My Journey Towards Contentment

It was four years ago when I was expecting my second child that I had to get a few investigations done. Turned out that I was carrying Hepatitis B virus in my bloodstream that could be life threatening for both me and my child. Two days later, I had a miscarriage and I was shattered.

I was extremely worried about my health, my first child (who’ll take care of him if something happens to me) and was broken about what I had lost. Few weeks down the line I had severe cervical pain in my neck and it was so bad that I couldn’t just lie down. I had to sleep in an upright position for a month and a half. It was at that time I thought of taking charge of my health and realized that all these incidents were actually a wake up call. I gradually understood how my mental and psychological health directly affected the suffering that I experienced during those physical health issues.

I was fortunate enough to have the inclination towards self-discovery and love for reading that led me to an interesting journey that I am on, even today. I wish everyone gets this opportunity  to transform their lives and come out of the suffering into a state of bliss that I now experience. Though everything isn’t in our hands and there’s a divine timing for each event, there’s still a lot that we can do to make our lives better. Without going too deep into my story, I’d just like to share a few changes in my lifestyle that changed my life forever for good:

1. Cutting out the negativity from my life – no news, no gossip

2. Adding positivity : Reading books, meditating, watching videos/podcasts, spending time with people high on energy and ideas (in my case it was my son, my students and a few friends)

3. Being less judgmental: First for myself, then for others too and also practicing a little detachment with people and situations

4. Resolving any past conflicts : this comes with acceptance that everything is perfect in the grand scheme of universe and things turned out exactly they were planned to be , so it’s nobody’s fault….those people/situations were only a medium to get me some life lessons, so breathe deeply and LET IT GO (but I made sure to grab those lessons in a new light)

5. Feeding my spirit: Spending sometime with myself and doing at least one thing each day that fuels my competence and makes me internally happy(singing, writing, listening to music etc for me)  

6. Being grateful: Seeing beauty in life’s little things and realizing how blessed I am as compared to hundreds and thousands of others who crave for what I have. I  helped me in valuing and appreciating all the gifts that I already have in the form of relationships and material comforts.

7. Taking care of my physical health: Just as mind affects body, the body affects mind too. Eating right and finding time for exercise, yoga etc at least thrice a week.

8. Heart to heart conversations: Finding at least one person in  family or friends with whom you can indulge in straight from the heart conversations without any veils. And when I couldn’t find that one person, I’d start writing my thoughts.

9. Being kind and compassionate: I understood that kindness doesn’t cost much, we just need to shift our perspective a bit.  

10. Letting it be: This one is most important I believe. Not trying to control things that are beyond my scope and investing my energy only in things and people who matter. ‘No wasting’ as we have a limited amount of energy each day, spending wisely is important.

And the list goes on…but for now these are enough and I hope to come up with a part 2 as well. Do share in the comments what works for you and I m sure we can all learn greatly from each other. Thank you for reading 

Tagline by Alok Singha, check his post that inspired me to write this : https://os.me/short-stories/how-are-you-2/#comment-238886