Like any other bookworm, in 2016, I started tracking my reading progress on Goodreads.

In 2017, I pushed myself to read and finish many books because I wanted my Goodreads stat to display a boastful number. I read 15,000 pages and finished 61 books in 2017. This is how it looked in Goodreads:

Whenever I mention online that I’m a habit coach and I help people improve their habits, most of the time, I get the same response: “How can I wake up early?”

This issue has even more intensified due to the corona lockdown times. A national survey published on NCBI concludes—

“Due to complete lockdown during COVID-19 pandemic leads to a state of social jetlag with delayed sleep-wake, meal timings, and excessive digital media exposure…”

I used to be a night owl, which isn’t an issue. …

It was September 2018, and I had a traumatic breakup. My anxiety issues were back and my therapist recommended to try meditation.

Meditation was the only thing that helped me stay calm and not overthink at that point. I used to meditate for an hour a day. I did it consistently for a few months before becoming irregular with the practice.

For the past 1 year, I am again consistent with my meditation practice, fluctuating the meditation time from 15 minutes to 2 minutes in a session.

Meditation is a tricky habit

There are so many schools of meditation — zen, visualization, isha kriya, chanting, etc. …

Last week, I graduated as a certified habit coach from coach.me.

My coaching statement is simple — I help people improve their emotional health with simple daily habits.

Let’s explore the four easy habits I recommend my clients follow to improve their emotional health.

Here are a few questions I will answer in this post

• Does science back up these habits for better emotional health?
• How soon will you see the results?
• What has been my experience with this habit?
• What would be the challenges to follow the habit?
• How can you get started?

This one habit helps you to slow down: Pause.

Sitting on a chair or wherever, closing your eyes, and simply breathing. …

My 2021 theme

Today’s January 1st (wishing you a happy new year!) — and it’s the most popular day for creating resolutions are trying habits.

I am enrolled in Coach Tony’s 1-year long course “Heavy Mental Training”. He gave us the assignment to choose a theme and resolution for our 2021 and set a small habit around it.

My theme for 2021 is more mindfulness, and my tiny habit around it is — ONE mindful meal every day. I am planning to start by cutting off external distractions, i.e no screens or books while I am eating my mindful meal of the day. …

While reading this post by Sílvia Bastos today, I got inspired.

She mentions an experiment she did — writing an online journal publicly. She claims how it can be beneficial to practice deliberate vulnerability.

I loved the idea… so much that I immediately decided to do this from today onwards.

I’m planning to write it 3–4 times a week, which literally means writing it every other day. Honestly, I want to write it every day, but anything more than four times a week would be a bonus.

My intention with this online journal is to regularly —

1. align my thoughts, words, and actions, in a single direction towards my vision. …

I met Shikha via common friends, a few days before the incident. She’s an amazing singer and guitarist.

I was scrolling through Instagram and I saw her videos singing and playing guitar. She’s so good… really good.

I immediately shared those in DMs with a few close friends saying “how cool is she, right?”

At that moment it hit me — “Is there anyone who might be sharing my writings with this kind of excitement?” I doubted that.

I felt nauseated.

I went to the office washroom and vomited. And I cried. Maybe I had an anxiety attack. …

I have been writing online for the past six years. Sharing my posts across platforms comes naturally to me now.

I joined the coach.me monthly promotion challenge in October this year. It renews every month, and here’s one basic rule of it: you share one post every working day for the whole month, and you show support to three other posts shared by other members.

This helps you exercise your marketing muscle, check out what others are publishing in your community, and get some additional engagement on your posts.

That’s what I did in October. That’s what I have been doing since then. It’s been more than 75 days, and I am sharing one post every weekday (usually on weekends too) because it feels like I am growing a muscle. …