How Now: Exercise 1
It's a little after 5 am, and I'm still up and will be up until I go to bed much later tonight - in probably seventeen more hours. And why, you ask, have I stayed up all night long? Because, as usual, procrastinator me didn't start working on the opinion until 11:30 pm!!! I swear, nothing changes with me! Everything I had to write for law school, from memos to briefs to law review parts - I started late the night before it was due and stayed up all night writing. Anyway, I needed a tiny break! So.....
As I talked about yesterday, I bought the book How Now: 100 ways to celebrate the present moment by Raphael Cushnir. It includes 100 little exercises, and I'm going to do them all and post them on here. I'm so excited about this! So, here is Exercise 1:
"Begin
In the trance of habit and daily routine, it's easy to miss the miracle of existence that is continually unfolding. One way to reconnect to that miracle is to consciously bring new projects and activities into your life. Whether tiny or grand, every venture you begin provides a fresh invitation to savor the New.
The Practice:
Make a list of some endeavors that you'd like to begin. This list can include an array of choices, such as a new friendship, an herb garden, a dance class, a journal, a different style of dress, a book you've always wanted to read, or a more honest way of communicating. Your selections can be internally oriented, such as paying more attention to what you feel or focusing on what brings you joy.
Next, scan the list for something you can begin right now. Do so, and allow yourself to bask in its birth. Then keep the list nearby and make frequent beginnings an ongoing part of your life. Refresh the list often as you grow and change."
So here is my little list as I wrote it up, and I put astricks next to all the things that I can start doing or working on right now or this week:
* - get back into guitar – practice daily
- sign up for guitar classes that begin near the end of October
- sign up for German classes starting in January
- go salsa dancing
- go somewhere to watch 1) tango dancers, 2) flamenco dancers
* - watch less TV and instead listen to music when I’m home
* - watch less TV and read more
* - try to go to bed around 11, but definitely before midnight
* - on weekends, get up by 9 am; shower and spruce up and go outside for at least a little while no matter what
* - walk home from work while the weather is still nice
* - get back into going regularly to the gym
* - call my grandparents and brother more often
* - start always emptying the dishwasher as soon as it’s clean and then put dirty stuff directly into it after I use them instead of letting things stack up
* - vacuum once a week
* - keep living room straightened – so I wouldn’t freak if someone stopped by unexpectedly
* - give James and Emma more sit-on-the-floor personal attention
- plan a couple small dinner parties so I can start learning to entertain, and at the same time work on my cooking
* - get my paints out more often and have fun being artistic
* - start copying all my favorite photographs that I’ve taken to a separate file on the computer, so maybe eventually I can do something with them
* - get back into making actual written-out lists of things to do so I can check things off and feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished!
As I talked about yesterday, I bought the book How Now: 100 ways to celebrate the present moment by Raphael Cushnir. It includes 100 little exercises, and I'm going to do them all and post them on here. I'm so excited about this! So, here is Exercise 1:
"Begin
In the trance of habit and daily routine, it's easy to miss the miracle of existence that is continually unfolding. One way to reconnect to that miracle is to consciously bring new projects and activities into your life. Whether tiny or grand, every venture you begin provides a fresh invitation to savor the New.
The Practice:
Make a list of some endeavors that you'd like to begin. This list can include an array of choices, such as a new friendship, an herb garden, a dance class, a journal, a different style of dress, a book you've always wanted to read, or a more honest way of communicating. Your selections can be internally oriented, such as paying more attention to what you feel or focusing on what brings you joy.
Next, scan the list for something you can begin right now. Do so, and allow yourself to bask in its birth. Then keep the list nearby and make frequent beginnings an ongoing part of your life. Refresh the list often as you grow and change."
So here is my little list as I wrote it up, and I put astricks next to all the things that I can start doing or working on right now or this week:
* - get back into guitar – practice daily
- sign up for guitar classes that begin near the end of October
- sign up for German classes starting in January
- go salsa dancing
- go somewhere to watch 1) tango dancers, 2) flamenco dancers
* - watch less TV and instead listen to music when I’m home
* - watch less TV and read more
* - try to go to bed around 11, but definitely before midnight
* - on weekends, get up by 9 am; shower and spruce up and go outside for at least a little while no matter what
* - walk home from work while the weather is still nice
* - get back into going regularly to the gym
* - call my grandparents and brother more often
* - start always emptying the dishwasher as soon as it’s clean and then put dirty stuff directly into it after I use them instead of letting things stack up
* - vacuum once a week
* - keep living room straightened – so I wouldn’t freak if someone stopped by unexpectedly
* - give James and Emma more sit-on-the-floor personal attention
- plan a couple small dinner parties so I can start learning to entertain, and at the same time work on my cooking
* - get my paints out more often and have fun being artistic
* - start copying all my favorite photographs that I’ve taken to a separate file on the computer, so maybe eventually I can do something with them
* - get back into making actual written-out lists of things to do so I can check things off and feel good about myself and what I’ve accomplished!
There you go!!! I'm going to have to print this list out now and tape it to my door so I can remember all the things I'm going to start doing!!! Oh, and on that last one, I love lists! And a typical list I make will include separate little dashes for such things as clean out dishwasher, load dishwasher, clean kitchen, take out trash, clean bathroom, change lightbulb, straighten coffee table - that way, I have lots of things checked off!!!! And I feel amazing!!! :)
