Things have been very busy lately; between long days at work, the upholstery course at weekends, trips down to The Paddock, socialising and family I haven't had time to stop and smell the roses (hence my Yoko Ono inspired Day-In-Bed on Sunday).
And now I've come to realise that I have a nagging feeling inside that is letting me know it's time to make some decisions and figure out if I'm still travelling on the right path. I try to do this kind of check-in regularly and it's only when things have been this hectic that I forget.
I don't formally meditate everyday (that is, I don't take time out of my day to sit and meditate) but I do try to meditate in the moment at least once during each day. That gets tricky the more you have going on in your mind, the less likely it is to stop the jibber-jabber and relax.
So I've determined to book out some time to practise contemplation meditation; one hour will be a long time to sit for the first time in a while, so I might book in incremental sittings of 30, 40, 50 then 60 minutes so I can work up to an hour of seated meditation.
When it's been a while since my last long meditation, bringing in habitual ceremony also helps the mind 'remember' the practice. So making a quiet place to sit, lighting incense, ringing a bell all help to clear the mind in preparation for the contemplation.
I'm not expecting to resolve any decision from my first practise, so booking in a few or several meditations will help me relax as it takes the pressure off finding an answer in a set period of time. In my experience, any expectation (of a result) will make the contemplation more difficult.
Now I just need to check the calendar, book in my sessions and commit to them! I'll let you know how I go.
I feel like a real farmer now - I've spent half my week talking or thinking about rain. Luckily it's not because our livelihood depends on it raining (yet), but because if it rains, we don't have to go down to The Paddock to water the plants this weekend.
It has been an exhausting few weeks since we planted the 200 trees and shrubs, which is something I hadn't mentally prepared myself for. I had realised it would be exhausting actually putting in the 200 plants, so I took a week off and made sure all preparations that could be done ahead of time were done.
What I didn't consider was how the exhaustion of that one activity would carry forward for the next few months while we try to keep our baby trees alive. So I went ahead and made my 60 kays in 30 days commitment (I'm nearly finished!) without thinking I wouldn't be around at weekends to put in the kilometres.
I also jumped at the chance to move my upholstery course forward to June (from October) when someone else pulled out of the class - once again, without considering how this would affect our time at weekends for watering (answer = badly).
So after our disastrous after-upholstery 3 hour drive to The Paddock last weekend (just to find the neighbours cows had trampled our precious babies) we have been PRAYING for rain this week (and this is from a buddhist and an atheist).
Tomorrow night is our work Christmas-in-July party so I will be doing my rain-dance ALL night long in the hope that it rains in Woodanilling and we don't have to do the late drive again this Saturday night.
I'll keep you posted!
I'm just over half way through my own personal challenge: run 60 kays (kilometres) in 30 days which I instigated finishing my first 12km race. After completing the race I felt my motivation slipping; the event I had trained towards was over, I had a sore knee and wasn't very motivated to run.
A personal commitment to run a distance over the month gave me the freedom to pick and choose when I wanted to run (if I didn't feel like it one day, no problem, I just had further to go the next day) as well as the motivation to get out the door at least a few times each week.
As it turns out this was a great post-race motivation for me, instead of just sitting inside (it's winter here so cold and dark outside) I went to see a physiotherapist about my knee. Luckily there isn't any damage so I just have some stretches and exercises to do each day and I'm going back this evening for a follow up appointment.
There have also been quite a few days where I just didn't feel like getting out of my warm comfy clothes to go outside for a run. Last night was a case in point, it had been a long day at work, it was dark by the time I got home and a cosy sit in front of the heater sounded good...
I've been keeping track of the kilometres I've run over the month so I knew if I didn't go out, I'd have another long run to do later in the week. All I did was go out and run 2 kays (my shortest run ever!) but it means I'm keeping on top of the commitment AND it made me go out when I didn't feel like it.
Today (having gone for a run yesterday) I actually feel more up for a run today! Sometimes it's like that, the hardest part is getting out the door, and running makes you feel like running MORE.
So after 17 days of June I've run 36 kays - those two kms put me JUST in front of my 2km per day average I need to do to meet my goal. By the way, for full transparency I should state that a few of those kilometres 'run' have been part of interval training, so technically I walked some while I ran for a minute and walked for a minute.
Interval training has noticeably helped me increase my pace which has dropped by over 10 seconds per kilometre over a 5km distance (I'm a slow runner); my GPS watch helps me record all the details.
I'm feeling confident at this point that I'll fulfill the commitment to run 60 kays over 30 days, by which time I'll be into a new training regime for my next 12km race: the Perth City to Surf at the end of August. I'll let you know how I go!
After a few days rest following the 12km fun run on Sunday I am ready to begin training for my next 12km run in August, the 2013 Perth City to Surf.
This run is extremely hilly, at both the beginning and end of the course, so I am planning to add more hills to my training and distance to increase my stamina (since I barely made it over the line last weekend).
One way I've heard is good to keep you motivated is to commit to running a certain number of miles (or kilometres - kays in Aussie slang) in a month so you have a target goal to work towards.
As this is my first attempt at running a goal distance I've kept it simple: a distance I should be able to manage and some maths I can easily do in my head! So I came up with 60 kays in 30 days, or 2kms per day.
Currently I train 3 days per week: speed work twice a week after work and a distance run on the weekend, so I need to fit in a minimum of 14kms over these three sessions in order to meet my goal. I'll be tracking my progress with my GPS watch so I'll let you know how this trial works out.
What methods of motivation do you use to keep yourself training in between events?
