My 'Crazy' Experiment

Welcome to my crazy experiment!

Last night, I couldn't sleep. Not a wink. You see I've been depressed, and last night it was hitting me pretty hard. But as I was laying in bed, waiting for sleep to come, I had a flash of genius. I remembered reading that if you smile, it actually can make you happier. So, laying in my bed last night at about midnight, I did just that. I smiled as big and cheesy a grin as I could muster, and I held it for about five minutes. I smiled like someone just gave me 18 of my favorite things at my surprise birthday party while telling me the ten funniest jokes I'd never heard while I was watching six blooper reels and being tickled! And it worked! It worked so well that it put me over the edge. In fact I'll admit that I'm a bit manic now. Which is why I haven't slept. And it gave me an idea. A crazy idea. (I love crazy ideas! But more about that later...)

So here's what I intend to do: I'm gonna smile for ten minutes a day for no reason other than to make myself feel better. I'm going to start every morning for the month of November smiling for five minutes and I'm going to end each day the same way! But I'm not going to stop there.The intention is to hack my life in a major way... a total overhaul! I'm going to commit to doing a number of things that I know will make me feel better. I'm going to return to meditating for a full hour in the morning and a full hour at night. (I was doing this a year ago, for a couple of months before I let it slip to 15-20 minutes, and I know that I'll be in a better place if I strengthen my practice.) I'm going to commit to an hour of Yoga daily, by myself or in a class. I'm going to start my Gratitude List. Every day, I will write down five things for which I'm grateful. (Now, I'm grateful everyday for many things, but I know the power of the written word). And no coffee. But likely the hardest change for me will be, that I'm going to get up earlier, progressively throughout the month. And I'll do each and every one of these activities daily for the month of November 2017!

See, I already know what will make me feel better. I just need to work them into my daily routine and fully commit to them! And I figure that if I do them consistently for a month, they will become habits! Call it a life hack, if you will. I love doing things like this! You see, I already lead a rather unconventional life, I'm a pretty disciplined person, and I'm a big believer in personal responsibility, especially in matters of health- mental and physical. And I've been thinking about starting a blog here on Steem, but more about all that in future posts...

So here goes!!!... and by posting this publicly here, I am reinforcing my commitment to see this endeavor through. I'll be updating you with my progress, insights, struggles and results along the way, not daily necessarily, but regularly.

So please follow along and chear me on in my 'Crazy Experiment '. I welcome any and all respectful input, comments and criticism. And of course if any of you fellow Steemians would like to join me, I'd love the company! Of course, you don't have make the same changes I am, do what you know will benefit you the most, post on here, and we can support each other in '*being the change we want to see in the world *!

@originalworks