The Living Fully Challenge

12 Months to a Fully-Lived Life

Month #2

Welcome to month #2 of the Living Fully Challenge. I hope you found some way to energize, enliven or give yourself pleasure in the area of finance and that you had lots of fun last month as you began your 12-month journey to a fully-lived life. I know many of us struggle to feel good about finances and it might have been difficult to have fun in all 12 areas of daily life, but I hope you tried and succeeded. If you did, you surely felt more alive and found yourself with more to appreciate at day’s end. And you should have enjoyed yourself as well!

Let’s get right into this month’s assignments.

The Two Basic Monthly Assignments

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 #2

If you recall, each month you’ll receive two exercises to use throughout the month that will 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 romantic relationships, find one way this month to deal with your spouse, partner or significant other that feels as if it energizes you, gives you pleasure or in some way enlivens you. If you aren’t romantically involved, find one way to move towards a romantic relationship that energizes you, gives you pleasure or in some way enlivens you. If for some reason you are opposed to entering into a romantic relationship, please at least entertain the idea of entering into one and finding a way to feel good about that, since sharing our lives with someone we love romantically represents one very important element of living fully.

There are as many ways to complete this assignment as there are types and stages of relationships. You might want to plan a date night, a special dinner at home, a candle lit bath, a walk by the ocean, or a weekend get-a-way. You might want to leave a note in a suitcase or on a pillow or be brave and tell someone you love them or ask them on a date. You might want to end a relationship that isn’t going well or change the course of one that needs changing.

If you aren’t sure what to do, close your eyes and visualize your relationship. Then ask yourself, “What is the one thing I could do that would allow me to enliven this relationship?” And see what enters your mind. If you aren’t in a relationship now, ask yourself, “What is the one thing I could do to help myself live fully in the area of romantic relationships?” And then take action on whatever comes to mind.

Exercise B

Have fun. Too often, we forget to have fun. We get bogged down in doing all the things we are supposed to do, and we forget to simply enjoy ourselves. Living life fully involves enjoying life as much as we can. So, we start doing so right now.

To apply this assignment to your various areas of daily life, I suggest asking yourself the following question: How can I have fun this month in the area of :

finances or money?
romantic relationships?
free time or the things I do for fun?
health or what I do for exercise?
work or my career?
spiritual practice or about God?
friendships or friends?

relationship with myself?
relationship with family or family?
continuing education?
charitable activities and efforts to care for the Earth?
commitments and responsibilities?

For example, my most negative thought about my finances or money is: I never have enough money.

My most negative thought about free time or the things I do for fun is: I don’t have enough time to do the things I want to do for fun.

My most negative thought about continuing education relates back to free time and finances: I never have enough time or money to pursue continuing education.

(You very well might find a theme running through your thoughts. Mine tends to be not having enough time or money!)

Second, change those negative thoughts into positive thoughts. For my examples, I might write the following: I always have an abundance of money.

An even better way to write this affirmation involves including your name and putting the statement in the present tense, as if you are experiencing it now: I, Nina, now experience an abundance of money.

Some people like to write these positive statements in a way that is lyrical or that rhymes or that uses alliteration: I, Nina, now experience an abundant flow of money that is as steady and sweet as honey.

The reason for this comes in to play in the third, and last, part of this month’s assignment, which is to repeat these affirmations – these positive thoughts – to yourself every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed (and any other time that you may feel inclined to do so). If the positive thought rhymes, uses alliteration or something that makes it easy to remember, it is easier to use and simpler for your mind to hold onto. This is important when trying to replace old, embedded negative thoughts with new, positive ones.

You will also want to repeat these positive thoughts to yourself any time you catch yourself thinking a negative thought. For instance, when I go to the ATM machine and discover that my checking account is low on funds and think to myself, “I never have enough money,” I want to catch myself thinking that thought. I wan to say to myself, “There’s that negative thought again,” and then to consciously replace it with the new one: “I, Nina, now experience an abundant flow of money that is as steady and sweet as honey.” In fact, I might just repeat that sentence over and over again like a mantra for several minutes.

Got the idea? Good. Now, it’s your turn . . .

Go through all 12 areas and figure out your most negative thought in each area, and then turn it into a positive thought. When you’re done, begin substituting those positive thoughts for your negative thoughts and simply using those affirmations on a daily basis for the next 30 days in all 12 areas or your life. You’ll be amazed at how this practice will change your outlook on life.

And now, go out and have fun!

A fully-lived life consists of thinking positively and seeing the world through a positive lens. So, affirm your way to a fully-lived life this month.

Please feel free to send me an email with your comments or concerns or simply to tell me how things are going. Feedback is appreciated as well.