Sit / Day of Mindfulness

Place: AYCT
Circumstances: Lots of sweat, sitting in the spare room
Practice: Du Sa Ni Ma

Had my day of mindfulness today. My trade with AYCT means that I clean the studio for 3 hours. Instead of playing music, what I would normally do, I let the silence swallow me and breathe into the emptiness of the studio. I try to notice each hair on the floor that I mop up and watch carefully what I am doing. I really like the act of moving through a meditation. It makes it feel incredibly productive and worthwhile.

Place: AYCT Balcony
Circumstances: Post Practice
Practice: Du Sa Ni Ma, Sa Ni Ma Du, etc...

I haven't gotten to the place where I am doing the practice twice a day. Once is very challenging, so I am negotiating when I shift into doing this twice a day. I know it will happen once, but I want to ease into this practice and welcome it into my body instead of a forceful thrust. Maybe next month I will play with that.

Place: Living Room
Circumstances: First Thing in the Morning
Practice: Du Sa Ni Ma

Playing with this practice, I feel less and less focused on what I am doing with the journal. I find like the more comfortable I get in the practice, the less I really have to report on. Is this normal?

Place: AYCT spare practice room
Practice: Du Sa Ni Ma

Sitting, sweating, breathing. I am having a hard time with this mental script during the sit. I don't think I remember what saying Du Sa Ni Ma is supposed to remind me of. I will have to research that. I am feeling like I just want to sit and not really have to worry about doing something the "right" way, which I know doesn't exist, but when I sit there and am wondering what the point is behind "Du Sa Ni Ma" I easily pull myself out of the practice. Back to the breath. Back to the breath.

Place: Bedroom Floor
Circumstances: Post-Class, in the afternoon

Propped up against my wall, I sat and saw the thoughts about work things, school ideas, what I would write about today float up into my consciousness and kept dragging my awareness back to counting my breath. I think I am into another week now and it is time to move onto another practice. Maybe I'll connect more to the next one I experiment with.

Also challenging to do the sit in the afternoon instead of the morning. More thoughts in my head from the day to negotiate for sure.

PLACE: the living room floor
CIRCUMSTANCES: Post-Practice, Post first sip of coffee
PRACTICE: Counting Breath

Felt some resistance to getting to the point to being able to come to the cushion, but knew if I didn't do the sit early in the AM (before I left the house again), it wouldn't happen - the day just moves too fast.

Found that counting the breath gave me the anchor to come back to something. Something about Frank's words about using the counting as something that will make our practice strong did resonate with me and helped me play with it.

Also liked being reminded that these practices are what get us out of our comfort zone.

Awake Sleeping

Place: Floor of my closet
Circumstances: Pre-Teaching at Uptown (11am or so)
Practice: Attempts at counting the breath 1-8

I caught myself at least three times this morning falling into completely unaware of where I am, what I am doing, and lost in the stories my mind created. And although my mind is a pleasant place to get lost in (kind of like a pretty garden), it felt way too much like sleeping for it to be an effective meditation.

However, the cozy darkness of my closet and with my back propped up against the wall, has helped with the time just rolling on by. I might increase my time to 20 minutes soon.