“The real voyage of discovery
consists not in seeking new landscapes,
but in having new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust
This month I’m taking 6 weeks away from all of my adult responsibilities and it feels like just the right amount of wreckless, indulgent and spiritual that I’m seeking.
One of the reasons I love to travel is when everything around me is new and foreign, it forces me to notice. The smells, the sounds, the feelings. In other words to be present. Sometimes when we’re in familiar surroundings it can be easy to look past the beauty right in front of us. I believe there is always something beautiful we can find, if we’re willing to see it.
The idea behind September Delight is that noticing/ or looking with new eyes (mindfulness!) is a tool that’s always available to us to create calm and feel good. It’s something I am working on cultivating more of in my life. It seems so simple, yet I still struggle to do it when I’m in full on mom-mode juggling ALL. THE. THINGS.
Taming the monkey mind isn’t easy, but it’s a worthwhile pursuit, and that’s why they call it a practice. So, if you’d like to PRACTICE being present with me during my birthday month, I’d be delighted to have you!
AND because I am North American, I feel like I should be doing at least one productive thing as I’m walking across Spain eating tapas and drinking wine while the rest of the world is back to school and work.
So this is that thing.
It’s called September Delight, and it’s a virtual journey you can do from anywhere in 5 to 10 minutes a day. It’s designed to FUN, simple and it’s FREE!
Get yourself a new journal, can be a simple or fancy as you like; Honestly it can even be scrap paper (but there is something kinda powerful about creating a container for your thoughts.)
And join me on a journey of seeing our surrondings with new eyes!
So what the heck is it?
Well, while I am taking a LITERAL journey, I realize most people don’t have the luxury or the foolhardy approach of it will all work out, to life that I do. (I don’t typically have the luxury of doing this, so one of the questions I’ll be pondering on my very long walk, is how do I create more depth, more meaning, and more feel good in my life when my life is full of commitments and need it most?)
In that vein, I wanted to create a way that others could take a journey of sorts of their own. And journey no matter the distance, of noticing what’s around us, or what’s going on with us. I’ve seen many other bloggers do cool experiences like this, and one of my favorite’s is Susannah Conway’s April Love and August Break, where she creates a community project to share photos.
I have combined a few of my favorite experiences here to create something fun for us:
The concept is simple.
There are 30 prompts. One for each day of the month.
Do as many or a few as you like.
1. Download your free PDF here.
You can save it to your phone, or print and hang on your wall, or paste in your journal.
2. Read the prompt, and free write for 5 minutes.
Free writing means you write whatever pops into your head. If you freeze up and don’t know what to write, simply write, I don’t know what to write, but the point is you write for the whole 5 minutes and you don’t censor what you’re thoughts, or try to control them, you just write. The writing is for you and you alone.
2. Distill your thoughts into a single image that represents your response to the prompt.
Note: this does not mean your image has to be “instagramable” or pretty or perfect. Sometimes asking questions simply leads to more questions. The exercise here is to let the mind wander so we can become aware of our thoughts. There is a great saying that what is named can be tamed. So if you find yourself experiencing an emotion that has you labeling it good or bad, just let it be. When we allow ourselves our emotions, we realize they are just passing through. Looking at how we can “reframe” something however can be another tool. Trust your instincts here.
3. Know that you are exactly where you need to be. Don’t feel like you’re behind or it’s too late to start, or that you have to commit to the whole month. Jump in and out as you like.
Use the prompts as you see fit. Share them with a friend, or keep them for yourself. Just enjoy and have fun. I’m excited to hear about your journey if you feel called to share. But again this is a NO PRESSURE experience. Let’s just enjoy the journey.
4. Ways to share with each other. Use the hashtag #Septemberdelight so we can find each other.
Join our free Facebook Community, and share your photos and experience there, or on Instagram with the hashtag #Septemberdelight so we can find each other and share our experience. Or link your blog here (down below) so we can find your home on the internet!
As always, feel free to use these prompts in your journal to guide your own personal journey. Not everything needs to be shared to be powerful. OR you can also skip the writing and go straight to sharing a photo. These are all invitations meant to be fun, not stressful.
I can’t wait to share my Camino adventure/insights and see your journeys too! As Henry Miller once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”
I’m a big believer in we’re all just walking each other home…
Let’s enjoy the walk!
