Reverb10: Day 28

Day 28– Achieve. What’s the thing you most want to achieve next year? How do you imagine you’ll feel when you get it? Free? Happy? Complete? Blissful? Write that feeling down. Then, brainstorm 10 things you can do, or 10 new thoughts you can think, in order to experience that feeling today.

To live more fully in my own life.
I will feel more engaged, happier, I will feel down less often, my thoughts will be more productive and working towards encouragement versus discouragement. There will be a flow, things will be easier.

Five New Things

1. Clean my space. I know I feel happier and that energy flows better when I live in an organized clean space. Over the holidays I have been really lazy (which is a good thing) and so parts of the house are excessively cluttered with stuff. Cleaning this all up will help me feel more interested in being engaged in activities around my house.
2. Make a list of "to do's" and check some of them off. Part of not wanting to be engaged in my life comes from feeling overwhelmed by stuff that I need to do. Sometimes it just piles on all at once and I end up dropping most of it and spend days staring at the TV instead. When I check things off a list (even little things) I feel accomplished and this gives me energy. I get positive feedback from myself that I can actually accomplish the things I need to do.
3. Journal more often. This is initially prompted from idea #2 because I often do a specific journal exercise at night that starts with the sentence "Today I...". I then make a list of all the things I have done that day. This is not particularly a list of things that needed doing. It could include things such as "laughed" or "ate christmas cake with mint ice cream" or "gave lots of hugs". It is anything that made my day what it was. On bad days this can even include "got out of bed" or "ate something". This idea extends beyond feeling accomplished. While I find journaling on a regular basis difficult, I also know that I find it a very good way to both dump stuff from my brain and to get deeper insight into myself.
4. Photography. My friend Darlene in this recent post at HippyUrbanGirl talked about how in times when her life was rough and full of grief that photography became a place for her to breathe. I feel like photography is becoming this for me. It is a way to document my life for myself in a way that I don't have to explain or justify to anyone. It is a place where all I see is beauty in everything my lens finds. A place to breathe. I've already decided to do Self Portrait 365, which will be both challenging and self reflective. Perhaps I should also gently commit myself to more photo walks in general.
   
5. Yoga. I have a yoga pass that I do not use enough. When I bought it I had planned on going at least 3 times a week. I've been doing yoga since I was 3 or 4 and it has always connected me to my body and calmed my mind. I always feel more stable when I am doing regular yoga and I enjoy the ritual of going to a class for an hour and a half.

Five New Thoughts

1. I will be OK. Cultivate trust in the universe.
2. I can do anything. If I put my mind to things I can achieve anything I can dream of.
3. I am worthy of love. No matter who I am or what I do, people do love me.
4. It is up to me. My life is actually in my control, not the control of others. My decisions for my life are just right, even if other do not think so. Ultimately it is me who should decide where my life will go.
5. Every day is a new choice for adventure. Each day I choose how to engaged with my life and I can engaged with a sense of adventure, joy, and love.