Life is giving us a chance to hit the brakes, pause and re-calibrate ourselves. There will be time soon to hit the throttle again. I want to bet that with the pause and the time to reflect; we will choose to drive our life differently. Maybe, not as much of a rush to the finish line! We will have more appreciation and regard for the nature that we are an integral part of! With such a close encounter with the virus, we will be closer to ourselves than we have ever dared to.

COVID-19 has  brought the world upside-down including mine. Our state has been hit particularly hard. There is a consistent stream of bad news that keeps getting worse. Given the nature of the situation, emotional well-being is extremely hard. It requires discipline and extra effort.

The affirmations (most of them as short poems) I wrote over the years, are now a part of this book.

The best improve scenes were the ones where the rapport and real-time collaboration between the performers was its finest. I learnt this first-hand from a mistake. In our scene, the cue from the audience was skate-board. As my partner pulled a chair, and pretended to put on the skates, I asked her what she was doing. She said she was putting skates on. I said, they were not skates. From then, we were in recovery mode. Luckily for us, it came out quite funny in the end. However, the cardinal rule of improve is that you don’t say NO. It is always building on ‘Yes, and…’, which builds the flow.

On the fifth day of challenge, I gave up. I took on this challenge as I thought it would be easy. There was so much stuff I had accumulated over the years, so getting rid of it will be no issue. The invitation was for a 30-day Minimalist Challenge from my friend, Barbara. I accepted the challenge.

The rewards of practicing gratitude for my own self are evident. Instead of taking things for granted, it has prepared me much better for ups and downs; which is what real life is. It has helped me find the silver lining in any situation.