Wellness Wednesday: New Practices

I am preparing for vacation, not yet packing, but arranging for our house-sitters, the garden, the chickens, and most importantly, picking my books and audio for that time, which is what I mostly do on vacation: read, walk, write, listen to my iPod.

This time it will be different though because it will be a time of listening, and inward time. My intention is to develop a regular meditation practice--something I've "tried" before and never continued--and to develop a light yoga practice--twenty minutes a day of mostly relaxing poses--something I used to do but not in the last the few years.

Being in Hawaii is the perfect time to learn yet again to be present.

I am someone who has lived in her head her whole life and likes it there. It is comfortable, and it is busy. Noisy.

Recently I discovered that it is also kind of mean in there. My self-talk is not compassionate...it's very critical...I have begun changing this and the meditation and yoga will help tremendously in this, as will the being present. Breathing. Slowing down.

One of my best visits to Hawaii was one in which we went to a conference for LoveHubbie's work. I sat on the balcony of the Sheraton in Waikiki looking out at Diamond Head and read Jon Kabat-Zinn's "Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness". I checked the book's Amazon page and noticed that this was six--SIX--whole years ago. To my chagrin, I am still as anxious and as unmindful as ever. Thus, I'm grateful for some extra time to focus on the opportunity to apply this important teaching and to do it in Hawaii. Of course, this can be done anytime at all, but when you're breaking lifetime habits, it's helpful to have some intensive time to immerse yourself.

In the spirit of this, I'm going to unplug totally, like I did when I went to Brazil. No email, no Facebook, no Twitter, just my cell phone for emergencies. Instead, I'm taking a large blank Moleskine and planning on writing...I wrote pages and pages in Brazil...for me this was better than any entertainment I could ever imagine.

I am starting to turn away from daily tasks, letting go of things here, and preparing for the change...

~Photo is actual picture taken with my phone from the balcony.