Overwhelmed.
Yep, that is what I’m feeling. For me it’s been about a ¼ cup life pressure, but more the increasingly negative and polarized information I’m seeing on my social media.
And as easy as it is to say just turn it off – I like social media. It makes me smile, makes me think, and when someone shares a meme that makes me laugh out loud, it’s everything. So I decided to research what I could do about it instead and created a 30 day minimalism challenge.
You Can’t Be a Fence Sitter
I’ll admit it. I’ve been fence sitting. I’ve gone through some massive life adjustments and have kept a low emotional attachment to these extremely important and divisive current affairs.
But after starting my vision coaching practice guiding myself and others to understand our individual values and create a true vision around them, I am feeling my mission, feeling more in tune, more alive.
My 1 value is Growth in order to continually learn to be a better friend, family member and member of society.
Growth takes connection, it takes contribution, it takes vulnerability, courage and a whole lotta love.
What brings me happiness, and what makes me feel free and light, is being true to myself and my values.
To be rooted in my values, I can’t be a fence sitter.
A Spin on Minimalism
Let’s dig into Minimalism and what I wanted to accomplish with this challenge.
Minimalism defined is taking a look at what you already have and finding meaning to it. Simple examples would be the couch you sit on, or the clothes in your closet. If we have too much of something, it can end up causing us more anxiety instead of what we thought it would do, which is make us more *happy*.
Besides just our stuff, what are other things that crowd our sense of joy / peace / calm / well-being?
What are the actions or habits that take our attention away from what is important to us?
I don’t believe that we should live our lives without social media. But how can I more responsibly engage?
Ideally, social media should be educational, entertaining and encouraging in some way. My own platform should share a bit of who I am, what my values are, but should also be used to identify and help fight when there are inequalities in my community.
Abundance is a beautiful thing, and we might have it a bit backwards.
30 Day Minimalism Challenge
I love a good challenge, this one especially. This challenge is about performing small tasks, and asking ourselves questions to better understand who we are and the platforms we stand on. And if I can do a challenge and get others involved, it becomes so much more meaningful.
Here are the first 6 days to get you started. Follow my stories on Instragram / Facebook but I’ll store them all in a nice handy list on this blog post.
Day 1: Minimize the workout. Don’t feel like you have to have sweat dripping on the floor to feel the accomplishment. Go for a walk. Even 15 minutes. Don’t think about it. Just go.
Day 2: Take a sentimental item out of storage and put it to use. Like your Grandmas china.
Day 3: Take 1 closet or storage drawer that gives you anxiety and organize it (ie. knick knack drawer). Identify how good you feel after it’s done.
Day 4: Digital clutter. Take all the unread emails from 6 months or longer and just DELETE. If they were important to you you would have dealt with them by now. Then, Unsubscribe from at least 5 email newsletters. You know the ones. The ones that you signed up for when all you wanted was that 1 thing.
Day 5: Get to know your body. Research your total daily energy expenditure. Experiment creating a meal plan for 1 day of your favourite good for you foods and equals your TDEE. Try it and identify how it feels.
Day 6: Take 30 minutes to take 20 things from your closet that you haven’t worn in at least 10 months. Shirts, pants, socks, undies, jewelry – nothing is safe. Put it all in a bag and donate it within 5 days. Or make some money and put it on Facebook Marketplace.
Comment below on what you’ve taken from each day. Your experience and feedback is motivating!
Xo Juicy
