Loving My Present Life: An Experiment In Mindfulness

This year I have been reading a lot of books. It is one of my goals to become more positive and focus a lot more on mindfulness. One of the books I just recently finished is Loving My Actual Life. It made me consider what I could do to practice loving my present life.

Basically the book is a 9 month experiment to see exactly what will help Alexandra Kuykendall love her present life. Each month she adds one thing that she believes will bring her the most joy and documents how it went. This book gave me the idea to do something similar and share it with all of you!

Enter my life experiment

Over the next month, I will be sharing my personal experiment on my journey to loving my actual life. In complete millennial, instant gratification style, I have decided to make my experiment only one month. Each week I will add one or two things that I believe will help me feel the most accomplished and satisfied while bringing me the most enjoyment. If I believe that the thing(s) I have added aid me in loving my present life (or at least live it the best to my ability), I will keep it for the remainder of the month. If something is not working, I will nix it for the next week.

After each week, I will post a diary style update on how the week went and what I did to intentionally focus on those specific things. I will end each post with a few questions for you to consider (and I will do the same), and we can discuss them each week in the comments.

So now here is my little disclaimer. I am not doing this experiment because I am unhappy or want to live a different life. This book has inspired to me cherish my present, while I continue to work toward my goals and my “best” life. In society, we tend to focus on end results more than we do the journey to get there. I am extremely guilty of wishing away my current circumstances so I can get to where I want to be.

I’m hoping this experiment helps me appreciate my life where I am currently. I want to embrace all of life’s quirks, frustrations, surprises, and disappointments. I want to learn to focus on positivity and take lessons from every experience I have. So I am welcoming you into my journey. I hope that you hold me accountable and enjoy the lessons I’m sure I will learn along the way.

Finally, I want to encourage you to do the same. If you have been feeling like you are made for more in life, join me in this experiment. I’m sure you face days that are a blur and often feel like you don’t have enough time in the day. If so, let’s lock arms and do this together. While it is great to have goals and a vision for the future (I know I do!), it is important to also love where you are right now. And that is my goal with this.

For the experiment, I will be focusing on 8 major areas/practices. You will find my break down listed below in case you decide to join me. Note that everyone is different. My needs may not be your needs. If you decide to join me, make sure that you are choosing areas of your life that you feel need the most work. Then find practices that you believe will help you cherish where you are right now.