The LAST gift in Resiliency Workshop: How to do the Daily Eight… Daily.

What do 
the Daily Eight
look like...
​in your dailyness?

This section’s purpose is to help make it easy... to practice
by leveraging the power of SWEET, SMALL STEPS; this is the key to being sustainable.

NO MATTER WHAT is in front of you… or behind you... big change grows from small seeds. Incrementally, you can quickly return to your LOVELY ENOUGHNESS at center– your center... and that, my friend, makes it a better day.
 

Practice the Daily Eight
Sweet Small Steps Create... They Accumulate to Resilience.

  • Begin again, by claiming a few moments interspersed in your day, WHEN it works for you. Gathering each moment… as each raindrop accumulates... to a threshold of better.

Touchdown several times in your day... using the disciplined awareness of sweet small steps. These moments accumulate and will daily grow a good life– much like the lotus rises from the muck. I can choose better.. incrementally and they add up.

HOW I use them, makes me feel worse or better. I choose better but I didn't begin with doing EVERY eight; it's too tall an order. I did not berate or guilt myself. Our goal is to begin. Try two minute instances four times a day:

          • TWO moments within your day &
​          • At the beginning & ending your day
 ​


Grow the garden, which suits you... from a disciplined awareness of the Higher and the lighter. 


It is not unlike the steps in growing a garden. We prepare soil; we plant seeds; we water them... in that order: step by step.

This practice of Sweet Small Steps is a touchstone to the Higher and the lighter.

Who doesn't need that?

​​Start Easy: 4 per day

1.

Beginning & ending your day...

Bracket your day with BETTER: a morning and evening practice of two minutes:


  • On Waking (while still in bed)  - I do my stretching exercises at the same time. For me, this is somewhere between prayer & intention setting for my day.
    ​
  • Before bed – Gratitude of Redwoods: use two minutes of your evening to find 3 things for which to be grateful from your day. Keep a journal. Watch them take root like redwoods and multiply.

Good sleep hygiene can improve your rest. (Download BETTER SLEEP doc 2024 - Here...)

2.

Find two more moments that fit your schedule... 

Below are three methods of finding times that work for you. Try each to find what works best. Build up, as it suits you.

 PROCESS: Choose WHEN & HOW

Find
your sweet spots...
in sweet
small
steps.

Too Busy? No Time?


Don't get me wrong, busy is an excellent short-term strategy: distraction from and denial of a change or challenging event. Denial is self-protective... but not an EFFECTIVE strategy for the mid-stretch and certainly not for the long run.

We have time. It's not MORE time we need, (even if that were possible...) it's how we use it. I can do that. We can do that.

Feels like you have no time?

How do I find time when it feels like I have none?  Here are my three ways.  Email me with yours.

​
WHEN: Methods of Choice:


1.   Set a Timer for a Consciousness Facelift:
I Wait Here, or purposefully, Stop. Rest at the timers. It's spectacular what two minutes can do amid the chaos of dailyness.

I like this one because when my phone's alarm goes off at specific time, I am constantly surprised, that I am surprised.  It's a GOOD surprise, too.  10:30 and 2:30 work for me because I stand up and stretch, which is also good for my body and mind.

I take a Diva Breath... and I smile. (This is Thich Nhat Hanh’s recommendation for a conscious breath…)

I also allow myself a good cup of (creamy) coffee or tea at these times and it just so happens that two minutes is the perfect duration to heat my latte.  I pause and touchdown with my Daily Eight... and thank The Holy One of Many Names.

​
2.  Combine with an Existing Daily Activity
Etak Compass: Am I on my true North? Relate your practice to this activity. It is a more organic way to fit something into a busy day.  Whenever you begin a specific task, take your two minutes of respite:
​
  • A bathroom break: Sneak a funny cat or puppy video for a mini Play Daily.
  • Getting a glass of water (Stay Full... & hydrate: imagine the water as liquid compassion. Drink deep.)
  • After you hang up the phone or some other action-metric in your day. Link the new habit to an existing one. It's called 'habit stacking' from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.


3.   Repurpose a Leftover Moment  
Your day may surprise you.  Coincidence may happen.  Be curious and leverage that moment. 
 
“Coincidence is God's way of
​             remaining anonymous.”
                       ― Albert Einstein, The World as I See It


Claim those moments (of coincidence... ) for yourself.
Welcome it back into your life.  It is your moment and here to support you... Maybe you have to unexpectedly wait for someone or thing or the ever-present traffic delays of living. Put on a song.  Sing. Smile and Diva Breathe.

The Sustaining Circle of Care... is Evergreen

The circle of evergreen self-care and, sustainable caregiving starts here. What I am circling here is that YOU matter: your perceptions, your health and, especially, your own clarity about who you are and what is yours to do.

Join the circle of care because it matters; you matter.

 
Celebrate & Enjoy because will power only goes so far.


​These sweet small steps will add clarity and lightness of  the Higher to your day.

NOTE: here are review links to the Daily Eight gifts
  1. Wait here: respite & pause
  2. Stay Full: self-soothing, being kind, choosing happy
  3. Etak Compass:  authenticity of your true north
  4. Diva Breathe: the unifying power of breath
  5. Gratitude of Redwoods: rooted in gratitude 
  6. Play Daily: remember recess?
  7. Be willing: find the balance between willfulness & will-lessness
  8. Stop. Rest: the power of the pause in the middle of the messiness


Begin Again, and you may quickly find Higher ground within... and spiritual fuel.  (The Kingdom... is within...)

I am reminded of the Richard Rohr quote in Gift No. 1, Wait Here, about a higher octane of fuel that might be found ONLY when we run out of our own get-up-and-go.  Return to gift NO. 1 to read it... because it is a circle.  

When the circle is complete, it's unstoppable. It is a sustaining circle of care... for yourself and for others.

Join it because it matters. You matter.

SUMMARY PROCESS: Takeaways

What are your Takeaways from the pages of your Daily Eight Journal?

What were YOUR gems of discovery?


Go back in your journal pages and make an executive summary of each rule and what YOUR takeaway from it might be. 

Here are some starter questions:

1. What gift is most helpful to you right now?
2. Where do you have the most resistance?
​3. Which of these rules are you struggling with the most? Can you articulate why?
4. What are three ways you are incorporating these rules into your life?
​5. How are the rules overlapping and interconnecting for you?
​6. How can you make these gifts into YOUR rules that you own?


Create a Daily Eight Rx affirmation mix 

Use your set of take-aways. You might start with one set and as you use it, you may want to review it from time to time. Allow it to change. Add what is nourishing (Stay Full) and take away what is no longer serving you. (Self criticism comes to mind...)

Print it out and keep it in your wallet.  
Use it 4x daily to begin.
See how it changes things... and you.

A Sound Meditation on the Daily ReKindling



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because it will help me continue to support caregivers as, I hope, this workshop has benefitted you....

Thank you and Best Blessings,


​Rev. EM

Reach out at ​ RevE[email protected]