Aerisand

I will for sure be joining the next challenge. I think I'll start small; 3 items only. 1. Quit smoking 2. Meditate 3. ... Something something

Coming back from a long long break. I find myself at a point where I've realized I won't be able to rise alone. It is and will be a bumpy ride, yet I'm willing to do whatever it takes. How could I forget how awesome it is to be part of the rebellion? I hope you can take me back, ashes and all.

Ready, oh yes. Greetings, fellow travelers.

The challenge has been posted as Aeri's Game!

AERI'S GAME Last invisible-challenge, Aeri approached a wormhole, it accelerated things on some areas though she wasn't much in control. It's time to get back on track, and do some tracking! The challenge is: steering the wild beast of choice. "To be mindful, to smile, to love and live." CHALLENGE BRIEF Dailies: Daily tracking on a 4-part checkbox, in my calendar. Ritual morning Study Review Ritual night Weeklies: Will analyse performance by the end of each week, brief notes will go on the calendar next to that week. Feedback Improve processes To be tracked here: CHALLENGE IN DETAIL Ritual morning [20 min] [5] Meditate [1] Detox [2] Dump Mental RAM [2] Energy [5] Warm up & Stretch [1] Cleanse [2] Remember Death, Purpose & What matters [2] Daily Highlight & Gratitude [1] Mindful onward Study [30 min per subject, 2 subjects per day] Tackle today's step(s) Subjects have been scheduled in advance Learning progression has been mapped and steps specified for all subjects Review [15 min per subject] Main takeaways Ritual night [35 min] [1] Mindful onward [5] Intent & Visceral Mental Rehearsal [5] Feel, Acknowledge & Let go [5] Cleanse & Maintain [4] Prep Power Food [5] Journal & Dump Mental RAM [5] Declutter [5] Meditate

Hi! Yes, it's a very short routine, meant to be able to do it daily before going to work in order to get pumped up and moving. It is on the "Warm up and Stretch" item; part of the Ritual Morning.

Finish the journey/writing cards Update my resume Identify experience and knowledge gaps vs immediate career goal Specify challenge Create the timers for the rituals Adjust Study schedules in TimeTune app Start playing

STUFF TO DO Color the game board to make it easier to see the different blocks. Re-write the quests information neatly, and preferably keep it with the board Mark the places where I get to write about my journey Prepare the rituals' new card with the changes, and the timers.

The idea of a ritual first came to me thanks to the "Miracle Morning" book by Hal Elrod. He uses the "SAVERS" for his ritual: Silence: meditation, prayer, something of the like Affirmations: who you want to be Visualization: see the outcome you want in your mind, for goals, today, etc Exercise: a routine down to the essentials if you don't have much time in the morning Reading: learn a new idea or get inspired Scribing: pretty much journaling; what you're grateful for, what you're proud of, what results you're committed to today Later, I read similar ideas or parts of them in different books and blog posts, and I think Holistic Learning could also be related to part of this. So I've slightly adjusted this to try to integrate everything I find essential for a good day, or at least get closer to it. DETOX Detox I think it's important to detox ourselves from time to time, in every possible area (mental, emotional, physical, spiritual even). However I only call it "detox" for the physical one, since it's the familiar concept. This one refers to drinking green tea and plenty of water, or doing anything similar, while consciously being aware it is with this purpose. Cleanse & Maintain Another kind of physical detox, keeps us healthy and it also helps us feel good about ourselves; geared more towards hygiene and appearance. Declutter This is one way of environmental detox. Removing unnecessary things and organizing, even if done little by little (or especially when done little by little), will ensure my place stays neat and pretty, and it is less of a hassle to tidy up. Dump Mental RAM This is my mental detox. We clear our mind by writing everything and anything coming from it; ideas can be stored for later; worries, pending tasks, itches and pains; they all can be dumped into paper, this way they will stop nagging at us and be available for action or analysis if needed. Feel, Acknowledge & Let go This is my emotional detox. Instead of hiding from emotions, we face them, we make them real and take them in our hands. We actually feel them and acknowledge them as they are; we say "this is what you are." We let them be and let go. Whenever they show up, we do this and let go; like saying "Oh, there you are. See you! Bye bye!" ENERGY Power Food When rushing through the day, it is important to make room for just enough food that will provide an energy boost (from how amazingly healthy it is, would be best). Energy Same thing as power food, except here we get energy by practicing how to cultivate energy; through Tai Chi, Qi Gong, or something similar. Warm up & Stretch This is to generate physical energy by moving, truly wake up, improve mood and mobility. AWARENESS Meditation I'd been reading about meditation last year. Recently discovered several ideas and practices I'd read and re-read for the past 15 years can be found in Buddhism. So, now I've been reading about Buddhist meditation and practices (and Buddhism, because how could I not). They talk about several stages you can go through while meditating, and I'm definitely interested in doing the work. One of my quest lines is closely linked to this, so this is an essential part of my daily ritual(s). Remember Death, Purpose & What matters By remembering death (a.k.a. impermanence) it's simpler to know what's important, this goes hand in hand with being aware of our chosen purpose in life (or our purpose right now, if it seems easier to grasp), and therefore we will be able to focus on the best things to do. Journal, Daily Highlight & Gratitude This is basically writing about the day that's just begun. Selecting our daily highlight (borrowed from the book "Make Time" by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky) means we choose the one thing that if taken care of will make us feel proud of our day. And we also make sure to note what we're grateful for, as a way to begin the day with the glass half full. Mindful onward This is simply taking a minute to be fully mindful in order to be able to stay mindful for as long as possible. You could call it a short act of willpower to get the ball rolling. Intent & Visceral Mental Rehearsal This is a special kind of visualization, or very specific. It takes involving all your senses when going through the mental picture of your day (goals, an upcoming event or something similar) as if you're living it right now. Doing this with focus and direction can be powerful intent. I just noticed there are three kinds of actions, right after writing about them: Awareness, Detox and Energy. I am pleased And I've now modified the morning ritual after analyzing what can be done in a shorter time, done after arriving at work or best be done at night. Ritual morning [20 min] [5] Meditate [1] Detox [2] Dump Mental RAM [2] Energy [5] Warm up & Stretch [1] Cleanse [2] Remember Death, Purpose & What matters [2] Daily Highlight & Gratitude [1] Mindful onward The night ritual is very similar, except it goes backwards on purpose. In the morning we want to wind up, so we don't want to associate the same pattern at nighttime. We start calm, we end calm. We ground on mindfulness. Ritual night [35 min] [1] Mindful onward [5] Intent & Visceral Mental Rehearsal [5] Feel, Acknowledge & Let go [5] Cleanse & Maintain [4] Prep Power Food [5] Journal & Dump Mental RAM [5] Declutter [5] Meditate You might notice another pattern in the rituals, they both start and end with awareness. I think they look better now. I will see about finishing the remaining tasks tomorrow, for having everything ready. I've also got to prepare the rituals' new card with the changes, and the timers.

The system I'll be using for challenges is going to be backed up by my Epic Quest's system, so they move forward together; one is contained in the other. I decided to reduce the areas I'll be working on by prioritizing what I actually care about, this produced three main areas plus health (health is a must, hahah). So, this is my Epic Quest's board, below. I think I should color this to make it easier to see the different blocks. Each block is a chain of quests in a particular subject: Career/calling quests Spiritual quests Communication/social quests Health quests (not going too deep on research here, since I think I've already given enough time to that and just need to state basics and standards from what I've read) Endgame quests (for when all the others have been completed, final block) This works kind of like a board game, except your character moves on 3 to 4 paths at the same time. The quests are numbered so it's easy to know what's next. I have the quests' information (a title is all you need for these) written somewhere else, need to re-write it neatly, and preferably keep it with the board. A title is all you need to know for each quest, because all quests follow the same system: they are items meant to be learned thoroughly. Borrowing the "Holistic Learning" system from Scott H. Young, and making each quest be about: Gathering information and roughly understanding it Learning that information Exploring/expanding that information Applying that information and learning from it Mapping what was learned and tying it together with anything else that's been learned These are actually 10 steps in my system, for simplicity. While moving ahead, there are spots on the board where treasures can be found and/or where it's time for a small project to put our skills to the test, and at some points we get to write about our journey. So we start at quest 1 for each block, start at point 1 for Holistic Learning, and every day we take the time to play this game = do the challenge. Here is the calendar I printed. You can see the full year in one page. Borrowed and modified this from Dave Seah's "Compact Calendar". Thank you guys for stopping by! @LittleTurtle @Mindrah @Jean So, you guys asked about the rituals, how and why. This will be answered later today!

Hello guys! I've been away for quite a while. Still working to improve at life though hadn't structured a challenge or written much about it online. I've started planning my next challenge. Needs some adjusting and comments would be very appreciated! I will be editing it on my Battle Log until a new challenge arises, (or I choose to keep tracking it there XD ) Love, - Aeri

Planning next challenge... Need to set up some sort of alarm system for timing the rituals, could use the one I used to use for working out. Will print out a calendar that fits in one page for daily tracking. Not sure if I'll carry it with me or keep it at home. I have a separate tracking system for the learning progression, but this isn't meant to be marked daily, it's meant to track progress in each mission/subject (it's my new Epic Quest system, haven't updated it here though). I wonder if 45 minutes before leaving for work is too much. Maybe I should leave for work first, and then continue the morning ritual at work before starting my shift. I'm barely able to get up on time as it is now. Or I could try switching up activities from both morning and night rituals. Or I could remove some that are repeated in both so they only show up once. Or I could move most activities to the night ritual and keep only the essential for a good mood/day plan in the morning... Well, there's still some time for planning and changing things. This is the basis I want for my challenge though. ____________________________________ UNKNOWN TITLE Last invisible-challenge, Aeri approached a wormhole, it accelerated things on some areas though she wasn't much in control. It's time to get back on track, and do some tracking. The challenge is steering the wild beast of choice. "To be mindful, to smile, to love and live." CHALLENGE BRIEF Dailies: Daily tracking on a 4-part checkbox, in my calendar. Ritual morning Study Review Ritual night Weeklies: Will analyse performance by the end of each week, brief notes will go on the calendar next to that week. Feedback Improve processes CHALLENGE IN DETAIL Ritual morning [45 min] [5] Meditate [1] Detox [3] Declutter [5] Dump Mental RAM [2] Power Food [5] Energy [5] Warm up & Stretch [5] Cleanse & Maintain [5] Remember Death, Purpose & What matters [5] Journal, Daily Highlight & Gratitude [1] Mindful onward Study Tackle today's step(s) Subjects have been scheduled in advance Learning progression has been mapped and steps specified for all subjects Review [~10 min] Main takeaways Ritual night [30 min] [1] Mindful onward [5] Intent & Visceral Mental Rehearsal [5] Feel, Acknowledge & Let go [5] Cleanse & Maintain [5] Dump Mental RAM [3] Declutter [1] Detox [5] Meditate