12 Gentle reset challenges to achieve holistic wellness

Hey you,

I hope you are well and that life has been treating you kindly,

This year, I aimed to integrate some gentle reset challenges into my holistic living and wellness routine.

I also made a video about it here incase you would prefer to watch it rather than read about it.

In total, there are 12 different reset challenges that I intend to make space for this year. I understand that I may not be able to complete all of them, but I would like to see how many I can accomplish. Although it’s already April, I did start in January, and I have the rest of the year to work through them. I often aim to maintain a mindset that allows me to start a new challenge or mini reset anytime, irrespective of the time of the year. Do not let the 1. January be the only time you feel like you can start to make changes in your life.

Here are the the 12 challenges

• 1. Gluten free for 3 months: I wanted to reset my relationship with gluten, a love/weakness I have always had but would like to have a more balanced approach to. I had also learned a lot more about gluten and how our intolerance to it can often go unnoticed because we do not always associate the side-effects (physical and mental) to be a gluten sensitivity.

• 2. 5k-10k walking challenge: I truly believe that walking has played such an important role in my healing and healthy processing practice and wanted to dedicate a month, hopefully in the warmer months, to committing to around that for 30 days straight.

• 3. 30 days social media & online content free: I can repost on my socials but can not consume any content, visually or audio to give my mind space and focus on my own thoughts and ideas rather than always taking in information, ideas and opinions that can often skew ones own mental space and wellbeing.

• 4. No spend month: To only buy the essentials but no buying of bits and bobs, things that are not essential. To reset my spending and become more mindful with how I spend. Especially in regards, to comfort spending, so that it is easier to self-regulate when shopping rather than just responding to random wants.

• 5. Holistic Declutter: Of my digital space ( emails, photos, videos, songs, folders, downloads) and space (old things in storage and clothing and wardrobe pieces I no longer feel connected to). I have been meaning to do this one for a while, but keep postponing it.

• 6. No sugar month: I feel this is an important one. I never grew up with a sweet tooth per se, I always loved my salty and spicy things more and sweetness mostly from fruits. However as I got older, I did start liking a few sweet pastries and candies. While I still make it a principle to not add sugar in my teas, I can now see that sugar has in-fact crawled into my life more than I would like it to. So, it would be lovely to reset that and my tastebuds to be more sensitive to sugar and desire it less.

• 7. 7 days raw food cleanse: I intend to give my body a break and improve my gut health and overall health, which will help to cleanse my body and allow my gut to rest. By not expending energy on digesting food, I hope to achieve these goals. Additionally, I see this as an opportunity to reset my palate and cravings towards consuming more whole foods.

• 8. 30 day yoga and strength training: Spending 20min-30min each day practicing yoga or strength training or both. As someone who tries to incorporate something healthy and proactive, wellness for my mind, body, soul and surrounding, this is an important thing to do for my body. To create small but sustainable body care routines.

• 9. A month of service: I aim to dedicate a month intentionally towards serving my community in some way. This is to counterbalance our tendency to become self-centered while pursuing wellness and self-care. I believe that holistic living involves being part of a community and recognizing that we belong to one another. Each one of us has unique gifts and talents that we can use in service to others.

• 10. 7 days in Nature: A given, we all need more time in nature. I would love to honour that by dedicating a week this year to be fully immersed in nature and natural elements. I believe that this would be a wonderful experience and a holistic reset for my nervous system and I am really looking forward to making space for it.

• 11. 30 days writing/finishing a project: This one is a given; getting 30 days to focus on progressing on my writing project would be a wonderful experience to finally see it getting closer to done if not fully completing it.

• 12. 21 days of affirmation and mental reset:I plan to focus my efforts intentionally on reshaping my mindset around a particular subject. It is said that it takes about 21 days to create a habit, and although I always try to practice mindfulness, I believe that setting a specific subject as my focus to learn about and find affirmations for is essential. This will help me to solidify my understanding and develop a positive habit related to whichever mindset I currently need to improve.

Now that you are aware of the 12 holistic challenges that I intend to investigate this year, you can choose to adopt them or incorporate your own for the upcoming year. These challenges can aid you in feeling more focused on wellness, connectedness, purpose, and wholeness.

I look forward to taking you with me on this journey as well!

I wish you the loveliest weekend and hope that you are blooming wherever you might be and in all your efforts.

With love, light and courage,