A moment for my goals

While I am going on this trip to let the experience take me in whatever direction it chooses, there are some goals I would like to set for myself as I feel confident that they will encourage me to experience the full magnitude of my situation. I anticipate that this list may shift and evolve as time progresses, but as of right now these are the goals I have for myself and for my trip.

I will delete all social media that I have (tiktok, instagram, snapchat)

• I find myself consistently using these apps to dissociate from my environment and avoid processing events of my day. I would love to see what could come from spending time with myself in order to recharge, rather than simply scrolling and clicking through content at a pace that allows everything to mean almost nothing at all.

I will not watch any youtube videos, tv shows, or movies.

• I know that I constantly utilize visual entertainment to limit the time I am spending with my own thoughts and the world around me. I believe that this will be the hardest step for me to take, so I would like to start by allowing myself to listen to music and podcasts, but trying to refrain from visual stimuli that takes me out of the intended experience.

I will create new rituals and routines that take time and effort that I have refrained from allowing myself the luxury of thus far.

• I struggle to create a routine that truly feels beneficial to me and often end up feeling guilty because I am spending either not enough time on other responsibilities or not enough time on myself. I want the set this as a goal so that I can feel successful regardless of what area of my life the responsibility applies to.

I will journal each day about the experience thus far, any questions that I have been contemplating, etc.

• I cannot and will not let this trip go to waste and I want to write down as much as I can. My memory is not always the most trustworthy and I want to ensure that the moments of epiphany to moments of dread are chronicled. I intend to post something that comes from my journaling each day if my internet connection allows. This will also serve to ease my mind about the safety of this trip, since my "readers" will be able to keep track of where I am and what I am doing.

I will dedicate time each day on a happiness practice such as meditating, journaling on gratitude, or others suggested by my “before” readings.

• I am pulling myself from the cycle I am currently in so that I can spend time working on myself and with myself. There were so many practices that I just could not commit to because of the feelings that I should be doing something different with my time and energy.

I will read books!

• I anticipate that I will still want some form of entertainment and I would like to revert back to a slower more intentional consumption. I have many books that I started but never finished due to the demands of other responsibilities or because the dopamine fix felt less efficient than the other resources I had access to. I also have many books that I have yet to start, but now I have the time and motivation to do so and I intend to take advantage of these.

I will dedicate time to move my body with intention.

• In a course I took last semester, I came to appreciate and recognize the importance of cyclical communication between the body, the mind, and potentially the soul. Intentional movement served as a method of this communication and I want to strengthen this relationship. This type of communication has helped me to be more cognizant and present in my environment, so it will serve me well on this trip.