[Above image credit: Brian D’Cruz Hypno Plus]
Mindfulness.
It’s a buzz word these days but what does it all mean?
My wife, Zainab, and I have been on a personal journey of self growth and self-reflection over the past 18-24 months. We were certainly happy in our life and I must confess we accidentally fell into this journey. It’s been an uplifting experience stepping outside ourselves, our life, our bubble and then looking back in. Reflecting, re-evaluating, critiquing and thinking about how we can be better.
At some stage in our lives, we will all wake up one day thinking it’s time to change something. Perhaps an event, some success, a tragedy or something you’ve seen or heard will propel you into this state of wanting to recalibrate. But where does one start!?! It’s hard to navigate the world of mindfulness, life advice and self-improvement. Does it start with changing diet?… being more active?…starting yoga or meditation?… changing jobs?…leaving a toxic relationship? What should we read? What podcast should we listen to?
Our process was kickstarted when we stumbled upon The Minimalists on Netflix. It was inspiring to watch people shed their unnecessary belongings and see how liberated they felt. So we began decluttering our place. We then moved house, and decluttered more. Since moving we’ve had a second child, Inaya Noor (she’s gorgeous, God bless), and we have less than what we had when we were a family of three. Decluttering has been utterly liberating. And we want to do more!
The old adage of less is more certainly rings true.
We’ve applied “decluttering” to many aspects of our life including how we spend our time. Slowing down, enjoying the richness of each day and being thankful for what we have.
“The Dental Truck” project has turbo-charged our journey. I never would have thought, but the biggest beneficiary of this mobile dental service has been me! My values, my work and my goals have recalibrated. It’s changed the course of my life and my career.
We have certainly reached a level of contentment, mindfulness and self-awareness that was missing in our lives. We constantly recalibrate (my favourite word these days) and are better for it. The best part is that the process will never end. We will always strive to be better partners for each other, better parents and better humans.
Oh and it’s translated into the way I operate The Dental Station and it’s having positive effects. We just painted the practice and gave it a facelift! Come and check it out. But I’m grateful for all my patients returning to see me. When someone refers to me as “my dentist” it’s so heartening.
I’m no authority on mindfulness but having been on a journey to reach a better place, here are my two bobs:
- There is no one way to reach a state of peace and contentment. Everyone values different things. So always critique whatever you read/hear/see regarding advice in this space. Tailor your journey to you by filtering the material you take in.
- Remove the noise in your lives. Remove what you don’t need. It will force you to challenge societal expectations. You will be challenged and you will grow.
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