[Mindfulist] January 31st: Day of Mindfulness

I’ve gotten behind on my mindfulness posts, so I intend to catch up on them as part of my day of mindfulness. Once I have completed today’s writing, I plan to stay away from the computer as much as possible.

[January 27th] Strong Emotion: When a strong emotion arises, how do you respond?

When a strong emotion arises, I usually get lost within that particular emotion. The stronger an emotion is, it seems harder to avoid becoming trapped into the flow of the emotion. I tend to lose my ability to think rationally and logically, things which are quite important in controlling emotions. When emotions are strong, those moments are the most important moments in which to be rational and logical. I recommend following the link to Thich Nhat Hanh’s breathing exercise on The Mindfulist’s site. We could all use a little training in stopping, breathing, and separate ourselves from our emotions. I for one do not want to be overpowered by my emotions.

[January 28th] It will, it won’t: “Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” – James Baraz

Mr. Baraz, I applaud you. You see, this quote really speaks to me in that I can never seem to be fully in the moment. I believe I actually touched upon this yesterday in my gratitude post (or perhaps that was the day before). In any case, I’m always worried about the past — dwelling on things that I wish had been rather than what really happened, reliving past misfortunes, or even just longing to relive good memories. On the other hand, I also have a very big tendency to daydream about the future and all the hopeful opportunities it could bring. I could spend hours just wasting time dreaming of how it should be instead of living in the moment to actually make things become the way I’d like them to be. As part of my mindfulness practices, I’m trying to train myself to be in the moment.

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[January 31st] Day of Mindfulness: Mindfulness in practice.

On , Gwen Bell shared the ten best posts from January 2010, including a piece by Rebecca Thorman called “Bloggers Are Not Writers.” Her points resonated within me in that I’m guilty of attempting to market myself — really now, look at my sidebar as evidence. PayPerPost? YouData? AdSense? A flippin’ PayPal donate button? Yes, I’m absolutely looking to fund my hobby. Yet I’m trying to become a writer, to transform a simple hobby into a fruitful career. I could ramble on and on about how her words dug into my skin like sharp puppy teeth, but I’m positive you’ll get the point once you read it. It really made me stop and think about how blogging reflects upon my writing as a whole.