After Hay House promoted Dr. Wayne Dyer’s books (R.I.P) a few weeks ago, I purchased and read his memoir I Can See Clearly Now. I recommend it, as he shared his incredible journey to become all that he was in life, the synchronicities, the lessons learned, the roadblocks and challenges, the inspiration, and his life’s purpose. One thing he mentioned right from the start was that he knew from a young age that he had to become self-reliant. Then, he shared that he always told himself “I’m a teacher”, and how he went on to teach others about self-reliance.
Dr. Wayne Dyer encourages his readers to consider what they can see clearly now. I’m taking my time to come up with my list. In the meantime, while reading his book, I resonated with his journey, as I’ve always felt like I was a teacher in my soul. Most of my life, every time I learned something new/interesting/revealing, I've shared it with anyone who would listen. That’s probably one of the reasons I became a coach, writer, speaker and also a lecturer. In terms of self-development, my life’s main area of focus for some time has been to practice self-love. If you’ve been a reader of my blog, you know that towards the end of 2013 I hosted the first 30-day self-love challenge, which ended up spreading to 45 days. Each day I came up with a practice worth sharing, wrote a blog post* and shared the link on Facebook. A few months ago I decided to do it again, and came up with some new practices.
I’ve been thinking a lot about committing to self. That includes commitment to health, well-being, connection to self and others, professional development, heart expansion, experiencing joy, among others. I was considering what it would look like to commit to doing something for 100 days. And instead of creating something new, I realized that the best thing for me to do would be to commit to 100 days of self-love, with a twist. The twist being that instead of doing the same self-love challenge each day for 100 days, or practice something different each day, I’d add one practice each week. Week one, I focus on my breathing every day. Week two, I focus on my breathing and give myself a hug daily. Week three,… you get the picture.
I encourage you to consider what you can see clearly now, what your underlying life lesson has been, and then commit to a daily practice for 100 days to be on your way to mastering it. Create your own list, be it to practice self-reliance, self-love, self-forgiveness, self-esteem, self-acceptance, self- efficacy, self-kindness, self-care, and anything else that you feel called to practice. How would you feel after 100 days of practicing your own self-journey?
If your self-journey is on self-love, I’m reposting the two rounds of self-love challenge I hosted. You can pick and choose which one you will focus on week one, and which ones you will add every week, or make up your own list. At the end of 100 days, there will be at least 14 self-? activities added to your schedule. Although it might seem like a lot, some of them take only a minute, and others can be bundled. Here is to mastering self-love, or self-?, whatever it is that your soul is craving to master.
Here are a few things I’ve been practicing daily through this process: drinking warm lemon water every morning, keeping up with a gratitude journal, and drawing (though the last one hasn’t been practiced daily). Feel free to share your own 100-day commitment in the comments below. If you need help coming up with your self-journey list, let me know.
Self-love Practices:
- Give yourself a hug for 1 minute
- Write down a list of 3 things you love about you
- Laugh (find reasons to laugh)
- Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while
- Treat yourself to something special
- Unplug for 2 hours
- Listen to uplifting music
- Give someone a compliment
- Connect with your heart and with your higher self (see blog post for guided meditation)
- Remind yourself to breathe throughout the day
- Create Body Movement
- Laugh with Friends
- Eat Mindfully
- Practice the Body Gratitude Meditation
- Choose one practice to commit to doing every day
- Feel and name your feelings
- Clarify your priorities (see blog post for a special exercise from the book “No Bad Feelings”)
- Connect with and acknowledge your super powers
- Hug a tree with intention
- Write down your favorite quotes and come up with your own special quote
- Allow yourself to take some time to go deep and cry and grieve and feel deep feelings
- Forgive yourself and others (with a special mantra and a meditation)
- Write and mail a letter of gratitude to you
- Express unexpected gratitude
- Read a passage from your favorite book
- Connect with your soul’s deepest desires (with a guided meditation)
- Take one step today
- Dress Up
- Invest in Yourself
- Know yourself as the source
- Celebrate you
- Notice the miracles around you
- Only say kind words to yourself
- Connect and play
- Be in the moment
- Nurture Yourself
- Take inventory of your self-love
- Show kindness to yourself and to others
- Say thanks, but no thanks to naysayers
- Prepare your favorite tea
- Start a success journal
- Practice saying no
- Receive and say Thank you period, no buts
- Prepare in advance before attending holiday events
- Smile
- Receive Love
- Connect with your heart space
- Honor yourself
- Have a moment of joy
- Smile
- Create a connection
- Two minutes attention towards yourself
- Thank your body
- Listen attentively to your favorite song
- Step beyond your comfort zone
- Treat yourself
- Scan your self-respect
- Practice a random act of kindness
- Check in with yourself
- Find the simplest reasons to feel grateful today
- Love yourself where you are
- Be aware of your self-talk
- Move
- Express Your Fears or Uneasiness
- Express Your Creativity
- Open yourself to receive
- Forgive self and others
- Celebrate an accomplishment today
- Watch the sunset
- Reflect on your childhood dreams
- Know your worth
- Walk mindfully
- Trust Yourself
- Invest in yourself
- Breathe
* If you’d like to read the posts, you can follow this link, and if you scroll down you can click on Newer Entries, to go all the way to the 30+ days of challenges.
Additional suggestions for 100-day challenges:
This article was also inspired by James Clear’s article: The 2015 Tiny Gains Challenge
A friend just told me about 100 days of rejection challenge, in which you make an effort to get rejected by someone every day. I think this is a wonderful practice, but I’m not sure I’m able to commit to it just yet. How about you?
Namaste,
Elisa Balabram
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