Thirty Day Challenge: Day One

I'm on a challenge to get back to living my truth, five minutes at a time, for 30 days.  Join me!

My cleanse didn't quite work out as I had planned.  Because I hated it.  Well, okay, I hated the first juice of the day.  I don't really like savory juices --and this was all greens and some lemon.  I added the juice of two pears to get it down.  But then I had to take Jane to get a hair cut in the afternoon and afterward she was starving, so we went out to eat.  I decided that spending time with Jane was more important than finishing a juice cleanse. It's getting very hard to get any time with her these days. Will be doing the juice attempt again tomorrow, but will probably concoct my own juices!

As for the five minute Challenge:
  • For the next 30 days, I'm going to do my own yoga practice every day.  I did a 45 minute Power Yoga practice.  I was feeling sort of weak (maybe because it was my first day completely off of caffeine) so I just did it until I was ready to stop.
  • For the next 30 days, I'm going to find at least five minutes per day to sit in stillness, reconnecting with my breath and working on my meditation. Did this after yoga.  It was amazingly hard to sit still, even for five minutes.
  • For the next 30 days, I'm going to play my guitar for at least five minutes every day. I made it a little longer than five minutes, but not much.  Still, it's more than I did yesterday!
  • I'm going to write for at least five minutes every day for the next 30 days. Am doing this now! It is surprisingly hard to write right now. I've been a writer since I could hold a pencil, but I guess it's like  any skill.  You have to use it or you lose it. Or maybe something else is going on here, I don't know. Will think about this a bit more.
  • I'm going to spend at least five minutes in spiritual study, every day for 30 days. I've been doing this on and off all day. That's been the best thing about today, actually.
So, today was also my first day off of caffeine again.  I tapered off of it until I was down to just 4oz. of coffee and then today was Quitsville.  Tapering was a much better solution that just going cold-turkey like I did last time.  I had a little headache but not THE HEADACHE OF DEATH. And instead of spending three days hating everyone on this planet, I only needed to do about three HOURS in that stage.  Then I lost the will to live briefly, and now I feel pretty normal.  Not like I need to scratch my skin from the inside, like last time.

So, all in all, progress was made!  It's never pretty, you know, to start wrenching yourself out of the ruts and back into alignment.  I was thinking a lot today about how it's a lot like planting a garden. It's a lot of freaking hard work to till up the soil and augment it with good growing material and then sprig tiny seeds into it.  But at some point, the seeds grow and they fulfill your vision of what you knew they could be.  More about that tomorrow.

Tell me how your first day went.  Or if this was just a planning day, tell me how that went.  or if you're just cheering the rest of us on this time around, do that.

love,
Barb

Comments

psam ordener said…
I am cheering you on!
Cheering you on - and hoping your success gets me going on some much-delayed projects. "The first step is the hardest; after that, you have momentum on your side." I need to take those first steps...
Wow! You are being so mean to yourself! Clearly you want change but FORCING it upon yourself is not a great buy in. Congratulate yourself for the things you DO achieve and remind yourself( gently) that tomorrow is another day and you can try again. O man, giving up coffee....Maybe that can wait till you have settled down a bit! Good luck..I cheer you on but I also want to remind you to listen to that little voice.She knows you better than anyone else.

ps. I really am cheering you on!
Barb Matijevich said…
@Jennie--It doesn't FEEL like I'm being mean to myself. It feels like I'm listening to what my body and soul actually NEED, vs. doing things that don't serve me, without thinking about them. It feels right to me. Five minutes of doing things I mostly love isn't really punishment. For me, it feels like an offering. And the way it has worked for me in the past, it soon becomes a gift I give to myself. Thanks for cheering me on!
tanita✿davis said…
Concocting your own juices sounds like a PLAN; I am never very convinced by the idea of drinking kale, for instance, and finding it wonderful plain, raw, and by itself... and it IS hard to find time to sit and just listen and talk with a young adult, so I think that was a super good call.

Change is always waiting for us; if you can't take all the steps you wanted today, take additional steps tomorrow. That seems healthy and balanced and sane.
I am so glad you are responding to how you feel. ...and you have a plan! Go Barb!