Week 2 Wednesday Homework
Routine Activity - I brush my teeth. I notice again that by being mindful during this I take my time, brush better, and am less anxious to move on with my day. I am not really noticing sensations of brushing or anything.
Sitting Practice/Meditation - I set my alarm on my phone for 6 minutes, sit up straight in my ergonomic office chair (sitting up truly straight, not using the back of the chair for much support at all past the lumbar support). I begin breathing and focus on my breath. I do have thoughts going by constantly. I attempt to notice them, not judge them, and to go back to breathing. I have mixed results with this. Some thoughts are easier to wave at and move on than others.
I do have some thoughts/distractions that would normally be things I would want to sit on and dwell on, they linger a little longer but they still don't hang around too long. In my chair at home I do not get sore or physically tired with good posture as easily. This makes doing this activity for 5 minutes very managable. I plan on setting my alarm for 10 minutes next time.
Stress Responses
I'm not gonna write much here, at least today. Yesterday was a very different day, seemed ok to mention. Today, it feels weird, like I'm just whining about daily life things that every one of us goes through if i do this here. I think maybe I will just write about the actual practices this week. I get the sense that this week the aim is to notice what brings us stress, and how stress manifests itself, and we'll talk about it in class, and there will be a next step that begins to focus on handling those stressful moments. For this week though, writing about this without doing anything about it feels too self indulgent even for this very, very self-indulgent dynasty.