On 7 Jan 2023, to begin the new year on a positive and uplifting front, we had with us one of our most frequent and favourite guests, Dr Monika M Dass, who has been with us on our Health Live webinar from its inception. She has also conducted a few counselling sessions when the times were tough and demanded a little help from the experts. This week she spoke on Ways to Make 2023 a Truly Happy New Year.
A little about Dr Monika Dass
Dr Monika Dass is a Chartered Psychologist, a Chartered Scientist and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, UK. Professionally, she has counselled around 15,000 individuals in a span of 20 years and has published several papers in both Indian and international journals.
A trained pianist and vocalist from the Trinity College of Music, London, Dr Dass has influenced many lives with the joyful learning of music. She has been actively involved in several popular musicals such as The Sound of Music, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and so on…with her expertise in developing children through drama. She firmly believes that any extracurricular activity can help tap into one’s potential and bring out the best in an individual.
Welcome to the start of a new year. In this weeks Health Live webinar Dr Monika Dass covered the following:-
- New resolutions
- Changing yourself and your approach towards it
- Making life more meaningful and happier for yourself
Every year, we make several resolutions, and this is a wonderful thing about human beings- we start off fresh. There is an excitement to try something challenging, do something new, to go beyond where we had last year. Or resolve to perhaps improve our health, our circumstances depending on what stage we are at, in life.
There are several resolutions that one can make over the age of 60. For example:
- To improve ones sleep schedule and hygiene
- Find and work on a new hobby
- Improving your personal relationships
- Indulging in listening to music
- Decluttering your home
- Learning new breathing techniques
- Having a well set out and all inclusive schedule with time for oneself and wellness activities such as meditation.
- Reducing negative self talk
- Taking up yoga or any other form of exercise
- Creating a 5 year plan
- Learning to save money and clearing out our previous debts if we have any.
- Spending money on yourself and going on a trip
- Reduce things in your immediate environment, your home to start with, in terms of consumption.
- Making more time for family and spending quality time with our near and dear ones.
- Volunteering for jobs at places that could use our help
- Helping out others
- Aim for a healthier lifestyle- lose that weight that you’ve been meaning to, quit smoking/ alcohol/ switch to a healthier lifestyle and habit
Rather than making resolutions, it is better to form habits.
None of us can create too many good habits at one time. So if you just take up one or two things which you want to challenge yourself with and improve upon, rather than making a list of resolutions, change one single habit for a lifetime, that is more important.
Ways and aspects of life where you can bring about change:-
Health:
This involves your physical fitness and health, your emotional fitness, mental health. All three aspects amalgamate and form your health. If even one of these areas is not well functioning, it can affect the other two. Which is why we should strive to maintain a holistic balance amongst the three. Our physical, emotional and mental health need to be tied and kept together in a balance, so we can lead happy and healthy lives.
You can take care of your physical wellbeing by indulging in physical activity which can be in the form of walking, yoga, tai chi, etc
You need to take care of your emotional health by taking charge of your emotions. Not getting involved with everything that is going on around you. Learn to switch off every now and then. Learn to step aside. This is to only help you move on and let others deal with issues that they need to deal with, rather than getting involved every time.
To take care of your mental health, you need to stay stress free. To not overthink even if there are times when your mind tends to wander. Learn to train your mind to be blank.
If you stop thinking about a problem, solutions come up naturally, if you’re not forcing the issue at hand. Rather than forcing a solution, let it simmer and the answers will come to you.
Poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions and vice versa.
Relationships
Another aspect of life that we can and should try to focus on this year is our interpersonal relationships, parenting and family, our social lives and the commitments that come with it.
You need to find a balance of family and friends. It is very important to spend time with like minded people.
Personal relationships do not just apply to your family and friends. It applies to everybody that you meet, the people that you cross while you’re out on a walk, its your relationship with your staff. How you build a happy and healthy relationship with anybody and everybody that comes into your home or interacts with you is the key to remaining happy.
Material Life
Most of us have either come to an end of our professional lives or are nearing the final chapter. Which is why you need to have a sense of satisfaction with everything that you have done so far and achieved. You need to be at peace with the things that you have done, the accomplishments you have achieved, you are financially stable, materialistically speaking, you have all the things that you want. But it is important to know that there are things beyond that. As long as your financial life is stable, there is so much more that you can achieve personally from this point onwards.
Spiritual Life
You need to ask yourself a few important questions- have we reached a stage where we are happy with ourselves as individuals? Are we happy with the quality of life that we are living? Are we happy with the things that we are doing and the things that we have done? Have we accomplished our life’s purpose?
To achieve our goals in life, planning is extremely important. And to achieve your goals, you need to follow five steps:
- Setting a goal. Where do I want to be?
- Purpose. Why do I want to be there?
- Reality. Where am I right now? Will I be able to reach where I have set out to reach?
- Strategy. How are you going to get there?
- Celebration. How will you celebrate once you reach there?
Our aim is to live an intense and extraordinary life.
What does it mean to live an extraordinary life?
An extraordinary life touches lives, it inspires, it leaves the world a better place. Extraordinary living does not happen by accident, it is by design. It is a deliberate act of rising to meet your challenges from the power of knowing who you are, what you are here to do and what you want from and for the world.
How do you make an extraordinary life?
- You can volunteer for a cause. Volunteer work can be one of the most satisfying and life changing experiences one can have
- You learn to accept who you are
- Fulfill a passion
- Always honour your words
- Taking up a creative pursuit
What makes a person extraordinary?
These people have a sort of wisdom and a way of being that inspires and commands respect. They energise you with their wisdom and empathy.
We need to be able to inspire and command respect.
The wheel of life is a picture of your life as it is now and as you’d like it to be. Each area of life is one spoke of the wheel.
