Sunday Journal Prompt

Thinking Time

I’ve been told that my paternal grandfather enjoyed his “thinking time,” time alone to reflect on his life. I thought of this during a recent airplane flight. While I had a magazine article assignment and student recommendation letters to write, I didn’t open my laptop, nor did I read. I did nothing but stare out the window and think.

 

My mind wandered from daily things like my to-do list and plans for the coming week to reflections on the significance of my son’s high school graduation and thoughts about a side business idea. Soon I let my mind focus on clouds that resembled the “snow rollers” created by gusty winds in our neighborhood a few winters ago. During the plane's descent, I seemed to go into a meditative state, mesmerized by the quilt of farmland beneath me. After landing, I felt more energized than I had in days. 

 

 

How often do you simply give yourself time to think? How can you work it into your life this week?

 

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”

- Olympic track star Jim Ryun

 

 

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg features stories from people such as athletes, coaches and entrepreneurs who attribute their success to habits—building and sustaining patterns of behavior that become automatic in response to certain cues. For a football player, the cue may be the word “Hut!” at the beginning of a play, sparking the execution of a familiar, well-practiced routine. For tooth brushing, the cue may be waking up and feeling the filmy feeling in your mouth. “More than 40 percent of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits,” asserts Duhigg, referring to a 2006 Duke University study.

Lately I’ve been cuing my writing sessions with a 25-minute timer on my phone. As soon as I set the timer, I get in the zone. It still takes motivation to set aside time to write daily and launch my cue, but my hope is that I’m building a new habit. The less energy we spend on making decisions or deliberating with ourselves, the more energy we have for other things. 

 

 

What habit would you most like to develop? What cue can you use?

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

"You don’t ever have to feel tired. The energy is already there. We just have to stop dragging ourselves down with our own thoughts, our own worries and our own fears. That’s what robs us of our joy." 

 

 

 – Gloria Latham, yoga teacher

 

The notion that I didn’t have to ever feel emotionally tired again was awe-inspiring to me. So often I found myself dragging through the day, even if I’d slept enough. I thought of myself as a victim of my to-do list, but I’m the one who created it. I felt I didn’t have enough time to take care of myself, but I chose to make other tasks a priority.

When self-defeating thoughts, worries and fears enter your mind, acknowledge them for a moment then bid them adieu. When monks bow while meditating, they acknowledge that their minds wandered. They are human too. It’s pulling ourselves back on track over and over again that shows our commitment to ourselves and energizes us.

 

Acknowledge your thoughts, worries and fears in your journal then close the book on them to boost your energy. 

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

 “I write to understand as much as to be understood.”

 

– Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, author of Night

 

Prolonged Exposure (PE) is a type of treatment for PTSD that, according to the National Center for PTSD, “works by helping [a person] approach trauma-related thoughts, feelings, and situations that [he or she has] been avoiding due to the distress they cause. Repeated exposure to these thoughts, feelings, and situations helps reduce the power they have to cause distress help him comprehend and reconstruct the terrible traumas that he has experienced—in a safe, controlled environment.”

 

Essentially, the idea behind this treatment is that, when in a controlled environment—such as sitting on a comfy couch with a cup of tea and your journal—exposure to the stressful experiences associated with a traumatic event can help to alleviate the symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

 

What do you need to try to understand? Allow yourself to reduce the distress it causes by returning to it through your writing in a safe, controlled environment.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“I didn’t know I could do this.”

– Judy Chester

 

My friend Judy has discovered that she loves painting, particularly urban landscapes. As I marveled over the art she has created, I asked if she had always been artistic. She said she liked to draw when she was a child, but, as her face lit up, didn’t know she “could do this.” Discovering something new within ourselves is one of life’s greatest joys.

The secret? In my book, it’s time and attention—and giving ourselves permission. So many of us tell ourselves stories that squelch our desire to really try something. For me, it’s cooking. For years I’ve told myself (and others) that cooking is not “my thing,” and my family of picky eaters didn’t exactly inspire me to devote more time to expanding my repertoire. However, my decision to follow a Paleo eating plan—no grains, dairy or added sugar—prompted me to buy new cookbooks and follow recipe blogs. I’ve found I can make delicious, artful soups, main courses, sides and desserts. To my greater surprise, I found I enjoy doing so. In Judy’s words, “I didn’t know I could do this.”
 

 

What about you is waiting to be discovered? How can you devote time and attention to unearth something new within yourself? 

 

Sunday Journal Prompt

“Being too goal-oriented and focused goes hand in hand with being busy, driven and worried.”

– Authors and Meditation Teachers Iam Gawler and Paul Bedson, Meditation: An In-Depth Guide

 

Many of us have been raised in a culture in which busy = successful. Even holiday letters are laden with accomplishments, often providing paragraph-sized resumes for each family member. When we ask our friends how they are, the response we frequently get is, “Busy.” For a long time, I thought this was a good thing—that my being busy proved I was adding value to the world. But I also know that overcommitting and overscheduling costs me, leading to anxiety, a sense of failure and often illness.

In their book Meditation: An In-Depth Guide, Gawler and Bedson assert that our busyness prevents us from being more open, more present—from having space in our minds and our lives. “Mindfulness meditation can lead us from narrow-focused concentration to open awareness and into spaciousness and stillness,” they write. By taking more time to detach from the rat race through daily meditation and frequent breaks, I’ve reduced anxiety and am less worried about whether or not I’ll reach my goals—all while moving toward them at a more manageable pace. Best of all, I now trust the process, trust that I am where I’m supposed to be.

Is the race toward your goals making you anxious? How can you reduce your intensity and be more present?



 

Sunday Journal Prompt

 “Kung fu” refers to a devotion of time
 

At a tea gathering led by a Chinese translator who follows the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, I learned that “Kung fu”—which I associate with aggression and Bruce Lee movies—actually refers to a devotion of time. It doesn’t just apply to martial arts, but in fact to anything that requires patience, time and energy to complete, including learning to serve tea.

During the “TEAgather” session, Professor Sherab Chen shared the history of Puerh tea, demonstrated how to serve it, and guided his apprentices Baocheng, Yuzhao and Ruth as they practiced his methods. After this two-hour experience, I found myself energized and focused—allowing me to grade more student papers than I usually do in a sitting. It inspired me to consider the benefits of applying “Kung fu” to many areas of my life, including my interactions with loved ones, my writing, my yoga practice, my teaching, and even cooking, cleaning and gardening. 
 

To what in your life would you like to apply “Kung fu”—your patience, time and energy? How can you start today?