Do Your Best, Do Good

Going Forward

Daily Gratitude Log 15

Gratitude Challenge Roundup: 
Reflection, Feedback and Next Steps Moving Forward!

As this is the first time I have participated in a Gratitude Challenge, I am glad that I have managed to complete the 14-day challenge.  I was quite apprehensive whether I would be able to do all the tasks in the challenge and wanted to give up the challenge after the first few days.  I am glad that I persisted with the challenge although I have not been able to complete two of the challenges so far.  

I have not complete Day 10's Give a Gratitude Tip as I have not been to any place to receive service which warrant me giving a gratitude tip to the service staff.  The other challenge which I have not completed is Day 13's Do a Gratitude Meditation.  I did try to do the 15-min Gratitude Meditation yesterday and today when I woke up but I did not fulfill the challenge as I was not able to visualize the realization of my goals during the meditation.  

I think it is because my meditation practice so far is still very much on the surface and I will need to go deeper to be able to do the Gratitude Meditation. I will keep trying and I believe one of these days I will be able to do it. 

My favourite tasks have been Day 9's Share Something you are Grateful with Someone as I was able to share my love for my yoga practice by inviting my readers to visit my yoga blog.  Day 14's Give Thanks for Your Mistakes allowed me to reflect on my mistakes and what lessons I have learned from them.  It also act as a reminder that I need to be more confident with myself whenever I am given a task or venture into something new. 

The quote below sums up what Gratitude means to me.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enought, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.  It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing and mistakes into important events.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and create a vision for tomorrow." - Melody Beattie 

I will continue to improve on expressing and cultivating the actions of giving gratitude in my daily life not only in my dealings with other people but also to myself. 

3 Things (and more) that I am Grateful for Today....

I would like to thank Celes of Personal  Excellence for conducting this 14-day challenge and the participants for their supportive comments on my posts.  

Love & light,

Karin 

Daily Gratitude Log 14

Gratitude Challenge: 
Give Thanks For Your Mistakes

Today is the last day of the Gratitude Challenge and the final challenge is to think of 2 mistakes that I have made which I felt bad over and to identify 3 things I gained from each mistake. 

The first mistake that I can of is thinking that I am not good enough whenever I want to venture into something.   I am always my own worst enemy as I would start to think of excuses on why I won't be able to do it.   A good example is when I was learning to do headstand in my yoga practice.  I would tell my teacher that I don't have the arm strength to hold the pose as I was afraid of falling.    But with the encouragement of my yoga teacher, I managed to overcame my fear of falling and I am now able to do the headstand and also add some variations while I am in the pose.  

The 3 things I have gained from this mistake are:

(i)   I have to approach each new experience with an open mind and heart.

(ii)  I can create possibilities if I am willing to take the first step. 

(iii) Have more confidence in myself.

The second mistake that I regret making is not having more time for myself when I was younger.  I was a workaholic and spend most of my time in the office and have little time for recreational activities and let myself get stressed out over my work.    I have since learned to have work-life balance where I now create time for myself.  I now go for my yoga classes after work and whenever I need to pamper myself, I would take leave to go for a facial and massage. 

The 3 things I have gained from this mistake are:

(i)  Self-compassion 

(ii) Creating space for my personal growth 

(iii) Generosity with myself and others 

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) I am healthy and strong. 

(ii) that my friend was not hurt when her bag was snatched this morning. 

(iii) for the mistakes I made which is part of life lessons. 

Daily Gratitude Log 13

Gratitude Challenge: 
Do a Gratitude Meditation 

For today's challenge,  I have to do a 15-min gratitude meditation where I will be expressing gratitude for things which are about to come true in my life! 

Although I have a 10-min daily meditation practice which is the first thing I do when I wake in the morning, which helps to start my day off well, I have never done a gratitude meditation before. 

The challenge is for me to think of two goals that I would like to accomplish in the upcoming period  and visualize them coming true and as if I am achieving them right then during my meditation and expressing my gratitude for them. 

The two goals that I would like to achieve are to meet my life partner and that I will find peace and happiness. I will be thinking about these goals when I do my meditation practice tomorrow morning as I find it easier to meditate when it is quiet in the morning.

I would like to share below a mantra card that I received together with a Serpentine bracelet which I bought online.  

3 Things I am Grateful for Today......

(i) my yoga teacher, Delphine who always encourages me to go deeper in my practice..making me see that impossible can become "i m possible".

(ii) my colleagues for agreeing to end the meeting so that I am able to go to my yoga class this evening.

 (iii) having my leave approved for tomorrow so that I can go for my acupuncture appointment. 

Daily Gratitude Log 12

Gratitude Challenge: 
Take Action on Your Plan from Day 11!








For today's challenge, I am supposed to take action on the things I have listed in Day 11's challenge which I have taken for granted.

My challenge not take mom for granted would not be easy to accomplish as mom tends to take charge when it comes to cooking the meals.  Sometime, even though,  I have told her that I would be cooking lunch, she would prepare the ingredients by cutting all of them ready for me to cook.   So I would really have to take charge and get her out of the kitchen when I am cooking the meal.   I also plan to take her out for a meal whenever I have the chance and not just wait for special occasions. 

I remembered that my friend's birthday would be in October.  I plan to give her a surprise call to wish her on her special day instead of just posting on her Facebook. 

Conserving water is an on-going project and I will try my best not to waste water.   Water used for washing my clothes will be reused to flush the toilet. 

  

3 Things I am Grateful for Today...

(i) my yoga teacher for not teaching the intense shoulder stretching poses after I told him that I am having shoulder pain before the start of the class

(ii) getting early to class and spending time catching up with one of my yoga teacher before the class. 

(iii) receiving a prompt email reply to a query at work. 

Daily Gratitude Log 11

Gratitude Challenge
List 3 Things You Tend to Take For Granted (and What You Intend to do About Them) 

I think there are many things I tend to take for granted, but these are the first 3 things that I thought of when I saw this challenge. 

For the past few days, as mom has not been feeling well, I realized I tend to take her for granted especially when it came to having a home-cooked meal waiting for me when I came home from work.    When she was away at my brother's place, I had to buy packed food home or prepare some of my own meals when I reached home.   Although sometimes, i would  cook some of the meals during the weekends, I will make it a point to do so more often or I would take her out for a meal so that she can have a rest. 

Recently I met back a friend I have not seen for ages during a wedding dinner.  We had not kept in touch although we were quite close at one time.   When the MC informed that we can validate our parking ticket to a one-entry fee, I found that I had left my ticket in my car.  My friend without hesitation, accompanied me to the car-park to collect my ticket.  When we went back into the dinning hall, we spent a lot of time catching up and I realized that I have taken our friendship for granted.  I will make it a point to call her and ask her how she is doing and maybe arrange for us to meet once in a while.  

Water is one thing I often take for granted until there is a dry spell in the weather and there is an announcement that there will be a water cut in my area.   We would then have to store some water for our daily use.   I will make it a point to try to conserve water and ensure that I switch off the tap when I am brushing my teeth.  

3 things I am Grateful for Today....

(i) for today's challenge for reminding me not to take things for granted.

(ii) for a clean and tidy house.  

(iii) for the company of my fellow Ashtanga buddy during our Mysore self practice this morning.