The year that we all eagerly left behind in all its various tragedies, challenges and shock did teach us multiple things. One of the most important ones being about life, including our perception about a lot of things in it that we did not pay much heed to in the past. To me the year we left behind led me to learn some very valuable lessons a few of them which I thought I would share with you. We humans as we all know are very forgetful beings, we evolve, we grow, we improve, and we move on. However, the following I believe are lessons that we need to continue to remember from my perspective to appreciate and be grateful for and to aspire to work towards in the future.
Essential 1: Health
Good health is one of the most important elements in one’s life. Without which this whole existence is tiresome and lethargic. We tend to gravitate towards lazing on the couch, making up excuses as to why we cannot go to the gym, do some yoga, go for a walk, sleep early or even eat right.
Moving forward our focus should be to take care of the body that we exist within. It is essential that we listen to it, feed it well, give it enough rest and exercise, make it more powerful and agile. Give it the nutrition and movement that it requires to function at its optimum best. Reduce unhealthy food items from your diet, drink enough water, take better care of your skin and hair, including a regime of exercise and meditation. Cultivate a process to follow on an everyday basis with probably a day or two of rest or cheat days. I have a piece of paper stuck on my wall in plain sight dictating exactly what I need to do daily, and due to its presence, I am forced to abide by it. And now a few of those everyday requirements have resulted in habits that I hope ends up as an automated act I do daily. Even if we were to allocate just about 20 – 40 minutes a day to focus on our health it could result in great gains in the future.
Essential 2: A Good Support System
The isolated living offered us the time and calmness to truly connect with all the most important people in our life. We reconnected with family members that we were sparingly in touch with, we found new ways to catch up with friends online, share stories about the isolated living and have a laugh and make the prevailing situation a little more bearable. Good connections be it via family, via friends, via your partners is essential for our well-being. The isolation birthday I celebrated was one of the best in my life so far and it's rightly due to the people who were part of my celebrations. I spent it online with various fun activities with multiple people from multiple countries; something which I have not done in the past because I was out and about enjoying the outdoor world.
Moving forward nurture relationships that you cherish, strengthen already established good bonds, keep in touch with the people most closest to you, ensure to provide them attention and care, pay focus on not just their words but also their silences, and in return they would do the same. Make a call, send a random message, share a few memes that made you think of them, share a song, schedule a video chat, plan a catch-up, whatever you do pay attention and share love and kindness. The life we lead is made more wonderful in part due to the people that exist within them, so have a circle of good quality people and commit to them for as long as you possibly can. Most importantly remember in terms of a solid support system quality will always trump quantity.
Essential 3: Financial Stability / Security
With a sound financial foundation comes a certain amount of freedom from anxiety and inner turmoil. A sense of liberty that tells you that even if you were to lose your 9-5 job or if your business were to suffer a bit due to the existing market conditions, you could still function relatively well. It may be a speed bump in life but not a complete derailment. And this sense of financial stability and security is essential to achieve in life.
Moving forward focus on saving more and spending less on items, purchases or luxuries that are more of a want rather than a need. Cutting down on expenses is one way we can achieve our financial goals faster. Consider doing an audit of your expenses and ascertain what some of the unnecessary purchases may be and either reduce them or eliminate them. Focus on money being utilized properly, on elements that add value to your life, perhaps a short-term certification course that may add more credibility to your professional skills, or a side hustle that offers you a bit of money apart from your regular income. Plan towards your retirement, they say the earlier you start the better. Establish an excel spreadsheet or download an app whereby you can monitor your incomings and outgoing and clearly monitor your progress or lack of progress with the intent to do better. By closely evaluating your own financial performances you can set targets and goals for yourself to achieve. Spend efficiently and save deliberately.
Essential 4: A Good Space To Call Home
Being cooped up inside we have started to realize the importance of the immediate space that we occupy outside our body, our home. A home in the past did give us a sense of comfort and resort but now more than ever, our homes have elevated their meaning in our minds. It is a space that needs to bring joy and calm, a space that we can be productive in and be creative in, a space to work and chill, to learn and to play and to spend an extended amount of time deep in thought or being numb.
Moving forward, focus on either improving your space to meet all your minimum well-being requirements or if you are unable to do so at the moment, focus on the Essential 3 related to financial stability and security with the objective of working towards achieving a comfortable home space. Give a lot of thought to the environment you want to live in, the air that you breathe in every day, the colours around you, the elements that add joy to your life should be in your everyday sights, be it art or pictures of your favourite moments in life.
To summarize, the past year is one for our own history books, we, fortunately, persisted our way out of it. Since we humans are a resilient bunch, we know that no matter what life throws our way we work a solution around it, we adapt to the ever-changing situation and we come out of it victorious and in some ways re-born. So, let us all utilize this new birth and bring it to its best possible outcome.
May you all have a blessed year ahead! And may it be filled with good health, wonderful people who love and cherish you, prosperity and contentment of mind, body, and soul. Let us move forward with hope for better days for the world and a desire to better our own self.
Random Musings From The Mind Of Nive Prem
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