24 hours

“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”

–Wayne Dyer

Day 5/30

How to make the best use of your time? Start living in the moment. I know, I know! It’s easier said than done. I am never in the moment. When I was a kid, I used to perpetually live in the past. I used to keep rewinding my life experiences and regret everything that I felt was wrong with it. I always wanted to do better, be better. Nothing was perfect enough for me.

When I grew up and started working, I started living in the future as well as past. I used to day dream about my bucket list and dream of achieving them. Again nothing in the present moment felt right. I kept my expectations high and mentally strained myself to achieve all of them in order to feel happy.

It was in lockdown last year when I discovered the foolproof way of being happy. I started applying this trick in my life and it effortlessly made me happy, every single time. At a time when I felt that everything was going wrong with my life, I found it very easy to find things that made me happy, effortlessly. How did I do it?

I started paying attention and found happiness in small things!

From getting a window seat in bus to listening to my favorite BTS song, these tiny actions made me happy than I’ve ever felt in my life. It was a tough time to deal with and under usual circumstances, I would have succumbed to the negativity in my life. But I was so tired of being anxious, scared, unhappy and bored with my life that I was willing to try anything.

I have been feeling very bored and useless since the last 2 weeks. Though I don’t know the reason behind it, I am extremely tired of it. I am FED UP. I want to feel alive, energetic and happy again. I never want to feel like this in my life again. I have taken time for granted. I purposely waste my time for no reason and wait for the day to end. I while my time doing things that I don’t actually wish to do. I sense a huge loss of control in my life and I desperately want it BACK.

I am going to take life, ONE DAY AT A TIME. Ever day is beautiful and I wish to live each day to the fullest. I know rest days are important and help you recharge and rejuvenate. However, I have never felt “rejuvenated” after prolonged period of rest. I am extremely low on energy and motivation. Consistent efforts on our goals are always better than going all out on important occasions. Good habits require regular practice and consistency, in short, our efforts!

These are few good habits that I wish to incorporate in my life :-

• Plan your new day the night before
• Wake up at 5 am daily
• Meditate for 20 mins daily
• Workout for 30 mins minimum
• Gratitude journaling/ daily journaling
• Read 40 pages daily
• Study for your career progression
• Revisit your goal progress at the end of each day

This is the first challenge of my “Lifestyle transformation” journey. I am on my way to make every day worthwhile and earn my leave. Let’s do this!

Year in review : 2020

“It Doesn’t Matter Where You Came From. All That Matters Is Where You Are Going.”

-Brian Tracy

And it’s done, the most exceptional year of 21st century has finally come to an end. It’s 31st December 2020 and I’m starting a new tradition on my blog this year on wards. I started this year with a long list of goals in mind. My mental health was in shambles and I didn’t really have the confidence to fulfill any of these goals. I tried to do my best every day but it didn’t lead to any fruitful results. And then an inevitable situation took place, a pandemic shook the world and took over the reins of the entire mankind’s existence. We were scared and anxious yet dealt it with utmost resilience and strength. We learnt new things everyday and became more aware of the priceless blessing that is “life“. I am definitely a changed person by the end of this marvelous year. It taught me a lot, made me focus on the goodness of life, helped me work on myself and adopt a healthy lifestyle and most importantly gave me the gift of “time“. Here’s my 2020 year reviewed.

January

• Participated in the Tata Mumbai Marathon on 19th January and conquered my fear of running a distance of 21 kms at one go. I ran for 10 kms at a stretch at this race and was completely drained out when I crossed the 19 kms mark. I pushed myself to finish the race and have never felt more proud of myself! One of the most liberating experiences of my life!

• My office friend gifted me a box of cupcakes that made my efforts in preparing and running the half marathon totally WORTH it. This just made me feel extremely happy and motivated at the same time.

• I had the opportunity to run another long run, 26 kms on 26th January (Republic day, India). This was with the running group from my hometown and the experience was phenomenal.

• My childhood friend gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on 28th January. I went to see her the day she was born.

February

• Travelled to Mussoorie and Delhi with my friend and had a complete blast. I didn’t want to come back to my daily life and return to work after this mind blowing vacation.

March

• Tried an Ice-cream thali for the first time in my life. Needless to say, the experience was FABULOUS, especially for a desert junkie like me.

• Completed my first long workout of 2020, a 45 min HIIT session. This was a stress buster for me as our Indian Government had just announced a complete lock down at this time. I was left at home without a laptop or remote access to complete my office work. My anxious thoughts ranged from losing my job to being asked to come to work at any cost despite the travel restrictions. I’m glad things worked out well in the end and I started working from home.

• Due to the lock down, the access to my staple comfort food such as ice cream and momos were restricted. I decided to try making them at home with the help of our dear old YouTube. 2020 has made me much more confident with my cooking skills and I am happy with my progress with this very important life skill. Cooking is also a stress buster for me and I tried out a lot of interesting recipes.

April

• I turned 30 this month. I had big plans of celebrating my birthday in Goa which could not see the light of the day due to the pandemic. Contrary to my expectations, I had a pretty awesome birthday, in fact, it is the most memorable one of my life till date. (P.S. I tried baking a biscuit cake for myself which did look like a cake but tasted exactly like biscuits!)

• I re-attempted baking a cake for my mom’s birthday on 27th April and this one turned out way beyond my expectation.

May

• I started to get a little anxious of being called back to office. The cases in India were mounting however the senior management of my organization didn’t really believe in the “work from home” agenda. They started having meetings on finding out ways to call back people to work.

June

• I went out of my comfort zone to record a dance sequence for my choreographer friend’s birthday. I had mentally given up when I first saw the dance steps however I pulled through with a lot of support and motivation from my amazing friends.

• The complete “work from home” situation came to an end when my boss called me back to work (albeit in a rude manner!). I normally use the Mumbai local trains for my office commute which had been shut to avoid the spread of virus. The only alternative was a bus service from a stop which was 10 kms away from my home. I left my home at 6 am on 29th June for my office which starts at 9 am. The bus commute took an exhausting 4 hrs due to traffic in the morning. I reached home around 9 pm that day. I hated my organization for forcing us to travel to office, in the middle of a pandemic without easy travel arrangements in place. Well, I knew that this was a challenging situation and crying about it wouldn’t make it any easier. Music was my savior during this time. I listened to BTS songs on repeat during my bus ride. I experience motion sickness while travelling hence didn’t have any other way to utilize my travel time (crazy 8 hrs) in a productive manner. I also started experiencing episodes of depression and anxiety. Since I didn’t get diagnosed by a professional, I don’t know if I was suffering from depression but all my symptoms pointed right at it.

July

• I posted my first article on this blog after a hiatus of almost 10 months on 17th July (my last article before this was in September, 2019). This was a path breaking step that changed my life for the better. I was reconnected to my first love, writing and it was my constant support to cope up with the tough situations I was facing in life back then.
• I decided to take the most difficult yet BEST decision of my life by entering into a “100 day daily blogging challenge” on 24th July. I honestly didn’t have the confidence to complete this one yet dived right into it as blogging was the only thing that gave me mental peace at that time.

August

• BTS released their song “Dynamite” on 21st August and the world has not been the same ever since. This song felt like a tight hug every single time I listened to it during my bus rides. My bus ride felt a lot less exhausting only due to the existence of this song in my life. Thank you BTS for “Dynamite”
• I gave my first job interview after a break of almost 2 years on 25th August. I have terrible interview anxiety and even the thought of it can send a shiver down my spine. I somehow forced myself to not bunk the interview (I’ve done it on multiple occasions before) and face my fear head first. I GAVE THE INTERVIEW AND FELT A LOT MORE CONFIDENT ABOUT MYSELF FOR GIVING A DECENT ATTEMPT!
• My amazing friend gave me the most incredible gift for my 30th birthday. She sent it to me in August because our country was in lockdown during my birthday in April. I have written an article about it the gift too, it made me immensely happy!! (https://thesupermode.wordpress.com/2020/08/15/surprise/)

September

• My blog hit a 100 FOLLOWERS in this month. I felt blessed, grateful and extremely happy for all the support showered on my blog. I was pumped and motivated to continue doing what I loved the most, blogging!
• My amazing friends showered me with more birthday gifts. I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve the MOST AMAZING friends in my LIFE! Life is good!! 🙂

• My mom accidently fell down at home and fractured her arm. It was a little difficult to manage work and household chores during this time but we sailed through.
• I got an allotted shares in the IPO (Initial Public Offer) of a company. The odds of getting selected were 73 to 1 and I felt extremely blessed to have got the opportunity to get an allotment. I was on cloud 9!
• I hit a total of 1000 LIKES on my blog. It felt SURREAL to say the least.

October

• Had my longest meditation streak on Headspace for 10 days. I have been unsuccessful several times in the past to create a daily meditation habit. Finally started it in 2020 and couldn’t have been more happy about it.

• My sister surprised us with a visit after spending almost 8 months apart. She stayed with us for more than 1.5 months which has been the longest time she has been at home ever since she started working in a different city away from our hometown.

November

• Completed the “100 days writing challenge” successfully on my blog on 1st November. I never thought I could finish the challenge when I jumped into it 100 days back. We can ACHIEVE everything we want if we are CONSISTENT in our efforts.
• Finally got the opportunity to go on a trip for the spinster’s party of my friend to a resort close to my hometown. Had a blast with my friends there, it was one of the most memorable weekends of my life! 🙂

• Got this unimaginable bridesmaid hamper from my friend. It had things I never expected or planned to buy on my own. She made sure we got the BEST possible gifts on this planet and it made us feel extraordinarily special.

December

• For the first time ever, we got a Christmas tree home and had a ball decorating it. My mom casually told me her wish to get a Christmas tree home this year to celebrate the beautiful festival of Christmas and spread some much needed joy and positivity around. There were a lot of hiccups till the point of getting this tree home but we were blessed to get our wish fulfilled right before Christmas eve.

• Completed my second longest run of 2020, a freaking 25 kms in 2 hrs 54 mins!!! I honestly did not think I could attempt another long run after a hiatus of almost 6 months from running practice. This feat reinforced my faith in the phrase “IT ALWAYS SEEMS IMPOSSIBLE UNTIL IT’S DONE“

And that’s it. I just don’t feel like bidding 2020 goodbye. I look forward to 2021 with hope and positivity as always.

Wishing you a very happy NEW year. May this year bring you more and more reasons to be HAPPY!

The joy of learning

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding”

– Leonardo da Vinci

#25/100

I still remember my oldest memory as a student. I had a little cursive writing book that had enthralled me. One day, I resolved to complete few pages of the book and was so engrossed in the activity that I didn’t budge even at my mother’s constant calls for dinner. I completed the task and proudly showed my mom the finished work.

But I didn’t feel the same way throughout my student life. Somewhere down the line, my mind stopped being in tandem with my brain. Studying became a burden as getting good grades was a requirement instead of an accomplishment. The concept of studying involved mugging formulas, long answers and chemical equations. Many a times I would completely zone out while studying, failing to understand the reason why we were made to do this.

I am a person who is inquisitive by nature. I enjoy learning about new things, understanding it’s background and everything related to it. But as a student, I had no idea of what studying really meant. It was just another routine that we followed, there was no greater meaning to it. When I think about it now, it just seems a waste of precious years of a human’s life. If a person isn’t aware of the purpose behind their actions, they’ll just grow into a clueless human being. It might strike them much later in life when they try to question the true meaning of their existence.

When I study or research about any subject now, it’s just out of pure curiosity for knowledge. It took such a long time for me to understand what my mind truly needs. My instincts and actions are in sync with each other and that’s why I can find joy in them. If a kid repeatedly portrays dissatisfaction towards learning, it might not be because he is lazy. I understand it’s very difficult to relay the importance and value of education for kids at a young age but a small step can be taken towards sparking a curiosity in them. Education needs to be more practical and interactive. Students need to be taught life skills from a young age. They need to be taught to be brave and headstrong to face any situation in life. They also need to understand psychology and how their mind works at a younger age so that they are able to judge their emotions well.

When we are young we have people to seek guidance and help us out. However, we are still ill equipped to deal with life and reality when we become an adult. We do learn with experiences but a little head start can help way beyond our imagination. It could help improve the quality of our life to a great extent, make us a little more happy and fulfilled with ourselves. Well, isn’t that a good thing to seek?