I’d not expexcted the journaling to be the sticky bit for me, but there you have it. It kind of sucks to pull myself back into the world to journal after meditating, so I’m going to before. The last few nights I’ve been using guided meditations mostly becaue I have a bunch of them ive never tried! The one last night as interesting -it used balls of light energy projected for healing, then had a relaxation phase. I felt a little like it was trying to do too much, but I did get into it.

I was. Bit suprized yesterday (but also not…it’s an odd sensation). When one of the 101 students dropped the course. I’m Lways curious as to what causes those decisions. The system is very mch set up to be self filtering, so it’s unlikely I’d change anything, but still…curious.

I am in the process of loading up my iPhone with Meditation MP3s from CDs I’ve collected over the years. I forget sometimes how soothing it can be to have a soft, gentle voice guide you through simple breathing. I think when things get really crazy, it’s good to have that help.

Someone asked about how I prefer to meditate: siting, laying down, etc. I can go both ways, but I’ve found that if I try to meditate BEFORE sleeping, in bed, I just doze off. Seated on the bed, or laying prone on a mat or the carpet works fine for me. One of my favorite laying down positions is “legs up a wall”, a popular restorative in Anusara Yoga.

Storms are abrewing and the natives are getting restless. Likely I’ll be sitting with pups in my lap this evening. The MP3s should help.

Had a good day today, kind of took a mental health day, worked on my costume and wrapped up early (for me). My meditation mantra was “I am blessed with abundance.” manifest….hrm.
Newcomers to meditation so often find it nearly impossible to clear their minds. It happens to old hands too…if you can’t clear, give it a simple task, like a mantra!

A trick I learned I a self hypnosis years ago, to keep your brain from wandering off, give it a simple but occupying task, like counting backwards from 300. Seems to work nicely when approaching a sit from a busy day with a mind trying to plan ahead!
when I was deep into my French factor stuff, I made a habit of daily tea. I would turn off my phone, close my door and sit and genuinely relax for 15 minutes. It was nothing as formal as this, but it helped. I need more of this. I’m feeling calmer already and that’s with barely wedging practice into my day!

Well, it’s clear I haven’t yet developed a routine, but then today was a decidedly non-routine day. I got up much earlier than I normally would on a Monday to install new software on a clients server, and my whole day kind of became a blur.
So it’s no great shock that I finally got around to meditating with ten minutes to midnight. Tonight I added earplugs (greatest invention ever) and bellows breath. I could really hear the ocean in my breaths with the earplugs.
A few minutes in. My body began to fell light and fluffy, and slightly detached. I gently explored the feeling and I think I will try to work on my foot in a similar state as I lay down to sleep.

I gave my group an assignment for the month of October: set aside your other homework and for one month, jsut meditate every day (or attempt to) for 10 minutes and journal. Back to basics. And I was the first failure!

The assignment was given on Friday night with Saturday meant to be the first day. Since I had Yoga class on Saturday morning and Shalini always builds in a nice “sit time of ten minutes or more at hte end, I did get my chance to breathe, but I forgot to journal. So today I am journaling (personal blogging?) and making amends.

I did get to sit today. I had to schedule it in, as I am mondo busy. I went to the Craft room, looked at the mess, and resisted the urge to put off sitting and start organizing. I lit a small candle and turned off the lights, and the clutter faded into the background. I got as comfy as I could on the sofa and set my timer for 11 minutes (knowing full well it’s going to take me at LEAST a minute to find a “spot”. The timer went off jsut as I was settling into my groove, of course, only counting my breaths and having momentarily let go of all the other “stuff”.

I feel like I’ve been running uphill with the backlog of work, the clients I have to call back….the people I *wish* I had ideas for and I just don’t! This month is looking pretty booked already and it’s just starting. It’s a great problem to have, but it’s also October…the Halloween party is fast approaching and I know I’ve got to get on the stick with that!

I’m going to try to carve out 2-3 hours each day this week to work on my costume. I can probably get done y Friday, but I’m going to have to tell Kris he needs to take some intative and look for his stuff solo. All he needs is a gaudy suit. Shouldn’t be too hard.