So, here’s where I have to come clean a little bit and admit that I have already been doing some of the five daily tasks for a little while, so they are not all completely new to me. Some of this is a result of the Five Karate Moves to Success training because there is some overlap. And some of it is because I am a student of happiness and well being, so I’ve seen these suggestions before.

However, having said that, I have not made a focused effort to do these five tasks every day for a month, and I have not held myself accountable in public for such a commitment, so here we go.

Meditate

I’ve been playing with meditation off and on for a few weeks now. The toughest part for me is making sure I set aside the time to do it. I have been using the Calm app, which has some nice guided meditations as well as an introduction to the idea of mindfulness and the benefits of meditation. I would recommend trying out the free version at least if you’re looking for a little guidance. The paid version is a little expensive if you don’t get it on sale.

As for my meditation today, it was a bit scattered, but I felt better after having it done.

Exercise

I feel like I should get some kind of bonus points on this one because I took Rory, the dog, for a walk this morning and Theo, the toddler, for a walk when I got home from work. I’m actually hoping to do a little more than walking as this goes along, but I’m considering it satisfactory because it’s movement.

Act of Kindness

I haven’t decided if I prefer “Random act of kindness” or “Intentional act of kindness,” but I don’t know that it really matters what kind of kindness you’ve got going. I did one kind thing pretty intentionally today. I send a note of thank to someone who definitely deserved it, and I felt pretty good about expressing my appreciation.

Gratitude

1. I’m grateful that even on a day when I had to work later than I was planning, I was still able to get home early enough to take my son for a walk.
2. I am grateful that the sun came out today. Not that I was worried it wouldn’t rise or anything. I was just happy to see it for a few minutes after so much rain.
3. I’m grateful to have a handful of people following this journey with me even if only casually.

Journal about something positive

I admit that this one feels a lot like the gratitude task, but I guess it’s supposed to be in a little more detail. Or it’s supposed to be the act of journaling/reflecting. In any case, Rory went to the vet today and came back with a clean bill of health. That doesn’t sound like much, but I often feel like we’re pretty poor pet owners. We haven’t done a great job getting her seen by professionals regularly, and I’m glad that that hasn’t resulted in some sort of medical issue for her. She’s still neurotic and several handsful, but at least she doesn’t have Occult Heartworms, those are even worse than Christian Heartworms. Maybe this will spur me on to being a better pet owner. She deserves that after all the stress we put her through when we brought Theo into our home, which will be tripled in short order.

So, that’s day one. I’m hoping to do these a little earlier in the day, but today was a long one for me. We’ll see what happens, I guess. Also, I’m not entirely sure if this Facebook page is the way to go, but feel free to let me know what you think.