A helpful and fun way to bring positive awareness to your Covid-19 chapter in life.
About a year ago a friend shared with me the "X-Effect." Reddit is how he was originally introduced to this concept. I found it extremely helpful to track my progress in Meditation and Self-Care. Many times we have the best of intentions to follow through in actions with a particular idea or the desire to learn a new skill. Only to be faced with the all to common reasons that we experience as a result of a busy life. Not enough time and lack of motivation. During this Covid-19 era many are now experiencing the feeling of too much time. A discomfort in the isolation leading to filling time and space with things that are not contributing to growth or radical self-care. Taking care of yourself was once viewed as selfish or unnecessary by you or by your peers. Now it has become a topic of introspection, a glimpse or a deep look into you by you. Self-care is and can be beautiful in so many ways. Give yourself the permission, kindness and love you normally give to others. Turn that action inward by taking time for you.
The X-Effect as shown on Reddit, encourages you to join in on a fifty day journey to create or break one or more habits by simply making a 7x7 grid on a card and crossing off each day with a big X of accomplishment . Your will power is like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it becomes. The summary of the technique is: you make a card with 49 empty squares: 7 weeks of 7 days. On that card you write a habit you want to acquire. On the back of the card you write your motivation: why that habit? Every day you practice your goal and when you have, you mark that square with an X. If for some reason you can't fulfill your goal for the day, you leave the square for that day blank. That is all, no beating yourself up, just a blank square.
I invite you to join me on this challenge to take a day to really look at doing an Ambitious Six X-Effect with habits of your own, each habit with their own 7x7 grid lasting 49 days of application.
What does your list look like for you? Take a piece of paper and brainstorm your ideas, I had a dozen things I came up with and then narrowed the focus to the Ambitious Six as I lovingly refer to them as. I do encourage you to add a daily Meditation as part of your Ambitious Six only if that resonates with you. Other than that, this experience is your own. Do you want to create, write, sing, play a musical instrument, dance in the living room, garden, read a book, limit the news or social media, create a self-care routine like giving yourself a foot massage, learn a new topic, your favorite physical exercise, stretching, yoga, Qigong, nature walks if possible, getting fresh air, house hold chores? Many users of Reddit have posted their cards online there and you can see a vast array of topics to help you brainstorm.
Here are some of the great resources for online courses that I have found over the last several years.
Mindvalley Online Academy currently has 27+ free courses during this Covid era and is the largest online personal growth platform in the world. Choose from hundreds of personal growth programs and transformative content taught by brilliant minds, with results that stick. I have personally completed two of their courses and am enrolled in two more right now. Mindvalley says, "The Ultimate goal is not a degree or even a goal. It's a better you..."
I also enjoy Daily Om. They have courses on everything from Health & Fitness, Spirituality and Relationships. Courses range from $15-35 US currency. I have taken 8 of their courses and have enjoyed them and the regular email Newsletter they share with inspiring and thought provoking messages.
Another good one is Udemy with a wide variety of courses with 57k Instructors! I enjoyed the informative course on Reflexology and my feet thank me for that.
Duolingo is a great App to learn a language. I use the free App and you can pay for the service to not have commercials.
Yousician is the service I am using to learn to play the Ukulele. You can use it for Guitar, Ukulele and Voice lessons too.
Make this gift of extra time count. Bring awareness to what matters to you for you. Is it eliminating a behavior from your life? Maybe adding or honing a skill, learning something new? Your call, your life, your choice.
I have been on a long and winding journey in Plant Medicine, Meditation and Self-Care exploration since 2015. I am always learning to hone my skills and integrate all of my experiences and trainings into a cohesive flow. Namaste to you beautiful and dynamic souls and thank you for your time.
Comments