2021 in Retrospect
For most people including me, 2021 felt a lot like 2020 — learning to adjust to the reality of the new normal introduced by the Pandemic. This new norm for me means attending fewer social events, working from home, inadvertently learning my neighborhood school bus and trash pickup routine, knowing when my neighbors rush home over lunch because they forgot to take out their trash, etc., but most importantly having a lot more time for self reflection and stillness. It also means more time to read books, watch movies, listen to podcasts, and take walks. This has allowed me to continue realizing salient truths about my habits (good and bad) and life in general. Thankfully, I scribbled down some of these realizations and thought to share them like I did last year in 2020 in Retrospect.
- If a person gets mad or starts acting out because you set boundaries in the relationship, it is more proof that you need those said boundaries.
- Stopping and recognizing patterns that you aren’t proud of can reduce your suffering. I learned this from attending a meditation course. The facilitator used this analogy “If you make a conscious effort to acknowledge that you yell every time you get mad, it can make you more aware in the moment and more likely to react differently the next time you’re provoked”.
- Recognize and quell the need to stay involved in peoples lives especially when it becomes apparent that its one-sided.
- Don’t take things too personally (If you want to be happy). This past year, I realized that I take things personally too often, for example, the friend who still hasn’t responded to my text from 3 months ago or the co-worker who often ignores my Teams messages but is quick to message me for help once they are stuck — are all things that greatly annoy me. I am realizing that my expectations of the person is often what makes me think that they ought to behave in a certain way. This way of thinking is me being unkind to myself and setting myself up for constant disappointment. I started making a concerted effort to treat these human behaviors as c’est la vie.
Thanks for reading! Please check out some of my previously published stories.
