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Reflect: A Month of Gratitude!
Originally, my plan for December was to be of service, whether that be volunteering, helping a friend, or even just an act of kindness toward a stranger. However, life had other plans and I wasn’t able to fully commit to what I had in mind. As I sat down to write this post, I reflected on what I was going to say about this month. December is a month filled with appreciation and gratitude, so I found myself drifting off thinking about all the things in my life that I am grateful for. Gratitude is something that is so easily forgotten, yet time and time again it is shown to…
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Writing: A Month of Imagination!
50,000 words in a month. 1650 words a day. How hard can that be? Short answer – very hard! But, this month wasn’t about achieving this specific goal, it was about putting pen to paper and letting my imagination come out and play. You’ve got to start somewhere! Over the month of November, I decided to join the NaNoWriMo challenge. This stands for National Novel Writing Month. There are thousands of people that take on this challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in November. Leading up to this month, I was so excited to take an idea in my head and bring it to life. It started off great!…
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Stop Apologizing: A Month of Awareness!
I’m sorry. According to a survey from Express.co.uk, Brits say this phrase more than 2,900 per year. I suspect that American’s would be a close 2nd. I’m sorry. That means you say this around 261,000 times in an average lifetime. I’m sorry. So for the exponential amount you are saying this phrase, is it worth it? 43% of people apologize for when someone else bumps them 30% of the time people use it as an alternative for excuse me 39% use it in fear of causing offence The phrase has lost it’s true meaning and value behind it. Bryan Dik, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at Colorado State University, explains…
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Dancing: A Month of Letting Go!
Picture this… You’re on your 2nd dance lesson. You’ve learned a few moves and you start thinking to yourself “I’ve totally got this down! I know the man is supposed to lead, but I’ve got this!” so you start anticipating the moves…. that makes you a good dancer right? In order to be perfect, you should just take the lead and do the next step! Brilliant idea! Go! Wham… you knee your instructor in the crotch… Just kidding, it wasn’t in the crotch, but our knees did collide and holy shit did it hurt! I’m pretty sure we both had bruises for a solid week. At this point, my instructor…
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Surfing: A Month of Reconnecting!
“We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch – we are going back from whence we came.” – John F. Kennedy I absolutely love this quote because it expresses exactly how I felt at the end of August. When I started this months adventure, I originally planned to go camping every weekend. As the month kept creeping closer, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. After meditating on this a bit, I realized that the intent of this passion project isn’t to stress myself out, but to elicit excitement and joy. For this reason, I changed the topic…
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Say Yes: A Month of No Expectations
I know I know… this post is much later than anticipated! I have just been a busy bee. I’ve been travelling all over. I just got back from a trip where I visited London, Greece, and Belgium. I’ve finally settled back into my normal routine at home and took the time to reflect on my month of YES! The concept of forcing yourself to say yes more is not a revolutionary thing. Multiple people have already tried this personal challenge. One of the people who has shared their journey is Shonda Rhimes. She decided to say yes for a year to things she normally would have turned down. I highly…
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Art: A Month Of Creativity!
Ceramics, quilting, painting…. oh my! For this past month, I chose to take on my creative side, participating in different artsy activities. I’ll be honest, art has never been my strong suit. Well….I should clarify. If you told me to finger paint some stuff, color in a coloring book, or spray paint some random stencils, I’m 100% down with that. If you told me to spend 6 months perfecting how to draw a human, not so much. It’s not that I don’t appreciate art, I have a lot of artsy friends and I’m always blown away by what they create. Mostly, I think it just comes down to my patience…
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Religion: A Month Of Learning!
Religion. Faith. God. If you are anything like me, you might have some history, judgement, or fear surrounding these words. For the most part, I consider myself spiritual, open minded, and accepting of all faiths. However, I’ve never actively tried to find out more information on organized religions. I’ll also have to admit that with some religions, I still have judgments based on what I’ve heard about them. So for this month, I chose to go to different religious services. My intention was not to gain a faith, but to experience them first hand and explore the judgments that came up for me. Boy is it hard to fit all of them…
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Improv: A Month Of Laughter!
Wow did April go by quick! I’m so glad that for the first month in my “Year of Adventures”, I chose improv. I must admit, improv isn’t completely new to me, I took a theater class in high school and really enjoyed it. I decided to re-open this door in my life because I remembered the rush of emotions I got when I participated in the games and the childlike giddiness that I left each class with. I was curious if it would still elicit these same responses as an adult and ya know what? IT DID! Plus a handful of extra fears… I started this month by finding a…
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Welcome to my Journey
If you are tuning in to read this, thank you! I’m excited to have you on this journey with me. Starting a blog is an extremely new concept for me and, as I’m sure it is for many folks, it’s quite scary as well. The fear of having someone’s attention solely on what you are saying and the fear of judgement around that. This is the exact type of fear that I have decided I want to face front on. I believe that walking through fear is the ultimate path to growth. So, here we go! What is “A Year of Adventures” and why did I decide to do this?…
