Om

So, the big news for this month was completing my month of daily meditation!  I started it on a lark one day, and actually managed to keep it up, even though some days were squeaking it in just before bedtime.  I generally used an app called Calm, which has several different meditation options available.  I chose to use the guided meditations which include a guided relaxation portion and then a period of quiet.  You are also able to choose the length of the meditation (I keep typing "medication" instead of "meditation"!), which I liked a lot.  My shortest meditation was ten minutes, and my longest was 25.

Here are a few things I learned during my month of meditation:

1. I should not meditate at bedtime, even using a meditation that is specifically geared toward bedtime and sleepiness.  Meditation perks me up too much to get to sleep right away, and I seem to always have restless sleep if I meditate right before going to sleep.
2. Some background noise can be helpful toward a better meditation.  My mind seemed to ultimately wander less if there was some sound rather than total silence.
3. Meditation does help me feel centered and refreshed... for a time.
4. I didn't notice that the length of the meditation correlated to a better or more lasting effect.
5. Shut the cat out of the room.  Having a cat attacking your head is not conducive to good meditation.
6. I don't do well using the "counting breaths" technique.  It seems to stress me out, and I always ended up breathless at some point.  I do much better just focusing on "in and out".
7. I much prefer lying down to sitting up.  I get too relaxed when I sit up, then my head tends to fall forward and I can't breathe which makes it very difficult to focus!

I did often find myself "writing" blog posts in my mind while I was meditating... i.e. "Today I could write about how well this relaxation portion works to get my mind focused and centered, and then I could talk about how I prefer to lie down rather sit in a chair when I meditate, and then I should say..." and on and on and on.  That should stop now that I won't be worrying about writing a blog post anymore!  Also, I'm not sure that the meditations had much overall effect on my well-being.  Maybe a month wasn't long enough.  Maybe it did have an effect and I just didn't notice.  I did enjoy the meditations, however, and I plan to continue with it, just without the every day requirement.

I have been making some progress on other list items, but none are completed yet.  I have purchased all but one of the books I will be reading, found an app to record my wines and made my first entry, found some podcasts to check out, collected a little over 50 songs for my playlist, and wrote to my grandparents.  I subscribed to Ancestry.com and have already found some interesting twigs in my family tree as well as started getting some information from my mother about her side of the family.  I also bought a Fitbit and have been wearing it consistently for a few weeks now.  The first few weeks I behaved normally, so I could get a baseline activity level.  I have now set some (small) goals, and am actively working toward hitting those goals on a daily basis.  This should help me work toward the 5K and weight loss items on my list.

Two weekends ago, while my Mother and Ted were here for Qualifications weekend (for the Indy 500 for anyone who might be reading this and not know that I live in Indianapolis), my mother and I tried out a new restaurant called Borel's Cajun and Creole Cookery.  It just opened about six months ago on the north side of Indy.  I had tried to go there earlier this year, but they happened to be closed that day.  I really enjoy Cajun and Creole food, so I was excited to check this place out, especially since I had read some good reviews online.  I had a shrimp po' boy, and my mother ordered an oyster po' boy.  Turned out, after we had already paid, that they were out of oysters, so she ended up switching her order to crawfish etouffee.  We also split a cup of crawfish etouffee.  The sandwiches were about $10 which seemed pricey, there were a lot of shrimp, it was dressed well, and the fries that came with it were tasty.  The bread didn't feel entirely authentic, but it was still good quality and held up well to the contents.  The etouffee was delicious, and the more I ate, the more I wanted!  There were lots of crawfish pieces and not too much rice, and splitting the cup was the perfect amount for both of us.  With drinks, the bill came to about $30, which was more than we had planned on spending for lunch, but the meal was good.  The décor is very much Mardi Gras and New Orleans themed with lots of beads and bright colors, and catchy Zydeco music played in the background.  I will definitely be going back here and have since started following them on Facebook where they post daily specials.

So progress is being made, although not by leaps and bounds.  The life lesson that seems to keep cropping up recently is to be mindful of the passage of time and not to procrastinate (whether intentionally or not!), so I want to step things up.  I will be working a lot of extra days over the next two months, so that might be a little difficult, but I do tend to get more accomplished when I have more things on my platter. 

Getting Started

As of yesterday I have meditated daily for two weeks!  The decision to start was not thought out at all... one morning I was lying in bed and thought "I should meditate!"  And there we go.  I have been using an app called Calm for the meditations.  They have nature sounds you can listen to, and timers, but I have been using their guided meditations which are available in 2, 5, 10, 15, 25, or 30 minute increments.  It starts out by getting you relaxed and focused, and then there is silent time.  So far I have been doing either 10 or 15 minutes.  I wish there was a 20 minute time slot, because that ten minute jump from 15 to 25 seems really daunting.  I like the feeling I get from it, though... relaxed but energized, centered, and clear-headed.  From previous experience, I know that I cannot meditate right before bed, because it seems to get me mentally hopped up and I never sleep well.  I have been aiming to do it first thing in the morning, because it really does seem to put me in a good mood for the day.  This is one of those habits that I would like to develop for life, even though I am only doing it for a month for the list.

So, my big ordeal right now is my right foot.  Last Monday, I hit it on my bed (it's a storage bed, so it's solid with drawers) and although the bruises are fading, it still hurts quite a lot.  I chipped a bone on this same pinky toe years ago, and I don't remember it hurting this much.  Plus, the pain seems concentrated behind the toe, so that was concerning me.  So this morning, I went to a MedCheck clinic where they took x-rays and told me that there are no fractures (thank goodness!), but that I probably bruised the bone which can hurt just as much as a break.  Needless to say, I'm not getting around very well, and I haven't been able to do a few things that I had planned.  Bummer.

I sat down the other day and started putting some information together for some of the list items.  One thing I discovered is that I have been to a lot more of the museums around town than I realized!  I may have to either broaden my definition of a museum or expand slightly outside of Indianapolis.  That is a good thing, I think, but it did throw me off a little.  I have also written to my grandparents for this month and found some notebooks to use for my various lists.  I'm excited to get moving (figuratively if not quite literally) on my List.  I am not going to let myself leave so many things until the last minute like I did last time.