Surreal September

Surreal September

Aah, September…I love this month (for those who aren’t aware, it is my birthday month)! Even now, come September, I’m as thrilled just as I used to be when I was younger. My enthusiasm hasn’t ebbed a bit! Though, growing older, my excitement is attached with a lot of gratitude :-)

Balance – a word that I intentionally include in my thoughts, feelings and actions with myself and everyone around me.

Energies and vibes are words and themes that I have mindfully included in my life, and I consciously strive to work towards the right ones!

September this year has been a fantastic, different, positive, and surreal month for me and how!

There was a beautiful blend of family, friends, and community throughout the entire month. There was also an idyllic balance of fun, partying, crazy long hours of dancing to good music, soulful conversations, along with traditions, rituals, and spirituality – back-to-back, in parallel – and a seamless amalgamation of all of them!

It started with a lot of birthday celebrations – before, during and post the date - with my life P, my girls, family, fabulous old friends, amazing new friends and my soul-shares, D and J.

We also decided to get Lord Ganesha (Ganpati Bappa) in our home this year, for the very first time! It all started with some conversations about energies, and what Bappa stands for and means to us and what having him in our home would bring in our lives.

Folks who know me, know that I seldom get involved in creative activities. This year, with the help of D, I went to the local markets to choose decorative items and spent long hours to design the backdrops and platforms for the Ganesha idol. I glue-gunned my way into a new world of inspiration.

This was a first for me! However clueless or overwhelmed I may have felt during the process, I thoroughly loved every bit of learning, trying, and doing new creative bits for making Bappa’s home on my own.

During this week of Ganpati Chaturthi celebrations, participating in community activities, in parallel, involved a lot of preparations and rehearsals. I even took part in dance performances during the cultural events as I love dancing. I must admit though, that all my passion for dance slipped right through my toes, after seeing the audience. Even though it went well without us missing any step or sequence, the actual dance performance was hilariously intimidating for me, especially since I was performing in front of an audience after 15 odd years.

P and I also did a Satyanarayan puja at home, on the day of the “Visarjan” (immersion of the idol). Again, a first for me! I have never really initiated anything overly religious on my own and everyone knows that I always lean towards the spiritual aspect of things a little more. I’ve had close friends and family ask me in jest, if I was doing fine or feeling older – they couldn’t understand this “new” me or maybe their own perception about me.

For the puja, I knew I didn’t want to miss any rituals or traditions as I wanted to go by the book. But I knew clearly that our intent was pure, and we were doing it with the right spiritual energies of positivity, peace and gratitude.

The feeling of sitting during the puja is quite indescribable – there was such a strong flow of emotions rushing through my body, mind and heart - overwhelmingly happy, sad, grateful and yet calm and peaceful – all at once. That experience and that moment, so surreal and unreal, yet overpoweringly real and truly my own to cherish!

I even got a chance to take part in a small puja in one of the city’s top Ganesh temples, completely unplanned and a beautiful culmination to the Ganesha festival, for me this year.

As someone very close says, “Jo mann kiya, who karna hi hain!” - but with pure and right intent always!

September, this year, has been all the above and more – fun, exhilaration, positive vibes, learning new things, facing my fears and going through with things new and different, attracting good energies, passion, love, peace and a lot of gratitude.

It has also been about mindfully focusing on myself with patience and kindness, and simply doing what I love to do – whether it is dancing for hours to good music, helping people and community or purely directing my energies towards the right people, positive experiences and joyful memories.

Surreal, happy, newness, crazy, grateful, peaceful, and through all of this – rightly balanced!

A Super September it has been!

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Do visit my blog, "Being" at https://mindfullyheartful.blogspot.com/ for my other posts.

"Mindfullyheartful" is now a registered trademark owned by Minal Kering.

 

The Values of Sewa

As the G20 summit came to an impactful close yesterday in New Delhi, under India’s presidency, what came to the forefront was a human-centric approach for the successful rollout and implementation of the policies in the Joint Declaration.

The key focus areas were economic aid to developing countries, multilateral development and reform of the World Bank and IMF, new rules for cryptocurrency, emphasis on food and energy security, improvement of the global value chain, climate change and action, green and sustainable development, the economic and social impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, gender equality and women empowerment, etc.

One of the core features that helps different governments come together and mutually adopt and effectively implement these global policies is human values, right from an individual choice to national and universal values.

Values such as kindness, inclusion, equality, compassion, integrity, empathy, sustainability, courage, justice, harmony, etc. to are just a few of the many human values that we must implement and put into action in our daily lives.

Another significant aspect that has a greater impact on the happiness and well-being of individuals and the larger global communities is practicing a “Sewa Bhav” or a volunteering mindset.

I’m humbled and grateful that I could be a part of the Values20 communique in collaboration with the World Values Day global network, which was officially launched on the 8th of July, earlier this year, during the V20 Summit in New Delhi. This was organized by the Values 20 group and V20 India team, whose main aim is to create awareness about the deep impact of values-based government policies at a global level.

I had the privilege to interact with an exceptionally inspiring group of individuals from more than 20 countries around the world. Despite our diverse backgrounds, cultures, and value systems, we all worked together as one team to design and bring the V20 communique to life.

I was the lead author for a chapter on the Sewa Mindset or volunteering for the Education Task Force. The chapter is titled, “The Values of Sewa: Selfless Service in Education for Sustainable Citizenship."

This chapter focuses on the profound impression a Sewa mindset can create for a sustainable, inclusive, and global community if embraced from an early age. Factors such as social, economic, and environmental disconnect cause immense issues for our mental health, financial stability, and climate change.

The focus on service-based learning, socio-emotional learning, global citizenship, and volunteering are vital areas that our education systems must put greater emphasis on through their education policies, at local, national, and international levels.

Let's each one of us do our bit for another individual and community by incorporating volunteering and embracing the Sewa Bhav or mindset, in our daily lives.

#G20 #V20 #WorldValuesDay #Sewa #valuesinaction

"Mindfullyheartful" is now a registered trademark owned by Minal Kering.