Word of The Year 2022 - Change

 Following some fellow bloggers and friends, I started this tradition of setting a word every year to focus on it. I did a very bad job in focusing on that word last year. I even forgot the word that I have set. It doesn't mean that I cannot try again! So, a post to set a word for the year 2022. :-)

Hope you all celebrated the new year! This year, we just moved to a new place and so, it's a lot of work packing and unpacking during the new year. We are excited to arrange our new home, settle into the new place, adjust to new weather, and make new friends. So, we are in the process of many changes.

Of course, this is the word I need to focus on this year. This came to my mind without much thinking.

Change is inevitable and sometimes, challenging as well. But, I believe change is good. Actually, my sentence should be "adapting to the change". Since it's a single word, setting it to CHANGE makes sense.

Here is to the new beginnings. Cheers and Happy New Year 2022. Hope this new year brings you all Love, Happiness, and Good Health. 

Until next time,

Word of the year 2021 #MondayMusings

I usually, don't make any resolutions for the new year as I believe anything good can be started any day of the year. But, I started this tradition of choosing a Word of the Year from other blogger friends. I choose a word, keep that in mind for the whole year as guidance.

My Word for this year 2020 is Self Care. Read this post to know why I set it. 

How did I follow this in 2020?

If I should rate myself, I followed it 7/10, and then I was carried away with work pressure and technical learning for the remaining 30% and completely ignored the Self-care part. Not bad though, I never expected myself to follow my word of the year 100% though it's an ideal case. 

Self-care to me means spending some time on myself which makes me feel happy. I love to travel, sleep, read books, learn new things, dance, blog, and so on.

Covid didn't allow us to travel as much as we wanted to, but I am grateful to have explored many local places instead. I kept blogging and book reading aside mostly to not stress myself more. I might not have spent more than a few hrs on painting. Most of my 2020 went to work, family, dance school, and nothing else. 

Increased my sleep time more than the earlier years and took care of my health. I could improve a bit on yoga which helped with my health too. But, I was not successful in removing my stress completely in daily life. This in turn impacts Self-care. 

So, as a continuation of this year's goals, I choose my word of the year for 2021 as Relax. 

The work, family, cooking, and all are a routine, but I am planning to take things easy, slow down, and not be more ambitious / be a perfectionist in whatever I do. 

I don't want to go by the plan as I usually do and go with the flow and situations. I want to make decisions on the fly, respond as per the situations. This is so unlike me as I always plan too much. I am thinking to enjoy my present instead of planning more for the future.

What are your plans for the new year? Any resolutions/goals / any word that you want to focus on? Do let me know in the comments. 

Until next time,

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Linking this to #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne @ everydaygyaan. 

Revisiting the Word of the Year #MondayMusings

My Word of the year for 2020 is Self-care. We are already in the 9th month of the year and I want to revisit that post to see where I am with my Goals.

Personal goals set in Jan:

• Yoga at least thrice a week - I couldn't follow this more than 2 months I believe, so I am going to give it a second try in the coming months.

• Having nutritious breakfast at the right time every day - I could follow it most of the months. So, on track with this. 

• Sleeping before 10 am - Could achieve most of the days - On track

• Making time for hobbies- especially blogging and painting - I decided to step back on a few things due to health reasons and blogging is one of them. No regrets! :-) Could paint a bit though to my satisfaction.

• Keeping Saturday for myself to relax - The best goal this year! I enjoyed my time mostly every Saturday either by sleeping more or eating out or traveling. Sundays are dedicated to my dance classes in the mornings.

The first few months were busy with office work and health problems which made me realize that I need to spend more time on Self-care then ever.

Nowadays, I am spending more time on just relaxing, taking naps in the afternoons on weekends, watching Netflix on the evenings on weekdays, taking local hikes on weekends, sleeping early every day, preparing simple meals, including more vegetables in my diet etc.,

Reducing my office work is not in my hands but I can better organize my days now. I have cancelled all my morning office calls before 7 Am however important they are. I am hoping I can continue this in future. I am trying to strictly close office work by 4 Pm, though not possible every day. 

I have reduced my time on blogging, book reading, and painting as it seems like I need more rest or reduce my office stress to some extent. 

Do you set goals for the year? or a Word of the Year? If so, do you track them?

Do let me know in the comments.

Until the next time,

Linking this to #MondayMusings hosted by Corinne @everydaygyaan.com

Word of the year 2020 and some Goals

Happy new year folks! Here comes my first post of 2020.

How did you welcome the new year?

We didn't cut a cake or awake till midnight on 31st December to celebrate. Kids were sick and it was an usual day. Let it be! This didn't dampen my spirits anyways.

Iam excited to write this post and share my word of the year and a few Resolutions/ should I say goals? 

Word of the year is a specific word that I want to focus on in 2020.

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This year's word would be " Self-Care". 
My word for 2019 was 'Slow down'. I took things slowly in 2019 but I want to focus on me and my health as well this year. This post gives a history of my previous words for each year. 

I want to focus on caring for my health, my body and my mind. Every goal I set this year will be aligned to this word.

Here are some goals:

Personal goals:

• Yoga atleast thrice a week
• Having nutritious breakfast at right time every day
• Sleeping before 10 am
• Making time for hobbies- especially blogging and painting 
• Keeping Saturday for myself to relax

Family goals :

• Focus on cooking healthy meals
• Helping kids regularly with homework 
• Watching movies together 
• Traveling atleast twice a year
• Making crafts and painting with kids

Professional goals:

• Improving technical expertise 
• Being a better leader and role model
• Work by gut and intuition 
• No carrying work to home and no thoughts of home at work
• Maintaining strict work hours without feeling guilty

Travel Goals :

• Long distance trips atleast twice a year
• Leisure travels or one day trips atleast 4 per year

So, those are all my goals for the new year. I hope the 20 square (2020) brings good luck to you all. 

Do you believe in the word of the year? Do you set any goals? 

Do let me know in comments.

Until next time, 

Linking this post to WOTY linkup hosted by Corinne from everydaygyaan.

2017 in Review and Word of the year for 2018 #ChattyBlogs

We reached the last week of the year 2017. It seems like the year has gone fast when I review, but I had a good time overall. 

The first half of the year was not something significant but only good thing is that I started teaching dance in 2017. I cooked and experimented new recipes while cribbing about all the kitchen work I hate. 

Life seemed interesting from May when I got my driving license. The unlimited library visits made me happy. I took kids to a lot of activities in different parts of the town and we attended many fun events. 

More freelancing software testing work poured in and kept me busy. I have participated in many Instagram photo challenges and Writing challenges on my blog. My readership base grew and I focused on improving my network of friends. Diwali dance performance was good and because of this event, I made a lot of new friends. My kids got new friends too. 

In December, there are a lot of things to be grateful for. I started a new art form "Zentangle" and I am enjoying it to my heart's content. Of course, my reading time is replaced with Zentangle but it is very relaxing to my mind to draw at least for 30 mins a week. I started teaching dance to more students which also reduced my reading time. Many book reviews are pending as of now, but I don't want to rush myself reading them. I want to enjoy reading each book instead of just picking it up for review and finishing it in hurry.

So, that was about my 2017 which is both satisfying and happy. 

I don't usually set any new year resolutions as I believe that any good work should start as quickly as possible without waiting for any day. But, I want to pick a specific word for the next year which keeps me motivated and focused.

My word of the year for 2018 is "Positive Spirit". 2017 is definitely better than 2016 for me. My positive spirit made it the best. I want to continue the same for the next year too.

Do you set any word for the year? Or do you set new year resolutions? Do let me know your thoughts in comments. 

Until next time,

Linking this to #ChattyBlogs hosted by Shanaya. 

Good Bye 2016 #FridayReflections

This year has been a hell of a ride with many ups and downs. I don't set any specific goals or choose a specific direction during the start of the year, but if I had to think of one word which describes my 2016, it is 'CHANGE'.

Change is the only constant of life. 

I know this quote for a long time and I repeat it whenever a change is inevitable. This is to prepare my mind to give less resistance. But, this year has been full of changes like moving to a different place, quitting my job, engaging kids more, cooking, freelancing, blogging, reading a lot of books etc.,

This year started with my father's Shashtipoorthi (60 years completion) in January. I enjoyed organizing the family function and it sure made a lot of lovely memories in my heart. February and March went in a jiffy with my elder one's birthday celebrations and school exams. We both had a fun time making many crafts too. By the end of March, I have quit my job and moved to a new place. Being a house wife, managing kids and cooking was tough initially, but these experiences taught me new skills and patience. Till September, I read a lot of books, reviewed, explored many new places, tried new cash back apps, tried user testing and blah blah. October was a fun time for Halloween and a lot of purchasing for thanks-giving. Here comes the December with the most awaited vacation. Atlast, time has come to bid farewell to 2016.

Source:www.pixabay.com

More posts will follow on my recent travelogues, which I am as always excited to share on my blog :-) and more book reviews too will pour in soon. But, this post is brief as it is holiday time and I don't want to be with my laptop for more time.

So, bid a farewell to the wonderful year 2016  and ring in the new year with the positive spirit.

Here are my hearty wishes to all my blog readers for the great new year ahead :-)

Until next time,

Linking this to #FridayReflections hosted by Sanch and Corinne.