a genuine smile, show warmth by gentle tap above the elbow and direct eye contact for 100% attention the person. And always be an optimist.

4.    Declutter your work area and life

I influenced by Henry David Thoreau statement “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” I create a motive to remove all unnecessary things from my life so that necessary can enter my work and I can give full attention to those small details of necessary things. I make a habit of cleaning my desk, drawers of the table. I started keeping minimum necessary things. I deleted the useless contents from my computer also. I removed all digital garbage from the hard disk. Now, I clean my work space once a week and often decorate my office room with the personal touch.
The information is the biggest clutter in today’s life. I put a block on information flow which reduces chattering of my mind, and also it increased my personal productivity.

5.    Adapt to changes

This one was difficult for me. Any change used to trigger panic button within me. After several months self-introduction, I started accepting changes proactively. I used to remind myself that the change is the architect of future.
I recommend you to evaluate your coping strategy for any change. You should eliminate the idea of avoidance of any change. I followed Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman’s approach as documented in "Transactional Model of Stress and Coping".
Whenever you feel an internal resistance in accepting a change, go for a small walk, and play with some apps on the smartphone to divert your mind.

Learn to have a fica moment daily in office - pause for some time and relax in the company of colleagues

6.    Be a good communicator and be more social 

I used to feel uncomfortable in meeting and social gatherings. I consulted life coach Dolly Manghat on how should I be more assertive in social groups and meeting. After few sessions, she advised me to try to become more influential rather that get mired in tactics. I took few lessons on how to have small talks, be a good listener and use nonverbal body languages from her to improve personal effectiveness.
Almost after one-year active practice, I became more socially active and assertive in my behavior. My individual and professional contacts increased many times. My confidence grew, and I worked in a more relaxed way.
In summary, stress is a response to challenges in life. A life without challenges is too tedious to contemplate. You need to learn to use stress as your friend. It can’t be accomplished overnight — I’ve been eliminating stressors in my life for a while now, and I’m still not done. But I think it’s a worthwhile goal.
These habits helped me to have a happy life. I have more fun in life as I always try to be happy at that particular moment and space.

What is the secret?

We live in two dimensions i.e. mind and body. We need to start living in three dimension where the third dimension is our intelligence. Using knowledge without ego is the key to having a Zen-like life in today’s  life.


“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.   “- Aldous Huxley

Manage Workplace Stress

We feel stressed when we feel that "things are out of control".  Stress affects the mind, body, and
behavior in many ways, and everyone experiences stress differently.

This happened  to me and I had serious anxiety attack in 1999. I tried various options starting from clinical therapy, exercise. swimming , yoga  and diet habit.

Finally I found for fast-acting stress relief, slow down  is the best option.
             

 7 tips to make you happy within a minute.

1. Focus and make sure you know exactly what it is you want and why. Direction is more important than time. Read the article on 7 habits to know how to form habits to become successful.

2. Keep focus on important things and don't allow any tasks to become urgent. Make it a habit . I am inspired by Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit: book. 

3. Focus on progress towards your goal rather than perfection. Remember practice makes you perfect. Read Malcom Gladwell's book  "Outliers" to know more on 10,000 hours rule.

4. Introspect ever night to forget bad experience. Everything you do is by choice. There is always another option.I found listening to Mozarts's symphony have a tremendously relaxing effect on my mind and body. This helped me in lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress & anxiety.Cleaning yourself from negative thoughts is very critical.

5. Read your thoughts & change them. You must keep dreaming so that you never lose the hope. Creative visualization actually helped me a lot.

6. Do swim & practice circuit training. Stretching, deep breathing and other mindfulness practices. This is necessary ind-body exercises helped me to refresh, re-energize and re-motivate yourself. I really liked "The 4-Hour Body " by Timothy Ferris.  It's an amazing book which helped me to swim faster and run further.

7. Learn to accept  stress. Actually small stress helps you to improve your performance.

In summary, we need to be prepared for any change physically, emotionally and financially

Click the link to know more about your  stress scale & let me know your opinions.

Warning:  While these stress management techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.

Author: Madu is working with a large software consultancy firm. Today she is extremely successful & happy at work and personal life.

Image Credit: royceassociates

7 Tips on Life Balance

Positive things you should do NOW for a more fulfilled life

Your ability to write a happy life story hinges on your language. It is your inner and outer verbal expression that makes your joy possible and that infuses your life with purpose, meaning and vitality.

Here are 7 tips from Anodea Judith for Physical& Spiritual Wellness

1. Say - It’s my choice & I’m responsible It is not your talents or abilities, but your choices that ultimately decide your fate. You can’t live a positive life with a negative attitude.

2. Let’s get started! You can have brilliant idea but if you want something, you have to make a little noise, declare it and then get started.

3. Beware of your self doubts The moment you doubt whether you can do something is the moment it becomes impossible for you. You have to trust yourself. You have to feel confidence by concentrating on positive thoughts. Don’t cry over the past, it’s gone. Don’t stress about the future, it hasn’t arrived. Just live in the present, concentrate on the things you can control, and take one small step at a time. Believe in YOU. Listen to your soul. Trust your instincts. Acknowledge your own strengths.

4. Unconditional help to others Happiness is always attained by giving it away without expectation. Those who help others are eventually helped. The happiest people you will ever meet will be those who lose themselves in the joy and challenge of helping others.

5. Applaud yourself for doing what needs to be done. Achievement, after all, is an enduring process, not a single event. To achieve any worthwhile goal you must cover a lot of ground. You need to learn what works by trial and error. You must explore possibilities, many of which will only show you what doesn’t work. Just keep in mind that the mistakes and setbacks are a vital part of the process. Sometimes it may be hard to see your progress. Sometimes it will be frustrating when the results you seek don’t appear as quickly as you had hoped. Still, you are advancing.

6. You must content what you have The happiest of people aren’t the luckiest, and they usually don’t have the best of everything either. They simply make the most of everything they do have. The reason so many people are unhappy is because they tend to look at what’s missing in their life, instead of what’s present. The moment you start acting like life is a blessing, I assure you that it will start to feel like one. Time spent living is time worth appreciating.

7. Silence is divine Silence is soothing. Silence is peace. Silence is divine. The more silent you are, the more you can hear yourself think. Responsibilities, obligations, unfinished business, family and friends can all survive without you while you take these moments for yourself.

Each silent moment is different, yet all are beautiful if you listen carefully. Practice Deep Theta: High Coherence Soundscapes for Meditation and Healing.

Make these habits now so that your future self will thank you for

About Anodea Judith, Ph.D. - Author of Wheels of Life

She holds Masters and Doctoral degrees in Psychology and Human Health, with lifelong studies of alternative medicine, yoga, mythology, history, sociology, systems theory, and mystic spirituality. She is foremost experts on the combination of chakras and therapeutic issues and on the interpretation of the Chakra System for the Western lifestyle.

How to achieve inner peace

I once I asked H H Nirmala Mataji “How can I find inner peace.  Is learning to meditate is the only solution to find inner peace & tranquility”.

Mother smiled and responded “ Son, you can’t do meditation properly if you don’t have inner peace because you can’t concentrate.”

She continued to say how to get inner peace to us on the sea beach of Ganapatiphule on 23rd Dec1993.

 7 pointers for you on how to find inner peace

inner peace

1.You have first to be happy with what you have because there’s no end of desire. First you have to feel joy for whatever you have and appreciate the same.

2.Peace is beautiful; it is the manifestation of your love, and the best resolution for a brighter future. So, you have to master forgive & forget.

3.Most people suffer from an identity crisis, which robs them from their peace & happiness. It’s important NOT to give up your freedom of thought. Be yourself, and be comfortable. You shouldn’t trade your reality.

4.Life is a series of continuous natural events and changes. Learn to Accept things to be the way they truly are.

5.Every day sit for mediation for 20 to 30 minutes. This is your own time. Enjoy the silence. Observe your thought but do not concentrate on your thoughts. These few moments of purposeful solitude are important for your growth.

6.Build Loving Relationships with your spouse and others. This will help you to create real connections with their soul. This is the key to  inner peace for all.

7.Feel the excitement of Abundant Love in everything.  Feel the joy of work & the ecstasy of letting go and being one with the present moment. This is the passion. Let the Passion flow in full force in all your actions. This positive, productive effort will bring satisfaction & happiness within you.

Thoughtful awareness condition is the key of life.

This is a mental state where nothing can impact us. To achieve  & maintain that state we have to learn how to master our mind & use it more efficiently.

Mother concluded the discussion with  “Peace comes from within.  Do not seek it without.”

How to become wealthy

 “Don't Gain The World & Lose Your Soul, Wisdom Is Better Than Silver Or Gold.” - Bob Marley

If you are craving to CREATE bigger outcomes in your life and LOOKING for success, and wealth, you need to become wealthy in the real sense of the word.

Let me first clarify the meaning of the word "wealthy". For me, wealthy means your intrinsic value NOT exactly your current assets because this will help you to build consistent authentic success in all aspects of life.

You may HERE to know how to crack the Code to Wealth and live rich for a lifetime or read the complete article, where I will discuss the easy habits along with 7 lessons on how to get rich.

 7 Must have habits to become wealthy

1. Be happy with what you have.

"Be happy with what you have and are, be generous with both, and you won't have to hunt for happiness." -William E. Gladstone

If you always look toward tomorrow for happiness, odds are you will do the same when you attain what you’ve been dreaming of. So be satisfied and ambitious. Engineer your daily life to maximize your current fulfillment to avoid the culture of scarcity.

Lesson 1: This inner happiness will help you to become more disciplined which is necessary to amass wealth.

2. Enjoy all of your relationships fully

Never force someone to make a space in their life for you, because if they know your worth, they will create one for you. If you want love, give love.  If you want friends, be friendly.

Real relationships take effort, time and commitment. Great relationships just don’t happen because two people love each very much, great relationships happen because not only do two people love each other very much, but they also value one another and are willing to make an investment of time into the relationship – day after day.


Be a giver and share love with everybody. This is true for your personal finance also. Giving creates space. And space gets filled up again. If you feel poor, try giving some away. Remember the power of  the word 'abundance'.

Lesson 2: If you want to be good with your finances, you need to have lots of friends & advisers. Hence, it's important for you to know how to maintain relationship with everybody within your family and outside.

3. Accept that you can't control everything

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” - Lao-Tzu

The truth is there is very little in the world that we can control. So, the best solution is smile, breathe and go slowly. Be aware aware of your anger and frustration and this will help you to control your emotion.

When you quit doing the wrong things, you make more room for the things that make you happy. But However, you can improve the situation by stopping blaming people, making excuses, and procrastinating on your goals.

Lesson 3: Invest after lots if due diligence, but  remember there  still be failures, so don't lose hope because you can't control everything.

4. Success is not a skill; it is a persistent attitude

 

Definition of success varies from person to person. However, nobody is successful without a persistent attitude of diligent work. To be successful, you need to learn and practice some basic skills like time management and positive mind-sets.

In the era of big data, we are inundated with information. You need to build a sense to find valuable information from a rapidly changing pool of information. We feel them intensely and deeply, because they challenge us to reassess the self-image we hold of ourselves.

Lesson 4: You have to upgrade your knowledge base persistently because nothing works permanently in financial markets and investments. There will be a bull & bear market, and you need to be successful in both of these market conditions. You can read the article on 7 habits to know more on synergies & sharpen the saw. 

5. Don’t let the people who do so little for you, control so much of your feelings and emotions.

Whenever we feel we’ve been treated unfairly, judged, or wronged, we have a very powerful internal reaction. This is call emotional invalidation and it is particularly hurtful for someone who is emotionally sensitive. So, you should maintain a safe distance from those people.

Lesson 5: Emotions & Investment/Business can't always go together.

6. Get rid of negative thoughts and emotions and become a more positive person.

The things you think about, focus on, and surround yourself with ultimately shape who you become. This is the biggest secret of life. So you need to choose to live with gratitude for the love that fills your heart, the peace that rests deep within your spirit. 

Positive mind-sets will give you trust and will help you to eliminate nervous habits.

Lesson 6: Don't gamble with your money. Do your homework and that will give you confidence in your investment. 

7. Become more confident and break away from limiting beliefs

The biggest problem that limiting beliefs cause is that they force you to live below your potential.

Here is a great article on "How to identify self limiting beliefs."

Just like an artist be creative. Avoid saying "No" because  it's self limiting. Use your creativity to improve your language. It is one of the simplest places to start being rich.

Lesson 7: You can achieve financial success by being honest because the world is full of abundance.

 "My grandmother once told me, ‘Don`t let failure go to your heart and don`t let success go to your head.’"-Will Smith

Be Successful & wealthy

I believe these 7 tips to become wealthy habits & its corresponding lessons on investment will make you real wealthy & you should live by these. 

Take action NOW!!

Share your thoughts on how to be wealthy below. I will share you my idea ways to get rich in next post

How to enjoy life

Recently, I attended a 2 days boot camp session on "Self Awakening" by Riki Grandmaster B. Khurana from UK.

Mr. Khurana started the boot camp with a discussion on how we can live 80 years without getting stressed and loved by all.

Here are 7 lessons to make your life happy and fulfilling

1. Go for short travel frequently to discover yourself

2. Follow your passion and spend sometime in  a day to do something which you love.

3. Spend time with people who provides positive energy & motivates you to improve

4. Avoid unnecessary risks in life because it increases stress in life.

5. Accept challenges because this is required for your growth

6. Be best at everything what you do

7. Learn how to serve others and avoid competition

In summary, make your life simple & Spread love.

purpose in life

How can you find what your purpose in life is?

Recently, I was talking with relationship coach, Susan, on how to live a purpose driven life  with meaning. She shared seven  tips with me that will help to discover your life's purpose.

Susan - relationship coach

Susan mentioned that in her profession as a motivational coach, she found people often live their daily life in an unconscious state. 

She mentioned in her article "How To Get A Promotion at Work" that every day, people are just running around doing various activities such as working, playing, partying, sleeping, but none of it has any relation to life in the bigger picture. The reason is this is what they have come to know as life.

Sushan also recommended Awaken the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins to get  a detailed step-by-step program teaching the fundamental lessons of self-mastery that will enable you to discover your true purpose, take control of your life and harness the forces that shape your destiny.

7 habits to create a life full of meaning and purpose of life

1.    Have a introspective session for a period of times everyday to find out whether you are living with your real purpose or not. Empty your mind of all the false purposes you’ve been taught. It’s important to do this alone and with no interruptions.It's very important to find meaning in your life.

“Having a purpose is the difference between making a living and making a life.” ~ Tom Thiss

2.    You need to understand that money  is not your real purpose. The main problem is money gives short term satisfaction. It does not actually help you become liberates from daily nuances.

Does the mere thought of money inspire and energize you?

Does pursuing money give lasting meaning and fulfillment to your life?


3.    You need to know how to be the best at everything so that you are in at peace. And, there are no regrets, knowing you did your best. This will help you to achieve inner peace, which is of utmost importantimportance.

4.    You need to learn to build a consistent, long-term happiness in life. Live in presence and enjoy your life.  For that, you need to learn how to get freedom from things that do not matter to you. You need to form habits of happiness.

5.    Having a gives you liberty because you now have clarity on what matters to you. By knowing how to say no you can consciously release yourself of issues that do not matter and solutions to dilemmas become instantly clear.

 It’s the start toward living an optimal  life i.e. life of highest alignment.

When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed-door that we do not see the one that has opened for us." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

6.    Don’t allow false priorities to be mistaken for true priorities. Blocking is going to happen in these cases because your mistake was further upstream. Your priorities weren’t aligned with your true desires.

When you realize you’re in a blocking situation, give yourself some time to pause and reflect.
Listen to your heart and avoid using logical manner to set priorities.

7.    You need to have a big dream.  Use visualization as your guide to achieve your best possible life and highest potential beyond your imaginations. It should inspire, energize and stir up the essence of your soul.

“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” – George Eliot

Just because there are great odds against achieving your purpose-driven goal does not mean it is impossible. The best things in life come with perseverance and effort.  You need to align with your purpose everyday and do your best.

Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. I believe these tips will help you find the answers to the question: "How can I find my purpose in life?"

In summary, two habits are very important  "begin the end in my end"  and "sharpen the saw" from S. Covey's 7 habits are very important.

Do you have a clear direction for your life or are you sleepwalking your life away? 

Below we can discuss "what is my purpose in life".   I used a life wheel. to answer "what is your purpose in life". Click  here to read more article by Susan.

how to be best

7 Tips on how to be best of everything you do

I love to listen motivational talks and read books on personal developments by people like Gabrielle Bernstein, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Deepak Chopra, Ziglar. From all these books & lectures I found all of them are talking about 7 key habits on how to be the best of everything we do.

And even these 7 habits make great entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Marissa Mayer, Jack Dorsey or players like Sachin Tendulkar tick.

Here are the 7 habits which can make you best and help you to live your best life.

1. Follow your passion. Life’s too short to spend it doing something you don’t love so follow whatever inspires you. This strong desire will help you to work relentlessly to achieve, to make things happen, to do great things and live your best life.
 

how to be best of everything

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe it will achieve.” Napoleon Hill


2. Excellence at what you do should be your focus. You need to prioritize your activity for uninterrupted focus. To be excellent you need to practice as there is no alternative to practice.

"Once you say you are going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.” – John F. Kennedy

3. You must stay positive in all situations. You must be extremely self-confident when it comes to trusting your own instincts.This is probably best live advice.

4. Place yourself in the face of uncertainty. Whenever you face something that makes you to feel uncomfortable or uncertain, it’s an indicator that there are growth opportunities inside you. 

"Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the stormy billows of the world." – Goethe

5. Do introspection. Whenever you introspect on your own thoughts and actions, you gain a greater sense of clarity about yourself and the world around you. Introspection actually answer your question on "how to live your best life?"

6. Detach yourself from material possessions. There is nothing permanent in this world and this includes money, material possessions, success, circumstances and the outcome of different situations. Many of life’s disappointments and miseries come from attaching yourself to particular outcomes. I found detachment sometimes actually helps you to become a better problem solver.

7. Always formulate actionable Step and you should devise your own process to achieve what you want.You can make plan for your business or for improvement of  communication problems in relationships.

Remember that you need not to be the best at world but you need to be at your best.

In today’s over-crowded marketplace where everyone is screaming for attention and an audience, there is one thing that overwhelms and dominates – and that is EXCELLENCE. Excellence always stands out … and the beauty is it can be a journey and a destination.

In summary, you need to be able along with positive intent to be the best you can be. You need to practice. Follow these tips to have best careers for the future or be best in relationships. You may read my article on how to be get a promotion at work to know more on how to be successful at career.

Let’s go back to Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Outliers” for a second. To guarantee being among the best in the world at something you pretty much need 10,000 hours of practice as per his “10,000 hour rule”. He cites the Beatles, Bobby Fischer as an example.

“Some people dream of Success, while others wake up early and work hard at it.”

So what have you said to yourself that you will be, and what are you doing about it? - discuss how you want to use these tips for your career or building a healthy relationship.  

Author - Rita is relationship expert and she is author of best selling book "how to save your relationship". 

Let me know your comments on how to be best at everything.