Committing to a Daily Self-? Practice

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:

1. Give yourself a hug for 1 minute
2. Write down a list of 3 things you love about you
3. Laugh (find reasons to laugh)
4. Call a friend you haven’t talked to in a while
5. Treat yourself to something special
6. Unplug for 2 hours
7. Listen to uplifting music
8. Give someone a compliment
9. Connect with your heart and with your higher self (see blog post for guided meditation)
10. Remind yourself to breathe throughout the day
11. Create Body Movement
12. Laugh with Friends
13. Eat Mindfully
14. Practice the Body Gratitude Meditation
15. Choose one practice to commit to doing every day
16. Feel and name your feelings
17. Clarify your priorities (see blog post for a special exercise from the book “No Bad Feelings”)
18. Connect with and acknowledge your super powers
19. Hug a tree with intention
20. Write down your favorite quotes and come up with your own special quote
21. Allow yourself to take some time to go deep and cry and grieve and feel deep feelings
22. Forgive yourself and others (with a special mantra and a meditation)
23. Write and mail a letter of gratitude to you
24. Express unexpected gratitude
25. Read a passage from your favorite book
26. Connect with your soul’s deepest desires (with a guided meditation)
27. Take one step today
28. Dress Up
29. Invest in Yourself
30. Know yourself as the source
31. Celebrate you
32. Notice the miracles around you
33. Only say kind words to yourself
34. Connect and play
35. Be in the moment
36. Nurture Yourself
37. Take inventory of your self-love
38. Show kindness to yourself and to others
39. Say thanks, but no thanks to naysayers
40. Prepare your favorite tea
41. Start a success journal
42. Practice saying no
43. Receive and say Thank you period, no buts
44. Prepare in advance before attending holiday events
45. Smile
46. Receive Love
47. Connect with your heart space
48. Honor yourself
49. Have a moment of joy
50. Smile
51. Create a connection
52. Two minutes attention towards yourself
53. Thank your body
54. Listen attentively to your favorite song
55. Step beyond your comfort zone
56. Treat yourself
57. Scan your self-respect
58. Practice a random act of kindness
59. Check in with yourself
60. Find the simplest reasons to feel grateful today
61. Love yourself where you are
62. Be aware of your self-talk
63. Move
64. Express Your Fears or Uneasiness
65. Express Your Creativity
66. Open yourself to receive
67. Forgive self and others
68. Celebrate an accomplishment today
69. Watch the sunset
70. Reflect on your childhood dreams
71. Know your worth
72. Walk mindfully
73. Trust Yourself
74. Invest in yourself
75. 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