April 5, 2020

Lent Calendar 2020, Week Seven

My theme for Lent this year is the Road to Resilience. I'm trying to build and strengthen my ability to bounce back from challenges, conflict, and calamity. My goals are:
  • Resilience HabitsResilience has lots of parts - equanimity, flexibility, resolution, tenacity, social intelligence, and optimism to name a few. I want to gradually add in some useful daily habits as a practical way to grow in recilience. 
  • Fast from binge eating: I try to choose something to fast from that is a good symbol of how I am trying to grow, and I think my binge eating has a direct connection to feeling overwhelmed by life's challenges. 
  • Educate myselfI'm reading the book The Coward's Guide to Conflict: Empowering Solutions for those Who Would Rather Run Than Fight. 
  • Inner workGround myself in journaling, meditation, and prayer to connect to my core of peace and courage. 
  • Take creative action: Take decisive action on adverse or challenging situations as they arise, and use my creative super powers to grow, and make the world better. 
April 5, Palm Sunday-
1. Journal queries: What have I learned so far from my Lenten fast and study? What is the next step to take?

Ground myself in optimistic hope for the future, and become more open to the best actions to take.


April 6-
2. Resilience habits: So far this Lent I've worked on optimism, equanimity, social intelligence, and the habit of courageous persistence and tenacity. This final week of Lent I plan to focus on flexibility - accepting that certain ways I've always done things may no longer work, and that certain of my goals may not be possible. Flexibility will help me to solve problems more creatively, and effectively adapt to new situations.

Since I'm in quarantine at home, I'm going to have to get really creative to practice this skill. Here's my plan:
  1. Alter my everyday routine. Routine is important to me, but it's not working right now. I'm simply not following through with my daily schedule. This week I will choose one big thing to accomplish each day and do it before noon.
  2. Seek out new experiences. This seems hard to do while stuck at home, but I will try to learn something new every day... Some ideas: Learn one new dance move, try a complicated recipe, and upgrade my computer skills.
  3. Practice thinking creatively. I have a few problems to solve this week, so I will make an effort to think about them in unconventional ways, and open to unlimited possibilities.
April 7, Full Hare Moon-
3. Study "The Coward's Guide to Conflict": Read Chapters 17-19 this week. My assignment this week is to understand my unhelpful, irrational thought patterns around conflict... Why am I so afraid of conflict? And why do I exaggerate the stories I tell about conflicts?

April 8, Passover-
4. Take action: I've been vaguely disappointed with myself for a couple weeks now. Here I am with time, stuck at home, and I'm not DOING anything. But I have been doing important work, studying my own strengths and how to increase my resilience, and redefining how to interact socially without actual contact. 

My computer and the internet are great tools for reaching out. Today I'm going to take the first steps towards creating online classes and climate actions that we might continue even when the "stay home" order is lifted. (As well as a virtual baby shower!)

April 9, Maundy Thursday-

April 10, Good Friday-

April 11, Great Saturday:-

April 12, Easter:

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