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on different projects to incorporate into my life for 30 days most people agree that it takes somewhere between 21 and 30 days to ingrain a new habit into your life and i wanted to integrate several things into my life as well as give myself some challenges all in all i completed ten 30 day challenges there weren t a total of 12 because i usually paused for about a week in between the challenges all together here were the projects i took on in 2011 in order six items or less for one month i selected only six items of clothing and wore only those things in a challenge to pare down and simplify both my closet and daily life giving project every day i gave something whether that was money volunteered time donated used goods something meditation i committed to a mindful disciplined meditation every day to see what positive effects that might have the happiness project following gretchen rubin s book chronicling her year experiment with creating her own happiness i embarked on a conscious study of practices that bring more internal sustainable joy to daily living sustainability challenge though i already strive to live as eco friendly as possible i wanted to learn more about sustainable living and incorporate habits into my life that would reduce my carbon footprint locavore for one month i committed to eating local and organic as much as possible again this is something i do a lot of already but i wanted to see what would happen if i really strived to do away with processed shipped artificial and packaged foods as entirely as possible and live off farmers markets and local food living on a discount my rules for this challenge were to buy nothing except non negotiable fixed items such as rent and insurance that was not discounted by at least 30 i used a lot of groupons and similar deal sites won some things bargain shopped like it was a competitive sport and took advantage of lots of free stuff photo challenge here i jumped on the bandwagon of existing 30 day photo challenges and shared a photograph every day according to pre set subjects such as someone you miss and 10 things about you learning i enthusiastically set about to learn as many new things as i could from dance and hot glass blowing to language lessons and new cooking skills i even took a pilot lesson and flew a plane 30 ways in 30 days my last challenge of the year was in conjunction with take part which offers a simple action every day that you can take to make the world a better place so how was it all what did i learn and am i still doing any of the practices the short answer is yes a lot of them i really looked at 2011 and this entire project as my year of living consciously for the most part a lot of us go through life just getting from one task to the next planning dinner or the next day repeating the same mistakes or bad habits sort of drifting through life without being really cognizant of what we are doing the life we are creating with our thoughts we make the world said the buddha put another way john lennon famously remarked life is what happens to you when you re busy making other plans and so days pass unheralded months and then years slowly trickle by and we realize that we haven t done so many of the things we set out to do we wanted to do we are getting older and still we have not lived i don t want life to be that way living mindfully means most of all focusing on the present moment the now it s all we have really this actual moment happening right now be there enjoy it or at least learn from it here are my main take aways from my 30 days at a time challenge stuff clutters our lives and our minds i m no austere minimalist don t get me wrong i have my share of things but by and large i try to be selective about possessions that have real value and meaning to me after my six items or less challenge i cleaned out my closet and gave lots of stuff away i did the same with other items during the giving and sustainability projects in the never ending rush of accumulation and consumerism that seems to drive so much of american life stuff becomes our master have too much of it and it begins to own you we choose to be happy and create our own happiness in our minds by and large of course events and situations can be painful tragic and traumatic at those times we are often unhappy stressed or even grief stricken but i m talking about the permanent ongoing baseline not fluctuations of circumstance true happiness is internal not external not reliant on other people or things or events we make our own happiness every single day we should never stop learning i believe that the minute we stop being curious about the world that s the minute we start to become old i always remember a story someone told me years ago about standing in line for college registration behind an elderly man after striking up a conversation the young student asked the co registering man how old he was 80 was the reply but don t you realize you ll be 84 by the time you finish college to which the old man replied son i ll be 84 anyway giving really is better than receiving really it s been scientifically proven people who give or volunteer their time are happier themselves and generally healthier than people who don t there s even a documented phenomenon called the helper s high even though i ve always volunteered and supported loved organizations doing so on a daily basis in my giving project really showed me this the days when i most didn t feel like doing it the days i was in a hurry or stressed out or it wasn t such a great day were the days when that act of thinking of someone else taking me out of my own little world and problems was the thing that turned my whole day around and made it better surround yourself with people who inspire you it took me a long time to learn to weed negative toxic soul sucking people out of my life we can t always pick and choose and have to get along with people who are in our paths at work etc but as far as people you let into your inner circle your entire life it s just as with food what you bring into it is what you ll get from it i am blessed to have a wonderful partner loving family and some of the most awesome friends in the world i have made a conscious choice to leave toxic people out of my life and surround myself with the pretty darn wonderful don t be with people who make you miserable be with people who make your spirit soar living well doesn t have to be expensive going back to that idea of living more simply with less stuff it s also been proven that experiences bring us more lasting happiness than things in most places there are a wealth of things you can do for free or really inexpensively that add to your quality of life from free music to street fairs and museums or simply take an hour to look at flowers with your child or take a walk with your partner what we do really matters paying attention to little things around the house that suck energy buying a lot of food from your local farmer rather than stuff that s been trucked thousands of miles by a corporation all these things add up they may seem small but there are seven billion people on our planet now if enough of them do enough small things we really do affect the world there s no excuse not to live consciously mindfully with intention every moment as far as we know we only have this one life let s make it count thank you for coming with me on this journey for 2012 you might want to jump on over to my new blog trading places i m just getting it set up it s all about the places around the world i will go during the year learning new things and meeting new people and chronicling how these regular local people all over the planet live their daily lives and you can always find me on my website as well i wish you a happy prosperous peaceful new year namaste tags 30 days at a time farewell new year resolutions comments 10 comments categories 30 ways in 30 days the results 30 days at a time in 2011 30 dec wordpress sent me an end of the year recap of how 30 days at a time did and i thought it was interesting enough to share what were some of my top posts in terms of readers and comments first of all the overall stats according to wordpress the concert hall at the syndey opera house holds 2 700 people this blog was viewed about 25 000 times in 2011 if it were a concert at sydney opera house it would take about 9 sold out performances for that many people to see it my busiest day was on february 9th with 409 views of my post do the clothes make the person this was from my first challenge the six items or less experiment the second most popular post ever was false happiness or don t believe american television the post that was the most commented on in 2011 was eating local organic better health better taste this was largely due to a lot of crazies who somehow took offense to the fact that i had decided to eat less meat go figure here is a recap of the top five posts of the year thanks again everyone for helping to make it an awesome journey comments leave a comment categories 30 ways in 30 days doing good during the holidays 30 dec so the past week s 30 ways in 30 days actions have centered around the holidays and what we can do at this time of year through small actions to make the world a better place i m not going to list all the week s actions you can find them at take part s website but here are a few of my favorites skip the mall make edible gifts this is one of my favorites because i am not really into holiday gift giving i don t care for the over consumption and the excess that comes with holidays nor do i care for the stress that goes along with people running around buying presents for other people who don t need anything i prefer to buy something for someone i care about whenever i see something that i know they would cherish i also like giving consumables so this action was perfect continue reading tags 30 ways in 30 days christmas diy wrapping edible gifts holiday cooking holidays sustainable food take part tree recycling wrapping paper alternatives comments leave a comment categories 30 ways in 30 days it s all about protecting kids 21 dec last week s 30 ways in 30 days actions were all about the kids here s what we did buy a pencil to send a child to school it takes so little to send a child to school in the developing world if you have a bit of cash to spare consider donating 25 to pencils of promise to help educate a child for one year i wrote about pencils of promise before when i donated to them as part of my 30 days of giving project when you give you ll get a symbolic black pencil that says this pencil educates one child continue reading tags child labor hunger pencils of promise salvation army comments leave a comment categories 30 ways in 30 days toys trees and turtles 15 dec i ve kept up with my 30 ways in 30 days project in spite of being out of the country on a press trip here are the actions that i ve taken in the last few days donate a toy to toys for tots do you remember unwrapping the my little pony or transformer that you d been dreaming about all year help give a a little boy or girl a special holiday this year by donating a toy to toys for tots i decided to make my toy donation to my friend janet who is running a toy drive in honor of her son luke for santa rosa children s hospital in san antonio texas luke died a little over two years ago from dipg an extremely rare brain stem cancer he was 10 years old you can read a story i wrote about him and janet here we also appeared on good day austin to talk about the fight against childhood cancer continue reading tags children domestic workers donation endangered species forests help manatees toys trees turtles comments leave a comment categories 30 ways in 30 days older entries wanna keep up wanna keep up i promise not to post more than 2 3 times a week email address subscribe join 69 other subscribers featured posts final thoughts on my year of living consciously here it is the last day of 2011 and with it i have come to the end of my 30 days at a time challenge during this year i have taken on different projects to incorporate into my life for 30 days most people agree that it takes somewhere between 21 and 30 days to ingrain a new habit into your life and i wanted to integrate several things into my life as well as give myself some challenges here i share what i ve learned the results 30 days at a time in 2011 wordpress sent me an end of the year recap of how 30 days at a time did and i thought it was interesting enough to share what were some of my top posts in terms of readers and comments first of all the blog was viewed about 25 000 times in 2011 wow thanks readers doing good during the holidays the past week s 30 ways in 30 days actions have centered around the holidays and what we can do at this time of year through small actions to make the world a better place i m not going to list all the week s actions you can find them at take part s website but here are a few of my favorites it s all about protecting kids last week s 30 ways in 30 days actions were all about the kids actions included buying pencils for school children downloading an app to make sure your purchases aren t made with child labor and taking the hunger quiz to feed a child toys trees and turtles i ve kept up with my 30 ways in 30 days project in spite of being out of the country on a press trip here are the actions that i ve taken in the last few days which include donating toys for children saving the trees and turtles and also thinking about what help means categories 30 ways in 30 days 8 giving project 9 happiness project 8 learning 9 living on a discount 8 locavore 13 meditation 5 photo challenge 11 six items or less 11 sustainability 7 archives archives select month december 2011 november 2011 october 2011 september 2011 august 2011 july 2011 june 2011 may 2011 april 2011 march 2011 february 2011 january 2011 30 days articles media austin chronicle adventures in fashion austin woman fashion diet city s best austin 6 items or less culturemap austin the eating local project culturemap austin the giving project culturemap austin the happiness project culturemap austin the living on a discount project givingcity austin giving experiment good day austin 6 items good day austin giving st baldricks in gredients eating local challenge my writing website twitter updates tweets by shelleyseale sites i dig how to travel for free beauty schooled 46 mommas shift your habit the well everday language learner borrowed sugar atx hipsters little fish sustainable food center be the change book club the sustainable gourmet austin gastronomist dress your truth living holistically with humor happiness project natgeo green guide greenling eat local challenge empowering world change travel sherpa keith create a free website or blog at wordpress com 30 days at a time blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed 30 days at a 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