#i8this Intention and Goal Setting

(A giant bowl of fruit from my Urban Organic delivery)

After much thought on my own goals and intentions I've come up with my list for the #i8this Challenge. My diet is comfortably healthy at the moment. It's not perfect 100% of the time, but as I've mentioned before, I see the ability to appreciate occasional indulgences as a stop on the road to perfection.

Holisticguru's Personal 9 Day Cleanse:

1. A minimum of 10 minutes of yoga per day.
2. Keep a food diary.
3. Re-incorporate my daily greens powder.
4. Coffee only on weekends and yerba mate or green tea on weekdays (I've developed a new coffee habit recently).

Everything else is already dialed in and balanced. I eat loads of fruits and veggies along with a mix of vegetarian and occasional organic animal proteins. And I enjoy drinking water so my hydration levels are great.

I'm still going to be sharing recipes and pics of the healthy foods I'm cooking. I'm super psyched about starting my organic produce delivery again. My first box arrived last night! :D

When setting your own intentions, remember that even one singular healthy effort will make you feel better, and it will provide momentum for you to keep working at it. So don't focus on the overwhelming number of things you could/should do over the next several days, instead ask yourself "what can I do right now to help me reach my goals?"

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Ankur Shah, (author, chef, farmer and spiritual care jedi) has written an article for us about goal setting and starting at the beginning... which is exactly where you're at.

The Root of Your Matter

Somehow, it's gotten to a point where people I've barely met stop me in the street -- literally and figuratively -- to ask about meditation. It used to be like this with web design, so, hey, it's a nice change. Generally, they want to know what the deal is: Why meditate? How to meditate? How often? What's the technique? What's the goal? Is just thirty minutes okay? How about five?

I see myself as a radical, etymologically, from the latin root radix. It means 'root', so a radical is someone who goes to the root of the matter. That's what I'm trying to do. Why do we meditate? Why do we ask about meditation? Why do we cleanse? Why do we ask about cleansing? What's really going on here?

I haven't yet come up with a better notion than the simple ease and profundity of looking into your eyes and telling you:

"You're doing great. It's gonna be fine."

If you feel weight, obligation, or pressure with this cleanse, then you make it just like everything else in your life: something you have to do. And that, I think, would be a tragedy, a loss of potential. Just more should-ing. As far as I can tell, the value of the "meditative space" -- whether we get it through sitting with our eyes shut, fasting, cycling, or basketball -- lies in the relaxation of judgement. Letting the judgements float away on the early spring breeze. You become "autonomous", independent of the machinations of the monkey mind.

The short answer, then, is "Do what you feel". How can you approach this cleanse so, at every moment, you can look upon it as a Gift, not an Obligation? Look at your language -- are you saying "I have to eat..." or "I get to eat..."? There's your clue. You get to meditate. You get to run. You get to cleanse. You get to be, in love.