I was going to wait until after August, but I’m not trying to write a novel here. So, let’s get to it.

May

May’s 30-day challenge was to sit outside for at least 30 minutes every day. Didn’t matter when, didn’t have to be all at once, I just had to get outside each day. It would figure that this challenge would begin, and I would be immediately met with snow (hello, where were you all winter?!) and daily rain. Perfect. Even with all of that, it was exactly what I needed. As many days as I could, I would take those 30 minutes in the morning as the sun was coming up. I can’t describe the way it makes me feel to sit and watch and hear the world wake up in the morning. I wish I could do it every day, but my schedule just doesn’t allow for it, so I really appreciate the days that I can, and now it’s something I still do as often as possible. I try to prioritize getting outside each day, more than I ever did before. I can see the way it impacts my mood for the better, and I’ll take all the help I can get with that. I’ve found that since I’ve started working with the neuromuscular therapist, I’m not as heat sensitive as I used to be, and that has made a huge difference in this experience. As the days heat up, I’m still able to be out there and reap the benefits of the fresh air and sunlight on my face. When I don’t get outside regularly for a long period of time, I tend to forget how much I need it, but as soon as I am intentional about it, the effect is instantaneous.  It is nice to not have to go outside if I really don’t want to lol, so when the challenge ended, I was a little relieved. Take what serves and leave the rest, right? Outside of the small revelations, there isn’t a lot to talk about with it. I highly advise it for everyone, and I will continue to keep it in my days as much as possible.

On to the next!

June, June, June. Did June feel long to anyone else? My goodness.

I’m going to call June’s 30-day challenge “The Great Purge.” I originally just set out to get rid of one item every day because well, I have too much crap. As much as I downsize every time I move, how on earth I still have so much stuff is beyond me, but it really became apparent at the beginning of January when I was looking around my home feeling like so much of what I saw didn’t resonate with me anymore. I’d been moving stuff around for years without really paying attention to what it all was or how it made me feel. I quickly changed the parameters of the challenge from getting rid of one thing to going through a section of my stuff every day and getting rid of at least one thing. So, I’d go through my living room decorations, then each part of my room (dressers, closet, jewelry box), move on to the hall/linen closet, the bathroom, my spare room, coats, books, kitchen, and so on. It was part Marie Kondo “does this bring me joy?”, part Swedish Death Cleaning “would anyone be happy that I kept onto this when they have to sift through all my crap?,” and part “am I ever going to look at this again?” or “prior to this, did I even remember this existed?” I had a lot of questions to consider.

To be honest, I got rid of over 30 things in the first few days. I took giant bags of stuff to Goodwill with more bags already started. I didn’t make it through all of the sections on my list before the month ended, so the purge continues. I won’t stop until I’ve gone through everything, and then to tell you the truth, I may start again from the top and see what else can go.

It has felt so good getting rid of things. It’s amazing the things I’ve held onto all these years. Things I’ve moved from home to home over 30 times in some cases without even realizing it. Never asking myself if it’s even something I really want in my life anymore. I’m not the same person I used to be. Things that felt right at one point don’t now, and that’s ok, but then I need to let them go. Allowing things to take up space because they once held a good memory isn’t doing me any favors. Instead, I take pictures of those items and release them. Maybe they’ll create good memories for someone else now too. It’s a new type of freedom for me- freedom from things. I’ve always considered myself pretty minimalistic, but this has brought new meaning to that for me, and I want to do better.

This challenge felt so big for me because I was letting go of so many pieces of my life and history, but there wasn’t a ton to say about it on a bigger scale. It’s a huge process, but it’s so worth it. It’s been therapeutic at times and painful too, as I’ve happened onto a lot of memories stored in places I’d forgotten. I still have a long way to go, but I’m looking forward to it.

July

Now July’s 30-day challenge caught me off-guard. Obviously not in what it was since I made the list, but rather in how truly challenging it turned out to be. The challenge for July was to turn off all screens half an hour before bed. In my head, I actually felt silly making that one of my challenges because I was thinking “that will be so easy.” HA! That’ll teach me for thinking. I clearly had built some really bad nightly habits. Up until the time of the challenge, it was a regular occurrence for me to get into bed, do one more check through my calendar, to-dos for the next day, etc., then do a crossword on my crossword app (don’t judge me) right before turning off the lights and going to bed. I made this one of my challenges not because I really believed any of that was impacting my sleep, but I did feel like it could only help me to spend that time in quiet and fully wind down.

It honestly made me sad to see how hard this was initially. Surprisingly, the hardest part was after I’d turned off the light and then realize I’d forgotten something and want to put a reminder in my phone for the next day and couldn’t. By the end of the first week, I started keeping a notebook and pen on my nightstand for those things since it happens so much more than I care to admit, and if I couldn’t write it down in some way, I’d stress that I’d forget which is not conducive to a good night’s sleep. Turning off the screens became progressively easier, and I would spend that time reading, journaling, or just in peace.

It helped, too, once I remembered that turning off the screens didn’t mean I had to go to bed. I know that sounds weird, but the way my habit stack had been built, once I turned off all the screens, I went on autopilot and would start heading to bed. I had to give myself permission to stay up, and even one step further, I had to tell myself that I HAD to stay up because a half hour needed to pass between turning off the screens and going to bed. It was a really weird situation that I wasn’t expecting to deal with. Not gonna lie either though, this also made it easy to kind of cheat the system. What I really should have done is set a bedtime. Oddly enough, before this challenge, my bedtime was pretty consistent, so it didn’t occur to me that I would need to do that. But there were nights when I turned my screens off a little later than I had planned, so I made myself stay up later even when I wanted to go to bed. Can’t say I’m a fan of that. I needed to do better. This highlighted for me though exactly why I do these challenges in the first place. It’s so easy to get into a routine (which can then easily become a rut) and stop paying any real attention to our lives and how we pass the time. We stop being intentional with our attention. Then the next thing we know, another week, another month, another year has gone by, and we’re asking ourselves where the time went, and what did I do with the time that was given me? I’m just trying to have something to show for it. I’m still really happy this one is over lol.

So I’m officially more than half way through the year. I’m looking forward to the other challenges I have planned. We’ll see how they all go!