Place: Living room floor, against the wall
Time: 8:45am
Circumstances: Right after I got up, before I went to practice. Eyes open, with a candle burning.
Tried something new today to see if it helped cure a little of my "Gonewiththewind-itis". It's really incredible how this practice practically begs you to become a researcher of yourself. Observe, observe, observe, postulate, postulate, postulate, and then experiment, experiment, experiment. I concluded that the candle was a useful tool for practice and helped to keep me, maybe 20% (so scientific of me, I know) more focused. It's worth exploring again.
Later in the afternoon had an afternoon of mindfulness (about 2.5 hours). Spent the day in the park looking after two children with Les for a friend of ours. We strapped the 5 month old to me and Les took the 2 year old. The funny thing about the little baby strapped to me, was that if you stayed still for more than about 30 seconds, he would start to get fussy and eventually cry. Not a fun way to spend the day in the park. So I did a lot of mindful walking with him. Walked to the playground. Walked to the baseball diamond. Walked to the water. Walked back. After about 1.5 hours of gentle walking and singing (I decided that singing to a baby in the park is a great Sunday afternoon activity), I took him out of the snuggly, and saw he was getting less fussy and had those droopy baby eyes. Laid on the grass with him on my belly, and felt him breathing on my chest. Slowed my breathing right down and enjoyed being still with him for a little while. Mindfulness and children is not easy.
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