
As 2021 is coming to an end (sob sob), I take a look back at my writing journey on this site and where life took me this year and what amazing stuff I’ve learnt along the way.
January
I was burnt out and tired from the job that I was previously at. I’ve never felt this exhausted and tired in my life. I was working throughout the Christmas and New Year season – first time ever – and was starting to wonder if this was the right job for me. That led me to pondering about toxic workplaces.
February
An incident at work was the final straw for me. I was determined to leave this organisation, so that started my job search. This month kicked off my journey into the spiritual world as I answered the spiritual nudges I’ve been having and I joined a spiritual circle on IG. It was hosted by Vix from New Age Hipster, whose email list I had been on for the longest time and whose spiritual circle I wanted to be a part of previously, but was kinda hesitant. I started to explore how to increase my self esteem too.
March
The exploration of my self-esteem continued, where I started looking at the concept of inner critics, especially with the top 2 being The Perfectionist and the Limiter. Again on the theme of self-esteem, I took a look at how one’s self-esteem could be increased quickly, without having to spend too much time or money. I also started giving quite a bit of thought as to how to approach my business moving forward, as I have been thinking of making changes to my business model for some time already. I spent some time looking back on how far I came for my business and what mistakes I’d tell other small business owners to avoid at the beginning of their business.
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April
I was deep in the job search and had started to encounter quite a number of negative experiences with employers. For instance, making you wait ages to set up an interview, not getting back to you promptly (you have to keep chasing) and not even telling you if you’ve gotten the role. Just being very disrespectful on a whole and not taking you very seriously. In other words, how employers are making the job search process suck giant lemons. And because it sucked so much, the job search process can really get to you and slowly start chipping away at your self-esteem. So I looked at how to maintain your self-esteem during the painful job search process.
As I was interviewing, I was also giving alot of thought as to the type of job I’d like to work in. I especially gave alot of thought to the workplace culture and the type of line manager I hoped for in my next role. I reflected on the toxic workplace culture of the job I was thinking of leaving. I identified some red flags in this post. At the same time, I was also entertaining thoughts of just leaving without a job lined up. This goes against traditional advice, as it was always much more stable to score a role first before resigning. But things were getting very unbearable at work, so I thought of some of the factors and considerations one had to take into account before leaving.
As always, I had quite a bit of thoughts around my side hustle, my business and what were the possible mistakes and blocks I was making in my marketing. Post here together with some recommendations for small businesses.
May
I was in my third month of my job search and had already a fair amount of rejection as well as roles that weren’t right for me. I wasn’t quite sure at this point what I wanted to work as, but what I was sure of was that I did not want a boss like the one I had. So here are 8 signs of a toxic boss. As I was going through the many rounds of interviews and grappling with the virtual interview formats thanks to Covid, I reflected on how interviewees could ace this new method of virtual interviewing.
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June
So this month in June actually featured a lot more personal growth as I was thinking a lot about different different aspects of life. I started off with how to actually check everything off your to do list, and it’s something that I – and I’m sure many others out there – struggle with. And I also wanted to have a little bit more discipline around how I charted my time. After watching a couple of YouTube videos on Marisa Peer, I came across one with great tips on increasing self-discipline.
I was also going through a further transformation this month, was deepening my spiritual practices and made quite a few changes to various things in my life. For one, I changed the focus of my business. So that prompted some thought on the lessons that life tends to teach us (if we are willing to observe and listen). I was thinking alot about what it means to live a life I truly wanted and what I could do to achieve that. At the same time, as I was experiencing my transformation, I still felt bouts of emptiness and boredom with life, and explored why that feeling came up sometimes for us.
In the relationship side of things, I thought about how we could approach flirting with a more open and fun attitude. I also spoke of how constantly attracting the wrong romantic partner is a sign of a compulsive, bad habit, and how to break that habit.
Lastly, I looked at the Mercury Retrograde that occurred earlier in the year and gave my thoughts on it as well as some tips to get through that particular astrological phase. In all honesty, I don’t think Mercury Retrogrades are as bad as the mainstream makes them out to be.
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July
Still on the topic of attracting the wrong men, here are some tips to make a mindset shift. And after connecting with so many spirit guides who have helped me IMMENSELY through the year, I talk about how one can identify which spirit guides you want in your life and how you can begin to connect and draw inspiration and strength from them.
July was an interesting month as job search wise I was starting to say no to alot of things I felt I didn’t want and gain clarity on what I wanted. I was turning down research roles and felt reluctant to continue if an assignment came up.
August
This was a GREAATTT month. I found something good and resigned!! Felt an immense burden lift off me. Having attended soooo many interviews and have heard so many employers deliver all sorts of empty promises (including one which interviewed my reference and couldn’t even offer me a job cos of “lack of funds” LOL), I wrote this post on what interviewers really mean when they say certain things. I also gave alot of thought to the often given advice of “Work in a job you love/are passionate about” and I talk about how this concept is a complete myth and how so many people are deceiving themselves about working life.
Again, I was giving some thought to the romantic side of things and was lamenting how we should not ignore the red flags in a relationship. I also thought about the countless number of dates who don’t mean what they say and have no desire to follow through with something concrete in this post on deciphering if he’s taking you for a ride.
As part of my transformative journey this year, I started having lots of thoughts around friendships. Especially how just certain “friends” weren’t bringing in much joy to my life and in fact their presence was a source of irritation and annoyance. I thought about the friendships involving emotional dumpers and how this one sign can actually help you determine the person is not the sort of friend you are looking for.
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September
I’m not sure if it’s possible to have 2 transformations in a year. But I guess this is life so anything is possible XD After my first spiritual transformation in Feb/March, I underwent another big one this month. I had left my toxic job and had alot of time to myself. A couple of things I explored as part of my personal growth:
- Started reading again after months/years of very little books read. Felt super connected to myself again! This also inspired a whole page of book reviews which I will keep adding to.
- Expanded and reconnected with crystals, tarot, more spirit guides and oracle cards! Updating my learnings on this page.
- Re-looked into a deeper meaning of cord-cutting
- Re-examined my current friendships and interesting re-connected with so many old friends from the past!
- Looked into my inner childhood wounds at the guidance of a friend and cried bucketloads. Wrote a post on how to parent our inner child
- Started doing more things for myself. Woke up late, went to cafes, read all day, wrote, journalled about life, cooked, meditated. I thought about how much abundance had entered my life this year, despite the many negative experiences – which I overcame!
- Seeked a new direction for my business
- Started sleeping better and really living in the present after leaving my toxic job
I was feeling specially introspective this month and enlightened, hence alot of posts about life. Starting with one on how to deal if life does not go the way we want, how we need to make decisions and choices with our life, then only will the Universe will answer our prayers and open doors for us.
Leaving my toxic and immensely stressful job, I was sleeping much better and eating healthily. I decided to take a look at how addictions to stress and cortisol can be harmful overtime and how to kick this habit.
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October
I continued this wonderful path of transformation and started reconnecting with the moon cycle. Hence have been posting tarot spreads each New and Full Moon as well as on special occasions. Continuing on my reflections on life – I started thinking about how short life can be and how I didn’t want to waste time anymore. Also, I was starting to drift away from certain friendships at this point. Re-visiting my popular posts on being cut off by long-term friends, I looked at the perspective of the person doing the cutting off and how in their perspective they were right to cut off a person who is toxic. For the person being cut off, it can always be difficult to accept that their behaviour was toxic or problematic and it can be hard to accept that a good friend may not like you anymore.
November
I was already in a very festive mood this month – yes Christmas came early! I started my reflections for 2021 and planning for great things in 2022. As the topic of love is never far from my mind and inspired by a drama I watched, I talked about how finding love and the “right” partner is akin to finding the right pair of shoes.
December
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