50 ! not out !

Hello my dear dear friend! Welcome back to this very very special episode of Morning Cup of Sunshine podcast and a hearty welcome if you just found me, and it is the first ever episode you are listening to. I am blessed to have such wonderful listeners. Each one of you is deeply appreciated in this space. I am so humbled by all the love and support I get from this amazing community. I could not have done this without you. I am not saying this just for the sake of saying, you know me, I am truly honest in each one of my episodes. Can you believe , we are at the half century mark? It is the 50th episode of the Morning Cup of Sunshine podcast. I am seriously in awe of this journey. When I thought of podcasting last February, I was just looking at it as some distant dream. I did not know anyone personally who has a weekly podcast. I listened to podcasts for a long time, but all of them were created by some very great creators in the world of social media. They have the following of thousands and thousands of people. Here I was dreaming about podcasting with next to nothing social media following, no prior experience of podcasting, with a full time job and two little ones to care for. I looked like a distant dream. But last year, I decided to act on it. I was afraid, scared. The fear of the unknown was real. It needed a lot of courage. I had so many doubts but one thing I knew for sure was that I love writing. I decided to speak from the place of warmth, authenticity and realness. If you know me in real life, you will find my exact same personality being reflected in this podcast. I decided from the very first episode that I will not pretend to be an expert instead I wanted to pour my heart out with as much realness, rawness in every single episode. I am a working mom who wants to have something more from life. I am just like you who knows that life is messy, raising kids is difficult, balancing work and life is a struggle every single day. I am just like you who wants to be there for her family, love them unconditionally, put her best foot forward in whatever task that she is doing, be it in her professional world or her family world and on top of that I am just like who wants to do this with a bright smile on my face, with as much as positivity as possible. Once I knew my why of starting the podcast, the rest of the steps were easy. I had confidence in my ability to be consistent. I really take pride in this quality of mine. Whenever I decide to do something, whenever I set my mind on any goal, I give my heart and soul to that goal. I remain consistent no matter what. I knew I would be consistent if I just started the podcast but to be very honest with you, I was not sure that I would come this long. I remember writing in my journal. In my goals prompt, I started writing that “I recorded and published 50 episodes of my podcast” I now officially achieved this goal but of course the journey won’t stop here. I am just going to change the goal and move it forward and this is not because I am obsessed with the numbers but I absolutely love podcasting. It has given me so much joy, happiness, so many new friends that I can not be more blessed. But the journey was not all rosy and swift. There were moments when I was overwhelmed, I had my doubts. I thought so many times, why am I putting this much effort into something which is just a hobby. I was so busy with work for past few months but still I continued to wake up at 5.00 am every single day to work on podcast. When you listen to an episode, it is not just the recording that goes into the podcast episode. I first need to choose a topic, read about it either in books or some articles, put my one experiences and thoughts in the outline of the episode, create a blog post for my website , record the episode, edit it, add intro, outro, upload and schedule it and then comes the complete social media promotions. I know I lack a lot when it comes to promoting the episodes. I create all my weekly posts for my Facebook group and schedule them for each day of the week. I know I can improve a lot. I should create more stories, live sessions and what not. I have countless ideas but frankly time is really a constraint for me. I don’t want to hamper the schedule of my kids and my family. They always come first. But podcasting is my passion and it makes me happy so I am going to keep working hard and bring more and more useful topics for you all. But on the occasion of this big milestone, I wanted to reflect on my journey a little bit, share some behind the scene fun and some inspiring stories with you all. I have another such fun episode already planned for one year anniversary of this podcast, so you will get to listen to a fun filled episode on June 6th but today it is more of a reflection. As I was telling you, I have been having very busy work days for the past few months and I was seriously questioning whether to continue podcasting or not. I wanted to share two incidents that made me realize how much positive impact my podcasting is having not only on me but on those who are near and dear to me. The other day, after reading a bedtime story to Mihir, I casually asked him, whether I should stop podcasting? Without taking even a second to think, Mihir said, “No of course not. You love it so much and I feel so proud of you when I listen to your voice on our google .” My eyes were filled with tears of joy. I am doing something right. Moments like this keeps me going. Another incident happened last Saturday. It was early morning and Rushikesh and I were having our morning coffee and were chatting about so many things. During our conversation, I mentioned to Rushikesh how much of an effort it is to create one single episode and how I always feel something more could have been done, it is plain overwhelming sometimes. After some time, I went on to record a new episode doubting myself. I spent half an hour recording the episode and the moment I came out of the room, the first thing I said to Rushikesh was, “this is all worth it. I have some of the best time of my life when I record. It is like a meditation to me, it is so therapeutic to me. I have no intention to ever stop doing this” Moments like these are so precious and I have so many such moments that truly make this journey so beautiful.

I learned so many things in the past few months because of podcasting. Journaling was one of the best things that happened to me. I read so many great books, articles while researching for the episode topics. I listened to so many great Ted Talks, audio books , podcasts to hone my speaking skill even better. I am learning so much by every passing day. I learned to slow down. For the first time in my life, I understood the importance of mindfulness. I know I promised an episode on Mindfulness a long time back but I am still finishing the book “8 weeks into Mindfulness” I don’t want to talk about mindfulness unless I fully understand and implement it in my life. So, keep your eyes out for this episode, it is coming soon. Because of this podcasting I created a vision board for the first time. I am so incredibly grateful for that. I had my first ever live session, I had many guest appearances on fellow podcasters shows. I learned so much with each interview. I loved public speaking ever since I can remember. Even as a child, it was my dream to be a speaker. I know, I am miles away from making it as a speaker. But I am surely ready to work hard to achieve this goal and podcasting helped me gain so much experience and confidence to get closer to this life long goal. I am so grateful for every single listener that I have, you are the biggest reason why I am here. I am here because you are here. I plan to be here as long as at least one of you is here. So, please be here, you are deeply appreciated. Podcasting gave me so many friends, reconnected me with some of my old friends. This is a huge blessing for me. Podcasting is a one way communication medium. Sometimes, you feel lonely as there is no real audience when you record. But as I started getting real time feedback for each of my episodes from my loyal listeners, I started imagining them sitting right in front of me while I record my audience and the number of audience is growing day by day. We are becoming a big community now. I don’t have enough words to tell you how much I value each one of you. You have made this journey so incredibly beautiful. I am learning to be a better version of myself each and every day. I am aware that life can be difficult and there are stressful situations. I am well aware that we are still in the middle of the pandemic and there are a lot of people who lost their loved ones, their jobs and what not. I am well aware of the scary and negative incidents happening around us but I chose not to talk about them not because I am ignorant but because I wanted to create a space where you will feel positive and uplifted after you are done listening to the episode. I wanted to create a space where I can guarantee you that the 20-25 minutes that you spend listening to my episode will make you smile, will make you feel valued, loved. I am determined to help you start your day on a positive note and help you navigate tough situations with a bright smile on your face. It is not just you but even I need positive vibes to start my day, most of the time. This podcasting helped me know myself better, helped me understand myself better. I started being more compassionate about myself. I started giving myself grace, it had never been my priority before. I was so hard on myself for so long. I was my hardest critic. But now, I have started accepting myself the way I am, with all my quirks and all my flaws and trust me it is so liberating. It is so freeing to tell someone without hesitating that I am not good at something or I dislike something. It is so amazing to see yourself in the mirror and accept yourself with all those stretchmarks, all those curves and still love the core of your existence. I could not be in this stage if I have not started reading so much for podcasting. I wish I can show you some kind of before and after but it is not some kind of picture that shows your transformed body. It is more internal, it is more to feel than to see. These 50 episodes taught me so much. I always said in my episodes that I am work in progress. I am gorwin, learning and rewiring myself with every episode. I hope to stay as real and as authentic as possible throughout this journey. I am loving every second of it. I am still in awe of how much content I have created in these past few months. I have put my soul in every single episode. I have so many new ideas and topics to talk about in upcoming episodes. I can’t wait to see you with me on this journey. It is not a full stop by any means. Together we have a lot to achieve, a lot to learn and a lot tp share.. We are here to laugh, learn and love. I am always there with you, walking this journey as your virtual friend. This is your space, this is your platform and I am just a means to connect and help you bring positivity, motivation in your day to day life. I would like to end this episode with one small poem that I came across in one of the books that I was reading a long time back. It is absolutely true, every single word. Even though the words are not mine but the feelings are absolutely mine.

Thank you to those who loved me.

You made my heart go fonder

Thank you to those who cared

You made me feel important

Thank you to those who entered my life

You made me who I am today

Thank you to those that left

You showed me that nothing lasts forever

Thank you to those who stayed

You showed me true friendship

Thank you to those who listened

You made me feel like I was worth it