Suzy Singh is a Transpersonal Therapist, Karma Coach, Relationship Counsellor, Healer and Spiritual Teacher. Besides offering private therapy sessions, she also conducts workshops and is a contributing author in the book Holistic Wellness in the Newage on the subject of ‘Healing through Hypnosis’. We speak to her on the launch of her new book the 7 Karma Codes.
Why the shift from a growing career in advertising to spiritual pursuits?
My spiritual inclinations emerged from a very early age and were greatly nourished by many elevated masters. And yet, the lure of accomplishment and material success beckoned me until I began tiring of the baggage that invariably accompanies such pursuits. For many years I tread both paths as parallel journeys, but in the year 1998, I started to feel a powerful force tugging at my soul, telling me to embrace my life’s core purpose. I knew this because I was going into a trance during meetings, seeing people’s auras at work and reading their energy fields without even wanting to. The ability to look deeply, even without trying, had begun to awaken in me. This was a clear sign that it was time to move beyond mere material addictions.
It became more and more apparent to me that the key subconscious drivers in the corporate ecology were fear and greed. The question I asked myself was how am I ever going to evolve into a more conscious being if the people who are meant to mentor me and whose shoes I sought to fill some day were themselves so deeply afflicted? Were they equipped with the integral skills and insights to teach me to become fearless? This raised many important questions about my own aspirations, the true path towards fulfilment and purpose, and whether the corporate environment could possibly be the crucible of authentic growth. A veritable storm rose inside me and eventually, I left corporate India in search of the cause and the antidote to human fear so I could learn to rise above it. Deconstructing and healing the human psyche became my calling which led to my specialisation and clinical work in the area of the subconscious mind.
Can you tell us the inspiration behind “7 Karma Codes” and the key insights from the book?
I feel that my whole life has been a sort of preparation to write this book. My experience in advertising and exposure to consumer research shaped my sensitivity towards people; their motivations, needs, yearnings, and aspirations. Teaching at various business schools prepared me for the personal discipline and acuity of mind that were required to translate complex concepts about karmic laws into simple ideas about the design of human life that people could easily relate with. But eventually, it was the face-off with death that became the primary inspiration for this book. A year after I quit corporate life, my family and I were caught in the Uttaranchal earthquake measuring 6.7 points on the Richter scale. That was a most horrific experience. Hoping to escape the rumblings of that seismic zone, we drove out the next morning only to meet with a devastating car crash that caused my near death experience (NDE). This accelerated my quest for answers. My investigations into life, death, and dying became intensified after that experience. My clinical work helped me delve further into the wounds and scars that drive most human endeavours. Finally in 2013, when my daughter lay in the ICU, recovering from a brutal Dengue attack, I returned home from the hospital one evening and an uncontrollable urge to write resulted in the sketchy draft of the first Karma code. From that day on, the book absorbed and shaped my whole consciousness.
Another compelling force that drove the creation of this roadmap was the innumerable cases of disturbed young people that were showing up in my clinical work. It was clear that the collective consciousness was becoming more confused and that these millennials were struggling with their internal restlessness but didn’t quite know how to deal with it. In fact, they were terrified to even acknowledge that their lives were not as ‘sorted’ as they pretended to be. The fear of being stigmatised and rejected by their peers made them brush their issues under the golden carpet of consumerism. They shopped incessantly, travelled frequently, bought top of the line tech gadgets, frequented the latest pubs and restaurants and meandered in and out of relationships casually. Boldly wearing their ‘I’m happy masks’ they suffered silently, until things got out of hand and manifested as physical or behavioural dysfunctions.
Social conditioning forced these aspiring young ones with million dollar dreams to repress their emotions and pretend that all was well. Even parents usually turned a blind eye to obvious symptoms that indicated help was required. Unfortunately, the intensity of their internal strife is now becoming evident through the increasing incidence of suicide rates, depression, passive aggressive behaviours, bipolar disorders and other range of mental afflictions.
Even those who appear to be dealing with the accelerated price of success rely heavily on medication for digestive disorders, insomnia, hypertension, and routinely pop over the counter drugs to stay on top of their jobs. It’s almost as though some invisible God of corporate abundance has issued an ordinance to these young ones that they must be rock stars not only at their jobs but also in their social and personal spheres. Unfortunately, this breed of self-reliant, hardworking and driven youngsters buy into this misnomer quite innocently, ticking off all the boxes on the pretence of happiness but completely losing sight of their inner storm because they have no bandwidth or direction. They work and party hard, drowning their woes in the cacophony of loud music and sangrias at pubs or consuming caffeine at coffee bars. All this looks great on the outside but on the inside, this can be really painful. The ‘7 Karma Codes’ has been designed to be the clarity companion and guide to these millennials so that they can learn to decompress their anxieties, and they no longer have to suffer alone.
How can young professionals and corporate executives improve their personal well-being?
Workplaces are the new jungles where one is constantly exposed to survival threats. As a result, the exposure to stress causing cortisol is virtually running through the bloodstream of millennials 24x7 which is extremely detrimental for their physical, emotional and mental well being. However if people can learn to unravel the source of their vulnerabilities and triggers that lie submerged in their personal unconscious, they can switch off the mains that control their hot buttons and fears. Almost all reactions to human stresses have their origin in childhood wounding of the psyche which results in mental programs and false belief systems that limit their future potentiality and success. Uncovering and healing these personal wounds can erase fears, enhance self esteem, reduce unhealthy competitiveness, maximize creativity and productivity and strengthen emotional immunity and leadership capabilities. The Homa code provides in-depth guidance on excavating your personal history and healing it to unleash a more powerful version of yourself. The Swadharma code helps in activating your right brain capabilities to produce more powerful ideas, and the Sangha code provides the perceptual tools to help you manage people dynamics in more effective ways so that you instinctively begin to choose collaborative approaches over competitive moves. “If you have forgotten how to laugh and have fun, or if you turn and toss in bed every night, unable to fall asleep, or if you cannot digest what you eat, and your mind is constantly worried, and you have no time to do the things you really enjoy, you can be fairly certain that you have a lot of stress.” This simple test can help you recognise whether or not you are living in balance and if you need a personal wellness guide that can inspire you to deal with the storm that might be brewing in you.
Three key points that first-time entrepreneurs should focus on?
Building a business can often be a long, treacherous and hard journey. The early enthusiasm of exciting dreams and ambitious plans can crumble quite easily under the burden of ground realities and daily logistics. It is in those moments of striving and struggling and wanting to give up, that the principles of the Suvasana code can rekindle hope and inspire first-time entrepreneurs to persist in their efforts by focussing their attention on all that is going right. This will strengthen their patience and call upon their resilience and fortitude, making it easier for them to survive the long haul when the results of their hard work are still to bear fruit.
Secondly, they must practice the wisdom of inclusive generosity proposed in the Dana Code by embracing the desire to offer greater value not only to their customers, but also to their employees and other stakeholders. Everyone must benefit from the enterprise. This inclusive attitude can be very attractive for all involved and a compelling force for sustainability in a cut throat environment.
Thirdly, an emphasis on building strong relationships internally and externally is critical for success. Among many other insights, the Anubhava code that spotlights the lessons relationships teach us, prescribes that “for any relationship to endure the test of time, TACT is a must – there must be Transparency, Action, Communication, and Trust.” Persistence through positivity, inclusive generosity and strong relationships are the three key mantras that first-time entrepreneurs must embrace to cultivate success.
What are the key challenges in managing interpersonal relationships at work and how can one overcome them?
The Anubhava code which guides mastery in relationships clearly spells out that all karmic redemptions and evolutionary lessons occur in everyday relationships. Once you understand that the underlying cause of all human suffering is an opportunity to refine your basic nature, it is a little easier to deal with that over-competitive colleague or that militant boss. If nothing else, you can start to change your self-talk by intellectually grasping the idea that if your law of attraction has brought you a certain unpleasant experience, it is probably teaching you something. “The person who frightens or intimidates you is urging you to have courage, the person who hates you is teaching you to love yourself, and the person who humiliates you is helping you to overcome your shame. Every mean person in your life is a blessing.” By practicing the wisdom of the ‘7 Karma Codes’ diligently, you can actually arrive at a state when you are no longer offended by the unloving behaviour of your bosses, peers, and colleagues. A great way to start this practice is to learn to shift your response from complaining about your situation to asking the question, what can I learn from this experience? If you can do just this one thing, you have already begun to embrace a willing openness to examine newer perspectives, and to that extent, you will feel less hurt or offended.
The Sangha code which upholds harmonious co-existence throws light on destructive habits such as the comparison trap, the need to control others, idle gossip, rigidity, judgement and the inability to listen deeply that destroy solidarity among peers. It also offers practices and useful suggestions to overcome these tendencies. “Those who practice the principles of this code, learn to harness their negative thoughts and emotions. They become more sensitive to the suffering of others, allowing empathy and compassion to grow.” One simple mantra for developing strong interpersonal harmony is to “let the achievements and abundance of others inspire you, rather than making you jealous or insecure.”
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