Earlier this year, I discovered the talks of Sister BK Shivani. I resonate so much with her thoughts and just love her calming voice. I read her book "Happiness Unlimited" which made a profound impact.
Her latest book " The Power of One Thought" elaborates on the idea of how our thoughts shape our destiny. She emphasizes the power of a soul and its inherent qualities of love, happiness, peace, and power. The topic of emotional dependence on external situations was an eye-opener, specifically how the uncertainty in the outer world has increased so much in the past few years.
She then explains the function of thought and classifies them into 4 types. In the third chapter, she puts out an interesting framework of how thoughts cascade into our feelings, attitudes, actions, and habits (which she refers to as sanskars). Sanskars are the automated patterns of emotions that we easily gravitate towards - blaming, complaining, anger, and hurting others to name a few. Until we examine and correct our thoughts, these sanskars take deeper roots.
The chapter that talks about the three doorways to our thoughts - beliefs we carry, the content we consume, and our past experiences - is well explained and much-needed. The fact that the author has dedicated one chapter to anger shows how much this emotion of anger impacts our energy.
The formula that she often repeats, Stress = Pressure / Resilience, has so much truth in it. She beautifully explains how certain habits are reducing our resilience these days. Her perspectives on ego consciousness and its various manifestations are a must-read. The five types of sanskars we carry give us more clarity on our habitual responses.
She wraps up the book with 7 habits for daily self-care.
Simple, concise writing with relatable examples and without any complex jargon makes it a very engaging read. She has also provided many meditation exercises and affirmations that we could incorporate into our spiritual practice.
There are too many valuable takeaways in this book and it certainly requires a re-read.