Hello 2020!!!

Aah, it feels good to be back in blogland! First, let me wish you all a happy new year and decade! Something about 2020, the symmetry of the number may be, gives it a special verve and meaning. It makes me feel that this year will be special! This year will see momentous events! This will be a year of accomplishments and great surprises of the best kind! Talk about being a Pollyanna! 😃

Although 2019 started off for me with a series of health issues and quitting a job, it went on to be one of the best years for me personally. This is the year that marked my return to Art of Living. Today I have completed 250 continuous days of Sudarshan Kriya practice - the longest I've ever done! But the way it came about was truly remarkable.

Having been a stay at home mother for several years, I was totally out of touch with the younger generation. What I encountered in my short-lived job of 5 months was a shocking eye-opener for me. Granted that the 18-year-old young adults I had to teach were among the lowest scorers, the barest scrape-throughs in the current academic arena, their attitude to life was what actually shocked me. They had no respect for teachers, barely stood up or greeted me when I went to class and preferred talking to each other or playing PUBG after bunking classes, grew aggressive and got into fights at the drop of a hat, turned out very poor academic work and were not at all interested in studies. This was the majority section. Then there was another set that was very docile in class - because they were stoned out of their minds! And all these were students whose parents were not well off and had to pay hefty semester fees to get them a degree. Only a handful of girls and one or two boys showed any interest, sense of responsibility or academic promise.

The breaking point for me was when one of the better students took a long period of absence and then came back for her semester exam. Her normally smiling face was swollen and she seemed very subdued. A tearful mother told us that when classes started, she had asked for a smart phone since "all my friends have one". But soon, the use of the phone escalated to extremely long periods of time till she was not sleeping and started showing signs of emotional disturbance. The distraught parents confiscated the phone and it triggered an uncontrollably violent reaction that resulted in her trashing half of their house. She had to be admitted in hospital and treated for withdrawal symptoms! 

I thought about my own kids. We have been doing our best to inculcate good values and keep them away from online games and screen time. Our elder is 15 and younger one not far behind. Within a couple of years, they too will have to go out in the world among such people and technology. How can we help them have a solid base that would stand them in good stead when we are not around to protect them? That is when I talked to my colleague Janu who is an active participant in Art of Living activities. She told me about a course called Prajna Yoga that seemed to fulfill my requirement of a good daily spiritual practice for kids to follow. Little did I know the full scope of the course then - but that is matter enough for another post.

To cut a long story short, I got my kids to do Prajna Yoga, which in turn kindled my desire to rejoin Art of Living. I had done the Basic Course back in 1999. In April 2019, I did its current version, the Happiness Program and started doing Sudarshan Kriya on a daily basis. It was my greatest regret that I had not been able to do an Advanced Course when I first joined AOL and I was able to attend it in August this year in residence at the Ashram at Thiruvananthapuram. I was also lucky enough to attend the Sahaj Samadhi program in November and have been meditating daily since!

After 250 days of practice, when I turned back to look at 2019, the sight truly staggered me. Why? Remember how much I struggle with perfectionism, procrastination and lack of productivity? I was constantly given to just accomplishing whatever was just required for the day and left it at that. Craft projects just stayed in my head and on my computer while my supplies languished indefinitely. I had a plan to update the tired curtains at Karthi and in 2018, bought enough material to sew curtains for the living and two bedrooms. I stopped after making curtains for the living room. And all those bundles of curtain material sat undisturbed for a whole year. And now...

For this Onam, I had a brainwave to sew an apron using the tired and overused apron that I had been using at the time as a template and bought some material for it. To my own surprise, I put my plan to work within just 2 months of buying the material!!!😀 It took me just two hours to complete from start to finish!

And talking about crafts... Here goes my 2019 parade. First, another Anchor long stitch project, now proudly adorning our living room...

Then, a crocheted birthday shawl for a friend (I had planned it for her birthday in 2018)...

An infinity scarf for a young friend in Delhi...

And all this in the midst of handling all the daily jobs at home, getting the kids to do Prajna Yoga twice a day without break, helping out three clients with language correction in their doctoral theses and reading around 140 books. The only thing I didn't do regularly was updating my blog!

Besides this jump in productivity, I have also experienced more joy and fewer black moods in general as well as quicker recovery from colds and fevers. I have also become much more laid-back in general because this academic year my elder is going to face his first board exams and normally I should have been stressed out. But I am not. And people don't push my buttons as easily as they used to. The greatest surprise of all has been the way I've stuck to something good for me for 250 days in a row!

So yes, 2019 has been a great year and I am so looking forward to accomplishing more in 2020! I hope all of you are beginning the new year with great hope and anticipation! See y'all next week!