Tag: meditation

Writing

Writing Routine Revise

Mary C

Before my accident last week, I had a faithful morning routine and had been writing daily since late October. This came after months of not writing, at least not regularly and it was almost like I had hit rock bottom as far as self-motivation goes. Maybe I can blame it on the pandemic. The rock bottom part was triggered by an incident that will go unnamed to protect my people but it was heartwrenching. During this same time I was working on a jigsaw puzzle and listening to the audiobook Atomic Habits by James Clear. It was almost as if God knew what I needed by sending me this book which I had never intended to read.

But as the puzzle pieces of my Italian landscape came together, so did the idea of starting small with putting new habits in place. The first thing I took away from Atomic Habits was to start each new habit with the tiniest of practices – 2 minutes on the treadmill, 2 minutes meditating, 2 minutes writing. The other idea was to stack habits so that it becomes a routine and this is how I worked up to my new two hour routine.

Since I am a morning person and work best with no one around me, I changed my wakeup time to 5:00 a.m. That made all the difference in keeping the comittment to myself to do this every day. Within a couple of weeks, I was in my daily rhythm working out (listening to an audiobook), making tea or coffee to bring to my office in the loft, sitting for meditation, reading books about writing and then finally doing the writing. It wasn’t easy to do at first but over time, I began to look forward to every part of the routine. I’ve listened to several wonderful memoirs and non-fiction books during my morning exercise, read many books about writing and have written well over 100,000 words since I started. The website 750words.com was pivitol in maintaining my daily writing practice.

So now what? Time to put in place a new routine. I will no longer be able to do key parts of the morning routine and my office will be dark for the next nine weeks or so as I’m unable to climb the spiral stairs that lead to it. I have been giving myself a break (haha) this week and am going with the flow. If I don’t write as much, so be it. I’m starting to think about what my new routine will be and I will have a little more freedom as far as time of day as I’m unable to work right now.

Do you have a routine that works for you?

Life

Revisiting Bliss Through Meditation

Mary C

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A few weeks into the quarantine, we decamped to our Florida home to ride out the remainder of the school year away from upstate New York. The weather was about to get the best of us with snow into late April and the feeling of being shuttered in our home, unable to get out to breath in some fresh air, was making our son drift into depression. Why not go where sunshine and warm temperatures would allow us to be outdoors while still maintaining our social distance? We are lucky and blessed to have this option.

Continue reading “Revisiting Bliss Through Meditation” →

Life

Simple morning routine and prayer

Mary C

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With routines, I’ve learned that simple is best. Wake, 6-Minute Diary, then meditation followed by a short prayer. It is simple and quick, nearly idiot proof. The whole thing takes less than 20 minutes which makes it easy to accomplish. I’ve tried making more complicated routines but they were never managable for me. They included drinking a glass of lemon water (oh, the lemons I’ve had to throw out!), writing morning pages, gym time and creating a to do list for the day. I’ve learned that it takes time to build morning routines and to take it baby steps at a time, to give myself small successes first.

Although I have been a lifelong Catholic, fitting prayer into my day has not always been a priority. My prayers were always selfish, coming fast and furious when things got rough. Please get me out of this. Please make this better. If you help me with this, I’ll be a better person. Selfish. Don’t get me wrong, I’d pray for others too. If I knew of someone hurting or sick or in need of general support, I’d definitely send a quick prayer their way.

My prayers for today, though, are thankful, asking for help to stay in today, to keep myself free of fear, self-pity and self-seeking motives.  I ask to be shown times where I can help others instead of worrying about myself. When I pray during times of hardship, I’m praying more for grace to face something in a more accepting manner instead of making a situation go away. Without our trials and darkness, I’m pretty sure the sun wouldn’t shine so bright on easier days.

I also wanted to make my daily prayer more personal so I wrote my own. I used words that were in my heart, words that feel authentic when I say them. Am I more peaceful today because of prayer? I don’t know. But I do know I am more peaceful, accepting and resilient than I used to be.

Have a wonderful Friday and weekend!

MC

 

 

 

Life

10 Minute Blog: Meditation

Mary C

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3, 2, 1 Go! I don’t have much time but I do have 10 minutes before I have to leave for Job Club so I thought I’d put some thoughts together before I lose out on the opportunity to write altogether. You know how it goes, once the day gets into full swing, it’s hard to carve out a few minutes to write which is something I want to do every day.

One of the best things about my week away at the yoga retreat (which I have yet to fully blog about) was the 30 minutes we spent each morning journaling and meditating. I have tried many times to meditate but it’s hard to make it a daily habit. Coming home I thought it would be easy just to carry on what I had been doing but once I was home I was uninspired by my meditation surroundings (where was the beautiful scenery and Aegean Sea?!) and couldn’t find a place to get comfortable. I ordered a meditation pillow and decided to just get started.

There are a couple of Apps to help guide meditation and I need guidance (at least to begin). Right now I am trying out Headspace and have found the few meditations I’ve done to be really good. Today’s meditation was “quiet mind” and as in many other meditations you must focus on the breathe. In and out. In and out. I learned at the retreat that I’m not actually breathing properly so now I have that on my list of things to do: learn to breathe.

After you do a few deep breathes and close your eyes, you focus on how your body is feeling. And then there is the quiet mind. Gentle, regular breathing. Simply count them. One on the in breath and two on the out. Keep counting like this to 10 and restart. It reminds you to return your focus to counting your breaths if your mind wanders. And my mind wanders!

Today during meditation I thought about many things:

  • Should I return a call from a wrong number who thought they were reaching someone to talk about veganism? They left a message they got my name on a board about sustainable veganism and wanted to hear about my experience. Not me but should I call them?
  • I should call and make an appointment for a massage next week.
  • I wonder if I really should have applied to that job I just sent a resume to.
  • How much time is left in this meditation?
  • What should I make for dinner tonight?
  • Oh, God. Breathing. Breathing.

Do you meditate?

MC