A Mindfulness Practice to Plan Your Week and Life

Sundays are great days to take a step back, slow down and reconnect with yourself.

For years, I have been doing what I call "Week Check-In". It is a practice for alignment, self-connection, self-care, and yes, productivity.

As the end of the week meets the beginning of a brand-new week, we have an auspicious space to bring these two moments together and honor ourselves.

Ok, maybe you prefer to do this on Friday afternoon or on Monday. Sure, make this practice yours.

The Check-In has two moments: closing the week, and opening a new week.

Moment 1: Closing the Week

First, review the week that is about to end. You can do this through the following questions:

• What were the best moments of last week?
• What were my achievements?
• What am I most grateful for this week?

This is about recognition of what you already have, of cherishing the good moments, your progress, and life.

It is so easy for us to have endless to-do lists, beat ourselves up for not managing it all — and not stop to cherish the magic and joy of what is already there, of what we have already unleashed into the world and into our lives.

More than anything it is about cherishing yourself.

Then follow up with the other side of the coin:

• What was it that did not work last week?
• What were the issues I experienced, and what was not good at all?

This question is about creating awareness of what you need to improve, heal, and let go of.

We focus so much on "What we want and still don't have" but the truth is our life could be so much better if we understood what is blocking us and managed to leave those things behind — be it bad habits, behavior patterns, mindsets, problematic relationships and repetitive tasks that are not contributing to the best of you.

All these things that are not ok are highly actionable; it is mostly things you need to stop doing for your own good, or that you need to change how you are doing something — for instance, outsource it, do it in a smarter or nicer way.

You can define the issues that you should focus on healing to free more of your creative energy and potential.

Moment 2: Opening a New Week

As you move forward, ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the priorities for this week?
• What am I looking forward to, what excites me about this week?
• How am I actually feeling and what do I need to give myself to support myself this week?

Here you are creating awareness of what matters most. Where should you focus your energy this week?

Say you have ten things to do. What are the top three, so that if you get only three things completed this week, you can still celebrate — instead of focusing on what did not happen?

Next, what are you looking forward to is about excitement. Life is to be lived, and not a list to be checked. Foster that excitement, and allow yourself to look forward to your own life!

Finally, understanding your needs is critical so that you give your best for this week without depleting yourself. What can you create this week to support yourself to thrive?

Here are a few examples: is there an event this week that you need to prepare yourself extra for? Are you menstruating and therefore should give yourself good rest instead of being overly social? Or have you been too much on your own and serious, and feel you need a proper time with friends and laughter? Is it time to have that tough conversation that you have been avoiding?

Final Words

We have so many status meetings at work for our different projects, and yet we fail to do the same for our life - our biggest project of all. This practice is an invitation to take more command over your life: bring more awareness, more self-connection, and more self-mastery.

As you keep doing this practice, as a mindful meeting with yourself, you can look back at what you planned for the week as you close it. This way you give yourself a continuation, a follow-up, a feedback look.

This way you can keep aligned, clear, focused, and connected over time.

All in all, it doesn't need to take more than 20 minutes — but 20 minutes that can change how you experience your whole week.

At the end of the day, it is all about making space for ourselves.

Ready for more clarity?

2023 here we come! Here is a free practice I created to support you get more clarity about you direction in 2023.

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Hi, I am Aline Ra M, spiritual guide and healer.

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