CanTober month of mindful changes week 3

Welcome to Cantober! A gorgeous collaboration with the Frugal Family. Check their site for a different version of the weekly prompts.

Firstly, we have daily tasks. They are not difficult. They are designed to be as easy as possible. We have a little star chart so you can tick them off when you have done them. If you don’t manage them that is fine, you can use the weekend to catch up or you can simply just congratulate yourself on what you did do. Let’s focus on the positives!

You can download this weekly chart to print off here.

The first weekly challenge is for the mind

Listen to a positive podcast or watch a film. There is a good list of happy films here. Some of them are now on YouTube or the Internet Archive.

You can’t beat a bit of Cary Grant to make everything feel all right.

Challenge 2 is for your body

Preserve some fruit. Apples are in season in October and can be found really cheaply, or scrumped legally from lots of places. Even some National Trust properties let you take apples that have fallen to the ground. I peel and core, chop and cook up with a little water. The resulting puree is amazing on porridge, at the bottom of quick microwave cake based puddings or on its own. Free and nutritious food with no added sugar!

Challenge 3 is to get anti social

Unsubscribe to cluttery emails  or unfollow toxic people.

It’s always good to reduce your social media usage too, it is horribly addictive! You can add an app to your phone that reminds you to stop after so many minutes, or be a tough cookie and delete the apps. I spent years on Facebook building a lovely community and it left me broke and demoralised. Facebook is designed to keep people reading Facebook and doesn’t like people visiting websites, so all the time I spent on it just made Facebook stronger. Support your local blogger by visiting their websites, not just their Facebook groups once in a while.

Challenge 4 is about the Home

Move something around.  It is amazing how refreshing moving the sofa can be. If nothing else it will give you a different view of the TV 🙂 It is a good time to start thinking about making winter easier, start with the Countdown to Cosy for loads more ideas.

The last challenge for the week is about the Planet.

In the same theme as getting ready for winter, now is the perfect time to find out where the drafts are getting in and stopping them. With very basic sewing skills you can make this neat draft excluder that opens and closes with your door. If you can’t sew you can tie one together. Double up your curtains and put rugs on top of each other. It will make winter nicer and save you money on heating.