My Japan Trip Recap

Posted on August 3, 2026 by Bhanu Misra Marya

Although I’ve undertaken a personal syllabus in Japanese wisdom over the years (such as shinrin-yoku, kaizen, etc) I never really thought about traveling to Japan.
Thankfully, my husband loves to explore and enjoys picking places to for us to adventure.

So in July, we spent 14 days in Japan, exploring Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka with a day trip to Mt Fuji and Hakone. The natural beauty and cultural experiences were definitely worth seeing/experiencing. But more than that, it was the little moments in between for me where I was able to take note of the people, the country’s history and how the society operates.

Of course travel opens you up to new perspectives, which in the cas of Japan can also make you see how their rules create resolutions for many daily challenge – a few included below:

There are no trash cans in Japan. They were all removed after a chemical gas attack that was hidden in a subway garbage bag. This means everyone carries their trash around until they get home (or back to the hotel for tourists). Which in part, keeps the country extremely clean.
Group harmony is ingrained in everyone’s personal responsibility. People form single file lines, are extremely organized, everyone sits to eat (as opposed to walk and eat), being quiet in public transit is expected and everyone makes the effort not to cause inconvenience to other people
Everyone has a job and no job is beneath anyone
People do not point with one finger or hand money to people/cashier directly in their hand (but rather placed in a tray)
Shoes are removed and face coverings are worn in clothing retailer fitting rooms so products remain clean
Senior citizens are very independent and self reliant. The amount of times I saw hunched over elderly slowly making there way up and down stairs in the subway system was amazing
Laziness is considered a disease (to the point where I rarely saw public seating in malls or underground shopping areas)
The society operates to create efficiency and convenience for it’s people. Hotels have ammenities bars so minimal packing is required by guests, 7/11 uses data insights to restock it’s shelves and fridges with fresh food items including sushi, trains always on time to the second & take away food is packed so well that even food delivery arrives without any spills
And even though this is last on the list, indoor square footage is a hot commodity. Having a hotel room more than 31 square meters is not the norm – mainly because Japan is a very densely populated country

Ok hoping that provides some future Japan tourists with a little taste but now on to the sight seeing. Japan felt a little like a video game (think: Animal Crossing lol). You spend the day walking, seeing/buying/gachapon’ing beautiful things. You take in beautiful sights and get food points through out! With that said, if you are travelling with multiple family members (think: grandparents and their grand kiddos) – I would say these are the must sights to see:

Sky views: Shiodome Caretta, Umeda 360, Shibuya Scramble, Shibuya sky or any of the city towers
Snack runs a all the Konbinis (7/11, Family Mart, Lawson)
Cultural experience like chopstick carving, sushi making, Sumo fight, Japanese artist galleries or a Kimono/Samurai tea ceremony
Shrines (pick a few as there MANY!)
Interesting neighbourhoods in Tokyo: Shinjuku & Harajuku etc
Gashapon (but be careful it’s addictive)
Shopping (make a list but if anything you should definitely window shop)
Teamlabs
Station markets
Book a driver for the day and see if you can catch a glimpse of Fujisan
Food Markets
Day trip to Nara
Ride the bullet train
Castles & Palaces

Planning Japan was my hobby from 6-11pm in the evenings leading up to the trip. And because Japan is such a popular destination right now (thanks to TikTok) booking certain attractions require advance reservations (such as TeamLabs, Shibuya Sky etc).

Hoping this recap provides some inspiration and pro tips for your Japan Trip!

My Current Weekly Workout Split

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Bhanu Misra Marya

A few years ago, I discovered the magic of the weekly workout split! It is both the freedom and discipline that I need in my life.

GymShark defines a workout split as a way to plan out your strength training workouts to make them more effective, enjoyable and time-efficient. It also helps you track progress (week over week), so you can take on more complex workouts or sets.

In 2018, I used the BBG program (well technically… just the workouts set up by day/week that I printed and put in a duotang after finding them on pinterest, wow sounds so bootleg) to bounce back* during my mat leave. (*there is no such thing as a “bounce back”, woman’s body is beautiful and self restorative, but I believe the bounce back was important for my mind).

I found that organizing workouts took the stress out of thinking about the exercise routines, but still offering me the flexibility to move workout days around or inserting active rest days as needed.

Although I haven’t done BBG in years, I still use the workout split concept to take the guess work out of my exercise routine. Sharing my current split below, hopefully this provides you some inspiration or something you can try yourself!

Monday: Run + Arms

Tuesday: Run

Wednesday: Lower body + Walk

Thursday: Reformer Pilates + Walk

Friday: Full body + Run

Saturday: Make up any missed workouts

Sunday: Make up missed Reformer Pilates

Along with meeting my step count goals, I also add mobility to every workout day (except pilates) and core and hip strength to 4 and 2 of my workout days respectively!

2025 Books Read in review

Posted on January 26, 2026 by Bhanu Misra Marya

I recently finished reading my first book of 2026 (The Case Against Reality by Don Hoffman) and I thought it would be a great time to recap the books I read in 2025.

A few years ago, I made a personal goal to read at least 10 books a year. I know there are some people who can whip through books at the speed of light, but 10 books is a good number for me and makes it feel like a stretch without feeling like I’m less than.
Mainly because I don’t just read fiction. I like memoirs and personal development books. I like reading about psychology and other topics that generally require me to re-read pages because the content cannot be understood on a whim. Essentially if I’m reading a book that interests me I usually cannot habit stack (like not even listen to music) because I need to pay close attention to understand and follow the content.

When I do read fiction it’s usually dystopian sci-fi or about the human condition (growth, the meaning of life etc) and so also can be heavy / intensive.

So if these types of books interest you, here are the books I read in 2025. The only one I don’t recommend is “Pretties”. I had NO idea it was YA – and if I had I wouldnt have read it (I had watched the movies and liked it, but the book was definitely more YA rom-com than sci-fi.

The books I highly recommend are: The Miracle Morning, What I talk about when I talk about running and The light we carry. I found these books inspirational and touching!

Happy Reading!

Six tips on how to become a Renaissance Woman

Posted on January 17, 2026 by Bhanu Misra Marya

Oxford Online Dictionary* defines a Renaissance Woman “as a woman with many talents”.

And Britannica.com describes the Renaissance period to have been characterized by a surge of interest in learning, exploration, science (like the realization that the Earth revolved around the Sun) classical wisdom and arts.

And the arts really took center stage during the Renaissance due to the convergence of humanism and economic conditions that supported and encourage the progress of making art.

Something about Renaissance really speaks to me. I think its the “being able to enjoy one’s many interests” that I want to embody. As generalist, in a professional setting and a multi-passionate in my personal life, I inherently gravitate to the idea of enjoying as many hobbies & passions as possible.

That can be curse and a blessing. A blessing because you get to pursue everything that you feel is beautiful in life, a curse because you may never feel fulfilled.

So here are a few tips that I use to continue to balance all of my interests (be a modern Renaissance Woman if you will) while actually being present in my life!

Make a list of all of your interests, Blue sky thinking is the key here, then prioritize ruthlessly. Figure out what you actually want to do sooner rather than later. Keep this list hand
Taking your highest priority interests and schedule them as activities (in your Google calendar, planner, outlook etc) during the week/month/year or seasons. This way, you can prioritize your high value activities, create repetition – which in turn improves progress towards your interest. Actually scheduling time and by finding small pockets in your calendar to pursue your interests can really show the balance and helps move things forward. As an example, I have specific times of the week that I will work on blog content, go to pilates or use my duolingo app to learn a language.
Make some interests a habit, I used a Habit tracker app to track that I make time to paint 3 times a week, do my skin care daily and even read 10 pages.
Of the un-prioritized interests, be ready to defer to the future! This means some interests may not be pursued in the coming month or other timeframe you are expecting. This is a character building choice, which although allows time for obligatory activities or responsibilities, and helps you learn to give yourself grace.
If a particular obligation or responsibility cannot be avoided – master it! (e.g. cooking or doing activities in your business/career that you don’t particularly appreciate or enjoy). For me, that’s cleaning – but knowing how to clean (instead of outsourcing it or ignoring the cleaning) is important for my kids to see what an all rounded woman is.
Do not allow yourself to become creatively jealous. With short form content all around us, this will require you to have discipline not to doom scroll YouTube shorts or Instagram reels).
Remember what you see here is just a highlight reel and what may seem like a quick victory is actually years of mastery. Instead focus on your own goals and interests, and if you do want to watch the content – be inspired by it!

Embodying your Best Self – Chapter 1: Get out of a slump!

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Bhanu Misra Marya

Happy New Year! I had a restful and refreshing few days and now I’m stoked to get back to routine. I definitely love being able to enjoy the holidays with friends and family, doing festive activities and enjoying all the food and drink. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t crave my regular schedule! So, to get me get back on the right trajectory and help set me up for 2026 (aka making my big dreams happen) – I’m starting a new series on my blog called “Embodying my BEST SELF” a quick no fuss guide to help me (or anyone actually) get back to good habits, productivity and taking action towards on my goals. So let’s get into it!

Chasing your dreams, embodying the energy of your future self or just down right being productive can cause the best of us to get into a slump.

The first steps in getting out of a slump is realizing that you are in a slump. But a close second is realizing that the slump is usually based on your emotions/feelings based on your surroundings.

Your surroundings can be inclusive of your actual physical surroundings (think your house, your office space) but also your mental surroundings (like the type of people you are around, the content your are consuming or even how you are spending your time).

In any case, I like to think of a slump as the “valley” of our journey to our best self. And learning how to bounce back is just an opportunity to practice resiliency! Here are my top ways to bounce back from a slump.

Journal: I have been and will aways be a champion of journaling. Kidlin’s Law states: If you can write down a problem clearly, you’ve already solved half of it. So writing your thoughts, emotions and feelings down when you feel like you are in a slump, can help you further identify the slump inducing activities or factors. (The preference here being actually using a pen and paper as a oppose to typing it on a computer or your phone). Some ways that I love to journal: Brain dump (which is really just writing EVERY THOUGHT in your head on paper), create a list of things I want to do/a list of things I want to accomplish, things you are thankful for in spite of being in a slump, write all the ideas you have or even a dear diary on the last couple of days/weeks/months.

Fix your environment: As mentioned above – the environment you are in can really have an effect on our feelings. So tidying up, organizing and clearing space is the first way to boost your mood and will also give you a sense of control. (Which is important when you feel like everything is spiralling). For me a deep clean up and organizing of my desk helps to make me to feel less out of sorts. But if you are short on time, may be consider setting a timer and picking up your room or a particular room in your house. And where possible, I would even extend this to tiding your digital spaces. For me that looks like cleaning up my following list on socials, archiving boards on Pinterest or organizing and deleting pictures on my phone.
Sort your task list: Hopefully, with #1, you have a list of things you want to do (but if not thats in place… you should definitely start there). The important part is to prioritize that list: It’s either “must do now, should do soon, schedule for later” or my personal favourite “things I can do” vs “things I can’t”. Then take the highest priority items (such as: what must be done now or things I can do) and decide what can be done in a short time frame, preferably a 5-15 min time block. Then get it done! The whole point is to take action on the list in a meaningful way. To illustrate this with an example, say you want to practice writing more, a 5 min time blocked activity to take action on this is write a list of milestones you want to work towards (e.g. create content online, start blogging or do restaurant reviews).
Create an updated routine: You must have heard the saying “a goal without a plan is just a wish” by Antoine de Saint-Exupery! I mean I love wishing, but I also love the dopamine effect of getting stuff done! It could be small wins or big calendar switches in your routine. So continuing with the goal of “writing more content online”. That’s a great start, but adding a little more thought behind it can really move it from a wish to an actionable plan. Something I’ve started doing is being ruthless with my calendar. I am getting to the point where if something isn’t in my calendar – it’s not getting done!! (Well within reason, I’m not a robot). But here is an easy to follow example on how to use this process:
So think of 3-5 activities that you can schedule into your calendar this week or month that can help you achieve it. So with the goal of writing content online you could plan in your calendar: open a substack or medium account, create a back list of content ideas for the month, publish an article once a week. Then you would add time blocks in your calendar to help you stay on track.

Monday could include a 45 min time block to open an account and set up your profile.
Tuesday you could spend 1 hour writing
Wednesday you could block some time to finish writing and then edit
Thursday you could create imagery (or use some Pinterest) to add visuals to your written content
Friday you could publish!
Saturday you could create a backlog of 3-4 more posts
Sunday you could plan your week again

And there you have it! 4 actionable steps to help you get out of a slump! Hoping this resonates! Do you have any tried and true ways to get out of a slump! I would love to hear it :)

My fav quote from “What I talk about when I talk about running”

Posted on November 30, 2025 by Bhanu Misra Marya

I recently read “What I talk about when I talk about running” by Haruki Murakami. If you are runner, I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon this as a book to add to your TBR. I found it beautiful! Haruki Murakami’s stoic sharing of running as an act of meditation, resiliency and goal setting completely resonated with me. And because he took those themes and applied them to being an artist (him being a writer) was the icing on the cake for me.

The book is a very easy read and can be easily finished in a day. For me, books really come alive when they have ah-ha moments – really good quotable parts of the text that make me stop and write down what I read. Here are a few of those moments (and moments of me running as well!)

Commute & Read (Library Books as much as possible)

The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.

I’m the kind of person who likes to be by himself. To put a finer point on it, I’m the type of person who doesn’t find it painful to be alone. I find spending an hour or two every day running alone, not speaking to anyone, as well as four or five hours alone at my desk, to be neither difficult nor boring. I’ve had this tendency ever since I was young, when, given a choice, I much preferred reading books on my own or concentrating on listening to music over being with someone else. I could always think of things to do by myself.

Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.

People sometimes sneer at those who run every day, claiming they’ll go to any length to live longer. But I don’t think that’s the reason most people run. Most runners run not because they want to live longer, but because they want to live life to the fullest. If you’re going to while away the years, it’s far better to live them with clear goals and fully alive than in a fog, and I believe running helps you do that. Exerting yourself to the fullest within your individual limits: that’s the essence of running, and a metaphor for life.

Sometimes taking time is actually a shortcut.

Being active every day makes it easier to hear that inner voice.

I just run. I run in void. Or maybe I should put it the other way: I run in order to acquire a void