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It’s my birthday month! #Ayyy! #TurnUpTurnUp!
You know what that means Queens! With a new month comes a new #BestYouChallenge. This year, my birthday is extra special as I will be turning 26 on the 26th. It’s my golden year. With my birthday approaching and me still deep in the middle of my stay-cation, I’ve been in a reflecting mood. Thus, this month’s challenge is a Journaling challenge.
But first, before we get into September’s challenge, let’s wrap-up our August’s Meditating challenge.
Wrapping Up August’s Challenge
Last month we meditated on gratitude for 10 minutes every day. We set the timers on our clock apps for 10 minutes and set in a quiet place thinking and thanking God for all that we have. This challenge started off pretty easy for me and then got harder and harder to keep as the month went on.
When the challenge first started on the 11th of the month, I was had just started my staycation. For the first week I just laid around catching up on sleep and watching my favorite shows. During this time, it was much easier for me to keep up with the challenge.
However, starting the second week of my staycation I started heavily meditating every morning, journaling, and praying. I downloaded a few guided meditations from YouTube and first thing in the morning the first thing I would do is meditate. Before I go to bed every night, I would journal about my day and pray. In my journal I have written down the three things that I am grateful for every day, but that has been the extent of the challenge for me. I did the challenge but in two separate sittings every day.
On Meditating
Meditating on a consistent basis everyday has been very therapeutic for me. I’ll get into more of the specifics of this later this week in Wednesday’s blog post. But meditating every day has led me to some major epiphany’s on my life and has also allowed me the chance to get to know myself on a deeper and more profound level.
Not only that, but my meditation sessions usually go for 20-40 minutes a day now. I realized as I started doing this consistently, I’ve been able to slip into that meditative state a lot easier and stay there. Some tips that have helped me get to my meditative state quicker are: 1. Laying down on my back to meditate
2. Breathing in through your nose and breathing out through your mouth one count longer. This ultimately helps to slow your breath.
3. Thinking “Relax”
4. Relaxing my jaw and eye muscles. When we meditate, we get so into breathing that we end up doing way too much for too long. Try taking no more than 8-10 deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. After that, let your breathing return to normal, completely relax your bottom jaw and eye muscles with your chin down.
On Practicing Gratitude
Practicing Gratitiude has helped me keep a grounded head during this stay-cation. I have yet to cash my settlement check and I haven’t been driving. So, I’ve been home most days cleaning, writing, working on upcoming Phorbe projects.
One of my problems before my staycation is that I always felt like I needed more. So, I would drive and drive to make more and more so that I can get more. But now that I’ve stopped driving, literally gave my rental up, I have been forced to accept what I have and live with that. Other than trips to the grocery store, walks to the park, and walks around my neighborhood, I have not left my apartment complex. I spend half of my day inside and the other half outside by the pool.
At times, I’ve been extremely bored yes. But, at the same time, giving up my rental has allowed me the opportunity to breathe and take a break from the hustle and bustle of life. In this pause, every day I have found something new about my home, about myself, that I have that I am truly grateful for.
Writing those things down and then praying to god about them afterwards I believe, has strengthened my connection with God. Our relationship is no longer one-sided aka me asking for something. Now, I do full prayers just taking a moment to thank him for his blessings.
Conclusion
So, although I did not do the challenge as I had originally planned, I did meditate, and I did practice gratitude. They both had such a positive impact on my life that I will continue practicing both every morning.
September’s Best You Challenge
For this month’s challenge I want to share another consistent practice, I have picked up during my stay-cation, with the Phorbe Queendom. Journaling!
At first, I began journaling at night just to work through what I had done that day. Then, I recently restarted The Artist’s Way which requires three pages of journaling every morning. During the first month of my stay-cation, I have found journaling consistently every day to have three benefits:
1. It helps me clear my head
I’m able to wake up and just throw all of my thoughts on the page, which gives me room to think about more creative and pressing issues with Phorbe and the Queen Maree brand.
2. It’s therapeutic
I have been able to work through many of the epihany’s I’ve had while meditating in my journal that night. It’s helped bring me further clarity.
3. It’s, in a way, another form of meditating
When I journal, I don’t think about spelling, punctuation, or grammar much. Really, I don’t think. I just pour my heart onto the page and in the process of doing this I find myself in a state of calm and relaxation no matter what subject I’m writing about.
I would like to share these benefits with all of you Queens. So, this month I challenge you to journal every day, right when you wake up and right before you go to bed.
How it Works
For this challenge, I encourage you to take yourself out on an afternoon shopping date to purchase a new notebook. Get something that’s durable, long lasting, and cute. Durable because you’re going to be opening and closing this book at least twice every day. Long lasting because once you finish a notebook, you want to keep it to read years later. Finally, you’re going to be looking at this book a lot. It might as well be something that appeals to your eye.
All you have to do is journal one page every morning when you wake up and every evening before you go to bed. That’s it. Just two pages a day.
Like me, I ask that you don’t over think what you’re writing. If you make a mistake just keep going. You don’t have to write complete sentences or worry about grammar. This is for you and you only. Just write down the first thing that comes to your head, whatever it is. There’s no wrong answer here.
Sometimes I wake up and have a rush of emotions I need to get on the page, sometimes I just have a list of things I want to do that day, or maybe I just want to continue working through what I meditated on yesterday. Whatever comes to mind, jot it down. One page in the morning, one page in the evening.
Sound easy enough?
How to Join the Challenge
The challenge begins on September 10th!
As always, I’ll post the graphic for this month’s challenge on Instagram on September 10th. To join the challenge, comment “I’m in” on that post and then check in weekly for accountability and the chance to win free giveaways!
What do you think Queens? So far, I’m 5-0 for maintaining all of the challenges after the month ends. This is the first challenge where I’m already 30 days in. However, I’ll still be with you in spirit, writing my morning pages in the morning and journaling my day at night.
Are you in? Let me know in the comment section below if you’re interested!
It’s a beautiful day to conquer the world Queens! So go forth and slay!!!
-Queen Maree
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON SEPTEMBER 4, 2018