1. Incurable Optimist: Living with Illness and Chronic Hope This was such an incredible memoir of a college-going girl - Jennifer who learns that she has a chronic autoimmune condition where her kidneys are failing. What follows is the next two decades of her battle with this disease, ranging from scans, biopsies, dialysis, and multiple transplant surgeries, and how all of this impacted her and her family. With the constant uncertainty of getting a kidney transplant, infections, motherhood, staying in hospital for months, …
Self-Sabotage
I have an embarrassingly long list of things I promise myself to do and then not do it -- sometimes even intentionally. I’ve had different labels and often legit reasons/excuses for them. But it never dawned on me, that collectively this is called self-sabotaging. Credit goes to a recent book I read. Self-sabotage is the behavior and thought patterns that stop you from doing what you want to do. I’ve been on an auto-pilot mode where a situation triggers some internal dialogues resulting in subconscious behaviors and all this happens so …
How do you read books?
One friend saw me reading 'Made to Stick' which is the only book where I’ve used an entire packet of sticky notes and then some more. He asked, so what were the top learnings from this book? And I went blank. He asked again, seriously, not even top three or one? I went blank again. My mind chatter as much as I can recall was - I’ve to come up with an intelligent answer summarizing the best points.I’m not good with summaries, I’m more of a story person.How can one summarize a great book?Why haven’t I re-read this book?I should have …
Finding joy and magic in the mundane
Many of us treat joy like our mothers treat “the good silverware” — only brought out for special occasions. “The tyranny of when” - the idea that we will only be happy “when” we’ve lost weight, gone for that dream vacation, got a better job, or it’s your birthday. We tend to wait for these Hollywood moments, thinking they will make our lives wonderful - and they do. But they’re also, by definition, extremely rare and fleeting, and sometimes never even come about. But investing your happiness in a few key dates is like choosing to see in …
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Rewire your brain
Most self-help advice for any anxious, depressed, or anyone going through some mental trauma revolves around rewiring your brain. "X steps to fix your mood forever." Although well-intentioned, they all seem to skip a critical step. In order to rewire your brain, you first need to identify exactly when your brain is spiraling out of control. Often by the time you realize that you are feeling anxious or overwhelmed, it has already triggered so many things that it's hard even to pinpoint what you were stressed about. We all know the …
A day in the life of a newbie solo traveller
On my first solo trip to Kashmir, I wanted to go for a day or two hikes in Gulmarg/Pahalgam. But the weather had suddenly become quite cold (~Zero degree Celsius at night) and I didn’t have appropriate winter clothing. Contemplating between whether or not to buy all the winter gear and then a hard look at my overpacked suitcase took a while and by the time I stepped out, it was already 12 pm. And as luck would have it, the sun was blazing hot after 4 days of gloomy, cold, and rainy weather. I had seen a hot air balloon while crossing …
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