2015 Recap & going into 2016

Welcome lovely readers,

A new year marks a place in time, from which one can measure progress. It gives me the satisfaction of looking back at a year and feeling a sense of accomplishment. I always attempt to learn new skills, acquire new knowledge and generally improve on myself as a person; and as I have mentioned in many posts 2015 was indeed a year where I managed to tick all those boxes.

The danger of trying to do too much is that I rarely have down time, or a respite from the hamster wheel which I put myself on. It’s in my nature to always keep moving forward and stay busy - it’s part of my philosophy to enjoy every day for the joy it brings and opportunities presented. An important lesson I learnt in 2015 is that I need to pace myself, and more importantly keep busy with things that really matter to me. I need to spend my energy on things and people who matter in my world.

During my month long holiday and a spiritually rejuvenating trip to Bali (post on this still to come), it was highlighted again that I need to spend more time to balance my work and rest. I became increasingly aware of this during last year and towards the later part of the year I started making some changes to put this in place. Some of the steps included excluding negativity from my space, read - associating with happy, inspirational people. People who are successful in their own right and understand the philosophy of spreading good energy and finding the time to help others. I have found that steering clear of negative situations and choosing my involvement (or non involvement) in certain areas, have gone a long way to giving me the time and energy for my down time.

It’s a proven fact that toxic, unhappy people and situations drain more energy than they are worth, leaving very little left for what’s most important. Another step I took was to actively start reading again, and not just light hearted novels (which absolutely have a place and time) but meaningful books with life changing lessons. I enrolled in an academic business course to sharpen business skills and learn new things. My interactions with people too have changed, as I found through this journey I was more present in conversation and connected easier with like minded individuals. This journey was one towards a stronger and better me, and took me on a road of introspection- where I had to first take a long, hard, critical look at myself. It was not an easy path, I realised some things about myself which I didn’t like, and in identifying these traits, I was able to remedy them and move forward.

All of these address the intangible energies of the body and mind, and this also ties in with physical health. Therefore eating healthy and pushing the heart rate on a regular basis goes a long way to helping with a total life detox (as I like to call it). Furthermore, taking the time to look after your appearance and grooming just adds to process, it doesn’t mean one is superficial. In fact, what is on the outside should mirror what’s on the inside; so if you feel good on the inside, take the time to reflect it on the outside.

These are just a few of the things I implemented during last year in an attempt to gain better balance. The biggest lesson I learnt?

It all begins from the inside, be real, be you and you can never go wrong.

And onto a recap on a few of 2015’s posts, and the applicable the theme of the posts. The journey just continues into 2016.