Reimagining Lifestyle Design
One Day At A Time, Yopo Ceremony, and Schema Therapy
San Miguel de Allende
It’s been nearly a month since my last post.
Other than enjoying all that Mexico has to offer, the inner journey, at it’s most intense during a yopo ceremony a few weeks ago, is what I have been up to. Blessed to have the time to think and process but in the end it’s only making up for all the past time I was busy and lost.
My local plant-medicine healer recommended yopo after asking her what I could do to open my heart. After a 5-meO-dmt infused, nauseating, two hour inner journey that felt like being in a small boat in the middle of a stormy ocean with no anchor other than the sound of my voice and melody I was relieved to open my eyes and come out the other side needing to process what happened. My biggest take away so far: invest more of my time and energy into creating and generating the feeling of self-love. More on that in the weeks to come. In the meantime this has been really helpful.
Every time I publish a post I share one lifestyle design idea, something I am reading, something that inspired me, and one question for my readers.
Ready for this week’s edition? Bring it!
One Lifestyle Design Idea From Me
Forget lifestyle design.
Your life is a ocean you can’t control, calm blue waters one day a storm the next. Focusing on what’s in front of you today, here and now, is more actionable.
Slowly design your perfect day instead. Take some time each night to consider the low and high points of your day and analyze the best and worse use of your energy and time.
After you determine the low and high points of your day consider what can be done to reduce or remove the low and what can be done to enhance or add to the highlight of your day. Small steps. This could be one activity, one thought, one feeling, one habit, one relationship, one environment etc. As a daily committed practice to designing the life you want your days will slowly turn into a string of days and gradually into a life you love even when there are unexpected storms.
What I Am Reading
Schema Therapy: A Practitioner’s Guide by Jeffrey Young.
This is really a textbook for therapist on how to help patients with complex, hard to treat trauma.
Designed to meet the formidable challenges of treating personality disorders and other complex difficulties, schema therapy combines proven cognitive-behavioral techniques with elements of other widely practiced therapies. This book-written by the model's developer and two of its leading practitioners-is the first major text for clinicians wishing to learn and use this popular approach. Described are innovative ways to rapidly conceptualize challenging cases, explore the client's childhood history, identify and modify self-defeating patterns, use imagery and other experiential techniques in treatment, and maximize the power of the therapeutic relationship. Including detailed protocols for treating borderline personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder, the book is illustrated with numerous clinical examples.
One Thing That Inspired Me
You don't need to predict how everything will play out.
Just master the next step and continue moving in the right direction
-via James Clear
One more as a bonus:
We are here to learn to endure the beams of love
-William Blake
One Question For My Readers
What can I let go of that would free up my time, energy, and attention to meet my lifestyle design goals?
If you found value here it would mean a lot to me if you can share it with someone.
Comments, questions, or thoughts from you the reader are always welcomed.
Until next time. Happy week ahead!
More about what Ed is up to here.