Chinmayee Manjunath

I missed writing a post yesterday. Just clean forgot. But that’s okay. I am not going to beat myself up about it, to be honest. Don’t have the energy to anymore. Being kind to myself is something I am just learning to practice. Not making excuses for myself. But just extending the compassion and empathy that I have for people I love in my own direction, too. And I am not going to lie – this is a very difficult thing for me to do. A difficult thing for many of us to do.

Everyone is talking about self-care these days, and how important it is. It is. But what’s more important is to start by knowing yourself, and building a healthy relationship with yourself. I feel like I am starting on this journey again, as I have turned 40 this year. My 30s went by in a blur of jobs, clients, family, my wedding and my marriage, other weddings, friendships, grief, loss, money lessons, entrepreneurship, etc, etc. Sometimes I look back and I cannot fathom how much has happened to me and for me in the past decade. I cannot possibly be the person I was in 2009. Am not even sure I want to still be that woman.

This post almost feels like a journal entry!

My point is – I am starting to tilt the lens through which I view myself, and my life. All of it. I want it to point towards something intangibly bigger and greater. I spent so many years chasing goals that mattered very little to me. Now, I’d like to focus on the big and small feelings, experiences, relationships – things that actually make me feel good. Not always happy because happiness is not always the goal. But feel centred, balanced, comfortable in my own skin and my life. And this blog is going to be where I chronicle that.

The title of this post is taken from Mary Oliver’s Summer Day, a poem that I personally treat as one of my touchstones.