21 Days of Awareness
A Focused Practice in Noticing Your Inner Voice
Is Your Inner Critic is Exhausting You?
We live in a culture built on constant striving. For many of us, the hardest taskmaster is not outside—it’s the relentless Inner Critic we carry within. This voice can feel like a necessary engine, pushing us to achieve, perform, and survive.
What if the strategy you learned to survive is now costing you more than it’s helping?
This New Year, let’s skip the pressure and the punishing rules. This is not a resolution. It’s a low-pressure, free, 21-day experiment to figure out how you’re truly wired and, more importantly, how to finally calm that system down.
This project is guided by Michelle Stortz, who brings a background in meditation and yoga to help you gently shift your inner narrative.
⚡️ What We’ll Do
This project is a commitment to awareness, not an extra task to perfect. It’s practical, moment-to-moment metacognition (seeing your thoughts without being swept up in them).
We will explore:
- The Perfectionism Trap: Why constantly trying to be “flawless” leads to exhaustion and restlessness.
- The Power of the Pause: Using the breath to step out of the striving cycle and anchor yourself in the present.
- Self-Regulation: Learning how to respond to inner chaos with kindness and skill.
📅 The Logistics: Easy, Focused, and Effective
💸 Cost: Absolutely Free.
🗓 Start Date: Tuesday, January 2nd
How It Works: The Magic is in the Response
You will receive one focused email daily for 21 days in the afternoon. Each email provides the day’s theme and context, along with a link to your 2-Minute Daily Check-In.
This is where the magic happens.
Instead of just thinking about these concepts, you’ll answer 1-3 simple, pointed questions on a quick Google Form. Writing your answers creates accountability, requires composition (which slows the mind down), and helps you solidify your insight far more effectively than just reading.
Your daily check-in is your anchor for developing the habit of:
- Observing: What is my self-talk right now?
- Checking In: What feeling is beneath this thought?
- Responding with Kindness: What would be the most supportive response?
Think of it as a mental Zumba class!
🙋♀️ Who Needs This Practice?
This is for anyone with a strong inner critic that gets in the way. It’s for anyone ready for an honest, gentle encounter with their inner landscape:
- You’re Ready for Self-Knowledge: You’re done with quick fixes and ready to genuinely understand how you’re wired and finally figure out how to calm that whole damn system down.
- My Oncology Yoga Community: For those facing illness, this offers a solid, grounded way to manage mental stress when striving feels impossible.
- Yoga & Meditation Students: If you practice svadhyaya (self-study), this is your practical, 21-day container to bring that awareness off the mat and into the reality of your day.
Ready to stop striving and start noticing? Let’s do something that actually works.
About your Guide . . .
Michelle Stortz is an Oncology Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) and dedicated meditation teacher with over a decade of experience guiding individuals through high-stress situations.
Drawing on the wisdom of the Buddhist tradition and the practical tools of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Michelle specializes in translating complex self-study into simple, moment-to-moment awareness. She helps you understand how you are wired so you can finally move from constant internal conflict to practical self-regulation and resilience.
(For those curious, she has worked with hundreds of cancer survivors since 2010 in the Philadelphia area, teaching her tailored programs like Stronger After Cancer and Finding Your Ground.)
Michelle Stortz 