Anushka KULKARNI responds to ThinkWellness360 questionnaire:
Your view on beauty?
Beauty, I believe, is simply styling with comfort and carrying yourself beautifully and also being relaxed with whatever attire you’re sporting. The triad reflects just about everything — your personality, attitude, and also belief in yourself. Well, you may be wearing clothes designed by the best designer you know and this could be ‘matching’ your footwear, all right, but what is the use of wearing the best outfit, or looking glamorous, without being comfortable? It will all show — glaringly — and, this may let your down too. So, there it is: beauty ought to be styling in a way that makes one love oneself more. This, I believe, can be achieved only when one’s body is in love with the outfit too. This is also what makes me feel comfortably confident and upbeat about myself, wherever I am — home, college, with friends, or elsewhere.
Your ‘take’ on fitness?
Being fit is one of the most important elements of my life. I feel that it’s a necessity. The primary reason being — if you are fit, it is definitely going to help you achieve whatever you want to excel in life. One can, on the other hand, also ‘pump in’ extra hours working on an important project, when they are fit. But, this can’t happen when one is not fit — they may feel drained out quickly. It’s no rocket science: you need to feed your body with the right nutrients and exercise, so that you’d achieve what you want in life, aside from being happy. Put simply, you can’t be just physically fit, but also mentally fit, to be at your best, and to doing your best, day-in and day-out.
Your view of health and wellness?
Health is a state of being, while wellness is living a healthy lifestyle. Health refers to physical, mental, and social well-being, just as wellness corresponds to your well-being quotient. So, achieving optimal health and wellness should be everyone’s ultimate goal in life. There’s also a caveat: when one of the three elements required to be healthy is affected, it may have a cascading effect on the other two. Result: our health goes down. The pandemic was a case in point: it was not just physical illness, but also mental illnesses, like depression, because of lack of social well-being, that added to the gloom, much more than the viral scourge alone. It’s my ‘take’ that to be healthy and well, one ought to eat healthy food, think healthy in their mind, and also be healthy towards all in their everyday interactions.
Your ‘take’ on work-life balance?
It’s simple. I work to live and not live to work. Most of us often forget this timeless metaphor. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is absolutely essential, albeit it is often challenging. I feel a healthy balance is yet achievable for our generation vis-à-vis our parents’. I have personally seen my parents giving their all, including their dedication and time to their work. This is great and worth appreciating, but I don’t think it is something that Generation Z would look forward to. The reason being one can never be truly satisfied by their work, when they are not satisfied, or fulfilled, in their life. If I am satisfied in life, I’d certainly be able to put in my heart and soul to my work and work would, therefore, be a totally different, also happy, experience. The best thing one could do is to schedule priorities, from the ground up — this would essentially help one to achieving the right balance.
Your mantra to best stress?
Positivity. Being positive helps us to tackle a lot of things in life. When I feel stressed, I try to remain as positive and calm as I possibly can. I go out, meet my friends and others who I gel well with. Friends play a great part in helping us to ‘feel lighter,’ whatever the difficulty — provided we make our choices wisely. I love to sit at home too, when I feel stressed, with a few furry friends, sip my chai, and watch a good, rip-roaring comedy.
I completely agree with your thoughts. You look practical and positive too. Besides, you seem to emote a good deal of wisdom — at such a young age — perhaps, much more than our generation. Keep posting, Anushka.