A friend of a friend of a friend came up with a Mind/Body/Spirit challenge – every day that you can do something from each of these three areas is a good day. I thought it was a great idea for bringing life into balance.
An hour learning
- Reading about an area of interest
- Learning a new skill
- Practicing a new talent
An hour doing something physical
- Traditional exercise at a gym
- Training for an event (marathon, 10k) with a group or on your own
- Walking
- Yoga
- Sports, Hiking or any other social and physical activity
- Gardening or housecleaning (if you’re getting really physical with it, or working up to more physical activity)
An hour doing something spiritual (whatever “spiritual†means to you)
- Meditation/Prayer
- Reading something that feeds the spirit
- Service to others
- Spending time in nature
And I’ll add as a alternative/bonus to feeding the spirit:
An hour creating
- Writing
- Painting, drawing
- Playing music
- Home arts (decorating, sewing, crafting, gardening)
Because it’s not always possible to carve out 3-4 hours in a day when you already have work, family and the standard obligations like grocery shopping, cooking and laundry, let’s start with making it a habit to do at least one of these focused hours every day. Pick the hardest one for you first, so it doesn’t get neglected. Then do a different hour’s activity each following day. After a couple of weeks, double up. When you can, triple up. It helps to fit them in by incorporating family and social activities and chores with these goals in mind.
I’m going to start this focused practice and I’ll let you know how it goes. As with everything else on this site, I wish I started it sooner. Will you start too? Or are you already doing this?
