Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Mindfulness Pledge

I'm going to try to wake up every morning and every evening with 5 minutes available to sit on the cushion. I find myself unable to keep on top of the tremendous amount of work I have to do, and I want to be the best I can be. So I'm going to give myself 5 minutes every morning to sit and think about the day. To relax and to organize my thoughts. To just be.

I was naughty and went to chinese again today. I think I need to swear off of that stuff. It's always pretty good, but I don't think it's ever worth it. It's more like binging for binging's sake actually. It's good--it's sugary and fatty and fried and Asian, but I eat it for the same reason I'd gorge on a huge burger. It's a feast, and I don't feel good about it afterwards.

So, Thursday and Friday--I'm going to try to stay on top of my work, eat right, and sit. Maybe if I have a spare minute, I'll do some working out. This was supposed to be a good week. It's a medium week. I want to make it better. This half of the week will be good. I'm over the hump.

Tonight, I'm just going to bust out what I need for Thursday, and then Thursday will be all about preparing for next week.

Namaste
mcsm

Monday, January 19, 2009

Happy MLK day.

Today is my last busy day of my MLK break. The last day, rather. Spent good time with friends and doing stuff I want, and I'm not sure if I got anything done or if I just read a bunch. At any rate, I gotta get my nose to the grindstone now, and hopefully I'll have enough time today to catch up on some house-cleaning issues (no literally, they're about house-cleaning).

Peace!
MCSM

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy New Year

Hi everyone (dear reader...singular...) it's been awhile. I really felt like I fell off the wagon almost precisely at the onset of the holiday season. It's pretty far into the New Year already. Student teaching is going to be so so busy.

I'm really interested in judo. Have been for awhile, but I really have the bug lately. That's a martial art I can get behind: It's very rough and tumble, but the only injuries anyone should be sustaining would be callouses and scratched feet from others' toenails. I guess I'm trying to say the practice-to-application turnover rate is very quick, so thumbs up.

I'm going to try (try try try) to eat healthier. Once back in BG, I'll be responsible for my own food again, which will be nice. I am getting a little better at saying "no" in the company of others, although that doesn't stop me from hitting a Burger King on the way home. Anna and I always eat well when we make our own food and we have it in the house, so I think if we commit a little to having some food by ourselves things will look better...uh... weight wise.

I haven't really had a chance to let the fact that I'm basically going to be doing what my job is for the next 3 months and then doing it for reals in about 8 months. Wow. I think that removes some of the "tentative" nature of proposed lifestyle changes/experimentation/trials. I keep telling myself that I'm a healthy person. A healthy person is smart about going to Burger King. a healthy person can say no. A healthy person gets sleep!

I'm not looking forward to waking up tomorrow and meeting Em at Java Spot. I'm looking forward to meeting Em, but not the waking up. My sleep schedule has been in tatters since the first day of break. Hopefully it will get back on track soon.

Here's a thought: A significant part of a healthy lifestyle is a combination of the individuals belief that what he or she does matters, and that he or she actually does have the control over exerting that power. A person's sense of autonomy, in all matters of life, likely effects that person's health in an indirect way.

I think that's part of what makes it easy to go on that diet "tomorrow." You didn't do well at 'controlling' today. Tomorrow, you can easily imagine you will. That's certainly true for me it seems.

Peace
matt