November’s Challenge: Seeing blessings in a whole new way

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This month, my challenge to myself has been to say a prayer of just gratitude every day. That’s right. Sometimes I do this while I’m driving some place. For example, my drive to school is about 25 minutes long. Sometimes I challenge myself to do the entire drive to school just saying my prayer of gratitude. So far, just in this past week of doing this challenge, I’ve noticed how these prayers of gratitude strengthen me. They truly put things into a whole new perspective. What I mean by that is that I start to dig deeper to find the things I’m grateful for because after 20 minutes of thinking about this, it really starts to sink in. It has started to help me see my blessings in a different light. (I’ll explain more about this in a follow up post)

I’m also challenging myself (and I’ll be honest…this one has been harder already) to write and send a thank you card every day. I love sending cards, so I’m looking forward to continuing this as well.

Feel free to join along!

October recap…learning to love (and that includes myself)

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October was all about learning to have more self love and compassion. It was eye opening for me. Although I understand that it’ll take more that just a few positive affirmations and some self care to really “arrive” to a place of self-love and compassion. However, it was well worth the effort and I noticed subtle changes begin to take place. After All, it’s those daily little deeds that amount to great things.

For example, I was sitting on an airplane and was starving because I just barely made my connection and didn’t have time to grab food in the airport. I wanted to order food, but I didn’t want to inconvenience the flight attendants or the man sitting next to me by ringing the little bell that calls for their service. Then, this little voice of self-care came into my head reminding me that I needed to eat and take care of myself by doing so. So. I rang the bell and ordered food, and while the salad was disgusting, I was truly proud of my self-care efforts.

Here are some other things I did for self-care this week:

– Went for walks

– Ate out from time to time

– Listened to music I loved

– Went to bed early

– Played with my puppy, Maple

– Warmed up by the fire

– Fixed myself some herbal tea

– Played guitar and wrote a few little tunes

– Made some gluten free brownies

– Allowed myself to cry without judgement

This challenge was wonderful to be aware of, and will need to continue on for a lifetime for me. I hope I can truly continue building that self-compassion and love throughout my life.

October’s challenge…better late than never, right?

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So I’ve actually been thinking of a challenge for this month and I’ve started the challenge but haven’t had a chance to post it on here yet. So please forgive the tardiness of this as October is already flying by! Ahh!! Crazy.

This month, my daily deed is kind of a two fold thing. I am doing a conscious act of self care every day along with telling myself three positive affirmations in the mirror every day.

This month for me is going to be about learning to have self compassion, self love and about remembering that in order to really connect and love others, I must first learn to love myself. I’m not sure if that is scientifically proven, but I’ve heard it before and it sounds and feels true to me. Christ even said, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:31). Which to me seems to be saying that we must also love ourselves if we want to really love others. When we work towards really believing that we are worthy of that love…perhaps we can start to see others that way as well. I like to see it as loving from the inside out.

My positive affirmations may change from day to day, but these are a few that I am most likely going to use:

  • I am worthy of love and belonging
  • I am a daughter of God with infinite worth and value
  • God knows me perfectly and loves me infinitely
  • I love and nurture myself every day
  •  As I love myself, I am more able to give and receive love
  • Everything is working together for my good

I’m looking forward to experimenting with this. I’m going to pay attention to how it affects me and how I feel. I wonder if this daily deed will change anything within me or around me. I’ll write about my experiences in the days to come. Please feel free to join along!

Xo,

Bianca

A few other new things to finish up September. Where did that month go?!

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My oh my. I’m not sure where September went. One minute it was here, and the next it was gone. Well for the sake of living up to my challenges, here are some new things I tried to finish up the month.

– I went to a new yoga class.

– Tried a burger and fries place here in Boise that was so delish, I went two days in a row!

– Gave my first in-home music therapy session to a girl who has autism.

– Went to what will be my new church location if my husband and I actually are able to close on this home that we’re in the process of buying. It was so fun to imagine what our lives will be like while sitting in the pew of this church building that I haven’t been in yet, and surrounded by unfamiliar faces. It’s exciting to imagine the possibilities and also a little surreal.

– I went to my first ever Play Therapy conference. I really hope to become a Play Therapist one day. I got to go with my sister to this conference, and we had so much fun.

– I bought my first working record player at this little shop that my sister and I have wanted to check out for a while. I’m so excited to use in the that home I mentioned above.

– I went to my first home inspection. That was interesting.

– I got to sit down with a guy at a mortgage company to discuss the possibility of buying a house- never done that before.

– I found a little quiet spot outside to sit, read and write on. There’s something really healing about grass to me.

– I made a play-date with my nephew.

– I started writing a new song.

– I also learned a lot of things for the first time. While this wasn’t necessarily a physical action, it was just as real and important for me. Below are just a few things I’ve learned in graduate school this month. It’s amazing to me that I’ve learned as much as I have in only a matter of a few weeks. To name just a few of these things, I’ve learned that…

  1. Feeling is actually a victory. Not the other way around. (That goes with all feelings. Yes, all feelings.)
  2. Feeling feelings in the moment as much as possible is healing and allows for release of that emotion after it has been felt and acknowledged.
  3. When expressing thoughts and feelings, don’t forget to use, “I think,” “I feel” and “I experience” instead of making general statements such as “You sometimes feel…” I honestly never realized how often I do this until it was pointed out to me in one of my classes at school. It’s amazing how empowering it is to express feelings/thoughts and experiences that way. It puts ownership on them.
  4. Self-care is key. Intentional, conscious acts to take care of oneself is vitally important.

So there you have it. September for me was full, and I mean so FULL of new things for me. It was enlivening…It was enriching…And it was quite overwhelming at times. Goodbye September of 2014. You were wonderful.

Xo,

Bianca

New Things I’ve done so far…

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I found this paper at a craft store and I had to buy it. It’s truly something I am trying to remember. For example, I was looking at houses that were for sale and feeling stressed out about it. Joseph gently reminded me, “hey B, just remember…this is supposed to be fun.” He was so right!

Life

So here are things I’ve been doing for my monthly “daily deed” challenge:

– I started this blog

– Drove home a new way

– Went to the Boise Temple

– Started my first day of school

– Looked at houses

– Went to a Zumba class

– Set up a new bank account

– Went to an institute class for parenting

– Finished 2 tracks at June audio

– Started going gluten free (for reals)

– I tried a new recipe…it was awesome

September: Try New Things

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September.

Doesn’t it just seem like a month for trying new things? That’s what it feels like to me anyway. This September is one that is unique for me because I’m in a new place, starting a graduate program in a field that I’m only somewhat familiar with; and so much of my day is new to me! 

As a result, I’ve decided to embrace this transition as much as possible by challenging myself to try something new every day for the month of September.

For starters, this blog. My “daily deed” today is that I am starting this blog.

I’ve had an itch to start this for months because as the days and weeks were nearing my 29th birthday, I couldn’t help but feel the need to dig my heels in the ground. This is going to be the last year of my 20’s! I knew that I had a choice. I could spend all day in my PJ’s, crying, watching Pride and Prejudice and eating way too much chocolate chip cookie dough (which I would then later regret)…or, I could decided to live this birthday to the fullest. Then I thought, “Why just live my birthday to the fullest…why not choose to live the entire year that way?!”

That is when the blog idea was born. This is a blog where I will document my experiences with monthly challenges that I propose to myself. I won’t be posting every day by any means, but the challenge will be ongoing and I’ll occasionally post about some of my experiences with these monthly “daily deeds.” My hope with these challenges, this experiment, and this blog is that in the process, I will be able to live in the moment even more fully. That has been a struggle of mine for as long as I can remember. 

The “daily deed” challenges will change every month so that by the time I turn the big 3-0 (in 12 months from now), I will have spent 365 days in pursuit of living to the fullest, of finding joy in any circumstance, of growing in gratitude and peace, of living mindfully, and most of all…365 days spent in the pursuit of opening my heart to love.

That seems like a lot to work towards in just one year; but I feel like if I breakup these big goals into little broken and concrete, measurable steps…then, here a little and there a little, it will amount to something beautiful.

I decided to blog about it so that I had someone to be accountable to, and also in case anyone would want to join me on these challenges. Feel free to comment in any of the posts about what you have done that day or week as part of your “daily deed.” I’d LOVE to hear about what other people might be doing and/or experiencing as well.

My friend Sarah Fulton did a 40 day challenge before her 40th birthday. I joined in on the fun and found myself actually missing it when the challenge was over. Her challenge was to have friends and family join in on her quest to do acts of kindness every day for 40 days before her 40th birthday. It was remarkable for me because I found myself doing things I normally would never have done. I gave two girls a ride home one day whom I had never met before. I gave a sandwich to a woman selling necklaces on the beach while I was on vacation. I did these things because it was something I was striving to do every day. I was being reminded of it constantly and therefore, I was more likely to follow through. I am finding that perhaps those things you do every day are more important than those things you only do once in a while. (Spoiler alert: in August, I’m going to do a similar challenge as the one that Sarah did for her 40th birthday. So be prepared to join in on the fun next Summer when that comes around.)

So here it goes. Daily Deed Challenge #1…try new things. This will be challenging, but I can hardly wait to see what unfolds.

Xo,

Bianca