A Few Handpicked Letters #10

This Letter is About Many Things. But Did You Drink Enough Water Today?

Dear Reader,

I can’t believe the speed with which time flies. Over the last few months, I have been shifting my focus on other aspects of my life that are not job related. In February this year, I joined for Swimming classes. During the last two weeks, I learnt how to drive. In between, I have been working on my poetry book while figuring out what else I could do differently in my life. Learning new skills have instilled confidence and a certain high in me that I am looking for more things to learn.

It wasn’t until recently that I realised that I struggle immensely with making decisions. I sometimes take months to make small decisions, especially if it involves money. With the kind of freedom I have now, to do things differently, the pressure to make ‘the right decision’ has only increased. That has been one of my biggest struggles these days. I even put up a Q&A on Instagram wherein I wanted to know how different people made difficult decisions, and I got quite a lot of helpful responses.

But the advice I liked the best was from the Mel Robbins Podcast; something we all know subconsciously, but never acknowledged or tried. Our body knows what we want. During my 3 years at an extremely stressful and toxic job, I was unwell almost every other day. My entire body was reacting to stress and I had no idea that it was because of the job. My body has been thriving ever since I left that job, and I was shocked to learn that I wouldn’t have put my body through the mess, had I switched jobs earlier. You may not always know a ‘Yes’. But you almost always know if it is a ‘No’ if you listen closely to your body. Do you recall any situation where you listened to your body and took a decision?

Tell me Dear Reader, how have things been with you? Is there something bothering you? What made you smile during the last few days?

About 20 years after their release, I watched Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban in the theaters! To celebrate 100 years of warner Bros studio, PVR screened the Harry Potter movies, one each from 5th to 12th May 2023 and the Lord of the Rings from 13th to 15th May 2023. I felt like I was 13 all over again!

We Potterheads, lived in a completely different world, when the books were being released. For many of us, the books were an escape from reality. And so, Harry Potter will have a special place in our hearts. It was a friend I met via Instagram who told me about the screenings. After I put up a story, another friend watched one of the movies and thanked me for letting her know. She had never watched the movies in the big screen and this was her first time. It made my day.

While I love social media for this, much like you, I am also painfully aware of social media’s negative sides which have only been increasing over the years. Social media has given us FOMO for things we shouldn’t even be bothered about, and has taken the joy out of simple things such as reading. I was speaking to a friend the other day. He hasn’t been a book lover and yet, he has FOMO about not reading books. This is not healthy at all. With reading challenges and targets, I now look at a book and think, ‘It is mid-May already, and I haven’t even finished even a quarter of this book’ as opposed to, ‘I can’t wait to know what happens next’. During my school days, I read because I was eager to read. I loved it. Now, there is something diluting that joy and eagerness.

I am seriously considering making changes to the way I consume social media. As a first step, I uninstalled it from my main phone. Using Instagram in my spare phone has been a neat move, as I don’t spend too much time on it. But I spend enough time to find inspirations and to interact with accounts that matter to me. Do you have any hacks to reduce time spent on social media? Do let me in on the secret by replying to this letter.

Before I leave, here is a sunset for you that I shot this week.

With that, this Mayflower takes your leave. I will return with my next letter at the cusp of summer and monsoons. Until then, I hope you get to eat all the mangoes. And remember! If you want to write back to me, you just need to reply to this post or to the mail. Taaaaa!

Ranjini