View Single Post
Old 03-01-2015, 11:35 PM   #31
Radii
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
End of Week 1

So this homework sheet lists 6 days. Then we'll have the week 2 class tomorrow night. Some thoughts on things this week:


Mindful Eating - I feel like I should want to be much more interested in this practice. I'm someone who was more than 100 pounds overweight for most of my adult life. The concepts of slowing down, appreciating my food, etc, sound beneficial for someone like me. This is an area where analytics have served me well. Keto diets are filling, its very hard to overeat on them if you do it right. I'm aware it can still happen, and I am good about weighing my food and only putting an amount that I want to eat on my plate. Weight loss/healthier eating isn't the only reason to consider this, though. But finding an "enjoyment" with food via mindful eating is something I see as more of a shared experience. Something I'd love to do with a partner, but something that fades if I'm just cooking for myself.

The reality is that I found this process boring at best, disheartening at worst. This one more than anything highlights my early struggles with some concepts, specifically the "beginners mind". Its not as pronounced, but I do believe a weaker sense of taste goes hand in hand with a weak sense of smell frequently. So I find myself a bit frustrated when I try to distinguish and describe tastes. I find myself anticipating and expecting the things i will notice with a specific food before I actually do the thing.

I wonder if my initial view of this would have been different if it came later in the course. I also wonder if this is something I may have more interest in re-visiting after more practice in other areas.


Routine Activity - I found writing about this to be a bit repetitive, but actually doing it to be enjoyable. Of course, I picked an activity that would be an "easy" starter one for me. Taking time to notice and appreciate a pet that has been with me for 14+ years is certainly a rewarding and enjoyable experience. I can again point to the beginner's mind struggle here. Did I notice or learn anything new? No. And that's ok. I tended to approach this from the perspective of "I know everything about this animal, but this practice allows me time to remind myself of all the positive things that Dean has brought to my life". I noted multiple times how comforting it is to have him around, something that's easy to forget when rushing through every day.

I am not 100% sure, but I believe the idea here is to pick a different "routine activity" each week. I will likely pick something mundane like brushing my teeth next week. A lot of people picked things like that for week 1.


Body Scan - This was certainly the most interesting thing to write about. This is an intriguing thing to me, and I think it remains a focus of the class for a little while longer (but I'm not 100% sure on that). With this activity I found it easier to think about and practice most of the mindfulness pillars that we've talked about, specifically the act of accepting thoughts and feelings as they come, judging them less, being gentle with yourself instead of being quick to decide you should or should not be having a specific feeling/reaction. I find those things appealing. I found it interesting how varied my experiences were doing the same thing each day. I found it extremely interesting to note what felt like some "lasting effects" of this process on a few occasions. Despite having multiple days where I described parts of this process as allowing my mind to go to dark or sad places if I have some non ideal stuff noodling around, or to focus heavily on pain if I was hurting that day, I actually really like this process.
Radii is offline   Reply With Quote