2014.05.05 _ 13

Eliza, I did not go back to Saturday's comments but I will be happy to explain why I chose100 breaths.

There is a Qi Gong exercise that involves stretching (and breathing as all Qi Gong exercises do). I forget the name but you are suppose to do this not so slowly. It involves breathing in while raising your arms from your sides, up in front of you to over your head and also rising in to the balls of your feet. The you breath out while lowering your arms to your sides and behind you pointing your fingers and thumbs behind you while rolling back on your heels and lifting your toes up while breathing out, then repeating this 100 times. waister to do than to explain. 100 of these and you are suppose to increase how long you live. I believe, as the story goes, if you do 1000 of these every day you live forever, of course, you aren't doing much else. While you do this, standing properly, you are also pumping your lymph nodes and lymph, says my former nurse, Tai chi teacher.

As you may have notice during the past few 100 days I do my best to do Tai Chi every day begging with meditation and QI gong. I find meditation to be the most difficult part of this and usually have difficulty with more than 5-10 minutes of standing breathing meditation so I thought I goals at least begin to extend my meditation by counting my breaths to at least 100 as a gauge of a minimum amount of meditation time, chosen mainly based on the Qi Gong exercise I mentioned above. I find during this meditation of breathing and counting that I drift into various states of awareness, sometimes loosing track of couscous counting but somehow the count continues and I can pick up the number when I drift back to breath counting.

I'm off to an 8:30 meeting, will pick up on this with many edits later. Thanks for asking :)

The earliest ferry of the morning, 4am, on Mondays into town. Sounds growningly early, but it does bring the quiet and the promise of the morning into the now. Able to amble through pleasing tasks: new flowers from the Market for the week; the weekend-made soup for workday lunches tucked into the office fridge; walking for 20 min in the daylight (when weather permits) to stabilize wake/sleep rhythms.
But this morning, off to the doctor, annual checkup: that old question about 'how old do I feel?' comes up about now. And it seems once again that Time seems to be measured not by the external clock but by inner rhythms, conflicts, stresses...today I feel about 'medium joy and gratitude, minimum pain after gentle exercise, moderate wakefulness for a Monday morning' -- so what age does that add up to?

This is fast becoming my favorite spot. :)

Thanks, Stevie. Your breaths practice sounds like the standing practice I like, but with a few extras, like the way you describe your foot movements. The visualization that comes with the practice is one of gathering light as your arms raise up, then bringing it in toward the body, lingering with hands lingering over head. After a few moments you then push down like you describe... but through the feet.

My breaths practice is a sitting practice, or laying in bed right before going to sleep. Sometimes before bed I repeat the 55 breaths over and over and drift off, but I don't count that as the official daily practice.

That "how do I feel?" that comes with a doctor's appointment, comes also with these other practices, along with heart/motive searching. This is the space that too easily gets filled up with busyness and habits sometimes.

"Ambling through pleasing tasks" is an exquisite musing phrase.

Anyway this isn't my daily note yet, but I wanted to respond.:) edited 16:26, 5 May 2014

Of course! Mêng!
What else could it have been?!
I laughed out loud for a long time.

Checking in before sleep :)
Eliza hope you are doing well - IM anytime if you are in need of zulustyle assistance.
So nice to see how everyone is working on their projects.
I am in general have become a little slower and though I haven't yet found a specific way to meditate or exercise - I managed to keep having breaks - close my eyes and relax quietly and also stop for exercises - especially when I go to the kitchen - after cleaning ... I start stretching and doing some yoga stands and moves. So so far the kitchen has been a great place hehe ... even when I don't write - I am focusing on my projects - lets see what tomorrow brings.

/me quietly makes some chai and leaves it for everyone here and zzz :)

(((Szavanna))) Would like to catch up.
No Qi Gong to report so far, but I want to report in case I fall asleep... was out a little late last night and haven't quite caught up with myself. :)

Checking in... Today, catching moments. Letting them catch me. Peek-a-boo! Glimpses into and from the ocean of which I'm a tiny, sometimes frantic, wave. Let's rest deep and crest playfully together.

Missed a day. Get up, brush off the dust, and get back on the damned horse.

Our daughter and husband came through on the way home from Japan.
Lovely stories, gifts.
No meditation on this day....
But I was able to lead my children at school through an exploration of the shells box from the Burke Museum.
I was in awe... edited 14:38, 7 May 2014