Day 154 - A Year of Spiritual Awakening - The Modern Lifestyle is...

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Lesson 154: The Modern Lifestyle is...

“The modern lifestyle is not designed for movement. It is designed to hold the body still, and to have the mind work energetically—not in the realms of love and delight, but in the realms of information.”

— Sara Wiseman

Today we are to notice when we’ve spent too much time on the computer or phone etc. Whatever you can think of where your body is still but the brain is working. If you can, take come time out to be in your body and not the mind. That can be doing exercise, doing some stretches or having a nice hot shower.

My Sunday consisted of going to a medium class all day and then a concert. I guess a lot of my medium work would be using my mind though being at the concert used my body for movement. My back started aching though, so it wasn’t the best use of my body. I guess the message here is to clear out the thoughts that can circulate through our minds and just use our bodies instead for activity. This can be a good clearing exercise and a form of release. And, I suppose you generally just feel better as you’re not clouding your mind and you’re spreading good vibes through the body.

If you did this today, how do you think you would feel?

Day 140 - A Year to Clear - Check In WEEK 20 - Changing the Channel

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Lesson 140: Check In WEEK 20 - Changing the Channel

This week has been to challenging to bring about more mindfulness. You really have to catch yourself in your thoughts sometimes. Anything that doesn’t serve you well, you should definitely recognise, assess why you had that thought and then ready yourself for release. I think this can be especially difficult if you’re very emotional and get stuck within that thought. For various mind clutter, I think it’s easier to do. It’s really about assessing what you need and what you don’t need.

There are always going to be situations that make you uncomfortable, and I think the lesson is trying to teach you that even though you may have a negative or upsetting thought, that’s fine, but it’s about striking those that are no benefit to you or turning the thought around to something that does serve you.

I find that I am still very much trying to teach this to myself. I find that most of my frustrating thoughts occur at work. I have to really not get caught up in my emotions and feelings, stopping myself from blowing up and just thinking of a better way to do things. I try not to lose myself but it can be quite hard. Sometimes situations and people rub you up the wrong way, so you can’t help but rage. In those moments, I’m really trying to apply myself in thinking of better outcomes and trying to make my work environment a more accommodating place for myself.

The exercise this week has really tested me to be more mindful. It takes a lot of self-awareness to think about the thoughts you have and how you can think better or differently towards your situation. It’s definitely a good skill to have if you can master it. Right now, I’m very much at hard work with it and will continue to do my best to get rid of the mental clutter that does not serve me well.

Day 139 - A Year to Clear - Change the Channel

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Lesson 139: Change the Channel

Today is about watching some good TV and some bad TV. If you don’t really watch TV, use music. The exercise is to be more mindful and really tune in to how your body reacts to the differences. You want to choose a show or music that really uplifts you – makes you laugh, smile and bring about general goodness. Then you want to watch a show or listen to music that “dumbs you down, scares you, or numbs you”. Write down your experiences and every time you feel a rise or negative thought pop up, you want to note the emotions, the body sensations and what’s going through your mind. Every time a negative thought comes into play, remember to use the words “strike that” to allow the channel to be changed from your monkey mind.

So, when I was at one of my jobs today, I was dancing around in the store because Viking folk music was playing. For some reason it always makes me feel good and want to dance, so I do. Didn’t even care if a customer walked in, I just went with the music. I really enjoy Viking folk music.

I’m not going to listen to the music that makes me feel like insects crawling in my skin and that’s heavy death metal type of music. I can’t stand the screaming and I just want it to be over. I don’t understand how anyone can listen to that type of music, but each to their own. The only negative I know that flows through my head at that point is “this is shit” so I applied a “strike that”. I was shaking my head as I was imagining that music playing, so I applied a “strike that” to that also.

I now understand the exercise – we don’t have to allow negative thoughts to swamp us if we just let it go. Yes, it can enter your mind, but you don’t have to hold onto it and let it dwell upon you. Just have the thought and let it escape as quickly as it entered. Gosh, this is going to be a hard practise but good for our overall mental wellbeing.

There is a lot of work to do and it’s going to take time.

Day 136 - A Year to Clear - Zip It, Zap It

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Lesson 136: Zip It, Zap It

Eradicating obstructive thoughts takes a lot of awareness. It does take routine over and over to recognise when a thought does not serve you and it’s hard to come out of some negative cycles. With the lesson from the last post of “Strike that”, Stephanie Bennett Vogt lists some examples of what types of thoughts may roam in our brain and essentially what we need to strike out of our thought processes:

• [Aghhh] The traffic is terrible, we're going to be late to the airport, we're going to miss our plane, our vacation is shot. Strike that.
• [Ugh] This task is taking forever. I don't think I'll ever finish clearing my piles. It's time to check my emails. Strike that.
• [Groan] I have no time, there's no food in the fridge, the house feels cold, I'm fried, this day has gone from bad to worse. Strike that.

What we do need to acknowledge is how we feel during those types of thoughts – do we feel tightness in our chest? Do you feel you heat up? Do you feel muscles tighten? Do we tense up? Does our breathing change? Etc.

Today is all about zapping out any negative thoughts right in this second. Mine for today is all the feelings I have towards my work situation. I am trying to change my thought processes – even went to a councillor to get the advice to think better. What was explained to me is that my expectations can be set too high and when they are not met, I become frustrated and anxious because I’m waiting on things to happen that are outside of my control. I’m working on it for sure though I find it difficult when all you want is some direction in your work life. If the management don't have answers when you need them to give directives, it makes you question their ability to lead. I recognise that I get tense when I think about this. This seems to happen in random places of my body. I can heat up as well because I’m usually frustrated and angry over it. I am trying to change this way of being around as it is wasted energy.

All I can say is that I am mindful of it and putting things into place to be calmer. I was told by my councillor to lower my expectations of the company in order to not become anxious or frustrated. The company needs time to figure it out so if I be more understanding from that point of view, then it will allow me to return to my normal self. This is what I’m working towards and I admit I have not conquered it yet. I do recognise what I need to change in order to overcome this situation. I am sure I will be fine.