“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

It has been the most challenging year of my life. I lost my father, my mother met with an accident, and there were many other unforeseen responsibilities. As the going got tough, my priority list kept getting longer and longer. All I did was run around for things related to the house and my parents, and complete tasks that no one else could take care of while working on my full-time job. Until one day, I had to stop because I couldn’t run or walk anymore. I had suffered a ligament injury.

That’s when my therapist asked — Are you sure you are not pouring from an empty cup?

It got me thinking. I thought about all those days when I had zero energy left and still I continued without a pause because someone needed something. There was no time for a pause. On the insistence of a friend and my therapist, I finally started guided meditation to wrest my health and life back from the rat race. And I felt better and lighter.

Honestly, I never believed in meditation because I thought it was all about shutting everything out. Only recently, I discovered that it is all about pausing mindfully and accepting whatever comes and goes without judgment and reaction. For someone like me, this meant slowing down and staring at the trees, sometimes visualising a better future and sometimes just feeling the air around me.

Either way, I was glad that I paused to take care of myself for a few minutes. Something every professional should do. Everyday. Not just when things get tough.