All about 2019
This year is so worth writing about
2019 started right after my first-time experience with Vipassana. I never had an experience so intense in my life.
This year shaped me into who I am now. It wasn’t all pleasant and unicorns, it was difficult and filled with some intense experiences. I gained quite a bit of clarity and started valuing myself more than ever. I took up some difficult challenges and pleasantly surprised myself. It was a very unusual and unique year. I met some very interesting people throughout this year. I went on a solo trip to continue the ritual and promise I made to myself in 2017. It’s nice to see things growing.
I started looking at life as a garden, with different types of flowers and trees, (my garden is really big). Everything I do, everything I pursue is like a plant. I nurture it by giving it enough attention and all the work it needs just like I’d nurture my garden. I have learned to pay attention to all the plants and through self-exploration learned how to maintain and grow my garden of life. Every time I start a new project, I look at it as my new plant. Sometimes, it gets overwhelming and challenging, and it teaches me how to optimally navigate and make my way through difficulties.
I started writing more, I started enjoying my job, I began spending more time with myself without getting anxious and depressed.
Quoting Buddha, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
I met some great mentors, for both my professional and personal life this year. Right guidance and inspiration can take a student to great heights. I am immensely grateful for having met these mentors.
This year I lost my grandfather. I began understanding the value of family more than ever. Death of a family member is very overwhelming and exposes you to emotions you did not know existed.
This year, the guy who showed me what true love may look like got married to someone else. Mixed emotions about this experience. Sometimes we like to live in an illusion, quite comfortable it is that way. This illusion was broken this year. I am grateful to have met him and wish him the best. I learned how to make peace with the past.
I will always be grateful for all the lessons and experiences this year brought in my life. Just like so many people helped me this year in so many different forms, I hope I also touched a few lives.
Takeaways from 2019,
1. Your inner world defines your outer world
2. There are no obstacles in life that you can not overcome
3. You can not plan your life around other people
4. Look forward, and not backward, although it brings comfort
5. Death is inevitable
6. Family is more important than you may think
7. Spend time doing things that feed your soul
8. Have goals, and more importantly have faith in them
9. Do the work, that is simply the only way
10. Detox, physically, mentally, emotionally.
This is one of my many favorite photos from 2019,
