2024 Word and Intention of the year: GROWTH

On January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn Emotions, healing, Mind, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing23 Comments

“Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasure nor this thing nor that but simply growth, We are happy when we are growing.” ~ William Butler Yeats

My favorite year end ritual since the past few years has been to choose a word for the year. Which also doubles as the intention of the year as well.

I’ve found that after years of setting goals and resolutions which fizzle out in intensity and appeal after a few weeks, a word based intention creates a wonderful level of focus. It is sort of an anchor to come back to when you feel lost along the way. My word for last year was: PEACE. And, I can say with great satisfaction that, that is the first thing I wrote as a something I have achieved in 2023 in my journal. Peace of mind, was at the forefront of all that I did in the last year. I’ve never really shared my Word of the year before on the blog, but this year I feel like its something I have tried and it works beautifully on my healing journey. SO, it WILL surely help you too.

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3 Positive Steps to Begin Fresh in 2024

On December 5, 2023December 8, 2023 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn healing, Mind, Mind, Heart& Soul-Motivation&Inspiration, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing6 Comments

“Hold the vision, trust the process.”

As the year is coming to an end and a new year is around the horizon, most conversations have been revolving around How to start fresh in the coming year. Honestly, in my own life too, major changes happened in the last year and that is why as the year ends, my mind is on how to begin fresh in the next year too.

A feeling of, “…is this really my whole life?” is where it all began. Ironically this happened in the beginning of 2023, which led to my insides collapsing. It felt like everything around me wasn’t making any sense. Actually, myself most of all. I went from feeling apathetic to experiencing what felt like every emotion within a day, every day.

This has been an eye-opening journey–one that I’m still on–but I’ve gained a lot of clarity, by getting very honest with myself, and have expanded my ability to trust and surrender. It’s those times in life when we have no other choice but to let go that can be some of the most powerful, life-changing experiences.

Today, I’m sharing some things I’ve learned during this time that helped me to get clear within myself in order to start over with a fresh mindset and a more positive way of being in my life.

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6 Signs You are Stuck in a People-Pleasing cycle& How to Heal from it

On November 13, 2023November 13, 2023 By Zeenat Merchant Syal-Counseling Psychologist|Spiritual CounselorIn healing, Mind, Mind, Heart& Soul-Motivation&Inspiration, Mind-Mental Health, Positive Self Reflection, spiritual healing9 Comments

“Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner. ~ Lao Tzu

People-pleasing is a common coping mechanism humans use to fit in to their surroundings. Most of the time we develop the habit of people pleasing because of our need to protect ourselves from negative emotions. It shows up in a pattern of behaviours that, on the surface, make us seem ‘nice, sweet, flexible, very understanding and agreeable’.

Confession: I am a reforming people-pleaser myself. So, I know first hand that Empaths and Sensitive souls suffer from people-pleasing the most.

While being kind and helpful is generally a good thing, going too far to please others can leave you feeling emotionally depleted, stressed, and anxious.

We really want people’s approval and to stay in their good books, which often results in us neglecting or not even being aware of our own needs.

Because of our need to please others, we struggle to set boundaries and tend to overcommit, leading to overwhelm, anxiety and burnout.

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