2021 Annual Review
1. What went well this year?
Alignement
I lived through this year in more alignment than ever before. Due to lock down, isolation, restrictions, etc., there have been a lot less social pressures, expectations, obligations and this translated for me personally as living more aligned with my values and more authentically. This has coincided with a stronger inner sense of freedom despite so much freedom being lost in many aspects of my “outer” life. It also coincided with stronger boundaries.
Personal Growth
Did a lot of work on myself, especially shadow work, meditations.
Surrounded myself with a solid support team and support system.
Implemented a proper process with my journal, daily planner, monthly reviews
Did swap healings every week (on average) with peer energy healers I trained with.
Gave 100 individual paid healings and my regular clients have had excellent results. I added a case studies page to the site to showcase some of the results.
Gave free healings as a service to people in need.
Donated 2% of what I earned to a not for profit called Green Sakthi. Same as 2020.
Got on top of “all” my notes that needed either to be typed or to be thrown away. Similar to my 2020 review.
More writing took place overall. I wrote and self published an ebook: The Virgin Dog Mum.
A lot of online learning and home study focused on deepening my practice as a healer and also introducing new work into my routine: shoutout to the TBM pathway and podcast in which I have invested a lot of time.
A full year as a dog mum of a 17 month old boxer at the time of writing. He is so special and I have been learning a lot through this relationship and dog parenting in general.
Healthier Lifestyle
It could have gone either way but I am glad my husband and I made a conscious choice to remain as healthy as we could without adding restrictions and crazy discipline to a lifestyle that had already been reduced to very little.
A lot of good and healthy food with effort put on keeping a diet that is clean and healthy but also yummy and enjoyable.
Took lots of vitamins to support my immune and nervous systems.
Decluttered and tidied up a huge amount in my office and the house in general. Including donating and throwing away lots of things. Clearing the space while finding a good home for what I no longer needed was very satisfying. Similar to my 2020 review.
Started Personal Training sessions in September, have done a total of 24 workouts this year. That’s more training for me than I can recall in at least 5 years.
Got back in touch with my love of stationery and gardening.
Gratitude
Everyone in our families overseas is healthy and doing okay.
My relationship with my husband is more than I could have ever wished for. It’s a win after two years of a pandemic where we have been the main social interaction and friendship available to one another all the while living and working in the same home. We passed that test.
My support team (they know who they are) is wonderful, generous, loving and ever present when I need them.
2. What didn’t go so well this year?
Pandemic & Feeling Low
Haven’t seen my family since August 2019. Sydney was in lockdown from June until October and the restrictions for unvaccinated people were in place until mid-December. Like many people, I suffered emotionally and mentally from the isolation and solitude felt throughout the year. And this despite being well equipped to support myself and get the support I needed. I found that my already narrow circle of friends and connections has shrunk further. Days have felt like an eternal holding pattern, a time loop on repeat and some days I found it hard to get out of bed and hold a positive vision for the future.
No Business Development - Similar to my 2020 review, sadly
Despite the huge need for people to receive support and healing in these trying times, I found that there has been no flow in my business this year. It’s been a lot of hard work and effort and many set backs. I have been finding it incredibly difficult to promote my services (still) and it resulted in very few new clients. Financially, I didn’t earn a lot out of my own work even though I managed to make a little bit more than last year. I posted less than once a month on Instagram. Though like the creative process (Canva, etc.), I find the whole thing time consuming and really not my forte.
Also
Wanted to learn about crypto currency but only just started to educate myself and haven’t done much with it.
Many people have passed away including 3 close friends of my dad who were the same age as he is.
Despite having a healthy diet and exercising again regularly, I have been struggling to lose weight.
Australia - Similar to my 2020 review, sadly
Australia has become a totalitarian country and it’s now out in the open for the world to see. People have handed over their freedom, power, critical thinking, responsibilities to the government. The government and media have worked hard to increase segregation, discrimination, fear, violence, racism in the name of “protection” but whose true purpose seems only to serve an agenda of increased control and financial profit. I became an Australian in 2018, I never thought that what has been happening here would ever take place. A few years back, this was unimaginable. Every time someone overseas has asked me about Australia: “is it true?”. Sadly, the response was: “yes it is”.
3. What did I learn this year?
Respect For Self
A lot of people are being disrespected, knowingly so. They acknowledge it, they are triggered by it, they talk about it but they won’t do anything to shift the situation, to be assertive, to reclaim their power, to stand up and advocate for themselves. If anything, as a starting point, they need boundaries. This isn’t something we can do for them. No one can walk through the door on our behalf.
I don’t regret a single boundary I put in place in 2021. I don’t regret any instance where I called bullshit out, took the trash out to the bin, and said no.
Saying no to people’s drama, their addiction to drama and attempts to others into it has been liberating. It has become easier to detach and distance myself from it and it resulted in more space for what matters and overall more peace.
In no order of importance, I learned that
To integrate and ground all the work we do on ourselves, we need space, time, and silence.
What we do while we are waiting is important. I tried not to be disempowered by time but to use it wisely. On that note, I have a free meditation on Insight Timer called Empowering your relationship with time.
Asking the right questions is critical. Asking questions is essential.
People don’t value what they don’t pay for. There needs to be a fair exchange of some sort.
Do not edify people, don’t put people on pedestal, do not hierarchise people.
People who are triggered all the time and who are very judgemental aren’t in their worth subconsciously even if on paper they say the all the right things about self-worth.
The most famous and established people I heard talking and express ideas this year (social media, books, podcasts) were the least inspiring and expansive. On the other hand, I received more inspiration and expansion from people with much less reach and smaller audiences. The key is to find them. In my experience, not just this year, most leaders aren’t worth their title.
“Bridge friendship” is a thing. Shorter term than we had anticipated but necessary.
I need to love, trust and value myself and my skills a lot more and to continue to focus my personal work on self-worth.
The type of response you get, or the silence treatment thereof, reveals people’s true colours and positioning.
Attitude matters. Mine and my dog’s, I can do something about it and I am constantly working on this.
When I surrender and can let go, things tend to come through faster.
A culture where people aren’t being held accountable, where there is no personal responsibility and no consequence management for people’s actions (or lack of) promotes and favours corruption, entitlement, cruelty and bypassing.
History is never too far behind to repeat itself. The concentration camps where medical experiments were conducted on people and where millions people were killed took place less than hundreds years ago.
Avoidance, on a personal or collective level, is never a winning strategy. Better to front up and not look away.
4. Am I the same person today that I was last year?
And how does this translate into my life?
I know a lot more about dogs, especially boxers. I am trying to be the best dog mum I can and I am learning to be more patient and accept that, like me, my dog has good days and bad days. I am also doing my best not to project my perfectionism onto him.
My intuition has been right most of the time. I need to trust myself more and also acknowledge that it’s annoying for people around me because that makes me “right” a lot of the time.
I can read people’s shadow patterns easily. That makes me a good healer. That also makes people uncomfortable around me because there is no place to hide.
5. What are my biggest opportunities for growth?
Be Courageous
Make more consistent aligned actions and step through fear.
Becoming visible and overcome my fear of being seen, judged and rejected.
No one can do it for me. I need to stop being an invisible messenger.
My Place in the World: Take it + Make it
My own version, authentically, true to me
Without asking permission
Without waiting for someone to do it for me
Without having to to do it all alone either
Oneness, Togetherness, Wholeness, Integration
Be integrated in my approach and my being-ness to everything; versus separated and fragmented.