FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS

cleanse (v) to purify, to purge, to detoxify, to FREE.

Here’s what I’ve realized in my short twenty six years of life: there comes a point when things start to just fall into a routine.

It may not even be a routine you prefer, but it just naturally happens. Days become filled with family, work, workouts, friends and maybe a significant other; and when it happens, it’s like you almost don’t even realize it. It’s not a bad thing or a good thing, it’s just what happens.

The thing is, as people we need structure and balance. We crave it. It’s how we make sense of things. It’s how we organize our reality. Even if we have the most exciting job in the world, and we find ourselves in a different country every week, we still need routine. In essence, that exciting job and globetrotting way of life kinda become the “routine” for the time being. Regardless of who we are, where we live, or what we do, routine is habitual.

Ok yeah, so? Tell me something I don't know.

As much as I need routine in my life, (I am after all your classic Type A personality who still uses an actual planner, that is most certainly color coded) I refuse to let routine dictate my life. Why is it that just because we have structure, we stop challenging ourselves to be more, to be greater? I’m not saying we don’t work hard at work to get that promotion, or run the extra mile to look that much better on Saturday night. I mean why do we stop challenging ourselves to be intrinsically better just because we have found our niche in life at this particular moment?

See prior to our mid-20’s, we always had external motivations pushing us beyond our comfort zone. Our parents made us take AP classes in high school, we got super involved in college so we could boast leadership on our resumes, and some of us even opted for graduate school to get in queue for the job we always dreamed of.

But what happens when you get that job, find the person who you hope one day will be your life partner, and start to really become a grown up?

I find myself in this exact dilemma now. I mean don’t have my dream job (yet), but I’m in a place where I see myself eventually getting there. I don’t have a partner, but I am very comfortable with who I am and if the right person comes along, I am definitely open to it. And I am fortunate to have meaningful relationships with my friends and family, people who I can count on, no matter what.

I’m not saying life gets boring, that’s not at all what “routine” means for me. I still have many ecstatic moments of joy, make spontaneous decisions, and live all the adventure possible in Houston, Texas.

BUT STILL I CRAVE MORE.

And I finally see that the only way to feel truly satisfied (for Henna anyway) is to intrinsically work on improving myself as a person. To make the commitment and actually do it, regardless of what is going on extrinsically around me.

So this all started with the social media experiment. And now it’s evolved to what I am calling my "Forty Day Cleasnse." No, I don’t mean the lemon-maple syrup diet—no one should be doing that. Ever. Instead, I am going to the take the next forty days to work on my spiritual, emotional, physical and mental health with the focused goal of self improvement.

I’m not going to spell out in the blog exactly what I’m going to do because I see this as a personal process. I am, however, going to log my daily progress in my journal (courtesy of awesome friend/supporter Samia) and post every now and then for you all to enjoy.

I already know that my greatest challenge will be discipline. But I also know that self –improvement is more about “self” than even “improvement.” And in the end, my greatest success will be a better me, Henna v2.0.

Y’all ain’t even ready ;)