Archive for ‘Challenges’

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October 22, 2012

Nearing The End of The Challenge: Lessons 1 & 2

This is it.  Week 8 of the 8 Weeks to a Better You! challenge is here.  I have to say, this challenge did not end up as I thought it might.

If you recall, I decided to use this challenge as a Mindful Living Journey/Practice/Challenge.  In the beginning I was spending a lot of time “in my head”.  Digging deeper, trying to figure myself out (and everything else).  I set out on my 8 week challenge on a mission to practice living mindfully.  I was very serious about this endeavor.  Too serious, in fact.  It took me a few weeks to realize this (okay, more like 7 weeks to realize this) but about a week ago, as I was busy thinking everything over, and over, and I realized I wasn’t happy.  I was miserable.  I was spending so much of my time and energy trying to be mindful, focusing on every little detail of everything I was doing, analyzing whether I was doing it mindfully and how I could be doing it better, that I found I was taking everything in life far too seriously.  I decided that I didn’t like who I was becoming.  I’m not a serious person.  I like to have fun.  I wasn’t having fun.  I’d become so serious that I couldn’t stand to be around myself.  Something needed to change.  That’s when I realized that I needed to take a step back, I’d been trying too hard, delving too deep.

It’s like this: Imagine you go to the beach to watch the sunset.  You sit down in the sand and soak up the warmth of the evening sun.  You feel the breeze gently brushing your cheeks, then you look by your feet and notice the sand, really notice the sand, and wonder, “How did I miss this?  How did I miss how soft and beautiful the sand is?”.  You continue looking ever closer at the granules of sand, thinking, “Here I am on the beach, made up of all of this beautiful sand, how did I never notice the shape of the granules?  They’re rocks, tiny rocks, miniatures of big rocks, all slightly different in shape, size and color but have the same wave-washed texture and they all work together to create such as soft surface…”  While you’re admiring the sand the sun is setting, the colors are lighting up the sky, but you don’t see it because you are so focused on the details underfoot.  By the time you lift your head, raising one granule of sand in your hand, you look up to the sky and realize you missed the sunset.

Bummer, right?  Well, I didn’t have any real missed sunsets on the beach during the challenge, but there were plenty of daily life situations that I kicked myself for going “too deep” and felt like I missed out.  So I realized that while it’s important be present, it’s equally important to keep things in perspective.  Sometimes we need to limit ourselves or we’ll miss out on what we really came for.

After a number of these sunset on the beach situations, it finally it dawned on me that perhaps I’d been taking mindful living too seriously.  I started to wonder, do you have to be serious to live mindfully?  Can’t mindful living be fun?  I started thinking of people I know who seem to have a good grasp on mindful living and started recalling whether they are/were ultra serious.  Nope. Everyone I could think of has a pleasant, peaceful, welcoming, relaxed disposition.  I grabbed my mindful living books, the authors had a sparkle in their eye and a smile on their face.  The Dalai Lama almost always has a smile on his face for crying out loud.

Hotei Buddha

Then, as I was watering some of my multitudes of plants, I saw the Buddha a friend had given to me.  He’s not a serious Buddha, he’s a happy Buddha (Hotei Buddha).  Ha, ha!  Again, proof!  It was almost as he was saying to me, “Mindfulness can be fun!  You can be happy and mindful.  Don’t take life so seriously!”  From that point forward, the focus of my mindful living journey has shifted.  Yes, I know, that was Week 7 and this is Week 8 so my shift was only a week ago.  And I realize that I only have a few days left of the Challenge, so I don’t have a lot of time left to practice this during the Challenge, but this Challenge is just the beginning of my journey.  I have the rest of my life to continue practicing.  🙂

Challenge Lesson 1: Live mindfully, but keep everything in perspective, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.

Challenge Lesson 2: Don’t take life so seriously.  (You can be happy, have fun and live mindfully!)

By the way… if you like my Buddha as much as I do you can find him, and others, at my friend Ryan’s website: bighappybuddha.com.  If you stop over there, tell him I said, “Hi.”

Kate

Posted in Challenges, Healthy Living, Laughing at Life, Mindful Living | 2 Comments »

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September 18, 2012

Facing Our Fears

A couple of years ago I wasn’t afraid to write.  At that point in time I didn’t think of myself as a writer.  A year and a half ago I started this blog on a whim and quickly fell deeply in love with writing.   To my amazement others started to give me feedback about my writing, complimenting me and encouraging me to write more.  My subject matter has changed over the past year and a half.  My goal was to write about everything pertaining to living a healthy, mindful and sustainable life.  The beginning was in the woods, then it went to the garden and all things related to gardening, then some food, and most recently, life.  More specifically, mindful living.

I realize to some of you when I say “mindful living” you might not know what I really mean by that, or maybe it makes you shift a little in your chair or makes your stomach tighten because it makes you uncomfortable.  It was like that for me at the beginning as well.  I wasn’t really sure what it meant, but the little I did know, I knew I wanted to know more.  With the current (mindful living) journey I’m on, I realize every day that there’s less and less that I know and more and more that I want to know.

It’s kind of like this, you’re having a conversation with a friend, catching up, and they bring up a subject that you don’t know anything about.  You ask a few questions, learn a little and become intrigued.  You go home, pull out your trusty laptop, log onto the world-wide web and start searching.  With each search you learn a little more and at the same time, it opens a door to even more information, more levels, more layers, more to learn.  Well, my current mindful living journey has been much the same.  I’m trying to be aware and present with everything I do and what I’ve found is that once you’re aware, you become even more aware of other things that you could be aware of.

This morning I went for a walk, just like I have nearly every morning since I started the new challenge.  The first few days out I was just glad to start a new, healthy habit.  I was looking around at my surroundings, trying to be present on my walk.  After a couple of days I realized I wasn’t paying attention to my breathing. I took note to be more mindful of my breathing on my next walk.  I focused on my breath, taking deeper breaths, filling my lungs instead of short shallow breaths.  I tried to pay attention to how it feels when I do that.  Then I realized I wasn’t paying attention to my body.  How was my form?  Were my shoulders tense?  Was I really using my muscles while I walked?  Could I feel my feet hit the earth? So the next walk I tried to pay better attention to that.  And so it has gone, with pretty much everything throughout the day.  Each day I open my eyes to something new.  Some new observation.  Some new way of being mindful.

So what does all of this have to do with facing our fears?  Well, as you may or may not have noticed, there was a considerable gap between this post and the last.  Somehow, receiving the nomination for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award made me paranoid, self-conscious and afraid to write.  I tagged it “writers block”.  I started a few posts along the way, thought they were crap and trashed them.  It’s funny isn’t it?  I received recognition for what I was doing and it made me afraid to continue.  The more posts I write, the more readers I have following, the more concerned I get that “they” (you) won’t like what I have to say.  It’s easy to write when nobody is watching, but much like when I was in dance when I was younger, the bigger the audience, the more nervous I was to perform.  I had to live by the “Dance like nobody is watching” mindset.

As part of this mindful living journey I’ve also become more in tune with my inner voice, higher self, authentic self.  I’ve been trying to listen to it and let it guide me.  This voice has been telling me to continue to write.  I kept telling it, “I can’t.”   It in turn told me, “Yes, you can.”  So I ignored it.  Ignore it and it will go away, right?  But it doesn’t work that way.  If you ignore the signs, the signs get bigger.  Just before eating lunch today I read a blog post titled Outside the Door: Indulging Creativity on the blog We Bare All.  I love reading about creativity, creative things to do, so I started reading.  Before I got very far I realized… Crap.  It found me.  A whole post by another blogger, a writing teacher, telling me to write.  I’d been had.  I’d been duped.  But in the back of my mind I knew she was right.  It’s time.  Time to get out there.  Go out on the stage.  “You never know how many will hear you, how many you may touch, but if you don’t write, if you don’t do what you were called here to do, you will never know.”  So here I am, writing.

Whether you’re a writer, an actor, a performer, a teacher, a tutor, a mother, a friend, or a mentor, do what you were called here to do.  Listen to the voice inside your head trying ever so hard to guide you to be who you were brought here to be.

Fear holds us back, prevents us from achieving our authentic selves.  Even when we’re scared, especially when we’re scared, we need to listen, let go and face our fears head on, because chances are, “the worst thing that could happen” in our mind, won’t.  But if we don’t listen we’re cheating ourselves out of becoming who we are meant to be.  And if we take those risks, we just never know where they might lead us.

Wishing you peace and courage to follow your dreams.

Kate

Posted in Challenges, Healthy Living, Mindful Living | 8 Comments »

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August 31, 2012

Lessons Learned While Preparing For The Next Challenge

The days are clicking by, summer is coming to a close and there are only two days left until the next 8 Weeks to a Better You! challenge begins.

As you might guess, I’ve been mulling it all over in my mind as to how I’m going to approach this challenge.  How can I learn from the last challenge and prepare myself for this challenge with my new perspective?

Now, as corny as this may sound, as I’ve been preparing for the new challenge, I keep thinking of the book,  “Eat, Pray, Love:One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia” by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I first read this book a few years ago, and while it may not be the deepest of books, Elizabeth’s reactions to the experiences she had throughout her journeys made me laugh out loud because I could envision myself having the same reaction in the situations she encountered.

The specific portion of the memoir that I keep thinking about is Elizabeth’s trip to India.  As I near the Day 1 of the challenge, and keep hearing the voice in the back of my mind telling me I can’t do it, I keep recalling the part of the book that Elizabeth first attempted meditation.  She had to remain still and silent for an extended period of time.  She had a hard time focusing, struggled to stay still, her mind wandered.  She wrote about her thoughts, her frustrations, the thought that went through her mind, the thoughts questioning the thoughts that went through her mind… The way she wrote it was both humorous and painful in that “experiencing something new” kind of way.  I keep telling myself that if she could travel to India by herself, sit in complete silence for hours on end and overcome her challenges then surely I can do the same at home.  (Although I do question whether it might be easier to practice without distractions.)

As I prepare myself for the next challenge I’m anticipating there will be struggles.  Even though I’ve done two 4-week challenges before, this feels like an entirely different challenge.  It seems bigger, I’m doubting myself less and feel more excitement about what I will learn.  I feel like I’m embarking on a new adventure.  The tools ( rules regarding journaling, reading, exercise, eating, sleeping, etc.) are not new, but by changing my perspective on the challenge I feel like I’ve just been given the first paragraph of the instruction manual on how to properly use them!  (The rest of the book is filled with blank pages, mind you, but right now that doesn’t bother me because I feel like I at least know how to get started.)

The mental preparation for this hasn’t been easy though.  In addition to excitement, I have also found myself getting anxious, questioning whether I’m doing the right thing by doing another challenge and broadcasting it to my blog readers (I didn’t do well on the last challenge and this one is twice as long).  I’ve been trying to figure out ways to make it better, more successful.

As part of this process I started thinking about a post that Bhavna Hinduja wrote about simplifying cooking on her blog a couple of weeks ago, step 2 was a wake-up call for me.

Set the mood before you begin: When you get home from a long day at work, take 5 to 10 minutes to settle down before throwing on that apron and grabbing the knife as if you were on a kill. Pour yourself a refreshing beverage – wine, iced tea, or just water – and keep hydrated. Get changed and play some music. I’d stay away from turning the television on to reduce distractions. Remember this is supposed to be therapeutic and enjoyable so try to be in the element as much as you can.

I can’t tell you how often I buzz from one activity to another throughout the day thinking, “Okay, that’s done.  What’s next?”  Then I start that activity without even taking a breath.  That’s the key.  Stopping.  Taking a breath between jobs, tasks and activities.  Pausing and thinking about what it is that you’re about to do.  Essentially, taking step 1 to doing that activity mindfully.  That’s when I realized… It’s not so much about what you do as how you do it.   In other words, stop focusing on “making dinner” and instead focus on how I’m making dinner.  Am I thinking about the food, where it came from and what it does for my body?  Am I thinking about what I’m doing as I prepare the food or am I just chopping and letting my mind wander?  Am I just chugging water to get my 8 glasses in a day or am I thinking about hydrating my body, thinking about the water, its source, being thankful that we have it so readily available and being mindful not to waste it?

So my personal goal for this challenge is to practice checking back.  When I find myself getting lost in the competition, lost in the points, what I’ve done or not done, I will try to remind myself of the reason I’m doing that particular part of the challenge.  Sleeping 7 hours (making sure I get enough rest).  Not eating sugar, white flour and junk food (making sure I’m giving my body the nutrients it needs each day).  Practice living mindfully.

Until next time,

Kate

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May 30, 2012

4 Weeks to A Better You Summer Smack Down Starts June 3rd – Who’s with me?

After an insane spring, the good habits I developed during the 8 Weeks to a Better You! mini-challenge back in February started slipping.  I’ve been trying to give myself another kick to get going, but continue to lose focus and lose steam.  I’ve been hoping and praying for something to give me some motivation to get back into the swing of things so I don’t lose all of the momentum I had going earlier in the year.

Tonight I checked in with my friends at 8 Weeks to a Better You! and wouldn’t you know it, my prayers have been answered!  They are doing another 4 Week challenge for the month of June.  In fact, June 3rd starts the 4 Weeks to a Better You Summer Smack Down and I’m super excited to participate.  I had great results physically, mentally and emotionally with the first one and I hope to do at least as well if not better this time.

A number of you (you know who you are) talked to me last time and said you weren’t quite ready to commit, but wanted me to let you know when the next challenge came around.  Well, guess what?  It’s here!

The rules are the same, the cost is $13 to sign-up.  You have nothing to lose and lots of good stuff to gain!

Here’s the challenge:
Physically Better Yourself

1. Exercise at least 45 minutes a day!
2. Get AT LEAST 7 hours of sleep a night (if you are short a little just squeeze a nap in to make up for it)
3. Drink at least 8 glasses of water a day
4. No Sugar
5. No Soda, Fast Food, or Junk Food
6. Eat at least 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables
7. No eating after 8 p.m. (unless it’s your dinner-but try really hard to get dinner in earlier)

Emotionally/Spiritually Better Yourself
8. Write in your journal EVERY DAY.
9. Complete at least 15 minutes of uplifting reading or scripture study.
10. Complete an act of service or random act of kindness.  Whether it be a small one or a big one, do something kind for someone else that is out of your normal routine.

So without further adieu – I would like to formally invite you to join me in this next 4 week challenge to make a better YOU!  To register go to 8 Weeks to a Better You website and register on the right hand side.

Who’s with me?

Kate

p.s. – I need recommendations for another book which would provide 15 minutes of uplifting reading each day.  (Last time I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which I really enjoyed.)

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