Installing foundations

[Guest]

I am writing this journal to document my progress installing a set of foundational habits and infrastructure into my life, in the interest of having some public accountability. Most of the habits in my installation plan I am already doing, just not with the degree of consistency I want. Part of the problem is trying to do too much at once, so this project is about slowing it down in the interest of stability, getting one thing in place at a time but maintaining what I've built. This isn’t the sexiest end of my self-actualisation journey, and won’t be the most interesting journal to read, but it’s important for me to have my progress posted in a public place, as a motivator.

Plan

Every month I will install a new habit and focus on repeating it at the desired frequency without fail. At this point I will continue to maintain the habit, but bring my focus to another, new habit. One week before the beginning of a new month, I will introduce the new habit in a lighter form (e.g. 10mins Kriya yoga instead of 30). I have a variety of techniques that will aid this process.

Fully-stabilised habits already in maintenance mode

• Meditation 60mins daily (40mins occasionally acceptable)
• Self inquiry 40mins daily
• ‘Detox’ (bespoke programme of self care including a nutritional plan, abstinence from all intoxicants, NoFap, etc)

April’s habit - Lightning Process/ sleep

I am finding that sporadic fatigue, laziness and other unhelpful mental states are getting in the way of my consciousness work. 6 months ago I did a course called The Lightning Process (similar to NLP), where I learned tools that move me into a positive, energized and useful state of mind. This month I will use the tools learned during the course when I need to with 100% consistency. I will also get 8 hours sleep consistently every night, although I’ll go to bed an hour earlier if I feel I need it.

 

[Solace]

May it all goes well for you. Indeed, taking it slow is really important, I used to install lots of habits at once too. First to enlightenment wins 

[Guest]

Cheers Solace!

So far so good, I've had a lot of momentum these last few days so have managed to be consistent with lots of other habits too. Keeping my focus on the month's objective tho...

[Guest]

Posting this a few days early as anticipating a busy few days...

April Review

 

This month was a success in terms of the overall project; didn’t quite go to plan, though.

Before diving into details, let me first note:

·      Rather than 60mins meditation, 40mins self inquiry, I am now doing 3x kriya yoga sessions (of durations 60-30-20mins).

·      My previous description of my ‘detox’ programme as ‘fully-stabilized’ was an exaggeration, this still needs work.

Ok, so here’s what happened in April:

·      My sleeping changes were executed with perfect consistency

·      I have not focused on the Lightning Process any more than previous months, despite this being my principal focus (!)

·      However, I have managed to install/ stabilize 3x kriya yoga sessions, a daily 30-60mins session of learning Italian (part of my karma yoga project – long story), a daily 30min hatha yoga session and my detox programme with the following exceptions:

                           o   Ate 2x sugary snack bars and 1 portion of chips

                           o   Missed 3 evenings of hatha/ italian sessions due to spending time with my girlfriend, and 1 social event (I consider this permissible)

                           o   1 kriya session and 1 hatha session missed on one evening due to depression – could’ve done better here

May’s habit – Lightning Process and stabilization of previous habits

I feel great about April’s progress despite deviating from my plan, not least due to having had a very emotionally challenging month. If in May I can focus on the Lightning Process, while fully stabilizing kriya/ hatha/ Italian/ detox, I will be several months ahead of my original schedule. So that’s the plan, wish me luck!

[Guest]

Couple of slack days have happened. Has made me realise I really do need to narrow my focus. So May's habit will be the Lightning Process with 100% consistency, and anything else is a bonus.

[Guest]

Starting June a few days early! So here’s my review and plan…

 

May review

 

Early in this month I began to intuit that manipulating how I was feeling with the Lightning Process was counter-productive to my growth, so I have stopped using it, staying with difficult feelings instead. Thus, my focus changed.

The month was very challenging, involving an existential crisis and practical challenges around my career, burnout from very emotionally draining work, some dark moments, and what could be the beginning of a kundalini awakening (will report more on this in my other journal, naked like water, soon).

Despite this, however, and despite having a broader focus than was set out in my project plan, I made great progress with regard to habits.

·      I did at least two kriya yoga sessions a day, except on two days when I did only one, and most days I managed three

·      I practiced my Italian every day but two well-excused instances

·     Hatha yoga was quite regular

·     ‘Detox’ was pretty good

The main success of the month was in keeping up decent patterns of habits and not reverting to bad habits in such a challenging phase. It wasn’t that long ago I would have had days of binge-watching movies, unhealthy/ unethical food, and other regrettable things to report. Keeping up a meditation practice without missing a day through such challenges is new for me, too. I’m also very proud of my consistency in doing my Italian – a consistency I’ve been trying to install for years.

 

June's focus - detox, tightened

 

This is likely to be another challenging month, so I’ll keep it simple. Beyond maintaining what I’ve developed so far, I want to really tighten up my detox programme. What that’ll mean is:

·     No online distractions: no youtube, forums or internet surfing unless a really good reason

·     Brahmacharya with regard to food: eating just for sustenance, no seasoning etc, no seeking gratification through food

·     No slips with regard to avoided foods: animal products, sugar, etc

[Solace]

1 minute ago, Stretch said:

   No online distractions: no youtube, forums or internet surfing unless a really good reason

Good luck! Make sure you replace those distractions with self-love or there is no chance you'll succeed. Saying this from trying to quit these sites for a year, until I realized that behind it all, the desire to be on YouTube etc. was just a heart in need of love. Take it easy and do it slowly Moment to moment.

[Guest]

@Solace Thanks dude, that sounds like good advice, I'll do that.

..........

June - False start

After 5 days of almost perfect execution of all habits and a thoroughly 'tightened detox', I've just come out of a subsequent 6 days of almost the complete opposite. Not sure what's been going on (could be a few things), but I've been feeling pretty awful. This evening I've had to really re-commit myself to my search, and am now going to re-start June's programme. Due to an early start I've still got most of the month to nail my goals.