Why 30 Days? Why Now?
Changing your life is simple and easy. Not changing your life is simple and easy. Both involve making small choices everyday. In the first case you decide to make a positive change, like exercise for 15 minutes every day. You will not see the results right away. In fact, you might not see them for weeks. But you persevere because you know that you are making a positive healthy change that will compound itself. Overtime, you will notice that you feel better, have more stamina and you may even notice that you clothes fit better.
In the second case, you make a decision not to exercise. The decision is not made out of ignorance, or even laziness. For whatever reason, you simply do not want to exercise. Perhaps you decide that it is best to start new projects on Monday and you want to rest on Saturday. But, after two days of not exercising, Monday rolls around and you are too tired, or have too much to do. You decide to start next week. By the time next week rolls around, will you even remember that you wanted to start exercising? Most likely not. Weeks of not exercising turn into months and into years. You feel tired a lot, your clothes are tight, you have gained weight, you are stressed at work, etc. Not exercising in your 20’s may not have a huge effect, but 40, 50, years of not exercising leads to heart disease, osteoporosis, and weight gain, etc.
It is all about making a positive decision and starting small. The benefits of meditation are well documented, but how many of you would/could carve out the time to sit for 30 minutes every day? That may seem astronomical. The body fidgets, the mind wanders and after a couple of days of trying, you give up, or allow something to distract you. In this program we start with 5 – 10 minutes for a reason. 5 minutes is simple and easy. If you do not have 5 minutes to give to yourself each day, you may want to rethink your schedule. By the time you get really distracted in your meditation, 5 minutes has passed and it is time to sop. Each week, we will add a little more time. At the end of a month you may be sitting for 20 – 30 minutes with ease. By the end of this program, you will be sleeping better and sleeping for less time. You will be more focused. Your energy will be more even during the course of the day. This is the power of making a small positive choice and sticking with it.
During this program we will be making the same small decisions with diet, exercise and yoga. A little bit each day. You will be making the commitment that works for you. For each area of diet, exercise and yoga there will be a menu of practices from which to choose. For example: the suggested exercise is taking a daily walk. If you have a pool, you might swim. If you like bike riding, then go for a ride. It is not about conforming to one way; it is about working some form of exercise that you enjoy into your day. You may even decide to meet with a friend to catch up. What if you went for a walk and a smoothie or salad, instead of eating a fatty meal at a restaurant? It is a simple and small decision. The fatty meal sounds appealing and delicious – as humans, we are hard-wired to enjoy the taste of fat, sugar and salt. Will that meal kill you? Of course not. Will thousands of meals like that kill you? Check with your arteries and the answer just might be yes.
Will the walk and smoothie make you happy, healthy and change your life immediately? If it does, send me that recipe now! Thousands of walk and smoothies over time will make you happier and healthier. You do not have to believe me now, but you will at the end of 30 days. Think of 30 days as reaching a critical mass. After one day of positive choices, it is easy to not do the next day. After 21 days of making positive choices, you will find yourself inspired to make the same positive decision every day. You may even find that you make that choice without being aware of it. Those choices will become habits in your life.
Give yourself 30 days – you can do 30 days, I promise. This is why we do a program like this. There is support in numbers and someone guiding you and sending you inspiration every day. Think of it as a lifeline. When you feel the urge to not make a positive decision, there is someone you can turn to. You might even have a buddy that supports you along the way.
Remember, you are the one in control. You have the power to make the decisions. Not every suggestion in this program is going to meet you where you are. The suggestion is to simply try something on. If after a few says you can’t stand it, try the next one down the line.
I speak from personal experience when I tell you that it has not always been easy to do the “right” thing. There are plenty of times where I fell off the mat. There are plenty of times where I let my to-dos get in the way of doing what my body needed. In fact, I can tell you that there will be more times where I make the decision to work on the computer until 11:30 at night or eat chocolate after 6pm and I will sleep terribly. When I wake up miserable in the morning I will ask myself, “why on earth did you do that? You know what it does to you.” Rather than let it get me down, I give myself a couple of experience points. When you fall off the program for a moment, remember, it is okay. You just got a lot of information about yourself.