What 2019 taught me!

2019 was undoubtedly one of the toughest years to date. 

I learned several lessons this year. As Eckhart Tolle says, “Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment”. My best friends this year were the books I read. Books that came to me precisely at the time I needed them. Books that awakened me, raised my consciousness, healed me, planted positive, affirming thoughts and held my hand like no one else could. Sharing some profound distilled lessons below, in line with my annual introspective ritual.

1. I learned that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. I stumbled, fell, hit rock bottom and learned the hard way to find my way up, only through an evolved level of consciousness. Ending the year happy and content not because the situations have massively changed, but my response to them has.
2. I learned courage doesn’t always mean big, bold, radical decisions. Courage can be steadiness in the face of a storm, showing up every single day with hope, even when you can’t predict or control the outcome. Courage is integrity; choosing to practice your values rather than simply professing them.
3. I learned how to set healthy boundaries in my close relationships and let people know what’s ok and what’s not. You get what you tolerate. Givers need to set limits because takers rarely do.
4. I lived “The Secret” this year. Thoughts become things. You attract and become what you think about most. Negative or positive. What you resist, persists. I learned the art of letting go. Dreams. Goals. People. Baggage!
5. I learned how to heal. How to embrace all those negative emotions of anger, sorrow, fear, sadness that we tend to block when the going gets tough. I learned that when we block pain, we block joy. I learned that feeling hurt and guilty are inextricably connected because the antidote for both is forgiveness. To release our hurt, we must forgive another. To release our guilt, we must forgive ourselves.

Im thankful to have experienced the endless capacity us humans have to tenaciously endure, to persevere. Gratitude and abundance, always! 🙂

Books I read repeatedly and highly recommend: Dare to lead (Brene Brown), Mars and Venus starting over (John Gray), The Secret (Rhonda Byrne), The Forty Rules of Love (Elif Shafak), A New Earth (Eckhart Tolle), Becoming (Michelle Obama), The Speed of Trust (Stephen R. Covey), Emotional Intelligence (Daniel Goleman)

Samia is the founder of Unwind The Grind, a career development platform for millennials empowering them to excel in their careers. She works with organizations internationally enabling them to motivate and retain their workforce and build their leadership capabilities. She is an ICF and Gallup certified Strengths coach, NLP Practitioner with more than 500 hours of coaching and consulting experience in the Middle East & Africa region, including high profile Government and Embassy projects. As a budding thought leader, Samia writes about career and startup topics pertaining millennials as a regular contributor at Huffington Post, Thomson Reuters and Entrepreneur ME.