I appreciate measurable shifts that I can put on a to do list and check off. Instant success, you know. 🙌🏼 It's almost 1 pm and I'm nearly done with my 64 oz of water. Cliff and I have been doing a water experiment for the last several months after reading Your Body's Many Cries for Water by F. Batmanghelidj. The basic idea is that many of us are chronically dehydrated and consuming water daily (and also adding 1 tsp of high quality salt into your diet) has the power to eliminate all kinds of dis-ease. We've seen Cliff's blood pressure lower, my energy go up, we have both released some lb's and feel the results so far are enough to keep going. 💧
Some shifts are as easy as drinking more water.
Radical Acceptance
The most successful, long-term shifts I've both witnessed and experienced have involved dedication to a practice of NOT making ourselves - or our experience - wrong. Despite the tireless voice inside that berates, belittles and lives to remind you that you're not doing it right, consider that maybe you are. -
Thought your experience of that meditation was supposed to be more ecstatic than it was? Or that you should feel differently about that person than you do? -
Practice this today: Make nothing wrong.
Eating My Feelings
My first memorable point of no return came over bake-at-home chocolate chip cookies. I was a sophomore in college and living alone in my first apartment. It was 300 something square feet, I could stand in one place and see everything. I loved the freedom it provided. I could eat anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. I did a lot of baking - out-of-the-box cakes for breakfast, chip and dip lunches, cookies for dinner. 〰
It was a weekend afternoon. I had nothing to do, nowhere to be. I'd made another pan of cookies, I'd already eaten two rounds that day, nearly a dozen cookies (don't judge). When I pulled them out of the oven I was disgusted with them and myself. I knew that one more cookie wasn't going to make the confusion and self loathing I was feeling go away but I had no idea what else to do. I put them all down the garbage disposal (because I knew I'd just eat them out of the trash) as I cried deep and gasping sobs. 〰
Coincidentally (or not) the Sweet Surrender Sugar Detox begins April 24. Info at lacyyoung.com/shop
Big Shifts
For a lot of us there's a point where it's more painful to stay the same than it is to begin doing some kind of work towards change. The secret no one tells you is that you have to find the kind of work that's actually going to help YOU. -
And it's hard enough to be able to admit that something's gotta give and then to actually take action... it takes a heap ton of bravery and a good deal of logistics. -
I've sat across from people at Shift Retreat who can recite the self help section of the book store, yet they're still suffering. Or there are those who have been in therapy for decades and are still talking about the same stuff. We all know people like this - maybe you're one of them! If you are - it might be time, if it feels loving to you, to go in search of a new method.
100 Day Project
starts today and I'm IN for the challenge. I'm going to be reflecting on all things Shift. What it takes to Shift. How Shifting actually works. Why we do it. Why we don't and stay stuck instead. Why sometimes we MUST Shift and others it doesn't matter a lick. What it feels like when it's working. What it feels like when it's not. Shifting is one of the things I know enough about to fill 100 days with ease. And it feels worthy of my time and yours. 🙌🏼 I'm not into projects for the sake of projects lately. There has to be a 'why' that deeply resonates. I want to see energy Shift and with it all our moods, our states of being. I've never done a project like this before and it feels just enough outside of my comfort zone that it makes it a 'hell yes.'
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I'm in the business of personal transformation - mostly my own. That's how this all started anyway. When my favorite high school teacher strongly urged me NOT to major in interior design and instead to favor a career where I could directly impact people with my empathy and my being I didn't fully understand but I majored in psychology instead. 📚
Amazing how much change can come from listening and acting on advice from someone we respect. I hope that something you read over the next 100 days plants a seed within you that grows into something surprising and beautiful. 💚
I'm excited to cheer you guys on through this process so if you're doing the 100 day project too share in the comments so I can stop in and say heeeey! It seems I'll be here a whole lot more than usual. Like 100x more.
Ps. We live here 😍