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Day 2 of 7
Finding Yourself: Becoming Resilient
Start Your Day With You
One of the primary reasons I asked you to set aside time in the morning for this course was to begin to build the habit of starting the day with yourself. Many cultural and religious traditions have historically done this but we now have the science to support why. There are two primary reason I suggest people have some sort of morning ritual focused on oneself:
- We can ask how we're doing today
- This leads us to ask how we need to best take care of ourselves today
- When we start each day checking in with our physical self, emotional self, and thinking self we are better prepared to react to what the day brings us in a more thoughtful way.
Today's Challenge:
Name 1-3 moments throughout your day that your choose distraction instead of being with yourself.
Make a brief plan on how to replace that with just being more present either:
- Outwardly
- With yourself
- With others
Resiliency Roadmap Day 2
Noticing Your Self
After you increase your ability to be present with the outside world, we can begin to move inward. There are three different components of self that we'll need to develop a better relationship with.
- Your Physical Self
- Your Emotional Self
- Your Thinking Self
Try to develop a practice this week of taking time (if only a minute) to get in the habit of noticing one of these, and ultimately all of these.
Noticing Your Physical Self
Our bodies and internal physical world hold a wealth of untapped information. This is one of the most important takeaways from this course. It's also often the most uncomfortable for many. Developing the ability to scan our body and internal experience is essential for deepening your resiliency. For today, we're just noticing.
Download: Appendix Sensations PDF (PDF)
Noticing Your Emotional Self
First, let's get rid of the assumption that we are only feeling one emotion at a time. It's important to sit with ourselves to better uncover the variety, sometimes conflicting, emotions we can be experiencing in any given moment. By starting the day reviewing our emotions, we can better understand what our needs and capacity for that day might be. For today, we're just noticing.
Download: Appendix Emotions PDF (PDF)
Noticing Your Thinking Self
When most people think of mindfulness, tracking our thoughts. It's important to not only be able to notice our thoughts but to understand the quality and themes in these. For today, we're just noticing.
Extended Activity for Today
Pick 3 times today to pause for 1-2 minutes and review each of the following:
- Physical Self
- Emotional Self
- Thinking Self
Often setting a reminder on a calendar is very helpful. I might encourage you to have that be the same time for each the rest of this week. Maybe further.
To Take a Deeper Dive
This is far from the definitive book written on mediation. However, what this does offer is its accessibility. This was written by the founder of Headspace, Andy Puddicome, a meditation app and pairs well with use of the app. If you feel like an outsider or in any way intimidated regarding meditation, this read won't make you feel bad about it and is there to help overcome that.