Well that was another epic failure… I was determined last week to spend this week practicing mindfulness by using my left foot to enter any building.  And I completely forgot about it everyday until it was bedtime each night.  Oh well.  I was able to continue doing my seven things each morning though, so that is a success.

For tonight’s class, we did some movements while seated in the chair, and I have to admit that I tuned the instructor out and dozed off and jerked awake on numerous occasions.  It was not intentional, I really tried to listen to what he was saying.  But the atmosphere was just so quiet and relaxing and dimly lit that I just couldn’t sustain my state of being awake, until that sudden drop of the head woke me up.

If there is one thing I can take away from tonight’s class, it is that mindfulness isn’t necessarily about being focused on one thing like breathing or an image or a mantra.  Mindfulness is about having awareness in the present time.  My mind wanders off many a time, thinking back and looking forward.  I find myself doing this while I am riding my bicycle home.  My mind just wanders.  I just need to practice coming back to the cycling in the moment, feeling every breath, hearing all the noises, smelling the air and seeing all that is around me.  Step by step, day by day.  I have enjoyed my Qigong class and have found positive effects for my morning ritual — now I just have to continue practicing continuing my success past the morning!

Fourth week of my Qigong class.  For this past week, I have been successful at doing my seven practices every morning and have also integrated doing the first three move sets of the Qigong movement series.  Although I haven’t really noticed any huge leaps in my personal growth or deeper thinking, I can say that I have definitely taken the time every morning to devote time and energy to my being here, present and mindful.  My mind may still wander off in any kind of direction, thinking of the past and future and random things, but my morning has become my routine and I think it has helped me to become more aware of what I do, how I think and how I feel.  Tonight we did a simple exercise of walking very slowly.  Each step was done with awareness of the feeling of the feet, of the clothes, of sight and sound.  It was interesting how I felt with every slow, pronounced step I took.  Hard to explain, other than I was present and aware of many indicators of existence, if that makes sense at all.  At any rate, my intention this upcoming week is to add in the fourth Qigong move set every morning, and when I enter a building I will always step with my left foot as I enter.  Seemed like an easy thing to do a few weeks ago, but I failed miserably.  I think I am ready to try again.

Over the weekend Lisa and I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant.  My combination plate was huge and I only ate half of it.  I then went home and had a bowl of popcorn plus cake and ice cream.  That was around 8pm.  And in keeping with my at least once-a-week fast, I had planned on not eating until dinner the next evening.

The next morning my stomach complained that it was hungry, and I acknowledged it and continued on.  Once I got through the morning and into the early afternoon, I think my body was in acceptance that it wasn’t going to get any food.  And so the afternoon passed and came the evening.  And I didn’t feel any hunger pangs.  So I decided to extend my fast until the next morning.  It wasn’t that hard.

I woke up this morning feeling a little dehydrated, but otherwise normal.  I even went for a one-mile run and was able to do it in under 7 minutes (always an accomplishment anytime I run under 7 minutes).  I broke my fast with some eggs and cereal, 34 hours later.

I have now been fasting at least once a week for one year now.  My body is used to it and I no longer get hungry or dizzy or feel weak.  There are a number of health benefits for fasting, one big one being is that I have improved insulin sensitivity and I have also lost around six pounds and have maintained this weight.  I actually enjoy fasting and have become used to it.  Bottom line, over the past year I have learned that fasting isn’t really that hard and it actually has improved my overall health and well being.

Tonight was my third Qigong class, and I am happy to report that my homework for the last week was pretty successful.  To review, every morning I was to do the following:

1.  Express gratitude
2. Set your intentions for the day
3. Take 5 deep breaths, in and out
4. Smile for no reason just to flex the muscle
5. Forgive yourself for yesterday’s mistakes

I have been able to make this a part of my morning routine, which also includes having a glass of water and to do some light stretching and movement.  Prior to the five things above, I tap a small windchime that I purchased last week on Amazon — it omits a pleasant sound that gets my morning off to a grounded, mindful start.  It takes me probably less than three minutes to go through each of the five steps, but it does help me to slow down and not go go go in the morning.  The hardest part has been #5 — forgiving myself for yesterday’s mistakes.  I make mistakes, but it is not often that I dwell on them or let them affect me, so I have had to think of smaller things that I have done.

The big thing for me is to set my intentions for the day, and for most of the week my intention has been to slow down and not rush around too much.  I tend to multi-task and try to do too much, and in doing so I get rushed and I don’t really live the moment, so slowing down is a big change for me.  I have left earlier for work and I don’t let other stupid drivers get my goat.  Just a few small examples that have helped me.

I do not have any official homework for this next week, but I will continue to do the five things above (plus my other two).  And I will attempt to perform the first three motions of Qigong — raise the arms up and down, open chest with arms out and in, and finally “paint a rainbow.”  Here’s a link for an image to all eighteen movements.  We’ll see how it goes, I’ll report back next week!

I signed up for a 10-session, Wednesday night Qigong class through our local parks and recreation department.  Last week was my first class, and my self-assigned homework was to attempt being present and in the moment every time I entered a room by doing what I thought was one simple thing:  always entering the room with my left foot.  I thought that this would be relatively easy.  Instead, I discovered that this was pretty much impossible.  For the past week I have probably only been aware of entering a room and using my left foot a total of three times.  For the last week.  Seven days.  Wow, now that’s a fail!

Okay, so perhaps I overestimated my abilities in this particular area.  I will try again, but maybe not right away.  I realize now that I need to take a bunch of smaller steps, something that is a little more manageable.  So for my next homework assignment, I’m pretty sure that I can successfully do the following…

5 Things To Do Every Morning

1.  Express gratitude
2. Set your intentions for the day
3. Take 5 deep breaths, in and out
4. Smile for no reason just to flex the muscle
5. Forgive yourself for yesterday’s mistakes

I start tomorrow.  Update next Wednesday, to be continued…