It has only been three days since the last 10 lessons but I think we need to wrap this up before the year is over. Hello friends and happy New Years Eve.

I am spending this morning hiking because I did this last year in Wilderness and found that it was the best way for me to spend New Years Eve. I have never been a New Years Eve person, there’s so much funfair and excitement around the day that it has always been anxiety inducing for me but last year I discovered the best way to deal with it is to be out with the trees and my very wise walking companion who I am more likely to listen to when I am outside because then he doesn’t have to compete with Netflix for my attention. In fact this little ritual that I am now going to make annual inspired lesson number 23. So I have decided to type this out and set it up that it is published at 10am on December 31st. Yeah I am fancy like that now.

(A little bit of an edit, the hike did not happen as I decided to make way to meet a new human who I am very excited about.)

Let’s get into it, here is part 3 and the last part of my 30 lessons in 30 years. Do enjoy.

21. You don’t need as many clothes as you have been conditioned to think you do. I understand the need for self-expression and the purpose that fashion serves as art, but the fact remains that we do not need 52 seasons and we as humans have normalised this. I will admit that this lesson is slightly preachy, but I needed to say it. Please, in your consumption of clothing less is definitely not more but why is more the goal anyway? Maybe we need to interrogate why we have been conditioned to view “more” as the pinnacle of happiness.
22. Eat your vegetables. The greens, the carbs and everything in between. Just do it.
23. Spend as much time as you can outside, I know this can be challenging. We spend so much time and effort making sure that the insides of our living paces is so beautiful and perfect that leaving and visiting the sun seems like less of a priority but trust me there is something about the sun that is renewing in a way that no couch can renew. So get outside as often as you can.
24. Not all failures are there to teach you lessons – sometimes you really do just fail (taken from Dwight Schrute on The Office). And maybe that’s the lesson.
25. Be kind. It takes absolutely nothing from you to be kind in a terribly unkind world. I would like to challenge all of us to be a little more kind in 2020 and beyond, in the event that you find unkindness threatening to seep through your pores and onto someone who you have for some reason decided deserves it – count to ten and back away. Be kinder, it’s easier.
26. For women: Anger is a justified human emotion, sometimes your angry and people will squirm at the sight of an angry woman, they will have to deal. They will wonder why you aren’t soft, they will wonder why you aren’t silent and they will try and make you feel like you are unjustified in your anger, this is a casual reminder that you are allowed to be angry. Men do not have a monopoly on anger.
27. There is a lot of injustice in the world, be aware and use your voice when you can.
28. Eggplant is disgusting.
29. If you are in a room where you feel like you aren’t welcome or that you are welcome on the condition that you hide or shrink certain parts of yourself those are the rooms that you should show up in your fullness. Pump your chest out, raise your voice because the gatekeepers of those rooms need to see people like you there taking up space. They need to know that even when you are fearful and uncomfortable you will still show up in your true form and question them at every turn. People need to be questioned, don’t be afraid to be the one doing the questioning. And when you are being questioned be opened to the fact that you do not know everything and that is okay.
30. Wellness is made up of more components than weight loss. I think I am still learning this. It is taking a long time because I have had hips since I was ten years old so I have been trying to lose weight (hips really) since I was ten years old. I have been confused in thinking the smaller the size of my hips the healthier I was. In 2012, I was probably the smallest I have ever been since I crossed over into my twenties and yet that was one the toughest years in my life as my mind was too broken and too scattered to actually enjoy anything. Food, people, experiences, you name it, it all felt empty and I am now realising that was because I was so wrong about wellness. So here is the lesson, the final lesson; in order to be well you have to make sure that all aspects of your human experience is well. This will take time. This will come and go as you move through all phases of your life and that is completely acceptable.

Like I said in the beginning I am now fancy and have set this blog to be posted on December 31^st at 10:00, so here’s to wishing you joy in the last few hours of 2019 and that 2020 brings prosperity and ease in your life.

Thanks for reading. Please leave a comment on some lessons you think I have missed or letting me know how you found this post.

Nthabi 🙂