Helloooo friends! Time for a quick recap on June’s Mindfulness Challenge. Ok so I know I’ve been saying this with a lot of the challenges that we’ve done so far this year BUT this one reallyyyy was my favorite. I mean it. And based on what you guys told me on Instagram, it was your favorite, too. So many of you said it was something that you struggled with and wanted to work on! And I was right there with ya.
The premise of this challenge was to work on mindfully appreciating each day instead of counting down the days ’til the weekend. This can be especially hard if you’re someone who works or goes to school Monday-Friday. How familiar do these phrases sound to you? “Oh my gosh it’s only TUESDAY?!” or “Ughhh Monday’s are the worst” or “The weekend needs to hurry up and get here”. This is really no way to live. When we let ourselves think like this, we are legitimately wasting like 4 days a week, just wanting Friday to come faster. Instead, I wanted us to focus on being mindful about noticing the beauty in the small things that every day holds. Even when work is stressful or our schedule is packed, there will pretty much always be something around us that we can appreciate.
Lessons learned from mindfully appreciating each day:
When you’re not longing for the weekend, the week actually goes by faster.
This was one thing that I noticed pretty quickly after starting the challenge, and it was something that a few of you pointed out to me as well. Lauren put it well when she said “It made my day go so much faster… often times when I ‘live for the weekend’ the work week feels sooooo long but when I focus on that day and even just that hour it spends on by and I actually enjoy it more!” YES I completely agree with that.
You’re able to enjoy your surroundings and find the beauty in each day.
If we’re caught up in our thoughts and just doing what we have to do to get through the week, we miss out on a lotttt. One thing I’ve repeated quite a bit throughout all of these challenges is to refrain from just ‘going through the motions’. This is the complete opposite of living mindfully. When we’re mindful about the moment we’re in, we’ll start to appreciate the beauty and small things in each day and even each moment.
Your week will become more full, more fun, and more productive.
When we stop living for the weekend, each day starts to hold a lot more value in our mind. Mondays suddenly seem just as important as Saturdays, and therefore we become more productive and active! Count the week days out and you lose a whoooole lot of time. Before this challenge I feel like I would just kinda trudge through the week and go to work, workout, etc. but not plan many fun things because I felt like it was pointless if I had work the next day. I didn’t do this all the time, but it was definitely something I noticed happening here and there.
Tips to help yourself stop living for the weekend:
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Find something to be thankful about every morning, afternoon, and night.
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Plan fun things throughout the week to look forward to.
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Remember that work holds value – often times we have to work hard to play hard. It all pays off in the end!
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July Mindfulness Challenge
It’s time to stop all the negative talk! July’s challenge is to do our best to keep ourselves from speaking negatively, and to instead be mindful about staying positive with your thoughts and words. It’s so easy to say things like “this sucks” or “I wish that” or “I really hate” but why? Words hold so much power and it’s incredibly important to be careful with what we say. Shoutout to my girl Nicholle for the idea for this challenge… I’m so excited to work on this and I hope you are too!
XO Sorelle