10 Important Life Lessons from 2020

Welcome back, everyone, you are listening to the Mindfully Recharged podcast. Today, I'm talking about the 10 important life lessons from 2020. These are lessons that I learned, and that I'm sure you will be relating in so many levels. Please share this episode with your friends and family. And without further ado, let's get to it. See you there.

Intro Speaker  0:39  
Welcome to Mindfully Recharged with Mariana Thomas. In this podcast. Mariana brings you mindful conversations with people that will develop and recharge you from the inside out, so that you can increase productivity in your personal and professional life. This is Mindfully Recharged.

Mariana 1:00  
Welcome back, everyone. This episode is about the 10 important life lessons from 2020. I am recording this at my office. But there is a little background noise from my daughter, my dog. They're here at home. It is Christmas week, almost the end of the year. And obviously, I am reflecting about the year. And there's a lot that we can say about 2020. And so reflecting I came up with this 10 important life lessons from 2020. And we all are going to remember that number, right 2020 for short, and I believe there is a show or TV there's 2020 year. We are never going to forget that. Thank you. ABC, I believe. 

Okay, so one of the important things that I learned I'm going to go with number one has been spending time with my daughter definitely is priceless. And why did I say that? During the springtime this year, she came home to spend a week with us. What happened - Everything was shutting down as you guys know, Covid-19 was hitting. And they call them to tell them to stay home for another week. Another week, turned into three more weeks. And three more weeks turned into “now you are going to finish your school from home”. And the feeling I have was I am happy they're going to spend more time with her. But I was also a little bit sad because it was her last year of college so she was about to graduate, and she was not going to be able to spend time with me. So during this time, obviously we bonded and I’m sure that if you look back a lot of you went through the same thing. In you are now agreeing with me. Yes. That time was priceless. And if your kids, like mine, found a job right away and move to another state in the middle of the pandemic… That was a little terrifying and a lot of gratitude at the same time because she had to you know, she drove herself all the way to another state by herself. And no company because of the pandemic so not everyone could travel with her. So she is now home for the Christmas time. But since July I haven't seen her, only FaceTime and over the phone and all that. But you guys know, you mothers out there. You know that's not the same. So the entire time I was missing her and to see her back, obviously made me realize that time with my daughter is priceless. And so that little time that I had, while she was staying home to finish school was something to be grateful for, because I was going to miss her right away. So for that, if you are in the same situation like me or worse, you will understand. So it's spending time with our kids is priceless. And we must appreciate each time, even when they make us go crazy. Because they do not always do what they're supposed to do. Right? That's life. 

5:44
Okay. The second thing is giving myself or giving my skills and gifts with love and kindness, and compassion brings me so much happiness. And why did I say that? This is a lonely story right here, back in 2019 to be exact, December 2019, something was placed in my heart. And it was created a space in your house where you can not only have your office which I already had but not in this capacity looking at now. And also create a yoga space by all the video equipments and ring lights and all that and just start doing things from home and I was split in my heart. And so I did we completely, I completely remodeled everything home, and to create this. And a little that I know a little that I knew is that I was going to use this so much starting March. So in January, February, I was running a challenge. The “One Healthy Habit A Day Challenge”, which I probably will run again in 2021. So stay tuned for that. And when COVID-19 started, you know just getting worse and worse, what I decided to do was, let's go ahead and start chain, some yoga, some Pilates or meditation to the Facebook group that I had created. And that's what I did, I went into action. And with loving-kindness, you guys, I can tell you that every single day that I was doing this, I was so happy to do it. I was so selfless, like never before I just I cannot wait every morning, or nighttime, whatever the time and schedule to do this. And it never thought I never run through my mind is they were appreciating that, or they were grateful for…it didn’t matter to me, it did not matter. I wanted to do this because there was bringing me so much happiness. And I knew that I was adding value at the highest level. So that is number two. 

8:44
Number three is meeting people online more than ever before we something to be grateful for. And it still is. I'm sure it is for many of you. Many of you were not ready to be online for so long. We're not ready to run meetings on Zoom or whatever. And you have to learn you have to equip yourself, you have to find out what to do and just went for it. And so for that, we have to be grateful. We have to learn all this technical stuff, which is not the things that I like to do. But we need it and we still need it. I'm sure that many of you can relate to me on this. That this was one of the greatest things that ever happened to us was to learn to connect with each other, even from a distance. So for that, that is number four, I believe. 

10:00
Yeah, let's go to number five. I appreciated the beauty of my neighborhood more than ever. I always felt like, getting out of the house was going to another city or go into another state, or going to, I don't know, to a different area that was in my neighborhood. Well, let me tell you, I have learned to appreciate the beauty in my neighborhood. And walking in the mornings, not only with my dog for five minutes, or 10 minutes, like I was doing before, that taking those long walks through the neighborhood and really listen to the silence, observe the people walking around, even though we're social distancing. And just waving from this side, right? That is something to be grateful for and I hope that many of you can relate to that, and I’m sure that you do, I'm sure that you came to recognize some things that you never saw before, around your neighborhood. And so the next one is the getting to know my neighbors. As I took my morning walk routine was priceless, as well. Because, yes, I was getting to know them for five minutes, well, walking my dog, or something like that. But this long, hour walk in the morning, all during this time has been amazing as being also, you know, we have stayed six feet apart, 10 feet apart, whatever it is. But we have had conversations that I've never had with them before. And that is being something to be grateful for that is something to appreciate. And I'm sure that you understand this, I'm sure that you were doing the same thing, because what happened is that I have to give up my gym membership. And that was something to be sad about. But then there is always something to be grateful for and the grateful thing was, I got to know my neighborhood, I got to know my neighbors a little better. And what a beautiful thing that is, guys, what a beautiful thing that is to connect with the people around you, the closest people around you is really your neighbors. 

13:08
So let me go to the next one. And this is really important, I want you to really listen to this one. Freedom is not free. It is something we should never be taken for granted. So listen to that. And I don't know if you can hear the voices out there. But there are people downstairs in my house. So let me repeat that. Freedom is not free. And you should never be taken for granted. That came into my heart. And the reason why is because sometimes we say to ourselves, we just want to be free. Always so we say to ourselves, we are free. I'm free. Well, both are true. But freedom is not free. We have been paying for our freedom right now. We have had to stay at home. We have had to back off from maybe traveling outside the country, to places that we want to go, things that we want to do. So our freedom is being restricted a little bit. So our freedom is not free. And how we are paying for our freedom is by staying still. And for many, being still is a big deal, I have been practicing being still for many, many years, you guys. And this was one of the things that were so easy for me to practice - being still, appreciating freedom, and knowing that freedom is not free. Though also, understanding that freedom is a totally different thing. And we'll get to that in a minute. But just dig into that one. 

15:48
The next one is you don't need to be hustling all the time. Things take some time for yourself. Taking time for yourself is not selfish. It is not selfish. I hope that many of you appreciate that time to slow down to not hustle, to not hurry, to not run, but just to slow down. And not to do more. If you were running, I’m sure that you were forced to take walks, to take steps. And that my friends is really hard to do. For those of us that are type A, me D personality we want to go we want to get things done. But slowing down is a good thing, it’s taking that time for ourselves. And that doesn't make you are not selfish. That makes us is self-care. And self-care is not selfish. Self-care is self-love. I want you to think into that and I'm sure you can hear the background noise as you guys this is going to be a little noisy here and there because I'm recording in the middle of the holidays and there are people here. 

17:45
The next one is: change is the only constant. We know that we cannot compete with change. Change, changes. And that is the true things are going to change. People are going to change. Everything changes. Like right now. The beautiful tree outside my house has only almost no leaves. When in the summer, it was blooming with its green, beautiful leaves. Right now, they look like they’re crying.  Because this change is still beautiful, but it is change - it is the change of the season. And so we change in 2020. And if you're not affecting the change, you are going to suffer. So I want you to remember my friends that change is the only constant it's just going to happen things are not going to be the same all the time change is going to happen. So what I say to that is always accept change and remember the change happens for us, not to us. Changes are good if we look at them in a positive way. Okay, sometimes change is not something that we want or something that we are expecting, something that we wish for. But it happens. Change is the only constant. 

19:54
That brings me to “alone”. Being alone doesn’t mean lonely. Learn to enjoy your old company. Many people during this time were spending their time alone. I think it turned into, I don't know if it was the news or entertaining show, I don't remember. But they were interviewing someone who has quarantined himself in his apartment. So imagine being in a small space, all by yourself during this time. But the beauty of that is that if we recognize that we are not alone, “alone” doesn't mean being lonely. If we learn to enjoy ourselves’ company. And I can go on into that, but I hope that is some of you are listening to this and some of you went through this experience. I hope you didn’t start chitty chatting in your head because you were lonely. Because alone, doesn’t mean lonely, alone doesn’t mean you’re just there. It means you have the best company in the world, and that is yourself. 

21:53
And this is the time to bring the last one which is mindfulness is a superpower. You can become a superhero. And why did I say that? Because if you were one of those people that were alone during this time or are alone during this time, I want you to turn into mindfulness. And what that means is to get quiet and get really fully present with yourself. And start learning to talk to yourself in a positive way. Because I know that when we are alone, not lonely, remember alone is not being lonely. You can make it lonely… it’s up to you. But if you are by yourself, and you become mindful of your aloneness, of your solo time, you can do so much. You can learn to understand yourself. You can learn to listen to yourself, not to talk to yourself. So during this time, what's important is to listen, not to talk to yourself. Because what happens is that when we talk to ourselves, we are not very nice of the things that we say to ourselves. But if we will learn to listen, and we learn to say the positive things that we need to tell ourselves, and we start believing and we start self-caring and self love, then we are not alone. We are in great company. We are in great company because we are with this person that we love so much that we listen to the amazing things that this person is telling us. That's your own voice. That's your own voice.

24:49
So let's recap:

1. Spending time with your daughter, your sons, spouse, your friends, whoever you're spending time with is priceless. 
2. Given my skills or giving your skills and gifts, with love and compassion, and kindness brings us happiness.
3. Meeting people online more than ever before is something to be grateful for. I know that my personality, they wanted to get out of the house and go meet people and hug people. This is a good one to remember. 
4. Getting to know your neighbors, my neighbors, as we walked in the morning or took our dog out is priceless, it is really valuable. 
5. Appreciating the beauty of your neighborhood and your surroundings, something we can’t pay for. 
6. Freedom is not free. Freedom is not free. It should be never - you should never be taken for granted. This is number six, you guys. 
7. You don't need to be hustling all the time. Taking time for yourself is not selfish. 
8. Change is the only constant. So we know it's always going to change. 
9. Alone doesn’t mean loneliness. We all need to learn to enjoy our own company. 
10. Mindfulness is a superpower. And you and I can become our own heroes. 

And that my friends are the 10 important life lessons from 2020. And I hope that you enjoyed this, I’m sorry about the backgrounds. But again, I am recording in the middle of the holidays. So it's a little noisy here. So with that, I'm going to leave you please share with your friends and family this podcast, this episode. I hope this added value to you. And I'll see you next week. Bye. 

Hey, guys thank you for listening I hope that you enjoyed this episode. And before you go, I want to remind you about the free Mindful and Energetic Living Guide. I want to give this to you, so all you have to do is go to the show notes and find the link right there. And it will be right in your inbox okay, so make sure you do that and I will see you next week have a fantastic rest of the day, bye!