33 | The Peaceful Phone Challenge

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Do you ever find yourself turning to your

phone without even thinking about it?

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Or do you get sucked into

scrolling and regret not using

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that time for something else?

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You are not alone.

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I'm Alex, a Screen Time Mentor for

Young Moms, and I'm here to help you

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get a grip on your own screen time

so you can be present, intentional,

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and live a more fulfilling life.

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Welcome to the Mindful With Media Podcast.

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Welcome today.

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I'm going to be sharing more details

of the peaceful phone challenge.

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And when this episode goes live,

tomorrow will be Thanksgiving.

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I love this time of year and music

just adds to the joy of the season.

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So.

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A couple of years ago, I put together

a Thanksgiving playlist and I'll

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include it in the show notes.

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It's for all of you who give

me a hard time about listening

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to Christmas music too early.

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And I only know of a few

specific Thanksgiving songs.

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So.

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The music on this playlist are songs

that give me the Thanksgiving feels.

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So they're all about family and

gratitude and coming home and just

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relishing and simple goodness.

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But this time of year can

also be a little bit crazy.

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The holidays include lots of events,

family breakfasts, Christmas parties.

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Church programs, et cetera,

et cetera, et cetera.

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It can be overwhelming with gifts,

deciding what to buy and ordering

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gifts and wrapping presents.

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And.

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Lots of traveling this time of year.

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And there always can be some family

drama when you get together with people.

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It's just.

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A lot that happens this time

of year with all the holidays.

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And if you remember in episode 26 of

the podcast, I talked about the power

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of living intentionally that you really

have so much power in how you live your

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life and what you experience in life.

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And that's something that I really

try to lean into to this idea that . I

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get to design a life that I love.

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And if you missed that episode,

make sure to listen to it.

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It's called stop.

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Living your life on

autopilot it's episode 26.

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But in relation to this concept of.

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Living a life that you want to live.

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I've been reflecting on the upcoming

holidays and I've been thinking about

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what I want my experiences to be

and what I want to feel this season.

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And there were two words

that kept coming to my mind.

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And those words were peaceful.

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And present.

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So during this time of year, that can

be chaotic and overwhelming and busy.

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I really want to feel peace.

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I really want to slow down and

just be still and feel calm and

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restful and quiet and tranquil.

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So while I can't control the world and

the things that happen around me, I can

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control myself and how I feel inside.

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And later on in the episode,

I'm going to be sharing how I

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plan to do that this season.

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The second word that I want to feel

this season is I want to be present.

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So being present means

that you're focused.

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And engaged in the here and now, and

you're not distracted or mentally

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absent, so whatever you're doing.

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In whatever moment you're totally focused

and totally engaged in that moment.

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So in this season of.

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Gathering and family and.

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Focusing on Christ in a lot of ways.

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That's, I'm a Christian and I believe

in Christ and I really believe in.

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And focusing on Christ this season.

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It's really easy to feel distracted

or my mind can start racing about all

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of the things that I need to do or get

done, but I really want to feel focused

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and engaged with the people I'm with

and on the things that I'm experiencing

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at this beautiful time of year.

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I don't want to be worried or

distracted or mentally absent.

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I really want to relish in the good

that comes from this time of year.

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So in order to feel peace and be present

this time of year, I've decided to

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take on a 30 day challenge that I'm

calling the peaceful phone challenge.

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And I will start this

on Saturday, November 25th.

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And I'll do it each day until Sunday.

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December 24th.

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So it's basically from Thanksgiving

until Christmas and each day I'm

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going to be doing three things.

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First.

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I'm going to charge my

phone outside of my room.

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And you hear people talk about doing this.

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But until you try it, you don't

realize what a difference it makes.

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As I've charged my phone in

a different room at night.

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. It gives my mind time to

relax before falling asleep.

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And my mind doesn't race about

everything like it used to.

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I have time to think, to ponder,

to process, to disconnect

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from the noise of the world.

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And I'll have to say.

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If you're not used to doing this, it can

feel a little uncomfortable at first to.

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Not have anything to.

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Distract your mind.

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As you are getting ready to go to bed.

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And I talk a little bit more about

that in episode 20 of the podcast, how

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to make yourself go to bed on time.

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But charging my phone outside of my room.

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I really feel like this will

help me to feel more peace and

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be more present this season.

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Because as I do this, I also have

time to connect with myself and

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connect with God in the morning.

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And just that little distance

between me and my phone.

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Create space for me to breathe,

to feel peace, to feel present.

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And if you've never done this before,

if you've never charged your phone

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in a different room, You might

have some doubts coming up or it

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might feel a little bit daunting.

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You might be wondering.

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How will you wake up without an alarm?

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Or what if someone needs

to get a hold of you?

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Or what, if you miss an important

message and you get to decide

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what will work best for you, but I

really encourage you to just try it.

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By a super cheap alarm clock.

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If you need to, I used to use an alarm.

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That I bought on Amazon and now I

just use the alarm on my apple watch.

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And you might miss

important messages, but.

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Honestly, most likely you won't.

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And to me, the risk of maybe

missing something is totally worth

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the trade-off of not missing.

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Feeling peaceful and present.

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The second thing that I'm

going to do each day of this.

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30 day.

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Peaceful phone challenge.

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Is I'm going to put my phone

in a different room for five

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minutes and be fully present.

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So one time, each day, I will

choose to be fully present by

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putting my phone in another room.

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And fully engaging with

whoever or whatever I'm doing.

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And this might seem like

such a short amount of time.

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And like, it wouldn't make a difference

because honestly, I probably already

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do this without thinking about it,

but intentionally doing this each day.

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Has compounding effects.

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Research shows that when you

practice being present, this makes

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it easier for you to not only

deal with something stressful.

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That happens right then in that

moment, but you're also better able

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to cope with stressful things that

happen later, whether that's the

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same day or farther in the future.

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So during this crazy time of year,

when stressful things can happen or.

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Family drama can happen or

whatever high things can happen.

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As I.

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Practice being fully present

for just five minutes a day.

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I really think this will help me

to feel more peace this season.

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And also there is power and being

completely present for even a

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really short period of time.

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Rather than like partially present only

partly there for a longer period of time.

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Whether that's with your kids

or your spouse or your friends.

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The quality of your time often

matters more than the quantity.

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So for me to make it easier to

remember, to actually do this each day.

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I'm going to choose a

specific time each day.

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And I've decided that I want to

be fully present with my husband.

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For the five minutes

after our kids go to bed.

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But if you choose to join in

this challenge, feel free to

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do whatever works best for you.

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You could choose a new person each day.

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You can choose a new activity each day.

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You could do it right before you go to

bed, you could do it right after nap time.

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You could do it right before nap time.

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You could do it during dinner

or during lunch or breakfast,

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whatever it is just choose.

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One five minute chunk and a day.

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To put your phone away and be fully

engaged with whoever or whatever

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you're doing in that moment.

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The third thing that I'm going to

do each day of this challenge is to

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use my phone to uplift social media

and smartphones often get a bad rap.

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And it's true that when we're not

intentional with our phone use, it

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can be a negative thing, but wow, I

am so grateful to live in this day and

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age of technology because there's so

much good we can do with our phones.

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So each day during this challenge,

I will intentionally use my

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phone as a tool to uplift.

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Whether that's texting someone or calling

someone or posting something uplifting on

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social media, watching an uplifting video,

learning a new skill, finding a recipe

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on my phone and making that for someone.

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Looking at pictures of happy

memories on my phone, sending a

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picture of a good memory to someone.

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Connecting with my son by looking

at the funny filters, like putting

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funny filters on our faces.

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And I'll be sharing what I do

each day on Instagram stories.

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So you can watch those to get ideas of

how you want to use your phone to uplift.

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And I'd also love to hear

what you choose to do as well.

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So you can use the hashtag the

peaceful phone challenge, and then

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also tag my account mindful with media

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, if you want to join me in the

peaceful phone challenge, I will

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include a link in the show notes

where you can sign up for free.

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And I just want to make a note that.

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This is already a crazy time of year.

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And so I don't want this to feel

like an extra thing, but I really

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do believe that intentionally doing

these three things each day will

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make this season more peaceful.

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And one where I will be more present.

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And if I miss a day, then.

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I'm not going to think twice about it.

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In fact, I'm going to get excited.

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Listen to last week's episode,

where we talk about expecting and

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embracing mistakes, episode 32 and.

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And just see it as anything I

do is good and extra and not.

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Stop the challenge because

I don't do it perfectly.

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And I hope you'll join me again.

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I'll put the link in the show

notes for, you can sign up for the

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challenge for free, and it has a

little, I'll send you a worksheet

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where you can check off if you do it.

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Honestly, I don't really

like checking off things.

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I like just doing it for the doing it.

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So I'm not going to use the check

box thing, but you are welcome to.

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And I'm really looking forward to.

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This holiday season of peace

and of really being present.