Man, so I gotta tell you folks about something I stumbled into, something I now call “29 iching.” Sounds kinda weird, right? Yeah, it totally did to me too, at first. I was just scrolling, you know, late at night, mindlessly going through stuff online, and some random forum post popped up. It was talking about this old-school way of looking at daily choices, not like some rigid rulebook, but more like a personal compass. And the number ’29’ just kept popping up in their threads. I was intrigued, honestly, mostly because my life felt like a tangled mess of “what next?” and “why did I even do that?” at the time.
My first thought was, “Here we go again, another one of these self-help gurus trying to sell me something.” But this wasn’t that. It was just a bunch of folks sharing their own takes, their own struggles, and how this “29 iching” thing helped them navigate. I downloaded some rough notes a guy had shared, just a bunch of bullet points and confusing diagrams. Honestly, it looked like a mess. I tried to read through it, maybe for an hour, and just gave up. Too many weird terms, too many steps that made no sense. I tossed it aside, figured it was just another rabbit hole I didn’t need to go down.
But something just kept nagging at me. Like a little itch. I kept thinking about those people’s stories, how they seemed to find some kind of clarity. So, a few weeks later, with a fresh cup of coffee and a clear head, I decided to give it another shot. This time, I didn’t try to understand everything. I just picked one tiny piece. There was this part about “starting your day with a clear intention.” That sounded simple enough. So, the next morning, before even getting out of bed, I just sat there for like two minutes and thought about what I wanted to achieve that day, really simple stuff, like “finish that report” or “don’t snap at traffic.”
Then I tried to connect it to another piece I found in those notes: “reviewing the 29 points at midday.” Twenty-nine points! I laughed. I couldn’t even remember three things I needed to do, let alone twenty-nine. So I scaled it back. I picked three things. Just three. I wrote them on a sticky note: “What went right?”, “What went wrong?”, “What can I do differently?” Super basic. I started just quickly checking in with those three questions around lunchtime. It felt kinda silly at first, like, “Am I really doing something productive here, or just talking to myself?”
The real struggle hit when I tried to piece together how these “29 iching” concepts linked up. The notes kept referring to “cycles” and “phases.” I kept messing it up. One day I’d forget to do my morning intention, the next I’d totally blow off the midday check-in. I felt like I was constantly failing, like this “easy guide” was actually just a complicated set of rituals I couldn’t stick to. I was about ready to ditch it all again. What was even the point if I couldn’t get it right?
Then, one evening, I was just staring at my jumbled notes, frustrated. And it hit me. These “29” weren’t meant to be some rigid checklist you had to complete every single day. The original notes, messy as they were, hinted at flexibility. The core idea was about awareness, not perfection. It was about checking in. That was my breakthrough.
From that moment, I tossed out the idea of following someone else’s “29.” I started crafting my own 29, or rather, my own framework inspired by it. Here’s how I did it, and how it really became my personal easy guide:
- First, I simplified the “Morning Setup.” Forget deep meditations. I just decided to jot down one single task I wanted to get done, and one feeling I wanted to carry through the day. That was my “morning intention.” Simple. Quick.
- Next, I built a “Midday Snapshot.” Instead of 29 points, I came up with five quick questions: “Am I on track with my task?”, “How’s that feeling going?”, “What’s distracting me?”, “What’s one small win?”, “What’s one small adjustment needed?” I set a timer for two minutes and just brain-dumped answers.
- Then came the “Evening Reflect.” This was the biggest game-changer. I picked a notepad and just wrote down what happened, good or bad. And the “29” part? I just used it as a cue to write down at least one thing I learned, one thing I appreciated, and one thing I’d carry into tomorrow. The “29” wasn’t a count; it was just a label for this whole personal system.
I started doing this almost every day. It wasn’t perfect, I still missed days, but it became a routine. I wasn’t studying ancient texts or chanting anything. I was just showing up for myself, checking in, being a little more intentional. And wouldn’t you know it, things started feeling clearer. My decisions felt more grounded. I wasn’t reacting to everything; I was actually responding. It wasn’t magic, it was just… being a bit more mindful about my own damn life. It really helped me get my head straight.
