Course on meditation prematurely cancelled

 The gentleman that uploaded it decided to private all the videos for some reason.  

There goes the meditation schedule!  

But honestly, I think the meditations went off track after a while, even though they started really interesting.

I think I might try redoing this meditation idea, but do it differently.  I don't think that this kind of meditation is for me...it was both quasi-spiritual and quasi-philosophical, and I don't think it's a good idea to mix the two.  Either start with some questions to examine a state of mind, or stat with questions to examine our relationship with God, but they don't really belong together.

Not to say philosophy, religion and spirituality don't belong together, (in truth, they do) but the emphasis should be on how to work through problem statements, and most of the time, basic meditation and philosophy of religion don't work well together.  (Also, this particular set of meditations focused on light metaphors, and I'm anti-light/dark metaphors most of the time for religion)

Anyways!  I need a new meditation practice, I guess?  I have been shafted by the universe apparently.

Sketching Nov 12 / Remembrance Day

 

I had a lot of thoughts about Veterans Day/Remembrance Day, most of them negative.  The latest generation doesn't remember, or doesn't know that there were world war veterans, or that there are even wars going on today.  This isn't a 'kids are bad' post, this is a 'current adults are not doing enough to help us all remember the price of peace.'

There is a lot of talk about representation on Remembrance Day (good) but there is a lot less focus on the act and the work to be done, once a year, to contemplate what it means to live in a time of peace, and that peace does not come without a cost of life (bad).  I wonder if young people today can comprehend, that to have what we have, people have died, and not just a few people, but an amount that can barely be counted.

The idea that your entire city, your entire country, burned to the ground, to start again.  There are places, now, where things like this happen all the time.  We are so lucky to live where we live, to have the freedoms, the privileges, the access to so many positive things, the rights that we have. 

I hope the future generations can find peace in this large, large world we live in.  I hope there are adults that can teach young people today, that the world they live in is ripe for change, but change for the better still has a cost.  It is not free.

Course Corrections 14 and 15: I will let everything go & God is the light of everything I see

 Today was about the Sedona method, which I had never heard of.  It is composed of 3 questions:

• Could I let it go
• Would I let it go
• When

And this to me seems very helpful, when thinking about negative emotions.  I found this to be a good way for me to think about having a quick check in for any emotion that might get my hooked.

The day 15 meditation was ok, but I think in my case it was not super helpful.  I found it a bit disjointed, and also I don't tend to enjoy metaphors of light = God. (I did a whole master thesis on Manicheism in the Catholic Church, which was all about trying to turn Christianity into an extended light/darkness metaphor...)

Overall 14 was a very good meditative exercise. 

Day 12-13: Determining to understand/Learning to accept

Listening is one of the hardest interpersonal skills to learn.  As an adult I would completely agree with this.

Often we are thinking to agree, disagree, to fix, to solve.

But what is more helpful is learning to accept what is, no matter what happens, but we need to learn to accept the moments, feelings and thoughts that show up in your head.

I think this is one I have worked on for a long time, and I feel comfortable with this particular meditation.

Course Corrections: Exercise 11

 Today's exercise is about recognizing that I/you invent the world we live in: shaped by our thoughts, hopes, fears and dreams.

This exercise was about introducing the feeling of being in charge of what we're looking at, how those things make us feel, how we could feel depending on how we direct our thoughts.

As someone who has spent a lot of time alone this pandemic, this one was perhaps easier than some exercises.

Course Corrections 9-10: Your Thinking Impacts Everyone Around You

 The instructor used the analogy of a string of Christmas lights: if one light goes out, all the other lights around you go dark.  How to be a leader in times when your attitude affects others? I'm omitting 9 as this one ended up being about the 2021 political inssurection in the states. 

When doing the general check-in, I thought about the fact that I'm hopeful.  Even when I'm not feeling great, or feeling like I'm making mistakes, I am generally quite happy and hopeful for the future.  I know I'm incredibly lucky, I've been given incredible opportunities to succeed, and to be happy.

I would say this meditation brought me joy today, and a good perspective going into the weekend.

Course Corrections Day 8: Meaningless thoughts show a meaningless world

 Starting with a body scan and mind scan, we start thinking about intentional vs unintentional thoughts.

Think about your room, about world issues, etc. today's mediation is about detaching yourself from the meaning you already attach to things, news, feelings, etc.

Part of today's exercise is about the absurdity of thinking that we can detach our thoughts from the world, our instant reactions to objects in our environment.

A simple example: I have a paper cut on the knuckle of my finger.  Every so often, I am reminded by a dull pain, which reminds me how it happened (small accident) and both the pain, and the thought of a simple mistake that causes me pain, is a source of irritation and 'small misery over small things.'  (Or perhaps a large misery over the trivial...) This sense of dull pain contributes to my life in ways that I don't always recognize. It tells me that the world is dangerous when I am thoughtless, or perhaps when I am thoughtless or uncareful, that is when accidents happened. (Followed by berating myself for such a minor but unpleasant mistake....)  I cannot leave behind the thought that 'I wish I didn't have this paper cut' because the physical world and sensation of pain is part of my day-to-day experience of my body, which shapes my thoughts, which shapes my experience of a day.

This exercise to me seems to be difficult to process simply because it is easy to look at things as 'new with meaning' but it is very unlikely I am able to look at things that are 'meaningless' and think thoughts, and value those thoughts about the world meaningless as well.  

Course Corrections Day 7: Rethinking how to think

 By changing your thoughts, your brain can be rewired, or redirected, but you have to be aware of your thoughts. You apparently have over 6,000 thoughts per day.  Today's exercise is becoming aware of thoughts you have:

• I am tired from staying up a bit later than planned reading
• I am a little bit cold from the change in temperature
• There is some tension in my neck, probably from sleeping a certain way
• I am relatively full; it is shortly after breakfast
• It is morning, my thoughts are turned to small problems and projects at work
• My thoughts this morning have been about some regular topics of the season (Christmas plans, cleaning, organizing my room, thinking about keeping up fitness during the winter, etc)

I found this mediation very helpful and relevant today.

Course Corrections Day 6: My mood

 This one was more about doing a mood audit, as opposed to a body audit.  Today is all about managing mood.  I find that in the morning, my mood is a bit more insular, I need about an hour to wake up in the morning, before I'm fully aware.  

I find my mood is very good in the early evening, after the day is nearly over and I have exercised and had a proper dinner.

I find my mood through the day changes, depending if I have a physical injury, if I'm hungry/thirsty, etc.

I found this meditation to be useful, even though it was a simple one.

Course Corrections Day 5: Observe your body

 Today's mediation was about tuning into your body.  He used the term 'the sensations in my body don't have any meaning', but this doesn't seem accurate.  Instead, I would say this was a mindfulness exercise about paying attention to your body.  

I was a decent exercise, but I would rate this one just ok, as the start of it had me confused.