Hearts-in-awe

We need to learn to develop an appreciation for ourselves. Not just the "positive" things and "achievements". A no-filter, no-BS, grounded appreciation for our true self. When we're too busy to take time out for self-care, we're likely to get disillusioned with ourselves and focus on where we haven't reached instead of how far we've come and how we keep marching on every day.

Why make lists?

1. Lists serve as a starting point by organising thoughts.

2. Lists can help us get to the bottom of a situation and start the process of resolving it with clarity.

3. You can make a list for anything.
Worried?
Start by making a list of things you're worried about.

In self-doubt?
Make a list of ways in which you inspire yourself.

Feeling unsupported?
Make a list of things you're grateful for.

Follow it up with deeper introspection of why you're feeling that way.

4. Starting with a list of what it is or what we have, gives the resolution process a huge dose of energy.

5. Lists turn vague, intimidating, wild monsters into familiar, tangible pieces of a puzzle you can solve.

On finding balance:- Things we Need-To-Do are always there, taking prime space in our to-do lists, bandwidths and prioritisation patterns. In a way, it's easy to allow our days to be taken over by stuff we Need-To-Do.

For me, official and household work take top priority, and most days, I get carried away and consumed by just those things. But all work and no play makes Meenu a dull (and restless) person. It's like the peace I get from doing what I need to for the day is tarnished by an absence of the kind of joy and balance that come from doing some of the things I Want To Do (like taking care of my health or reading) and Love To Do (like meditation or journaling).

And things are not in well-defined boxes of Need, Want and Love. The status keeps changing. I've always loved to read but it's more in the Want-To-Do Box right now. Because I no longer read for the pure joy it brings me like meditation or journaling or hanging out. I want to read because I lost that love and voraciousness I had about it, and I want to find it again. I read often, and it brings me joy when I do, but I no longer see it in the Love-To-Do Box. It will take a certain practice, commitment and a deeper understanding of why I love to read, to re-kindle the passion I used to have for it.

We are wired to do the things we Need To Do. Not so much for the things we Love and Want. I'm wondering which box social media and Netflix currently go into and where I want them to be. If they are in the Love-To-Do box, and so are meditation and journaling, I am currently spending my days in an imbalance of either Need Only or Need + Love Only. Physical movement (not cleaning/doing chores, but dedicated effort spent in moving the body) is high in the Want-To-Do Box but I combine exercise with cleaning the house and consider that item checked. Dedicated reading (outside of work/casual reading) is almost nil.

It's been eye-opening to think about what takes up my days and try to put them into boxes. If I imagine the outcome as a pic of myself, I'm doing some sort of hopping circus act. I need to take baby steps for my Want-To-Do items and get steady.

What does your balancing act look like?

Taking a step is like letting the whole Universe know that you are nearly ready to get started on that new project, that new hobby, that new ritual.

Once word gets out and reaches the right places, your support team made up of all sorts of beings gather, and make all sorts of magic happen!
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Did you know that you have an army of powerful beings waiting to celebrate your first steps and amplify it with a 100 of their own?
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Have a magical day!

Healing should be no-pressure. Let it be the one thing we do for ourselves where there's no pressure whatsoever. May it be an adventure that we get to enjoy, explore and have fun meeting ourselves.

I love meditating but I skip it every other day, and rationalise it with my many many reasons. At some point the reasons started sounding like excuses, defense mechanisms and pretense. Not doing something, and then getting worked up about it wasn't helping at all. So I thought of trying a different approach of acceptance and dialogue.

The dialogue has just started and it is an enthralling, safe rabbit hole. I will keep you posted. If you've tried it out or want to give it a go, let me know what comes up!

Have a magical day.

❤️

When I wasn't actively observing and engaging with my thoughts, I had no clue what stories I was telling myself. I didn't even have time to think, but the thoughts were running their own narrative games, shaping my outlook of the world and my place in it. Work gave my life a sense of purpose and meaning until it didn't.

My mom was constantly telling me how I was often angry while talking to family, but a whole different person while talking to colleagues or friends. I ignored it. When I paid attention to it, I rationalised it by thinking that obviously, I was two-faced. Years later, I found myself losing my cool with friends, colleagues, random people on the road, just about anyone. Maybe it was that I was living by myself and had nobody else to rage at. Every waking moment that I wasn't working, I lived plugged into my MP3 player.

Then one day as I was raging in the office overcome by a hundred different things, a friend asked, "are you hearing yourself?" And the truth is, I wasn't. I left that job soon after. I believe the question made me aware of the fact that I wasn't hearing myself and quite possibly, I wasn't myself. I was burnt out and mostly on autopilot. There wasn't a single thing that I did with intention or consciousness in those years. Words like intention and consciousness meant absolutely nothing to me.

My friend's question must have established a connection within me. And opened up some kind of magical portal that gave me a glimpse of a different life that I wanted or subconsciously prepared to manifest. Because the next job was a huge turning point, and my life started changing for the better. My prejudices and misconceptions were shattered on a daily basis. For the first time in my career, people were listening to me, asking my opinion, taking big business decisions based on my recommendations. I was solving problems creatively. There were so many good people around who were too kind to me, made me realise my worth.

I had only started listening to myself a teeny tiny bit, and so much happened! It took me a few years to make it a daily active practice of observation, learning and action.

The outcome?
A magical day, every single day.

❤️

Hello, and magical days to you! After being on and off with healing practices for a few years, I decided to take up journaling. I didn't know how to get started. Started by writing down everything in life I am grateful for. That was a long entry and I didn't even know I had so much to be grateful for, and so much capacity for gratitude until I wrote it down.

It changed my mental state for the day, and also put a lot of what was going on in life in perspective. Every day in the morning, I would sit down with my coffee and start by writing, "Magical Days, Molu!" And then sometimes the writing would just take off from there or I'd have nothing to write about. It was an interesting and important exercise in figuring out how to talk to myself. Sometimes I'd have to make small talk about the weather or what went down the day before and come to my thoughts and feelings at the moment.

There have been breaks too in between. For the past few months, I've been regular at it, among doing other things too with intention of healing and becoming one with myself.

I know, and have heard from friends and social media too, how hard it is to stay committed to healing in our busy or otherwise occupied life. There is so much content and exercises out there but "if only I had a healing partner or a daily check-in group" is something I've thought and heard often. So I decided to take a leap from my current work and start it myself.

I care about it because I see the struggle people go through to get started, stay consistent, process what's coming through or find a little support when stuck. And I want to figure this out for myself and others in a similar situation.

Healing is hard. It’s also the most magical thing we can do for ourselves. Healing is also a skill. Like any skill we set out to acquire, learning, practising and improving is the simplistic version of the secret formula. Tiny little baby steps, taken one day at a time can help make every day a magical one.

Still figuring out the mechanics - like should it be a daily checkin call or just social media posts or what. I'm sure we'll find the answers together.

For now, I look forward to magical days for all of us!