Me & My Quite Contrary Life

NUDGED: "Meditate for 5 days" BACKSTORY: I have tried meditation in the past but it never went well or lasted more than a few days. I either had too many thoughts running through my head or I fell asleep. However, I keep reading and hearing about all the great benefits of meditation, so I want to commit to it for a week and see if I can make some progress. Will I see any benefits or will I fall asleep? QUOTE: "The goal of meditation is not to get rid of thoughts or emotions. The goal is to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions and learn how to move through them without getting stuck." - Dr. P. Goldin HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I was given two ideas to start with for helping with mediation. One: check out Crystal Bowl Sound Healing, which is listening to relaxing harmonic tones made by crystal bowls for meditation. The Butterfly House in Sioux Falls offers this once a month (soothing sounds while surrounded by 800-1000 butterflies!) and I heard that it

NUDGED: "Risk losing money" BACKSTORY: I am naturally a saver and don't like to risk money when there is a chance that I will lose it. I like to receive something when I spend money! I have never purchased a lottery ticket, and don't normally gamble more than a few dollars. Thus, this challenge is perfect for nudging me out of my financial comfort zone. It's time to spend some money! QUOTE: "What's funny about risk is that it generally looks a whole lot smaller once you've gotten to the other side." - Adam Carroll HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I had to make a plan first before I spent some money this week (go planners!). One of the guidelines of my Nudges Project is that it has to be inexpensive. This ruled out a trip to the casino, which also didn't work due to time constraints. I decided buying lottery tickets was a better option for me then, as they are less expensive and easily accessible. I realized I didn't know what I was doing a

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT UPDATE : One of my past nudges was featured this week on Kathleen Guthrie Woods' 52 Nudges blog ! She is the original founder of the 52 Nudges project, which inspired me to start my own challenge a year ago. Check out what happened with that nudge and what I learned, as well as many of her past nudges for inspiration on your own project. Thanks again for featuring me Kathleen! You have a cheerleader and faithful reader in South Dakota! And now let's return to our regularly scheduled programming.... NUDGED: "Learn the names of people I come in contact with" BACKSTORY: Names are important to people. My pet peeve is when a person's name is misspelled, which comes from my Journalism education (where it is unacceptable to misspell a name in print!). But, how can you misspell a name if you don't even know it? It's hard to admit that I really don't notice nametags or ask for people's names, even those people I see regularly.

NOTE : Make sure to read all the way to the end for a special announcement! NUDGED: "Make a Pinterest board of my favorite things" BACKSTORY: Even though I like the website/application and all the pretty things you can find on it, I haven't been on Pinterest in a long time and it has been even longer since I last created a new board. My goal for this nudge was to create a vision board of all my favorite things. This begs the questions: what are my favorite things? Who am I as a person? What do I want my future to look like? QUOTE: "You are the author of your life. If you don't like how it goes, write it differently." - Jesse Lyn Stoner HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK: I was a little apprehensive starting this week as I had no idea how it would turn out. I struggle making vision boards on paper as I don't have a clear vision for how to start. Ha! I was brave and took the first baby step for this nudge: I created a new board called "Favorite things&

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. ... You must do the thing you think you cannot do." I love this quote and think it is so applicable to my life this year. I realized that I have gotten less brave (or more fearful) as I have gotten older. I have gotten comfortable and don't take many risks. Therefore, I challenged myself to get out of my comfort zone and do the things that scare me. My motto for 2019 is "Be Brave" and what a big year it's been so far! The year is not even over yet and I have already made some huge improvements in this area. Full disclosure - this has required countless pep talks with myself in those moments of courage, including repeating the following phrases: "I am a big, brave girl" and "I am enough" and "I can do this". And lots of deep breaths!!! I decided to look back over the last 9 mon