About

If you clicked here, you must be wondering what the hell this 30 Day thing is all about. I’m Shelley Seale – writer, world vagabond, and all around restless soul who likes to constantly be trying new things. This blog and the 30-Day experiments are just my fun little personal project. Basically, every month for the year 2011, I will be undertaking a new lifestyle experiment to see what it’s all about, if I can learn anything from it, throw some more constant change into my life, give me new stuff to write about, and hopefully have some fun.

I’ve thought of doing several of these projects before – for example, last year I talked to my boyfriend about doing a “Giving Year,” where every day we would give something – volunteer hours, money, clothes or household items away to charity, etc. But for a restless soul (and constant traveler) like myself, a year seems a bit too long to commit to one thing. And I have too many ideas for my own good.

Then I read about Six Items or Less in the New York Times. Heidi Hackemer and Tamsin Davies, who work in advertising in New York, got a cool idea to see if they could go an entire month with only six items of clothing. It was sort of a combination exercise in simplicity, frugality, taming the urge to buy, and how we define ourselves with fashion. Anyway, I thought it rocked and signed up for the next round of the experiment, which started January 10, 2011.

Being that this experiment was for 30 days, I started thinking it might be interesting to do some of the other things I’d been thinking of for 30 days also, throughout the year, and see what I discovered. The giving thing, going without a car, practicing meditation every day – these are a few of the experiments on my agenda. (If you have ideas for me, feel free to send them!)

My main goal for this is to challenge myself to live a little differently. I also consider it my Year of Living Consciously. If I can spend 30 days living in a way that is significantly different than my normal everyday life, I might learn something about myself – and maybe incorporate some positive changes and growth. My attitude is to go into it with a sense of curiosity: “What will happen if I do this for 30 days?” Maybe my expectations will be turned on their head. I suspect that some of the biggest things I learn will be totally unexpected. At the very least, hopefully I’ll have some fun and the year will be full of discoveries!

Oh, and since I’m a writer, I’ll be blogging about the journey here. Wish me luck!