This Women’s Day, set off to your “Wellness journey”

I’m sure you must be receiving a plenty of messages since morning today. Messages celebrating womanhood, the ones that acknowledge the strength and beauty of being a woman. This is the day when the whole world suddenly realizes how important women are, what pain do they bear, what all roles do they play. And most of them tell you to follow your dreams and just keep going.

Just in case you are all jazzed up and are going to spend another one year proving how unstoppable you are, how much you can handle; just pause for a moment. Whatever strength and capability nature has blessed women with, it’s an age-old apparent fact. Nobody needs to prove it. But in today’s already chaotic and hurried world, it’s much more important to slow down and be mindful of what choices you’re making. After all, that’s what defines what you’re heading for.

Once she stopped rushing through life, she was amazed how much LIFE she had time for.

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So this Women’s day, set off for a journey towards your Well-being. Almost everything can keep going, even if you slow down and decide not to burnout yourself. In a Health talk at our office last week, we discussed all aspects of women’s health. There I realized again, that up-keeping a healthy lifestyle can keep most of the problems at a bay – hormonal imbalances, fitness issues, diseases, depression, anxiety etc.

In fact, all aspects of women empowerment can be taken care, once women start caring for themselves adequately and standing up for themselves. Whether it’s taking time out for a workout or a quiet time to sort their thoughts; indulging in more fulfilling endeavors or just getting a sound sleep. Giving themselves a priority, is only going to enhance the productivity of not only the women, but entire families and workplaces too.

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And if all the men start supporting women in their wellness journey by helping them carve time for it (rather join themselves too and take care of their overall well-being), things can be way better. Empowerment begins from the families first. Just talking about women empowerment at work, won’t help. It will only be another superficial and hypocritical thing. When men start supporting participating in families equally – cooking, raising kids, running households, earning & fulfilling dreams; they will certainly have reasons to spend more time with their families, which includes prioritizing the woman’s career. This will set equal standards and opportunities at workplaces.

So, I urge all the men and women to come up together and set off to their wellness journey for a better world around – filled with more fulfilled, happy and healthy people. Women who care for themselves well enough, can support other women too in their well-being. We need to create an environment, where wellness is not considered a luxury but a basic necessity.

So where are you in this journey? Have you already started off or are still thinking of making the first move? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Simplifying Self-care for the hustlers

In my early career days, I had to look after only myself. Even then, all the juggling and managing all aspects of life, seemed so hard. I still remember myself, looking for the ways and methods to handle things more effectively, doing little experiments every now and then.

Now we’re a family of 4, have dual careers to pursue and many more things which even go unnoticed. How can life be any simpler and more manageable? Our capabilities increased, but so did the complexities.

Welcome to the era of hustle! The era, in which days and weeks just keep slipping, the era where we keep hustling since morning till night. Sometimes we’re more productive and at others, just burning out, trying better next time.

And in such a scenario, self-care might be the last thing on our mind. But the more I read and practiced it, the more I got convinced. One needs to put themselves as the foremost priority, in order to keep going.

Self-care is giving the world the best of you, instead of what’s left of you.

~Katie Reed

Self-care is not about the elaborate rituals and expensive indulgences. It’s just about finding practices, habits and mindset around your well-being and nourish your mind, body and soul. So here are a few things that I figured out for us:

1. Connecting with the nature

There’s enormous research worldwide that proves how nature can be healing for human beings. But the irony is, in our daily urban lives, even making out the time to connect with nature, is a challenge in itself. The lives that revolve around boxes called houses, offices, malls and back to houses, gives very less opportunity to spend time appreciating nature.

A few ways we’ve discovered so far are:

• Living in areas surrounded by trees; planting more trees around.
• Bringing nature inside with indoor plants at home and at workplaces.
• A little bit of gardening in the form of herbs and easy veggies like coriander, mint, basil, spinach etc.
• Combining the daily workout with nature walk; going into natural & pleasing places, though pollution levels often hinder.
• Taking kids to the gardens and parks nearby and see them connecting effortlessly with birds, butterflies, squirrels etc.
• Taking vacations into the nature – mountains, beaches, woods etc.

2. Working on our fitness levels

The sedentary lifestyle, where we use more of brain than our bodies, definitely affects our fitness levels adversely. Taking a little control over health and fitness, surely gives so much power on how you look and how you feel. It even helps combat depression and anxiety, the side-affects of urban lifestyle.

Starting a full fledged fitness regime may be daunting and may take years to establish. But instead of waiting for kids to grow up and get ample time to begin a regime, we started doing a few things on the go. The mantra is to keep the body moving because it functions the best, when it’s functional.

• Going for brisk walks together; it gives us some time together and kills the boredom and monotony of a routine as well
• Spending some fun time with kids, especially over the weekends
• Taking steps, whenever possible
• Planning meals, to avoid consuming junk and unhealthy quick meals
• Stretching and mild yoga

3. Doing something creative

One doesn’t need to be an artist to do creative things; it’s just about putting your heart into what you do. Why should only kids indulge in unstructured playtime and imagination? It works wonders for adults too.

Research shows that creative attempts release dopamine, the natural anti-depressant. It helps build up focus and distract you from the negativity around. There can be several ways to let the creative juices flow and we tried practicing a few of them so far:

• Clicking pictures from various perspectives, photography
• Scribbling, doodling, sketching
• Calligraphy and zentangles
• Writing and journaling
• Crafting with kids
• Diwali was especially a creative fun, as we tried a few DIYs for the festive decor

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4. Connecting with people

We humans are imperfect and so are our relations. Yet we get so much comfort sharing our thoughts and feelings with the people around. It’s a natural way to feel more positive. Thanks to the oxytocin levels that increase when we invest in building up a bond.

• In today’s distracted world, people rarely listen to each other attentively. So making a point to put the phone down and listen, helps connecting right away.
• And since we’ve expanded geographically now, friends and family are far apart. Picking phones then, helps to stay connected with them.
• Moreover, there are so many stories that each one has to share. They are instant learning experiences.
• Also, little acts of kindness and helping each other enhances our self worth and self esteem too. So keep spreading the joys.

5. Positive self-talk

Last but not the least is the connection with our own self. One can’t undermine its significance. Devoting some distraction-free time to heal ourselves, some unstructured me-time, is very essential. The busier you are, the more it is required to unwind and clear your mind.

• It totally depends on person to person how and when they would like to spend that time -journaling, writing, reading, meditation, walk or just sitting quietly.
• Giving yourself positive affirmations and pushing aside the negative self-talk.
• While everyone in this world is on one single platform today, the various levels of talent and expertise can often be overwhelming. But instead of comparing to others, we should focus on building ourselves every single day.

Hustling is inevitable in today’s complex era. Multiple roles and limited time, have been major challenges. But particularly in this scenario, it’s important to shift for some relaxation and personal boundaries to escape burnout. After all, we need to sustain, in order to achieve.

“Self care is not a waste of time. Self care makes your use of time more sustainable.”

Jackie Viramontez

10 ingredients for a quality life

In the rush of daily life, it really soothes to come across something that emphasizes on leading a healthier and happier life. Even the idea of devoting some time for our own selves or taking care of small things that can enhance the quality of our life, is itself quite inspiring. It relieves to know that we are still not machines who are supposed to just work, work and work. We have a good life and we can make it better further, not by achieving more targets or piling up more possessions, but rather, by slowing down the pace of our life, a bit. We often read or listen to such ideas, I am just summing them up here, so that it can act as a ready reference whenever it is required the most.

1. Rewarding self for every small accomplishment: Whether you study hard for the whole day, or work at your workplace, or perform your daily household chores, reward yourself for even small accomplishments made. After the day’s work, you deserve a warm shower, soothing music, good food or any other thing that can allow a feel-good-factor. Enjoy the simple things and unwind yourself before going to bed.
2. Surrounding yourself with what you love: It is pleasure to see the things or people we love the most, whether it is family, pets, plants, hobbies, keepsakes. Let your home evolve into an oasis from the frenzied world outside.
3. Cultivating richer relationships: “The quality of your life is the quality of your communication.” Tell the people that you love them, treat them well. But having good relations with all is not possible as this is an imperfect world. So keep up the virtue of forgiving.
4. Keep cheerful friends around: Associate only with the positive and cheerful people from whom you can learn things. Avoid those who make you unhappy; whining and complaining people will sap away all your energy. So laugh-often, long and loud.
5. Throw out non-essential things: The principle of emptiness comes into play here. Give away the things you don’t require, de-clutter and don’t keep piling up and similarly give up the useless feelings and thoughts too. Make space for the new ones to come in. One can experience the enhancement in energy levels, once you de-clutter and organize (whether things or thoughts).
6. Cherish your health: Since health is one of the most important assets, so adopt a healthful lifestyle. Indulge in a health regime that can help you stay fit and fine. Have a balanced diet and keep the stress away.
7. Keep learning: Learn some new things, whether it is a new recipe or a new activity, a new art or anything that makes you feel growing. You are happiest when you feel you are growing. When you feel that you are contributing and advancing in the direction of your dreams, you will notice that you have boundless energy and vitality.
8. Reading: This is the best way of getting many years of experience in a few hours time. Resort to speed reading; read about influential people, read about the topics that interest you. After all, the more you know, the less you fear.
9. Appreciate nature: At times, take some time out to enjoy the natural surroundings; take a walk, hear the birds chirping, gaze at stars, see the sunrise/sunset. Get up early some morning and notice the richness of your surroundings.
10. Endure, grieve and move on: When the things go wrong, as they sometimes will, don’t shy away from shedding some tears, you can have the liberty to grieve on it (provided you move on and not keep clinging to whatever happened). Be alive, while you are alive.

What matters, is not that you do in your life; but how you do it.