Bridget McNulty

Day 27: Stillness

// July 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Inspiration, Life (and the living of it), Love

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been B.U.S.Y lately… I’m not 100% sure why, but all of a sudden my man and I have been deluged with invitations and work has been reallllly busy too. So I’ve had very little time to myself, I’ve been rushing around too much (I hate rushing) and in general I’ve felt like my plate is full to overflowing.

So today I decided to give myself the gift of stillness. I left work on time and went for a 2 hour reiki session with an amazing healer. It was so wonderful to be able to lie down and soak up good energy. For anyone who hasn’t tried reiki, give it a go! It can be completely transformative. I went in feeling tired, rushed, a little worried and snotty. I left feeling pretty close to wonderful!

Day 26: Time

// July 28th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Decisions, Time

So I’ve finally started reading the 29 Gifts book, by Cami Walker, the woman who started this movement. It’s a lovely book, all about how an emphasis on what she could give others let her energy shift from focusing on her debilitating condition (MS) to being able to regain some sense of control over her life. Wonderful stuff!

Anyhoo, one of the things she says about the giving challenge is that you have to give something that you feel is scarce in your life right now. I thought about it, and I think the thing that feels most scarce to me is time. We’ve had a craaazy busy week or two, and free time feels like a precious gift.

So I gave some of it to my sister-in-law, who’s in the market for some company this week while my brother is overseas. And when I left I felt so much more filled up than if I’d just hung out at home for an hour. Goes to show, hmm?

Day 22: Much-needed money

// July 23rd, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Cape Town, Decisions

I’ve spoken before about how easy it is as South Africans to become jaded towards beggars. There are just so many of them, and if we reached out to all of them, we’d soon be penniless and depressed.

I’ve had a realllly busy week, and I must confess that I didn’t even think about a gift yesterday – I was too busy driving to and from Gordon’s Bay for a Fresh Living TV shoot. Very exciting!

But as I pulled up to the traffic light near my house, I saw the old man who begs there every day. And while this may sound like a simple statement, the fact that I saw him was quite remarkable, because I usually drive past and don’t notice that he’s there. So, on impulse, I reached into my wallet and gave him some much-needed money. Much more than I  usually would have. Because sometimes you just have to follow the impulse, you know?

Day 16: Affection

// July 17th, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Blogs, Decisions, Love

So I realised yesterday that even though I’m halfway through this challenge, I haven’t given anything to my man yet… Or my family, actually. I think sometimes when people are very close to you it’s easy to take them for granted a bit.

So I decided, today, to rectify that. My language of love is gifts (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, check this out – I’ve spoken about the 5 love languages before) which is why this challenge appealed to me so much. But my man’s language of love is affection… I often think it’s an easier language to have, because when someone loves you they’ll obviously be affectionate. When you open your arms for a hug, you’re pretty much guaranteed to get one.

But just as a gift doesn’t mean as much when you have to ask for it, affection doesn’t mean as much when you have to ask for it either. So yesterday evening I made a conscious effort to be as affectionate as possible – to step out of my circle of ‘this is me on a Friday night, watching a DVD, eating (yummy) naan bread’ and give him extra hugs and kisses. And don’t you know, he was in the best mood by the end of the evening.

I think it’s something I’m going to do more.

PS: Had to improvise a little with the picture, but these toys are on his desk and they kind of look like they’re hugging, don’t they?

Day 13: A day of compliments

// July 13th, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Inspiration

I don’t know about you, but I fairly often think compliments and don’t say them out loud. Why is that? I suppose it’s not wanting to bridge a certain ‘formal’ way of relating to people I don’t know that well… Although, having said that, I do quite often compliment people on the street with no qualms whatsoever.

So today I decided, as my gift for the day, to compliment freely and often. And what do you know! There were so many things around me to compliment. What you pay attention to clearly manifests. It’s so great to make people feel good, too, even if it’s only for a few minutes.

Day 12: Passing on freebies

// July 13th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it)

I have a confession to make: I’m a hoarder. As in, I hoard pretty much anything free that I’m given. I love free stuff, absolutely love it. I’ll accept something solely because it’s free and I feel as if I’m getting a good deal (even if I really don’t want or need it). But as I discovered when we had to clear out our last apartment before we went travelling, a lot of the freebies I get are really not that cool (to me). But by the time I’ve kept them for 6 months or a year, they’ve lost their fresh and shiny allure.

So today I passed on two freebies to the security guards at work. Look, they’re pretty lame keyrings, but the guys seemed pretty happy with them. And like I said, it’s alll about creating new habits, hey? Maybe I can out-habit the hoarder in me.

What do you think? Any chance of that happening?

PS: Let’s also not discount the fact that they call this a 29 day giving challenge because it is a CHALLENGE! To think of something new and not lame every day is harder than I thought it would be…

Day 10: Spare plates

// July 10th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Decisions

I know what you’re thinking: spare plates? Doesn’t sound very exciting! But, again, it’s all about the intention behind it…

My man’s parents gave us THE most beautiful crockery set for my birthday (a vintage blue and white striped number that I’ve been coveting since I first saw it) and my brother told me a while ago that any time you get something new, you have to give something away.

Good advice!
So I cleared out all our old plates and handed them on to a friend who’s stocking up her kitchen.

Day 9: Pair of apples

// July 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Cape Town, Decisions, food

I’ve been thinking, lately, about what I really want from this whole 29 days experiment… I don’t want to just spend a lot of money on last-minute prezzies or approach it in a half-assed way (and let me tell you, there’s a temptation to do that what with life being so busy all the time).

Ideally, what I want is to teach myself a new way of being in the world – always aware of other people and what they might need, open to the possibility that I could help someone in some small way. I want to train myself into a new habit, you know? Hence the apples.

I eat a lot of fruit, but I have a bad habit of buying large quantities all at one time (I feel panicky if I don’t have fresh fruit at all times) and then occasionally not being able to get through it fast enough. And then I’ll just sit and stare at it. The smart thing to do would be to recognise I’ve overbought, and share it with someone who might need some fresh fruit – one of the many people who lives on the street in Cape Town, for example. So that’s what I did yesterday: recognising that if I left the apples they would go off before I could eat them, I took them while they were still fresh and gave them away.

A small thing, yes. But if I could remember to do this all the time wouldn’t it be a good habit to get into?

Day 8: Long phonecall

// July 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Love

We arrived home late after our (wonderful) trip to Knysna this evening, and all I really wanted to do was unpack, take a deep breath and have a cup of tea in my lovely little flat.

But a friend of mine has just had some bad news, and I’ve been wanting to chat to her all week. It wasn’t the right time in Knysna – what will all the celebrations and decadence – but this evening was great timing and we had a lovely long chat. I think one of the things this dedication to gift-giving is teaching me, is that sometimes not being selfish for half an hour can really make a difference…

Day 6: Meaningful email

// July 6th, 2010 // No Comments » // Decisions, Life (and the living of it), Love

Life is really busy, isn’t it? I so often find the days kind of slipping into each other and things that I had meant to do – small things – just slip by the sidelines of the ‘more important’ To Do List.

One of the things I always mean to do (and sometimes never find time for) is sending heartfelt emails to friends. Just no-reason-in-particular mails, to tell them how I feel about them.

So today I did that. A friend of mine has been making a lot of life changes lately, and I wanted to let her now how proud I am of her.