Exercise 1a: Your sidcha

[Joshua]

Please post about your sidcha:

• Your direction (aesthetic, mindfulness, fitness, business, education, etc)
• Your activity (drawing, meditating, running, calling clients, practicing a language, etc)
• How many you’ll do per day

You might write something like: “I am doing a sidcha in personal growth. I will write three things to be grateful for every day.”

Feel free to change your sidcha if you find something more appealing, as long as you keep doing it daily (and that it’s self-imposed, challenging, healthy, and active.)

I recommend also writing some reflection at the start, then writing more reflections over the course of the workshop as your sidcha experience grows.

[Hayden Kessinger]

My lifelong commitment

It feels pretty good to plainly say that. For the rest of my life I will do this one thing, no matter what. The only reason I will stop will be to change to something that serves me better. Even if I switch, I will still do my SIDCHA.

My SIDCHA for the rest of my life will be mostly fitness, but I’d say also mindful: a one-minute plank. I predict the length will increase quickly as a one-minute plank is not difficult for me right now. However, I will start with one-minute. That is what I believe I can do every single day no matter what happens. It’ll be interesting to see if I’m still doing daily planks in one month, six months, and a year from now. I’ll certainly still be doing my SIDCHA, but perhaps I will have realized that planks should be replaced by something else. Maybe something creative or mindful, or something else physical. I think if anything I’ll add more SIDCHAs rather than replace the plank. But who knows?

There are plenty of healthy habits I want to introduce (or more commonly, re-introduce) to my life. In fact, I spend a lot of my time every day thinking about them: running, yoga, meditation, writing, learning an instrument, and many more. Some of these things are already almost daily habits that bring me a lot of benefits. However, none of them are non-negotiable. I skip my yoga and meditation practice from time to time. I go long stints without running. Sometimes I feel too tired to journal before bed, so I don’t. I’ve started many daily habits, kept them for a while and then dropped them. I always value the routine and structure they provide in addition to the benefits that come as a direct result of actually doing them (feeling more calm from meditating, feeling stronger and more flexible from yoga, etc.).

My new SIDCHA is different. I will plank for one minute for every day until the day I physically cannot (or if I decide to switch). As I write this, I’m thinking, “man, this is kind of extreme isn’t it? Do I really want to put this pressure on myself?” But c’mon, it’s one minute. No matter what insane circumstances life throws at me — rain, snow, hail, meteor shower, nuclear fallout — there’s no way I can’t manage to hold a plank for one minute. So I guess that settles it. I’m a daily planker. Here begins my streak. I actually started yesterday but I’ll log October 21st, 2024 as the official first day of my SIDCHA journey.

I’m excited to read about and support everyone else’s!

This was on my blog on Monday

[Evelyn Wallace]

Evelyn’s SIDCHA

The direction of my SIDCHA is mindfulness: I will take 10 slow, meditative, present breaths a day in locations that might include but will often not include a traditional sit-down meditation setting. A living meditation, I suppose, is the intention of these daily ten breaths, and I feel 99.9% confident I can, in fact, accomplish this every day. Even the hard ones.

In my mind, these commitments are expiring at the end of these 20 weeks, though, full disclosure.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Evelyn,

Thanks for the reminder to do this more. I like to take deep breaths before eating but have been slacking as of late.

[Beth]

Beth’s SIDCHA

The direction of my SIDCHA is mindfulness. I will meditate for 10 minutes a day every day until the end of 2024.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Woo! Enjoy 🙂

[Jim Jenkins]

Jim’s sidcha

Topic: Jim’s Life plan review to maintain focus on what is important

I’ve had such good progress with my Life Plan Review on a biweekly review basis in the past 4 months that I am going to record my gains each day to keep what’s important in front of me and move faster. This forum doesn’t accept pictures or spread sheets very well but I can bring up a copy on the call to show you if it is of value.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Jim,

I’m very interested in hearing more about this.

[Olivia Ong]

Sidcha

I’m doing a sidcha in meditation. I will do one+ meditation >= 5 min per day. This is the pinky lift level. However, coming from a transformational workshop this week, I’ve found the personal benefits of meditating to be mind-blowing-ly amazing. I’ve incorporated meditations on and off for a while now, and now I finally have a super robust why – the science – and much more of the how.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Meditation rocks!

I remember we talked at length a month or two ago about meditation (now that I think of it, it might’ve been when discussing whether or not we wanted to join Initiative!). I have fallen off the wagon but still meditate a few times per week. Very excited to hear about your recent experience and look forward to seeing how your sidcha impacts your life.

[Eugene Bible]

My SIDCHA – Eugene Bible

I spent the week coming up with as many SIDCHAs as I could. I asked many people for suggestions as well! In the end, I brought it down to a list of 3 SIDCHAs that I think would be personally very satisfying if I were to accomplish:
I will do one piano exercise every day.
I will read for 10 minutes every day.
I will compliment one person every day.

Doing any one of these would be an amazing improvement to my daily life. It’s almost impossible for me to pick one, so I think I’m going to just let it happen naturally: choose one at random and see how it goes, knowing I can always switch later! Here is my SIDCHA statement:

I am doing a SIDCHA in personal development and emotional health: I will do one piano exercise every day.

Despite knowing that playing the piano or violin makes my whole day feel “right,” I too rarely take the time to practice, especially piano. I think this SIDCHA will help center me emotionally every day and balance out any stress in my day.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Excited for you!

Sounds like this simple act will be huge. I like your other two options, too. Complimenting people is an underrated route to happiness 🙂

[Joe Spradley]

SIDCHA

Inspired by my classmates’ focus on mindfulness practices, I’ve decided to deepen my own daily spiritual routine. After reflection, I’ve chosen a SIDCHA that aligns with my Buddhist practice.

• My direction: Mindfulness and spiritual growth

• My activity: Take Refuge while making 3 prostrations and inspiring Bodhicitta aspiration

• How many per day: Once at the start of the day

*I am committing to a SIDCHA in mindfulness. Every day for the rest of my life, I will Take Refuge and cultivate motivation.*

By the power of this compassionate practice may suffering be transformed into peace. May the hearts of all beings be opened and their wisdom radiate from within.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Very curious to learn more, Joe!

[Bonnie]

Sidcha

I plan to do a one-minute plank every day. My barre class includes planks, but if I don’t go to the class, I tend not to do them at all. Strengthening my core is important to me, so I want to establish a daily habit. Additionally, I aim to read 10 pages each day to improve my focus.

[Hayden Kessinger]

Plank buddies!!

[Hayden Kessinger]

It’s been exactly one month of SIDCHAs

I missed the in-class discussion about SIDCHAs, so I’m curious to hear about everyone’s experience. Mine had been good. I haven’t missed a day of planks and increased from 1 minute to 2 minutes at least two weeks ago. It’s nice to have something like this where even if I have a bad day, I can feel like I succeeded with something. I’m starting to think about changing it to something creative but not sure. Maybe I’ll stick with planks until I really feel like it’s a part of me, then switch or add one.

[Author]

Posts