Life Update: July 2017

Hello there! How are you all doing?

It's been a while since I posted anything here. While I have written a significant number of assignments during this time, I haven't been active on this blog. I was motivated to write this post for two reasons:

1) I miss writing this blog. It has been an important part of my journey over the past few years and for the time that I have been away, I have missed it. 

2) I have realized that apart from being a personal blog for me, Moments of Solitude also acts as a way for many of my loved ones to stay updated on what I have been up to. On a recent trip to India, a surprising number of people have asked me about this blog, thereby inspiring me to start writing again.

Now, given my previous track record on this, I am not making any promises of writing regularly. Let’s just take it one post at a time, shall we? 

This post is based on the three most frequently asked questions I encountered during my recent trip to India.

1. So, what have you been up to in the last couple of years? 

As the regular readers of my blog would know, I left my corporate job in India and moved to the US with my husband almost 3 years ago. I was on a journey to find and do work that would make me come alive, and at the time, was posting here quite regularly about the progress I was making. Through this journey, I discovered the field of Positive Psychology and joined the MAPP program in September 2015. 

In some ways, I feel like I entered an entirely different life with MAPP. Everything was new and exciting and overwhelming, and it is only now, almost a year after completing the program, that I am beginning to get back to the rest of my life. 

More on that later, but as of now, here’s a quick snapshot of what I have been up to in the past couple of years:

- Finished the MAPP program in August 2016. In that year, I met some truly wonderful people, learned about the science and practice of happiness, and wrote a final paper on the importance of self-awareness in our quest for well-being.

- Got trained and certified as a Life Coach. Started my own Positive Psychology based coaching business. What do I do in my business? In a nutshell, I help people lead happier, more fulfilling lives, using the science of human flourishing. 

- Started teaching Positive Psychology. I fell in love with Positive Psychology almost as soon as I found it, and it has become an integral part of my new career. I apply it in my own life and my coaching all the time, yes, but I also teach Positive Psychology in various forums. I went back to the MAPP program as a Assistant Instructor, became a Teaching Assistant for UPenn’s Positive Psychology course on Coursera, and I also started a Meetup group to share all that I have learned about living a happy life in the past couple of years.

2. How is life otherwise?

Overall, life is good. Siddharth and I are still happily married and no, we don’t have kids yet. I still love living in California. After visiting India in June this year, I am currently filled with a renewed sense of gratitude for the wonderful weather here. I do miss home, though, especially because most of my family and friends are there.  

The past year in particular has been a mixed bag, primarily because it was the first year of me running a business. Of all the things I ever wanted to become when I grew up, an entrepreneur wasn’t one of them. To be honest, I still think of myself as “a reluctant entrepreneur.” I became one because the other options weren’t offering me what I wanted. This lifestyle has its pros and cons and I still feel lost sometimes. I don’t know if this is it for me for the rest of my life, but as of now, I am all in. 

I continue to be an early riser. At an average, I get up around 6 am. My goal is to get closer to 4:30 or 5 am. I have also gotten more disciplined at eating healthy and exercising regularly. 

Like I said: Overall, life is good.

3. Do you miss the corporate world?

If someone had asked me this question a couple of years ago, my answer would have been a clear and resounding no. I was really tired of the corporate world when I left my job, and thought I was done for good. But now, having been away for a few years, and especially after running my own business for over a year, I have realized that there are pros and cons to everything. There are a few aspects of the corporate job I miss, and a few others I don’t. The thing I miss most, though, is being a part of a team.

Running a one-person business can be isolating, even for an introvert like me. In the past year, there have been times when I have really longed for the kind of team spirit I felt when I was working at a full-time job. I definitely miss that. Then, there is the trade-off between flexibility and financial stability. At this point in my business, while I have full control over how I spend my time, my income fluctuates from month to month. Sometimes, I miss the regular salary I earned until a few years ago.

Would I ever go back to a corporate job? Honestly, at this point, I don’t know. In the past couple of years I have learned that flexibility is one of my biggest values, and right now, I don’t want to trade that for anything. If that changes in the next few years, we will see.

So, that's about it. I know I said this blog helps my loved ones stay in touch with me, but strangely enough, I feel more in touch with myself right now, after writing this post. I shouldn’t be surprised, though, because that’s what writing almost always does for me. No wonder I have missed writing this blog.

Hopefully, I will be back with another post soon.