HH Sheikha Salome Al-Sabah is a member of the Kuwaiti royal family who lives between her homeland, the UAE and Switzerland. She is a holistic healer, life coach and artist, and came to the Emirates with her family following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. 1. Nurture what is constant. The material side of life is not important. This is something I learnt from the invasion of Kuwait when I lost everything. It is easy not to be materialistic when you have everything, but when I lost it all I realised that I didn't care about things. My husband, my children and my close friends were safe. You are not something because you have something. What I taught my children is to nourish and grow their own personality and their sense of beauty. Your knowledge makes you rich, music and sport make you rich. Wearing the latest fashion is not what defines you. What defines you is your strength and how centred you are.
2. Have a playful approach to life. Bring fun into the smallest things; playing, dancing, listening to music and so on. 3. Respect every person who comes across your path. Nothing in life is by chance. Each person you encounter can teach you something. They are the reflection of that moment and will give you a lesson about yourself. Talking to somebody could trigger something. If a person irritates you, he or she is doing that to teach you to control your temper. Everything around us tells us what we are and where we are going.
4.Live for the moment. When you do something, do it with all your heart and soul. Life then becomes an art. We create our life; it is our achievement, something that brings us closer to our last breath. Appreciate every moment. 5. Learn something new. Habit kills creativity. Bring lightness and brightness into your life. Novelty brings freshness; if things are always the same, life becomes dull and monotonous. We need sparkle. We are the creator of our lives - like when we write a book, we are in control of all the words. Ask yourself: would you like this to be on the page or not? As told to Helena Frith Powell