Comfort Zone Challenge - Day 2

Image courtesy of khunaspix at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It's only day two of this Comfort Zone Challenge, and already I find myself waxing philosophical on the reasons why we create for ourselves this limiting zone in the first place.  I'm beginning to think that maybe we have comfort zones, merely because we set hard and fast rules for ourselves of what we can and can't accomplish, and accept those limitations as fact.  Everything changes when we allow ourselves to challenge those limitations.  The more I think about this principle, the more apparent it becomes that I have set these limits for myself in so many areas of my life.

For example, I love yoga.  I love how I can practically feel myself growing taller and stronger with each practice.  I love the inward focus, and the union of body and mind and spirit.  I've practiced yoga for years now, and have loved every moment of reflection on the mat, and have no doubt benefitted from countless sun salutations.  I have however, found a level of yoga that I'm pretty comfortable with, and almost subconsciously convinced myself that I had reached my limit.  I love to watch experienced yogis defy gravity in advanced yoga poses, but I have stayed comfortable in my limited yoga, because I rarely dare to consider that maybe I can do it too!  Comfortable is the enemy of growth!

So, I challenged my perceived limitations, and I pushed myself hard.  I'm pretty sure I narrowly avoided serious injury, and yet, it felt awesome!

I tried yoga poses that I've never even heard of.  I was definitely awkward and ungraceful, but I tried something that stretched my comfort zone, (literally).  Some of the poses, admittedly, are still out of my reach, but I am reaching, and trying, and that is progress.  There was a surreal moment in my practice where I tried and succeeded at a pose way outside of my yoga level of comfort, called, "Bird of Paradise".  At that moment, with arms wrapped around and stretching further than I thought possible, balancing precariously and proud, I felt amazing!  I felt unstoppablable!

It didn't take much to convince myself that it wasn't too hard to push the limits of my cofort zone a little wider.  When we question our limitations, and really try, we might surprise ourselves with what we can do.

Namaste'

Today's a new day, let's make it purposeful!
Kara

Comfort Zone Challenge - Day 1

For my first day of the comfort zone challenge, I decided to face my culinary nemesis.

I am a cooking show junkie.  I've been watching Martha Stewart, Ree Drummind, and Paula Dean make cooking look easy, for years.  Inspired and motivated by my favorite cooking mentors, I've ventured deep into the culinary world, attempting breads and pastries, currys and stews, meatballs and marinara, and a myriad of other complicated and intricate recipes, with excitement and confidence.  In all these years of cooking however, I've never dared to undertake the mother of all intimidating recipes...

The Formidable Soufflé!

I've longed for years to be part of the culinary elite who could pull of such a feat, but fear of failure has kept me from trying.  Yesterday, in the name of comfort zone redefinition, I faced my fear of separating eggs, and whisking stiff peaks, and attempted to make a soufflé for the first time.  It felt amazing, just to give it a shot!  I have to say, it wasn't easy.  I was an anxious mess, worrying about getting the details right, and achieving that puffed perfection that makes a soufflé.  When the moment of reckoning came, and I carefully opened the oven to remove my hopefully perfect soufflé, it was...ah, not so perfect.  The signiture soufflé puff that I was hoping for was wimpy, at best.  I felt as deflated as my soufflé looked.  I so wanted to nail this recipe!  I was pretty disappointed at first, until I remembered that perfection is not the object of stretching our comfort zones.  It is in the trying that we truly find success.  Plus, it tasted amazing, and most importantly, I made it!  I made a soufflé!

What will you do to grow your comfort zone today?  Share in the comments!  I'd love to hear about it!

Today's a new day, let's make it purposeful!
Kara

30 Day Comfort Zone Challenge

   

      I am not a runner.  There.  I said it.  I've been living in denial for over twenty years now, maybe longer.  There is something about running that I've always been drawn to.  There's something so romantic about waking at the crack of dawn, lacing up my very cool Adidas, and running for miles, confident, fast, and strong.  My experience with running however, has been nowhere near this romantic ideal in my head.  The reality of me as a runner goes a little more like this...Stumble out of bed, well after the crack of dawn, lace up my not so stylish, pink running shoes that my well intentioned husband bought me for Christmas a couple of years ago, and hit the trail with initial motivation and confidence, only to be quickly overrun, by the end of mile one, with an overwhelming desire to be at home reading a book, and never, ever, run again.  And yet, a couple of days later, I willingly, and excitedly, lace up my unattractive running shoes, and do it all over again.  Why do I torture myself?  I am not a born runner.  Why do I persist in trying?  I like the challenge.  I like the growth.  I like the dream of being a runner, and that is enough motivation to keep on trucking.


     Whether it's running, or baking, or Shakespeare, or speaking in public, we all have areas in our life that are entirely outside of our comfort zone.  It's certainly easier to cruise along, well within the boundaries of what is familiar, and easy, and comfortable.  Living life on this cruise control setting however, leaves little opportunity for growth and adventure.  What could we gain by expanding our comfort zones, by taking a risk, trying something knew, or enduring a little awkward, for a big life experience. 

     I don't think that it's necessary to take giant leaps out of our comfort zones to be successful.  Little
steps are none the less, steps in the right direction.  It is in the daily, purposeful, choices we make, that we expand our comfort zones, a little at a time.

     I'm a sucker for a challenge, so here goes.

     I'm going to challenge myself, (and you), to a:

   30 Day Comfort Zone Challenge!

    
      Each day for the next month, I am going to push the limits of my comfort zone.  I am a fan of slow and steady, so I may not jump out of a plane, or wrestle an alligator, (you never know), but I will stretch myself in the direction of my dreams, and steadily and perhaps even awkwardly step foot outside of my circle of comfort. 

     Will you join me?  What have you always wanted to try?  Will you finally attempt to make Chicken Tikka Masala for dinner, or convince your spouse to take a Ballroom dancing class with you?

     Let me know what you try, and I'll keep you posted on my small, daily, steps toward the purposeful.

Today's a new day!  Let's make it purposeful! 
Kara

Sit Down, Don't Drive Through. The Importance of Family Dinners

“I don't know what it is about food your mother makes for you, especially when it's something that anyone can make - pancakes, meat loaf, tuna salad - but it carries a certain taste of memory.”  Mitch Albom

A Good Old Family Dinner. heights.edu

     When my mom was growing up, dinner time was steeped in ritual.  Each day of the week was assigned a specific, unchanging, meal.  Fish on Tuesday, Oyster Stew on Friday, week after week, after week.  By the time my mom grew up, and had a family of her own, though she hadn't learned to love Oyster Stew, she had gained a strong conviction of the importance of regular family dinners. 

     I love to think back, as a mother myself now, to those daily, consistent meals I experienced as a kid.  I remember walking in the back door around dinner time, greeted by good smells, clanking dishes, and instructions to help set the table.  I remember the comfort of favorite foods like mashed potatoes or peach cobbler.  I remember struggling to down one last bite of broccoli, and laughing at my brothers jokes.  I remember a sense of belonging, a sense of happy routine, and I remember love.  I wonder if my mom knew then the gift she was giving her family?  The gift of true nourishment to body and mind and spirit, through making family dinners a priority.

     For generations, families have gathered around the table, to share not just food, but time, and conversation, and wisdom.  What can we learn from this time-tested tradition of family dinners, and what do we lose when we let the frantic pace of our days push out this meaningful time, and replace it with the empty substitute of a hamburger in the car?

     Author Miriam Weinstein, in her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, describes this falling away from family dinners. 

     "We are living in a time of intense individualism, in a culture defined by competition and consumption.  It  has become an article of faith, that a parents job is to provide every child with every opportunity to find his particular talent, interest, or bliss.  But somehow, as we drive-thru our lives, we have given up on something so modest, so humble, so available, that we never realized it's worth.  Family supper can be a bulwark against the pressures we all face, everyday."
The Surprising Power of Family Meals 

     Do we realize the worth of family dinner?   

     Anne Fishel, a professor at Harvard Medical School, shared just how valuable consistently sitting down to a meal with our families can be, in her article in the Washington Post, The Most Important Thing You Can Do With Your Kids?  Eat Dinner With Them.

     "As a family therapist, I often have the impulse to tell families to go home and have dinner together rather than spending an hour with me. And 20 years of research in North America, Europe and Australia back up my enthusiasm for family dinners. It turns out that sitting down for a nightly meal is great for the brain, the body and the spirit. And that nightly dinner doesn’t have to be a gourmet meal that took three hours to cook, nor does it need to be made with organic arugula and heirloom parsnips"

     Ok, so I think a dinner of organic arugula and heirloom parsnips sounds pretty intriguing, actually.  But, she's right!  Dinner doesn't have to be fancy, or time consuming.  What it should be however, is consistent. 

     Fishel further explains how regular family dinners are good for us.

     "Those who eat lots of family dinners, are almost twice as likely to get A's in school, as their classmates who rarely eat as a family."

     There's more!

     "Researchers found that for young children, dinnertime conversation boosts vocabulary even  more than being read aloud to."

     And,

     "Older children also reap intellectual benefits from family dinners. For school-age youngsters, regular mealtime is an even more powerful predictor of high achievement scores than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art."

     I know we're busy friends, but the evidence is in, consistently holding family dinners feeds the body, mind, and spirit.  We can slow down, and make time to truly nourish our families.

Today's a new day.  Let's make it purposeful!
Kara
    

How To Grow A Gardener: 4 Fool Proof Ways To Teach Your Kids To Love To Garden

  "If you look the right way, you can see that the WHOLE WORLD is a GARDEN."
                                                 Frances Hodgson Burnett


    
     I remember my shock and disbelief as a kid, when I first learned that a Dandelion was a weed.  To me, they were nature's perfect gift!  A yard full of Dandelions was an embarrassment to my dad, but hours of fun for me.  "Mama had a baby and it's head popped off."  "Do you like butter?"  Dandelions made elegant crowns and necklaces, were perfect for coloring on the sidewalk, and, you could eat them!  For kids, it's not so hard to "look the right way", and "see that the whole world is a garden". 

                                                           Image: Dandelion Lessons, by RayKLui

    
     With a little bit of direction, we can tune our kids in to the wonder and benefits of gardening.

     4 Fool Proof Ways To Teach Your Kids To Love To Garden


     1. Get Up Close And Personal With Some Bugs
    
     Do your kids know that bees and butterflies and worms are a gardener's best friend?  Teaching kids that the fuzzy legs of a bee or a butterfly pick up pollen from one flower, and drop it off on another, or that finding worms in your soil means that it is healthy and aerated, is a perfect lesson on how everyone has a part to play, every little job is important. 
     Want more of these beneficials in your yard and garden?  Consider adding some specific plants and flowers to attract them.  Butterflies love:  Hollyhock, Zinnia, Butterfly Bush, Phlox, and Queen Anne's Lace.  Adding plants like, Dill and Milkweed are also a good choice, since these are a favorite food of caterpillars.  ("Attracting Butterflies, Hummingbirds, and Other Pollinators", gardeners.com)
     Finding more bees and butterflies in your garden can be as easy as giving them something to drink.

     "Bees, birds and butterflies also all need water. Install a water garden, a birdbath or a catch basin for rain. Butterflies are attracted  to muddy puddles, which they will flock to for salts and nutrients as well as water."  ("Attracting Butterflies, Hummingbirds, and Other Pollinators", gardeners.com)

                                                                                        (Butterfly Feeder, on pinterest.com)
                 

    2. Seeds, Soil, and Sunshine

     Show your kids the miracle that is a seed!  A good place to start is to show them the abundance of seeds in their very own kitchen.  Cut open an apple, to discover the star shaped collection of seeds.  Talk about the seeds on the outside of a strawberry, and the seeds in Raspberries and Blackberries.  Compare a tiny mustard seed to an impressive Avocado seed. 
     Plant some seeds!  It can be as simple as popping a few seeds in a pot, or finding your child a little plot in your garden.  Planting the seed, thrilling at the first sight of green, peaking from the soil, and watching and waiting and caring for a plant, is a sure-fire way to plant a love of gardening in your kids. 

     3.  Grow Your Own Food

     So much of the food our children know and love, comes in a package from the store.  What powerful lessons could we teach our children if we take them back to the source of real food?  It's all so beautifully simple.  You plant a seed, and with soil, and water, and sunshine, it will grow!  Nothing tastes better than food you've grown yourself!  Show your kids the joy of a strawberry so juicy, it drips down your chin and dyes your fingers red, or corn on the cob, sweet and perfect, or a tomato, picked fresh, to beat any imposter, grocery store tomato wannabe. 

     4.  Visit a Botanical Garden or A Farm
     Just about every town has a botanical garden open to the public.  Surrounded by dozens of varieties of beautiful flowers and trees and plants, with frogs and birds and butterflies as frequent visitors, our kids are likely to make a connection, and learn to love and appreciate the beauty around them, as they make happy, garden memories. 
     The American Horticulture Society makes it easy with a "Find A Garden", link on their website.  www.ahs.org.
     Let your kids experience life on a real farm!  A lot of small farms have a you pick option, which is perfect for "instant farmer", status for our kids.  Filling baskets with strawberries or blueberries or apples, and bringing them home to turn into something wonderful like a cobbler, pie, ice-cream, jam or caramel apples, is such a great experience, and a good lesson for kids to learn.  They know the source of their food, and they helped in the process.  That is huge!

 
    
Today's a new day, let's make it purposeful!
Kara

Get Those Kids Outside!

     If I close my eyes, I'm pretty sure I can take a mental walk, the entire distance from my childhood home to my elementary school.  I remember passing the neighbor's house whose grass was mingled with wandering mint that had escaped the futile boundaries of it's flower bed, long ago. We used to stop and sit and smell for a while, to break up the long walk.  I remember the canal that would tempt us to break the promises made to our mothers to stay away, and throw in a few rocks, before we finished our walk, and crossed the busy intersection with the nice crossing guard who remembered our names, and complimented our new shoes.  I used to love this familiar walk to school.  The freedom, fresh air,  and the smells and sounds and sights of nature were a wonderful way to start my day.

     I am guessing that most of you don't have to think very long to come up with a similar childhood scenario.  Maybe you have happy memories of neighborhood games of Tag or Kick The Can.  Maybe you remember the endless hours you spent as a kid riding your bike around your neighborhood.  Maybe you had a favorite tree to climb, or a favorite spot in your backyard where you could go to think and be alone. 

     Here I go, sounding like an old person again, but, those were the good old days!  So much has changed in just one generation.  The hours of endless outdoor, free play are all but extinct.  The change in children's connection with nature is so dramatic in fact, that according to Dr. Scott Sampson, a prominent Paleontologist, and author of a new book, How to Raise a Wild Child, studies show that today's generation of children spend on average, FOUR to SEVEN MINUTES of outdoor time a day.  (From an interview with "On Point", on NPR.  Listen to this interview at onpoint.org.)  I may have uttered an involuntary gasp at this point in the interview.  I was almost unwilling to believe that this was true.  This tragic fact made all the worse by the next statistic shared by Dr. Sampson: Today's generation of children spend an average of SEVEN to TEN HOURS of screen time a day!  What?!

     That's it!  Those are fighting words for a parent who wants what is best for their child!  What can we do?  We're all busy.  Our days are often scheduled to the max, and there just isn't a whole lot of time for play.  Screens are easy.  Believe me, I'm no stranger to the "Watch one more episode of Barney so the I can finish the dishes", trick.  Surely, my friends, we can do better than four to seven minutes!

     Start Small
    Don't be guilted into forcing resisting, confused, children onto an all day, 20 mile hike.  Going from couch to Kilimanjaro is unnecessary.  Any step toward teaching your child to love and appreciate nature is progress.  Dr. Scott, mentioned in his interview, that even acts as simple as pointing out the clouds or stopping to notice a bird singing, are positive ways to get our kids to tune in to nature.  Slow down a little, notice, appreciate.  I love to apply this mantra to so many areas of my life, and it certainly applies to teaching our kids to love nature.  Make the short walk to the mailbox a little longer by stopping to sit on the grass for a few minutes, pick a dandelion, teach your child that cool trick of holding a blade of grass between your thumbs to make a whistle, feel the sun on your cheeks.  These are small, simple moments, but they make a lasting impact on our children.

     A Special Spot
     It could be as simple as a hiding spot under the Willow tree in your back yard, an empty lot on the corner of your street that is loaded with good nature play supplies, like sticks and rocks, and puddles.  Your child's special nature connection spot could be at a favorite local park, or he could find it on a Saturday morning hike to a waterfall.  For me, growing up, my special spot in nature was a field behind my backyard.  To the untrained eye, I'm sure my field didn't look like much.  Just a lot of weeds.  To me, this field was perfect!  This was my spot.  I would wander out to the field often, and let my thoughts begin to wander too.  I would chase grasshoppers, lie down in the weeds, and watch the clouds, or search for old pennies or pieces of old broken glass in the little ditch that ran along the edge of the field.  These hours I spent outside in my childhood filled me with a sense of place, gave me an escape from homework and stress, fueled my creativity, encouraged physical exercise, and filled me with a love for nature. 

     Turn Off The Dang T.V

     Sometimes, it's really that simple.  Just hit the power button of the remote.  Shoo the kids outside, and after maybe a little initial resistance, our kids will hopefully get sucked in to the allure of all that being outside in nature offers.  Let them explore, and poke and pick and touch and prod.  Let them climb trees and roll in the grass.  Resist the strong parental impulse that we all have to guide their play...at least some of the time.  Unstructured play in nature benefits our kids in countless ways. 

     In an article called, "Why Children Need More Unstructured Play", on kevinmd.com, they cited some incredible findings on the importance of unstructured play for our children. 

     "In the January 2005 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine , Burdette and Whitaker wrote on the importance of free play. They argue that free play promotes intellectual and cognitive growth, emotional intelligence, and benefits social interactions. They describe how play involves problem solving which is one of the highest executive functions. ” Children plan, organize, sequence, and make decisions,“  they explain. In addition, play requires attention to the game and, especially in the case of very young children, frequent physical activity. Unstructured play  frequently comes from or results in exposure to the outdoors. Surveys of parents and teachers report that children’s focus and attention are improved after outdoor physical activity and free play and some small studies suggest that time spent outdoors improves focus in children with ADHD.

     We can do it!  Let's not let our kids be included in the sobering statistic of four to seven minutes of outside play a day.  It doesn't take much to make small, positive changes.  Take baby steps if you must.  As long as you are taking those steps in the right direction, out, you are making progress.  Start small, find a spot in nature your kids can connect to, and turn off the T.V.  Let's show our kids that this world is, as E.E. Cummings, in a perfectly child-like way, expressed it,

     "Mud-luscious, and puddle-wonderful"

    
Today's a new day; let's make it purposeful!
Kara
    




    

      
    

The Genius' Guide to Healthy Emotions

     The acclaimed Post-Impressionist painter, Paul Cezanne, is known to have said,

     "Genius is the ability to renew one's emotions in daily experience".  Paul Cezanne

     Renew.  I love this word!  It instantly brings to mind nice things like rest, fixing something that is broken, a fresh start, and avoiding library fines.
    
     Cezanne speaks of renewing our emotions every day, and even goes so far as to call this practice, "genius".  Does it take a genius to focus on one's emotional health?  Well, with deadlines and dishes, endless errands, and a myriad of other daily stresses, we would certainly be pretty smart to give our emotional health the attention it deserves.

     Why is it that we often neglect our emotional health?  Maybe we feel noble for pushing through a stressful day, gritting our teeth, holding on, until we collapse, exhausted, into bed at night.  While hard work and endurance are certainly to be praised, there is nothing heroic about neglecting our emotional needs.

     Let's give our emotions a little extra attention, and see what a difference it can make in helping us have a more purposeful day.  Could you maybe benefit from applying one of the following emotional boosts to your day.  I think these ideas are pretty "genius".

It's the Little Things

     Little happy moments stuck strategically here and there in your day can produce big emotional rewards.  It doesn't take much. 

     One of my favorite, super simple ideas that I came across several years ago, is to hang a sprig or two of Eucalyptus from your shower head.  The heat from the shower activates the oils in the plant, and you get a blast of that invigorating scent, and a definite mood boost.  So simple, and so effective.

manchestergardenclub.com

     Another easy and effective way to nurture your emotions throughout the day, is to take steps to make your environment more peaceful and happy.  Small changes can have a big impact.  Pick up a bunch of your favorite flowers at the grocery store next time you go shopping.  It's absolutely worth the extra few dollars to add a vase full of happiness  to your mantle or kitchen table.  Flowers can bring a little beauty to our day, and intuitively remind us to slow down, and enjoy. 

I Knew Chocolate Had to Be Good For You

sees.com

     Eat chocolate!  This is likely advice that most of us don't need much encouragement to follow.  Now, instead of feeling guilty for indulging, we can feel justified treating ourselves now and then, to a little chocolate.  Evidence shows that chocolate can,

     "...make a person feel better by directly interacting with the brain. One of the ingredients in chocolate is tryptophan, an essential amino acid needed by the brain to produce serotonin. Serotonin is a mood-modulating neurotransmitter, the brain's "happy chemical." High levels of serotonin can give rise to feelings of happiness."  Chocolate: Good For The Mind, Body, & Spirit, by Kirsti A. Dyer, MD, MS, CWS, from medicalwellnessassociation.com

Take 5 

     Take a breather.  Stop everything for just a few minutes a day, and meditate. Mediation can be very broadly defined, including, but certainly not limited to, the only meditation I knew as a kid, where one had to make a humming noise while sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed.  Meditation can also be as simple as slowing down, and taking a little time to just be still.  I am a big fan of a free app called, Calm.  This app takes away any mystery or stigma that you might associate with meditation, and offers guided, simple, quick, meditation.  It consists mostly of relaxing nature sounds, and a simple exercise of clearing your mind.  It's amazing what stepping away from your busy day for a few minutes can do, to keep us grounded and content.

marksdailyapple.com

Take a Nap

     Whether it's from staying up late with a new baby, or a sick child, burning the midnight oil studying for a test, (or writing a new blog post), most of us are not strangers to the effects of sleep deprivation.  We've all struggled with staying positive and energetic in our daily duties after a late night. 

     "Studies have shown that even partial sleep deprivation has a significant effect on mood. University of Pennsylvania researchers found that subjects who were limited to only 4.5 hours of sleep a night for one week reported feeling more stressed, angry, sad, and mentally exhausted. When the subjects resumed normal sleep, they reported a dramatic improvement in mood.^{"
healthysleep.med}

     A little extra sleep changes everything!  It's amazing the emotional boost that comes with a quick afternoon power nap. 

theaustralian.com

     So, go ahead, put your feet up, take a deep breath, eat a little chocolate.  You deserve it!

Today's a new day; let's make it purposeful!
Kara