Dearest darlings,

I’ve recently reconnected with the idea of daily thriving. It’s something I do every day now without really thinking about it, but something this week brought it to the front of my mind so I wanted to share it with you.

Daily thriving is the idea of doing a number of small but sustainable things each day to make your day the best it can be. If you have a tendency to live for the weekend or find yourself constantly wishing time away them this could be a great way for you to re-engage with your life in a joyful way on a daily basis.

We do a lot of work in Blissful Life Yoga that builds a space to reflect on what you need for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly thriving – but to explain it quite simply:

it’s about setting goals for small, measurable actions that make you feel good about your day.

The key thing is to make yourself accountable but not be unkind to yourself. So if you love eating chocolate there’s no point saying you’ll never eat chocolate again as you are only setting yourself up for a fall. You could say that you’ll allow yourself a chocolate treat once or twice a week. It’s important to set goals in a balanced way and also be flexible enough to adjust them when you need to. If it’s your birthday week – drop the rules!

Here are some of my daily thriving actions as examples. I do my best to do them every day but I have a weekly goal for each to be realistic:

• Go for a ten min run, do 20 mins of toning and then 30 mins of yoga (weekly target of 5 times a week)
• Eat a superfood smoothie for breakfast (5x a week)
• Take vitamins and supplements (5x a week)
• Find a way to make a connection with others in a way that feels rewarding (daily – this one I almost can’t live without – get extremely grumpy without it!)

I do my best to commit to these as often as possible and I log each time I am successful so I can see myself doing well and stay motivated. It also pays for itself, as I feel 100% better when I just do this stuff instead of procrastinating.

When I first started working out in the morning it felt like hard work throughout even though each time I did it I felt amazing after. Now it’s just muscle memory. My alarm goes off, I get out of bed and change, pop some upbeat running music on and I’m out the door to start my day. I am sometimes at my happiest when I’m running up a steep hill listening to motivating dance music, even when it’s raining! This is somebody who always used to say they couldn’t run.

That’s because I know I’m thriving. I know the run, the smoothie or the vitamins are all part of allowing myself to reach my fullest potential. Gently, not obsessively  Without any kind of guilt for missing a day  as its ok to do that. Slowly and steadily I thrive more and more each day.

Some people might find this too regimented which is fine, but the question to ask yourself is how happy are you? If you are quite content then that’s wonderful. If you aren’t then perhaps you are ignoring a fundamental need to thrive on a daily basis.

It’s possible that you need to make a big change. Maybe you need a different job or a different relationship. Often we get scared of these big decisions and do nothing.

What if you don’t worry about big change, for now? What if you just choose 1 thing to do every day or most days that makes you feel alive? Maybe the big changes will happen more easily over time or perhaps not even need to happen at all. Who knows. Doing nothing, does nothing.

So what could you be doing gently and kindly to thrive each day, week or month? Share your ideas!

If you’re looking to do more of this but struggle for ideas and accountability then I’d love you to join Blissful Life Yoga where we reflect each month on living a more blissful life and support each other through the process.

P.S. If you are looking for ways to continually thrive + grow why not join us in the community + make a commitment to yourself to make this happen?

P.P.S If you are local to Berkhamsted + looking for weekly ways to make yourself thrive, why not check out my upcoming classes?