Last month’s challenge was a smashing success! There was only one day, a Sunday, that I didn’t complete at least 900 push-ups (I think I did 450 or so that day), and there were only a few days that I didn’t get in the full 1,000. However, the last week of the challenge I added 100 extra push-ups each day to make up for any that I missed previously in the challenge.

All that to say, I am confident that I performed 30,000 push-ups during the course of the challenge. It definitely is one of my favorite to date. I think this is a great example of the power of 30-day challenges. I gave a speech this past week comparing 30-day challenges to New Years resolutions. I don’t think anyone would give a New Years resolution of doing 1,000 push-ups a day and definitely not for a year.

However, when put in the context of 30 days, it becomes a challenging yet attainable goal, especially if you break it down into small chunks that are purposefully scheduled throughout the day. Honestly, I don’t have that much else to comment on with this challenge, so instead of doing a more formal evaluation, I will just give a few observations and intentions.

• It was easier during the week than on the weekend. The biggest factor in completing the push-up challenge was not how busy I was. Knocking out 100 push-ups was relatively easy to do, especially by the end of the challenge. The most difficult part was remembering to do them. When teaching at school, each bell that rang was a reminder to knock out 50+ push-ups. Without these reminders, it was easier to get behind.
• Chest-to-ground push-ups are not for me. Why? Well, I don’t really have a chest. Some of this is due to my kyphoscoliosis, but whatever the reason, touching my chest to the ground doing push-ups was not feasible. I did practice with this a little though during the challenge.
• I will continue the practice during the work week days. Doing 50 push-ups between each class period was awesome. It was a great way to get some exercise in during the day and feel physically refreshed without breaking a sweat or being a time drain. Just great!
• I will feel sorry for anyone that does a push-up challenge with me. I enjoy doing abs workouts with my brothers when we visit each other. Abs exercises have always been tough for me, and I find doing timed workouts or pyramids quite challenging. However, push-ups, especially now after doing 1,000 a day for the past month, are as simple as walking.

That’s it. I have already picked out what I think my next monthly challenge is going to be: hourly consciousness focusing. But more on that when I detail the specs.

Namaste.

This month, I am doing a less physically demanding challenge, which seems appropriate given my body has been feeling absolutely miserable the last few days. I want to get back to reading again, and with Thanksgiving now and Christmas around the corner, this seems the perfect time to start.

Also, I have been experiencing a lot of new aches and pains recently. Perhaps this is due to the extensive push-ups from last month, or my current sickness, or some unknown factor. Whatever the reason, getting back to daily Bikram Yoga can only help and is something I have been neglecting for too long.

Here are the details for the yoga challenge:

• At least 30 minutes each day – Official Bikram Yoga classes are 90 minutes long. The ones I usually attend or view on YouTube are close to an hour long. I am just committing to 30 minutes, though if I have time and want to finish the whole class that would be great.
• Turn space heater on for some of each practice – Bikram Yoga classes are performed in some type of hot room where the temperature is close to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t currently have a membership to any studios or gyms with a hot room, so that is not an option. However, I would like to replicate the experience a little bit by starting and ending the practice with a space heater.
• Always start with Standing Deep Breathing and Half Moon Pose – Thirty minutes will not get me through an entire practice. I am fine picking up where I left off from the previous day, as long as I always start with these two introductory positions before doing so. They help prepare the mind as well as the body for the rest of the practice.

The reading portion of this challenge is rather simple. Below are the specifications:

• Plan on reading at least 1,000 pages during the month – This seems like a good number without being too ambitious. Any book counts as long as I am not reading it virtually.
• This comes out to between 33 and 34 pages per day – I plan on reading at least 5 pages when I first wake up, 5 pages during my lunch break, and 5 pages upon getting in bed at night. The remaining pages can either be spaced out throughout the day or read as a bolus after dinner.
• I can make up for days that I didn’t read the allotted number of pages – I want to get to 1,000 pages, and if this means making up for days that I missed, I will do that. However, the point of the challenge is to get into the habit of daily reading, so I am not allowing myself to “get ahead” by reading more than 34 pages during a day if I am already caught up.

I anticipate cultivating a spirit of mental and physical wholeness during this challenge.

Namaste.

I have not yet evaluated either of the last 2 monthly challenges I completed: constant smiling and projecting confidence in everything. This post will do just that by looking at 3 things for both challenges: what went well, what didn’t go well, and how I am going to incorporate what I learned into my life going forward. Let’s begin!

– – – – – Month of Constant Smiling – – – – –

What went well:

• Increased optimism – Although I didn’t directly experience an increase in joy or happiness, I definitely noticed an uptick in my optimism level. Sometimes this led indirectly to more happiness, but oftentimes it just gave me increased focus and perspective while navigating the various tasks I accomplished during the day.
• Increased friendliness – This one was palpable. Sometimes it was so much, I didn’t even like it. However, on the whole, I felt much more connected to the people around me.
• Increased alertness – This one was also influenced by the challenge addendum I added halfway through the month. Choosing to consciously engage with whomever I came in contact with, however brief, really put a spark into my step.
• Smiling began to feel more comfortable – It never felt natural, but it did start to feel more familiar, which I guess it would have to be. As it grew more familiar, I found I was also able to savor moments of peace I would otherwise have just blown by without thought.

What DIDN’T go well:

• Playing musical instruments – Smiling while playing the violin or while playing the piano just doesn’t work! However, to honor the challenge, I did so to the best of my ability. Not only did it just feel wrong, but it interrupted my ability to focus.
• Zoom calls – Connecting with people virtually always feels a bit weird to me, even though I do it quite frequently. You have to stare at the camera instead of people’s eyes to have good eye contact and it appears as if everyone is looking at you even when they aren’t. Adding constant smiling on top of these issues is just another complication.
• Discipline issues in class – I tend to be a little too serious when teaching (or at least I think so) and so constant smiling put a refreshing lightness into my lessons. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work so well when dressing someone down for bad behavior.
• Extra amount of mental effort required – This goes without saying. Most of the time it helped more than it hindered. However, when working on something that required every scrap of my attention, having to use a small part for this challenge wasn’t optimal.

What to incorporate going forward:

• Open-mouth smile whenever around others as a default – Generally when around others or in a social situation, I find myself feel more extraverted, confident, and cheery if I choose to consciously smile.
• Can rest with half-smile – If I need a break, switch to this instead of nothing. This preserves the same emotions but without the added muscle strain.
• Also, can make any other facial expression I want as long as it is intentional – Flow with my emotions and the situation. I can have an angry expression, a sad expression, a dreamy expression, or any other expression I want as long as I am aware of it and embrace it.

– – – – – Month of Projecting Confidence in Everything – – – – –

What went well:

• Increased resolution – Projecting confidence didn’t increase my sense of confidence, but it did affect my resolution. Whatever my feelings about a project or situation, I found myself much more willing to throw myself into it.
• Increased order – Constantly deferring to other people can be chaotic. Having simple rules like always walking on the right side of any hallway makes life more simple overall.
• Reduced pain/discomfort when by myself – Choosing to walk and comport myself with perfect posture in my daily routines definitely helped with my chronic pain, if only a little bit.
• Open body posture when sitting improves equanimity – I feel more alert, less prone to distraction, and more willing to leap up and get into action when adopting an open body posture. This is especially the case when sitting.

What DIDN’T go well:

• Increased pain/discomfort when around others – Although being more mindful of my posture was helpful when by myself, it was not the case when with other people. I found myself being more stiff and less able to fidget and flow which is the key to managing my chronic back pain.
• Nearly decked one of my nephews – I visited my sister and her family in Denver, CO during the month along with one of my brothers and his family. Upon throwing open the exterior house door, I narrowly avoided smashing one of my little friends.
• Eye contact did not become more comfortable – I have found initiating and maintaining eye contact to be difficult as far back as I can remember. Choosing to project confidence did not make it any less awkward. However, I soldiered through it somehow.
• Made me more self-conscious – Because it was acting in a manner to attract attention rather than divert it, I became more absorbed in exactly how I was doing everything. Not only was this a focus drain, but it also tended to feed back into more back pain.

What to incorporate going forward:

• Maintain semi-perfect posture when by myself – This mainly involves puffing my chest out slightly, pulling my shoulders back and down slightly, adopting an open body posture when sitting, and standing with feet touching. I am only going to think about this when by myself, however. When around others, I want to focus more on maintaining a flow with my body and movements.
• Walk on the right side, mostly – In hallways and corridors, I want to commit to the right side in all circumstances. However, when going around corners or in open environments, I will do whatever feels right while trying to maintain some semblance of order.
• Throw open doors as a default – Yes, yes, yes! I love the feeling of conquest I get when I do this. However, when there are small kids lurking around, maybe I will do so with a hint of caution.

Namaste.

I started the challenge this past Wednesday. This comes at the perfect time, since I have grown a bit lax with exercise lately. I am only a few days in and already I feel extremely energized by it.

Without further ado, I will move on to the details and specifications of the challenge. I purpose to complete 1,000 push-ups every day during this month. During the week, this is my plan:

• 100 First thing in morning – I plan on doing these immediately upon rising.
• 100 Before first period – I usually get to the school where I teach around 7:15AM and the initial first period bell rings at 7:45.
• 100 During “breakfast” – High school has breakfast from 8:35-8:50.
• 50 Between 2nd and 3rd periods – I have 3 minutes between each class period I teach.
• 50 Between 3rd and 4th periods – Ditto above.
• 50 Between 4th and 5th periods – Ditto above.
• 50 Between 5th period and tutorials – Ditto above.
• 50 Before lunch – I get 30 minutes for lunch after tutorials.
• 50 After lunch – Will do these before the initial bell for 6th period.
• 50 Between 6th and 7th periods – Ditto above.
• 50 After 7th period – 8th period is my conference period, which usually just involves grading and lesson prep.
• 50 Before leaving for the day – Alternatively, I can do 50 upon arriving home.
• 50 By 8pm – This is when I start my end-of-day free time; I will do another 50 before then.
• 200 During new day protocol – I do 10 minutes of intensive exercise as part of my new day protocol beginning at 8:30pm. I will continue doing the 200 push-ups during this time that I have been doing prior to the challenge.

TOTAL = 1,000 push-ups

On Saturday and Sunday, my plan is as follows:

• 100 First thing in morning – Same as during week.
• 100 before breakfast/brunch – I have my first meal later in the morning on the weekend.
• 60 at the start of every hour between 10:30 and 8:30 (x10) – Subtotaling 600.
• 200 during new day protocol in evening – As per above.

• 100 First thing in morning – Same as during week.
• 100 before breakfast/brunch – I have my first meal later in the morning on the weekend.
• 50 at the start of every hour between 8:30 and 8:30 (x12) – Subtotaling 600.
• 200 during new day protocol in evening – As per above.

As far as the type of push-up, I am not setting any particular requirements starting out. I may progressively require a certain percentage of nose-to-ground or chest-to-ground push-ups as the challenge continues.

Obviously, what I actually do on any given day could be different from the above, but this will be my initial plan. My next post on here will be a double evaluation of the last 2 monthly challenges: constant smiling and projecting confidence in everything.

Namaste.

The title of this post should actually be: 3 weeks of Projecting Confidence in Everything. This is due to the fact that I am starting the challenge almost a week into this month, which began on Monday. I had full intentions of writing and posting this last Sunday, but I slipped up in applying the harm reduction strategy for my addiction. More on that in next week’s post.

What this month will entail:

• Stand with shoulders back and chest puffed out. I feel like I am channeling serious Jordan Peterson vibes with this one, but screw it. Perfect posture, for me, can be extremely difficult. This is because standing up straight can sometimes exacerbate my chronic back pain. Often, I allow my back to roll into whatever position minimizes discomfort. The focus with this one is not holding some rigid posture, but to move into this frequently throughout the day. Also, if discomfort arises, default to physical conditioning instead of slouching.
• Default to smiling though don’t require it. I will do a formal evaluation of last month’s challenge later this month. However, one thing I noticed is that when I smiled, my confidence level generally increased, if only slightly. I am not on that challenge anymore, but want to mostly continue the intention of it.
• Never slink. I avoid conflict to a fault. This extends to a lot of social scenarios where instead of asking or telling someone to get me something or move out of the way, I take the path of least resistance and slink around them. No more!
• Walk purposefully on the right side of hallways. This comes from the army and is quite effective. Always choose to walk distinctly on the right side of any hallway and expect the same from everyone else (same as driving a car). In this case, I should always “play chicken” since I am on the right (literally!) and there exists no physical danger.
• Never be the first to break eye contact. Or at least not until I have held it for 5 seconds. As someone that has been socially awkward ever since I can remember, eye contact protocol has always felt like a foreign language to me. I manage it fairly effectively I think when giving public speeches, but am horrible at interpersonal interactions.
• When standing, have feet be touching or at least very close together. First off, this adds slightly to my height, which never hurts. Also, the closer together my feet are, the more my lower back feels engaged which helps with the achy pain I experience there. I don’t care much for maximum stability, as I don’t like to remain in one place for long anyway!
• When sitting, don’t cross legs. Or ankles for that matter. A big part of projecting confidence starts with an open body posture. This means never crossing arms or legs. I already have worked on maintaining a more open upper body.
• Throw open doors whenever possible. Obviously, discretion should be applied here. In any case, I want to exhibit more assertiveness any time I enter a room, door or no door. This helps set a confident tone for everything I do in that environment.

I did a related challenge to this one several years ago, involving intentional decisiveness. This month, I am focused more on the physical manifestations of confidence, and projecting strength even if I feel conflicted or unsure. Wish me luck!

Namaste.

This year, as everyone knows, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I have been solidly on the pro-choice side of the abortion debate since my early 20s, but it was never one of the most important issues for me. Partially, this was due to the fact that I was a man (thus not in need of reproductive rights) and partially this was due to all of my family being vehemently pro-life.

Also, when voting for most political offices, the candidates’ stance on abortion specifically seemed to me not particularly important. Whatever their animus with it might be, Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Obviously, this is different when it comes to electing the President with the power to appoint Supreme Court Justices. However, I was a bit jaded to this as well, because mainstream liberals would always trot it out to shame people into voting for a corrupt, corporate democratic candidate.

Since the reversal of Roe, I have thought a lot more about the issue. When something is the default position due to the current laws, whether I should or not, I feel less need to justify my support of the issue. However, that has changed now.

One of the biggest problems with the abortion “debate” is the terminology that is used. “Pro-life” implies that the other side is anti-life or pro-death. “Pro-choice” implies that the other side is anti-choice. Neither of these is true, though there are certainly people on each side who could be said to fit these descriptions. In saying this, I am not implying that being anti-life or anti-choice is bad. I simply mean that the labels that are commonly used don’t accurately frame the issue.

You can be pro-life and pro-choice, at least in the strict sense of the terms. This is how I viewed myself for several years in my early 20s. I believed generally that abortion was wrong, but I also had very intelligent friends that disagreed and I could understand their perspective. Therefore, it seemed best to leave this moral calculation up to each individual and their health providers.

This reminds me of a meme about the difference between liberals and conservatives. Basically, the meme says that when conservatives don’t like something, they don’t do it; but when liberals don’t like something, they ban it for everyone. Obviously, the meme is over-the-top and unnuanced. However, you could flip the script on this particular issue:

If a liberal doesn’t like abortions, they don’t get an abortion. If a conservative doesn’t like abortions, they force everyone not to get one!

To me the real question in this debate is not “when does life begin” or even “when does personhood begin,” but rather “what is the fundamental right?” This is where the majority of the time spent discussing this should be spent. Is the most basic right that citizens of a developed country have the “right to life” or the “right to bodily integrity”?

Answering this question doesn’t necessarily put you squarely on either side of the issue, but it does constrain the possible positions you can have. It also forces a person to adopt other positions if they want to remain consistent.

Right to Life – Many people argue that having a right to life is the bedrock value upon which society is built. What this translates into is “killing is bad and people that kill should be punished.” The obvious question, though, is who does this apply to:

• Every conscious entity = Mandatory veganism!
• Every human being = Get rid of death penalty, war, guns?
• Every “innocent” human being = Punish people who attempt suicide?

Now, I am not trying to demonize any of these positions; I simply want people to be intellectually honest and consistent with their conclusions. Also, if life is the thing we should fundamentally be preserving, this raises a lot of interesting ethical questions:

• Should people be forced to donate organs to save lives?
• Is it acceptable or even virtuous to violate one person’s “right to life” if it saves 10 other people?
• Should there be laws against “unhealthy” behavior that shortens people’s lives?
• Should every miscarriage be criminally investigated? (I find this hard to argue against if you are on the pro-life side, yet I don’t think I have ever heard anyone suggest doing this. Why not?)

Right to Bodily Integrity – As a social libertarian (not an economic one!), I consider bodily integrity to be the pivotal right the government should be protecting and respecting. The question though is, how far does this extend:

• To every conscious entity = Again, mandatory veganism!
• To every human being = Then this would apply to a fetus as well.
• To every “person” = Sure, but when does a human being “become” a person? Also, what about people in persistent vegetative states (PVS) that have NO cortical activity? Can they really be said to be a “person,” and if not should they be denied this right?

Again, I don’t say this to demonize any of these positions, but simply to point out the costs associated with holding them. Personally, I subscribe to the last position and define ‘personhood’ as having cortical function. I wouldn’t grant fetuses with no cortical activity any rights and nor would I do so with people in PVS. However, I still give tacit endorsement to violating the “personhood” of animals, at least to some degree, so there is still a lot for me to intellectually work out.

Without even really getting into the meat of the various arguments for or against reproductive rights, I feel anyone should be able to realize: THIS IS A VERY COMPLICATED ISSUE! And honestly, this realization, more so than anything else, is why I remain firmly on the pro-choice side. Even if I again get to the point where I view taking any innocent life as morally wrong (a position I do NOT currently hold), I will still remain pro-choice because I believe this will always be far from a black-and-white issue.

Anytime something is morally gray, my default is to leave it up to the individual to decide on the morality of it, not the government. I find this a very difficult position to argue against. Now maybe someone believes abortion is a black-and-white issue. My goal is to convince them otherwise, but not necessarily to change their personal moral view on the topic.

More thoughts on this topic would better be facilitated in a verbal setting. Perhaps I will upload a YouTube video on the topic (I’ve been meaning to revive my channel for a while).

Namaste.

I am about 2 weeks into my month of constant smiling. The Charlie and Ben podcast inspired me to add something to my current challenge. I don’t generally do this mid-challenge, but this particular suggestion just works so well with intentional smiling.

Basically, I am going to answer the question “How are you?” or “How’s it going?” with “Fantastic!” As an alternative, I can use a witty retort like:

• Hunting dragons, you?
• I can’t complain. it’s against the company policy!
• Vertical and breathing.
• My lawyer says I don’t have to answer that question.
• [Place 2 fingers over carotid artery on neck] … beat … I have a pulse, so I must be okay!

Continuing forward with the theme that it’s possible to jumpstart happy feelings by replicating the actions and expressions we normally exhibit when we feel this way, I think adding enthusiastic greetings will be a great addendum to my current challenge.

Earlier this year I gave a speech about the three types of people that answer the question, “How are you?” They are the masker, the overloader, and the zinger.

• The Masker – This is the person that just mumbles an inaunthentic answer such as “Great,” “Good,” “Fine,” “Okay,” or “Present.” All of us have probably done this thousands of times (I know I have).
• The Overloader – This person pours out their whole life story, and generally it isn’t an uplifting one. Even when it is positive, I usually didn’t intend to listen to you talk for 5-10 minutes as I passed you in the breakroom or hallway.
• The Zinger – This is the person that gives a simple response, but one that injects some exhilaration, levity, or curiosity into the brief interaction.

I want to intentionally be the zinger in all of my brief interactions for the rest of this month’s challenge. Also, I am going to choose to use the question,

What’s the vibe today?

instead of the traditional call-and-response questions. I feel that even when others aren’t prepared to give a more authentic answer than just “Fine” to the question of “How are you,” they might be able to be more creative with the above question. Since it is not asking about the person specifically, but just about the “vibe” it sometimes can promote more interesting responses (like “purple,” “curious,” or “boxy”).

One greeting I would love to use more around the right type of people is “Namaste.” However, the few times I have used this recently, I just got really confused looks. So for now, I’m content to just use it in concluding my blog posts.

Namaste.

Anyone that follows my blog realizes sooner or later that my monthly challenges don’t start the first day of a month and continue until the last day. This is true, but only if you are using the Gregorian calendar. In scheduling my challenges, I use a lunisolar calendar.

The popular Gregorian calendar is strictly a solar calendar. What this means is that it tracks the movement of the sun in its calculation of a year. However, it does not use the moon to determine the beginning of a month. It simply approximates month length and places 12 of them in a year. Since the moon revolves around the earth more than 12 times per year, the months don’t line up with moon phases.

A lunar month is approximately 29.5 days. Average months on the Gregorian calendar are 30.5 days. This means you will usually have one of the moon phases twice in the same month. We even have a term for this when it occurs with the full moon: a blue moon, as heard in the expression, “once in a blue moon!”

If you use the Gregorian calendar, anything involving the sun will stay the same year by year:

• Vernal equinox (start of spring) is always March 20
• Summer solstice (start of summer) is always June 20
• Autumnal equinox (start of fall) is always September 20
• Winter solstice (start of winter) is always December 20

Occasionally, these might vary by a day, since the Gregorian calendar is not actually the same length of time as it takes the earth to revolve around the sun. It is a bit shorter, which is why we need a leap year every four years. Actually, even this doesn’t quite sync the calendar and the earth’s yearly revolution, and so there are a few more corrections that are made.

According to the United States Naval Observatory,

Every year that is exactly divisible by four is a leap year, except for years that are exactly divisible by 100, but these centurial years are leap years if they are exactly divisible by 400. For example, the years 1700, 1800, and 1900 are not leap years, but the year 2000 is.

With those corrections in place, the Gregorian calendar charts the movement of the earth around the sun with precision and accuracy. This is extremely useful in establishing uniform dates across the globe. However, it downgrades months to just tick marks in a year, instead of them being grounded in their own astronomical movement.

This is what a lunisolar calendar tries to incorporate. The problem with a lunisolar calendar is that there aren’t the same amount of months in each year, which makes scheduling things more difficult (holidays for example). However, a lunisolar calendar makes months feel more significant since they are actually rooted in something real – namely, the phases of the moon.

It is for this reason that I use my own version of a lunisolar calendar when scheduling my monthly challenges, as well as for celebrating the new year. How does this calendar work? I am so glad you asked.

I follow a very basic rule in establishing the beginning of the year, the month, and the day: everything is birthed in darkness, reaches full luminosity half-way through, and ends in darkness. Here are the specifics:

• The beginning of the year – The year begins after the winter solstice, or the shortest day of the year (least amount of sunlight).
• The beginning of the month – The month begins after the astronomical new moon, or the moment of greatest darkness.
• The beginning of the day – The day begins at solar midnight, or the moment of time where my location on earth is exactly opposite -180 degrees away from – the sun.

That is basically it. The only slightly complicating factors are that the new year must start at the beginning of a month, and the beginning of each month must start at the beginning of a day. So, to figure out when New Years Day is (according to this calendar), here are the steps you take:

1. Look up when the Winter Solstice is. In 2022, it will occur on December 21st at 3:48 PM.
2. Determine the first new moon that falls after that time. This year, it will be December 23rd at 4:16 AM.
3. Find the next solar midnight after that time. In this case, it will be 12:20 AM on December 24th.

The other issue is the dateline, but I will leave a discussion of that for another time. I hope this clarifies some of my challenge scheduling and perhaps inspires you to better understand the way we mark times and seasons throughout the year.

Namaste.

Tomorrow is the first day of the 9th lunar month this year, and thus a great opportunity to reignite my blogging. My last post on this blog was back in March of this year I believe. I fell off the wagon in regards to my TV/movie abstinence a week or two after that blog post. This past month I have been weaning myself off again and plan on restarting abstinence in this area before the next new moon.

This month, I am revisiting a challenge I conducted several years ago. It will have the same focus as the one I did then, but different specifications. Ever since I left med school a couple years ago, my mood has been more depressed on average, and the traumatic bike accident I had last August certainly didn’t help with that. Intuitively, most of us agree that happiness produces smiling. However, I think the reverse is quite often true as well: smiling results in happiness.

Here are the details of this month’s challenge:

• When around others: Open smile

1. The goal is to show teeth. The size of the smile is irrelevant, and to not wear out my smile muscles, smaller is generally preferable.
2. If the above becomes untenable in some situations, then I can switch to a closed smile for a period of time.
3. When talking, I don’t need to think about this. However, during pauses or breaks in speaking, I should revert to some type of smile.

• When by myself: Half smile

1. In DBT, one of the skills taught is the half smile. What this means is that you just think about smiling and let the corners of your lips move a millimeter or two without going into a full-blown grin.
2. Although the above is what the default will be, I still want to throw in a joyous look every so often.
3. Before retiring for the day, I will do a very short meditation practice that I dedicate towards peaceful sleep and uplifting dreams.

One of the comments I get somewhat regularly after giving a speech or presentation is that my facial expression is a bit too serious. Maybe this challenge will help lighten that up as a bonus.

Namaste.

Tomorrow, I am starting a new challenge. This one will be focusing on creating a sacred environment surrounding my sleep time. I plan on doing this by having a few simple and easy rituals that I commit to follow religiously, both immediately prior to retiring for the day and immediately upon waking.

Without further ado, here are the steps I will follow.
Before Bed (start between 9:45 and 10pm):

1. Call on Yahuwah – Even though I don’t subscribe to Christianity or Hebrew Roots anymore, I still use the name I learned to associate with the divine: Yahuwah. Relationship spirituality is something I value. I want connecting with the Source to begin my nighttime ritual.
2. Light 2 candles – There is something magical about fire. For me, candles symbolize compassionate presence, which is exactly the mood I want to cultivate as I get into bed. I would like to have one on each side of the bed to surround myself with this atmosphere.
3. Dedicate my sleep – When I meditate each day, I like to dedicate my practice to a person, entity, or cause. I am going to do the same thing for my sleep: view it as a practice and dedicate it to something. I could also choose a concept: like peace, love, or joy.

Upon waking (do at first alarm even if not rising at that time):

1. Turn on meditative music – I don’t want a formal guided meditation but just some atmospheric music. Allow myself to enter the new day with compassion and non-judgment. Take a moment to breathe.
2. Light 2 candles – Same routine as before. I want to pull that same energy I cultivated when going to sleep into the new day. I don’t need to get up yet; I want to give myself a few minutes to welcome my mind into a wholesome place so I can start the day with grace.
3. Set an intention for the day – This can be anything, but doing this creates focus. It is not just another day. By setting a unique intention each day I can foster a little novelty and creativity that can encourage me to stay mindful despite any frustrations.

I have been dealing with more depression the last couple weeks. Some of this I think is related to some poorer sleep habits from the past reemerging. I am hopeful this challenge will foster an ongoing wholesomeness into this part of my life.

Namaste.