A month-long challenge to help you prioritize self care while building a daily Silk + Sonder Ritual.
Congratulations! And welcome to Daily Rituals - a 21 day challenge to help you prioritize self care while building a daily Silk + Sonder ritual. If you’re here, it means you’re ready to bring compassion and intention to your life and deepen your relationship with yourself, others, and your truest potential.
Today we’ll be exploring the importance of knowing your why. The simple reason that got you to purchase this journal, and sign up for this practice. That reason is powerful. It will inspire your intention to keep moving forward.
In a world where we’re always on the go, context switching and multitasking, it’s rare to take a moment to focus on what’s right in front of us. To take notice of the little details that make life meaningful.
What do you feel when you hear the word ambition?
Does it bring up feelings of pride and purpose? Of longing? Or pressure? It’s astonishing how one word can sit with each of us so differently. Our culture has turned ambition into a loaded term and anchored it to a narrow definition around professional success.
While giving our best, daily, is something to strive for, perfectionism, on the other hand, gets in the way. It delays our projects, keeps our best ideas from being shared, and holds us back from our potential.
Only when we can ask ourselves what’s really going on behind the mask of perfectionism, can we really start to make a shift.
Today, we break up with perfection.
We spend our days between meetings and to-do lists, constantly looking to optimize our time. The week often passes by on autopilot - a blur of screen time, errands, and obligations - it can often feel like no matter what we do, there isn’t enough time. And when we finally do press pause, it’s almost as if we’ve forgotten what to do or how to savor the moment in front of us.
“I’ll do it tomorrow” is one of the most brilliant lies we tell ourselves. Why? Because it let’s us off the hook for just a little bit longer, without disappointing anyone. Whether it’s to finally get started on that new venture, or hit your health goals, the allure of tomorrow keeps the promise of our goals alive.
But what happens when tomorrow never comes?
Have you ever made a vision board?
If you have, you know the satisfying feeling of seeing all your dreams in one place. It’s been proven that we’re more likely to achieve something if we simply write it down.
Visualizing it takes us one step further - it provides a clear picture of the thing we want to achieve.
Are you guilty of overthinking?
It’s easy to get swept up in hopes and dreams, anxieties and worries. Thinking about every possible outcome might help us feel more prepared, but in reality, overthinking leads to self-doubt and doubt gets in the way of committing to our dreams. We go searching for clarity but end up confused.
Instead, let’s trust that action will bring the clarity we seek.
Fill in the blank: I experience Imposter Syndrome when__________________.
Imposter Syndrome, or the fear of being exposed as a ‘fraud,’ is often the single biggest reason we hold ourselves back. Even if we’re invited to participate or share our experiences, we doubt our ability or talent and stay quiet.
Sound familiar? You’re in good company. Sometimes we think we need confidence to counteract imposter syndrome, but we’re going to let you in on a little secret.
When was the last time you felt creative?
For some of us, the answer to this question is earlier today or last week. For others, the thought of creativity brings a distant nostalgic memory of that time we used to paint, dance, or play music.
Unless we work in a creative field, growing up and getting older means that we often unlearn or lose touch with our creative side. You may argue that you’ve never had one.
We’d like to show you otherwise.
What words do you use when you speak to yourself?
It’s easy to shower friends and lovers with kind words - to notice their goodness and want them to see it too. But we rarely extend that same courtesy to ourselves. What would it feel like if you spent a day talking to yourself as if you were your most cherished friend?
Let’s explore.
How often do you stop and celebrate how far you have come?
There were days where you wished you’d be where you are today. Yet, when we get to our destination, we hardly realize it because we’re already in search of the next thing. This characteristic is fundamental to modern life, but that doesn’t mean we can’t stop and smell the roses along the way.
Today we celebrate our wins.
How has community shaped your life?
Whether we’re born into them or choose to be a part of them - the communities we’re in have a powerful impact. They shape our thinking, they provide a sense of camaraderie, and if we choose wisely, they allow us to be our fullest selves.
Community, in short, is responsible for bringing so much meaning into our lives.
It can also be the key to getting where we most want to go.
How often do you challenge your limits?
Throughout human history, we’ve evolved to prioritize safety. It’s a fundamental human need, one we’re smart to seek out. But seeking safety also keeps us in our comfort zones. And we all know that magic doesn’t happen in our comfort zones.
Today we step outside the lines.
Have you ever had a new idea while doodling in your journal or were out exploring in nature?
If so, you’ve witnessed play at work. In our everyday lives, we’re quick to dismiss play as trivial and unimportant, but it’s actually a crucial part of recovery and creativity. Indulging in play helps us build the endurance to tackle our to-do list and contributes to leading a full life.
Where can you make space in your day to play?
Why do we keep the things that are special to us a secret?
There’s something about our dreams that makes us want to hold them close. To keep them just for ourselves. We think that if we stay quiet, then perhaps no one will notice if we don’t achieve them. We fail to realize that by not sharing them, we ensure that our dreams stay just that - dreams.
Today we discuss the step that takes us from dreaming to doing.
What are you grateful for?
This simple question is one of the most powerful ones we can ask ourselves on any given day. It has the ability to snap us out of worries about the future or the past and bring us right back to the present moment.
When you shift into gratitude you start to see life from a place of abundance rather than scarcity.
You are reminded that you have enough, that you are enough.
Have you ever noticed that there are days where no matter what you do, you just can’t seem to focus?
Your mind is tired but just keep pushing in hopes that the focus will come. You’ll get things done, but notice that it takes twice as long and twice as much energy.
This is your mind begging for rest.
When you think about the big picture of your life, what do you hope for it to be about?
It’s easy to get lost in “the whats” of life - what job we will have, what home we will live in, what type of impact we’ll have. In contrast, we spend far less time thinking about “the how’s” of life - how will we treat others, how will we do our jobs, how will we build a meaningful life.
Distilling our values is the way to define those “how’s.”
Goals and dreams may come and go, but living our values is the marker for a life well-lived.
Have you ever noticed how a small act from a kind stranger can change the course of your whole day?
If you’ve ever experienced a person on the street giving you a compliment, a neighbor offering to help carry your groceries, or a coworker covering for you on a hard day at work, you were likely reminded of the beauty of humanity.
Even more so, you were probably inspired to pay it forward.
The gifts we receive take on far more meaning when we find someone to share them with.
You made it!
Congratulations on showing up for yourself, for prioritizing your self-care and for building a powerful Silk+Sonder ritual. It’s so important that you think about today not as an ending, but rather as a milestone.
The point in your journey where you realized that the ritual is the reward.