What a year 2021 has been. Sadly due to the pandemic, we have all lost someone close to us but here we are alive and kicking and we are about to enter the new year. The year 2021 taught us a lot of new skills and strategies and gave us new ways to look at the little things in life.
Looking back over the last 365 days, Devina Kaur - radio host and producer, and the author of Too Fat Too Loud Too Ambitious shares the top five lessons we can take with us into the New Year:
Know yourself and live your dreams
Get to know yourself as an observer of all that you go through, your emotions, your struggles, your heartbreaks. The better you know yourself, the more likely you are to succeed in the things that you want in your life. Self-knowledge which includes knowing your good side and not so good side results in loving every inch of yourself. As self-love is the key to being a healthier, happier, and more courageous person. Self-knowledge also makes you less afraid of following your inner spiritual power. Have faith that self-awareness will always lead you to further happiness. A quote from the book comes to mind "even though I still have fears, I also have a smile and a steady gaze aimed ahead of me. I can be happy that I didn't let cold logic get in the way of my dreams."
Self-acceptance
Learning to accept the full range of your emotions, your divinity, your sexy brilliant self brings new understanding and awareness. Like most people, we were probably never taught how to manage difficult emotions such as anger, guilt, depression. The truth is bad things will happen in life, but instead of attempting to flee or escape from harmful feelings or over-thinking them, practice mindfulness and live in awareness of all that shows. Self-knowledge leads to radical self-acceptance i.e. accepting the good and the not so good that shows up. Through sitting in stillness and silence you can ask yourself what you need in this very moment, and then follow through in action.
Increase your self-worth in the new year
The funny thing is, when you rise in love with yourself, everyone and everything around you looks beautiful. You attract even more love into your life. Another part of choosing to live in love by accepting yourself means practising self-love. It's incredibly challenging to maintain your self-love when you don't know your own worth. It is possible to not just know your worth, but you can also consciously create it. Self-worth is knowing your value. When you practice self-love, you embrace your strengths and weaknesses; accept that not everyone will see you as the sexy brilliant being that you are; decide to flourish despite others' judgement, and thrive by showing appreciation to yourself. Only then can you help others embrace their worth.
Abundance is your true home
In accepting yourself, you can accept others. You're in charge of your life. Therefore, it's up to you to love and appreciate your own body, divinity and mind in all of its wholenesses. As you become more empowered in your journey of becoming sexy and brilliant, you may hear statements like, "You're not the centre of the world." But, in fact, each of us is the centre of our own universe: all that you call life unfolds as a result of how you think, feel, intend, speak, and act on the world. You owe it to yourself, and to the universe, to think abundantly. If you believe there is enough abundance for all of us, you will never be poor spiritually.
Life is a party
Try to look at life as a party: sometimes a good party, and sometimes not such a good party. When we go through dark days, and yes we all go through dark moments, then life is not such a good party. When we go through tough times, we should take care of our emotional, physical, mental, sexual, and spiritual health to the best of our ability. How? By celebrating, being aware, and accepting every situation in a holistic manner as it is. Try to find joy, even if you're depressed, even in the negatives there is positivity. As we get to know ourselves better, we realize that the qualities we cherish in ourselves are also what we seek in a partner and in others: true honesty, keen friendship, and shared family values. We also value a state of personal awareness and high emotional and spiritual intelligence. We can learn to see our life as a party, no matter how low we may feel. When we do this, we will find ourselves less afraid to unveil our authentic sexy brilliant selves.
Many cultures (including Indian society) are plagued by occurrences of judgment, ridicule, and labelling whenever a shortcoming in one’s mental well-being is discovered. The individuals, who are suffering, become treated as an outsider which only further ostracizes them. This adds to the problem and a cycle of isolation and increased symptoms develops.
It’s been 20 years in Canada for the Nairs and they describe is at being “absolutely wonderful.” Reminiscing on their journey, Domani believes they have come a long way since 1996. “We have no regrets moving here. We were able to sponsor my parents here from Bangalore [now Bengaluru] in 2000 and having them live with us was of great help when our daughters were born.”
Just when you think there’s no way to make Tuesday movie-nights more interesting….you find out that the Vancouver Police Museum screens movies at the old city morgue.
