30 days of Self Care

Could 30 days of conscious self-care

make a drastic difference in how you
feel?

Vanae Tran

http://vanae.com

Author : VANAE TRAN

The webshow host of
The Vanae.com Show
on YouTube.

Day 1
Reading a good book before going to bed

I am an Empowerment &
Dating Coach empowering
professionals since 2007.
I started with a passion: to
bring more self-awareness
and meaning to professionals
through the medium of fresh,
motivating videos.
My background:
Certified Integral Coach.
Earning M.S. in Counseling
(Marrige Family Therapy)
B.A. in Communication, Psychology.
As a coach and entrepreneur with a crazy busy life, I challenged
myself to a concentrated 30 days of self-care, to be healthy to my
mind, body and soul. I would post my daily self-care on my Facebook to share with friendsI wondered..after 30 days...Would I feel
different? Would my life change? Would it be worth it?
Heres my journey and what I learned. I wish you much self-love and
self-care when you embark on your own 30-day Self Care Challenge
(especially with your friends!)

Connect me
http://vanae.com

Lately, with my busy schedule, the only books I read are textbooks
from my masters program. But I miss reading books for fun. My friends
know that I typically only read non-fiction, educational books on
dating, relationships, spirituality, sex and personal development. So
motivated by my friend, Noah, I got in some Vanae-time by reading
30 minutes before going to sleep. This is Day#1.

http://vanae.com

Day 3

Personal Therapy Session

Day 2
Eating my lunch at the park
Instead of eating my lunch in my office or at home, I decided to take
a nice walk to have lunch. I found a really nice spot at the park.
Surrounded by eucalptus trees, I enjoyed my sushi lunch at the park.
Fresh air and fresh eucalptus. Being in nature helped me appreciate
life and feel very thankful for being alive.
http://vanae.com

Since 2007, I have been helping clients and friends about their life
challenges, confidence and dating life.
So part of self-care is to allow myself to receive support as much as
I give. I decided to have regular therapy sessions. I had my first therapy session in a while and I was so excited to be a client for once. It
felt so nurturing and good to be supported! Therapy and coaching is
badass!
http://vanae.com

Day 4

Day 5

No Sex

Suicide Prevention Walk

I made a conscious decision to not have sex for these 30 days. I will
refrain from sex and going on any dates. I disabled my dating profiles.
I did this so that I can fully focus on my own fulfillment. I didnt want to
fill a void with another person. I want to fill up my entirety with healthy
love. This month is 30 days of Vanaes self-love.

Part of self-care is allowing myself to feel and

heal. To be ok with being vulnerable. Along
with my friend, Marie, I
completed the Suicide
Prevention Walk in honor of my younger brother, Trung. We were given bracelets that said
Out of the darkness.
Very fitting in honoring
my brother, not being
in shame because he
was a suicide victim of
Bi-Polar and for allowing myself to face the
sadness that came with
this lost.

OUT OF THE
DARKNESS

http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 7
Mini-pamper: Manicure & eyebrows
Its nice to have someone take care of my and beautify myself. My
Vietnamese waxer said, Now, you dont look like gorilla anymore.

Day 6
Afternoon naps
To allow myself to take an afternoon nap.
To be ok with doing less and understand that its doing more for me.
Oh, how a busy-body like me, really had a tough time allowing myself
to take a nap because of feeing guilty of wasting time but once I
got to experience this self-care. I was pretty addicted.
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Seeing my facebook
postings, my cousin
in Vietnam wanted
to join in the 30-day
self care and 3 of
my friends were
inspired as well.
vulnerable was
helping others with
their own self-care.

her
t
o
g
in
Inspir

Day 8
Speaking Up
I had a friend who would flaked all the time and contacted me when
he needed a favor. In the past, I would ignore my uncomfortability
with it. But since it was my self-care month, I decided to put my feelings as a priority and communicated how I felt. Though its awkward
at first, it felt great to express my feelings and to speak up.
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 9

Day 10

Sleeping early: Get full 8 hours of sleep

Devour red: Velvet cupcake

It feels good to indulge sometimes. The act of letting go and enjoying
something sweet.

I am a recovering night owl. But I was recognizing the effects of staying up late. Usually by 10am every day, I would feel exhausted. My
best friend, Dana, helped me realize that I needed to challenge myself and sleep by 11pm to get a full nights rest. I get up early enough
to make my green smoothies and power through the day.
After 2 months of sleeping at 11pm, guess what? It worked! I woke up
feeling refreshed and now going to bed early is a piece of cake, now
that my body is used to it.
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 11

Day 12

Going pescetarian for rest of this plan.

Dance my face off damn good music!

Having yummy, veggie breakfast with my lovely sis (who just fly into
town from SF). Eating less meat, more veggies and healthy grains,
makes me feel damn good!

My friends know me as a music geek. I LOVE live music and dancing. I

used to go to shows in SF all the time, but not so much since Ive lived
in San Diego. Guess what? My sister took me to see TWO DOOR
CINEMA CLUB and it was an epic DANCE PARTY! love!

http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 13

Day 14

Ending an evening stroll with swings

Being kind to myself

I live in a neighborhood that is really friendly and working from home

sometimes makes me forget to get out there and enjoy my neighborhood.
I took a nice 2 hour stroll and found a park with swings. After watching the sun set as I was walking, I went on the swings. And I felt young
again!

I caught myself saying Youre getting fat. I had to

be conscious to scatching/releasing those self-negative thoughts that pop up. As my life mentor, Matt
Sorgenfrei, once said to me: You know those negative things you say to yourself? Do me a favor? Can
you not talk about someone I care about like that
because it hurts me when you talk about someone
I love and really care about. If only you knew how
much she means to me -please be kind to her.
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 15

Day 16

Picking up my Night Mouth-Guard

Forgiving A Past Lover

Not forgetting but forgiving all the negative that surrounded it so the
lessons are deepened. felt nice.pick a past lover or friend who hurt
you. start with forgiving something they did. then work up to forgiving
that person. as my wise friend once said to me act of forgiveness is
for yourself.

For those teeth-grinders out there, youll know what Im talking about.
So every night, I grind my teeth like crazy! I wake up with a super sore
jaw. The easy solution? A mouth-guard.
And guess what? I had one made at the dentist 6 months ago and
never picked it up. I have been putting it off! So I said Enough time
has passed by, lazy ass. You need to do this for yourself and pick up
that damn mouth-guard now. And so I did. And now, my jaw & teeth
couldnt be any happier.
Sometimes, its just the little things. Especially, the little things we
procrastinate on!
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 17
Getting out of the house & working
at local coffee-shop
A few
of my
A few
of friends
my friends
private
messaged
private
messaged
me on
meFacebook
on Facebook on
on how
howthe
thelatest
latest
activity forgiving
activity forgiving a
a past lover realpast lover really
ly resonated with
resonated with
them. They wrote
them.
They
wrote
to me
about
their
to me about
their
emotional
journey
andemotional
how thesejourney
how
these
postsand
were
inspiring. posts were

inspiring.

Each day, my
friends
were
Each
day,supmy
portive
by liking
friends
were my
postsupportive
and sharing
by liking
comments
supmy postofand
port!sharing comments

of support!

I always find myself working indoors, in my place all day. So I decided

to walk to my favorite local coffeeshop to work. To be surrounded by
people.
This really helped me with the isolated feeling, to be around people. I
actually was a lot more productive since I didnt want people to see
Facebook as my screen, I worked more.
Bonus: The fragrance of fresh coffee and there was an open mic! I
love live music and I pushed myself to do an impromptu guitar on
stage.

http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 18

Day 19

Take a belgian-Waffle scented bath

Learning a new song on the guitar

I realized that after living in my cute vintage apartment for half a year
now, I have yet to use the bathtub for a nice soaking! So I decided to
stay in, draw a hot bath and pour in some walffle-fragrance bubble
bath. It was so relaxing and pampering!

In the past, I would pick up my acoustic guitar and fiddle around with
it. Learn a song here and there, but since I got caught up with my new
schedule, I simply forgot about my guitar. There it sat...in the corner.
But today was different. Music soothes my soul. So I picked up my guitar again and learned a pretty song I really like As I much as I ever
could by City & Colours. Its a beautiful song. Made me very happy.

http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 21
Not caring about what the scale said

Day 20
Enjoying the sunshine
Living in San Diego, youd be surprised how much
time I spend indoors. So I went to the harbour and
spent some time in the sun. Theres something about
the smell of the ocean, the view of nautica and feeling of sunshine on my skin that brings me HAPPINESS!
http://vanae.com

Lucky for me, I have a wonderful sister to leaves amazing notes for
me. This note reminds me that You are perfect the weight you are.
Today, I allowed myself to not care about what my weight is and care
more about my health.
http://vanae.com

Day 23
Be a kid again

Day 22
Green smoothies galore!
Ive never been a huge breakfast fan, because Im always running
out the door at 7AM. But Ive been developing the habit of making a
green smoothie to drink as my breakfast. An almost-daily ritual. Gives
me great energy and I feel dang good about starting my days off
right! My green smoothies consist of: kale, spinach, mango and berries.
http://vanae.com

Working at a middle/high school setting, I have many opportunities to

do fun arts & crafts activities. So I forgot that I was a responsibile adult
for a second and took a break to put together a cute Halloween craft
for my office! Oh, the joys of being a kid.
I emptied out my container of stress/mental weight from the therapy i
did earlier today by having convos w/others - made me feel so much
lighter.
http://vanae.com

Day 24

Day 25

Forgiving Myself

Cuddling up to warm tea

Something deep came up for me today during my therapist session.

Ive been holding on to a heavy piece of guilt something that I said
to my brother when he was still here. It was very sad; a heavy piece
of guilt that I buried deep. With the help of my sister, and therapist I
received the support to forgive myself. Now, a deep wound healed.
interesting that a reframe and confirmation can lift up so much.
http://vanae.com

I have what some people call cold hands, warm heart. Well, when it
comes to cold fall days, the only thing that really helps is a nice, warm
mason jar of good ol tea to hold and sip! Warms the body and spirit.
http://vanae.com

Day 26

Day 27

Morning meditation

Listen to music in the park

I started Deepok Chopras free 21 day meditation program, that I do

at home. I noticed breathing deeply and fixing my posture. Thinking
tall, listening to Deepok talk about abundance. Felt amazing!

At the beautiful park in my city, it hosts great free music events. I went
with my friend to enjoy great organ opera music in the park. Surrounded my neighbors and people of my community, it was a nice music
break from what I normally listen to.

http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 28

Day 29

Enjoying a lunch by myself

Made myself a healthy salad!

As a person on-the-go, often times, its a lot faster and convinient for
me to just grab delicious fried Mexican food down the street. But I
challenged myself and whipped myself up a fresh arugula salad with
lemon dressing. This was inspired by my best friend, Dana, who is a
Nutrition & Wellness Coach.
Enjoying a Vietnamese lunch by myself at the restaurant. I typically get
things packed to-go and eat it at home while I work. But I never liked
that they used styrofoam to-go. So slowing down, being eco-friendly
and enjoying good ol comfort food.
http://vanae.com

http://vanae.com

Day 30
Emptied my mental container

Conclusion
I move really fast. I pull triggers. I create. I make things happen. But sometimes Im moving at such a speed, I forget to
enjoy the little things and the purpose behind doing these
things.
As a coach, therapist, entrepreneur If Im a container for
others, what space do I clear for myself?
From this, I learned that in order to have the capacity for others and myself, I had to empty out my container each day.
Then fill the bottom layer with my self-care as a cushion for
everything my clients want me to hold.

What I gain from this 30 day

self-care project:

Earlier in the day, I had a stressful day at my therapy internship.

Working with minors is no easy task. Theres complexity with the kid,
families and as a professional, Im bound by law to report so many
things. I emptied out my container of stress/mental weight from the
therapy I did earlier today by having conversations withothers - made
me feel so much lighter. Then in no-time, 30 days had just passed.

http://vanae.com

At the end of this 30 day Self-Care Project, I felt more balanced than ever. I felt an incredible happiness and clarity
from within. My friends were pointing out to me how grounded I was. I felt more connected to myself than ever. I was
able to recognize the strength in me, the positivity and those
little things I would do that counts of self-care but didnt recognize before. Most importantly, I beat the bullshit excuse of
not having time for myself. And it felt great to prove myself
wrong.
What would your 30 days of Self-Care look like? I invite you
and your friends in embark on your own 30 days!

http://vanae.com

Sharing - If you care to:

1. Send me an email/video testimonial to
v@vanae.com. I may feature it.
2. Post quotes or reviews on Facebook.
3. Do a book review on your site.
4. Share this ebook with your friends and start your
own 30 day Self-Care Project and Inspire your friends
to join.
5. This ebook is donationa-based, if you felt that it
helped you in any bit, please consider sharing a paypal donation to v@vanae.com.
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