30 Days of Reflection Challenge
Highlights from our community
Day 1: What is your Perfect Day?
Peace, Rest, and Happiness
Entry by: Shana WG.
Growing up, I often listened to Body and Soul by Anita Baker. This song is about a woman who felt abandoned by her lover and is pleading to be loved body and soul. I loved this song because, in the past, I always yearned to be loved for who I was inside and out. I was very much stuck in this phase of my life for over 20 years.
I stumbled across a 30 Days of Reflection Challenge, and as I began to write in my notebook, the recurring theme of my words led me to understand that peace within my mind, rest for my body and happiness for my soul is what makes the perfect day. The Anita Baker song instantly played in my head, but this time for a different reason. I am no longer looking for someone to love me body and soul. I am instead pursuing self-love.
Peace
My mind constantly works. Daily, I am focused on my family, my household, work and the tasks of life. In the rare instances where I lay uninterrupted, my mind continues to create a to do list for the next free moment. It has gotten so intense that lately I’ve noticed I stumble over my words, I struggle to gather my thoughts, and my communication is altered. When I do remember to take a deep breath, everything flows as it should. My mind is weary, and it needs peace.
Rest
For the most part, I get the ample amount of sleep which is approximately seven hours per night. Rest, however, is something that I do not get in plentiful amounts. I am referring to quiet moments, unplugged from everything in an atmosphere that provides serenity and tranquility. Because rest is so elusive in my life, it is a precious gem. True rest serves as the hard-reset button for my life.
Happiness
“What you are seeking is seeking you”. When my soul is happy, it vibrates positive energy. I believe that a happy soul allows me to be who I truly am and I am able to make others happy by adding joy and love to their lives. When my soul is happy, it seeks to make others happy. I believe that one of our purposes on this great earth is to help one another. I want to be the best help that I can be by ensuring that I have happiness within me that I can share with the world.
What will I do to create the perfect day for myself? This journal entry has allowed me to explore what this statement means to me. It’s so ironic; I actually started this journey as a result of prodding from a good friend. We had a meaningful conversation which moved me to purchase a Discover bracelet. As I look down on my wrist and then back to the words on this page, I know that I am just beginning. I also know that this journey will never end. Whatever it takes, I will work to create many perfect days in my life moving forward. This challenge has brought me happiness.
Wanderlust
Entry by: Anonymous
Day 2: Draw 3 things you are GRATEFUL for
Entry by: Annie A.
The Sun always puts me in a great mood. I am grateful for my husband as my partner and my best friend. He always takes care of his family. And my family always gives me the strongest support and love, even when we live so far away from each other!
Day 3: List 5 of your favorite things!
1 Favorite thing
Entry by: Laura B.
My Sunday morning ritual is one of my favorite things, especially about living in Seattle so close to the water. I wake up - not too early! - and walk my pup Ruby down to the local coffee shop, ETG. I get some coffee, and probably a delicious scone, and we walk down along the water. In the winter, we enjoy a brisk walk. The spring: the first rays of warm sunshine. In summer, Ruby plays in the canal and I pick blueberries. Fall brings the bright gold of the birch trees’ changing leaves.
Day 4: My favorite holiday tradition is...
Entry by: Marie C.
Carving pumpkins at Halloween! It doesn’t matter if it’s real pumpkins or the foam ones from the craft stores, I find carving them to be meditative. The more complicated the design the more relaxed I feel as I work on it...I’ll often lose track of time working on them. I love making them because they make people so happy when they see them. I love to carve them for my nephews! Nothing makes me happier than to make them smile. Last year, I donated a lot of pumpkins to a local children’s hospital to help the kids celebrate Halloween because I wanted to help make sure they’d enjoy Halloween as much as I do. I can’t wait to get started on new pumpkins this year!
Day 12: If you could have dinner with anyone, who would it be? This can be a fictional character or someone real.
Entry by: Sarah GD.
As a little girl my favorite day of the week was Wednesday. When school and gymnastics practice were over, it was time for dinner, and dinnertime meant Grandma time. Every Wednesday night my maternal grandmother came over, ate dinner, and just spent time with us. Grandma Bette only lived five minutes away so we saw her all the time, but there was something different about Wednesday nights. It wasn’t the entire family crammed into a huge booth at our favorite pizza place. It was just the five of us: me, Mom, Dad, Sister and Grandma all sitting around the kitchen table. She would ask my sister and me about school or practice, she would tell us stories about her life or talk about an upcoming trip she had planned. My favorite stories were the ones she told about Paris, a place she visited often and had a special relationship with.
When I was twenty-four Grandma Bette passed away. She had been sick for a while and those Wednesday night dinners had stopped years before. Of course, I have tons of memories that some people could say far surpass eating pasta in my parents' kitchen, but it was the opportunities to laugh with, share with, learn about and spend time with my grandmother that I value the most.
At thirty-five years old I am obviously a much different person than I was at nine-years-old, eighteen-years-old or even twenty-four-years-old. Now almost eleven years after Grandma Bette passed away I wonder what it would be like to sit down to dinner on a Wednesday night, like tonight and eat dinner with her. The topics of these conversations might be different, some carefree and others maybe a little more serious, talking with her would still be easy and comfortable. Even though she was always supportive, what would she say about the choices I have made? What advice would she give me? What stories and experiences would she share with me now that I am older? What questions would she ask me? If I could have one more Wednesday night dinner with my grandmother I would show her the person I have become. A person that she helped shape and inspire as well as a person who thrived on her support and her love. And above everything a person who watched her grandmother be a strong, independent woman and learned from her example. #stronggirl
Around three years ago, a quote caught my attention:
“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” – Anais Nin
As a 27-year-old woman still living at home with no college education, no career, no boyfriend, no friends, no prospects, debilitating mental illness, and limiting physical illness, I was at rock bottom.
I grew up in evangelical extremism with an emotionally incestuous mother. Control and compliance dominated my sheltered life as self-expression, sexuality, independence, self-assurance, and questioning were not only suppressed, but demonized.
I had often likened myself to a plant that had outgrown its little pot and needed planting in the ground. Plants either break through their disproportionate environments or they die. Trapped in my small life in my small world of anxiety and fear, I was dying.
This quote by Anais Nin was the tipping point, It lingered in the back of my mind as I waded through the immense anxiety to began the task of unfolding. I’ve soul searched and blossomed with the help of therapy, medication, and a lot of spiritual exploration.
Now I am 30 and own my own business. I know the confidence of making important decisions on my own. I know the pride in putting my work out in the world. I know the trust of a community of like-minded people. I know the love of a good man. I know the invaluable education of life experiences.
Let my story encourage you that wherever you are in life, it’s always worth the risk to blossom.
Entry By: Shae C.
Dear broken hearted,
It may have taken you ten years to realize you weren’t with your true soulmate but you have a lifetime still of making memories with the one you’re meant to be with. You deserve nothing but happiness and passion. You deserve to be loved hard. You’ll get those little notes you always wanted. You’ll get that man who you find in an unexpected place at an unexpected time. You’ll find the one who understands your mood swings and brings you chocolate or makes you dinner. You’ll find someone who joins in when you sing loudly in the car. You’ll find the one who surprises you with those road trips you’ve been begging for. You’ll find the one who wants nothing but to lay under the stars with you. You are nothing short of an amazing beautiful woman. You are strong, independent, funny, passionate, driven. You deserve the best from a man not a half hearted hug. You are you. You are beautiful. You are the storm. Keep your head up and don’t ever look back.
Forever yours.
Day 22: How would you like to be remembered?
Entry By: Taylor B.
Through my life I have experienced numerous tragedies and heartbreaks. Each one has stripped me of my previous version of myself, and forced me to turn inward to find the strength within to overcome adversity and grow. With each season that has passed in my life, I have dedicated myself to consistently bettering myself to become the best version of myself.
Ever since I was a young girl, my mother and grandmother always told me that I was created for a special purpose. With this foundational belief, I made it my passion to be more and do more in my life.
It wasn't until I became sick and fighting for my life in 2012, that I realized God had spared my life and revealed a new direction for my future.
With being diagnosed with multiple diseases at once, I learned how to become my own health advocate. I researched everything, taught myself how to read my labs and what I needed to do to heal myself. It was in my desire to heal my diseases, that sparked my passion to want to heal others. So, I created a platform on Instagram to help others going through illness, find the strength to know they are not alone and there is hope to healing.
When I went into remission from Lyme Disease in 2017, I enrolled in Medical Assisting school and graduated with a new job in the medical field, working for a doctor. I am currently still finishing my degree, but these are just achievements to get me to where I want to be. Medical School, learning to become the best doctor/healer that I can be.
What I want to be known for in my life is the way I loved others. The way I brought healing to their lives with the grace, hope, faith, kindness, empathy, compassion, and love that would shine through my actions and words.
I want to be known as someone who no matter what was handed to her, was courageous and strong.
That her life was her message of love.
My WORD is HEALER so whenever I am going through a darker season in life, I can look down at the bracelet, and remember why I am here on this earth: that no matter what life brings me, I am here, making a difference in this world. My destiny and calling is more powerful than any obstacle or adversity.
I am meant to be here.
My existence makes life a little bit better.
Being a healer is more than a passion and purpose, it's who I am.
And this is how I want to be remembered.
