Days 11-13: You Vs. COVID-19 Challenge

In addition to these new challenges, keep on drinking 2 glasses of water each morning and getting your exercise. Pre-decide your healthy snacks and try to get a few minutes of mindfulness or meditation in as well ask keeping your sleep routine, sparking joy with creativity, and keep on being of service.

Have you been so inspired by pushing out of your comfort zone that you’re doing a home improvement project or are studying ballet on-line? I hope you’re still practicing affirmations and have incorporated more plant-based meals in addition to doing core exercises which also helps boost your resiliency.

Day 11: Strengthening Your Core to Help You Stride with Confidence 

Strengthening your core helps reduce the strain on your lower back, your shoulders, and helps your posture. The abdominal muscles around our core are much larger than the smaller thinner muscles of the back, so strengthening them also helps prevent one of the most common complaints, which is lower back pain and herniated disc injuries that are debilitating.

The easiest one for me to remember are planks, but there are many more for any level of fitness.

Here are some resources to get you started: 

The Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/multimedia/core-strength/sls-20076575

5 Core Exercises for Everyday:

Day 12: Writing Your Story to Tap into Your Resilience 

No one knows what the future will bring in the coming days, weeks and months. One thing that is certain is that emotional health and resilience will be required. 

Resilience, or your core strengths, can be defined as the process of adapting to stress, uncertainty, trauma, adversity and tragedy. Guess what?  Everything we’ve been doing for the last 11 days has been designed to bolster your health, wellbeing and to increase your resilience. Go back and check out your affirmations, because we’re going to build upon those today. 

How to increase your resilience:

• Write down your story or a time in your life when you were challenged by something.
• Now write down the 3 things or character traits that you used to overcome that particular adversity
• Those are your key character strengths. Add those to your daily affirmations.
• Now, take it a step further by adding to your story by imagining you could go bak and share the wisdom and skills you have now that might have helped you in the past. 

Here are more resources to help understand resilience and how to build upon what you have now. 

Skills you need: https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/resilience.html

Ways to become more resilient: https://www.verywellmind.com/ways-to-become-more-resilient-2795063

Day 13: Getting Organized for Your Clutter Free Life

If you’ve been sheltering in place, chances are you’re getting to a lot of projects that you’ve wanted to do for a while, but haven’t had the time. Now, I’m challenging you to take that deeper diver into other areas, like closets, drawers, garages.

Here’s something else to consider, the more clutter-free your life is, the fewer distractions, and the easier it will be to practice mindfulness and self-care. As you free up space in your life, you will also free up space in your mind for healthier choices, more emotional well being, and more focus.  

Plus, it’s easier to fall asleep in a bedroom that feels more like an oasis than a 2nd hand shop, and there’s less dust for a healthier environment.

• Start with your computer, back it up first, then organize and clear up the desktop and delete what’s not needed.
• Break down any project into smaller mini-organizing projects, such as 1 drawer or one cabinet at a time.
• Make 4 separate piles: Keep, Donate, Toss, Re-locate

As you de-clutter, practice some positive self-talk:  I feel calmer when my space is tidy. Good luck and do send in some photos from before and after.