Meditative Reflections
Third consecutive day today of 30 morning minutes of meditation. Today I even managed a 30 minute walk before hand, which is progress, after a few months/ years of regress!
It was tough sitting still this morning, compared to the last two days which were just fine, but I guess that was the novelty factor of 'getting back to it'.
Today the first 15 minutes, before my first 'interval bell' seemed like an eternity, not in a particular horrendous way, I was just feeling a bit fidgety.
I should probably hoover before I sit
But I remember this is what happens when you start any new practice anew: you have a short enthusiastic 'honeymoon' period, and then the novelty wears off and the hard work starts.
I think my monkey mind just wanted to get back to it's thinking habits today, following a couple of days of relative peace compared to what I've been like for the past months/ years. I even managed a nice little meditative tidying session last night, rather than messing about online just before bed, so maybe this morning is pay-back for that: my mind just re-establishing itself.
After about 20 minutes, I did settle into the sitting - I do have years of practice of this behind me, even if I've been slack of late, and there's definitely a memory of this that helps.
A few realisations also occurred....
I remembered that the whole point of me wanting to go buy some land somewhere is so I can just live simply and cheaply and be able to meditate more, that's the whole point, so I'm sort of left wondering why I haven't just been doing this already - meditation first - I guess that's a reaffirmation of the essential importance of just sitting there.
Then I started to drift into thoughts about blogging - not in a bad way, so I went with it - or not so much thoughts, rather a reminder that I should be focusing on developing 'one big project' and refining it, rather than all of the little bits and pieces I've been doing for the last couple of months of working at home.
And now comes the next realisation - it's probably my micro-working on smaller chores that's left my mind a bit fragmented. Not that there was anything I could do, all of these things needed doing, and now I'm 'ahead with my work' I can start to work in 'bigger chunks' if that makes any sense at all.
It does to me!
Anyway, back to it, quite happy with being back on board with the morning meditations, the next phase is to stop playing Splinterlands as soon as I wake up on Tuesday morning, not helped by my Steem PowerDown going through on Monday nights!
I know the feeling of getting ideas during meditation, like related to blog, I've experienced that and I was having similar ones even before I even had a blog. Back then it was about work, or sorting some things out. I guess those arise due to the mind being clearer but they're not the ultimate frontier. Buddha hasn't meditated to get blogging ideas :) Never got further than a little piece of mind from meditation although I meditated for years. Probably living away from civilization would change something. I still meditate once in a while but, pauses are affecting my meditation's quality, if there is as such...
It's hard to keep the practice up for sure. It takes years of sustained practice to really feel the benefits, and then it's constant hard work (right effort) - I did do Zen classes for a while, the instructor said a good hour a day is what was necessary, every day, and if you're 'on the path' constant mindfulness of everything is also required - the meditation is just a supplement.
It's a very easy practice to quit!
I think there's still benefits and even if your mind is wandering during a session of whatever length, I feel that at least those thoughts have had a chance to get out, probably means you'll be calmer of mind during the rest of day.
Ultimately I think the best advice I read was Shunyru Suzuki - Zen Mind, Beginners Mind, chapter 1 - the purpose of sitting is just to sit, nothing more.
I agrer, the purpose of meditation is just to sit and never liked meditating on music or for a purpose. I started medtitation about a year before I started practice yoga and quit it at the same time I quit yoga. I still meditate once in a while but it's not the same anymore. It should be taught in schools in my opinion.
Yoga's a form of meditation if you ask me!
Ad long as it's meditation and not mindfulness. I can't stand the later taken out of it's broader context. It just winds me up - people 'acting' mindful rsther than being mindful if you get me gist.
People are acting in too many situatioans these days
Good reminder to myself of the practice of sitting.
So what's the one big project? Or is that the lead the simple life and meditate more?
Oh no the big project is to work on something like this - the Wheel of Pedagogy - just relevant to sociology, which is what my blog is about.
It'll be different, but you get the idea - LOTS of information crammed into one super visual organisation chart.
I've got a few ideas, just need to crack on.
Another idea was making some 'trump cards' with sociologists, although since Splinterlands I wonder if fighting type cards might be better.
You know the idea - big ticket items combining everything I know.
Love it. I'm doing something similar with blokz.io eventually, going for a minddump of what I know so when I die, the kids can reference 'what would dad do' type stuff, probably my own ego assuming they might want my opinion and observations on things, but I know I'd appreciate if my father did something similar. It's a long time coming and I'm slowly getting all my notes from 5 different note and personal wiki apps together. Tbh, I've thought about also wrapping it in a book, but I imagine chunks of it will be copyright / trademarked type info, like getting things done / 7 habits / Earl Nightingale / Alan watts references and data points... Who know, maybe I'll do it anyways and tell the man to eff off when they come a knocking, not like I'm trying to get rich here, just share my perspective. LoL
Sounds like quite a project.
As long as you're not selling something copyright shouldn't be too much of a problem!
I've been working with zim desktop wiki to crosslink things and organize notes for this project, which I'm calling ToC, for of course, table of contents. It's a weird idea I can't wait to start coding, but first I have to bring my personal development plan up to date with those notes... Kinda winging it from a 'things I have done that worked and habits I wish I formed years ago'.. the current version online is about a year and a half old, but the local version is much more organized and updated, eventually I'll post that update. Just being insecure about it since the first update / under construction version is such a mess... One of those self shaming things. LoL. At least I'm aware.... Or something.
https://zim-wiki.org/ is the site for the desktop app, runs on Linux windows and osx,... Has a export and lots of cool features, maybe it'll help.
Slightly on topic... What tools do you recommend for charts and mindmaps?
Oh, I really like this, thanks.
Had to Google a minute for the PDF, that page was a 404,
https://designingoutcomes.com/assets/PadWheelV4/PadWheel_Poster_V4.pdf
Says V4, but it's 4.1. lol. Anyways, how's the charts business during quarantine? Has it picked up at all? Do you do paid advertising or organic / seo optimized?
I meditate too daily it helps a lot for my problems I suffer from BDp and anxiety 💖 love your pouf, I order one for me too
I'm glad it helps, it's definitely a good way to manage anxiety.
Those Zen style cushions are awesome, really firm and you get years of use of them. Easy to clean too.
They are quite expensive, but the functionality and durability makes them worth it.
30 days is no joke, that's awesome! The monkey mind always has ways of reminding us that we need the practice, no matter how much we do it. But over time, letting those thoughts come and go becomes easier and easier. Cool to hear you document the process in real time. Great stuff.
Hey thank you!
Hmm, nice angle you got to the whole meditation situation. I never really managed to mediate the way I really want to. But, to be honest, the Wim Hof breathing method helps me a lot. I might go as far as saying, that shit really fucks me up, in a positive way. I 100% recommend it.
I think whatever way you meditate is that way it's supposed to be. I think I might be kind of lucky, my personality sort of syncs naturally with meditation, rather than something like raving, for example, probably why I found my way to it and stuck with it, slackness aside!
I'll check out the Wim Hof method. I've heard of him but am not familiar with the breathing.
Yeah, that makes sense then. My mind's all over the place lately, that makes it more difficult for me but it also means that I need to meditate more.
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