Srishti Kumari

Tag: inner work

  • Show Up

    Because You Need To

    Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

    Sometimes, you only need to show up. Yes, that’s it. Just show up. Show up, because you owe that to yourself. No matter when your day starts and when it ends, show up for that one thing, for at least that one hour you need to.

    Many times, we don’t need inspiration or motivation, but momentum – the one thing that makes you sit and do your work, and get it done without thinking much about your relevance in this universe. Yep, it’s true!

    And I have started quietly loving this version of mine (very recent though), and my loved ones, where they have such clarity of their goals that whatever happens throughout the day, including the emotional ups and downs, they show up. They just show up when they are required to without any fuss.

    You want to read more? Read a few pages, or just a single page every day from any book you want to read and explore. Just one page every day. I’m pretty sure you have that much time.

    You want to write more? Do you feel like you have nothing to write when you sit in front of your laptop? Fine. Start with how your day has been so far. Just start it. Scribble the story, and finish your rough draft. Now you have a draft ready to edit and publish later.

    I know, you have 100s of ideas, headlines, storylines, and content pieces saved in your Google Docs, in your Notes, in your LinkedIn and Instagram saves, and in your Medium and Substack reading list. Oh, and the one in your private WhatsApp chat (with yourself)!

    My dear writing friend, I know you have all of these, and you still wait for inspiration. You need action. Just start scribbling that one blog piece, and the story will come to you. Show up for the sake of your sanity. Please!

    Has health gone downhill? Want to be fitter and more confident? Then show up. Move your body. Outdoor walk, indoor walk, walk on treadmill, deep breathing exercises, basic beginner-level cardio & strength training, dance workout – do anything in the world you can do.

    Just do it. Do it at least for half an hour 4 times a week. It won’t give you a celebrity-like figure, but it will break your inertia, your initial resistance, your lifelong wait for motivation, and you will finally feel the process happening through you.

    When a few pages read every day brings you to page no 300 in a 400-page book, or when even 30 minutes of everyday walk builds your discipline and mental strength to keep going on in this journey ahead within a month, then you actively start to focus on the momentum, not motivation.

    Yes, motivation is important. But choosing to do the things that move the needle, that’s a game-changer. And I can say this from my experience that sometimes doing less is more – just make sure that you show up for the things that get you into the flow you need to be in.

    Inspirational content is superb to watch, but small changes made every day, out of clarity and intention, can inspire like a dozen motivational talks can never.

    I hope you got my point.

    Note: This piece was originally written for my LinkedIn post, but it exceeded the character limit, as you can see, so I edited and shortened my LinkedIn post a bit, and this is the original version.

    I hope you found it useful.

  • Getting Ready Helps Me

    And I am definitely happy for this change

    Photo by nikhil uttam on Unsplash

    Since the arrival of spring this new year, I have started doing one thing, and it is helping me a lot internally in showing up every day. And that thing is “getting ready for the day”. Nothing fancy or fashionista type. Just getting ready.

    So, what I have started doing is as soon as I wake up, within 2-3 hours, depending on the exercise duration and assistance in house cleaning and cooking, I get ready.

    I bathe, do my haircare and skincare, put on my clean and colourful clothes according to my mood, wear a few pieces of jewellery, and apply my favourite shade of nude lipstick and a small bindi on my forehead. It goes well with my Indian/ethnic attire, which I am frequently wearing these days.

    After getting properly ready for the day ahead, I usually express my gratitude to the universe for having my back and always helping and loving me unconditionally.

    This morning thing of getting ready intentionally and thanking the universe for all the blessings in my life kind of just shifts the whole body language and energy inside me. My mind gets the message that now I am ready for the day, and I will sit and work in my study for a good few hours. It helps in carrying on on the days when I feel I can’t do much. Even reading a few pages of a book on such days counts as something done. Getting ready helps me in achieving those small things with a relatively better state of mind.

    I have started getting ready for myself. For my work. For my growth. For the future me. I show up for my future self. It helps me in taking small steps every day in the right direction.

    I didn’t know that getting ready intentionally, and thanking generally, when done intentionally, can be really effective. For me, it is working quite well. Especially in terms of energy that I feel inside. It is definitely a lot healthier and more positive as compared to the days when I used to wake up late and start reading or watching podcasts in my pyjamas. The effect on mood is real.

    And I am happy that I started this at the right time. Spring, I think, is the best time for us as well to gain momentum and really change the things we need to change. It works.

    What about you? Have you started doing anything that has changed your approach towards your day and work in particular? I would love to know any such stories. Please share them in the comments below.

    Happy living.

    Take care.

  • Why Insecurity Creeps In?

    Is it because I am not one hundred percent secure yet?

    Photo by Anna Keibalo on Unsplash

    I don’t know what the reason is behind it exactly, but this is something I think is true. After all, it is a reflection of my inner world. I can’t deny that.

    After a lot of shortcomings, complexes, and challenges, we finally admit that we need to accept ourselves as who we are and leveling up ourselves can only be fulfilling when it happens from the place of self-love instead of self-pity and hatred.

    We acknowledge our limitations. We accept our flaws. And we work on ourselves so that our today’s actions make our tomorrow more accomplished and fulfilling. This long yet rewarding process demands from us one thing, and that is – a deep sense of security within.

    A deep sense of security that comes from an unshakeable faith that no matter what, you will achieve and live your dreams for sure, and the universe is working in your favour.

    But insecurity appears and stares us in so many subtle forms that you wonder if you are doing enough inner work.

    Becoming a zen monk is not my life goal yet, but becoming the person who is so secure within that external insecurities can’t affect her even for a second is one of my goals for sure. And my heart says that it is possible, it is doable.

    How? I don’t know the step-by-step method today. But one thing I know for sure is that my sense of security comes from my inner confidence, my confidence comes from taking aligned actions and showing up with a lot of love and respect towards my goals, and my actions come from my intentions, my mindset, and my beliefs.

    So, taking a bit closer look at my beliefs, my mindset, my intentions, and my actions in my everyday life can maybe take me closer to the roots of my insecurities that sometimes pop up out of the blue and make me feel uncomfortable. And I can focus more on those beliefs, mindsets, and actions that boost my sense of security deep within over a long period of time.

    The key is a bit of reflection here.

    It’s about inner work.

  • Home-cooked meals

    And my love for them

    Photo by Abhishek Sanwa Limbu on Unsplash

    I am noticing one thing. As I am growing older, I am more and more inclined towards home-cooked meals. For me, now, the Ghar ka khana is ultimate heaven.

    Although since childhood I have been that kid who used to eat home-cooked meals only, and chips, biscuits, icecreams, or samosas were the things of the weekend. I was never that kid with a junk food habit.

    But there was one more thing. I was also not the one who used to eat ghar ka khana happily. Actually, till age 8, I can remember I was the kid whose parents really struggled to feed her. I was very thin, usually sick, and an underweight kid then. Mummy papa tried many things, but it just didn’t work. I hated eating veggies and used to throw them in the dustbin. I had no liking for any fruit as such. Daal I didn’t like, roti, and rice I used to eat with a little oil and salt. Yeah, that was me. And bread? I used to like bread, jam, or bread with ghar ki malai then.

    Mumma papa got me a few medicinal syrups so that I can feel hungry and eat proper meals, but that wasn’t very helpful either. Yes, samosa, maggie, noodles, icecream, chocolates, chips were all my occasional friends then. Occasionally means once a week or every two weeks here.

    I was 8 when I got admitted to my hostel in Banasthali in the 4th standard. It was the year 2005.

    There, things started changing. We had fixed meal times, and we had to reach our mess on time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. We used to take our plates, and our wardens used to serve us the meals. There, I started eating healthily. I don’t know what it was! Was that the effect of community, because we used to go together for our meals, sit with each other, eat and talk, and sometimes talk a lot and eat while we talked? I don’t know!

    I kind of started eating like a healthy kid. The hatred for veggies took a bit of time to go, and it had to go because there I couldn’t throw my food in the dustbin so easily. I had to finish my food properly. And then, the variety of food, the taste, the menu was fortunately very good in my hostel. Sure, the hostel food goes through its own share of downs, but those few days were nothing compared to the tasty meals we had and enjoyed during our hostel days.

    I developed my liking for eating healthy and normal ghar ka khana because of my hostel days. I know it might sound ironic to many of you, but it’s true in my case. My health got better. I went from an underweight kid to a healthy BMI girl over time, and it stayed very well during all those years there.

    Then, after coming to Delhi for my college studies, I naturally became inclined towards ghar ka khana as I started living with my parents. And then, I kind of started admiring and loving Mumma’s specialities more and more. I remember those were the days when I used to think that I had missed a lot of my mumma’s food, and now I am going to make up for all those years. Yes, I used to eat in my college canteen as well, and that was the time when I fell in love with momos, but ghar ka khana had become the ultimate satisfaction by then.

    Today, I am not living in my hostel or with my mom permanently, but one thing I am grateful for is that I have fairly developed the taste and a lot more liking for ghar ka healthy and tasty khana. And honestly, I am grateful for this liking.

    Yes, I do have my KFC chicken burger, momos, and chocolates, and cakes, but I have intentionally brought them to a few cheat meals or day outs in a month. They are occasional. Ghar ka khana is the regular thing for me.

    I hope more and more people start including more home-cooked meals in their lives. I know it’s not easy every time. Especially when you are not good at cooking, it is difficult. And many times, you have a time crunch as well. However, taking a step towards making this happen is a hundred percent worth your time. I have no doubt about it.

    Give it a try, my friend.

    Eat healthily. Live happily.

    Take care.

  • Waking Up Without An Alarm

    Is a blessing guys!

    Photo by Janez Fabijan on Unsplash

    It truly is. Imagine you wake up naturally, without an alarm, after a deep restorative sleep at night, and feel very fresh and excited to get up and start your day on a healthy note. Isn’t it a blessing?

    For me, it surely is. And especially now, when I have started to listen to my body and understand my rhythm and energy throughout the day, I have started seeing the immediate results of proper sleep, proper rest time, and waking up feeling fresh and healthy towards the day ahead.

    It’s like you are starting your day with your happy hormones, right? Isn’t that cool? For me, a hundred percent.

    Honestly, I am kind of developing a lot of love and respect for early to bed and early to rise thing. And when you actually live it, you get to know what all you actually miss while scrolling social media and Netflixing all night. I have done that. And I do these things still now and then. But the time, energy, and intention behind those things have changed, or I can say are changing. And for me, it’s a healthy and positive thing.

    The feeling of having a proper, good night, restful, and happy sleep without any interruptions, and waking up naturally after a few good hours of rest is pure gold. And this is one of the foundations of our health and longevity, which we don’t take seriously enough.

    Sure, life happens. You fall sick. You are not in a good physical and mental state, relatively, and sleep gets affected. No doubt about it. But, we have the power to start, restart, again start, and restart again and again to sleep early, take proper rest for our body and mind rejuvenation, and wake up not because of an alarm, but your internal body alarm, every day.

    I hope you have a good sleep, a very good rest time, and a very beautiful, calm, quiet, and soft mornings ahead.

    Happy mornings. Happy living.

    Take care.