analysis of a day

In the spirit of not forcing the issue of "should" too much in my life, I was thinking about what I actually do each day. In other words, a mindfulness exercise about the activities that make up a typical day for me.

20-60 minutes of hatha yoga postures and other stretching and meditation; 1-3 hours of writing (sometimes replaced or supplemented by directed reading and other research); 1-2 hours of music (sometimes listening, sometimes practicing my instruments, sometimes composing or transcribing music, sometimes doing promotion for the band); 30-60 minutes of rigorous physical activity (rigorous hiking, lifting weights, jogging, dancing); 15-30 minutes of household financial admin (entering receipts, doing the banking, etc.); and 30-90 minutes of general household tasks (cleaning and cooking, usually).

Two weekdays each week, Z stays at home with me too. On those days I try to knock off bigger household chores like the laundry, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, and washing the floors. Z digs helping me with those things (or more precisely, she likes sitting in the same room as me and watching me do those things) and then afterwards we usually go for a fun trip to the library or for a long walk with the dogs.

By default, the evenings and weekends are devoted to the whole family, the three of us. Almost all of our mealtimes are together and lots of time on the weekends, too.

[smiling to self] In other words, everything is perfect.

P.S. I also made a change to our auto insurance policy this morning that resulted in a savings of $2,700 to our annual premium! Sweeeet.

ooh, this is some wise shit

Changes that occur through spiritual practice are not really your business.  If you make them your business, you will try to change your life directly.  If you try to change your life directly, no matter how long you work at it, you will not satisfy yourself.  So, if you truly want to change your life, you should just form the routine of doing small things, day by day.  Then your life will be changed beyond your expectations.  If you practice continuously, day after day, you will become a peaceful, gentle, and harmonious person.  There is no explanation for this.

~~Dainin Katagiri

Mother's Day Healing

The excerpt below is from Issue 450 of the Yoga Journal newsletter, which, despite its being distributed by a major glossy magazine publisher, has maintained a really high standard of quality in the year or so I've been reading it.

The article also calls to mind some heavy feelings I've had in the past year about my own mom. Like this part: If you don't acknowledge and make peace with these feelings, they can stay caught forever in your mind and heart, preventing the possibility of an authentic relationship. My relationship with my mom is far from inauthentic, but that probably doesn't mean we don't still have some stuff to discuss. :)

At any rate, I could definitely use some Child's Pose action -- my back is killing me today and I almost always find that posture helpful for relieving back pain.

As I awaited the trolley during my commute this morning, a mother with her toddler son approached the platform. Clearly they were upset with one another—she barked commands to him in Russian while he protested and whined back at her. While I couldn't understand what they were saying, the dynamic was universal. I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable as I witnessed their struggle.

What is it about the delicate mother-child relationship that can send us back to our own childhood in an instant? Vipassana meditation teacher Phillip Moffitt says he is surprised to discover how yogis of both genders and all ages report being overwhelmed by unresolved feelings about their mothers. If you don't acknowledge and make peace with these feelings, he says, they can stay caught forever in your mind and heart, preventing the possibility of an authentic relationship.

This week, in honor of Mother's Day, take a look at your own unresolved mother issues, examine parenting as a spiritual practice and nurture yourself by spending some time in Child's Pose.

Namaste,
Andrea Kowalski

don't miss the funkiness

I'm not sure if anyone downloaded this track that I mentioned in this entry. Everyone should download it and listen to it. It's absolutely a beautiful vintage funk groove from the late 60s. It will bring smiles to your faces. At least, it does to mine.

And if you dig that old-school funky stuff, listen to the Winamp shoutcast radio stream at http://wefunkradio.com. Those guys are spinning some beautiful tracks over there, and if you catch a show you really dig, you can download the MP3 file for free and listen to it again and again. Not that I've done that more than once or twice... lol