30 Days of Celebrating Me Day 6: Legs

Oh Beautiful strong, nicely carved legs. Calf muscles nicely accentuated by my 3 inch hills. Thigh muscles firming and toning with every hill climb, every rotation of my bike, every mile run, and thousands and thousands of squats and lunges.

These legs, they haven't come easy. They have felt pain, fatigue, strain and yet they stand tall, and tell me again and again "We will get you to the finish line"

I love my legs. It is crazy that when I was younger, I was so ashamed of my calf muscles and hid them in trousers for years. Now I proudly show them off. They have been a pinnacle of success in more ways than I can count. These legs... They are amazing they are an essential part of me and I love them.

So here's to my magnificent athletic legs!

30 Days of Celebrating Me Day 5: Comedy

There is this beautiful thing about me that I have always neglected. My ability to make people laugh. People say I am funny, and I barely leave people with a sad face... except you have done something to upset this feisty Arian.

In the last year, I started to embrace the comic side of me better than before, and managed to share some of that digitally. The benefit of doing that was that it opened a new window of imagination for me. I started to see how else I could bring a smile to peoples faces, and in every situation I started to apply this attitude to everything. So when I feel down, I start picking at the bad aspects of that down feeling and try to turn it into some comic sketch. If nothing else, I spend a few minutes laughing at my own stupidity or the genius in me, whichever one comes to mind at the time of introspection.

I hope to be more out there with this, but in the meantime, I'll go back to laughing at one of my little jokes.

30 Days of Celebrating Me Day 4: Sincerity

Today i celebrate Sincerity. I think I've come to an age where I have begun to see me as responsible for me and don't need to lie to anyone or be anyone other than me. I guess one of the beautiful things about being sincere is that you stop trying to fit in and start being true to yourself. The thing is those who will be a part of your life will be a part of your life.

Growing up I found myself an outsider looking in on the supposed social circles. I always knew that my scene was completely different and I would find my own way. Thirty-something odd years and I am walking this journey called life with a huge smile on my face knowing that I am being true to myself. With this sincerity has come lessons. Understanding me, learning to accept my flaws, learning to stay true to my purpose, but most of all it has definitely made me a much happier person.
As I go to bed tonight, this is one trait that I'm going to spend time on. I guess in a lot of ways being too sincere caused a lot of rifts between me and a lot of friends... Maybe I shouldn't blame it on sincerity but more on my inability to deliver my sincere message in an appealing and receptive manner. So I'm going to spend some time looking at how best to apply sincerity in all situations.

Raise your glass with me as I raise a toast to Sincerity today.

30 Days of Celebrating Me Day 3: Music

I can sing

Yes I can hold a tune. It's the one thing I do all the time. Sing when I'm happy, sing when times are hard, I just open my mouth and sing. My mother had an amazing voice too. I'm celebrating this not just as a talent, but also an important part of me.

I have an eclectic taste in music.... well I shouldn't say Eclectic because I'm not down with the Emo type music. I remember joining my friend to sing a song for some random Hindu festival I knew nothing about. I learnt the piece and I was singing to however many other people there was listening on the shared stream.

Music has always been a part of me, and today I am lifting up my glass to celebrate this God given talent.

30 Days of Celebrating me Day 2: Strength

Today I celebrate the Strength I possess. I don't always accept or see that I am a very strong woman, full of will power and determination. I just see me as your every day woman plodding along, but when I look back, I see one hell of a strong woman. Not just physical strength, but emotionally and mentally strong. I fall, make a lot of mistakes along the way, but what I have found is my ability to cry it out, and start working my way out of whatever issues I may be facing, and yes most of the time, I do so with a smile on my face.

I remember 4 years ago, accepting my current job with the IT department and the first decision I made was to let go of the raging bull within me. No more getting angry and lashing out. I decided as I signed my contract that I would think hard before I spoke, be slow to anger and be even more open to constructive criticism. 3 years on, and I'm grateful that I made that decision. With that decision came another level of growth, and a new found strength I wasn't aware of. The strength to forgive, the strength to back down from a fight, the strength to turn away from anger, the strength to stand up no matter how down and out I feel and the list goes on and on.

So raise your glass with me as I celebrate the strength that I possess.

30 Days of Celebrating Me Day 1: Compassion

Today I am celebrating Compassion. The amazing thing about this process is that it is already causing me to think deep about myself and the good traits/characteristics/behaviour etc that I might possess. I woke up just after 02:00 am this morning and my brain was already at work literally writing the script for today and I thought to myself this is going to be exciting.

My inspiration to celebrate my compassionate side stems from a conversation on Facebook and I realized that deep down I care about people and animals - Even though I am not animal friendly. There is a verse from the bible that I always quote "Let your light so shine that they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven" Depending on who is reading the verse, it could mean anything. For me this simply means that as long as I can make an impact while I'm here on earth, not to those who can walk around and say "You know Cherukei did this for me, or Cherukei is such a nice girl..." It's about looking out for those that can't afford basic amenities - Coffee/Tea and breakfast for the random homeless man lying out there in the cold, Helping someone who's stranded, lost their way etc. For a change I'm not going to try to water this down, I'm going to just appreciate that I have a heart and I go the extra mile when it is required of me without expecting anything in return. So here's to compassion!

Note to self: Buy some wine, there's a lot to celebrate in the coming weeks.

An Introduction to the Celebration of Me

HOW DID THIS ALL BEGIN?

A conversation with my cousin made me stop and start thinking about this feeling I have had for ages. For most of my life, I have felt undeserving of love. I spend a lot of my time on what I consider to be my faults, sabotage every good opportunity to be loved, and the worst bit, I concentrate my emotions on men who are physically and emotionally unavailable. I'm talking months and years... I'm 33 shortly hitting 34, and even though I am not marriage hungry, it would not hurt to meet God's chosen man for me and settle down, and have some amazing kids that'll keep me on my toes for hours on end.

THE CONCEPT BEHIND 30 DAYS OF ME: 30 Days of celebrating me, is the chance I am giving myself to really dig deep and look at the qualities that make me who I am. The idea of celebrating me came from a group I joined on Facebook called Thirty after Thirty. However I decided that maybe I might just blog my experience as it is quite private at close to my heart.

THE WORK I NEED TO PUT IN: Everyday, I will pick a quality that I believe I possess, and reflect on the positive impacts. When I speak of qualities, it will be anything such as a character/personality trait, physical attribute etc. These in a way are the essence of me. Without them I will not be who I am.

I am hoping that by day 30, I can come to terms with the fact that I am worthy of loving, and understand that someone can just love me for being me.

Let the journey begin....