Comfort Zone/Monkey Mind

I came across an interesting video blog on expanding one's comfort zone. This theme seems to be coming up more and more in my explorations. I enjoy an innate curiousity about the world around me but I have a tendency to be more of an observer than a participant. I often make a predetermination not to take advantage of an opportunity because the conditions aren't right? I think this determination is sometimes based  on intuition and sometimes fear based. It is often hard to discern the difference...

Yesterday I had to abandon my yoga session due to an out of control monkey mind bouncing from subject to subject and running off with wild abandon. I attempted to center and ground myself but to no avail. Finally I gave in, rolled up my mat and went on with my day...

I turned my garage session into a working meditation. By the time I got out there my mind was a bit quieter and I used my time there to listen to an interesting Youtube video and focus in on the sensations associated with cleaning car parts...

I indulged in two day time naps which seemed to help quieten down the internal dialog. By the end of the day the mind monkey had quietened down considerably .....

Life Drawing

Last evening I ventured into the world of adult education, taking a life drawing class taught by my wife, Susan. This is my first exposure to art instruction since about 1971 when I took a high school art class for credit. The experience was a good one..it pushed me outside my comfort zone which was appreciated from a personal growth perspective... A positive creative experience that I hope to build on...

Yoga

This morning some Yoga videos were queued up in my YouTube feed so I spend 10 minutes or so viewing them. I have started my practice again realizing the importance of making sure I stay focused and consistent and the videos provide motivation to do so.

The Week in Review-January 22nd to 29th 2012

The past week has been interesting. I am basing this review on the Whole Life Cairn principle reviewed by Lissa Rankin's excellent TED talk. The weekly review is also prompted by the book: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari...I plan to use the BLOG as a recording medium...

YouTube continues to feed "wisdom and insight" into my realm of consciousness...what turns up in my queue is truly inspiring at times...

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The Principles of the Cairn (what is needed to live a healthy engaged life) are as follows:

Inner Pilot Light: my higher source has provided some interesting prompts for my consideration for which I feel gratitude for. Courage and action are the main components...

Relationships: Two coffee breaks with two good friends. Dinner and board games with a wonderful couple, a visit with my brother. time spent with my parents. A house hunting experience with my daughter. Meeting with my financial advisor...A strong 8 out of 10 week.

Work/Life Purpose: Still in clean up mode: Car restoration/clutter/financial planning. Contemplating a future course-open to the possibilities. An area of focus for sure...Spent some time talking to contacts about 2012 work contract and opportunities. A 8 out of 10 week

Spirituality: returned to my Yoga practice. Still very attracted to chakra alignment and the appreciation of nature. As mentioned above lots of good "feeds" to support my practice...9 out of 10 for sure..

Creativity: One of the missing links with respect to leading a more authentic life. Contemplating signing up for a life drawing class. Started to map out the writing of my handbook. Staying on course with the reconstruction of my sports car...a good week 8 out 10.

Sexuality: To be covered under separate cover...

Environment: Working on the de-cluttering. At least conceptually. Free Cycle continues to rise to the surface as a potential to recycle what we do not need. TV/Cable is turning out to be a distraction. Too much time spent watching TV and internet surfing. Interesting discussions about "man caves" in the past week...

Mental Health: Pretty good this week. Now at the end of January and not taking any medications for SAD. The winter has been very reasonable so far although traditionally April/May has been the more difficult months.

Money: I have the money I need to do the things I want to do. There is abundance in my life. A 10 out of 10 week.

Physical Health....good.

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I practiced gratitude this week, loved and felt pleasure in the simple things of life...

The Vibe

The Easter weekend proved to be an interesting time relationship wise with some meaningful interactions with family and friends. We hosted a vegetarian dinner party for my mother-in-law and some of her neighbors on Sunday night. The conversational topics were varied and interesting although I have to admit we stumbled onto a couple of topics that were a bit difficult to navigate conversationally. The first one being the Mayan calendar (2012) and the second being the origin of the horoscope.

Re the Mayan Calendar: I have to learn not to broach this topic with people as every time in comes up in conversation I end up feeling uncomfortable with where the conversations migrate to. For sure it is a controversial topic that evokes all kinds of responses from people-some positive but more often than not it causes people to be perplexed. Either from the perspective of them not knowing anything about it to trying to explain what we know of the concept only to run into challenges around the origins and the projected outcomes.

The origin of horoscopes also proved to be difficult to explain and the transition from Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius even more so.

Both these topics require more exploration....

The Present Moment

Early yesterday morning I learned my Dharmaexpress@gaia.com blog site was shut down and the doors closed so to speak. This "event" was unexpected and as such left me unable to retrieve 4 years worth of on-line journal entries. That's a lot of history gone. I am actually not as upset about it as I thought I would be. Everything is impermanent and the lose forces me to let go of what is no longer available to me and move on. There are no coincidences and as such I accept my fate....