Everyday for me

Recently I was doing meditation, and I had this feeling of self-abandonment… obviously I didn't like feeling that way. Before jumping to conclusions and making drastic decisions I said to myself: hold on mamita. Eventually, I will have to make the changes to not feel this way, but I know that I have been making many changes in recent years to improve mentally, spiritually, socially, and a bit physically (honestly ... the physical part is the hardest for me), so even though I am still investigating the origin of feeling this way, I had to recognize those efforts that I have made for me and that it is not true that I have abandoned myself at all.

So... what do you want to do now?

I will start by saying what I did that day ... after feeling miserable for 5 minutes I had this little mental light "fück this, I'm going to recognize and focus the good things I do for myself, and instead of doing it so automatically, I will make them as conscious as I can. Moreover, every day I will make 3 to 5 conscious decisions that I understand are good for me. ” That day was perfect, I went to sleep feeling so good about myself, and I wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary, the only thing that had changed was that I wasn't automatically. Being honest, I don't do this exercise every day, I forget about it once I get busy, and that speaks of how little present we can be in daily life, and what I'm trying to do here is just another way to practice mindfulness, nothing new.

How can we do it?

It's simple, here are some of my examples:

Drink water. When I am drinking water (only sometimes), I think about the benefits of water, and I remind myself that the action I am about to take is to take care of my body, to nourish my cells, I observe how the water makes me feel while I drink it, I try to feel its texture/density, temperature. Then I feel grateful because despite being a survival instinct, I was able to transform the action into a conscious decision.

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Read. I like to read, and many times I don't do it because I feel that I always have something more important to do, but as it gives me pleasure I have been setting boundaries on other things. Before I start I prepare the space to enjoy it more, that intention of getting ready to do something I like to do makes me feel special (you see when are in love and you do everything to make the other person feel special? is something like that). For example, I turn off all the notifications to enjoy 20 mins of reading, I close the door a little bit or put on my headphones (even if I'm not listening to anything) just to show limits to the people in my house too, I light a candle, sometimes I prepare a tea, etc. And I feel so good about myself because those around me and I finally get to respect my personal pleasures.

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Exercise. Well ... I don't love it. However, I recognize the benefits of it, when I workout/move the results are reflected in my health, in my mood, sleep quality, mental clarity, etc. Therefore instead of cursing while I exercise, I talk to myself, and with each movement, I remind myself: this movement strengthens this muscle, these movements help you with your back, heart, etc. So when you're done, you recognize that it was an effort that you took 100% because it does you good, and you thank yourself for such sacrifice.

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Save money. When you know that you have been saving for something, but it becomes a routine and sometimes you even lose sense why you are not buying the crap that you want (that deeply you know you don't need it or even want it). Right before spending my money, the wise voice would remind me: you have dreams, you have places that you want to travel, don't buy that nonsense, and then I will enter in peace. So when I listen to others mortified for having made an unnecessary purchase, my heart smiles and thank for not losing the willpower.

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It is to break down, process and be aware of what you choose in your life, to appreciate what you do that is for your good, and what you want to do to make yourself even better. These are examples of everyday decisions, and sometimes you also have to make bigger choices, such as what food makes me good and what doesn't, whether to go out with this person or not, whether to help or not, whether to please or not.

When you get stuck with big decisions, just remember that you are choosing all the time, but you don't notice it because you do it automatically. We are every day making decisions about how to build our path.

Without being too hard on ourselves, I would like you to challenge yourself to make 3-5 decisions that you understand that is beneficial for yourself and share the results, let's support each other in this practice. I hope you cheer up and do it because I would really like to know if it has a positive impact as it had on me.

Have a happy day, and good luck with the experiment.

May your days be full of light and love.