Practice feeling better, 10 days at a time.

I've spent a lifetime (so far!) experimenting with practices that help me ride the inevitable waves, from ankle-lapper to tsunami, that life rolls my way.

When I refer to something as a practice, I mean that I decide ahead of time how I will show up for myself, and I commit to that with friendly tenaciousness.

I am tenacious in the sense that I am going to do my best to be where I told myself I would be, at the appointed time, and that I will put in a good-faith effort without constantly second guessing my commitment. I am tenacious about showing up.

I am friendly in the sense that I try to advise and encourage myself as a good pal would. I know that life can be unpredictable and also that sometimes in my excitement to try something new, I bite off more than I can chew, so I allow flex and ease into the system. With my own arm thrown around my shoulder in self-solidarity, I remind myself that it’s the showing up and trying that matters, not the outcome. In fact, I’ve found that I sometimes start a practice because I think it will lead to some kind of payoff, but that the good-faith showing up reveals benefits and options I never could have anticipated. I welcome those insights with friendly curiosity.

When I'm developing a new practice, I commit to a specific course of action 10 days at a time.

10 days is long enough to develop some understanding/traction/muscle memory, short enough that I don't feel like I'm signing my whole life away to one speculative course of action, and medium-size enough that I can actually see some progress over time. Most months contain 3 10-day cycles, and developing iterations of a new practice 3 times in one month means I can adjust, see how it actually fits into my life and notice whether it's providing benefit that's worth the effort.

The structure I use can be applied to just about any habit or practice you'd like to build. My goal, in individual classes and the overall philosophy of 10 Friendly Days, is to keep you company and feed you friendly motivation as you figure out how to establish and sustain practices that suit your interests, personality, and current life circumstances. I only teach practices that I actually successfully use (which is why there is not currently a “Perfect your Piecrust” or “Rad Rollerblading” or “Write 10 Country songs in 10 days!” class), but once you see how it’s done, you’ll be able to transfer what you’ve learned and start any practice that appeals to you.

Contact me with any questions, and I look forward to having you in class soon!

10 Friendly Days classes are on hold while I migrate them to a new platform - email me if you’d like to be contacted in mid-spring when they go live!