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100 days of care

When we love ourselves deeply, we make better choices

Take small daily steps to increased well-being

current 100 day Program
February 14 – May 24, 2023

Join us for 100 days of accountability and peer support to increase your well-being! When we love ourselves deeply, we make better choices. And this is far from selfish. Everyone in our lives directly benefits from our taking good care of ourselves.

Start anytime and begin your own journey to a deeper sense of self-trust and contentment. This will be our second round of 100 Days of Care and we’ve made a few changes to how it will run. Please review the instructions below.

 

The 100 Days of Care program is freely offered. If you perceive or receive value, and have the means to give, we welcome donations. Even a small donation is valuable. Your generosity is appreciated.

100 Days of Care is a daily self-care challenge. It is an opportunity to MAKE PEACE with ourselves, to make peace with our body and mind, to make peace with others.

Using a small, daily(-ish) COMMITMENT of your own choosing, we’ll apply GENTLE discipline and COMPASSION to effect meaningful change in the way we SHOW UP for life!

Instead of taking an attitude that there is something wrong with us that we need to fix, we’ll SLOW DOWN and re-train ourselves to PAY ATTENTION with CARE and KINDNESS to both our own experience and the experience of others.

How to participate in the 100 Days of Care

Create a mantra and recite it daily.

Your mantra is a loving phrase that you will recite at least once daily for 100 Days.

The basic 100 Day commitment is to recite your personal mantra at least once per day.

Examples:

I care deeply for myself and others.

I am peaceful and live with ease.

I am safe, relaxed and worthy of love.

Take your time to craft something that moves your heart.

Let it be a living statement that can evolve. You may find you naturally want to tweak or change the phrase as the 100 Days progresses.

Listen below, if you like, to a 7-minute guided meditation that uses the first example.

Pair it with a new or established daily habit.

If you feel inspired, add something small and measurable that you’d like to undertake to do daily that you know would be good for your well-being.

Examples: meditation, yoga, more time for rest/sleep, acts of kindness or generosity, gratitude practice, walking in nature, reading, journalling or creative writing, other creative arts (painting, drawing, dancing, photography), limiting or eliminating caffeine, tobacco, alcohol or other intoxicants, reducing social media consumption and binge watching.

You can also pair your mantra with an existing habit. This is called ‘habit stacking’ and it can increase your success in sticking with the 100 Days.

Examples of habit stacking: put a sticky note on your bathroom mirror and plan to say your mantra as you brush your teeth, write out your mantra three times in your journal if you already do that daily, or if you are active every day on social media commit to engage with us online in step 3…

Engage daily
(or daily-ish).

You can privately note your own progress in a journal or a wall calendar. It is also powerful to join with others in a community energy of goodwill and encouragement.

We have FOUR forums available for you to connect with others who are doing the 100 Days of Care: Facebook, Instagram, Insight Timer and Zoom meet ups (details below).

During the first 100 Days series, many participants made a commitment to post daily in the FB group or on their own Instagram (tagging us @100.days.of.care).

This commitment to posting daily turned out to be a powerful way for people who are already active on social media to connect an existing habit with their 100 Days practice.

Four ways to engage with the 100 Days of Care community

If you are active on FaceBook, join our Facebook group for daily-ish engagement and encouragement. Post your successes or challenges, respond to and encourage others!

Please use the #100daysofcare hashtag when you post on social media. In a search, it helps us to quickly aggregate participation! 

Post your daily successes or challenges on Instagram and tag us @100.days.of.care.

Your posts can be a way to be accountable to yourself and to encourage others. Remember, shining your light does not dim the light of others! Use the #100daysofcare hashtag. In a search it helps us to quickly aggregate participation!

The Insight Timer meditation app allows us to connect with each other in a group.

Post your successes or challenges daily in the chat. Respond to and encourage others. Find content, like guided meditations. 

Be sure to add your name to your Insight Timer profile and turn on notifications for the app, so that you receive alerts.

Write out your daily commitment

Once you’ve created a personal mantra and paired it (Step 2 is optional) with a simple, measurable daily action, be sure to write out your 100 Days of Care daily commitment, and keep it somewhere you will see it on a regular basis (e.g. daily planner, sticky note on fridge, phone alarm, calendar alert).

Below are four examples, to help you gain clarity. The possibilities are endless, be creative!

Examples:

My mantra: I care deeply for myself and others.

My 100 Days commitment: Each day, I will recite my mantra 3x while brushing my teeth and I will attend as many of the zoom meet ups as my schedule allows.

 

My mantra: I am peaceful and live with ease.

My 100 Days commitment: Each day, I will recite my mantra 7x (while pausing and breathing deeply), and I will walk outside for a minimum of 10 minutes.

 

My mantra: I am safe, relaxed and worthy of love.

My 100 Days commitment: Each day, I will recite my mantra at least once and post at least one sentence or image to the 100 Days of Care Facebook group.

 

My mantra: I am open to receiving love and I notice kindness in myself and others.

My 100 Days commitment: Each day, I will meditate on my mantra for 5 mins and I will join the zoom meetings as often as I am able.

 

Listen below, if you like, to a 7-minute guided meditation that uses the first mantra example.

#100daysofcare

Things to keep in mind

Be easy with yourself. Instead of taking an attitude that there is something wrong with us that we need to fix, let’s SLOW DOWN and re-train ourselves to PAY ATTENTION with CARE and KINDNESS to both our own experience and the experience of others.

Be simple and specific. Keep your commitment small and manageable. 100 days is a long time, and we are looking to create CONSISTENCY and a SHIFT in our fundamental/underlying view of our selves and others. That we are worthy of safety, love and happiness.

Daily is a recommendation — Daily-ish is enough. We can take inspiration in the suggestion from Dan Harris (author of Ten Percent Happier): “The little twin slogans that I use are, “one minute counts” and “dailyish. Don’t fall into the trap of giving up if you miss a day. You can always begin again.

If it doesn’t feel good, we won’t do it. Make your 100 Days of Care a joy to undertake! Keep it light and creative. Celebrate your successes and give encouragement to others.

Let yourself evolve. Get curious about the ways you may be rigid. Investigate your thoughts, feelings and beliefs about yourself and the world. Practically speaking, let the 100 Days evolve too. Your daily commitment can be tweaked as you discover things about yourself and your path.

Guided practice

Resting in a Self-Care Mantra

In this 7-min guided meditation, we will use “I care deeply for myself and others” as a loving phrase directed toward our body and mind. You can substitute your personal mantra, words that work to relax and open your heart-mind.

EVERY MOMENT A NEW BEGINNING

“It is never too late to turn on the light. Your ability to break an unhealthy habit or turn off an old tape doesn’t depend on how long it has been running; a shift in perspective doesn’t depend on how long you’ve held on to the old view.

When you flip the switch in that attic, it doesn’t matter whether its been dark for ten minutes, ten years or ten decades.

The light still illuminates the room and banishes the murkiness, letting you see the things you couldn’t see before.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.”

Sharon Salzberg, Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation

When we deeply love and care for something or someone (ourself and others), we NATURALLY make healthier, kinder moment-by-moment choices and tend towards care in our thoughts, speech and actions.

Let us know if you have any questions!

100 Days of Care is powered by
Stream Yoga + Meditation

We offer (in person and online) weekly classes, pre-registered courses, workshops and retreats.

We are located at: 819 Weaver Road, Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada, L3K 5V3

Call us: 905.401.YOGA (9642)
Text us: 519.400.7862
Email us: hello@gentlydownthestream.org

May there be peace.

May all beings live with ease.