THE 100 DAY TRANSFORMATIONAL PROJECT (PART TWO)

This is Part 2 of The 100 Day Transformational Project. If you have not yet read Part 1, please read it here. The purpose of the second part of this post is to give you an overview of how to actually apply and implement this 100 Day Project.

Before I do this, I want to remind you of what I emphasised in the last post - that the most important focus of this project is inner transformation. It is very easy to get distracted by the outer world and think that our goals of what we want to do and have are the most important thing. During this project it is a good idea to have some outer goals that you are working on, but your main focus will be on your inner state.

What will amaze you, is that once you actually change and heal your inner world, the outer results will come easier, faster and much more effortlessly than ever before. It is therefore beneficial to set some outer world and material intentions as you will then be able to observe how differently your dreams manifest when you start on the inside first.

So, for those of you who do not have much experience with doing inner work, you may be wondering exactly what inner transformation is.

What is Inner Transformation?

Inner transformation involves a few main components;

• Self Reflection and Self Inquiry: This involves getting curious about yourself, taking a step back and looking at your life from a new perspective. Become aware of your patterns of thinking and your habits of behaviour. Begin to question and make sense of why it is you do what you do. Think about what emotions or feelings you regularly feel. Take a mental inventory of experiences that tend to show up in your life over and over again. Simply start to get to know yourself better and gain a better understanding of the thoughts and feelings you experience and how these affect your outer life experience.
• Determine what needs to change: Start to think about what areas of your inner world are not truly serving you. Do you have some patterns or habits that are holding you back? Do you often feel negative emotions? Do you tend to live in the past and play old stories over and over in your mind? How do you feel and think about yourself? Do you have any perceptions or views of the world that do not support you? How are you with others? Are you ever judgemental, unforgiving or rude to people?  Do you live in fear or anxiety? Do you feel that your thoughts, feelings or beliefs keep you stuck, powerless or unable to achieve what you want in life?
• Do the work: This is where you determine what work has to be done to transform your inner world. How can you work to change your thoughts, feelings, reactions, perceptions, interpretations and emotions? Here, you actually change who you are as a person with the aim of then creating different results around you

The Practices

What I want to give you now, is a list of practices that you can apply throughout the project to assist with  the transformation of your inner world, and the achievement of your intentions. These practices are designed to work with your mind, your emotions and your energy. This is where true change begins. These practices support you in changing who you are being and how you see the world. The spin off is that through making these inner changes, the outer world will consequently begin to shift too. As you work to remove the inner blocks inside you, then the things in the outer world that you have previously been blocking, will now start to roll in.

In the last post, I explained that there were 4 main aims in this project. They were;

1. Feeling Good

2. Thinking Right

3. Releasing Resistance

4. Manifesting

I will categorise the practices you can use based on how they support each of the aims;

Practices to help you FEEL GOOD

• Positive Aspects: Take time each day to stop and notice the good/great/wonderful/beautiful things that are surrounding you at this moment. You may be at work, in the car, out shopping or doing chores at home, but you can still take time to tune in to the good aspects of each experience.
• Appreciation: Write lists or just think in your mind of all the things that you love and appreciate in your life. This exercise is beautiful for opening your heart.
• Gratitude: Similar to appreciation, gratitude helps you see just how blessed you are. Think about all the amazing things you have to be thankful for you in your life, no matter how small.
• Follow Your Bliss: Each day dedicate some time to following your bliss. Ask yourself what you love to do and make some time to do it each day. It may be an activity like painting, dancing or playing sport or it may be as small as reading your favourite book, drinking tea, playing with your pets or walking in nature.
• Be Kind to Others: Making others feel good can bring about so much happiness. Smile at people, think kind thoughts about them, do favours for people, buy gifts, help strangers, and speak nice words to all those that you meet.
• Nourish Your Body: When you eat well and exercise you will be amazed at how much better you feel. Not only are you showing yourself that you love and care about yourself, but a healthy body supports a healthy, positive mind.

Practices to help you THINK RIGHT

• Affirmations: You want to program your mind to think in more positive ways and in ways that are in line with what you want. Write out clear affirmations of what you want to experience, be, do or have and say them out loud daily.
• Review Your Intentions: I like to keep a list of the intentions I am working on for each 100 Day Project pinned up near my desk where I can see them. Looking at them daily keeps my mind focused on where I am going and what I am currently working on.
• Focus on What You DO Want: So often our mind gets stuck thinking about all the things we do not like or do not want, but it is necessary to catch yourself when this happens. Instead focus on what you do want to experience, or do want to have or do want to feel or do want to bring in to your life.
• Quit Complaining: We often let small trivial complaints occupy our mind for no good reason. Letting go of complaining thoughts will make space for beautiful, positive thoughts to come in.
• Believe and Expect: You must have faith that everything is on it's way to you, and you must keep your mind in a open state of belief, expectation and receiving. Know and trust that good things are coming to you and they will.

Practices to help you RELEASE RESISTANCE

• Meditate: When your mind is calm and free of stressful thoughts, you are in a much more open and positive state. In the absence of negative thought there is nothing blocking your desires from coming to you, and you are much more able to receive goodness in to your life.
• Breathe: If there is any point that you feel tight, stressed, tense or anxious one of the best things you can do is focus on your breathe. Take several deep breaths to assist you in calming down or in releasing tension in your body or mind.
• Feel Your Emotions: Often when negative emotions arise in us, we do our best to suppress or ignore them. Instead if you find yourself feeling something yuck, just sit with it and experience it fully. Once you acknowledge and process it you will allow it to release. 
• Journal: If you have a problem you cannot solve or something is bothering you, take out a pen and a piece of paper and write it down. Getting it out of your head and on to paper helps you process and release stuck negativity.
• Forgive: Sometimes if we are feeling bad, there is someone or something we need to forgive. It could be a person, an experience, an event or even yourself. Ask yourself if there is someone you need to forgive or an old resentment you need to release and see what comes up.
• Be Present: When we a truly present and at peace with the moment, there is no stress or struggle. It is when our minds are stuck in the past or the future that we suffer. Do your best to remain as mindful and present to your experience in this very moment and do not let yourself get caught up on worries of the past or future.

Practices to help you MANIFEST

• Think Right + Feel Good + Release Resistance: By working with the above 3 steps you will be supporting and enabling your dreams to manifest much faster.
• Visualisation: Did you know that your subconscious mind does not know the difference between images that are appearing on the screen of your mind because you are remembering them from the past, observing them in the present or imagining them in the future. When you visualise your dream life, you are putting images in your mind that your sub-concious mind takes as reality. Imagine your life as you want it to be, see it in your mind and feel it in your body and soon it will start to become your reality.
• Act As If: When you act as if, it does not mean you are pretending to be something you are not. Rather it is about embodying the qualities you want to have now even if you do not have them yet. If you want to have more money, begin embodying the qualities of abundance and feeling as if you already have all the money in world. Or, if you want to be slimmer, start acting more confident and relaxed in your body and feel the feeling of being slim and healthy even if your body is not quite there yet.
• Take Action Steps Daily: As you start to focus your mind in the right way, you will start having new inspiring ideas about actions you can take to start making your dreams a reality. When you get these ideas, act on them. Start doing new things each day - create a new habit, commit to a new daily practice, or take a small baby step each day in the direction of new behaviour. 

THE 100 DAY TRANSFORMATIONAL PROJECT (PART ONE)

For the past ten years, I have dedicated much of my spare time to studying and learning about the fields of self-development, spirituality, human potential and the mind. During this time, I have become increasingly fascinated by this Universe we live in and how it all works. I started my journey with books by people such as Tony Robbins who teaches us to set big goals, smash through our limiting beliefs, and make things happen in our lives. However, over more recent years I have become drawn to more softer approaches which are less about trying to be the richest, most successful human possible, but rather about how to reconnect with our true essence and work with the Universal Laws to turn the dreams and desires of our soul in to a reality.

I started experimenting with the Law of Attraction around the time that The Secret came out, and since then the teachings of Esther and Jerry Hicks have expanded my awareness of these concepts even more. I began to understand that I was a spiritual being here on Earth participating in the school of life. I began to understand that I was actually the creator of my life and that by changing he way that I thought and felt, I could actually change my whole world.

I have dabbled in and out of using these practices over the years. Sometimes I am very conscious and aware of what i am thinking and the consequent results I am getting. Other times my mind simply runs on autopilot, life just seems to happen to me and I spend my days just reacting to the events around me. The one thing I know if that when I do really use and apply these principles, magic happens, literally. And when I don't...well, life pretty much sucks. 

So, this brings me to what this post is all about - the 100 Day Project. An opportunity to apply everything that I know from all that I have learnt over the past decade, and then track the results and experiences that come about from this conscious application of Universal principles.

So, what is the 100 Day Project?

In this project, you start by setting intentions for what you would like to do, achieve, have or experience during a 100 day period. You then use a range of tools, strategies, daily practices and different techniques to support the manifestation and creation of your desires. However, this is unlike a usual goal program where you decide on your end result and then work as hard as you can to make it happen. Rather, this project is about inner transformation. Although many of the intentions you set may be outwardly focused with the purpose of getting something or doing something, this is not the main aim of the project. The real purpose is to get you to actually turn inward.

If you know anything about how this Universe works (or if you have been reading along on this blog) you will know that everything is about energy. Through the energy and vibration you give off, the Law of Attraction then lines up and brings you whatever is an energetic match. Your inner world, which includes your thoughts, feelings, energy, perceptions, emotions, visions, and what you focus on, creates and alters your outer world experience. The work of the 100 Day Project involves making changes to your inner world and then sitting back and watching how the outer world shifts and changes itself around you. 

This may sound a bit woo woo but I have experienced this phenomenon first hand countless times. When you commit to this work and really apply it, you will honestly be amazed by how the Universe just lines everything up that you need. I have tried it, tested it and I know it to be true. I can tell you now that the very best manifestations I have ever had in my life have come from setting an intention, working with my energy and then letting go and allowing the Universe to work it's magic. This requires trust, faith, patience and self-discpline. Your analytical mind will try to jump in and take over to make things happen it's way. The challenge is to learn how to be relaxed, detached, expectant and to feel good while you wait for everything to come together.

A word about action...

The fact that this project is mainly about inner transformation and energy work, does not mean that it is also not about action! Taking action is a huge component of this project. You cannot simply sit at home visualising and meditating and expect everything you want to just fall in your lap. The key though is when you take action and what type of action you take. Before you even think about taking action toward making something happen, you must first work with your energy. You must start by thinking the right thoughts, generating the right feelings, and giving off the right vibration. Only then will you feel inspired to act and the action itself will feel enjoyable and effortless rather than painful and forced. You will be amazing at how much more fruitful and successful your action is too. 

When you take action from a place of fear, neediness or a place of lack, and you are trying to make something happen in your time, it will not feel good and you will not get good results. This is where learning to listen to your intuition, following your gut instinct and learning to tap in to your higher guidance really helps!

What is the aim of the 100 Day Project?

Each person's project will be individual to them. For me, the project has 4 aims.

1. Feeling Good

There is nothing more important through the process of this project, than feeling good. You want to experience emotions such as joy, peace, excitement, hope, love, inspiration, eagerness, bliss and flow as much as possible. You need to remember that the Law of Attraction matches the energy and feelings that you give off. If you are frequently omitting happy and positive vibes, you will attract more positive experiences and things that make you happy!

Feeling good all the time is not necessarily realistic and in many circumstances does require some work. But that is the whole point! If you can do the work to transform your thinking and increase the amount of time you spend feeling positive emotions, you will completely change your life.


2. Thinking Right
One of the biggest tools for making you feel better, is thinking better thoughts. Believe it or not, but your thoughts create your feelings. If you think negative, disempowering and fearful thoughts all the time, you are going to feel pretty crappy right? Again, shifting your thinking from the negative to the positive will take some work, but as I said previously that is the purpose of this project - to make long term, transformational changes to your inner world.

Thinking right involves focusing on all the good things, appreciating what is wonderful with your and your life, seeing the good in others, keeping your mind on what you do want and off what you don't want, choosing loving thoughts over fearful thoughts, perceiving yourself in empowering ways, and being grateful for what you have and what is going well in your life. Keeping your mind on the right thoughts requires a lot of work, but the results are well worth it. 
 
3. Releasing Resistance
Throughout the project, you will need to become aware of your resistant thoughts, so you can then work at releasing them. What are resistant thoughts? They are thoughts that are negative and block what you want from coming to you. They are thoughts that sabotage you and prevent you from moving forward. They are thoughts that create feelings in you such as fear, doubt, anxiety, worry, anger, jealousy, bitterness and resentment.

You cannot expect the Universe to be able to bring you beautiful, magical experiences when you are harbouring resistant and negative feelings. This is the biggest and most important aspect of the inner work that must be embarked on. There is no point setting lots of wonderful desires and intentions if you are just going to sabotage them through your negative beliefs. I am telling you now, clearing up your inner blocks is not easy. It takes courage, perseverance, the ability to let go and a willingness to change. But getting rid of old baggage that is holding you back, is one of the biggest benefits of a 100 Day Project.
 
4. Manifesting
Manifesting, is the art of turning your dreams from ideas and visions in your mind, to realities that you live out and experience in your world. As I have mentioned previously, there is a difference between manifesting, and making things happen. Manifesting involves your working in cooperation with the Universe and listening to it's guidance. Your ability to manifest is based on the 3 areas mentioned above - feeling good, thinking right and releasing resistance. When you start your project, you will want to set intentions for what you want to manifest.

Then, once you are clear on what you want to create, you work involves the following; feel good about your desire, believe in it, know it is already yours, expect to see it show up around you, love and appreciate where you are even though you do not have it yet, remove doubt and worry about whether or not it will happen, focus on your intentions and visualise the end result, act as if it has already happened and feel the feeling of having it, and then let go and just allow the Universe to bring everything together.

So, that is all well and good, but perhaps you are wondering how action fits in to the manifesting equation. As soon as you have an inspired idea or pull to act in a new way, you must do it, immediately! You must act when you feel inspired or nothing will happen. When you are tuned in to your energy and your intuition, you will be able to know when it is the right time to act and when it is not. 

How do I implement the 100 Day Project? Check out Part 2 of this post where I cover HOW to implement your very own 100 Day Project!

LEARNING LIFE'S LESSONS

How do you react when you are faced with something challenging in your life? Let's say something has gone wrong in some area, or an unexpected negative event has come your way, or you are having to spend time with a really difficult person that is making your life hell. How do you react and deal with these experiences?

Often when challenges come our way we try to do our best to resist them or change them. We criticise them or the people involved and we complain endlessly to anyone who will listen. We may ask "why me?" or "what did I do to deserve this?" We may play the victim card and act as though all these terrible things are just happening to us and we are just some poor innocent bystander. We may get angry or depressed or want revenge or just want to give up.

We all react in different ways, but what is common between all of us is that more often than not we label challenges as bad or wrong. There are not many people out there (although I am sure they do exist) who when faced with a challenge think "Yes, awesome, this is fantastic!" We don't like challenging times because they often make us feel pain, and most of us will do whatever we can to avoid pain. Challenging times often bring with them a whole host of circumstances or people that we do not like and that often make us feel unhappy or just plain yuck.

Choose to see things differently

Well, here is a new thought for you...What if it was not actually the event that is making you feel bad, but rather the way that you are thinking about it. What if the fact that this event is challenging you has absolutely nothing to do with the event itself, but rather with the way that you are perceiving it. What if you could shift the way you saw your challenges, and rather then seeing them as painful inconveniences, you could see them as opportunities to learn and grow.

You see, the purpose of your life is not to solve every problem, fix everything that goes wrong, and to get everything to look exactly as you want it to. Rather, it is to embrace the journey and the process that is unfolding and use each life experience as an opportunity to expand your soul and your self.

Often times we think that when we are faced with challenges, it means that something in our life is going wrong! We may feel like a failure or wonder what we did to deserve this. We want to be able to be always happy and be able to show our friends that everything in our life is going perfectly. But, it does not always work out like that.

Take a new approach 

What if we took a new approach to life's challenges. Rather than resisting them, what if we tried to embrace them. What if rather than trying to fix anything, we just allowed it to be as it is without interference. What if rather than struggling through challenging times we could learn how to just flow with them and be at peace.

Although you may not be able to recognise it at the time, this is exactly why challenges come our way in life. Each time you are faced with a new challenge, you are given a beautiful opportunity to shift your perspective, transform your perceptions, and see it in a whole new light. You can change the way you experience absolutely anything in life by changing the way that you think about it. These hard and testing moments are no different.

Each challenge has a hidden lesson, and if you can find it and embrace it, it will transform the whole way you experience it.

How do we find the lesson?

Think of something in your life that is challenging you. it may be something you are finding hard, something that is causing you pain, someone that is bothering you, or something that you feel unable to deal with. Now try asking yourself these questions...

"What if I created this event? What if I deliberately and consciously chose to create this event in my life for a reason? What if I created it to teach myself something? What if I chose to create it so that I could learn something amazing about myself, learn how to do something differently or grow and expand myself some how? If this was the case, why would I have created it? What lesson could I possibly learn from this that would serve my self and my soul?

Some possible answers could include;

• Learning the art of forgiveness 
• Learning how to unconditionally love yourself or another
• Discovering a whole new level of inner strength that you never knew you had
• Developing qualities such as determination, perseverance, and commitment
• Finding the courage to step outside your comfort zone
• Learning how to be vulnerable and authentic and let your guard down with someone
• The ability to cultivate inner peace
• Learning how to believe in yourself
• Deciding it is time to take 100% responsibility for your life
• Learning how to perceive yourself in a new way and stretch your inner image of what you are capable of
• Realising that you deserve more and learning how to ask for it
• Learning how to be generous and see yourself as abundant
• Learning how to detach from material possessions and cultivate humility and gratitude
• Discovering your soul's purpose and reconnecting with your truth
• The art of letting go of what is no longer serving you

And the list goes on...

So what now..? It is time to turn inward
There is one common factor among all these lessons. They are all inner lessons. Your soul purpose is not about what you do and experience in the outer world, but it about how you grow, change and evolve as a result of what you do and experience in the outer world. Life is about inner change, inner evolution and inner growth. It is about becoming bigger, better, more whole, more authentic, more loving, and expressing more of who you truly are.

So, next time you find yourself feeling unhappy or upset about some particular event in your life. Just stop and take a moment to explore the idea of thinking about it in a new way. Do your best to uncover the hidden purpose in this challenge. Try to uncover what your soul is wanting you to learn. Take a deep breath and just embrace this challenge for what it is - an event that you are assigning a negative meaning to.  

Do your best to ask new questions and change your perceptions, and you will be able to grow and expand past this challenge on to bigger and brighter things.