Nudging myself or rather shaking my mind to write today after a gap of almost three months. This has been the longest distance between my thoughts and post. If I look in the rear-view mirror of these months a few themes could answer this question.

Overwhelmed with my things going on around my personal, social, health, professional, spiritual & social circles. Let’s peel it one by one. At a very personal level a discussion got raised around ‘have we done our best for kids and in line with what they wanted’. I remember asking my father this exact question as a rebel in my teenage years. Answer should be yes. But if you look through the eyes of a growing young kid entering his/her adult life, most probably answer could be no. I spent many weeks and months to deep dive what is the core of why this question comes and how it makes us feel. Many layers to it. As parents we do best in our means and ways to give a secure and happy life to our children. As children we expect our parents to support our dreams and anything we fancy within and beyond their capabilities. Thus, this disconnects between yes and no. if we look at the larger macrocosm – we come to our parents and not through them into this world, our parents don’t own us, we come to spend a phase of life with them and learn about our likes and dislikes. Parents circle their whole life around children; children use parenting as a steppingstone for life’s adventure. Parents want children to be their reflection while younger generation looks forward and not in the rear view of whose products they are. Both expect something said and unsaid in return.

After much reflection, I arrived at a simple conclusion: we did our best. We raised our children with the resources, understanding, circumstances, and choices available to us at the time. We gave them what we believed mattered most: values, family time, emotional security, a safe space, education, experiences, and exposure to the world around them. In return, I expect nothing.

What I hope to leave them with is not an obligation, but a feeling. Every day, through a call, a message, or even in silence, I try to remind them of one thing: home will never judge you. Life will have its wins and disappointments, highs and lows, moments of certainty or doubt. In all of those seasons, always know you can come home. Home is where you will find us. Home is where explanations are not required, where mistakes do not diminish love, and where you are valued not for what you achieve but simply for who you are.

Perhaps that is why many of us spend a lifetime building a home. Not the walls, the furniture, or the address, but a place in our heart where our children know they will always belong.

In all this emotional and mental churning, my health faced a few bumps. My doctor said it is a sign or symptoms of unsaid emotions. I was oscillating between pain and less pain. On days I shed a tear or spoke my heart out, I didn’t feel so sick. His advice is to keep mind free and let emotions out. Thus, returning to writing this post is a reminder, writing is my biggest source of joy. It helps me process life, make sense of my thoughts, and stay emotionally healthy. Whether anyone reads these posts or not has never mattered much. That is also why I rarely amplify them. Writing itself is the reward.

The concept of workplace culture and well-being is not new. Throughout my career, I have seen organizations invest considerable time and energy in defining, measuring, and improving it. Every company has its own language around well-being, belonging, engagement, or culture, but at its core, it often comes down to a simple question: How do people feel when they come to work each day? Do you feel yourself, do you feel safe or do you simply wake up excited to come to work and give your best. Our experience at work is shaped not only by the role we play, but by the people we work with, the trust we build, the respect we receive, and the meaning we derive from our contribution. How we feel around people at the workplace is often an outcome of how we feel about them and how they make us feel about ourselves.

Over the last few months, I stumbled upon another dimension of workplace well-being. I noticed that some people carry a very heavy bag of the past. It contains stories of who hired them, who mentored them, how well they managed relationships, the positions they held, the battles they won, and the achievements that once defined them. There is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s journey. The challenge begins when the past becomes a permanent residence instead of a place we occasionally visit.

The workplace moves forward every day. Teams change, leaders change, priorities change, and businesses evolve. Yet some of us continue to draw our identity from what happened years ago, anchored in it more than looking back. I read somewhere; life doesn’t move forward looking in the rea view mirror. As looking back makes our bag heavier, making it harder to adapt, learn, and build new relationships. Sometimes the weight is not just past success; it is also past disappointments, unresolved grievances, bruised egos, and comparisons that we quietly carry from one role to another.

I am beginning to believe that true workplace well-being is also about travelling light. It is the ability to honor the past without being trapped by it, to appreciate what brought us here without allowing it to define who we must be tomorrow. It is about showing up each day with curiosity rather than entitlement, with openness rather than judgement, and with the humility to recognize that every chapter of our career requires us to become a slightly different version of ourselves.

Perhaps one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves at work is the courage to occasionally put down that heavy bag, take a deep breath, and ask: If I were starting fresh today, what would I choose to carry forward and what would I finally leave behind?

So, coming back to why didn’t I write for three months? Perhaps because life was asking me to pause, reflect, and listen more than speak. And if there is one thought I carry forward, it is this: do your best, love deeply, express what you feel, and have the courage to put down the bags that no longer serve you. Life is too precious to be lived looking only in the rear-view mirror.

Now that I have written again, I feel a little lighter. And perhaps that was the point all along.