I'd all but forgotten about this blog for looks like over a year, and looking at other blogs that seems to be what happens in general oftentimes. Time has clicked on by, but recently I have promised myself that I would focus more on cultivating daily habits which would lead to my greater sense of spirituality and self-expression. Quite honestly, the inspiration for this all began with what appears to be the final death throes of my almost ten-year relationship with my girlfriend. This unraveling has been happening for quite some time. Out of respect, I do not wish to mention her name or say much about the affair. What I can say is that breaking away from her has released a lot of energy in me - both physically and mentally. Though we haven't lived together for over a year or more, I was still putting more energy into the relationship than I thought. But enough about that...Professionally, things have gone swimmingly. I never thought I'd find a career that would fit me so well, engaging my heart as well as my mind. There have been some snags along the way, but these have been surmountable and for the most part understood as part of the way of things. Though I have to drive a good solid hour to the site and a good solid hour back every day (somewhere over 100 miles each weekday), I work well with the people that I'm with out there - and actually the distance helps greatly with preventing the awkwardness that is having to encounter a client outside the treatment milieu in public somewhere.
So I'm off to reinvent myself once again. What shall I do? What forms will this new energy take?
- The physical body. I have already begun to get more consistent exercise via daily walks and sessions on the elliptical machine. Changing the diet is more challenging, but generally I'm just reducing my portions pretty much. Lately I've been consuming a lot of Clif Bars and Slim Fast shakes as meal replacements.
- The mental body. I've taken to downloading some really good audiobooks and listening to them during my hour-long drives to and from work. I mostly favor non-fiction. Some of my latest reads of this sort has been Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People as well as a set of lectures by the Buddhist scholar Jack Kornfield entitled The Jewel of Liberation. I also read a bit at night before going to sleep.
- The emotional body. Basically spending time with my family and friends covers this one. Honestly I draw a lot of emotional fulfillment from my job, though of course in turn it can also be very emotionally draining at times.
- The spiritual body. I'm finally returning consistently to meditation and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram on a daily basis. A type of meditation that I'm doing now involves me watching my breath, allowing my thoughts, and then when the thoughts begin to carry me away I tell myself silently that "these are your thoughts. They are not you. Allow them to pass." That helps. I also have a small digital cooking timer which I use to keep these meditation sessions at ten minutes apiece.
I'd like to do more writing as well, and breathing fresh life into this old blog is one way that I wish to revitalize that desire. Writing takes attention and consistent focus to kindle the flames and build the rapport between the conscious and the unconscious processes.
Putting this stuff out here to an audience that might actually read it helps in my mind to make me more accountable for some measure of progress. I think it will help.
So wish me luck, friends. And send me your ideas, if you have any!
