Positive Living > Motivational Mondays

I LOVE Mondays!

After an invariably fun and busy weekend I look forward to Monday mornings. While everyone in my family gets back to their routine {work or school} it leaves me free for some nourishing detox and de-cluttering. Yes, it is one of the many advantages of working from home. This also means no #MondayBlues for me! 

Over the last six months or so I have found myself buoyant with happy energy on Mondays. Only recently I realised that I inadvertently follow some rituals to start the week on a positive note. Here are some of the activities that I enjoy indulging in, especially on Mondays:

•     Expressing Gratitude

I am blessed with a beautiful family and wonderful friends with whom we love hanging out. As a result my weekends turn out to be rather hectic between spending time with the kids, cooking fun meals, going out for meals with friends or family, a couple of late nights or maybe catch a movie.. you get the drift? My husband and I believe in maximizing funfilled moments, especially on weekends. And since I don't take anyone or anything for granted, when I switch on my laptop on Monday morning I invariably open my Gratitude journal and express thankfulness for all the wonderful people and happenings in my life.

•      Mental Cleansing

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but we all have a non-stop internal dialogue going on within our heads. It is like a commentary about all that is happening around you {and may also drift off on different tangents of the present moment, the past or an imaginary future}. It is usually pressed into the back corners of the mind, but it does exist. I find it very helpful and immensely cleansing to pour these random thoughts on to paper. Well, I started this practice almost two decades ago when I used to write with a free hand on paper but now I just prefer to type non-stop, without conscious thought about all that’s going on in my head. This practice not only frees up space in my mind {much like deleting cache files on your computer} but it also brings to fore some desires and goals as well as some negative thoughts may be holding me down. I feel much lighter and energized after this practice. (If you choose to try it do share with me your experience.)

•      Physical Cleansing

As you may have noticed, “good food” forms an important part of my weekends (as with most other days). I thus enjoy a bit of physical detox on Monday mornings. I don’t stick to a particular practice for this but simply follow my gut {pun intended J} I choose between the yogic kunjal kriya, a hot towel scrub, or a sesame oil body massage followed by a cleansing scrub made with natural ingredients. The idea is to remove excess toxins either from the gut or through the skin, which is one of the largest detoxifying organs of our body. {You can read up more about these practices as well as others that I have written about under the “healthy practice” link of “follow your path” on this blog.}

•      Organising my Surroundings

Although the routine cleaning and dusting of my home is done even on weekends, Monday mornings see me putting most things back into their designated spaces and I do try to de-clutter and get rid of at least a few items that we no longer require. With two kids at home it is mind-blowing how fast stuff accumulates – school papers, party favours, the non-ending list of clothes and accessories according to the seasons and of course games and toys. So be it cleansing the refrigerator or kids’ cupboards or even the accumulated mail of the previous week – I like to declutter, even if it’s only a little.

•       Goal Setting

After all the cleansing and de-cluttering I am ready to focus on the tasks as hand, set my goals, and even outline my desires. I enjoy writing affirmations and feel that just being clear about exactly what I want makes it possible for me to achieve it! {Read more about Affirmations and how they work here: http://www.eatlivedoyoga.com/2016/01/live-your-greatest-life.html }

So, cheers to the beginning of a brand new week and remember: Today is the First day of the Rest of Your Life! Hope you make the best of it.

Insight > Why You Should Write Everyday

Writing has a meditative quality. It has the ability of revealing thoughts that are embedded deep inside your mind. It can reach a part of your being where conscious thinking cannot reach. Very often, I find that writing creates the time and space to reason things out with yourself.

For me it's simple: Writing helps me to keep my mind clear. Writing helps me know myself better. Writing helps me set life goals for myself. And, writing has helped me create a life of my dreams.

While I cannot imagine a day without writing, I know there are many people out there who just can't imagine themselves writing. "Writing is not for me!" I have heard many people say. Even so, I cannot imagine why it won't help you.

Many people get stuck even before they start writing, not knowing where and how to start. I'll share some tips that helped to me to not only start writing for myself but even helped me become a professional lifestyle writer.

Write For Yourself: Many people experience a writer's block even before they start writing. I feel that most of us get stuck with writing articulately, as if to impress anyone else who would read what they've written. In order to write with abandon, when you get started keep your writings personal. You don't need to share your thoughts with anybody else if you don't want to. In fact, I would suggest, please don't share your writings with anyone if your purpose is to truly know yourself.

When you start writing, you'll realise that your mind is cluttered with thoughts that you wouldn't want to admit to yourself, let alone share them with anyone else. Let's admit that we're no saints. Even if we assume that we have mostly good thoughts and try to be good people, we all have thoughts that we'd rather keep in our heads than spell them out in front of anyone else. In order to create space in your mind, these are the thoughts that you need to start emptying out on paper. This exercise alone is so liberating!

Write Spontaneously: Once you're past the initial hurdle, you may be wondering where to get started. I would suggest that you start with thoughts that are top most in your mind, Right Now! If you start thinking about what you want to write, you may get stuck mid-way. Just start writing whatever is going on in your head. Before you know it, you'll be expressing your plan for the day or the next few days, you may end up writing a to-do list, you may start expressing something that has been bothering you, and so on. The best part about writing spontaneously is that you'll be surprised with the number of thoughts that clutter up your mind. (And we wonder why concentrating on any one thing is such a difficult task!)

Just as clutter in your environment saps you of energy, a cluttered mind keeps you distracted from the present. There's always so much to do. If we keep it all in our mind, I find it starts going in circles in our head. Just writing out everything creates some empty space in the mind that can then be utilised for creative thinking and constructive planning on how to get things done.

Get To Know Yourself: I have heard from so many friends that they don't really like their current jobs, but for the lack of knowing what they truly want to do, stay stuck in a rut. Most people have a general idea of how they would like to shape their lives, but when it comes down to the details, they have no clue about where to get started.

According to me, the first step of living the lives of your dreams is knowing what you really want.

So what are you waiting for? Get a pen and paper, or open your laptop or the notes in your phone, and start expressing your thoughts. Do drop me a line, if you find the exercise liberating, joyful, healing or you experience some surprising revelations.