Push Yourself out of your Comfort Zone
These challenges are meant to make you a bit uncomfortable. It is in discomfort that we change and transform.
The caterpillar turns to goo inside its chrysalis before it transforms into a butterfly. Sometimes we have to go to the shadow, into the goo and muck to expand into who we are meant to be.
Week One - Challenge
This week’s challenge is to just find the bit of extra time for yourself this week to engage with this course. Find a calendar, look at the times that each section takes and schedule it into your day.
Week Two - Challenge & Breath work
7:16 min video Breath work and this week’s challenge: This week’s challenge will give us a context for stress and for nervous system regulation. Our nervous system gets so sensitive that we react to everything as if it is a life or death situation and it’s just not. This challenge will help give context for when the fight or flight response is appropriate. And the breath will guide you through it.
Week Three - Challenge
This week’s challenge is to have an orgasm (or as many as you like).
This article from Health.com gives more details on all of the health benefits.
And if you want to take it a bit farther, think of your turn on list and at the moment of climax, let all of that energy goes towards manifesting what you want. (This is also an amazing way to heal any shame that you may have connected to orgasm or self-pleasure). Instead of feeling waves of shame or embarrassment, feel into the waves of power, pleasure and deep surrender of orgasm.
Week Four - Challenge
Fast for 17-24 hours. Check out this video to learn more and/or read this article.
Week Five - Challenge
Hold your breath for 60-90 seconds (this video also incorporates the belly to chest breathing, and is pretty vigorous and he has 1:30, 2 min & 2:30 min breath holds. I was able to do 1:30 pretty consistently, but feel free to start with 45 - 60 seconds).
This blog article has benefits, cautions, as well as a few techniques for learning to hold your breath.
Holding your breath is a very quick and easy way to find out how you react to and interact with stress. Do you relax into it? Can you stay present? Do you tense up and think of all the reasons you can’t do it? Do you have intense emotions or feelings about the stressful event? Do you give up? Do you try again?
Do not push past what is safe for your body and feel deep compassion and acceptance for wherever you are and know that this is something you can work on, if you choose to.
You may have not known this but there are a lot of health benefits of holding your breath, besides increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in your cells. To give you a better understanding of this phenomenon, here are some of the benefits of practicing holding your breath and generally improving your breathing functions:
Improve Longevity
Improved breathing and lung functions may preserve the health of stem cells, improving your longevity (7).
Promote Brain Tissue Regeneration
Studies with newts suggest that practicing breathing techniques and improving breathing functions may promote the regeneration of new tissue in the brain, thus preserving the brain function (2).
Induce An Anti-Inflammatory Effect
Research showed that practicing breathing techniques can influence the sympathetic nervous system and the immune system, increasing the production of anti-inflammatory mediators. Therefore, it may be added to the treatment of health conditions associated with excessive or persistent inflammation (8).
Increase Your Lung Capacity
The practice of holding your breath as a part of a breathing exercise is one of the most effective ways to increase your lung capacity (9). This in turn can significantly improve your physical performance and is an essential part of the training for swimmers, surfers, runners, even singers and wind instrument musicians.
Strengthen Your Diaphragm
The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle, located just below your lungs that plays one of the most important roles in the process of breathing. When you breathe in, your diaphragm contracts, creating more space in your chest cavity, and allowing your lungs to expand. When you breathe out, it does the opposite – relaxes and moves upward (6). Strengthening your diaphragm may help to improve your core muscle stability and your body’s ability to tolerate intense exercise. This is also one of the benefits of holding your breath while working out.
Protect Brain Cells
An experimental study on baby rats showed that an increased percentage of carbon dioxide in the cells of the body, which can occur as a result of holding one’s breath, may protect the brain cells (1).
Week Six - Talk to a Tree
Think of a person that you feel Shame, Regret, Resentment or Blame about. Feel the circumstances and the emotions rising in you until it feels painful to hold them in. Then you are going to ask a tree to stand in for that person (trees are big, powerful, grounded, ancient and wise and they don’t mind standing in for people we need to communicate big feelings with). Then you are going to scream, cry, curse, whisper, shriek or whatever comes out of your mouth at the tree…don’t hold back, the tree can hold space, I promise.
You will continue until you can say the Ho’o Pono’pono prayer, which is: “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” This is not for the other person, this is for you. You will be triggered into deeper emotion which means you’ve not released fully yet. Continue to express the emotions until you can say this prayer.
If you feel weird talking to a tree, you can do this exercise in your car.
Week Seven - Sleep
Some suggestions for setting up a bed time routine.
Sleep 7-10 hours per night for 4-7 nights per week. If you struggle getting 7-10 hours per night of sleep, please set up a call with me so we can discuss what you might need to try to get the proper amount of sleep. Sleep is so so so important. And there is that saying “you can sleep when you’re dead,” but you will be dead earlier if you don’t sleep, so keep that in mind.
Try this meditation and use your oils before bed. (Unless they are stimulating to you). If they are stimulating, then they will keep you awake and you might want to try serenity or balance or lavender oil.
Week Eight - Treat yourself like a Deity
What happens to the choices we make, to our self talk, to our attitude towards ourself, when we treat ourself like a Goddess (or God)? We have a certain reverence for deities, gods & goddesses…what if you treated yourself with the exact same reverence?
This week’s challenge is to make your choices from the space of knowing your own Divinity and treating yourself with reverence and devotion.