Love, Life and Everything

  Wow!  That's about all I can say.  Just wow.  This really has changed my life.  All those things I mentioned before are still true.  I'm still experiencing more confidence, less reactivity, less stress.  But, I'm also experiencing faster healing times, better sleep, more vivid dreams, and my husband says when I nap, I'm not completely scrunched up.  Things seem to flow better in my life.  Even on the difficult days, things just seem a lot easier.  I'm less frustrated, less quick to temper, and just overall happier. Seriously, you all need to try this, and bring it into your lives daily.  You won't regret it, I promise. You certainly don't have to make it as hard as I have, even just one daily gratitude - for anything, will give you results you'll start to notice if you do it consistently. 

  This has been absolutely amazing and very hard at the same time.  In addition to the benefits I listed last week, I'm also much more relaxed and at ease with myself and the world.  I'm also seeing more "magic" in the world - in nature, and in my immediate surroundings. But, this week was hard for me, especially the last few days.  I wasn't feeling well with some sort of low grade cold that's going around my school, and it was making me feel blah and down in the dumps.  The good news is, that I wasn't as grumpy, moody, and on edge as I normally am when I'm a tiny bit sick.  But, I also learned some sad news about someone I know, and that tried very hard to pull me down.  It almost felt as if the universe was testing me, to see if I would give up.  I didn't, and I won't.  And although I'm still feeling a bit down, it somehow doesn't seem so bad, because I know it will get better.  I am still encouraging people to try this challenge, mod

  This inspirational quote is not wrong.  But here are some other things I've noticed so far in just one week of doing this challenge.  My recovery rate from stress is a lot faster, which surprised me.  I've been laughing a lot more.  I'm experiencing less reactivity to difficult conversations.  Instead, I'm learning to really listen to what the other person is saying, instead of negatively reacting to it and having an unwarranted emotional response. This has helped things a lot.  And, I'm noticing a boost in confidence.  I'm less likely to avoid doing something important because my confidence is higher and I'm not as worried about a negative response from doing whatever thing it was I would've tried to avoid in the past.  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately depending on how you view it, with the confidence, a bit of arrogance tried to creep in there.  I'm realizing this is because it was something I had suppressed and didn't integrate into my ps