I’ve just realised today is the 15th day of our challenge. Wow! This means we are halfway to the end. Crazy how these 2 weeks flew by! To honour and mark this milestone on our journey, I think it’s time for a little celebration and pause to breathe, evaluate and visualise what’s next.
Day 15 – Pause, Breathe, Evaluate
How to do this: set aside 15 minutes for this exercise. Keep the notebook and the pen from yesterday’s exercise at hand.
Sit down comfortably, whichever way You prefer.
Step 1: Breathe deeply a few times, close your eyes and look back at yourself on day 1of this challenge. How were You 15 days ago when You think of your connection with your gut feeling? Then let your mind walk you through the rest of the days until today.
Step 2: Now bring your awareness on the present moment: notice the sensations in your body, notice the thoughts that come and go.
Step 3: Imagine yourself on day 30. How would You like to feel then? What do You want to achieve by then, what do You want to improve or change in terms of being present and connected with yourself? What do You want to keep doing?
Step 4: When You feel ready, open your eyes and write down your thoughts, just like You did yesterday.
That’s it. Congrats. You are awesome!
How I feel about these first 2 weeks so far:
1. I am amazed and proud that I didn’t miss a day of publishing. This is the first time since I started this blog in october 2013 that I’ve been writing and publishing every single day. Yay! 🙂
2. Your feed-back, comments and suggestions are like a compass and a fuel for me.
The compass let’s me know that I am on the right track with doing this.
The fuel is the energy I feel from You when you share your stories and encourage me to keep going. Especially during those all-I-want-is-to-curl-up-in-my-bed-and-hide-there-forever-moments…yeah, I still have those meh moments, sometimes.
3. Because I share the exercises with You I get more insights and new ideas on how they could work better for me and for You.
4. It’s awesome to receive your feedback online, but also offline, when I least expect it. Like having lunch with a bunch of people and one tells me: “Aren’t we suppose to eat in silence?” I said, that was yesterday’s exercise 🙂 Or another person who kindly asked me to schedule the hour that the posts are published earlier in the morning (according to Romanian time), so he could make the exercises before going to work. Which I did.
5. I am so grateful for all your comments, I want to share a few of them here not to brag about it, but to express my gratitude and appreciation. You are awesome! 🙂
Feed-back on Day 1
“Hi, Raluca. My day is finishing and I found peace while focusing on the present moment. The hectic rhythm of things was replaced by optimism, self confidence and energy. The hours didn’t rush like other days, but aided me as a carriage of well trained horses.
Thank you for being an inspiration.”
Feed-back on Day 2
”Although it was hard to focus on breathing because of my active mind, the exercise was so easy and effortless that focusing and refocusing were natural. It surprised me. Thank you for this second day, Raluca”.
Feed-back on Day 7
“Hi. Is day 7 and i still follow your challenge. Most of the things you said throught the week i already knew, but i forgot about some of them and i thank you for remembering me and also learning me new things. I hope you are doing great! Have a nice day! 
“
Feed-back on Day 14
“Hi. I just tried this exercise and i have one word for it: WOW. Although I wasn’t completly present, I was for most of the time and I wrote something awesome in all those thoughts. Thank you! “
Thank you for doing this challenge and for sharing your process in the comments. We are half way to the end of the 30 days, I am excited and happy to continue learning with You.
With all my love,
Raluca 🙂
Photo Credit: yushimoto_02 [christian] via Compfight cc