Acupuncture Girl

How to Live Brilliantly in 16 Hours each Day

How to Live Brilliantly in 16 Hours each Day.

Photo: Sanja Gjenero

Every day is the first day of the rest of your life.

7 a.m.: Brush your teeth to this music video [select your favorite here]  in the morning. Maybe dance along.

8 a.m.: Support your local and city newspapers by reading them over that homemade sustainable breakfast of eggs, avocado and organic meat of choice that you acquired from your local CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share.

(To be fair, I can’t actually afford a CSA farm share… Nor could I eat all of its contents probably).

Acupuncturegirl says:  I belong to a food co-op - it’s not a CSA, but it allows me to support local farmers every week by ordering from a collection of them.  Click on the link to learn more.

And then turn your phone off while you drive to work or school.

9 a.m.: Bring crayons to that morning meeting or class. Doodle while you work. (Doodling helps our memory).

10 a.m.: Check in with The Daily Love for your “Free daily e-multivitamin for your soul!”

Your journey to improving any aspect of your life should begin with honest self-evaluation: where are you, right now, today; and how prepared are you to take that very first step to celebrating your uniqueness?

11 a.m.: Remember that happiness is a choice. Choose joy or choose sorrow. But know that both choices require participation.

12 p.m.: Midday pick-me-up soundtrack:

So hold my hand, I’ll walk with you my dear
The stairs creak as I sleep, it’s keeping me awake
It’s the house telling you to close your eyes

1 p.m.: Lunch break? Take out that book you’ve been meaning to read. Carry it in your bag at all times – you never know when you’ll have a moment, and you’ll never regret having it available when a client cancels, the bus is late, while sitting on the subway or eating lunch at your cubicle.

Acupuncturegirl says:  I *love* my Kindle for just such occasions.  If you have an iPad, you can just get the Kindle software on your iPad.  Once you have the Kindle/Kindle software, subscribe to  “Pixel of Ink” and you’ll soon amass an affordable collection of e-books.  Most are free if you download them the day they are announced in the mid-afternoon newsletter, and most are discounted if not free.

A few books you should read in this lifetime: Night by Elie Wiesel, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, and Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.

2 p.m.: Kick up to handstand.

3 p.m:. Stumble your interests for five minutes… No, really. StumbleUpon is the most dynamic tool for inspiration on the web today. Right down ten creative thoughts that come up.

4 p.m.: This is the time where you do that thing that makes you happy every day. No matter what it is. Myself – I like to catch up with my favorite blogs, paint or do yoga.

5 p.m.: Go to the grocery store. Only buy what you need for that evening and tomorrow’s meals, and whatever isn’t included in that CSA Farm Share you have! Buying in advance can be wasteful and it’s always a dissapointment when food goes bad before you get to eat it. Better to buy smaller portions more often.

Acupuncturegirl says:  I learned this during Hurricane Isabel - that it isn’t worth keeping a lot of perishable stuff in your fridge.  Just buy enough for the near term needs.  Buy fresh, organic produce.  Eat it up. Cook it into soups or casseroles if you have more than you can eat before it goes bad, or learn to dehydrate/can/preserve your goodies.   Repeat.  Enjoy. 

Shop the outer edges of the market, and pick up a bundle of sunflowers before you checkout. Season’s almost over, after all.

6 p.m.: Call someone you love. Ask them how they are. Listen to what they say.

Acupuncturegirl says:  Don’t multitask while you are talking to this person you love.  They can tell if you aren’t engaged.  Reserve the time for them, and if necessary, make the call short enough so that you can really be there for them.

7 p.m.: Return to the list of 10 creative thoughts you wrote down during your StumbleUpon hour. Choose your favorite one. Bring it into fruition.

8 p.m.: Shut down your computer for the night.

9 p.m.: What happens when we don’t have our computer for the last two hours of the night?! Oh no!

Acupuncturegirl says:  Well, you could journal, do some restorative yoga, spend some quality time with your family, do a little cleaning, get ready for tomorrow, meditate.  SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!

10 p.m.: Put yourself together for the following day. Maybe pack your lunch, iron your clothes and make sure the dishes are done. A clutter free morning starts the day off brighter. And a brighter morning means a brighter day.

Before bed, spend 10 minutes in a silent meditation. Send love and gratitude to yourself, to those you love and even to those that challenge you on a daily basis.

Author:

Via Lauren Hanna Foster

on Sep 19, 2011