Sunday Journal Prompt

“We are never not whole.”  

– Jon Kabat-Zinn in Mindfulness for Beginners

 

While author and mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn acknowledges that we may long to “live a more integrated life, to experience non-fragmentation for a change, to be at home in our own skin,” he assures us that we’re already “whole.” He says that realizing this can amount to a “profound rotation in consciousness,” achieving a higher level of awareness in which we know what’s on our minds but permits us to separate ourselves from our thoughts of inadequacy—to distance ourselves from the narratives that sink our progress “like cement boots.”

For me, writing down my “cement boot” thoughts enables me to get them out of my head and close the book on them for a period. Yes, they are my thoughts, but they aren’t me—they aren’t who I am.

 

What inner narratives are sinking your progress? Writing them down helps us release them, reassuring us of our “wholeness.”

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“Just as you clip your nails, you need to periodically clip the negative thoughts from your mind.”  

- Dr. Amit Sood, author of The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living  

As Dr. Amit Sood explains in The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living, the mind, unlike other parts of the body, does not have an excretory system. “Mountains of negative thoughts pile up inside it. Just as you clip your nails, you need to periodically clip the negative thoughts from your mind.” Journaling and meditation help me clear out the “gunk” that has accumulated in my mind, allowing me to reset myself.

 

 

What negative thoughts do you need to clear from your mind today so that you can reset yourself?

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

What are we feeding ourselves with our Feeds?
 

“I’m going to check my Feed,” I heard myself say when a waiter handed my son a little laminated card with the café’s Wi-fi password. We had just visited the Palace of Knossis in Crete, Greece—the first known civilization—yet there we were, sitting at a beautiful outdoor café hungry for free Wi-fi. I was hungry for information and news from home. But I was also hungry for validation, checking to see how many “likes” and comments I’d received on a photo I’d posted the previous day. 

Rather than looking up to appreciate the sounds, scents and scenes around us, all of us had our heads in our phones. I had told myself that reading posts or articles about mindfulness were okay. Yet they detach me from the moment at hand. Now I limit myself to an hour or less a day of all social media interaction. I aim to read and post after I’ve done my own writing, when I’m alone and not distracting myself from my priorities—family, friends, students and colleagues.  

What does your Feed feed you? What’s a fitting Feeding time for you?

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

 “If someone rejects you, and it does hurt (whether we admit it or not), ask yourself why.”

 

- Melanie Thomas 

As my wise friend and relative Melanie Thomas says, it’s important to be aware of your weaknesses and faults. To help improve your character as you go through life, Melanie says to ask yourself why you’ve been rejected. Were you unkind, unfair or mean? Or was it because you stood up for an issue that you believed in? If the rejection is because someone does not agree with your principles, then hopefully the person would not dwell on negative thoughts. No one should have to give up their beliefs and principles unless they are shown to be false and unworthy, Melanie asserts. Sometimes you just can’t please a person, no matter what you do. “I believe if you’ve been unfair, you should admit it to yourself and ask forgiveness of the other person. But if you have been honorable and reasonable in your words and actions, then you have to forgive the other person for his or her actions.”

She emphasizes the need to take time to listen to the other person and try to understand them to the best of our ability. For me, writing is the way to process rejection. When I receive negative feedback in student evaluations, I write about the comments to better understand them and determine how to address them—reflect on what I did or did not do to negatively impact the student, change my teaching approach to avoid future occurrences, or accept that my teaching style is not the right fit for that student. Ideally, I’d set up a meeting to talk with the student about his or her feedback and, if I determined I was in the wrong, apologize; because the feedback is anonymous and comes at the end of the term, I’m unable to do so. However, I aim to bring this same process to other areas of my life with people to whom I’m able to apologize and seek forgiveness when needed.

How do you handle rejection? Would change, forgiveness or acceptance boost your energy?

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“The secret of inner peace is to live fully in the moment.”

 

– J. Donald Walters
 

 

Before I start my days, I read a page of a little book entitled Secrets of Inner Peace. Today’s message is “The secret of inner peace is to live fully in the moment, releasing past and future into the cycles of eternity.” As someone who has long made schedules and to-do lists, I am prone to thinking about what I plan to do. The flip side of that is that I often regret what I didn’t accomplish during the previous day, week, month or year. These patterns zap my energy, removing my focus from the moment at hand—walking in the woods, playing a video game with my son, cutting vegetables for soup.

Focusing on sensory details helps me live in the moment—what do I see, hear, smell, taste and feel? Is my breathing shallow or deep? Gratitude helps, too. Being thankful for a beautiful moment is a way to be present and relish it. The arrival of the new year inspires me to reduce my expectations of myself—to shorten my to-do lists so that I have more time and energy to savor each moment.

What helps you live in the moment? How can you practice presence more often?