Week Seven: When did you stop Dancing?

26/8/14
Have read some of this chapter and it feels familiar territory.

Nourishing and depleting activities exercise

D -- working at my desk - answering emails, making phone calls, doing admin
D -- getting girls ready for nursery
N -- yoga
N -- meditating
D -- online food shopping and meal planning
D -- tidying/washing up
N -- cooking or baking
N -- reading/listening to self-help books/material
N -- messaging family
D -- sorting out diary for the family
D -- working at s/c
N -- organising costumes or sewing
N -- reading a novel
N/D -- playing/shopping/caring for girls

Be present: work at being present with the things I find/ depleting so that I can mindfully continue to make decisions about what I want on those circumstances. Eg. Going on windy beach with girls even thou I really didn't want too -- staying present helped me to gain what I could, give to them, and find balance.

5 ways to achieve better balance
1. Take a break every two hours when working- do three minute breathing space followed by a five minute activity from below three options **
2. Aim to wrap up early - don't work to the last second
3. Keep doing morning yoga
4. Keep doing evening meditation
5. Keep one hour free on monday evenings for nourishing activities

When motivation is low, drop into body to see how mood is affecting or is reflected in body sensations.

Suggested pattern for this week is to choose two meditations to work with. Likely this would serve me well for getting back into normal life after holiday. My choices are Befriending and Sounds and Thoughts. Also want to keep working on Breathing Space.

**1. Something pleasurable
Caring for body - bath, shave, nail polish, cut nails, brush hair, body creme/lotion, foot massage, eat something nice, cup of tea, cool drink, yoga stretch, sit in silence, look out window for awhile, meditate on a nice picture, wear Jewellery,
Activities - knitting, baking, cooking, talking to a friend, read a book, Facebook, TV,

2. Mastery or achievement:
Tidying, organising, cleaning, diary something nice, solve a problem, pay a bill,

3. Be more mindful in next activity (eg of trigger below)

Mindfulness bells or triggers:

• Preparing food - Any food preparation is a great opportunity for mindfulness— vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch. Focus on the feel of the knife as it slices through vegetables of different texture, or the smell released as each vegetable is chopped.

• Eating - Try having part of a meal in silence or without the distraction of TV or the radio. Really focus on the food— colors, shapes, perhaps thinking about how this food came to you, the sensations of eating. See how easily you taste the first mouthful and no other. What does the fourth mouthful taste like?

• Washing the dishes - A great opportunity for exploring sensations, constantly coming back to the present moment, rinsing this dish, water flowing, sensation of temperature, etc.

• Driving - Be aware of deciding where to focus your mind while you are driving. If you decide to focus on the upcoming meeting, etc., know that this is the decision you have made. If you decide to make your primary focus something other than the actual driving, notice how quickly you can shift driving into the foreground of your attention when the situation demands. Notice if you are leaving the actual act of driving too much in the background of your attention! Take some of your driving time to make your primary focus the driving— all the sensations, the movement of your hands, feet and so on, the visual scanning you are doing, the shifting of your vision from close up to far away and so on.

• Walking Pay - attention to the actual sensations of walking; notice when the mind goes elsewhere and come back to “just walking.”

• Become a model citizen! - When crossing the street, use the pedestrian signals as an opportunity to stand quietly and focus on your breath, rather than an opportunity to try to beat the lights. Red lights An opportunity to sit quietly, peacefully and be aware of your breath.

• Listening - When you are listening, notice when you are not listening— when you start to think of something else, what you are going to say in response, etc. Come back to actually listening.

27/8/14
Found myself using breathing space today a few times (just mentally as I went along, not stopping activity but finding a gap). It was really useful for calming down elevated emotional states which I seem to get into regularly. First evening on Sounds and Thoughts followed by Befriending --- a good combination for me at the moment. Also really working on just being rather than doing meditation.