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Thank you, 2023.

I entered 2023 with totally different aspirations but 2023 had other surprisingly interesting plans for me. Like most other years, it was full of ups and downs but here are few things that it taught me:

1. JOMO: have you heard of this term? JOMO stands for joy of missing out. Though I never had FOMO but this year I started enjoying my own company; being in my PJs, watching TV, reading in my clean house and doing some self care instead of socialising, wandering in malls, and eating out. I felt less bad about plans being cancelled and rather felt thankful for it. Well, it all might be because I am in my 30s now but ahhh! what a joy! 

2. Change is good: I happened to change my job in the last quarter of 2023. It was overwhelming to take that decision out of the blue and my mind was full of ifs and buts; anyhow I ended up taking the plunge and well, so far, it seems that I took the right decision. Change is scary and risky but so worth it. It is okay to be scared of the change but we gotta take the risk and see what happens. We either end up somewhere good or we learn some important life lessons.

3. Mental health matters: I always knew this but I practiced this in 2023. I kept people who drain my energy at one hand distance. I broke a 10 year old friendship because it had started to suck my joy. I let go of anything that did not make me happy; be it people-place-things. I even stopped completing movies and series that I did not find interesting enough, earlier I had to complete them for closure sake. Still, my mental health sucked at certain moments but well I deliberately tried to get out of such situations and I did (sooner or later).

4. Declutter: I started decluttering my almirah, drawers, and specifically my mind. I read somewhere that we suffer more in our imagination than reality and hence it’s most important to keep our thoughts clean. I practiced gratitude and reminded myself every now and then that my only goal in life is to be happy and at peace. Everything else is secondary. 

5. Minimalism: I am still working on this but I have stopped buying things and clothes that I don’t really need. I realised that I don’t even wear 25% of my clothes and now in the WFH scenario, all I wear is lounge pants and t-shirts. I still plan to pamper myself occasionally but no more hoarding carts unnecessarily; thats for sure.

For 2024, I have no set goals but I aspire to be disciplined enough to keep myself physically active, to eat clean as much as I can, to prioritise and cherish my mental health, and to enjoy my day to day life with my family and friends. 

May 2024 be a happy and flourishing year for all of us.


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