My Word Of The Year for 2024

Over the past four years, I’ve been choosing a single word as my guide to live my life more mindfully and intentionally.

In 2019, the word was FLOW, and it taught me how to be more accepting of change and uncertainty and not necessarily fight it. It brought me wisdom and made me aware of how our time in this world slips by faster than we ever think or realise. It was a tough year for me and my family, and I must say I stumbled a lot and learnt to embrace flow as time progressed.

In 2020, having learnt to embrace the unpredictable nature of life, I chose a word that was almost a natural progression from my earlier word and this time it was IMMERSE—a word that made me stay present in the moment and learn to live in the ‘here‘ and ‘now‘. The storm that had raged on in our lives from the previous two years had turned into a full-blown cyclone in 2020 and threw our lives into a tumultuous spiralling frenzy, beyond what we could have ever imagined. What a year of learning and unlearning it turned out to be. And yet, despite everything, it was the year my meditation and mindfulness practice came into full focus and saw me dive deeper into writing, blogging, art and photography.

There came a time when I realised that while I was on a spiritual growth, my physical health was on a sharp decline. It was my word for 2021 that nudged me to sign up for a health transformation journey, and everything centred around the one word—NURTURE. It was the year of taking care of myself inside and out. I learnt that if I didn’t fill my cup, nobody would. At the end of that year, I started strength training, lost 13 kgs, regained my vitality and energy, swung into a fitness regimen and did a complete overhaul of my lifestyle and food habits. I pushed my family towards healthy alternatives and the timing was just perfect, given that we were all struggling to cope in the aftermath of the second wave of the pandemic.

In 2022, I decided to drop my word of the year. I was aware that I was on the path to healing and transformation. Naturally, there was a very essential component in that process, which included unlearning from the past. This was a relatively recent realisation and I knew, instinctively, how the small changes that I had been working on, were emerging to be the catalysts towards this one thing that by the end of that year became my word for 2023—CONSCIOUS LIVING.

Living a conscious life meant, that I was intentional in my aims actions and goals, but it was once again, fraught with challenges, because it was not always easy to live up to my principles with those around me, who were not willing to accept me in this version.

This year, the word I’ve chosen to go with, is ALIGN, to remind myself that life is all about the interconnection of elements and that each of my words from the previous years are all intertwined within my life purpose. The present evolves from the past and the future is shaped by the present and aligning to stay on track with each of them becomes paramount once more.

With these guiding forces alongside, I am striving for work-life balance, practicing Ikigai and staying committed on continuous personal growth as the three core areas to work on.

When I look back, I can see how 2023 was so full of challenges, both personally and on the family front. But, it was also a year of professional growth, as I took on a formal full-time leadership role, where I got the opportunity to work with some amazingly talented and creative people, working at the intersection of Design, Business and Technology. This definitely evened things out, on the whole and has been keeping me super busy, since the second half of the year. With so much going on, blogging has taken a back seat and so has my artwork, but I have continued journaling, meditating and reading throughout the year (mainly non-fiction). The other amazing thing in 2023 was my brush with Accupuncture—I was totally blown away by my first ever experience of this Chinese healing form (a 3-month long treatment for migraine) which turned out to be a total eye-opener—one that also taught me a lot about the workings of the energy channels within our body.

Through all the craziness that 2023 brought, we got to travel a lot too, for which I shall remain eternally grateful. Our teen joined college in another city and settled in quickly, and despite some serious health challenges and two hospitalisations, our moms coped to the best of their abilities. The other good news was that over the last two months of 2023, I began to offer meditation and mindfulness coaching to people. This was something that I’d been wanting to do for a long time and it felt like a dream come true.

There are many more dreams, still waiting in the pipeline…I’m eager to see how things unfold in 2024. Whatever happens, I wish to show up with courage and humility and above all else, be gentle on myself, more accepting of life and more consistent in all my endeavours. The rest, I suppose, will fall in place one way or the other.

Now, tell me about you. Have you come up with your word of the year? I’d love to know how you came upon yours. Do share your word or the link to your post in the comments below.

Thank you, dear reader, for stopping by the blog today! I wish you a blessed and a happy new year! May you be blessed with abundance in everything that you do. Sending loads of love, hugs and tons of positive vibes your way!!