My little place in space...

Another challenge about planning better :) One area that I know can save both time and lessen the stress: groceries shopping!! In our household we didn't hav a car until our youngest daughter was about 17 (if I remember correctly). But we were able to borrow one to go shopping once a month. I made this list with the typical items that we normally used and went over what was need every month. Then, once a week, I would go over what was on sale for that week and make a dinnerplan thereafter. It didn't take much time to do this and we never had to drag tired kids to the store each day. When I was studying computer programming, it showed me how much you can save if you do the groundwork properly before you even start programming. It amazes me to see how much money programs costs today and when they break down, they are so poorly made from the start that it cost additional money and a lot of headache to try and fix it. Oh, I miss that type of work ;-)

It is interesting how much you suddenly start thinking about an issue when you are addressing each days challenge. I really enjoy every day and take it as a new area to look at, just for what it is. When this is over I will have several 100 days gongs to work on. It's a fun way to commit to doing something that you've put aside for far too long.

The excercise today is to imagine yourself in the future, lying on your deathbed. It is time to take a look at your life. What are you grateful for, what brought you most joy. What regerets do you have? Do you feel like you have waisted you life on some areas? Was it worth it? What made you take that path in life? Sit with the emotions that comes up as you go over your life. If your future self where speaking to you here and now, what advice would see give you? Write down what ever comes to mind. And remember to allow the feelings to flow along. Commit to your future self to making changes where they need to. ”This practice can be your guiding light for years to come. It'll help you stay on track and invest your time in the right people, activities, dreams, and possibilities.” This is something that I will take some better time to do, so I have put it on my gong list :)

Pedram once again uses the garden as an example, when he talks about using it as a tool to relax :) You don't need a garden, place pots on the balcony or if you only have window space, great. The idea is to plant a seed and tend to it and watch it grow. Is the goal to bring out a flower to enjoy its beauty or is it going to be something you can eat? Both will recieve gratitude and even more so, because you have nurtered it from a seed :) When I was sick, I found it very relaxing working in the garden. Sadly I had a very low periode for a couple of years and everything more or less was overtaken by weeds :/ We have cleaned up and removed almost every flowerbed. When we sell the house we want to live where we can have wild flowers and things can grow more freely. Having a garden that is too neat can also turn on you and suddenly become a duty and the whole idea of stress relief is gone. So don't go overboard, just start with something small :)

Stay under your breath means not getting so far ahead of yourself that you need to stop for recovery. Today is about looking at your life and be honest about how you've been running it. Pedram talks about getting out of breath when you do too much too fast and the need to stay focused to prevent this. Again, check the workload, delegate, rearrange etc. Remember to do the same in your private life as well.

”Your eternal self is the gem you've been looking for, and it is inside you. When you whittle away all the noise and pretending, you will find the real you. Take the time to reflect on this today and your relationship with time will never be the same. The eternal aspect of you is the real you.” This need much more time to dig deeper into :)

I amazes me how many angles there is to look at how we spend our time. And today is about planning for those things that take more of your time and therefor more of your energy. Once again we take a look at the calendar to see what is coming up of bigger things that need to be done. Try and see if there is anything scheduled on not so energetic times of the day and rearrange them if possible. Bigger things that needs attention will require that something else will need to be set aside for later. Delegate smaller things that can not wait, so you can keep your focus. In the end it will get things done quicker so you can have time to relax too :)

As long as I can remember going back, I've always taken notes and made to-do-lists. But then again, I'm also the type of person who likes to have things in order, otherwise I miss the big picture..... or rather the details....lol Workwise, I used to make piles, 1. priorety, 2. priorety etc. That way, I always got the most important stuff out of the way. At least, it worked for me and my job then. At home, living with a man who was away 3-4 weeks (or longer) at a time, I came up with a to-do-list for the house. I mangage a lot of things, but leave everything that has to do with something electrical for my husband.....lol Besides, he's not one to sit still for hours anyways. So instead of keep telling him about something that needed attention and he forgot, I made a to-do-list for each and every room in the house and also one for the outsides. So when he got home, when ever he felt like it, he would go over the list and see if he wanted to fix any of the items..... ...

”Today let's kick it a bit old school. Let's roll back to how our species used to communicate before technology.” YES! I miss some of the old ways of communicating. I have said it before, I like technology …. if it's used properly. When it comes to communicating we suck these days!!! I don't have many people close to me, but when the two last calls I've recieved on my phone have been from our realestate agent, that's an indicator for how often my phone rings....lo Oh well, everything is exactly as it should be here and now :) So back to todays challenge. To observe other people and their non-verbal communication. A stare, rolling eyes, shoulder shrug etc. It made me realize that I don't really have much eye contact with people anymore. When most of those I meet is so busy with their phones, listening to audios /music, etc. I can see that I am turning my head away, looking at anything BUT the people I meet, because there has been no feedback f...

We get bombarded with news, adverts and lots of other stuff at every time of day. Pedram suggest to choose for yourself what you want to listen to. Find a podcast or audibook that is of interest to you. And we should stimulate ourselves by learning about new things, but why doing it half? Why not give it your full attention? Do one thing at a time. So remember not to multitask ;-)

When you lead a busy life, the meals can often be the ones that doesn't get the most attention and care. So it saves time to pick up some fastfood on the way and then heat up something in the microwave for dinner …. and your digestion will in the long run, not be your friend :/ I've picked up my shares of pizza until I began to be more aware about my food. And the idea of having my meal zinged with microvawes is one of the biggest reasons why I never eat out. But todays challenge is to really focus on your meal, where does everything on your plate come from, how is the texture, what does is taste like etc. …. and be thankful. It reminded me of a lecture I was attending a few years back. It involved a raisin. That was one of the most intens experiences I've had and made a hugh impact on how I saw what food I was eating. All participants recieved one single raisin. I can not recall every step, but we started by smelling it, then put it between our lips, not tast...

Ever since I got married and had kids, spending time with my family was first priority. We went for walks, or riding our bikes, we played fun games and just had a great time together. Today it's just me and my husband in the house and the two of us enjoy going for walks in nature. That is the main ”us” time and unless the weather is bad we go once or twice a day when ever he is off his shifts. So make sure you set some time off to spend some quality time with your loved ones, because you never know what the future brings.