Meditation
I stayed consistent with my morning meditation.
Ten minutes every day before going to work.
I recently stopped listening to guided meditations and tried to sit in silence on my own. Why? I wanted to see how well I can resist the temptation of dwelling on a thought, idea, emotion or recent memory.
During this moment of silence, the experience could be described as being presented with ten of your “favorite dishes” when you’re super “hungry”. This will drive your instinct to devour the first “dish” that catches your eye (ie. focus on that thought, idea or memory).
My goal is to replace that instinct (instantly focusing on a thought) with the ability to stay still and watch the thoughts float through my mind. Recognize the thoughts without analyzing them.
Why am I meditating again? Curiosity. There’s been a buzz about meditation and I wanted to see the results for myself.
Exercise
I stayed consistent with my quick 3-minute Wake Up Set.
I’m going to add another set this week and probably increase the reps for each set.
If I don’t miss a day next week, I’m going to go back to that Darebee Workout Set I downloaded about a year ago.
Swimming will also be added to the current set as “my weekend workout”. I’m (blindly) teaching myself how to swim with less effort (Total Immersion).
Back in the “Corporate World”
I went back to one of the companies I used to work for. It’s awkward at first but after a while it’s ok. I felt like I had to explain to people I used to work with why I came back. But that’s just me. It’s one of the default “reactions” I’m trying to replace. I’m sure most of them don’t really give a shit because they have more important things to do. Some thoughts are helpful, some are not but you gotta learn how to get out of your own head and face reality. That is why I bought a book on stoicism – a mental operating system I wanted to acquire. But I will save that for a different discussion.
Anyway, new employees had to go through training. I expected my first week to be boring but it was the opposite. I felt overwhelmed.
The position I’ve taken is much different from what I used to do for the company. And since it’s different, there’s so much more I needed to learn. I had to refresh myself with everything I learned in the past (from my previous position) and add more in-depth knowledge to it. But just like any job, skill or a habit, you get the hang of it after a while.
By the end of Thursday, I acquired enough training and was able to retrieve old knowledge to do the basics.
How do I like it so far? I like it a lot. The position I took ‘accidentally’ became what I wanted to do when I planned to leave the company I previously worked for.
Goal achieved? Too early to say. Every finish line is a starting line for the new race.