Trips in Silence
PART 1: night time
Before going to bed
How many times have you found yourself feeling small, because you are not where you would like to be in your life?
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Have you ever stopped to think where the need to be at a different point in your life comes from?
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I often find myself thinking:
''I should have already done this in my life''
''I should have already saved this amount of money''
''I should already speak this language''
''I should be able to travel to this place''
''I should be able to help this person''
''I should know the answer to this by now''
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I lot of
''I should''
and very little of
''Wao, I am so proud of myself. The fact that I was able to overcome that thing, really just proves that I can keep going and once again surprise myself''.
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Now I will ask you another question.
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Have you noticed that when some of this ''I should'' statements come to mind, it is usually after you have seen somebody else ''making it in life'' because they are successful at those things?
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Today's challenge is about owning not only your present situation, but more importantly, owning the journey that has brought you here.
We often overestimate the value in other people's experiences, and underestimate the incredible value that we have in our own hands thanks to the ride that we are taking.
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There is not a single person in the entire world, who has lived exactly the things that you have gone through. Not even your mom or your best friend, has overcome exactly the same challenges that you have. And even though this might sound a little lonely, it is actually a beautiful and extremely unique quality of yours.
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The minute that you decide to take ownership of the journey that you as an individual have taken until know - and choose to open your eyes to the incredible value in it - you will start seeing your present as an invaluable opportunity to live the way you want to live and feel the way you want to feel.
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And this beautiful soul, brings us to our first journaling exercise, which will get you right on track to start owning who you are as a person right now.
Owning and appreciating who you are, and who you have been to get to this point, allows you to make peace with the past and prepare yourself for an incredible future. A future, that you can only build in the present moment.
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By learning to own your journey, you are watering your inner world to grow strong and beautiful.
journaling
How is your journey different?
Click here to listen on Spotify to my favourite background playlist for this activity.
This goes for every journaling session
Take a pen or pencil and a piece of paper, and get ready to let yourself BE.
I personally love to create a set-up that I am excited about. For me, this means searching on Spotify for some relaxing meditation music (usually something without lyrics, to not be distracted or biased by them), maybe turning on a candle, getting some tea or coffee, and VERY important, sit comfortably. Find a position that doesn't make your back or neck hurt, so that you can write for as long as you need to.
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I want you to write down how and why your journey is different. Think about the different ways in which that path that has taken you to where you are today, is different to the path of the people that surround you.
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I want you to think about experiences that you have had to overcome, that have defined in one way or the other, who you are today. Keep in mind that you are not a victim of your challenges, but you did go through difficult things, and you should be proud of having overcome them. I know that you did overcome them, because here you are!
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However, the journaling doesn't stop there. I will ask you to write down how your journey makes you unique in a positive way. What is interesting about everything that you have gone through? What makes your journey unique and meaningful?
I will give you some examples of my own to help you boost your imagination.
In my case, I am an immigrant from Venezuela in Denmark. I don't see my family as often as my friends over here see theirs, and I also don't have the benefits of a Danish citizen.
But on the bright side, having been an immigrant in 3 countries, has given me an incredible cultural perspective, and a huge sense of gratitude both for the knowledge that I have been able to acquire, but also the childhood that I was able to live back in the day. I personally prefer the Venezuelan kind of humour over the Scandinavian one, because that's just what I grew up with, but I am happy that I get to simply discover what makes other people laugh, and even if sometimes I feel a little bit like an outsider, I know that I can still laugh at my type of humour jokes with my home country friends and that's okay because we are all just different.
Over the past years I have developed and unbelievable ability to be resilient, I complain much less, I am much more grateful and I have learned to not take anything personally.
I could keep going for a million more lines, but that's going to be my own personal journaling :) Now it's your turn.
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When you are done writing, come back here and read the following.
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Now that you have finished journaling, take some time to acknowledge yourself for being brave enough to do this activity.
Put your hands on your chest, take 3 deep breaths and say thank you.
Know that you have taken the first step into building the inner world that will take you places beyond what you can imagine.
Never forget that everything that you experience is a projection of your inner world, so the more care and love you pour in it, the more love life will throw back at you.
Now, put what you wrote somewhere safe, because you will need it tomorrow morning :)
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For tomorrow morning.
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Tomorrow, we will do some visualisation and meditation. All together, this will take 15min. However, save yourself some extra 15min to read the instructions.
In total, expect to use 30min of your morning.
I know. You may have to wake up a little earlier than usual, but trust me, it will be worth it.
Thank you so much for joining this beautiful challenge, have a great night sleep, and see you tomorrow :)
part 2: morning time
Before starting your day
VISUALISATION
Click here to listen on Spotify to my favourite background playlist for this activity
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Good morning friend!
Today we continue with our challenge, and it's time for some visualisation minutes. This exercise is quite simple and fun, but it is very effective.
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I want you to take out what you wrote yesterday in your journaling session, and take some time to read through it.
Continue reading below, after you are done reading your writing.
Now, read the next paragraph until the end, and then follow the instructions in it.
Put on some relaxing/meditation music, set your timer to 5 minutes and close your eyes. Use these 5 minutes to picture yourself being and feeling proud of everything that you have gone through. I want you to have a quick mental image of everything that you have proudly overcome and instead of looking at those things as stuff that weights you down, imagine a huge flying balloon that carries all these things inside. Imagine that you are holding that balloon of experiences through a thin thread, and as the balloon moves forward and higher every time, you move and elevate with it. Visualise yourself being a person that is held strong by all of your experiences. Visualise yourself owning your story like a freaking superhero. Can you think of any superhero that has a life similar to other people? I bet you can't. That's why you are a superhero, and that's how I want you to see yourself for the next 5 minutes.
When you are done, come back here for your meditation session.
MEDITATION
For this activity, you can keep the same music that you used for your visualisation exercise.
In today's meditation, we will practice awareness of our thoughts.
Before we hop on our daily meditation, I want to make it very clear that we are not looking to eliminate our thoughts. This goes for this meditation, and also for the following six days. What we are trying to do, is separate from our thoughts. The goal of any meditation in Trips in Silence is to provide you with the awareness that you are not your thoughts, but the observer of them. This comes with incredible power, because it means that the more you meditate, the more capable you will be of picking your thoughts.
Now, read the next paragraph until the end, and then follow the instructions in it.
Put on some relaxing/meditation music, set your timer to 10 minutes and close your eyes. In this meditation session, I want you to imagine that you are sitting in a dark movie theater with a big screen in front of you. In this screen, you will see the movie that your brain in creating for you. In the next 10 minutes, you will sit or lay down, to watch the story that your brain is directing. Keep in mind that in the following 10 minutes, your consciousness and your brain will be separate from each other. Your brain is the director of the movie - meaning that your brain is the thought generator, and you are the spectator that is watching that movie - meaning you are the observer of the thoughts generated by your brain. Sometimes you will want to take the role of the director so much, that you will believe that you are it. But this is actually not true. You think that it is true, because that is what you have believed your entire life. You are not your brain. You are so much more than that, and today - you will see that. So with no judgement towards your thoughts, just relax and enjoy the movie. In the following days we will work on our ability to deal with our brain and our thoughts. But today, just allow yourself to watch the movie that your brain is creating for you.
during your day
Keep your journey in mind
Well done! Your morning practice is done and I am so proud of you.
Now, I will just ask you to do one thing during the day:
Stay true to your journey.
I will ask you to set 3 reminders in your phone throughout your day, no matter what your day looks like or how busy you are. Maybe one at 11.00am, another at 1.00pm and another at 3.00pm, but this is completely up to you.
At these times, take 3 deep breaths, and then say to yourself:
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''My journey is completely different to everyone else's and that is not only okay, but it is also beautiful. I have so much to bring, because my way of seeing life is only available to myself, and that is really cool.''
Have a beautiful day, and see you tonight in our journaling session!
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But before you jump into your day, make sure you celebrate your incredible journey by sharing what you achieved and learned today!
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