Mindful Driving

Now that I am commuting from Culpeper to school and work in Fairfax I have been driving A LOT more than usual (and a lot more than I like).  I decided to start a new practice however out of this and it has turned out to be very relaxing and meditative for me.  I have decided that for every 1 hour trip I make, for 15 mins I turn off my music, and simply try to take in everything around me.  I notice the flowers and other plants growing on the sides of the roads, the way my car handles itself, the quality of the roads, the sounds of cars going by and everything going on around me as I drive.  It is really interesting for me because I've realized how much I block out when I am focused on driving and distracted by my music and brain chatter.  

Mindful Computer Time

So for the past 2 weeks I have been quote-unquote "homeless" but have been doing very well and feel like I am finishing my semester pretty strong.  The problem has been keeping access to my computer and internet and staying up to date with my work.  I have found that not having internet where I am staying has made me really straighten up and go to starbucks and really settle down and focus.  I am not a victim of endless facebook searching or mindless internet clicking and I feel like it has been a good process for me to understand what is important and what is a waste of time when it comes to my favorite piece of technology.  I am calling my starbucks time 'mindful computer time' and though it is an interesting thing to observe about myself I am looking forward to a time when I can relax and be settled somewhere.

Final post

I feel like our work together has been really good. We all had a busy semester with our stuff going on in our lives and have struggled a bit throughout the semester with classes. I feel like although this is the end of our class and the semester; some of our group members are graduating and starting new chapters and like myself, almost there. I don't feel like this is an ending to our well being practices. Our practices are for our health , focus, enjoyment and well,our well being . I feel like I will do some meditation breathing exercise to help me focus and mentally be calm and keep an open mind during times of stress. I will be continuing my practices of mindful eating and being mindful with my work outs, as well as continuing with yoga , and enjoying nature. I feel the focus from my practices will overall help me with my optimum spirit, being a calm , focused, healthy, and over all enjoying nature and the sights and sounds it has to offer.

April 7- 20

Last week, my mother had surgery. This caused my tight schedule even tighter since I had to care for her before and after the surgery. I had to give up one exam (luckily, the class drops the lowest score) and sometimes I had to take days off from work. The fact that my mother needs to eat more vegetable and fruits to get better quickly, the house refrigerator was full of greens and other bright colored fruits. Therefore, it had been easier to get ‘healthy’ foods at home than before (although it was much MUCH easier to get fast foods from outside).

By writing this group post, I noticed that my mindful practices that I committed had forgotten. Like one of our group member’s post, I am also ‘starting again’ constantly with consciousness.

April 7 - 20

The group mindful practice, having dinner together was really fun and meaningful for me. The foods were GREAT just as our group members are. It was my first time trying vegetarian chili. (Hey Amy, could you let me know how you made it?! could you post your recipe? I really LOVED your vege chili!) I learned many delicious vegetarian dishes-!Moreover, learning how to make candles was interesting!

After having about 2hours of dinner, I once more realized that my group members are supportive for each other.

And..yeah!! let’s have dinner once more-!!! :D

 

 

Lovely days

So this past couple of days have been so beautiful outside! Like I alway mention I love to be outside, walk around, enjoy the sun, sights, and sounds. I went over to my friend house this past Thursday and he lives kind of in the woods and there is open grass around his house... We pretty much were just hanging out outside the whole time two of my friends and I. He also has a basketball hoop so I attempted to shoot baskets, I made one shot out of a lot, then we all threw a football around. Then my other friend brought out his glove , bat and a softball. I use to play softball and haven't thrown a softball around in a while, so it was really fun for us to. We had to have been outside for at least 3 hours, then I went to the gym . But any way we all agreed to do this more often... So once I got home I put my yoga mats, softball, glove and my TRX in the trunk I my car. Because eventually were all going to workout, hopefully do some yoga with them then play ball !

Dinner

The dinner at Amy's was so much fun! I enjoyed myself, got to know everyone even more, and ate so much food! I thought it was really awesome everyone brought a vegetarian dish or brought a dish with separated ingredients. I really do feel we need to probably get together again maybe before the semester is over or right after! Or even if we don't do a dinner we should all have a cook out or go somewhere...spend the day outside mostly, maybe a bonfire !? But I still need to hula hoop with Amy , and make my hula hoop, and Ty dye shirts !! All in all it was such a good time and food was good.