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There has never been a better time to reach out for your best life. Primrose Monteiro-D’Souza pulled in the experts to bring you life hacks to set you on the right path
Eshanka Wahi is a Dubai and Delhi-based holistic wellness coach and entrepreneur who creates the ‘Eat Clean with Eshanka’ gut-strengthening nutritious superfoods and shares healthy recipes. She strongly believes that eating healthy is the strongest form of self-respect.
Priya Kumar is a motivational speaker, corporate coach and author of 15 inspirational books that have won 42 international awards. With a collective following of over a million people on social media, she is committed to making people’s lives better.
Kavita Devgan is a nutritionist, health writer, speaker and author of four bestsellers: Don’t Diet: 50 Habits of Thin People, Ultimate Grandmother Hacks, Fix It With Food, and The Don’t Diet Plan. She believes the key to long-lasting health is so in-our-face and simple that we simply miss it.
Isabelle Karan is a healer, yoga trainer, meditation and pranayama expert, and owner of Sabel Yoga & Wellness. She believes that each of us carries a beautiful light of consciousness and love in our hearts, and we need to help each other find the courage to let our light shine.
Dr Chandni Tugnait is a psychotherapist, life and business coach, and founder and director of Gateway of Healing. She uses different healing modalities and therapies to treat her clients, and conducts workshops to infuse positivity and promote self-empowerment.
Chetna Chakravarthy is a PositiveAction life coach, who has worked with personalities such as Academy Award-winner Guneet Monga and actor Sarah Jane Dias. Her SPEAK/LISTEN online series is an easy and transformational guide to help us use language to change our lives.
Shubhashree Sangameswaran is a writer, artist and illustrator who has published two books on sustainability, The Everyday Eco-Warrior and (Im)perfectly Zero Waste. She hopes to have more people experience the joy and mindfulness that comes from making art every day.
— Isabelle Karan
We think we have time. Time to stay in a job we don’t like. Time to procrastinate and overthink as if time is ours. Time to hold our power back and pack our dreams into boxes. The fact is: we don’t have time. We don’t know when our day will come. So do it now. Whatever you dream about, do it now. Whatever project you want to do, do it now. Whatever power you want to unleash, do it now. There is tremendous power in just doing it now.
2. Life Hack: Do Not Dim Your Light
— Eshanka Wahi
As women, we are conditioned to believe that we need to be soft, docile and silent; that being strong-headed and opinionated is unladylike. Break away from that. Do not dim your light just to ‘fit in’. Be the most authentic version of yourself, even as you evolve into a better version of yourself.
3. Make The Right Investments
— Kavita Devgan
Before you invest in life insurance and medical cover, make fixed deposits and buy equity and gold for the future – invest in your
health. Trust me, this is an investment that will pay you back the most, and, to do that, resolve to eat only quality food (Femina note: according to your finances). Even if it seems to be a little more expensive in the short term, you will be laughing your way to good health in the long run, and the monetary value of that is incomparable. Opting for poor-quality food is the worst disservice you can do yourself, and it will prove very expensive in the long run.
4. Replace ‘Adjust’ With ‘Adapt’
— Chetna Chakravarthy
Stop adjusting to situations and people’s whims. Instead, start adapting. ‘Adjust’ triggers the belief of having no choice, while ‘adapt’ allows you to tweak your plans and make room for what you want as well as what others want. Improvising and adapting is not just a good habit, it can be your superpower.
— Dr Chandni Tugnait
The word ‘should’ is very powerful. “I should be more productive”, “I should do more”, and other “shoulds” keep us trapped within a fixed mindset. The more we use ‘should’, the more guilty and stressed we feel instead of feeling empowered and confident. The word ‘should’ implies that you’re operating under someone else’s rules and that your life isn’t really yours. This makes us feel powerless. Change the language. Stop using ‘should’ and only say what you mean. For example, “I am going to be more productive”, “I am going to do more reading this week”, etc. You will notice how empowered you feel when you incorporate this change.
6. Be Emotional, Be Sensitive
— Isabelle Karan
It is often held against us women that we are emotional and sensitive and, yet, I believe it is our biggest strength. It is held against us because it scares people. Sensitivity can’t be grasped with logic. It is felt and known without explanation. Emotions are powerful beyond imagination. It is anger that starts a war and it is love that moves mountains. We are told to not be emotional and to not be sensitive because logic can’t explain these powers. Develop your sensitivity and you will be able to foresee success and failure way in advance. Harness your emotions and you will be a game changer.
7. Be Mindful To Make Better Choices
— Shubhashree Sangameswaran
Before we buy anything, it helps to stop for a moment or two and think about whether we really need it, where it has come from, and what its journey will be once we are done using it. Once we become a bit more mindful about the journey, it gets easier for us to make better choices. Whether it comes to food, clothing or lifestyle products, being mindful goes a long way in helping our planet.
8. Stop!
— Shubhashree Sangameswaran
Keep in mind that we’re consuming all the time – whether it’s the goods we buy, or the content we consume via our screens, books we read, etc. It would be great to give our overstimulated brains some downtime by taking a few minutes out each day to create something for ourselves, like some art, or to even just do something we totally enjoy. Something purely for the sake of it, something purely for ourselves.
9. Make Small Changes For Big Impact
— Shubhashree Sangameswaran
As the world slowly begins to open up, it’s important to remember that small things can go a long way in creating change. For instance, we can carry a reusable water bottle, perhaps a couple of spoons and a handkerchief every time we step out — simple, everyday things that can prevent a lot of single-use waste from being created. With small changes from many of us, more people become aware and can make better choices, and we have the power to demand better from our governments and businesses as well.
— Eshanka Wahi
Self-belief is a superpower. Let us acknowledge that we can do anything, that we can create a work-life balance to live the life we deserve. Let us raise our daughters to be independent right from an early age. Women are gifted with the superpower of strength; use that strength to empower yourself.
11. Drink Your Wine And Dance While You Cook
— Priya Kumar
Women have superior memory and social cognition skills that equip them to multi-task and create solutions that work. Women can take care of family, home and career while living life. Have faith in your ability to handle situations that require you to stretch your attention and effort into multiple arenas. You can do it all with ease, grace and finesse. And the best part: you’re smart enough to know when to step back and take a break.
12. Tap Into The Power Of Happiness
— Isabelle Karan
13. Go For ‘And’, Not ‘Either/Or’
— Chetna Chakravarthy
“I can either have this or that in my life” needs to be swapped out with “I will figure out how to do this and that”. The key here is to understand that all the things you want won’t happen with the same intensity or at the same pace. For example, if you are a homemaker wanting to build a business, make peace with working only two hours every day and for only five days a week or less. Instead of struggling to make time, realign your timelines. Base your goals on the time you can peacefully allot instead of setting goals and struggling to find the time to “make it all happen”. Remember the ultimate goal of your desires is to fill yourself with joy.
— Eshanka Wahi
Change your mantra of success. Do not wear the badge of being extremely busy and overworked all the time. Take time out for yourself, your close friends, your family. There’s no point in working so hard if you can’t take the time to have fun and play. While I do believe that giving 100% to your work is pivotal and that work is worship, real happiness lies in the memories created, experiences lived and quality time spent with the people you love. People do not succeed because they do not have any weaknesses; people succeed because they stay consistent with their habits. Meditate, stay active, eat clean, get sunlight, sleep well, destress, and engage deeply with your own self to be able to love yourself unconditionally. Make time for that.
15. Count Yourself In!
— Chetna Chakravarthy
When you set the table for dinner, first place your plate. Similarly, when planning an outing, ask yourself what you would like to do too. It’s not so much about whether others follow your plans, but about you acknowledging your own presence. When you choose to take a seat at the table, others will have no choice but to ‘see’ you and eventually hear you too. Also keep in mind that our priorities are not etched in stone. A different person and situation is a priority every day. And, just like that, on a day when you need to prioritise yourself and the guilt hits you, let it walk along with you. Do what you need to despite that feeling, because, eventually, the coin that reads “It’s okay for me to take care of myself today” will drop.
16. Be Willing
— Chetna Chakravarthy
You can live as full a life as you are willing to. To live your potential, you have to first be willing to see, hear and acknowledge yourself. The key word is “willing”. You can want many things, but, if you are not willing to do what that desire requires of you, you aren’t eligible to receive it. Instead of thinking about wanting less, figure out how you can do more and be more for yourself.
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