Imagination Archives - Madhu Bazaz Wangu
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Imagination

Tuesday, March 31, 2026

Daffodil Field, Ashby Ponds A gift! These words rarely come to mind when we wake up to a brand-new day. Instead, our mind is already occupied with memories and anticipations. The blank page of the day stands waiting to be filled with feelings of comfort, joy, and moments that are uniquely ours. But we are not present for it. What if you open your eyes in the morning and feel grateful for another new day. Wash your face, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, and sit at your Sacred Power Spot. You meditate. Your journal. Then comes several minutes of deep reading – a poem or a short chapter from an anthology meaningful to you. By this time, your mind is bound to feel enriched with benevolence and peace. With positive energy, the...

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Thursday, February 18, 2026

Still Life with Samovar from Kashmir We are not naturally mindful. But mindfulness can be cultivated and developed through the deliberate use of attention and awareness. Eventually with practice, the two faculties merge to become one. This results in an expansion and strengthening of our conscious power. We become more mindful. With the daily ritual of deliberate breathing exercises and journaling, you are training your mind to pay attention to the thing in hand as well as to “stand back” and become aware of it. When this happens, it changes everything about the way you think, speak and act. You get glimpses of your Authentic Self. What you trust, what you truly value and believe in. You begin to pay attention to the intuitive ideas that cross your mind. Your creative flow is...

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Tuesday, February 17, 2026

Paying attention and being aware of what is happening outside is important but not as important as being attentive and self-aware of our inner landscape. Such an attitude leads you to a better understanding of yourself.   Physical changes and impermanence are perpetual. When life’s transient nature registers in our mind we hear the whispers of the primordial questions, “Is that all there is?” “Is there anything permanent?” “What is authentic about my life?” “What is that which truly makes me happy?” In our younger years we pay attention to only our outer appearance, what we see reflected in the mirror. Our awareness is directed outward upon things, people, and places. With age, if we are fortunate, we turn inward towards the things that give meaning to our life, help us find a...

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Tuesday, February 10, 2026

The word “meditation” is often confused with “mindfulness.” Meditation is the discipline of sitting still in a particular posture in silence and solitude with focus on the breath. Mindfulness is the complete attention on the task at hand, and the state of total awareness of what is going on in our mind and around us. Attention and awareness results from the daily practice of meditation. Mindfulness Meditation is also the name of a meditation and is one of the meditations we practice such as Body Scan, Loving Kindness, Guided meditations and so on.   You have practiced focusing attention on your breath. In doing so, you watch your own mind in the present moment. You witness yourself. This is similar to looking at your own reflection in a life-size mirror. The way you become aware of your...

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Thursday, August 21, 2025

While traveling through the Canadian Rockies one of our stops was the Jasper Park Lodge in Fairmont. Our cabin was situated facing Lac Beauvert (pronounced: Lack Buh-vair), “beautiful green lake.” By this time we had seen, smelled, touched, and listened to so much natural beauty that we were emotionally and spiritually overwhelmed and squeezed of stamina. But through our cabin window a mesmerizing view magnetized. We decided to walk the trail that circled the lake. We must have walked for ten to fifteen minutes when the view stopped me in my tracks. My heartbeats fastened. The surface of the crystal-clear turquoise water was shimmering silver; tiny shiny waves waltzing over large pebble shaped stones.  The reflections of the mountain range—greenish at some places, bluish at others (as if joining the earth below and sky above)—gave...

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Thursday, June 12, 2025

In Praise of PoetryPoetry grows on us. Reading poems aloud can turn into an enjoyable exercise, but more importantly, it helps refine our thinking and enhances journaling. You may not want to become a poet but you learn to have a grasp on words and how they have power to stir deep feelings and emotions in you that you may not have experienced before.  Reading poetry is a private, intimate experience. It widens our emotional space by stirring self-examination. It helps us deal with paradoxical emotions we don’t understand. Poems have messages that speak directly to us. When a poem links with our heart, it feels like the poet has shared a secret. The relationship between the poet, the poem, and the listener inspires awe and delight. A boy reading sitting...

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Tuesday, June 10,2025

Who doesn’t want to sharpen their mind at any time in our life, especially during the final stage? We now know that the brain can be enriched, made faster, fitter and sharper at any age by practicing, that is doing something over and over again (neuroplasticity). We also know a sharper mind is more resilient which improves when we go through challenging experiences. Each day counts.  Body and brain are deeply connected. What is good for the body is good for the brain. Here are eight practices brain needs. You may be already exercising some of these. So one by one try to add the ones you are not: 1. Sleep for seven to eight hours a night2. Eat three nutritious meals a day3. Walk/Exercise four to five times a week4. Daily...

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Thursday, April 17, 2025

When you read, words turn into images in your mind and thought process begins that awakens senses and feelings. Two-dimensional pages conjure three-dimensional realities. You become absorbed in the sensory experience of an unfamiliar world. Mentally out of your body you temporarily live subliminally the protagonist’s life. Events seem real as you shed tears, smile, laugh, or feel heartache. Hours fly by as you experience pleasure or suffering from an artistic distance.  At times it so happens that a sudden call, a noise, a smell catapults you out of your imaginary orbit and back to your armchair. How you wish that had not happened! Reading can be that fantastic. And so much more. “Much more” for me is when intense reading persuades me to actualize what I have read, coaxing me...

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Tuesday, April 8, 2025

Whether reading for pleasure or personal growth, what you enjoy depends on your interests and experiences. What you choose to read is as unique as what you enjoy eating or wearing. When you select a book to read, what are you seeking? Pleasure, growth, transformation? It is not what you choose to read but what happens to you when you are absorbed in reading – that pleasurable feeling of forgetting who and where you are, temporarily experiencing life through someone else’s perspective! I read to be entertained, to learn, to adventure into unknown worlds where my heart is slashed, where my guts are punched, or a brick falls on my head. With each book I read, my emotional and intellectual sensibilities emerge and deepen. In 2003, a group of doctors in Wales...

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