What Are You Doing For YOU?

Hola! Hope everyone is all settled into their groove in 2014 by now. Say what, it's FEBRUARY already?! Oo er, where did the time go? As always in January, friends joke that they avoid the gym as it tends to be packed with people who are on their "new year's resolution" kick to get fit. The gym-bunny regulars notice that it tends to get super packed the first few weeks, but by the end of January, numbers start to dwindle down to what they were before the Christmas holidays. LOL.

I guess now is a good time to check in with yourself again if you made any resolutions or intentions for 2014. Anything you've decided to do for YOU? And, are you still on that path to realizing whatever it is you set out to do? Personally, I don't believe in resolutions (they're made only to be broken. Ha.) But I usually start the new year off with an intention - this tends to be a 'broad strokes theme' of what I want to work on in my life for that year. Or, at least something that I want to be more mindful and aware of for that year. As an example, previous intentions have been themes such as "Joyful Surrender" - to joyfully surrender to whatever situation or difficulty that comes up and not fight it with unnecessary drama. Or "Gratitude" - to develop a gratitude practice each day, taking a step back to be thankful for where I am in life/ the people that surround me/ the situations I'm involved in/ the lessons I have or need to learn, etc.

I've found that by revolving each year around a particular theme that I'm interested in exploring or working on in my life, I am usually better able to deal with the difficult issues and situations that inevitably tend to pop up along the way. And I find the lessons I learn from each encounter almost always have a serendipitous tie back to the new year's intention I've set for that year. If nothing else, at least it's another technique to bring mindfulness back into one's life again.

This week, I made a new friend. I'm not sure whether it was a new year's intention she had, but it's still an awesome intention nonetheless. She wanted to have "28 days of me". Basically, 28 days where she would focus on something she wanted to do for herself. Short and simple. This could be translated into anything from learning a new craft to exploring a new place. Anything that you've ever wanted to take some time out to do for YOU.

28 Days of Raw:

She's decided her 28 days in February would be going raw. Eating all raw for 28 days. WOOHOO! I'm super stoked for her, and very interested in seeing where her experiment and self-exploration will take her. She has started a blog at http://28daysof.me/raw/ where she's writing daily updates on how she's feeling on what she's eating, along with giving the recipes she's made for that day. So head on over and show Monique some love. :)

Almost serendipitously, I'm about to start on my next assignment for nutrition school - I'll also be going raw, but for 7 days only. 100% raw veggie + nut options. I'm interested in fermenting my own saurkraut, kimchi and kefirs, and also dehydrating beyond the dry fruits/ fruit roll-ups I've been making (I'd like to get into stuff like flax seed crackers, raw pizza bases, etc.) I'm not sure yet when I'll start my 7 days, but I'd like to overlap it with Monique while she's on her month of raw (raw dinner party, anyone?) I know it's winter and seems counterintuitive to be doing this now. But hey - it's gotta happen some time, life will always get in the way, so might as well suck it up and do it now. Coz there will always be another excuse not to do something difficult.

So... What are you doing for YOU today? This week... This month... This year? ;)