A Much Detailed Guide for the Multi-Passionate Busy Bees for the New Year, 2023.
This article literally started with me googling, “The Busiest Animals on Earth,” and I was pleasantly surprised not to find humans among them (yes, you guessed it, we are mammals). A lot of pressure can be removed by the previous sentence alone. We don’t need to be the busiest beings on the planet, but being equivalent to sloths or pandas (I know they are adorable) won’t make us have a fulfilling life.
This is for you and me, the ones who want to live a life that makes us feel alive, fulfilled, and feeling worthy of living, so bring a cup of green tea with fresh mint or ginger (my current obsession), and let’s dive into your guide for the New Year, 2023, as a busy person. Yes, we will pretend we own 5 businesses and operate them from an alternative universe (pick your universe, childhood/teen me would pick hogwarts, and I would let her).
If you’re not that much of a reader and you just want to be told a list of things to do rather than absorbing what to think, feel, and do, head to the end of this article.
Your Soul – Charged and Open
Everything we consume leaves an effect on us, and our soul. Listening at the end of a call that has some bits of gossip but not really because we are telling what happened and not talking smack, putting off prayers when we are perfectly capable of praying them, watching and not skipping the not total thirst traps that just pop in our “For You” page following the funny innocent duck video, and everything after that may leave us at an imbalance, since we may choose to consume too much non-spiritually nourishing content. You may consume a lot of content, consciously or subconsciously, and the lovely part is that you choose (some) of what you consume.
Nourishing your spirit happens through all your senses, and here are some tips that seem generic but are actually helpful (I tried them, yes, and I am trying to stick to them):
- Touch: wearing something that makes you feel good
- Taste: taste healthy delicious food and not feel bloated after
- Smell: smelling good and being in an clean environment (recommendation: get an indoor plant)
- See: a functional tip: have eye drops, trust me we all have dry eyes from the weather and our screens, and for a more fun tip for this sense: go to a lot of places that have nature or water in them and you will definitely feel differently in these different environments.
- Hear: choose what you want to listen to, some ‘feel good’ songs don’t actually make you feel good, but listening to brown or white noise can help you with your work and studying (search on YouTube, and be prepared to feel as if you are underwater).
Religion and spirituality often go hand-in-hand, since religion is the guide for worship and for living on Earth by your God, and spirituality involves the recognition of a feeling or belief that there is something greater than thyself. Whether you are religious or spiritual, you can pray and also meditate, you can do your prayers as well as affirmations (ending it with Inshallah and believing that the best will happen for you), and you can do every action with the intention and purpose of being a better worshiper for God and a better human being on this Earth. Charging your soul should always be a priority through every method you could put your hand on since it helps you build everything within and around you.
Your Body – Always on the move
With working on your spirit, working on your body helps almost equally to developing a fulfilling life. If you’re not very in tune with your body, it means you have not yet tasted the amazing amount of energy released when you are done with a good workout. Working on your body is not just pushing, grunting, and feeling like you are in a warzone (I hope that you feel good through that though), but it is also to test yourself with tolerating discomfort and find out what your body is capable of. Tolerating discomfort is a part of your daily routine as it is, because no one has an easy life but having your body experience it intentionally helps your brain feel accustomed rather than attacked every time you meet a minor inconvenience and feel the victim of this world.
If it’s hard for you to head to the gym and be a gym rat, then home workouts can be the best option for you (I guess home workout rat doesn’t sound as cool but whatever gets you moving!). Here are some examples for training you can do at home: barre, pilates, HIIT and fitness workouts, mobility training, and make sure to do some stretching before and after each session. You deserve to learn about what you’re capable of through your body, and feel strong throughout life (maybe not at the time you are at the gym but after that you are golden). One thing to note is that you need to do a workout you actually enjoy and it helps with charging your soul, so keep experimenting until you make your perfect routine. If you want to go with the trend, implement these workouts in your routine: mobility training, posture
training, and pilates. Other than moving your body, the food and the products you use for your body must be helpful for your body, like not using a shampoo with sulfates, or switching to an organic soap (with less chemicals and manufacturing). Having a balanced diet can be achieved through eating mostly at home and healthy snacking, and with the rise of healthy cooktok and all the available recipes out there, you will have fun achieving a healthy lifestyle, and not stick to a normal salad but maybe add peppers, olives, and some spice to your food and life.
Your Heart – Being Passionately on a Mission
Ever wondered what your purpose in life is? I did so many times that I could never count and with that I
found something that resonated with me and helped me outline my way around finding my purpose.
IKIGAI, (生き甲斐, lit. ‘a reason for being’) is a Japanese concept and a book that refers to something that
gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living, and the concept is sectioned into 4 areas:
- What the world needs, referring to your mission and vocation
This could be figured out through diving into your beliefs and ideals. Diving into your very core and finding
ways you could implement it in your life, work, relationships, and within yourself. - What you can be paid for, referring to your vocation and profession
You could start by searching for random jobs and from every job description and job field you see and
define, highlight the parts you like and what you don’t like. You could also start writing down your idols
and what you like about what they do and how they live. - What you are good at, referring to your passion and profession
Finding your passion can prove challenging especially if you are a multi-passionate person, and this
means that you have a million options to choose from and you could even choose a mix. What can stop a
multi-passionate person from reaching their fullest potential? Not balancing their life in the right way. First
step is finding where your interests lie, then choosing whether or not you want to turn which passion into
a profession. - What you love, referring to your mission and passion
You could start by figuring out your attachment style and it will convey how you connect with people and
justify your means for showing affection.
Finding your purpose, or your ikigai, is not a simple task but through those areas, you could dive deeper
into yourself and your heart’s desires and needs.
Your Mind – Being Interesting Intellectually
Furthermore, you would want to develop your mindset to fit that purpose and be accustomed to handle
emotionally challenging situations.Being self-smart is not just being self-aware and just passive with your
self-knowledge and intuition, but also interacting or choosing not to with what clouds your thoughts and
flows into you. This is a much needed skill because as you know that our time on this Earth is timely, we
need to know how to take the “right” energy, after we define what drains it. We can start the cleansing
process by slowly eliminating the things that consume us.I am sure you know all about Social Media
Cleansing, and the integral part is to mute or unfollow the people or pages that take so much energy from
you, and if you can quit social media all together, I would highly recommend doing it, so you can live in
this life. You can be aware of the world news, but make sure to give yourself a time limit for each app.
You could choose to consume from people or pages that provide you with what you need and not give
you a space for comparison but rather for inspiration. I could give an example for this one by giving a
shout out to Elizabeth Filips’ YouTube Channel, in which Elizabeth just gets the anxiety of hustling in life
while also wanting to live a fulfilling life, and she helps us feel smart just by watching her videos and
learning through her learning journey. I would definitely recommend her “You’re Not Lazy: How to Live a
Chaotically Organised Life” video.
Everyone runs for distraction and procrastination just because they either fear not succeeding at doing
the task or simply because they don’t know how to do it, and the remedy for this is emotional discipline
and self-learning. This doesn’t mean going on a free Coursera course that you won’t follow through and
forget you even started, no, and what I mean with this is to make research your best friend. Researching
whether it is related to you or to your school or job, it helps you learn about yourself and mainly about
your interpretation of what you consume. You could start doing this by: 1. Writing your research points, or
things you just want to read about or watch videos about (they can be super random, for example I wrote
that I want to learn about Japanese Literature and Advance of science in the Islamic Kingdoms), 2. Learn
how to integrate what you read or consume somewhere so talking about it with a friend. test yourself
through that coursera course, or just sit with the knowledge you acquired and feel smart. The following
suggestions help you be aware of your rumination (your mind wandering in circles over and over) and
instead focus mostly on life (and not run to distractions).
Here is your mini but plentiful tips for 2023:
The three tips help you define and reach your goals with managing your emotions and time.
- Routines: I know I know, we all hate following a routine but a routine doesn’t mean having a
predictable life but rather having a predictable day and building a better future within that. It won’t
get boring as you envision it to be, but that shines the light that you see stability and discipline as
dull or living a life that isn’t as exciting. Life gets exciting when you can see your work paying off
so building up the life that fulfills you needs to be consistent within the foundation of this life and
after that, feel free to keep doing your add ons. Make trying new things a part of your routine, and
that doesn’t mean go to a new cafe every day but every once in a while, do something that you
have always wanted to try and you can read more about the thrill of trying out new things through
the The Thrill of New Things by Habiba Sulliaman (on our website). Routines help me with
knowing how my time goes, and it increases how I value my time.
Routines to try can be like:
Project 50, commit to seven rules for 50 days and that is the #Project50Challenge has been going viral on
social media, and Tiktok and YouTube especially.
7 minute workout challenge, doing daily 7 min workouts for a month or two, and this actually helps with
trying out new workouts, it’s like trying a tester version. - Journaling: how can a guide be complete without this but you could try other forms of journaling
than brain dumping. Journaling for me is a way to showcase what I consumed throughout my
daily life and see the connections through writing. Doing shadow work helps the most with
learning about yourself and bringing your subconscious, your shadow, into the light and help you
with your insecurity awareness. As someone who wants their creativity to flow through them, I
had to formulate my own way around journaling and do what works for me. Not every prompt
makes me learn about myself the way I want to but experimenting is the best way to find out what
works for you and to keep asking yourself “Why?” I have read Art and Vulnerability by Farida
Suliman (on our website) and it’s all about being vulnerable through your art and journaling can
definitely become your art piece that you paint with your dreams, hopes, and emotions.
Journaling prompts:
Having a hell yes or hell no list for the day, instead of reflecting with “What you took joy in doing and you
didn’t during the day?”
Writing letters to oneself to convey the feelings that you can’t admit out loud.
Writing one or two highlights of the day, instead of the classic question of “What are you grateful for?”
since it may get repetitive, and actually that’s a good thing so you are always reminded by what you value
the most.
Another form of journaling can be book journaling and that helps a lot with energizing your soul and mind.
Within your journaling you can make a phrase list, which was inspired by “How to Live: 1 Life Formula
from 620 Hours of Psychotherapy” video by Elizabeth Filips. In the list you write the phrases that you want
to use throughout the year. - Get into the habit of following your passion: reading may be your passion and you could turn that
into a job (book reviewer), or art, then you can create digital products with your art, and this can
take 3-4 hours daily or even less sometimes but you must put in the work that builds you and
builds your profession.
Author Acknowledgements:
Writing this piece after almost a year without a pen or a keyboard aiming to produce something that the
public and myself could enjoy was a beautiful experience. Seeing myself pour a part of my mind, heart,
and soul into this guide was magnificent and I am grateful for the editors, the people who skim through it, the people who got critical with every point and don’t want to follow anything, the people who would love to follow it but too busy to read, the people who would love to do it but they are not busy at all, but I would still love to thank each and everyone reading it right now.
A Look Back on my MW Pieces
On the road to healing
https://www.milkywaymagazine.com/article/on-the-road-to-healing/
Why Ignorance is not bliss
https://www.milkywaymagazine.com/article/why-ignorance-is-not-bliss/
How to Start living and not just existing in collaboration with the one and only, Habiba Sulliman
https://www.milkywaymagazine.com/article/how-to-start-living-not-just-existing/
References I was inspired from and used them for for this blog, but make it actually
interesting:
Getting the idea for this article was by Sally, the communications Manager of the MW Crew, and it just
resonated with me and I thought why not have a take on a New Year’s guide that I am sure your read
plenty of, and thank God, I didn’t write the 2020’s one, haha.
Where I researched “The Busiest Animals on Earth”
https://www.protectoregonfarmers.com/most-busiest-animals-in-the-world/
The idea behind sectioning the article, talks about multiple intelligences, you should definitely give it a
read
https://gaiaeducation.medium.com/heart-mind-body-and-spirit-5755251c6761
Trendy workouts
https://www.shape.com/fitness-trends-2023-6891463
The playlists I listen to, while writing this
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kOvQFMRvAo&list=WL&index=11
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5ggd0btiSo&list=WL&index=12
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FL3xBDW-po
Books for multi passionates
https://www.creativesdoingbusiness.com/blog/books-for-multipassionates
The best mobility techniques and ideas I have ever encountered were by Strength Side:
https://www.youtube.com/@Strengthside
MW Articles that were mentioned in the article:
The Thrill of New Things
https://www.milkywaymagazine.com/article/the-thrill-of-new-things/
Art and Vulnerability by Farida Suliman
https://www.milkywaymagazine.com/article/art-vulnerability/
Watched a few videos to help curate this blog
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqDQ-ep2d7I (helped me within the spirit and body sections)
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvY9jfeqPmE&t=573s
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi5Dbzxfjvc&list=WL&index=10&t=1015s (helped me
especially for the mind and heart sections)
● https://youtu.be/JysJX6jNNQU Reflecting on this video, I really believe in learning from our past
and reframing our own narrative from the reality that took place, learning that what done is done,
and what we can control is our current life aspects, what we do daily is in our control
