I Did This For Seven Days & It Changed Everything | SFTS Ep8

This week, I tried something simple: five times a day, I stopped and asked myself how I could enjoy the moment just a little more. That question changed how I experienced everything—from conversations to quiet pauses. In this reflection, I share how small awareness shifts can reconnect us to joy, friendship, and the present moment.

Transcript

Hello and thank you for joining Stories from the Soul.

I have a bit of a short episode today.

I had a plan to do a whole bunch of work around creating this episode and I found myself engaging with a friend of mine on a platform that we all use to message each other on and I was about to send him a voice note to make a plan on when to connect with him and I thought to myself,

Hang on,

I'm a child of the 90s and 80s,

Like we would just pick up the phone and call people.

I don't know what happened or when it happened that we had to schedule in time.

So I called.

I've done that once before in the last two,

Three weeks,

But I'm going to start doing more of it and I challenge you to do the same.

And this links into essentially what has been showing up for me recently and I didn't really know about it.

I kind of unpacked it when doing my most recent IFS session.

And it's about how my life has become more about enduring and less about enjoying.

And what do I mean by that?

It's been,

I've got to endure life and I'm becoming less and doing less of the things which bring me enjoyment and enjoyment is really about connecting with friends,

Whether that's having a braai,

A lunch,

Barbecue,

Whatever you want to call it,

And just getting friends over and just talking or just sitting watching a rugby game and not even needing to say anything,

Just watching it and commenting with a friend and enjoying an experience together.

And I'd really forgotten about that.

And I have forgotten about that.

And there's something which I've been doing for the last week.

I'd want you to consider taking away two things and if it's not two things,

Then it's this one thing.

And I was watching something eight days ago now.

The commentator was talking about five times a day,

Just stopping and asking yourself how you can enjoy this moment 10 or 5% more.

That's it right now.

This single moment right now,

Like do that right now.

Right now at minute 344 of this podcast,

Just stop and think,

What can I do right now to make this moment 5 or 10% more?

Can even use the word better if that feels right for you.

And for me,

It's just a smile.

And that's what I'm doing right now.

And just do that.

If you need to listen to this seven times this week and at that minute,

3 minutes 44,

Sit and anchor yourself in that,

If that helps.

But just for the next seven days,

Every day,

Stop five times a day or stop when you feel the time and moment is right to stop and just think and ask yourself the question,

What can I do right now?

And I'll use the word enhanced that can enhance this moment just simply by 5 or 10% more.

And see what that does for you.

It's done a lot for me these last seven days.

Oh,

And pick up the phone and phone people.

Don't set up meetings.

I'll catch you next week.

Reviews

For me, it is to stop and really see what I am doing and where I am doing it and intentionally feeling gratitude 🙏💞

I’m going to do this and watch myself feeling better!

I love this idea! I’ve been working on really experiencing everything in my life even the smallest and simplest things I see but this puts an extra twist o it. Thanks can’t wait to see what a difference this will make. 🙏🏻💕

A simple, yet profound, reminder to help us stay in alignment and connected.

Yes, also child of the 80’s/90’s and that there, you make such a solid point. There was some fun/excitement in spontaneously calling someone and the anticipation of them picking up the phone. I do this with family members but with FaceTime .. friends, yes, I schedule .. however, that’s going to be a fun change. As for enhancing the moment, challeng accepted. 😊