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The Living Fully Challenge
12 Months to a Fully-Lived Life
Month #4
Welcome to month #4 of the Living Fully Challenge. I hope you found some way to really have fun during your free time last month – and that you actually made sure you had some free time to enjoy! I also hope you received some insight into your true preferences in all the areas of your life as you made really conscious choices about what you truly want and don’t want in your life. Becoming conscious of what you want, how you think, how you feel, and how you live each moment of every day will lead you to a fully lived life.
Let me reiterate what I said last month: All of the exercises I have given you represent processes. They take time and the changes in the ways you perceive your life and the way you live your life won’t happen over night. It takes 30-40 days to change any habit. Just as negative thoughts represent choices, so do unconscious choices. So, keep working on earlier assignments as need be as you move on to the next assignment. Also, if you haven’t completed an earlier assignment, I’d suggest completing it before moving on to the next. You can just save this one on your computer or print it out for later use. However, I’d caution you not to wait too long. It’s easy to let the days and weeks go by, and then the year will come to an end and you will not have met the Living Fully Challenge. You will not have achieved a fully-lived life in 12 months. In other words, try not to get more than a week or so behind in the assignments. Of course, it’s your challenge, your work, your life.
In any case, I hope that no matter how much of the earlier assignments you have accomplished, you are beginning to feel the affects of the work you have done. I hope you are feeling more and more alive, energized, and happy, and finding yourself with more and more to appreciate each evening.
Let’s move on to this month’s assignment.
The Two Basic Monthly Assignments
As in the past, continue this month by, first, completing daily the two basic assignments. They form the foundation of your living-fully practice.
Basic Assignment #1:
Take some deep breaths several times every day. The breath is the source of life. God breathed life into us. As we breathe in, we continue breathing in God’s exhale, and as we exhale God inhales. It’s a continuous circular breath from Creator to the created. Plus, without the breath, we die. Each breath gives our body what it needs to continue living. And the fact that we breathe without even thinking about it represents a miracle. So, breathe deeply and consciously as often as possibly, because the breath enlivens you! If you have a watch that beeps on the hour, I suggest you set it to do so, and each hour take a minimum of 10 deep, slow, conscious breaths.
Basic Assignment #2:
Each night before you fall asleep try to acknowledge at least one thing about your life and the way you lived it that day that you really appreciated or enjoyed. If you can't find at least one thing you appreciated or enjoyed, than commit to doing something different the next day - to doing one thing you can acknowledge the next night - something that puts a smile on your face - before you fall asleep. The reason for this exercise seems self-explanatory: If you aren’t doing anything that you can acknowledge as being enjoyable or that you sincerely appreciate, you aren’t living fully.
Assignment for Month #4
As you know, each month’s assignment is comprised of two exercises you will use for 30 days to help you live more fully. The first one will involve one area of your life. The second one will be applied to 12 general areas of your daily life – finance, romantic relationship, free time/fun, health/exercise, work/career, spiritual practice/relationship with God, friendship, relationship with self, relationship with family, continuing education, charity and care of the Earth, and commitments/responsibilities.
Exercise A
Moving on to the area of health and exercise, find one way this month to approach your exercise program or to start an exercise program that really gets you jazzed. If you already have an exercise activity you enjoy, think of something you can do that will brings new energy to that activity or find a new one to add in that will make you feel all the more energized and eager to go exercise. If you are just starting an exercise program, find an activity you really think you will enjoy – surfing, cycling, walking, jogging, rock climbing, belly dancing. Be creative and think outside the box. Not everyone gets in shape by going to the gym and walking on a treadmill. You might feel like you are on a treadmill all day long anyway while at work, so pick something that feel unique and exciting and fun. That way, you’ll want to exercise. Or, think about finding an exercise buddy or group. I like walking with friends, because it allows me to fit in my social time as well as my exercise time. You might like cycling with a cycling club rather than alone, for instance, and the level of the group might push you. That, in and of itself, can be fun and exciting.
Also, if you have health issues that worry you or that you have left unattended, this month get them handled. I know this doesn’t sound like fun, but worrying about them depletes your energy and takes away from your ability to live your life fully. On an unconscious level, knowing the health issue exists lessens your level of life enjoyment as well. So, go to the doctor, get a physical, have that test run, schedule the surgery. Do whatever it takes to ease your mind or to get your health in tip top shape. You’ll feel better and happier and more alive when you’ve done so.
Additionally, watch what you eat and how you feel after you eat it. Commit to only eating things that are healthy or that make you feel great after you’ve eat them. Now, ice cream sometimes makes me feel great after I eat it…and sometimes it makes me feel awful afterwards. That can depend upon how much of it I eat and for what reason I eat it. Some foods disagree with my system or make me lethargic, and others give me lots of energy. If you are overweight, find a diet that works for you or go see a nutritionist. Find some way this month be more conscious of the way you eat and how you eat. Try eating silently for one meal. Eat a raisin slowly, chewing it for at least two minutes and noticing everything about the taste and texture and experience. That’s raisin’ your consciousness!
Exercise B
Just like last month, apply this part of the month’s assignment to the following 12 general areas of your daily life – finance, romantic relationship, free time/fun, health/exercise, work/career, spiritual practice/relationship with God, friendship, relationship with self, relationship with family, continuing education, charity and care of the Earth, and commitments/responsibilities.
Last month, in each category you made conscious choices about what you wanted or didn’t want in your life. Now that you are clear about your preferences, this month’s Exercise B takes you to the next level: Make conscious changes. In each category, first get clear on a change you want to make and then take steps towards making it.
I realize that you won’t be able to complete the changes in every category in 30 days. In some cases – hopefully in many cases – you will be able to do so, though. At least get started. Decide on a change you want to make. And take at least one step, possibly more, towards setting that change in motion. If at all possible, take as many steps as necessary to actually make the change.
To begin, go back and look at the work you did on Exercise B last month. If you recall, the steps you took were:
Step 1: Take stock of what you have in each category. This means looking clearly and realistically at what you have chosen in the past – debt, loneliness, 60-hour work weeks, 20 extra pounds, a stressful job, etc.
Step 2: Making a clear choice about what you want now. This entails stating, or, better yet, writing down what you prefer to have – disposable income, a partner with whom to share your life, a 30-hour work week, a lean and in-shape body, a fulfilling job about which you feel passionate, etc.
Step 3: Visualize what it would be like to have a life consisting of the choices you made in Step 2. Imagine this life as if it already exists. For example, see yourself looking backwards in time at the wonderful life you have created with your conscious choices, and don’t just see it but also feel how wonderful it is to live that life you have chosen. In other words, make sure you combine the thought of having this life with the feeling of having it right NOW.
Now add Step 4: List three things you can do to help create what you want in your life. What will you do right now that will help you make the necessary changes that will allow you to have what you want? What will it take to make the changes in your life that will help you feel more alive?
If you aren’t sure what to do to make these changes and to create what you want, go back to Step 3, and visualize what it would be like to have a life consisting of conscious choices. Then visualize what you had to do to create that life. Try to see the inspired action steps you might have taken to create that life. See yourself making choices, taking action.
Step 5: Do those three things now.
No excuses. Start. As Nike says, “Just do it.” There’s no time like the present.
No one likes change, because change is scary. It’s easier to stay the same. Yet, staying the same usually means living at half our capacity for life in general or less. Wouldn’t you rather live at 100 percent of your capacity?
Nothing makes us feel more alive than consciously choosing what we want and then taking inspired action towards consciously creating those things for ourselves. It gets our juices flowing. Sometimes just moving the furniture around can make us feel more alive.
Go on be courageous. Make some changes.
See how alive you feel when you are done.
Please feel free to send me an e-mail with your comments or concerns or simply to tell me how things are going. Feedback is appreciated as well.
