To zen or not to zen...

Random update on my zenness...   Or lack thereof.  It *really* doesn't exist during the day.  It takes everything I have to convince myself to meditate during the day and I'm super not enjoying it.  However, meditating right before sleep -- this has been awesome.  I still don't like it, but it absolutely makes a difference.  I fall asleep faster and stay there longer.  I don't do it every night, but I notice a significant difference on the nights that I do.  As with the daytime ones, some resonate more than others and some are more effective than others, but in general, I'm finding it helps significantly to quiet my mind and give me a pause before my mind has all night to spin.

Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time

So I set up a space in the basement that I can play my Quest.  To date, all the spaces I've been playing in have been restricted (there's paint on the controller from being walloped into a door at one point) and so I mostly restrict my games to ones where I'm unlikely to move my feet to lessen the instances of dramatic crashing.   But now, there's enough space in the basement to really play.  AND my workout mat is also conveniently a good size to play, so I know if I step off the mat, I'm out of bounds.  Yes, the game tells you that as well, but usually not early enough to avoid damage ;-P

With my new found freedom I turned on 360 mode in Beat Saber and it was So Much More Fun!  Lol a whole nother dimension ;).  It was toned down slightly in that I generally plan on expert and the songs I was playing were only available on hard.  But it adds enough of a twist that the lower level is still highly entertaining.

Also played some Racket Nx, which I haven't played in ages due to lack of safe space (this would be the game that resulted in paint on the controller -- okay in an empty room, less okay in any room with a TV or computer ;) -- it actually has a warning to make sure all loved ones are out of range lol.  So that was fun except that I'm really bad at it so it gets frustrating after a little while.  Highly entertaining just for the VR experience though.

In non VR games, I'm playing my first game since the end of the Kings Quest franchise.  Chris has got me hooked on Zelda -- I am so completely addicted and, since it's on a Switch, I love that I don't have to take over the TV to play, instead I can play while something else is on in the background or while Chris is playing other games.

That one made me laugh cause I was wandering around and there were horses in the field.  There was no way I was going to hunt the horses, so I snuck up on them to see if I could pat one -- and when I got close, "mount" was an option.  Woohoo!  I did that, and promptly got bucked off.  When I stopped laughing I tried it again, to similar results.  Eventually I managed to stay on one, and now I have a new pony ;).  In the same game, you need to "cook" and more than once I've made "dubious food" which is arguably even more accurate than me getting bucked off the horse I randomly climbed on in a field.

So yes - I'm highly entertained by these, mostly cause after working full time and going to school full time and still teaching and at least occasionally going to the gym, I have zero brain power left and games are good for that.  The VR ones could even pretend to be exercise.  Multitasking win ;)

My new addiction

When I signed up for boxing, this is not at all what I expected.

 Today's question:  who is "the glue that hold the organization together"?

• according to my leadership course, leadership fulfills this role
• in my marketing course, marketing fulfills this role
• and in operations...  you guessed it, operations fulfills this role

Just made me laugh as I had all three state that within 48h of each other ;)

I'm current procrastinating Operations writing this blog post :).  I've finished the Leadership course but final grades won't be in for another week or two.

Completely unrelated -- GOLD STAR TO ME!!!   Why?  Because I managed to do a box jump on the "big" box at the gym today ;)

Just like that!

Right - except my box was not quite knee high ;).  lol but it WAS bigger than the shin-high one which is usually scary enough.  Both physically and mentally I struggle with this one.  I've never been the kid who could jump high.  Or at all ;-P.  For those of you who've been around a while -- why do you think I was so excited to be able to run up the wall?  Cause that I've got a shot at!  A long shot, admittedly, but it's vaguely possible.  (lol for the curious - adult recess was So. Much. Fun.).   Anyways - jumping is not a skill I possess; I'd much rather climb.  And mentally it just seems like a horrible idea to try to defy physics.  I've had too many run-ins with physics before and I almost always lose.

However, today it was at the second station, which means I was warmed up and hadn't actually done any exercise yet.  So I had a better shot.  AND, not only was I not the only person in the gym today - but the other person was on her first day and requiring actual instruction.  So I got to play a little more on my own, which made me braver.  Which was all awesome till 4 stations later when the whole thing was donkey kicks?!?! :(  That emoticon is insufficient for my degree of :(.   I'm already sore; I don't imagine I'll be able to move much tomorrow.   Things I never needed to know -- I can do 120 donkey kicks in 3 minutes.   Nowhere near the gym record of 298, but oh well.

Okay - back to school with me.

Who's on first?

So I chatting on IM with a colleague, we’ll call him Steve, and went away to do some stuff. 

Re-IM’d an hour or so later with a follow-up question and got the response:

“Hello Steve, Do you have a minute?”

 

*sigh*   I’ve been called out on not starting conversations with 'Hello' before, but Steve and I get along really well, so I was somewhat surprised by this from him.  (I'm working on it -- I have a mental list of people to always say hi and/or waste time...   Uh I mean 'relationship build' about the weather before I can get to the point – but he’s not on it).

 

So I said something about, ‘okay point taken.  To be fair, I was continuing a previous conversation…’

 

So then the conversation was very confused for a minute.  Until I get: “oh my gosh - thought I was messaging Steve T”.   Lol so his “Hello Steve” (being far more polite than I, as you may have guessed from “gosh”) was actually directed at another Steve, not a rebuke for my lack of texting manners *g*

 

Amused me more than it should’ve ;)   But hey, it’s a spreadsheet day, I’ll take amusement where I can get it!

Also, Google just informed me that Spreadsheet Day is actually a thing?!?!  Apparently it's Oct 17.  A shame that's on a weekend this year; I most definitely will not be celebrating it.

Meditation 101 complete - have I found myself yet?

So day 7 was about mantras.  Which started with “so hum” but which my brain heard as “so hung”.  *sigh*. Took a little bit for my adolescent self to get past that, but once I did it was reasonably effective.  Except that when my mind started to wander my brain’s reaction was to SHOUT the mantra (only in my head of course!) Lol it worked but it was all the drama and the opposite of calm.

Overall though, I suspect given some practice and a different mantra this could be a good technique for me.   Google tells me “sohum” means “I am he/she/that” in Sanskrit.  So there’s your educational moment of the day.  Have also seen it written as both one word and two -- it was definitely being pronounced as two in the session.

Definitely not my first choice of mantra

Survived 7 days!  With no breaks :). Win!  While I can sense that it’s a good thing for me to do, I don’t enjoy it at all.  I think the goal will be 3x/wk through the end of Oct and then we’ll see.   I’ll put it on the calendar - once it’s on the calendar, it’s real.  My v old school, hand written, colour coded calendar.  Lol not that I don’t have multiple electronic ones on the go too, but this is the one running my life atm ;)

Not even kidding - I'm back to being in Jr High ;)

Still the bestest puppy

Flashback to puppy Sasha

Sasha turned 9 this week.  Totally cannot believe it!  She still looks and acts about 2 ;).  The only difference is more breaks in playtime and a longer recovery after.

Approximately half an hour after we got home

But middle age Sasha is the perfect running buddy for middle aged me!   We went out together and her preferred default trot speed pretty well matches my pathetically slow jog speed (lol as in only marginally faster than a walk).  And she’s the best pace buddy cause if I slow down, she’ll walk for a few strides, then look over her shoulder at me and try jogging a few steps.  Like “comeon’ Laur, time to start again” :).  She also allows for critical breaks by occasionally needing to stop and sniff something or play in the creek ;)

My *tired* puppy ;)

So yeah - both of us may be sore tomorrow but was a lovely fall morning run today.

First day of fall

So I didn't actually know it was the first day of fall when I wrote this and was debating about posting, but after I heard it that was just too perfect so figured I had to post.

The type of beauty that makes me love fall

Took the dogs for a walk after a relaxing afternoon of reading my book snuggling w Tucker and throwing the ball endlessly for Sasha ;).  There’s something about fall.  Esp days like this - temp in the high 20s, gorgeous cloudless blue sky.  The leaves on the trees a multitude of brilliant colours.  Walking through the woods, the trail is covered with a blanket of already lost leaves.  That perfect midpoint where the trail is covered, you can hear the crunch when you walk, but there’s still tons of leaves on the trees so no feeling of emptiness or loss.  And every strong breeze leads to a flurry of colours.    Warm days and cool nights, with occasional sweater day thrown in.   The scent of falling leaves - fall has its own scent; those who live where seasons aren’t a thing, probably never realized that, but anybody who knows would recognize it immediately.  And no, it has nothing to do w pumpkin spice!   If it weren’t for heralding the impending winter, fall would be the perfect season.

The reality that reflects how I *usually* see fall ;-P

Two for One

Last night (Day 5) I did right before bed again -- and wrote some notes on my phone, but wasn't into it enough to get up and blog.  Which means today - you get two posts together!  I'm sure you're thrilled.

So from yesterday:

Today's focus was emotions - and she starts w stress?!?!   Wtf lady - that’s the main emotion I’m trying to get rid of???   Lol so yeah - felt the physical effects of that instantly.   Which, in itself is moderately interesting.  But seriously seemed to be the opposite of what I embarked on this whole journey for.

Then she switched to gratitude, which had me slightly puzzled as it turns out I don't know the physical effects of gratitude?  But then I realized she considers love and gratitude interchangeable.  Love to me is far more powerful and thus was significantly easier to trigger a response.  Although admittedly not as easy as stress.  Hmmmm.  

So yeah - interesting for sure, but I kinda just want to go back to my clouds ;).  Acknowledge I can see how this could be very powerful and being able to switch emotions on command would certainly be a useful skill.  But yeah, certainly not the calming experience of the other ones.

Fast forward to today.

Day 6 was “intention” which I really couldn’t take seriously and started daydreaming in the middle of lol.  Ah well.  The one thing I did agree with though was at the end she said something about 'if you want more of something in your life, make a point of recognizing and tagging when you see little instances of it throughout your day'.  Want to be happier?  Identify what little things make you happier in even tiny doses.  More successful?  Acknowledge the little successes in life.  That I can actually see being effective.

Also - have to admit that while I spent most of it daydreaming instead of focusing “productively” (???) I was still calmer after the fact.  So that’s interesting.

Is definitely still hard for me to fit in though.  Not because I don't have 10 mins to spare, but because I want to use my spare 10 minutes doing other things.

Day 4 - Past the hump!

It really was a hump day -- even though it's not Wed, it's the hump of this program.   I was exhausted and disinterested, so not sure it got a fair chance.  Then on top of it, Day 4 was very similar to the ones I occasionally use to fall asleep.  Which would’ve been lovely except I was already tired so had a hard time staying awake through this one.

Basically a full body scan of finding and releasing tension - spoiler alert, my jaw and my shoulders have ALL the tension lol

I struggled to get through this one - but honestly I think just cause was end of workday and I was super tired already.

Meditation 101 - Day 3

So I LOVED tonight's meditation - and I have to admit, I *almost* missed it!  Life got in the way today -- work was insane; I had a 30 minute lunch break that I definitely spent taking Sasha for a walk.  Priorities.  And, to be fair, also super-good for my mental health.

And on that walk, I discovered it was high twenties and sunny.  So while work continued to be insane all afternoon, when it was done, I wasn't about to waste anymore time inside!   Sasha went for another walk, and then I did some reading (school related - at least I was productive) out in the sun.   Then dinner.  And after, tbh, I was simply enjoying relaxing and hanging out with my husband.  Neither of us had class tonight, so we veged in front of the TV.  Not super exciting perhaps, but nice all the same.

And then it was bedtime.  Lol so yeah - meditation wasn't going to happen today.  BUT, I actually went to bed first, so I decided I'd listen to it before going to sleep.  Not exactly my target time, but at least I'd get it done on the right day.

So today's was on acknowledging thoughts and then dismissing them.  I don't know why, but I pictured lying on the graas on a summer day, staring at the cloudless sky.  Each thought that interrupted turned into a word, then the word popped and turned into a puffy white cloud that floated up to the sky.  And when the sky got full, a swipe had all the clouds erase, and it started over again.

Note this is not at all what they said to do so I’m not sure where it came from, but I loved it.   Similar to my candle one where each thought makes the candle flicker, but way more relaxing since I actually love lying outside watching the clouds irl.  Also no risk of my wayward thoughts burning down my mental house ;)

Lol I suppose I could quantify the quality of my meditation by the number of clouds...  Although that would be the opposite of what I’m supposed go be doing ;)

This was the first one where I wished it was longer.  Will definitely remember the cloud technique.  Especially as I’ve now woken myself up completely to write this.   Super happy and relaxed - just awake.  Sheesh.  But I wanted to remember the details and once it's written down, it's forever :)

This is why I actually got up to write ;)