NikithaI am thankful to everything which happened in January 2020. Not that something amazing happened but the theme of gratitude has definitely captured a lot of good into my life.
Review of Jan 2020
1.Gratitude
I started off with writing in my diary what I was grateful for whenever I felt thankful. Slowly it reduced to just writing a header on what I was grateful for the day. Then it further reduced to telling myself what I was grateful for mentally. Through this entire transformation, I could clearly see how my happy days reduced to neutral days then one final day, I realised I just had a bad day which could have been totally avoided if I didn’t take my gratitude practise for granted. That was when I got more serious and started a physical diary and think at the end of the day about all the beautiful things which happened to me. I am grateful for picking this habit which helps me focus more on the beauty of life.
2.Photography
The first half of the month was amazing for photography. I clicked some of the best pictures in the beginning of this year. I am grateful to have a husband who takes me to places where I get to improve my wildlife photography skills. The beauty of Pulicat lake and flamingoes I saw there is one of the most beautiful things I have seen in life. Practising gratitude helped me attract a particular scene which I wanted to click since a really long time.You can check out the latest pictures I posted on my Instagram account.
3.Books
January was really bad for reading. I picked up the wrong books. Fooled by randomness was on my wishlist for a very long time. Only after I reached half way through it, I realised it was a very complex way of explaining the simplest things in life. I didn’t want to force myself to finish the book. After that, I picked up two books by Tony Buzan – Head Start and The Power of verbal intelligence. Sadly, I read too many self-help books in the past few years that he had hardly anything new to teach me. For a change, I wanted to try reading 13 steps to bloody good luck. Even though the author gave a promising start, it was only about reading excerpts of great people which you would have heard of tens of times before. It was a book to revise those stories and didn’t really have anything new to learn. It is just that book which gives the instant dopamine rush to do something great in life and doesn’t really bring any new change in life.
4.Writing
I haven’t blogged anything. None of the books I read were worth writing a review. I wanted to write at least one answer on Quora each week but I could write only 3 this month. The reason why I was not able to write more was that I realised half way through my answer that I hardly had anything new to write about. Over the past few years of self-improvement, I did a lot of challenges. As a result, I failed in a few, struggling to make a habit with few more and then made a few others as an identity. Now, I just keep boasting about the same old things over and again. I need to start a self-improvement v2 to write fresh content. At the same time, I thought why not consolidate all that I learnt and implemented in life as a book. It will be one place as a go to guide who wants to try what I did and also a self reflection for me to gain an understanding on what I mastered and what I need to master and what I wish to try in the next version.
Goals for Feb 2020
1.Pranayamam
One of the things which were a part of 2020 goals but couldn’t reach was sleep well and on time. Frustrated with that, I chose to do alternate nostril breathing for 5 minutes before sleep. It helped me have a deep sleep after a very long time. Why limit such good things to just a few exceptional days? I want to practise breathing exercises for at least 5 minutes daily. Preferably in the morning and if I miss in the morning then in the night. I have a tough time to wake up completely in the morning so I resort to social media to get out of the drowsiness. Doing breathing exercises will jolt me out of sleep in a healthy way while countering my need for social media. This is going to be tough but totally worth it.
2.Write
Even though I decided to prioritize only one item for the month, this is like a hobby. If I get free time, I will write my book and aim to finish by April end.
How was your January? What are your plans for February?
Happy February!