I have no idea how this happens but with time, people tend to forget about themselves! I am a strong believer of the fact that the best gift of this life … is life itself but unfortunately somehow somethings just slip away from our hands. Hence, to love yourself is the essence of this life – only if we could establish a firm belief in this.

So let’s talk about grooming first! Girls may tend to go a long way to keep looking for themselves but men, well in the developing countries at least, they are just reduced to the ATM machines with time who occupy the role of the giver.

These days I’m watching Mad Men and the main lead (Jon Hamm), who works in an ad agency, has made me go gaga over him every time I see him. His personality does make me question whether I have seen a single man, of this persona, in my nine years of career or otherwise and the answer comes out to be NO :/ Not that I’m critical of males but trust me, most men don’t really give a jack about their look or wardrobe or both.

You go to any office, all you would see are blue shirts, mostly worn out, paired with a dark blue/brown colored trousers and that too will be on a repeat. Not that I’m against simplicity and trust me, it’s not about the dressing – it’s about the effort which people don’t make on themselves.

Although the world is changing and women are entering into the workforce but our societal norms are such that the men are expected to run the family. Hence, many of them have their dreams shattered every day when they wake up to earn a living. Most of them are never permitted to pursue their goals because the pressure to let the ends meet is so much that they can’t seem to break the shackles of  corporate slavery or whatever they are doing.

Hence, they get tired even before they get started. Even the stay-at-home women have a similar story to tell. Looking after oneself is no more a priority. Addressing health issues, walk and exercise, tasteful wardrobe has stopped being their concern. They are always struggling with the joint family issues or not-so-caring husband, or kids’ exams or anything and everything which is not related to their soul and body :/

Then comes the health part! Most of the females, that I know of, would like to postpone their visits to the doctors due to sheer laziness and for being in a state of self-denial/sacrifice. You would frequently hear from them that they don’t want to burden their children/spouse for taking them to the hospital. Can this ever be an excuse?

Loving yourself is as critical as eating your food three times a day. There is a folklore about a tree as how people would go near it and would curse on how it looked and in days, it fell down. This is the power of word and curse guys! If you love yourself – spend some time every day on yourself – the whole world will start appreciating you.

Btw, having a good wardrobe doesn’t really mean that you spend a fortune on it – its about knowing your body and then choosing something that brings the best out of you. I have seen people with money but with a bad taste who keep on struggling with this.

Being obese doesn’t mean that you should hate yourself. Obesity and cuteness are not mutually exclusive ;p There is a lot of power in goodness. One good trait can overshadow all your short-comings. Successful people aren’t the ones who are perfect from every aspect, they are those who have identified their strength and then made the whole world see it. And trust me, people only see what you make them see 🙂

And to love yourself, there are two more things that you can do to yourself. One – travel and Secondly, pray or have some sort of connection with divinity. If nothing else, faith keeps us strong and hopeful. And by traveling, I do not necessarily mean making extravagant international trips – may be you haven’t seen your city in its true essence yet. Traveling opens up the window of fresh air into your soul. It makes you breath better and let you meet yourself. So travel – at least once a year, please!

I think, in my entire lifetime, I met my soul twice – Once, when back in 2011, I was parasailing over Lake Tahou (USA) some hundreds of feet above sea level and the echo of silence pinched me a bit too hard. That day, I met divinity. I thought for a bit about what would happen if the string cut lose and I fall into the lake and die? But then, in between this scary thought, I somehow met myself. I can’t really explain my experience in it’s truest sense, but at least that’s how it felt :!

And the other time I met ‘me’ when the jeep driver had put on a Qawali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Mast Nazron say) at the loudest volume while we were coming back from Passu Glacier to Hunza Valley. I made a trip with my friends back in 2007 – it was a very cold evening and the jeep was open. Heavy breeze was hitting hard on our faces – the road was beautiful, the mountains were majestic, the night had fallen and we had shrunk into a dot due to cold. I guess all of us were tired and hence, seldom speaking on our way back – but the magical voice of NFAK was even making the mountains move with us. I cannot forget that night!

Anyway, coming back to the main point – please don’t forget to treat yourself by looking after your well-being. Do whatever makes you happy and invest in yourself. Nobody is going to come ask you to be better – it’s your game and it should better be an “A” game 🙂

Have a great weekend folks!

PS: The featured Image is from my trip to Malam Jabba that I made in 2015. I have not mentioned this trip in this entire post so please don’t get confused. I was just liking this photo and put it aesay he 🙂