Days 1-9
- Olivia Madrid
- Sep 3, 2018
- 5 min read
Day 1: Watch a TedX Talk and be inspired.
I have a confession to make. I LOVE Ted Talks. So, it took me A LOT of self control not to fall down the rabbit hole (again), but I will admit, I watched four.
The three I got the most inspiration out of was first by Graham Hill. At barely 6 minutes, he spoke about the whole "[having] less is more" approach to life. It made me want to stand up and go through all my stuff even though I have barely anything in my room already.
The second by Matt Cutts was only 3 and 1/2 minutes, but the message was powerful enough. It made me want to write a book or, in my case, continue to write. The last one blew my mind. In about 10 minutes, Amy Purdy talked about accepting a new version of herself and overcoming obstacles. She encourages the viewers not to break down borders, but to push off of them and see our challenges as blessings that can ignite our imaginations.
Check out the Ted Talks!
Day 2: Drink at least 2L / 70 ounces of water.
Doing this in one day was hard! I thought "seventy ounces of water is probably less than I'm supposed to be drinking daily," so just for kicks, I used some online calculators to figure out how much water I should be drinking. I got an average of about 107 oz. I know for a fact I don't drink anywhere near that.
I noticed that when lunchtime rolled around, I was far less hungry than I usually am and I ate little bits and pieces of food as opposed to making a meal for myself. Also, I found that I drank more water in less time when I used a straw. So that was good and it gave me an opportunity to use one of my reusable metal straws.
Last thing, when I went out and I forgot my last bottle, I felt very dry. But I finished all 70 oz plus some, equalling to about 89 oz.
Day 3: Create a new morning routine.
I was kind of mad to see this one as the challenge for Day 3 because since I got back from my summer job, I've been wanting to start exercising again. Knowing myself however, I like sleep, even though I'm a night owl, and I'm too lazy to get around to exercising, unless, its the first task of the day. So, here's what I came up with.
Wake up!
Allow natural light into the room.
Exercise.
Start drinking 24oz water.
Rinse off / Shower and wash face.
Make and eat breakfast.
> Finish water before eating.
Eat breakfast.
Now, I can make up all the morning schedules I want, but putting them into action is a whole other beast to tackle. So, at the end of the 30 days, I'll let you know if this new schedule stuck!
Day 4: Clean up your flash drives.
My social media feeds are something else I keep pretty in order. Shocker, right? So I switched this one from "social media feeds" to "flash drives." Now, when I say I keep EVERYTHING on my flash drives, I am not over-exaggerating. Storing everything on my computer doesn't really roll with me because I like my computer to keep moving fast. That being said, I have three drives and I had to go back and clean each one up multiple times. Sound a little more believable? It was quite nice have them organized.
Day 5: Stretch all your muscles.
I have a hard time falling asleep unless its super late, but even when I get in bed, my eyes aren't usually tired enough to fall shut of their own accord so I lie awake, playing with my hair, wondering what I need to do tomorrow. So I did this before going to bed thinking it would make me tired enough to fall asleep and boy, was I right! Along with loosening up my body, it relaxed me enough to finally doze off.
Day 6: Do something creative.
I decided to paint the two mice from Cinderella, Jaq and GusGus, on my wall. I already have Tinkerbell sitting on my light switch so I figured, why not add to my little slice of a Disney wall. To stick with my silhouette theme, I did the key and the mice three different shades of brown and just to make them stand out a little better, I added some white highlights.
Day 7: Research an unfamiliar topic.
I've always loved the show Criminal Minds. The characters on the show try to understand how the different criminals' minds work in order to find them. However, sometimes those mental issues hit closer to home, in particular for the young but brilliant Dr. Spencer Reid whose mother has schizophrenia. So, when I stumbled across a documentary about said disease, I decided to educate myself on this.
It is a very real problem and a very sad one at that. A disease that's a genetic vulnerability, striking young adults anytime from 16 into their twenties, and is in development and undetectable from childhood. Its not terribly common, according to MentalHelp.net, only roughly 7 in every 1000. Although no cure has been found, it is highly treatable. A sizable percentage (about 75%) of those treated improve over time. But to say this disease impacts only the victim would be untrue; The lives of those who know the person with schizophrenia, are permanently altered as well.
Watch the documentary "Schizophrenia: Stolen minds, Stolen lives" on YouTube.
Day 8: Cook a healthy meal.
I did employ the help of my dear Mother because I may have been cooking all evening if I were working by myself. But together we made zucchini, rice, and chicken. I know that it takes a lot of work to make food but by doing this with my Mom, I appreciated the process a lot more and honestly, I think the food tasted better.
Day 9: Practice Meditation.
My "meditation" is prayer, so I took some quiet time to just listen to anything God wanted to tell me. And I won't say what I prayed for, but it was very calming to just listen. I've been trying to clear my head more and more of distractions while I pray and I got to an almost eerily calm place when I really focused on listening and keeping my mind open and free from random thoughts.
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