One of the best things I could have ever done for myself, was choose to wake up at 4:30am.
Now, before you write me off as a crazy... HEAR ME OUT.
Chasing Sunrise is an amazing crew of like-minded peeps who are looking to get out and get after what they want in life, and they have rubbed off on hundreds of us, ready to carve out the time to make that happen as well. The name of the DAMN EARLY DAYS game, was waking up at 4:30am, every weekday morning in January and you had to have some sort of motivation for wanting to get up that early, or else, it probably wouldn't work for you. For many, and me (before this challenge) sleep is sacred and any time in the morning that could be spent snoozing, is way better than time spent awake. But my motivation to do this challenge, was a move of desperation, to force myself out of the depressive funk I had found myself in for the last few months. The reason for wanting to get up early could have been anything -- training for a marathon, creating your very own website (!!!), setting a budget, getting to hot yoga before work or just getting up and ENJOYING your coffee.
This experience was challenging, because it really limits what you can do with your evenings. I am not really a big 'NO' person and I love socializing. I love living my life to the fullest outside of work hours, so I definitely had to make sacrifices. I had to leave my friends' house on a Monday night earlier than I might have wanted to, but I always had to keep the bigger picture close to my mind.
For me, this challenge was my saving grace. This was a huge step out of my comfort zone. This was the big move I promised myself that I would make, to try to break my anxiety and depression cycle. Anything that could help me with that, was my priority. I was SO lucky to have my super supportive boyfriend also commit to the early mornings with me, because I'm telling you, having each other for accountability was extremely helpful. We got to spend some real quality time during some of our damn early days, and other days, we did our own things. I spent a lot of time journaling, meditating, doing yoga and watching the news. You know, adult shit.
Journaling has been a huge part of my anxiety battle so I figured I might as well share it online for the whole world (potentially) to see.
This was one of the only New Years Resolutions I really stuck to... I'm still doing it and it's mid-February!
And this was one of the best things I could have done for myself.
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we will ever do.”