October wouldn’t be October without….The Mindful Break!

Yes, yes, I know what you’re thinking. It’s festive time, with Diwali – the largest Indian festival – around the corner. But for me, October has become synonymous with mindfulness.

Why I needed a mindfulness practice

October is a crazy-busy month at work. I’m usually up to my eyeballs in deadlines, with reports coming in to be edited faster than you can say Jack Rabbit. It’s also festive time, and I’m usually stressed about work, moping about not being able to enjoy the festivities, scrambling to keep up with Diwali shopping and decorating, and generally losing my sanity one moment at a time.

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Ladies and gentlemen, The Mindful Break is back! What started out four years ago from my desire to cultivate a mindfulness practice, has become a regular feature that I – and many of The Mindful Break regulars – look forward to each October.

The need for a mindfulness practice

And for good reason. For one, it gives us a chance to connect on Instagram in a stress-free way, taking a moment to pause and breathe and share a slice of our life and thoughts with one another. It feels like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise stressful environment, as we juggle work, home, studies, families, social duties, and seemingly endless to-do lists. Instead of just vegging out on the sofa and binge watching Netflix, which just numbs us out and does us more harm than good, The Mindful Break encourages us to take a pause.Continue reading→

“At least three times every day take a moment and ask yourself what is really important. Have the wisdom and the courage to build your life around your answer.” ― Lee Jampolsky

We lead busy lives. Caught between work and home; juggling the needs of our family; and the incessant noise from addictive social media platforms clamoring for our attention, we often end up numbing out by binge watching serials on Netflix. It’s just so much easier to give in to the siren song of these companies after all.

And why wouldn’t it be easy? All of these companies – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix – use subtle and not-so-subtle psychology to keep us constantly scrolling and addicted to their platforms. We’ve become used to the instant gratification of a flurry of likes as soon as we post that photograph on Instagram, or to finding the next awesome series on Netflix.Continue reading→

Six months into 2019, and I think it is the perfect time to pause, check-in with my intentions for the year, and course correct as needed.

At the start of this year, I happily embarked on a depth year {you can read more about what a depth year is here and my depth year framework here}, aiming to go deep in a couple of areas that are important to me.Continue reading→

How do you answer the question: What did you do today? Or over the weekend?

Most people I meet respond with the tales of dinners they went to, parties they hosted, sales they shopped at, or kilometers they jogged. In response to these stories, that are often filled with drama and anecdotes and news of the latest fashion or lack of good style options, my answer to this question is often: nothing.Continue reading→

I took my introverted, hermit self to my neighbour’s house for a story telling session on Saturday. It was a session on performance art and spoken word poetry, along with a mini workshop on poetry writing in Hindi. I assumed that I would simply be an observer, but no – that was not to be.

Not only did I write my first ever Hindi poem, I recited it too. Not once, but twice. In room full of strangers. With shaking hands and twitchy muscles, because I really am not good with public speaking.  Continue reading→