Its also why most of us take the solace and security of our notes app or our sketchbook to create art which is meant to be out there. So, let me tell you something, The agony of what could’ve been is stopping you from what could be. If we talk about this philosophically, it goes like :

If one keeps thinking of the endless possibilities of an outcome without action, she is not thinking of anything at all.

Its like you can replay a memory in your head countless times, dreaming about different outcomes, different possibilities, different actions, but in truth, you are not thinking anything of value at all, you are just playing a melody stuck in your head over and over again until it eats you alive. It’s like a person who’s on a drive and misses a turn, stops in the middle of the road, asking themselves, “well, what could i have done differently? should I have been more focused? should I have taken someone else with me to give me directions? should I have never left my house?” when, all this time, there had been a next turn just a little ahead that will take him to his destination right away. This may seem like a funny example to you, but this is exactly what most people do when they have encountered a minor inconvenience in their lives and refuse to move past it.

There is a way, you just have to be ready to find it.

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It is about time we stop thinking about what you could have done and instead focus, on what can be done now. Being stuck in an endless loop of procrastinating our every move builds up hesitation, and we, in turn, never do anything. Everytime we get up, determined to do something bold, something we’ve always wanted to do, the “but what if” questions flood our brain and tell us to humble ourselves. Let’s not do that, lets not let our own brain be a cage in which our artistic tendencies suffocate. Let’s not allow our minds and our insecurities to kill the joy that helps life make sense. The mind presents a dilemma, will you let it be creative, artistic, joyful or will you fill it with endless thoughts questioning your worth and the worth of your art? You have to make that choice, I have made mine.

Hey guys, Thanks for reading! I hope this article is able to recognise the issues of some people who feel stuck in the middle of nowhere in life and also those who have successfully made out of this phase. overthinking is something that we have normalised so much in our daily life that we do not realise that it is a serious problem and people are actively suffocating themselves in their minds.

I felt the need to write this piece to try to help and motivate people to get out of their head and realise that they are enough.

If you liked this article, make sure to check out my other articles and make sure to leave a comment and support and :

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Now, most of these things that I listened to, were useless. Advices without self implementation, philosophies stolen from wives and stories of experiences delivered to promote their personal beliefs. Human beings often have the tendency to steer a conversation towards the benefit of their agenda one way or the other, and I wasn’t exactly thrilled by it. But, there were some things that I discovered that stuck with me for years and probably will stick with me throughout my life.

This is why this article is titled that a few quotes should design your life. There is one hindi quote I heard my father say whenever things weren’t going his way, it was like

“duniya me kitna gam hai, hamara gam kitna kam hai” which translates to “there is so much pain & suffering in this world, and our pain & suffering is so less compared to that”

Now, this quote is not expressing something bizzare like asking you to stop feeling sad over anything in your life just because you’re privileged and don’t deserve to feel bad. Instead, It is reminding you to be grateful for what you have in life and that even the biggest worries in your life, is a minor inconvenience and not the end of the world.

When a person is already in doubt about themselves and is actively disassociating from the joys of their lives, even a tiny mishap can bother them like it’s the biggest problem in the world. When I was in that phase of my life, (not to sound like a brat, but) Even if I couldn’t book a cab, Or was late to a class, Or heard the news that was slightly upsetting, but had nothing to do with me directly, My mind would be become so tensed, and I would become so extremely sad and start cursing about how bad my life was and how unlucky I was.

This quote really helped me balance myself out, become more mature in handling my problems, And taking a chill pill. It reminded me that I had to count my blessings every time I felt like the world was gonna come crashing down on me. It did not stop me from feeling grief, but it did guide me to stay calm and figure out a solution to the problem rather than feeling like the most unlucky person in the room. and I have let this quote design my life and my decisions from thereon, and life has never been better.

Another quote I live by is :

everything happens for a reason or as we say in my native language, Jo hota hai acche ke liye hota hai (everything happens for good reason)

You know, we might not see the immediate good in everything that happens in life but ever since I started observing my life through a “long term” lens, I realised, everything is either a blessing or a lesson to make me into a better person. If my bestfriend of 7 years would’ve never betrayed me, I’d still give love and light to the wrong people without paying attention to receiving any of that love back. If I didn’t get bullied in boarding school, I wouldn’t have developed empathy in such depth for people who are left alone or bullied. If I did not slip into depression, I wouldn’t have told myself to get up and get my life on the right track and be stronger than ever. And there are countless of examples like these.

I’m not saying, I will never face problems again in my life or that I wouldn’t be discouraged or disappointed if life was putting me through hell. What I’m trying to say is, that ever since I have started believing that there is a good reason behind everything that is happening to me, It helps me to be able to move forward with life after every setback. It stops me from losing hope and giving up just because I cannot see the immediate effect of a problem in front of me. I choose to believe that there is positivity in life, and I am deserving of that positivity. And hence, I tell myself that everything happens for a reason, and I will be rewarded by the universe for staying strong. God/universe helps those who help them themselves.

I heard both of these quotes for the first time when I was actively hunting for life lessons, And something in me knew right away, that these are the quotes that I am going to live by for the rest of my life. Whenever something terrible happens in life, I just close my eyes, and I murmur these quotes to myself, and sometimes even say it out loud if there’s someone with me, because keeping myself steady and the situation in control feels so empowering and surreal, That I can’t help but think how younger me would be so proud of what I have become. I have become secure in my life and now I can positively say to myself, “It’s gonna be okay” and believe it, because I’m gonna make it okay for myself. I’m gonna be there for me and I’m gonna take care of me, thanks to the quotes that continue to design my life for the better.

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Thankyou so much for reading guys! I hope this article finds you at a phase where you’re confused on how to move forward from a setback or just offers you a glimmer of hope and positivity to move on with your day. My pieces are always aimed at self-reflection before they are aimed at instructing my audience to do something that is good for them. Introspection is a great part of my life and I’d recommend all of you to start quote-hunting lol.

Again, thankyou for reading, If you liked it, please leave a comment and subscribe to me <33

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But ofcourse, this life does not take it easy on a person who is constantly trying to keep their head over the water to stop themselves from drowning, the confidence act had to break somewhere, sometime. And it did. It broke when I was in boarding school alone with every person who hated me for getting slightly more marks than them. It broke when I saw everyone around me being in love wondering if I can ever experience it. It broke when I failed at even the smallest thing. It broke when my grades started to slip and depression started to take over. Because who was I without my academics? who was I without my confidence?

And I lost myself again. Back to being the little girl who was told how her skin was not right, her teeth were not right, her bones were not right, her soul was not right. So then, I decided to stop. Stop everything, stop my thoughts, stop thinking, stop worrying about myself. Which didn’t feel right either, but it still went on for two years, being a machine, only focused on goals and not emotions. It destroyed me in a different level because it was keeping me away from my art. For If a poet forgets to feel, all they are is a person with a pen and a blank page.

But you know what saved me from this loop? The hobbies and talents that I developed when I felt like I had to be something if not pretty. My art is what held me steady through my every phase of my life. My art of reading, writing, and singing. I always say being a poet comes with the toll of having the heaviest heart and the hardest life.

A good poem is one written by the ink one’s blood on a page curated by her sorrows

I always wondered if not fitting in anywhere, or being loathed by your peers were all my fault, I was at war in my life every day trying to convince myself that I deserve to live. This world needs to know me. And that is what kept me going : me.

It has been very clear to me since a very young age that no one is coming to save me, no one is coming to help me, and my dreams are mine and If I have to fulfill them, I have to become my everything. So I did, finally, I did. And let me tell you I have never ever felt more alive. I am a handler of my emotions, the carrier of my goals and the comfort from my sorrows on. my. own. And it feels ecstatic now. I do not know how but even life keeps awarding me now that I have entered a phase of abundance in my life.

Now, I have friends who cherish me, people who ask me out, strangers who tell me I’m pretty, guardians who tell me i’m doing something right. And it feels like the feeling when i’m finally home, after all the bloodshed that my life has been, The moment I started confiding in me, I, my dearest readers, have now become a veteran.

Thankyou for reading! this was a tiny speck of my life, I have no complains (now) but there has been alot of things that went down, lol. I hope you enjoyed this read and i hope you relate (to the latter part). YOU deserve to find a home for yourself in yourself. Love yourself, its a request. <3

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My perception of romance is shaped by countless books, romcoms and my daydreams in which I imagine being loved the “right” way. For someone who is not a teenager anymore, I have never really experienced romantic love & dating, which I think is an awful setback for someone who is writing about love. But, the point is, how would I know that the kind of love that I crave for even exists?

For me, love is a intermingling of souls, it is late-night conversations of passions, goals, dreams, fears, thoughts. It is the absolute divinity of human connection where life seems bliss on the darkest day because of that one person merely existing. It is understanding that the universe brought two pieces of nothing together to make everything.

By this I do not mean to say that the two individuals had no aspirations or value before they met each other. By this, I mean that two whole beings, complete in their own lives formed a union to create a connection that gives meaning to their lives.

We have seen love making people deranged, to be able to kill or be killed, I want a love that heals every part of my lover’s existence which aches from the roughness of this cruel world. I want love to create my own world, with a person that knows me more than a piece of my soul, one that knows my darkness, my depth, my eternal drive to face this life as a cascading wave and stands beside me, with all their belief & faith, to dream with me of defeating any ocean of sorrow that challenges me, & I dream to do the same with them.

Which is why betrayals of love make no sense to me. Talking stages, situationships, micro cheating, disrespecting partners, and other imprudent actions of people pretending to love is eternally exhausting. When a person loves, their mind and heart and soul is taken over by their lover’s comfort, and happiness. Their joy is a reward that fulfils one in a way that no other power or blessing in the universe can. How can one call it love when it is anything less than something that completely consumes you, and makes you want to channel the best version of yourself just so you could deserve them & offer them every speck of your soul to know and to love?

Is love like this only in the pieces of fiction that I have subjected my silly heart to? Or does this love exist and is waiting for me in a timeline that I haven’t yet reached.

Thankyou for reading! This is my first article on substack and I don’t expect many people to read this, but if you do, I hope you relate <3

Love is something that I think about alot, & this article sums up merely one percent of the dilemma that is up in my head relating to modern love. I still have not cracked the code of rolantic human connection but I look forward to what life has to offer me. Until then, all I can do is be grateful of the platonic love I have in my life.

I am also a published author, so, if you guys want to read heartbreaking poetry about loss of love, existential dread and confusion, check out Poise & Poison by Rishita Shrivastava available on Amazon, Flipkart, Kindle and the writer’spocket website. <3

The link is attached here: Poise & Poison