Sparkling Isolation – Day 73

100 questions.

One of the constants in my life for the past 30 years at least has been my focus on my personal, spiritual growth. I have meditated and journaled since the early 1980s. At different times in my adult life, I have worked professionally as a psychic, tarot reader, Feng Shui consultant, and a life coach.

Now that we are more than ten weeks into this quarantine situation, I have had a chance to revisit many of my spiritual practices including many that I had let fall by the wayside. One of those has been journaling.

Ever since the first few days of this isolation, I have made daily journaling in the morning a part of my practice. Obviously, I have also made this ‘end of the day’ ritual of creating this series of “sparkling isolation” posts a part of my practice as well.

Today, I found myself struggling with what I should write here. There was nothing particularly memorable about today. I slept in late, I journaled, had coffee, checked email, read, cooked, napped, and binge watched a series on Netflix. Overall, not a particularly “productive” day in the sense of quantifiable actions. But overall, it was a lovely relaxing day during which I managed to avoid getting sucked into the abyss of negativity that seems to be overtaking the world in the past few days.

I am not downplaying the importance of world events, but what I am saying is that I cannot allow myself to get dragged into drama as a result of them. I have my opinions and I have my own way of dealing with my anger and anxiety at things going on in the world. I just don’t choose to publicize those either here or in any of my social media posts.

What all the drama has led me to, however, is a resurgence of interest in my own spiritual growth. I realized this morning that last year at this exact time I was in the middle of a 10-day Vipassana mediation training. Oh, how I wish I were back there now!

In lieu of that, I decided to look through some of my resources related to spiritual growth. In doing so, I ran across a fantastic list of questions. In full disclosure, I have no clue where these originally came from. I have had them saved in a file in my Dropbox folder for almost five years now. When I typed them into a search engine, it took me to several Facebook posts by a variety of people, so I am unsure of the original source.

I decided to revisit this list, so I am dedicating time every day now to answering as many of them as possible until I catch up to my date of “sparkling isolation.” That means I have some work to do. I am leaving them here for anyone else who might want to take some time to stop, think, reframe, and refocus.

100 Questions

1. Where is my heart guiding me?
2. What do I need to say that others have left unspoken?
3. Are there any skills or talents I’m not utilizing?
4. What is my personal blind spot; what have I been unwilling to look at?
5. Where have I been worrying too much about what others think?
6. What new patterns and habits can I invite into my life?
7. Where have I been more focused on how I look, rather than how I feel?
8. What concerns am I willing to release?
9. What am I committed to changing?
10. What is my body craving?
11. What commitments to myself can I honor?
12. What new habit can I start?
13. How do I want to feel?
14. What signs have I been misinterpreting or ignoring?
15. What lessons am I learning right now?
16. Where can I surrender?
17. Where can I take responsibility for my outcome?
18. What challenges from my past can I celebrate overcoming?
19. Where can I ask for help, and who can I let in?
20. What expectations am I ready to release?
21. How is life asking me to grow right now?
22. How have I let fear dictate my actions?
23. What can I remove from my life?
24. What have I been avoiding out of fear?
25. Where can I show more of my true self?
26. What area of my life have I become disenchanted with, and what is that trying to tell me?
27. What has my intuition been trying to tell me?
28. Where do I feel broken? What steps will I take to release this internal pain?
29. What am I learning on the way to reaching my goal?
30. What did I love to do as a child that I can do today?
31. Where have I blocked myself from feeling?
32. Where have I been focusing too much on the outcome?
33. Where in my life do I feel forced to take action?
34. What current situation in my life have I been resisting?
35. In what ways can I appreciate myself more?
36. What flaw that I hide from others can I reveal?
37. What long-term success am I working to create?
38. What healthier habits can I start?
39. What can I do with my current limitations?
40. What dream have I ignored, but keeps coming back?
41. What situation in my life turned out to be a giant blessing in disguise?
42. Where have I been settling?
43. And what actions step can I take to raise my standards?
44. What is my fear trying to tell me?
45. In what ways can I be kinder to myself?
46. What have I given up on that still wants to be pursued?
47. Where have I been forcing myself to heal faster than what feels right?
48. How have I been cheating on my future by thinking thoughts of my past?
49. What “flaw” can I accept today?
50. Where have I been hesitating to take action?
51. What has the universe been asking me to release?
52. What past situation have I been romanticizing?
53. How has my past hurt my ability to move forward?
    54 . What plan feels forced or like it no longer fits in my life? Can I let it go?
54. What emotion have I been hiding?
55. What are my instincts trying to tell me?
56. What does my ideal life look and feel like?
57. What area of my life can I take more of a leadership role in?
58. Where can I be more unapologetic about what brings me joy?
59. Where have I been playing it safe?
60. What action step can I take despite my insecurity or lack of confidence?
61. How am I standing in my own way?
62. What stories am I telling myself that are holding me back?
63. What do I feel most guilty about?
64. When do I feel most alive?
65. What have I denied myself that I really want?
66. Who can I forgive?
67. What relationship am I not feeling the way I want to feel in?
68. What am I avoiding right now in my life?
69. What have I stopped doing that I want to start again?
70. What do I need to say but have not voiced?
71. How do I measure my success?
72. What barriers do I create that keep me from what I want?
73. What in my life am I forcing?
74. What have I denied myself that I really want?
75. What insecurity can I love today?
76. Can I consider a more fun-loving approach?
77. What project can I give new life to?
78. What is the silver lining of my current situation?
79. What relationship can I remove myself from?
80. What patterns keep repeating in my life, and what can I learn from them?
81. What drama can I disengage with?
82. What miracle have I recently witnessed?
83. How can I be more honest with those who are close to me?
84. What dream have I been ignoring?
85. What recent situation do I blame myself for?
86. Where can I stop second-guessing my own judgment?
87. What desire do I need to revisit?
88. Where have I allowed “no” to stop me?
89. What act of kindness can I do right now?
90. What promise can I keep to myself?
91. Where can I be more courageous with my heart?
92. Where can I be more understanding?
93. Where has scarcity or lack-based thought prevented me from doing what I love?
94. When I listen to my heart, what does it say?
95. What payoff is no longer pleasing me?
96. What action step can I take today that my future self will hug me for?
97. What change can I make today?
98. What little act of kindness can I do today?
99. What new beginning am I being guided to?

It’s only Quarantine if it comes from the Quarante province of France. Otherwise, it’s just Sparkling Isolation.