I think one of the best advice I've been told and probably the best that I try to pass on to people is:
KNOW YOURSELF
Admittedly, I've passed great time from adolescence till now knowing myself. As I confessed, I am not one for big challenges. I see life as a continuous line and don't really believe in magic treats for anything. But I also think it is good to test yourself occasionally, because you will never know when you will surprise yourself.
So here I am, in the middle of my simple living challenge.
Basically, I get an assignment send to my e-mail every day with a simple request/idea/whatever, along with inspiration reads on the subject. And then I’m supposed to share thoughts and advances and difficulties in the online community of world-wide participants (7810, accordingly to the site!), which I find special in this challenge.
Having this blog and commenting on others blogs, made me realize that I like to share ideas on-line. It defies me in a different way my real-life connections do, and I find great joy in this internet connections. The blogs I enjoy reading the most are the ones where the "discussion" really continues and evolves on the comments. (If I could wish something for my blog's future, it would be that this small space develops to be a space where people feel at ease to read and to share their own ideas).
The challenge isn't too hard that can't be handled along your ordinary life. I've been able to do most of the things, mainly because they don’t differ that much of my daily practices (examples of this being: enjoy eating a meal slowly and meaningful, make something with your own hands, spend quality time with someone you love, be a more conscience consumer). On some days, I really had to push the challenge forward in order to feel I've accomplished something, for instance day 4 - clear out your inbox / mailbox - my inboxes are always dealt with (am an empty inbox type of person), so I opted for contacting my best friend, who lives far from me, instead. If it weren't for the challenge I'm pretty sure I wouldn't had called her that day, and I’m really glad I did it! So it has been very nice to push myself a bit and I've appreciated very much the reading articles that they suggest.
Still, I feel I'm not fulfilling the challenge. I failed to participate on the forum, which was precisely the reason that made me jump for this particularly challenge.
Why haven't I joined? I guess I felt overwhelmed. I wanted to read every comment and thoughtfully add something, yet I found that it would take for long, and I only have few minutes available. There is so much I want to do, I simply can’t do it all.
As with most things, I’m suiting the challenge to my life, so I am continuing by myself, at my own pace. I like to stay two or three days on the daily task (I'm now on "Renounce complaining for one day" - I usually don't verbally complain, but I found I complain to myself a lot more than I would claim so before this challenge!). It's slowly becoming a path I take alone, which doesn't feel different at all, new, or truly defiant, but more like my own slowly path. I guess the real challenge for me would be that active participation?
Overall, it has been a good experience, I'm learning more about things and about myself, and I'm also realising I like my days pretty much the way they are (hence I didn't find value on trading my daily moments for more time in the forum challenge, although I'm sure I would appreciate it), and this realization feels pretty good!
I'll be thinking about gratitude for the next days.
What are you grateful for?
I think it is so important to go at a pace which suits you, otherwise a challenge becomes a stressor! We all lead busy lives which are often enough of a challenge for anyone! Well done for fitting in writing a blog at all....especially such a thoughtful one.
ReplyDeleteFreda
Thank you for your support, Freda! It's so easy to add stress these days, there's so many interesting things going on.
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